Staking our claim at the top of the heap

Today we arrived at Warderick Wells, one of the most beautiful spots in the Bahamas and home to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.  A wonderful organization dedicated to marine conservation, established in 1958, Exuma Park is one of 25 National parks and protected areas managed by the Bahamas National Trust.  Unique in the world, the trust is believed to be the only non-profit, non-governmental agency mandated with management of a nationwide system of parks and protected areas.  In 1986 the Bahamas National Trust established the Exuma Park as a complete NO TAKE ZONE and marine protected area, the first in the wider Caribbean.  Their slogan is "take only pictures, leave only footprints"

My best friend Lisa enjoying the breathtaking views as we enter Warderick Wells

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

Fat Bottom Girl at Anchor

Getting ready to put our new sign board atop Boo Boo Hill

Lisa in the carcass of a 52' sperm whale on display on the beach

It's official - Fat Bottom Girl has staked our claim at the top of the heap

Buddy was in awe at the beauty

So very blessed

We spent our morning hiking to Boo Boo Hill to place our homemade sign board at the top of the pile. It's so interesting to read all the boat name boards and to see what port they hail from. Some of the boards have been there for years, and some placed just days before. 

Today was a great day!  

The World Wide Web is not necessarily available all over the World.......

Hi folks,

We departed on an incredible journey on 04/10/13 and this is the first time we've had internet access.  I just wanted to let you all know we are alive and well and hope to have a better connection by tomorrow when we arrive in Staniel Cay. It has taken me close to an hour to simply access this page and attempt to write a blog post.   I will update the blog at that time and hopefully be able to upload pictures then.

Having a blast in paradise with my favorite guy and my best friend Lisa Queen and her man!

Jackie

Paradise Found

What an amazing two day's we've had  making new discoveries together.  Even though we've been to Normans and Shroud Cays before, there are many things that we still had not seen.  We started the day  venturing to see all of the little homes built "duty free" on Wax Cay.  We were told that the building materials used were antique wood shipped in from Bali and because they were antiques they were exempt from duty tax.   

Homes on Way Cay

Community Pavilion

We headed on to what we call "Gilligan's Island" which is nothing more than a patch of sand with a palm tree.    There are two memorial markers on this little island dedicated to Aleda and Ronald Turner.  The first being a marble headstone type marker and the second being a bench placed directly beneath the palm tree.

Our own little Gilligan's Island

 Memorial No. 1

Memorial No. 2

My Bestie & Buddy

The next day we took the dingy up the Northern Creek on Shroud Cay to find what can only be described as Paradise!  I was in awe at the beauty and also in the fact that this is someplace that so few people know about.    This is Discovery Beach, I have read about it and seen one or two pictures but I was not prepared for the overall feeling of peace and tranquility I felt here.

Discovery Beach

Discovery Beach

Top of Camp Driftwood

Camp Driftwood

I had read that somewhere in the vicinity of Discovery Beach was a place called Camp Driftwood where a hermit once lived.  He built his shelter at the top of the island out of driftwood.  As David likes to say, Jackie is like a billy goat and likes to climb.  I was not about to leave this beautiful place before I hiked to the top and low and behold I FOUND IT!  There is nothing left today but this sign to show you found it, but I felt a sense of accomplishment none the less.  Besides, if we wouldn't have hiked to the top, we would have never seen this beautiful view.   This is truly a day I will never forget :)

1st Stop on the Adventure...

We arrived in Highbourne Cay at 4:30PM, by the time we anchored and got settled in and lowered "Little Girl" it was too late to do any exploring so we whipped up a great meal of steak and shrimp ceviche.  The next morning we headed to the marina to buy a pair of sunglasses for Lisa, she lost them Friday night and it could possibly have something to do with the Goombay smashes...  When we pulled in we saw a huge ship named Ohana, what a beauty.   I'm not sure how many crew she had, but enough to have two guys at the fish cleaning station cutting up giant Mahi-Mahi to dangle from lines to feed the nurse sharks and entertain the children staying on Ohana.

Lisa in front of Ohana

Fish Cleaning Station 

We left the marina headed to Allen's Cay to check out the iguanas.  We had a bag of grapes and asparagus,  as soon as we beached the dingy they came a running.   We always use sticks to hold the grapes when feeding them, but Buddy had the bright idea to use his finger as a stick...  Not a good idea because he found out just how sharp their bone plates are when one decided to chomp down on his finger.  Lisa then decided she was going to become the "Iguana Whisperer" and subdue one before she tried to feed him; she must have done a great job because she didn't get bit.

Lisa the "Iguana Whisperer"

We headed back to Highbourne to spend the remainder of the day snorkeling.  We found a great spot just off the Northern tip of the island that had a baby conch nursery.  If there are babies, mom and dad must be close.  We left that spot and found a close by channel with a little more current and a lot more grass (conch heaven).  Even though we were unsuccessful, we had a great time.  When we returned to Fat Bottom Girl, both Lisa and David were wiped out from getting too much sun and they both had an uncomfortable evening.    Other than that, it was all in all a great day.

It Finally Happened

I can't believe it finally happened; my best friend "Crazy Lisa Queen" and her man Buddy have arrived in Nassau ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Due to the sea conditions mentioned earlier, we arrived in Nassau a few hours later than anticipated.  We had just tied up at the dock, Customs & Immigration were still on board getting us checked in, when all of a sudden here she comes prancing down the dock screaming "I see her, there's my Fat Bottom Girl".  She had to wait until Customs finished before she could board, so she did what she does best, started chatting with Clark a local Bahamian who we hired to wash the boat.   She was very salty and needed a good scrubbing (Fat Bottom Girl that is, not Lisa)......   We greeted Lisa and Buddy with the customary welcome aboard drink, a Goombay Smash, or two, or three...

We went to the local Chinese restaurant across the street which was highly recommended by 3 or 4 different people who had just eaten there that night.  We discovered that the chefs culinary skills were obviously spent on the evenings prior guests because he didn't share any of his skills with us.  Apparently taste buds are in short supply in Nassau.

It was our intent to depart early the next morning, but mother nature had other plans.  We decided to stay put another night.  This next statement will only make sense to those of you that know Lisa. I was asked to purchase one thing for her and one thing only; her coffee creamer "International Delight White Chocolate Macadamia Creamer" and I forgot!!!!!    I felt horrible so David and I set out on a mission to find some.  Even though Nassau has come a long way with respect to the variety of groceries they stock, but they don't sell it.   So we found a local coffee shop and bought a gallon jug of White Chocolate syrup in a wholehearted attempt to appease her.  I know it's not what she wanted, but she was a real trooper and choked it down....

We decided to take "Little Girl" down and do a little exploring.  We like to eat where the locals do, so we went the the shanty row under the bridge for some of the best conch salad we have ever had.  This was a first for Buddy and he loved it, in fact he ate it as though he hadn't eaten anything else in a month.  I quickly came to realize this is just Buddy...

Conch Salad

We had a great night hanging out in the cockpit, watching the sunset and enjoying cocktails, good tunes and the company of best friends.

Hold on Gilligan this is going to be a bumpy ride!

We departed Ft. Pierce Inlet at 6:30AM to a beautiful sunrise, the weather reports were calling for 3'-5' seas with 7 second intervals (smooth sailing).  What we actually had was 7'-8' seas with 2 second intervals (rough sailing).  To make matters worse, the 15-20 knot winds turned out to be 25-30 knots and couple this with direct bow rollers made for one rough ride.

Sunrise at Ft. Pierce Inlet

Before any departure, you should go through the entire vessel and prepare it for the trip.  Lock all the locks on the cabinet doors, make sure all windows are closed and locked, tie down the cockpit furniture, stow anything and everything that can fly and most importantly, PUT THE CLAMP ON THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR!     

Within an hour of departure the bow was slamming with such force that it was causing a great amount of water to come over the flybridge, we decided it was safer to go downstairs into the pilot house so we could stay safe, dry and keep an eye on the inside.   When we went down, it was like a scene from the Wizard of Oz  things were flying about everywhere and guess what I forgot to do...., CLAMP THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR SHUT!   90% of the contents of the overstocked fridge were all over the kitchen and cockpit floor.  To my disbelief, not one item broke or opened!   After spending about 15 minutes putting everything back I realized that I was seasick.   I won't go into details about the rest of my morning, but it was ugly to say the least.  Thank God for Captain Dave, because Captain Jack was done.   

HOLD ON!

The sea condition never changed for the entire trip, I don't care what course change we made, we still had rollers slamming into the bow.  After about 16 hours of torture and exhaustion we considered going into  Port Lucaya Harbour for safe cover.  After being informed by the Harbour Master that weather conditions were going to be the same for the next two days we decided to motor on and braved the storm to stay on schedule. I was  able to handle all of my watches thanks to the steady dose of Pepto Bismol, Ritz Crackers and Gatoraid administered by David. After 36 hours we finally made it to Nassau and all I can say is that the Atlantis on the horizon never looked so good!

Arriving in Nassau

We had a much better slip than the last time we stayed here and had a few great dock hands to help us with the lines.  After a quick tie up, a quick shower and a real bite of food we dropped from exhaustion.   That's all I have to say about this leg of the journey and I can only pray it gets better from here.

A day of relaxing....

Today we hung out in Little Harbour and ventured to the Gallery to see if Pete had any new pieces that might catch our eye. Congratulations must be in order, because we noticed many of his large pieces had been sold and the small inventory (that we could afford) was pretty sparse - so no new treasures today.  We also tried to get a tour of the Foundry, but it was closed.    

Gallery on the left with arched windows, and Pete's Pub is behind the dock

View from Atlantic side

We went to check out the caves, but they've added a "Private Property" sign.  So we skipped the main cave and went into the other without a sign.

They have houseboats in the Abacos too

We went back to Fat Bottom Girl for lunch and noticed there were small sea turtles everywhere.  I tore up some lettuce and attempted to feed them, but they weren't having it.  The Remora's didn't really give the turtles a chance - they scarfed it up the second it hit the water - they will eat anything and eat it quickly!  


Then out of nowhere, we see something black skiting across the water, it flew up out of water and did a back flip.  It was a stingray, I have no idea what type of rays are in the Bahamas, but we all thought it looked like a baby manta ray.  It had the scooped mouth/face - it was very pretty.

Sea Turtle - they were very shy and wouldn't come to close to the boat

Fat Bottom Girl on anchor in Little Harbour

Image of a Remora copied off of Google

It was a great day to just relax and enjoy the beauty around us.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Today was a fantastic day - we departed Great Guana Cay headed to Little Harbour (my favorite spot in the Abacos).  However, we knew we needed to somehow replace the anchor light bulb, before another night on the hook.  Since it's about 15' up the mast and none of us posses monkey skills, we had to find a ladder.   I called Troy at Harbor View Marina in Marsh Harbour, a place we've stayed a few times before, to see if he had a ladder we could borrow.  Fortunately he did, so off to Marsh Harbour we went.   Upon entering the Harbor, we saw Kadey Krogen "Dare to Dream", they flagged us down and complimented Fat Bottom Girl and even asked if she was brand new.   He was shocked when I told him, No, she's actually a 2000 and hull number 01, the first 58 made. Once tied up at the dock, David and Troy got the ladder and brought it to the boat, it only took a few minutes for Ryan to shimmy up the ladder and get the new bulb installed.  We returned the ladder, thanked Troy and started our way to Little Harbour. 

Since we were going to fish today, we chose to go outside the Sea of Abacos into the Atlantic for the 24 mile run.  It was a perfect day with perfect seas!

Pappy & Pappy "J"

I caught the first fish of the day which was about a 30/lb Tuna (I was ecstatic since the last one got off the hook just as we were bringing it on to the swim platform).  The crazy thing about catching this fish was, we thought it was much bigger than it really was because of the way it was fighting.  When we got it close to the boat we realized why - there was a huge Mahi Mahi (we think) at least three times as long as the Tuna right on it's tail!!!  In fact,  if you blow up the picture below you can see bite marks.  It took chunks out of the Tuna's tail as well as a few gashes on the side of his body.  If we would have been smart, we would have dropped another line in to try and catch that fish too, I guess we were all so shocked about the fish chase we didn't think of it.

Just as soon as this fish was on the upper deck for cleaning, the line started zipping again.  David pulled in a Spanish Mackerel, and Ryan followed up with an immediate Barracuda.

With fishing complete, we anchored just outside of Little Harbour.  Fat Bottom Girl's draft is too deep to go into the Harbour at low tide.   The anchorage had a lot of surge - and sitting there from about 4:00-8:00PM was all I could take.  I was so thankful  that David took Little Girl in to check the depth at about 7:30.  Once we were at high tide, we moved Fat Bottom Girl into the Harbour.   All I can say is hallelujah, it was a welcome calm for my stomach.  It wasn't that bad, it's just when you are already feeling slightly queasy, then you add fish cutting up duty, the two don't go well together.  Ryan cleaned them, I just trimmed them up and vacuum sealed them - but that was enough. 

View from the Galley at Anchorage

It seems as though we've eaten fresh fish every day since we started the trip.  Here is a list of what we've made so far.  Grilled Wahoo Steaks, Sauteed Spanish Mackerel, Grilled Wahoo Tacos, Fried Mackerel Sandwiches, Fish and Grits, Seared Ahi Tuna, Tuna Tataki and Ahi Poke.

Seared Ahi Tuna

Ahi Poke - Pronounced "Ah-Hee - Poke-ee"

After we got into the harbour, we went to "Pete's Pub" for a BURGER and a Blaster!  I think we'd all had enough fish, and just needed a good ole hamburger for our 4th of July dinner.

God Bless America - Happy Independence Day!