Dinghy Dilemma

On February 8 our family decided to go to a deserted island that we had never been to before near Little Harbor called Lynyard Cay. As soon as we got there our Dad suggested we should to go a restaurant on another island, Little Harbor called Pete’s Pub. There was a cut between the two islands and it was really wavy for the dinghy and the ride was about two miles long.

     We were two-hundred yards from land and the motor suddenly stops. Waves crashing on the boat and my Dad was trying to start it over and over and nothing happened. So my parents both took out the emergency paddles and started going for shore. There was a nervous tension going around the boat. My Dad put the paddle down and started playing around with the motor trying to figure out what went wrong. I started paddling in his place. The shore we were paddling to was 85% rock and the other 15% was a small sandy place. Eventually my Dad tries to start the motor again and it gave out this weak cough almost like a dying cat.

Here is the beach we landed on. We took the picture a few days later at high tide so it is hard to see the rocks.

As soon as we got to land the whole family grabbed on an end of the rope and tried to pull the dinghy to shore. Unfortunately, the dinghy was too heavy for all of us. As soon as we stopped pulling, Jack and Sam wandered off to go play as if it had never happened. My Mom and Dad made sure the dinghy didn't hit the ground too hard because it was bouncing up and down while the waves crashed  over it. I climbed the rocks and started looking for the restaurant.
My parents decided that my Mom should go look for help so I tagged along. The walk from where we were  to Pete’s Pub was about 20 minutes. As soon as we got to the bar my Mom explained our situation and the bartender pointed over to a local guy named Mitchell. On small islands the people who live there know each other really well.  Mitchell drove us back to the dingy in his golf cart.

Pete's Pub looked really cool. Unfortunately, this is about as far as went on the dinghy dilemma day.

     After they discussed the situation with him he said he would go to get his boat and come back. As we waited the boys are still off in lala land while my parents talk over stuff ( I don’t know what they were talking about because I wasn’t listening). Mitchell came back with his boat and towed my Dad and the dingy around the corner to Pete’s Pub.

     My Mom and I were both thinking what a day! We started walking to Pete’s Pub and Sam comes down the sand hill and says Jacks has been hurt. Sam, my Mom ,and I all start running to Jack who is crying. Sam told us Jack cut is toe. It looked a lot worse than it actually was because (not to be gross) the toe is caked in red sand. It was bleeding bad I had a couple of small band aids in my backpack so we put one on to try and stop the bleeding. Jack couldn’t walk so my Mom carried him on her back to Pete’s Pub. Sam and I ran ahead and asked the bartender for a bottle of water to wash Jack’s foot off.

     As most of us are helping Jack, my Dad and Mitchell are fixing to dingy. They found out there was air in the fuel line. To fix that they only had to buy a three dollar part, then voila!  If only there was a West Marine in sight. The temporary fix was to remove the connector and put the fuel line directly in the tank. Back to the subject of Jack, the other lady bartender gave us a bigger band aid. Pretty soon Jack was back to normal. While my Mom went over to check on my Dad and Mitchell the three kids played tetherball.

Daddy working on the dinghy.

Here is the small part that broke.

Once everything was settled with the dingy Mitchell drove Jack, my Mom, Sam and I back to the boat while my Dad followed to make sure that the dingy was ok.

Here is Mitchell's boat that helped us back to SandStar.

It was dark by the time we got back and the other 20 boats that were near us were having a big beach bonfire. Of course my parents thought we needed a good "dose of fun" and decided to go. All of the adults were having a good time while the boys and I played in the water and found glowing bioluminescence that we could pick up. After the bonfire we all went back to the boat for a nice dinner. 

The bonfire!

Fun on the beach at the bonfire!

Life on a Boat - shopping in exotic places

When we were living in Tampa we could go to the grocery store at any time and it was always a mile or two from where we were. Often we could shop at Publix just for a meal that very same day!

Living on a boat is so different and right before we left Fort Lauderdale we provisioned a ton, knowing how expensive and challenging this would be in the islands.  Fitting all of this food on the boat takes a lot of time to get right.  It feels like a big Tetris game.

Here in the Bahamas every single store is different, for example most stores don't have AC, often there's dust on the canned food but the people are friendly.  Many of the stores we have recently gone to are tiny, run by a family and unique to that island.  Another different thing is that the food only gets to the stores on certain days. When we were in Green Turtle the wind got really bad one week and the boat that carries the food over couldn't get to the island. This meant that all the local grocery stores were pretty much empty of anything fresh.

This our big provisioning run that we did in Marsh Harbour this weekend. It was the first store we have seen that is similar to Publix. 

The prices here are way different than the USA as the local food such as lobster and crab are much cheaper but other food like chips and cookies are expensive.

We paid 50 dollars for 20 pounds of crabs – here is what the first 5lbs looked like.

Sometimes, on the more popular islands, local food stands would open and sell things like fresh papaya, warm French bread, arugula, spring mix, and tomatoes. There are no coupons here, no by one get one free and they usually only take cash.

This was a local market on one of the small islands. 

In the future we are headed down to the Exumas, where we probably won’t cross many grocery stores in the next few weeks.  To prepare we did the same type of provisioning we did in Ft Lauderdale but had to take a taxi to get home!