Given that
Banyan has, decidedly, a wee-bit of a military heritage, we have been performing, what we have lovingly called, OP RECCE this week.
The dictionary defines RECCE as an abbreviated version of RECONNAISSANCE (and we all know, by now, how much the military LOVE their abbreviations!) and basically means the act of reconnoitring to gain information. I'm not sure I quite know how to reconnoitre. Or if I even spelled it right?
And so, over coffee this morning, I batted my lashes, and said,
"Ohhhh honey..."
"Yes dear..."
"How would YOU define RECCE?"
And since he knew better than to ask why, or probably, more likely, the military in him leapt to action, and in all seriousness and eyes glimmering, he defined it as follows;
"Why, dear, RECCE is a small party that you send forward to assess the overall situation and lay of the land and come back to report on the situation".
"Why, thank you m'luv"
I just define it as scoping out the many various places around here that we can bring my daughter to when she comes to visit, in 12 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes and 56 seconds !! But who's counting?
We both wish that all our kids, and all our family and friends could come, and see and experience these wonderfully amazing places that we have visited so far.
However, there's nothing like missing your kids and sometimes Skype and text messages and emails do nothing that only a real hug can fix. Since I'm a huggy feely sort of person, she probably knows that I will hold onto her for the entire ten days that she is here for. She better come prepared.
So, for the past week or two, we have scoped out Warderick Wells, Staniel Cay, Big Majors, and then Black Point and are now tucked away just off the Chat'n'Chill beach in Georgetown. All the above are places that we are definitely going back to, to spend more time in, exploring and chillin', with daughter in tow.
We left Galliot Cut yesterday morning, after sleeping in and totally missing Chris Parker's early morning weather synopsis. However, we got action stations ready in record time and before you knew it, we were navigating the few minutes of washing machine turbulence that the cuts can sometimes throw at you, and then turning to starboard (right) and were sailing a-long, making great progress.
We noticed the spectacular clouds that were building on the horizon,
and then the radio staticked to life,
"Banyan, MAJIKS, this is Blue Moose"
"Blue Moose, Banyan here".
"Blue Moose, MAJIKS here".
Blue Moose: "Up one"
Banyan; "Up one"
MAJIKS: "Up one"
We all switched and went up one.
"Blue Moose, Banyan here"
"Blue Moose, MAJIKS here"
And (wink, wink) i'm sure that the dozen or so other boats that were sailing along to Georgetown swtiched channels as well.
"Ya, guys, just saw a water spout at our ten o'clock"
YIKES !!
I'm sure that everyone got their binoculars out and were quickly scanning the horizon. And then there's me who gets her camera out, waiting for that wonderful photo op, never mind any potential dangerous situation that might arise.
A waterspout is almost like a tornado, forming over oceans, lakes, or rivers. Formed when layers of cool air blow across a body of water while warm moist air sweeps up from below. The idea is to scan the horizon for vertical columns stretching from the clouds to the waterline, the funnels sometimes sucking up water over mushroom-shaped water sprays.
David turned the radar on to get a fix on the little beast. He had it clocking directly in our path. MAJIKS was ahead of us and its path as well, best course of action was to turn the engine on and gun it. All the boats behind us, all veered left so as to go behind the system.
We spent an exciting hour or so, waiting for all of it to disperse. We saw four spouts build, and, thankfully, disappear into the nothingness from whence they came. Thankfully no one was hurt and nothing damaged in the process.
We did hear one boat mention, when hailed by another cruiser, that he knew nothing of it, even though it had passed yards behind his boat. Now that would have been a bit more excitement that I would have liked ! However, I would well imagine the photo op to have been quite spectacular. Ignorance is bliss, n'est-ce pas?
The rest of the hours spent getting to Georgetown were uneventful, sailing along at almost 7 knots. Uneventful, as we did not catch any fish, although we heard many hails of others who did.
We dropped anchor by Chat'n'Chill beach and our first order of business was to head in for a celebratory drink, and since it was going to be a NO FISH supper night, it quickly turned into "cheeseburgers in paradise" event, with Dan & Kathy and Brian & Sally.
In the almost sunset hours, I talked myself into a swim around the boat to cool me off (not to mention work off that cheeseburger) ! And tomorrow we head across the bay into Georgetown to scope out provisions "and stuff".
In the meantime, we are happy to report that OP RECCE is now complete.