Goals revisited and a catamaran

My goal is to run 1000 miles this year. I'm completely off track from that, only logging 41 miles. Fortunately, I'm feeling some healing in my ankle. Yesterday's 3 mile run felt great!

My other goal is to read the bible every day. I'm very successful here. While I may have skipped a day, I was able to catch up with no problem. 

Every trip has a funny story or two. This story involved me and a catamaran. Our room came with a free catamaran dinner snorkel cruise with Cool Runnings II. The first spot had sea turtles and the boat crew was feeding the turtles to keep them around. As we headed back to the boat, Ryan got up with no problem. I was right behind him but had a hard time getting my flippers off.

I slowly floated away from the ladder. Ryan had to climb back down and he asked me if I was doing ok. I nodded but I got closer the the boat edge. Too close. I flipped out and around, pushing my feet on the boat to propell myself back to the ladder. Someone had to pull me closer to the ladder as well. Then I got my flippers off and went up the ladder. 

We joked about that for the rest of the trip. Who am I kidding? We are still laughing about it. 

A Private Island Experience, Part II

Wednesday at Little Deadman's Cay, we had an early morning call from the host. He thought it was a good day to go snorkeling and lobstering. We didn't want to say no and agreed to meet him at the dock. 

The private island comes with this dock and two boats (plus the kayak that we used most of the time). Noel picked us up and headed out to where he planned to hunt for lobster. These critters are also called crawfish and do not have claws like Maine lobsters have. They are just as delicious and melt in your mouth. I have no pictures of the lobsters themselves because I didn't really want to get too close to them. They freaked me out a little.

Crawfish tails

Cooked fresh crawfish

We tried to snorkel on this trip and it just was not very easy. The water was moving at a fast pace and I held onto the boat and did not venture any where. Next time, we will be hiring a guide to take us kayaking because Noel does not know much about it. He's a fisherman and a landscaper besides being host to the island. That's quite typical for life on Long Island. Most everyone has two or three jobs to survive. While that seems like a lot of work, everyone I met was happy and no one complained about living on Long Island.

Thursday, we attempted another kayak trip but it was difficult and we gave up easily. This kayak has no rudder or steering mechanism. Its really difficult to head the course you want and there's lots of extra paddling. We did convince Noel to pick us up and take us to get more beer. We treated him to lunch at Max's Conch Bar. Max's has breadfruit chips, cracked conch, and a fresh conch salad that Max is very proud of. The food is delicious and the staff are friendly. Usually we hang out at the bar with Max and his wife Liz.

I have one more recap of the Private Island Experience and then I will be recapping Sandals Emerald Bay at the Exumas.

Thankful Thursday

Dear sweet bloggy friends,
I am happy to remind you how important it is to be thankful. It helps to relieve stress and focus your mind on positive thoughts.

Today, I am thankful for laughter and for the next two days I am blessed to hang out with my Alaskan friend which has reminded me of the "Yankee Freedom Paint Job." The photo is from that trip. We were in the Keys for vacation last January. We wanted to do an awesome snorkel trip which led is to go to the dry tortugas. Sadly there had been a storm the night before and there were no fish to see. Apparently that's when bull sharks like to mate. The water was 100 % clouded and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Now to get to the island, we were on a boat called the Yankee Freedom. The way there was ridiculously choppy and the boat was full of sea sick people. I had never been sea sick before but half way there it hit me like a ton of bricks. I made it to the back of the boat which is supposed to be more stable. Once there, I couldn't take it any more and I nailed two girls with vomit. It wasn't my fault though. It was the sea sickness. Poor girls had vomit on their clothes the rest of the day. Sorry girls! Skub (Alaskan friend) managed to fill two bags with vomit and Blue (hubby) held his own while joking and laughing at us. That is what the "Yankee Freedom Paint Job" is all about, painting others with sea sickness.

I hope you got a little chuckle or smile from that story. If not, I'll come up with something better for Saturday. E N D