The past two weeks have been fantastic. We did not have any groups so we got to enjoy some time enjoying the islands. Sunday we took out a group from the local orphanage. It was so much fun. We had a group of 10 kids then Bill and Lea, Bruce's friends, who help out there and then a group of volunteers from Wisconsin. In all there were about 25 people on the boat. We spent the afternoon sailing around Nassau and the kids had a great time. We anchored out at Fort Montague for a few days and spent more time with Bruce's nassau friends including Tim, Chris, Tina, and Steven. Steven drove us all to the movies one night. We saw Fast Five, which I never knew there was even a third or forth Fast and the Furious, but the movie was good and being at a movie theater alone was great. Steven learned of my love for Harry Potter so he brought over 1-6 for me to watch! He has promised to take me when the 7th one comes out!
When the wind died down wednesday we set sail and Steven wound up joining us (right, I want a job where I can take off for 10 days!) We sailed to Normans for the night and had a couple drinks and french fries at the bar. Then headed to Hawksbill and spent 3 days working on the trails cutting bush (turns out I am horrible at this) and wandering all around the (HUGE) island that is part of the Exuma park. Up to Wardwick Wells for a night then on to the always great Compass Cay. Spent two nights in Compass and had a movie night at Cheyenne's and spent an evening on a beautiful yacht with a group of Mexicans Cheyenne and her mom, Thelma, who spoke spanish had met. It reminded me of Brazil, being around a group of people and not understanding a word they said. But more people from the dock joined the party and there were plenty of people to talk to in english. After compass we headed farther south to thunderball cave and Staniel. Steven, who had only been to Higborne in the Exumas, though he grew up in the Bahamas, had to see everything of course. Spent an evening at the bar in Staniel and met some great characters there, including my mexican friends from compass. Then we headed on to Blackpoint on Wednesday to take a school group out for a day on the boat. It was all 14-15 year olds and they had a blast. We took them to Big Majors, the island with all the pigs, and they spent the afternoon swimming and kayaking and even fishing. A couple of the boys speared a few fish (I was very impressed) and we cleaned and cooked them (by we I mean Steven) and had an afternoon snack. Then we headed north to Shroud Cay for a night which included a fresh well water bucket shower that felt amazing and then on to Nassau. Tina's mother cooked us a delicious dinner of steaks and mashed potatoes and it was amazing, eating a home cooked meal not on a boat where I had to then clean all the dishes with a foot pump sink.
Highlights include watching HP every night with steven, looking at the great stars almost every night, long talks with steven and sometimes bruce and sheila about theology (he studied a lot of religion in school). Also the mexicans feeding the sharks from their sunken dive platform (very cool) while Cheyenne and I are in the water. Of course I freaked out by how close they were to me. Steven introducing me to “Salties” in Blackpoint and now I eat them like a fiend. They are sausage that you cut up and then soak in hot sauce, aka amazing. Swimming out to the floating dock at Wardwick and drinking Bruce's special punch for three hours, reading Chronicles of Narnia (I'm on Voyage of Dawn Treader now) and all the fantastic sunsets. Steven trying to feed the pigs and freaking out, hand-line fishing (new favorite) with Sheila and Steven and catching 3 squirrel fish and 1 trigger (as a boat), reeling in my very own barracuda ( I cant get rid of these guys), and snorkeling by Johnny Depp's island and seeing three 4 ft. eagle rays. The best part of the week though had to be finally catching a Dolphin (first edible fish of the season) and cracking open the bottle of champagne (Thanks Andy Millard) at 10 am to celebrate. Bruce, I learned, has a very unique way of skinning fish- using his teeth. Of course I had to try it too, its like an initiation I feel. It worked quite well, and I will say we got two meals out of that dolphin. Fish fingers from a dolphin you caught 2 hours earlier.... I could start eating fish.
