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Day 31 to 34 – August 14th – August 17th
Tuesday, August 14,
2007
Today started out pretty much the same as yesterday but without
the pounding rain – just a lot of wind and wave action that causes a
pounding in your head instead. We were just going to lay low
(something new) today and pack up later in the afternoon to get
ready to head out of Sampson and head North tomorrow. The forecast
for Tropical Storm Dean doesn’t look great, so we figured we better
take advantage of the calmer seas North of us while we can. We both
read books in the morning but I started to fall asleep half way
through – the warm breeze and rocking seems to do that to me. I went
down below and baked brownies – yup, that’s me, Betty Crocker of the
Seas! Barry thought he’d take one more dingy ride before pulling it
up onto the davits/chalks and getting it ready to get out of here
tomorrow as it would probably be the last dingy ride in the Bahamas
for a while. However, before he and Salty could head out, there was
a commotion in the water at the dock and Salty bolted up the side of
the boat (that would be the gunnel) to the bow to see what was going
on out there. It seems the huge schools of minnows attracted a huge
school of larger fish (forgive me if I don’t know the type of fish)
and they in turn attracted a huge swarm of seagulls dive bombing the
fish! What I couldn’t understand is “did the birds actually think
they could catch one of those 3-4” fish”? Anyway, they continued to
cause a ruckus on each side of the dock and then behind the boat and
Salty was going crazy! Both Barry and I got off the boat onto the
dock and watched this crazy field day they had going on out there
and watched Salty as he jumped and danced all over the swim platform
after….what? The fish or the birds or both? I kept saying (of
course) “Salty no, Salty stop, Salty no” and Barry said “oh, let him
be – he hasn’t fallen in yet and he’s not likely to now”. Yeah
right, no sooner said than done. I looked away for one second and
looked back down – there was Salty “balancing” out there on the
davit, looking up with a look of shock on his face (if a dog can do
that) as if to say “help me”! I was as frozen as he was and in fact,
he seemed frozen in time and I actually thought, Barry could go from
the dock, onto the boat and down the stairs and save him before he
fell in. Nope, Salty (I guess) tried to back up and plopped right
into the drink. I had the camera in my hand and should have taken a
picture – God knows I had time, but all I was thinking was “SAVE MY
BABY”! We fished him out with no problem and the little shit got
back on the swim platform and started all over again – for cryin’
out loud. Anyway, Barry dumped the little dink in the dingy and off
they went to the beach, as if Salty hadn’t already had a swim! Barry
said they went all the way to Compass Cay which is about a 45 minute
dingy ride, had a nice little swim at a deserted beach then got
stuck in a sand bar on the way back. While they were out, the black
clouds rolled in and so did yet another Yacht “Magic Days” beside
us. I started to put the plastic windows down to get ready for the
impending rain when the owner of Magic Days (he was from Texas) said
“it’s not gonna rain girl, it’s gonna go right on by and y’all won’t
have to worry”. HA! I said “well, we’ve been caught one too many
times so this is just in case”. Lisa – the woman who Barry and Salty
met the other day, dropped by with a baggie of ginger snaps and
those little pills “Magic Moments”. Barry and Salty arrived shortly
thereafter and Barry couldn’t help but take a stern shot of Salty
Old Dog and Magic Days and even though I didn’t see it in person,
it’s a pretty awesome shot. It was good timing that Barry got back
in the dingy when he did because, lo and behold, it started to rain
but just a bit. Barry got everything off the dingy, the motor up,
the steering wheel down and we hoisted it up onto the davits/chalks,
sprayed it down a little and let the rain take care of the rest –
then it started to pour. Good thing I hadn’t planned dinner around
the BBQ. I wanted to knock on the good ole Texan’s door and say “SEE
I told so”! As the Texans hunkered down in their mega yacht and
their crew catered to their every need, we hunkered down to Thai
food (yes I cooked AGAIN) and were in bed early for the great escape
tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, August
15, 2007
Alrighty then! We were up at 5:30 am and ready to get outta
here….sort of ready, that is. We did, of course, have to make the
last minute (hours) preparations like finishing up with the dingy
that we didn’t do the day before, taking Salty for a final walk
around, getting the gang way up and put away, etc., etc., etc. Salty
did his usual “I’ll ignore the fact that they are getting ready to
move that damn boat” routine again and took up a spot as far away on
the dock as he could get. You can’t tell me that he doesn’t know
when something’s going on with the boat and he doesn’t want any part
of it! The wind and water action at the dock were actually pretty
decent, despite the fact that waves were smacking the underside of
the swim platform all night and that is exactly where the Master
suite is located. We hadn’t slept a wink from 2:30 am on due to the
noise but despite the tiredness, we did whatever had to be done and
were out in the channel at around 8:00 am in, I have to say this
again, awesome water. But before we headed off, we said a final good
bye to Magic Days and a beautiful sunrise through the clouds. Off we
go in water that’s probably a foot or less and shaking our heads yet
again, at our good fortune. We need to go to Nassau to drop off the
cell phone to Peter at Nassau Harbour Club and if weather and water
permit, we will continue on to Chubb Cay to spend the night before
heading off to Cat Cay where we will make our final get away before
the winds really pick up due to Tropical Storm Dean. We had a great
run in fabulous water of two feet or less and could see on the radar
and GPS that there were storms all around us – although, who needs
the radar when you can actually see the rain clouds spewing forth
their ugly precipitation on both the port and starboard sides. We
managed to zip by all of the storms with nary a drop on good ole
Salty Old Dog and before we knew it, there was Nassau in the
distance. I didn’t bother to take too many pictures as there are
enough pictures of Nassau already but snapped a few “just because”
going in the other direction – going closer to home. We had about
$17.00 left on our Bahamian cell phone and I’d be damned if I was
going to give up that cell phone – at $2.00 a minute! – with money
left on it. I called my Mom, my girls, Barry’s Mom and my Best
friend Katie – HA! I went for soooo long without hearing anyone’s
voice, it was awesome to hear everyone’s voice after so long. We
fueled up in Nassau as for some reason, there was another stroke of
luck and there wasn’t anyone at the fuel dock where we were to drop
off the phone. The starboard side took 140 gallons and the port 168
gallons for (again) the paltry sum of $1,816.00 (plus the 3% charge
for using your credit card of course). Peter the dock master at
Nassau Harbour Club came over to the boat to pick up the phone and
wished us well – as we did to him. We were in and out of the fuel
dock without a hitch and were off and out into Nassau Harbour and on
our way to Chub Cay passing the Cruise ships along the way. As we
passed one of the Cruise ships I noticed a sign I had never seen
before “Security Warning – do not approach within 100 yards” –
Yikes! What is this world coming to? Well, we all know and we don’t
want to get into that, do we? I had to take one final picture of the
lighthouse at the Northern tip of Nassau Harbour because I’m pretty
sure we won’t be back here for a while. As we cruise out into the
absolutely fabulous water, there is the odd freighter floating by
and NOT floating! Whoa – that guy took a really bad turn or had some
serious storm that knocked him into the rocks that were clearly
shown on the GPS. Salty had one of the “magic pills” that Lisa had
dropped off and he was 2 sheets to the wind and having a very calm
and sleepy Salty. We made it into Chub Cay and were happily put into
the same starboard side slip we were in when we first started this
adventure. We absolutely need starboard access because we can’t
access the port side because of the position of the stairs going
down to the swim platform and the position of the dingy when it’s in
the chalks on the swim platform. As we go by we see and “hear” guys
from a boat from Fort Myers – hey, they say “FORT MYERS – hello to
CAPE CORAL”! I could say a small world but it’s not really because
we’ve come across so many people from our side of the State – it’s
just nice to see someone who lives across the River from you! It was
also nice to see Chub again but only because we knew it was a “stop
over” and didn’t even dismantle the aft deck chairs or the gang way
or anything else – just try getting Salty to go down the stairs to
the swim platform that was now filled with the dingy was a trick. He
finally figured it out and hopped off with no problem at all – then
we got cleaned up and went to the restaurant for dinner and I had no
problem hopping off to get a dinner I didn’t have to cook! Nice
dinner but also nice knowing we were getting one stop closer to the
“State side” before we would have to worry about Tropical Storm
Dean!
Thursday, August 16,
2007
Ok….this morning we awoke to no wind and no waves – bonus! The
floating docks here have proven to be very easy and worry-free for
Salty and I to get on and off of without the help of Barry which is
another bonus. It didn’t take us long to pack up and get ready to
head off after a wonderful “noise free sleep” because nothing had
really been broken down and un-packed the day before. Salty wasn’t
given the opportunity to do his normal “I’m going to ignore you when
the boat is starting up” deal so he went up to the bow and I guess
figured if he was out of sight, it would be almost the same as if he
was hiding on the dock. It was an easy out and off we went from Chub
Cay to Cat Cay in – again – awesome water! Getting Salty off the bow
and up to the helm level proved interesting too. As I tried to steer
him down the gunnel from the bow, the little bugger decided to go
right back up the other side – while we were underway. This normally
wouldn’t have been a deal but that side was blocked with fenders so
Salty was stuck in the middle with no way to go ahead and no way to
turn around. He has been know to twist his body around to get out of
tight spots before but if he tried that now, he’d fall right over
board and I’d go with him. I finally got him backed out of there and
we were off out of Chub with all three of us still on the boat –
bonus. The BEST thing apparently, was that we had already fueled up
in Nassau because Barry found out when we got to Chub Cay that
although they had fuel in Chub – they weren’t willing to sell it to
anyone! They had enough fuel for their own facility (until Saturday)
when the next fuel ship was scheduled to come in and if you needed
fuel you’d have to go somewhere else. Can you just imagine if we
needed fuel and Captain Bear was told NO we can’t sell you any? OMG!
For some bizarre reason, once again, he made the right decision and
fueled up when it was there in Nassau – and the next time – we’ll do
the very same thing. If it’s there and ready, do it! So, off we go
and we’ll be in Cat Cay in about 4-5 hours. BUT along the way and
because the water was just so great, Captain Bear stepped away from
the helm and the “auto pilot” and went down onto the bow to enjoy
something spectacular – something out of “The Titanic” – awesome
water and wind blowing in his face while looking out over the bow.
OK – the boat is on auto pilot, Salty is sleeping in front of his
fan and so why not, I thought? Obviously, I couldn’t stand Barry
having more fun that I was having, so I went down there too – it was
just too freakin’ exhilarating! I’m not kidding – there is nothing –
nothing like sitting and standing on the bow of your boat while
underway in the middle of nowhere, feeling the salty wind in your
face, wonderful waves all round you with not a piece of land in
sight and gorgeous, gorgeous water all around. That was fabulous!
When I went out to the very edge of the bow railing and backed out –
WAY out – it was like something I’d never experienced before –
Titanic here I am! Amazing, we just had the best time and the
auto-pilot was doing an excellent job at the helm! Back on the
inside and getting on with business, we saw a lone Sea Ray kind of
bobbing here and there, going slower than we were, stern dragging
and we wondered what was up with that guy – Sea Ray owners almost
always run in packs! We arrived at Cat Cay in jig time due to great
water and following seas – zoomed along at 17 knots – whoo hoo! We
stopped at the fuel dock just to top up the tanks even though we
know we can make it across with the fuel we have now, but its better
to be safe than sorry as we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
Just 40 gallons on each side to the tune of $341.04 – why buy
expensive Bahamian diesel when we’ll be back in the States where
fuel (and everything else) is much cheaper. Just as we were all
settled in at the dock and Barry was ready to lift Salty off the
boat (we didn’t put the stairs out this time), he said “hey look,
there’s Tiger Wood’s yacht, the Privacy”. Nice – very nice Tiger! It
wasn’t long after the Privacy was docked that whomever had the
pleasure of being on it, got off and boarded a private plane to the
States, no doubt. No, we didn’t see Tiger but I said hi to him from
Kate and Pete anyway. Tomorrow’s the big day – “The Cross-over”!
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