Month: March 2019

We made it to Sandyport Resort before or Bonnie and Richard. (Darn airplane delays.)  So we headed for the beach bar Blue Sail for a couple of Sands and Sands Light while we watched the water and waited for our friends.  

Sandyport is what I would call a boutique resort.  It is small, but very friendly and very nice.  We had a great condo with our own balcony to watch the canal.  We got to see some spotted rays and turtles.  Nothing and I mean nothing can compare to the sound of water hitting the rocks outside.  We had dinner at Twisted Lime that first night. (yummy and great service)

Sunday morning the resort provided a continental breakfast and a briefing about what they have to offer and the area.   After that they took us to the grocery store in a shuttle.

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The 2nd night we ate at Spritz an Italian restaurant.  All the places we ate at were within walking distance and within the Sandyport neighborhood.  Days were spent at the pool or beach.  We had one rainy day and John did our taxes and poor Bonnie hurt he foot and had to have have some medical attention.  We are all sure glad it was not broken.  It did not stop her one bit from enjoying the pool, beach, yummy dinners and her birthday.

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We enjoyed Twisted Lime so much we ate there 3 times and even made it our last hooray!  Olivia was our waitress for 2 night and she was the best.  But all to soon our week of fun came to an end…….But then on to week 2 of vacation.

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On 3/23 we head to the airport to say goodbye to Bonnie and Richard and pick up John’s sister Christy.  We are so glad she decided to fly down and spend a few days with us.  Since there was some heavy wind on the first day we decided to enjoy Palm Cay Marina where we had our boat.  It was nice to just enjoy the pool and beach.  We headed for Jaws Beach on 3/25.  It is called that as one of the Jaws movies was filmed in the cove.  Christy even “drove” the boat over.  On the way we passed The Atlantis Resort.  We even saw a parasailer.  Sunrise was beautiful there. 

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After a toooooooooo short visit with Christy we headed out and over to Eleuthera.  Looking for the glass window, pink sand and more.

We enjoyed a late lunch at Xuma’s at Highbourne Cay Marina.  I think we will take Christy there.  The next day we headed over to Southwest Allen’s Cay and fed the iguanas and enjoyed a day of swimming  and paddle boarding in the very calm cove.  I was even able to stand up and paddle for awhile.  Unfortunately John was not able to get a photo.  (Sorry Katie maybe next time.)  John saw a ray and a lobster in the water.  It was a nice calm place to hang out.  There was a large tender off a big boat that got stuck in the shallow water.  All the people had to get off and they even had to push it out into deeper water.  Note: make sure of the tide before you anchor somewhere.

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After a great day hanging around we headed back to Highbourne to anchor.  The way the wind was going to come up it was the best place to anchor.  We saw a very NICE motor yacht with a slide set up.  I asked John for a slide for next year but he said he did not have enough air in him to blow it up.  Oh well.  It was a very rocky/bouncy night as the winds picked up to about 20 knots.  It calmed down some the next morning so we could make our way up to Nassau.  On the way out we saw a sea plane land and take off.

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The motor sail to Nassau was great.  We had the headsail up and we were getting 7.5 to 8 knots.  We were flying.  We did get passed by a beautiful monohull.  John got some great photos and when we got to Palm Cay Marina they were there.  We met Pierre from s/v Renaissance III and we shaired the photos with them.  It is very hard to get photos of you own boat while under sail.  We were in the right place at the right time.  Friday moNing it was laundry and clean up time.  We need to get the boat ready for Christy and since we will be spending the week in Nassau at the Sandyport Resort with Bonnie and Richard, we would not have any other time.  Of course we did have time for some yummy pizza at the beach club here.

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On 3/16 we want to wish a happy birthday to VeNessa and we are sorry to have missed her party.  A Wease Birthday Party back home is whole lot of fun and we will miss being with all the family.  We cannot wait to send the week with Bonnie and Richard at Sandyport Beach Resort.  Nassau will never be the same after “Lasky Party of 4” gets finished.

We decided to head up to Staniel Cay on 3/1.  We have our underwater camera charged and want to get some photos of Thunderball Grotto.  There were lots of fish “fins” and lots of swim “fins”.  But we did get some cool photos.  A lot of tour boats bring people to the Grotto and some of the young and foolish ones jump into it from the hole in the roof.  I was glad John did not get jumped on while he was taking some photos.  And while we are “young” at heart, we did not jump!

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Staniel Cay has some cute homes and one night we got to see the “green” flash at sunset.  At night some of the light in the homes had evil eyes!  Spooky!  We spent several day going from Staniel Cay to Pig Beach.  I did not go back to see the pigs since we already had photos of them and I had nothing to feed them.  They can bite you.

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 On 3/5 we headed up to Warderick Wells in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.  After we got there we took a dingy ride over to Rendezvous Beach and took a little swim.  We tried to sit on the beach for a while but the “noseems” were bad.  There was a north easterly wind coming up and the Emerald Rock field was full.  The office said it has not been full like that for several years.  There was a bit of a tussle.  There are about 6 mooring balls for very large ships (numbers 1-6) and small boats are asked not to take them.  Well a small boat had been on one for a night already and had paid for 2 nights when a very large power boat came in and started to complain.  He was making a big jerk of himself and tried to make the small boat move.  The wonderful park employee took responsibility for the mistake as she had allowed the small boat to be there.  The power boat did get a big ball but what a show it was.

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On 3/7 we headed up to Hawksbill Cay and enjoyed a dingy ride and some beach time.  We stayed one night and then headed to Shroud Cay for a night. On 3/9 we got up and headed to Highborne Cay for a few nights.  We hope to try out the restaurant to see if Katie and Christy would enjoy it when they come down.  I just hope we remember to spring forward on Sunday the 10th!  We islanders do kind of forget about things like that and also what day of the week it is.  But we never ever forget where we put our bottle of rum!

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On 2/19 we moved closer to Kid Cove near Lake Victoria (closer to ice and water). It was less rocky and we enjoyed several days on that side of the harbor. While there we met another couple that have a Wildcat like us. Marc and Isabella of s/v Isla Bonita keep their boat in George Town and fly down for a while in the winter from Canada. They both came aboard to see our boat and look at the changes we made. We were not able to make it to see their boat before we left. I hope we meet up with them again somewhere. On Friday the 22nd the Regatta held the “Round The Island” race. It was a timed start and all the boats went around Stocking Island. John and I decided we would try to find a new location in the harbor so we went from Monument Beach all the way to Sand Dollar Beach looking for a less rocky location. We found a spot at Honeymoon Beach close to shore. That is the good thing about a “cat”. You can get close to shore.

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While the “Round The Island” race was fun to listen to on the radio, we could not see much. The “color” commentary by Donna and Lisa was great. We did have a great spot to watch the “In Harbor” race on Sunday and we got some great photos. It was a two lap race we sat on the bow and watched while we listened to Donna and Lisa again. They were very funny!

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On Monday the 25th we left George Town to slowly make our way to Nassau. Our first stop was at Emerald Bay Marina for gas and water. After that it was out into the Exuma Sound for a trip up to Musha Cay for a couple of days. The funny thing was that a bunch of boats left George Town when we did and we saw a few while we were getting gas. As we were moving up the sound we kept hearing one of those boats s/v Cupcake trying to hail a vehicle that may have been in distress. At first we could not see her or the other boat but then we saw the smoke and Cupcake. At that point we turned around and headed to help. We were about 5 miles and it was taking us some time to get there. The m/y Patience was also heading that way and they launched their tender. The tender got there very fast and there was only one single handed sailor and he was in his dingy or life raft and was ok. The m/y got there and planned to wait for the sailboat to sink. They were asked if any other assistance was needed and they advised they were fine. When Cupcake and us heard that we both headed on our way. From Facebook we saw that his flexible solar panels caught the canvas bimini on fire.

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After that drama we got to Musha Cay and anchored. We stayed 2 nights and one day we swam and drove our dingy around. John and I were both able to practice getting into the dingy from the water it makes it nicer to take the dingy to a snorkel location. We even got photos of The Musician a statute placed in the water near the Cay.

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On 2/27 we headed for a short trip back up to Black Point. We did not go into the Sound as the wind had picked up. John had to be on the lookout for shallow areas and coral heads the whole way. At Black Point we were able to make it to Scorpio’s for the cruisers happy hour. We got to meet lots of fun people and then we headed to Deshamons for his famous pizza. It was good.