Sorry for the lack of news lately but, well, there’s been a lack of news.
We had a wonderful visit with our friend Loti Woods from Saturday, February 23rd through Tuesday the 26th. We spent most of the time at Emerald Bay venturing out for a car tour of the island Sunday and a boat ride down to Volleyball Beach Monday. Alas, the davit we use to raise and lower our dingy refused to work so Loti was unable to experience lunch at the Chat-N-Chill. Loti read the blog and chided me for failing to mention the outstanding dinner I enjoyed at her house when I was back in Palm Beach. So, consider it mentioned Loti, and thanks again for a lovely evening.
Tuesday afternoon, after Loti’s departure, the Lovely Laura Lee and I dashed back across the sound to Long Island for the arrival of our whole family Wednesday. Having learned that we need full high tide to get into Stella Maris Marina, we anchored out for dinner Tuesday and came in the channel just after midnight with inches to spare.
Wednesday we cleaned up the boat a little, rented a car, and moved up to Cape Santa Maria where the clan joined us mid-afternoon. Our pilot friend Chick Preston and his wife Trisha flew all the kids down and joined us for the long weekend. We haven’t had a real family trip for many years and never with the new members of our family, Daniel’s wife Emily and Suzanne’s fiance Bryant. In all, there were nine of us: Chick and Trisha, Suzanne and Bryant, Daniel and Emily, Laura, the Lovely Laura Lee, and me. Cape Santa Maria proved to be a fabulous place for the gathering — beautiful, laid back, and with plenty to do for those feeling energetic. Various members of our crowd went bonefishing, snorkling, bike riding, sailing, walking on the gorgeous beach, and just loafing around. We had dinner one night at Stella Maris Resort but otherwise had all our meals at Cape Santa Maria, which turned out to have a pretty nice restaurant.
The crowd went home yesterday, including Laura Lee, who headed back to give our dogs some much-needed attention. Laura, my youngest daughter, stayed on to get the boat back to Nassau with me. We spent last night on the boat at Stella Maris Marina and this morning, I got the oil changed in the main engine. Laura gave the boat a quick washdown outside while I vacuumed and dusted a little inside. Tomorrow, at the 6:00 am high tide, we’ll be ready to head back toward Georgetown and up the Exumas to Nassau.