This trip was planned to celebrate the life of my husband of almost 45 years, Rick Hoffmeister (11/22/49 – 7/28/17).  I was accompanied by our son, JP and Rick’s brother, Edward.

JP and I left our house in Parrish and Edward left his house in Ormond Beach Friday morning driving to the Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport where we boarded one of the early afternoon Watermaker Air flights to Staniel Cay in the Exuma chain of the Bahama Islands. 

The plane held eight passengers.  As we got to talking, the gentleman sitting in front of me realized that he knew me.  He immediately expressed his condolences about Rick’s passing and said that he had wanted to do so immediately last year, but didn’t know how to get in touch with me.  His name was Shawn and we had first met on Compass Cay in 2013 when he and his family were staying on their boat, Grace.  He has three girls and, although they were younger, they enjoyed playing with our granddaughter, Vanessa, who was with us that summer.  We all went out to Janet’s beach on the island one night for a bonfire and s’mores.  After that, we had an occasion to visit them at their home in Stuart, Florida, when Tucker’s brother, Preston (Sweet Pea) and his wife were staying there.  Pictured below are Preston and Rick on the dock at Compass Cay in July, 2015.  Remember, you can click on any picture to see a larger version.

When the plane landed, we walked from the airport to the Isles General Store to pick up a few groceries and were greeted at their dock by Bob and Kat Weems who manage the rentals at Compass Cay.  After a bit of a bumpy boat ride, we docked at Compass Cay. One of the first people we saw was Loan Rolle (one of Tucker’s sons) who welcomed us home. 

Then we were taken up to Lilly’s House high on the hill above the marina for our weekend stay. 

We returned a little later.  Loan fixed us some “World Famous Tucker Burgers” and we tried to watch the sunset (unfortunately, the clouds got in the way.)

Bob Weems in the office by a “Tucker Burger” T-shirt in September, 2015.

Saturday morning, JP went running and I went down to the marina office to sit and visit with folks.  I learned that Trevon Rolle is now working there permanently in the office. 

He is one of Tucker’s grandsons – his father is Trevor and captains a boat out of Nassau.  We saw him often at Compass Cay.  The picture above was taken in September, 2012.  Pictured are Pat, Trevon, Tucker, Holly, and Rick.  Pat and Holly were day-visitors whom we kept in touch with for several years.

JP joined me after his run which included going by the low tide airport, crescent beach, past the newest house (Buttonwood Cottage) down to Hester’s ruins and returning by just about any other road he could find, past Tucker’s treehouse, the chicken coop, mango house and back up the hill to Lilly’s. 

Pictured above is the Crescent Beach (looking north).

After his run, he joined me at the marina and then Edward came down as well.  I wanted to see our friend, Captain Andrew, who had posted to Facebook that he would come to Compass today from Great Exuma.  JP and Edward wanted to swim with the sharks.  Eventually, we all went swimming with the sharks (my very first time in 7 years of coming here).  Thanks for taking the picture, Edward.

Mid-afternoon, Beef took us by boat up to Rachel’s Bubblebath.  This was one of my favorite places on the Cay.  While we were there, another couple came up.  As we were talking with them, they realized that they knew me as well.  It was Debbie and Mark, of the M/V Miss B Haven.  They took JP’s daughter, Vanessa, snorkeling one afternoon in July, 2013.  As we were getting re-acquainted, they said, “We remember Rick, he was the one who made the delicious conch fritters.”  And as we were leaving, they asked us to please tell Vanessa hello from them.  

Unfortunately, we learned, after returning to the marina, that we had missed Captain Andrew by about 10 minutes.  I am so sorry about that, but I’m sure we will catch up the next time I’m there.  Andrew always says that he and Rick were brothers.  Rick was born during the day and Andrew was born at night.  The picture below was taken in February, 2013.
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JP went for a similar run on Sunday morning and then Tucker came in the Kubota and took us from Lilly’s to Hester’s Ruins. 

Tucker Rolle owns the island and he and Rick had become good friends.  He gave me permission to scatter some of Rick’s ashes up at Hester’s. 

Once we finished our brief ceremony, saying another goodbye to him just about one year after his death, we walked along Crescent Beach and then swam for a little while

before taking one of the many trails across the island from the beach to the marina.  This time, our “Tucker Burgers” were prepared by Germal Rolle (another one of Tucker’s sons.)  His son (also Germal), aka JR, was on the island staying with him and working very hard.  I didn’t get a picture of them while we were there, but I found a nice one taken in October, 2014.

We all swam with the sharks again that afternoon and enjoyed watching the many, many tourists doing the same.  Edward is in the picture below with a couple of them.

When the tide is high, the sharks (they are nurse sharks) like to lie on the dock.  So, JP spent a little time, after the tourists were gone, to lie around with them.

While on the dock, he took some amazing close-ups.

One of the final things on my list of things-to-do was to update the sign that Rick and I had hung in the Boater’s Grille.  So, JP and Edward and I went over and they helped me get up on a table to reach the sign and add this year to the previous years 2012 through 2018.

We got an early start on Monday morning with Bob picking us up about 7 a.m. and then taking us by boat to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to check in for our return fight.  As I was waiting to check in, I ran into another acquaintance, Allison Sage.  The picture below is Allison (in the LSU shirt) and her Mom, Suzanne, when she came to visit Compass Cay in March of 2015, with myself and Preston standing in the background.

Allison used to be the mate on M/Y Sea Clef which spent a lot of time on Compass Cay.  She told me that she is now in charge of all of the housekeeping staff at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  Congrats to her.  It was an unexpected pleasure to get to see another of our friends over this short weekend. 

We had a nice flight home before returning to our homes Monday afternoon.  The trip seemed a very fitting way for each of us to remember our loved one on this anniversary of his passing.