On our last trip, we were very fortunate to arrive in Normans on the weekly potluck dinner on Friday night. Here we made some new friends "Steve, Juana and Conner(6)". Although MacDuffs was closed at the time, Stephan, Chris and Beth (the new business owners) made us feel welcome. Fast forward to 2009 and we accidently arrived on Superbowl Sunday, but once again, it turned out great. "The Beach Club at MacDuffs" is alive and well and was having a Superbowl party with all the residents of Normans Cay. This turned out to be a great time and we made lots of new friends.
Emma and Ally immediately caught up with Conner and made a new "Best" friend Leon. Isn't it funny how they couldn't remember Conner 5 minutes before they met him again, but then they were best friends for life 5 minutes later.
During the Superbowl party, the 4 kids started a "fresh coconut" company.
As fate would have it, the Satellite feed died with 53 seconds remaining in the game. So, we ended up not knowing who won until the following day. What an ending! We couldn't believe we missed it.
As fate would have it, the Satellite feed died with 53 seconds remaining in the game. So, we ended up not knowing who won until the following day. What an ending! We couldn't believe we missed it.
The following day, we moved around from MacDuffs to the Pond. This is protected from all directions and allowed us to ride out the upcoming fronts. From here, we had a front row seat watching the construction of our new friends Bruce and Kelly's new house. We ended up anchoring next to Doug and Debbie on the catamaran "Perigee". Jennie was in heaven to have the girls (Juana, Debbie and Kelly) to walk, run and bike with. Here is a picture of the "Girls" not looking too sweaty!
If you know Jennie, you know that she is an explorer at heart. Her daughters are a chip of the same block. So, they were determined to take the dinghy all the way to the South side of the island for lunch - the trip is an obstacle course of shallows. This turned into an episode right out of "Gilligans Island". The episode ended with a daring nightime rescue from almost all the resident men on the island. Bruce generously donated his boat and the nighttime rescue was underway. We found the wayward ladies exhausted and stuck in the sand somewhere behind "Boot Cay". Everyone was fine and now we have a great story to tell. My special thanks to Bruce, Steve and Jason for their heroic efforts.
During our time in Normans Cay, we ended up having a full moon. This turned out to be yet another excuse to get every single soul on the island together for a party. Our friends, Steve and Juana, have named their house "Full Moon", so how could we not have a celebration. The winds this night were pipping up close to 30 knots at "Full Moon", so the venue was moved to Bruce and Kelly's "The Nest". Here we were treated to pictures of the flight in Corky's plane earlier that day from Normans to Georgetown. Corky and Nancy visit Normans regularly from the states and doubled as an air taxi service while we were there. Here are pictures of Corky with the full moon and his awesome Piper Seneca.
During our stay, Ally fell in love with her passion of reading. Her new favorite books are Harry Potter. She consumes them. Emma is still diligently trying to document every detail of our trip in her journal. I think she is still writing about every animal in the Miami Zoo over a month ago.
While playing with Conner, Ally got the first injury on Normans. It was a good one. She fell off the stairs onto some rock below - breaking the fall with her chin.
Conner has upgraded his hiding spot to a 12 foot high tree house that OSHA would have a real problem with. The girls thought it was awesome.
Well, Normans Cay was definitely a highlight for the Sneadfamily! The island has a long and varied past with drug running from Columbia, failed developments, plane crashes. Now it is a warm and welcoming island.
Hi to all our friends. It was sad to leave.
Next stop, Warderwick Wells. . . .