Safe Harbour Marina

Latitude:  23.90769  Longitude:   :-76.27191

Click the link below to see where we are located.   http://fms.ws/C5aCV/23.90769N/76.27191W

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Bahamas Day 497 (BD497 – Friday, May 17, 2013)

We left Compass Cay at approximately 9:30 am on Friday, May 17, proceeding out the dredged channel to the Bahama Bank to continue south about 30 nautical miles to Cave Cay.  We pulled in to Safe Harbour Marina at 1:25 p.m.  Rick went to the office to check in and met the dock master, “Shark”. He said that there are fresh vegetables growing up by the office and to feel free to harvest any that we want.  He also showed us the building where there are free showers and free laundry.

Bathhouse-Laundry

The wifi is also free here for marina guests.  We are the only boat here, but there is activity at the fuel dock.  We ate a quick lunch and then got on the radio and talked to Jimmy on the S/V Mimi.  He said that they anchored off this island last night and have now moved further south to Rat Cay.  Windcaller heard us calling Mimi and they said that they were at the Little Farmer’s Yacht Club, which is not very far north of here.  We may try to go in the dinghy up to see them this afternoon or tomorrow.   We got quite a bit of salt spray on the windshield, so Rick is going to wash the boat down before he does anything else.   In the late afternoon, we took a walk along the airstrip.  Rick says it is 3,000 feet long and we went to the beach at the end of it, so by the time we got back to the boat we had walked over a mile.  We had seen a small plane land and unload a bunch of stuff onto a workboat.  Some of the items looked like the kind of lockers that cameras or music equipment might be in.  The next island over is Musha Cay which is owned by David Copperfield.  We thought perhaps the supplies/equipment was going there.  As we walked along the airstrip, we came across the large garden.  We found tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and citrus plants here. At the end of the airstrip, there was a little beach and what I’m calling a cove.  It reminded us of Rachel’s Bubble Bath on Compass Cay, except that there were no cliffs.  See the picture below.  This is on the ocean side of the island.

Note Wave Crashing at Left

While we were walking around the cove, we found a bright orange survival suit.  Rick hung it up in a tree.

"Survival Suit" found on shore

The bank side of the island had a pretty beach shown below.

Rick on Runway Cove Beach

As we walked back along the runway, we noticed bushes that had been planted that had berries on them.  I’m not sure what kind of berries they were.  They looked like a mix between raspberries and blackberries, but there were no thorns on the bushes.  I will ask “Shark” if he knows.

Berries planted along runway

We had a late supper and a good night’s sleep.

BD498 (Saturday, May 18, 2013) – We heard someone calling Windcaller on the radio, so we called and talked to Casey.  She said that they are staying one more night at Little Farmer’s Yacht Club, so we made plans to join them there for lunch.  We had a pleasant ride up in our dinghy, tying up to the dock right in front of the S/V Windcaller around 11:30.

S/V Windcaller tied up to the Little Farmer's Yacht Club Dock

Joe and Casey introduced us to Mr. Roosevelt Nixon, the owner of the Little Farmer’s Yacht Club Restaurant and Bar.  Little Farmer’s Cay was settled by a woman named Chrissana, a freed slave from Great Exuma.  She moved to Farmer’s Cay with her two sons and a daughter, Michael Joseph Nixon and Adam and Eve Brown, who bought the island from the English Crown and willed it to their descendants as generation property.  Roosevelt said that he was one of the descendants.

Little Farmer's Cay Yacht Club

The picture above was taken from the land side, showing the back of the building, and doesn’t do this charming club justice.  On the water side, there is a picnic table on the sand with a tiki roof over it.  When you enter the club, you first go onto a covered porch.  At that same level, there is a lovely dining room which could seat around 40 people with a hand-carved wooden bar in the corner and a small area where a band could set up and play.  Up two steps is a game room with a pool table, some seating and another bar.  Behind this bar was the opening to the kitchen.   In the dining room, there was a picture of Roosevelt and his wife of more than 50 years, Shirley.  Roosevelt told us that his wife usually did the cooking, but she was on Eleuthera attending a funeral.  So for this weekend, he was the chief, cook, and bottle washer and he did a good job cooking lunch for the four of us.  After lunch, he closed up the club and loaded us into his pickup truck and took us on a tour of the island.  One of our stops was at the government dock where we talked to several fishermen and enjoyed watching children swimming in the shallows.  He was also gracious enough to show us his home and his two lovely rental apartments.

Government Dock Beach

Around 4:00, we said goodbye to Joe and Casey wishing them fair winds as they continue their two-month cruise.  They will head back north tomorrow and we will be going in the opposite direction.

BD499 (Sunday, May 19, 2013) – It spit rain off and on all morning.  In the afternoon the sun came out but it was very breezy.  We walked up the hill from the marina to the graded road along the ridge and then headed south by the four buildings under construction and passed the owner’s home.

Cave Cay Owner's Home

I found the image below on the internet.  I apologize for the quality, but it shows the whole island.  I have attempted to put some labels on it to help you identify the parts of the island which we have visited.  If you click on the picture, it will be larger and much clearer.

We followed a path off of the road to find the Crescent Cove.  We had hoped that it would have a nice sandy beach where we could swim, but it was very rocky.

Crescent Cove

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We returned to the road and followed it to what I call the Marina Harbour Beach.  You can see this beach from the back of our boat.

Looking at boat from beach

We continued from this point further south on a two-rut road.  We noticed that there was a big black pipe lying along the side of this road.  Rick said that he thought it must have been the pipe used when they dredged the marina.  I can tell you one thing that we knew for sure, the sandspur plants were thriving on this part of the island.  When I stopped to get some sand out of my shoe (I had not worn my regular walking shoes) we noticed that I had rubbed a blister on my toe, so we decided to turn around.  Rick left me on the Marina Harbour Beach and walked back to get the dinghy.  Then he took the short trip over from the boat to the beach to pick me up.   After he picked me up, we took the dinghy just outside of the marina entrance and we saw several caves – which might be why they call this Cave Cay.

Cave near entrance of Marina Harbour

BD500 (Monday, May 20, 2013) – Today is the Bahamian holiday, Whit Monday.  Whitsuntide, also known as Pentecost, is observed fifty days (approx. seven weeks) after Easter and 10 days after Ascension. It marks the end of the Easter cycle, which begins 90 days prior with Ash Wednesday at the start of Lent.  It gets its English name for following “Whitsun”, the day that became one of the three baptismal seasons.  The name “Whitsunday” is now generally attributed to the white garments formerly worn by the candidates for baptism on this feast.  The day commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament in Acts, 2. Many Christians recognize this event as the birth of the Church.  The following day, Whitmonday (Pentecost Monday) is celebrated as a holiday in:  Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Gibraltar, Hungary, Iceland, Luxemburg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Saint Lucia, the Solomon Islands, and Switzerland.

Icon of the feast for Whit Monday

Above is a Medieval Russian icon of the Old Testament Trinity by Andrei Rublev, used as the icon of the feast for Whit Monday.

Rick discovered a potential problem with our radar arch, so he set about fixing it today.  He needed some washers that we didn’t have, so he went exploring the island to try to find some while I updated the website and did some things around the boat.  The wind continues to blow today.  We are not sure when the seas will calm enough for us to continue south.   In the afternoon, another boat came in to the marina.  The M/V Siren’s Song had two couples on board and said that they would be staying for a few nights.  Rick found some washers at the dump, so he was able to stabilize the radar arch.  He says he will make it a bigger project after we return to Compass Cay.

In the afternoon we received several short e-mails from Jimmy and Tillie in George Town.  They had limited communication but said, “We are at Stocking Island in front of the monument.  We are protected from the wind where we are anchored, but took a dingy ride over to Georgetown and it was an adventure, to say the least.”

BD501 (Tuesday, May 21, 2013) – Rick talked to the folks on Siren’s Song in the morning.  They came into Compass the day before we left but we did not meet them then.  We moved our boat to the slip so that they could use the storage dock.  The owner also went to FSU, as Rick and I, but then got his law degree from the University of Florida.  The other couple are also “gators”.  He told Rick that he had been coming to Compass for years.

In the hottest part of the day, we decided to take a walk up to the Cave Cay “grocery store” aka the garden plot by the airstrip.  “Shark” told Rick that they had used a backhoe to dredge furrows about 6 feet deep.  Then they filled the furrows with dirt.  There are four of these furrows along the airstrip.  “Shark” says that they do not water them.  The airstrip has a slight crown in it and whenever it rains, the water runs off of the runway into the garden.  Before we picked our tomatoes, bell peppers and limes, we took a road that edged the dump and went down to the shore.  (No foodstuffs are put into the dump, so there is no foul smell.)  We walked along the shore headed toward the runway cove, but decided to abandon the shore (too rocky) and cut across land to the airstrip.  As we returned to the boat, rain clouds started moving in.  It rained hard for about 15 minutes and the rest of the

BD502 (Wednesday, May 22, 2013) – It rained off and on throughout the night.  We heard from Casey.  They are now at Sampson Cay Marina and will pick up their daughter and son-in-law at the Staniel Cay airport on Friday.  We took the dinghy up to Little Farmer’s Cay.  It was a little rough going (we had following seas) and very rough coming back (against the wind and current).

Welcome to Little Farmer's Cay

Little Farmer’s Cay is approximately one and one-fourth mile long by seven-eights mile wide. We tied up to the government dock and walked over to Brenda’s Take Away and ordered some lunch.  She suggested we walk around while she cooked it.  We went into her store looking for bread, but there wasn’t any.  Next we saw Ali’s Tiki Bar, so we went in and got his last two cold Kaliks.

Ali's Tiki Bar

Then we walked up the hill, passed the Oasis Convenience Store,

Oasis Convenience Store

and continued to the Ocean Cabin Restaurant and Bar.

Ocean Cabin Restaurant and Bar

Here we met Mr. Terry Bain.  He told us that he was a descendent of one of the original settlers, James Michael Nixon.  Just up the hill from the restaurant and bar was the oldest home on the island that had belonged to his grandparents.

Oldest Home on the Island

He told us that they were married over 70 years.  His grandfather died at age 99 and his grandmother passed away at age 102.  Terry sold us a Little Farmer’s Cay flag and gave us an information sheet about the island and the flag.  Some of the information on the sheet said that the island was settled 171 years ago and that, in 2007, there were approximately 70 permanent residents.   The flag represents the little community of Farmer’s Cay which is the second smallest isolated community in the Bahamas.

Rick and Terry holding the Flag of Little Farmer's Cay

On our way back from Little Farmer’s Cay, we stopped at Big Galliot Cay, which is just north of Cave Cay, and relaxed for a few minutes on a very pretty beach.  The charts also indicate that this area is an anchorage site.

Google Image of Big Gallot and Cave Cays with Red Circled Beach

Big Galliot Cay Beach and Anchorage

We returned to the marina just as the folks on the M/V Siren’s Song were preparing to leave.   Don told Rick that they planned to anchor off of Black Point tonight.  So, we have the marina to ourselves again.  We also heard from Tillie and Jimmy.  They have decided to take advantage of the wind and sail north tomorrow.  They hope to be near here either tomorrow or Friday.  So, we hope to get to see them once more while they are on their May cruise.  It rained again around 6 pm – a short downpour.

BD503 (Thursday, May 23, 2013) – It rained off and on again in the morning.  But Windfinder indicated that the wind and waves would die down tomorrow with wind out of the southeast below 10 mph and waves less than 3 feet.  We got a call on the radio from Jimmy in the early afternoon saying they expected to be in our area around 5:00 this afternoon.  I did my provisions inventory, so I could make a shopping list for George Town.  We finally had a chance to ask “Shark” about the berries growing along the runway and he said that they were raspberries.  He said that when they got dark they were really sweet.

We got an e-mail from our son this afternoon.  Kellie had a gender sonogram today and they now know that they are expecting a GIRL!

Jimmy called on the radio again after they anchored nearby.  Rick went out in the dinghy to pick them up and bring them in here while I started on supper for the four of us.  I had been planning to make a butternut squash risotto while we were together.  When Tillie and Jimmy arrived, she brought some zucchini all ready for me to bake and round out our meal.  Rick took them back to their sailboat around 9:00 while I cleaned up the kitchen.  We are looking forward to moving again tomorrow, but won’t make up our minds until we see what the weather is actually like – not just predicted.

Compass Cay Marina

Latitude:  24.26083  Longitude:  -76.51279

Bahamas Day 487 (BD487 (Tuesday 5/7/13) –  BD489 (Thursday, 5/09/13)

We slept like babies last night!  It is so good to be back on the water.  When we arrived yesterday afternoon, we were surprised to see the boat Drama Queen, with Captain Andrew, docked across from us once again.  And, they gave us a big fireworks display in the evening.  We would like to think that they were welcoming us back, but really the fireworks were because the folks that chartered the boat were leaving the next day.  Tuesday afternoon we took the dingy south to the Sampson Cay Marina Store looking for eggs, milk and a few other necessities.  We bought a few things, but they didn’t have anything fresh, so we continued on to Staniel Cay and bought what we needed at the Blue store.  It was a beautiful ride there and back.  I can’t remember when the passes have been so calm.  Rick is being very good about wearing a “Buff” to cover his nose giving it the SPF protection that it needs while it continues to heal.  Our only disappointment upon returning is that our satellite TV isn’t working.  Rick has done everything he can to figure out what the problem is.  When he talked to their tech support, they told him that we are on the fringe of their service area and the problem is probably due to the position of the satellite at this time of year.  We have had great service up until this time – well, we had just started to have some intermittent problems before we left, so we believe the tech is probably correct.  We got some DVD’s from the book exchange and watched them last night.  It is hard for a “cable guy” (Rick retired from the cable business after 39 years) to not watch TV, but I’m pretty sure we’ll manage.

We are back to “normal”.  Rick was helping on the docks Wednesday; I was checking e-mail, researching on the web, updating my diary, cooking and doing a little house cleaning.  Hurray for normal!  I had asked Preston to water my plants for me while we were gone, but he was off-island when we returned.  Someone, I assume Preston, had created a wicking system to self-water the plants and they were thriving.  The tomato plant has at least two tomatoes and more blooms and the herbs looked terrific.  See below.

Basil, Parsley, Chives, Thyme and Spring Onions

On Wednesday afternoon, we received a SPOT notification that Tillie and Jimmy were at Shroud Cay.

It was overcast and spitting rain Thursday morning.  We talked to JP via SKYPE and continued with our normal activities.

On Thursday afternoon, while we were enjoying a late lunch, Joe and Casey haled the marina on the radio to let them know that they would be coming in tomorrow.  Shortly after that, we received a SPOT notification that Jimmy and Tillie were now at Wardrick Wells in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, so they should be in our area tomorrow as well.  I love it when a plan comes together!

BD490 (Friday 5/10/13) –  BD496 (Thursday, 5/16/13)

What a wonderful surprise we had on Friday morning when we talked to Jimmy on the radio from his sailboat, the S/V Mimi, and he said that they had Tillie’s sister, Mary and her husband, Scott, with them and that they were coming in to stay at Compass Cay Marina that night.  He also said that they had just passed Joe and Casey on the S/V  Windcaller headed our way.  We had not seen Mary and Scott since the Seabreeze High School class of 1967’s 20^th reunion.  Although Tillie and Mary are Rick’s aunts, they all went to high school together.  In fact, Rick, Mary, Scott and Jimmy were all in the graduating class of 1967.  Joe and Casey arrived in the early afternoon and as soon as they got tied up, the four of us got into one of Tucker’s skiffs and headed to Staniel Cay to have a late lunch and buy some groceries.  On the way back from Staniel, we swung by Big Majors Spot so that they could see and feed the swimming pigs.  Just after we arrived back at Compass, the Mimi came in.  We had such a good time visiting with everyone that the normal supper time came and went.  Just before dark, Rick suggested that we walk over to the beach and Hester’s ruins.  Amazingly, Joe and Casey had been docked next to Dave in the M/V Living Large at Atlantis in Nassau last week.  He had told them about Hester’s ruins and how he had made a “health club” atmosphere up there.  He is great at wood working and had put up a sign saying “Living Large Gym”.  Jimmy and Tillie opted to stay on the boat to get some things done while the rest of us went for the walk.  We got to the beach and started toward Hester’s but decided that it was getting too dark, so we turned around and headed back to the marina finishing our walk by following the lighted pathway.  After watching the sharks gather on the low dock at high tide, and putting our feet in the water, we all adjourned to our separate boats for the night.

On Saturday morning, I baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for our “pot luck” supper tonight and Casey made some cold slaw.  Mary and Scott had gotten up early and walked over to the beach to watch the sunrise.  Just before noon, we all got in our dinghies and went to Rachel’s bubble bath.  We enjoyed a couple of hours floating around in the small lagoon on “noodles” that Tillie brought.  (A special thanks to Casey for taking these pictures after I took a face plant in the sand.)

Tillie Hoffmeister Parker-Charlene Cambre Hoffmeister-Mary Hoffmeister Owens

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While we were floating, the guys climbed the hill and took in the 360 degree view.

Jimmy-Scott-Rick-Joe

When we returned to the beach where we had anchored the dinghies, they were all hard aground, but it didn’t take the four men long to pick each one up and walk it back into the water.

Dinghys High and Dry

In the afternoon, we rested.  Then, around 7:30 p.m. we all gathered at the marina office for a pot luck supper.  After supper we went to Joe and Casey’s boat and sat under the stars visiting.  It was a very special day.

On Sunday morning, Casey and I shared a Mother’s Day Mimosa.  She talked via SKYPE to her children and her mother.  I e-mailed Rick’s Mom and sister as well as our daughter-in-law, Kellie.  We all gathered in our salon to view the pictures we had taken yesterday on our TV and I was very grateful to them for finishing up the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies while we watched.  Before we said goodbye to everyone, we got Captain Andrew of Drama Queen to take the “Hoffmeister Clan” picture shown below.

Jimmy-Tillie-Mary-Scott-Charlene-Rick

In the afternoon, Ricked worked on a problem on the boat while I rested.

We left the boat and motored in the dinghy to Big Majors Spot to the S/V Mimi on Monday afternoon.  We picked up Jimmy and Tillie and proceeded to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where we met Joe and Casey for lunch.

Casey with Joe trying to eat a really big Conch Po Boy

While there, the guys looked over the charts and discussed the predicted weather and decided that everyone would play it by ear before moving south.  We returned Tillie and Jimmie to the S/V Mimi for their afternoon nap and then joined Joe and Casey on the S/V Windcaller to visit for a couple of more hours before taking the dinghy back to Compass Cay and our M/V On the Hook.  It was another glorious day in paradise.

Tuesday was a quiet day for us.  Rick polished our fuel and did some work on the docks.  I did a lot of research for our upcoming trip.  While sitting at the computer, I heard the S/V Mimi reply to the S/V Windcaller.  I could only hear Jimmy (Mimi’s) end of the conversation, but they apparently had decided to start their way south today and they were sailing together.  Rick and I are waiting on the weather and will move later this week, probably to Cave Cay.  We will have to wait for the wind to shift so that it is not blowing out of the east before we can proceed to George Town where we hope to catch up to Tillie and Jimmy. We missed the time that we were supposed to share exploring the islands together last year and really hope that the wind, and various boat parts, do not conspire against us this year.

On Wednesday morning the wind was howling.  The weather sites show the wind steady above 15 mph and gusting above 20 all day today.  Tomorrow the wind is predicted to be under 15 between 10 and 4, so we will probably try to go to Cave Cay then.  The only thing that would stop us is the height of the waves which are predicted to be over 3.5 feet.  They will be calming on Friday, so I’m sure we’ll leave no later than then.   We talked to JP via SKYPE this morning and just as we were finishing up our conversation, Tillie SKYPED us.  We talked with Tillie, Jimmy, Joe and Casey.  They had anchored off of Black Point yesterday.  They asked us to tell Tucker that they met Willie Rolle and told us how much they enjoyed the Garden of Eden.  They have rented a golf cart today and the four of them are going to explore the whole island.  Jimmy said that they plan to sail tomorrow to Cave Cay and will try to wait until we get there.  If we miss each other there, we will meet up in George Town early next week.

We decided that the wind was still too strong on Thursday for us to leave the marina.  But, we moved the boat from the “family dock” around to a slip facing the entrance of the marina.  There was another boat coming in this afternoon that wanted to be put on the storage dock and that would have blocked our way out, so we took the short trip around the dock.  It gave us an opportunity to make sure everything was working, so it was a good test.

(Starting BD351 the boat was at Compass Cay, but we were in Florida)

April 1 through April 7

On Monday, April 1, 2013, we left Rick’s mother’s home in Ormond Beach headed to Palmetto.  We made a short stop by my brother, Bill’s house/office, to catch up on family news.  We told him that JP and Kellie are expecting a baby on October 18, 2013, which will give us a “grandbaby” and make Vanessa a “Big Sis”.  He told us that his daughter, Christina, will be graduating from UF’s Dental College on May 17^th and then plans to move to Chicago, to start working as a dentist.  Right after she graduates, Bill, Mary, Christina, Shay and their “Grandma Joyce” will be taking a trip to Italy.  Christina was there on a summer program and she is looking forward to showing them all around.  Bill also told us that he and Mary plan to come over to visit us in the Bahamas for the week including Mary’s birthday August 13, 2013.  We believe we will be back at Compass Cay at that time.

Rick saw a dermatologist on Wednesday.  He had a spot removed from his nose and one from his head.  A follow-up appointment was scheduled for April 24^th, so it looks like we will be spending most of the month of April in Florida.

My niece, Melissa, her husband, Randy and son, Michael came over early Saturday afternoon to pick up the old Yamaha 175 IT motorcycle that Rick used to race.  JP is happy to get it out of his garage and very glad that it is staying in the family.  Michael worked a checkpoint in the Alligator Enduro last month along with his mother, grandfather and great-grandfather and now wants to have a motorcycle.  So, they are going to fix it up for him.  Michael will be 15 in August.  After they left, we all went down to the Babies ‘R Us store in Sarasota.  Kellie had registered on-line as an expectant mom and they called to say that they had a goody bag for her.  Rick and I were amazed at all of the changes in baby things and at the prices!

Most of the rest of this first week “at home” was spent shopping and enjoying the company of friends and family.

April 8 through April 14

On Monday, April 8, 2013, I received word that I could get back on the County’s insurance program after our COBRA runs out at the end of May.

Every afternoon, Vanessa went from her current school (Manatee School of the Arts) to Palmetto High School for cheerleader training.

We ate at the club several times this week.

The results of the biopsy on the spot they removed from Rick’s nose last week were suspicious.  So, they scheduled an appointment for him to see a surgeon this coming Monday morning.

Friday night Vanessa tried out for the cheerleading squad and she made it!  She has another meeting with the JV cheerleading squad next Thursday evening.  Kellie had asked me to bake a cake to have in the evening after the tryouts.  She said it would either be a congratulations cake or a consolation cake.   We were all glad it was CONGRATULATIONS!

We went shopping a couple more times this week.

Loan Rolle, from Compass Cay, was in the area on Sunday.  We met him and his friend at the Yacht Club in the morning and then took them on a ride to show them the area.  Then we returned to the club’s tiki bar where we met Bill and Ruth Baker for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and visiting with friends.  We said goodbye to Loan about 5:00 and headed home.

We heard from several friends and family via e-mail and celebrated Eileen’s birthday  and Rick and Tammy’s anniversary on the 12^th, Lorie’s birthday on the 13^th and Eileen and Bill’s anniversary on the 14^th .

April 15 through April 21

On Monday morning Rick went to his appointment with a plastic surgeon.  By the end of the visit, April 25^th had been set as the date for surgery on his nose for the pre-melanoma.  The doctor said that he will have stitches for 5 days following the surgery, so we will now be in Florida for the whole month of April.

On Tuesday afternoon we visited with our financial advisor.

Wednesday morning we met with the retiree health benefits representative for Manatee County and I signed paperwork to go back to the County Government’s health insurance plan starting June 1.  Then we drove over to Florida’s east coast’s Ormond Beach to visit with Rick’s mother and brother, Edward, who turned 48 today.  We were joined for dinner at the Outback by Aunt Delores, Rick’s mother’s sister, and finished up at home with a birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Edward

Thursday we did some shopping in the Daytona Beach area.

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Friday morning we left Ormond Beach headed west on State Road 40 to the Ocala Forest to visit with my Dad overnight.  His friend, Beverly, brought over a pizza which she cooked and we ate for lunch.  Then we went down to the Eagles Club for a couple of drinks.  We wished my niece, Christina a happy birthday via e-mail.

We returned to Palmetto in the early afternoon on Saturday.  Vanessa told us that Kellie had become sick during the night and they had taken her to the hospital emergency room about 3 am.  She was given medicine and a diagnosis of stomach flu.  We wished Christina’s father, my brother Bill, a happy birthday via e-mail and finished up our evening at the Yacht Club for a wine dinner.

On Sunday, we went to the tiki bar to watch the NASCAR race and have lunch.  But the love bugs were swarming so, we went inside to the lounge.

April 22 through April 30

On Monday, the 22^nd,  I wasn’t feeling just right, so I rested most of the day in bed.  Rick drove up to Marine Max in Clearwater to pick up some parts that they had ordered for him.

On Tuesday we went to the Women’s Resource Center in Bradenton to drop off a three-piece woman’s business suit which Rick’s mother asked me to donate.  Rick did more shopping, etc.  One of his stops was at the yacht club where he saw Joe McClash putting the final touches on the S/V Wind Caller.  He and Casey plan to start a two-month cruise tomorrow and we look forward to seeing them at Compass Cay around the middle of May.

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to see the dermatologist.  He had prescribed some cream to put on Rick’s chest and back after removing the spots from his head and nose three weeks ago.  Rick’s chest reacted to the cream, and the doctor said that he could stop applying it there.  But, he told Rick to use the cream on his back for another week or two.  He wants to see him again in six months.  While there, we asked his assistant, and JP and Kellie’s good friend, Rebecca, if she would co-host the baby shower with me and she agreed to do so.  Yea!  That will be a great assistance to me, being out of town most of the time.

On Thursday afternoon Rick had the surgery on his nose.  The doctor had decided to put him under for the surgery rather than use a local because the surgery was scheduled to last an hour and a half.  After the surgery, they gave him a prescription for Tylenol 3 and for an antibiotic.  The doctor scheduled an office visit on Wednesday, May 1 and said that he hoped to be able to remove the stitches then and release Rick.  His discharge instructions included:  Rest quietly for the rest of the day; keep your head elevated for 2 nights; no strenuous activity, pushing, pulling or bending over for a week; and limit activities that raise blood pressure for a week.  He was in quite a bit of pain all night.

Friday, he was staying as calm and still as he could and still taking pain pills regularly.

On Saturday, Rick was feeling a little better.  He asked me to drive him to West Marine to pick up some boat parts that had come in and then he wanted to get some lunch.  We spent the rest of the day quietly at home.

On Sunday we decided to drive over to the Ocala Forest to pick up a necklace that I had left at Dad’s when we visited last week.  We had a nice, short visit with him and then drove over to Ormond Beach to spend the night with Rick’s Mom and brother.

Monday morning we slept late and then had breakfast with them and left, headed back to Palmetto and looking forward to “Mexican Monday” with Bill and Ruth.  At supper, Bill bought an ad for the Football program for his business, Baker’s Paint and Body, and we planned to get together on Wednesday night with more friends to go and have stone crabs for supper.  Rick goes back to the surgeon on Wednesday morning, May 1, so we are hoping to leave Palmetto the next morning.

Tuesday was spent running around shopping for last minute things.  We picked our granddaughter up after school and took her to the North River Care Pregnancy Center, where I used to volunteer, to sell an ad for the Palmetto High School Fall Football program.  Then we went to the Bradenton Yacht Club to sell them an ad.  We are very grateful to our friends and family who are helping Vanessa make her sales goal and get a discount on all of the uniform and equipment needs she will have this fall when she makes her JV cheerleading debut.

May 1 through May 6

Wednesday, May 1, found us back at the Plastic Surgeon’s office.  He checked Rick’s nose and said that he did not want to remove the stitches just yet.  There were a few red spots and he was afraid that there might be some infection.  He gave Rick a prescription for stronger antibotics and a different cream to put on his nose.  He scheduled a follow-up appointment on Friday afternoon.   We enjoyed a great evening with friends eating our fill of stone crabs and then following up the meal with a few games of pool.

Thursday, we did more shopping and started packing.

Friday afternoon, the surgeon removed Rick’s stitches and released him.  We called and got the first flight reservations available, which were on Monday afternoon.  We decided to drive to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, visit with Barry and Janine in the afternoon/evening, and not have to make the long drive on Monday morning.

Saturday found us at a boat show at Regatta Pointe in Palmetto.  We met our friends Bill and Ruth there and ran into other friends, Mark and Wanda at the Reef bar.  On our way back to the car, there was a wedding just getting started at the bed and breakfast and we saw Rick’s former boss, Rose and her husband Ron.  They came over to speak to us and told us that their niece, Mary was getting married to Eric.  Later, in the parking lot, we saw the bride’s parents, Dave and Patty Hall, but they were hurriedly rushing after something, so didn’t really have time to talk.  It was great getting to see so many friends and acquaintances.  On the way home, we stopped to visit with friends in the neighborhood, Curt and Ann, but they were not home.  Saturday night, we met Ken and Jackie for supper at the restaurant at Riviera Dunes.

We left Palmetto on Sunday, May 5, and decided to avoid the interstate highway.  So we started east on Highway 70.  We had not been over that road for several years and enjoyed seeing all of the changes along the way from Bradenton to Myakka City and Arcadia and continuing on all the way to Okeechobee.  Here, State Road 70 intersected US Highway 441 South, so we decided to go in that direction.  Funny, we have lived in Florida most of our lives, but we have really enjoyed taking the “back roads” around Florida on this trip.  When we drove over to Ormond Beach, we took a by-pass around the Orlando Metropolitan area to the North.  This by-pass has not yet been completed, so we just got off when the road ran out and followed our nose east until we found I-4.  We were amazed to see one orchid grower after another along the country highway that we took.  Today, along SR 70, and US 441, we saw lots of cattle ranches, sod farms and tree farms.  From what we’ve seen on this trip, it looks like Florida’s ranchers, farmers and growers are “hanging in there.”  We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale mid-afternoon and checked into the Embassy Suites Hotel.  Rick called and left a message for Barry telling him that we were in town for the night and hoped to get to see him and Janine.  Then, Rick set off for the “world’s largest West Marine Store” to see if there was anything else that he needed to buy while I stayed in the room and enjoyed a nice cup of hot tea.  We went to the Atrium for cocktails in the evening and ran into several people that I know from working at Manatee County Government.  They were attending the annual Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference which starts tomorrow at the Convention Center down the street.  It was nice to see Sharon, Candy and Don and it really is a small world.  Then Barry and Janine picked us up and we went to a waterside restaurant called Coconuts.  We had a great time catching up and the food was really good, too.  They told us that they will be taking Sea Clef up to the Annapolis area at the beginning of June to meet the owners Ed and Karen.

Monday morning we went to the Water Maker Air Hanger and unloaded our “overweight luggage” and sat in their lobby until it was time to go.   We cleared customs and immigration at Fresh Creek on Andros and re-boarded the plane to finish the trip to Staniel Cay, landing a few minutes before 3:00 p.m.  We took a golf cart ride from the airport to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where we waited, at the bar, for Tucker to pick us up in his boat.  From the moment we stepped off of the plane¸ people were coming up to us and welcoming us “home” with hugs and handshakes.  I must say that we really have come to feel that the Exumas are our home and we are certainly glad to be back.