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Day 18 - 20, July 4th "Independence Day" to July 6th
Whoo Hoo! Happy Fourth of July! It was overcast and a bit breezy this morning which is typical of what the weather would be when we are planning on moving the boat. We went into the closest beach for Salty's P&P patrol then headed back to the boat to "get ready". We will need to put the dingy motor away and strap the dingy to the back of the boat on the swim platform so that will add an additional half hour to our packing up procedure, but it's not like we are on any kind of schedule. We went over the Ranger station again before we did that to get a membership; $60 and that gives you two free nights which we just had, so that means $40 left over for "preferential mooring rights" when we go back and if you know Barry, you'd know it is worth it to him. As we are approaching the beach, Salty was a little over-zealous in getting out of the dingy before it was time. The water is crystal clear and looks the same as the other beach but this water is much deeper - doesn't look it, but it is. Just ask Salty who took a flying leap off the front of the dingy thinking he was going to land on the sand bottom without having to "go to the bottom" like a dead weight! Yup, off he goes and goes right to the bottom (it was only about 4 feet deep) and comes up with front paws flailing and sputtering to beat the band. Oh well, at least he came up swimming - I must admit, it's quite disconcerting to see him go under like a rock but he's the "dingy dog" so that goes along with it I guess. Of course, as any Wheaten owner knows, when they get their face (fall and beard) wet, the NEED to dry off immediately and the only thing that was available was SAND. Great, there he is rubbing his face, eyes, head, and beard right into the "soft powder" sand - great! We were only supposed to be gone a few minutes so I didn't bring the fresh water or a towel - obviously, I will always bring everything from now on; kinda like having a baby with a diaper bag. There is a huge skeleton of a Sperm whale on display - poor thing was killed by ingesting plastic so you really need to be cognizant of what you are doing with trash while out in the water.
We left our mooring (in a much more dignified fashion than when we came in) around 10:45 am and headed out to Sampson Cay Marina in 1-2' and 2-3' waves and a bit of a breeze so we were able to do 15 knots and get there in jig time. We were at the fuel dock at 12:15 pm to top off the fuel tanks as we will be heading out to anchor in a couple of days. Topping off wasn't as bad as the last time and we put in 211 Gallons to the tune of $749.60. This docking was a breeze because we are on the outside dock with no backing in and dealing with bow lines, spring lines or criss-cross stern lines. We were settled in no time and even Salty is welcome here - it's truly an awesome place. Very civilized and beautiful beyond description with the powder white sand and light aqua water. We were almost going to be docked beside the "fish station" which wouldn't have been so bad, but people throw the fish remains in the water and there were about six or eight small (?) sharks milling around at all times (approximately 4-5' long). I could just see Salty on the bow in the evening looking down at the sharks and falling in - and I was worried about the grouper! Doesn't matter because we moved up from there where there are no sharks around (that I can see), at least not very often. This dock is also a large one and we are able to put the stairs/ramp out which is another added bonus. We left Salty to have a snooze and booked our ticket for the big "Fourth of July" celebration which will be a BBQ outside tonight. We ordered a Pina Colada to take with us for a little walk - I'm not kidding, the female bartender was mixing our drinks and asked "do you like it hard or do you like it soft"? Oh my. Nevermind, we paid our $14.00 plus $3.00 tip and got the hell out of there! On our way out I noticed the "Internet Outhouse" which has some antiquated computer with internet access - no door and honestly does look like an outhouse. So, there Barry sat with Pina colada in hand, checking his email in an outhouse - where is my camera when I really need it? We toured the Marina grounds and waters and thought Salty would be having a fine time here with lots of beach and water to romp around in - we will go in the dingy tomorrow to scope out our next anchorage which is not too far away. It was low tide when we were over at the beaches and we were able to walk across through sections of water and sand to the other side of the Island to look at more beautiful seascapes and white powder sand. Dinner consisted of one Jerk chicken leg, coleslaw and rice (if you aren't on the Atkins diet) all for a mere $35 each - what a deal! We were forced to take it back to the boat as the flies were getting more of dinner than we were over there and we could sit in the aft deck behind screens where any self respecting "American" would be. Imagine. It's our first Independence Day as American Citizens and we aren't even in the United States - what is up with that?
Day 19, Tuesday, July 5th Cripes, my ribs are really sore today - I swear I will never lean over those railings again in my life. We are trying our hardest to stay here for a few more days - it's awesome. There is a huge Yacht in front of us - 110' feet of beautiful boat - the Intrepid; in fact we look like their dingy. Salty and I went for a little walk this morning down to the beach (but I didn't let him go in) and it was obviously high tide as you couldn't see any sand bars at all - just clear flowing water. I checked email at "the outhouse" then came back to upload pictures and finish my story (for yesterday anyway), finished the book I was reading and cleaned the "condo" and of course cleaned the A/C filters. Its 11:00 am - we are on Island time and that means a Bloody Mary! Ha, well at least the price is right on the boat! We went up to the little restaurant here for lunch thinking we would get a nice piece of grouper and she said "sorry we are out of fish" - out of fish???? What kind of Bahamian restaurant is this with no fish; that's all they typically do have! I said we should have snagged those grouper that were swimming around our swim platform at the Park and cooked our own. It was too hot after lunch to go for our long walk and swim at the beach so around 4:30 pm we headed off to explore with Salty. I made sure I remembered to bring Salty fresh water and towels to wipe his face off with so he wouldn't bury his head in the sand to get dry after he dunked it in the salt water. So much for that theory - he did it anyway even after I wiped his face off. We walked over "the great divide" to the other beach and Salty walked/swam right along with us in search of a new adventure. It's absolutely pristine - gorgeous here… no one else on the beach and we walked and swam for probably a little too long because when we got back to where we cross over to the main beach, high tide was way ahead of us. We couldn't see any sand bars out of the water now, meaning it would be a little more challenging to get to the other side, especially for Salty who would have had to swim most of the way. As luck would have it though, there was a party of people (with a dingy) floating around and drinking wine together in the water and Tom graciously offered to drive us all over to the other side. YAY! We got back to the boat, hosed Salty down and settled into another wonderful evening in Paradise. We sat on the aft deck and had a couple of cocktails before dinner and it was just as well we were out there because Salty was sitting watching the water out the back door that leads down to the swim platform. We have the dingy strapped there so he is unable to get onto the swim platform as it is right at the bottom of the stairs. I guess the Shark going by got his attention and he mistakenly decided to start down the stairs but because there's no where to go he was stuck having to try and back up the stairs which is virtually impossible. If I hadn't been there to pull his sorry butt back up the stairs, he would have been shark bait for sure! Salty is quite the wanderer now and very comfortable with getting on and off the boat (using the steps/ramp) quite unlike in Miami where he never gets off the boat by himself. I looked out and there he was half way down the dock just lying there looking over the water - guess this is HIS dock now. He is so good and never bothers anyone, never goes up to anyone, just minds his own business and his own dock it seems. I thought I didn't feel like cooking tonight, but had to anyway because you have to put in your order for dinner in the morning and we didn't do that - oh well, maybe tomorrow.
Day 20, Wednesday, July 6th At 7:00 am this morning, Captain "C" the "grocery barge" arrived with loads of provisions so I'll need to rush up to see if I can get some produce while they still have it and while it's still fresh. Barry broke out the dingy and took it for a spin around the corner "without" us - oh my goD, you would think that the world had fallen apart - at least Salty's world. He sat at the door and cried and cried when he heard that motor start up. Salty loves the dingy and how dare [Dad] go somewhere without him! I made lunch before we all headed out to explore the other islands then we piled into the dingy and off we went. It was way rocky out there but it's not as if the water was cold as it splashed up over the sides and doused us pretty good. Our first stop was Big Majors stop that is a big anchorage with good sized boats in there - one being "Gloria's Sun". The beach is relatively small compared to some we've been on but we weren't staying there anyway, but it is good to know should we ever decide to anchor there. There was a big sign on the beach that said "Please Feed the Cats" and Salty went right up to it and appeared to be reading it - quite funny. He was also on alert, staring into the bushes and I figured he could sense the cats were somewhere around - until he saw what really was behind the bushes. Why didn't someone (Billy-Boy) tell me about the wild PIGS!!!! Lordy, you can imagine my (and Salty's) surprise when this freakin' pig comes out of the bushes and heads straight for Salty. Of course, he's a dog and was quite ready to go after this thing and he started to bark ferociously at it (all the while backing up because I'm dragging him by the collar). What a pain in the butt - literally. While I'm dragging Salty backwards I somehow managed to pull "something" in my butt and now it's sore too! What am I doing, averaging an injury every 5 days or so? The pig was a big hit with everyone else on the beach and they all had bags of leftovers to feed this critter which was a good thing because it took its attention off Salty who was now forced to sit in the dingy and not go after this thing. Then Salty and I took the opportunity (while the pig was being fed) to walk in the opposite direction on the beach hoping it would eat its garbage and head back into the bushes but no such luck - so where did it go? Right over to our dingy and started to push Salty's water jug around with its snout. We can barely get Salty to drink that water, so Barry opened it up and started to give the pig fresh water - now, I wish I could have gotten a picture of that! Needless to say, the pig thing put a huge damper on Salty's romp on the beach and we left for our next destination, Staniel Cay. The waves are really rocking now and the dingy is quickly filling with water and of course the only thing we forgot to bring with us was the bailing jug. Nevermind, quick thinking on the Captain's part and he started to bail out with Salty's jug (or is it the pig's jug now?). Oh yeah, we were sitting in about 4 inches of water but Barry assured me that the dingy can't sink….great, that makes me feel a whole lot better. So, first he tries to kill us with a wild pig and now he's trying to drown us! We managed to make it to the beach and Marina at Staniel Cay which is quite a bit smaller than what we had imagined. I guess we thought it would be bigger because this Cay has an Airport on it. We went up to the little bar and were able to sit up on the raised platform overlooking the Marina and had a couple of cocktails while we watched the Staniel Cay Marina life. Some kids had gone out Conching with one of the locals and they brought back probably 30-40 Conchs that they will gut, score and take back to their boats. It was quite interesting to watch this young girl (probably about 17 years old) from the boat Redbird crack and gut the Conchs with her brother. Of course the local "Tony" showed her how to do it and she dove right in - cracking them in a particular spot at the tip of the shell then inserting a sharp knife to cut the animal out of the shell. She picked those babies right out of there (alive no less) as if she had been doing it all her life. Reminded me of our niece Shauna who is up for anything - you wouldn't catch our girls doing that! Barry struck up a conversation with a guy who was in the Pharmaceutical business in Coral Gables, FL who had been coming to the Bahamas on summer vacations with his family for years and years. He knew all the best places to go and gave us some good hits about when to visit certain places, i.e. at low tide vs. high tide. Interesting guy on a boat called Copasetic who has a 100' sailboat at home (he's on only a 50' Hataras now) and he is commissioning the building of a 110' commercial type boat in Canada to cruise the world - Australia, Alaska, and hopefully he can get to Hong Kong…. And we thought we were pretty good to cruise the Bahamas! It seemed the young girl doing the Conch was his niece and he was the one footing the bill for the Conching expedition so Tony brought him up a plate of scored "raw" conch soaking in lemon for him to eat. He offered so we (even Barry!) tried some - it's actually quite good and tastes something like lobster. So, off we go back to the boat and at least the water had calmed down a bit, although we were still taking on too much water and Barry had to bail all the way back anyway. He checked the plug and it probably wasn't in tight enough but we made it back in one piece and just in time because the clouds were starting to roll in. We had dinner on board again (Fajitas this time), were watching a move and the fireworks started - don't know why because the 4th of July is over and the Bahamian Independence day isn't until July 9th (which is also my Grandson Dylan's 8th birthday). We went out to watch them and good ole Salty wasn't enjoying them as much as everyone else because he took off down the stairs and charged up the dock barking wildly at the sky. It's pitch black out on the water and I was sure he was going to go right off the end of the dock so here I am running and shouting "Salty Salty Salty" down the dock like an idiot and you know he's completely ignoring me as everyone is laughing and calling out "Salty Salty Salty". Cripes. The perfect end to a perfect day, right? It really was actually….
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