First, I don't know if I remember how to use Blogger and I certainly don't remember how to write a pithy interesting blog after so much time but here goes...
Fast forward five months of this amazing city and food and always 20 degrees warmer than home and bourbon and meeting neat new people at the marina, proving to myself that I can work remote and still contribute (hope my bosses agree), jogging, walking, sunbathing on the tramps, gorgeous homes, lovely gardens, and did I mention the weather? I love how I have already forgotten the times that it was freezing all day and wettish and freezing at night and a couple of those 8 hour drives that turned into 10-12 LOL! I do not want to leave--I don't, it's that simple. I will say that I want to come back next season, no question. And next time I would try harder to be here more and home less or as much as my boss would allow ;-)
We are all set to cast off the dock tomorrow--going outside, wind looks good, tides look good for when we want to leave, boat has been scrubbed, water full, plan for fueling up...oh yeah, we got this. We'll enjoy dinner with Mrs. Brown and do an easy last minute food run...simple! Errrrmmmm... Charts are gone off the SD card. Uhhhhhhh WTF? So 30 minutes on hold with Navionics, Mark scouring the website to find answers, me not having anything helpful to add. It's always something.
Ok, but here's my Charleston highlights in photos and suffice it to say that all the jogging and walking I/we have done did NOT make up for all the amazing food and cocktails we've enjoyed here. My funny story is that about 20 years ago, I came here to interview for a job and for 20 years that's been my "what if?" decision. I figure the universe must want me here since this is where I've spent the majority of my time since the end of December...loving it and feeling sad that I have to say good bye again.
My pictorial...in no particular order and not even close to all the awesomeness we had...but with memories that I am cherishing and cannot wait to relive next season!
She is always so proud and so pretty - love my girl. On our nice outside dock space where the sunset and view is worth every wave and powerboat drive by and feeling and hearing mother nature's washing machine LOL!
One of the 'windows' into the garden courtyard of my favorite house here.
And how about this little show--it was on a Monday morning and I said it was my kind of meeting! Video not available on mobile version sorry.
Fun old ship that puttered by one day
Location of one of my work calls one morning
"Working Remote" late night and wine in a can is not worth it
Fun day with the Kansas Callenders. Lindsay, pick CoC!
This is a Kentucky Smash and it is liquid joy and likely has antioxidant benefits because of the berries.
Chocolate cheesecake and Old Fashioned for dessert at Low Country Bistro.
The most amazing flower boxes
Sexy night shot of my girl
Me getting used to provisioning without a car LOL!
I love this shot--so many beautiful sunsets
I have some continuing education goals for when I get home ;-)
Drank more bourbon here in a few months than in the past 25 years. Right on.
Example of jogging to the cool coffee shop
where we bought Nutella popovers.
Example of jogging due to overconsumption
of said Nutella popovers, etc
Ahhhh, did this a few times--spoiled girl and sheesh clearly an egomaniac.
And here it is an hour later and yep, our SD card with our charts is dead but no worries, we found new one at West Marine for only $199 bucks but we have NO clue if that includes the charts. UPDATE: New Card purchased and working! Whew!!!! And we even had a nice dinner with Mrs. Judy Brown who was our savior and drove us to West Marine and the grocery store (oh yeah, we sorta needed a bit of food to sustain us from here to NC). So, yeah, par for the course but we do what we do and through it all, know that we are blessed and are so very grateful for this life we have been given. Captain Mark is going to be amazing as always and I am going to be the best first mate I can be. Just remember:
"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death. You have to LIVE LIVE LIVE!"
Look for Stray Cat Facebook updates as we go home to the Chesapeake and thank you to all our friends and family who put up with us and support all the wacky stuff we try to pull off. See you in Solomon's Island this summer please!! XO Suzanne
Now completely out of date but maybe I will pressure myself to actually wrap this up...three-ish weeks ago I started with:
Facebook post this morning, "One year ago this morning we left the US for The Bahamas...right now I am looking at new snow but in my mind we are floating in crystal blue water."
30" of snow < The Bahamas
Stray Cat in freezing water after the big snow < The Bahamas
View from my work today < The Bahamas
But we are here in our hearts and minds...The Bahamas, Stray Cat, part of something so very special...
I love that girl in the picture up there...I miss her so much and wonder if I will ever see her again, wonder how is she doing? This was her after living on the boat for 4 months and on Bahamas Day One. If you haven't figured out that this will be yet another Suzanne-centric post then I'm worried about you ;-)
I've started this easily 20 times in my mind since June--most recently while getting a manicure in the middle of the day (ugh I know, I know). Put that in the 'fill the hole column' which will make more sense in a minute. Don't ask me why I've delayed it: lazy, tired of writing it, 100 other excuses but mostly the lazy part. Today I decided was THE day to finally write it to catch up on our blessed boat life/journey north once we got home to US waters. Who knows, maybe by doing so I'll find some answers to questions that have nagged me for the past 7 months. That is to say, from the time we returned to land life on June 1, 2015.
Sit back and grab a stiff drink because this will be a long one but I'll try to keep it at least somewhat interesting.
As you know, we decided once and for all that we needed to take advantage of the very small weather window to sail north around Stirrup Cay then onto the inlet at Lake Worth (the Palm Beaches). I think we were all eager to make the trip once it was decided but that didn't make it easy saying goodbye to Great Harbour and the beautiful amazing gracious humble proud Bahamas.
We took a last trip ashore, I did some souvenir shopping then caught up with the guys for a final lunch and refreshment at the Beach Bar. Back on the boat we put together a couple of bags of provisions for a couple from Texas who were in the anchorage on their sail boat as well. I'm sure they didn't really need anything but since we had a ton of extra and were about to rejoin the land of excess and plenty, I wanted to lighten our load by helping another sail boat. I also wanted to have some positive vibe credits in Stray Cat's account for the crossing.
Our estimates were that the trip would take upwards of 30 hours possibly so we'd leave a 2pm. There were some key points that needed to be reached so that we'd make it to Lake Worth well before sunset. The winds had to allow us to sail but it was going to be a close close sail north to Stirrup Cay and the waves had to come around so we didn't get knocked around badly. Then we needed to have started our turn west northwest before sunset that night when the winds would help us and the waves were supposed to come around and stop slapping us in the face. And we needed to hit the Gulf Stream at sunrise to make the timing work for that part of the trip. Want to guess how many of those "need to happen" things happened when and where we expected and needed? At first none. Dammit.
Motoring out of our anchorage
It was a rough time going north out of the anchorage and there was a point where Mark seriously considered turning us west into Great Harbour to get out of the rough water. If we did that, we would lose our window and would have to figure out what to do after all of us getting ready and psyched to go on an overnight. We simply did not want to motor the entire way and would never get there in time in that case. That would leave us along the Florida coast after sunset and having to go north to find another acceptable port or slow down to a crawl to arrive at Lake Worth by sunrise another days later. Neither of those was good and really not good considering the slim weather window. Ultimately Mark decided to take the chance and keep going. It paid off eventually yet a little later than we would have preferred. We continued our turn west northwest and as the sun was starting to set, the waves changed finally and our wind angle was good. The sails were up and Stray Cat literally sailed off into the sunset as we watched the Berrys fade in the distance. We shut down all the electronics so Mark could make a call to Island Khaya which left me at the helm sailing the old fashioned way using the compass and aiming for cloud formations that kept morphing on me haha. It was a short time but I was pretty proud of me for going acoustic that evening for a few minutes. Grand Bahama a few miles to our starboard kept us company through the night as did the freighters and multiple cruise ships also traveling along and around the route to and from Nassau plus between the US and the Bahamas. I had a few around me on my watch and one that came 'very close' at about a half mile away (that's very close when you are talking a cruise ship versus a sailing catamaran). Jon had a lot more on his watch and sounded like he had even closer calls...a quarter of a mile. That would be way too close for my comfort. Stray Cat and her crew held their own.
Waves calmed and turned, wind to our benefit, sails up and trimmed
And we sailed into the sunset...I saw a green flash that night
One of the many floating hotels that night
The next morning we did reach the Gulf Stream and felt it as it gave us a solid but gentle lift and pull towards home. During the trip I lowered the Bahama courtesy flag and raised our old faithful Maryland flag. Knowing that Grand Bahama faded in the distance while I slept didn't hit me as hard and lowering the Bahama flag...that made it real, that part of the trip had come to an end.
Beautiful last open water dawn I will see for a while
My last ocean sunrise was beautiful and filled my heart
Motoring with the head sail up and getting the Gulf Stream boost
He hardly ever goes inside on overnights
Getting the main sail back up
Somewhere over there is Florida
At some point later in the day but with great timing and things going very well, I saw Florida and maybe even said "Land Ho" out loud. Hours later that view had magnified and we made our way to the inlet. Talk about a culture shock! Forget about the wind and waves picking up and the clouds...what really hit me was the rushing and busyness and people and noise and people and people and...you get the idea. I was also looking for a dock for us...started searching and making calls as soon as I had service. Meanwhile, a crazy fun thing happened though that reminded me yet again how small of a world it is. We saw a beautiful huge blue sailboat heading out and the guys said "is that Sonny?" which they always said anytime we saw a boat like that...Sonny was the boat we met in Compass whose owner was the 90 year old veteran and the crew included a great gal named Nikki who Mark and Jon had chilled with along with her boyfriend and some other yachts' crews. Anyway, WTH?!! OMG, that is Sonny...Jon yells "Nikki" and she heard him and hailed us. We promised to try to meet up when they got back from their day sail. Small world indeed!
As we neared the inlet, the winds picked up and the waves got pushy, oh and rain clouds started to build.
Annnnd, there's your South Florida
We made our way past Peanut Island and all the boats anchored and rafted out having a grand time on a Florida Saturday afternoon and north along the channel. I was starting to get nervous about finding a dock. Not sure why since we had a perfect back up plan of anchoring in Lake Worth where we had spent a number of days six months earlier. I suppose partly I wanted the relative solid ground of being on a dock after 25 hours on the ocean and the luxury of a land based toilet and shower? Mostly though I wanted a marina where we could park the rental car I reserved for the Sun 'n Fun outing that we'd be leaving for early the next day. Then there was the matter of getting a car to get to the car...Well, Old Cove Port said they had space for us and it was just next to where we would have anchored anyway...sweet!
People partying it up...nice that the clouds went away for them
Sheesh, so many people
Long story short, we docked, got cleaned up, took care of all our random business and had an awesome Welcome Home dinner at the marina's restaurant. It was good to be home most assuredly but I personally felt a sadness for leaving the Islands behind...and a longing to still be there. And by the way, it took me ZERO time to acclimate back to all things US--my unlimited cell data service, ridiculous food options, multiple beers on tap--which I found fascinating since I felt pretty accustomed to the Bahamas after even our short time there. Mark described it very well saying that the US is a machine--a well functioning machine. I felt lucky to have been away from that for a while and to spend time in a place that is not a machine but is precious in its own way. The most telling part for me (Jon and Mark will have to share their own impressions) was how much I did not want to come home and how much I want to do another trip soon; soon being within a couple of years. I never thought that would have been the case--I was sure that I would enjoy it and check it off the list of life experiences. Instead, I want to go back or at the very least stay on the boat longer...
My princess sitting with the big yachts, just where she deserved to be after getting us home safely
We look a bit different than those three Island hoppers in the picture above, don't we?
While that was the end of our Bahamas time, the three caballeros had a few more adventures left in us, albeit US adventures. Stay tuned for my final post following us to Sun 'n Fun, a big battery swap, out on the ocean again, a few microbreweries, visits to new towns, revisits to others and the day we went from a party of three to a party of two.
I hope Jon's friends will stick with me a little longer as I get mushy updating you on our travels from North Palm to Savannah during the last three weeks...
DISCLAIMER: This is long because it's the last Bahamas Cay of our
trip and I'm wistfully wandering down memory lane while writing it...hopefully you will please take a look at the photos because they
tell the story of this amazing final stop on our journey!
We had a great trip to the Berry Islands and headed north toward
Great Harbour Cay where we intended to anchor in a nice little harbor on
east (ocean) side for a day or so then possibly move around to the
'inside' or the marina. There were a handful of boats in the anchorage
but we found a perfect spot tucked on the south side by the "seashell"
beach and in a nook of sorts. The first thing we had noticed was that
the water was no longer blue but green...crystal clear emerald green.
Whoa. Look a cruise ship is anchored up at Stirrup Cay--those things are massive. Hey is that smoke coming off the top of the Island? What the?!
We anchored in that perfect crescent cove
Thanks Google--this image I found told us where Shark Creek was and the Beach Club! You can't see how little and narrow the cut is into Bulluck's Harbour but trust me.
Anchored in the emerald waters...so pretty
Oh but first let me tell you about our fishing
adventure...Jon's fishing adventure, since he was the official fisherman
of the trip. They decided to put out a line even though we had pretty
much crossed the majority of the deep Sound water. Well, they got a
bite!! It was a relatively easy reel in compared to the mahi experience
from months earlier. Oops, that's no mahi...it was a barracuda and he
was a bigun' but as Mark got the pliers to get our hook back, Jon got it
without incident and saw that the line was just wrapped around its
tooth. So that was our exciting barracuda adventure in the Berrys.
Fisherman Jon!
Freed from the line wrapped around his tooth
Ok, so back to the Berrys. Mark called it on the smoke we saw from miles away--a fire, not burning trash (which of course was so unlikely because 1) it was Sunday and 2) one or two cruise ships were anchored north). We found out the next day that it was a wild fire that had started deep in some brush and inaccessible. On top of that, Great Harbour Cay does not have a fire truck...most of the Bahamas do not with the exception of New Providence, aka Nassau, and Eleuthera in the larger settlements and the hot spots like George Town. So this means that the folks are fighting fires with small trucks and tanks and essentially garden hoses. They try to do what they can because fire on an island is devastating. On our bike ride along the Cay we saw first hand how wide spread and scary the fire really was. It burned all day and into the night where we could see the glowing of the embers from the boat. It had started up again at one point then the rain happened. Just in time to help give the Cay inhabitants the upper hand.
The fire was a couple of miles and had jumped the road.
Still smoking at sunset...you could see the glow of the fire that evening.
After we settled in, and after some map checking and binocular scanning and web searching, we figured out exactly where the Beach Club was located...did we go that afternoon? I think so but honestly don't remember. Yeah, I think we did go. But I think we also jumped in the water and snorkeled around the boat.
The Beach Club!
Oh the view!
We are over there tucked in
The house I saw and must must have...don't care where it is, must have
So striking
That doesn't matter because the next day was a super important huge day for the Stray Cat--our very own Jon Graham had a birthday!!! It's hard to be away from 99% of your friends and your family for so long and especially on your birthday so we wanted to make sure Jon knew how big our happy wishes were. What better way to say that than with special birthday pancakes! That was followed by a dinghy tour of Shark Creek and a special unexpected treat--walking in the shallows with little sharks. Nice birthday suprise! From there we had a walk on the beach and happy birthday celebration at the Beach Club.
Birthday Pancakes for our Birthday Boy!
Going on our trip into Shark Creek
Deep in the creek, narrow and shallow, so many mangroves
Our first ray spotting on the way out
Sharks and Rays
Birthday sharks!
Awesome underwater shot of one of the sharklettes
Isn't he the coolest
Looking from the beach on Hawksnest Cay towards the anchorage
Our birthday boy!
Birthday Kalik and burgers comin' up!
We took a walk over to the Marina via an old abandoned Club House. I cannot figure out for sure but I'm thinking this is the one that the Rat Pack had created (along with the Marina and channels, etc) for their personal enjoyment back in the day. Supposedly they had alligators brought in for some excitement and they may or may not be there. Now a local real estate lady we met at a bar by the marina says "that is absolutely not true". Hmmmm...
That same bar by the marina had once been gorgeous and upscale but sadly that is no longer the case and the pool looked hazardous and the bar was not exactly inviting. The British couple who owns it were nice enough and that was our first meeting with the now Facebook post famous "Angie". No words for her and we figured out that the slurry mouthing of words and emphatic gesturing was to tell us not to leave the bar because the owners think she drives the customers away. Uh, um, yeah well... My response to her was to pick up my beer bottle and look at her and say something along the lines of "I have a full beer, I'm not leaving". Bizarre experience. We left that place none to quickly and went back to the Beach Bar--much nicer and more comfortable for us three US kids. And low and behold, who gets let out of a car not 20 minutes after we got there? Angie. OMG, this is too crazy...you'll have to just read my Facebook post about it below and I say again, my mom would have been proud of me.
Hey, what is that thing?!
Oh that's pretty cool looking
So on the way back we HAD to scope it out
Getting a bit creeped out
Plants still in that planter box...so obviously haunted
Pretty intense looking storm clouds
Another attempt to have a consistently cold fridge and stop losing our half 'n half. Defrosted and sealed gaps!
The 'famous' Angie post
Our next island adventure involved bikes and going over to find the BTC office and see what the actual settlement was like. The town was a perfectly nice smallish Bahamian settlement town with people working and going about their lives and children going back to class from their lunch period. It was busy on the dock because the delivery boat had arrived that day--this one included produce that the Cay hadn't received in two weeks. Think about that for a second...they did not have produce delivered for two weeks and in the US our grocers throw away produce because it doesn't sell. We are very lucky here and hardly know it. Being mindful and grateful for the bounty we take for granted here is another lesson of this trip.
After our little tour of the town and finding that the BTC office was past the marina down another road, Jon took care of that business while Mark and I went merry along taking side roads here and there and found a path overlooking the narrow cut from the west side into Bullocks Harbour. That had to have been dug out, no way was that natural right? Jon ended up catching up with us as we were making our way back to the main road and north to the top of the island. My destination goal was Sugar Beach Caves which I had read about on Trip Advisor and in the Bahama Guide courtesy of Kelly Gallahan :-). This was when we saw the extent and reach of the fire damage. Charred trees all the way up to homes, I found out the next day that many of the homes did sustain damage but no one was injured and the rains that seemed to be hanging around really did turn the tide and help put the fire out once and for all.
We found the Caves and walked down to them--pretty darn cool--and Jon finally got his chance to climb for a coconut! He'd been wanting to get one pretty much the entire trip! We also saw how far we had biked that day so far. Had to have been well over five miles...great way to work up and appetite for the nicer restaurant we planned to stop at on the way back, Carriearl's. Oh, closed until dinner time. Shit, now what? The Beach Club saves the day...I took a couple of photo stops but Jon rode on and got there in time to put in burger and beer orders before it was too late. Thanks Jon!!
Back on the boat, Jon got into his coconut and--EUREKA! There was nice clear coconut water in it! We all had some and it tasted like...water from inside some sort of plant. It did not taste like coconut and the meat was not like what you buy in the store LOL. We will admit that we had no idea if it was ripe or not but who cares? Jon proved his man v. nature skills by getting us the 'water'. He fishes, he finds liquids, he's an outdoor living make it happen guy, Jon Graham!!
I think that was the night that Mark and I got in the water back at the boat and I attempted to clean off the world of growth that had accumulated. Let's just say it was that night. Anyway at one point Jon gets Mark's attention because he has seen a large shadow in the water...yeah, we got out. Mark moved pretty darn fast I have to say. Jon thinks it was a shark because it was large and moved from one sandy area to another (so not like a cloud moving over the water). It was getting to be evening aka shark feeding time but whatever it was seemed to move along. Jon was awesome and took the dinghy out around the boat to see if anything was out there. So our record stands at Mark:0/Iguana:1 Jon:2/Coconut:0, Mahi:0.
Stray Cat biker gang rides again
Saw the fire damage first hand
A lot farther north on the island than my legs would have liked
Cutsie couple shots
Jon, Coconut Hunter
That is Petit Cay in the distance
Australian Pines were everywhere as were their burrs and 'pine cones', much to the dismay of our bare feet
More fire damage, melted real estate sign
A unique driveway marker
Watch as the Coconut Hunter cleans his catch!
Something important that you simply must watch and track and always have in the back of your mind is weather. Ever since getting more north, I noticed the clouds and rain showers picked up during the day...really reminded me of Florida weather. It wasn't like that south of Eleuthera from what I had remembered. A few things were happening that made me get up more often recently to listen to Chris Parker at 0630. Yeah 0630...that is f'ing early! Anyway, we knew a change in winds was coming and that would put us in a rockin' and rollin' position in that anchorage so moving needed to be considered. Also, we needed to start looking ahead to crossing weather. The winds we could actually suck it up and ride out and we probably would have been fine considering some of the rolly conditions we'd dealt with already. The crossing weather was another matter entirely. You need the right conditions to cross to the US just like you do to cross to the Bahamas...NO north in the wind direction but also you must look at the wave predictions...to high and/or too close together and you have a shit of a crossing. No thanks. So Mark and I were looking at Passage Weather and listening to Parker and even looking at US weather along Florida. It was also this pesky realization that eventually we were going to have to come home. It was now 'out there' and that was a drag, at least for me. More on this later...
We had toured Shark Creek, walked the sand dollar beach and sand flats, become temporary regulars at the Beach Club, seen the settlement, seen the caves, enjoyed swimming around the boat, even repaired the "stuck" thermostat on the new outboard...but we hadn't snorkeled any rocks or reefs though. I had gotten a Bahamas Chatter update on a sunken barge near Petit Cay, basically next to us. Now why that wasn't clearly noted on the Explorer Charts is beyond me but it was pretty neat and we knew we needed to go check it out when winds and waves allowed. We also planned to snorkel around the little outer Cays if we could so we had all our snorkel goods with us. It ended up being a great experience! The sunken boat was cool but snorkeling between Little Petit and Petit Cays was a complete unexpected joy! First there were cool shells and sea biscuits and the sort all over the beach where we landed. I actually explored that while the guys snorkeled across the cut. By the time I joined them (after a spook by a curious ramora) they were on the way back but took me to an amazing coral mound they found and it was stunning! On the way back, Mark stalked these tiny tiny little gray angel fish...ranging in size from a quarter to a silver dollar. I know because I was following them too. He got some great shots as a reward for his patience.
Heading back towards Petit, we spotted some more coral and stuck heads in the water to see how they looked. They looked like they may be pretty interesting so Mark and I decided, sure, we'll get in real quick and look around then we'll just go back... I think I mentioned before that when you have the chance to 'take one more quick look just in case' you need to do it. I don't have worthy language skills to describe how amazing the reefs we saw truly were. And the fish! Literally hundreds of fish of so many different types...we couldn't take it all in fast enough. Huge hogfish, huge gray angelfish, bone fish and fish I don't even know! We finally moved on from that awesomeness and were making our way in super shallow water towards where Jon beached the dinghy...CONCH all over! Big and beautiful conch. We hadn't seen anything like it out side of deeper water and in the Park. It was crazy and we were shocked that they were there. We could have taken at least a half dozen if not more for eating but Mark and I couldn't bear it and when their cute little conch eyes looked at you, that was it for me. No more conch, ever. It was so amazing to see them that I got out of the water and asked "are we in a preserve?" So so cool. Oh! And on the way back to the boat, we saw a shark but he was too quick for us and we couldn't find him again. Hmmmm, maybe that shadow was a shark...eek! What an awesome day and I give Mark 100% credit for always pushing for snorkeling and taking in one more reef. Thank you!
Outboard thermostat victory!
The sunken boat-pretty big and eerie
Petit and Little Petit
Petit from Little Petit-tide falling
Tides out!
Sea biscuit Camouflage!
Jacques...I mean... Jon Graham
Another egg casing
A sea monster...oh no, that's me
You can't see me!
Mark's micro fishes-they were truly micro
The best way to share the "lets go in one more time" experience is through videos that Mark took under water. Please take a few minutes to share this with us...nothing compares to how it really was.
He was HUGE--HUGE but you can't tell from here. Crazy thing was that he looked completely gray underwater and only in the video did we see the yellows as he said "see ya"
One of the many conch sitting in about 18 inches of water at low tide
If you feel guilt looking at puppy dog eyes, try looking into conch eyes
Please don't capture me and eat me alive
Calm clear water
It must have been that night or the next morning that we hemmed and hawed over the winds and this itty bitty 36 hour (max) crossing window. I'm talking slim. We were going to have to move as I said before (or deal with 12 hours of waves and wind but the possibility of crossing was also floating in the air for a day or so. Frankly, if we didn't leave the next day, we were probably going to have to hang out around Lucaya and West End on Grand Bahama for two weeks...a crowded busy and expensive proposition. Day trips down the Berry chain would be options but the winds made that a bit questionable from a sailing and anchoring comfort perspective. We had also talked about the things we wanted to do coming back up north in the US, Fernandina Beach and Savannah for one and two. It was weird that we all had to decide what to do pretty much right then...Mark had work as a distant question along with boat and crew safety, I had dread of returning on my mind but dread of bank account drain too, Jon had some amazing summer plans of his own before returning to work. Ugh, how is this suddenly about to be over?!
I didn't realize how much I had fallen for Great Harbour Cay and the promise of all the little Cays south along the chain that we had yet to see. Mark had called this one--he was right again about coming here and leaving this Cay, let alone the Bahamas, was hard to process. Funny thing was that I was getting excited about the prospect of an overnight...can you imagine?! And Mark was getting excited about the prospect of getting to Sun 'n Fun on Sunday for the final day of the show.
The one thing we couldn't ignore was the weather...and this crazy early season low pressure that seemed to be hanging out east of Florida and north of the Bahamas. We decided we would return to the US directly from the Berrys...that last snorkel outing ended up being a wonderful bon voyage gift from the Islands to us.
(And for those who missed it on the Facebook Page, here is a fun and very real glimpse into the glamor of boating...LOL: Seven Things You Don't Want to Know...)
