Colby's Blog: FUN! FUN FUN! And more FUN!

Yo! Yo! Yo! What up my peoples! Oh that’s right the sky!! HaHaHa! So after finally making it to George Town, and getting some fun days in we wanted to sail down to the Jumentos and Ragged Islands. We made an all day sail to our first stop, which was Flamingo Cay.

We just stopped there for a night to rest, then made a dash down through the islands and anchored at a place called Double Breasted. The next day a boat called Va Bene sailed down and anchored next to us, who we met in George Town and they have two children, Ben and Niki, and the parents Lynette and Scott.

After they pulled in we had a fantastic say and celebrated Mother’s Day!! We all had a great day at the beach and swimming in the water! There were lots of Sea Beans and Hamburgers that we found on the beach. Your probably thinking what are hamburgers doing on a beach?... but a hamburger is a small and really pretty bean that is a light brown with a black stripe going around it.

It’s a little bigger that a quarter. A Sea Bean is bigger than a hamburger and it is dark brown and sort of shaped like a heart. It is a real treasure to find these beans and people are always searching for them.

The Jumentoes have LOTS of them (if you find the right beach.) The next night was lots of fun! We moved around the corner to a place called Johnson Cay, which is literally right around the corner.

We had a big bonfire on the beach and played a bunch of games in the dark like flashlight tag. Then for dessert we roasted s’mores! Yum! Yum! Yum! Va Bene left the next day because they had to pick up some guests that had flown into George Town. So once again it was us and not that many boats around! After Va Bene left we sailed to an anchorage called Coco Bay, which is just outside of Duncan Town at the southern tip of the Raggeds, about 60 miles from Cuba.

It is also very close to where Columbus landed, his 4^th stop on his first voyage. I did a little school in the morning and then it was off to Town to do Internet and walk around. This was our second visit because we had visited Duncan Town last year too. Then to top it off we played a little football on the beach!

We had anchored at the very last anchorage and had covered all of the Jumentos and Ragged Islands so we wanted to sail from there to the Crooked and Acklin Islands and Long Cay. The next morning we set off for Acklins a 13-hour sail, but just as we got there at sunset the wind picked up AND from the wrong direction…. So we kept sailing to Long Cay and arrived at midnight…. A loooong day and I had to keep myself busy by playing with all sorts of things! The next day we got to work all our energy off by playing on the beach with paddle rackets! Pretty fun if I do say so myself! The next day it was off to a place called Landrail, Crooked Island, an easy day sail. It is also believed that Columbus sailed up and down this coast and anchored out from Long Cay and Landrail. We arrived there at about mid afternoon and then in the evening we went to Gibson’s Restaurant to have some dinner! It was steak, fish, and chicken! Yum! The next day was a big event because our water tanks were getting low on water so my Dad and I had to take these two 5 gallon jugs, plus a bunch of 1 gallon water containers and dinghy them into town, then walk ½ mile, fill them up from a town well and that took a while, and finally brought them all the way back to our boat and emptied them into our tanks. WOW! We had to make a couple more trips even after that! Our boat holds about 120 gallons which hopefully lasts 2 weeks. It’s a lot harder than just turning on your faucet at home and letting the water run!

Another thing that’s cool is that there’s a lighthouse out on a little island that was built in 1870 but no longer in service and quite rundown but beautiful. My Mom, Dad, and I took our dinghy out to the island and walked around the lighthouse. It was really interesting because it was like a little village with a boat launch, restrooms, and living quarters for families to live, and the lighthouse itself. After walking around Dad and I decided to walk to the top of the lighthouse. My Mom didn’t want to and I don’t blame her because a lot of the steps were corroded and even some pieces were missing. A little scary but after reaching the top… WOW what a view! We could see everything! A rainbow, and the island Long Cay just a ways down, and all of Landrail! Even though this whole little village is all run down and the lighthouse is not working there was still the big control box up at the top and the light was spinning around because it is run on solar power. But there was no light coming out. So we had a pretty exciting time!