Why We Moved Onto A Boat

The week started on February 17 aka Sunday. The day started off on a very high note, my dad FINALLY shaved off his mustache! My mom and I despised it, I personally hated it so much that I threatened to shave it off my dad’s face in the night. I’m honestly surprised that I didn’t. After breakfast that day my dad, Jonah, and I left to snorkel in Thunderball Grotto. If you don’t know what that is it’s a place off of Staniel Cay that you can enter at low tide and emerge in a cave with a skylight. It has all kinds of fish inside but not much coral sadly. That day the current was ripping and I’m slightly surprised I didn’t bump my head on rock more than once. It hurt…
We got back from Thunderball Grotto and enjoyed what I call a Why We Moved Onto A Boat day. This consisted of Jonah paddle boarding while I swam and my parents read in the sun. I later blew up my own paddle board (mainly so I could chase and annoy Jonah) though I ditched it a little later in order for me to annoy Jonah further. I had forced myself onto Jonah’s board, blocking him from returning back  to the boat. We ended up drifting pretty far and I did end up helping Jonah get back to the boat. I like to say that the sun burn Jonah got from being out in the sun too long was pay back for my skinned knees and arms from when he swung me against the side of the boat when I wasn’t ready.
That night we had the crew from the SV Sailing Uma (they just hit 100,000 subscribers on youtube!). We made our introductions but I found myself on a harness off the side of the boat, what can I say, I’m anti-social. Jonah wasn’t burnt yet so he was still able to torture me while I swung, oh but he would learn…
A little later that night I joined everyone else and I’ve got to say it was really fun! The woman (Kika) and I had a conversation about bracelet-making, Harry Potter, and how they would have had to leave if my mom and I hadn’t watched Moana before. One thing led to another and our karaoke microphone was out and was blasting Moana music for Kika and I to sing along to, thus starting our night of G&P (Grab and Play).
The next day we had our final day at Staniel Cay. It was a Monday so everyone besides Jonah had something to do, so it wasn’t until dinner that we were able to have our last night at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. I sat at a couch in the corner while my parents and Jonah sat at the bar. I had mango daiquiris and a cheeseburger sent to me while I read, it was peaceful and a good way to leave Staniel. We did run into the SV Uma crew again though they were in a conversation with another group, we said goodbye to them then we left.
The next day we sailed over to Big Farmer’s Cay. The sail went smoothly and Jonah experienced his first sail on Dragonfly. My mom and dad took their posts at the helm throughout the entire sail, as they usually do, while I did school in my room and read. After moving the boat our day continued as usual, where I did school in my room and my parents worked while Jonah read.
On Wednesday we did our own personal business until later that night when we used our dinghy to travel about a mile to reach Little Farmer’s Cay. We left when the sun was still in the sky and arrived an hour or two before the sun went down. The dinghy ride to the island was sloppy and cold, the current continued to push us and made it extremely hard when we tried to enter through a cut to reach a dock. As much as the ride was annoying we were all happy when we reached the bar, which we didn’t even know if it would be open or not. The hours for the bar were priceless, to sum of it is “we may be here or we may be not, it just depends”.
No one was in the bar besides a man acting as host and a woman in the kitchen. It turns out it was the proprietor and his wife. We were finally in the kind of place where we just walked up to the woman and asked what she had for the day. Our options were: fish, burger, or lobster. We ended up all having fish served with peas and rice (aka rice and beans), while we waited for the woman to cook up the food we played with a trivia game that was lying on our table.
At last our food arrived, I (a person who despises fish) loved the fish. It tasted like chicken! *clap clap clap clap* to the chef. We all finished our food with barely a bite left, at this point it was pitch black and we wanted to wait until the moon was up before our dreaded dinghy ride back. I, being a curious person, found the ring game for us to play. I got a couple scores before the host showed us some funny angles to try throwing at. I’m honestly surprised at how well he did on them, I was having major issues trying them out.
Too soon it was time to go, daddy said we should go even though the moon wasn’t out yet. He regretted that decision instantly. We all did. It. Was. The. Worst. Dinghy. Ride. Ever. The current had picked up making the cut to get out even more hard, the wind got stronger so we got splashed continuously, the moon wasn’t out so we couldn’t see our boat’s mast, and we had to go fast so we wouldn’t be splashed as much which only made it worse for me who had to hold a phone with a map on it so my dad could see where to go. I didn’t want to go one-handed. After almost 20 minutes we found our boat and raised our dinghy. Honestly, we could have gone swimming afterwards and when we got out we would’ve been just as wet as when we got in.
On the 21st my dad, mom, and I went inland for a bit of exploring. Jonah had to stay on the boat to avoid sunlight, he had turned into a tomato. Anyway, we had seen goats on the island when we were pulling into anchor so we tried to follow the sound of them but ended up empty-handed. We came out of that exploration with scratches from trees we tried to walk through to reach the goats. Thankfully we found something that made the outing more interesting, a cave! It was very low and hard to get more than a few feet into but enjoyable nonetheless. Overall, it was a very interesting week.

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