A Pirates Life.....

You cannot come to the Bahamas without hearing some crazy tale of buried treasure. The waters here and all down into the Caribbean are said to be filled with gold... a bounty just waiting to be discovered, to be possessed. Ray and I came to the Bahamas last Friday. We had an amazing motor/sail across the Gulf Stream.  There was barely any wind and the sea was a mysterious calm! All around, clouds hid the sun as if playing a game of cat and mouse with our sailboat. I commented a couple of times how it felt as if time itself was weaving in and out of the stream. In the cockpit, with nothing around but sea, it could be 1715, 1815, 1915 or 2015.... who was to say, as the ocean takes time as she will, pulsing back and forth with tides, pulling water along from tropical ports to icy coasts in far reaching latitudes. And we ride on her currents, believing that she will take us where we need to go, where sailors long gone from the Earth, rode her currents to the sunny shores of Bimini years before we took our first breath. It is here that I dream of treasure. Each time we snorkel or dive, I am sure that we will find a piece of the past that will cement our future. As I sit on the sailboat after a long day of swimming, walking and exploring, it hits me!!!.... I have truly found my treasure in this life. He walks with me, dives with me and explores with me. Our life together is more than a pirates booty.... it is my reality and I get to keep the pirate!!!!

The anchor dropped into Gun Cay on Friday afternoon.
My pirate donned his snorkel gear and dove into the cool and clear water to check our anchor. I watched him from the deck, looking out for a non-existent shark or barracuda. After making sure that Jaws was not anywhere near the Gun Cay lighthouse, I too jumped into the water and just like that, the long day crossing was forgotten! Ray and I showered off in the cockpit and then enjoyed the Mahi-Mahi that we caught coming across the stream. We caught two smaller fish and one large bull dolphin that weighted around 20 pounds. As one heck of a fish tale....

Ray and I were sitting in the cockpit when we heard a BAM!! We both jumped and turned around to see our rod, reel and rod holder fly off of the boat. We thought for sure that a shark was the culprit until we saw a HUGE bull dolphin (mahi mahi) jump up out of the water with the line still attached. I yelled for Ray to turn around and he just looked at me like I was crazy. "Are you diving over and chasing the fish", he asked?  Well I would have.... maybe... probably not!!! That was a 250 dollar rod and reel. I think a fisherman up on the coast of England will one day find a really nice pole floating up the beach!!! haha   But back to our dinner.  I love the grill attached to our railing.

Without heating up our galley, we can have a really nice meal!! We chowed down on our yummy catch and then cleaned up the galley. We decided to listen to music and play some scrabble, but after Ray's attempt at the words, "doller", "rully" and  "rivit" I decided it was time to hit the bunk!!
The next day we awoke to cloudy skies, but we decided to take our time before pulling the anchor and going the two hours into Bimini. I made us coffee and we sat in the cockpit watching the beautiful colors of the water turn with the dancing of the suns rays. Ray thought he heard a rumble of thunder but we weren't sure if it was just the building crew on Cat Cay. Nooooo, it was thunder!!! All at once, a storm of biblical proportion hit our little anchorage. The winds picked up to 30 knots and lightening was hitting everywhere, except thankfully, our boat!! We went below and waited out the storm which turned into a day long affair. Later that evening, the clouds parted long enough for the sun to dip into the ocean.  I never tire of the view!!! After a day of doing nothing but enjoying each other's company, we fell into a wonderful sleep, rocked by the gentle waves of the ocean against our hull.

Sunday dawned and we  pulled anchor and headed into Bimini! When Ray and I first sailed into Bimini back in 2007, we had to use the range markers on the shore and pick our way through using our eyes to judge the bottom depth. It was a lesson in panic for me as the current runs strong and the shore and rocky bottoms are so close. We made it then, but now with big money coming into port, a dredging project has been started. There are big green and red buoys lining the entrance all the way into the harbor by the docks. Oddly enough, we have seen two large boats try to go across the brown brown run aground spots. I guess big money does not constitute knowledge... go figure!!! Coming through the channel, in a no wake zone, we were passed from behind by a boat that I'm sure cost more than our boat, dinghy, house and two years of my salary. Ray had to quickly maneuver our sailboat to try and take the wake on the bow instead of broadside. We didn't have room to fully turn, with the shallow water so close, so we were pretty much knocked down. I grabbed the railing, but things below tumbled in the thrashing of the giant waves. REALLY..... We made it safely across the Gulf Stream only to be in peril by another boater. Again, just because someone can afford a boat, doesn't mean they know what the heck they are doing. It gets really scary sometimes!!

We came into Bimini Blue Water Marina. I like this marina because it is clean, there is wifi, the bathrooms are always clean and there is a pool!!! Summer rates are only a dollar a foot plus electric and water. Water is very expensive!! We use the marina showers and try to conserve water just like we do on the hook. We do not spare expense for our AC though!!! I love the wind through the hatch when we are out on the hook, but at a dock it is HOT!!! Plus everyone around can see in and hear when the hatch is up and that's kind of creepy!!  Bimini is a charming island but I have become saddened by the amount of trash that seems to pile up year to year since we have been coming over. The beach over the hill from our marina was so strown with litter that we could not go into the beautiful water. The stench was so appalling to the senses that even standing to watch the sunset was a hardship. I do not know what the answer is, however, it seems that with all of the money being dumped into resorts on the northern tip, someone could come up with a plan to clean up the island. Glass bottles, empty cartons, spoiled food items and an array of cans are haphazardly tossed to the delight of a million flies. Bimini deserves so much more. The people are so friendly and I always feel safe walking around, even hitching a ride. I just wonder what my favorite little "island in the stream" will look like in five years without someone to intervene on her behalf!

Ray and I like to walk up to the Big Game Club and have fish fingers and peas and rice. Their prices aren't that outrageous but it is definitely cheaper to find a little Conch Shack up the road. We tried to get to Joe's Conch Shack but he wasn't opened. Ray had found us a ride with a local who just happened to be going our way. Jason, a friendly young man with a roomy golfcart, told us of another conch shack... "just up the road, mon"... which meant another mile!! We got out and offered money and he said he would come back and we could pay for round trip service. I guess island time caught up with him, because we didn't see him again!! haha....

 The shack was just that... a shack on the water, where fisherman throw their catches of conch and large snapper and grouper onto the attached dock. Ray ordered a conch salad and I got a water. I am not a fan of chewy snails, but that's just me. We watched as a man filleted a humongous grouper then two large snapper. He wasn't selling though which was okay with me because I didn't even see the snapper at first because they were covered with black flies. I'm sure the plague or cholera was looming around on those pieces of fish?? Ray says they were just fine, but I'm not buying it!! It was nice seeing the little community though. Older gentlemen and women sat around under the shade of a giant seagrape tree while the little kids ran splashing into the shallow water or shooting hoops on the adjacent playground. It was an enchanting afternoon, then we had to get back to our marina!! We started walking and walking and walking!!! It was, we were told later, about two miles and it was also 98 degrees!!! What a lovely evening stroll... HA!!! I am definitely getting some exercise much to the protest of my out of shape muscles.

The next day, we paid our marina bill and headed NuTrix to Gun Cay. The crossing to the Berry Islands is 12 to 14 hours depending on the wind... which is forever in our face!!! We usually leave from Gun Cay around five in the morning which means we need to hit the bunk early. I wanted to go over to the "sting ray" beach and snorkel around so we put our dinghy engine on and off we went to see some ocean life. Along the way, we spotted a nurse shark who did not want her picture taken. I tried and tried but those suckers are fast. We anchored just off the beach and jumped into the cool water. We were not there for two minutes when we were surrounded by stingrays. They were beautiful but they wanted food.

We didn't have any with us, so one of the rays tried to eat our GoPro!! haha....On the video, he looks angrily at Ray before flying away through the water. We swam around for a couple of hours then decided it was time to head home. When we are on the hook, the cockpit shower is so convenient! We can get all the salt off and not have anything to wipe down later like we do in the bathroom (head).  Sleep came quickly until about two thirty when a thunderous storm came rolling across the banks. The wind blew and lightening illuminated the island with its quick burst of fury. Usually storms pass quickly, however this one did not get the memo and lasted for over an hour. At five we were up again, to start our crossing though I didn't have a good feeling with the thrashing of our bow against the waves. I actually texted my brother and asked him to get the sailingweather.com forecast for our area. It said that the winds were supposed to be SE (big surprise there) and the waves less than two feet. The weather lied!! We started out and it wasn't too bad until about four hours into the day. The waves built to four to six feet and the wind was blowing at 12 to 15 right in our face.

The bow started to plunge deep under the waves and water crashed over sending salt spray as far as our cockpit.  We were knocked down to 2 knots and we still have 53 miles to go!! At that rate we would make the Tongue of the Ocean at 9:30 pm!! That is NOT a body of water to mess with especially at night with no way to see the waves. We had the option to anchor for the night and ride it out or turn around and go back. Ray and I discussed each option and then we both decided that this is our vacation and there is no need to beat ourselves and our boat up in such crazy seas. Ray turned us around, we threw up the sails and booked it back to Bimini!! It only took two hours to sail back with the wind off our stern and the waves pushing us along!

We will make it over but until then, we continue to enjoy our summer. Today, we are planning to go to the Shark research center and maybe tomorrow go snorkel the Sapona wreck. Some friends from Key West are coming in on Sunday and if the weather doesn't cooperate, we will be able to visit with them as they are staying at the same marina. All in all, this has been a wonderful adventure! I am looking forward to getting to the Exumas, but the most fun is being with Ray. We figure out each day together, explore together and say goodnight to each day together!! I couldn't ask for more, but it seems that I continue to get more and more each day. What a beautiful world this is!! I cannot capture the clarity of the water with my camera and I cannot capture the pure joy in my heart with words on a page!! Life is good here in the Bahamas.