More of Staniel Cay

Well I made the decision to accept the job at a new school in their IB Program and I am feeling good about it. I am going to make an effort into changing my past teaching habits to keep the stress and work load down while still doing a good job with the kids. I got the official job offer from HR and it will get finalized after July 4th holiday. I haven't gotten any emails from my old school after I sent them my decision to work at another school. Well, the new principal didn't even want to give me a phone interview so I don't know what they expected from me. I guess I will see what my old colleagues say when I get back to the U.S. I feel better knowing we have a plan. We called several marinas and boatyards in Abaco, Nassau, and Georgetown to find out no one in Nassau would store our boat on the hard and the boat yard in Abaco was completely full so we have no choice but to bring the boat to Georgetown unless we decide to sail back to Florida, which is something we really don't want to do because we would have to go back to Green Cove Springs for cheap boat storage or go back to Miami and leave the boat on a mooring for the same cost as Georgetown, Great Exuma. In the end, we finally decided to just continue south to Georgetown and book some plane tickets back to Atlanta. This way we can maximize our time and already have the boat in the Bahamas the next time we come back to Frodo. We talked about coming back in December because I will have over 2 weeks vacation for the winter holidays. We are feeling better about leaving just knowing when we will be coming back to Frodo. We spend the rest of the day jumping in the water to cool off and climbing back on deck to dry off in the sun. Until we get a visit from a man from the catamaran that just anchored next to us to invite us to dinner. We gladly accept his invitation and look forward to meeting new people. I decide to clean the canned foods from the center floor board and the ice box because I found they were getting rusty and moldy. I was able to reallocate the food from the center floor board to other cubbies, but I had to replenish the food from the ice box because there wasn't enough space to move all the canned food to some place that wasn't as humid. I was able to finish just in time before dinner and I got cleaned up. Then we headed over to Entrepreneurship (50' catamaran) and were welcomed by the owner, Stefan (German) and captain of the boat, Berry (American). We met Oliver (French) who was the one who invited us earlier, Christian (sounds like Carson when they pronounced his name) and Katherine other Germans. Later we met Liz (Canadian) who was the cook on the boat and we ate some pita bread with roasted peppers, cream cheese, and pesto spread (delicious :). There was also angelfish pan fried served as an appetizer, which Stefan caught earlier. They also had grilled lobster, which we didn't eat because there was only one tail and it was covered in flies. I chatted with Katherine for a while and found out she teaches children from ages 1-6, but it is much better as she only has 5 children at a time. With the small class she can do a lot with them and that is good. Then before we knew it dinner was served of pesto stuffed chicken breast with risotto paired with a cold glass of white wine. It was delicious. Then I talked with Stefan and Oliver about their business in Boston involved with software for purchasing apparel online. They were the first in the business, which is why they made so much money. I found out that Stefan's wife isn't really into the sailing thing, but just got her certification to be a yoga instructor. I told him about the book Yoga On-board and he was thrilled to know about putting their two interests together. It was nice getting to know everyone and I found out why their boat was named Entrepreneurship. Christian was the liveliest 61 year old man I have ever seen and probably in the best shape as he didn't look old at all. Actually, Stefan was really young looking as well and others joked about him starting his business at age 12 and is now 18, when in fact he is about to turn 40. He was talking about being from East Germany(Eastern block) and going to university during those times. The sky was clear and we enjoyed the cool air at the front of the catamaran. Christian turned out to be in a band and pulled out his guitar to sing some songs. JR joined in singing with a few of his favorites. Then we put on some salsa music and danced for a little while on the bridge, until we were tired. We chatted for a little while longer had a end of evening toast and then decided it was time for us to head back to our boat. We had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and it was too bad they were flying out the next day to go back to Boston or Germany. We made it back to Frodo just in time because we were sitting on deck for only a few minutes before we felt the cold winds of a squall hit us. We rushed to make sure everything was secured on deck and hurried into the cabin before the rain hit. And boy did it hit us! We saw our instruments read a continuous wind speed of 45 knots and someone else reported the gusts were up to 61 knots! It was too bad our wind generator had to go on self regulation mode because the wind was too strong to be on because we really could have used the wind power to recharge our batteries. We haven't been getting enough wind or sun lately to get power, but enough to have on the fans and lights of course. The boat was rocking back and forth with the winds, but we had on the GPS to notify us of the anchor dragging and the alarm never went off so we were fine. The next day we saw the anchor was tripped, but hooked a great deal of sea grass and held on tight for the rest of our duration on Staniel Cay.
We decided to stay at Staniel Cay for the July 4th celebration because we heard they had an all American gathering with burgers and hot dogs. We made reservations early at the yacht club that day for dinner, but found out the menu was actually roast pork and turkey instead of the burgers. We were disappointed, but still looked forward to some tasty food. The dinner cost a whopping $23 per person and we found out later it was not including anything but some side dishes (rice or mashed potatoes, veggies, and stuffing), salad and water. People also exclaimed they couldn't believe that we only got one plate of food, but we found the food was sufficient to fill our bellies (we don't eat as much these days). We headed back to the boat and watched the surprisingly long set of fireworks from the deck. We saw Sampson Cay also had set off some fireworks, but it was nothing compared to the show we saw on Staniel Cay. I see now where our money went towards from the dinner. It was the longest set of fireworks I had seen in a while. We had a wonderful time and glad we got to experience it. But paying the exorbitant fee was acceptable just this time. :)
We spent our time enjoying the cool clear waters and I cleaned the hull of the beard and some barnacles growing on the bottom. The cleaning process was completed over several days due to the strong currents making it difficult to swim and dive under the boat and taking breaks to snorkel around the anchorage. After talking with the people from Entrepreneurship, we were convinced to go see the swimming pigs out on Big Majors Spot (on Pig beach). We took the dinghy over with a few food scrapes to feed the pigs and were patiently waiting for the other boaters to feed the pigs, take their pics and leave. Then we got our turn to feed the pigs and I snapped some pictures of them swimming and eating the Bahamian bread (they loved it), potato (one of their favorites according to Oliver), an apple (loved it), and a lime (they don't like these). It was pretty funny to see a pig carry an apple in his mouth while swimming to shore to eat so the other pigs couldn't steal his bounty. :) I had a grand time feeding them and taking pics. I even got to pet them! :) On the way back to the boat we discussed the locals using this as a tourist attraction to have us feed their pigs and later they would be slaughtered for food. I enjoyed myself feeding the pigs and I think JR did too. :)
We have been feeling the effects of summer heat down here in the Bahamas and no wind. It is pretty miserable unless you are in the water. Ergo, we spend our time getting in and out of the water. Snorkeling around until we are tired and then drying off on deck. Eating when we are hungry and the cycle repeats itself until sunset. We don't like to be in the water at night because that is when the sharks come out to feed. We have only seen nurse sharks, but Stefan saw a lemon shark as well when he caught his angelfish the other day. We are going to play it safe and not put ourselves in harms way. I enjoy finding all types of conch, whelks, sand dollars, fish and any other marine life around. While I was cleaning the hull I had three small curious fish swimming around me and playing with me while I worked. Towards the end of my time in the water, they were nipping at me or something as I couldn't see what they were doing and rubbing up against my legs. Another day while I was cleaning the hull I saw the smallest Sargent major fish that was the size of my pinky nail or smaller even swimming around me. It was so cute! :) I really do enjoy having these interactions with marine life.