Catchin up

Can feel the season starting to slow a bit. The Mega-yachts aren't dominating the marina, folks are moving north, slowly making their way back to the states, Staniel Cay Yacht Club marina was giving slips away for free if you came in for dinner and 4th of July festivities, even got rain late yesterday.
There are only two of us cruiser types that have made no plans yet. Crew Istaboa and Marv and Carol aboard Dee-Light... I think it's a standoff to see who leaves first.
But none of this has stopped us from doing what we enjoy most. Yesterday we ran over to Sampson to visit our old dock neighbors from Pickwick. We accidentally ran into them a few days ago. Fellow Memphians, Doug and Pam, aboard Triple Treat. Nice folks who just bought a new boat and this is their first run in it. It's truly a beautiful vessel. We had lunch then took the Albury over to the park and did some snorkeling. Fun day.
Then last night was our 4th of July Potluck and fireworks show. All the usual suspects were there. The Fratelli Crew, Josh and Bryan... aka Biscuits and Gravy... Marv and Carol, Russ and Molly, Loan, Tucker, Dave, Radar, Autumn, Preston, even the Barcardi crew showed, but it started raining, then only the die-hards stayed. It was a typical Compass Cay celebration... extremely casual.

30,000' perspective

This is where we are... now you see why we love it so much. So much blue. Guess it's not for everybody, some folks enjoy a little more development. e.g. restaurants and shops. For us this is it. Peace and quiet. Blue and bluer.

One of the yacht captains, who frequents Compass carrying charter, even said yesterday, "Don't you guys ever leave?" Our reply, "Not till they make us. Whoever they are."

The only downside to this island life, if you want to call it a downside, is that manana state of mind... or as a learned friend recently put it — cognitive dissonance.
May be, but you know what?  It's not bad.
Sometimes I think, we all think too much. Sometimes I think, we all need a mental flush. A little thought fasting never hurt anyone if done in moderation.
Reality is still out there and waiting to grab hold. For us? — just not yet.

But for now, we are enjoying our little place in the sun.

Pretty soon we will, once again, follow that gull back across the Gulf Stream to the land of Best Buys and Costcos, but this time I don't think we will stay long. Were working on plans to be back here for a while. 

There are folks over here who really need our services. Who really appreciate the work we do because it makes their life much easier and less expensive.

Tucker was amazed when he picked up one of the phones we've installed and was able to make a call to his little daughter in Germany. His old phone system, which rarely works, is very expensive for international calling.

It's kinda like icing on the cake. Here we are in our favorite place in the world, making a difference. Making things better. That's a good feeling, feeling like we belong. We may become card carrying Paradisians. We shall see.

We shall see, indeed.

Adios,

Istaboa

Happy Independance Day

America

Calamari anyone?

Seems 3 guys fishing out from our homeport of Stuart, Fl found something interesting.

Just —Crew Istaboa— again

It was nice having Karen over for a few days... Gets us up and doing stuff. We had a lot of fun (sometimes too much) running around in the Albury, snorkling, harvesting conch, and other island type things. (Rum)

The first day we rode over to one of the many deserted beaches and dropped anchor. Got a nice shot of the Albury. The color of the water matches the hull color. That's Lily's Villa on Compass in the background.

The girls wanted to do some shelling and Radar was up for a swim. The wind was blowin pretty good so I stuck around the boat just in case the anchor pulled.

Later that night we  prepared the Spider Crab that Jamal had kindly given us. They're really good. We've never had Spider Crab before; very sweet and tender and big. Look at that claw.
More on page 2

Island dogs

Seems every year there are more and more boaters bringing their dogs to the islands.

Dock and Bumper on NoMoYdWk

Don't know a name, but couldn't resist snapping a pic of this one watching as the bow line is being tied. There were two of these guys... the other ran to the back to watch the stern being secured.

Of course we can't leave out Radar. He loves going to the beach to run, but he knows beach day is bath day so he makes the most of it. Not sure why dogs like to wallow in the sand, but they all seem to.

 And Sugar... aka "Suggie". The singing dog.
This is not a good picture of Suggie and he was our favorite pooch on the dock. A true comedian that everyone loves. This picture was of Suggie being held by his human Thelma as he was singing happy birthday. He loves to sing.
Suggie is a resident here at Compass who's enjoying a bit of a respite in Virginia right now.
More pups on page 2

Manana...

Man... have we really gotten into this island life or what? Actually been sleeping in a bit—wake up, have a cup of coffee, leisurely check out the internet, (that is still running smoothly)  check the market, check emails, then walk up to the office here at Compass, sit and chit-chat with others that are in the same state of mind, watch the tourist who come in to play with the sharks, then look out into all this blueness and enjoy the tropical breeze.

Folks love to pet the sharks and the sharks seem to enjoy it too.

Peggin the Procrastination Meter

Yeah... a little work. Still tweaking the virtual phone system for the marina and coordinating with the Memphis office who's designing a system that will make life much more efficient here on Compass.

So that's why there have been no recent posts on this blog.  Manana...

Did go fishing with Preston a couple of days ago... Right out in front of the island on the Sound side behind Refrigerator Rock. Caught dinner; a Strawberry Grouper and a few Trigger fish. Good eats.

 More on page 2.

Become pretty quiet around here

Big night at Fowl Cay

Our young friends from Texas have safely made it back home, but before leaving they shared their last night celebration with us at Sandals' Fowl Cay Resort. This is as good as it gets in these parts so we cleaned up as good as we could. Fun night.

The Fish Slayers

We became buddies with these fellows during their stay. They really enjoyed their time here. Hakuna Matata fished almost everyday and usually brought home a bag full. They were also the only Miami Heat fans on our boatload of Texans during the NBA playoffs. Blake and Andrew... good kids.

Bart and Nat left yesterday so it's become really, really low key. Not so bad though... A quiet paradise.
More on page 2.

The Big Man is dead... sadness...

We have nothing else to say...
Bruce just said, "Immeasurable" 

Islands of the rich and famous.

Today we noticed Radar was a little glum... we've been busy doing human stuff and not including him. So we decided to crank up the Albury and do a little island hopping. He likes to ride around in the Albury and feel the wind in his face as he sits up high and scopes everything out.

 photo by Bruce McElya

Our first stop was at the Aquarium in the park where we saw our Texas buddies out for a snorkle.

Next stop was Little Hall's Pond which some of you may know belongs to Johnny Depp. 

Yup, Capt. Jack Sparrow's hideaway. 

Nope, we didn't see him.

More on page 2.

59 and counting

363 days until the big 6-0. So time to stop thinking about that for now.
Thelma did make me a delicious cake that everyone enjoyed very much. It was a great birthday party and I thank everyone for their kindness and all the good food at the Potluck. Everything from fresh Snapper, sausage from Carmine's in Palm Beach, Smokey Dog BBQ, to Doc Shippley's fresh Conch Salad.
It was a feast for sure.

Earlier in the day we made a supply run to Staniel and lunch at the Yacht Club. We walked over to the Pink Store and saw a pin full of Land Crab. As you can see in the video, they look like some prehistoric creature from an old 60's Sci-Fi film.
video on page 2