Into the wind

At this moment we are at about 30,000 feet on our way to Fort Lauderdale, hoping to get on a little plane tomorrow that will take us to the Exumas and Compass. The weather seems to be deteriorating, but who knows. That's what I thought last year when I flew into Earl and that ended up just being a party and a hangover, not a blow. Hope for the same with Emily. Don't like our position though. Turn east, baby, turn east!!

Anyway... If Watermakers flies tomorrow we will be back home to take care of whatever this all brings.

Adios,

Istaboa

ps... Thanks Diet Coke for giving us complementary Wifi on our Delta flight.

Yoink!

Not what we wanted to see this morning

It's starting...

Happy Birthday

Silas Rui Taylor

 

All the way to Memphis

Woke up early Monday morning, thinking about taking Istaboa to Lauderdale for maintenance and resupply before heading back to the islands. The satellite comms were glitchy, so I walked to the office to reboot it. Had a quick chat with Tucker about future projects, then sauntered back down the dock. Suddenly, the phone rang.

Next thing I know, Crew Istaboa is loaded in the Albury. Tuck is screaming down Pipe Creek, racing us to Staniel to catch a plane to Lauderdale, where we'll link up with another plane to Memphis.

Though we've been expecting my mother's demise, the actual act took us by surprise. After fighting a hard fight for more than 2 years, she ultimately succumbed to a very painful illness. She finally let go. Good for her.

We had never flown out of the Exumas before so I took a little camera and got some very interesting shots.

Bird's eye view of our little paradise

It turned out to be a group effort to get us home and I really appreciate everyone's kindness. 

Tucker swiftly running us to Staniel where we discovered we had left our cruising certificate on the boat as well as Radar's health papers that are required for re-entry to the US. 

Ginger and Will hustling around after I called them in the air over Andros and asked if Will could get the papers from the vet in Stuart and send them to Ginger in Memphis so she could digitally transmit them to my Iphone before landing in Fort Lauderdale and customs. Amazingly, they pulled it off. Yes, even more amazing, the US customs guys were nice enough to accept a PDF on my Iphone as Radar's health cert and let us pass. Whew! 

Next, there's Karen waiting in the parking lot at customs to take us to her house to spend the night before driving us to the airport to catch the early flight out the next morning, and cooking us a great steak dinner. Thanks to Steven at Delta Airlines for bending the rules and getting us a pass on the non-stop to Memphis, even though Mel has retired. Yes, it was a group effort and thanks again everybody.

More on page 2.

Geneva Mae Taylor 3-13-1923 — 7-25-2011

May she rest in peace

Crew Istaboa is heading home for a few days.

More on page 2.

More YouTube videos

While poking around in YouTube, I found a lot of videos of the Exumas. Most are done with GoPro HD video cameras. These little cameras are amazing. I've gotta get one.
This is a good one by a fellow who tags himself MrSThayer. He has others... very entertaining, even the one of the helicopter crash to his face.
Enjoy...

Interview with Tucker Rolle

Our buddy Tuck is on YouTube...  Alpheus Tucker Rolle





But this is not the first time... many have come to Compass to film Tuck's beautiful island.
Just this summer alone there have been numerous crews on-island doing shows and shooting photographs for national publications.

This crew was shooting a young lady who has a show on Nickelodeon called somebody's?? Great Big World.
Forget her name, but she must be known amongst the youngsters. She travels around with other Nickelodeon Network kids on a big yacht and films it. Ask a kid, they probably know her.

And this guy shoots for National Geographic as well as many other publications. Heck of camera for sure. He was really getting intimate with with the sharks here at Compass. He spent hours in the water with them.

Ahhh... Tuck's little paradise that he shares with us.

Adios,


Istaboa

No more — This

Thank you NASA for 30 years of the shuttle. It will be missed.

Nassau, the other side.

We've been at Compass so long now our stores have run low. The fuel boat was scheduled to arrive, which meant we had to move, we needed a big city fix anyway as well as supplies,  so we left Compass and ran to Nassau for a few days.

So we woke at the crack of dawn and motored out of Compass, across Yellow Bank, and into Nassau Harbor. As usual we tie up at Nassau Harbor Club and as usual there's crazy Peter the Greek standing on the dock waiting for us. We had the boat washed, she needed it badly, and settled in for a quiet night after a long day. But, the quiet night was marred by the rough water at NHC. We're not sure why, but it seemed much rougher than we had ever noticed in the past. Tired we were, so we just stayed put. The next morning the boat was so far off the dock and was rolling so badly we could hardly get off to walk Radar. A decision was made to find a calmer marina. We decided we had never been to Atlantis... so why not, let's try it out.

Never thought to ever see this site.

Istaboa pulling into Atlantis?

Crew Istaboa is not the touristy type of cruiser. We always shy away from large crowds, especially those with lot's of children, but we decided to give it a shot.

Atlantis, without a doubt is impressive. Huge yachts border the outrageously decorated buildings. Think Disney World for boats.

Still, after time we realized, this is not for us. But... they had really good internet and I'm in the middle of a family crisis right now, so that was good.

Yesterday afternoon we felt the far edges of T.S. Brett. With some serious thunderstorms, it rolled in and rained buckets for 3 hours. When it was done, right at dusk, the sky was crazy. These pics were without a tripod so they're a little blurry.

Photographs on page 2.