Day 167 - 1/2 Cats — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $150 plus electric $52, daily high temperature 73°f

The Highbourne Cay Marina is a five star resort. CL is the size of several of the mega yacht’s dinghies that are tied up here. Hamburgers are $22, a glass of house wine $14 and a cup of coffee $10. They have several beaches within walking distance that have very soft white sand. There are Adirondack beach chairs, giant floating rubber carpets, plush couches and chairs with water views, a bonfire pit, free use of kayaks and golf cart rentals.

This is the cracked conch dinner – delicious.

Craig and Day Olney onboard Toucan Deux are anchored only a few miles north of us at Allen’s Cay. Here are their comments. “We heard you check in on the vhf. Getting a slip was smart, we spent the night rock and rolling in a 20+ kt wind out of the north with 5 other cats (one 70 footer), a trawler and two monohulls (1/2 cats).”

“Don’t know what we’re going to do, depends on the wind. With the heavier wind we’ve got a good hook. With a lighter wind, the current reverses our pull on the anchor (a Delta) and pulls it out, the sand isn’t very deep and there’s a strong current here. One of our alternatives is to come over to the west side of Highbourne and anchor off of the beach. We’ll see what happens.”

Priscilla and I took a dingy ride to try to find Craig and Day but it was too rough to cross the opening between Highbourne and Allen’s Cay. We stopped to explore a deserted beach instead.

Deserted beach selfie.

There is a boat broker from Marina Bay in Ft Lauderdale that had seen us on the docks while we were there. He is at Highbourne Marina with his family on a 50′ Horizon catamaran. He is a accompanying a couple from South Africa who chartered a 70′ catamaran that have an interest in purchasing. The price range for the 70 footer is in the sixes. That would be six million dollars.

There is a fellow on a Hatteras 90′ that wants to do the Loop on his SeaRay 460. He has two full time crew on his Hatteras. His trophy wife is not interested In doing the Loop because she would have to be the crew.

Here are the two boats, Horizon catamaran and Hatteras, side by side.

We have decided to stay at Highbourne Marina until Thursday to wait out the weather. We have lots of company here. This bull shark hangs around under our dock.

We head from some folks in the Berry Islands where we had recently visited Great Harbour Cay that a sailboat has drifted onto a sandbar. There was no one onboard and the anchor was down but had dragged. Eventually they tracked the owner to Montreal. He had anchored the boat and went home to Canada.

Bonus photo

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote of the day

“The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary.” – Agnes de Mille

Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer. She was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMilleand her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors. Her mother, Anna Angela George, was the daughter of Henry George, the economist. On her father’s side, Agnes was the granddaughter of playwright Henry Churchill de Mille.

She had a love for acting and originally wanted to be an actress, but was told that she was “not pretty enough”, so she turned her attention to dance. As a child, she had longed to dance, but dance at this time was considered more of an activity, rather than a viable career option, so her parents refused to allow her to dance. She did not seriously consider dancing as a career until after she graduated from college. When de Mille’s younger sister was prescribed ballet classes to cure her flat feet, de Mille joined her. De Mille lacked flexibility and technique, though, and did not have a dancer’s body. Classical ballet was the most widely known dance form at this time, and de Mille’s apparent lack of ability limited her opportunities. She taught herself from watching film stars on the set with her father in Hollywood; these were more interesting for her to watch than perfectly turned out legs, and she developed strong character work and compelling performances. One of de Mille’s earliest jobs, thanks to her father’s connections, was choreographing the Cecil B. DeMille film Cleopatra (1934). DeMille’s dance director LeRoy Prinz clashed with the younger de Mille. Her uncle always deferred to Prinz, even after agreeing to his niece’s dances in advance, and Agnes de Mille left the film.