Allen's Cay

First stop, Allen's Cay famous for its iguana population.
Video

On the way

Leaving the bustle of Nassau to the often deserted islands of Exumas.

Foolishly let me drive.

A few things we saw along the way. The water in these photos is about 15 - 20 feet deep and crystal clear turquoise, amazing.
Squid, starfish and a conch (if you look closely you can see the trail it's leaving).

Exumas

Neither words, nor my photos, can do justice to the beautiful Exumas a chain of the Bahama Islands south east of Nassau. Sailed through them with Mark for 10 days. Just going to post pictures, let them do the talking.

View from the boat - Nassau Harbour
and Atlantis:

Hammering conch to tenderize.

Abby and Sally

After missing their flight due to bad weather Abby and Sally have finally arrived, flying standby!
No, it's not really that cold that Abby needs her winter parka, or is it? Wednesday was fish fry night, didn't have fish but we did have conch fritters and Abby danced to the tunes.

Next morning for breakfast Sally tried grits and stewed conch (she liked it!). Then into the dinghy and to the square where Abby was wondering if she could get a little lunch from the well endowed statue.

Friday night at the square Abby got more applause and laughs than the limbo man. Then it’s fun at the beach and feeding birds while Mommy is playing with the dolphins.

Abby and Omi

No fingers were lost.

Dolphin kisses.

Richard is fixing the long boat for its 2nd voyage to avoid being turned into a planter by Betty. Put black sticky stuff down and cover it with a piece of wood, hmm. Me thinks a lot of bailing will be going on. I now own half of this boat – Richard gave me his half. While they’re trying to make it seaworthy I’m hard at work baby-sitting.




The boat has been fixed as much as possible so off we go (properly attired) – Sally was brave enough to sail with Gerry through the canal and then I got the pleasure of constant bailing as we sailed along the beach. Only ran aground once, still have the bruises.

The boat is now in its new home at Nick’s house.

Canal tour, flooring, horseshoes and fire extinguisher

Ken and Johanne's

 

New Laundry, new floor

Richard is busy building a new laundry room.

I've been busy helping Gerry put a new floor in Ramblynn - layer after layer of epoxy on the teak and holly that Brent has cut to size.











Playing Horseshoes

Susan hosted a dinner party, she lives in a condo on the beach and some of us thought horseshoes would be a good idea.
I have a new camera that took this awesome picture - the horseshoe is flying right at the camera (Gerry and Pony-tail Richard - who claims he's never played). My old one would never have caught the horseshoe in mid flight.













Trying to keep Ramblynn clean


Sally and Abby are arriving tomorrow and they'll be staying on Ramblynn, the boat with the new floor, the one I epoxied a million times and the one that Brent expertly fitted but neglected to tell anyone that he would be using a power sander so no one took the time to cover anything up. You can imagine the mess that needed to be cleaned up a few days ago. Today I was doing a final clean up and was just doing the finishing touches when Gerry came in to put the fire extinguisher back in place. Can you guess what happened? Yep, it went off, accidentally.

Clean Ramblynn, waiting for Sally and Abby who missed their flight!

Back in the Sun

After driving through a lovely snow storm and waiting 2 hours for de-icing I finally left the frigid north for the sunny south. The wings went from pinky-brown to green at an approx. cost of $2000.






Photos: Toronto, De-icing, Fort Lauderdale, Bahamas. What a difference a few hours in the air does for the climate.

Christmas in Ontario

I didn't want to let on that I was back in Ontario for xmas - wanted to totally surprise my sister by just showing up on xmas eve - and surprise her I did. Sister-in-law Leslie had a hunch I was there - no surprising her LOL. Had a great time with my sister and brother and their families. It's been fun running around visiting old (and young) friends - some I haven't seen since the 70s! Getting back into belly dancing if only for a short time has been wonderful.

However, I am not having a great time coping with the snow and the cold cold temperatures. Will be very happy to get on the plane for the sunny south once again. 5 days and counting.