My name is Charlie Beede. I was born in Bangor, Maine in the late 1950’s, and moved to Florida in my teens. During my teenage years I had traveled to the Bahamas with my friends on surfing trips. When I met my wife Joyce 40 years ago in Daytona Beach, Florida, it was love at first sight.

Finding out she was from the Bahamas was “priceless”. Later, we moved to the island of Oahu, in the Hawaiian Islands, and got married at Waimea Falls on the North Shore.

For fourteen years I worked as a Real Estate agent, also enjoying surfing the big waves on the North Shore of Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. My wife had always dreamed of going back to the Bahamas for the simple lifestyle, living off the land and sea.

Her father was a fisherman, farmer, and boat builder. I was ready for a change, so we decided to sell everything and make the move to Long Island. That was 25 years ago. We renovated an old style Bahamian home, located on the beach, and started our new lives.

I was surprised to find out that many of the people living on the island were related to my wife. I trained with some of my wife’s family members, learning to free dive and spear spiny lobster.