The devastation to the islands really hit on our 4 mile trek on Norman Island. It was first of all brutally hot at the top of the day with out any canopy and shade from the trees. No songs from the birds or happy sounds from the Willy T.  We beached the dinghy on the beach near to where the Willy T made her final resting place after being washed on shore during hurricane Irma. Such a sad site. The Bite is EMPTY. Never have we been the only boat in here. It did fill up with a handful of boats later in the afternoon, but even still it’s pretty quiet in here. NO complaints. However as Savannah very well put and noted she missed seeing everyone having a good time at the Willy T. This is a festive mooring to say the least back in the day. There is a section in one of my hiking books referring to the trail we walked on “If it weren’t for the aforementioned Willy T, peace and tranquility would reign supreme as you tramp along the path that nudges the ridge over much of its length. Certain sections are steeper, but it remains a pleasant meander, especially where it breaks cover and offers splendid views in many directions”. Hiking was still beautiful and the views were breathtaking as usual but even more so with the vegetation gone (trying to find the positive..). There were sections that completely obstructed any views to the water and are now wide open. It seems that the frangipani prevailed with their incredible scented blooms. Many of the trees were also budding. It was very, very dry and as we made our final 360ft summit of the West Hill we were at the highest point on Norman, and lo and behold an old and large cactus tree made it! Incredible.

The South side  of Norman island was severely overcome with Sargasso. (seaweed that chokes the reef) The smell was overwhelming and made your eyes burn.  Your nostrils eventually went numb. We meandered our way down the dry grassy trail to Bluff Bay, a fascinating rock beach with a lot of treasure washed up, including an adorable dory dinghy find! I would really like to locate the owners to tell of her whereabouts, as she’s in fine shape and very well taken care of with her spliced lines, pretty paint and artistic doodles in side. We are contemplating giving her a home with us until we can reach the owners, but will be hairy to retrieve! The beach is lined with multi colored fishing lines, long hawsers, heavy nets, buoys, drift wood, parts of boats, shoes and the list goes on.

Post hiking we headed back to a boat filled with bees!!! Many, MANY bees!!!! Seriously.. I’ve been praying like heck for the bees.. but errrr NOT IN MY BOAT. This took a little while to shoo them out. We even tried a little something sweet in a bottle to take them to shore..nope they liked the boat. So we cast off the mooring ball and high speeded it to the Caves just around the point. This seemed to have made them go away.

Earlier in the day a friend posted on my face page that her daughter was also in the islands as a dive instructor for Action Quest, a teen camp where a fleet of boats sail together with a LOT of kids on them learning to sail, dive and enjoy the islands. Great program.  Well, as we rounded the point, lo and behold Team Action had taken over! We hot shotted into the last mooring and received a standing ovation of clapping and hoot’n and hollering from the kids aboard next to us. Savannah was completely cracking up and I was doing some major eye rolling.. gawwww.  So to their mortification (and Savannah’s) I actually spoke to them and inquired if Jordan D was on their boat, and they told us she was on another boat about 200 yards away! So I hailed the boat on the radio and found her. Needless to say we took a photo and face timed with her Mom. We met Jordan and their family 10 years ago while sailing in the islands. They were homeschooling and living aboard and our kids met at the kids camp that the Bitter End Yacht Club offered back in the day. They even made the BEYC cover watersports page in one issue years ago.

Snorkeling the Norman Island caves is always exciting due to the abundance of fish that are drawn to the caves. It was very busy this day with all of the kids, but we still had a great time and Savannah and I had fun taking video. Water was very clear but the rocks had a lot of silt and sargasso had made its way into the caves. I’m sure we have baby fry living in our ears at this point!  Savannah made a funny while snorkeling. Have you ever cracked up while trying to breath in a snorkel?? We saw a school of squid which quickly swam away from us, so she taps me on the arm and pops up and says with wide eyes, “MOM.. the squid are a bit SQUIDish don’t you think?!”….. snort!

We returned to the boat all smiles until we realized the bees found us again. But they brought the entire hive I think!!! Took us an hour to shoo them out. No stings thank goodness.

We motored back around to our ball and I started a delicious dinner (keeping this recipe.. yes I wing it for most of my meals so you never know what you’re going to get… lol) This was left over pork tenderloin browned in a saucepan with onion and garlic. I then added organic carrot and ginger soup base, then 5 cut up sweet potatoes, curry spice and pepper. Served over rice. Tasted like a spicy sweet “pork” roti over rice instead of tortilla.. Something about curry while in the islands.

Just as I had dinner on and I could go on the aft deck and enjoy my 2 cold ones and watch the sun go down, Savannah stomped up and said. “Mom.. my dreads need to go” She’s been really upset over them this trip and between us.. me too. They are super cool but man what a nightmare to maintain. Not to mention I already know how pretty her hair is so this was a tough one for me to let her do. She’s been asking for dreads for over 5 years so it was not an impulsive decision and the photos that we scoured on the internet were very nice. I guess dreads are like fake boobs.. it’s good in theory, but….not very practical! (some of you may not get that.. but trust me that is a story in itself!! just not for this section.. !)

So off with the dreads.  My parents were in the hair business for over 40 years. I sat many, many hours watching them my entire childhood and learned a few things over the years. I’m pretty handy with the scissors if I don’t say so my self! My mom is VERY picky and she always asked me to cut her hair on her visits.

After studying the dreads, and Jim and I trying to loosen one first to no avail, I told S I was going to have to cut them. I said don’t hate me if your hair is shorter than you would like and she said it was ok, that she was tired of long hair anyway. So I cut. We laughed and Jim cheered us on as he’s a short hair guy!

I cut as far away as I could to try and salvage the length. After we made dreadlock mustaches and piled all 27 of them it was time to undo them even after cutting. We sat in the cockpit for well over an hour untying (yes.. untying and untangling and brushing out.) She had basically a full head minus the top and sides.  The hair is pretty healthy, beautiful layers in the back and not too short. I will finish shaping and trimming on another day but she should have an adorable and practical head of locks!

Soup was amazing.