"I'm Yours" - Jason Miraz

The new deck hand Matt has arrived! He is from Ohio (unfortunately a buckeye undergrad) and loves country music and the Bahama Star. He is the cousin of the deck hand from last year. He has been very patient with me trying to teach him the ropes and get in the swing of working on a boat. Our charter this week was a family group. It was four sisters and their spouses and one grandson, John, and his friend, Tanner. The sisters, Alice, Terry, Shelly, and Nede had apparently been coming about every other year for the past 20 years! They were a fun group and were all about snorkeling. They loved the water and we kept busy taking them to every reef we knew! We also did some fishing. Richie loved to fish so he would sit in the stern and tie lures and tell me all about different ones and whats best for where. Roy was an art professor at a small college in NC and he would spend the evenings sketching the different fish we saw that day. I loved to watch him and we would talk about traveling. He has taught art over in italy three different semesters and so we went on about italian food and culture. I am dying to go back yet again.

We went to Pirates lair on the back side of Wardrick wells and I remembered it as my favorite from the charter three years ago. We had hung out on the huge sandbar in the middle of the islands and played frisbee for hours. We also spent time at Compass Cay and got to hang out with my friends from the Fratelli boat as well as try a few pieces of tuna (getting used to it) with the owner while he insisted on playing “Im Yours” 20 times. It was a fun night for sure and I always enjoy the people I meet at Compass Cay. When we got in Tucker said “welcome home” I thought yeah I wish! Maybe one day... We also visited danger reef. Don't worry mom, its not that dangerous. We threw in our watermelon peels and all of a sudden there were 4 groupers that were bigger than my VW bug. Well the trunk at least! They were eating these peels and pieces of bread whole. With the grouper came the reef sharks. There were about four of them and they were only about 5-7 feet long. Bruce hops in for a snorkel and I am like um no. Well the current was really strong and I figured if Bruce can do it so can I. Matt, Terry, John, Tanner and I were the only ones who braved the water. I kept extremely close to the ladder and held on to the rope, tanner was right beside me and Matt right behind. One swam about three feet under me and I decided yep that was enough. Next time maybe I'll get a little farther from the ladder. Baby steps... (forth time “What About Bob” has come up) It was really fun and I promise I was safe mom.

On a side note, I have officially gotten over my fear of barracuda. Not only would they eat all our fish as John reeled them into the boat (leaving us with fish heads) but they would stay near the boat and in almost every snorkel we did there was at least one. The last day, we were doing a drift dive out at Wax cut which was beautiful and I found myself away from most the other snorkelers when I came across one barracuda (3 ft). I told myself not to freak out and keep going around on my business, I did and he swam off. As I watched him swim off I turned forward and there was another one (3 ft) right in front of me. I didn't panic and kept swimming past it only to have a THIRD one swim up and he was 4 ft. but alas I survived and didn't panic. So now you can bring on the barracuda.

So the week went by fast and too soon it was Friday and we were back in Nassau. We had the BBQ ribs again and anchored off at Fort Montague. A friend we had met in Abaco and seen a couple times since, Bob on After You, came over for dinner and we enjoyed our last evening together. Saturday not only did our group leave but so did Bruce and Sheila so Matt and I were left to spend a week in Nassau with no charter or schedule.

I apologize for the lack of photos, I am seriously failing at getting my camera out at all!

"Cowboy's Back in Town" -Trace Adkins

The Group: Dave, Will, Coleman, Ross, Blake, Gabe, Tanner, Micheal, Coby, Andrew, Kelton, and Cody.

My first week back I hit the ground running. My friend Steven picked me up from the airport with his brother Chris and his friend Chris. Very easy to remember. They showed me a couple of the sights here in nassau including the Rose steps and the fort ??? and the cloisters that were donated to nassau from France or somewhere. They were really cool and I enjoyed my mini tour. It is funny how little of Nassau I actually see and do. We got back to the dock and caught bruce and sheilas lines as they came into port. I met the group that had been out that week, a YL group from Tennessee. They were so nice and friendly I was sad to have missed the week. Well I got right back into work tying cleats, dropping fenders, moving the dingy, filling water tanks etc. it was like I never left.

What the boys did every night: Cigars and Poker.

Some of the days catch

The next day brought in a wave of chores as saturdays always do. Cleaning the boat and getting groceries and water and everything we need for the next charter. The next group arrived around midday and it was another YL group. All senior boys from Texas! They were a hoot. There were two leaders, Dave and John or Hallmark or princess (depending who you asked) and they were great. We sailed down all the way to Blackpoint to pick up the third leader, Blake. He had to come in a day late because of a wedding. The guys were very fun and great characters. A lot of them reminded me of guys I know from high school. It was a blessing to get to spend the week watching them. They were all about fishing so we had to avoid the park all together because you cant catch there. We watched a couple of dolphin (the fish) spit out our hooks (most depressing thing ever) but managed to always reel in the barracuda. Bruce took the boys out spear fishing and it turned out they were great at it. We ate 31 fried fish one day. Big shout out to john for cleaning it all! We also spent a night at Compass Cay so I got to say goodbye to Cheyenne. She is working at a camp in the states for the rest of the summer so it will be sad now when I go to compass.

The boys loved the pigs

Except tanner. He was really running scared!

Of course we caught some barracuda.

Friday night was spent anchored out in Nassau with a delicious dinner brought to us by the always helpful steven. We had BBQ ribs and chicken, mac-n-cheese, and peas and rice. It was amazingly delicious. The other big news was Matt, the new deckhand arrived on Friday! It was very exciting to get to meet the illusive matt and start to get to know him. Once again it was a great week and I was sad to say goodbye to another fantastic group of people. Saturday's are not getting any easier.

Snorkeling the sunken plane.

Some of the boys slept on the deck the whole week.

Cliff jumping at Thunderball! I did jump this week.

"My My Heart Like a Kick Drum" - Avett Brothers

The past week I was actually in the states! I got off work for the week to come home for a Haynie (close family friends) wedding and then family vacation! I told my parents back in December that if they really wanted me to come to family vacation it better not be at the beach. I knew I would want a break from sun and sand. Instead we spent the week enjoying the Mountains outside Cashiers NC.

The wedding was a blast and I was so excited I got to be there. Amanda looked beautiful and I finally got to meet this Shane I had heard so much about! There was dancing and catching up with almost all of Anderson and of course all the Haynie's. Enjoy the picture show thanks to the always beautiful Meg.

The Hayes!

Mallory and I

Rachel and I and of course my very mature father! (note the kicks - thanks Steph)

Dad with his favorite daughter…

The girls (Beth, Erin, Meg, Me and Mom)

After the wedding we spent the day at the lake with the whole family, including the two cutest nephews known to man (its a proven fact). So the whole family got to enjoy the great weather and the cool water. It felt very weird jumping into fresh brown water.... I forgot what it was like not seeing in the water you are swimming. (maybe bragging here) Then we headed up to the mountain house where I spent the week reading and relaxing and enjoying using a dishwasher and real sink! We ate great food and got to all catch up and it was such a blessing. Micah even took Cody, Dad and I on a morning fly fishing trip... if possible my cast has gotten worse. It was fun to get out and enjoy the water anyway. We also took a boat out on Lake Glennville and I got to drive it around. A pontoon boat is very different that a sailboat. I was sad to leave but work calls so Meg and I left Thursday so I could catch my flight the next morning. I always love just spending time with my family and having the chance to hear about whats going on and what I am missing. Still haven't understood Group-on….

Cody and Sean fishing (so cute)

Micah and I fly fishing (well I'm probably just untieing lines)

James in his new frogger chair

Sean and Tim driving the boat

GiGi and her grandkids

The whole fam at dinner

A reenactment of an old photo from when we were kids

My favorite sister and I

"I won't back down" - Tom Petty

Wow! The past ten days were nothing short of an adventure! I loved everyone on the boat (shocker I know) and had a blast hunting iguanas! Yep hunting iguanas. Dr. John has been researching the endangered species of iguanas that only lives on a few of the islands in the bahamas for the past 30 years! He spends a week (in the past its been a month) down here every year and he brings a group of students and some alumni from his college, Earlham in Indiana. This year one of his old students who is now a professor himself, Jeff, came and brought students from Denison in Ohio. So there were six Earlham students (lets see if I get this right) – Katie, Lenny “Kravitz”, Caitlin, Hallie, Annie, and Skyler with Dr. John. The Denison group was Joel, Lenden or Leeland or Leonard (depending on the day), Danika, Hillary, Shep, and Michelle with Jeff. Then there was Lynn, the Alumni who just comes every year and she was a character. The group was really great and I really enjoyed having an excuse to tramp all over 4 different islands with nooses, nets, cages, and Orange peels hunting iguanas. It was like capture the flag but with a moving target (and no other team of course).

We started on Leaf Cay which was the easiest because all the tourist go there and feed them so we easily got them to come out to us. It was good though to get us warmed up for Allen's! Allen's cay is home of about 20 GIANT iguanas. They usually spend a whole day or two there and the record was (note was) 5 iguanas. We caught 6 (7 if you count the dead one) and man were they HUGE and pretty intimidating (especially the one that broke the noose because it was so big and proceeded to charge at my face!) We had to all work as a group and surround the iguanas, which involved lots of bush whacking which lead to lots of cuts and bruises, but no serious injury. Well if you don't count pulling 3 iguana teeth out of Bruce's arm... Then we spent a day on Flat Rock where we were bombarded by seagulls for getting to close to there nests. We also did pretty well there and the boys even found a rock that was home to four iguanas. Lastly we headed over to U cay for more baiting and catching. Lynn and I would hang out on the beach throwing “fake bait” to get the iguanas to come down from the hill and then feed them some oranges while the boys ran in behind them and netted them. It was a fun and entertaining approach on iguana snatching. Dr. John would spend the afternoons measuring each iguana and tagging them and weighing them before letting them go. I got to help with the process and learn all these facts about iguanas and other reptilian creatures. I loved every day. Lastly we spent a couple of nights down in the exuma park at Bush Hill which had a different species of iguanas we called the easter egg iguanas because they were all different colors. There were red ones, green, orange, blue, and even the illusive yellow ones! They were very tricky to catch but fun to hunt non-the-less.

Shep, Skyler, Lenden, Katie, and Lenny Kravitz

Highlights include daily joy baths (we needed them), jumping off the front of the boat, picnics at camp everyday, including the delicious every flavor pringles imaginable. Releasing the giant iguanas from Allen's, and watching leeland and Lenny Kravitz and Katie wait for one stubborn iguana to come out of its hole and into their trap (at least 45 minutes). We also met up one night over at Bruce and Sheilas friends boat, The Coral Reef that does a lot of study work and captures fish for an aquarium up in Chicago. They invited us for delicious ice-cream one night and we swapped stories and enjoyed hearing about life on a big boat with ac and real toilets... Jeff, who hardly spoke, read a bed time story to Lynn and I, and Euchre was played a few nights as well as a couple harry potter discussion and getting a whole new list of books to read! We also went to the atlantis aquarium when we got back to nassau and forgetting that I was with Biology people, took the responsibility of showing them the shark tanks. An hour later we finally make it back to the big aquarium... It was really fun and I could watch Mantarays all day long anyway.

our beautiful camp site

There had been a discussion all week about wether sweet tea or unsweetened tea is better (I know. Apparently some people live in the dark ages and still drink tea without sugar.) which escalated because lynn insisted on having unsweetened and naturally I took a boat poll on which people prefer. It was a tie so Sheila being the wonderful and accommodating person she is made both on our last night on the boat. I notice that the sweet is already farther down than the unsweetened and waste no time pointing this out which some how turns into a contest to see which pitcher would be finished first. Sweet tea is continuously on top even with lynn drinking 8 glasses (I only had 3). There are about 2-3 left in mine and 6-8 in Lynne when I go down to get my jacket. Lenny Kravitz and Leeland have decided to help out and I get back to find mine with 5 glasses and the unsweetened empty. Of course I don't give up that easy and swear mine has more in it. Everyone laughs and insists I am being a poor loser. I decide to try it and sure enough the sweet tea has been DILUTED with unsweetened and I therefore win by cheating. I still don't know who did it, but I know it happened. Sheila was the unbiased judge who agreed the sweet was diluted. So Lynn, if you are reading this, know you still owe me 5 bucks.

A special thanks needs to go out to Michelle and Lenny Kravitz for all these photos (my camera never sees the light of day)

catching four iguanas under one rock!

Capt. Ron hard at work

ahh the daily lemon joy baths. always refreshing


The bush we spent 7 days treking through

The dingy rides...

Easter egg iguanas

how we weigh the babies

frantically loading the traps into the dingy

We know what we are doing… Annie, me, Leeland, Skyler, Bruce, Joel, and Shep

Bruce in his element

Dr. John in his element

getting our conch for dinner!