We have been in the Abacos for over 2 months and Graham and I have done a total of eight dives.  We have done four dives in the Fowl Cays with Above and Below Abaco.  This is a great dive shop and Kay and Christian are fantastic instructor and divemaster.  They both worked really hard to make sure that Graham and I had a great experience.

Graham took several great pictures.  This ray showed up almost immediately.

Stingray photo credit to Graham

The reef shark was about 5 ft long. This shot showed him at one of his closest approaches. The shark came and went about 5 times over a period of 20 minutes.

Reef Shark just hanging around

Kay took Graham and me on a separate side trip because we both still had 1000 psi of air left.  We took a short cut out to the reef and spotted this turtle.  Graham took several great shots of Crush (Finding Nemo) the turtle.

Mr. Turtle is my Father, Name's Crush

Finally, I took a picture of of Graham.  His hair is getting kinda long and it was standing up straight.  Reminded me of another character in another Pixar movie.  Graham or Syndrome: you decide.

OK is it just me or does Graham look like Syndrome from the Incredibles

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for our new camera.  It’s really cool.

Hello everybody who is still waiting for my next blog entry (sorry about the wait) here in the Bahamas it is great I’m doing lots of schoolwork (but still get weekends off) and am getting in the occasional scuba dive or the occasional snorkeling trip. We are now in Marsh Harbor (again still working on the boat) at a marina called Conch Inn Marina; here is a link to their website…http://www.conchinn.com/. I also am very excited because soon we are to going to our next location: The Exumas, but now to the title of my blog entry!!!!! 😀

This Curly Tail joined us for lunch.

Curly tails is a short name for curly tailed lizard, a small lizard that is about 4 to 5 inches long with a long tail that curls up into a fish hook shape and they are EVERYWHERE. They are like very small ninjas like sometimes they’re on your shoe and you don’t even notice!!! They are very peaceful and love attention (or they really like what we feed them). Most of the time we feed them lettuce and if your lucky they will come right up to you and take it right out of your hand!!!!!!!! I haven’t been so lucky though 

Ok TYVM (Thank you very much) for taking the time to read my entry   😀

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandma and Geema!!!!!!

We spent another week in Marsh Harbour hoping to retrieve our new chain plates and do the repairs, alas, they were the wrong size and now we have to wait for them to make them again.  And they are the only game in town.  Again, problems in paradise so no big deal.  We had a delightful Christmas – very simple.  We each got something from the dollar store and then we made gifts.  Graham’s gift to us was the most amazing.  It is a poem about our adventure and all that he enjoys about it.  I will include it below.  We started an evening meal tradition wherein we each get two scraps of paper.  On one we write something we are grateful for and on the other we write something about which we might be overwhelmed and would like to ask God to take away.  We then put our papers in decorated Chinese Food-type containers except they are green and purple and plastic.

Today, December 30^th, we left Marsh Harbour to go back to Man-o-war Cay to visit some folks on another Troubadour from Annapolis.  They have 6 grandkids with them, among them is another 11 year old boy.  We also plan to visit Great Guana Cay where the world famous Nipper’s is.  Ultimately we will go back to Marsh Harbour in a week or so.  Graham is very much enjoying his time off from school.  This week he was able to watch TV and play Wii as we were hooked up to shore power at a marina.  One day this week, he and Matt went scuba diving and were quite close to a 7-8 foot shark.  I don’t even like to snorkel and am afraid a shark might get me in either the shower or the swimming pool.

Happy New Year to you all!

Laughter

Longeyes

Family jokes

Scuba diving is awesome

Family night is every night

Everything is really pretty

We get a lot more dairy milks

Making new family traditions

Can see lots of sea life from the bow

Menchie’s frozen yogurt in Annapolis

They have so many flavors of Mentos

Meet lots of interesting people and dogs

We’re still going to have Christmas, just a simpler one

Sometimes we can get cable TV, which we couldn’t at home

Feels like we are not tap-dancing to get everything done anymore

Today is New Year’s Eve.  We started the morning by baking cinnamon rolls and watching Finding Nemo.  Matt is busily putting up a windsock called a Breeze Booster which  catches the wind from the hatch in our forward cabin and sends it through the main cabin and into the galley and aft cabin (all 40 feet of it!).  We are getting ready to go to the beach for the day.  Graham loves to play in the waves for hours and hours.  Matt got a new Frisbee for Christmas and I love to sit in the sun and read.  We are in a very quiet place this New Year’s so I doubt  there will be any action here.  That is fine with us – perhaps we will find some fresh fish and ring in the New Year with a special family dinner.  Graham is looking forward to playing with new friends who are here on vacation from Chesapeake, VA.  They are off snorkeling now but we will meet up with them later.