Sailing Ohana

The Vasel family flew to Great Exuma on Superbowl Sunday and we met them at the taxi drop off next to Exuma Market. It was a joyful reunion. We were so excited to have them aboard! We started off with dinner at the Peace and Plenty Hotel, since it would be our last bit of civilization for their entire visit. Our dinghy is not able to carry all eight of us, so Tommy took the first group to Ohana and then came back and get the rest, but somehow we got confused about which group Jackson was with. He ended up coming out of the bathroom at the hotel to discover that we were all gone! As soon as I realized what happened, I sprinted all the way from the dock to the hotel and he was totally fine. I felt awful.

During the Vasels’ visit we traveled through the Jumentos to the Ragged Islands, ending at Hog Cay and returning them to Georgetown a week later.

Favorite memories from the week:

Seeing our friends’ faces after missing them a lot.

Sailing into the Jumentos with a spectacular dolphin escort. They put on quite a show for us, and stayed with our boat for a long time, jumping, flipping over, and playing in the waves. I didn’t want to miss the excitement by going to get my phone, so I just filmed a little bit of the last guy.

Having the wind cooperate with our plans for the most part.

Sharing boat cooking and chores with other adults, who were excellent crew! Sarah is a great cook and Brian has lots of handyman skills.

Valentine’s Day card exchange, complete with homemade cards from the kids and Girl Scout cookies from the Vasels.

Spencer and Alder catching matching Skipjacks for a delicious ceviche to go with Jackson’s lobster catches.

Watching the kids play for hours and hours on the paddleboards.

Sailing at 8 knots, fishing and sharing this life with our dear friends.

Jackson’s Airpod actually working after dropping it into his toilet full of seawater where it soaked for at least 10 minutes.  Tommy disassembled the toilet drain and pump to retrieve it, then we cleaned it with alcohol, used a hot air dryer, and left it overnight in a bag of silica gel packs.

Returning to the Hog Cay Yacht Club, even though there were over 25 boats there for the annual Valentine’s fundraiser party that weekend.

Lots of spearfishing and snorkel trips in the dinghy.

The giant school of tuna we spotted, jumping and chasing a bait ball… We tried to get there in time to throw a fishing line in but they had dispersed by the time we got close enough.

Catching so many barracudas that we all got tired of reeling them in and throwing them back.

Other (not necessarily favorite) memories from the week:

We caught a zillion barracudas and no tuna or mahi mahi.

Jackson’s drone battery died while he was flying it over the water and it landed itself before Tommy and Jackson could locate it in the dinghy. It was heartbreaking. 😭

A couple of spots had resident bull sharks that would circle the boat. We named this one Sampson.

Our port fuel tank leaked a lot of diesel which Tommy had to clean up and patch while we had a family of four guests on board. It was a source of stress and frustration, as well as fear that our season would be ended prematurely.  It also made that room inaccessible, so tight quarters became even tighter. Poor Spencer didn’t have his room for the whole week. The patch seems to be holding, and the tank is no longer leaking as of about a week later.