Felix Felicis

We spent only two and a half weeks in the Bahamas but what an amazing time it was!  Upon our departure we reflected that the period of time reminded us of Harry Potter’s experience with Felix Felicis or ‘Liquid Luck’, a potion that makes everything go your way. Like Harry, our journey just seemed to roll with little effort from one adventure to another, each topping the previous.

We left Long Island, heading for Warderick Wells, the Exuma National Land and Sea Park to rendezvous with Cariad and crew for Easter and even better than that, for a joint expedition to the wild, and seldom visited, Green Cay on the Tongue of the Ocean. We were thrilled they had agreed to join us on the expedition. Warderick Wells was an adventure in itself and we timed our arrival perfectly for a slack tide entrance into the cut and a rendezvous with Cariad within five minutes of our planned arrival time at the Warderick Wells mooring field. We considered ourselves lucky but Cariad was impressed, I guess ‘luck comes to the prepared mind’.  (I’ve heard that a few times in my life, thanks Dad.)

Despite our 24-hour passage we were excited to get moving and explore. We hiked, snorkeled and explored the island. We had a great couple of days eating my big bull mahi mahi in the form of kebabs, fish cakes and fried fish and Anna and Alice (10) were a matched pair with their snorkeling.  They spent hours at it and never flinched including chasing down sharks and sting rays. I can’t imagine two girls better at snorkeling than that pair.

The evening of our arrival at Warderick Wells, Anna spent some time cleaning the stern and swim

platform of all the fish blood. Cariad arrived a few minutes later for dinner to discover a horde of sharks and jacks, sniffing their way towards Midwatch. A few tidbits out of the ‘compost’ bucket (yes, we still call it a compost bucket despite the fact that we have not had a compost pile for more than two years) and we had ourselves a show that would have rivalled a SeaWorld shark tank.  We settled into a nice dinner of fried fish and catch up on the adventures of the past weeks since our St. Maarten meeting.

Cavara's driftwood plaque on Boo Boo Hill,
memorial bench in background

The island setting was beautiful and we managed to get in a little hike, discovering the drift wood signs on Boo Boo Hill. You may remember last year, while passing Warderick Wells, we were audio witnesses to an evacuation of a woman, we had met just a few days earlier at Black Point, after she fell on a hike. They evacuated her with a helicopter from the actor Will Smith’s nearby private island to Nassau. It did not sound too positive on the radio and we finally learned on this recent visit that the outcome was not positive, she died there that day and we witnessed it on the radio. There was a lovely Memorial Bench on the top of Boo Boo Hill that, after a few minutes, I put two and two together and realized what it was. It was a sobering moment but we realized that a fall such as this could have happened anywhere to anyone and once again it only reinforced our decision to take this journey.

Crossing last year's track, closing our Atlantic loop!

After two days and a final check of the ever-improving weather, we all departed Warderick Wells, a day earlier than planned, and headed to Green Cay across the seldom-used Decca Channel. It was at this point that we crossed paths with last year’s track, officially closing our Atlantic loop. Cariad, in the longer boat, was a bit ahead of us and had found a nice anchor spot when we arrived just at dusk. The next two days passed in a whirl wind as we went from one activity to the next, exploring, snorkeling, eating and playing. We had a wonderful campfire on the beach. The girls, Anna, Alice and Hattie (7), were thrilled to be sent over to the beach early to gather fire wood and set up a tent, sans adults. Short of the no-see-ums, that were relentless, it was a picture perfect evening which ended with a long swim off the back of the boat in the glossy, smooth (and very warm) water. Tired, sated and relieved of the insect pests and gobs of repellant on our bodies, we slept like babies.

Our Green Cay camp fire

This was the third time in our voyage that we had the great fortune to meet up with Cariad and we were once again amazed at how easily our two families got along. It was lovely to have them join on our wacky adventures without hesitation and to share in the escapades with smiles.   We are really looking forward to seeing them once again whether in Maine, Cornwall or some other more exotic location.  Thanks Cariad Crew!

We found a sea turtle carcass on the beach, amazing!

Tired kids and hero Daddies.

Cariad in the amazing calm weather at Green Cay

The Cariad crew was departing Green Cay to head to New Providence and a flight to Orlando to visit Harry Potter World. It sounds like their Liquid Luck persisted as well and they made it through the culture shock of Florida with little trouble. We were headed to Andros to visit the Androsia Batik Factory, only about 15 miles from Cariad’s docking destination. We departed together before dawn and despite the similar destinations we quickly pulled away from each other but not before witnessing Cariad under full sail.  Mother Nature gave us ample opportunity for some great photos of Cariad including some with their Mule sail flying in the early dawn light.

 

Before the mule but still amazing