Lee Stocking Island

On May 24th, mama Pat came for her 1st trip aboard the Salty Clam! We picked her up from the dinghy dock and took her out to where the catamaran was parked. Shortly after, we had some dolphin fiends arrive right by the boat, a mom and baby! I hopped in the water right away and they got within a foot from me! That afternoon, we had a great sail to Lee Stocking Island, Exumas. The anchorage we were at felt like we were in another country. Huge hilltops with coconut palms all over the beach line.

The next morning, we went on a hike to the top of the hilltops right in front of the anchorage. The hiking was some of the best we had. Saw huge blue crabs, wild rosemary and the abandoned airstrip. Apparently Lee Stocking Island was left abandoned. We wanted to go into the abandoned town to check it out because people say its like walking into the walking dead movie. They say it looks like the people had an hour to pack up their items and leave the island. Still don't know what really happened but when we tried to explore it there were workers fixing it up. I heard they are trying to make it a sustainable living area for workers. That afternoon, we went diving for conch at a spot our friend Sascha told us about. She said the conch were just everywhere in this cut and they were! Carson and pat hopped in the water and said right away they saw 20 but not of size to keep. It wasn't even an hour and we had already got 6 conch, one of them being the biggest one we got yet! That evening we moved closer to the North end of Great Exuma where we adventured into the town called Barretarre. We went to dinner at a place called the Same Ole Bar where there wasn't one tourist in sight. We got the true Bahamian experience and met some awesome locals that told us all about their town. We got fresh cracked conch, HUGE coconut shrimp and Carson and I got the best chicken sandwiches we had ever had. Like better than Chick-Fil-A...

Day 3 of Mama Pat's trip, she was ready to get back in the water and watch Carson do some spearfishing! There was this cut that Carson and I had our eyes on when we were moving anchorages that we went to explore. At first there wasn't much there and they were ready to call it and move spots. As they were about to get into the boat, Carson yelled hand me my spear! He took off on a monster grouper that led him to a rock ledge that had the most beautiful life. Instead of coming back up with a grouper, he came up with the biggest lobster any of us had ever seen. The tail alone was a foot long!! He shot the grouper but he was so buried in a hole that it was the first time Carson had to leave a fish behind.. Luckily, it was dinner for a 12 foot nurse shark that was waiting patiently. For lunch we ate the legs off the lobster, they were the size of a king crab leg. To top off the end of the trip, we got to see some amazing blow holes on this beautiful beach and for dinner that night we made conch chowder and grilled lobster with Kendra's fresh french bread.

We hope we showed mama Pat a good enough time to come back. We loved every second of having her out here. Until next time... :)Read more