BD757 – Saturday, February 1, 2014 through BD763 – Friday, February 7 – Saturday morning, Rick took Tucker down to Staniel Cay to catch the Watermaker Air flight. Barry, Janine and Natalie took Tokkie’s guests, Josie and Tobi, to the airport and picked up his sister and her husband, Kerry and Jason, who are visiting for a long weekend. Sunday started out with Dave’s Wonderful Waffles for breakfast, then everyone had to think about their food preparation for the big party on the dock to watch the Super Bowl Game. Monday was another beautiful, sunny day – but breezy. On Tuesday, we went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch and then moved Tucker’s boat over to the airport to pick him up. We walked over to Crescent Beach later that afternoon. Wednesday found most of the regulars were on the dock for “sundowners”. We decided that we’d all fix appetizers for tomorrow’s sunset. On Thursday, Gail’s other daughter, Crystal, along with her husband and two kids arrived for a visit today. We spoke, briefly, with our son, JP. He was feeding Emma. She was 5 months old on January 31st and has now eaten cereal, carrots and squash along with adding water to her daily intake. Rick was making water this morning and discovered a problem with one of the pumps – so now we are waiting on another part before we can start our trip back to the States. It’s a good thing we built in a lot of “weather-delay” time in our schedule. In the afternoon, the 83 foot motor yacht “Where’s Waldo?” came in to the marina. It was built by Ferretti and can accommodate up to 8 guests in 4 staterooms. It is powered by 2 MTU (12V2000 ) 1,823 hp diesel engines. “Where’s Waldo” can carry around 7,400 gallons of diesel on-board in her fuel tanks. Her water tanks store around 1,321 gallons of fresh water. Barry went to Staniel Cay in the afternoon to pick up a delivery of parts for his tender and surprised us by bringing back the part we have been waiting on for our little outboard. Rick thinks he may have been able to fix the water maker’s pump late this afternoon, so now, we may only be waiting on our customs sticker and the wind! Thursday’s “Appetizers at 5” was a smash hit. We had about 20 people and a great variety of foods, including a couple of desserts. It was even suggested that we might do this every Thursday. Friday, February 7, was my niece, Melissa and her husband, Randy’s wedding anniversary. We wish them all the best. They have been married for 16 years and Melissa is just finishing up her Bachelor’s degree with graduation planned for May. Then, she will go on to seminary. All of our extended family is very proud of her and her husband and son, Michael. Rick had disappointing news this morning. While he was able to fix the water maker on the boat, he was not able to fix the outboard motor on the dinghy. So, we have decided to leave the dinghy in storage here at Compass Cay and take the engine back with us for repair. We took Tucker’s boat to Staniel Cay to deliver a package to Watermakers Air for Tokkie. Then we had lunch at the Taste & Sea Restaurant. It has always been closed whenever we have been on the Cay, but just as we were pulling in to the dock, we heard someone call them on the radio, so we knew that they were open. After lunch we returned to the boat and headed for Rachel’s Bubble Bath. The resident sting ray is still hanging around, but doesn’t seem to bother any of the people that are there. Just as we got there, a group of six people also came up from a sailboat that was anchored just off shore. I assume they were French Canadians, because they were all speaking French. We enjoyed our afternoon immensely and will really miss this place when we leave.BD764 – Saturday, February 8 – Friday, February 14 (BD770)
On Saturday, we joined Barry, Janine and Natalie in the Sea Clef’s 32 foot Boston Whaler tender and headed south to Little Farmer’s Cay to attend their regatta. Rick and I had wanted to go to it last year, but the weather was so windy that we decided to put it off. We visited Little Farmer’s Cay last May when Joe and Casey were staying at the yacht club there. The owner of the yacht club gave us a tour of the island at that time and we drove down the airstrip that parallels the beach where the regatta is held. Joe and Casey were pretty much the only people staying on a sailboat anywhere near the island at that time. But, today, as we approached the area we saw over 80 sailboat masts! The picture below doesn’t even show half of them.
As we got a little closer to the crowded area, a small boat approached us and yelled something we did not understand. Very soon after that, another boat came our way (which turned out to be the committee boat) and they told us to get out of the race course! There was no way for us to know that we were in the race course because there were no markers set out. Apparently, after the boats make a turn, the committee boat hauls up the marker and then speeds ahead of all of the racers and drops it somewhere in front of them for the next turn. As best I could count, it looked like there were ten small boats participating in the race. Shortly after we arrived the race ended, but there was a final race scheduled for later in the day. We beached the Whaler and walked up to the pavilion to buy tickets for lunch and drinks.
Rick and I shared a lunch of BBQ Ribs. They were so big, he said that he thought they must be brontosaurus ribs. But they were delicious. We saw lots of people that we have met since being in the Bahamas, both locals and cruisers/sailors. There were also a number of the tour boat operator’s from George Town in attendance with boat loads of tourists and locals. We watched most of the last race while enjoying the water near the boat. The racers seem to just weave through the anchored boats. And, it is apparently OK for people in dinghy’s or other small boats to run along nearby. Just before the end of the last race, we loaded back up in the Whaler and went out just a little way from the beach where they had just dropped the blue float in the water to indicate the finish line. So we stayed there to see the end of the race.
Tucker had asked us to deliver a package to one of his relatives on Little Farmer’s Cay, so as soon as the last race was over we went around the north end of the island to go to the government dock. As we passed the Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club, you couldn’t help but notice that one of the two freighters that go back and forth between Nassau and George Town, “The Captain C” was tied up at their dock. When we passed it again later, they were loading up four of the racing boats. We did not realize that the participants came from that far away.
Barry and Rick had both heard about a cave on a nearby island, so on our return trip we dropped anchor and everyone went on shore to explore except me. I stayed on the boat and read my book while they started on a trek across the island to what turned out to be a cavern. Rick and Barry actually went swimming in the spring within the cavern. They said that it was quite a hike to the other side of the island and I was glad that I stayed in the boat. Just as we were leaving, we were witness to a pretty sunset, and we all saw the “green flash” as the sun went below the water! Wikipedia says, “Green flashes and green rays are optical phenomena that sometimes occur right after sunset or right before sunrise. When the conditions are right, a green spot is visible above the upper rim of the disk of the sun. The green appearance usually lasts for no more than a second or two. Because of the length of the occurrence, Rick calls them a green wink. This is the first time we have seen one. We arrived back at Compass Cay in the dark, but we were very satisfied with this day on the water.
We stayed close to the boat on Sunday. I did laundry and Rick started cleaning the bottom of the boat. On Monday, Rick went off shore fishing with Tucker and Barry while I cleaned “house”. They were gone for over three hours and all they caught was one barracuda (which, of course, they didn’t keep). February 10, was Rick’s mother’s 89th birthday. Rick’s brother, Edward, sent us a picture of her opening her gift from us.
Later in the afternoon, Rick did some more cleaning on the bottom of the boat. Tuesday morning Rick had a shock. His brother sent an e-mail with the following subject: “ORMOND SHOOTING 9-1-1: ‘She’s bleeding pretty badly. Hurry up’ | News-JournalOnline.com.” When Rick opened the e-mail, there was no information, just a link to a news article. Of course, Rick was worried that the woman in the headline might be his sister or his mother, but when he clicked on the link to the news article, it would not work. He then tried to SKYPE his brother, but that didn’t work either. Rick was ready to call and get plane reservations for the afternoon Watermaker Air flight, but first, he got the satellite phone (a gift from our friends, Bill and Ruth) and called his mother’s home in Ormond Beach, Florida. He was quite relieved when she answered the phone. Then, she and Edward explained that the woman in question was a former relative. She was married to Eileen’s step-son many years ago. They had divorced and the last time we saw her was at his funeral. None of the family has kept in touch, but they thought we would be interested to see the story. I finally got the link to the news article to work and it indicated that the gun shot was a result of something like a domestic dispute and that her injury was not life-threatening. So, all is OK with Mom and Sis and his heartbeat was able to return to normal. Wednesday was a busy day at the marina with boats coming and going probably because the weather tomorrow is predicted to be rainy with wind over 20 mph all day.
The boat, shown in the picture above, coming in to the marina is called the Black Knight. According to a 2010 article in “Restoration Quarterly”, it was built in 1968 and completed a nearly 3-year refit in 2010. She is 83 feet long with a 20-foot beam and is made of wood. She was built for Richard Mellon, president and grandson of the founder of Mellon Bank. The Mellon family’s main purpose for the boat was swordfishing, and she was originally built with a very long harpooning platform off the bow. She lacked the tall towers often seen on sport fishing boats to spot fish because the Mellons would fish accompanied by a spotting airplane. When New York Yacht Club member William H. Combs bought her, she was ensured a place in the history books. He offered Black Knight to the NYYC for the 1983 America’s Cup races and they accepted. That year, it turned out, was a memorable one for the America’s Cup. When Australia II crossed the finish line marked by Black Knight, the longest winning streak in all of sports, 132 years, came to an end. The New York Yacht Club, represented by Dennis Conner sailing the ill-fated liberty, lost the America’s Cup. The New York Yacht Club Race Committee, dressed in crisp, white flannel trousers, dress uniform jackets with gold bullion crests and mohair trifoils and topped off with traditional yachting caps, acted in a most sportsmanlike manner, saluting the ecstatic Aussies who had just taken their beloved cup, thus becoming part of the portrait of the greatest loss in sporting history. The moment the gun was fired signaling the finish, thousands of cameras on spectator boats, helicopters and blimps exploded in unison, capturing forever a moment on the water off Newport that became the inspiration for and subject of a thousand or more books, films and paintings. Black Knight’s next owner, in 1986, was a Swedish businessman and yachtsman living in New York who came from a European tradition that honors antiquity and tradition. The Swedish owner of Black Knight passed away in 2002, but his family cares for her now, and they share the same commitment to tradition and heritage as their father did. They chose to restore her properly, addressing every need with the quality and skill that a yacht of Black Knight’s pedigree deserves.
Also today, a barge arrived to begin installing the new dock. They unloaded the supplies, then the tug boat, that brought the barge in, moved around to the area on the south side of the marina where supply boats load and unload.
In the afternoon, Rick and I took Tucker’s boat down to Staniel Cay to pick up some groceries (the supply boat came in this morning). Gail and her daughter, Crystal went along with us. When there are a lot of boaters in the area (as there are now) you have to plan your trip to the grocery store around the arrival of the supply boat because the stores will be out of most of the fresh vegetables by the next day. Tucker asked us to take a couple of people to the airport, so when we dropped them off, we went to the Isles General Store right across the creek from the airport. I have never seen so many people in that store! We got most of what we wanted and I left the three of them in line while I went back out and sat in the boat. About an hour later, they came out of the store. We went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for a much needed drink and Rick walked up to the Blue Store to buy a few more things. We got back to Compass Cay around 5:00. This marina is full. I counted 24 boats in this “18-slip marina”. The largest is about 130 feet and the smallest is probably about 35 feet. Thursday, February 13 – Today is my sister-in-law Tammy’s birthday. We hope she and my brother, Rick are having a great day. The wind here is blowing about 25 mph and gusting higher when a rain squall comes through. Despite the weather, the dock project is proceeding. They set four pilings (of approximately 40 needed) in the morning and by sunset they had set 11.
Ed and Karen, the owners of Sea Clef, returned to Compass Cay, along with a couple of guests this afternoon. They said that they got out of the Boston airport just before it was shut down for bad weather. We had a short visit with them and a number of others on the dock while the sun was setting and then went back to the boat for supper. Friday, February 14 – Happy Valentine’s Day. We took Loan to Black Point in his boat and dropped him off. The wind had died down and the water was as smooth as glass. Then we went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to pick up something that came over for Tucker on Watermakers Air. There were only two other people in the Fowl Cay Resort lounge when we arrived just before 6:30, but it soon filled up. There were a number of people there for the evening that we knew. Mark and Mart from the motor vessel M & M were there with guests as were four folks off of the motor vessel Autumn. M & M are frequent guests at the Compass Cay Marina and Autumn had been in storage at the marina for about a month until last week. Much to our surprise, our new friends Herb and Chris O’Neil walked in. We met them about two weeks ago when they stayed several nights at Compass Cay. Their boat, Easy Going, is a Meridian 490, and our boat is a Bayliner 4788. Brunswick (the company who owns Bayliner, Sea Ray, Hatteras, Sealine, Maxum, Boston Whaler, Cabo, Mercruiser, plus many other boat lines and even Cummins diesel) discontinued the Bayliner series of Motor yachts and Pilothouse Yachts in the spring of 2002 and they were “reborn” as Meridians for the 2003 model year with only very minor changes, such as the portlights on the Meridians being oval shaped. All the 49′ – 58′ Meridians were built from the same molds in the same factory by the same people as the Bayliners in Washington State. The Meridians have higher grade fabrics, hardware, bedding, faucets, etc., than the Bayliners, but many of the standard items offered on all Bayliners were options on the Meridians. So, because our two boats are so similar, we naturally shared lots of boat information every time we saw each other.
A quick conversation with the manager of Fowl Cay, Yves, made it possible for the four of us to be seated together for dinner. Herb and I had veal for dinner and Chris and Rick had ordered the seared tuna. Everything was delicious and the meal was topped off with a heart-shaped apple tart accompanied by vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce.
This person may have been the victim of a malicious cracker attack at least once in buy cheap cialis on sale at drugstore their life.
Chris and Herb asked us to come by their boat which was anchored very near there for a night cap to thank Rick for giving them some information that resolved a problem they were having on their boat, so we visited a little longer and then returned to Compass Cay around midnight. A very good time was had by all.
BD771, Saturday, February 15 through BD777, Friday, February 21, 2014 –
By Saturday morning the winds had returned. Rick took Gail with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren to the airport on Staniel Cay in the morning. The dock project continued until about 12:30. They have had equipment problems and have had to take the barge back up to Eleuthera. The foreman has also gone off the island to attend a wedding. So, the men that remained here finished as much as they could do and are now awaiting his return.
You can see in the picture above that the new dock connects to the outside deck of the Boaters’ Grille. On Sunday, February 16, we moved the boat around the dock into a slip to make it easier for us to leave when the time is right. Actually, this is the same slip where we were originally docked in August of 2012 to ride out Tropical Storm Isaac. After we moved, while we were eating Dave’s Sunday waffles, Tucker received a call from the 70+ foot M/V M & M. They are coming in to the marina for a 10-day stay and requested the dock that we had just vacated. So, Tokkie said that he would move his boat as well as they intend to leave here in a week or so. The picture below was taken while the ATA Marie, a Norhaven Motor Sail, was directly behind us across the dock. They have now moved to where the little boat is in the picture.
On Sunday afternoon, Tucker was having trouble with one of his generators and with the island’s water maker. He had an electrician from over at Pipe Cay looking at the generator and Rick went to see if he could do anything with the water maker. On Monday, February 17, the wind returned. We stayed on the dock most of the day. Tokkie invited us to join him and Gail on the dock for whatever Tucker was grilling. The three of them had hot dogs and I had a burger. He had 11 orders in front of us and several following. Yesterday before M & M arrived, a couple, Bob and Sandy came in to the marina in a catamaran sail boat. Tucker has hired them to run the operations of the marina for the next two months. They seem very nice and were kept very busy today. Rick moved the tomato plant off of the boat in the afternoon. It has been in a 5-gallon bucket on the boat, but Gail is going to re-plant it and she thinks that it will thrive with room to grow. We watched the sunset on the ATA Marie and then had a late supper. Tuesday morning Rick took Tucker up to Staniel Cay to catch the morning Watermaker Air flight. Tucker is going to Florida to see his doctor and have blood tests run. They resumed setting pilings for the new dock in the morning. Rick told me that one of the pumps on our water maker burned out last night as he was flushing it, so that means we can only make 7 gallons an hour now until we get back to the States and have it repaired. A boat named Island Time from Virginia came in this morning. They put her on the dock by the marina office and literally squeezed her in between Tokkie’s 56-foot Nordhaven and a large Lazzara named Mojo.
They had thought that the boat was 56 feet long but it turned out to be 64 feet plus, plus. They had to pull it into the dock using lines, but they got it in with no incident. Around noon, Tokkie, Gail, Rick and I went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch and to await a couple of their guests arriving on the afternoon flight. Kevin and Karen are from the Annapolis area. On the way back to Compass Cay, we swung through the anchorage at Big Majors to check out the swimming pigs and they saw two boats at anchor that they knew from Maryland. We also saw a 70+-foot Nordhaven at anchor. We drove by it, taking a close look, because Tokkie has one on order just like it. Wednesday morning Rick took a couple of men to the airport in the morning. They had been on the island installing repeaters and another antenna for the satellite WIFI. Then he and Loan went back up the hill to check on the island’s water maker. On Thursday morning we took Tucker’s boat up to the airport to pick up a mechanic who will be working on one of the generators. The dock project continued with the crew getting all of the pilings set. They also dredged out a little more at the end of the dock to make sure there would be enough room for the big boats to maneuver into the new area and also at the beginning of the dock, to make sure that they can use every one of the 200 feet. Friday, February 21, 2014 was my brother Rick’s 60th birthday and our 777th day in the Bahamas. Hope you had a very special day, bro. We took Tucker’s boat to the Staniel Cay airport with couple from Atlanta, Mark and Janine, who had been staying on the M/V Wings and dropped them off to take the afternoon Flamingo Air flight to Nassau. From there we went to Black Point to pick up one of Tucker’s grandsons, Ethan. Ethan was a “no-show”, so all we picked up there was a couple of beers while waiting. We then returned to the Staniel Cay airport to pick up Tucker. Just before Tucker got there, a couple came up from the yacht club and said that they were hoping to catch a ride back to Compass with us and Tucker. This couple were the owners of the boat Wings. So we loaded them on board and then Tucker and we headed back home to Compass Cay. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for tonight’s pot luck supper. I made a version of our friend Ann’s kidney bean, egg and onion salad and chopped green pepper and onion for Rick to use in his conch fritters. Rick made another trip to the Staniel Cay airport to take the foreman on the dock project to catch a flight to Eleuthera – he was going home for the weekend. With planning or no planning, the pot lucks just seem to fall into place and, once again, we had a great crowd and great food.
BD778 – Saturday was our last day in Compass Cay for a while. We spent the morning getting the boat ready to move tomorrow, had one final meal from Tucker’s Grill, and then went to Rachel’s Bubble Bath in the afternoon.
Tucker’s burgers have become so popular that they now have T-shirts.
We have decided to leave our wooden bistro set here. Rick took it down to the Boaters’ Grille. Dave, from Living Large, loves to do wood work. He plans to refinish it. Rick lifted the dinghy to the top deck and secured it for traveling.
BD779 – Sunday – We said goodbye to Tucker Rolle and others and left Compass Cay at about 8:45 am. Next stop. Highbourne Cay at the top end of the Exumas.
