Classic Kayak-Off to a GREAT start!

-The Classic Kayak- 

This trip officially kicks off our 2010-2011 Season--YAHOO :) What a long, quiet summer we had. It is so great to be busy once again. I have been meaning to post before now about this group, but with Dallas out on the water and me flying solo with the boys, I don't get a lot of spare time it seems.

 I absolutely love our jobs and the work we are blessed to be able to do when we get to "work" with folks like Saji, Jess, Toby & Charlotte. You guys have been amazing guests to have, and we have had a wonderful time making new friends indeed :) Now we have friends to connect with when we go to New York, New Zealand and London. I can't wait!!!

 Before the trip started we were able to hang out with Saji & Jess a bit and now that it is officially over we are enjoying some extra time with Toby & Charlotte. I think you guys planned that so you wouldn't all abandon us at once :) I was actually telling Dallas that one of the hardest parts about our job is meeting such cool people and then having to say "farewell" so soon.

 I guess I should probably discuss some of the specifics about the trip too instead of just the awesomeness of our guests! After a long truck ride out from Georgetown to Barretarre we arrived at our "put-in" spot. Side note...the guys rode in the back of the truck on the way out (the ladies, Joss, Emit and I were generously given the seats inside the truck), and that seemed like a pretty cool treat for the Big Boys. Ah, the little things with Island Life!!

 Their first day was spent paddling to Norman's Pond Cay (about 8 miles from Barretarre) where they would setup camp for the next two nights (as pictured above). About an hour in to the trip, the group was lucky enough to encounter a huge Loggerhead Turtle that was around 300 lbs (135 kg for our Brit's & Kiwi). With the Loggerheads being endangered species, we don't see them very often. We see a lot of Green Turtles, but this was a rare treat for sure.

 Off from their beach at Norman's Pond Cay they had a regular visitor right around sunset both nights. The group had their very own pet Lemon Shark. Jess, Dallas has been imitating your amazing accent with this little "pet" since he came home :) FYI-She's our New Zealander (is that the correct way to say it?).

 Another Norman's Pond sighting (there's lots of fun to be had there) was this dead sting ray. Dallas said he's never seen one this big before. They found it in a little cove, and it seems so sad to me. Now, I know it's a sting ray, but it still makes me sad.

 One downer on the trip was definitely the bugs. The fires helped keep them at bay a bit, but they were still a pain to deal with (so I was told). Sorry about that guys. For any future visitors...stock up on the bug spray for when the wind is still.

 The group spent the days paddling to the northern end of Norman's Pond to swim in the cave and visit the Rock Iguanas around the point. Dallas was taking a lot of video footage on this trip for us to work on a video montage, so I don't have very many photos...or at least not just yet. I'll post some more once I get my hands on them :)

 Their final paddle was back toward Barretarre to Boysie Cay. This is a great location for a first or last day camp because it is a nice short paddle back to the mainland, and very pretty! There's a really cool blow hole right next to it as well.

 Before Dallas took off on this trip he wanted Joss to send him out with a toy because anywhere Joss goes... he's taking a toy of some sort with him. Joss and I chose to send 'Daddy' out with some of his favorite little trains (one for daddy, mommy, Joss & Emit) so he would have something out their as a reminder of us. Dallas recruited Saji, Jess, Toby & Charlotte to help him get some shots of the trains in action at the campsite. Joss was very excited when he saw his trains out there having fun :)

Again, you all have been such wonderful guests! Thank you for choosing to spend your vacation time with us on our little island. You were such a blessing after a very long and slow summer down here. Thank you for the sweet kindness you showed our little 'explorers'. Emit has a tight little grip on his new space shuttle, and Joss has had a ball playing with each of you at some point--throwing rocks, petting sting rays, blasting off the space shuttle, showing you 'Santa' and the scary slide... the list goes on :) THANK YOU for a Great start to our new season! You are why we love what we do!!!

Brief Little Rundown

 

As you may have suspected, we've been spending a lot of time out on "Overdraft!" Most afternoons these days are spent with a couple hours of cruising the harbor, snorkeling, taking the boys for a ride and doing any work we can out on the boat :) Yesterday was no different. We headed out to get the boys away from the house for a bit and to go for a nice little sunset cruise. As we were heading out of the harbor, we saw one of our kayakers paddling back toward his hotel. Of course, we had to pop over and say hi. This turned in to a "Hey, you wanna go for a short ride around the harbor?" And then randomly picking up some other folks that we just hanging out around the docks. It turned out to be a fun little afternoon showing off our little island.  

 We took everyone by the famous "Chat-N-Chill" on Stocking Island. Joss just had to show them how we pet the stingrays there at the beach. I love how he's the brave little leader :) I LOVE petting the stingrays, and I think that I have rubbed off just a little. Side note: cute little story about my little guy here. He is potty training right now, and he tells us, "I have to go pee-pees mommy!" So, naturally out here we run the edge of the water so he can go in the ocean. While he's peeing he calls out to the stingray "Come here, stingray, I have some juice for you!" LOL--- we about died laughing :)

 Last night we got a call from our group that is out camping right now and they told us they had run out of fuel. It happened sooner than they had planned, so they needed us to run some out to them today. Needless to say, Dallas was more than happy to work today. Luckily, the weather was one of the nicest days we have had in a while (outside of the harbor at least). Our fuel run was about 70 miles round trip in the boat today....

Square Rock

Blow hole at Boysie Cay

 I don't know who was more excited...our friend and outfitter, Steve, or the boys! Joss & Steve (though generations apart, and living on opposite sides of the USA) were actually born in the same hospital :) Talk about small world! We met Steve for the first time when we took over the company and he is definitely a person we LOVE to see make return trips to our little island.

The group's campsite on Norman's Pond Cay

I just couldn't resist this tide line shot.. such pretty shells!

Dallas was very proud to pull up in our support boat!

 We also took a cooler with some ice cold water to pass out the group. After a couple days of paddling with no refrigeration...we hope it was a pleasant surprise for them!

 Everyone seemed to be having a good time. We didn't want to impose on their plans for the day, so we pretty much dropped them the gear, picked up some misc gear and trash that would hopefully lighten their load the last few days, and then we headed up just a little further north to see a few sites before heading back home.

 This is a really cool underwater cave on the northern end of Normans Pond Cay. You can't miss it if you paddle along the coast of the island. I definitely want to come back and snorkel here. I didn't really want to get in by myself and splash around while Dallas and the boys stayed in the boat... so next time :) So to answer your question...no, I haven't been to all the cool spots up and down the cays yet either. Dallas is the one that gets to go out on all the trips and go to the really cool spots all the time. I've been to a few of them, and plan to get to many more over time. I just don't get all the chances up there like he does just yet. I'll have fun exploring them WITH the boys though :)

 This picture above is taken right as we enter the cut between Bock Cay & Low Cay (don't forget, CAY is pronounced KEY down here). This is one of my favorite little spots that we see on our trips up and down the cays. I just think it is gorgeous through here. There is some really incredible development going on at Bock Cay, definitely deep pockets behind it, but it looks really nice).

 This is another privately owned island, Neighbour Cay, and I just have to give you an insight here. We've been told from some friends that do a lot of development that palm trees (like the forest of them above) cost about $1200/piece. We've seen this island gain trees, so we know they were not all there naturally. In fact, I am willing to bet that maybe a dozen or two dozen we there originally (if even that), but the rest of these have been bought....I'm not mathematician by any means, but that's a lot of PALM TREE$!!! It is really neat though.

 Joss really loved the stop to feed the iguanas. This is the first time since he was about Emit's size that we have taken him to see these. He LOVED them!! He kept saying things like "can I hug it? can I kiss it? Come here 'gana' I wanna play with you!" and chasing them around. Not chasing them enough to really stress them out... so don't worry.

 These things were posing like crazy for the pictures... they were definitely NOT stressed by our presence :)

 

 This one here kept doing his little chin bump move to me as if he was saying "yeah, yeah...you wanna piece of me?"

 

What a beautiful day at the office!!