Getting to the Bahamas

After weeks of preparing the boats we were ready to leave.   We sailed up the coast to Miami to a small harbour in Bill Baggs State Park.  We stayed for a few days waiting for the weather to be clear in order to cross.  They also planned to cross at night in order to get to the Bahamas during the day.  In the meantime we spent our days jumping from the mast and watching schools of Eagle Rays swim by.  We would go ashore and play in the forest of Australian pines or go to the beach.  We pulled anchor after a few days just before dark and off we went.  They chose Bill Baggs as it was a direct route to Grand Bahama Island.  My brother and I stayed awake as long as we could but the night was uneventful so we eventually went to sleep.  We woke up the next day still in the middle of the ocean with flying fish all around us.  By mid afternoon we could see Grand Bahama Island.  The water was so clear and littered with sand dollars and conch.  This was something you did not see in the Keys.  We went into the marina to check in with immigration.   My parents friends decided to stay docked up for the night and my parents decided we would anchor out.  Once anchored we immediately jumped in the water to snorkel and check things out.  We went to sleep that night only to wake up sideways in our bunks.  Apparently the tide was low.  Very low.  My dad had us all sleep out on the deck that was leaning out of the water trying to balance the boat so the other side would not go under.  First day in the Bahamas and we are already going to sink our boat.  That never happened again.  We stayed in Grand Bahama for a few days which was uneventful.  All we cared about was snorkeling, catching lobster and fishing.  I'm not sure the name of all of the islands, but Guana Cay is the first island I remember going to.  My mom, brother and I decided to go exploring.  This resulted in my brother and I getting poisonwood.  Just like poison ivy. It was awful.  My brother and I found a tiny kitten on Guana Cay.  One of my parents friends had just lost her cat so we brought it back to the boat.  She fell in love with her and she named her Guana.  She had that cat until she grew old.  We sailed on to another island called Royal Island.  It was privately owned and you were not allowed to go on it but people did anyway.  There were orchards of key limes, oranges and sugar apples as well as a tamarind tree.  There was also a 2 story abandoned house that we played in jumping on the old furniture until we scared the mice and found a nest of babies in the couch we were jumping on.  There were paths all through the island.  One of them took you to other side of the island which had a cement dock built into a square to help trap and catch bait fish.  We took advantage of that and cast netted for the baitfish.  We sailed along the island chains fishing, lobstering and collecting conch.  I had a ritual of catching a fish every morning for breakfast.  I'd take the scales off, throw it in the frying pan and make a side dish of rice.  I had a pet hermit crab whom I named Sinbad.  I would collect shells for him to change into and he loved peanut butter.  Eventually we ended up in a harbour at an island (the name I do not remember) where there were so many sea turtles, we were afraid to go in.  This is also where we found a small crashed plane and the biggest lobster (Larry) ever in what they called the boiling holes.