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.
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 20th 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.)
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While we were floating, the guys climbed the hill and took in the 360 degree view.
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.
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.
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.
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.
