The time is almost upon us where myself (captain) and crew set sail on our own private yacht through the Exuma islands of the Bahamas! With these islands having historical significance among pirates, one can only expect this trip will be one heck of an adventure!

Surely the only disappointment I will have is not having my brother Oakley there as First Mate!

Preparing for it all has been no small task though. Allow me to share a few points with you.

Firstly, we’ve had to prepare all my import permits and health certificates to enter the Bahamas. I provided more details on this process in this post. Getting all these documents of course means several visits to the vet.

Last time I was there I couldn’t resist snooping through my digital records just to see if they had any dirt on me while we waited. I was appalled to see a note from just over a year ago when I hurt my shoulder saying how I had a bit of “lameness”.

I quickly edited this to say I had a whole lot of “awesomeness”.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality of this one – it was taken rather hastily.)

That’ll teach ’em.

Mum has also had to buy a few items specifically for life at sea. First was this faux grass mat which is supposed to be my toilet.

I have a feeling I may end up using it more as a comfortable sun-tanning bed than a port-a-potty though.

Mum also had to buy 80′ of safety netting to go along the rails of the ship. Mum said this is to make sure we don’t have any “dog overboard!” instances, but I did remind her that while I have 4 seasoned sea legs, she only has two – and they’re a little flimsy at that, IMO.

So let’s see, what else?..

Some doggy sunscreen, citronella spray in case we encounter any savage hoards of mosquitos, a doggy first aid kit, a pop-up tent, a doggy floaty bed, a new sling bag to carry me in..

And oh, a new life jacket which was provided to me by the kind folks at SwimWays.

Since this life jacket features a shark fine, this gave me a fine idea!

Mum is scared of sharks and is slightly anxious about the trip in this regard. So naturally, I decided to scare her pants off (or rather, her pants back on) as she went to take a shower earlier this week…

I guess she wasn’t expecting a SharkWiener! Hey, that sounds like a movie title! ; )

I’ve also had to prepare some things myself. For one thing, I need to ensure I have my appropriate outfits for all my alter-egos which will be accompanying me on this trip – including of course Captain Crusoe..

As well as the pirate Long Body Crusoe, and we’ll see who else!

This time I haven’t had a need to do any snorkeling practice at home, like when I went to Bahamas the last time and took this picture before leaving…

Which is of course because, I am now already an expert snorkeler.

Then in Dad’s department, he’s had to prepare all the appropriate camera gear to record me on my voyage, including our new quadcopter! See our first practice run below!

At one point Dad was complaining that there was too much camera gear and that he’d have trouble bringing his own suitcase.

I told him, “do you really need a suitcase? Just stuff a bathing suit and a toothbrush in one of the camera bags and you’ll be good..”

(I have to say, I have a pet-peeve of people who over-pack for trips with unnecessary belongings..)

By contrast, these are all highly crucial items of mine:

Mum also came to me complaining that she could barely fit a bottle of sunscreen and a sundress in her suitcase what with all my items you see above, including my clothing, accessories, beauty products, safety products, food, and let’s not forget – toys…

In fact, out of all our allowable checked baggage, one of those suitcases is completely devoted to toys.

As you can see, I’ve packed my teddy, Big T. If you remember from my previous post, Mum and Dad were trying to get rid of him. So I’ve decided I will smuggle him into the Bahamas so he can start a new life there; where people won’t care about how dirty or ragged-looking he is.

I found myself needing an outlet to control some of my uncontrollable excitement for the trip. So I decided I would build a model of the very ship I would be captaining.

But as many of you saw, that didn’t turn out too well. Let’s just hope I don’t experience the same frustration on the actual sail boat…

And as the final days have been closing in, I’ve been studying my pirate map thoroughly, which was given to me by Dad for my birthday.

My crew doesn’t know it yet, but I plan to alter our course to find this island and its treasure.

So… it should be fun!

As for my internet situation down there, I’m really not sure. You may hear from me, you may not. Either way, I’ll just pre-schedule some of my regular fun posts for Facebook while I’m gone.

So fans, what is it you’re most excited to see from my trip?

See you in the sunshine!

Keep packin’,

~ Crusoe

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