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Day 25 to 27, August 8th to 10th
Wednesday, August 8,
2007
Salty and I went for a long walk around the familiar Marina and
down to the beach so he could get his dose of salty water and sand
while Barry got the dingy ready for our ride around the small
islands, deserted beaches and over to Staniel Cay. Staniel is a
larger Yacht club than Sampson where we are and we will probably see
some mega yachts there as it seems to be the docking of choice,
probably because there is a small air strip there for the “Yacht
guests” to fly in and out from the yachts. The docking there is
inferior to Sampson so that’s the only reason we can think
of…although they do have groceries there so that would be another
reason because I know it must take a lot to fill up those mega
kitchens – yes kitchens, not galleys. On our approach to Staniel,
the mega Yacht “Copasetic” was the first one we came upon then in
the distance was, lo and behold, the Blackhawk and along side it,
their tender the “Penalty Box”. We toured around for a while seeing
many large yachts anchored off in anchorages such us Big Majors and
the many protected bays in among the small deserted islands. Salty
isn’t the best dingy rider on these longer runs – it’s just way to
hot for him and he tries to hide from the sun but sticking his head
in between Barry and I (we’re sitting at the unihelm seat) and that
really isn’t comfortable for any of us – tomorrow we’ll go without
him. We then went to a little deserted beach not far from our boat
for Salty to run on the beach and wade in the water then went back
to the boat for a serious shower – I’m telling you, after a long day
in the sun it doesn’t matter how much water costs, a long shower is
definitely in order. As we were approaching Salty Old Dog, we see we
have a very large neighbor that has rolled in while we were away.
Just when you think you are playing with the big boys, a large Yacht
docks beside you and dwarfs the living daylights out of you. After
we were all cleaned up and semi-presentable, we poured some
cocktails and walked up to the gazebo that overlooks the cut that
leads to the back docks at Sampson (we are at the front docks) where
we watched the boats float along with the current and Salty enjoyed
watching the water and some good old fashioned “solid ground”. There
is a fish station very close to the gazebo where fishermen clean
their catch of the day and throw the scraps into the water – this
attracts a lot of sharks but they tell me they are Nurse sharks and
wouldn’t harm anyone if you fell in. Needless to say, I don’t
believe a word of it….to me a shark is a shark is a shark and they
are all after my boy. Of course, he’s the only one standing on the
very edge of the swim platform, dock and concrete edge and they all
lead to one place – the water where the sharks are! After a long day
in the sun, we were all ready to hit the sack early but as per
usual, Salty was the first one in bed and the first one out cold.
Thursday, August 9,
2007
Salty and I went for an early morning walk down to the back
beach at Sampson so he could have a little run and swim and saw an
interesting boat with square windows in the hull – an Azumit, very
strange but I’m sure it would be interesting looking out of them
from the inside. When we got to the beach, Salty ran into the water
to chase something that looked like one of those little baby sting
rays back at Exumas Park. He pawed at it, walked around it but this
one didn’t move. Seems he was ready to attack a small anchor
attached to a little row boat – but it looked like a sting ray,
really it did. We then took a little path up the hill to gorgeous
panoramic view of Sampson Cay Marina on the back side and the Exumas
Banks to the East, just stunning. While back at the boat before our
next dingy adventure, the “Sea Ray Club” was leaving Sampson to go
onto their next destination – there are many Sea Ray Clubs like that
who go on trips together with a team of anywhere from 4-8 boats, I
believe. If there were any more than that, I would think it would be
difficult to get dockage at any given Marina all together. However,
as nice as that may seem, they really aren’t very considerate as
they scream out of the Marina causing all kinds of wake to make our
boat and dingy bounce around like a buoy in a storm. Come on,
where’s your boating etiquette? Barry and I took off for Staniel Cay
Yacht Club for lunch and to tour around without our hot dog, Salty –
but I’m sure that at 12:30 pm in the glaring hot sun, he will be
quite content to stay home in the air conditioning. We had a great
lunch at the Yacht Club restaurant even though it was sweltering in
there too – a few broken down over head fans just doesn’t cut it in
95 weather. We tooled around for about two hours going to all the
places we went to a couple of years ago, passing the Happy People
Marina (yikes), Thunderball Café (if you can call it that), the
famous snorkeling hole “Thunderball Grotto”, Fowl Cay Restaurant and
Resort (very small and exclusive), through Pipe Creek (where we
anchored in 2005) and onto Compass Cay Marina. We’ve heard a lot of
people really like it there, but we couldn’t figure out what would
bring anyone to this small and what seemed to be slightly rundown
Marina. There were some very large Yachts there but what on earth
would you do there – no restaurant, no beach, no fuel, no nothing!
Oh well, each to their own but it seemed to be the only thing they
do have in abundance is sharks – my favorite thing. On our way back
to the boat to get Salty, the wind and current had really picked up
and crossing some of the inlets was a little rough, indeed – oh my
aching back. We returned through the back bay as it was high tide
(in low tide you can walk across the bay), passed by our Gazebo and
fishing station and in front of Salty Old Dog was yet another
monster Yacht – the “Insatiable” from Ohio. Whoa, these Yachts are
just incredible – where the hell do they get all that money, I’d
like to know! We picked up Salty and zoomed over to the little
deserted beach for a quick swim to cool us all down, then came back
to Marina life and being sandwiched in between these mega boats.
Barry found out from the Captain of the Mary Clare our of Fort
Lauderdale (beside us) that this boat was owned by someone else and
the people on it were from Italy and they chartered it for a mere
$30,000 a week plus 30% over and above that for fuel, dockage, etc.
If they go over that amount, they cough up more but in retrospect,
that’s peanuts compared to actually owning one of those monsters and
all of the expenses associated with it. The Mary Clare has a
gorgeous full and formal living and dining room, full kitchen, large
staterooms and a hot tub on the top deck….luxury. So, now I’ll be
looking at these guys in their big gorgeous yachts wondering if they
are the big boy owners or just the peons who rent them! We were gone
for a total of 5 hours and by the time we got back, we felt like it
too – absolutely fried, tired and ready for a drink!
Friday, August 10,
2007
After yesterday’s dingy adventure, we all woke up late but
waking up late may have also been a result of the pounding rain
storm that hit us around 3:00 am and Barry had to jump out of bed to
put all the plastic enclosures down so the electronics at the helm
and the aft deck furniture wouldn’t get soaked. We dragged our butts
around all morning, had a little brunch and decided that today would
be a down day – reading and watching a little TV in the air
conditioning – sounds good to me, but of course I still have some
work to do writing this little epistle and getting it and pictures
off to Pawlik Corp so they can keep the website up to date. We
watched the Insatiable leave, pulling out from the dock with bow and
stern thrusters roaring. It kicked up a bit of sand while turning
around so I’m sure that baby drafts at least 6’ and off it went to
the next destination as the Captain was in charge and the owner sat
yakking on his cell phone – or is it the owner? Now we’ll just wait
for the next Yacht to come in and dwarf us as we sit in our little
Salty Old Dog and watch another sunset in Paradise. We didn’t have
to wait long as the “Totally Nuts” 100’ yacht more than adequately
filled the hole at the dock that the Insatiable left not too long
ago. This yacht is amazing with gorgeous deep blue windows and
gleaming blue rounded glass doors leading to a huge aft deck – yes,
absolutely amazing. I watched from the bow of Salty Old Dog as the
crew opened the “garage” in the stern and out emerged a large tender
to squire the owners (or renters?) around Sampson Cay. This yacht is
three stories high and the stairs even light up at night. Friday is
the day fresh produce comes into the Ship’s Store so I waited until
all was unpacked and made a bee-line to the store before all those
other greedy boater’s stocked up on all of the things I needed –
onions, lettuce, tomatoes, etc….and of course ice cream bars. We sat
on the aft deck watching the boats go by, having a couple of
cocktails and I decided I just wasn’t into cooking tonight. Off I go
to the restaurant because you have to submit your order for dinner
before 4:00 pm and we got about as dressed up as we have ever been
on this adventure – yes, we fixed up real nice. Barry had a huge
lobster that was awesome and I had grouper that was equally as good,
then came back to the boat to an excited Salty for a late night
“night cap” and watched the fish swim by in the underwater lights
off the stern of the boat. Lovely.
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