| One of the highlights of Karrie’s short 3-year stint working at Pfizer was getting to know “Miss Cathy”. As Karrie’s mentor, they become fast friends and now, 10 years later, she is like family. An essential part of cruising is getting fresh water. Many boats have water makers but they take up lots of space, fuel, and are quite expensive. Most of the water in the US is free at marinas and docks but in the Bahamas, water is made for many islands using a reverse osmosis system. On Staniel, they make the water at night and use it up during the day. So getting our 90 gallon tank filled means getting to the dock early in the morning while there was still plenty of water pressure. We pulled up anchor and tied up to fill up. Eric filled the tanks while Karrie and kids walked the 5 minutes to the airport to get Cathy. I wish I would have had a camera handy when she saw how tall both kids were, Ava is now officially taller than both of us ladies! Another part of cruising in the out islands is learning when the mail boat comes for each island. The mail boat carries all essential supplies to each island. The Staniel Cay boat hadn’t been there in nearly three weeks as a crane at the loading dock was broken. There was no bread, eggs, meats, fresh veggies, etc. to be found in any of the stores! We were certainly digging into our on board provisions while waiting for supplies. The day Cathy arrived, the mail boat also came! The arrival of the boat meant that one of Cathy’s first adventures was going shopping with us. With three competing stores on the island, prices and supplies they ordered can vary greatly. Karrie, Cathy and the kids got the fresh produce and dairy while Eric went in search of rum, juices, and sodas. We spread our shopping around so that all three of the stores got some of our provisioning funds. We finished with our “chores” around noon and motored north toward Cambridge Cay. It was flat calm, no ripples on the water so you could see the bottom easily along the banks, including the starfish and conch along the bottom. Even the shadow of Night Music was eerily cast on the sandy bottom, like a ghost ship from a Johnny Depp movie! (More about him in a bit) We stayed for two days at Cambridge Cay (in the park) on a mooring. The first day we snorkeled nearby reefs. The next day, we waited for slack current and low tide and took the dinghy for a mile ride toward a place called the “sea aquarium”. It was amazing! It really did feel like we were each shrunk down to miniature size and dropped into an aquarium. There were so many fish and the coral was stunning, especially the lavender iridescent pipe coral. Both Ava and Reed are getting really good at snorkeling and are becoming very strong swimmers. And the sea aquarium is just across a bay from Little Hall’s Pond Cay, which also happens to be a private cay owned by Johnny Depp. Rumor has it if you anchor too close to the island, his staff will come out with a bottle of wine and politely ask you to anchor a bit further away. We didn’t try out the rumor to see if it were true, nor have any Johnny Depp sightings but it was fun to imagine Captain Jack Sparrow running out the beach! The third day, we motored down to Pipe Creek. Along the way we stopped at a place called Rachel’s bubble bath. After anchoring in the bay on the west side of the island, we walked across a mangrove trail to the east side were a natural indentation in the rock allows the waves and swell of the deep Exuma Sound to crash over the rock and create tiny bubbles in the swimming hole just below it. We all agreed it felt like swimming in champagne. Amazing! We stayed awhile but had to get moving toward our anchorage in Pipe Creek. Because we were no longer in the park, fishing is allowed, much to Reed’s excitement! Cathy took the kids out in the dinghy for spearfishing. Reed is getting great at using the special spear and got three fish, a grouper, a grunt, and a snapper. Fish for dinner! Cathy’s short stay was quickly coming to an end so we headed back toward Staniel Cay to prepare for her departure. We managed to get a spot in our favorite anchorage near the yacht club. The next day, we took Cathy to both the pig beach and Thunderball Grotto (see previous post of Heidi and kids’ visit for more detail). The pigs were still just as hungry and a bit scary! We timed the current and tide better for our snorkeling on the grotto so it was very fun to hang out and dive through the multiple entrances to the cave. On our last night with Cathy we had a wonderful dinner together and toasted our adventures. Ava met several dogs, each one giving her more ideas of what kind of dog she will want when we get back to Seattle. Cathy flew out the next day, again with a tearful goodbye but knowing we will see her soon. In the next few weeks we will slowly move southward toward Georgetown, Exumas. It is only 65 miles but there are lots of stops along the way to explore and we are looking forward to it! Thanks for following along and enjoy the post! |
4 Comments
Susan
4/10/2016 08:22:43 am
Awesome photos Karrie! Still love following your journey. What an experience for all of you!
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Karrie
4/10/2016 09:49:42 am
thanks! It's great to have internet after several weeks. Posting several blog entries today. Only a month left in the Bahamas, hard to believe it's almost over.
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Leslie Fox
4/11/2016 07:43:13 pm
Wow how fun. So jealous that Cathy got to see the pigs. What a great adventure.
Reply
Karrie
4/12/2016 07:52:43 am
It was so great to have her here to share a bit in our adventure. See you soon in Seattle!
Reply
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AuthorsWe are Karrie, Eric, Ava, and Reed Sanderson. Our house is in Seattle but our home is wherever the four of us are...and for the next two years, our home is Night Music, a Tartan 37 Sailboat. Archives
June 2016
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