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BOATS, BACON, BEACHES & LIFE


THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF A HUSBAND, TRAVELER, BELIEVER, ACTION SPORTS
JUNKIE, & WANNABE FOODIE.




TRIPPPIN IN THE BAHAMAS – TIME FOR BUBBLES



A continuation from my earlier post, http://wp.me/pKtoE-c9.



With the boat secure, and the gear on we were finally hitting the water.
Everyone took their turn dropping in off the side of the boat and Lane and I
were always the last to go. I took the boat keys with us on every dive to make
sure we had a boat to come back to, but left the batteries on in case someone
had to come up and radio for help. Once underwater the stress of finding the
reef went away, as did every other stress in my life. The reef was beautiful and
full of life. Everyone seemed to be doing well, and all the gear was working as
planned. Since the dive was only 30 feet deep our bottom time would be somewhere
around an hour. The beautiful fish swam by, and the onshore current moved the
massive fans back and forth as if they were in a slow waltz with one another.

Everything seemed perfect, and right when you think you’re ready to call it a
dive a wonderful 5-foot Blacktip Reef Shark comes cruising by. Now sharks aren’t
a big deal for most of the group, but Catherine was a new diver and I wasn’t
sure how she’d react to our new neighbor. I kept an eye on her, as did Lane and
we moved on about our business. We managed to find this wonderful little system
of holes in one of the coral heads so we all scooted through these large caverns
and enjoyed the amazing visibility and clear water. Once we emerged from the
caverns I saw the curious Blacktip still hanging out overhead. Blacktips are
common in the Caribbean and they usually don’t present a problem to divers. I
honestly enjoy diving with them because they are beautiful to watch, and pose
little threat unless you’re bugging or spearfishing. This particular shark was a
bit more excited than I’d like, and he seemed to be gaining interest with each
passing minute.

No sooner was I watching this shark did I noticed another grey-ish creature
swimming off in the distance. This one looked smaller, but the clear presence of
a dorsal fin was a big sign that we may have a few more sharks in the area. I
kept my eyes open, and sure enough I saw what looked to be a school of sharks.
As these objects came closer it was clear that they were indeed numerous, grey,
large and fit the profile of a shark. I thought to myself, this checkout dive
just got serious. Little did I know that this dive was about to go down in my
book as one of the best dives of my life. The numerous grey creatures turned out
to be a very-popular pod of dolphins that are known for inhabiting the Sea Of
Abaco. I almost spit my regulator out! I’ve never seen dolphins on a dive, and
here I was looking at seven to eight adults and a juvenile. They came right up
to the group, who at this point were flipping out. All of us just sat on the
sandy bottom watching them swim around us. It was a truly magical experience
watching these guys just swim by, look you in the eye and cruise around. Go
figure that none of us had our cameras on the dive since this was only going to
be a “checkout dive”. The dolphins eventually moved on and we’d exhausted our
tanks, so everyone made it back up to the boat.


Credit: Explore.org

Once we were all back on deck the celebration began. No one could believe that
we’d just seen a pod of dolphins, and a Blacktip on what was supposed to be our
gear check dive. Celebratory beers were opened, stories were shared and the team
celebrated our first dive in the Bahamas.




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August 12, 2013 Leave a Reply


TRIPPPIN IN THE BAHAMAS – THE DEPTH DANCE



A continuation from my earlier post, http://wp.me/pKtoE-bF.



Source: Google Earth

After unpacking the boat everyone decided to go for a check-out dive and get our
first underwater adventure in the books. I had mixed feelings about heading out
in Tripppin because I was going to be the guy navigating these shallow, clear
Bahamian waters with no clear idea of where I was going. I’d done it thousands
of times before in many countries, but never with this many people, and never
without some form of local help. I went down to the dock to play with the chart
plotters while Lane looked up some dive sites online. He came out a half hour
later to let me know that we had a nice reef just around the corner from us
where it looked like we could use a mooring ball to tie up.  

 

The plan was to go just outside of Man-O-War Cay and see what we could find. We
loaded up, and took off. The boat did amazingly well considering we had 9 divers
and a belly full of fuel headed out to sea. I saw the markers for the Man-O-War
Cay channel and proceeded out. After getting into “deep water” which seemed to
be anything over 20 feet we started looking for the reef. We idled along the
outer edge of the island for a good 20 minutes with little to no luck of seeing
a mooring. The only thing that was apparent was the boat’s keel being about 6
feet off the reef with solid 2-foot fluctuation in depth from the onshore
rollers.  We abandoned the search and quickly turned away from Man-O-War heading
back out into the ocean. It was right about now I wished that I could channel my
inner Captain James. Local knowledge is invaluable, especially when you’re
navigating shallow reef.

 

Common sense tells you that if you have to second-guess the depth and your boats
ability to clear a reef that you need to turn around. Well, I’d managed to waste
a good hour of everyone’s time screwing around looking for this mystical reef.
Feeling defeated we hit the plotters and noticed that a marine sanctuary wasn’t
far away and we’d be able to do some diving in about 30 feet of water.  We
motored out into deeper water and came to the front of Fowl Cay. We attempted to
come into the reef from the outside of the island. Once again the plotters
showed we would have depth, but we learned quickly that we would not be able to
make it from the outside of the island.  

 

After idling around for over an hour with little to show for my efforts I was
feeling pretty defeated as the captain of the boat. The Abacos has a way of
humbling you fairly quickly when it comes to navigation. The waters aren’t
marked like they are in the U.S. or more populated countries, and the depth is
very deceiving. After coming back into the Sea Of Abaco we pushed out around the
back of Fowl Cay and finally saw the reef. We were even greeted by a few mooring
balls that let us know we’d in fact made it.




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August 11, 2013 Leave a Reply


TRIPPPIN IN THE BAHAMAS – NOW WHAT?



A continuation from my earlier post, http://wp.me/pKtoE-bF. 



Credit: Google Earth

So we’d all made our respective journey to the island in some way or another,
and it felt good to be back with the rag-tag crew. I knew at this point nothing
would get in our way for a successful trip. That first morning with everyone in
the house was amazing. You could see the eagerness on everyone’s faces when they
woke up saw the amazing 280-degree views out our living room windows. The first
order of business the morning after everyone’s arrival became apparent when the
last of the amazing pastries we’d bought the day before were gobbled up.  We
needed food, and the girls were quick to say they’d like to see Marsh Harbor.  

 

The team loaded up into the boat for a trip into town. It was interesting
watching their faces as we scooted along the shoreline. I had taken it for
granted that we’ve been looking at this scenery for a few days now and they were
just now seeing these beautiful islands. Once we hit the docks in town we all
split up with our respective missions. I was on the “get food” team, so we asked
a local taxi driver where the grocery store was and hit the road on foot. After
about 40 minutes of aimless wandering, loads of sweat and some minor sunburn we
threw in the towel. I could have sworn that the locals were screwing with us
when they kept saying, “just a little further”. We headed back to the cabstand,
caught a cab with AC and realized that we were literally fifty feet from the
store when we’d finally decided to turnaround.  Go figure.

 

The first thing you’ll notice in the grocery store is obviously the cool and
interesting brands on the shelves. The second is the price. Holly price shock
Batman. Like many other island counties the Bahamas have very few local farms,
so they import a majority of their food. Hence the insane prices. Nonetheless;
we had an entire car full of food, and headed back to the Harbor. I’m not really
sure how we would have ever carried that stuff back to the boat. Thank God for
the cabs.



 Source:
http://www.worldofstock.com/stock-photos/bahamas-abaco-marsh-harbour-taxi-driver/PWO2125

Upon our arrival back at the Harbor we noticed that the “get tanks” team had
indeed done just that. We had a leaf-cutter ant style line of tanks shuffling to
the boat.  A very nice gentleman was quick to help out with the tank duties,
which was no surprise. The harbor is full of folks looking to help in hopes of a
tip. I say that not in the way you think about people pandering you for money,
but in a classy way. With a deep Bahamian accent the man introduced himself as
Captain James. Wanting to know more about our new dock friend I asked him where
his boat was, assuming that the Captain would surely point to one of the
beautiful catamarans or trawlers that littered the bay.  He smiled confidently,
looked me in the eye and said, “All of em, young man”. He went on to explain
that he captains a lot of the boats in the harbor and he’d be happy to help us
on our adventure should we want a Captain to take us fishing, hunting conch or
diving. I told him thank you and let him know we’d get in touch with him should
we decide to go that route. He handed my dad a business card that contained the
words “Capt. James” and his local phone number. We wished him a good day, said
out goodbyes and shoved off. The boat was packed with 18 tanks, 9 people and a
truckload of groceries. We idled out of the harbor, hit the throttles and pushed
Tripppin back towards the homestead.



We’d made it back with supplies, newly-rented tanks and accomplished our
early-morning adventure. Now what?

You can read the rest of the journey here, http://wp.me/pKtoE-c9.


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August 11, 2013 Leave a Reply


TRIPPPIN IN THE BAHAMAS – THE GANG’S ALL HERE



A continuation from my earlier post, http://wp.me/pKtoE-by.



With the customs and immigration process behind us we were all ready for some
adventure and food. Not specifically in that order. The folks at Dive Abaco were
quick to suggest a local coffee shop down the road a bit where we could grab
some sustenance. It didn’t take long, and the five of us found ourselves walking
down a narrow road leading out of Marsh Harbor in search of our first Bahamian
meal. I was in heaven. I’ve always loved walking around the islands wearing my
goofy straw hat, some flops, and a backpack. It’s about as far as i can get from
the bustling, tech-crazed world I live in back home.

A half mile later we stumbled into this wonderful little coffee shop where
locals congregated in the corner, and the smell of fresh pastries filled the
air. We quite literally bought the mother and daughter team out of everything
they had in the deli case. We were starving, and didn’t care who knew. You could
almost see disbelief strewn across the faces of the old women in the corner as
we loaded up our backpacks with food, and slammed back coffee last meal style.
With some life juice (coffee) flowing through us, and the fresh doughnuts being
doled out we were ready to take on the world. Well, we were at least ready to
walk back to the boat and figure out what to do next.

The rest of the clan didn’t arrive until later that afternoon, so we had some
down time to explore and figure out where to grab some supplies. One of the
challenges and benefits of not having a car on the island was that the boat had
to be our lifeline to town. If we needed food, fuel, scuba tanks filled or
supplies we had to rely on the boat to take us to where we needed to go. It’s
fun, but it can also be a pain in the ass… not to mention expensive. I
calculated that a simple run to Marsh Harbor costs us about $15 each way in the
boat. Not that it was an issue, but I’m one of those people who likes to keep
everything in perspective.

We loaded back into the boat after stopping by Dive Abaco one last time to
negotiate tank rentals for the week. Everyone on the trip was going to be
diving, and SCUBA tanks are almost always easier to rent than to own and travel
with. You won’t believe how small a boat gets when tanks are added to the
equation. We left the tanks for another day and ran back to the house; passing
all of the skiffs, blow boats, trawlers and commercial vessels still tied up in
the harbor.

The girls were arriving later that afternoon with a brief connection in Nassau,
and we wanted to have the house in order for their arrival. Now, our home was
rather amazing, but it did have one HUGE issue. It hadn’t been used in months,
and the inside was musty and damp. So much so, that we had opened the entire
place up for 24 hours and it was still an issue. Nothing like staying in a
million-dollar home that smelled like the bilge of a boat. To add insult to
injury one of the AC units was jacked, and made a sound similar to someone
throwing a million pennies into the blades of a helicopter every time it was
turned on. One call to the property manager and the house was teaming with a
cleaning crew, and a repairman brandishing a new AC unit.



Just a few short hours later the team started trickling in the door with
rolly-bags in tow. It was a whole bunch of hugs, “whoa look at this place”
coupled with a few “I see that you all made it” comments. We quickly followed
hellos with cocktails and an amazing sunset. Finally, the gang was all here.

You can read the rest of the journey here, http://wp.me/pKtoE-bN.


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January 20, 2013 1 Reply


TRIPPPIN IN THE BAHAMAS – HELLO ABACO



A continuation from my earlier post, http://wp.me/pKtoE-b6.


The view from our back deck, taken as soon as we stepped foot on Bahamian soil.

After 7 hours on the boat, 280 gallons of fuel, 4 iPod playlists and some
serious victory dances we finally made it to Marsh Harbor. The beginning of the
trip proved to be a challenge, but we’d managed to make it to our destination in
just enough time to try to figure out where our house was. Oh yeah, you thought
we actually knew where we were staying? Ha. That would require too much
planning, and if you haven’t figured out by now the house was the least of our
worries.



We’d rented the place off of VRBO or some similar site, and the couple that
owned the home neglected to give us actual GPS coordinates, thus rendering the
“It’s on Eastern Shores” directions worthless. We knew we were in the right
area, but the houses were all fairly similar looking in nature. Our saving grace
was the unique dock our home had, and I’d managed to remember that it made a
T-shape when I looked at it from Google Earth. Thanks for that Google. We were
able to pick the house out fairly easily and we threw dock lines just as the sun
was setting. Not half bad for some rookies from the states.



We’d made it, the house was amazing, the boat had performed beyond anything I
could have asked, and the sweet taste of victory was something we’d all tasted
that first morning. Unfortunately victory was all we tasted, because we had no
real food. Everyone got up, threw on some clothes and we loaded the boat to head
into Marsh Harbor. We needed to get fuel (if they had any), clear customs, check
in with the Harbormaster, and get some local island breakfast.

Pulling into Marsh was something I wish I could describe in this blog, but it’s
simply not possible. The harbor reminded me of all those wonderful places in the
Saints I’d visited years prior. You had a slew of sailboats, trawlers, skiffs
and local fishing boats all moored up in no particular order. Locals and
passersby were eating toast and drinking coffee on their decks, happy to throw
you the casual wave as we scooted by. It took us a minute to find the fuel docks
we were looking for, but a nice guy named Andy was happy to greet us and give us
help with the customs and immigration folks. We actually weren’t able to get
fuel for the boat until we cleared customs, and I wasn’t going to try any sneaky
business with the Bahamian officials. We had our super fashionable bright yellow
“Quarantine” flag flying, as soon as we hit Bahamian waters, so Andy knew were
fresh off the Florida Coast. We called the Harbormaster and added ourselves to
the list of folks who needed to be cleared that morning. A few hours later,
$1600 in fuel, a lot of paper work and some nice locals added up to us being
cleared for the trip. For those of you wondering what you can/can’t bring, and
how to declare it I’m happy to chat offline. We did take a fair amount of
munitions with us, and a great deal of cash. None of which was an issue, and we
did it all by the book.

The view from the front of the house




You can read the rest of the journey here, http://wp.me/pKtoE-bF.


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January 19, 2013 Leave a Reply
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