{"id":2605,"date":"2014-02-27T15:17:42","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2014-02-27T15:23:01","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:23:01","slug":"under-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=2605","title":{"rendered":"Under Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our winter in the Bahamas is well under way, and even our first guest, our younger son, Chris, has come and gone already.\u00a0 Bob and I were thrilled to see him right on the heels of his trip to Thailand.\u00a0 He showed us wonderful photos and videos and told us so many great tales.\u00a0 He met people from all over the world, mostly young people who are taking off even more time than he is.<\/p>\n

We used our week together to show Chris some of our favorite cays in the Exumas, which naturally included Allen Cay with the wild iguanas, the Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells, and Big Major\u2019s Spot where the wild pigs swim out to you to beg as you dinghy in to shore.\u00a0 This year there are baby pigs, and they are adorable!\u00a0 The big pink Mama pig swam out to us and three little piglets waded into the water and cried for her to return!<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\u00a0The lovely beach at Hawk’s Bill Cay\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

Pandora at anchor in Warderick Wells….\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

We visited one new spot with Chris called Hawk\u2019s Bill Cay.\u00a0 It is a less visited place with beautiful white beaches.\u00a0 We ended the week at Staniel Cay where Chris could get a flight back to Nassau. Chris and Bob snorkeled into Thunderball Grotto together, and then we had a farewell dinner at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It was a lovely time, all in all.<\/p>\n

We walked to the little airstrip on Staniel last year, but this was the first time we actually saw the flight procedure!\u00a0 The gate is an outdoor gazebo, and there is a woman who shows up about a half hour before take off to check people in for the flight on her clip board.\u00a0 That is the extent of security.\u00a0 The plane lands and she puts the passengers on board according to weight (using her judgment!\u00a0 No one had to \u2018fess up!), while the pilot stores everyone\u2019s baggage in the nose of the plane.\u00a0 Then all the onlookers are shooed off the rough limestone airstrip and the plane departs.\u00a0 We miss Chris terribly now.\u00a0 Hope we can get enough bandwidth at some point to skype with both Rob and Chris.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\"OLYMPUS<\/a>\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had quite a bit of excitement on this trip.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen big sharks at every cay we\u2019ve visited. \u00a0Last year we didn’t see sharks until we got south of Georgetown. Chris got some great footage of a big nurse shark right at Pandora’s<\/em> stern. \u00a0While nurse sharks are harmless, we have also seen some large lemon sharks this year. \u00a0It makes us take stock pretty carefully before going for a swim!<\/p>\n

Somehow a little gecko got on board with us for several days. \u00a0He was living in the main head (nauticalese for bathroom). \u00a0I’m certain we each took showers for days without knowing he was there, but once we did come face to face, he was traumatized by us, and I was terrified of him! \u00a0Bob and Chris were tempted to let him stay. \u00a0Bob seemed to think he could live off fruit flies! \u00a0Luckily for me, he is now ashore in the Land and Sea Park, and I hope he is happier there!<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday a US Coast Guard rescue helicopter showed up right in our little anchorage off of Staniel Cay.\u00a0 It did some fancy maneuvers for almost an hour around dusk.\u00a0 It was amazing to watch! We imagined the pilot to be about 24 years old, and he could hover that big beast in a tight spot right off our port. He lowered the helicopter until it was right over the water, throwing up a wide circle of spray.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to know what they were doing and why they came to Staniel Cay.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been other excitements as well. \u00a0A Canadian couple we met last year got into some trouble in Cuban waters last week. \u00a0They ran aground on a reef off the northern coast of Cuba and were stuck pounding on this reef for over 24 hours before Cuban authorities came to help them. \u00a0Luckily they were in contact with other boats and the US Coast Guard (who could not help them at that location). \u00a0All ended well, but it must have been such a traumatic experience. \u00a0This morning we heard that the Bahamian Coast Guard (BASRA) has discovered there are foreign boats that have not properly checked in to the Bahamas, so they are now conducting ‘board and search’ missions on random boats in harbors. \u00a0We have all the proper documentation, but I sure hope we don’t get boarded!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a good couple of weeks for getting some other things under way as well. \u00a0I will write about that shortly. \u00a0I am paricularly happy to have had a couple of calm days to get my tapestry loom warped and even start weaving! \u00a0I’m having a lot of fun with those circles! \u00a0I thought I could do some weaving today, but we have strong westerly winds that are kicking up quite a rukus in this harbor. \u00a0I think we will head out shortly for a short sail to Cambridge Cay and a calmer anchorage.\u00a0 Farewell Staniel!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our winter in the Bahamas is well under way, and even our first guest, our younger son, Chris, has come and gone already.\u00a0 Bob and I were thrilled to see him right on the heels of his trip to Thailand.\u00a0 He showed us wonderful photos and videos and told us so many great tales.\u00a0 He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2619,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}