Well, we made it back to Florida in one piece and are safely tied to a dock at Port of the Islands Marina. I will try to summarize our trip and you may find a few posts with pictures only as there are so many pictures and so little memory left at my age.
This year was busy with company of friends and some family coming and going in a steady stream with one party leaving in the a.m. and the next arriving in the p.m. and we had a blast sharing our experience. We would love to have others visit us in such beautiful surroundings and get a look at things that most would never see in their lifetime as cruise ships don't take you to Thunderball Grotto or pull into Rose Island or Allens Cays and anchor in 4 feet of crystal clear water but there's only so much time and so little space so maybe next year. We ran out of time this year and things I really wanted to do with the Patricks' weren't all possible due to the broken stay on the boat. We were afraid of losing the mast in rough water while waiting for the new stay to arrive from Florida so we didn't move too far while they were on board. I really wanted to take Shawn out in the deep water and crank the sails up and put a couple lines out and troll at 8 or 9 knots and wanted to sail with them to Allens Cays and let them see a real dark night unpolluted with any light and so many more stars than you ever see anywhere else. As it was, Shawn helped me change the stay and I'm glad for the help. Thanks Shawn.
Shawn and Leslee Patrick and their 2 kids, Brooklyn and Little Sir Farts Alot (Greg) flew down and joined us for a week. Traci made Sir Farts Alot excuse himself from the table and run outside to the front of the boat to do his business so it became known as "the poop deck" and when he said he needed out from the table, everyone wasn't long moving to get him out there. Traci fed us all burritos one night for supper and they were good but the results afterwards produced enough gas to fly the space shuttle into orbit and back. She had such a good time with the kids that now she's talking grandchildren and is for sure going to be one of those meddling grandmothers.
Traci and I left Rose Island just outside of Nassau to head north a couple days after the Patricks left and it was a little rough but not choppy so I decided to throw the pink squid looking lure that has been onboard since we came up from Grenada. There was a large debate over the effectiveness of WD40 on a lure which involved this very squid like lure 4 or so years ago. Traci commented on the fish pole and muttered something about time being wasted and I commented that I was going to catch supper but first I was worried about a supply ship that seemed to be coming right at us. We watched and though it appeared that he would likely pass behind us, I was concerned for the large amount of fish line and pink squid looking lure trailing behind us so I picked it up and began to reel in fast. About 3 or 4 cranks into it and bam I had a fish on. He didn't want any part of coming to the boat and the ship was bearing down on us so I asked Traci to give us 10 degrees to the left and she also pushed the throttles ahead some more which made it even harder to control the fish. The ship appeared to go 10 degrees to his port as well thus avoiding our boat, fish and pink squid looking lure (with NO WD40 on it Shannon) and the throttles were pulled back and the fish slowly was brought to the stern of the boat, thrown inside the cockpit and given a shot of some rot gut rum that Paul bought on the Grenada trip and no one could drink. It was a Mahi Mahi and he is delicious. That's not a whale beside him in the below pic, it's me, I'm on holidays, give me a break. I so wanted Shawn to catch one of these cause I so wanted to eat it.
Dave and Traci
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