The Votaws' Ocean Adventure

Well we left Warderick Wells yesterday. After creating a sign for Boo Boo hill, we bid farewell to Exumas Cay Land and Sea park. Now we are anchored just west of Big Majors Spot (it’s and island) which in just next to Staniel Key. This is where they filmed the movies Thunderball and Splash among others. There is a cave that you can swim into that is supposed to be awesome. It is called Thunderball cave or grotto. We are gong to go check it out this afternoon. We don’t have an underwater camera so we’ll just have to describe it for you after we check it out.

Tomorrow we are heading south again toward Georgetown. We will spend the night somewhere along the way and then arrive on the 13th. So until then, here is a picture of a Bananaquit eating sugar out of Garrett’s hand. Check out the gallery for more.

“Why is it our favorite topic,” you ask? Because we have no money and we always get some from Uncle Sam!!!

Thanks to President Bush, we also get to benefit from the Economic Stimulus Plan. I don’t agree with it, but I’ll take the money! We didn’t pay any taxes, we don’t owe any taxes, and yet we get money back—(makes no sense to me) but I’ll take it.

And now it’s time for an Awards Speech moment:

I would like to thank my wonderful father-in-law for taking care of our mail, and relaying important information to us. He had to email me all of our tax filing information. We couldn’t do this without him! I would also like to thank my wonderful mother-in-law for helping as well. She has amazing organizational skills (probably better than me, if that’s possible), and she, no doubt, has had a hand in keeping our records orderly. Plus they both check our PO Box several times a week, pray for us, and encourage us when we need it.

I would also like to thank our children for being alive. Because of them, we will be getting $900 from our federal government so we can stimulate the economy of the Bahamas (grin). Not sure that’s what the gov. had in mind, but that’s what will happen. (They will consume it all in food!)

I would like to thank God for creating the beautiful islands we are enjoying, and for the wonderful ocean full of interesting life. Apparantly, God has a different opinion about what a “fair wind” is than I do, but I’m sure He’s right!

OH! And I would like to wish for world peace!

Every year, when I hit the SEND button and file our taxes, I feel like I have just accomplished an amazing feat deserving of an award. I suppose the award is our refund check!

Well we have been at Warderick Wells Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park for two days now and I still haven’t taken any pictures. I’ve been volunteering each day with the park folks. Yesterday Kimi and I volunteered. Kimi sifted sand on the beach. She sifted 10 gallons of sand. The park uses it for sandblasting and cement I think. I worked on the plumbing on the parks desalinization watermaker system.

Today the whole family turned to and worked from 9am till noon. Travis and Garrett got to try there hand at being “wreckers.” They cleaned up the remains of a wrecked Haitian boat that was up on one of the beaches. Shirley and Kimi got to dig in the sand. They dug up some long round timbers that were buried near the park headquarters. I’m not sure what they are going to use them for. Kimi also got to search the garden fence for a hole in the chickenwire (which she quickly found). A hutia got in last night and was eating all the veggies. He got caught in a live trap and was a really cute little guy. Looks kind of like a prairie dog. I got to work on the watermaker again. It seems that there was a problem with one of the pump relays that prevented the saltwater feed pump from shutting off. This led to the pump overheating which caused lots of problems with the PVC piping adjacent to the pump. I was able to troubleshoot that problem and get it fixed. Now Warderick Wells is making water again.

Everyone was worn out by noon since we have been pretty sedentary lately. So we adjourned back to Cannibal and chilled out the rest of the afternoon.

Since I don’t have any new pictures posted, I thought I’d share a special treat. Here is a little video from our trip so far. Just click the picture!

I now know, first hand, why some people leave it all behind and move here! This place is like heaven. There is beautiful water everywhere, and beautiful beaches. I want to live here!

We are in the Exuma’s, island hopping. We stopped for a couple of days at Allan’s Cay to play with the Iguanas. They used to roam all of the Bahamas, but they’ve been almost wiped out. Allan’s Cay is one of the few islands here that they are in large numbers. When we landed on shore, a couple of dozen rushed to “greet” us. Excursion tour boats bring tourists here to feed them (which you’re not supposed to do), so the iguanas are pretty hospitable towards humans. We didn’t feed them, but we did “hang” with them. John and I lounged on the beach while Kimi made them a giant sandcastle. The boys were off exploring the island.

We spent a few days in Hawksbill Cay playing on the beaches and roasting marshmallows in the fire we made on the beach. We just arrived in Emerald Rock near Warderrick Wells. We’ll stay here a few days at least. This is home to a land and sea park, so there’s lots to see and do here. The kids already saw a nurse shark near the park office! Check out the new pictures in our gallery.

Saturday night, we anchored out in the middle of The Great Bahama Bank. The ocean is shallow in the Bank, about 12-18 ft. The water is so clear that it makes you want to jump in and swim and drink it (except that it’s salty-plhh).

Early Sunday morning, we headed toward Chub Cay. We didn’t get too far by sail, so we ran most of the way on engine power. Chub Cay was a full day away, so we would have had to spend the night out again if we hadn’t used the engine (iron wind). We spotted land around 3:30pm. It would take another hour and half to get to it. Read the rest of this entry »

Well the time has finally come. We are leaving the USA tomorrow AM. The weather is gonna be great, 10 to 15 knots out of the SSW. We are currently anchored north of Rodriguez Key which is a the south end of Key Largo. The island is part of the John Pennekamp State Park and is a totally undeveloped wooded key. Around sunset, three “jolly boats” full of young people pulled in and are over at the island camping.

Neat boats, Read the rest of this entry »