Checking Things Off the Sarah List
24 March 2019 | Pig Beach
Paul and Laurie Jones | Fair
23 30.50 'N:75 46.24'W
It turned out that heading back to Lee Stocking Island was a good plan. We got a prime spot tucked in the bay in front of the research centre. It was a good place to weather the front.
We were joined in the anchorage by Bruce & Terry on Lila Mae as well as Stewart & Karen on New Horizon. It was great catching up with some back home buddies from Loyalist Cove Marina. The Canadian boats were certainly out-numbering the American boats in the anchorage. At one point there were eight boats in the bay and seven of them were Canadian! The anchorage was busy with a change-over of boats almost daily as many boats appear to be on the move north. We had a couple of calm days before the front and we were able to introduce Bruce & Terry to snorkelling the Elk Horn Coral reef. We were joined by Tom & Cindy from sv Oopsea whom we had not seen since the spring of 2017. As usual those two were loaded with energy and we got some hiking, hunting and bonfire time with them. Charlie from sv Migration arrived on Mar 9 and confirmed it was a good idea for us to stay put. It was rough on the ocean side! With Paul’s hunting buddy back with us there was lots of time spent in the water for the last couple of days in the anchorage. No luck on the lobsters though.
It was time for us to get rolling back to Georgetown. We needed to get groceries, fuel and propane as well as do some laundry before Sarah’s arrival on March 16/19. Things were going great until March 13 when Sarah’s flight was cancelled due to the grounding of all Boeing 737 flights. She was stressed. We were stressed but in the end everything worked out and she arrived in Georgetown only a couple of hours later than originally planned. During the flight delay Sarah ended up chatting with a fellow passenger who turned out to be a kindergarten teacher from Yellowknife who was meeting friends in Georgetown. Sarah was able to hitch a ride from the airport to the Georgetown dinghy dock with them!
We planned a very full week for Sarah. Here’s the list: Sail, swim, catch a fish, snorkel the elk horn coral, walk some beaches, eat some lobster, hike the ridge at Williams Cay, visit the pink lizards at Leaf Cay, snorkel the piano, visit Back Point Settlement, drink some Bahamian beer, eat some coconut bread, snorkel the grotto, visit the pigs at Big Majors, drink some rum punch, eat some cracked conch and visit Staniel Cay.
How did we do? Well we knocked everything off that list except to snorkel the piano. The weather didn’t allow us to visit Musha Cay and get that done. However, in addition to all of that, we can add that Sarah saw her first green flash, saw the international space station fly over and enjoyed a huge fireworks display put on by one of the mega yachts anchored near Staniel Cay. Also, to top it all off, Sarah had her first swimming with an up close shark experience (not commercial, off the back of the boat). This one we didn’t plan but know it can happen at any time. Sarah and I were snorkelling around the boat and all of a sudden I see her flying past me at warp speed. It was only then that I noticed a good sized nurse shark cruising slowly along the bottom. Paul was sitting in the cockpit when Sarah popped up onto the swim platform, he was pretty sure she didn’t even use the ladder to get out of the water! Sarah departed on March 23 from Staniel Cay for the half hour flight to Nassau where she caught her connection back to Calgary. We delivered her to the airport by dinghy. The dinghy dock is only about a 100 meter walk to the airport. The passenger waiting area is an open air gazebo just outside the airstrip. Well that was easy! We had a great visit and a fantastic week showing Sarah around some of this beautiful country. We miss her already!
Our thoughts are turning now to pushing north. We expect to cross to Eleuthera early this week, spend a day or two in Hatchet Bay then work our way to the Abacos as soon as weather permits which right now it is not.