Stella Goes Home

Nassau – 2 miles in dinghy, 6 kilometres walked, 20 miles by car

Today we said goodbye to our beautiful daughter Stella and put her on a plane headed back to Canada, with a nasty winter storm bearing down on Toronto. There were some nail biting moments as her departure was delayed several times, but in the end she left 90 minutes late and arrived safely in Toronto. As luck would have it, my dad and step-mom were staying at an airport hotel for the evening on their way back to Saskatoon so were able to put her up for the night instead of her other grandfather and uncle have to do a slow and dangerous drive through the storm to meet her. Instead they will pick her up tomorrow morning when the roads have been cleared and the storm has passed. Welcome back to Canadian winter Stella!

We started the day with a big breakfast of pancakes, blueberries, and maple syrup then Stella went flat and absorbed a few last moments of precious Bahamian sunshine before we dinghy’d into shore to meet our ride. Ana put together a bag of snacks for her and I made sure she had the authentic Barnum's Animal Crackers with its classic box and carrying handle which I had found in a shop the day before, returning me immediately to childhood when my folks would buy these as a treat for us. Stella was thrilled with the gift and promised to send us a photo of her eating one of the cookies on the airplane.

Ruthie picked us up and fought through what seems to be consistently busy Nassau traffic, before the less congested stretch to the airport. We were surprised to see the old dark, dank, and deteriorated airport has been completely razed and a brand new modern and beautiful one stood in its place. Ana and I joined Stella for the check-in and Ana insisted on watching her pass through security and the scanners as we waved like dorky parents, and Stella was kind enough to wave back.

We are going to miss her so much. This time together on the boat has been a real gift for all of us. I don’t think many people get to spend so much quality time with their 18-year-old and we are eternally thankful for it. A couple of day ago she found out she had been accepted into both programs she had applied for at the University of Guelph and was thrilled as that’s the school many of her friends go to and the one she seems to have had her heart set on. She was also accepted at McMaster and still waiting to hear back from Laurier in Waterloo but I can only assume she’ll be accepted there too. So she left here in a good place – a part-time job to return to, excellent prospects for a summer job, and an educational path forward for the next four years. We are so proud of our kids.

Ruth had organized a quick video call after the airport drop off with three folks I had worked with at Shell, including Eddy who I had spoken with yesterday. We had a great little chat and couldn’t help but feel astonished that all these people I feel like I was working with yesterday are now at the end of their careers, and either retired or close to it. It reminded me of how many people I’ve worked with over the years and how it is possible (and easy) to rekindle those relationships.

Ana, Ruth, and I stopped for coffee at a huge and new Starbucks in the Harbour Bay Shopping Plaza, just a ten minute walk from the marina. We vowed not to tell Stella and Anna about this place as they had been walking 30 minutes downtown to what they thought was the closet one, and to make it worse, this plaza had dozens of other shops they could have explored. Oh well, next time.

I did my best to convince Ruth to join us on the boat for dinner, and just when I thought I had her, she got spooked when Ana mentioned the shaky and barnacle-encrusted ladder at the marina dock she’d have to climb down to drop into the dinghy, then the Herculean Leap of Faith or Sea Lion Belly Crawl (your choice) that was necessary to get from the dinghy onto the boat, then having to do all that in reverse in darkness with pitching seas, as a non-swimming Bahamian. Ana’s revised and admittedly superior plan was for us to find a marina we could dock at next time we were in town to make the dinner party less perilous. All agreed and we said goodbye to our buddy once again.

From here, Ana and I retrieved the laundry and grocery bags from the boat then walked up the hill to the laundromat then picked up a few small things in preparation for our anticipated departure to Eleuthera tomorrow.

SeaLight is back to its crew of two.