A nice long stretch of calm weather opens up all sorts of options in the Bahamas that otherwise aren’t all that appealing. The north side of Long Island is one of those. Wide open to the Atlantic it’s often a raging mess, or the anchorages are filled with huge swell. But Clarence Town was calm for us now, and being out in the deeper ocean water we had some dolphins join us for a short ride, too.
Looking out across the bay to the Clarence Town anchorage.
We rented a car for the day and took off to explore Long Island a bit.
Quite a place of worship, considering the population.
The main target for the day was Dean’s Blue Hole—the world’s second deepest salt water blue hole, 663 feet deep. Free-divers practice, have competitions, and die here. And a lot of people come here to jump off the cliffs, too. Unfortunately, it turned out to be about the filthiest water I can remember swimming in. Like paddling through a pool filled with plastic. Another reminder of the kind of damage we’re doing to our environment each day with our addiction to all things plastic.
After seeing one other person jump, the kids turned to me, wide-eyed, asking if they could do it too. I didn’t see why not. The water was 40’+ deep underneath the cliff.
“Feet first, hands on your side. Feet first, hands on your side.” I gave them the instructions, assured them over and over that they absolutely did not have to do it if they changed their mind, and then I jumped in to wait below, and see if they would join me.
I should have known. I had barely hit the water when Ouest walked up to the cliff, took one look, and jumped. No second-guessing, no hesitation.
I thought, “Well, Lowe is only six. This is a big jump. He’s all alone up there. He…” And suddenly there he was flying through the air.
The look on their faces when they popped back up out of the water was priceless. The same proud smile that a kid has when they hit a game-winning home run, or break a track record. High-fives and hollers all around.
“Can we do it again!” We made a couple more jumps, then called it a day.
The kids made friends and hung out at the memorials.
We bummed around the island the rest of the afternoon, then headed back out on the high seas the next day, continuing to take advantage of the nice weather.
Lowe, finding things to do while underway.
Atwood Harbor has some resident nurse sharks. This one zipped up to our anchor the second it hit the water, then hung out under the boat the rest of our visit. The next day a 3-4′ Barracuda joined him under there.
Neither of which did anything to keep the kids out of the water. We played “Papa Shark Attack” for a while, with me keeping one eye on our real shark friend. Even the sun going down couldn’t get them out of the water.
28 Comments on “Fearless”
What a great life you are giving your kids–wonderful adventures, experiencing other cultures, learning to amuse themselves, and building a close relationship with each other. Enjoy!
Thanks, Lorraine. We think so too.
Years ago I figured that Ouest and Lowe would be the first humans to develop gills. With their life being one long adventure and I am wondering what stories the kids are reading.
They are writing their own stories.
Thanks, Jon. They really make me smile with their love for all things water and adventure. Their favorite book and character is Pippi Longstocking. Ouest will just bust out singing the song and changing the names to her and Lowe.
Just incredibly awesome.
It is. Thanks, Peter.
Such a fun day! Love Brendan and Ashtyn’s “guest appearance” on the blog photos ☺️ Unfortunately, I noticed the excessive plastic waste in the water and on the shore that day as well and it broke my heart. I have such an issue with using plastics and the lack of recycling anyway, so it was truly sad to see in such a place of organic beauty. We, as humans can do so much better! Thanks for posting and sharing the blog and photos!
It was great meeting your family there and having Brendan show them the way.
Oh what tales they will have to tell of their childhood. Just awesome!
I think they will have many more tales in their lifetime. They are amazing.
Amazing kids, amazing parents raising those amazing kids.
Thanks, Judith.
What’s that rig on your dink? Raising treasures of the deep, or holding up canvas? I’m proud of all of you Bums!
That’s just the rig for the winch to raise the dinghy on and off the boat using the boom.
I remember the post about Quest in the hotel swimming pool, learning to swim for the first time. She sure has come a long way. And of course, Lowe will be right there with her whatever she does. So much fun for us all to watch them grow up in a truly wonderful, happy way. They are so adventuresome and fearless. Is there anything they are afraid to do?
But even when she was learning to swim, she still jumped right in to do it!
Man, I love your posts. Great pics of the kids “in flight”. Memories that’ll last a lifetime. Enjoy.
Thanks, Fritz.
We must have just missed you in Clarence Town, but we saw your boat off Monument in GTown. Welcome to TCI. We’re just down the dock from you, Sean and Louise aboard Vector.
Hi Sean and Louise, great to be in TCI! We’ll be here a few more days – maybe a sundowner one of these days??
That sounds lovely, Ali. We said hello on your first day here but we know how wrung out we feel after a passage. We’ll be around; passage wx looks uncooperative for a while.
“…somewhat famous Bumfuzzle…” ha! You aren’t kidding. We “plan” to head out on Thursday to anchor before looking for weather for DR. You heading that way as well? We can plan drinks at Mango Reef (Mon or Tuesday at 5-5:30pm) or at one of our boats. Let us know if something works…
How about tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5? And may I propose Shark Bites instead? They have draft 🙂
We can meet at one boat or the other and walk over if you like. Mango Reef is fine, too, if you don’t want to walk around the corner.
Hi Pat, how do you feel about your stabilizers? How much of a ride improvement are you experiencing? Thanks
Edan
I’m blown away by the stabilizers, and already can’t imagine this boat without them. When they are on (any time we’re moving anywhere) they make the boat handle seas like a catamaran. Side swell, or quartering swell the boat stays perfectly stable (flat). They don’t do anything for hobby-horsing into swell/waves on the nose of course. Anyway, I can’t believe that someone spent $50,000 on them in 2012, but I’m sure glad they did. If I were buying another trawler now, I wouldn’t even consider one without stabilizers. That’s how good they are.
That is incredible Pat! My dad had a 42’ Californian trawler which was the almost identical knock off of your boat. We used it between Oxnard and the Chanel Islands when I was your kids age. Great memories! Thanks for the feedback on the stabilizers. We are in the search and that is helpful intel.
Thing that amazed me is that our boat price didn’t reflect the huge stabilizer investment someone else made. The boat was right in line with the prices of boats with no stabilizers. We just got lucky, because honestly, I had no idea about stabilizers before we bought it.