A trip we didn't want to take

When we first got email messages at Warderick Wells I received an email from my sister that her husband had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So we planned a trip back to Lancaster, PA to visit them to be sure we had a chance to see him before he passes. When we got here we found the cancer was actually more pervasive so we're really glad we came now. They also are very appreciative.

Getting to PA while leaving the boat in the Bahamas had some issues beyond simply making travel arrangements. Of course that is challenging enough when out of the Country. After making our last minute travel plans when we got to Emerald Bay we needed to coordinate with the marina about leaving the boat there. Once that was done some other details needed to be resolved.

Since we have firearms on board Bahama law requires they be turned in to Customs if we leave the country so we had to make those arrangements.

After calling the Customs office I found I needed to take them to the Customs Office in George Town. So we rented a car on Wednesday and drove into George Town and placed the weapons into the custody of the Customs officials to be retrieved when we return. But, we made a fun trip of it and had 2 friends, Will and Tori from s/v Button come along so they could experience the island.

After taking care of business in George Town we traveled down island to Santana's Beach Bar and Grill for their famous lobster. Next door to Santana's is a little local bakery that makes excellent rum cake so we bought a chocolate one that was outstanding. Santana's is about a mile below the Tropic of Cancer so for a short while we were in the tropics.

On the way back we stopped by a marine marker erected hundreds of years ago to identify the salt ponds of Little Exuma for the Salt Fleet that came in to mine salt in the flats around that point.

So Thursday after getting the boat ready we went to the airport and flew to PA. When we got to Miami we got through Customs and Immigration quickly using our Trusted Traveler status. Going to the "Global Entry" kiosks we wee able to authenticate ourselves and pretty much walked right through the entire process as fast as we could walk. But getting back through TSA airport security was slow since the TSA Pre-check line wasn't opened yet.

The marina waiting for the taxi.

Exuma Airport.

Exuma from the air.

But, we continued on and got all the way to PA as intended. So we are in Lancaster, PA on a trip we didn't want to take under these circumstances but glad we did. We will miss our brother.