Last week, we took a trip to the Bahamas, where we spent a week on a sailboat with some good friends.
This was more of an adventure trip than a luxury one: we slept in really basic bunks, and we bathed in the ocean using Lemon Joy (which, incidentally, left us much cleaner and refreshed than I expected it to).
But we'd already taken several cruises and were looking for something more low-key and to experience things we'd never done before.
My friend Heather had already sailed with this particular captain 3 or 4 times, and the descriptions of her trips made us really enthusiastic, so we put together a group of people we knew we could get along with for a week in close quarters (and who wouldn't mind Lemon Joy baths). Christopher would get to have two of his best buddies with him on the trip and miss a week of school, so he was really excited.
We had a really great time and, happily, everyone remained friends after our week together.
Here's a day-by-day account**.
(Note to our friends that were on the trip with us: I've purposely not included a lot of pics of other people, to respect your privacy, so please don't feel ignored :) )
Day 1 - Saturday
In typical Livaudais style, we cut our flight pretty close and showed up to the gate just in time to board - noice.
Two flights and a cab later, we were all at the marina to board the Bahama Star. There were to be 14 passengers (and 4 crew) on the boat, and we'd brought 11 of them. The other 3 were some guys from South Carolina who were on the trip to do some fishing. We were excited about this, because Heather mentioned that, in theory, if they caught mahi or tuna, we could have fresh sushi.
By the time everyone was at the boat, it was early evening, so we just pulled out into the bay and anchored for the night. The kids got to jump off the boat and swim around, and then we took a dinghy back to shore to let them explore an old fort. Everyone climbed around the walls and on the cannons.
the Bahama Star
me, frank and a cannon
Our little monkey running up a cannon
Frank and one of our friends
Dinner was taco salad, and then everyone sort of crashed.
** Disclaimer: I'll probably be editing this account as I remember more details about the trip.
We were headed to the Exumas, an island chain in the Bahamas a few hours away, so today started out with a long boat ride.
The sea was a bit rocky today, and everyone took their bonine or dramamine. Still, a couple of the kids got sick and some of the adults were woozy. (The 3 of us were fine the whole trip.)
While we were on our way, the fishermen got their lines in the water. The fishing added to people's wooziness because we kept stopping the boat, which made us rock all different directions, but it also provided some entertainment during the long ride.
The first catch was a pretty decent-sized barracuda. Charlie, who caught the cuda, chopped it up into pieces after terrorizing the children with it, to save and use later for shark bait. He explained that barracudas are only eaten by other barracudas and by sharks.
Finally, we starting seeing some gorgeous blue-green water, and arrived at Allen's Cay.
This place was notable because it had some huge, friendly iguanas. They were North Bahamanian rock iguanas, and their population is dwindling (from hunting and being eaten by feral pigs), so each one of these guys had been marked and was being studied. Bruce & Sheila (the captains) gave us a bag of lettuce to feed the iguanas, and we were impressed by how close they'd come to us.
Everyone played in the sand and snorkeled or swam for a few hours, and then snorkeled again around the boat, where we found a ton of sand dollars.
Check out the eye stalks on this conch. I loved this guy.
The Bahama Star from the beach
Frank took this pic by sticking the camera underwater while we were in the dinghy. I was impressed he got the ray.
C dove down to get this one himself
We had some great conch chowder for dinner, and stayed up late drinking & hanging out.
Today we had another long boat ride, but it was exciting because the guys caught 3 large dolphin fish / mahi mahi. They'd actually hooked 8 of them, but a problem with the gaff (read: giant hook on a pole) meant that only 3 made it on board. Still, it would be plenty for a couple of nights of dinner for a group this size.
I loved that the fish seemed to glow when they were just under the surface, and we thought it was interesting that the fish lost their beautiful colors pretty quickly after they were killed. I didn't particular enjoy watching them stick the knife in the fishes' brains to kill them, but I was glad they died quickly and the cleaning/fileting process didn't bother me a bit.
our crew member Eric had to wrestle all the fish to the deck and kill them. it was pretty impressive to watch.
We landed at Hawkesbill Cay, where we dinghied into shore and snorkeled/swam/played on the beach for a while. The kids were really into building sand castles and destroying each other's castles, and after a few hurt feelings it was interesting to watch them form alliances and enact (short-lived) treaties.
Bruce led interested parties on a 90-minute hike of the island, and the rest of us stayed to play.
I was actually pretty cold, though the sun was shining, because the water wasn't really warm and the wind was blowing. So after swimming for a few minutes, I wandered around the rocks in knee-deep water to look at fish, crabs, and snails and to enjoy the powdery sand. There were also quite a few small jellyfish - maybe 3 inches across - and we walked very close to them to watch them swim. Apparently, they have really long, invisible strands trailing from them, because I got stung on both feet and a leg from a couple of feet away from a jellyfish (or else was stung by one I didn't see). The burn was immediate, and made me yelp and walk out of the water. It felt maybe a bit worse than a wasp sting, and it was interesting to watch the welts rise. I kept trying to put my feet in the water to soothe them, but it seemed to make it worse, so I just buried my feet in the soft sand instead. The best course of action would have been to pee on the stings, but as I was in mixed company I opted not to do this.
When the hike was over and the boys got back, Christopher's friend D got a jellyfish sting on his wrist. Christopher ran over to see what had happened, and got stung on the back of his leg as a reward. Both boys were laying in the sand, howling and crying, and I had trouble not laughing at them (Parenting Award #1 of this trip). Of course I felt sorry for them, but the fact that Christopher ran right over to the jellyfish and then was shocked when he got stung really made me laugh. Plus, their other friend, C, who hadn't been stung, kept alternately yelling at them, "Suck it up!" "Be a man!" and "Let me pee on you!" which only made me laugh harder. Luckily, the boys were too busy rolling on the sand and crying to notice my reaction. (My only regret: that I'd forgotten the camera on the boat. Would've loved to have taken pics of the stings and aftermath.)
After the trauma/drama settled down, we went back to the boat, took our Lemon Joy baths. The boys stripped down for their baths and swam naked for a good 20 minutes. Most of the dudes on the boat were pretty casual about clothes, and I have to say: I saw a lot more nekkidness than I'd expected to on this trip.
Then we watched Charlie filet the mahi. He had come prepared, with seaweed sheets and ginger, and made sushi for everybody. We also had some cooked fish, which even Christopher loved.
I love how the sun looks like it's bleeding into the sea
The boys got up at the crack of dawn and began jumping off the boat. C and D happily jumped off the bow, but Christopher was a bit too scared to try it - he got upset after a while with all the taunting from his friends, which we sort of ignored in the hopes that they'd convince him to jump. He did jump off the side, near the front, which was almost as high, but he was pretty pissed about people bugging him. (It's funny that Frank and I ended up with such a cautious kid - is this how he rebels against us?)
After breakfast, we sailed again and the guys caught 4 more dolphin fish. D's dad let D reel another one in, but he was disappointed to find out it wasn't a keeper.
Today we arrived at Compass Cay, the first inhabited island we'd been on so far. The island is owned by a guy named Tucker, and there are a few vacation homes, a nice pier, a store/'restaurant', a gorgeous beach, and a population of nurse sharks.
Nurse sharks are docile and friendly, and to me resembled giant catfish. We got to swim among them even during feeding time. Christopher was scared, at first, but even he got comfortable pretty quickly with the sharks.
After swimming with the sharks for a bit, we walked across the island to Crescent Beach. To call the beach beautiful would be an understatement. The sand was white, and the water was ideal in color and in temperature. Commercials should be filmed on this beach, it was so pretty.
While we were playing, a large sting ray swam within a couple feet of shore and glided by us slowly a few times. It was a really pleasant afternoon.
When we got back to the boat, we were starving, and Bruce & Sheila did not disappoint. They'd set up a fryer on the dock and fried an entire turkey, which they served along with more mahi, potatoes, and veggies. It was delicious.
We woke up at Compass Cay and let the kids swim with and harass the nurse sharks for a bit, then packed some water and headed off for a hike. We walked on a trail and then across a really large flat area of sand that they sometimes us as a runway. Part of it had received asphalt at one time, and based on how it looked when we walked across, this was not a good idea.
We ended up at the Bat Cave. The kids were sorely disappointed as the only bat in sight was a black plastic baseball bat hanging from the ceiling. D even wrote in his travel journal, "The parents all laughed at the joke but I didn't see why it was funny."
We climbed around some cliffs for a while, and then walked across the desolate sandy/asphalt area toward Crescent Beach. It was during this long walk that I discovered something about myself: as much as I love sand, I don't think I could last walking across a desert more than about 6 hours before I went batshit insane. Even in this relatively firm sand, after a quarter mile or so I started feeling like I was in a bad dream - one of those dreams where it's like you're running through molasses. Also, I was hungry and thirsty, so I was already a little cranky.
Anyway, eventually we got back to Crescent Beach and passed a couple of hours playing.
For lunch we had burgers & dogs from Tucker's restaurant (where restaurant = 1 grill on a dock) and really enjoyed them.
Around 3, everyone came back to the boat. Charlie had been off in a kayak fishing for bonefish, and came back with a cool story and video: he'd been bitten on the arm by a baby bull shark he'd hooked. His shirt sleeve was shredded and he had a nice semicircle on his arm, and he was grinning from ear to ear. After this encounter, he said he was sitting in his kayak when he noticed an 8-foot bull shark right underneath him. As these are pretty aggressive sharks, he sat perfectly still until it swam away.
We headed out from Compass Cay to a place called Rocky Dundas, where you could snorkel into some caves.
From there, we sailed to South Warderick Wells, and anchored off shore. After dinner (mahi spaghetti), when it got dark, we grabbed flashlights and dinghied to the island to search for hutias. A hutia is a native rodent somewhere in size between a guinea pig and a cat, and when you shine a light on one, it freezes. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a snipe hunt until we saw our first hutia. It was fun to hear them rustling around and then scramble to try to spotlight them. The kids had a blast.
The kids woke up and ran amok for a little while, jumping off the boat and swimming to shore to make more sand castles. We were in a pretty strong current at this spot, so if they wanted to jump off, they had to jump at the bow and then bob along til they got to the back of the boat to get back on. Christopher, of course, jumped off the side, but inched ever closer to the dreaded bow.
Next, we sailed for a couple of hours and tied up at a place Bruce & Sheila referred to as Danger Reef. They threw the leftover breakfast food over, and almost immediately there was a swarm of large fish and some sharks. We were told that the adults were allowed to carefully get in the water but that the children were to stay on the boat. Also, when our friends grabbed their fins, they were quickly told NO FINS - because wearing fins makes it much harder to get back into the boat quickly if need be. With that in mind, about 10 of us slowly crept into the water to float and admire the sharks swimming around us.
This is me, really happy that I can float for the 2nd time in my life. Ever.
Not sure why it's in black & white - I think I must've pushed a wrong button.
There were at one point about 15 sharks in our vicinity, and a few times they came within a foot or two of us - right under our bellies. They were mostly lemon sharks, but there were also a few black-tipped sharks and two bull sharks, so we were all cautious with our movements. They ranged from maybe 7 to about 10 feet in length. This was probably my favorite activity of the week.
After a while, we apparently all floated into a tight group, and the sharks started swimming faster and circling us, so Bruce told us to come back in. Heather was the last one in the water, and was just about to take a video of the sharks when Sheila threw the rest of the food in the water. Heather swam toward the boat just in time, as the sharks starting darting toward her. Sheila apologized to Heather and said she was told everyone was back on board. Happily, no was was eaten, though we did discuss, afterward, that perhaps not all of the parents should have been in the water at the same time. Oh well. Parenting Award #2.
After our shark swim and another short boat ride, we got to do my second-favorite activity of the week: snorkel a plane wreck.
Norman's Cay used to house a huge cocaine smuggling operation. Bruce told us the runway there was as big as the one in Nassau. In the 1970s, a drug plane went down into the water and has been there since, partially submgerged. It made a great snorkeling site, and was fun for the kids because when they got tired they could just stand on the wings of the plane. There were tons of fish around, the fuselage was still in halfway decent shape, and we saw a huge stingray. All in all, a great activity.
Again, not sure why this video is in black & white, or why I couldn't manage to hold the camera steady :)
We passed by a small island with a lone palm tree, made famous by Corona.
Finally, we stopped for drinks on Norman's Cay at a place called McDuff's, which is apparently a favorite place of Jimmy Buffett's. Not being a big Buffett fan, I didn't care a lot about this, but I did have a nice drink there.
