The BEST Trip EVER!!!!!

Yo yo yo! Waz happinin? …How should we start? I know! How about if I tell you what we have been doing in the Bahamas. Ya! That sounds like a great idea. So… here we go…

We left Staniel Cay, Exuma and decided to try and hook up with some friends of ours that we met when we first started our trip. We sailed to Hawksbill (also in the Exumas) and then all of our friends arrived…Side By Side, Liberty, Las Sirenas, Morning Glory, Sol Mate, Nathaniel! We all got together on the beach and had a really fun party! It was AWESOME! Everyone brought something to eat and drink and we had a campfire too. Meanwhile, the kids were off having a really good time playing. Don’t stop now! What are you waiting for? Read on! The next day was a water day. We brought out my surfboard and got pulled around by a water ski rope, pulled by our dinghy! How fun is that! We also did this really fun event with our good friends Las Sirenas, who have Haley, Alana, Esme’, Scott, and their dog Reina! They made this really cool Dolphin! It is a rectangular white board with 3 holes at the top. You have a mask on and get pulled with a rope, by a dinghy, at idle speed. You press down with your fingers to go down under the water and pull up on the board to go up! At night we all got together and celebrated a Chihuahua in a cave. A Chihuahua is a celebration where you cut up an orange peel into slices and let it float on top of a big bowl of rum. Then you light it on fire and the whole thing turns blue. You stick your finger in the bowl of flaming rum and orange peels until your finger catches on fire then you put it in your mouth. It does not hurt… but it is a little scary looking at your finger and thinking “ahhhhhhha! My finger is on fire!” You can’t stare at it for too long else it WILL start to hurt. Anyway, we were all together in this cave and it was pretty fun! That was a really fun day! Come on! You have to make it to the next paragraph! I know this is hard work and you are sweating… but this is a really good Blog and you should read it! Pretty Please with a cherry on top! Good, thank you very much!

So, then it was off to Shroud. All of the other boats went also. That was a lot of fun! At Shroud we took the dinghy through a Mangrove Creek, out to the Ocean, to a really fun place….the Washing Machine. (It isn’t really a Washing Machine… They just call it that because the water swirls around in a circle really fast!) There is a deep lagoon and as the water goes out to the Ocean it gets shallow. You can climb up on rocks and jump off and the water will carry you back to the same place you were at! You can also climb up this mountain and it has a great view. Everyone had a really fun, great time and we all brought a lunch so we got to bathe in the water and sit in the sand while eating our lunch! (Sorry am I making you jealous?) On the way back we were in a kayak pulled behind a dinghy, going full speed! We also got pulled around on a boogie board! (Just thought I would let you know that we are still doing school everyday!)

After that fun time, we went over to Norman’s Cay (our good friends Las Sirenas and Morning Glory sailed over to Atlantis that day!) We snorkeled on a BIG plane that was in the ocean. We saw a Puffer Fish and 2 squid! That night we went to a Restaurant called McDuff’s with Side by Side and Liberty. SOOOO good to have a big cheeseburger! That night it got a little stormy and we hung out until the morning and then decided to go to one of my favorite places…that’s right….Atlantis! Yaaaaaaa whoooooooo! Yippy! We arrived in the afternoon and I got together with our good friends Las Sirenas! Morning Glory with Steven, Rivers, Amy, and Arthur were also there. We all had so much fun playing together! We went on ALL the slides! One of them, The Leap of Faith is a giant slide you go straight down and then fly really fast into a tube that goes through a huge fish tank, where sharks and other fish are swimming around, until you splash out into a pool! Sometimes you even drop off the slide. Ya! You can get pretty nervous! Sometimes you get too scared to go. Another one is called The Serpent Slide, you slide down through this dark twirly slide and go through something like a water sprinkle and then slide slowly through the tube under water and observe the sea creatures! Then you can race down these other slides that go up and down and time you! The Lazy River, which is really fun, has rapids and at the end you can ride it up a conveyer belt to another castle where there are MORE fun slides! These steep slides have boosters that take you upward into a dark spiral slide and into these bubbly rapids that spin back into the Lazy River! Finally there is the Abyss, which is similar to the Leap of Faith, except it is in darkness and you end up in a cave! There are lots of things to do while at Atlantis besides the slides, like visiting the aquarium where Rose the 20 ft. Giant Manta lives!, watching movies, hanging out in the Kids Center, and enjoying the wonderful Theme Park!

We all went to the Berrys the next day and had a really bumpy, rough sail over. Morning Glory, Las Sirenas and Southern Star (Jason, Molly and 17 month old Porter!) were with us. We had an outstanding time! Everyday we were swimming in the water, snorkeling, going to the beach, exploring the islands, doing water sports and then at night…..we PARR-TEH!!!!! (Party!!!!!) Yaya! One day we went over to a Bluehole which is really deep water in a lagoon on land or out at sea. There was this platform of rocks where you could jump off into the Bluehole that was 20 feet down! The lagoon was huge and you could swim around and after you jumped you’d swim back to the shore and walk back up the path and do it again! (Alana and I did it about 12 times!) One night, we had a Fiesta after harvesting a lot of fish and Conch from the sea! Everyone helped in the preparations and then brought something special over to Morning Glory for an amazing meal! After having such a fun time, we headed up to Great Harbor at the north end of the Berrys. We took our dingy through this really tight mangrove creek, going full speed and saw a stingray! (Better than any ride at Disney Land!) We bathed in pools, went snorkeling, surfed behind the dinghy, walked the beach, and found amazing shells, like Sea Eggs. (Sea Eggs are dead Sea Urchins without the spikes). We had a farewell party, for we were all going our separate way. The next day it was hard to leave Morning Glory, Southern Star and Las Sirenas, who have become such great friends! But we will see them again!

We sailed overnight and crossed the Gulf Stream. I know what you are thinking. WOW! Doing that overnight! It is not actually that bad, especially when the moon and the stars are out and the water is calm. My parents usually do shifts, which means that they take turns keeping watch. (I helped out a bit this time as well). We are now in Vero Beach, Florida cleaning up the boat and will be returning home to Sun Valley, Idaho on Saturday! Can’t wait to see some of you soon! I really hope you liked my Blog! I know that I am really proud of it! I hope you have enjoyed keeping in touch with me! It will always be here and it is so much fun for me to look back on! Enjoy Life and live it to the fullest! Hope you have had a great time looking at this!

This has been Colby Marsh and the Travels of Asolare!!!!!