My Bahamian Birthday and Other Perfect Days

What a great way to spend my birthday! It started early when I arose at 6:30 AM to listen to the weather forecast by Chris Parker on the single sideband (SSB) radio. He is considered somewhat of a weather God by the cruisers and we have started to pay attention as we determine how and when we will start to move north. Lynn and I then spent a few hours organizing the boat for the pending Gulf Stream crossing and then he took me out for lunch at the Harbour’s Edge, where we dined on coconut grouper fingers and their house specialty drink called an Over the Edge. After lunch came a romantic stroll along the beach and sea glass hunting. Then it was back to the boat to prepare for a little birthday party that night. At my party were Chuck and his friend Steve, who is here to help him crew his boat home. They brought along cheese and sausage balls, which was very sweet because it took them several hours to find a recipe, buy the ingredients and prepare the tasty nuggets. Luisa and Jay from Airborne also joined us and brought my birthday cake, a delicious chocolaty confection. The evening was perfect…lots of fun chatting, little umbrellas in our drinks and conch blowing at sunset. We wrapped the festivities up with a euchre match between Driven and Coyote and Lynn and I won all three games…maybe they let the birthday girl have her day. Before I hit the sack I logged on to call Mom and Dad so they could wish me a happy birthday. I found lots of birthday wishes from friends at home on facebook and e-mail, which was a lovely surprise. All in all it was a fabulous day!

The only mar in the perfection of my birthday was a little radio mishap. As I mentioned earlier, I was listening to Chris Parker on the SSB radio in the morning. After he finishes his weather synopsis he opens the channel to boaters who call in for advice on how to make various transits. To get his attention you say the call sign of your vessel (Coyote in our case) and he responds when he hears you. I had been trying to get his attention for about 45 minutes and feeling very frustrated and disappointed that he didn’t seem to be hearing me when I realized I was using the mike for the VHF radio and not the SSB radio. In my defense, the two radios are located side by side at the nav station. I laughed out loud when I noticed my folly…Lynn just shook his head with that I-can’t-believe-my-wife-can-be-so-ditzy look on his face. I didn’t think much more about it until later in the day when I was informed by friends that I actually had the VHF radio tuned in to the cruisers net and was interrupting their morning broadcast by announcing “COYOTE” every ten minutes! As I reread this paragraph I realize that it may be kind of like the plumber’s convention joke and only funny to cruisers, but, trust me, it was a rather embarrassing blunder that definitely didn’t go unnoticed by the thousands (OK, about 50) listeners!

Now, back to my reflection of perfect days in the Bahamas, we have had many and a few maybe a little less than perfect. Actually, how we spend our days is a common question we get from people at home. Some days are filled with boat work and others are spent pleasantly wandering the beach or some such activity, but all of them seem to pass by quickly and we are never bored. But, living on a boat is not necessarily easy and is definitely not all pina coladas under an umbrella on the beach. Normal chores, like doing the laundry, taking out the garbage or getting groceries, can occupy most of a day. Climbing in a dingy to run an errand is not nearly as easy as hopping in a car, not to mention the challenge of parking a dingy (I still have nightmares of the runaway dingy at the dock.) Little things like water cannot be taken for granted since there is obviously a limited supply from the tanks on board and it is very expensive here…about 25 cents per gallon. No more letting the water run while brushing teeth or rinsing dishes. Definitely no daily showering, and when you do take a shower it must be done military fashion with the water running only to get wet and rinse off. I have calculated that we use about 12 gallons a day…not bad. Even so, we did run out once on a Saturday and had to wait until Monday to fill up since everything is closed on Sunday in the Abacos. A minor inconvenience but open stores on Sunday are something we have all taken for granted for some time. Not to mention the banking hours, which are 10 AM to 2 PM on Tuesdays in Hope Town and NO ATMS! But, I digress; getting a short-term water supply required Lynn laboriously lugging water jugs back and forth in the dingy. After the better part of a few hours he had managed to add about 40 gallons to the tanks. My role in this task was to tie the dingy alongside the boat and help lift the very heavy jugs using the motor hoist. When we were finally done Lynn climbed aboard Coyote and I tossed the line into the dingy…oops, the dingy was not secured to the boat. It was a particularly windy day and the dingy had already floated a good 30 feet away when Lynn said…”Where is the dingy line?!”, plus a few other expletives. Luckily, a passing boat kindly retrieved our runaway craft and calm was restored.

At the top of my outstanding day list are four fabulous days of diving expeditions with Kathi and John. We met up with them a few weeks ago at their favorite anchorage on the south end of Guana. It was the first time we have anchored Coyote there and it was a great spot. No other boats and easy access to the ocean side. Kathi and John are avid divers and have a compressor on board. They kindly offered to let me use their equipment so I could experience diving in the Bahamas. I was feeling a little trepidation as it would be only the eighth dive of my life (including my three certification dives) and I had not donned diving gear in over seven years. But, it was a perfect opportunity to get more experience and I couldn’t pass it up. So, off we went and it was fantastic! I do have trouble clearing my ears and it took me some time to reach the bottom on the first day, even though it was only 30 feet down. Although it was exciting, my thoughts were mostly on maintaining buoyancy, breathing and how much air was left in my tanks. However, by day four I felt much more relaxed and was able to appreciate the beauty around me and even ventured into tunnels in the coral. Some lead to coves surrounded by coral, which felt like being in a cave but open to the surface. I did see lots of cool sea life, including an octopus (apparently a rare daytime sighting), squid, huge parrot fish, southern rays and tons of beautiful colored fishes. The coral was spectacular in some spots with huge elkhorn coral and pretty sea fans waving with the current. Kathi was proud of me and said I went from being barely able to get submerged to a cave diver in four days! I am so appreciative of both Kathi and John for loaning me their stuff and taking the time to help me discover that I definitely love to dive!

So, that is all for now…we are departing Hope Town for good in about half an hour and I must go help Lynn get the boat ready. Our destination for today is Guana Cay where we will join Makani again and then around the Whale tomorrow as we move north and head for home. I am looking forward to another perfect day!