Island Magic With Amy

I love it when I lose track of the days 
and a week flies by so fast.

I love it when I plan the entire week 
around the wind forecast.

I love it when the internet will not connect, 
and the cell phone is still disabled. 

I really love it when a lobster comes to my dinner table.

joe green  March 2014

It was March 11, 2014 when my daughter, Amy, flew down for an extended stay in the Bahamas with her Dad… It was so great having her here for 2 full weeks… I like to think of it as the trip of a lifetime… life is so precious and unpredictable, and having this kind of quality time in such a magical environment was a blessing indeed.  Days like these… days like these….

A great home cooked dinner on board at sunset...

This is our cab ride from the Nassau airport… the reason I look so red in the face is this… I had this bright idea to just ride my little bicycle to the airport to meet Amy.  By doing this,  I would save a $40 cab fare and enjoy what I thought was an 8 mile ride… much to my dismay, it turned out to be 18 grueling miles in the hot sun, no sidewalks, cars zooming by, trucks balling the jack, and me little guy sweatin' it out to get there just in time….dodge this guy, dodge this guy…. what side of the road do I drive on anyway here?…. it was not one of my better decisions, but I lived to tell about it.

On Amy's 2nd day, we motored our little inflatable boat in the huge mega resort called Atlantis…. We just pretended we knew what we were doing and nobody questioned us… beside we DO know what we are doing…!

Our little dinghy was dwarfed among these super yachts.

 Atlantis is the kind of place that you might want to visit one time… lots of fancy, high dollar architecture… but this is not the real Bahamas I came to see… still, we had a blast checking it out.

 Here we are on the dock at Nassau Yacht harbor… we had to wait out high winds here for 3 days… 

 There could be worse places to wait out the weather...

While in Nassau, we had to wait out some fluky weather, high winds out of the north, for 3 days before we could head for the Exuma Islands We had a day of boat jobs while waiting for the weather…. 

We spent an afternoon at this Athol Island just a few miles from Nassau… Amy was introduced to the snorkeling at this little beach…. an easy day sail…and a great lunch out on the hook.

Filler her up, Captain!

Nassau is a big tourist town with stuff like this for people to do as they take a break from their cruise ship here.  there were always 5-6 cruise ships in the harbor at any given time

Leaving Nassau Finally!  March 15

We encountered a couple of fellow sailors while out in the middle of nowhere… great shot from Amy of an Island Packet making hay on the water.

Crossing the Yellow Banks outside of Nassau requires that you have a good eye to dodge the coral heads that seem to be everywhere in this particular region, way out in the middle of nowhere…. deep draft vessels avoid this area, but we seemed to skim right thru … it was great sail, tho we were beating into the wind much of it.

Amy was quite the trooper at sea…. it was like another one of our father/daughter "road trips", but this time a road trip on steroids!  so much to see and take in…

We made our landfall at an area called Allen's Cay and Leaf Cay… we stopped here to see these wild iguanas that seem to rule the island… The trip from Nassau took about 6 hours

 these native iguanas were nearly extinct, but now they are protected, and have since made a come back

We pulled up the anchor the next morn and made the short hop over to Saddle Cay… We had to pass through an extremely narrow and shallow channel to get into the anchorage where we spent the day… talk about a tight fit….Glory Days' keel kissed the sand as we made it through to the other side ...

 Saddle Cay… it was a postcard perfect kind of day… we poked around, ate a great lunch and explored the area… met some fellow cruisers on this little tidal beach

These are the Good Ole Days...

We moved our boat and dropped our anchor on the lee side of Highborn Cay where we spent 3 nights … again, waiting out a weather front of high winds...

Our living quarters…. top notch if i must say so myself

This quarter berth serves as the guest quarters for Amy … or for anyone else who would like to come visit!  Kick back, stretch out and relax!

I discovered this broken glass underwater just as Amy was walking towards it barefooted… another injury diverted… don't miss my essay on injuries toward the end of this post...

 yes…. this works for me..

Everybody is friendly when you cross paths on a deserted island way out yonder somewhere… lots of cruiser stories, lots of weather talk, and lots of Canadians!

 

A fake scowl in the galley…. hey it's just dishes to wash!

Below are the hog shots… these are a group of not so wild, wild hogs, on the island near Big Majors… trust me, all they want is your food, and will eat out of your hand… I smell bacon.

Nobody was broadcasting a daily cruiser blog, so I took the bull by the horns and started doing it myself!  About 35+ vessels sign in each day to hear all the favorite topics like Weather Update, Thought of the Day, Fish Tales, Unusual Sitings, Treasures From the Bilge, and daily open forum known as the Feeding Frenzy… Its' been fun but I have to get up early to prepare for each morning show… lots of interchange over the air waves tho!

Hello all…. I just can't sit in front of a computer anymore for all the time that it requires to keep the blog up and running to its full potential…
Downloads are so slow for each photo and glitches wear me down… so pasted below is a long narrative of things I jotting down while off line…

Future postings may be a bit thin… But do stay tuned for the next entry about Black Point Settlement… a lovely little 3rd world village that I've come to love… fair winds!  joe

Amy Green arrived on /tuesday, march 11 and its been all good fun since then.

we spent the first night on the anchorage at Nassau \Harbor.

\on the 2ned day we motored over to Athol Island for some snorkeling and beach time... Amy to to test out her new mask, snorkel and fins.. the vis was pretty good...

after that we motored over to Nassae Harour Marina for 3 nigthts waiting out the high winds before heading south to Highborn Cay... and Allens cay....

$200 of groceries today...man, prices here are so high... man, i love my yogurt and peanut butter...

Its March 15th and I couldn't be a happier man than I am today...  heres the long and short of the past few days...

After Amy arrived we stayed on the anchore one night, then did a short day trip to Athold Island... it was very near and turned out to be a great introduction to snorkeling for Amy... it is a new sport to her and so we took it slow and observed some interesting underwater activity in shallow water... then we motored back and took a slip in the Nassau harbor Marina...

our little stop here turned into 3 nights as we had to wait out the high winds on the sea... it was not a bad place to loll away 3 days as we had a pool, a shopping plaza across the street and free internet just down the road a piece... somehow the time flew faster than I could imagine...

We manage to complete a lot of boat jobs during this down time.... grill mouited on the stern rail, dinghy cleaned like she was brand new, lots of minor jobs that had been overlooked ... man its just plain fun... i can't imagine doing anything but this.

but today was a departure day... after reading the weather constantly, we made the break for it today... i rose at 5:30 a.m. to gather my thoughts about the departure... after some snags, we finally made our gettaway at 9 a.m... headed toward the northern tip of the Exumas... our target destination was Allen's Cay and Leaf Cay, a 33 mile trip with a strong head wind against us... God, I love this... we motored out of the channel, then raised all sails and hauled ass for a few miles... but the heading was too tight, too close hauled to make the waypoints I had entered into the chart plotter... so I dropped the head saIL and resorted to motor sailing with the mail sail for 3-4 hours...

During this time, we hit some high seas... I supposed the waves were only 3-4' but Glory Days rode them like a bucking bronco... up, down, across the top with salt spray coming over the bow frequently... damn, she's a good yacht... she never wavers and not once did I have any element of fear in her ability...

Finally we hit what is called the Yellow Banks.... this is a series of coral heads that have accumulated in this wide region that goes for several miles... I'm quite sure they were all beneath my 4' draft, but still the same, it's like navigating through a mine field... you can see their dark images beneath the clear water, and you have to weave in and out, out and in of them for several miles... at this point the seas were quite frisky and the bow just kept diving up and down as I made my way through the maze of coral heads.... Boats that have a deeper draft avoid this region because they can never be sure if they will pound into one of the coral heads... but Glory Days has a shallow draft, 4', and so we ran through the gaunlet of coral heads... Amy was napping below at this point and I rode the bronco through it all.... 

but then you pass a point where the chart basically says, "you made it".... from here we were able to raise the head sail again and sail very close hauled for the remaining 10 mile.... we were heeled over quite far for this final run, which means you have to walk sideways where you go on the boat, especially if you go down below... At some point the waves over the bow, loosened up my fuel cans, and one of them fell sideways an spilled all over the deck... thankfully, the ocean washed her off with multiple crests of water rinsing over the bow.....

finally things seemed to simmer a bit and we made our final ascent into and through the narrow pass that enter into Leaf Cay... the water was clear as monkey pee and I couldn't contain myself as we entered the narrow cut into the protected waters... ahhh... only once boat was anchored inside this protected area, so we found a perfect spot and dropped the hook about 5 pm...just in time for happy hour... one beer and a nap was in order for this boy...

Amy contined to read her 7th Harry Potter book as I prepared dinner... although I have little interest in this book series, I listened quite attentively as she enjoyed reading aloud to me the story of the Deathly Hollow... Times like this are priceless, and I am ever thankful, ... and I fulljy realize I'll look back one day at these good old days... a perfect anchorage, an exciting crossing, and a delicious meal with your daughter far away from the rest of the world..

I was even glad that our internet source was out of reach for "no service" as was the cell phone... Life is so good.... just getting started on this adfventure into the unknown... thank you 

god.... and to top it off, it's a full gorgeous moon in a Carribbean sky with an easterly ...but we are protected here... safe... sound... tomorrow...on to Norman's Cay... it's a long string of islands, and the crossing is over now... just a bunch of gunkholing throgh the new series of islands now...

Amen.

Regarding INJURIES

One thought that is foremost on my mind while cruising is to avoid injuries  at all costs.

There are no doctors or hospitals or roads out here.  These islands are only accessibly by boat and very few by airplane... So I continually tell myself to use caution and common sense in every move in order to avoid any type of bodily injury... this includes even  simple tasks such as slicing onions with a sharp knife, using hand tools, or just getting in and out of the boat... i have found that an injury can jump out of nowhere and bite you when you least expect it....that's why we call them "boat bites"...... One cut of a finger with a sharp knife can ruin your whole month.... small miscues can lead to large inconveniences in your physical abilities to run a boat if you are not careful 100 percent of the time.

Now as much as I preach here about the importance of being injury free, my track record in this department is not so great.... I have found that you also have to be somewhat of a gymnast living on a sailboat... your body gets contorted in all manner of shapes as bends as you reach for this for stretch for that... just yesterday my right knee came crashing in the large metal nut on the helm as I slipped while filling the fuel tank at the marina dock.... I knew when it hit, it was more than a minor boo boo... "ouch" I cheered refraining from any obscenities, mind you ..... It appeared like only a scrape, but now I am icing it down this morning as my knee cap has swelled some in the night... sigh...  

two hours later, while sailing, I kneeled into the sharp barb of a fishing lure on my other knee as I working with fishing tackle... another polite "ouch" cheered forth from my gut... most day's are not like this one, but on some days I seem to be more klutsy. than others....A purple fingernail is evidence of a screwdriver that slipped off a tight head last week... A sprained foot from 8 weeks ago (not boat related) is still not 100 percent back yet and has continued to restrict my hiking.

When you get caught up in the logic of all that is boating, is so easy to overlook one simple step sometimes that can get you hurt...  We call these little mishaps, BOAT BITES.... They are your run of the mill cuts, scrapes, bruises, punctures that jump out and bite you on a boat when you least expect it... I can live with boat bites, and I'm thankful that nothing serious has occurred that would require medical care... I carry a complete first aid kit and and really good morning prayer program to treat boat bites.

MARCH 27

today was like a picture perfect story out of my book of dreams...

I've really enjoyed my time with my buddy boats, Zach and Pat who are anchored next to me again here now that I am at the remote village known as Black Point.  You will see and more about them in the next posting.

Capt. Joe's daily radio show went well again.. show #7 and the audience is growing... it takes up my early morning hours to get it together, but it must be satisfying my old teacher instinct drive... back on stage i suppose

They invited me for a breakfast of lobster omelette which went down quite well... then we got into a discussion about the possibility of water that may have crept into my 2 gallon fuel can from a swamped dinghy.. (I won't go into how that happened)... anyways after the omelette we poured the fuel into a 2nd container and just talked about all kinds of stuff while watching the fuel and water slowly separate and settle on the bottom on the container... took about an hour and determined that the fuel was still viable and worthy to save... I never knew just looking at a container of fuel could be so enlightening.

After that I piddled on board and worked on transforming 2 of my tunes into more of an island beat... now they seem much less boring than my drab ballads that tend to drag at times... After that I called the Scorpio and asked if they would like my acoustic entertainment for their 4-6 happy hours... wahlah! they said yes!  so I crammed a 4   hour rehearsal into one hour and packed up my gear to play the gig.

It was a rocking half mile salty jaunt to the beach to unload my gear and my empty water bottles...

The show went absolutely great... I could not have been more please... the crowd seemed to love it and thankfully, I had a couple of Jimmy Buffet songs up my sleeve which was a common request... I played about 2 hours without a break and just loved it....  I played with more passion than I've seen from my self in a long time... I finished off the evening there with a basket of grouper fingers and a great tossed salad... I met lots of boaters and hung out with Zach and Pat who really helped me get there with all my gear and even filled up my water jugs for me while I was setting up...

Next, it was time for this puppy to load up and make my way back to Glory Days before dark... This is not an easy life …. and it's not for everyone, thankfully.