Compass Cay Marina
Latitude: 24.26083 Longitude: -76.51279
Bahamas Day 356 (BD356) (Thursday – 12/27/12) – Today was a travel day for us. We got up in Palmetto, Florida, around 6 am, drove to Ft. Lauderdale, then flew, via Watermakers Air, back to Staniel Cay, Exuma, Bahamas. The flight made a brief stop on Andros Island to check in with Immigration and Customs and we used the opportunity to renew our cruising permit for another year. When Tucker came to pick us up, he had another couple with him in his boat. They were meeting their daughter and son-in-law, coming in on a Flamingo Air Flight from Nassau, after flying there from Toronto. So, the seven of us returned to the Compass Cay Marina around 6 pm (twelve hours after the start of our day). While we enjoyed seeing so many friends and family over the last two months, we were very happy to be able to sleep in our own bed again.
BD357 (Friday, 12/28/2012) – Today, we both worked at putting things up. I unpacked the suitcases and put the clothes up in the bedroom while Rick put the isinglass and some of our chairs up on the top deck. I continued to put canned goods and dry goods up (there are now about 4 boxes of food in the guest room) and I washed and put up the new pots and pans that we purchased while in the states. We are both looking forward to using the new stainless steel cookware purchased at IKEA. Rick got the water maker up and running, after “pickling” it for the two months we were gone. Of course, Rick also spent a lot of time helping out on the docks (which are much busier than when we left) and catching up.
BD358 (Saturday, 12/29/2012) – Some of our friends asked us what the water temperature would be when we came back. I haven’t had a chance to find out, but people were swimming with the sharks yesterday and I was getting warm sittin on the top deck drinking my morning coffee today. Nancy, the woman who went to Staniel yesterday to pick up her kids, came back from her walk sweating. She said it was very hot in the interior of the island, even though there was a nice breeze blowing here at the marina. Shortly after talking to Nancy, I was enlisted to help in the store for a few hours as all the men were either helping to dock boats or grilling and serving lunch. We were so busy, that they ran out of burgers, buns and other “fixins” and had to close the kitchen for the rest of the weekend.
BD359 (Sunday, 12/30/2012) – Rick stays busy helping dock the boats that continue to arrive. When we left here on November 1, we were the only boat in the marina. Now, they don’t have room for one more! Also, they are having some problem with the island’s reverse osmosis equipment which supplies all the water to the island and marina, and Rick is helping them work on that.
BD360 (Monday, 12/31/2012) – Today is New Year’s Eve. Rick is helping move boats in and out while I am searching for information about a “dockmaster’s reservation program” for the computer in the office. We heard from our friends Jon and Arline. They still hope to meet us at Farmer’s Cay for the First Friday in February at Farmers Festival. The weekend is the fun-filled 5 F’s—held this year on February 1, 2 and 3. Friday and Saturday features the Bahamian-built C-Class sloop racing. Interspersed are other fun and games and lots of good Bahamian food and cold Kaliks. It is overcast today. The high is predicted to be around 70 and the wind is blowing around 20 mph. Several of us are actually wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts – but still going bear footed. Rick helped on the docks all day. At 5:00, we participated in the annual New Year’s Eve pot luck supper along with about 30 others who are either staying here on their boats or in one of the several lodges/houses. A good meal and a good time was had by all. Rick helped Loan grill chicken, fish, pork chops and lobster. Around 9:00 p.m. we were treated to a fireworks display and at midnight we watched the ball drop in Times Square on tv and counted down to the New Year. It is a far cry from our past celebrations at the Bradenton Yacht Club, but, nonetheless, a great way to welcome in the New Year.
BD361 (Tuesday, 01/01/2013) – Happy New Year. Today is still breezy, but seems much warmer than yesterday. Boats have come and gone from the marina and Loan is hoping to be able to leave early this afternoon to go home to Black Point and a good night’s rest. Rick and I went for a nice beach walk in the afternoon and then I fixed black-eyed peas, rice, and spinach to go with the ham, provided by Tucker, to feed Tucker, his brother Preston, Rick and me a traditional New Year’s Day dinner. Loan was not feeling well, so he did not go to Black Point. While we were eating our supper, he visited with one of the guests who is a doctor. We watched the Orange Bowl in the evening (#12 FSU vs #15 Northern Illinois University – the winner of the MAC Conference). I am happy to say that FSU won the game.
BD362 (Wednesday, 01/02/2013) – Around 10:30 this morning, Rick told me that they had taken Loan to Staniel Cay and flown him to a hospital in Nassau. He is having trouble with kidney stones. So, I started working in the marina office while Rick and Preston helped with boats coming and going and Tucker tried to keep us all straight and deal with what was going on in Nassau. Just before 3 p.m., he got a call saying that
they had to give the hospital several thousand dollars before they would operate on Loan. A little earlier in the day, several jet ski’s and then tender from Tereble came in. The last time Tereble came in (September), LaBron James was on it. This time, Michael Jordan was with the group.
About an hour later, 40 guests came in on multiple tenders from Musha Cay (owned by David Copperfield). Many of them went swimming with the sharks. In the evening we watched the Sugar Bowl (Florida vs Louisville). I actually went to bed during the first quarter when Louisville (a 14-point underdog) was up by 14. Rick reported to me this morning that Louisville went on to win the game. I send my condolences to my brother, sister-in-law and niece (all grad’s of Florida) and to our daughter-in-law, who is a fan.
BD363 (Thursday, 01/03/2013) – Good News. Rick talked briefly with Randy who is one of Loan’s brothers who lives in Nassau. The surgery was successful. He was kept in the hospital overnight and should be released today. The sky is overcast and it is sprinkling off and on, but still shirtsleeve weather.
BD364 (Friday, 01/04/2013) through BD370 (Thursday, 1/10/2013) – We seem to have fallen into somewhat of a routine. Rick helps on the docks most of the day every day as boats continue to come and go, and I work on small projects on the boat. If the marina gets really busy with day visitors, I help out in the store. On Friday we were invited to have supper with one of the guests, Dr. Josh, at the Mango House (the outside is painted the color of the inside of a mango) with his daughter, Nancy, and her friend. Nancy is a student at New College in Sarasota. (What a small world we live in!) Leslie, who owns Coastal Cruises & Tours out of Ft. Lauderdale, orchestrated the dinner with several of the attendees manning the grill. Dr. Josh happens to be both Tucker and Loan’s physician in Vero Beach, Florida, and he is the one who advised Loan that he needed to go to the hospital. He tells us that Loan should be able to come back to the island in about a week. Tucker, Preston and Tyrone Rolle also joined us for dinner (9 of us in all). The dinner was fantastic and, as usual, there was way too much of it. I brought oatmeal cookies for desert and Leslie had made a chocolate cake and brought strawberries to go on top. Dr. Josh and his party and Leslie all left to go back to Florida on Sunday.
When we were in Florida, we purchased a lot of canned goods and shipped them over to the boat and we brought frozen meat with us when we flew back. We bought a little too much, as I am now using the spare bedroom to store the overflow canned goods and we had to put some of the meat into one of Tucker’s freezers. I inventoried all of the provisions and recorded it on spreadsheet to help keep track of what we are actually using and hopefully, not make the same mistake again. Jamal, another one of Tucker’s sons, came to help in Loan’s absence. We have been trying to go for a walk two or three times a week, but both of us look forward to being able to resume our daily walks. Rick has had time to work on a leak in our dinghy which was stored on shore when we left in November but it has not been returned to the water as yet. He went diving one afternoon this week with Captain Barry of Sea Clef and Preston. They came back with conch, lobster and fish. Rick wore his bathing suit – no skins – and he said that the water temperature was not too bad.
Also, this week, we celebrated our one year anniversary in the Bahamas. We arrived in Bimini on January 7, 2012. My BD numbers may seem off, but there were 366 days in 2012 as it was a leap year. According to the internet, the Bahamas consists of 700 islands, of which 30 are inhabited, and about 2,400 cays (coral reefs). In our first year of cruising, we have stayed at only 10, spending 267 nights and have been back in the US for 98. Our original plan was to spend 3 years on the boat cruising south, but we have changed our minds. We still plan to spend 3 years on the boat, but now we plan to spend all 3 years in the Bahamas. Apparently, we still have plenty of islands to visit.
On Tuesday, it rained off and on all day but the temperature was still mild. I baked the brownies that Kellie’s folks gave us for Christmas and they were very good. Wednesday the sun shone but the wind was gusting in the 30 mph range. Thursday was beautiful again. We talked to JP via SKYPE and went for a walk on the beach and enjoyed the day.
BD371 (Friday, 01/11/2013) through BD377 (Thursday, 01/17/13) – On Friday, there was only one other boat in the marina besides us. Superyacht Tigers Eye is a 98′ charter yacht built by Hargrave in 2007 with a beam of 21’ which can accommodate up to 9 guests in 4 staterooms. The upper deck has a sky lounge and bar from where guests can observe the captain navigating the vessel when underway. Aft of the sky lounge is the Jacuzzi and seating area, perfect for cocktails under the stars. Tigers Eye is based out of Fort Lauderdale and charters in Florida and the Bahamas for about $40,000/wk. TIGERS EYE has a crew of 4-7 and can cruise at up to 18 knots with a top speed of 20 knots. They stayed one night.
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Rick and I walked along Crescent Beach up to Hester’s ruins and back with stops along the way. We continue to believe that we have made the right choice for the beginning of our retired lives together.
The tides have been extremely high. Rick has to get off and on via the swim platform at its extreme.
On Sunday morning, Domani, a Vision 145′ motor yacht with a beam of 30’10” and an 8’6″ draft came in. She has a cruising speed of 12 knots, max speed of 15 knots and a range of 4000 nm. Offering accommodation for up to 10 guests in 5 suites, she is also capable of carrying up to 10 crew onboard. Later in the day a trawler also joined us.
Monday was Rick’s sister, Eileen’s, husband Bill’s birthday and her son Robert Mathew celebrates his 39th birthday on the 25th of this month. My brother Bill’s daughter, Shay had a birthday at the beginning of this month. She is a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida with a degree in musical theater. She has already been in a couple of shows at the Alhambra Dinner Theater in Jacksonville and was hired to sing at Christmas Town in Busch Gardens of Tampa during the month of December. Now, she is on a cruise with her grandmother – going to see penguins! She plans to move to Chicago in February with the hopes of landing some work in her chosen profession. I forgot to mention that Bill’s son, Tim, had a birthday on Christmas Eve. As soon as Shay finished singing at Christmas Town, their whole family drove to the Marietta, Georgia, area to celebrate Tim’s promotion, his birthday and Christmas. While we are, selfishly, sorry that we didn’t have a big family Christmas at their home, as we have done for several seasons, we are glad that they all had this opportunity to return to the area where they lived for many years.
On Tuesday, Loan returned home to Compass Cay. He is on “light duty” for the next two weeks and has plenty of dietary restrictions, but he looks good and says he feels so much better. He has been battling this illness for the past two years. They put our dinghy back in the water, and Captain Joel brought Temptation in late this afternoon with a charter group. We weathered both Tropical Storm Isaac and Hurricane Sandy here along with Captain Joel and his Temptation and have formed a lasting friendship.
On Wednesday, Rick installed the new Splendide Washer/Dryer. Many thanks to his mother for the “Christmas Cash” that paid for it, and the shipping, with a little left over. I figure I only have to use it 80 times for it to pay for itself!
This week we heard from our Aunt and Uncle, Tillie & Jimmie. They are planning to sail this way in the month of May and we look forward to seeing them then. We also heard from our friends, Joy and Steve Fredrick. They have just flown back to Trinidad where they stored their sailboat last June. Joy says just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong with the repairs and maintenance that was supposed to be done while they were at home. So, they will be staying in their home port for a while longer than expected. She did report that they have a van that comes to the marina once a week and takes folks to a store (like Sam’s) where they can re-provision the boat. It sounds like when the boat is ready, they will be ready to go.
On Thursday, Rick was not able to get the engine started on the dinghy. He put some “gunk” in it which he hopes will free it up. We will know more tomorrow. There is always something to fix whether you are at home on land or at home on your boat! A number of boats have come and gone. Temptation left this morning. Now, we just have Domani and a couple of other boats here for the night. I’m not sure how long Domani will be here. The owner’s family has arrived and they seem to be having a really good time.
BD378 (Friday, 01/18/13) through BD384 (Thursday, 01/24/13) – It rained a little on Thursday. Rick got the engine on the dinghy running, but he said that it made a funny sound. On Saturday, the freight boat from Nassau, Lady Francis, stopped by the island to pick up a couple of generators that Tucker is getting rid of. They pulled into the working dock which is just to the south and east of where we are tied up, so I had a front row seat. I took some pictures of the boat and of Tucker dragging the generator to the dock behind the front end loader. Rick and Preston followed behind him to ensure that nothing happened to the load. They were almost there when they realized that they couldn’t pull it close enough to the dock for the freighter to load it. So, they unhooked the pallet and then Tucker turned the loader around (with considerable effort) and they re-attached the load and Tucker was then able to back close enough to the dock for the freighter to lift it up with its crane. Later in the afternoon, Rick worked on our outboard engine. We took the dinghy out for a “test run” and it was great to be back on the water. The engine is still making a funny sound. After being here nearly five months, I finally saw one of Tucker’s goats. He was a dark brown, very mature Billy Goat. Rick has seen some on the island before, but this was a first for me. I’ve included a map of Compass Cay which shows where the goats live.
We went swimming on Sunday, January 20! We took the dinghy to Rachel’s Bubble Bath and actually went in for a short swim. Rick climbed the cliff to discover that the fishing float and wood from our bench has disappeared. We will have to find more wood and some other decoration for the new and improved bench that we will build. On Monday morning, the chiller in the marina store quit working. So, we volunteered to store all of the wine in our upstairs refrigerator. In the afternoon, we got in the dinghy and went to Staniel Cay to gets some groceries and some gas. On the way back we stopped at the store on Sampson Cay and got some of the items we were not able to get on Staniel. While we still didn’t everything on our list, we got a lot, including fresh cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, onions, potatoes and summer squash. We also got some apples and grapes. In addition to the fresh stuff, we got several different kinds of cheese and some, much needed bread and milk. Every time we go somewhere on the water I think of Dr. Mike and thank him for my prescription polarized sun glasses. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom whether it is 2 feet down or 20 feet down. There were just ripples on the water today, so our boat ride was a really good one. I counted over 20 boats at anchor just off of Big Majors Spot and more were headed that way when we passed by on our return trip. Tucker caught some fish, so it was decided that we’d have a fish fry on the dock Tuesday evening. I baked cupcakes. Four people from Retired Sailor and two from Livin’ Large joined Tucker, Preston, Tyrone, Rick and me. Ann and Betty, from Retired Sailor, made brownies and a rice dish. I made green beans almondine and Rick made conch fritters. Later, a family from New York (husband, wife & 4 girls), in on a sailboat, came out and had desert with us. The folks on Retired Sailor are from Canada. The women asked me if we’d watched the Presidential Inauguration yesterday and remarked how beautiful Michelle O’Bama’s red dress was. I told them that US politics was one of the things that we didn’t mind leaving behind when we left the States. The lady from New York agreed with me. The wind started blowing during the night and Wednesday morning the weather was “blustery”. The weather site I check for Staniel Cay indicates that it will be in the low 70’s with winds between 20 and 25 mph through next Monday, 1/28. We took another nice long walk around the island this afternoon. Wednesday night, between the baked dinner and baked desert, we discovered that the oven had quit working! Rick checked the manual, which was not much help, and then dashed off an e-mail to the manufacturer to ask for some helpful information. As of yet, we have not had a reply. So, for the time being, I am planning suppers using the cooktop, electric frying pan and our several grills. We heard from our friends, Jon and Arline. It looks like they will not make it down here for the 5 F’s festival on Farmer’s (Friday, February 1), but they still hope to be able to come south later in the season. Rick went with Tucker to Staniel Cay this afternoon to pick someone up at the airport.
BD385 (Friday, 01/25/13) through BD 391 (Thursday, 02/01/13)
Please note: I was off by one number on my Bahamas Days. I have corrected the last two entries.
On Friday, Rick said that we’d have to go on our walk earlier than usual as Loan and Preston were leaving the island at 2:00 and he would be helping Tucker on the docks and in the store. So we took off shortly after 11 and this time we headed south from the marina. We went to the “low tide airport” and walked across it to take the South Cliff Walk trail. See map below.
Of course, we forgot to take the camera with us and I was very sorry about that. I saw lots of things that I thought would make terrific pictures. So, I have vowed to do it again sometime in the not too distant future. It took us nearly three hours to make the loop. At times, the cliffs were about twenty feet above the water and we felt like we were following a goat trail. Near the end of the walk, we met a couple from Maine who are here on their sailboat. We said goodbye to Preston, who is going home to Freeport for a week or so, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon resting while Rick worked. Today is our nephew, Mat’s, birthday and it is also the day that we picked up our son from the Children’s Home Society office in Ft. Lauderdale. We have always been grateful to Mat for sharing his sixth birthday with the introduction to the family of our son, his cousin. We have a very special family. Rick and his sister were adopted by their step-father when they were young; we adopted our son and his wife was also adopted; and, we were very proud to welcome our granddaughter into our family (a second time) when our son adopted his step-daughter almost a year after he married her mother.
Saturday morning brought a light rain. The afternoon remained overcast. Rick made a second inquiry about troubleshooting the problem with the oven and received a reply. He worked on it some this afternoon, but said he still had to do more to discover the problem.
Sunday morning was breezy but bright. Dave on Living Large, who will be here for three months, brought out his waffle maker and a pitcher of waffle batter. He fed everyone on the dock wonderful waffles. It made me think of the times that I went with my granddaughter to waffle house before going on some great adventure around the State of Florida. Dave says that this is a Sunday morning ritual while he is here on the island, so I look forward to having many more. Late in the afternoon, Rick and I went for a short dinghy ride and then drifted for a while as the sun set. Today would have been Rick’s parents’ 59th wedding anniversary.
On Monday, Rick worked on the oven again and discovered what the problem was thanks to the information he received via the www. He ordered two “couplers” to be shipped to Watermakers Air, who will then ship to Staniel Cay for us to pick up. In the meantime, I am finding lots of “crock pot” recipes on-line.
Tuesday morning we had a short rain shower. We said goodbye to a Bill & Jill Glover, the couple from Owl’s Head, Maine, who have been here several days on their sailboat Wawenoc. They are taking the boat to Staniel and then flying home, but we hope to see them again very soon.
There were lots of excursion boats with tourists from Georgetown visiting the marina this week. We did take the camera with us on one of our other walks this week and I have put together a collage some of the plants that we saw along the way.
