Our week with Alec and Nathan

Hi All,
It's been a busy week so we're just now able to take a minute to update you on what we've been doing.

Our friends Jay and Carol left on Sunday, April 3 and my grandson Alec and his friend Nathan arrived on Friday, April 8. In between we cleaned the boat and made multiple trips to town in order to stock up on the food we'd need for the following week. We also bought the 15 HP 2 stroke dinghy motor we've been coveting. Now we have two dinghies and 3 motors. Are you SURE you don't want to buy a dinghy and an outboard or two?

Alec and Nathan arrived Friday morning so we drug them along to make the last grocery store run and a few other errands before going back to the marina where we were docked. Palm Cay Marina is on the southeast corner of New Providence Island and is very nice with some great staff and all at one of the best prices on New Providence. Here are a few pictures from around the marina.

No Alec or Nathan

No Alec or Nathan

No Alec or Nathan

Ahhhh, there they are! Right where you'd expect to find 18 year old boys on their last high school spring break.

Saturday we headed to the Exumas to do some snorkeling and exploring. It took us about 5 hours to get to Normans Cay. This is the site with the DC-3 that crashed into the water which makes for an interesting snorkeling spot. Unfortunately I once again forgot to take my underwater camera and Nathan did as well. The unfortunateness (made up word) of this became even more evident a bit later.

Sunday we moved to Shroud Cay, just a bit south, and inside the Exumas Land and Sea Park. Here we met up with our friends Andrew and Sharon on Z-Raye. At Shroud we dinghy hiked to the other side by way of several salt water rivers that run through the island.

Susan, Sharon and Drew in Z-Raye's dinghy motoring up the river.

Nathan kissing the beach on the Exuma Sound side of the island.

The view from on top of Shroud Cay.

A view of the river back to the Exuma Bank side.

We made a short hike to a natural fresh water well. Here's Drew drawing some water from the well.

Nathan was the only one "brave" enough to drink some of it.

Perhaps this is why nobody else was interested in drinking the water.

After our dinghy hike and short walk to the well, we snorkeled.

Here is Alec trying to get a closer look at something.

 

The "something" was a ray that was about 6 feet from wing tip to wing tip. They are so very graceful.

Back on Good Morning Vietnam, Drew is ecstatic over the storage bag Susan made for his dinghy.

Sunday evening Drew and Sharon joined us for dinner and to celebrate Nathan's 18th birthday. Part of the great experience is every time we're anchored with Z-Raye or Miss Adventure, we always eat dinner together, on one boat or the other.

On Monday we moved to Emerald Rock which is just off the Land and Sea Park headquarters on Warderick Wells. Here we hiked up to the top of Boo Boo Hill on Warderick Wells and then snorkeled again.

From the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Alec and Nathan displaying their handiwork. On the top of Boo Boo Hill is a place to leave mementos showing you have been there.

We're not the only ones to have done this.

Good job!

Z-Raye got in on the action too.

Don't jump!

Grouper

One of the largest lobster we had ever seen. It's hard to get the scale in this picture but this guy was at least 3 feet long, not counting his antennas. "I'm in the park and you can't get me!"

Notice Bahamian Lobsters don't have claws. Officially they are crawfish, not lobsters.

Beautiful Queen Angelfish

Another Grouper.

Tuesday we move to Little Halls Pond so we could snorkel the Sea Aquarium. We also picked up our friends Kent and Heather on Miss Adventure here. We snorkeled the sea aquarium on Tuesday and then Miss Adventure and Z-Raye joined us on Good Morning Vietnam for cocktails and dinner. The bad news was half way through our snorkeling of the sea aquarium my waterproof camera was no longer waterproof.  RIP

The last picture taken with my underwater camera.

Wednesday we all piled onto Miss Adventure and motored over to Rocky Dundas, with three dinghies in tow, to do some more snorkeling. No pictures from me, if anyone else will send me theirs I'll add them. Rocky Dundas has two caves you can snorkel into, Alec and Nathan considered it the best snorkeling they had all week. Pretty much all of us saw the nurse shark that was swimming around and there is also one less Lionfish there. See my previous post about the destruction Lionfish are doing in Florida and the Bahamas.

Wednesday evening, thanks to Kent and Heather, will be one not many of us will forget. Kent and Heather have spent a lot of time in the Exumas over the years and have met several of the Island Managers. What is an Island Manager, you ask? If you were rich and you decided to buy your own island in the Bahamas, you would need some one to take care of it and run it for you. That's an island manager. Some islands have one, some islands have a few and some islands have a staff of forty. All eight of us were invited to a private island for cocktails by one of the "island managers". We had drinks at the palapa on the beach with a fully stocked refrigerator. We had a great time. Our host was a fantastic host as well as a lot of fun. I can guarantee Alec and Nathan will still be talking about that night when they're 50.

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Miss Adventure as Z-Raye and Good Morning Vietnam moved north, back to Normans Cay so Andrew and Sharon could snorkel the plane wreck and Alec and Nathan could as well, this time with a camera. Still no pictures from me. The current was running pretty strong so we only snorkeled 20 minutes or so and then went looking for other spots. It was a nice dinghy ride but we didn't find any place to snorkel.

Friday morning we moved farther north, to Leaf Cay and SW Allens Cay. They boys snorkeled all around and swam with a couple of nurse sharks. Here are a few pictures I took with my good camera.

Friday evening Drew and Sharon came over for our last night before parting. We got a few pictures of the group to close out the day.

Saturday morning Z-Raye headed to Eluethera and we headed back to New Providence. Sunday morning we took the boys to the airport for them to catch a plane home. We had a good time, I think they had a good time. It was a busy week.

I'm tired of writing and you're probably tired of reading. That's it for now.
Take care.

Brian