Happy New Year from the Berry Islands Hope the New Year is off to a good start for you and yours. We’re in Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands waiting out some heavy winds that are passing through with a cold front. Click here for photos from our time in the Berrys, as well as on Bimini. The two places we’ve visited so far have been a strange mix of incredible natural beauty and incredibly sad living conditions. Trash bins sit empty next to big signs encouraging people to keep their community clean (e.g. “Keep Great Harbour Clean, Green & Pristine”), while the road sides leading to the island’s truly amazing beaches are littered with empty bottles and a wide variety of broken, discarded items. The people are friendly and welcoming; happy to give you a lift to wherever you’re going or offer directions; and quick to share advice about a great fishing spot or the best place for conch salad. Speaking of conch, we tried our hand at making “cracked conch”, after purchasing a couple of pounds of conch meat from a local we met in Bimini. He gave us great instructions for preparing the dish, the first step of which is to beat the heck out of it! Now that we’ve done it once, we have come to recognize this step cannot be over emphasized! If beat the heck out of it is step 1, steps 2,3,4 & 5 should be “repeat step 1". If well tenderized, it’s a great dish, but you definitely need patience and an arm as strong as your meat mallet! A couple of Kaliks (Official Beer of the Bahamas) can be helpful as well, for keeping your energy up during the preparation process.
Reports from the Field - Bahamas Week 1: Hey Mon... Jubilee’s field reporters are back in action. It’s just that they’re on “island time” these days. Here’s what each had to say about our first week in the Bahamas, or as Drew says, “A Week in Paradise”.
A Week in Paradise - The Crossing, by Jake
Land Ho on the horizon said Jake. As we sail in to the bahamas. We can only see the tops of trees, it looks like one million islands. Now we can see the land and trees. Now the skiper (dad) steps on and we all can’t. We were traped on board until the skiper comes back from checking us all in (a requirement of the customs clearing process). Now we can all go on land. We find a guy who sells lobster. We buy 1 dozen lobster. They are delicious! Well, the end.
A Week in Paradise - Where we’ve been so far, by Emily
Land ho! Jake yells. We were iriving to Bimini on X-mas eve day. After we irivde we swam in the pool, got cookies from our friend Joe, then got some sleep. X-mas Day! We woke up at 5:00 am then got are presents. We all got Nintido DS. I got 2 polly pocket kits too. 2 days passt then we left Bimini. 2 more days passt and those 2 days were hord (crossing the Bahama Banks and having a couple nights of very roll-y anchorages was less than pleasant, especially for the girl members of our crew). Yes! I say we spot Great Harbour Cay. We irrived Great Harbour Cay Dec. 30ith and I right this January 2nd. Happy New Year.
A Week in Paradise - What we’ve been up to, by Drew
My first week in the Bahamas was fabulous. We can see the bottom at 100 feet! We got 2 spear poles from Santa and a gaff for catching fish. We have been spearing lobsters and with good luck too... we have gotten 4 so far. Just tonight we got a coconut but it was too green. We will look for a ripe one tomorrow. So that’s what we’ve been doing in Bimini and the Berry Islands (Great Harbour Cay). Happy New Year.
Behind the Blog: Unmanned Expedition
Our dinghy is named “Expedition”. This is the radio name we use to communicate with the “mother ship” whenever some of us are out exploring while others remain aboard Jubilee. The kids love it when we’re in places where they can take Expedition out on their own, both because they love to drive and because they love to talk on the VHF radio. Expedition is usually a very well behaved dinghy. It rides faithfully behind our boat on a tow rope which we let in and out based on water conditions and our speed. So we’re traveling our last leg of the ICW just before Christmas, in route from the Ft. Lauderdale area to Key Biscayne. There are a LOT of bascule bridges in this area - at least one every mile or two in some places. They all have scheduled openings that don’t always coincide with our sailing speed or Pat’s ability to make friends with the bridge tenders. Thus, occasionally, we would find ourselves idling in the channel for 10-15 minutes waiting for the next lift. As we were waiting to pass under one particular bridge, we happen to notice that Expedition had wandered off to our starboard side and look as though it was actually coming toward us. Drew was the first to realize something was wrong. Turns out the razor spurs on Jubilee’s propellor - which help to protect our prop from crab pot lines - had done exactly what they are supposed to do when something gets tangles in them... chop! Apparently as we had been idling in front of the bridge, Expedition’s tow rope had gotten too close to the motor. Drew made a valiant effort to grab Expedition with our boat pole, but wasn’t able to secure it. Pat had to jump off the side of the boat and hope he stuck the landing. He did, thanks to his cat like reflexes! (I promised Pat I’d use this phrase at least once during the course of my story.) Otherwise, a reunion would have been quite a challenge in this particularly narrow portion of the ICW where current and wake can really bounce around. Oh, and there was that bridge opening I mentioned... All this excitement happened just as the bridge was going up. Pat yelled for me to drive through the bridge, which I did at about the same time both of us realized he didn’t have the “key” that is required to be around the dinghy engine’s kill switch, which allows Expedition’s motor to start! After a few minutes of creative thinking - and the quick abandonment of the idea of using the paddles - Pat managed to use one hand to squeeze the kill switch and the other hand to start the engine and steer. Now all he had to do was keep squeezing that kill switch, catch up to us, catch the line Drew threw to him, secure Expedition, and climb back onto the boat... preferably without getting wet! Our reunion with Expedition was a success, and Pat managed to stay dry. We did have to slow down for a minute to let him back on board, but not to worry... we still managed to make the next bridge opening right on time!
Reports from the Field - Bahamas Week 1: Hey Mon... Jubilee’s field reporters are back in action. It’s just that they’re on “island time” these days. Here’s what each had to say about our first week in the Bahamas, or as Drew says, “A Week in Paradise”.
A Week in Paradise - The Crossing, by Jake
Land Ho on the horizon said Jake. As we sail in to the bahamas. We can only see the tops of trees, it looks like one million islands. Now we can see the land and trees. Now the skiper (dad) steps on and we all can’t. We were traped on board until the skiper comes back from checking us all in (a requirement of the customs clearing process). Now we can all go on land. We find a guy who sells lobster. We buy 1 dozen lobster. They are delicious! Well, the end.
A Week in Paradise - Where we’ve been so far, by Emily
Land ho! Jake yells. We were iriving to Bimini on X-mas eve day. After we irivde we swam in the pool, got cookies from our friend Joe, then got some sleep. X-mas Day! We woke up at 5:00 am then got are presents. We all got Nintido DS. I got 2 polly pocket kits too. 2 days passt then we left Bimini. 2 more days passt and those 2 days were hord (crossing the Bahama Banks and having a couple nights of very roll-y anchorages was less than pleasant, especially for the girl members of our crew). Yes! I say we spot Great Harbour Cay. We irrived Great Harbour Cay Dec. 30ith and I right this January 2nd. Happy New Year.
A Week in Paradise - What we’ve been up to, by Drew
My first week in the Bahamas was fabulous. We can see the bottom at 100 feet! We got 2 spear poles from Santa and a gaff for catching fish. We have been spearing lobsters and with good luck too... we have gotten 4 so far. Just tonight we got a coconut but it was too green. We will look for a ripe one tomorrow. So that’s what we’ve been doing in Bimini and the Berry Islands (Great Harbour Cay). Happy New Year.
Behind the Blog: Unmanned Expedition
Our dinghy is named “Expedition”. This is the radio name we use to communicate with the “mother ship” whenever some of us are out exploring while others remain aboard Jubilee. The kids love it when we’re in places where they can take Expedition out on their own, both because they love to drive and because they love to talk on the VHF radio. Expedition is usually a very well behaved dinghy. It rides faithfully behind our boat on a tow rope which we let in and out based on water conditions and our speed. So we’re traveling our last leg of the ICW just before Christmas, in route from the Ft. Lauderdale area to Key Biscayne. There are a LOT of bascule bridges in this area - at least one every mile or two in some places. They all have scheduled openings that don’t always coincide with our sailing speed or Pat’s ability to make friends with the bridge tenders. Thus, occasionally, we would find ourselves idling in the channel for 10-15 minutes waiting for the next lift. As we were waiting to pass under one particular bridge, we happen to notice that Expedition had wandered off to our starboard side and look as though it was actually coming toward us. Drew was the first to realize something was wrong. Turns out the razor spurs on Jubilee’s propellor - which help to protect our prop from crab pot lines - had done exactly what they are supposed to do when something gets tangles in them... chop! Apparently as we had been idling in front of the bridge, Expedition’s tow rope had gotten too close to the motor. Drew made a valiant effort to grab Expedition with our boat pole, but wasn’t able to secure it. Pat had to jump off the side of the boat and hope he stuck the landing. He did, thanks to his cat like reflexes! (I promised Pat I’d use this phrase at least once during the course of my story.) Otherwise, a reunion would have been quite a challenge in this particularly narrow portion of the ICW where current and wake can really bounce around. Oh, and there was that bridge opening I mentioned... All this excitement happened just as the bridge was going up. Pat yelled for me to drive through the bridge, which I did at about the same time both of us realized he didn’t have the “key” that is required to be around the dinghy engine’s kill switch, which allows Expedition’s motor to start! After a few minutes of creative thinking - and the quick abandonment of the idea of using the paddles - Pat managed to use one hand to squeeze the kill switch and the other hand to start the engine and steer. Now all he had to do was keep squeezing that kill switch, catch up to us, catch the line Drew threw to him, secure Expedition, and climb back onto the boat... preferably without getting wet! Our reunion with Expedition was a success, and Pat managed to stay dry. We did have to slow down for a minute to let him back on board, but not to worry... we still managed to make the next bridge opening right on time!
1 comment:
The Bahamas is looking mighty inviting - it was minus 7 degrees here this morning. Yes, really!
Glad all is going well - love the pictures. As always, I enjoy Behind the Blog the most. Cat like grace, my foot!
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