Tag: Exumas

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!

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.