Our kids are the king and queen of making fun out of what they have—creating imaginary storylines to pepper their play with, building elaborate homes out of rock on the beach, painting shells with mud, making boats out of toilet paper rolls, kayak anchors out of rocks, and the list stretches on, day after day. They have very few “real toys” in the traditional sense, yet Ali and I rarely feel as if we say no to them (regarding buying some toy), because they ask for so little. Ali and I are thankful every day that they have each other—I don’t think either one of us could keep up with the playtime, imaginary-game-time, that these two can together.
At low tide there is a sandbar offshore a bit from the islands that looked pretty cool, so we moved the boat over in the morning and waited for the tide to drop.
On Lee Stocking Island is a cool old abandoned Marine Research Center. We wandered around the old buildings (and somehow deleted the pics from that day), and then found some big machinery out around the overgrown airstrip that the kids fell in love with. They especially liked that there was a building market Home Depot—complete with racks of rusty bolts, light bulbs, wiring, and PVC plumbing fittings—next to their truck that they could go “buy” stuff from in order to affect repairs.
With the cupboards bare again we headed over to Barraterre to rent a car and run down to George Town. We also needed to check Ali and the kids in with immigartion for a visa extension (I got mine when I flew back to Florida for the day).
Barraterre Island is at the far northern end of Great Exuma Island and looks like it has seen its share of rough weather through the years.
We got the car from a guy in a house just up from the dock. He gave us his best car for $70 instead of $100 because it was sitting on the only spare tire already and was unlikely to survive the potholes to town. At least he was straight up with us. I managed to avoid the potholes on the way to town, but nailed a nice one on the way back. With the spare gone flat we limped off the road to a Sandals Resort workshop area that I spotted down a side road. The guys there brought an air compressor out for us, and we were back on the road. We unloaded our booty at the boat, exchanged the car for another real beauty, and set off to find some dinner not cooked on the boat, and an ice cream.
In the islands you don’t complain that your car has no mirrors, a weird stink, and fenders falling off—at least you also don’t have to fill out any paperwork or argue that a big dent wasn’t caused by you.
One quick night in Barretarre and we headed back to Lee Stocking.
Whoever claimed a dog is man’s best friend clearly never had a hermit crab.
I love this huge windlass, but when it started to slip a few days ago I got worried. It took me a couple more days to wise up and see if that big bolt on top had just come loose. It had. All good again. I even topped up the oil on it. Yes, a windlass with an oil bath. It’s a sweet unit.
Limestone is like a bed of razors. Lowe has all the cuts to prove it.
Taco detritus.
When you are short a hanger… make your own.
Best piece of kit on the boat right here. That little yellow tube shows how much water we’re making per minute. Our Spectra watermaker on the cat made four gallons an hour, this thing pumps out over thirty. We wash the boat constantly, rinse the kids after a swim at least four times a day, do dishes with a near constant stream of water, and still only run it about every third day for a couple of hours.
Hiking around Lee Stocking Island from Williams Bay.
I remember last time we were here Ali and I were mad when another boat came in and anchored right next to us while we were off on this same hike. It’s funny that back then we were able to get grouchy about the “crowds” when there was just one boat in the bay with us. This trip we’ve been blown away by the sheer number of cruisers. Recently in Black Point there were about fifty boats in the bay. Fourteen years ago in that same bay, same time of year, there were two. The Bahamas—and especially the Exumas—are by no means undiscovered.
20 Comments on “Lee Stocking Island Life”
There is another blog I follow called Our Odyssey. They are in the area on a boat called Vector. Very interesting seeing the different traveling styles of 2 very different families. Sean is very technical, but also sort of a McGyver when it comes to repair of anything found on a boat (or RV).
It’s interesting to hear you are finding more boaters in the Bahamas. Have you noticed any changes in the sea life or corals?
It seems George Town had about the same, but more in and out of cruising boats seeing other islands. I think with all the blog/facebook cruisers now, people want to venture out more to see things that a cruising guide (back in the day) didn’t talk about. Sea life and coral seem about the same, from what we remember with our very limited photos we posted back in 2004.
Great photos and commentary. As always, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Rex.
The juxtaposition of the huge sandbar and the tiny Bumfuzzle blows my mind.
Pretty cool, isn’t it?! I asked Pat to move the boat up closer to where we were as the sand bar right by Bumfuzzle never surfaced – but alas it was a work day for him and he had to get back at it. And we deleted all the photos from the camera that we had with us. It was cool out there in the middle of nowhere.
And here I sit in MN with yet ANOTHER snow storm coming…..love your pictures and how blue the water is. Spring/summer cannot come fast enough for me and everyone I know here!! Thanks for giving me a smile today. Love the rainbow picture, too.
What a spring for MN! Glad we could help (a little).
May God continue to bless your family and journey. MEMORIES…I would love to run into your children as adults and see what tales they will tell!!!!!! Cruiser kids have the most unique perspectives….Goodonyas.
Blessings,
Scott
Me too! What stories they will remember and tell.
Re: more boaters. Do you think it’s the better economy since you were there last? Or maybe the countless # of YouTubers documenting their boat lives? Or something else entirely?
I’d guess there are a lot of factors, but the biggest one for Bahamas cruising is probably the simple fact that the Baby Boomers reached retirement age. They didn’t start turning 65 until a few years after we were here last time. And with the Bahamas such an easy destination to reach from the U.S., it’s the obvious place for them all to congregate. I’d also imagine that the rise of the catamaran fits in nicely with that age group convincing a previously unwilling cruising partner to get onboard. The number of cats out here now is mind-boggling. And then, yeah, the onslaught of cruiser’s sharing via youtube, instagram, blogs, whatever, probably also helps make the lifestyle seem much more attainable than it once was. One thing you see very few of these days, are the super shoe-string 27′ monohull type cruisers—maybe 1 in 200 boats would fit that demographic.
I saw in one of your photo’s a Cat and thought Wow Pat ran across his old sailboat he once had. Still remember the water that leaked into the hull and caused you some concern before it was fixed. Take care Capt.Beautiful family you have to enjoy the adventures with.Thanks for letting us tag along. Fos
Funny we did run into a family in George Town that was on a Wildcat Catamaran – he wanted to know if we knew the prop size as his was so corroded he couldn’t read it. And we had to replace our missing prop in the Red Sea. And thanks for the nice words – family for sure.
You guys are almost family. I keep in touch with you as if you were family. Coming from a sea going back ground no wonder I fell into it tagging along.Thanks for having me.
I really enjoyed seeing Lee Stocking Island again and reading of your adventures there.
Back in the early nineties, my wife and I worked on the island. I was facilities manager and Sherry worked in the office. My job entailed keeping all the island’s equipment running…generators, water maker, the old Grove crane, Bobcat and all the little stuff. We had a cargo plane fly in from Florida once a week with food, parts , other supplies and fresh donuts.
The Tanker ‘Ander’ called at the island to deliver diesel fuel and mailboat ‘Lady Muriel’ called once a week with supplies from Nassau.
It was an interesting time there…nobody hurried very much. A great bunch of folks to work with…sorry to hear the island is abandoned.
Thanks for the memories.
Best regards.. Tad s/v Serena East
How fun. I spent two weeks on Lee stocking island for a college study abroad learning about coral reef stressors. 2011, I believe. This was before it got too beat up by storms.
Hi in 1999 I spent two weeks volunteering at the marine research center there! We built a
We painted a rock outside the main center in Green for Wilmington College.