The last week in the Abacos

 Hello everyone,

The last day of our stay at Treasure Cay included the children taking a remarkable step and signing up for their first Scuba lessons!  They all thought at the beginning of the trip that they would not like scuba but after hours of snorkeling they decided they needed more!!  Brent at Treasure Divers seemed like an amazing instructor so we signed up for pool lessons to be followed with an ocean dive for all who were old enough and passed the pool piece of the lesson.  Meet our new son....  Donald Duck and our daughters with gills....

Everyone did an amazing job learning their pool scuba and would have been able to go out for an ocean dive except that mother nature had other plans.  A lightning storm came through and turned the sea very choppy and the instructor was not comfortable taking them out.  We waited patiently hoping to get out on Sunday morning but the storm continued so the kids were not able to get out for their first open water dive.  It didn't matter - they were so excited that they had actually done Scuba and now want to get certified.  I hope we can follow through on that once we get home.

We treated ourselves to a Bahamian Barbecue at the Bahama Beach Club that night and  enjoyed dancing to a Rake and Scrape Band!

Saw and a knife!!!What a great sound!

(bad tan lines = Glamour don't)

 We made sure to take a long walk on Sand Dollar Beach and we were pleased to find so many sand dollars.  Now the challenge will be getting them home in one piece!!

After we left Treasure Cay we continued our northern course through the Abacos.  We had a very smooth trip through Whale Cay Cut and arrived in Green Turtle Cay for the final visit.  Memories of our first two visits there in May came back and we missed our friends from "Morgan" and "Mango Groove"  and Oma/ Opa very much.  We stayed at the Bluff House Marina for the night across from the Green Turtle Club.  Emily treated us to a yummy dinner of Mexicali Mac and Cheese - a recipe she found and cooked without any help from anyone!  Thank you Emily!

We did a bit more diving off Powell Cay for sea life - Jay always finds the best starfish!

We knew we were seeing some of our favorite spots for the last time on this journey so we were all feeling a bit sad but the excitement of the crossing was looming ahead.  The weather was cooperating nicely so we kept moving north.

We stayed one more night on Spanish Cay and saw many barracuda and sharks which kept us out of the water!  Patrick and the whole family were treated to a tour of the 150 foot Richmond Yacht named Status Quo - owned by Don who owns and operates Spanish Cay.  The captain was a great guy who heard Patrick asking about seeing the ship.  It was an experience no one will ever forget.  Thank you Captain !

After an overnight on the anchor at Alan's Pensacola and yet another windy thunderstorm, we began the journey out of the Abacos and across Little Bahama Bank to Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island.  The sunrise was a nice surprise after the storm we had the night before.

It was a four hour journey but we arrived by lunch time on Wednesday June 29th.

Lucaya is not far from Freeport but it is more of the hotel and resort area.  It was very crowded and commercial.  A big, no HUGE change from the Abacos but it was a treat to see something like this.  We swam and used the beach at the Radisson and even splurged on taking a tour on a Banana Boat!!

We enjoyed some local shopping and the prices on food were also a nice change for us!  We decided we would cross back to the states on Saturday, July 2nd - Hannah's 13th Bday!!!!

Will write again once we arrive back home!
Happy Fourth of July to everyone.

xo
Gail, Jay and the entire gang