Monday, June 13, 2011

Monday, June 13, 2011

During one night while I was asleep two flying fish landed on our deck.  I don’t think they meant to.  Bill took this picture holding one’s wing out before tossing them both back into the sea.

Off the Florida coast ten or more small porpoises swam over to visit with us.  Here are two of them; one coming up and the other going down.

The Charleston pilot boat accompanied us into Charleston.   He goes faster than we do.

Near McClellanville, SC we were invaded by swarms of horse flies.  There were no horses nearby so they came after us.  We killed hundred in the cockpit.  Most blew overboard.  These landed dead on the boat where I vacuumed them up.  I have not counted them yet.

We are back in the USA.
We left Marsh Harbor on Tuesday May 31.  That wasn’t the original plan, but the online weather forecasters (guessers) were talking about a tropical low pressure system off Panama that could possibly turn into a tropical storm.  We were itching to leave and the local weather while windy was not too bad.  Bill dingied over to the Marsh Harbor Marina with our three fuel jugs, bought 15 gal of diesel, and we were off, headed to Bakers Bay on Guana Cay for a change of scenery.  When we got there Bill revised his plans and decided to go north through the Whale Cay Passage and stop at Green Turtle Cay.  Going out Loggerhead Channel, around Whale Cay on its ocean side, then back in through Whale Cay Cut can be a bit scary if the wind and tide are opposing one another or if there are swells in the ocean.  I don’t know what was going on when we went through, but it wasn’t a smooth passage.  We took at least two waves over the side of the boat that wet me and washed one of my small conch shells overboard.  Oh well, I still have a few of my shells left.
As I said, the revised plan was to stop at Green Turtle Cay.  That didn’t happen.  The wind and waves were good, so we continued on to Powell Cay (revision two).  Captain Bill got me to sail there by telling me there were nice beaches and trails on the island.  There may have been, but we never left the boat.  After spending a very pleasant night at anchor, Bill said the weather forecast was good for a crossing to Florida.  Chris Parker‘s shortwave radio forecast said there was a two day or maybe a two and a half day weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream.  It was time to go.  So, off we went headed to Fort Pierce, Florida (revision three).  We were sailing downwind which made the ride very pleasant as long as the waves weren’t too big.  It was going good for the first day and part of that night as we sailed across the Little Bahamas Bank.
When we left the banks behind and entered the Gulf Stream, it became way too rolly and bouncy to suit me.  Bill said “Let’s change course and head north as an experiment to see if the ride will get a little more comfortable.”  We did, and the boat settled down.  The course change meant we were now headed to St. Augustine and would have to spend another day and night underway (revision four).  Oh well, it was more comfortable; not a lot better, but better.  As we got near the middle of the Gulf Stream our speed increased to 9 knots.  We were really flying.  The wind, and more importantly the waves, died down during the night as we moved over to the Florida side of the Gulf Stream.
That night as we were sailing along in the dark, I was on deck alone and Bill was asleep below when something began flapping about in the rear of the cockpit.  It scared me, and not just a little.  I dove below and woke Bill.  He came on deck and picked up the flapping thing.  It was a storm petrel; a brown dove-like sea bird with black webbed feet.  It seemed confused and could not stand up without falling.  I guess it had flown into us in the dark.  The second time Bill put the bird on the stern of the boat, it seemed better and flew away.
At noon on Friday June 3, we were at the sea buoy off St Augustine, Florida.  It was hot.  There were wildfires in Florida and Georgia.  We could see the smoke plumes from miles offshore.   St Augustine was bathed in smoke.  We decided that even though we had been at sea for 48 hours we would not stop in St Augustine but keep going (revision five).  Bill called Customs and Immigration to clear us into the US using our Florida Frequent Boater cards.  The cards show that we have passed a background check.  They should exempt us from having to appear in person before a customs or immigrations officer.  At first my Frequent Boater Card number didn’t work.  The agent said I would have to appear at the federal offices in Jacksonville.  Bummer!  But, after Bill’s persistent prodding, my records showed up in the system, and we were cleared into the US without ever touching land.
We motored sailed on until late afternoon when the wind picked up and we shut the engine off.  Several times during the day we had dolphins swimming along with us.  The dolphins we saw at sea were different from the ones we saw in the Intracoastal Waterway.  They were shorter, a fatter, and spotted.  They seemed really happy to see our boat.  They would race over to see us, jump completely out of the water, and swim in formation very fast alongside the boat crossing from one side of the boat to the other by passing under the boat.  They put on quite a show in the crystal clear water.
When the wind blew, we sailed.  When the wind died down, we motored.  Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night crept by slowly with each of us catching two hours sleep as the other sailed the boat.  We passed Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, Brunswick, Savannah, and Beaufort, SC as we sailed north toward Charleston.  With the autopilot steering the boat, there was little to do except watch for ships and other boats.  My Kindle kept me entertained and awake as Bill slept.  I could read a book, or I could play some of the word games I had downloaded.  When we were within cell phone range, I could check my e-mail.  With its nice little light I could do it in the dark.  I probably would have been terribly bored without the Kindle.  During one of Bill’s nighttime watches, two flying fish landed on deck; one just outside the cockpit.  Rather than waking me up, he took lots of pictures then threw the two fish back into the sea.
Early Sunday morning we were off the entrance to Charleston Harbor.  We were ready to have a full night’s uninterrupted sleep, so we came in through the jetties, turned north on the ICW, stopped, and waited the longest drooping eyed 45 minutes for the Ben Sawyer bridge to open.  By noon we were anchored in Deweese Creek.  Captain Bill lifted the ship’s temperance order, and we each had a couple of beers with our lunch.  I was instantly asleep.  It was good not to be moving.  If fact, it was so good that we planned to remain for two nights and savor the sleep.  During our trip from Powell Cay we had covered 500 miles in 100 hours.  Whew, we deserved a rest.
Another sailboat, Tranquility, was anchored with us in the creek.  Around midnight a thunderstorm passed by to the north of us.  We got a fireworks show, 30 knot wind gusts, but very little rain.  Our anchor held, but unknown to us Tranquility’s anchor dragged.  In the morning we discovered she was very much aground; heeled over 45° with her hull and keel high and dry.  But by the time Sea Tow arrived, the tide had risen and she was refloated with little effort.  We spent the day being lazy.  Gary McGraw, who lives on Deweese Island and has sailed with us in the past, came out with a friend for a drink that evening.  I am afraid that after being alone for over a week Bill and I nearly talked them to death.
Tuesday morning Gary came by in his boat and waved, and we headed north.  The plan was to anchor before we got to Georgetown, SC.  There we would have to decide whether to hop outside for a quick trip up the coast or to continue up the ICW stopping in North Myrtle Beach to see some of my family.  That day was hot in the ICW, and there wasn’t any wind.  We spent the day killing greenhead flies.  There were hundreds and hundreds of them.  Bill would swat, and I would suck up the carcasses with our Dust Buster.  It was a regular fly Auschwitz.  In the midst of the mass killing, I baked a loaf of bread.  With the current speeding us on, we arrived off Georgetown earlier than we had expected.  Since the forecast offshore winds were light and variable and since we find the Waccamaw River so delightful, we abandoned our offshore plans, slowed down, and spent the next two nights on the river and the following night in a marina in Little River.
Our first night anchored on the Waccamaw wasn’t very peaceful.  Bill forgot to put a screen in one of the open ports.  The bugs found the opening in our defenses, and they found me.  Our second night we anchored in a bend of the river behind an island near Bucksport.  It was lovely.  We could see three osprey nests from the boat and could hear them calling to one another.  Several times an osprey would fly by dipping down into the water for a drink.  They weren’t fishing, just getting a little water to drink or to cool off.  We too took a refreshing fresh water swim.  With the sweat washed off and the sun awning and wind scoop up, it was nice and cool.  This time Bill got the screens in all the port holes, and it was a really lovely night.
Thursday we motored up the ditch to Little River.  We saw my aunt, uncle, and cousins as well as my sister Elaine and her husband JP.  It was good to catch up with family.
After refueling at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club, we were on the way north Friday morning.  We motor sailed out of the Little River Inlet headed for Carolina Beach.  The outside run from Little River to the Cape Fear River only takes a couple of hours.  The plan was to go up the river to Snow’s Cut and then into an anchorage at Carolina Beach.  There we would spend the night, move up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach, anchor there for the day, and head out Masonboro Inlet late in the afternoon for an overnight trip to Beaufort, NC.  Well, once again Captain Bill changed his mind.  We listened to the NOAA offshore forecast.  It said Friday night would be the best night of the next three.  We never stopped.
We sailed in the ocean until the wind died in the early morning then motored arriving off Beaufort at sunrise Saturday morning.  From there we motored through Morehead City’s ship turning basin and up the ICW to Adams Creek where we anchored in Cedar Creek.  Our friends Robert and Susan Banks on Impetuous III sailed down from Oriental to spend the evening with us.  We dined on the last of the dolphin fish we caught in the Exumas.  It was cooked on the grill along with the fresh corn on the cob that the Banks brought.  The evening wasn’t as hot as the local radio had led us to believe it would be.  We had a good breeze, and in the shade of our sun awning lots of sea stories and boat adventures were told and retold.
Sunday morning Robert ferried us over to Impetuous III for Susan’s great breakfast of ham and bacon and eggs and grits and toast and tomatoes and fruit, and juice.  Stuffed, Bill and I raised our anchor and headed up the Neuse River to Northwest Creek Marina.  We were safely tied up in our slip by 4pm.  The boat’s air conditioner was waiting in the trunk of my car, but the car’s battery was completely dead.  Bill got the car running.  We installed the air conditioner on the boat and then drove to the Little Italy Restaurant for a celebratory pizza.  We were back on board Irish Eyes and sound asleep by 10pm.
Today will be a work day.  We have lots of cleaning, fixing, packing, and sorting to accomplish.  We should be at home in Kingsport within a week.  Our trip was 143 days long.  We have no idea how many miles we covered.  It was great…     and, we are still speaking to one another.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I have taken plenty of pictures of sunsets.  Bill tells me that sunrises are just as pretty and took this picture looking east across Great Guana Cay to prove it to me.  Someday I’ll get up in time to look for myself.

We caught this dolphin fish trolling in the Exuma Sound.  Within a half an hour it was in the freezer - ten meals for two people.

Isabella (along with her parents, Julia and Josh) came to George Town and spent a week with us on the boat.  She spent most of her time developing her digging-in-the-sand skills.

On the rocks at Spanish Wells we saw two of these yellow-crowned night-herons.  It was the middle of the day, but they were night herons just the same.


We are anchored in Marsh Harbor, Abaco, the Bahamas, and we are now moving north and officially headed toward home.   Things have calmed down for a few days, and I have time to write.

We saw Haynes and Laura off in Staniel Cay back on April 30.  After a day’s rest, we pulled up the anchor and sailed south to White Point on Great Guana Cay where there is a beautiful sand beach and nothing else.  Along the way we noticed the genoa sail UV protection strip was coming loose.  The sun had rotted the thread that held it in place.  Between long walks on the beach, we took the genoa down, Bill sewed the UV strip back on by hand, and we raised the sail again.  That took us two days.  Life is tough when you are cruising.

A few days later, we motored the 4 miles south to Bay Rush Bay, another beautiful beach without so much as a single footprint in the sand.  We walked the length of the beach in the morning, and Bill later crossed the island to the Exuma Sound side of the cay.  There he found a Plexiglas bottomed, two person sea kayak washed up and overturned on the ocean side beach.  Bill talked about this kayak all night.  In the morning, I followed him across the rocky island to see the boat.  It really was a nice kayak, but there were 300 yards of the sharpest, most jagged, loose limestone rock that would have to be crossed to get it to our side of island.  Julia, Josh, and Isabella were to meet us in Georgetown in a few days, and it would have been perfect for paddling about with our grandchild looking at the fish and coral below.  But…  We were 60, the boat weighed 80 lb, the rocks were sharp, and a single slip and fall would have ruined everything…   If you need a glass bottomed kayak, it is plainly visible atop the grass covered sand dune at 23°59.2’N 076°19.7’W.  That is where we put it down.  It wasn’t for lack of trying.  Maybe its owner will find it.
May 8 brought Mother’s Day, and both kids sent notes.  We motored south to Cave Cay and anchored between Cave Cay and Musha Cay.  It was a nice spot.  Cave Cay has a marina and the beginnings of a resort development, but it looks like the money ran out before the development was finished.  Musha Cay is owned by David Copperfield, the magician.  The whole island can be rented for $375,000 for a week, maximum of 20 guests.  Sounds like a great place for a family Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday, don’t you think?  That’s only $16,000 each exclusive of food and transportation.
Monday we motored out of Cave Cay Cut into the Exuma Sound headed to George Town.  The wind picked up a little in the morning allowing us to raise the sails and motorsail south.  The sea was fairly flat, so we put out a fishing line.  We hooked and lost one dolphin fish (mahi-mahi), but landed the second, a 42 inch, 14 pounder.  Bill cleaned and filleted the fish making a huge bloody mess in the cockpit.  I put 10 packages of fish with two servings each in the freezer.  A few hours later, we were anchored off Hamburger Beach near George Town in time for a supper of fresh fish, peas and rice, and the bread I had baked along the way.  Suitably stuffed, we joined the other cruisers ashore for a bonfire and a few drinks.  Among the cruisers was a couple from Tennessee, Trevor Wilson from Kingsport and Sara Magee from Chattanooga.  They had quit their jobs, and still in their twenties, took a year off cruising on her 27 foot Hunter sailboat.  We enjoyed their conversation at the bonfire that night and again a few days later over beer and hamburgers at the Sand Bar Grill.

Getting ready for Self family occupied our next several days.  We moved Irish Eyes to the town side of the harbor, did our laundry, got propane, fuel, and groceries.  While getting fuel at the Shell service station, Bill was approached by a man selling local mangoes.  The smallest note Bill had was $10, so he got $10 worth of mangos.  That turned out to be twenty four mangoes.  Some were soft, red, and sweet; some were yellow and firm and fibrous.  All were rapidly ripening, and they were more than we could eat.  We shared our ripe mangoes with Trevor and Sara.

Sunday, May 15 Julia, Josh, and Isabella arrived bringing with them the sandals, camera, and book we had ordered over the internet and sent to them.  It was like Christmas; gifts and family.  We hung out on the boat for the rest of the day chatting and letting Isabella explore our 34 foot universe.

While they were with us, Irish Eyes became our Mobile Beach House.  The harbor at George Town, Elizabeth Harbor, is formed by the large Great Exuma Island to the north and the narrow and long Stocking Island to the south.  Stocking Island has beaches and beach bars.  Exuma has George Town.  We moved from one spot in the harbor to another as the mood struck us.  Isabella wanted to go to the beach twice a day, so we did.  We had lunch at the Chat and Chill on Volleyball Beach and days later at Alvin’s Sand Bar on Hamburger Beach.  Isabella dug in the sand, we searched for shells on both the harbor and sea sides of Stocking Island, and everyone swam both at the beach and at the boat.  Bill took Josh on a jungle hike and later took both Julia and Josh out to the Lilly Cay reef to see the fish, sea fans, and coral.  Julia filled two cream cheese containers with shells to take home.  Sadly, the week ended, and we took our guests to George Town, put them in Rudy’s Taxi #9, and sent them to the airport and home.  Isabella in her three year old voice declared the ‘hamas to be a good place.

Our original plan was to hang around for a few days of R&R for us and restocking for the boat, but the wind was from the southeast, home was to the northwest, so off we went in the morning.  The first day took us up the sound side of the Exumas through Dotham Cut to the Blackpoint Settlement, the next day north on the Exuma Bank to Roberts Cay, and the third day across the banks and through Current Cut to the Current Settlement in north Eleuthera.  These were all-day trips – sun up to near sun down; that is if we could have seen the sun.  With a trough of low pressure over Cuba the sky was cloudy, the sun was blocked out, and the water was gray.  It was like the Exumas with their blue sky and clear water were leaving us before we left them.  On that third day without sun we had real problems seeing and avoiding the underwater coral heads north of Beacon Cay that threatened to reach up to grab our boat.  That tiring three day marathon was capped off with the shallow approach to Current Cut between the sand bars on one side and a rocky coast on the other ending in the aptly named narrow cut with its fierce current flowing against us.  We anchored near a beach north of the cut in preparation for some time off from our mad dash north and for a day a trip over to Spanish Wells to look around and buy a few groceries.

Spanish Wells is on an island at the northern end of Eleuthera and was about five miles from our anchorage.  We had never been there before because the harbor is narrow and shallow.  We needed a little rest, so we motorsailed over and anchored off the harbor entrance.  The dinghy was in the water and ready to go by late morning.  Bill and I watched a ferry from Nassau go into the harbor as we were readying the dinghy.  The harbor channel is very, very narrow and the ferry used up every bit of the width.  Bill steered our little dinghy along in the shallow edge of the channel.  He said if another ferry came along we could just step out and run.
We walked around town looking at all the industrious people working on the boats in the two full service yards.  We were reintroduced to road traffic by the constant stream of cars, motor scooters, and golf carts that whizzed up and down the streets that lacked sidewalks.  Since Spanish Wells is a Methodist community, our lunch at the Generation Gap restaurant was accompanied by iced tea rather than beer.  There were banana and mango trees among the houses reminding us that we still had some ripening mangos from George Town aboard our boat.
The wind picked up while we were in town, so we moved into the lee of a small island called Meek’s Patch.  It must be a hopping place on the weekends.  There were chairs, tables, hammocks, grills, and all kinds of other stuff in the shade of the trees along the beach.  But on Wednesday it was all deserted, so with the island to ourselves, we had a nice walk and a refreshing swim before supper.  With the wind from the northeast and blowing a little more than we like, our plans were to stay put for a few days and enjoy goofing off.
I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to find Captain Bill already up, dressed, and ready to go.  The wind had died down a little and gone to the southeast evaporating my dream of a lazy day.  “Let’s head for Abaco”, he said before even the sun had gotten up.  Short of munity what could I do but go along?  The sailing was pleasant enough, although at 65 miles, most of which was in the open ocean, it was a long day.  We came through the Little Harbor Cut and were anchored behind Lynyard Cay in time for supper.
We sailed and motored up to Marsh Harbor on Friday morning.  It looks like we will be here for a few days.  The weather is not going to be good for heading to Florida this week.  That’s okay.  I am getting my chance to goof off, and if need be, there are lots of things to do in and around Marsh Harbor.  The Abacos are different from the Exumas.  In the Abacos there are far more restaurants, shops, and bars and far fewer cruiser organized events.  In the Exumas there is more public land to explore and fewer private property signs.  It is just more civilized here.  We like them both in their own way.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011
There were tropic birds soaring overhead the entire time we were at Conception Island.  They have the longest tails imaginable and their white wings at times take on the greenish blue color of the water below.

This 5 ft barracuda came out of the Conception Island reef to swim with Bill and me.  We swam to the dinghy and got out of the water.  He stayed in the water.  We went elsewhere.

When we stopped, I stayed in the dinghy and used my glass bottomed bucket while Bill, who was braver, swam alone.  We did not see the barracuda again.

This smooth trunkfish became Bill’s best friend posing over and over for pictures until Bill got a good one.

Almost inside the Cambridge Cay mooring field is a small rock island surrounded by coral and fish.  This is a queen triggerfish.

This French angelfish would dart away every time Bill got close.  Finally he posed for a picture.

Two spot fin butterfly fish chased each other round and round in a tight circle.  They are the size of the bluegills at home.

Haynes and Laura, Bill’s brother and sister-in-law, relax on Big Major’s Spot’s Cocktail Beach after a hard afternoon of feeding the nearby pigs.  The pigs were not too thrilled with our offerings.


We have been busy since my last writing.  We left Georgetown early on Monday, April 11.  The wind was light and almost straight ahead of us, so we motorsailed the 37 miles past Long Island’s Cape Santa Maria and onward to Conception Island.  The trip took most of the day and was pretty boring.  The depth of the water increased to as much as 2400 meters, far beyond the 50 meters that our depth sounder can measure.  The water color was a deep dark navy blue.  Bill towed a $10 lure behind the boat.  We hooked something, but after a tough 20 minute fight, it chewed through the leader and took the lure.  I had a feeling it was a large barracuda or shark.  I’d rather the fish had the lure than I had the fish.

Conception Island is part of the Bahamas National Trust; no buildings, no roads, and no people; just beautiful sand, colorful coral, soaring tropic birds, and a creek full of sea turtles.  We walked all the beaches several times.  North of us was a small beach that had tons of shells.  East of us was the long Exuma Sound side beach with rocks where the tropic birds were nesting.  On the Atlantic Ocean side of the island were some very nice shallow coral heads.  One afternoon, we took the dinghy there for a little snorkeling.  The coral was fantastic with large elkhorn and brain coral heads soaring up from a white sand bottom all surrounded by colorful fish.  Bill was swimming along the bottom twelve feet below and saw a five foot long barracuda emerge from its hole.  I was floating on the top of the water and saw the fish at the same time.  I decided to retreat to the dinghy.  The barracuda followed me!  Bill wasn’t far behind me, and we both met in the dinghy.  The barracuda can keep its territory.  We left and moved to another spot where Bill continued swimming.  I stayed in the boat and just used the glass bottomed looky bucket to watch the goings-on below.  Big fish with big teeth are not for me.

Later, we were chatting in our cockpit with Ann and Bob from Baloo (a boat from Oriental, NC) when two local fishermen came alongside.  They wanted to know if we had any cigarettes that we would trade for fish.  When I said no, they asked if I have any catsup or tomato sauce.  I traded four small cans of tomato sauce, two cans of potatoes and two cans of corn for a fifteen pound grouper and a huge lobster tail!  I don’t know how long the cans lasted them, but the fish and lobster fed us for three days.  Bill got the bright idea of leaving a baited line out during the night.  Just before he went to sleep, the reel started singing.  In his underwear he reeled in a large (30”) horse eyed jack.  Our freezer was full of grouper and lobster already.  Our chart of which fish are good to eat gave the jack a low food score, so we tossed it back.  I was glad to avoid cleaning a fish in the dark.

On our last morning at Conception Island, we took the two mile dinghy trip down to Turtle Creek.  The shallow creek twisted and turned through the mangroves.  The sun warmed gin clear water was full of sea turtles.  We saw at least a hundred swimming around the dinghy.  A turtle would first appear to be a rock, and then all of a sudden it would zoom off when we got too close.  When we sat quietly drifting, the turtles would forget we were there and surface to breathe, holding their heads up to look at us.  We saw a six foot long lemon shark cruising on the sandy bottom only two feet below us, and quickly motored away.  On the way out of the creek, the rapidly outgoing tide flushed us over the rocky bar at the creek entrance banging the outboard motor propeller across the sharp rocks.  It was pretty scary traveling sideways through the waves in our tiny out-of-control dinghy.  Although no damage was done, I don’t want to do that again soon.
Sunday, we sailed from Conception Island to Calabash Bay, Long Island.  Along the way we again passed by Cape Santa Maria.  A monument at the very edge of the cliff marks the spot where Columbus is said to have lost the Santa Maria.  From below it looks like a big storm could wipe the monument over the edge and into the sea.
We had intended to cruise along Long Island for a day or two, but the wind went to the southeast, making that an upwind trip, so the next day we set sail instead for George Town.  It was a lovely downwind sail to George Town with the mainsail on one side and the genoa poled out on the other.  Two British boats were behind us most of the way finally passing us after we were in the George Town Harbour.  One of them, the catamaran Amazing Grace, had an interesting spinnaker with a big smile shaped hole in its middle filled with a parasail.  Three dolphins escorted us into Sand Dollar Beach.   It was a nice sail; drinks were served all around for the captain and crew.

Our next two days were spent getting groceries, fuel, propane, and water.  Food, fuel, and water were easily done.  We had one empty propane tank and 7 lb in the other.  Bill tried for two days, without success, to get the empty propane tank filled.  In Exuma Markets, the largest grocery store in Georgetown, were a freshly arrived shipment of potted Easter lilies and potted tulips.  The ladies who work in the market were not impressed with the lilies, better ones grow wild there, but they had only seen tulips in pictures.  I had a good time chatting with them about tulips.  Bill bought a hand of bananas from a farmer which later, of course, all ripened at once giving us bananas for every meal.

On Thursday, April 21, the weather forecast was for 15 to 20 knot northeast winds and 6 to 8 foot seas.  We needed to be back in Staniel Cay on the 25th to pick up Bill’s brother Haynes and his wife Laura, so off we went in spite of the forecast.  Before we got the anchor up, we had a phone call from our daughter Ann.  She had given birth to our fourth grandchild (her third), Scarlett Ann Zangri, early that morning.  I had lots to ponder as we sailed north.  The wind stayed at about 15 knots, but the seas were rolling us around quite a bit for the 46 miles of the trip that we were in the Exuma Sound.  We needed to go through Dotham Cut to get back on the more sheltered southwest or banks side of the islands.  We had read the chart description of the cut’s extreme current and were trying to time our arrival for slack tide.  We were within sight of the cut when a rain storm came up assaulting us with 22 knot winds and flying spray.  Motoring around in a circle for a short while gave the rain time to go away and for the wind to die back down.  The cut ended up being very easy, and once we were on the banks side the water was smooth as a lake.  The anchor was down at Black Point in time for a much needed sundowner.
The next day was Good Friday.  We weren’t sure what was planned for the Black Point Easter Festival.  We went ashore only to discover that this year’s festivities were being overshadowed by a wedding.  A local boy was marrying the daughter of the mailboat captain.  While we were waiting for suppertime to roll around, we walked out to the ocean side of the island.  The wind and waves of the day before were still there, but they did not look nearly as bad from the top of the 100 ft cliff as from the deck of our boat.  We had supper at Lorraine’s CafĂ© and entertained ourselves by watching the local girls compare their just done wedding hairdos.  Their hair was fancier than any clothing I had on board and really did not match the tee shirts and blue jeans they had on that evening.

Saturday morning Bill got in touch with Isles General Store at Staniel Cay.  They had just enough propane to fill our empty tank.  We pulled anchor and sailed the short distance to Staniel Cay where Bill dropped off the propane tank.  The all age school was having a lunch time meal fund raiser at the public beach, so we went.  The local ladies showed up with big pots, each pot full of conch chowder, fried fish, fried chicken, or chicken souse (chicken stew flavored with whole allspice) along with a pile of Johnny bread.  I made instant friends with the ladies when I told them I cook in pots just like theirs for our church and sailing club.  The food was excellent and plentiful.  My $7 serving of souse was enough my lunch and later for supper for both of us.  We talked to several boaters and some of the locals.  Bill retrieved the full propane tank late in the afternoon.

We spent Sunday getting ready for Bill’s brother Haynes and his wife Laura’s arrival on Monday.  The morning weather forecast was for scattered showers and strong winds from the south.  Bill and I were up and at the airport waiting when they arrived.  It rained a little on us as we were walking back to the dinghy but not really enough to get anything wet.  As soon as they got aboard we headed north intending to go to Warderick Wells Cay.  Because of the wind we decided to shorten the trip a bit and go instead to Cambridge Cay through the south entrance.  That entrance is narrow, shallow, and winding.  You have to be able to see the bottom to stay in the deeper water, the charted depth is 1.6m in one place and 1.7m in another (we draw 1.5m) , and there is a rock called (appropriately) Kiss Rock that you have to almost scrape by.  It isn’t a hard thing to do when the tide is right and the light is good, but if you don’t…   Just as we arrived a cloud appeared, it got dark, and the rain began.  This time it really rained for a good hour as we slowly circled outside the entrance.  Finally the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we breezed through the entrance and picked up a mooring.  After we were safely moored another storm came up with lightning, thunder, and lots of rain.  Bill caught twenty gallons of rainwater in our jugs which we used later in the week.  Around sunset the clouds disappeared and except for the wind, it was beautiful.

Tuesday, April 26, was spent walking over to the sound side beach and up the hill to take in the view of Bell Rock.  The wind was still strong and the surf was crashing against the beach.  It was a pretty nice view.  After lunch we took the dinghy to Two Bush Cay (as we christened the nearby small rock with two bushes growing on its top).  This was a great place to snorkel.  The water was clear, the little rock was small enough to easily swim around, and the fish were abundant.  The four of us had a wonderful time playing Jacques Cousteau.  There was some kind of coral I had never seen before that looked like purple rope.  After a quick salt water soap-up and a fresh water rinse, we all went over to a sundowner party on the beach with the other cruisers moored at Cambridge Cay.  The people we meet were as always interesting.  One couple were farmers from Montana of all places, and we finally meet the crews from the two British boats that had sailed with us from Long Island to George Town several days before.
The next morning Haynes had a tooth that was hurting, so we headed back to Staniel Cay to the local clinic for some antibiotics.  While we were waiting for the clinic to open, we lunched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club which is always fun.  Haynes got his amoxicillin, and we went back to Irish Eyes for a little rest.  When we thought the tide would be slack, we headed to Thunderball Grotto for a little snorkeling.  The current was not slack and the tide was high.  I couldn’t get to the almost submerged cave entrance.  The current swept me right past it and around the end of the island where the current was not quite as strong.  I held onto a rock outcropping waiting for Bill to come out the back side of the cave.  He didn’t come out.  Instead, he went twice into the cave looking for me.  Haynes next came bobbing around the end of the island and joined me holding onto the rock.  Laura had stayed with the dinghy hanging onto the outboard motor, smart woman.  Bill and Laura got into the dinghy, and came around to pick us up.  I wasn’t afraid of drowning; I just wasn’t sure where the current would take me.  We made a note in our cruising guide; “go to Thunderball Grotto when the tide is low and the current is slack”.  Later back on Irish Eyes, Bill and I discovered the battery door on my underwater camera was open and the camera was flooded with sea water.  The camera was dead.  No more underwater pictures; it is cell phone photography from here on.
Thursday we left Staniel Cay headed south to Bitter Guana Cay to see the iguanas.  That did not work.  The wind was from the southeast, the direction we wanted to go and fifteen knots or more.  We made an attempt to stick to our plan, but changed our minds after about ten minutes of water washing over the boat.  We turned 180°, put the wind and waves behind us, and sailed quietly north to Sampson Cay where we anchored off the Sampson Cay Club.  We went ashore for lunch and walked the trails around the island.  Afterwards, sitting in the bar for a little refreshment, we ran into the crews of two boats both named ‘Oasis’ which had been in Cambridge Cay with us a couple of days before.  We solved the riddle of why the two boats had the same name painted in the same font on their sterns.  After a quick swim at our boat, we were ready for a sundowner.  Unfortunately, Bill’s ice crop had failed, and we only had enough for two drinks.  Haynes saved the day, taking the dinghy back to the bar and getting a cooler full of ice.  The ice in our drinks and a pork tenderloin Haynes brought and cooked on the grill made it a perfect evening.

Friday was Haynes and Laura’s last day with us.  We made a short motor trip to anchor off Big Major’s Spot and its famous Pig Beach.  We went to the feed the pigs.  They didn’t like my rotten broccoli any more than I did, and they gave our banana peels a pass.  They did let us scratch their ears, and one tasted the moldy bread before the birds carried it off.  From there we toured the rocky cave ridden shore until we got to Cocktail Beach.  It has a collection of abandoned and partly broken chairs and a plastic table.  We were resting in the shade when Dave and Linda from the sailboat Sandpiper came over to the beach for a swim.  Bill and I first met them last year in South Beach Miami.  They were again there when we were in Miami Beach this year, but we did not see them then.

We were up by 6:30am on Saturday to motor around Big Major’s Spot to Staniel Cay.  All four of us dinghied over to the public beach and walked the few blocks to the airport.  Haynes and Laura flew Watermakers Air back to Fort Lauderdale.  Believe it or not and strange for the Bahamas, the plane arrived and departed on time.  Bill and I stopped at Isles General Store for a few groceries and at Emil’s Bakery (actually her kitchen) for fresh coconut bread.  We took the boat back to the Pig Beach side of Big Major’s Spot where we are now.  We have read, knitted, and piddled about all day.  A couple from a boat anchored nearby came over for an afternoon beer and a chat.  Sharing sea stories never gets old.

We are going to head south in a few days.  Julia, Josh, and Isabella are due for a visit.  We have a while before they come, so until then we will go wherever the wind blows us.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011
Bill carved 2011 into our sign atop Boo Boo Hill on Warderick Wells Cay.  It is one of hundreds of signs left by cruisers there.

The Pirate’s Lair on the south end of Warderick Wells Cay is a spot ashore where pirates lounged about between raids on ships passing through the cut to the north.  The nearby anchorage offered 6 meter depths and concealment behind high hills.  The palms and grasses are not native to the Bahamas but rather to the gulf coast.  There is a fresh water spring in the foreground – a real oddity on these desert cays.

These sergeant major fish were so numerous as to almost be pests at a reef called the Sea Aquarium.

Nearby were a variety of corals.

Bill saw this trumpetfish there.  It is almost a foot long and less than an inch high; more like a pipe than a trumpet.

The Honeymoon Beach at Cambridge Cay is framed at each end by rocks.  The surf that looks so romantic on the beach breaks on the incredibly sharp ironstone with violence.  It is not a place you would want to be caught swimming.

This is my view out of the galley porthole looking at Sand Dollar Beach on Stocking Island across the harbor from George Town.  I was kneading bread and got some of the dough on the camera.

Yes, the beach sand is pink.  No, Bill is not mad.

I live in some fear of this tree.  I know what poison ivy does to me, and I don’t want to learn what effect this tree has.  (Most of them are not labeled, but I am good at picking them out.)

When last I wrote, we were tied to a mooring ball in the Warderick Wells Cay north mooring field where the Exuma Park headquarters are located.  We spent a lovely Sunday, March 27 there enjoying the park.  Bill hiked to Boo Boo Hill to see if the sign we left last year was still on the pile.  (Cruiser’s leave a sign with the boat name, crew’s names, and the date in a big pile which is supposed to give the vessel and crew fair winds.)  Bill found our sign, brought it back to the boat, and carved another year (MMXI) on it.  We both walked back to Boo Boo Hill and replaced the sign on the pile.  It is interesting to see what other cruisers have used to make their signs.  Some are lettered with fancy paint, others embellished with colorful shells, still others are elaborately carved.  There are lots of artsy cruisers.  Ours is rather ordinary.  The only rule is the materials have to be natural; no plastic debris allowed.

Monday morning we decided to move to Hog Cay at the south end of Warderick Wells Cay where there are five moorings.  Bill was on deck getting the dinghy ready for a trip to the park office to pay for a mooring.  I was still below.  I heard a huge gasp and flew up on deck thinking Bill had fallen in the water.  But thankfully no, it was just a huge sea turtle coming up for air.  It was the third turtle and largest we saw there.  The other two had greeted us as we were coming into the Warderick Wells harbor.  Bill paid for one night’s mooring at Hog Cay.  With little wind, we motored out the cut to the ocean side of the cay and down to the Hog Cay or south mooring field where after a few misses I finally hooked the mooring line and got it aboard.

Hog Cay is beautiful.  The beach is called Pirate’s Lair supposedly because pirates used to hide their ships in the tight little anchorage.  They would go ashore to party near a fresh water spring before sailing out to pounce on ships entering or leaving the cut to the north.  It makes a good story.  We walked around the beach and the snorkeled the shallow reef.  There were lots of fish and really neat looking coral.  We took a dinghy tour of the shoreline around the anchorage.  It was another pleasant day in paradise.

Tuesday, we made a motor trip to Cambridge Cay, about 5 miles to the south.  Cambridge Cay is the south-most cay in Exuma Park.  There a mooring field host collects the fees and keeps boats from anchoring on the nearby coral or anchoring too close to the moored boats.  Connie and Roger onboard Down Time had been the host since January.  They really liked Cambridge Cay.  They came over and had a beer with us and gave us a map of the nearby snorkeling sites.  That afternoon we went to a place called the Sea Aquarium and to another spot with a wrecked airplane.  The sergeant major fish at the Sea Aquarium were very tame swimming straight into Bill’s face.  I think they had been fed.  Bill saw a trumpetfish; his first.  A trumpetfish is a long skinny fish with a long snout.  Bill snorkeled.  I used the glass bottomed bucket because we had forgotten to bring the dinghy boarding ladder.  With the cut on my chest, I didn’t think I could get myself back in the dinghy without a ladder.

A cold front was forecasted to pass over us giving us wind from the west.  Most of the anchorages here are on the west sides of the cays, and a west wind makes them very uncomfortable with lots of waves.  Cambridge Cay is protected from the west, so we stayed for another three days.  One afternoon we took the path across the cay to the lovely Honeymoon Beach.  There I found a very nice cowrie shell.  We also picked up a couple of live conch, but because it is in the park, we threw them all back.  The next afternoon we walked over to the Exuma Sound Beach near Bell Rock.  We walked to a camp in the shade of casuarinas with hammocks, a table, chairs, and lots of decorations all fashioned from trash washed up on the beach.  We were joined by two other boating couples.  We shared a beer with them and told lots of stories.  One couple was from New York and the other from Cape Cod.  It was an odd mix of accents.
 
With settled weather returning, most of the boats at Cambridge Cay would be leaving; we would go south while most of the others (the unlucky ones) would be going north to the states or Canada.  The new mooring field hosts, Chris and Kim aboard a Cabo Rico 40, Synergy, arranged a beach happy hour.  Everybody dinghed over to a small sand island so we could see the sunset.  I made an onion tart.  It was well received; every bit was quickly eaten.  I spent a long time talking to a Brazilian couple who live in South Beach when they are not on their boat.  From their description they live in one of the towers in one of the last blog’s photos.  Bill and I both enjoyed the party, at least until someone noticed that the rising tide had picked up our dinghy floated it away.  He was kind enough to give Bill a ride out to retrieve it.

Saturday morning, April 2, we headed out into Exuma Sound bound for Staniel Cay and the nearby Big Major’s Spot.  We started off with the wind on our beam, but the wind soon moved forward heeling the boat and driving some spray aboard.  We sailed most of the way, but we took our sails down before entering the Big Rock Cut with its twists and turns.  The cut was pretty turbulent with the wind blowing against the outgoing tide, but it was not unmanageable.  We anchored at Big Major’s Spot in time for a noon time anchor down beer.  That afternoon and the next day we watched people go to the beach and to feed the pigs.  We didn’t bother to do that spending our time catching up on the e-mail, reading, and knitting.

We needed clean clothes, food, fuel, and water.  That meant Georgetown where there is a laundry, a real grocery store, a Shell service station, and free water.  The trip would take three days.

Monday we motored out onto the banks side of the Exumas and headed south.  The 20 knot wind and 3 foot waves were both on our nose making it a bumpy and wet, but short, five mile ride to Black Point.  We motored the whole way.  We anchored, but we didn’t launch the dinghy because of the strong wind. I baked some flat bread, and Bill wiped the salt off the boat.

Tuesday we again motored into the wind, but the wind wasn’t nearly as strong as before.  The 10 mile trip to Little Farmer’s Cay was much smoother.  We picked up a mooring ball off the Big Harbor.  The moorings at Little Farmer’s are owned by either Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club, or Little Jeff, or the Ocean Cabin.  We did not know which we had.  Bill and I inflated the dinghy, and he went into town to find out who to pay.  After some consultation with the locals, Bill determined that our mooring ball belonged to Ocean Cabin.  He walked over to Ocean Cabin and spent about an hour talking to the proprietor, Terry Bain.  Terry is quite a character.  A one man Chamber of Commerce, a ceaseless promoter of Little Farmer’s Cay (pop. 53) , a world traveler, and a self proclaimed philosopher; Terry rules the top of his hill.  Ocean Cabin itself is a restaurant where Bill made dinner reservations for us.  We were the only guests that night, but no matter, Terry’s conversation provided entertainment while I had fish and Bill had conch.  The food was great as was Terry’s specialty drink, the OCS or Ocean Cabin Special.  It was the color of the aqua water outside beyond the palm trees.  Best of all it contained ice, lots of ice.

We were up early on Wednesday April 6.  It was about 35 miles from Little Farmer’s Cay to Georgetown. We deflated the dinghy and were underway by 9am.  The wind was light so we started motoring but soon added the mainsail and then the genoa, but we kept the motor ticking over to keep up 5 knots so we could arrive at Conch Cay Cut in Georgetown while the light was still good enough to see the submerged reefs at the harbor entrance.  We navigated the cut without a problem and anchored off Sand Dollar Beach in time for a sundowner.

After moving for three days in a row, we were looking forward to a little down time.  Thursday noon, right as my loaf of bread finished rising, a boat from New Bern, Sea Monkey, came into Sand Dollar and anchored in front of us.  They had left Northwest Creek Marina in January five or six days before we did.  Mike and Bree came over for a beer.  Unfortunately, our fridge was a little low on the beer, and a second round of cold beer was not to be had.  Once the bread was done, we dinghied over to the Chat and Chill Beach Bar, met Mike and Bree again, sat on pastel colored Adirondack chairs at the water’s edge,  had a few more beers, and ate some conch salad as the tide rose and slowly wet us.  A three foot sting ray kept swimming across our feet in case we dropped anything edible.  We got back to Irish Eyes just as the sun was setting.  It was tough doing nothing.

Friday was restock day.  We moved Irish Eyes across the harbor to be closer to town.  Bill ferried 90 gallons of water and 25 gallons of fuel to the boat while I did the laundry and shopped for groceries.  It had been so long since I did laundry, there was a pair of socks to be washed!  I could hardly remember socks.  Once our chores were completed, we went back across the harbor to re-anchor off Sand Dollar Beach.  The anchor was down in time for a sundowner followed by hamburgers on the grill.  We were pooped.

On Saturday we made up for all of Friday’s work by beach walking and swimming.  I found a sand dollar and a few small shells. While we were walking on the sound side beach, we could see two large dark blue angel fish swimming in the surf on the shallow reef.  They were really neat to watch in the crystal clear water as the breaking waves magnified them to far more than life size then shrunk them to mere dots.  We returned to the boat, swam, scrubbed ourselves off with Joy detergent, then using the extra fresh water took a shower in the cockpit.  Clean clothes, clean sheets, and clean us.

Today, Bill has puttered about fixing things while I have knitted.  When the sun is a little lower we will take a walk and bring the dinghy on board.  If the wind cooperates, we are planning on heading for Conception Island tomorrow.