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Day 28th to 30th, July 14th - 16th
It's Thursday already - didn't we just get here?! Let's try this snorkeling thing again and make sure we don't go anywhere that sells rum punch! We piled into the dingy - which is a "fancy" dingy with a console, a big motor and a bimini top that blows the doors off of our rinky dink guy. We tooled around out there for a bit then went to the Exumas Land & Sea Park "Aquarium" where there is supposed to be a lot of really nice fish and coral. There were, indeed, nice fish and coral but really, both Barry and I seem to think that the Florida Keys is still the best place we've ever snorkeled. With four people in the dingy it was difficult to get it up on plane but with determination and a lot of leaning in the right direction, we managed to make pretty good time. We went to Compas Cay Marina to have a look at what we would have stayed at if we didn't decide to stay on hook and quite frankly, it really wasn't much of anything. In fact, the most interesting thing about it was the sharks milling around the dingy dock that were apparently all named and very tame. It costs $5.00 "per person" to step foot on the Cay if you can believe that. All we did was check to see if they had a white t-shirt for Paul (he's on a mission) and thank God we were only on the dock, otherwise that would have been a $20 trip to just look a little dock-side store! The fish and sharks at the dock are incredible - they say they are tame but I wouldn't want to test it - yikes; some of those suckers are big! In our travels we met up with "Dan on his boat Stormy" who Paul and Cathy have bumped into in their travels a couple of times - this old guy has been traveling the Bahamas for 30 years! Salty wasn't impressed of course when we took off without him and I'm sure he cried for what would seem to him, hours but he was fine when we got back to the boat and with a trip into the beach for a swim and a dingy ride seemed to put us back in his good books. We tooled around on the other side of the creek where a "Retreat" is located on Pike Cay but it was oddly void of any human activity but it looks like it has potential. All the buildings were covered for hurricane protection and there were no boats around so maybe the summer is not when the Retreat is booming. Paul and Cathy came over for cocktails and we decided we would just stay here instead of going to the Exumas Park to moor off - there are lots of places to gunk hole around in, it's beautiful and why move?
Day 29, Friday, July 15th Change of plans. We now are going to the Park. That's fine, it's beautiful there too but before we go, Paul graciously offered to fill our water tank. They have a water maker on their boat that converts the salt water to fresh that is a real bonus when you are at anchor and can't fill up at a Marina which is what we normally do. Even though we had emptied the 50 gallon "blue bladder" into our tank, we were still only at about half a tank full (or empty) and would have had to really conserve water over the next few days before getting to Nassau and a Marina. After all, we have been on the hook for five days now and that's a long time when you think of how much water you use during that period of time - showers, dishes, cooking and hosing Salty down after he's been in the salt water. This meant Barry used his mega-fenders to allow Paul to raft up beside us to transfer the water from his boat to ours. This actually went off without a hitch even though it was blowing (of course it was) and that was a total success - YAY, we now have water to have a real shower with! Even though it was blowing, as I said, the water on the outside to get to the Park was incredibly good with only a light chop and it was a totally enjoyable run to our next destination - the Park - and the mooring ball. Remember the mooring ball? Number 10? Please Lord, not ball number 10! Another YAY, we are going to be at Number 9 and I'm sure all will go well - NOT! I'm sure I can do this and I'm ready with that crappy boat hook and my line and then I see that horrid blue ball directly in front of the beach and I know it's not number 9 - it's that damn number 10 ball! Barry - wrong ball! Wrong ball! Nevermind, here we are in front of it and I'm supposed to do this incredibly easy feat (so the Captain tells me) of snagging the mooring line and flinging it up without a blink of an eye, right? NOT! My problem, as I'm told later, is that I'm not communicating with him "to help me" and I understand that he can't see the mooring line, but he needs to understand that I'm trying to snag the freakin' thing without falling in and without breaking my ribs! I don't have time to chat! Oh my, does that sound like a captain and first mate fiasco or what? I had to let it go the first time round but managed to get a line around it the second time - did I mention I hate mooring now? I love it when the boat is safely anchored, docked, moored and moving - it's the getting the boat to where that happens that I have a problem with - I know, what a wussy boater….remember the boating is not for the old and out of shape? OK! We're here, we're hooked on and I only sustained minor injuries and bruises that we won't go into. We are trying to decide which spot we prefer relative to scenery and really cannot decide except that here we have these incredible sand covered hills rolling all around us, yes, we like it here a lot. We went into the beach and let Salty have a run, chase the birds and have a swim as we just sat in the water and watched the world go by. There are a lot of fish here and Salty loves to lay down on the swim platform and watch for them to come and tease him - drives him and me crazy because I think he's going to fall in! Cathy and Paul came over for dinner and drinks and it looked like we were going to get some weather - finally! It hadn't rained since Hurricane Dennis passed by in Sampson and the boats could certainly use a little washing down, but all that happened was a lot of breeze and the odd sprinkle - oh, and a rainbow. Welcome back to the Park!
Day 30, Saturday, July 16th Ok, here we are back at a familiar spot and lo and behold, we can get internet access here too! We had to bring the laptop up to the aft deck to get reception but that's fine - honestly, sitting out there checking emails while overlooking the most incredible view, is just too decedent….if only every day at work could be like this. The fish were still teasing Salty in the morning and when I poured out "stuff" from last night's dinner (I hate doing that but apparently that's what you need to do) the fish went crazy - and so did Salty! I thought I'd feed them some bread but that didn't go off very well - they didn't seem to like it (but its Atkins bread - who would) although the seagulls picked up the pieces. All five of us went off to Boo Boo Hill around noon to see what we could see and this time, we brought shoes - good move. Up we go with our "Barry Peterson, The Boater's Realtor" Koozies with "Salty Old Dog, July 2005" written on them to make our mark on Boo Boo Hill. This time because we had shoes on, we were able to make the trek to Boo Boo Beach and the "Blow Hole". Boo Boo Beach reminded me of the scene in The Planet of the Apes with crashing surf and nothing in sight except white caps, crashing waves over coral heads and long white beach. The trek up the hill and back down at high noon made for a very hot adventure and I'm sure Salty would have loved to go into the water but even he though the surf was a little rough and I was thankful he didn't charge in there, only to disappear in a rip tide. When we were heading back we went over to the "Blow Hole" - now that is an interesting phenomenon! Salty was quite interested and leery at the same time as this loud noise was coming out of a small hole in the ground and was surely going to "get him". We stood over it, looked down into it and were quite surprised at the force of the air that blows out of it when the waves crash onto the side of the cliff - thus the name Blow Hole, right? Blew Barry's hat right off! I'm sure at high tide, it must be a sight when the water rushes up out of that hole and it wouldn't surprise me if Cathy and Paul head back there again to watch it….us? Never mind, I can visualize.
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