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Charter Notes: No Expectations
Charter Notes
by Mary Ewenson
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no Expectations
When you work in the sailing industry, your friends always ask when you’re going to take them sailing. This summer, we had the opportunity to charter a 47-foot catamaran from 360 Yachting out of Eleuthera. My husband Geoff and I signed up my brother and sister-in-law, Lisa, and two good friends of ours for a week-long adventure in the Bahamas. Work schedules checked, and we were all free the same week. What were the chances of that?
Lisa did the research and found that a major hurricane had not hit the Bahamas in August in 15 years. Perfect! Emmy and Maureen did the research and planned the cocktails for the week. Again, perfect! Things came together exactly as planned. Perhaps it all was setting up to be a little too perfect.
After a long night of tying up loose ends, we arrived late to the airport. That was followed by a somewhat stressful experience getting checked in due to our timing issue, but we got to our gate just in time to find our seats as the door closed. Ah, sit back and relax, a few hours, and we’ll be in the Bahamas. Not so fast. The plane was overloaded, back to the gate for unloading, now the flight plan had expired, wait for a new one, get to Atlanta, GA, too late for the connecting flight, on to next flight, arrive in Nassau too late for connecting flight to Eleuthera… Ah , relief… Pineapple Air held the flight for us. Back on track.
We were met at the Rock Sound Airport by “Friendly Bob” driving a huge taxi complete with sweet AC. Jay Phillips, the owner of 360 Yachting, led us to the grocery store where we provisioned for the week. All the necessities purchased, then off to our floating hotel room. For monohull sailors, the 47-foot Leopard Catamaran, No Expectations, was a virtual palace. For our not-yet-sailor guests, she was an adventure waiting to happen. A floating hotel, bar, and entertainment center all in one.
Arriving late and wanting to take in the local flavor, we chose to have dinner off the boat for night one. The best spot to enjoy food, drink, and the sunset in Rock Sound is Pascale’s. Everything about it was terrific. Cracked conch, conch fritters, and grouper were wonderful; and the pizza was a hit. We definitely recommend it. One piece of advice: Be sure to douse yourself in bug repellent if you’ll be there at sundown.
We happily retired to the boat for our first night onboard. As Jay left us for the night, he mentioned he was watching a weather system and would be back in the morning to see us off with a weather update.
Based on the possibility of a small system developing, we decided to head to the northern end of the Exumas for the first night on the hook. It was a downwind run and only 40 miles away—relatively easy to get back from if we needed to. Before leaving Eleuthera, we took a beautiful jog in Rock Sound (despite reports to the contrary, Eleuthera is a great place to run), had a quick swim, and then headed across to Highborne Cay. Cruising in the Bahamas during hurricane season is great. We didn’t see another boat from when we left Rock Sound until we got to Highborne Cay, and then there was only one in the distance. Our own little tropical paradise was exactly as we envisioned it. Why is nobody else here? It is wonderful!
Monday morning brought us bad news. That little developing low had a name, and Irene was coming our way. We made the best of the day, snorkeled in the cove, had a swimming race patrolled by Lisa in the kayak (she’s an excellent paddler), walked on the beach, made friends with a ray (which we named Nicholas), enjoyed a lovely breakfast, and
weighed anchor to sail to North Eleuthera, Harbor Island, and Spanish Wells, and a marina where No Expectations would be safe in any conditions.
After another great day of sailing (perfect turquoise water in all directions), eating, and cocktailing, we arrived on Harbor Island. The water and beaches there were gorgeous, and we were tempted to stay, but alas, Irene was angry, and the locals were boarding up their homes. Our first few calls were futile, and it seemed we’d be stuck in the Bahamas. But Pineapple Air came through again. Shavon (“the original” as her name tag read) offered to re-route a plane Tuesday afternoon to pick us up. Never mind that our tickets were from Rock Sound to Nassau on Saturday. She’d get us out of North Eleuthera on Tuesday. Now, that’s customer service!
The most wonderful thing about every vacation is the memories. Our week-long vacation may have lasted only three days, but the memories will last forever. When you’re trying to get a boat to safe harbor, get from one island to another, and then escape to the relative safety of home all to dodge a hurricane, there’s nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the ride. We stayed positive the whole way through the experience and arrived safely back in Annapolis just in time to pull our own boat out of the water and secure our homes for Irene’s arrival.
And, we’ll go back as soon as we can (maybe not during hurricane season). The Bahamas were friendly in a way we didn’t expect, and the locals were unbelievably helpful in getting us out of Irene’s path, even as they themselves hunkered down to ride out the storm.
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Maureen’s Favorite Parts
1. Meeting and spending time with Nicholas (the ray). 2. The dolphins that escorted us out of Rock Sound. 3. My fish that got away that
I never got to eat (editor’s note: we’re not sure there ever was a fish). 4. That giant black dive bombing butterfly-bat at dinner the first night; locals told us it was good luck. 5. Geoff’s jar of mayonnaise; apparently half a gallon is the amount of mayo required to charter for a week. We did use about two tablespoons full.
I’m sure if we’d stayed the whole week, we’d have stepped up the consumption.
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# Alex channels Jim Cantore in preparation for Irene’s arrival.
# Minnesotans Alex and Lisa enjoy the Bahamian sun and breeze. Photos by Mary
Ewenson 6. Star gazing and hearing most, if not all of, Alex’s story about the great white sharks; he kept getting interrupted by falling stars. 7. Gate 1A (North Eleuthera airport has just one gate, Gate 1A). 8. Our cheese board in the hotel lobby.
We brought our own cheese from the charter to the Sheraton in Nassau and ate it in the hotel lobby. Waste not, want not. We did not, however, take the mayo with us. 9. Lisa during the Beastie Boys “dance-off” (this is privileged information). 10. Our 15 minutes of fame. A news station interviewed us while we were stranded in the airport before the storm, just hoping to get out. The footage aired all over the nation and on spinsheet.com. 11. Mary running down the airplane to get sick. An office party the night before traveling is a bad idea. 12. Emmy running down the boat to get sick. Take Dramamine before you feel queasy.
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