Cruising into Calabash Bay

We had passed by Calabash Bay when we were up at the Columbus Monument earlier in the week, and we decided to move up there for a couple of nights to enjoy more beautiful Long Island scenery. We headed out just after 9 am, and once again put up the code zero and the main to take as much advantage as possible of what we expected to be several hours of off-the-wind sailing.

The wind shifted to be almost completely downwind of us as we turned north for Calabash, so we put the code out on a pole to sail wing-on-wing.

Patrick caught two fish along the way…but one is more recognizable as a fish than the other!

Our friends said that the bizarre fish was a frogfish or toadfish…I think maybe it’s a lizardfish, after some research. Definitely weird looking, that’s for sure!

We anchored in Calabash in the mid-afternoon, and once we were settled, I jumped in and went for a swim to make sure our anchor was well-set.

We met up with Pyrat Soul and Miss Roxy at the Cape Santa Maria Club to toast Kate and Rob’s 14th anniversary.

The next day, it was sunny and hot, so Patrick and I took out the sunshade for the boat and figured out how to put it together. (We have had this thing since we bought the boat, but it had been sitting in our basement, as we hadn’t realized it was a sunshade and not just a big tarp!) I have to say, it definitely keeps the decks and cabin from heating up so much, and still lets the breeze in, so I think it’s a keeper.

Mona and Cecelia also wanted to create a spa experience for their mamas over on Pyrat Soul, so Kate and I were the lucky recipients of some head, back, shoulder, hand, and foot massages (!), face scrubs, lovely smelling lotion, tasty snacks, and lots of cuddles. Oh, and the spa had a desert theme, as you’ll see in the menu below.

What a sweet treat. I love how creative our girls are!

The next day, we put all the kids on Miss Roxy to do schoolwork and play games, and Patrick and I dinghied with Gary and DeeDee over to a local restaurant called Sunset, for a homemade lunch. Grouper, peas and rice, and lobster salad!

We decided to try to squeeze one more adventure in before leaving the bay, and dinghied over to the south end of the bay to see if we could find some good snorkeling. It was not the most colorful landscape under the water, but there were SO many cool fish, and big black sea urchins, too. Everyone agreed it was better than expected. 🙂 The kids all had a blast, and we kept at it all the way to sunset, then raced back to the boats before it got dark. We have resolved to get better about taking the GoPro into the water to take some pictures of all the sea life we are so fortunate to see!