This month we extend best wishes to our niece, Melissa and her husband, Randy, on their 17^th anniversary, Rick’s mother on her 90^th birthday, and my brother, Rick (61), and his wife, Tammy (a lot less than 61!), on their birthdays.

Week 1 – Sunday 2/1/2015 (BD2-0122) – Saturday 02/07/15 (BD2-0128)

Dave took his guest to the airport on Staniel Cay Sunday morning, so we did not have waffles.  He more than made up for it with the fried grouper bites he made when a bunch of us gathered on the dock that evening to watch the Super Bowl.  Rick and I had found a recipe for shrimp dip on-line and adjusted it to use the grilled lobster leftovers from last night’s pot luck.  It was really good, as were all of other items (much of it finger food) brought to share.  We had a wonderful time watching the game until half-time (the score was tied) when the satellite went out!  We left the dock and waited until the next morning to find out that the Super Bowl champions are the New England Patriots. 

We received an e-mail from my brother, Bill.  He said that he and his wife, Mary, would like to come back for another visit this summer.  We look forward to that.  Barry took his sister, Carrie and her husband, Jason, to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to take the afternoon Watermaker flight home to Ft. Lauderdale. 

Rick helped Tucker install an air conditioner in one of the apartments on the bottom of the tree house.  Apparently, every accommodation on the island will be occupied over the Valentine holiday and they are just finishing up some remodeling in the Treehouse Apartments.

Jeanine, the chef on Sea Clef, returned to Compass Cay in the afternoon – home from visiting family in England and a few days in Florida.

Reportedly, Johnny Depp is to be married this weekend on his nearby island, Little Halls Pond Cay.

Tucker received a call asking about how many rentals he had available for one night.  I thought that maybe some of the wedding guests would be staying her, but as it turned out, eight fellows showed up after dark.  They said that they had been hired to build some things on Depp’s island in preparation for the wedding.  They were supposed to fly out today, but the plane had to go pick up the bride’s dress, so they were staying here at Compass Cay tonight.  They asked to be picked up from the Crescent Beach House and the Lily House at 6:30 tomorrow morning to catch a boat that was coming to get them at 6:45 to return them to Little Hall’s Pond Cay and eventually home, as their work here is done.

We were excited to see Rich and Karen return to Compass Cay on their boat New Horizon.  They come about this same time each year.

Staniel Cay has been out of fuel for the past week or more.  Because of the windy weather, the fuel barge skipped Staniel Cay when they were last expected, to go on to San Salvador.  Everyone here on Compass has been trying to conserve their fuel consumption because of that.  They received the fuel shipment on Thursday, but something had happened to the power on Staniel Cay that night before and half of the island lost power for some time.  The folks at Staniel Cay Yacht Club thought that was the problem with the pump, but found out that their pumped had been “fried”.  So they ordered another one from the States which was flown over that afternoon.  Thankfully, fuel was available again by the end of the week.

The weather has been very windy some days and we have gotten some rain.  The high temperatures have been in the low 70’s.  We only had four boats in the marina mid-week and we’ve had 15 on the windy nights.

At the end of this week, we wished a happy anniversary to Melissa and Randy.  Lisa, Germal’s fiancé returned to Nassau.  I found a misplaced Christmas card that we had received from a long-time friend, Sallie.  She and her family were our next door neighbors in Tallahassee.  After meeting, we discovered that she went to high school in Dade City, Florida, with some of my cousins.  Our address hasn’t changed for the last 30 years and she has been faithfully sending us cards.  I, on the other hand, haven’t mailed out Christmas cards since the 70’s!  Anyway, she had not included an e-mail address in her previous cards, but did this year, so I spent some time sending her a very long e-mail to catch her up on what has been happening in our lives.  We are so glad that she has faithfully kept in touch with us, even though she wasn’t getting any replies. 

Week 2 – Sunday 02/08/15 (BD2-0129) – Saturday 02/14/15 (BD2-0135)

After Dave’s Sunday waffles, Barry, Allison (Sea Clef), Rich, Karen (New Horizon), Gail (ATA Marie) and Rick and I (On The Hook) went in the Sea Clef tender to Little Farmers Cay.  We thought that we had gone to the Little Farmers First Friday in February Festival (5 F’s) on Sunday last year.  When we got to the beach where the races take place, we discovered that we were a day late.  There were only a few people at Ty’s Sunset Bar and Grill (http://www.tyssunsetbarandgrill.com ) which is between the airstrip and the beach.  The folks that were there invited us to come in for eats and drinks.  It was actually nice to be able to enjoy the peace and quiet. 

When we were there last year, there were hundreds of people on the beach and in the grill. 

Across from Little Farmers Cay, on the southern end of Great Guana Cay, there is a trail that leads to a cavern which is partially filled with water.  Last year, Rick, Barry, Janine and Natalie hiked up to it while I stayed in the boat.  I had told Barry that if we had time this year, I would try to make the hike with them.  So, we anchored around Oven Rock and walked north up the beach until we found a cairn (pile of rocks) marking the beginning of the trail.  It was not too long a trail, but had some rocky areas and just a little bit of up and down.  Once we got there, we went for a swim.  Barry and Rick had brought flashlights with them and would shine the light into the clear water so that we could avoid some of the stalagmites as we made our way around from one entrance into the water to another where we exited.  The picture below was actually one that Janine took last year.  I forgot to take my camera with me this year.

The water was a little salty and cool; and, there were some bats hanging around, but we all enjoyed our adventure.  We returned to Compass Cay just as the sun was setting. 

We met Ann and Chris from Minnesota this week.  They have been following the blog and had some very nice things to say.  She was thrilled to see that we have some baby sharks here at Compass.  We wished Rick’s Mom a happy birthday on the 10th.  Ed and Karen, owners of Sea Clef, returned with guests.  Leslie, aka “Cookie”, and her friend Abby came to the Cay.  Leslie is a personal chef and will be cooking for a large extended family coming in at the end of the week staying in the rental houses on the island. 

October 13, 1972 (the date of our wedding) fell on a Friday.  Since then, we have tried to do a little something special on every Friday the 13^th.   So we had a nice supper and a quiet celebration on this Friday the 13^th, which was also my sister-in-law, Tammy’s birthday.

When nearby Fowl Cay Resort has enough room, they take dinner reservations from locals.  This was the third year that we’ve eaten there on Valentine’s Day which may be their busiest night.  Cocktails with bar snacks begin at 6:30 and you are seated between 7:30 and 8:00.  This year, the cost was $140 per person which included a three-course dinner along with all drinks and appetizers.  They gave each of the women a red rose and Waylon sang quite a few songs.  Many of us danced to his music.  We were joined by Tokkie, Gail and his guests, Kevin and Karen, for dinner.  It was the first time that any of them had been there, but I’m sure that it won’t be the last.  We all enjoyed the meal and the entertainment. 

Unfortunately, when we arrived back at the Compass Cay dock around 11:30 p.m., I slipped as I was trying to get off of the boat onto a ladder, but there was no significant harm done – some bruises and a little embarrassment!  I plan to write an article for the blog just on Fowl Cay in the near future.

Week 3 Sunday (BD2-0136) 02/15/15 – Saturday (BD2-0141) 02/21/15

The weather deteriorated as the week went by.  The Rolle’s tell us that this is the coldest winter that they can remember for many years.  No matter the weather, it is good to live in paradise.  You can see on the forecast below the high and low temperatures and wind speed.  You can access this forecast on the right hand side of the blog.  To see a 10-day forecast, you must click on the “details” link.  When the weather was at its worst, there were approximately 20 boats in the marina.

A gentleman on a boat (Baleen) may have had a TIA.  Germal took him and his wife to the Staniel Cay airstrip to fly to Nassau to seek medical attention.

Tucker left the island to fly to Florida for a doctor’s appointment.  Trevon, Tucker’s grandson, came to the island from Nassau on Friday to help run the marina while Tucker is in the States.  Germal left the Cay to fly to Nassau on Saturday to help his fiancée, Lisa, celebrate her birthday.

The “port in a storm” dock has finally been used for something other than shooting off fireworks.  Overseas Salvage and Maintenance, Ltd., a salvage company operating off of Big Sampson Cay towed in a disabled sailboat (Cocktails and Dreams) and tied it to that new dock which is completely surrounded by water. 

Apparently, the seas were too bad for them to tow it all the way to Sampson, which is about 5 miles from here between Over Yonder Cay and Fowl Cay.

Saturday, 02/21/15, was my brother’s (Rick, who lives just south of Sanford, Florida), and our friend’s (Lisa, who lives in Nassau) birthday.   Loan came to the Cay to help Trevon run the marina until Germal returns on Monday.  We said goodbye to Tokkie and Gail’s friends, Kevin and Karen.  Dave took them up to Staniel Cay in his tender to catch a plane and eventually make their way back to Annapolis, Maryland.  The evening ended with a concert by a couple on a Fleming called Valkyrie.  They brought a keyboard and guitar along with a couple of microphones up to the area just outside the office.  Lots of people gathered round to hear them sing and sometimes sing along.  It was great fun.  They said that they would be back, so I’ll be prepared with my camera next time.

Week 4 Sunday (BD2-0142) 02/22/15 – Saturday (BD2-0148) 02/28/15

Sea Clef’s owners, Ed and Karen, returned home to Boston.  They plan to be back on Compass Cay in about three weeks.  The people on Baleen returned to the Cay today.  Apparently, the man had a stroke.  They came back with their son, who will captain the boat back to the States.  Trevon returned to Nassau leaving Loan in charge of the marina.  Dennis and Gail came in on their boat, Gadabout.  Dennis is here to work on the island’s water maker and generators.  Leslie, the personal chef, asked Barry if he would smoke a brisket that she had left over and he said that he would.  This grew into a pot luck supper on Monday night (which was terrific) with everyone in the marina participating.

The weather was picture-post-card-perfect on Tuesday.  Karen and Rich returned on New Horizon.   One of the day visitors to Compass Cay was the singer Pink along with her family.  Wikipedia says,

Noted for having “a strong signature voice and a literally acrobatic ability on stage”, Pink has received mostly positive reception from music critics.  She has sold over 50 million albums and 85 million singles worldwide. She has sold over 16 million albums in the United States. Her career accolades include three Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, and six MTV Video Music Awards. In 2009, Billboard recognized Pink as the Pop Songs Artist of the Decade. Pink was also the second most-played female solo artist in the United Kingdom during the 2000s decade, behind Madonna. VH1 ranked her number 10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music, while Billboard awarded her the Woman of the Year in 2013.

Since we try to respect celebrities’ privacy while they are here, I have included a picture of Pink which is also on the Wikipedia website with this acknowledgement. 

 “P!nk Live 2013” by http://www.flickr.com/photos/blumonkey14/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/71655949@N00/8537347943 (cropped).  Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P!nk_Live_2013.jpg#mediaviewer/File:P!nk_Live_2013.jpg

Leslie and her friend, Abby, left the Cay on Tuesday headed back to the Ft. Lauderdale area. 

Wednesday was a big day for Compass Cay – well sort of.  When we were back in the States last summer, Tucker came over and ordered a generator for the island.  Tucker already has six generators on the island.  They are three different sizes with the second three to use as back-ups.  Well, he decided that he needed to replace one of those generators and it just arrived at Compass Cay on February 25.  It came on a freight boat called the Legend II.  The freight boat ran aground while trying to get to the marina entrance, so Loan went out in a small boat to help them.  After they got off of the bottom, they hit one of the pilings/markers which designate the way in to the marina.  It came to the south end of the marina where they have a ramp built for loading and unloading freight.

If you look closely, you can see that they hit a second piling as they were pulling up to the ramp.  After much maneuvering, they got the generator off of the freight boat and started to take it to the generator house up the hill.

But, alas, further up the hill the dirt road’s sand became too soft and they had to turn around and leave it to be moved by something else another day.

As they were trying to leave the marina, they ran aground again.  But Captain Barry, of Sea Clef, got into one of the marina’s Boston Whalers and helped to guide them out.  This “event” took a little more than four hours.

Tucker and Germal returned to the Cay on Thursday and Janine (from Sea Clef) flew back to Florida while Ed and Karen are at home.  The salvage company that operates off of Big Sampson Cay brought in their boat, Amazing Grace, to tow away the disabled sailboat. 

On Saturday, 02/28/15, we said goodbye to Mano, the Haitian handyman that has worked on Compass Cay for many years.  He wanted to go home to see his family and has no idea when, or if, he might be coming back.  Gail, Allison, Rick and I accompanied Barry on the Sea Clef tender taking Mano and Tyrone (one of Tucker’s sons who works on Compass Cay) to Black Point and then coming back to get something to eat and drink at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club as well as some groceries. While we were sitting at the bar, we heard that they were having a street fair at the island’s park.  We went up to the blue and pink stores for groceries and stopped at the street fair on the way back to the Club.  I bought a children’s book, written by Heather Rand and illustrated by Bernadette Chamberlain, called Gertie’s Big Mouth.  This is their latest release and it tells the story of a young grouper who likes to tell stories.  The author and illustrator have already collaborated on three books.  Two about the swimming pigs on Big Majors Spot and the third about a goat on that island.  Bernadette and her husband have a small gift shop at the front of their restaurant (Taste and Sea) on Staniel Cay which is right across the street from the park.  She sold me the book and was gracious enough to autograph it as well.