Lee Stocking Island

Who doesn't want to visit an abandoned town, especially one located on a remote island of the Bahamas? To see how it would look if everyone suddenly abandoned a settlement? We certainly did, and with limited information, we set out to do just that. Thinking we knew what to expect, what we found was something different entirely. Think post-apocalyptic movie set, but with a scientific twist. 

Lee Stocking Island was home to the Perry Institute for Marine Science. A once thriving scientific community making advances in marine science and research. From their website, perryinstitute.org:

John H. Perry Jr., Caribbean Research Center
Our research center on Lee Stocking Island is located in a remote area of the Exuma Cays, and it provides the ideal environment to observe, study, educate and inspire. The location was selected as a long-term research site and field station for two reasons - its proximity to the U.S. and the incredible variety of untouched marine habitats that surround the island. Scientists can take a 10-minute boat ride east to explore deep-water sea life off the Exuma Sound, where the ocean floor plunges 3,000 feet, or a 10-minute boat ride west to the shallow-water ecosystems of patch reefs.

The laboratory is one of the largest and most productive science field stations in the entire Caribbean region. And the field station is highly regarded by the most esteemed research institutions in the U.S. and abroad. 

PIMS began in 1970 by John Perry after being appointed by President Johnson to chair the new Marine Science Commission from 1968-1970. Mr. Perry was instrumental in the creation of NOAA. Read more about the history of the PIMS here: Perry Institute - History

Shortly after his death in 2006, PIMS lost their federal funding and the center was closed. What was once a place "dedicated to making a difference by protecting our oceans.", is now a wasteland of trash, chemicals, plastics, and pollutants that will negatively affect the very oceans they were once trying to preserve. But I digress. I'll get back to that later.

We anchored in the old mooring field, opting not to use the existing mooring lines per the advice of previous visiting captains. We had three other anchored boats in our little bay, right off the main part of the now defunct institute. 

We couldn't wait to get to shore and explore. From the boat, we could see many buildings that looked fully functional, so we were sure we would find it occupied once ashore.

We were wrong.

Walking down the empty roads, we went from building to building, inspecting. All the while, waiting for someone to walk out of one and ask us what we were doing there. In most of the buildings, it seemed as if somehow, everyone just vanished. Other buildings looked as if someone had tried to move out the contents but ran out of room in the moving truck and had to leave items behind. Exhibit 1, the dive center, complete with a decompression chamber. Yes, that's right, a DECOMPRESSION CHAMBER. That definitely wasn't going to fit into the moving truck!

Terrifying, right? We found it this way.

In the main house, we found a painted map of the island. This was an amazing discovery as it gave us the layout of the island and an idea of what each building once was.

There were several empty houses on the island. From the "Pink house" to the "Bahama house", the "Conch cottage" and even Mr. Perry's old house on the northern end of the island. Each house offered up it's own amazing view of paradise. 

Note the Christmas lights still hanging

Mr. Perry's house sits atop the northern point, overlooking Exuma Sound

The houses, like all the other buildings, sat abandoned and neglected. Vandalized by uncaring visitors and the harsh Bahamian weather. Any one of them, with a little bit of hard work, could once again be a beautiful home. We felt almost angry at the waste. Along our walk down the stone and paved roads, we found their "Home Depot", the hangar next to their airstrip and their junk yard. 

Home depot and workshop

The junk yard

The airstrip

We followed a path that led up a hill to a huge wind turbine. Now covered in vines and rusting apart. Next to it were the now-empty tankers that supplied the generator which powered the island. Steve couldn't help but have a little fun. 

Wind Turbine folded down.

We stumbled across the lab and storage shed, both full to the top with dangerous chemicals, thousands of pieces of plastic, Styrofoam, and glass. Hydrochloric acid, acetone, and chloroform to name a few. Pretty nasty stuff and here it sits, waiting to wash down into the beautiful blue waters the scientists once lived to protect. 

I wonder if this would make these Doctors proud?

The government cut their funding. I get it, war is expensive. I'm not getting into the politics of this or placing blame on either party, but there has to be an end-game plan. As a large non-profit agency, you have to have a plan if all those millions stop coming. How can anyone who truly cares about the environment, who, by their own words, is "dedicated to making a difference by protecting our oceans" leave this as the legacy of Mr. Perry. Shame. It's a damn shame.

Enough of all the negative. The anger and sadness I felt, and still do, will be why it's my number 2 spot. But there is a reason this was Steve's number 1 spot on our trip and it's easy to see why. First I will say that for Steve, this place will forever be known as the island we will live on when the zombies attack. We'll have everything we need and zombie's can't swim. But lets get to the real reason. Look at these views.

Around every turn was a new crescent beach. White sand, gentle waves lapping up to the shore. Incredible coral reefs just offshore and the waters filled with wonderful sea life. We had a resident nurse shark that would come swim under us when we were swimming around the boat. She floated along, back and forth, as if she wanted to join in on the fun. Happy to have visitors and new friends. Did I mention she was at least 5 foot long, a big girl. Along with her, we had several giant eagle rays, Nassau grouper, grunts, conch, snapper and so much more. With the crystal clear water, you can see all of them clearly. 

On the southern end of the island, is the trail to Perry's Peak. The highest elevation in the Exumas at 123 feet above sea level, there is a breathtaking view. See for yourself.

Lee Stocking Island. The place were we celebrated Jake's 17th birthday. We made new boating friends. We scaled Perry's Peak. The island where we'll live when the zombies come. The place where we all saw the Southern Cross for the first time. A once beautiful island community, where for but a brief moment, we sat on the deck of the remains of a beautiful home, looking at an amazing view and pretending for that moment, that we were the lucky ones who lived in this paradise. 

From our Skeye app

Jake turns 17 - Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt

While at Lee Stocking Island, we celebrated Jacob's 17 birthday. We had all been working hard on a big surprise for him and the big day was finally here. Jake loves Harry Potter and we knew we had to do something that featured his favorite books/movies. The rest of us put our imaginations to work and with limited resources and only the supplies we had with us, we created a magical Harry Potter world aboard Miss Daisy in the out islands of the Bahamas.

[Caution: If you haven't read the books or watched the movies, you may be a little lost. Just roll with it and know that this all coincides with the series.]

We decided we would create a bit of a scavenger hunt [Harry Potter style, of course]. Dani and I worked hard for several weeks, planning, researching, collecting, and downloading any fonts, clipart and photos we would need when we were able to access the internet. It would all start with an owl delivering Jacob his invitation to Hogwarts. For this to happen, we used a balloon, colored to look like an owl, tied to a fishing pole that had his letter tied to it. We custom made his letter using HogwartsWizard font in green [because that is the color Professor McGonagall writes in] and used coffee to stain the paper to look like parchment. In place of a seal, we used a Hogwarts Crest. We had recorded owl noises from the movie and had that playing over our loud bluetooth speaker and had his "Owl" meet him upon return. I don't have a great picture of either but here is the letter and a clip of Jake receiving it. In order to get the boat prepped and be able to surprise Jake, we sent him out to help Dad walk the dogs on the island and Steve was ordered not to return until we radioed him that we had generator issues.

From here, he then proceeded to Diagon Alley [the galley] where we had Ollivander's Wand Shop set up. We had the Harry Potter movie theme playing in the background for effect. Jacob has a decent collection of driftwood wands that he has found along our travels but Dani had worked hard the last few weeks to create the ultimate wand....the Elder Wand! She used some driftwood, added clay for the knots and end and then painted it all. So we filled the galley with his existing wands along with his new one. In true Potter fashion, I played Ollivander and had Jake try on several wands for size but then told him that he was destined for something greater. I pulled the Elder Wand. Jake's eyes lit up and his smile stretched from ear to ear. I then told him since that wand chose him, then I had something else for him. I pulled out his very own Marauder's Map. We made this with an extra large sheet of paper we had leftover from Dani's art class. I used some Mod Podge to stiffen the paper and add texture. Using different shades of paint, we got it the color we wanted and I tore the edges for an old parchment affect. The map would tell him what was expected of him in this journey and where to go next. 

After reading his note from Harry on the map, his first step was to head to the Great Hall and get sorted into a house. We set up the bridge as the Great Hall and made a sorting hat out of Steve's straw hat. We printed out house shields and put them on colored paper to make a banner with all the Hogwart Houses and the Hogwart shield in the middle. We had mixed together several sound clips from the movie of the sorting hat, where he goes back and forth, deciding on a house for Harry and ended it with the sound clip of the hat shouting "GRYFFINDOR!" [Jake's favorite]. After that, the sorting hat dished out a couple of presents - homemade bracelets in Gryffindor colors, red and gold.

Jake opening one of the presents from the Sorting Hat [on the left] while he still holds his Elder Wand.

 From here, the map said he was to follow his prefect to the Gryfindor common room, the aft head, for a welcome party. Steve played the prefect and led Jake to the door where he announced the password to the fat lady. "CAPUT DRACONIS!" and the door opened. [we had two doors to the aft head so I was able to open from the inside without Jake seeing].

Once inside, Jake found another gift with a note from Harry. It was an "invisibility cloak" for Jake to use later in the hunt. For this we took his favorite blanket, that he often uses as a sensory blanket, and wrapped it in red and gold string. I did the same process to the letter that I did to the other writings and hand wrote the note for effect. Inside the shower, held in place by the shower curtain, were dozens of balloons. Each balloon held money in either coins or bills, similar to what we did for Brandon's last birthday. Jake had loved that so much we knew we had to incorporate it into his. In one of the balloons on the bottom was one of the horcruxes. This horcux happened to be the Marvolo Gaunt's ring. We made it in our own style instead of trying to replicate the movie one and made it green for Slytherin. Jake used his Elder wand to pop all the balloons before he could continue on his quest.

Flashback of Brandon's birthday balloon massacre Aug 2015

After popping all his balloons, Jake's next task was to head to the Quidditch Room for tryouts. We had this set up on the back deck with access outside. We had worked for days trying to figure out the best item to use for his broom. We tried palm fronds, leaves, dried seaweed but settled on some cool foliage Steve and I found on Black Point tied around a broom shaped driftwood piece we also found. Once he had his broom, we told him he had to find the golden snitch. We made that out of two gold balloons wrapped around sand with feathers glued to it. We hung this from the front spotlight. He found it a lot quicker than we expected, but we got a kick out of the fact that he rode the broomstick the entire trip around the boat. Also hanging from the spotlight was the second horcrux - Salazar Slytherin's Locket. We used an old necklace, added some clay to shape it the way we wanted and then painted it black and green. Again, we weren't going for a match to the movie/book, just the idea of what it could look like.

 His next task was to use his "Invisibility Cloak" to access the Restricted Area of the Library. We had this under the inside helm. In there, we placed another Horcrux - Tom Riddle's Diary. For the diary, we took an empty journal and covered it with some spare material we had. On the first page, we wrote out the conversation Harry Potter had with the diary. Inside, we placed homemade Harry Potter themed bookmarks Dani and I had made for him. 

Can you see him under his Invisibility Cloak? 

Looking in the diary

Since he had now found the three horcruxes [the ring, the necklace, and the diary], he was to head to the Chamber of Secrets and find an item he could use to destroy the cursed horcruxes, thus banishing Voldermort and saving the human [and wizarding] race. We used the stair entrance to our engine room as the chamber. Since our engine room is quite large, we placed the "item" fairly close to the stairs but not too easy to find. The hint from his map was that it might bite. He figured out very quickly it was a Basilisk fang. Dani made this out of clay and painted it to resemble the large snake's fang. He proceeded to pretend to smash each of the three horcruxes with the fang, in true actor's flair and was ready for his final stop.

The three Horcruxes - Tom Riddle's diary, Marvolo Gaunt's ring, and Salazar Slytherin's locket

The chamber of secrets

Using the fang to destroy the ring

After destroying all the horcruxes, the map told Jacob to go to the Headmaster's office so he could receive his OWL results. We had turned our bedroom into the office, decorated with more owl balloons and a beautifully colored phoenix, Fawkes, that Dani made for Jake. He received his OWL results [Ordinary Wizarding Level testing], and in passing, then received his Master of Wizardry diploma. 

Finally!

 

With his mission complete, we settled in to a marathon of Harry Potter movies. For dinner, we made homemade pizza out of tortillas and had chocolate lava cake for dessert. It was a magical day for sure. All done without any access to party stores, a Walmart, or civilization for that matter! We used what we had on hand and what we found along our travels. We made all of his presents, except the money of course, and created an experience we'll all remember for a lifetime. Not your ordinary 17th birthday but then again, Jacob has never been ordinary! 

So for those keeping track, his presents included:

• Souvenir map, letter, diploma and OWL results
• A quidditch broom
• A golden snitch that happens to be a stress ball
• A repurposed blanket, now known as the invisibility cloak.
• A new, very unique, journal
• A new wand
• Two bracelets
• Three new bookmarks
• A Dani original Fawkes poster for his room
• Money
• Souvenir ring, necklace and basilisk fang

Also for those die-hard HP fans, we realize the timeline and accuracy are in question, but we weren't going for exact - and our resources were, of course, limited. This was about the experience for all of us and that was worth so much more. In addition to our family celebration, our new friends from Hawaii, anchored next to us, sang Jake a traditional Hawaiian birthday song and gave him some candied bananas from their farm back home. He couldn't have been happier with his special day!

Next up, Lee Stocking Island!