Little Halls Pond, Cambridge, and Pipe Cays

Dodging more weather and in need of groceries we decided to run back to Staniel Cay before turning back around. Lo and behold and happily for us we found our good friends aboard Piper who we first met in Maryland and spent a lot of fun times with over the Summer and Fall. Tripp, Finn, Andy and Drew went a-hunting and brought back fish and lobster for dinner. We also enjoyed happy hour on Super Bowl Sunday at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and talked about places we wanted to visit. Our ideas meshed well so we knew we would get to spend some time together over the next several days. On our way north to Little Hall's Pond Cay we heard from No Rehearsal who were sailing north from Georgetown and wanted to catch up with us. They caught THREE mahi mahi on their 70 mile sail and were generous enough to share. So we combined forces and had a tasty dinner aboard Tangent with everyone pitching in. Over the next few days we all got a chance to do some great snorkeling, socializing and excited ogling of the insane preparations for Johnny Depp's "simple" wedding on Little Hall's Pond which he owns. We actually got kicked out of the anchorage by the Exuma Park Rangers because they were going to conduct "defense training operations" aka "ogling tourist and annoying paparazzi expulsion exercises" over the next few days. I'm sure Mr. Depp made a generous contribution to the Park for their services. It was a fun few days together!

Dinner caught near Staniel Cay. That's a lionfish to the left which is an invasive species. It's ok to kill them just for elimination purposes but during a blind taste test when Kurt and Will were here everyone loved the lionfish. You have to be very careful cleaning it to avoid the venomous spines but it is worth the effort if you get a bunch and can make a meal out of it. The other fish are margate and mahogany snapper which Lisa cooked whole.

Drew and Finn posing before cleaning

Lisa calling the 80s 

The crew of Piper anchored at Little Hall's Pond Cay

No Rehearsal is a Catana 52. A beautiful, solid and fast catamaran

Kids enjoying fresh mahi mahi

A sea plane making a delivery of all kinds of crap to Johnny Depp's island. This guy made several more deliveries during our 24 hours there.

All of us watching the sea plane land right behind us. We all clapped like idiots when he landed. Kind of like you impulsively do when the pilot of a jet successfully touches down on the runway without killing everyone. Yaaaayyyy! 

The pilot then took off and threaded the needle between No Rehearsal and that boat in front of them. Show off! 

This barge full of construction equipment and lumber showed up while we were sleeping

This is the tent village set up presumably for all the guests. It looked pretty deluxe in a rustic sort of way. Where is a telephoto lens when you need one?

No shame. Apparently security-esque types can make eye contact through binoculars. Weird. 

Here's Daryl at the helm of No Rehearsal. We first saw them in Annapolis over the summer and couldn't miss them when we spotted them up north, again at the boat show in the fall and then finally in Georgetown where they sailed beautifully into the harbor on the kind of day that would have kicked our butts and no one else was out there. 

Piper suiting up for a snorkel on a plane wreck

The plane wrecks are kind of creepy but there are lots of them

Drew loves the water and can dive deeper and deeper with ever improving breath and buoyancy control. Evelyn loves the fish identification and is starting to dive down too. And she has started pressing forward instead of scurrying back to the dinghy when she hears "barracuda" or "shark"

Nurse shark. We see lots of these

Nassau Grouper with lionfish above. Nassau Grouper season starts March 1!

The one and only picture of just the two of us together in a long time. That's a nice drop of water on the lens for artistic effect. Probably for the best given our dreadful bathing attire. But hey, that's a really pretty sand bar near O'Brien's Cay.

Cute kids being sharks

Drew calls this the lazy river. It's fun to drift along with the current

The crew of Piper heading back after our afternoon recreation. We anchored here in the morning and got kicked out in the afternoon by the Exuma Park Rangers. We decided that if it were our island we'd be really cool and invite everyone anchored out to the wedding. Because that's the type of famous people we'd be. Not selfish party poopers like Johnny Depp.

We always have a million dishes in the sink. It's hard to keep up when you make everything from scratch in a tiny space without a dishwasher. Evelyn gave up soon after this. 

After a night at Cambridge Cay we moved to the west/bank side of Pipe Cay. Daryl, Andy and Drew went out and caught these beauties

The one Andy is holding is actually a really nice size which makes the big one look like a monster

Kind of unappetizing when you really look at them

Drew is now a capable fish and lobster cleaner. He gagged the first time he cleaned a fish but now he delights in making others gag

A lovely dinner aboard No Rehearsal at Pipe Cay. We all got a lot of sun that day

When we talk about fronts coming through this is actually what they look like. It just rolls in and the wind spends a few hours or a day clocking around. Sometimes it's strong, sometimes it's weak so sometimes we have to move to an appropriately protected spot and sometimes we just stay put. But we're getting tired of these things because we often have to move, talk about it and plan around it more than we'd like to. This one brought in a lot of cold air, rain and high winds. This pattern might benefit us when we try to sail to windward on our way to the Caribbean but that's a post for another day.

Hawksbill Cay

This was our first visit to Hawksbill Cay which is within the boundaries of the Exuma Park. Most of the islands in the Exumas don't have a lot of development but the ones within the park are particularly natural and undisturbed. We had Hawksbill truly to ourselves and enjoyed some solo family exploration and discovery with little guidance besides some dots dropped by Makai on our Garmin Blucharts. One of the dots Makai dropped was called "trail to space trash" so we were on a mission. We followed the long trail to the Sound side of the island and walked the length of the beach until we found what did, indeed, look like a big hunk of aeronautical debris. Then the kids practiced pretend javelin throwing and sword fighting and other general boat kid weirdness. The next day we visited an endless sand bar and hiked a trail to the ruins of loyalists to the British Crown who fled the American Revolutionary War. We pretended to be archaeologists and found bits of pottery, glass and metal that I'm sure others before us have found and left for the next island explorers. We did the same so the next crew could enjoy the feeling of discovery!

Tangent alone in the anchorage

The kids are natural explorers and have become much heartier than they were on land. They never complain of being tired, hot or hungry. But they still leave their shit everywhere. Drew left his flip flops on Norman's Cay so we had to share when we went over the sharp rocks.

Another solo shot of Tangent in the distance. We often embrace the solitude because it's so rare in our part of the world but then find ourselves longing for company. We've been able to strike a good balance so far. 

What the heck fell out of the sky? Eric said he compared his pictures to the real thing when they visited the Air & Space Museum in DC and he's convinced this is NASA goods. Cool! 

Close up of fabric layer

Natural born peaceful warrior

We may not have organized sports but have plenty of opportunities to improve physical skills and coordination during our recreation. 

Evelyn still loves horses and hopefully she'll get a chance to ride in the Caribbean

A beautiful, expansive sand bar

This was very helpful!

Evelyn loves air plants - especially these tiny ones

We don't see a lot of wild life beyond a few birds and lizards so this guy was a rare treat and not easy to spot

Digging for loyalist artifacts

Some of our finds that we left for the next explorers

That's our dinghy, Cosine, which is basically our family car 

Sometimes you just really, really, really need a f&cking chicken nugget. These are authentic Bahamian Loyalist nuggets. Since we rarely have the chance to eat out anymore, if we want it, we have to make it.

Norman's Cay

We eagerly returned to Norman's Cay which was our first stop in the Exumas with Makai. We blew through here so fast the first time and it was so pretty we wanted to see it again. We were also fascinated by its history as a base for Carlos Lehder's drug operation in the 70s and 80s. We both read a book recommended by Eric on Makai called "Turning the Tide" which focuses on a civilian, Richard Novak, who loved Norman's Cay, couldn't turn a blind eye to what he figured out was going on and got deeply involved in taking down the operation. Even though we couldn't relate to his highly moral, hot tempered determination, the book was a page turner and we were fascinated with returning to explore and see the ruins of all the sites mentioned in the book. What we found instead was a massive construction site of a future exclusive marina, an expanded runway with a chain link fence around it and an overpriced beach bar. We tried but didn't get the satisfaction of seeing any bullet hole riddled walls or find any long forgotten drug or money stashes in the caves. Thankfully we had a chance to snorkel the plane wreck with Makai in more settled weather on our first pass. We froze our butts off when yet another front came through but the scenery was beautiful and the company of our friends Daryl and Annie aboard No Rehearsal was not to be missed. They made a delicious dinner and we had a lot of laughs hearing about life aboard cruising the Med when their kids were about the same age as ours. They understand and encourage our desire to experience a little culture as well as sun and sand and helped to reinvigorate us after a spell of the doldrums.

Self explanatory

Daryl and Drew getting ready for a hunting trip. It's colder than it looks!

Barry the Barracuda looking for handouts after he figured out Drew was cleaning a fish. Drew is a nut when it comes to "petting" the stuff with big teeth, crushing claws or venemous spines. He's been like that for as long as we can remember. Just don't make him watch a scary movie.

Take a look at it now kids because this is one club you'll probably never be able to join once it's built!

Ruins of a restaurant

Ruins of a hotel

This is what our fresh food supply looks like after about 10 days without provisioning. Between our fresh fish, stocked freezer and dry stores we can go for a lot longer which extends our enjoyment of the secluded anchorages. Why is it that no one ever eats the last apple?

Movies are a large part of our entertainment. Here the kids are enjoying Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the 400th time.