Tag: Bahamas

Mayaguana

Our overnight passage from Rum Cay to Mayaguana started out very nicely at 7:30 am on Tuesday morning, February 21st. We enjoyed lovely, calm conditions right up until 10:30 pm. Then it started getting a little bumpy. Since it was an overnight passage, Dave, Dad and I stood 3-hour watches starting at noon on Tuesday. I was third in the rotation, so my first watch was 6-9pm, then Dave took over from me. Around 10:30pm I realized it was getting bumpy and noisy, so I laid there not sleeping. When Dave came down at midnight after Dad relieved him, I went to lay up in the salon and still couldn’t sleep. It was getting bumpier. At one point during Dad’s watch, all three of us were up trying to decide what to do to ease the ride a bit. We changed course to go west and south of the Plana Cays, rather than north of them. This bought us a few hours of calmer conditions. Sadly, at about 3:30 am, during my second watch, we had to turn back into them. Then the starboard generator started acting up like it had back in January. I woke up Dave and we watched it for a while, but ultimately had to shut it down and turn on the cross-ship cable so the port generator could run both motors. That ‘failure’ of part of our system invoked that residual fear I have from our stranding in 2019. I realized, however, that it wasn’t as extreme this time. The fear was there a little, but mostly I was pissed off that conditions were, once again, not as forecast. The sunrise was beautiful, but seas got no better, in fact they got a little worse, and there was a period of time when we saw too many 8-10’ waves. It felt like we were in a washing machine. We did some tacking above and below our course line to keep the worst of the waves just off our bow. Eventually we were close enough to Mayaguana and its extensive reef to benefit from some slightly diminished seas during the final 1-2 hours of the trip. We were anchored by just after 3:00 pm on Wednesday the 22nd. The tacking turned our 128 nm trip into a 140 nm trip, but we still made good time despite that and beating into the seas for 16 hours. We averaged 4.5 knots, and though uncomfortable, were never in danger. Dave made fruity rum drinks and then pizza, good comfort food after a lousy passage. We started a movie, but were all nodding off, so we went to bed and were sound asleep by 9:00 pm. I slept straight through the night for nine hours. 

After a good night’s sleep, I was coherent enough to take note of our surroundings. We were anchored in Abraham’s Bay, named for the settlement on its east end. The bay is huge, running five miles from east to west and almost two miles north to south. Like the anchorage at Rum Cay, this one is really just open water bordered by land on the north and east sides and an extensive reef system on the south and west sides, more extensive than the one at Rum. Also like at Rum, the reef breaks the worst of the waves, better at low than high tide, but with the seas up, it was a rolly anchorage, this time with occasional light slapping without the big vibrations. We read that the population on the island is around 200, divided between three settlements, but with the preponderance of people in Abraham’s Bay Settlement.

About mid-morning the next day (Thursday), the only other boat in the anchorage, Guajira, hailed us on the radio to say hello. They had arrived earlier the day before in the morning after having been beaten up on their passage from Crooked Island, so we compared notes. We also compared travel plans and realized we were both en route to Puerto Rico via Turks & Caicos, then Dominican Republic. We planned to get together for drinks at some point and discuss the possibility of traveling together, at least to TCI (Turks & Caicos Islands). The rest of the day was a light chore and recuperation day. After breakfast, Dave & Dad got the starboard generator running again. I guess it just needed a nap. Then Dave made water and went out to give our gunnels a freshwater rinse after our very salty passage. I did laundry and then relaxed the rest of the day.

After checking the forecast predictions on Friday, we and Guajira determined that Sunday would be a perfect day to cross to TCI. So I spent the morning clearing us out of the Bahamas and starting the clearing in process for TCI, both done online. In the afternoon, Juan and Alison from Guajira came over for drinks and snacks and we talked nonstop for several hours. They are kindred spirits! We planned to cross to TCI together on Sunday. Juan also allayed our concerns about transiting the north coast of Dominican Republic, when the time comes, so now we feel like we have more options than making the single, 120+ nm jump from Luperon to Samana against wind and sea. We knew short hops were possible but had had some concerns about safety in the isolated bays.

Saturday morning we moved Lady to the east end of the bay so we could dinghy ashore to explore the town. On our walk to town from Government dock, a nice lady stopped in her vehicle to greet us. She was the former principal of the island high school- a fellow educator! Then a nice officer hailed us in town to see if we needed anything. We were looking for lunch, so she called a friend of hers to see if she could make us lunch (from her house, not a restaurant). She could make us either burgers or chicken with fries. We ordered the burgers and walked about a bit while we waited. We stopped at the “grocery store” next door and chatted with the owner, Reggie. He grew up on the island until age 14 when he moved to Nassau to work. He traveled the world a bit, always returning home to visit. He finally moved back permanently when his mother passed away over ten years ago. Reggie and we agreed that if more people traveled, they would be more accepting and less fearful of peoples’ differences. It was a lovely chat. We ambled back to the house of the woman making us lunch to tell her we were nearby whenever our food was ready. Then a nice woman hanging her laundry next door offered for us to sit at her makeshift benches and table under a shade tree. We chatted with her for a bit, and she even brought us some sugar cane to chew on while we waited and then let us eat our lunch there. It was a lovely few hours on shore and everyone we met was so friendly and welcoming. I really appreciate that about the family islands of the Bahamas.

We returned to Lady, hauled anchor and moved about 11 nm to Southeast Point to stage for an early morning departure for TCI the next day. Guajira dropped anchor there just before us. We confirmed our plans via radio and then settled in on our own boats for a good night’s sleep, dreaming of a calm passage, which I will talk about in my next post.

Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Rum Cay

At 7:30 AM on February 18th, we hauled anchor at Cape Santa Maria, Long Island and headed for Rum Cay. It was a decent, 6.5-hour passage. There were maybe 3-5’ swells with about a 7-second period on our starboard quarter. No slamming, just a steady roll as we proceeded. It got a little bumpier with some slamming closer to Rum Cay, but it was short-lived and not too loud. The anchorage on the south side of Rum Cay is really a shallow “bay” that is bordered on the north by the island and on the SE by a reef. It is pretty much exposed from SW-SE. The reef breaks the waves, better at low tide than at high. It was more rolly from half tide rising to half tide falling, and less rolly as the other half of the time. 

The next day we dinghied ashore late morning to explore a bit and find lunch. There is an old marina at the east end of the island that was destroyed during a hurricane about 10 or so years ago. A couple of docks remain, but most were never repaired. We counted four boats tied to the intact docks. Beyond the marina, the inlet continues, lined by private homes (of wealthy people from away) and their docks. One such dock had no home and a nice sturdy ladder. We tied up there. We wandered toward “town” and stopped at Kay’s Sand and Beach Bar (she’s in the Explorer Chart Books). She also has a little gift shop and groceries. I bought a few gifts and a couple jars of pasta sauce, and she graciously agreed to make us lunch, despite the short notice. We didn’t realize we needed to call ahead of time. We were fine with burgers and fries, so we sipped some drinks while we waited in the shade and breeze outside. Her 3-year-old granddaughter joined us, bringing along some of her toys. She was adorable! It was fun to watch her figure out how to stack a round ball on top of a square item (Dave may have helped a bit). She was pleased as punch when she proceeded to accomplish the stacking herself. Lunch arrived and we devoured it! We went back to Lady, then Dave and I took off to spear fish at some of the coral heads nearby. Dave scored a couple of small lobsters, which was better than nothing. He hit one large fish, but it came off the spear before he could haul it out of the rocks. Bummer!

Rum Cay was really just a quick stop before making a long, overnight jump to Mayaguana. The forecasts made the 20th look like a viable day, but we weren’t certain. So that morning we got up early and poked our noses outside the protection of the reef. It didn’t take long to determine that we were going to be beaten up if we continued, so we turned around and went back to the protection of the bay for another night. This time, we anchored closer to government dock where it was a bit less rolly. That gave us the whole morning for chores. Dave installed a replacement speaker. I did some laundry and set up our passage dinner for the next night in the instant pot. Dave had to enlarge the hole for the speaker, which resulted in a layer of white dust in parts of the galley. Once he was done, the boat got a thorough cleaning. With that done, Dave and I went ashore again to find some lunch and talk with a local or two. We ended up at Ocean View restaurant, where the lovely proprietor said she could give us pork chops and rice. Works for us. We chatted with her and a man who came in who we assumed was her son. We learned that there are only about 50-60 residents on the island. As for work, the government and consul employ a few, but that’s it. Many go to Nassau for work, while others stay and fish. Sounds mostly like a subsistence lifestyle. When the marina was active, more cruisers came to Rum Cay. Since its demise, however, few stop or stay long. The owner told us they had a big celebration coming up that Friday, called Rum Cay Day. Family would be coming in on the mailboat in the next day or two to visit and celebrate. We always manage to miss those events. Alas!

We had just finished our afternoon drinks on Lady when we noticed a dinghy with two young men approaching. Rob and Finbar, of S/V Sophia, had seen our names in the logbook at Kay’s, where we had noted we were a solar electric catamaran from NH. They were from VT and wanted to say hello to fellow New Englanders, and to learn about our solar system. We invited them aboard for conversation, which evolved into an invitation for dinner. We enjoyed several hours with these 24-year old adventurers who had been friends since high school. They bought the sailboat during the heat of the pandemic and learned to sail. Then they bought a different boat and set out south, getting as far as St. Martin. We met them on their return north. They’re spending a couple of months in the Bahamas, then heading up the east coast of the U.S. planning to get to Maine for the summer. Hopefully Dave and I will cross paths with them this summer on Dumbledore. 

The following morning, we were up at 6:30 AM to check the forecast and saw that we were good to proceed to Mayaguana. Rob dinghied over to give us a pint jar of homemade maple sugar as a thank you for dinner the previous night. We bid them fair winds and following seas, then hauled anchor and left for Mayaguana by 7:30 PM.

This was our first overnight passage of more than 24 hours since that ill-fated trip back in November of 2019. The passage wasn’t as bad, thankfully, but the latter half of it certainly was not what was forecast. You’re going to have to wait for my next post to hear the details, though. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Long Island, Bahamas

We hauled anchor at 7:30 AM on February 12th and set off from George Town to Thompson Bay on the west side of Long Island. It got a little bumpy over Little Exuma Island, but we turned course to hug the coastline of Hog Cay, which gave us a smooth ride for a few hours. It got bumpy again when we rounded the sandy point at the end of Hog Cay, but after an hour or so, we ended up in the lee of Long Island and the ride smoothed out again. We were anchored in time for our afternoon libations.

We knew the first full day in Thompson Bay, would be rolly because the winds were coming from the west, the exposed side of the anchorage. We also knew they would be clocking NW-N-NE later in the day, which would calm the bay. Despite the bumpy bay in the morning, we decided to go to the Long Island Petroleum fuel dock to top off our diesel tanks. It got a little dicey. The wind and waves were pushing us onto the dock (that just means toward). Getting onto the dock wasn’t a big deal. Dad tossed the bow line to the gentlemen waiting for us, then Dave let the wind and waves slowly push us toward the dock and we tied off the stern. The dock had rub rails and we had fenders out. The real trick was getting Lady off the dock against the wind and waves. Good thing Dave is a very experience captain. We put working turns* on the bow and stern. Dad dropped the bow line, Dave gunned the engines and steered the bow hard away from the dock, I dropped the stern line, and we were away. We returned to the north end of the bay, but tucked in closer to land this time to get more out of the swell. It worked.

*Working turn: For you non-boaters, that means both ends of the line are on the boat with just a loop around the dock post. Just drop one end of the line, let it hit the water and haul it in.

Once we were back at anchor, Dave and I took a wet dinghy ride ashore to do some reconnaissance. The dinghies already tied up at the dock were bouncing in the waves like a bunch of bucking broncos! We added ours to the mix and proceeded ashore. We checked out the well-stocked market, then walked down to the tourist office and got information about rental cars and things to see and do on the island. Before heading back to dinghy, we picked up some locally made sweet treats at the convenience store to enjoy on Lady with our afternoon drinks. But before that event, we picked up my folks and dinghied to the calm beach on the north end of the bay and ended up chatting with a bunch of other cruisers who had arrived while we’d been ashore, including our friends, the Hunters. That was fun, hanging out and chatting with other cruisers.

The following day was Valentine’s and we spent it driving around Long Island doing some sightseeing. We picked up the car in Salt Pond (where the dingy dock is) and started driving south toward Clarence Town. Our first stop was at the tiny, well curated Long Island Museum in Buckley’s Settlement. From there we continued south and stopped at Dean’s Blue Hole, in Dean’s Settlement. It is the second deepest blue hole in the world at about 600 feet. There was a lovely beach with several families hanging out and a few people snorkeling in the blue hole. Dave and I scrambled up to the overlook to take pictures. Breath-taking!

We continued our trek to Clarence Town and stopped at Flyfish Marina’s Lighthouse Point restaurant for a very quick lunch. We asked before ordering if they thought it was feasible to get our meals and still leave in time for our tour at Hamilton Caves about 15 minutes away. It was feasible, and lunch was both yummy and filling. I suspect our service was quick because it turned out the waitress’s uncle is the one who owns the caves. We ate fast, then headed back north to Hamilton Settlement for our 1:30 pm tour of the caves. We made it with 2 minutes to spare!

The caves were awesome! They are currently owned by Leonard Cartwright, who is also the tour guide. He’s in his early 70’s. The caves have been in his family since the 1800’s, when they bought them from the Queen! The caves were first excavated by the Loyalists sometime in the 1700’s. It is believed that the Lucayan’s used them somewhere in 500-700 AD. They gathered and cooked near the front, but also went deeper to seek shelter from storms and hurricanes. To this day, Leonard collects the fine-grained bat guano as fertilizer for his garden. The tour covers the safer, open parts of the cave- no crouching or crawling needed, but he remembers as a child playing hide and seek in all the offshoots. That must have been fun! He’s added a little garden-type area under some natural light holes in the ceiling. He uses it for dinner parties. Clever! Coming upon it is like finding an oasis in the desert. We saw three of the five bat species that inhabit the cave, though I can’t remember their names. One of them is the tiniest bat species at about only ¾” in size. It was an amazing tour, and Leonard was a good storyteller. After our tour we started the trip back to Salt Pond to return the car. We stopped at a little café/department store, a couple of liquor stores (the one in Salt Pond was closed!), and a little gift shop with local-made items mostly (which we didn’t buy). It was a lovely day.

The next day, Dave and I went ashore to explore the local cave that turned out to be right next to the car rental place. It wasn’t as big as Hamilton Caves, but it was still impressive. We even saw some big brown bats. When we were done exploring, we collected Mom & Dad from Lady and returned to shore to have lunch at Sou’ Side Restaurant. It was yummy and friendly. We chatted with a local (a transplant, not a born islander) while we sipped our rum punches and awaited our meals. We picked up a few items at the market before returning to Lady. 

We spent our final day in Thompson Bay anchorage dubbing around with chores, then the following day we headed to the northwest end of the island to anchor just below Cape Santa Maria to stage for a hop to Rum Cay the following day. It was a bit rolly with wrap-around swell from the point, but it was lovely and quiet. Dave, Dad and I decided to dinghy ashore to the beach for a walk. As we approached the nearer beach, we could see the swell was actually crashing onto the beach, so we headed for the beach a little further down. The swell wasn’t crashing ashore, so we approached. Bad idea! The surge may not have been crashing, but it was washing VERY strongly onto the beach. Once caught in that, dinghy was thrust ashore repeatedly. Getting dinghy off the beach and back into the water was a mess. We eventually managed it, but I think it was more luck than our efforts. We returned to Lady a little wiser.  Friday, February 17th sent us to Rum Cay, east of the north end of Long Island. That is where I will pick up next time. Until then, enjoy the slide show of Long Island, and stay safe and take care of each other!

George Town, Great Exuma, Bahamas

We left Little Farmers Cay about 6:30 AM on February 4th and headed to George Town. We had a wonderful time in George Town. We’d planned to stay only 2-3 days, but the weather had other ideas, so we ended up staying 8 days. It was incredibly windy most of the time we were there, which made for some wet dinghy rides to and from land, and kept us aboard the boat a couple of day, but it was sunny and warm. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again; there are worse places to get “stuck” because of disagreeable sea conditions.

George Town is a small town on Great Exuma Island, about 2/3 of the way down. Elizabeth Harbor is a very spacious, protected basin between Stocking Island, which is about 3.5 miles long, and Great Exuma Island, with myriad places to anchor. It has quite the cruiser community, many of whom winter there every season. They run a cruiser’s net, with a regular agenda, every morning at 8:00am on VHF 72. They bid farewell to departing boats, have business news, community news, general boater needs (looking for help with, looking for a part, etc.), taxi share, welcome new boats, and at the end of the official net, they answer people’s questions. We tuned in our first morning to chime in as new arrivals and to ask questions about trash, dingy landing, etc. We learned there was a Friday pig roast at Chat ‘n Chill, a restaurant/bar on Stocking Island, as well as a cruiser hangout/activity spot. There are all kinds of events that happen for adults, kids, and families. They have morning yoga at Chat ‘n Chill; one of the beaches has regular water aerobics; they have Sunday non-denominational, Christian worship beach service. There’s also volleyball, dominoes, impromptu and planned beach bonfires/pot lucks, seminars. It’s an amazing, welcoming community!

While at George Town, we participated in a few of the cruiser events at Chat ‘n Chill, did some provisioning, and a little dinghy adventuring. We attended the Sunday pig roast. Another day, my folks and I went to Chat ‘n Chill to make our own conch horn while Dave helped a couple of other cruisers trouble shoot their solar electric systems, a need he learned about on the net that morning. When he finished, he joined us at Chat ‘n Chill for lunch. Yum! Mom and I indulged in frozen mango daiquiris. Also yum! We also went to the Saturday “treasures from the bilge” white elephant/swap event where cruisers either give away or sell for cheap, items they no longer need or want. We came away with a good spatula, some 4’ long zip ties, and a couple of books. My dad gave away his old swim fins. 

Our non Chat ‘n Chill excursions included trips into town for provisions, and a walk about town to look at some shops. One day, while Mom & I got groceries, Dave & Dad went to the tourism office to help troubleshoot their VHF radio. Mom & Dad got to attend Church that first Sunday. We ran into our friends, the Hunters and had a couple of chats with them. Dave, Dad and I made a very wet, 2-mile dinghy trip around a point north of George Town to beach dinghy, which Dad babysat, while Dave and I made a 2-mile round trip walk to an auto parts store and a pharmacy for stuff we needed. The return dinghy ride into town was just as wet. We were pretty soaked by the time we got back to Lady at 4:00 pm. On one of our stay aboard days, I did four loads of laundry, made granola and granola bars. Dave and Dad cleaned the hulls. After our last trip into town, we moved from our anchorage on the south side of Rolle Island to an anchorage a little south of Chat ‘n Chill. This made for a shorter, somewhat drier dinghy ride to Stocking Island. That same day we did a little dinghy excursion to the southernmost hurricane hole in Stocking Island and stopped at a tiny beach with a sign that read “Atlantic Beach path.” Dad stayed with dinghy while Dave, Mom and I walked to the Atlantic side and enjoyed a stroll on the very long, sandy beach. What a view! We rejoined Dad, who had been enjoying the sea life, including a good sized ray that cruised by. 

Sunday the 12th was the next weather window for continuing east. So that morning we hauled anchor during the morning cruiser’s net and bid our farewell to the community, thanking them for all they offered. We were on our way to Thomspon Bay on the west side of Long Island. That is where I will pick up with next weekend’s post. (If you’re interested in one of the parts of cruising I very much do NOT enjoy, read my mid-week post this coming Wednesday.)

Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!

Rocky Dundas/Fowl Cay to Little Farmers Cay

My post on Saturday ended with my birthday at the Fowl Cay anchorage across the cut from Rocky Dundas. I’ll pick up from there and get you to our last stop before we headed to George Town. This one is not quite as long as Saturday’s.

On February 1st we made the short jump south to Staniel Cay. We walked about the island shortly after our arrival and picked up some fresh produce at each of the two little markets there, and some rum at the laundromat/liquor store. The town is smaller than Great Harbor Cay, with only a little over 100 permanent residents. It’s a welcoming island that includes one marina, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Our primary reason for stopping here, however, was to snorkel Thunderball Grotto. This underwater cave was so named because it was used in the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball, starring Sean Connery (which we watched the night before). It has also appeared in Never Say Never Again (another Bond movie) and in Splash with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. We were anchored about a football field’s distance from the cave, so it was a short dinghy ride the next morning. We arrived about an hour before low tide and the water was low enough already that we didn’t have to swim underwater to clear the ledge, we just swam right in. We arrived there with only two other dinghies and entered the water faster than they did, which gave us 5+ minutes to ourselves, a rare treat at this popular tourist spot. Besides it movie fame, it was fun to be inside. This one was bigger than those at Rocky Dundas, and there were schools of sargent majors, jacks, grunts, etc. inside. People tend to feed the fish here, so it’s no wonder they all hang about and greet the snorkelers. We did not feed the fish. We gawked both above and below water, and poked around the underwater nooks and crannies until the cave got crowed with people. Then we swam out and explored the reef around the island to the other side. On the opposite side we found the always below water rear entrance to the cave. We didn’t brave that, though, because I don’t trust my ability to hold my breath long enough yet, or to stay far enough below water while holding my breath to not hit my head. By the time we got back to Lady there were about a dozen dinghies and a couple of high-powered tourist boats full of people there to explore the caves. Guess we got there at the right time. 

After we returned from Thunderball Grotto, we had lunch then hauled anchor and moved a few miles south to Black Point on Great Guana Cay. This was a quick stopover, but we didn’t want to miss the world-famous Lorraine’s Café and the chance to meet Lorraine herself. Cruisers rave about Lorraine and all she does for the cruising community, plus she serves as a station host for the Seven Seas Cruising Association. We did get to have a quick chat with her on the deck of her newly opened restaurant called The High Tide, that has a lovely view of the harbor. We bought a loaf of regular coconut bread and a loaf of cinnamon coconut bread from her mother, whose house sits right between the new restaurant and the original (and yes, still open) Lorraine’s Café. We took a walk through the tiny town, then returned to The High Tide for conch fritters and rum punch before returning to Lady. That night as we were preparing dinner we got to watch a few small, local built boats practicing for the Little Farmers Cay Regatta that started the following day. Can those folks sail! It was impressive to watch, and we were glad for that brief opportunity, because we would miss the actuall regatta itself.

The next day we went ashore to have lunch at Lorraine’s Café and realized, too late, why most cruisers mention going for dinner rather than lunch. During the day, tour boats with 20-30 people apiece show up for a buffet at Lorraine’s. They come one after another starting around 11:30 am. We waited almost 90 minutes for our food to come out to the deck because of the hordes of people inside. Lesson learned. I very much enjoyed my conch burger, though. We still got back to Lady in time to haul anchor and head for the north anchorage at Little Farmers Cay. We didn’t have time to stay for the regatta, we just wanted to shave 10 miles off of our trek to George Town the following day. We spent a lovely evening at anchor there, listening to the distant regatta party music at the marina on the other side of the island. 

The following morning, Saturday, February 4th, we got up before dawn, had our cups of coffee, and hauled anchor just before sunrise for George Town. That is where I will pick up with my next post.

Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Warderick Wells to Rocky Dundas/Fowl Cay

Get cozy and grab a drink and a snack, because I’m covering a lot of water. I was going to take you all the way to George Town in this post, but that would have been way too long. Instead, I’m doing something I rarely do; I’m posting today and again on Wednesday to get you to George Town, which we will have already left by the time these two posts get you there. Still, it will keep you only about a week behind our actual location. Here we go…

In my last post we had just arrived at Warderick Wells, which is where the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park headquarters are located. We had planned to stay only two nights, but we were boat bound our first full day there due to winds in the high 20s gusting to the low 30s with off and on rain all day, so we stayed one more night, which allowed us to walk ashore in a couple of places the next day, and also to snorkel Emerald Rock. The morning after the big winds, Dave and I hiked up the famous Boo Boo Hill and poked around for a bit. We did not contribute to the pile of boat names on drift wood at the peak because we are lame and forgot to make a sign <sigh>. Dave & I did some mediocre snorkeling at Emerald Rock after lunch. We’d had higher expectations of the snorkeling in the park, but conditions relegated us to just Emerald Rock. There were several very tiny patches of reef that together may have had a slightly larger footprint than Indigo Lady. There were a bunch of the usual suspects (fish) one expects on small, shallow reefs, but nothing as large as a barracuda, let alone a shark. I guess the really good snorkeling/diving was in the cuts between islands that we just couldn’t time correctly during our very short stay. After our dive, Dave, Mom and I dinghied down to Rendezvous Beach and took a short trial to poke around some very old, almost no longer existent plantation ruins before heading back to Lady for drinks and dinner. The snorkeling may not have met our expectations, but the views of and from Warderick Wells are amazing! It was a lovely setting. 

I enjoy the sound of water lapping against the hull and the feel of the gentle rock of the boat as I fall asleep. Our last night on the Warderick Wells mooring ball was not that. It was dizzying and loud. While we were playing cards before bed, we watched the anchor lights in the mooring field whiz past us one way and then the other as we swung like we were on a Tilt-A-Whirl. Those who remember that amusement park ride know what I’m talking about; the rest of you can google a video of it. I hope you don’t get motion sick. As we retired to bed, the wind and current were opposing each other and we kept coming up tight *in front of* the mooring ball with it banging between our hulls, then the lines would relax, and then repeat coming up tight. The banging of the ball between the hulls plus the sound of our bridle lines tensioning repeatedly was enhanced in our echo-chamber cabin. It was very noisy until the tide changed and I could finally get to sleep.

We left Warderick Wells to anchor between Soldier and Little Halls Pond Cays so we could snorkel what is called the “sea aquarium.” We really wanted my folks to be able to do this, which meant taking Lady over there because they can’t get back into dinghy from the water. The dive moorings are designed for dinghies and tour boats smaller than Lady. So we picked up a mooring and got my folks in the water while Dave stayed at the helm to keep tension off the mooring line and keep us off the nearby rocks. I kept watch on the mooring and my folks. The wind and current were opposing each other, which is tetchy enough, but suddenly one of them overpowered the other and our bow started being pushed toward the very nearby rocks. I struggled to drop the mooring ball from our stern and shouted to my folks to stay put. Thank goodness Dave has the lifetime of boating experience he does, because he managed to maneuver us such that only the last part of the starboard sugar scoop scraped a small point of rock. It left us with a 4-6” gash in the fiberglass outer layer of the cored hull, substantially above water line. It has been temporarily patched with flex seal and is awaiting a proper repair of glassing and gel coat which we’ll probably do when we have her hauled at the end of the season. We circled around and picked up my folks who had thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the fish and coral on their brief dip. We returned to our anchor spot and then Dave and I dinghied over for our turn snorkeling the “sea aquarium.” It really is a lovely spot with tons of fish and healthy coral. We got cold pretty quickly, though, so it was a pretty brief snorkel. We surmised later that we probably got chilled so quickly because we were both coming down from the adrenaline rush of saving Indigo Lady from total destruction!

On to something more pleasant…

We spent my birthday anchored at Fowl Cay, on the south side of Conch Cut, which is the southern boundary of the Land & Sea Park. The southernmost island in the park is called Rocky Dundas with caves one can snorkel into under the ledge at low tide, which we did at the low tide on the morning of my birthday. There were three other dinghies there, and the caves aren’t very big, so we enjoyed the coral and fish outside the entrances as we waited our turn. The caves were really cool! You just swim in, get your feet under you, stand up and gawk for a few minutes at the stalactites and stalagamites. There were two caves. The more southerly one we could actually get up onto a dry (at low tide) rock shelf to stand and look around stably. The northerly cave had more surge so we stood but struggled to keep our feet. It was pretty spectacular. 

After lunch all four of us dinghied to the small reef about a football field’s distance from Lady at the northwest corner of the anchorage. It was a pretty little reef with quite a bit of healthy coral and a bunch of fish, and it was out of the current. I even saw a small nurse shark and a large barracuda. We have a ladder we attach to dinghy’s stern to aid our getting back into dinghy from the water. We weren’t sure my folks would be able to use it, since there is very little room between it and the motor, and one still needs to stay balanced on the ladder while using one’s upper body to gently pull oneself over the transom. So we came prepared to tow them back to Lady with lines and a couple of floaties we keep onboard. Mom actually managed the ladder, but it was too tight a space for Dad, so we towed him back, which he enjoyed. Back aboard Lady, we enjoyed fruity rum drinks, a pasta dinner, courtesy of Mom, followed by cards and a chocolate banana bread I had made earlier. It was a great birthday!

The slide show below starts with Shroud Cay, which I mentioned briefly in my January 28th post, but since it’s part of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, the pictures ended up here. The picture at the top of the post is a reef shark that greeted us when we arrived at Warderick Wells.

The next installment of our route to George Town will post this coming Wedenesday the 22nd. 

Until then, enjoy the show below, stay safe and take care of each other!

Diving around New Providence

In case you didn’t know, Nassau is the capitol of the Bahamas and it is on the island of New Providence. Some of you may be more familiar with Paradise Island, location of the Atlantis resort. That island is connected to New Providence by a bridge, though in the past it was not and therefore accessible only by boat. Okay, that’s enough of a geography/history lesson.

I’ve already written about our stay at New Providence (January 28th post), but I promised some pictures of our dives. So here’s some diving eye candy for you, and I just bought myself another week without having to think too deeply about what to write in this blog of mine. I will, however, tell you that we’ve covered a lot of water since New Providence. As this posts, we are in George Town, Exumas, waiting on a weather window to continue our trek southeast.

Enjoy the slide show, and until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!

Nassau to Warderick Wells

Sorry for the delay, but last weekend was very busy with no time for blogging. Let me catch you up. It’s a good thing I keep a journal while onboard, because I’d never be able to catch you up otherwise.

We set out for Nassau about 8am on the Sunday, the 15th. Seas were bigger than predicted at the start, but mostly following, so it was only a little bumpy but nice and sunny. About 1/3 of the way through the trip we lost at least one wave direction and the ride smoothed out. Both generators worked as programmed, which was nice. We arrived in Nassau Harbor, New Providence around 2pm and were anchored in the East Channel (technically not the harbor) by 2:30pm. Got some additional provisions ashore, secured a marina slip for the following weekend, then had dinner at the Poop Deck. I was craving a burger, which is rare for me and usually only when we’re onboard, go figure. The Poop Deck’s burger did not disappoint.

Monday we exited the harbor’s west end and headed further south along New Providence to anchor in West Bay and later Old Fort Bay (between West Bay and the harbor). We dinghied to the beach at Clifton Heritage National Park for a walk and chatted with some other cruisers who gave us some intel about George Town, Exuma and a lead on a marina in Puerto Rico where we might leave Lady for this hurricane season. Score!

We spent the next few days diving. We dove the “sculpture garden,” such as it was. There were several half domes with holes in them seemingly marking the way to a 5-foot sculpture of what appeared to be a merman, then more of those half domes leading to the largest underwater sculpture in the Bahamas, Ocean Atlantis, at about 20-feet or so. Sadly, the reef near the dive mooring had fish, but the coral was mostly dead. We also dove two wrecks. The Anthony Bell was a 90’ Bahamian tugboat that was intentionally scuttled to create a reef dive site. A few hundred feet away lay the Willaurie, a 140’ Danish-built barge (1907) that sank naturally not long after the Anthony Bell was scuttled, sometime in the late 1980’s. Their bottoms rested in about 50’ of water but they extended upward to about 35’. I stayed up near their tops while the boys explored them more closely. We were able to anchor Indigo Lady in sand on the north side of Goulding Cay to dive the reef there. Again, mostly dead coral, which is depressing to see, but lots of fish. At one point I was swarmed by a school of tangs that were so close I couldn’t even get pictures. That made me giggle.

Friday morning we set out to find the purported shallow reef near the beach in Old Fort Bay, but all we saw from the surface was more dead coral. So we returned to Lady, hauled anchor and headed back to Nassau’s East Channel to anchor for Ian’s last night aboard. Saturday after breakfast we hauled anchor and pulled into a slip at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina. I spent the morning cleaning the cabin and remaking the bed for my folks’ arrival that evening while Dave saw Ian off for his taxi to the airport. 

Then the provisioning began. Dave and I made three separate trips to the nearby market and were just starting to stow the final load when we heard my folks calling out their arrival, around 5:30pm. And who was escorting them? Our friend Paul whom we’d met back in August 2020 at Fort Pierce City Marina. He noticed my folks looking around and offered to help. They told him they were looking for Indigo Lady, which surprised the heck out of him! It was nice to catch up with him a little over the next day as we continued our provisioning tasks. Earlier that same day, Dave ran into the husband of a former colleague of ours, just a couple of slips down from, who had just arrived from the Chesapeake Bay, single handing. Small world! Sunday was even busier than Saturday. I did two loads of laundry at the marina plus we made two more provisioning trips, the last of which was to the market about a mile away. That one required a cab ride back- too heavy a load to haul! Once it was all stowed it was definitely time for fruity rum drinks, then back to the Poop Deck for dinner.

Monday the 23rd we dropped the dock lines and had a lovely passage to Allan’s Cay in the northern Exumas. Unfortunately, it was too bumpy to dive at the dive moorings, so we just anchored and went for a swim. Tuesday we dinghied to the little beach inside SW Allan’s Cay to show my folks the iguanas, then later moved Lady to the north Highbourne Cay anchorage for a less rolly night. Wednesday brought us further south to Long Cay with the hope of diving from Lady on those dive moorings, but again it was too bumpy. Instead, we anchored and did a little dinghy excursion stopping at a little beach for my folks to practice snorkeling because it has been three years since they’ve done it. Thursday we moved down to Shroud Cay, the first big island in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park and picked up a mooring. We did a dinghy excursion partway across one of the mangrove creeks. There was a surprising lack of sea life; we saw only three sea turtles and a couple of needlefish, but it was lovely scenery on a lovely day.  On the way back we pulled dinghy up onto a little beach and played in the current and relaxed in the water before returning to Lady. Yesterday we arrived at Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the Land & Sea Park. We picked up the mooring and went ashore to pay and to get maps of the snorkeling sites and hiking trails, then dinghied around a bit to get the lay of the land.

I’m typing this Saturday morning as we wait for the rain to stop so we can go ashore for a walk. Hopefully the water will be calm enough this afternoon for Dave & I to snorkel one of the reefs.

I haven’t had time to sort through my photos, so enjoy the one of Ocean Atlantis at the top of this post, and when I get to it, I’ll put together a little slide show and post that .

Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Back

I’m baaaack!

We arrived in Nassau last Saturday afternoon. This time around, “we” is me, Dave and our friend Ian, who is with us for a couple of weeks. We checked into our one-night hotel, then took the public bus to the ALIV store to get a data SIM card for our MiFi device. Then back to the hotel for very strong, fruity rum drinks, followed by dinner in their restaurant. We crashed early.

Sunday morning we met our taxi at 5:45am for the short trip back to the airport for our 7:30am flight to Great Harbor Cay. The short, 20-minute flight landed us just after 8am, where we were met by our pre-scheduled taxi. We were at the marina and on Indigo Lady by 8:30am. Back on our second home at last!

She was in good shape (relief!). We quickly set about opening her up, cleaning, sorting, unpacking, etc. We spent three days getting ready to head out of the marina. Lots of boat and tech chores were interspersed with bike rides to town for lunch (the first day when we were too tired to make food) as well as provisions and alcohol. Wednesday morning we settled up with the marina, bid them farewell, topped off our diesel and gas and started our multi-step trek toward Nassau.

As always, we are dependent on the weather and sea conditions. A big blow (wind only, no storms) was forecast for Friday-Saturday/Sunday, so we planned two stops along the Berry Islands chain. Wednesday night we stopped at Soldier Cay. Thursday we headed down to Frasers Hog Cay at the southern end of the chain. This is one of the few anchorages in the Berries with westerly protection and that’s the direction the winds are coming from. They started to kick up Friday afternoon and were very robust overnight, holding around 20-25 knots with gusts into the low 30’s. On a small boat like ours, this is very noisy, so I did not really sleep last night (sigh). Yesterday after breakfast we dinghied ashore, before the winds kicked up, for a walk on the beach and on part of what appeared to be an old trail, probably associated with the Berry Island Club Marina that closed down around 2017 or so. Today is too windy to do anything but stay inside. We’ll probably watch movies and play games. It’s a bit chilly to be outside. The air temp is only 60-degrees but there’s on heck of a wind chill. (Ya, I know, you in the north are thinking “poor babies, so cold for you.”)

We may be in warmer climes with beautiful scenery, but it hasn’t been all fun and games. Thus far Dave and Ian have had to trouble shoot a through-hull shut off for the port generator’s cooling system that had failed in the closed position, thus preventing cooling. Thankfully They got it into the permanently open position which should be fine until we get a replacement; my folks are bringing two with them when they come to join us next weekend. Dave and Ian have patched and re-patched a leak in our dingy. Our starboard generator, the one we finally got running last June after it being asleep for a year, conked out on us again while we were en route to Soldier Cay. We had stopped to reel in a fish and it wouldn’t restart after that. The helm display was reporting low voltage on the starting battery. So Dave engaged the cross ship cable and the port generator ran both motors, which is what we’d been doing this for a year, so it’s familiar territory. The boys tried to troubleshoot the source of the low voltage notification, because it turned out the battery was fine, but they found nothing. So of course once they put everything back together the generator started. That may sound like a good thing, but since root cause has not been ascertained and therefore cannot be permanently fixed, we have to expect that starboard generator may not start on any given day. It ran for a while on Thursday but then started acting like it wasn’t getting fuel, so again the port generator ran both motors. When we got to our current anchorage that afternoon they worked on that issue and tested both generators and starboard seemed happy. We’ll see once we head for Nassau tomorrow or Monday.

Once we get to Nassau, we hope to be able to anchor in West End Bay and do some diving and snorkeling before returning to the very busy Nassau Harbor Friday or Saturday. Ian flies home early Saturday afternoon and my folks fly in early that evening. We’ll spend a night or two in a marina slip to facilitate a big provisioning run and getting my folks onboard more easily. Then we plan to take the next weather window to continue to the Exumas. 

I plan to post something to my blog once a week. We’ll see how that goes 😉

The Northern Exumas

As promised, my post about our time in the northern Exumas. 

We left Rock Sound Harbor at 6:30 am on May 27th and headed for the northern Exumas where we would stay until June 18th. We enjoyed our explorations of Eleuthera, but it was time to switch gears from town-based anchorages and shore excursions to lesser inhabited islands with more snorkeling and diving. 

We spent the first 12 days in the north anchorage at Highborne Cay. This is a private island with a marina and private rentals. If you’re not a guest of either of those, you are not allowed to be ashore, other than to visit the marina’s store or restaurant. The store we visited twice for a few minor food items. The rest of the time we spent on boats or in the water.

During this first stint at Highborne Cay we did a lot of diving and snorkeling the area corals, either timing them around slack tide to avoid the strong current, or tethering hookah to dingy and drifting along the corals together. We rode out the outer wind fields and rains of Tropical Storm Alex. We did boat chores, read, played games, swung in the hammocks, listened to music, watched movies, did some baking. We met Dustin and Laura on SV Elpis. More kindred spirits. We shared conversation, food, drinks, and Tropical Storm Alex with them before we had to bid them farewell as they started their return to the US. (If you’re reading this, Laura & Dustin, thanks for the company and the flour!)

Eventually we moved 7 nm south to Long Cay to explore the corals there. The first night, a couple of liveaboard diving catamarans showed up but were gone in the morning. Dave noticed that they had not anchored, but had instead picked up moorings. So we used these to tether dingy while we dove- very convenient. There was great coral with a variety of structure and lots of fish, thoroughly enjoyable! One day it rained during slack high tide, so instead we did a low tide drift snorkel with dingy along some small coral heads between Long and Oyster Cays, then we did the same thing almost the entire length of Long Cay. There was no current along Long Cay, so we ended up pulling dingy along with us. It was a fabulous mile-long snorkel with pretty coral and fish.

The Bahamas Land and Sea Facebook group has been invaluable to us over the past three seasons cruising here. So when I learned that the creator and lead administrator of the group, Addison Chan, was also in the northern Exumas, I messaged him to see if we could meet up. He and his wife Pat were in Norman’s Cay, so the following day we traveled the 4.2 nm south to Norman’s Cay. He’s working on a digital cruising guide and spends time each cruising season taking soundings of anchorages and shallow passages for the book. We met up on the west side of Norman’s, but they were heading over to the east side anchorage, so we followed them over. They had sounded it the day before, so we were relieved to know that our charts showing we were in 2 feet of water were not accurate! (The lowest we saw was 5.8’.) They invited us over for sundowners and snacks, so we got to enjoy a couple of hours with them onboard Three Penny Opera (their boat). What a great, welcoming couple! We had a wonderful visit.

The next morning we checked out the coral by dingy and determined conditions weren’t worth snorkeling. We knew we would not stay another night in this busy anchorage, so we headed back to Lady to decide where to go next. On our way, we stopped by our neighbor, SV Mako, to say hello. Corbin and Andrea welcomed us aboard to chat. Turns out their boat was partially disabled during a wicked squall following TS Alex. They had to put out a mayday call and were rescued by a power boat from Norman’s who heard their call. The damage included the loss of one of three blades from their feather prop (which means they can replace just the blade and not the whole propellor). They had already been having trouble with their steering and needed a new chain for that. This rendered them incapable of motoring or sailing well unless conditions were just right. We offered to accompany them back to Highborne Cay, prepared to tow them if they got into trouble, which, fortunately, they did not. Once we saw them safely anchored, we invited them for dinner and had a lovely evening together. They returned the favor the next night, and the day before we left the area, we got to have drinks with them one last time. They are in the process of sorting out getting parts ordered and shipped to Nassau. They will find the right day to sail to Nassau to meet the parts and make their repairs. It’s only about 35 nm to Nassau from Highborne area, across shallows, so in a pinch they could easily drop anchor and call for assistance. It’s a very busy area for boats, so help would arrive quickly. We wish them well!

Back at Highborne we met up again with Sea Dragon! That’s the family we had met and spent some time with in Rock Sound. It was great to catch up with them again! Dean and Cohen came over for a visit a couple of days later (the girls couldn’t make it). We chatted it up for a couple of hours and Dave had Cohen set up a daisy chain of sluggos for hand trolling in the deep water on their way back to the US. He really, really wants to catch a big fish! They set off for Bimini a couple of days later, and we were up to hail them on the radio and wish them a good trip. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon.

We spent our last couple of days in this area anchored on the west side of Allens Cay to check out a couple of reefs that Dave’s friend Ian had given us the lat/long for. These sites have mooring buoys, which always makes it easier to dive. We found the first mooring ball, launched hookah, got in and found an amazing reef full of fish. About 10-15 minutes into the dive, the hookah quit. The bearing in the compressor piston rod seized up, again. Dave had done his best to lubricate it twice before (it’s sealed), but it really needs replacing. No more diving this trip. So we put hookah back in dingy and went up to the north end of Long Rock Cay and did a half mile drift snorkel with dingy. It wasn’t spectacular coral, but we were impressed with the number and variety of fish we saw. There were tons of parrotfish, triggerfish, queen and French angelfish, small grouper, etc. I also practiced my free diving. At least I can get down and stay down for about a minute, but I have a long way to go. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We did something similar the next day on the west side of Allens Cay, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting. 

We could no longer dive, we had snorkeled the interesting coral, and the weekend promised to be good cruising conditions. So we decided to head for Nassau (on New Providence) the next day, Saturday the 18th, and on to the Berries Sunday. We had two excellent cruising days. Nassau Harbor was a bit jolting after three weeks in the quiet of the northern Exumas, and we anchored off Junkanoo Beach- party central. Fortunately, the beach party wound down before we went to bed. We had planned to do some reconnaissance in Nassau for provisioning next year, but it was too darned hot with too little breeze, and there was a really big, dark storm cloud looming over the island. So we took a quick dip to cool down, swung in the hammocks and listened to the storm rage on land (never got to us), then dingied to Señor Frogs for dinner. We were off for the Berries at 6:15 the next morning.

So that wraps up our trip, aside of the final week of closing up the boat. Normally I’d include a diving slide show from all the underwater photos I took, but those take a long time to create, so I’ll post that sometime in July. For now, you get a collage of pictures at the top of the post. I’m taking off from blogging the next couple of weeks as we work to close up Lady and transition back to life in New England. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.