Bahamas Finally!!! Bimini - Highbourne Cay

So far the Bahamas has been lots fun. We have been spending much of our time snorkeling, swimming, and exploring in many ways. We have made some great friends and have made lots of great memories. I am so glad to be here.

Manta Trawling on the Bahama Banks.

I am just able to update the blog now because we have not had wifi for quite some time.

12/24/17

Christmas Eve

No Name Harbor - Bimini Sands

We left No Name Harbor, which is just south of Miami, before the sun rose and headed out towards the Gulf Stream. It was pretty flat and there was a beautiful sunrise. It is only 50 nautical miles from No Name to Bimini but crossing the Gulf Stream can be treacherous. We had a beautiful flat day! About 3/4 of the way through we did a manta trawl and got lots of plastics, and saw a lot more than we actually collected. We saw lots of flying fish too, and it was really exiting for Mom, Jessie, Stan, and I because it was the first time we had seen them. They run on top of the water with their tail fins, it's amazing to watch! It was very hard for us to get video of though, because by the time we got the camera when we saw them flying they had already gone back into the water. It was really cool to see the water change from dark blue too light turquoise when we arrived in Bimini. A little while before we got to the dock Mom and Dad explained to us how that if we even just touched a pinky toe off the boat onto land before Dad came back from clearing customs, we could get into big trouble. We docked at Bimini Sands, and then waited for Dad to finish clearing customs. It felt like forever waiting for him to finish and it was hot. When Dad finally got back we all went to the beach and then the pool. Dad heard about a restaurant called the Thirsty Turtle, so we decided to go there for dinner. We could not tell that it was a returaunt. When we first got there most of the lights were off and it did not look like a place that would be a family friendly place to eat. It was actually a little scary. We sat down to eat and ordered off the menu, which was a dry erase board on the wall. I got conch, and it was delicious. When we were sitting at the table eating when a guy came over and started to talk with us and told us to call him Uncle Speedy. He was really nice and funny, and he claimed that he was friends with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kenny Rodgers, and Dolly Parton. He kept saying “Love and respect man, love and respect” and he took a particular liking to dad. He was quite nice, but we had to head back to the boat because Stan was getting tired and we had some last minute presents to wrap. It was Christmas Eve!

No Name Harbor as we were leaving.

Sunrise!

Dad and Jessie doing a dance for sunrise.

Manta Trawl!

Our Q flag and Bahamian Flag!

Flying our Q Flag.

Bimini Sands!

Uncle Speedy at the Thirsty Turtle

Our version of stockings

12/25/17

Christmas

Bimini Sands

Stan and I woke up at about 4:30 am, very exited to open the presents. Jessie, Mom, and Dad “slept in late” until like 5:45 😂. Our galley was full of presents, surrounding our little rosemary Christmas tree. We went about present opening in a very organized fashion, like we always do. We started with our stockings, which, this year, were our foul weather boots, and then we start going slowly through the presents. Someone hands people presents one at a time, and then everyone watches them open the gift. The person handing presents has to make sure that one person does not get to unwrap a bunch of presents in a row and everyone takes turns unwrapping presents meant to be for everyone. Everybody got one big present. Stanley got a coast guard lego set and a remote control helicopter, Jessie and I both got mermaid tails, and Mom and Dad got yoga mats. After we all unwrapped our presents Jessie and I went to the pool to try out our mermaid tails and Dad and Stan went and learned how to fly Stanley’s little remote control helicopter. A little while later Dad and Stan joined Jessie, Mom, and I at the pool. It was when we were at the pool when we met Ann and John. Ann and John are from Maine and have sailed down the coast in their boat Perspective. They were really nice and we all took an immediate liking to them. Stan became obsessed with Ann pretty quickly, and he is constantly saying “Hi Ann!” (even if we have been with them all day.) We skipped lunch because of the late breakfast we had. Later in the afternoon dad, Jessie, Stan and I went to the beach to go snorkeling while mom went back to the boat to start cooking dinner. Stan had not yet mastered the use of his mask so he stayed on the beach while Jessie and I went snorkeling. There was not much live coral and only a few types of fish but it was still very exiting, being the first time to snorkel in the Bahamas on this trip. We went back to the boat quickly though, because we felt bad leaving Mom alone on the boat on Christmas Day. We had a delicious dinner and then invited Ann and John over to have dessert with us. Mom had made homemade key lime pie! It was sooooooo good.

Yay!!!

❤ Jessie always gets red eyes ❤

John and Ann from Perspective

12/26/17

Bimini Sands

We met some kids on the Catamaran Devotion. There was Grace (10) and Noah (13). We spent most of the day in the pool with Grace and the mermaid tails, and then Noah joined Jessie, Grace, Ann (from Perspective), and I snorkeling.

Snorkeling with Ann, Jessie, Noah, and Grace

Grace and I with mermaid tails (Grace is wearing Jessie's)

12/27/17

Bimini Sands - Honeymoon Harbor, Cat Cay

We left Bimini Sands to go to south to Honeymoon Harbor with our new friends John and Ann on Perspective and Leah and Ken with their kids Grace and Noah on their boat Devotion. At Honeymoon Harbor we pet and snorkeled with the stingrays that were there. They were used to people petting and feeding them, so they went right up to you. There was also a small reef there. It was my first time snorkeling on a real reef here in the Bahamas! We saw lots of fish and coral and also some big stingrays. It was amazing. Later we went over to Devotion so the adults could plan where we were going and the kids played Apples to Apples.

Looking for and petting the rays! There is one right at Jessie's feet.

❤ Heading back to the boat after some fun snorkeling and petting stingrays ❤

Pretty sunset (Thanks Devotion for the pic!)

12/28/17

Honeymoon Harbor, Cat Cay - Bahama Banks

We left Honeymoon Harbor early in the morning and went as far as we could out onto the Bahama Banks until we ran out of daylight, and anchored out for the night in the middle of nowhere. You could not see any land at all and it was 12 feet deep. It was really weird. We again went over Devotion after dinner for more games, for us, and planning, for the adults.

Apples to Apples on Devotion!

Ann and Mom on Devotion

12/29/17

Bahama Banks - Whale Cay

It was a beautiful sunrise over the Bahama Banks and amazing to not see any land anywhere. The three boats pulled anchor and left once the sun came up. We did another manta trawl and got a lot of plastics which was really sad. I was not expecting that because of how clear and beautiful the water was. We decided to go to an anchorage between Cat Cay (not the same one as before, there are a lot of "Cat Cays"), Whale Cay, and Bird Cay. We decided to call it the Whale-Cat-Bird Anchorage. It was really beautiful and we immediately got our snorkel gear and headed over to a deserted beach. While we were snorkeling I saw a Lemon Shark, a giant stingray, some live conch, sea biscuts, crabs, sea stars, and lots of fish. Most of the coral there was dead though, and dad found a plastic straw 😢. There were a lot of plastics on the beach.

Here is a Youtube video I made of the Manta Trawl we did that day:

🌅 Beautiful sunrise in the middle of nowhere 🌅

Actually the sunrise was behind the photographer! This was the opposite side of the sky!

Snorkeling here we come!

Our own private beach.

This sea fan was almost as big as the finder (Stan)!

The plastics I collected while everyone else was building sand castles.

12/30/17

Whale Cay - Little Harbor Cay

We left Whale Cay and headed to Little Harbor Cay with our friend Grace from Devotion aboard. On our way there we passed over a big coral reef that was 40 feet deep, but you could still see from the boat. We saw a Caribbean Reef Shark swimming across the top of that reef. It was really cool. We also did a Manta Trawl there and got 52 plastics, the most we have gotten so far. It is so sad that there is so much micro-plastic in this beautiful place. We went to Little Harbor Cay so we could go to Flo's Conch Bar. We wanted to go snorkeling on a reef there but there was too much current.

12/31/17

Little Harbor Cay - Rose Island

Our original plan was to stay at Little Harbor Cay another day so we could go to Flo's Conch Bar, but there was some bad weather coming and we had to start heading to a more protected area. We went to Rose Island, which is right outside Nassau. Sadly, Devotion decided to go to a different marina in Chub Cay. There was a little beach bar at Rose that closed at 4:00 every night. It was really cool. There were roosters and peacocks running around and many hammocks hanging from the trees. It was the only business on the island. We had a little New Years Eve celebration with Ann and John from Perspective. Mom made almond cake, we sang songs in the cockpit and we could see a lot of different firework displays from Nassau. It was really cool.

There were hammocks everywhere at the Sandy Toes Beach Bar.

Sandy Toes Beach Bar.

The late afternoon light looked great on our boats.

Last selfie, swim, and sunset of 2017!

1/1/18

Rose Island - Palm Cay Marina

We all woke up late after going to bed at like 12:30 am. We moved into Palm Cay Marina for the bad weather. We were going to be there for a few days so we had decided to go there because there was a beach and pools right there. We bought bracelets that we thought would give us access to the pools. The bracelets were kind of expensive but only ended up giving us access to one of the pools, the smaller one that did not look like it was cleaned very often 😒. There was also "free wifi" so I planned to work on the blog, but it was like a lot of other "free wifi" at marinas, and didn't work. Mom flew to Pennsylvania from Nassau to go to our great grandmother, who we called Memaw's funeral. It's really sad 😭.

A MALL!!!

Cloudy weather was the norm here.

A break in the clouds.

1/5/17

Palm Cay Marina - Rose Island

After being stuck in Palm Cay Marina for about 5 days we left on the first weather window possible. We were so excited when Devotion came in, after deciding that the marina that they had went to was not that great, they joined us at Palm Cay on the second day we were there. Devotion was having engine problems so they had to stay at the Palm Cay when we left ☹️. We moved back to the anchorage in front of Sandy Toes on Rose Island. We found a beautiful reef there and went snorkeling with Ann and mom and dad found an area of flats covered in bonefish. We were all very happy to be there and out of the marina.

Beautiful water!!!

Our boat from Sandy Toes.

1/6/18

Rose Island - Highbourne Cay

We crossed between the White and Yellow Banks to go to Highbourne Cay. It was a bit of a bumpy ride with some big waves but it went fine. Highbourne Cay was our first stop in the Exuma island chain. Right as we were coming in there was a sign on the fish cleaning station that said "Beware Sharks" I looked down in the water in front of the sign and there were about 10 nurse sharks piled up! It was so cool! There were bikes around the marina that you could just pick up and use. As soon as we arrived I found a bike that fit me and rode over to the sharks. They also had a scarlet macaw and goats on the island, all of which we visited.

Highbourne Cay was beautiful!

Sharks!!!

Someone gave us some fish to feed the sharks with!!!

There were all these cute fluffy sandpipers running around! Stan called this one G-14

The sign for our friends the Crosby's boat, who were there last year!

Stan working on our sign

All finished! Decorated with collected plastics of course!

Baby goats!!!

This one was almost as big as Stan!

This one was Dad's favorite.