We woke up early with what appeared to be open waters outside of our porthole. I went up top deck for some coffee and saw land ahead. Kathy and I got coffee and breakfast as we approached Bimini. We suddenly took a hard right and kept sailing. Later at the Captain’s Story Time we learned the ships purser had taken the Zodiac to Alice Town on the main island of Bimini with all passports to officially check us in to the Bahamas. We were now headed to a small island called Gun Cay. (See map.)

The two arial photos below show Gun Cay. The small lighthouse is at the southern tip, and Stingray Lagoon where we would all swim, snorkel, and kayak was on the north end. The girls’ purchased snorkel equipment, and our rented adult snorkel equipment was well worth the investment if only for the day at Gun Cay. At times I felt like I had stuck my head into an aquarium in a pet store. Kathy and Nicole spotted many colorful fish on the west reef. Kelly, Claire, and I found starfish and a live conk on the northeast point. I don’t think the cay was any bigger than Stonegate Way.

I enjoyed one long swim following a stingray out into the middle of the lagoon. He would swim along the bottom, and when he would “smell” something, he would suddenly turn around and start digging, puffing sand up through his gills. Little colorful fish would follow him around looking for tidbits in the spouted sand.

We would all sit in the waters edge and wait for stingray to come swimming by. We could reach out and touch them. Wet velvet. At one point about six stingray came all from different directions and converged on Danny. They all met at his feet. I was able to get a photo a few seconds later as they dispersed. (See Day 2 photos.)

The evening was a lot of fun with snacks, swizzle time, dinner, and then the battle of the sexes. The women won, but we men decided it was because women had made up the game. A brief shower cooled us off during the battle, spraying our backsides.

Day 2 Photos: mac.fiveforks.com/windjammer2005/day2/

Dad drove us to the airport Thursday evening (thanks Dad!) in what began a 24 hour process to get to sea. Mary Claire got to enjoy an amazingly beautiful sunset flight to Miami. It was her first flight. She was less nervous than Kathy. We saw a vertical rainbow, orange and pink clouds, and towards the end of flight, lightening inside of clouds.

We took a free shuttle to our hotel where we checked in about 10 pm. Walked to dinner to a nearby Burger King. Our first vacation meal of many (better) to come. Woke up for the free buffet. Shuttled back to the airport to pick up two cabs to the Port of Miami. Dropped off our luggage and spent the afternoon at an open-air mall where we had Cuban sandwiches for lunch.

Took a bus back to the port (a small island) where we were processed and climbed aboard. The lady handing out drinks said, “I do not know how old he is” pointing to Danny. “He’s 18,” I said. She handed him a Rum Swizzle. Nicole, Kathy, and I also got swizzles. The little girls got OJ.

Day 1 Photos: mac.fiveforks.com/windjammer2005/day1/

“I don’t have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball.” — Shoeless Joe / Field of Dreams

The Brookwood vs. Lassiter series was some of the most exciting baseball we have ever played (watched.) We all travelled over to Cobb County to face the number one team in the state hoping for a split that would force a third game. The underdog Brookwood Broncos had a lot of ups and downs throughout the season, but something magical happened in the series. The entire team played near flawless baseball and won the first game. Lassiter was stunned, and the Broncos were determined.

These photos are from the win after the first game. The scoreboard shows the Broncos dominating in hits, winning 5 to 2. They had zero errors to Lassiter’s 3 errors. Elliot pitched an amazing game. You can see Tim yelling with excitement as the team headed into the dugout to change for the next game. You can see the look of determination on Danny’s face who knew he was likely to be pitching.

The Broncos were determined to win the second game. Matt started off well with his typical unhittable movement. But the Lassiter team figured him out in inning three, and they quickly racked up 6 runs. Danny was brought in to put down a hitting addiction. The first batter knocked one out to make the score 7 to 1, but that was the end of Lassiter’s hitting. As Coach Howard would later say, “It was Light’s Out Lassiter.” Coach Albury signalled for the secret knuckle ball, and in his words: “That first one was wicked.” Lassiter just couldn’t hit Danny, and the Broncos fought back but ended up with a 7 to 5 loss.

That set up for the third game, which was no less exciting and came down to the last pitch of the last inning with Broncos on third and second threatening to win. It could have gone either way, but Lassiter’s home field luck won them the series with a 6 to 5 win. If you added up all the hits and runs for the series, Brookwood out scored, and hit, and under errored Lassiter.

Memories from the series:

Danny’s “wicked” knuckle ball made 5 appearances and could not be hit. Danny was the only pitcher to develop a knuckle ball because he could, as pitching Coach Albury explained, switch his mechanics and come back with a fast ball or curve right after the knuckle ball. Most pitchers cannot do that.

Danny had an inning-ending pick-off at third base. He saw the huge lead on his first pitch, and he hoped Coach Albury would call for the pick off. Sure enough, he did, and Danny didn’t even look over to third, knowing the kid would be leading off too far. The throw over nailed him.

Coach Albury, Danny, and a couple of the other pitchers figured out Lassiter’s signs and used it against them by yelling the batter’s name for one kind of pitch and number for another kind of pitch. Lassiter realized this after a couple of innings, so they started using two coaches to signal the pitches. I did not realize all of this was going on, but I did point out to Kathy how strange it looked to see two coaches signalling side-by-side. Danny said, “It was easy to figure out which one was the real signal because the catcher would quit looking when one stopped and the other kept signalling.”

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