We mentioned earlier that our 4 kids were coming to spend the week with us on the boat between Christmas Eve and New Years. We booked their flights back in June so we wouldn’t have any problems with getting flights that all arrived around the same time, but typical to travel around the holidays, it didn’t go as planned….
The first problem was Christopher discovered 2 days before departure his passport had expired and there was no time to get it renewed before his flights. Because of the holidays, he wouldn’t be able to get it renewed and get to Nassau until just a couple days before the others were leaving which didn’t make much sense. We hated not having him here with us on Christmas and for him to be alone with no family, no food, no decorations…Our wonderful friends and his friends all rallied and invited him to meals and even left a present for him on the front porch!
The next problem was Erin’s first flight was delayed so she missed her connecting flight. Being the budget conscious missionary, her first flight was booked on a budget airline which meant since it wasn’t part of the balance of the itinerary, she was considered a no show for the other flights. Stephen did a masterful job figuring out the best way to get her here and got her booked on different flights. Given this was Dec 23rd, you can imagine the additional cost to get her the last seat on a flight into Nassau.
Anyway, we so enjoyed having Stephen and his wife Ashley, and Erin with us for the week. We had a tough first day (Christmas Day) bashing our head into 25 knot + winds on the nose and big seas. It took Stephen about 10 minutes before he threw up the first time! We had to traverse a coral head/"melanoma" area so we posted Ashley and Erin up on the bow to try to spot them and direct the helmsman which direction to go. They wore life jackets hooked to safety lines just in case and were thoroughly drenched by the waves and spray. They described it like being on a very wet roller coaster and I think they actually enjoyed it-at least part of the time! With the overcast skies and big waves, it was almost impossible to see the coral heads until you were right on them and we hit one early on. We later snorkeled to inspect the damage and there was fortunately nothing more serious than paint removal in one spot.
The week got better after that and included some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. There was just a huge variety of fish and colors. God must have really had a good time when he created all of the many creatures and fish found on coral reefs! Sea snails, sea slugs, rays, sand dollars, star fish, dolphin, baby sharks, anemones of every shape and color, conch, (see picture of giant one below),sucker fish that cleaned our boat bottom for us, the dreaded lionfish and lots of funny puffer fish and fish in every shape and color and size you can imagine! One of my favorites are the fish that look like they have all sorts of eye make up on and their eyes are huge.
We also took a dinghy ride/paddleboard trek through a long mangrove area through Shroud Cay. It’s a shallow area and is the perfect breeding ground for all sorts of sea life. We timed our trip poorly and it was low tide so we had to pull the dinghy through many areas -mostly Stephen did our mushing (reminded me of the scene with Humphry Bogart in the movie African Queen). It finally ended on the other side of the island where there was a gorgeous beach with crashing waves from the Atlantic.
We also saw a ton of the mega yachts we had heard about in one of the anchorages. One beautiful yacht anchored next to us at Highbourne Cay. Very quickly, the staff used boats to go into shore to set up umbrellas, chairs, tables, 2 jets skis and 2 kayaks for the “master” to use. We never did see the Prince emerge to enjoy all of the efforts. What a waste!
On our way back to Nassau at the end of the week conditions were very different from our raucous sail out of Nassau. There was no wind and the water was glassy smooth. We motored all the way back (the engine ran the whole way!!). With the smooth water we could stand on the edge of the boat and see the bottom as if we were looking through air rather than water. It was unbelievable – 25 ft deep and we would see the details of the sand, the plants, the coral, the fish, starfish and everything else we passed over. For us east coast sailors, this is an amazing thing. In the Neuse River where we keep the boat you can’t see 6 inches down in the water.
We spent a day in Nassau, running errands, resupplying food for our next few weeks and visiting the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. It's like Disney World on steroids!
We were grateful for the time with our family, and though we were sad to not have Christopher with us, he has promised to come another time. I think he just wanted us all to himself!