Carpe Diem!

Bridgette had not been able to join us in the Bahamas last year but made good on her promise to do so this year! 

Life is Good!!!!

She and her boyfriend, Griff, arrived at Saunders Beach at around 10:30 am, two hours after Daniele's taxi had left. This was much earlier than we had expected and was an excellent development! We had planned to leave the next morning but since they had arrived so early, we had time to motor to Highbourne Cay that day. They were exhausted from their work week and travels and needed a day of rest to recover anyway and since the wind wasn't favorable for sailing they didn't miss any excitement on the trip over from Nassau to the Exumas.

Bridgette grew up boating, fishing and snorkeling and loves the ocean, It had been quite a while since we'd had good conditions for snorkeling when she was with us, and her primary objective for her time in the Bahamas was to snorkel as much as possible. Griffin hails from Massachusetts, and while he'd spent much time in the northern marine environment, he had never snorkeled before so Bridgette was also anxious for him to experience the underwater wonders of the tropical sea.

We started their snorkeling adventure the next day at one of our favorite spots at Allan's Cay. The weather forecast was "iffy" for the rest of the week and we wanted to make sure they got to see the good stuff first!

Objective Met! 

Griff is a Natural in the Water

Sunshine and Clear Water Make for Fabulous Photos

The dinghy ride back to Highbourne from Allan's was fairly strenuous and time-consuming since we were headed upwind and against the current. 

The next day, the wind direction was favorable for sailing and fishing so we decided to make a round trip journey from Highbourne Cay to Shroud Cay and back and fish along the way. Unfortunately, our bad fishing luck continued; we only had one bite the whole day and it was a barracuda

What Fishing Looks Like When Nothing is Biting

When we returned to Highbourne that afternoon, we chose to anchor in a new location on the north side of the island since the wind was expected to be from the south for the next couple of days. There were also several decent sized coral heads in this anchorage and Bridgette and Griff capped off the day with another round of snorkeling before dinner.

Snorkeling Coral Heads at the North Highbourne Anchorage

The snorkeling in the anchorage was much better than we had expected and had plenty of color and fish. We were stalked by a barracuda, and also spotted a large sea turtle there from the boat although we weren't able to see it up close in the water.

The next day, Steve took Bridgette and Griff on one last snorkeling expedition at one of our other favorite spots on the east side of Leaf Cay. That afternoon, they spent a little time at the beach while Steve and I got things ready for our return to Nassau the next day.

View from the Hammock

Although the winds had continued to be higher than normal during the week of Bridgette and Griff's stay, we were very happy that we were able to do all of the things that we (and they) had hoped to do during their visit. We were also thrilled to make it the entire time without an "event"!

We had beautiful sailing conditions - and held between 7 and 8 knots - the next day for our return to Nassau. We anchored in Montague Bay and were just settling down for our final evening together when I turned and looked out of the window at the front of the boat.  What?!?  There was a monohull pushed up against Starry Night, its starboard side contacting our bow, 

We all ran to the bow and the man in the boat - speaking broken English - was saying, "My anchor is fine.  My GPS says I haven't moved!". Since our bridle was tight and we were on the downwind side of his boat, I knew that we were the stationary vessel and he was the one whose anchor had drug but I assured him that it didn't matter whose "fault" it was. The task at hand was to get his boat off of ours without damage to either.

Too Close for Comfort

Steve and Griff took places at the front of the boat trying to keep the monohull off of Starry Night with their legs while I grabbed fenders and tried to place them between the two boats.

We were all concerned about the Captain of the Sunflower starting his motor since it was directly over the top of our anchor chain.  In addition the Sunflower's keel was over our bridle and, since it was windy, the bridle was pulled taut.  Motoring away from Starry Night carried a high risk of damaging its keel.

While Griff and I continued trying to keep a fender between the two boats, Steve and Bridgette lowered the dinghy and came around to the front of Starry Night to try to push the Sunflower off without requiring the use of the Sunflower's motor. Another couple from a nearby boat had also seen what was going on and came over to see if they could help. As luck would have it, one of the couple spoke French and was able to communicate with the Sunflower's captain and explain what we were trying to do. 

In fairly short order, Steve managed to free the Sunflower and we were once again very thankful to have had two additional pairs of capable hands (and strong legs) to expedite the process and minimize the damage. Starry Night had no real damage at all, just a few scratches which will most likely require nothing more than a bit of buffing to remove. All's well that ends well, but we were certainly disappointed to have ended the week with another boat-related incident.

Bridgette and Griff's flight was scheduled for 4 pm the next afternoon, and so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the morning before they headed to the airport.  About an hour after arriving at the airport, Bridgette texted that the flight had been delayed. Uh oh.  Deja vu... Then came the next text; this time the flight was cancelled.  The good news was that Bridgette and Griff had a day of buffer in their travel plans, and to the airline's credit, they issued vouchers for a night's stay at a local all-inclusive resort to all of the passengers and provided shuttle service to and from the airport. 

The next day at the airport brought more of the same. The flight they had rebooked was scheduled to depart at 11 am but was delayed multiple times.  They were able to rebook - again - though and actually leave Bahamian airspace in time to make their rebooked flight in Atlanta. And there was much rejoicing!! 😀

In the meantime, our friends Mark and Jan had arrived and we departed from Nassau for the last time of this Bahama season.  As they did last year, they bought one-way tickets to the Bahamas and would spend the remainder of our time there exploring and then make the return trip with us back to Florida.