A Tale of Two Chemists: Another Beautiful Day in Paradise

Another Beautiful Day in Paradise … Saturday 30th March

A quick apology - we realize there was some repetition in the last coupe of blogs. Gloria and I usually proof read each other's blogs but we got out of the habit of doing this the past few days and weren't aware we were duplicating some of the themes. Similarly, I'm going to try and be more selective on the photos as I'm starting to feel that these are also getting a bit repetitive. Anyway, moving on …

We got up before dawn to catch the 6.30 am weather forecast and then after a leisurely breakfast we took the "Dumb Dog" to shore (yet another pristine sandy beach) and hiked a trail on Wardewick Wells over to Exuma sound. We spent a long time watching humming birds (Bahamian Woodstar) and Bananquits feeding on some flowering vines and were also excited to see white tailed tropic birds flying off the coast. We continue to be amazed by the water around here. From above there are so many shades of green and blue that it's hard to believe. From below the visibility and variety of sea life is wonderful. We've been doing a lot more snorkeling over the past week and have started to recognize the different fish more easily. This afternoon we joined Lynn and Lee and snorkeled on a couple of small reefs just outside the anchorage. These patches of coral amidst a sea of sand are like under-water oases and provide shelter for a vast array of fish. Once again we saw several species that we had not seen previously. It seems all too easy down here to become blasé about how beautiful it is and to take it all for granted. As our time in the Bahamas starts to draw near to the end we keep trying to remind ourselves how lucky we are and to appreciate the experience because we are really going to miss it when we get back. There are plenty of people down here who are full time, year on year cruisers and we are increasingly conscious that we don't know what we'll be doing at the end of the summer. Yesterday we spent some time chatting with a guy called Joe who we first met back in Marsh Harbor, but have continued to bump into along the way. He and his wife also came down the east coast and this is their first year cruising . He told us that they just retired, as public school teacher and book keeper, and had been planning this for years. They did three preparatory cruises of 4,6 and 8 weeks up to Maine in the previous summers and arranged to rent out their house. Joe retired on June 8th and his wife on June 9th of last year and took off on their boat on June 10th. Now that's what I call planning! What impressed us the most is that they knew within a few weeks of leaving that this is what they want to do long term. They don't want to go back to living in their house - at least not yet. As for us, we still have little or no clue what the next chapter of our lives will bring. We've always been so organized and planned everything to the Nth degree - this will surely be different.

Happy Easter to everyone!

Mike

24 23.05 N, 76 37.45 W