13 & 14. Swimming Pigs / Crazy Kids!

Oh, to fit two weeks worth of excitement into one blog :)   

One of my favorite parts of the week is when I look back over all the pictures to help me decide what to write about, I’m always surprised at all we’ve squeezed into one (or two) week’s time!  

We last left you waiting to experience Rocky Dundas.  It did not disappoint!

Rocky Dundas is a hollowed out rock island that you can slip into at low tide to explore the cave formation.  It is pretty cool but the surge inside can be strong.  We got some amazing pictures but it wasn't without a few heart palpitations :)

We also heard about a sweet little pool called Rachel’s Bubble Bath.  

It is a cove that backs up to the ocean and when the waves roll in they are forced over the rock wall, making the pool foam and bubble like a natural bubble bath.  

It is a sweet little secret place that isn’t even on the charts and is just passed around by word of mouth.  

Our next stop was Staniel Cay.  

It is probably the most well known of the Exumas.  

We anchored between Big & Little Majors and we're happy to wake to the sound of the wild roosters, even if it was 4:30am.  

One of the main attractions of Staniel is the swimming pigs.  It was something on our checklist of “Bahama to do’s” but it was much more fun than I had anticipated.  

The pigs are huge & they swim up to anyone they think will feed them.  Most of them are really gentle and I can't imagine anywhere else that you can interact with them in this way.

    The girls loved finding a little piglet in the brush to love on.

Thunderball Grotto is the best snorkeling we have experienced!  Paige is getting more comfortable in the water and even swam in on her own and was greeted by hundreds of fish of all colors and sizes. 

We both agreed it was so amazing we would love to go back again!  

With a weather system pushing in fast and us needing to find a better anchorage and protection, we moved to Black Point Settlement.  It is a quaint community on Great Guana Cay with just over 300 locals.  They love the cruising community and offer up great amenities like laundry facilities, free wifi at some local restaurants, provisions available when the boat comes in and even homemade Bahimian coconut bread.   The locals are so friendly and welcoming, it is a tight-knit community where everyone is family.  At 9pm the light turns off at the basketball court and all the kids run home.  It is what I imagine life in the 1950s was like, when it was safe to walk the streets at night and you didn't worry about where your kids where.  

We had our first official sundowners with friends from 5 different boats also in our anchorage (Sojourner, Dream Catcher, Radio Waves, Panta Reigh, Godspeed), on our own private beach, under the full moon.  

We had a blast cheering on the Black Point basketball team to victory in their annual game against their rivals, Staniel Cay.  

The kids had fun playing with all the local kids at the beach.  

We had a beautiful Easter celebration with the small community church 

and enjoyed an amazing lunch with our new friends aboard Take Two- family with 5 kids all around the girls’ ages, so all the fun they could handle!

I even learned to make bread!  My sweet new friend, Tonya from Take Two, didn't know what she signed up for when she agreed to teach me :)  Items made from scratch in my kitchen are few and far between but we were a success.  Everyone onboard was a huge fan of my homemade pizza!

And Andrew finally got to kite for an afternoon.

    We didn't bring the camera but this is our best interpretation of the fun :)

After almost a week with the Black Point Settlement, it was time to move on.  We used a beautiful weather window to head south with 2 other boats, Godspeed & MeNorah.  We didn't expect to whip into rescue mode but when MeNora’s engine went down, we threw out the tow rope and helped them to safety.  

After making sure Will, Raven & MeNorah were safely settled, we moved on to our beautiful anchorage for the night with our own private cave off of Rudder Cay.

We snorkeled the mermaid & piano statue 

and found an amazing reef that looked like a bustling fish city complete with turtle, shark, angel fish, a huge puffer, topped off with an osprey who was mad that we came so close to his rock!  But our favorite part of our stay in Rudder Cay was Howell Hole, our own little cave.

Now we are enjoying a few Marina days.  That means unlimited showers, great washing machines, a pool to cool off in and bugs!  The no-see-ems and flies are horrific this close to land, we’ve been spoiled being at anchor.  But we are having a great time hanging with old friends.

And meeting new ones.

Literally the only picture I have of the girls with their new friends from MikBeth because we never saw them!

Andrew has tackled many of the projects still remaining.

     Sail construction

    Boat cleaning - we took over the dock!

    Testing the solar panel placement before install.

And we are preparing for our longest passage to date to cross to the Turks & Caicos.  

Things learned this week:

Perspective!  We have had some significant perspective shifts in the short 3 months of living aboard.  

1.  Remember me complaining about being hot?  It is amazing how your body acclimates to the heat.  You appreciate the suttle difference the shade of a tree creates, when the sea breeze picks up or being able to jump out your front door into a sea of blue!

2.  Free flowing water is so nice :) I knew we would be conservative on the boat because you can only carry so much fresh water and it really hasn't been that difficult.  But oh how refreshing a long shower can be!

3.  We are quick to make friends.  Back home the girls (mostly Paige) would maybe be a little timid at first with strangers, even though she is very friendly.  But when you may only have a day or two with friends aboard another boat, you don't waste time being shy.  It is great to watch them just jump in and enjoy every moment they have together!

4.  Manners are slowly dying, and they shouldn't.  It was such a pleasant surprise when all the children at Black Point were so respectful when speaking to adults and each other, and it shined a huge light on a weak spot in America.  I'm having to remind my girls to use "please" and "thank you", especially with each other.  But, as the bible says, "A kind word turns away wrath."  So we are working diligently to get our politeness back in full swing.

5.  The price of goods is a bit shocking on the budget.  Even more surprising is what I'm willing to pay for, even if it is outrageous.  Sometimes you just have to have some Simply Orange OJ and the $9 price tag for the small bottle doesn't even deter you!  Oh well, it's only money, right?

Next week's blog may come to you from a new country for us, so keep your fingers crossed for good weather and we will do our best to keep you updated!

15. New Stamp in the Passport - Turks & Caicos