Day - 166 - Turtle Soup — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 42, fuel purchased 149 gallons, fuel purchased $528, slip fee $150 plus electric $52, daily high temperature 73°f

We are trusting the Wind Alert weather forecast that we can comfortably cross the 42 miles from Nassau to Highbourne Cay on Sunday. Craig and Day Olney contacted us and advised we just missed them by one day in Bimini. They are currently anchored at Allen’s Cay which is only three miles from Highboune Cay. We will see them in the next day or two.

The longer range forecast ( Monday thru Saturday ) is for strong east winds 20 – 25 for several days. We will stay at the Highbourne Marina on Sunday and decide if we will stay longer or anchor out. The Exumas stretch north to south so they offer good protection from east winds.

We crossed with 1 foot seas and sunny skies. Highbourne Cay Marina is a playground for the rich and perhaps famous. Beautiful white sugar sand beaches surround the marina. They charge $52 a day for electricity, $15 a day for wifi for one device and they also know how to charge for trash.

Beautiful white sugar sand beaches.

Life is good in the Bahamas

Stefanie Norris is a long time friend going back to the early 70’s. She shared a Bimini story from the 60’s when she traveled to Bimini with the Barr family from Chicago.

After dinner in Bimini one night, Tony and I decided to do some “exploring”… Off the beaten path, of course. We eventually wound up on a small dock on the back of a small restaurant, where we encountered a large sea turtle on it’s back. We were horrified to learn the turtle was upended and meant to simply die a slow death … intended for the specialty of the house…turtle soup. 😱

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Needless to say, we were compelled to act quickly and quietly and we managed to upside right one very large and heavy turtle and then to slide him into the sea. He found his fins and propelled away surprisingly quickly. He never looked back and we moved on in the mostly dark of night to other restaurants and nearby beaches, in search of other turtles who might just need a friendly turn and push. 😊
One of my most favorite Bimini memories… 🙂

Stef XO XO

Dale saved us from a near crisis on Saturday. After our lumpy crossing from Great Harbour Cay to Nassau Dale heard a whirring noise coming from the dingy on our stern platform. He discovered the bilge pump had loosened and tilted which caused the automatic float switch to engage. Left unattended that would have run down the battery and we would not be able to use the dingy. We would have had to borrow someone’s battery and jumper cables or a trickle charger. Those things are not readily available in paradise.

Sunset over the Bahama Banks

Dave (Mac) McKenna – chimes in on yesterday’s quote of the day.

I’m not a big Columbus fan. I’m surprised you didn’t use this quote from the rapist, murdering, slave trader.
“The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it.

When you ask for something they have, they never say, ‘no,’ to the contrary, they offer to share with anyone.”

“They would make fine servants, with 50 men, we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Hate to be Debbie Downer but it is what it is.

Dave

Bonus photo

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote of the day.

“Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters.”

Howard Bloomfield – Sailing to the Sun

In 1940, magazine editor Howard Bloomfield, his wife Connie, their baby son, and the family dog set sail on Kittywake, a thirty foot gaff rig sloop – destination Florida.

Sailing to the Sun is the story of their voyage; the harbors, the towns along the way, the people they met at the docks where they tied up.

My husband and I and our seven year old son had made the same trip in 1968, and this book brought back memories of rivers we’d crossed and anchorages we’d found. Though I imagine the 21st century has brought many changes, or “improvements”, for the comfort and convenience of the boats heading South, the magical names on the charts are still the same: The Alligator, the Ashepoo, Beaufort,Callibogue Sound, Dafuskie, the Dismal Swamp Canal, Hobucken Bridge , Mantanzas inlet, Thunderbolt, Oriental, and back to Oxford, where Bloomfield’s trip ends. Ours had begun from there.

The book describes the challenges as well as the pleasures of compressed living: a stroller crowding the cockpit, the delight of having porpoises swimming beside you, the satisfaction when the wind is on the quarter and the sails are set just right, the joy of feeling solid ground under your feet when you make port.

The Bloomfields pulled it off, decided to put off another such trip until the baby, who had been content to lie snug in his hammock, but was now crawling all over the place, would be able to, “swim, steer, reef, splice … and explain the engine to his father.”