This and That

We’ve made some fine discoveries along the way. Here are a few snippets for you to enjoy:
Crab Cay -- The beaches on this almost deserted little cay are quite literally “littered” with sea biscuits. These puffy little creatures are dark brown when alive, and when departed, they pale to beige and white. Their tops are covered in a pattern like a starfish. Some are chunky, some fragile, all are amazing examples of nature at its most wonderful. Several will make their lasting home on Daufuskie Island. Shhhh…

  

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Spoil Cay -- Baker’s Bay on Great Guana Cay was once dredged so that cruise ships could enter the harbor. No doubt it was a grand idea at the time, but the ships never came and the sea floor that was disrupted was piled high to create the new “Spoil Cay.” Years later, the spoils have become home to myriads of small shells, conch and coral. A manmade wonder.

Fishing -- So far we’ve caught mahi mahi, mackerel, wahoo and a lone barracuda. We are getting pretty adept as we practice for the really big catch. When a fish is on the line (zing!) I take the helm and the Captain rushes to the cockpit in the back. I slow us down to a crawl as he begins to reel the unlucky fellow in. Then I come back to the cockpit, reel in the other line, unsheathe the gaff and assist in the takedown. It can get really rolly when we’re not moving forward, so we take special care not to fall into the ocean. So far, so good, and the fish have been tasty, too.

Green Turtle Marina -- We were docked here for two days, just being lazy. A 60 foot cruiser docked in the slip next to us with three couples on board. As one woman in the group alit, she dropped her credit cards and driver’s license into the water. Ouch! Everyone on the dock peered into the depths below their hull, but nothing could be clearly seen. Unconcerned, they all went to lunch and Captain Bill sprang into action. He pulled out the hookah, attached it to a tank of air, donned his wetsuit top, and in he went. Minutes later he came to the surface brandishing the credit cards. Yeah, Captain Bill! The driver’s license was later found to have settled in the door frame of the boat -- not underwater at all. For his efforts, Bill was rewarded by the clumsy lady with a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. Not a bad day’s work!

New Friends -- One of the most rewarding experiences of our travels is the people we meet along the way. Lola, an eighty-something local on Man O War, pedals her homemade bread from her golf cart. We’ve made the acquaintance of firemen, lawyers, CEO’s, lobstermen, restaurant and bar owners, career navy men, taxi drivers, chefs and even a TV host. Some have invited us to their boats or homes for dinner or a drink, some have shared stories of their glory days, some have asked us to visit if we cross their paths in the future. We’ve even met up with folks that we encountered last summer on our Maine odyssey…therefore, we’ve decided it is smart to be on our best behavior at all times.

Slow Dancing -- With our newly installed AIS transceiver, we are now visible on radar to other boats that
have the same system -- mostly large yachts and commercial vessels. Boats are identified by name, type and length of vessel, destination, etc. Since we can’t see ourselves, one day Bill radioed a nearby motor yacht, “Platinum”, to see if they could see us on their radar. They came back laughing that, in fact, they were dancing to our tune. Nice to know we can make people smile!

Mango Creeks -- Jimmy Buffett has a song titled “The Last Mango in Paris” which apparently got stuck in Bill’s head as he now consistently calls the mangrove swamps so prevalent here, mango swamps. We’ve led the Love Me Tender through miles of these serene waterways and it’s always a treat for the senses.

Sailboat Magnet -- It really never fails. There is a beautiful, spacious, open anchorage. It is late afternoon, nearing the cocktail hour. There is no other boat in the area. We anchor. We relax. We breathe in the calming sea air. Ahhh. Then, for no reason we can fathom, a sailboat, or two or three, enter our anchorage, get as close to us as they can, and drop their anchors. We are pretty cute, admittedly, but really, whatever happened to privacy? There is a huge ocean out there, friends. Use it!

Barefoot Man -- In the 80’s, we were blessed to have a family vacation home in the Cayman Islands. One of the must-do activities at that time was a jaunt into town to hear the Barefoot Man perform at the Holiday Inn. Now, too many years later to count, we learn that he is still out there, still singing his heart out for the tourists, and that he has gone global. He will appear at Nippers’s, a Great Guana Cay legendary hangout, next week on the tail end of his current “world tour.” We could go to see him, but why ruin a perfectly good memory? A few weeks ago we enjoyed the locally famous “Pig Roast” with Kalik beer at Nipper’s with friends. Here are some of Bill’s newest friends on the Nipper's beach. Can you spot him in the picture?

Starfish Galaxy -- Crab Cay and Fiddle Cay -- These two neighboring cays are home to the most wonderful array of marine echinoderms that we have ever seen. (Okay, I looked that up -- they include starfish, sea urchins and sea biscuits.) We travel the short distance from Let’s Dance to the shore in the Love Me Tender and just looking over the sides you can’t miss the abundance of starfish on the sea floor. They range in color from deep red to orange to a golden yellow and they are huge! After anchoring the dinghy on the sandy beach, we walk in the shallow surf and I can’t help but pick up one of these brittle guys for a closer look. He doesn’t seem to mind my touch, although how would one know? After the photo op, I return him to the safety of his watery home.

There is more, of course, including (Love Me) tender moments, to share, but for now, we’re content to let you get back to reality…..

Let’s Dance….Carol & Bill

Man O War Cay

Five days and almost 100 nautical miles farther north since last we wrote, we find ourselves in the small harbor of Man O War Cay in the Abacos.  We picked up a mooring ball for Let’s Dance just a few hundred feet from the fuel dock of the local marina.  There will be exploring tomorrow, but for today we just conclude our standard arrival check list and prepare for another Bahamian sunset.  All systems turned off and mooring lines secured, Captain Bill turns on the generator to re-charge our batteries.  The generator splutters, gags and then shuts down with a loud thunk.  Hmmmm…..this is not part of the standard arrival procedure.  Not at all.

We study the guide books and chart information to learn that one of the best mechanics in the entire Abacos works out of this harbor.  This is great news!  He can come over to the boat, analyze the problem, solve it, and we’ll be set to leave in a day or so at our leisure.  Next morning, the captain goes ashore to check it out to learn that indeed, there is a great mechanic, but he is off island and may return in a day or two.  Okay, we can wait, but we can’t stay on the mooring, because without the generator we will soon run out of power since the engine isn’t running to charge the battery bank.  (Too much information? Sorry.)  The marina has room for us and they supply power, water, showers and camaraderie, we learn.  As we attempt to snuggle up to the dock, several nice men come over to take our lines and help us tie up.  This is a good thing because my throwing arm is way out of shape and even tossing a line the few remaining feet to the dock is a challenge.   After successfully throwing the spring line into the water, twice, I manage to lob it onto the dock and we are secured.  Neil and Peter, our helpers, laugh with us (at us?) and confirm that as a boater, when you are docking you are “the entertainment” for those already secured.  We could go national! 

Docked at the marina, we have a front row seat to the activity in the harbor.  There is a continuous ebb and flow of commercial and recreational traffic.  Small passenger ferries bring tourists from Marsh Harbor.  Rental sailboats and cats steam in and out at regular intervals.  A long, steel gray barge, probably a WWII relic, arrives daily to bring supplies and fuel.  It is a noisy, chaotic, irreverent little harbor and we are loving the show.  Then, we notice a rather rundown sport fishing boat, with some of its windows boarded up, approaching the fuel dock right in front of us.  It is named “Hideout” and it sounds like a good tune-up is in order.  Something is odd here, though.  The captain, up on the fly bridge,  has on fatigues and a helmet; the crew carry shot guns.  Whoa!  What is this about?

As we watch in wonder, and just a tiny hint of concern, one of the crew retrieves a red, rolling suitcase from the interior cabin.  Drugs?  No, we soon learn, money!  While the captain remains at the helm, keeping the rundown boat at the dock, the two crew members alight with the suitcase and the shot guns and head up the dock towards town, checking closely for any unwanted advances.  They return, sans suitcase, about fifteen minutes later, drop completed.  Very interesting.   About three hours later, Hideout returns noisily, crew with guns are discharged and return with the mysterious red suitcase -- now presumably filled with deposits.

Peter and Neil, our helpful dock hands, both have boats stationed at the marina.  Neil and his wife are from Hungry Horse, MT (not widely known as a boating mecca), while Peter and Diane are from Hull, MA.  The Windemere, Peter’s boat, is a real life lobster boat, complete with winches and hoses and an open cockpit, that they  brought down for a few months of sun in the Bahamas.  There was a real feel of community at the marina and we soon knew almost everyone there.  One day, fifteen of us were invited aboard the Windemere and ferried over to Marsh Harbor for lunch.   It was Fajita Friday at the Jib Room, after all.

Many of the people that we’ve met along the journey spend days, even weeks, at marinas.  At Man O War Marina, some had been there for months.  Our style is much more peripatetic -- we like to move every two or three days…just because we can.  And so, generator malfunction righted (it was, once again,  a simple case of operator error) we are off to the next adventure.   Two months into the dance, the Captain and I are still communicating, and this is a good thing.  Fresh fish for dinner tonight aboard

Let’s Dance…….Carol & Bill