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Over
the last 3 weeks we kind of hung out in the middle Exumas,
reading, diving, but mainly just relaxing while waiting for our guest to
arrive at Staniel Cay. During this time, we went down to
Farmer's Cay for the
sole
purpose of diving on a deep water head that I had scoped out last year.
This head was of interest to us because it was full of life and two of
those life forms happen to be our favorite meal, Hog Fish! This
was only our third time diving, and the head being in 40 feet of water,
made for a difficult free dive. After two and a half hours of us
chasing around the biggest of the hog fish, I was able to get a spear in
him. Unfortunately, in my hurry to ascend, I did not push
the spear to assure that it was completely thru the fish and he got off!
After catching my breath, I went back down searching for him, but could
no longer find him.
I hear
Debbie yell, "Hurry, we are going to be late for the plane!" as I
got out of the shower. I dressed and
we took off in the dinghy towards the Staniel Cay airport. We
arrived at the airport after Emmie's plane had landed and left again,
only to find there was no Emmie! After much searching and calling
Flamingo Air, we finally called Emmie's mobile to find out she was stuck
in Charlotte because of fog re-routing. She would not arrive until
the next day.
I hear
Debbie yell, "Hurry, we are going to be late for the plane!" I'm
kidding, just thought that would sound funny! Emmie arrived on
time and was relieved to finally be here with 80 degree temps and a fast
dinghy heading for Fat Chance. We threw her belongings aboard and
rushed to head to
Farmer's
Cay before nightfall. We wanted to beat the crowd so that we
could select a prime anchorage with good protection from the predicted
wind forecast. That evening, we headed in to our favorite
hangout, Ali's Bar! As soon as we stepped off the Government
Dock, Ali's sister handed over the keys to the bar, and told us to "open
her up, Ali will be back in a little while!" As soon as the door
was opened, cruisers and locals came a runnin'! Brenda, Ali's
wife, was busy cooking and preparing for the next days festivities.
However, she was still eager to prepare meals for all those that were
hungry that evening. YUM!
We
awoke Friday morning to see the anchorage busy with activity for the
start of the 5 F festival (First Friday in February at Farmer's Cay
Festival). The winds were up, so the race committee asked for
volunteers to participate on the Bahamian C class boats. Having
never done this before, I figured I would give it a shot. I should
have made a better selection with choosing which boat I would race with
because I ended up racing with the two competitively mad brothers that
our friend, Oliver, warned us about. He raced with the same crew
last year and said never again! So I spent the afternoon being
cursed and abused while exerting muscles to the point that it took the
next week to recover!
The following day, I was asked to race on the winning boat of the previous day, Thunderbird. I declined.
On
Sunday, we heading up to Sampson Cay to enjoy the special activities
being held for Super Bowl Sunday. Happy hour with all you can eat
appetizers and big screen TV to view the game. Although we are not
sports fanatics and some of the people there were, we enjoyed the food,
camaraderie, and commercials! We were in need of Happy Hour on
this day because a few hours earlier, when we docked to clean the boat,
a large metal Bahamian Defense Force boat came within 2 inches of
tearing our bow off! We shan't name the PT boat number to protect
the guilty.
Since
Emmie was leaving from Georgetown, and she wanted to see some sites that
she had not seen
before, we headed out into the sound, bound for Georgetown. On the
way, we caught a 39 inch Mahi and got some sun and reading in.
When we arrived in Georgetown, we saw that there was a party on our
friend's boat, Borrowed Horse. So before anchoring, we circled
their boat until they invited us over. A great time!
The
next few days, before Emmie's departure, were filled with exploring
Georgetown, Stocking Island with its wonderful beaches and frequenting
all of the fun Bahamian venues. Emmie left today and we are
prepping the boat to head off tomorrow for Long Island and Duncan Town
in the Jumentos. We will be back in a couple weeks to pick up our
next guests, Debbie and Dennis.
Enjoy!
All of the log pictures can be seen by clicking Slideshow