Out-Island Explorers

2012 Calendar Giveaway

2012-01-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

Time for another giveaway from your friends here at Out-Island Explorers! We are offering the winner a 2012 Customized Calendar with photos from our trips, beautiful islands, turquoise waters and so much more. The deadline is Jan 22. In order to enter the contest, you need to follow this link to our Facebook page with this photo (above) and contest info: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Out-Island-Explorers/117966012383

All you have to do is share the photo on your facebook page. The person who has the most 'likes' and 'comments' on their shared link wins the contest and calendar.

Any questions?? :)

Fish, Fish, and More Fish!!!

2012-01-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

#1 BABY!!! Check it out...CNN.com just named our company as a #1 for the 'Ultimate Bahamas Experiences' : http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/30/travel/ultimate-bahamas-experiences-lp/index.html! We are very excited about this.

It is so much fun to meet people in the line of work we do. Andy, pictured above, joined us on our ASA Sailing Expedition early last year. Andy caught the 'Bahamas Bug' last year and wanted to get more fishing time in down here. He brought his buddy, David, with him this time around for an all out fishing trip.

Plans were to head over to Conception Island and fish along the way, but the weather factored in and kept them over in the Exuma Cays. Not that we have anything against our beautiful cays, and it obviously didn't hinder their fishing...21 fish in 2 days...not a bad haul!

David Tebowing with a Mahi Mahi above!

The guys headed up in the area near Big Farmers Cay to camp for a night and fish, fish, fish. The folks at Little Farmers Cay were very pleased to take all the Barracuda the guys reeled in off their hands.

The last big catch of the trip was this very nice Wahoo.

Way to go Neville :) That was a lot of work to get this guy on the boat.

They were dodging the rain clouds most of the way home, and got caught in a few, but I don't think that interfered with their fishing...do you??

Today the winds picked up drastically which is why they came in off the water when they did instead of camping an additional night. Our temps outside tonight are around 64 degrees F, which in the words of our 4 year old, Joss, is 'makin me chiver' (making me shiver)! COLD for us on the island. It sounds like it is calming down a bit outside, so hopefully we can get these guys out to do a little spearing in the morning before they have to catch their flights' home in the afternoon.

Great way to kick off the New Year!

Our days lately!

2011-11-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

The weather here on the island today was a wonderful 79 degrees (F). For us this is nice 'fall' weather :) We have our windows open and are thoroughly enjoying the cooler temps. But it also means that the seasons are changing and we are no longer in the desperately quiet months of summer on the island. Tourists are slowly starting to trickle back in and our inbox has a nice flow of new inquiries and communications each day.

We were in Nassau (the capital city of the Bahamas on New Providence) a couple weeks ago visiting and working with Dallas' family. We took the boys to the zoo as a treat. We had fun doing something a little different. We don't have a 'zoo' on our island. We have wild critters and our very own 'aquarium' to play in though.

I was loving these orchids all over the place. The picture doesn't do them justice, they were beautiful! We have seen a few out in the bush here around Exuma, but they weren't this much in bloom. But.. anyway :)

The zoo is a fun little outing if you have a few hours in Nassau and would rather not barter at the Straw Market or fight the crowds downtown. The boys loved it because they had a lot of birds, and right now they are crazy about the movie Rio.

The flamingo lawn was really cool. There were probably 30 or more flamingos roaming in this lawn area that you have free range in.

This age is so fun... everything becomes a playground :)

Just for fun... HAPPY HALLOWEEN from the littlest Out-Island Explorers (aka- Percy & Thomas the Trains).

I apologize for the blog being left alone for most of the summer. I had plans to do a series, which I still plan to do, but the summer got carried in other directions. This last year, I (Tamara) have taken up a new hobby...building my own furniture! I was introduced to Ana-White.com this time last year, and the fun really began. I think living on an island where I can't just run to the store and pick up some furniture has really brought this passion to light. I do have a few projects that I tried to build many years ago, so I know the desire was there all along I just needed an extra little shove and some easy DIY directions!

The last couple weeks I have been advertising custom-made furniture and have actually taken a few orders. I just finished a couple pieces today, but this one below was my first official customer piece :)

So I guess in addition to kayaking, sailing, fishing, boating and camping, Out-Island Explorers can now offer custom furniture :) Far from perfect, but made to please (hopefully)! We have guests coming back soon and will be posting more frequently. Again, sorry for the lull in posts.... I will be back soon :)

Hurricane Irene

2011-09-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Photo by Nicole Parotti

Many of you know that we were off the island most of the month of August. We are finally starting to get caught up on things on this end (mostly blogs and computer work, because kayaking and sailing is always slow in the summer).

Photo by Nicole Parotti

Hurricane Irene gave our little island quite the scare. It probably made us more nervous due to the fact that we were away and having to get our friends to help us get all our kitties and gear ready for the storm and we just couldn't really tell what was going on. I'll probably have more sympathy now for my family in the event another storm comes through and we are on the island and not with them.

Photo by Nicole Parotti

This photo above of the boat tipping makes me so thankful. Our boat was out of the water and just to the left of the edge of this photo (on the other side of the bulldozer). I'm telling you folks... prayer works. Had that boat gone all the way over.... Thank you Lord!

Photo by Nicole Parotti

This is some roof damage on the stage in Regatta Park in town.

Photo by Nicole Parotti

The photo above was taken on the beach we walk to from our house, Hoopers Bay.

We arrived back home about a week after the storm passed, and luckily our island fared pretty well...considering. We were very lucky to have mainly debris damage as you can see above (after it has been placed in neat piles anyway). Our biggest expense with the storm was taking our boat out of the water. We don't have a trailer for it right now so we had to take it out by the lift and store it at the marina $$$ :(

Our biggest loss from the storm had to be our fridge and freezerS full of food. We had eaten most of the stuff in our fridge before our trip since we were heading out for a few weeks, but our deep freezer was FULL of fish and crawfish and meat that my family always brings down from the states when they come--you see Dallas above pouring the remains to the turtles and fish. VERY depressing throwing out all that food. The power was out for about 4-5 days though, and it was just too risky to keep any of it.

These final two shots of images from our beach, Hooper's Bay. You can see how the tide line has been pushed back a few feet. The dock below doesn't reach the sand anymore. There is still a lot of branches and debris in the water at the beach and in the harbor. Hopefully by time everyone is coming back down here for the season they will be more back to normal.

A friend asked us the other day how all the reefs and cays weathered the storm, and I'm anxious to find out for myself. We haven't had the chance to go explore up in the cays yet and see how things are looking. Overall, I'd say we all got really lucky. Some of the other islands in the Bahamas did not come out of the storm as well. Please pray for those islands and if you feel led to assist in the recovery, I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Thanks for your loyalty to our little company and blog... I promise to get back in the swing of things soon. I have a new series that I plan on starting on here! God Bless :)

Summer in Exuma!!! (lots of pictures & videos)

2011-07-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and in full swing! For us, this is the time of year where we LIVE in the water (out on the boat, at the beach, exploring the reefs, spearfishing, etc). It is when we have the spare time to do all these fun activities, but it is also when the water is the warmest, the sun in the hottest, and you don't want to be anywhere but in the water :)

These turtles live right off the beach that we walk to from our house. They are wild, but very friendly and LOVE some squid!

We have had some family and friends visiting on and off the last couple weeks. Most of these photos and videos are from a two week trip with Dallas' brother and some friends of theirs that are Spearfishing Enthusiasts!

Below is the Queen Trigger fish. I've mentioned before, these are the best fish to learn how to spearfish with. They turn to look at you and give you a full target to hit. This is one of the few fish that I, myself, have speared . Back in the days when I was trying to impress my 'boyfriend from the Bahamas' and show him that I could hang with him being an 'army brat from the States!'

I will NEVER get tired of exploring the world below the surface. There is always something to look at and discover.

When spearing you have to go and look up under the ledges to find the nice, big, fish--most of the time. This ledge had a little surprise for us under it :)

I knew the shark (nurse shark) was down there and intentionally swam through to video him sleeping, but I got a little freaked when he twitched toward me :) as you can clearly see in the video. I do gain my composure again as I'm drifting to the top! LOL

Dallas & his brother, Jeremy. These guys are very happy together + in the water + spearing!!

From left to right: Andrew, Jeremy, Dallas, John & Shawn. Two Olympic swimmers in here (Jeremy for the Bahamas and Shawn for the USA). FUN STUFF!!

Jeremy's wife, Heather and son, Mason (far left below) came down for some fun in the sun too! Some of these photos on here are Heather's. She's a photographer in Birmingham, AL for Sprouts... she does really great work if you need nice, modern photos of you and your family.

Photo courtesy of Heather K.

Above is the three cousins! Mason, on the left, and our two, Joss & Emit! First time these guys have spent more than a couple hours with each other. Joss and Emit definitely had fun showing their little cousin around the island. And we had fun taking advantage of our talented sister-in-law for a little family photo shoot :)

Photo courtesy of Heather K.

We've broken out the skis and inter-tube a lot recently for some boating fun. Joss did this with Dallas for the first time the other day!

Photo courtesy of Heather K.

He's 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for my noisy narration... I was excited!

Lots of time spent snorkeling some of the pretty reefs...these are right inside Elizabeth Harbor (the harbor between Stocking Island and Great Exuma (where Georgetown is).

Turtle grass that makes you wonder, "what is out there looking at me?"

This will show you how the 'Knowles Boys' get down under the water! Dallas has a couple spearing buddies that live here on the island, but his brother is definitely his favorite partner in situations like this. They did this little tag-team thing a few times.

Needless to say, they had a good time :)

Playing with a conch (below) under water... you can see his eyes checking me out! No worries Mr. Conch... you are safe and sound inside the harbor :)

We also had a visit from Dallas' parents this last weekend and took them out for a spin in the Sea Pearls and boat too.

Emit helping Daddy sail!

Below left to right: Joss in corner with the cool shades on, Andy (Dallas' dad), Nancy (Dallas' mom), and Lyall (Pastor & friend).

This is how momma rides in the sailboat :)

And finally... my summer challenge to myself is to learn to slalom ski (for longer than a split second). Immediately following this shot I had a nice little wipe-out :)

Stay tuned for a new little blog feature that we'll be starting soon. Hopefully you'll enjoy Exploring Exuma as much as we will!! :)

ACA Kayak Adventure

2011-07-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

Last month we had the pleasure of running our first American Canoe Association (ACA) Kayak Adventure. We also had our first ever intern with Out-Island Explorers, Michael (below). The trip had a great mix of folks. We had guests from New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio/Israel, Virginia and Hawaii.

They had perfectly calm water the week of their trip. However, they also had some scorching summer heat too.

Travis, below, was our ACA Rep for this trip. What a great guy to have out there on the water!

Each time we have a guided trip we try to spear or reel in fresh fish for dinner at least one night on the water. After you catch the fish... you must clean the fish. This usually is a sight you'll see after cleaning a couple fish off the beach...

A pretty decent size Lemon Shark. He apparently wasn't too intimidated by Dallas and the group as they stuck their heads in the water to see him through their masks because he came right up toward them. When my feet are safely planted are dry land I can enjoy these kind of moments, personally. When you're out in the water (usually after spearing for a bit at the same spot) and see one of these in the water with you... it is easy to feel a bit panicked. They are amazing creatures for sure!

This group enjoyed a moonlight paddle (which was also a first for our guided trips). Partly to escape the swarm of mosquitoes that tried to eat everyone at sunset, but also because of the beautifully full moon and clear sky.

This particular night made me a bit jealous that I wasn't out there on the water enjoying the paddle with them.

The group from left to right: Travis, Donna, Carla, Corey, Ed, Michael & Dafna!

The summer months in the Bahamas typically brings more afternoon showers and thunderstorms than the rest of the year. You can see a water spout in the shot below from one of the storms.

My little guys (Joss & Emit) and I drove the powerboat out to the group (about a 50 minute drive one way) to take them some cold drinks and give them a break from paddling to hit up a couple snorkel spots on their last full day out on the water. Everyone seemed pretty exhausted when we got there, but hopefully they were still having a good time.

The final morning of the trip they were somewhat stranded in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm that surrounded them. They found a slight gap in the storm and managed to paddle the final mile and a half back to their mainland. It was an adventure to say the least, and everyone made it back safely. As with most of our trips and groups that head out, they were all very excited to have a fresh water shower, air conditioning and a soft bed to sleep in that final night at the local hotel.

Hope you guys enjoyed your Out-Island adventure with us!

Big Sky Montana Meets the Exuma Cays!

2011-06-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

This post is brought to you by some new friends of ours from Big Sky, Montana. Trust me, Whitney...I'm trying to figure out a way we can come and see your neck of the woods :) Whitney and Will were some folks that I sent out while Dallas was out on one of his trips, and I actually brought them back in while he was out on the next trip (the ASA ones). Very rare that folks visit us and never meet Dallas, usually its the other way around. They were so great! Joss & Emit really enjoyed getting to meet them too. They were great entertainers for the boys on the drives there and back, thanks guys. Whitney wrote:

My husband and I visited Exuma in April and rented a tandem kayak and miscellaneous camping gear from Out Island Explorers. We live in Big Sky, Montana and after a snowy winter, we were ready for the beach. One day we were dreaming of the perfect vacation. We decided it would be "camping and kayaking between deserted islands".

Since we did not know where to begin to look for this type of adventure, we simply typed the phrase into Google. Destinations in Figi, Indonesia and then...Out-Island Explorers in the Bahamas appeared.

We assumed the adventure would be out of reach financially, but we were pleasantly surprised that Tamara and Dallas made the experience possible by renting items individually plus camping on the islands is free! When planning, we did not know what to expect and Tamara was a great resource. She was so patient and informative.

By the time we landed on Exuma, we were confident and ready for the adventure. If you have not visited the Exuma island chain, nothing can prepare you for the pristine, breathtaking beauty. The trip was better than we could have ever expected. We kayaked between islands, camped and explored.

When Tamara picked us up we were full of stories and laughed when we realized we had not seen another

person for six days (the length of our trip). It was a stress-free, once-in-a-lifetime, fantastic experience. We're already making plans to return someday with family and friends.

Thank you the Out-Islands team. You're running a professional, reliable business in a place where

everyone else is on perma-island time :)

We look forward to showing you around Montana when the boys are ready to ski on snow! All the best!

-The Brunners

Thanks Brunners! It was a pleasure meeting you both, we look forward to seeing you again, here or there :)

ASA Flotilla #2

2011-06-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

Apologies for taking so long to get this trip covered. Our first ASA flotilla ended the day the Family Island Regatta began. Some of the guests stayed around for a bit of the action and others headed home. Some of the folks on the second flotilla came in early for the races. We schedule these particular trips around this big sailing event so that our sailing enthusiasts can enjoy the fun. Our ASA Rep on this trip, Dave, actually got to race one day on one of the boats out there. The boat was one of many that day that capsized and most of his belongings were left on the bottom of the harbor for a couple days (and a diver finally brought them up).

And we're off again! This trip had a few firsts for our little company. It was the largest trip we've run with 17 people and all 5 sailboats out on the water. Probably won't do that many people at once again though. Dallas had a hard time trying to interact with everyone and make sure folks were having a good time and taken care of. That's a lot of kitchen work on the guides too: 3 meals a day with 17 hungry bellies to fill!

We also had our oldest explorer on this trip. Ms. Mary, 80 years old, joined us with her daughter and she impressed the heck out of me. It's tough to be out there in the sun and sand all week, and I was told she was quite the trooper!

The deep sea fishing was a success on this trip also! They pulled in 5 Mahi Mahi this week. Andy (far left below) was trolling from the sailboat all week with the fishing gear he brought down. Unfortunately he didn't have much luck fishing like that, maybe if you guys had been sailing on the ocean side Andy, but he sure had luck out on the powerboat. He pulled in 2 of the 5 fish. I've heard it's quite the rush...I'm patiently waiting my turn to take a stab at it. I'm usually behind the wheel of the boat, making sure my little dudes don't go for an unexpected swim in the chaos, or taking action shots with the camera.

More fun was had with these crazy swimming pigs!

What is camping without a nice campfire?

The whole group...

This week provided us with some beautiful sailing weather once again.

Julie, Charles & Carole

Terry, Jillian & Jason

David, Andy & Kevin

Martin, Jason & Terry

Jane, Mary & Dave

Lynn, Rick & Jillian (a little bit of her anyway) :)

David (above) gets our Honorary Employee Award for this trip :) He was one of our return guests, we had a couple on this trip from last year, and he was such a huge help to Dallas & Ryan. Loading and unloading the powerboat at each camp is a grueling task, the extra hands helping make a huge difference. Thanks DAVID :)

Overall, another great week sailing in the Exuma Cays with our friends at ASA! We are thankful for all the participants and hope to see some of you down here again. Thanks for sailing with Out-Island Explorers!

If any of you are interested in following Ryan's bike ride across the USA (Ryan was the second guide on this trip) the link to his blog is: http://ryanandcoco.com/ Check it out...he's having quite the adventure so far!

ASA Flotilla #1- April 20-27th

2011-05-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

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..."

Our first flotilla with ASA this year had 10 guests (plus Dallas & Andrew, the guides) from locations all over the place. We had folks from New York, Florida, New Jersey, California, Georgia and Virginia.

Werner, Dana & Jack

Travis, Brent & Roger

Just a side note about these guys above in Lucayan...You guys were some crazy dudes (so I heard)!! :) Dallas was telling me all about how these guys emptied the ballast tanks, which are generally used to stabilize the boat, in order to gain speed and add the extra little tilt you see here. They were also known to toss a snorkeler overboard, with a tow line, while underway to view the scenery from below as they cruised the turquoise waters. Sounds like something I would have fun doing!

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! :)

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 :)

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 :)

Stay tuned for photos from the second ASA Flotilla!!

Reaching Out

2011-05-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple weeks I have barely had time to sleep (some nights I haven't even been able to do that), let alone blog with all the work that has gone into our trips lately. I want to mention this before I get in to the fun stuff that has happened on our ASA trips. April 27th brought some heart-breaking and life-changing storms through my Sweet Home, Alabama. Hundreds of lives were lost, thousands have been left without a roof over their heads, running water, electricity, and so much more. I won't sit here and pretend to know how any of these people are feeling back home. From the ones that lost everything including loved ones in the storms to the ones that were left feeling guilty that they weathered the storms without so much as a scratch. I don't try to fully comprehend the emotions and environment around there, because I can't. I see the photos and hear some stories. Honestly, I can't read all of the stories or watch all of the footage because it is just too sad. My prayers are going out to the sweet southerners that I cherish so deeply in my heart, but I know there are physical and financial needs that can be supported as well. If you are at all willing or feel led to help the victims of these horrible storms here are a few locations that I have friends and family working with: Kids4AL, First Baptist Church of Williams (the community my parents live in), and Samaritans Purse. Of course, these are just a couple... there are many more organizations and ways to help. Please consider the needs and reach out!

"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."- 2 Corinthians 5:1

Bachelor Party

2011-04-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had some guys fly in for an overnight Bachelor Party. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and I knew I wanted to do a post for these guys. However, why not hear from them instead of me...

Amazing Kayaking Trip in the Exumas

Amazing scenery? Check.
Fantastic camaraderie? Check.
Impeccable equipment? Check.
Great food? Check.

Although our kayaking trip was shorter (two days, one night) than most we absolutely got our fill of great times.

We didn't know what to expect when we signed up for our kayaking trip with Dallas and Tamara. None of our group had been to the Bahamas before and only had a vague idea of what the Exumas had to offer.

We came away extremely impressed by the equipment and service provided by the Out-Island team. The kayaks were top-notch and the sleeping bags/pads and tents better than our equipment back home.

During our trip we were lucky enough to have great weather which afforded us the chance to go snorkeling, try our hand at spearfishing, sleep outside under the stars and even do some improvised kayak-surfing.

This trip was an amazing part of a fantastic bachelor party and a great complement to the night out in Nassau. We would highly recommend this trip to everyone and anyone. If anything two days did not really do the Exumas justice. Some of us are already planning a return trip next year.

Allan

Thanks guys, for the photos and the post. And of course, best wishes to the Bride & Groom-to-be!

ASA/Regatta Time Again!!

2011-04-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Our National Family Island Regatta is coming up at the end of April. With that big event for our island, comes a big event for our company. Last year we ran our first ASA (American Sailing Association) Sailing Expedition. We had a great turnout, and ASA signed up for another trip this year. We set the dates and the first trip filled up so quickly that we were able to add a second trip. So, we have our first trip leaving next week (start sailing on the 21st) and the second one sets sail on May 1st!

We are very excited about these two trips, but we have been working our tails off preparing for them. These are the largest trips we have run so far (14 on the first trip and 18 on the second), and Dallas will be using all 5 sail boats. Remember how we started the makeover process back in the Fall??

Well, here we are..days away from the big event and Dallas and Tanai are working hard to get them finished in time. And when I say working hard... I mean it! Hot days in the sun are spent sanding, stripping, fiberglassing, priming, painting, staining, then "wash, rinse, repeat" and do it all over again on the next boat. They are doing a GREAT job on these boats. I think some folks around our house probably think we've started a new boat painting business. There's been a few guys around the island going up to Dallas saying, "I hear you can paint boats??" :)

The logos are all looking great too (if I can say that without sounding too proud)! They add that nice little finishing touch to these beauties.

LUCAYAN!!!!

As for my job(s) right now... I've been trying to make sure everyone is prepared for the trip (as well as the folks we have coming and going while Dallas is out on these trips). This entails the hotel reservations, packing lists, food allergies and preferences, planning the menu, baking things for the trip (remember...when you sign up for a guided trip we take care of all your food and drinks while you're out on the water), answering any questions folks may have before they head this way, and lots more little things.

It's GREAT to be busy, we aren't complaining about that at all... I just get a little overwhelmed and stressed when there's so much going on. I'm sure many of you reading this have much more going on on a daily basis. For me this bible verse has helped keep me grounded. Maybe it will bring you a little peace as well:

Philippians 4:6-"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Ta-dah!! OVERDRAFT Finally got her logo :)

At the end of a long work week... we enjoyed taking some time on the water to have a little fun too :) This is what it is all about anyway!!!!

Straight from the horse's mouth!

2011-03-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm calling Irmi & Barry 'horses' by any means :)

We have had the hardest time getting listed on Trip Advisor. If anyone is looking for us you'll notice we still aren't on there. There are all kinds of rules for who can and can't be listed on there. Apparently since we run overnight trips and don't have specific times listed on our website for trip departures, and a few other things like that we don't meet the requirements. I've emailed, called and tried time and time again to get on there... so if anyone knows the secret loop hole... please, I'm all ears!

All that being said, we're trying to get our guest's experiences available to folks that are considering doing our trips in the future, so I asked Irmi & Barry (our guests on the most recent guided trip, Best of Both Worlds) to do a GUEST FEATURE here on the blog and write a little something about their time with us. In the future I'll just title it, "Guest Feature: insert name here" so you don't have to hear all that again :) The photos provided on this post were from Irmi & Barry, and this is what they had to say:

When we first started planning our trip we always had an adventure trip in mind and this is what led us to the Exumas and to Out-Island Explorers. We originally planned a kayaking trip, but once we got in touch with Dallas & Tamara they indicated that the Best of Both worlds trip would be an excellent choice for us. We were a little reluctant as we had never sailed before. Once we got to Georgetown, Exuma (a couple of days before our trip with O.I.E. started) Dallas, Tamara and the boys welcomed us and took us to Stocking Island. Dallas gave us some sailing lessons in Elizabeth Harbour on the Arawak, a 21’ Sea Pearl sailboat.

Our actual adventure trip started at the docks in Georgetown as we were packing up our gear onto the support boat “Overdraft” and towing the sailboat to Boysie Cay, where the boat was rigged and we started our sailing trip. The weather was excellent, the wind just enough to get the boat going good, but not too fierce that we would run into too much trouble. We made good time on our first day to Lignumvitae Cay where we set up camp. Our next couple of days were filled with camp life and a whole bunch of outings. We broke camp three times and camped on different cays for 2 nights each. Our days were filled with outings in kayaks, deep sea fishing, snorkeling the reefs (unfortunately we didn’t have an underwater camera with us) and we explored the surroundings with the support boat.

At some point the “boys” all went fishing and I decided to stay behind, I had the whole island to myself! Queen for a day on my own island! We went to visit caves, Iguanas, a remote local settlement and a sandbank. Dallas had a menu planned for the whole week and when fish was on the menu he and Tanai ( yeah, Tanai finally got the big one) always delivered. We were amazed how deep they dove as they spear fished, coming back with grouper, jackfish or lobster. We also had a shark visit us at the side of the boat. Nothing could be better than sitting around the open fire after an amazing day in the cays, watching the fresh fish and lobster cook, with the sunset in the background. Truly “mudda-sick” as the Bahamian would say, or totally awesome! (Barry’s take on things)

Thanks so much for a truly amazing time I would highly recommend this type of trip to anyone, who loves the great outdoors, camping, fishing and enjoying nature “untouched”.

Barry & Irmi Critcher, Northern BC, Canada

Barry & Irmi-- thank you for sharing this with us, and thank you for choosing us and our little island for your adventure! It was an honor to meet you guys. I'm already thinking of the trips we'll take when it is 'our turn to really travel' :)

Best of Both Worlds and More!

2011-03-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

In case you missed the announcement on our Facebook page this is the newly improved ARAWAK Sea Pearl. David G., if you're reading... this was your boat on last year's ASA trip :) No more holes!!!

To start this trip, we headed out for a day in Elizabeth Harbour to do sailing lessons with our Best of Both Worlds guests, Barry & Irmi. They were beginner sailors, and really took to it very quickly! I really, truly, honestly, LOVE our work!! We get to meet some of the sweetest and coolest people from all over the world. Barry and Irmi are grain farmers from a small town way up in Canada, and we have very much enjoyed getting to know them.

The weather was great for them the beginning of the week, so the trip actually launched from some docks in GeorgeTown. Dallas, Tanai (second guide), Barry & Irmi loaded up in Overdraft and towed the Sea Pearl behind them about 22 miles along the eastern side of the mainland around to Boysie Cay. Once they got to Boysie they rigged the Sea Pearl, and Barry & Irmi began their sailing journey.

Dallas was very impressed with how well they caught on to the sailing and navigating. He was trying hard to keep up with him that first day. He was pretty excited about how fast Arawak was coasting through the water too :)

I believe we owe a nice THANK YOU to Barry for saving the paint job on this boat on one instance. The wind and the cut and everything just kind of got crazy at one point and he jumped overboard to keep her from smashing into some rocks. May have even busted up a few ribs in the process...that's a true Captain for ya :)

The Best of Both Worlds trip is our combo trip that offers sailing and kayaking. Usually you sail in the morning and paddle in the afternoon from your next camp. Unfortunately, these are all the photos I have from their trip right now.. our camera's battery died way too soon so I'll post more when I get my hands on some from Irmi :)

Just because the trip was officially over on Saturday didn't mean the fun had to stop! This is when staying a few extra days will pay off! Yesterday, we had some GORGEOUS weather, after a really windy front moved through, that made for a perfect Deep Sea fishing afternoon with the whole crew (even the boys and I got to tag along) as well as some friends that were meeting Irmi & Barry down here for some fun in the sun!

Remember how I said earlier that the weather started off really great...well, it was blowing quite a bit (around 25 mph) by the end of the trip which meant that they didn't get a chance to do much deep sea fishing while they were out there. Dallas still managed to spear some fresh fish for dinner (that-a-baby!!), but he really wanted to get them out for some trolling action.

We went out on the other side of Stocking Island and fish were jumping everywhere you looked. It was pretty exciting! By time they got the lines set and we were in line with the fish, we were reeling some in. I was so excited and trying to snap pictures of everyone that I about fell in a time or two :) The ladies were very sweet to take care of the boys during this crazy time.

Tanai finally caught the biggest fish!! It's about time, I think, after all the talk everyone had heard :) Way to go Tanai, I know you were working hard for that fish.

Here comes the first one...Beautiful and Delicious, Mahi Mahi!!

LOL, this photo above about got me knocked out when Dallas "jooked" (Bahamian word for stab or stick) the fish and pulled it in the boat.

Joss was mighty proud of his Daddy! And Emit kept asking where the "Pish" was after we put them in the well.

GOTCHA!!!!

Moments after Dallas and Tanai reeled their fish in, Barry was up and working hard! It was moving so fast on the boat I didn't even have time to get a good angle out there.

Not too shabby for about an hour of water time! Of course we had the group up for dinner to grill their catch, and with Dallas' famous marinade it was an evening to remember!

Joss couldn't get over all the people that came over just to play trains with him :)

PS-- Barry, Irmi....you guys haven't even left Exuma yet and we're already missing you! Thanks for a great trip and new friendship!!

Perfection in The Park!

2011-02-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well we just finished our first ever Land & Sea Park Sailing trip and it went so well that it is time for me (Dallas) to personally write my first ever blog post!

This trip was about flawless from day one and ranks in my favorite trips I've run so far! The Park was gorgeous and the weather was about perfect for the entire week. We started with a small surprise of having to find a second person to help run the trip and thankfully my brother-in-law Kevin was able to come down on short notice and help out. THANK YOU KEVIN! You were so much help and you made the long days on the boat much more enjoyable for me!

Our four guests for the trip, John, Geoff, Margaret and Carol were the perfect fit for this trip! Their sailing expertise along with the fact they own Sea Pearls took so much extra work off my shoulders for the whole week as they knew exactly what to do from the first day and required hardly any instruction during our long and beautiful sailing days.

Our first day had us leaving Staniel Cay shortly after breakfast, and before we knew it we were feeding the pigs leftover Doritos. We all got on the beach with them and got lots of pictures. Meanwhile three big ones charged Carol looking for more food, and I think John got one with an apple in one of the pigs' mouth, ready for the roast!

From there we sailed through the beautiful Pipe Creek area and landed at Compass Cay where we swam with the Nurse Sharks and had delicious home-made chicken salad, thanks to Tamara! Although we only camped on four different beaches they were all very unique and perfect in their own way and we never had to share our space with anyone else! (except for the Ospreys on Osprey Cay of course). Our first site was the always lovely Cambridge Cay where Kevin and I had the small challenge of not being able to get the boat near the beach because of low tide! It made for a longer unpack on the first day, but once the stars came out that night it was all worth it!

I downloaded a new App for my iTouch (Star Walk) which allowed me to see all the constellations, name all the stars, and basically know anything about the night sky that I wanted...best two bucks I've ever spent!

The sailing on this trip was great! We had everything from no wind to almost too much. Downwind to tacking upwind and everything in between! Carol and Margaret took turns skippering the new and improved red "Feather" while John and Geoff took the tiller of the classic "Lucayan" and gracefully worked their way through the small Cays and rocks throughout the entire park. It was as if the wind were listening to our prayers every night as the following morning it was always blowing in the right direction and the right speed to get us where we needed to go!

The conditions were so perfect at one point that I was able to do something I have yet to do on a sailing trip: sail on the ocean side! On our second day we worked our way from Cambridge Cay in the South all the way up to breathtaking Hawksbill Cay, almost at the Northern tip of the Park, nearly 20 miles! That full day of sailing allowed us to spend two nights at Hawksbill Cay and spend a day cruising around in "Overdraft", the support boat.

Let me give praise where praise is do and say that our new boat did everything she was asked to do and more! Plenty of storage room...check! Power to plane and cover ground while loaded down...check! Comfortable for day snorkel trips...check! Tow back to Great Exuma quickly...Check Check Check! Kevin and I made the tow (2 Sea pearls) from Staniel Cay to Barraterre in less than 3 hours! (Would have taken 7 with the old boat!)

The support boat also allowed us to have "The Perfect Day" as I have been calling it! We left camp on Hawksbill after breakfast in the support boat and made our way through the Mangroves of Shroud Cay all the way to the ocean side because high tide was at the perfect time. The weather that day was so nice! The seas were glassy calm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! The beach on the ocean side of Shroud is something that I'm sure we are all going to remember for a long time! Everyone was calling the ocean the "Endless Pool" because it was so warm, calm, and clear! I even managed to get a group shot by setting up the camera with a 10 second timer and running into the water and sprinting out to the group before the shot went off!

After Shroud we continued North to Norman's Cay to see the sunken airplane. Along the way while cruising over about 8 feet of sandy bottom we came across a big Hammerhead Shark! It was at least 8 feet and didn't seem too concerned with us. I should have jumped in to get a good underwater picture but decided to keep going instead (Tamara was happy with this decision). Before returning to camp we stopped at a nice reef just outside the boundaries of the park (I promise) to see if Kevin and I could manage to snag some dinner.

I quickly noticed a rather large grouper staring at me who obviously didn't get the memo that he was not within the safety of the park as he barely moved while I speared him and threw him in the boat! Soon after, I saw a good sized Reef Shark swimming around the deep side of the reef, he must have smelled our dinner. After making sure everyone was safely in the boat (nice swimming there Carol!), we decided to clean the grouper and feed the shark right there while anchored, dinner and a show!

We stayed another two nights at Osprey Cay near Johnny Depp's Island. This campsite was the unanimous group favorite and I must say that I agree. With tons of space, Ospreys nesting nearby, sandbanks, caves, and even some old chairs and tables, there wasn't much to complain about while at Osprey! We noticed a pretty big Reef or Bull Shark swimming in the shallow sandy waters around the back of the cay one day and he barely noticed me wading out there to get his picture while the ladies stood on the shore yelling "That's close enough! We need you!" Haha! Made for a great picture, don't you think?

We found the plane wreck near Little Halls Pond Cay. I got Kevin to take a picture of me swimming through it, after checking that there were no Lionfish or eels inside of course! There were tons of fish near it on the healthy reefs and I saw four crawfish under one reef! The Park really did offer great snorkeling opportunities. There was clearly more life there and the fish were not at all afraid of people. The water actually seemed to get warmer as the trip went on and even topped 80 degrees a few times! For the first time in months it felt good to swim without a wetsuit!

The Park was really beautiful, as are the rest of the Exuma Cays, but it makes me sad to see that so many cays in the park are already privately owned with little hope of ever being returned to The Bahamas government. It is good to enjoy these things while we can because we never how long they will remain this way, and I was so proud to show the beauty of my country to John, Geoff, Margaret and Carol who were fantastic guests and, I believe, got to see the very best that The Bahamas has to offer!

Here's to a great week sailing and camping in The Exumas! Our Facebook page has many more pictures from this trip on it, check them out! Kevin, you are welcomed back anytime for any other trips we might run in the future! Thanks for all your help!

Hangin' with the Hutia

2011-02-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Last week was our first official Land & Sea Park Paddle! According to Dallas, it was a GREAT trip!! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. Everything just seemed to fall into place for this trip, which is always nice. Dallas thoroughly enjoyed spending time up in the park. There is definitely more wildlife in the water and on land up in the protected region of the park...really breath-taking! One of the most unique wildlife on land up that way is this new critter that I am just learning of myself. Dallas mentioned it to me like, "Yeah, you know..." and I was just kind of dumbfounded and saying "a what??" So, without further ado I introduce you to the HUTIA!!

Native only to the Bahamas, pronounced "who-tea-uh", these little rodents are kind of a cross between a rat and a guinea pig, but more on the guinea pig side of things. They eat only plants and vegetation, and have completely taken over Warderick Wells Cay, the island where the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park Headquarters is located. There is a colony of about 2,000 on this island....TWO THOUSAND!! The vegetation on the island looks really funny where they have eaten all the good stuff and left the poison wood to flourish. They are also nocturnal, and a phrase I have heard Dallas saying the last couple days is "When the sun is away, the Hutia will play!" I believe his exact quote (showing all his true Bahamian colors) when he was describing them to me was, "When the sun went down, 'muh-da-sick', dey were everywhere!!!"

We are frequently asked the question, "Is it worth it to go all the way up to the Park?", and after a trip like this we would have to say, YES!!! It is totally worth it. Not to say you won't see really cool stuff in the lower and more accessible cays, but the quantity of fish and wildlife is truly amazing!

Saturday, Dallas will head out on our first Land & Sea Park Sail! We're hopeful it will be a fun and enjoyable trip as well. Times like these it pays to be related to us :) Our Brother-in-law, Kevin, is joining us on this trip as an extra guide! He found this information out about 6 hours ago when we were in need of another guide to replace one that suddenly couldn't make it. Thank you, Kevin and Kevin's Boss :)

Final Contest Answer

2011-01-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2011-01-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

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!

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

2010-12-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

Dallas has said before, "The best day at my old job is still not as good as my worst day here!" Well, I think he put that statement to a true test yesterday. We had our Private Kayak Adventure (2 advanced kayakers, 2 beginners) head out yesterday in 30+ mph winds and temps in the 60's. Obviously this is not a norm for down here, we are getting a major cold front right now. They about froze last night after a long day of paddling. Today the sun was out a lot more and the wind is dropping off. It is still a little cool, but it's more up to the 70's again now during the day, thank goodness. We still could use a little warmer weather to help with this trip that is out. It's really frustrating when the weather hurts our trips, but that's one of the down falls of a camping business I suppose.

Just as a reminder, our trips are camping trips! :) They are out in nature, sleeping in tents, cooking your own food (if you go on a rental), paddling or sailing in the great outdoors (wind, rain or shine). We try our best to please all of our guests that come on rentals or guided trips, but I also realize that it's not totally possible to make each and every guest 100% happy all the time.

We are here for our guests and we try to provide folks with the best 'Out-Island' experience we feel we can give you. Please forgive us when the weather doesn't always cooperate. MOST of the time, it is wonderful down here, and very pleasant.

Stay tuned for answers to the "T-shirt Competition Questions".

THE WINNER IS....

2010-12-25T16:29:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for the comments and questions (I will answer them all in the next couple of days)! I am happy to announce the winner of the contest is "PAUL B." from Gallant, Alabama. Paul, please email us with your address and size info and we will get your new t-shirt sent out as soon as possible. Keep in mind it may take a little longer coming from the Bahamas :) But it is on the way!

From our family to yours, we wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! What a wonderful time of year. As a Christian, it is a very special time of year for us as we reflect on the most precious gift of all. My prayer for you all is a healthy, happy and blessed NEW YEAR!

First Blog Competition- Winner get's a new T-Shirt!!!

2010-12-17T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hello to my faithful blog buddies :) Again, sorry about the gap in between posts. Adam, thank you for the comment on the last one. It's nice to know someone's out there. This season is getting SO EXCITING! We have already filled up our April 30th-May 7th ASA Sailing Flotilla. There is now another one that has been added due to the high demand in the trip. The info on the additional trip dates can be found here for those interested!

A few other trips we have coming up with guests booked already include:
- January 29th-February 2, 2011- Land & Sea Park Paddle (a shortened version/discounted rate)
-February 5th-12th, 2011- Land & Sea Park Sail

-February 26th-March 5th, 2011- Best of Both Worlds

If you are interested in jumping on any of these trips, feel free to contact us.

This last week we had a "cold front" come through. Temps were in the 60's at night and 70's during the day. For us down here, that's pretty chilly :) You will see folks pulling out the toboggans and sweaters in those temps around these parts. I got to comfortably wear my jeans :) and even a sweatshirt here and there. Super exciting for me!!

We had some kayakers head out early in the week and come back tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to hear a good report from them. Considering they are from Northern Washington, I doubt they found the "cold" to be a problem!

Dallas took us (his parent's, the boys and me) to this beautiful 'Mystery Beach' over on Stocking Island today. At high tide it has this huge pool that collects up on the sand... I can't wait to check that out. We were there at low tide today.

Are you wondering about the competition yet?? :)

To kick off our first official 'Out-Island Explorer's Giveaway Contest' we are offering our winner one of our brand new O.I.E. t-shirts (see the back image below). To enter the contest we are asking you to leave a comment that has your first name and last initial, where you are coming to us from, and a question you would like to see answered on the blog.

The contest deadline is a week from today...CHRISTMAS EVE :) And we'll announce the winner on Christmas Day! We will put everyone's name in a hat and draw out the winner. I'll let Joss draw out the name so there's no cheating. :) Good Luck!!

I'm coming back...I promise!

2010-12-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hello out there! I'm not sure how many folks actually check this regularly, but I will be back soon and posting about lots of trips we have coming up. Sorry for the hiatus. I was able to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with the boys in Alabama with my family. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

I am almost caught up on things, but I have some 'outside' projects squeezing all of my spare time (HA, like there's much of that with two little ones I know). I will be back soon, I promise, so stay tuned :)

Classic Kayak-Off to a GREAT start!

2010-11-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

-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

2010-11-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

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!!

Newest Addition To Out-Island Explorers

2010-10-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

We have been anxiously awaiting our chance to replace the Mako, Nine Lives, we use as our support boat. The opportunity came along for us to purchase this boat at a really great price, so we've been waiting since then to get engines put on her (and a new paint job underneath)....the time has come :)

Aren't they PRETTY :)

The boys love all the cozy seating they have now!

Can you tell how happy this 'Captain' is?

Her new name will be "OVERDRAFT" once we get the logo and sticker made up!

We are very excited to be able to offer comfortable transport for our guests and their gear for those wishing to start and/or end trips further up in the cays near Staniel Cay. We are also very excited to have this new support boat for our guided trips that use one...will make the run up to Compass Cay to swim with the sharks a lot easier! Can't wait to take you for a spin in our "neck of the waters!"

Getting ready to gear up...

2010-10-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

October has been busy with prep work for the season to get rolling again. We have our first guided trip next month, as I mentioned in a previous post. We had our first official rental of the season this month. Some of our guests, William & Susie, were celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a Sea Pearl rental! Congrats you guys!! They actually stayed at Palm Bay Beach Resort and took the boat out in the harbor during the days.

I felt pretty bad when we delivered them their boat. We didn't realize that when they were flying in it was a holiday weekend. So the food stores and everything was pretty much shut down for the first couple days they were here. And to top that off, the restaurant on site at their hotel was being renovated...so they were kind of in a tight spot since they were hoping to stock their room with groceries. We did a quick run to Smitty's (one of our local food stores) to help them stock up on some goodies before we headed out.

They managed to reel in a couple barracuda while trolling in the Sea Pearl and cooked it up while they were here. Sounds like they had a pretty good time, and sounds like we're off to a good start so far. Hope we can keep it up :)

Just down a little road from our house is a beautiful bay called Hooper's Bay. Green Turtles are an everyday sighting down there. Our neighbors were down there swimming the other evening and had a pack of dolphins come and swim with them--practically begging to be touched they said. We haven't had the pleasure of that just yet, but I'll be keeping my eyes out for them for sure :) We were feeding the turtles the other day and trying to get nice and close and then Emit decided to throw his juice in. I guess that's the bait we needed, because they were all coming to check it out.

Dallas and our friend from Boston, John, went out spearing a lot over the weekend. They pulled up a couple of really pretty conch too. I love how Emit is just dieing to touch it here in this picture :)

In the picture above you'll see the slings we use when we are spearing fish. Our guided trips will offer you the chance to learn how to spear fish (if you would like) or you can watch as Dallas spears fish for dinner for you.

On a very exciting note, our Mako has sold!!!! The new owner, Cedric (pictured below), took her for a test drive yesterday. Before they were back to the dock Dallas had the cash in his pocket and Cedric was already telling Dallas all his plans for the boat! Can't you see how excited they both are below? We're planning to meet him at Chat-n-Chill on Sunday in our 'new' boat :) Good day all around!!

Stay tuned for new pictures of the World Cat--- she should be ready to take out for a test drive tomorrow with her pretty new engines :)

Classic Kayak-NEXT MONTH

2010-10-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Our first guided trip of the season is officially booked (unless one pops up between now and then anyway)! We just booked a Classic Kayak for November 13th-17th. I thought it might be fun to give you an idea of how our trips run. This would be a sample itinerary for our Classic Kayak:

Kayakers usually fly in the first date of the trip because that night will be spent at a local resort or hotel. We will meet you for dinner (we pick up this tab) for a meet and greet with the entire group and guides. We will also issue your dry bags at this time so that you can work on getting your personal items packed in them that evening.

Day 1: We will pick you up at your hotel first thing in the morning and take you to your kayak and gear. You pick out your boat; we issue remaining gear, then load up and head to the launch site at the Northern tip of Great Exuma. Once we get on the water, we will paddle for about an hour over to Boysie Cay, a beautiful low lying cay with a big soft white beach which is visible for miles.
We will make camp here the first night. Afternoon activities here will most likely include setting up camp, snorkeling on the ocean side and exploring a nearby blow hole before you enjoy a nice home cooked meal with a breath-taking sunset.

Day 2: After breakfast we begin packing up camp and head about six miles northwest to Norman’s Pond Cay. We will stop for lunch along the way at Windsock Cay which is a beautiful little cay surrounded by shallow sandy water frequented by large sting rays.

Norman’s Pond offers a variety of activities and could be a lay-over (2 nights) stop. The cays near Norman’s Pond Cay host endangered Rock Iguanas, top-notch snorkeling, a cave inland that you can snorkel in and a large pond accessible at high tide. We will go for a swim off-shore to dive up fresh conch in the shallow water to use to prepare fresh conch salad!

Day 3: From Norman’s Pond Cay we will cross over to a secluded and kayak-only accessible stretch of cays known as the Brigantines. Because the water around the Brigantines is extremely shallow, regular boats can’t access these exotic cays. Mangroves run all along these beautiful cays and provide a safe haven and nursery for baby fish of all kinds, baby sharks, sting rays, turtles and much more. These cays also have a few deep channels and shallow rocks that are great for snorkeling.

Day 4: From the Brigantines we are only a short paddle back to the mainland. After a final breakfast we will pack up camp one last time and start our journey home. Once back on the mainland, we will unpack our kayaks and get ready to haul everything back to town. Once we are back with the gear in George Town we will unpack and sort out everyone’s gear and luggage. After everything is sorted out, you will be taken to your hotel where a nice hot shower and air conditioning await you!

Sound like something you want to get in on?? Just Contact Us to get the ball rolling and you could join us on this trip to kick off our new and promising season!

New Logos

2010-10-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

As our Sea Pearls are getting their new makeovers... we are also going to be giving them their new logos and names. Some of them are the original names, but we've changed a couple. The background color for each one will be the boat color :) I'm excited about this if you can't tell. These boats are so great, but at first site they can look a bit scrappy. Hopefully these new paint jobs will give a good first impression.

Thanks goes out to my new bro-in-law for help in brainstorming the logos. He designed the cool dolphin one for "Lucayan". Thanks, Kevin! The one for Carib (with the hand prints) is just to give you an idea. We are going to let Joss & Emit help us decorate that one with the paint from the other boats with our handprints :) I'm probably the most excited about that one! Anyway-- just wanted to share the new designs with you guys! Hope you like them, and hope to see you soon.

Exciting News for O.I.E!

2010-10-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

Dallas has started the Sea Pearl Makeovers! Hopefully we'll have some great pictures to show you of the final result. We've been wanting to do this since we came down, but there's always $omething $topping u$ (get the picture) :) We've got some pretty cool plans (at least we think they are) for them. Fresh paint/stain, new logos, patchwork, as much touch up work as we can do on them before this season kicks off into full swing.

We're taking them out and checking for all the little leaks and issues to add to the "to-do" list. Joss is enjoying "say-wing" (sailing) with Daddy. The BIG and EXCITING news for us here at Out-Island Explorers is that our new engines for our next boat have officially been ordered.

Nine Lives (pictured below) has been a trusty old support boat. We are very excited to be upgrading our support boat. I'll post pics of the new one once she's cleaned up and has her pretty new engines on her.

Stay Tuned!!

Getting the Word Out

2010-09-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

As this summer draws to an end (thank heavens) we are starting to get reservations for this up coming season. I know most of you stateside are probably enjoying some wonderful Fall weather (or at least the beginning stages) which I really envy you on this time of year, and the last thing in your mind is an escape to the sunny islands of the Bahamas. But before you know it you'll be surrounded by snow, scraping ice off your windshields, wishing for one of those cool new cars that has the built in iPhone app for starting your car up and getting it nice and warm before you ever even step outside. I won't think about the nice cozy fireplaces you can snuggle around and the crisp air that literally takes your breath away and the freshness the snow and cool weather bring. I won't think of that, I can't think of that because I'm trying to sell trips to the Bahamas--Sunny, Hot, Paradise :)

For starters we have a Kayak Adventure planned for December 27th-January 2, 2011-- That's right, what a great way to bring in the New Year's. Camping on a quiet beach, tucked in under the blanket of star-filled skies, and escaping from the hussle and bussle of everyday life to truly reflect on the New Year ahead of you.

Next, we have one of our brand new adventures: The Land & Sea Park Sail. This trip starts and ends up in Staniel Cay. We sail up into the famous Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. You'll spend your days snorkeling in the Sea Aquarium and nights camping on islands with the pigs or iguanas (if you'd like). This trip is scheduled for February 5th-12th, 2011.

If you or anyone you know is interested in joining us... just let us know :) We are always looking for ways to get our name out there (advertising is expensive), so follow us on Twitter... comment on our Facebook Page...give us a shout out on your sites or blogs (we'll be willing to offer discounts, free rentals, etc for stuff like this) :)

Sea Life Galore

2010-09-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Things are still very slow down here. Reservations are starting to roll in for this upcoming season, so we're very excited about that. ASA just announced their trip for this next season, so be sure to sign-up early because this trip fills up fast.

I thought it might be fun to do a little lesson on Queen Conch today. So here goes:

1) It is pronounced KONK down here in the Bahamas

2)This first picture above is of a juvenile Queen Conch.

3) You cannot harvest (or hunt) the juvenile conch. They must be fully developed with a large flaring lip (the part of the shell that stands up high as pictured in the 2 conchs below).

4) Bahamian local cuisine is full of conch dishes: conch fritters, conch salad, conch burgers, crack conch, conch stew....the list goes on and on.

5) In order to get to the conch you have to use a conch hatchet or hammer or something like that to crack a hole in the shell. You can see in this picture below where the conch was cut out. Once you have the hole, you have to cut it off the shell by sticking a knife in the shell and breaking the attachment.

6) You have to peel and skin the conch, but in one of the most popular dishes (conch salad), the conch can come pretty much out of the shell, cleaned up and chopped up and tossed right in the dish as is (no cooking necessary).

Side note: When I was first introduced to this Bahamas Family of mine they have this little initiation thing they do (anyone that has come on a trip with them has experienced this tradition). When they are cleaning the conch, they remove the conch pistol (pronounced pissle). Some say it is part of the digestive system. It has texture of a gummy worm candy. Anyway, their initiation is to swallow this. I can in fact say that it does not taste like a gummy worm :) It doesn't really taste like much at all!

7) This picture above is what the conch looks like from above when you're looking for them in the water. Sometimes they are covered by even more grass, so you have to look kind of close to see them.

8) The shells make great souvenirs! Especially if you can say you dove it up yourself. Some even had pearls hiding in them. My father-in-law has found two, but Dallas grandfather (trust me, has cleaned thousands of conch in his lifetime) has never found one. Maybe one day I'll have a sweet little pink pearl!

Our next ocean critter for today is the Southern Stingray. Stingrays are very common around these parts. we were over at a local hangout called Chat-n-Chill on Stocking Island yesterday and had fun with a couple rays that are always hanging out and getting fed there. The kids (mine and some friends of ours) were brave enough to get in the water with them, so they were able to coax a few grown ups to get in as well. Joss was LOVING this part of the day!

Stingrays are usually very friendly. I know the rare incident with Steve Irwin has really given them a bad rep, but they really are quite pleasant creatures. You can read more about them here if you want. One thing we try to tell folks before heading out on one of our kayaking or sailing trips in the Exuma Cays is to be careful when you are wading in the water to shuffle your feet along the sand instead on just stepping and tromping through the sand. If the stingrays are hiding or sleeping in the sand they could sting you as a reflex if you step on them. Usually, by just walking slowly through the sand you can give them a heads up you are in the area and they will scurry away.

I'm no biologist or marine specialist, but I do enjoy discovering the sea creatures (or any creatures for that matter... these are just within reach right now) and learning about them is a lot of fun.

Summer Doldrums

2010-09-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, summer is our slowest time of year. September is by far the SLOWEST month too. Just for fun I have two shots of the same place off of Stocking Island in Elizabeth Harbour. The first one above was taken this week and the one below was taken in March! You can see just from our winter resident boating crowd the difference in our seasons.

My parents have been down here this last week helping us celebrate Emit's first birthday. The week has been full of exploring and beach/boat fun. We were at a beach just off the main road (look for it when you're passing the Moss Town turn off when you're coming from the airport) :) when Joss and I discovered this cool, um....hole...wall...sand pit??? I don't know what you would call it, but we were climbing on top of these rocks and found this little area to climb in. Needless to say he was pretty excited to slide in it and play around.

Activities for the week obviously included spearing and snorkeling too. We had to feed the Grandparents fresh crawfish at least once :) I think the Lobster Alfredo turned out pretty great, don't you guys? We even had enough to share some fresh tails with our neighbor that is always sharing the fresh fruit with us.

While we were out, these Moon Jellyfish were all over the reefs. I was completely fascinated with them. They are so pretty, I think... of course I didn't want to get stung, but it's always fun to go out and find new things to look at under the water.

We put the trick of getting by them safely in Finding Nemo to the test... touching the tops only. Also, Dallas told me that was a safe place to touch them. They felt really neat, so everyone I passed the rest of the day got a little friendly touch from me.

Can you spot our dinner under this ledge?

My wonderful fisherman, well done my love! You continue to provide for your family :)

Emit was tired after all the fun and hard work! Must be tough huh? :)

Hurricane Earl

2010-09-01T16:44:00.000-07:00

Around 11:00 am (EST) this morning we were out on the ocean side of Stocking Island in Elizabeth Harbour. About 300 miles east of us Hurricane Earl was passing in full force. We've been really blessed with the path of this storm. It's pretty cool to see all the waves and swells that the storms bring, and our surfers in the area get..."Totally Stoaked" to ride the big waves out here. Of course my camera battery died right after I got this one shot (and my backup was at home) so I didn't get some of the great shots that I was wanting...the waves were really great. Living down here really spoils you to the flat calm waters, so these big waves are a treat to see from time to time.

We hiked up to a lookout tower this afternoon to see if we could get some good shots, but my zoom isn't that strong :) It was still pretty cool though. The winds had already started to die down at this point and the storm had pretty much passed over. We really haven't gotten much rain yet either (which we were hoping for).

Our prayers are that the rest of the storms out there will blow around as nicely as this one has, and for protection for all those in the paths. We are happy to say that we don't have any kayakers or sailors out there in these waves right now.

More pics to wet your appetite...

2010-08-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

Shortly after my last post I was sent some of these pictures from Eric & Pete (our Staniel Cay Kayakers) and I wanted to share them with you (hope you guys don't mind).

One of the best things about our trips is that it isn't hard at all to capture great photos. The scenery on the beaches and in the waters up and down the Exuma Cays is breath-taking. It's nice living in a place where I don't get tired of the view.

I'm not sure if or how much you know about Lionfish, but the Bahamas has been hit pretty hard with these fish that are not native to our waters. I found this article about how it all got started, and apparently there was an aquarium in Florida that got smashed in Hurricane Andrew back in 1992 freeing about SIX (6) Lionfish into the "Atlantic Ocean, spawning an invasion that could kill off local industry along with the native fish." (NPR.org, Spreading Lionfish Invasion Threatens Bahamas) That's insane to me that only 6 fish could do such harm. I know many Bahamians have started eating these fish, they are pretty tasty!

One of the guys on our trip... I won't say which :) had a bit of a shark phobia at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week, he was sticking his head in the water to snap this picture of a Lemon Shark swimming about 5 feet off their beach on Gaulin Cay South. I think it's safe to say the fear has been conquered! I would NOT be doing that :) LOL-Call me a chicken if you want... but I'd rather be a chicken than 'shark-bait'!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures. Way to go guys, great shots!

67 Miles in 6 Days...not too shabby guys!

2010-08-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

"I Paddled 67 Miles in 6 Days!!!!"-From left: Pete, Dallas & Eric

(click here to see their route)

Seriously guys, the 45 miles advertised in our Staniel Cay Kayak trip wasn't enough for you??? :) Each day they averaged about 7 miles to get to their next campsite in the Exuma Cays. On their final paddle day, they decided that wasn't enough...they really wanted to swim with the sharks at Compass Cay. So they opted for an additional 14 miles (roundtrip) to make it up to the sharks and back. As I was told... the current was against them on the way up, then while they were there the tide was changing which meant it was against them on their way back too. After all the super calm weather they had the rest of the week and the fairly light paddle days... it is not far fetched for me to say this was their toughest paddle day.

We met the guys at their final campsite just next to Staniel Cay and we were able to pick them up in the powerboat and head around to see the famous swimming pigs on Big Majors Spot (Watch out... they might nibble a finger or two if they are really hungry). These three pigs were putting on quite the show. We were towing the kayaks behind the boat at this point, and we almost snagged a pig for the haul :)

We dropped Pete & Eric off at Staniel Cay so they could catch their flight back on Flamingo Air to Nassau. We re-fueled for our tow back to Great Exuma.

Since we took over operations of the company in 2008, we have never had a tow-back day goes this smooth and have this nice of weather. The boys (Joss & Emit) and I, with the help of our friend, Joel, drove the boat (on the trailer) from Georgetown to Barratarre and launched it for our trek up the Exuma Cays. We picked up Dallas and the guys along with the three kayaks and all the camping gear. We took our time driving back down the cays and even managed to jump out in the cave (family picture above), do a little spear fishing and snorkeling and still got the boat out of the water and drove back home before dark. So YES!!! This was a very successful tow-back day; answered prayers for sure!

I couldn't resist posting this shot I was able to get of the famous Musha Cay (owned by David Copperfield). When you see all the toys out on the beach like this... you know "someone" is there having a good ole time. The main house is up in the trees in the middle of the shot (you can see the roof). You know.. I just think it must be really rough on someone owning their own island like this... don't you?!?!?

This is just another shot of the calm waters this day. This one is taken in one of the "rough" cuts off of Rudder Cut Cay as we were heading out to go "ocean-side" (that's what we say anyway). We did some of our spear fishing out there. Dallas caught a nice hogfish for dinner, thanks babe!

Staniel Cay Kayak

2010-08-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Dallas took off on Sunday with Eric & Peter for our Staniel Cay Kayak trip. It always seems like when Dallas is out camping that's when all the thunderstorms decide to roll through here at the house. Of course when I ask him if they've been drowning in rain all day his response is usually "no, it's been all around us, but we've stayed dry." I think it's just the Lord's way of reminding me to keep my man and our guests covered in prayers while they are out there, because I drop what I'm doing and start praying like crazy when a bad rain shower is coming through.

We decided to reverse the route in comparison to what they did last month. So they flew from Nassau to Georgetown, Great Exuma and started their paddle in the settlement called Barretarre. From there they kayaked up to Normans Pond Cay for their first night. They packed up camp and headed up to Lignumvitae Cay yesterday, and today they stopped off at the German Castle on Big Darby Cay on their way up further north to stop on Big Farmer's Cay tonight. I haven't had my evening call yet to find out how the rest of the day has played out, but while they were at the castle Dallas called and said the weather was absolutely perfect for paddling. A light breeze pushing them and really calm seas. Can't ask for more than that.

Hopefully the guys have been enjoying the food and desserts! That was part of my contribution for the trip again. I get them down here (through emails and phone calls) and Dallas takes over from here :) I'll post more later in the week to see how the rest of their trip plays out. Maybe I'll have an exciting story or two to share!

Crawfish Time!!

2010-08-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Let the spearing begin :)

August 1st is always a special day for Bahamians. It's the opening day of crawfish (lobster) season. We thoroughly enjoy this time of year and a chance to re-stock the freezer. Dallas was able to get 11 the other day with the crew he took out, but some of our relatives up in Abaco got over 200 we heard... that's insane!

It never fails, a day out in the boat/spearing always results in an encounter with "Barry" (a barracuda). Apparently we were hanging in this one's territory the other day. We've found barracudas to be very territorial and super nosey. And in my book they aren't the prettiest creature in the sea to look at with their fang-like teeth...so I always keep one eye on them when I'm in the water with one. They are attracted to shiny objects and things like diamond rings and things that bling. I usually turn my rings around so that they are inside my palm when I'm swimming (especially if we've got a Barry around). I was a little nervous that my camera might attract some unwanted attention, so after I snapped a shot or two I swam with it out of the water above my head :) Dallas could tell by the way I was swimming that one was near by.

Most the time when folks are coming on our camping trips in the Exuma Cays they ask us what to be worried about and what to keep a close eye out for. I usually warn them about barracudas and their little tendencies (mainly an issue if you're fishing), and then the long-spined sea urchins (see below). These guys can be incredibly painful (not poisonous) if you step on them. Most of the time you can see the bright black image from a little way off since the water is usually crystal clear. Obviously they aren't soft and inviting to pick up and play with, but it is best to not touch them and especially be careful not to step on one. They feed off the algae on the reefs and keep them nice and pretty. So it's nice to see them in abundance down here.

Our summer months are always our slowest season for tourism. The bigger areas like Nassau and Paradise Island seem to have lots of visitors still, but we seem to get overlooked in the summer time. We enjoy offering our summer discounts to lure folks away from the hustle and bustle! The summer months are really beautiful down here though. We get our little afternoon showers and more rain than any other time of year. It never lasts very long though, just enough to make everything around us grow up like crazy. It's much more green this time of year and is so pretty.

We get lots of little critters too like these Banana Spiders which seem to be all over the place right now. We found one the other day on the kayak rack on our truck after it had been parked for just a few hours with a full web already, it was crazy.

I love seeing the pretty flowers and interesting critters on land, but it's not hard to see why we're famous for our turquoise waters and white sandy beaches down here in Exuma, Bahamas. They are truly breath taking. Even for locals that have seen them their entire life!

Website

2010-07-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! We are very happy to announce the new and improved website! www.outislandexplorers.com We're working on correcting a few display problems that occur using Internet Explorer, but hopefully that won't give you a problem. Just try it out in a different browser if possible :)

Please let us know if you come across any problems when you're browsing!

PS-- Thanks to all of our guests, friends and family that shared some of their great images from their trips. I love all the wonderful pictures and have many of you to thank for them--THANKS!

Post Tropical Storm Bonnie

2010-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason I really got a kick out of this the other day. It's really hard to "sell" summer trips because everyone is concerned about it being Hurricane Season. Case & Point with Tropical Storm Bonnie coming through the other day. But in all reality, we seem to be in a nice little location and rarely get hit head on. I hate saying that because it's something totally out of our control, and the Lord only knows when and where. But the day after the tropical storm passed over us (which was just a few scattered thunderstorms throughout the day) our beach looked like this:

Any signs of a tropical storm lingering???

I just love these big fluffy clouds, sorry I don't know their official name :) Anyone up for a physical science lesson for me?

Also, just so you know... the best, and really ONLY way to eat a Mango is while floating in the ocean. We were blessed with 7 HUGE mangoes given to us from our neighbors the other day. These things sell for $4/pop in the food store. HE continues to provide :)

Our summer is very slow right now, so I'm taking this time to get help from Dallas (he's watching the boys a lot during the day) and I'm rebuilding the website. I'm very excited with the way it's shaping up so far. I hope to have it ready to launch before the Staniel Cay Kayak trip on August 7th. Maybe sooner, but we'll see :)

Safe and sound...and praying for the same

2010-07-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

I am relieved to tell you that our paddlers made it their final leg of the trip the other day. This top picture shows you how calm it was at the beginning of the trip. Their final day was the toughest paddle all week, and they were all greeted at the shore with a "You Did It!" from Joss, our 2.5 year old :) He and I were very proud of all of them. We sat off shore looking for them in the swells and choppy water for over an hour and prayed for them all to have the strength left for the last bit.

They encountered many of these little rain showers out on the water. Dallas said it was nice and refreshing (unless he was at camp trying to prepare the meals).

I just had to share this image (above) with you all because I got quite a kick out of it myself. I stay at home with the boys right now, and Dallas runs our guided trips. I don't always get the full picture of the "trips in action". This one helped put me there even more so. That's one of the portable toilets by the way--nice spot for...reflection! Thanks, Anne!

From left to right: Dallas, Anne, Steve & Agnes (and Joss peeking in from the far left--he didn't want to get far from Daddy upon his return). Way to go guys!! You were a great group to have and I know it was a challenge, but "You Did It!"

We are currently in Tropical Storm Bonnie and have a solo sailor out on the water. He's coming back in tomorrow, but we are praying there are no complications...hopefully just more fun stories to tell!

-Photos Courtesy of Anne Ledbetter-

Trip Update

2010-07-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Our Staniel Cay Paddle Adventure, that is out now, is a one-way paddle from Staniel Cay in the Exuma Cays to Barratarre, off the tip of Great Exuma. The total mileage is close to 50 miles. Over the span of a week our paddlers make their way down the cays making pit stops along the way. This trip can definitely be a bit of a challenge when the wind picks up and you are forced to keep a constant paddle so you don't lose ground as you go. The first couple days of their trip they had really great and calm seas to paddle in. The weather has changed a bit and the wind is around 15-17 mph right now. It's not that bad if you're in nice and sheltered areas, but when crossing the open cuts and heading into the wind it can be quite the challenge.

Here's a link to a map that has the typical route for this journey. They spent the night at Lignumvitae Cay last night and are heading for Norman's Pond today, but they aren't quite sure how far they will actually get today.

For any adventure seekers, we have another one of these trips scheduled for August 8th-14th! We also offer shorter distances as well as sailing expeditions. We also offer a trip that includes both, kayaking and sailing: Best of Both Worlds. Just let us know what you're looking for :)

Photos Courtesy of Heather Knowles

Staniel Cay Kayak

2010-07-13T12:23:00.000-07:00

The last week we have been preparing for our first ever Staniel Cay Adventure Paddle We had a summer discounted rate for the trip, so it was revised just a little from the usual trip. The revised trip includes a flight from Nassau to Staniel Cay, 7 days/6 nights worth of kayaking and camping (all food and beverages included), and a return flight to Nassau from Georgetown.

I've been more hands on with this trip than I have with some of them in the past. I helped Dallas by planning out the menu. We had a vegetarian and a gluten-free diet to work around on this trip. We try to accomodate as many dietary restrictions/preferences as we can on our trips. The best we can with the limited availability down here and the restrictions we have with having to pack the food in the kayaks with very, VERY limited cooling options. I'm pleased with the menu and hope that it goes over well this week. I won't give away all the secrets on our trips, but here's a few meals and treats they are having:

Fajitas, Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake, Fresh Fish, Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry, Fresh Fruit & Veggies, Black Bean Brownies (which turned out pretty great & are Gluten-Free) and lots of other yummy meals. Hopefully they will feel spoiled and FULL out there :)

We had a beautiful morning on Sunday when we were towing the gear up to Staniel Cay to meet our guests. Can you see the pretty rainbow up above? It's always a sweet reminder of grace to me.

We met the guests in Staniel Cay after a morning of towing the kayaks up from Great Exuma. We left our house around 4 am for our trek to Staniel Cay. The tow up was relatively hassle-free. We had a few little set backs, but nothing major. The weather was gorgeous and the boys did great on the ride. I was a little tired from holding their weight for the journey there and back, but I'll take the snuggle time :)

The timing couldn't have been better. As we were pulling up to the beach, our paddlers were walking over the hill from the airport. This is the only "group" shot I got before the trip while they were packing the kayaks. I'll try to get a good one when they get back in off the water.

Once they got all the gear packed we had a quick lunch there on the beach and then we all jumped in the powerboat to see the swimming pigs and then to Thunderball Grotto.

These pigs are used to boaters coming up and feeding them, so they take off for the boats as soon as they head to the beach.

Joss & Steve were enjoying the pigs from a distance.

Next stop, Thunderball Grotto.

Joss wasn't so sure about going inside until he got far enough in and could see the opening inside. Then he could see all the fish and got really excited.

It feels like you are swimming in a huge fish bowl when you are inside here. It's beautiful and peaceful and fish are everywhere!

The kayakers headed off for their trip after this stop and we made our way back home in the power boat. We'll pick them up when they hit the mainland on Saturday.

So far the trip has gone well, and hopefully everyone is having a good time. They have done some great snorkeling and speared some yummy fish for dinner. We're praying for good weather to continue for their paddle! Until next time...

Summer News

2010-07-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

Normans Pond Cay

Just the other day I was praying for the Lord to send us our own pilot and plane, to take us where we need to go and when, to make traveling with little ones easier and faster. Well, he kind of answered that prayer, and I think some of you might even be interested to hear the answer. Delta airlines now offers direct flights from Atlanta (ATL) to Georgetown (GGT). Normally you have to go through Nassau, Miami or Fort Lauderdale to get here, but this is a non-stop flight from Atlanta. We're hoping this will mean good things for our business as well as our family and friends visiting :) In addition to this new flight with Delta there is also a non-stop flight with AirCananda from Toronto. These flights open up so many great opportunites for our little island. They may have limited schedules (especially during this time of year), but hopefully that won't be too hard to work with.

I mentioned the other day a group from our church in Nassau that came for a Men's Retreat. You'll see Dallas on the far right holding Joss (with the red shoes), Dallas' father, Andy, next to him holding Emit, and his youngest brother on the far left, Elliott. Their family (originally from Nassau, Bahamas) has always vacationed in the Exuma Cays (pronounced keys). Partly because the northern cays are a short boat ride from Nassau, but mostly because even as Bahamians that see the ocean all the time, they just love the waters, beaches, spear fishing and turtle spotting that awaits you in the Exuma Cays. It really is the best in the Bahamas in our book! So, needless to say, a weekend with one of his brothers and his dad camping in the cays did not really feel like "work" to Dallas.

He really enjoyed getting to show his family first hand what his work is like. Granted they only went out for 2 nights and not the usual 5-6 nights, but they got a taste at least.

Apparently the turtle spottings on this trip were not hard to come by. They saw many Green Turtles, a Loggerhead and a Hawksbill, all within a very small radius.

Dallas has been working very hard this summer to fix up our support boat; the Mako named "9 Lives". She's been a good boat to us, but we are working on selling her so we can upgrade a bit with another boat we need engines for. For those of you that saw this boat this past season you can appreciate the work he has done with her. Anybody need a boat? :)

I have been saying that it really is a shame that this time of year is really slow for our island. Nassau is booming with tourist, but it always slows down for the Out-Islands it seems. It's a little more rainy this time of year, and it can get blazing hot, but the water is AMAZING! It's so warm most days and usually very calm. A local way of referring to the calm water is to say it's "Glass", so that might give you an idea.

Not that we complain too much with a little down time to enjoy ourselves too :)

Still here...

2010-07-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

First off I need to apologize for being so bad at posting things on here. I always make lists in my head of things to do and stuff to say and then I just never do it. I am very diligent to keep a personal blog for my family and friends with stories of our sons and life down here, so I will try my hardest to do better this time around. I think it's fair to say I haven't had a lot of spare time chasing around a 2 and a half year old, Joss, and his little brother, Emit, who is just now 10 months. But we are getting in to more and more of a routine with the business and things so hopefully I can keep you posted.

Dallas is out right now on a weekend kayaking retreat with his father and church family from Nassau. They took one of the Sea Pearls as the support boat so they could easily take ice and a few more "luxury" items for the weekend that don't fit easily in the kayaks. Last night around 2am they were treated to a nice thunder and lightning storm, but they all stayed dried and cozy in their tents. You gotta love the unpredictability of the Great Outdoors!

As I was driving the length of the island back this morning from dropping a few more people out to the group, I was once again amazed at the little things that are so different living down here. For instance back in Alabama (where most of my family lives these days) after a summer rain you see and hear frogs all over the country roads. I'm not the kind of person that likes to aim for critters in the road to see if I can squish them... on the contrary I play a game of "dodge ball" with them to see if I can save more than I kill. Unfortunately, I can't feel too sorry for them for hanging out on the ONE main road on our island though. However, down here we don't have frogs after rain showers... we have CRABS! I've seen a few really big ones before that folks say can give you a flat if you hit them the wrong way in your car, so those ones are definitely ones to miss. The crabs this morning were definitely not that big though. But they were EVERYWHERE. I had my sons in the truck with me and Joss kept saying "find more prabs (crabs)", and it never took more than a minute or two before we were right in the middle of another swarm of them. It was very distracting so I was pretty much puttering along (and if you have any experience with Bahamian drivers you'll know that doesn't really set well with most of them).

I will be posting very soon with more information about some upcoming trips and special flights that will be around this upcoming season. I am leaving for now with a fresh commitment to keep this thing up-to-date! If you have anything specific you would like for me to post on, feel free to comment and let me know what you'd like to hear.

Photos

2009-08-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have been really bad about getting photos posted on our website. I'm still learning a lot of this software, so my temporary solution has been to use our photo gallery on Facebook to share with everyone. At least until I can learn the software I need to learn, have the time to post my photos, and get it under control.

If you've been on any trips with us, we'd love to see some of your photos too. You can email them to us, or upload them directly to our page on Facebook. Hope you enjoy these pictures!

2009-2010 Season

2009-08-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Alright, we are getting ready to kick off the 2009-2010 Season!!! We are very excited to be offering new trips and new options with rentals this season. For starters, we have a couple new trips in the works:

Best of Both Worlds is a new combo guided trip offering guests with time for kayaking and sailing throughout their experience.

Staniel Cay Adventure Paddle--we are also now offering a guided trip to Staniel Cay near the Land and Sea Park.

In addition to offering the Staniel Cay Adventure Paddle, we are also giving our weekly rentals the option of exploring the area around Staniel Cay and the Land and Sea Park. We now offer the option of a one-way or roundtrip transport of boats and equipment from George Town to Staniel Cay. We cannot offer guests transportation to Staniel Cay at this time, but there are many charter flight options available from south Florida, Nassau and George Town that provide easy access. Contact us directly for more information on this!

These are just a couple of the new things we are excited to be offering this season. Please check our website and trip listings for a full list of details and prices. Happy Exploring!

Upcoming trips

2009-02-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

So far March and April are shaping up to have quite a bit going on around here. Of course the end of April brings folks from all over the Bahamas here to our tiny island for the Family Island Regatta. If you are planning a trip to come and visit--- you might want to avoid this time because flights and lodging will be really tough to come by. The dates are April 21-25th! Just FYI!

We have openings on all of our kayaking trips and sailing trips still. Let us know if you are interested, because we are getting reservations. The weather in March and April should be really nice too. We've had a little bit of a "cold front" (high 60's lower 70's) coming through the past week or so, but the sun is still shining and it's still very pleasant outside.

If you have any questions or particular topics you would like for me to post on here.. please leave a comment, and I'll get to them as soon as possible!

Welcome

2008-12-14T06:45:00.001-08:00

Hello, and welcome to our blog! We are hoping that this blog of our company will give you an insiders look to life on the out-island and specific details about our company and trips. Each trip is different and we get some very interesting people down here. We hope you enjoy this experience!