November 2013 was a happy homecoming for us as we once again returned to Davis Harbour on South Eleuthera.  I hate to tell people how wonderful it is as I would like to just keep it for ourselves, but since our friend Glen Smith took over as Director of Operations, this should become the idyllic destination for cruisers/sailors who are looking  for the real Bahamian experience in boating! 

Our happy staff!  We can not call them staff however... they are our family, (except for the two who I will leave unnamed who scared the B-Jeezus out of me today with a big ol snake-dead but still a snake....  First one I have seen thank God. 

Bob's sail hut; we found out last year that the sea in front of the marina is also a perfect windsurf area, Bob has miles beautiful clear and mostly shallow waters to himself!

Here he comes in for a jibe!

Just one of the several lobster that did not  move fast enough  to avoid his spear!

Another bounty from the sea....conch!  Yummy, but only Bob can do the cleaning, too icky for me, but I sure do like to eat them once they are caught, cleaned, tenderized and cooked by the Capt!

We took our friend   Daryl (divemaster) with us on a fishing trip on Veda L, these Mahi Mahi both hit a line at the same time, so it was pretty fun bringing in two at the same time.

 OK....I didn't land it; but I drove the boat while Bob landed it!

My stand up paddle board, also known as an SUP, I watched a large eagle ray glide beneath my board that day, yes, that is really the color of the water...swimming pool blue!

July 8-9th  was a busy weekend with over 800 visitors to our garden, Teary O'hara and I (he is our self pro-claimed garden fairy) and I worked for weeks to prepare for the two day event; the tour bus pulling up to our driveway did surprise us a little!  Visitors said that our garden was one of their favorites as it was full of whimsy and surprises, Amelia and Evie Rose show off one of the water features, that is Teary with his little Miata loaded with posies!  Teary even brought in a banana plant as a focal point, I added a sign that said "I don't remember planting this!"

June 25 is a special day as Evie Rose and I share a  birthday on that date!  This year she was into horses and wanted a "My Little Pony" cake, of course we took it a step further and had the miniature horse foundation bring 3 little horses to our yard for the kids to groom and ride, the horses provide a great service for elderly and disabled children, but for a sizeable donation they will bring the horses to private functions.

Some mid-summer shots of our Amelia clowning around and just posing her cute self!  Yes, we keep her in chains on the beach, or in a cargo net, she gets a little wild and needs to be controlled!  She loves her Buddy the cat for sure!

July was a time to celebrate family time with our beautiful Grandchildren in Peru, Santi 4 and Miranda 3, after spending a couple of days at their new home in Lima, we traveled to Punta Sal, a lovely resort that we enjoyed for a week of fun, getting reacquainted with the kids took about 2 minutes...   Sand, surf, lots of good food, the best part was spending quality time with those kids!

Evie Rose, age 3 doing her hat modeling routine on the Buckhorn Beach on the St Croix River, MN

On our naturalist tour on Andros we were shown all the different plants used in bush tea....

Bob was given lessons on how to catch crabs using first his feet and then being quick with his fingers!

Pictures of a blue hole on Andros with a diving platform (or jumping platform in my case) with treads to give you a running start.  

No trip to Fish Creek on Andros is complete without a visit to Androsia fabric factory, I bought dresses for the girls, very beautiful photo op's with the fabrics blowing in the breeze!

These photos say "what a difference an hour makes!"  from glassy calm to turbulence and rain on our approach to Fish Creek Andros

We loved the sign "do not enter...Very Bad Dogs...the name of the stoneware shop is Pina Colada on Eleuthera, pretty colorful but guess we will not get out o the car.....

The night was dark, the car died continuously if we had the wipers and/or AC on to keep windshield clear, the drivers (Bob & I) were not that accustomed to driving on the left side, and only about 1/2 of the oncoming cars dimmed their lights.  Our dream machine died going up a cut like this one on a pitch dark night.  We had to push it over the top so we would not get hit by oncoming traffic,  we kisses Davis Harbour ground as we got back to the boat.

More Fun then departure for our MN summer.....

Underwater beauty feather duster worms on tube sponge...just outside the marina at Davis Harbour

Showing how "crafty" I can be, I sewed this tablecloth for our aft deck dining...note ties on the corners to keep it from blowing away!

Snappers!  A local fisherman offered to take Bob out in his boat.... didn't look TOO seaworthy however...

Governors Harbor at twilight

Fish Fry at Govenors Harbor, food not so good, drinks a bit too good, the drive home...not good at all!

This shows a cut in the road through rock, similar to the spot where our rental car died on the way home in the pitch darkness...  had to shut off all lights, AC, etc. in order to start it again and just prayed nothing was coming up the hill the other way....as no shoulder

Historic Haynes Library in Governors Harbor

Two beautiful school girls studying in the library after school

Whilesnorkeling I looked up and saw this water spout....think we should leave Bob?  Naw...no worries.To the right is the sandbar which is really fun to dive, lots of  sea eggs and sand dollars collect on top.

Showing the drop off from the top of the sandbar - about 15', bery pretty sand formations.

Time to head back to the marina as I looked over my shoulder as we enter the marina entrance

Our Davis Harbour Family - surrounding GlenRoy with love and affection for their Director of Operations!

Not only did we get a serenade from our Harbormaster "J Sweets" but the crying towels were brought out as we pulled off the dock to leave for the summer...

Vacation in MN away from my Vacation in Eleuthera!

I took a vacation from my vacation and spent two weeks in MN in April to do Amelia's 4th Birthday party, she requested a Super Hero/Princess cake, so..... TA DA!  Grammy figured it out, Super Heroes on one side, the Princesses on the other, we had Superman carrying Jasmine and a few other oddities, Spiderman dangling from the chandelier with a princess in his arms.

Just off the plane returning to Eluethrs and Bob stops at LaFleurs vegetable market, I had fresh coconut milk, some mini bananas and met some new friends!

A fresh pineapple ready to pick...and we did!  The Eleuthra pineapples are SO SWEET and they have a serrated leaf, and even better...don't cut the core out...it is entirely edible, sweet and soft enough to enjoy!  We fry pineapple lightly to serve with fish.

Once back on Veda L Buddy immediately sat on my suitcase and gave me a "don't you dare leave me again" look

I had been admiring this mans vegetable garden along the sea, so finally stopped to chat, he has a house across the way but e prefers living in his little "house" along the water, he was repairing lobster pots.

He was very sweet and let me take many photos around his property, I promised him that I would bring him copies of the photos that I had taken....and I did!  He particularly loved the photo below of his cat, which I told him I named Half & Half.

Easy to see why this kitty was named Half & Half by me... plus we had a cat that was very similar to this one when we lived on the farm as children...  the cats name.... Half & Half of course!

Here is the vegetable garden by the sea that made me stop to visit.... What a life to live just being happy with what he has.  An outlook to be envied by most of us.

My Mother's Day Miracle....  I was walking along a stone wall bordering a cemetery;  a car stopped and asked me if I was there to look for somebodies grave, "No, I am just here taking some photos of this ancient burial ground" The cemetery was from the 1600's  to present.   They asked me something else and I said "wait till traffic clears and I will come over"  so I walked across the road and noticed that they were holding instruments, the passenger a guitar, the driver a harmonica; of course I had to ask "who ARE you guys with musical instrument, driving around?"  They said that they had just come back from a rehearsal and could they play me a song.  Come on.... do I really get this lucky to be walking along a cemetery wall and then have two Bahamian guys stop to serenade me?    OF COURSE I DO!   What made this really special is that this was the day before Mother's Day, of course my Mom was on my mind even though she has been gone for over  3 years.  

We are going to play a song that we love... "It's a beautiful World"  so,  they get out of the car, and start playing along the sea wall....the song that was played at my Mother's funeral "It's a beautiful world"  A song she related to as it spoke of nature, children and of all the beauty of the world.  My Mother never had much, but she was so much richer than so many as she had the riches of the world and love from all that knew her.

We were behind this truck...keeping our distance, we watched them as they backed into a yard, slowly, then hit the brakes hard to slide all the lumber off the truck.  Ingenious ... maybe a little dangerous... but ingenious!

This was my welcome back to Eleuthera dive...conch, lobster, beautiful underwater seascapes...really happy!

my seaside serenades.... I invited them to visit us at the Marina; so Bob got out his banjo and though the music was not top notch, it was full f  feeling and new friendship!  The tall guy is a high school  music teacher.

This is Xanthia, Glen's Daughter, who we have nicknamed "Baby Girl"  She is adorable and surely has fun visiting Papa Glen!  We were having a turtle hunt that day...not to catch, except on film.  Not too successful but fun!

This is the "public" beach near Davis Harbour where we snorkeled to find turtles, not too many of "the public" have discovered it .... fortunately for us...unfortunately for them!

Really? Really? Bob caught TWO MAHI MAHI????

 On the way to Compass Cay from Eleuthera today Bob says "Think I'll air out  my fishin gear for awhile; and gets set up. Bob then asked me what I would do if he fell overboard while landing a fish; we went through the drill and other than me telling him that I would throw everything off the boat that would float into the water, I passed the exam.
 About an hour out of Eleuthera the reel spins and I do what I was taught to do,  take the navigational off, steer into the waves, lower the rpms and set auto pilot.  The stabilizers don't work well at low rpms, so now we are in for some rockin and rollin while trying to land a fish without a gaff, and well...not much else other than ingenuity.  This bad bull dolphin measured 42" long, our "fish scale" to weigh him was in my suitcase under our bed (also known as luggage scale), but he was big, and ended up in our freezer and also will be in our frying pan tonight!  Yay Bob...Go Capt!   

 Not only did we get the first big Mahi Mahi shown above, but just when I was starting to feel less nauseous after the rocking that went with the landing of this big guy, his reel started spinning again and I am thinking "Oh damn"  So back in action we went, this time Bob actually landed him from the side of the boat while I held the rod tight outside the pilot house.  He measured 45" and will be great to share with Richard and Mimi when they arrive!  Our "tackle box" includes my sewing tape measure, a bottle of vodka, a pole spear (no gaff...), a hammer, a luggage scale and an old sheet to cover the deck.

 #2 Mahi Mahi refused to die; so Bob says get the hammer...I said "how about the Vodka?"  He forgot that Sister Janet left a bottle of Absolute on the boat from her trip with us a couple of years ago (can't believe I didn't drink it!} but a few shots into the gills and our big boy turned calm and Bob could filet it out.  Postscript:  

 The picture above of Vodka & Me (thanks Janet!) was taken once we arrived at Compass Cay, I was happy to see the boat Freedom tied to the dock across from us.  In my opinion this is the most beautiful boat in the Bahamas (and it's a charter boat). This is a Trumpy, a Trumpy used to be a Presidential Yacht which lasted into Kennedy's administration.  Bob and his friend Dan Himes did a delivery of a Trumpy across the Gulf of Mexico from New Orleans to Tampa, no electronics, cable steering and a lot of fun...well let's say it was an interesting trip!