Bahama Mama

Last Wednesday the 13th my Mom flew down to visit us and spend a week on the boat.  Lesser travelers would not have fared as well but my mom is a trooper and lasted the whole week on the rocking, leaky Bright Eyes.

The first day we put her legs to work and walked the mile to the grocery store giving her a view of uptown Nassau and all our favorite spots.

Thursday we walked downtown and showed her all the cruise ship shops.  On the way we stopped and finally saw the Queens Stair Case.  It used to be a defensive fort and was hand built a long time ago.  We didn't make my mom climb it but we did and got pics from the top.

Most of our nights were spent playing board games with a cooler of beer.  We just found out that the Green Parrot sells a huge bag of ice for $3, gold!

 We played Monopoly, Backgammon, Thraxx, Parcheesy, Rummy, Gin Rummy, Rummicube, Sequence, and Dominoes.  We've seen Dominoes played by the locals at almost every island we visited. It must be the official national game.  So we finally got a set and learned how to play.

Nomy and Nala were glad to have a new friend.

Christine showed off her prowess in the kitchen and made many of our favorite dishes.

The Green Parrot was happy my mom was visiting because we actually spent a lot of money there ordering full meals.  We were glad to order the savory meals we had been skipping over the last month like the Works Burger and Blooming Onion.

My mom got to experience a cruisers sun-downer which is everyone's favorite.  The sunset is always amazing.

Friday we dinghied over to Atlantis in search of a beach.  We found a public one just outside the hotel.  It was swarmed with locals trying to sell you things but we still had a good time. After the 4th vendor tried to rent us an umbrella we finally agreed for $10.  The water felt great as it is our "shower".  We like the empty islands better though when we have the whole beach to ourselves.

Saturday we went back to Atlantis for some more fun.  We took mom to the aquarium now that we know you can just walk in for free sometimes. We saw the huge manta rays and sharks again.

Atlantis also has a free movie theater so we went and saw Rango.  At night we went to a comedy club.  The comics spent most of the time making fun of the audience and the headliner Mutsy was really funny.  We got off pretty easy with just a Marylanders have crabs joke.  

Sunday we relaxed around the boat and let mom have a small rest from her vacation.   Then we made a short walk to the straw markets again and had a final dinner at the Green Parrot.  We all sat around on the internet till the Parrot closed to show mom how we usually chill.

And more family game night! 

Monday, moms last day, we went to Atlantis in hopes to hang out at there beach.  We walked to their beach on Saturday so we thought we could spend the day there but they had staff guarding the beach this time so we got denied.  So instead we went to the Casino and hit the penny slots.  

Our goal was to get free drinks while making $15 last but we only got one round of drinks and then the waitress was nowhere to be found.  But it was our lucky day as we turned $15 into $55 in about 2 hours!  Most of it was my mom who turned her $5 into $45 at one point, that's one lucky mama.

On the way back to the boat across the harbor we got caught in a squall.  We have been watching Tropical Storm Brett hover above the Bahamas so we must we getting pieces of it as it was squally all week.

My mom finally got caught up in one of our mishaps and we arrived to the main ship soaking wet as lightening lit up the sky.

On Tuesday morning my mom caught a cab back to the airport.  She had a great time seeing us and experiencing the boat but we are sure she is glad to be back in the comforts of a real home.  

We are right behind her though as we plan to leave here asap.  There are a few storms brewing around the Caribbean and one potential hurricane that just left Africa.  So we are saying goodbye to Nassau and all of the Bahamas and will be taking off tomorrow, Thursday the 21st of July.

We will be sailing to Ft Lauderdale, without an engine, over the next two days, maybe straight through.  When we get close to Florida we will call Tow Boat to bring us into the harbor and put us in a slip.

Wish us luck for our final adventure!

Woods and Water Trails, Shroud Cay

Surprise!  We found internet at Normans Cay.  Thank you Linksys!

Finishing up our Warderick Wells Cay visit we went on a dangerous hike! 

Here is our boat on it's first ever mooring ball.  It took a little figuring out but we got it.  That is Emerald Rock under the sun.

After a short dinghy to the beach we found this hidden entrance to a trail.  Christine is in this pic already hiking up the little cliff.

There were several rat/wombat like things scurrying around in the trees.  We found out later they are Bahamas only native mammal, the Hutia.

We passed lots of ruins that just looked like rocks stacked up but are from the 1800s.  This was someones house a long time ago.

The trail was rocky and you had to watch out for these really deep holes.  We don't know how they were formed but they were deep and creepy.

We passed signs warning us of the "Touch Me Not" flower and "Poison Wood"

Then we found a ruins wall leading us to another beach.  How pleasant.  Actually the whole hike was fun and not really dangerous at all.

This beach had a curious floating house on the water.  Maybe that's what we will buy next.

The next day we had to move off the mooring and anchored again.  The next morning our trusty Claw anchor decided to take the day off and we woke to find that we had dragged some 200 feet into shoal.  We don't think we were on it long because we didn't notice any bumping till we got up.

After a few attempts of using the engine and the anchor windlass to pull us off we realized we were stuck good and had to call the Park.  They sent out a boat that pulled us off pretty easily and we headed off to Shroud Cay

After a nice sail north we arrived at Shroud Cay at high tide and decided to give that river trail another attempt.  On the way down the Exumas we tried to kayak the river at low tide and failed miserably.

This time we had another 2 feet under us and took the 3.5hp dinghy!

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

It was a lot nicer this time and a very scenic ride.

We are glad we gave up kayaking last time because it was a long, windy ride, about 25 minutes in the dinghy.

But eventually we found the secrete beach on the other side and it was sure worth it.  The whole area was beautiful so we broke out the camera for a Scopes like shooting.

This dark spot was a ocean hole.  It was shallow all around it but the hole is supposed to go down deep!

At the beach we climbed a hill for some high shots. Here's the river we took to get there.

The next day we went to our favorite beach on the north side.  We just spent the day reading, running, and relaxing until the tide came up and kicked us out.

Shroud Cay is one of our favorite islands.  So pretty!