Logan and I were SO excited to share one of our favorite Bahamian spots with our friends Jenny and Taylor that we woke up way before the sun to get Stella Blue all shined up and looking her best. After our buddy Dimitri gave them a proper welcome with a Stella Blue sign at the airport, Elvis Water Taxi delivered our friends across the harbor right to the cockpit! (Princess Ding-a-ling has a lot of heart, but the wind was honking and we thought it might be nice for them to arrive with something dry to wear that week.) We popped open a couple of Kalik beers and got pumped for the next six days of splashing around in Bahamian waters.
What’s the best idea after a long morning of travel? Fresh conch salad, conch burgers and ice cold Kaliks. Chat N Chill didn’t disappoint as our first stop in Elizabeth Harbor. Jenny was even brave enough to feed the stingrays that frequent the beach – everybody seems to love this, Logan and I love watching. What we had planned on being a low key evening aboard Stella Blue quickly transformed into a party night as we made plans with our buddies on Badonkadonk to head to the Peace & Plenty Hotel for Thursday night Rake & Scrape and BBQ. We drank, we danced, we caught up on the past year of our lives. It was a great start to the vacation. The next few days were filled with snorkeling, spearfishing, beaching, and hiking to the monument. One of our favorite things about Georgetown/Elizabeth Harbor is how much there is to do here. Sometimes it was hard to find Jenny because she kept jumping overboard and swimming to the beach. But she always found her way back so that she could hold on to her title as SkipBo Champion…
Sunday Easter brought heavy downpours and swinging winds. But by mid-morning the nasty weather gave way to super calm conditions, so we upped the anchor and headed to the reefs off of Elizabeth Island to see what there was to see. We only planned on making it a day stop, but it felt so nice to be away from all the activity and boats that we decided to make it our own private Easter party spot. So we watch the sun sink behind Great Exuma and shared an awesome Easter feast of prime beef tenderloin they had brought from Dallas. It was far from a traditional Easter, but perhaps even more special.
Monday promised nice light winds and fair weather – SAILING DAY! We couldn’t have guests aboard and not even go sailing so we looked at the charts and picked the Tropic of Cancer beach as our destination. This would be a VPR (visual piloting route) meaning I would be standing at the bow spotting coral heads and guessing water depth, but with calm conditions, we were up for the challenge. After a nice 10 mile downwind sail we arrived at the anchorage only to regret ever leaving the harbor. We bounced, bounced and bounced some more. The reef we snuggled up behind offered zero protection and almost as soon as we got settled in we decided it was time to go. Ah well, at least we would have a nice sail back…NOT. As we turned upwind, the winds started honking! Bashing our way back with 20 knots on the nose was not fun (or comfortable!) sailing. The trip wasn’t a complete success, but I’m still glad we made it out. We couldn’t have asked for a better example of how plans have to change with unreliable weather forecasts.
LUCKILY I think the weather felt bad about thwarting our plans the day before and decided to show off for our friends on the last day of their trip. We fried up some conch “free frees” with our freshly caught conch for breakfast and headed back to the beach. This was the best water clarity we’d had yet and there was just enough breeze to keep it cool. Perfect. As we made our way across the harbor to Georgetown, the regatta boats had sails up and were practicing the course. It was registration day for the 61st annual National Family Island Regatta. What a spectacular send off for our guests – we couldn’t have planned it better if we had tried (unless we actually planned the visit for the regatta I guess). This was the first time we had four people staying aboard Stella Blue and we were impressed with how the accommodations worked. Taylor and Jenny were naturals on the boat and even though it was a bit tight, we never felt cramped. We had so much stinkin’ fun, come back anytime guys.
Can you email us some conch?
Logan is working on that 🙂
You guys look awesome! We miss you.
Thanks Monica!! Hope to see you guys soon!
Beautiful waters and pictures!
Thanks!
This is my favorite post of the year!! 😉 The pictures are wonderful. I wish I could have been there too! Beautiful!
Thanks! It was a really really great trip.
Nice story nice adevntaure
Thanks Samantha!