Birthday’s wishes go out to:

Curt, July 4; Savannah, July 9, Melissa and Mary, July 12;  Jackie, July 25; and Ethan, July 29^th.  We love you all.

Compass Cay, Exumas

Wednesday, July 1, 2015 (BD2-0272) – Germal and Loan were both here on the island taking care of things while Tucker was in Florida.  Ethan, one of Tucker’s grandsons, who lives on Black Point, has come to the island to work for the summer.  His two younger brothers are also here helping out.  Of course, Preston Rolle, Tucker’s brother, is still here working on the island.  And, Beef and another one of Tucker’s sons were here when we arrived yesterday.  They were both hired as guides for the day and had brought their clients here.  Around 9:00, Rick told me that they had asked him to take one of the island’s boats to go up to pick up Tucker at Black Point (so it looks like we’ve jumped into our normal routine with both feet.)  When Rick returned from picking up Tucker (after noon),  he said that Watermaker Air had too much for one morning flight and Tucker (with a lot of stuff for Compass) came in on the second flight.  Then, while they were being transported by golf cart from the airport to the government dock, a tire blew out on the golf cart and they had to wait quite a while for someone to come and rescue them.  On the boat ride back from Black Point, Tucker wanted to stop at Staniel Cay, to pick up some supplies for Compass.  (Most of us never pass up an opportunity to stop at Staniel to get fresh food.)  Rick said that 5 packages of hamburgers for Tucker were dropped off at Black Point from the freight boat yesterday.  Since that will only last for a couple of days, we had a couple or World Famous Tucker Burgers for lunch today.  I went out on the dock for early cocktails and the few couples that were there discussed having a pot luck supper.  When I asked Germal about it, he said that it would have to be tomorrow as he was leaving the island on Friday to go to Nassau for a little while.  Rick and Germal went out just before dark and got some conch for Rick to make fritters tomorrow.

Thursday (BD2-0273) –Rick started polishing the fuel in preparation for our journey back to Florida’s west coast.  Captain Andrew of the 4 C’s tour guide boat stopped by to say hello.  We had a well-attended pot luck supper – with no fish!  But there was plenty of meat dishes from which to choose.  One couple, from Brazil, brought four bottles of wine as their contribution – and a welcome contribution it was.  Rick made twice as many conch fritters as usual.  Below is just a small part of them.  We actually had some left over.  But the Rolle’s put them away for safe keeping.

The Rolle’s who own and run Compass Cay often tell visitors that Rick makes the best conch fritters of anyone they have ever known.  Many agree with them.  So, I have added his recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 4 large conchs cleaned
• 1 ¼ cups Bisquick Baking Mix
• 1 ¼ cups pancake mix (just add water type)
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup water
• ½ bell pepper (any color you like)
• 1/2 onion
• 2 tablespoons Coleman’s dry mustard

Preparation:

1. Dice in 1/8 to ¼ in pieces the onion, pepper, and conch
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. (Bisquick, pancake flour, mustard)
3. Add the milk and half of the water.
4. Mix by hand, with a large spatula, or spoon. The batter should be thick. If too thick add remaining water.
5. Add onion, pepper and conch. The conch should be wet and will loosen up the batter some, if too loose to form on a spoon, add more pancake batter, if too thick add more water.
6. Drop a spoonful at a time into the oil at 325-330 degrees.  Remove when golden.  Check one to be sure it is cooked through, if not, cook it a little longer, just don’t burn the sugar in the pancake batter. If they get too dark and are not cooked through, lower the cooking temperature.

Friday, July 3, 2015 (BD2-0274) – It rained hard mid-morning, but the shower did not last too long.  Rick continues to polish the fuel.  Tomorrow he will check the filters on the generator.  Germal left this morning and Loan is here to help his father run the marina.  Although it is not full to capacity, it is still pretty busy and Rick loves volunteering out on the docks. LeBron James and a couple other basketball players came in for the day.  In the afternoon, Rick made a reservation for us to stay at the Highbourne Cay marina on Monday, July 6.  We have decided to make shorter hops back to Florida than we had originally thought.  This will allow us to travel in the mornings, hopefully avoiding afternoon thundershowers, as well as giving Rick some time to rest.  And, it will also give us time to make sure everything is working on the boat before we cross the Gulfstream.  At this point, we are thinking that we will go to Highbourne Cay, Atlantis, Chub and Bimini before crossing over to Florida.  But, that could change with a drop of rain! 

Saturday, July 4, 2015 (BD2-0275) – Happy Birthday to America and our friend Curt M.  Tyler Perry visited the island with some of his friends today, and, of course, there were several of the tour boats from George Town here as well.  But, mostly it was just kids swimming with the sharks, snorkeling around the marina and generally having a good time. We ate some grouper that was given to us for supper and settled in waiting for fireworks.
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Sunday, July 5, 2015 (BD2-0276) – Rick checked out the generator first thing this morning and found that the battery was dead.  While down there, he changed the filters.  Then he charged the battery.  During the night, our stateroom air conditioner wasn’t putting out cold air, so he changed a breaker in it and that fixed that problem.  The 4 C’s tour group brought two boat loads of tourists around lunchtime and I went to say goodbye to Captain Andrew.  He told me that he will be visiting Florida for a week in November and hopes to be able to drive up to see us in Palmetto while he is there.  We are already looking forward to it.  In the afternoon, Preston took us over to Crescent Beach in the Kubota.  We walked out into the water and had a pleasant time.  The couple from the boat Flower Girl was there and she took our picture with Refrigerator Rock in the background.  We had a nice walk back over the island to return to the boat.

On Monday, we said goodbye to Preston and Loan Rolle.  Loan says he will be in the States in August and December and will try to come to see us during those trips.  Tucker left the island early this morning to fly to Nassau to take care of business.  I went into the Boater’s Grille and took pictures of our sign, one of Sea Clef’s signs and one of ATA Marie’s signs.  I have combined them in the picture below.  We count the owners and crew of both of these boats as good friends and are so glad that we got to meet them and so many others here at Compass Cay.

With saddened hearts, we left Compass Cay on our boat, for what will probably be the last time.  I expect that we may fly back from time to time.  And, we believe in miracles, so who knows – the boat may be back.  We send our love to all those associated with Compass Cay and will keep you in our hearts.

Highbourne Cay Marina

We arrived at Highbourne at approximately 2:00 on Monday, July 6, 2015 (BD2-0277) and stopped at the fuel dock before going to our slip.  Rick agreed to pay the fellow who pumped our fuel (186.8 @$4.64/Gallon) and tied us up to wash down the boat at a cost of $3/foot.   It had been a little stressful on the water for the first time since October, and it was very hot, so we both felt like it was well worth the money.   We went to the office to check in and paid $15 for Wi-Fi and $7.47 for a loaf of bread.  Then sat on their front porch eating an ice cream cone (what a treat!)  Next we went to the beach right by the marina office.  The water was refreshing, but we didn’t stay too long before we went back to the boat to rest a while.  We are in slip 7, right in between two other boats that came from Compass Cay this morning.

New Providence Island, Nassau, Atlantis Marina on Paradise Island, Tuesday & Wednesday, July 7 & 8, 2015 (BD2-0278 & BD2-0279)

We left Highbourne Cay around 10:00 Tuesday morning and hailed Nassau Harbour Control for permission to enter the harbor around 12:30.  We had to stand off at Atlantis for a while as they docked two other boats that had come from Highbourne (Dusty Seas & Flower Girl – both from Jupiter, Florida).  We were in our slip (Lucky #13) and checked in by 1:30.  We have decided to stay here for two nights.  The generator has quit working and Rick wants a chance to fix it while we are here.  In the afternoon we walked across the street from the marina to a liquor store to stock up.  We had an Italian meal at Anthony’s and then spent some time, and some money, in the casino.  But, thanks to Rick’s skill/luck at 3-card stud, we think we came out ahead.

On Wednesday morning, Rick found that we needed a new impeller in the generator.  By 11:30, he had replaced it and the generator started up just fine.  We’ll have to wait and see if it continues to run for a longer period of time when we leave here tomorrow.  We spent the afternoon at the water park.  We ate supper at Johnny Rockets in the marina village and then went back to the casino for another hour arriving back at the boat after 11:00 p.m. 

We left Atlantis about 9 am, but once we got out of Nassau Harbor, we realized that the conditions were too rough for us to proceed to Chub, so we returned around and came back into Nassau Harbor.  Unfortunately, Atlantis was full, so we had to find another place to stay.

Hurricane Hole Marina on Paradise Island, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, July 9-13,2015 (BD2-0280-BD2-0283)

We re-fueled (148.45 gallons at 4.16/gallon) at the Hurricane Hole fuel dock, and then proceeded to slip 54 and were tied up and checked in by 11:00 on Thursday.  After eating lunch at the Green Parrot Bar & Grille and cooling off in the pool, we hired a young man to wash down the boat ($2/ft.).  He did a good job.  We rested for a few hours in the afternoon.  We decided to eat a light supper on the boat and turn in early.

On Friday, we checked the local weather and found that the Central Bahamas had small craft advisories, with waves from 2-4 feet through Sunday, so we made arrangements to stay until Monday morning.  The generator still wasn’t working, after replacing the impeller.  Rick worked on the gas line and found it was clogged.  We are hoping this has fixed the problem with the generator.  We spent a couple of hours in the casino.  I did OK on the penny slots (I am a big spender, after all) coming back with as much as I started with in addition to paying for 5 drinks between us.  While there, we made a reservation at Olives’ Restaurant for this evening at 8:30.  Rick received an e-mail from an old navy bud today.  We were very glad to hear from JD and to learn that he is still married to Sherry and that they have two children.  We last saw them when they visited us in St. Petersburg at the end of 1982 or beginning of 1983, when our son, JP, was only two.

It was overcast on Saturday morning, but the winds had dropped a little.  We went over to the casino mid-afternoon, played the slots for about an hour and then went to their movie theater to see the free movie “Strange Magic”.  It is a Lucas film – so animated.  Even though it was PG, we still enjoyed the beautiful colors and artistry as well as the “popular in the ‘70s” music.  (I’ve always been a sucker for a musical.)  After the movie, we went to the restaurant called Chop Stix and had a very good, very filling dinner.  Then we walked back to the boat.

We had a pleasant surprise visit from our friend Rhiana on Sunday, July 12, 2015.  After she left, we went over to the water park.  We took a couple of turns around the river rapids without turning over once.  We got back to the boat after 5:00; ate a light supper on board; and prepared for an early departure in the morning.

Chub Cay Marina, Monday, July 13, 2015 (BD2-0284)

We left Hurricane Hole Marina just after 8 a.m. and arrived at Chub at 11:00 a.m.  It was a very pleasant 35 mile ride.  Unfortunately, the generator did not stay on again.  We were welcomed back by Kenny, the dock hand, who remembered us from our stay a year ago February.  Rick cleared more “gunk” out of the fuel line to the generator.  We spent some time in the pool.  I didn’t take any pictures, but many things on the island seemed to have been improved.  They are still working on the inside of the clubhouse, but it is looking very grand on the outside.  Although the tiles around the pool have not yet been repaired, the pool is clean and the view cannot be beat. We had a nice supper in the Harbour House Restaurant with Remedy as our waiter.  He has worked there over 30 years.

We had a big breakfast at the Harbour House while trying to determine if we should continue on today as the wind is blowing harder than we expected.  We decided to go ahead and left Chub just after 9 a.m.

Bimini Sands Marina, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 14/15, 2015 (BD2-0285-BD2-0286)

Some of you may wonder what these “BD” numbers are.  When a private boat comes into the waters of the Bahamas, they must pay for a cruising permit.  The permit is good for 365 days and can be renewed two times before the vessel must leave Bahamian waters for a short time.  So, the BD stands for Bahama Days.  We renewed our first permit two times before going back to Ft. Lauderdale last year.  We received a new permit (Permit #2) when we came to Bimini last October.  Therefore, Tuesday is the boat’s 285^th day on our 365-day permit.  The winds were blowing more than 10 mph, but we would have mostly following seas and tomorrow would be worse, so we decided to go ahead.  While not as calm as yesterday’s run, the ride was not too bad. The generator worked through the entire 6-hour trip!  We tied up in our slip around 3:30 after taking on 221.5 gallons of fuel.  We enjoyed some time in the infinity pool and then took one of the new resort busses down to Mackey’s Beach Bar for supper.

On Wednesday morning the wind was blowing and the seas were rough just outside the marina.  We watched the Weather Channel on TV to learn that South Florida was expecting a lot of rain today, so we will be here one more night.  All of the predictions for wind, waves and weather look good for crossing the Gulf Stream tomorrow.  Rick gave the boat a thorough cleaning as there was salt at every level and on every side.  I took the opportunity of an extra day in port to do some laundry.  Around 4:00, I called Rick up into the pilot house to look at a boat entering the marina.  It was called Wanderer and it was flying our Bradenton Yacht Club burgee.  Rick went over to their slip and met Greg and Barbara Allard.  We have mutual friends – Rick and Sydney Shaurette.  Rick is a past-commodore of the club.  Rick returned to the boat and told me who they were and that they had invited us over for cocktails at 6:00.  We certainly enjoyed our visit with them.  They had come from West End where their son was just married.  They are on their way back to Palmetto, but their boat has a deeper draft than ours, so they will have to go around the state, through the keys, while we are going through the Okeechobee Waterway, across the state from Stuart to Ft. Myers.  We went back to the Beach Bar for supper.

We left Bimini Sands Marina on Thursday, July 16, 2015, at 8:15 headed west across the Gulf Stream to Florida.  About an hour after we left Bimini, we ran into rain.  It was not a heavy rain and the seas were not too bad.  I abandoned Rick to the weather up top and retreated to the pilot house to work on this blog.  We were out of the rain in less than an hour and after that the water was very calm until Florida’s east coast.  We entered the waters of Port Everglades just about 11:30 heading up the ICW to the Lauderdale Yacht Club.