Our ASA Flotillas have officially come and gone. These first couple of photos will show you some of the treats I was busy preparing for the trips on this end. I was very pleased with the menus we had for these trips. Hopefully everyone out on the water enjoyed them as well.
I like to do as much as I can to help Dallas before he heads out because when the hungry campers start gathering around the camping stove and make-shift kitchen, I'm sure thing can get pretty stressful for the cook. Especially when you're talking about cooking for 14-18 people. YIKES, I get a knot in my stomach just thinking about it, but Dallas pulled it off and I for one am very proud of him (and Andrew & Ryan)!
Some of the homemade items I sent out to compliment the meals included items like Banana Nut Bread, Bahamian style macaroni and cheese, Fruit & Veggie Dips, Chicken & Veggie Braids (like below), and the sweet-tooth treats like key lime pies, chocolate macaroon pizza (first photo), sugar cookies (above), lemon squares & chocolate toffee delights...I'm getting hungry just talking about them!
Of course we don't expect our sailors to survive off of a few baked goods and sweets all week, and for this trip the dinners were something like this: Chicken & Veggie Fajitas, Fresh Fish (with Dallas' awesome marinade) with veggies and rice, BBQ Chicken (another awesome marinade of Dallas') with Baked Macaroni and veggies, Steak & Veggie Kabobs, Fresh Fish with potatoes and veggie stir fry and then of course the final group dinner at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.
Joss & Emit were momma's little helpers and did really well for me with all the 'crazy' going on around them. Thank you to all of you who were patient and interacted with out little dudes! They love meeting new people and got very excited when they were about to see everyone. If only you all could have come home to play trains with them, they would have been on cloud nine :)
Most of you probably aren't too interested in the baking and food stuff, so I'll get to the good stuff now!
The Sea Pearls turned out beautifully and I am so proud of all of Dallas' hard work that went in to them.
The fun part about big groups like this is meeting people from all over. It builds character when you step out of your comfort zone and have to co-exist with a large number of people for a week at a time, while camping! Everyone has their own unique 'flavor' to add to the pot. Can you see my Army brat upbringing coming out here?? Sure, it can be challenging at times if it isn't a setting you are comfortable in, but as the old Beaches song goes, "You've got to give a little, take a little..."
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| Werner, Dana & Jack |
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| Travis, Brent & Roger |
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| Rick & Mary |
Mary was part of the entertainment around the campfires at night. She brought her guitar along with her, which is a first for us. I'm told that the Beach Boys "Sloop John B" was quite the hit and had the group dancing around the fire one night. And the remainder of the trip folks were singing "I feel so broke up, but I don't wanna go home! :)
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| John & Brenda |
Two nights on the trip were planned for fresh fish. This first group had a lot of wind for sure. This meant they made really good time sailing up the cays, but it also meant that it was too rough to do much trolling on the ocean side for fish that first night. Spearing is always an option, and one many folks prefer to deep sea fishing. The only down side I would see is that it usually will take more fish spearing than line fishing to feed 12 people. For instance, the ones that wanted to give spearing a shot spent 4 hours in the water spearing groupers, hogfish, turbot and snapper to catch dinner for that night.
Whereas, 30 minutes of deep sea fishing at the end of the trip resulted in two good sized Mahi, Mahi (dolphin...not the flipper kind) that fed the group. Dallas feels that the Fish dinners were by far the favorite on both trips. How could it not be?? Grilling fresh fish on a campfire that you had a hand in catching with Dallas' awesome marinade....trust me, if you haven't had it, it is worth a trip to come see us to enjoy this treat :)
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| Dallas & Andrew (trip guides) |
The final stretch of sailing for this first group from Compass Cay back down to Staniel Cay was a bit of a challenge. We even lost one and a half lee boards on the sailboats to that wind. Sailing for almost 5 hours upwind is enough to drain the most seasoned sailors, much less if you've been in the sun and camping all week. Way to go gang! I know you all slept well that night in Staniel Cay.
The tow back day is the final hurdle for these trips. As the guest flew back from Staniel Cay in the charter planes (and buzzing by the boat on the way), Dallas and Andrew towed all the Sea Pearls and gear back to Great Exuma. It takes them about 4 hours if all goes well with the weather and tow lines and boats. And on this particular trip, there wasn't much time to unwind when they got back.
DING DING DING, ROUND 2
In 3 days!
Time to cleanup all the gear, fix the things that got broken, repack the gear, buy and bake more food, and whatever you do...don't leave any guests hanging at the airport when they land. I think we actually made it through both of these trips without this happening... which considering for about 2 weeks we had about 28 folks all together coming and going at all different times with flights delayed and cancelled and changed without anyone getting stranded...I'd say that's pretty good :)
In 3 days!
Time to cleanup all the gear, fix the things that got broken, repack the gear, buy and bake more food, and whatever you do...don't leave any guests hanging at the airport when they land. I think we actually made it through both of these trips without this happening... which considering for about 2 weeks we had about 28 folks all together coming and going at all different times with flights delayed and cancelled and changed without anyone getting stranded...I'd say that's pretty good :)
Stay tuned for photos from the second ASA Flotilla!!
2 comments:
So happy to hear the trip was a success! Looks like your hosting skills are developing quite nicely and they are being spoiled with all your baking and meals...
I will come play trains with your little helpers --- the true adventurers can do the sailing!!!
Thank you for all your efforts! The trip was amazing!
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