Monday, January 20, 2025

A Dead Phone, A Goombay Smash, A Happy Hour, A Fine Cigar


Staniel Cay – 2 kilometres walked, 1 miles in dinghy, several metres snorkelled

I lay on my back on the SeaLight’s deck with a fine Robusto cigar, a skinny rum and cola, and a blanket of stars to ponder. I can hear the girls down below working on Stella’s waterlogged iPhone, with Gipsy Kings singing in the background. Every few minutes a shriek of laughter echos across the water from the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It is an excessively moist evening and water droplets hang off everything – the lifelines, the shrouds, the spreaders, the cabin deck itself. I smoke my cigar, enjoying the calm and tranquility, dosed by the nicotine drug, which I partake in infrequently enough to keep it significant. It brings soothing thoughts. How much I love my children. How much I love my wife. The incredible people we keep meeting. And how absurdly fortunate we are to be here, in this place, right now.

It had been an interesting day.

Stella and I began with an early morning visit to the Grotto, at the more challenging high tide. It was even better than yesterday as the sun shone directly into the holes on top of the rock ceiling, decorating the resident fish with sunlight, drawing out their brilliant colours. The gaps in the rock yesterday were now covered by water, making the cave smaller and closer, more intimate. Stella had secured her iPhone in a waterproof case and took dozens of photos of the fish, the cavern, and us beneath the water frolicking with the marine life. There were others in the Grotto with us for a while then we were all alone, a perfect moment.

The high tide did have its challenges, especially as the tidal current was still flowing and even stronger when we tried to leave. With the high tide we had to swim beneath the rocks, and the passage out was tough as the current was raging and it took everything we had to swim against it. I made it out first then grabbed a rock ledge to brace myself and turned to watch Stella. Her fin got caught in a rope and she stopped, then started to panic, but was able to kick herself loose. I reached in and gave her a pull to help her out and she made it okay. But it was a tough swim back to the dinghy through the current, which was anchored further away than yesterday, and by the time we reached it we were both exhausted.

Back at SeaLight, Stella removed her iPhone to find it soaked with seawater, despite our previous test of the case’s waterproofing with tissue paper. Ana rinsed it with freshwater, as per the online instructions for recovery, then used a hairdryer on it. As this operation was underway we also decided to defrost the freezing section of the small refrigerator as the contents had melded into a single mass of immovable and impenetrable ice, pork, chicken, ground beef, and sausages.

We took a break from those fun activities for a visit to town. After a kind, one-armed Bahamian man in a truck relieved me of the garbage bag I was carrying (saving me a mile-long trek to the dump), we walked to the General Store which was well stocked with groceries and had a surprisingly large collection of marine supplies - the important ones like plumbing fittings, connectors, marine wire, nuts, bolts, and screws. We picked up a few things, then continued our exploratory walk to the airport, and popped into the adjacent art gallery and store, then continued onto the Flying Pig Café which was located within the Embrace Resort, a nice place with cute rooms and a small pool. At the café we ordered our drinks then sat down in the air conditioned area, which was a nice break from the 25 degrees and full sunshine outside. Ana sipped her coffee and smiled. I had a slug of my Kalik and smiled. Anna took a drink of her Coke and smiled. Stella eyed her drink suspiciously, had a sip, pulled an ugly face and said, “Dad, try this. Does it taste boozy to you?”


I had a sip. Oh yeah, it was boozy all right.

“Hey,” I said to the proprietor. “What’s in this drink?”

“It’s a Goombay Smash,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You ordered a Goombay Smash?” I asked Stella. “Bit early for a cocktail, don’t you think?”

“I just ordered a Goombay. It’s supposed to be soda or juice or something.”

The server rushed over a can of Goombay pop. Stella slid her drink over to me. “You can have the Smash, Dad.” She knew I wouldn’t let a good drink go to waste.

We enjoyed our drinks to the sounds of the fine Bruno Mars setlist playing loudly on the television then continued our journey. We walked the dirt road, spotting lizards, eyeballing the white mansion in the distance, and stopped at a very new-looking playground that was already overcome with weeds, very strange. By then we had covered most of the island so went back to the yacht club to visit the nurse sharks. A two-armed Bahamian man at the fish cleaning station showed us a trick. He started banging a piece of wood on the fish cleaning table and the nurse sharks swarmed in from everywhere, looking for treats! He said it was safe to touch them so I walked down the stairs and ran my hands down the rough skin of a few of them as they swam by. When they realized I did not have a fish offering for them, they buggered off.


We returned to the boat to finish off the fridge project and try to power up Stella’s phone, which failed, then returned to the yacht club for the 4 – 6pm happy hour featuring three Sands beers for twelve bucks, best deal on the island. We tried to cheer Stella up as her mood had soured after realizing the 8,000 photos she had on her phone (not backed up), might be goners.  But Ana did have a spare iPhone she had brought along in the case of an emergency just like this, so at least she would have something for communication. Stella and Anna played another game of pool while Ana and I chatted and watched the crowd, wondering how many billionaires and celebrities had sat in these seats over the decades. There is little doubt Jimmy Buffett had been here many times over the years, and probably came up with a few song ideas through a haze of beer, tequila shots, and cigarette smoke. We had a lot of fun and relished this moment, in this most iconic of Caribbean locations, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.


On the way back to SeaLight we stopped at White Seal to say goodbye to Malakei, Mary, and Michael as we planned to leave the next day and they were sticking around. I had no doubt we’d be seeing White Seal further along the route in later days.

Which brings me back to my cigar. Just as I had smoked it down to the nub, Ben and Kate paddled over for a drink and chat and to say goodbye as they were going to hang in Staniel a while longer. We had another excellent visit, but I started getting tired so had to wander the boat for a while, and joined the girls in the cabin watching a horror movie for a bit. Shortly after that we wrapped up the evening and retired to our respective boats, but sure to meet again soon…somewhere.

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