In March Willy's brother Alex and my sister Charlotte both came down to visit. We had them both aboard for about a week and had an absolute blast. We met them in Nassau and then headed out to cruise the Berry Islands. The trip from Nassau to Bond's Cay was great. No wind, but very hot (which was unusual for us too! It's been very cold this winter.) The best part of the trip was when we were just a few miles from Bond's Cay and Charlotte and I spotted very large dolphins. After a few minutes of watching them lazily dip and dive we realized they weren't dolphins but pilot whales! We were right in the middle of a pod, there must have been about 15 of them. It was very cool.
That afternoon we had a nice snorkel, and good we did because the next day it started raining and didn't stop for a good 36 hours. We hadn't seen more than a 1/2 hour of rain since we'd been in the Bahamas, and all of a sudden we got a never-ending downpour. We moved up to Little Harbor Cay and met up with "Kairos" great friends who we ran down the ICW with and hadn't seen since Florida. So we spent the rainy afternoon and evening catching up with them. So great to see them and swap stories. They'd recently arrived in the Bahamas from lots of time in the Keys, so there was lots to tell from both sides.
From there we stopped for a brief overnight at Great Stirrup Cay where Holland America Cruise Line brings their passangers ashore. Charlotte and I decided after a day and a half cooped up on the boat we were going to go for a snorkel. We saw a couple lionfish, so WIlly jumped in the water and was soon making trips back to Daisy with lionfish on his spear. ALex and WIlly carefully cleaned them (being careful not to touch their toxic spikes) and they were delicious in our fish soup that night. Lionfish are an invasive species to the Bahamas, so everyone is encouraged to kill them. They are also very good eating.
Alex and a few days later Charlotte left us from Great Harbor Cay. It's a funny little place, you have to anchor way outside, a 20 minute dinghy ride into the marina. But a short walk brings you to a gorgeous beach on the east side of the island, and we spent our days there, sand castling, swimming, walking. There is great shelling on the southern end.
After they left Willy and I stumbled around the boat, suddenly thinking how big she was.