Hello! 5/23/2026
Update:
I missed writing
last week; no time to write with friends on board. After arriving in the
Bahamas, we stayed in West End at a dock for about a week. Bob and Fran joined
us there for a trip across the Little Bahama Bank into the Sea of Abaco. After
a day in West End we spent two days moving the boat eastward towards the
beautiful Abaco Islands. We anchored in two remote places on the bank, Mangrove
Cay and Crab Cay and then picked up a mooring ball in Green Turtle. Green Turtle
was worth a day of golf cart sightseeing, and we made it to New Plymouth,
Pineapples and the beach where turtles swim right up to you looking for a
handout. The next day was an easy crossing around the Whale and the famous pig
roast party at Nippers where the beach was outstanding. We moved on from there
to a protected anchorage in Marsh Harbor where we all took the ferry to Hope
Town the next day. I consider it a happy achievement to deliver guests back to
their home in one piece and having had a good time. There was a lot of
storytelling, funny mishaps and inside jokes during the trip. We all had a
wonderful time and are all still friends! Times like these are one of the
supreme joys of this type of travel.
We will probably stay at anchor in Marsh Harbor for a week or so and then start moving north to spend the summer in cooler weather. Hopefully, another guest will be onboard soon to help us begin the passage north.
There have been so many wonderful happenings in the past two weeks. I will have to focus, or this will get too long.
Question:
Why is water
so appealing?
This was the question on my mind as I walked on the Atlantic beach in front of Nippers Beach Bar, Great Guana Cay. It was a particularly beautiful day. We descended the bluff from the restaurant to a beach of cream-colored sand. Crystal clear bubbling salt water spilled over rocks along the entire shoreline. The weathered limestone formations created multiple varied waterfalls and pools of water. To me the rocks and pools were begging to be explored except that a brisk wind was blowing directly onshore and waves and currents made it risky. The shallow water just beyond the limestone rocks was a turquoise color which turned to a deep blue farther out. I walked up to a space of about 20 feet of clear water between two large limestone rocks. I had to get in and completely submerge. A young man nearby was also submerged and bodysurfing on the small waves but expertly holding his rum drink above his head and out of the water. That guy still makes me laugh but, in all seriousness, to immerse myself in water like that is something I live for.
At another location, in West End the calm beach water was the color of a clear green coke bottle. I loved sitting in the water up to my waist and watching as turtles bobbed their heads up for air 30 feet away. These perfect beach days are some of my favorite experiences, but even other views of water catch my eye. Looking out from our boat the water is different every day. Water reflects the color of the sky as it changes from blue to orange or pink and then to the black of night. The sun shining on water can look like sparkling diamonds or a road of shimmering gold bricks. There is so much more to say about water. I don’t think I am any closer to answering my question. Without getting scientific or philosophical I’ll take the easy way out and talk about my own genetic tendency to love the sea.
Frances Faries Thomas, my maternal grandmother, loved Tybee Island beach as a child growing up in Savanah and she lived on Indian Rocks Beach for a time in the 50’s. Shells she collected are a part of my shell collection. My grandfather, Edwin Thomas, worked on ships in his early twenties and wrote that he needed to come home and finish his schooling in Georgia or he would never come in from the sea. He became a lawyer and moved to Tampa in 1923. Edwin sailed all over Tampa Bay and as far as Cuba. The wooden water jug from his sailboat is an end table in my living room. Growing up, my father always had a sailboat. We sailed all the gulf waters around Pinellas County from Caladesi to Egmont Key. We learned to read charts, tie knots, tack, jibe and anchor plus always had a delicious lunch on board made by my mother. Early on, the elements of water, the outdoors, a little adventure and good food were a regular part of my life. Maybe this is why I never left Florida and have always lived within a mile or two of a body of water. For some people it is as natural as breathing to love the water. I am one of those people.
Thanks so much for reading!
Love and Peace,
Fran Lima
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