Final Contest Answer

To final answer all the contest questions...

Robert H. asked: Your most popular route (kayaking & sailing) and why you think everyone loves it so?

 

 Robert, if you had asked me this question last season I think my answer would have been different, but I believe our one-way trip to or from Staniel Cay is becoming our most popular route this season. Or the round-trip to Staniel Cay and back for sailing rentals. Hopefully this map works properly and gives you a better perspective of the route I'm referring to.

View Sailing Expedition/Staniel Cay Kayak in a larger map

The larger boat this season has allowed us the chance to do one-way shuttles and resupplies a lot easier than last season. It was rarely an option that we wanted to recommend last season, and we couldn't offer to shuttle guests, only gear. This way we can offer both, and we have had quite a few folks choose this route already.

I imagine it is one of the most popular routes right now for the following reasons: 

1) You go one direction instead of doing a loop or paddling back over an area you already crossed.

2) As I mentioned in an earlier post, when people search or find out about the Exuma Cays they always come across the Land & Sea Park in the northern cays. This is one of their best ways to try to camp in the park due to the distance and time most people have. 

3) The Staniel Cay route offers places to resupply ice and water and a few little food items along the way, so it's not as tricky as doing it all in the lower cays. That being said we still usually recommend folks take the water they need for a week long trip to be on the safe side.
4) This particular route is longer paddle days than our southern routes, and for the adventure enthusiast and folks that paddle a lot, this is more along the lines of the distances they are usually looking for. And a little more of a challenge!

5) This route takes you past many cays with Iguanas, famous island owners, the swimming pigs and the Thunderball Grotto.

It's impossible for me to say this is the prettiest route, because I'm actually pretty partial to some of the southern cays, but you will have a beautiful paddle or sail along this route as well!!

Needless to say, Dallas has thoroughly enjoyed this new boat of ours for many, many reasons. I know we probably say this a lot and close friends and family are probably sick of hearing us talk about it, but it has been SUCH a blessing. Our great friends, and neighbors, down here have all the fun deep sea fishing gear and have been teaching Dallas all the fun tricks to the sport. Remember... he's grown up spearing and hand line fishing.. this is new territory for this Island Boy and he is loving every minute of it. I rarely complain when dinner's on the table :)

 This photo of the pecans above is solely for amusement :) Remember how I was talking about things being ridiculously expensive on certain items.... well check out that price tag for a 1 lb bag, $23.99!!!!! Thank you mom for bringing all my baking goodies like this with you in your suitcase--truly grateful!

I found this sunset photo from some that Charlotte & Toby left us a couple weeks back (we miss you guys). It whispered warmth to me when I was browsing and made me think of everyone in the cold, wet and nasty weather. Or even in the beautiful, snowy wonderland weather (whichever way it feels to you). 

~Sending you a bit of warmth from our sunny part of the world~

Dallas is out on our first Land & Sea Park guided trip, stay tuned for more :) 

Thunderball Grotto

I know he's a bit hard to see, but we saw a FLAMINGO on Normans Pond Cay on our way up to Staniel Cay the other day. It's very rare for these birds to be hanging out somewhere other than Inagua Island here in the Bahamas, and there they exist in the thousands. But this little guy was a treat! He's the first Flamingo I have seen out in the wild like this. Sorry the photo isn't better, now I know why bird watchers get the great zooms :) But like I said...we were on our way to Staniel Cay. We had a resupply to do up that way the other day.

 When many people hear about Staniel Cay, or the Exuma Cays, they hear about the famous Thunderball Grotto. You can type it in a search engine and pull up all kinds of videos and pictures and info about it. It was made famous by some movies that include James Bond "Never Say Never Again" and "Thunderball", "Splash", a more recent one was "Into the Blue", and many others I'm sure. Whenever we can we try to take our guests by here to snorkel. This group was getting a resupply during their 2+ week trip in the cays and we met up with them on Gaulin Cay South (close to Staniel Cay). We were able to hop over really easily with the group and let them take a swim around. It was a big hit!

Thunderball is such a cool place to snorkel. It is best to hit it at slack tide when it is LOW, but it is doable at other times...just makes it easier on you if you time it right. I have only been to it a handful of times when other people aren't visiting, and that is usually during the summer when things are pretty slow down here.

 There are a couple different entrance points and little dive holes like this around the grotto that you can dive in or just swim into the cave. The ceiling has openings at the top that let the light in. And a few brave dare devils, or crazy teenagers...eh hem... Dallas and his brothers (along with many others I'm sure) have been know to jump in through them as well.

 The fish are EVERYWHERE when you're in there. I took some crackers in and crumpled them up and I have a couple video clips and the fish are swimming all over me. It is sooo crazy! I got one video where I was trying to touch a Nassau Grouper (which is a fish most folks down here love to catch) with my foot to show how close he was hanging out. He was a pretty decent size one too, and not at all afraid of me. It is so peaceful being in here with all this sea life.

I had to include this photo above because Dallas and I have been trying so hard to get a shot like this with the camera where the top and bottom are in focus. Well, the stars aligned just right on this day and we got it. Now to get one like this with something a little more exciting :)

Happy Birthday Boss Man!!!

Just wanted to send a Birthday shout-out to Dallas today :) 

To my husband, father to my children, best friend, co-worker, teammate and the absolute Love-of-my-Life: 

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and always know how much you mean to us. This company would not exist or run on a daily basis without you! We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DALLAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answers to Contest-Part 2

Karen W. asked "Can you tell us how to clean a conch shell?" 

Karen, as you are down here again and out on the water right now (above)... I obviously didn't get this posted before you came. I was hoping to get a video clip of the process, but we haven't had the chance to do that yet. I will post that later when we get it. Back in the summer I posted a blog about the process of cleaning the conch. Just a reminder. It's pronounced KONK down here, if you want to impress the locals, stay away from saying CON-CH :)

This is the pretty view of the conch! If you were asking how to CLEAN the shell (once you've cut the meat out) for something like a souvenir...I would simply use an SOS pad and some good ole scrubbing action :) Some people will varnish them to give them a nice shiny finish, but the color does fade over time (it takes a long time if it is not in direct sunlight, but it does eventually lose that pretty coloring).

 Back to the cleaning process if you're wanting to eat the conch though. Remember in the blog I mentioned using the conch hatchet to access the conch on the inside of the shell? Well, this picture above shows you a better shot of where to hit it and crack the shell. Once you open this, you can cut the conch off of the shell and pull it out. There's a little more to it at this point, but I'll need the video or more detailed photos to explain that (which I will get to you as soon as we get them ourselves). 

 Mz Jan asked: On the cooler days you mentioned...what's the temperature of the water?

During our 'cold' weather right now, which is in the 60's or high 50's at night, the water is usually in the 70's (Fahrenheit). An average is about 74-76 right now. Which for us is COLD! The summer months bring us water temps in the 80's and we get very spoiled to that. This is another reason for not having the conch footage for you right now :) It's been a little while since we have wanted to just go out and take our time searching for one. 

 Beverly R. asked: If you could change any one thing about your island what would it be?

Thanks Sis... this is a tough one.. just ONE thing,huh? Well, I asked Dallas what his one thing would be, and he said the restaurant options. For us, eating out isn't really something we WANT to do as much as, we just really don't want to hassle with dinner and cleaning that night, so we pick something up. However, we don't really get too excited about eating out anywhere. You can get really good food down here, Bahamian food, that is, but it takes forever at the restaurant, and it is usually expensive. We have however, heard of a few new places that have opened, or are opening, that have had great reviews, so we'll have to check on them and get back to you if that request changes :) You just won't find much variety. It's Bahamian food, or bust!

I think my answer for this question would be to make getting to and from here easier and more affordable. With our family all being back in the states or over in Nassau, it sure would be nice to be able to come and go when we like or go away for a long weekend here and there. With the way things are now... we can usually head back there twice a year if we're lucky, and it's for a week or two at a time. It's fun, but it's very tiring being away from home and out of the boys' routines for that length of time. But it is also necessary to spend as much time as we can to get the most for our flights. We have one more year of Emit flying free (but there's still fees with his being international) and then it will be 4 full price tickets...YIKES. Maybe I should just ask for my own plane and pilot's license... then I can fly when I want and take anyone I wish with me :)

Trolling for Mahi Mahi or Wahoo, anyone??? YUMMY!!!

 

James S. asked:   Yall's favorite caye? Sunrise or Sunset?

Hmmmmm, Favorite Cay...that's a tough one too. I think we would have to choose Normans Pond Cay (shown above)  here. It's is a beautiful spot for one... with a front a center seat to breath-taking sunsets, but there is also a ton of things to do within a short paddle/sail from here. And on that same note...we prefer sunsets! Maybe it's because we see more of those than we do sunrises, but I am constantly being stunned and amazed at the, once again, incredible sunset before us. In a bible study I did recently with Beth Moore I learned to say "I love you, too!" every time I see one of these wonderful sunsets down here.

Stay tuned for the last and final contest question! And don't forget...if you ever have questions that you would like us to answer on here, or specific topics you would like us to mention, just drop us a comment and let us know We LOVE getting comments and knowing folks are reading and following along.

Answers to Contest-Part 1

Paul B. from Gallant, Alabama asked: Living in what many, including myself, would consider Paradise, what is your greatest hardship??

I've been trying to think of the easiest word to sum this up, and I still don't know that it's the best one, but Dallas and I both feel the greatest hardship is 'accessibility'. Whether we need parts to repair gear like the truck, trailers, boats, kayaks, or camping gear (anything and everything in between), or we are just wanting to go to a movie (no theatre), buy a fresh set of sheets for our beds, indulge in some Fast Food (none on the island) or a specific brand of a certain item...it's just not easy to do down here. One of the funniest things some of my friends and family have been shocked over is the fact that there is no Wal-Mart here! LOL, always gets a reaction. Sure, there are somethings that we can get here that would fill the needs we have, but we would pay a lot more for something that may not be higher quality, if we can even get it, and then, you don't have the choices...you either buy it or you don't.

Now, having said that, I honestly don't mind have only one or two options on things like spaghetti noodles or baking flour, or milk, because having 15 choices for each item you are shopping for isn't always a good thing. It often took me a lot longer to shop with that.Quick example, I have about 2 choices of deodorant down here. Neither of which I am crazy about if I can help it. So, I like to buy my deodorant when I'm back in the states or over in Nassau. I spent literally 15 minutes trying to pick out my deodorant the last time I bought some because of all the choices. It was so overwhelming to see so many. And I grew up in the US, so the island life is still relatively new to me in that sense...but it is crazy how soon you learn to adapt to your surroundings and then get overwhelmed by something that used to be the norm.

 This photo above is of one of our mail boats that comes from Nassau twice a week. This is the LIFELINE of our little island. This boat brings our milk, groceries, mail, building supplies, cars, people...pretty much everything. It even brought us our Christmas tree a couple weeks ago :) We have another boat that comes directly from Florida each week as well which brings a lot of stuff that you can get in the US and not in Nassau, or if we order something online we can get it to us that way (after spending a fortune of course). I ordered an office chair for me so I could have a real desk to work from, and a rug for the boy's room well before Christmas. They got to us last week, and after I had to pay the $87 shipping fee, $50 broker fee, and the $176 Customs & Duty fee, I definitely paid more to get the items here than I did for the items combined. SO THAT REALLY STINKS!

Obviously, this is a topic that can sort of send me off on a tangent if I'm not careful, so I'll leave it there :) I think you get the idea though. We have also obviously chosen to live here and run our business from here and raise our children here in spite of this hardship, so it's one of those things that we eventually learn to deal with and figure out ways around it. For instance, I was recently shown a website for free woodworking plans online, and I've been drooling to get going. I've completed my first project, and am over half-way through my second project... so I may  not be able to buy the nice furniture that I would really love to have (I wouldn't be able to do that in the states either though), so I'm learning to build some great pieces that I will appreciate more for the hard work going in to them.

Hope this answers your question Paul... I'm making my way through the others!