Fun times with family in Nassau

I have some catching up to do from our incredible last several weeks! Further to Tessa’s beautiful post about their visit…here are my words to try to capture those incredible eight days we had together. ❤️

Before we had our friends, Jennifer and Dale join us, our cousins Kevin, Tessa and their daughter, Lily excitedly flew in to Nassau! We had invited them initially to stay on Starship but they made the more correct and ‘spacious’ decision to book an Airbnb. That plan worked out perfectly as their place was lovely! The gracious Airbnb hosts were Amanda and Uli. Amanda operates her own art gallery for Caribbean contemporary art and the home, they refer to as ‘The Nuthouse’ benefited greatly from her artistic gift. Everywhere you looked you’d find beautiful and unique artwork to appreciate and enjoy. The place gave us a wonderful platform to let Lily and Dylan run and play, for us to cook delicious meals and hang out poolside for precious time catching up together after being apart for so long. If anyone is looking for a vacation place to book in Nassau, please consider this beautiful place! Check it out: click here to see a beautiful Airbnb in Nassau

Tessa and Kevin love to travel and their daughter Lily is an easy travel partner. She is such a delight and so easy going but busy! Oh, I remember those days with our boys! With Lily not yet two, we were concerned that she wouldn’t remember us. We were wrong. My heart melted when she quickly started saying ‘more Aunty Amanda’ and ‘more boat’! She also loved that I had apples conveniently within reach along the ledge in the main sitting area. About a week after they had left, I found an apple in the fridge with a sweet little row of Lily teeth marks on it and it made me miss her tons!

We had them for eight days and quickly settled into a routine of splitting our time with them between Starship and their Airbnb. After Tessa confessed that petting the wild Bahamian pigs was on her ‘bucket list’ we knew we had to make it happen! Picking up the hook we made our way out of Nassau Channel towards Rose Island. Navigating shallow waters and uncooperative winds we had to motor to the island. That caused Starship to move in ways that are not always favourable to someone not used to being on a sailboat. Poor Tessa got seasick but very shortly after anchoring and getting her toes in the sand, she felt fine. Delightfully her stomach behaved for the rest of our sail day.

Over on Rose Island, the first two beaches with pigs we found were private. We were not allowed to go to shore to pet the pigs. Darn, ‘operation find pigs for Tessa was going to be a challenge’! I spoke to a restaurant owner who described exactly which beach we should head to. Soon the sails were up and our bow was pointed to Athol Island. Success! We found wild pigs to frolic with as Tessa checked a box off of her bucket list! We were also happy that we were eventually able to put sails up that day. They both loved it but I will always remember how big Kevin was smiling once our white canvas triangles were full of wind and the engine was finally off.

Kevin was Dylan’s dive partner back in Winnipeg as they both did their open water certification together through Underworld Scuba and Sport. Travis and Tessa (not to be confused with cousin Tessa) run Underworld and feel like family to us. We are so happy to have connected with them. If you are in the Winnipeg area and are curious about the whole idea of breathing underwater, here is how to reach with them: https://underworldscuba.com/. So, another goal for their visit was to get Kevin, Dylan and Jason all out scuba diving. It almost worked but the weather just did not allow it. We carry tanks onboard so our plan was to anchor off a beach with the boat to do a dive but the wind direction was just not cooperating. That was too bad. Instead, we drove over to enjoy a full day at Jaws Beach (part of one of the movies was filmed there) where we swam, sunned, snorkeled and enjoyed very yummy beach tacos! Their stay was exactly the medicine I needed and those eight days were so much fun. The last night they treated us to dinner out at a place called Mackenzie’s fresh Fish and Conch located in Potter’s Cay at the end of the bridge that leads to Paradise Island.

It’s always sad saying good-bye as it could be a very long time until we see them again. Hopefully at some point during the Big Trip we will have them on Starship again. I need to see those little Lily teeth marks in our apples again soon!