Guest On Board

This will be the first of a couple post that I am catching up on. Bear with me… We have arrived back in the US so perhaps I can get it together and get some posting done.

We left Blackpoint on the 8^th of April after I did laundry and put everything away. It’s only about an hour and a half trip up to Staniel Cay so we deployed the spinnaker and had a nice motor sail up. Naturally we were to have yet another front move through so we anchored in the Big Majors area to hide from the winds. As we rounded the corner we see these 2 huge motor yachts with 2 smaller boats all tied up together. After seeing the name on the back we thought Usher was in the neighborhood but after looking it up on line I saw where it was just a 154 foot charter boat that one could charter for a mere $175.000 dollars a week. However that does not include expenses.  Hummmmm for that kind of money you could buy your own boat.



These are Not small boats

I heard they had a colorful cast of characters on them and eventually got thrown out of the yacht club for having the hired ladies dancing on the bar with nothing but their birthday suits on. I spent the next day preparing the boat for Steve & Terry as they would be flying in the following morning.



Guest Berth made up and ready

At 8:30 the next morning we headed over to the airport and met them at what we call terminal one. Guest we have flying in have no clue just how small the open air hut is that they call the airport is. They wonder how they will find us and where baggage claim is. The biggest planes that fly in here are the ones with about 9 seats, how big can the airport be? But them not knowing that, we just tell them to meet us at terminal one.



Making sure they don't miss us.

They usually get a laugh out of it because the air craft will basically pull right up to us, unload and one waits till the pilot digs out your luggage. Steve & Terry arrived safely and we all hauled luggage down the road to the dingy dock in front of Isles General. We went inside and stocked up on a few items to take along with us. All the luggage and groceries were put into big garbage bags to keep them dry for the wet trip back to the boat.



Glad we brought garbage bags with us, it was a wet ride

With all the luggage and people we weren’t able to get on plane so we sloshed all the way back to the boat, everyone getting wet. The front had moved in and the winds were rough. We got them back to the boat where they got stuff settled in and around low tide we headed over to the Yacht Club for lunch and to give them the chance to stock up on the liquor they would want for the week.

Afterwards we headed over to the grotto to snorkel where parts of the James Bond film Thunder ball was filmed.

Steve was amazed how small the cave was when it looked so huge in the movie. Guess that’s Hollywood for you. Afterwards it was off to see the swimming pigs and back to the boat.



Terry elected to sit this excursion out

With the weather looking as if it wasn’t going to cooperate for a while we decided to up anchor and travel on the inside to Warderick Wells the next day where we were able to hike to Boo Boo Hill and Steve and Dirk did some snorkeling.

The view from the top of Boo Boo Hill

A pretty Queen trigger fish



A pretty Gray Angelfish




A nice Nassau Grouper



And plenty of lobster

The next day we ended up heading back south to Compass Cay with a stop at O'Briens Cay to snorkel the aquarium. We had heard that Johnny Depps boat was parked next to his island of Little Halls Pond, and when we rounded the corner we did indeed see it.

I heard later that our friends on s/v Last Star anchored close to it and several people from the boat came over asking them lots of questions. He had heard that sometimes the captain of the boat will pay you to move on. I guess Hank and Patricia didn’t seem like too much of a threat and weren’t offered any money to leave.  We however anchored in front of O'Briens, and after snorkeling a bit picked up anchor and moved on ourselves. We spent a couple days in the Compass Cay and Pipe Creek area poking around.



A fan that someone painted and put a necklace of shells on



While there we saw the boat m/v Freedom. We see it all the time travelling up and down the ICW. We had met a couple of the owners as we were hiking up to Boo Boo Hill in Warderick Wells. Here they were again leaving Compass Cay. I must say, its a beauty of a boat.

On the 15^th we headed back to Staniel Cay as they only had 6 days with us and anchored by the Grotto as to be closer to the air field. We were finally able to travel on the outside as the winds were finally beginning to lay down a bit. Steve wanted to do some fishing so we were hoping he could land one which sadly didn’t happen. The following morning we returned them back to airfield and returned back to the boat. In the Grotto area there is only room for perhaps 3 boats as the anchorage is small. Later in the day we had this huge catamaran decide to come anchor on top of us. Really? We were the only boat here and he dropped the hook so close that we were afraid that they might hit us. Dirk went topside to ask the Captain if he was gonna stay there as they were a little too close for comfort. He replied that they would probably move later.  Well later came and they never moved so Dirk tried to give them incentive as he showered topside, checked the anchor lines, and then sat topside with me in the cockpit all in the nude. Unfortunately they didn’t mind. Dangit… Usually here in the Bahamas you find very often that people of all shapes, sizes, and ages bathe in the saltwater to conserve their fresh water supply then hop on board and shower off with fresh on top side. There are only a few people that find this distasteful and well, I say they can anchor somewhere else or put those binoculars down. Hey, you didn’t think we keep them on board for only watching out for other ships and such huh? Well the next morning we found we had survived having them not swinging into us and decided to move around to Big Majors Spot so we could plan our time till our friends Mike and Denise were to arrive in about two weeks. Till the next update.....