A Very Special Week in Paradise

But why? Because we got to spend it with my daughter and her husband! What a great week! Our idea to pre-explore the northern Exumas and then take them back through where we had been turned out to be the rare good idea. Very low pressure that way. We arranged it so that our longish sails were early on. First day we did the 30 mile run from Nassau to Allen’s Cay. Then about 20 to Hawksbill. The rest of the sails were all less than 15 miles. We laid over a day in Warderick Wells where Leah and Jason took advantage of the many hiking trails. As marathon runners they find the boat just a bit confining! We had good snorkeling every day except the first when the seas were too rough for snorkeling but great for drinking sea water through a tube. (nice dad!) Especially nice snorkeling back at Chicken Cay where we got to see a very large ray. They are so beautiful the way they swim. Jumping off of the boat in Warderick Wells, Leah jumped right back on as there was a school of large yellow tail under the boat. I guess being curious they all turned and came toward her (Jaws music playing in the background right here). Best line of the vacation was
Leah: “Jason, jump in the water and see if they bite”.
Jason: “’Kay”.

Sue cooked wonderful dinners every night and we played cards and looked at stars. Everyone knocked off at least one book I think. Only bad night was the next to the last one. On Friday night a front came through about 0200 (don’t they always?) with winds around 40 knots. Probably the most wind I’ve been in on the boat. Amazingly our anchor did not drag even though the holding around here (Staniel Cay) is not so great. Still, we sat up for several hours on ‘anchor watch’ to make sure. Not much sleep that night but we made up for it with naps later.

The trip was capped off with a snorkel in Thunderball Cavern by Staniel Cay which is always impressive. We gave Sue a break and went out to dinner on the last night at the Staniel Cay yacht club. You order your dinner when you make your reservation. At 1600 they ring a bell and everyone sits down at their assigned table. Then amazing food happened...Carrot soup (never had it...really good), chopped salad, then the main course. We had: Sue- Lobster, Jason - catch of the day, Leah - pork chop and Scott - short ribs. Finally for desert, my favorite, Carrot Cake! We sipped our wine and just sat back and enjoyed the Bahamian atmosphere. A perfect last night.

We all walked to the ‘airport’ on Sunday morning where the kids were flying Flamingo Air back to Nassau. Flamingo Air turns out to be a plane with 4 passenger seats. Very tiny. I imagine it was quite a view of the islands though and I can’t wait to hear Leah’s take on the flight.








I miss my daughter and she misses me but boy will these get togethers be something to look forward to. I look forward to the day when she brings us little crew members too!
And to all...there’s always a way to get to us. There’s little airfields on lots of islands so come on down Mon!



Finally - How we get our mail. We have a mail service in Florida where all our mail goes now. Occasionally we have them send our mail to us. When we were in Nassau the first time we arranged for the mail to be sent to the marina where we knew we were picking up Leah and Jason. Good plan except that when we shipped out on that Sunday our mail still had not arrived. What to do? Well, I had met the very nice South African man next to us in the marina - Nick. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon so we exchanged e-mail and I asked him to look out for my mail. Upon arriving in Staniel Cay about a week later I get an e-mail from Nick. Our mail had come in! Knowing that we planned to stay in Staniel Cay for several days he gave our mail to a Canadian couple aboard "Sea Escapade" who were coming to Staniel from Nassau. We are watching for that incoming boat now. How old fashion is this? Old sailing vessels used to exchange mail when they would be on opposite courses. I hope I don’t receive anything that says, “respond immediately for your 1 million dollars”!