Mud, and Sharks, and Dragging Anchors, Oh My!

We’re still in White Sound on Green Turtle Cay, and I have to say, my wanderlust is being overridden by the continuously new finds we’ve made since we’ve been here.

On Wednesday after school we battered our way around the point between White and Black Sounds by dinghy to a public dock close to Gillam Bay beach, our favorite from the last visit. After lounging on our part, and more ‘home’ building on the kids’, we treated ourselves to a stop at our original GTC haunt, the Leeward Yacht Club, for a sundowner by the pool, and subsequently a fresh-water rinse for the kids and any adults who wanted it (which reads as everyone but me: 45 lbs of hair on this head of mine makes for a process for washing, and I’ve found a fairly low-water method in the comfort of our own head/shower).

This addition to our day began another component of our daily scheduling, which is perfect, if I do say so myself: sand them up and exhaust them at a beach, and ‘clean’ them off in a pool while we enjoy cocktails!

The cleaning part was essential for yesterday in particular, and thankfully the crashing surf played its part straight away, as Lily decided that she’d take a mud bath while we waited for the Ruach crew to come ashore.

The Ocean Beach on the ocean side (I know, crazy…) was our home for the afternoon; the surf made for good boogie boarding, and yet another upturned casuarina made for a good beach home for what we now know is the Family Game.

Sam and Kayda walked down to join us, and Sam made Violet’s day by providing a human framework for her preferred method of deeper water wave jumping. He then pretended he was a shark and chased the kids around the surf, while up on the blankets, Kayda told us stories of real shark sightings over their years of cruising and snorkeling through the Bahamas.

The stories didn’t scare us by any means- shark sightings are an inevitability here. We’re in their home, so it would make sense to see one from time to time. (We all have our stories of sightings while snorkeling or diving, don’t we?) It was just certainly a timely conversation, because not 30 minutes later, Andy and I were standing at the edge of the water, watching all four kids playing in the surf once more, when a giant shadow  came their way. Andy shouted at the kids to get out, we physically helped to haul them out, and we watched the shark go as fast as it had come. It was probably a 6 footer if we had to guess, but I imagine that number will get higher and higher as we retell the story, since what good story starts with a measly 6 foot reef shark? (We didn’t see it clearly enough to be able to identify it, but that’s my guess..) Anyway, 6 feet was enough feet for me to have goosebumps, especially considering how close it was to eight precious legs.

Walking home from the beach Andy ran up from behind the group I was walking with to say that he’d gotten a text from a neighboring boat that Chickadee was dragging. (What amazing timing that on our way to the beach we’d stopped and exchanged boat cards with this particular boat. (It is a beautiful Jarvis Newman hull that we’ve been admiring for a few harbors now.)) Andy ran, and I walked on, picking up my pace when I caught sight of our bird, almost cozying up to a large motor yacht that had previously been more than an arm’s reach away. Dan ran me out to the boat in his dinghy, and Andy and I hauled up our anchor, which had a chunk of grassy sod on it that ironically probably doubled its weight. (White Sound is mostly grass, and though we were careful to try and drop the anchor in one of the few sandy patches, we were clearly on the edge of it enough so that when the wind shifted yesterday we dragged just enough out of it to cause us to take a walk across the harbor.) The harbor had by then filled in enough with the front coming through (last night into this morning) that we didn’t want to risk finding another good ‘hole’, and picked up a mooring instead. Though our anchor and 200’+ of chain available is more comforting to us than an unknown mooring, we were assured that the ground tackle is in good condition, and here we now safely sit. We’ve never had an unmanned dragging situation happen to us before, so let’s hope that we’ve checked that one off of our list for good.

After that show, we resumed our activities by dinghying across to the Bluff House, which had our ‘necessary’ components- pool + bar. Sweet relief.

Today we head to Manjack Cay for their full moon party. One particular cove has property owned by friends of S & K’s, and we’ll hopefully do some good exploring there, both on shore and on the water.

Now back to the supervision of schooling, for which I have to say with true meaning: TGIF. Though we are plodding along, still moving forward, with a sense of accomplishment for their uptake and productivity, my patience is shot with an increasingly distracted/distracting and sulky version of school-time Lily. I sense that it’s a phase of 99% testing me and 1% exhaustion, but holy jeepers, let me have the strength to not bury my head in the sand until it’s over. Which, of course, is all I think about doing. (I just hope that I remember my book when I go under.)

Love to all, especially those of you northerners shoveling out from under your new inches!