We are sometimes asked what sort of boat you need to go to
the Bahamas. Well, the near boat is a 22
foot Catalina sailboat and is worth maybe $3000. The larger boat is a 70 foot long Sunreef sailing
catamaran and is worth about $3,000,000.
We anchored beside them at Shroud Cay in the Exuma Islands. We later saw the Pennsylvania registered
Catalina in Marsh Harbour 150 miles farther north.
After years of examining every old bottle on every beach,
Bill finally found a bottle with a message in it on Shroud Cay.
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| Reef |
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| Rock Shore |
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| Sand Shore |
The view from the Sip Sip Restaurant on Harbour Island was
every bit as good as the food.
St John’s Anglican Church was founded in 1768.
We stumbled upon Patti Wagon, a center console boat,
floating without its engine south of Bakers Bay in the Abacos. Here Bill is towing it to the police in Green
Turtle Cay.
This palm tree lined beach is at Crab Cay at the north end
of Great Abaco Island. While the beach
looks nice for walking, it has hundreds of ankle straining rocks. It might be a good place for an orthopedics
convention…
A Swiss sailboat was aground north of the Ben Sawyer
bridge at Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina.
The ICW had shoaled from its designed 12 foot depth to near zero where
he was. We found 5.3 ft off his bow and slowly
slid our 5 foot draft boat by.
An alligator came cruising by us in the early morning as we were
leaving the South Santee River in South Carolina.
Hello from New Bern, NC.
Irish Eyes is tied in her slip. Bill
is fixing broken things. I am splitting
my time between putting things away on the boat, packing the Blazer for the trip
to Kingsport, and most importantly, goofing off.
We have been traveling generally north since May 6 when we sailed
out of George Town’s Elizabeth Harbour and into the Exuma Sound. After a thunder storm filled night anchored between
Big Farmer’s Cay and Galliot Cay, we moved on to Black Point. I did our laundry at Ida’s wonderful Rockside
Laundry while Bill worked on the boat. We
had two meals ashore with friends from Ursa Minor and Swell Horizon. We couldn’t linger long in Black Point. Our visas were nearing their expiration, and
we needed to find an immigrations official to get an extension of our leave to
stay. It was time to move on.
We sailed north up to Hawksbill Cay where we stopped for two
nights. The sand flats on the north end
of Hawksbill were beautiful. The sand color
ranged from white to pink, the water contained every shade of blue an artist
could imagine, the cays on the horizon were green from the recent rain, and
white cotton clouds filled the sky. We
wandered around for hours one morning just taking in the scenery.
Shroud Cay, a mere 5 miles away, was our next stop. There we took the dinghy up the southernmost
creek, through the island, and over to the ocean side. On the beach Bill found a corked empty wine bottle
with a message inside. The bottle had only
been in the sea for a week. Bill added a
post script to the note and re-launched the bottle.
Continuing north, we sailed up to Ship Channel Cay, anchored
for the night, and left early in the morning for Spanish Wells in Eleuthera. It was an all-day sail with the morning spent
passing through an area filled with boat grabbing coral heads that rose almost to
the surface. Thankfully the sun was
shining, and we could easily see and steer around them. We anchored off Meek’s Patch, a small island
near Spanish Wells.
Our guide book said that Spanish Wells was a port of entry,
and we thought we could renew our visas there. We hopped in the dinghy and started on the
three mile trip from Meek’s Patch to Spanish Wells. That did not work. We got soaked by the wind driven chop as we
came around the corner of Meek’s Patch. So,
we did the intelligent thing; we motored over in Irish Eyes, anchored outside
the narrow, shallow, and busy commercial harbor, and then took the dinghy into
town.
While there was a customs office in Spanish Wells, the immigration office was a ferry and taxi
ride away at the airport. Unable to conveniently
renew our visas, we consoled ourselves on the patio of a restaurant with a few
beers and lunch. The grocery store in
Spanish Wells had everything on our list.
Stumbling down the road carrying our load of groceries, we stopped at Budda’s Bar,
Grill, and Liquor Store (a collection of a house, outdoor tables, and an old
school bus) and bought the other things we needed, so the day was not a total
loss. We took Irish Eyes back to Meeks
Patch for the night.
Not far from Spanish Wells was Harbour Island, playground of
the rich and famous and known for its pink sand beaches. We’d never been there. From Spanish Wells there were several ways to
make the trip. The first was to take a
small local ferry to North Eleuthera Island, a taxi across the island, and a
second small ferry to Harbour Island.
That sounded too long and involved.
Second, we could take Irish Eyes to Harbour Island, but the trip by
water passes through the aptly named Devil’s Backbone Reef, and the guidebook
was full of the appropriate warnings and strongly suggested that a pilot be
hired for both the trip over and the trip back.
The pilots have names like Bandit, Little Woody, A1 Broadshad, and Capt.
Kirt (His ad says “Beam me up!”). That
option sounded too risky or too expensive and maybe with too much local color. We chose to jump on the large high speed
ferry from Nassau when it stopped in Spanish Wells and make the trip to Harbour
Island that way. It was quite a
ride. The ferry roared through the miles
of reef at 30 knots with spray flying as it weaved its way between the coral,
the rocks, and the shore all of which slid by 50 yards away first on one side of the ship then
on the other. It was fun.
Harbor Island does have its pink sand, but it’s not the
pinkest we’ve seen. We did a little
shopping then found a path to the beach and walked along the shore. There were very few people on the beach. I bet everyone was lounging around the pool at
one of the many resort hotels, with drink in hand, and pecking away at their
i-whatevers. After a very nice and quite
expensive restaurant lunch eaten among palms and sea grapes overlooking the
ocean, we walked around the town stopping at a Bahamian shack for a Diet Coke served
on their tree shaded patio. From there
it was a short walk back to the air conditioned ferry for the return trip.
The next two days were not our usual pretty blue sky weather.
It rained off and on, and the wind blew.
We mostly stayed aboard reading; I
knitted and Bill fixed broken things. We
filled our water tanks and several 5 gallon jugs with the rain water. Our friends on Oh My! arrived and anchored
nearby. Bill and I went over to their
trawler one evening for a beer and a chat.
On May 19 the weather began to clear, we put the dinghy on
deck, and left on the 55 nautical mile trip across the Northeast Providence
Channel to Abaco. Our visas were nearing
their expiration, and it was time to push on. We left at sunrise. The route took us over some of the deepest
water in the Bahamas. One place on the
chart indicated 4529 meters or 14,859 feet – almost three miles to the bottom. The wind was pleasant and the waves small. After an all-day sail, we were in Abaco anchored
off Lynyard Cay in time for supper.
The next afternoon we made the quick trip to Marsh Harbour. It’s the largest town in the Abacos with all the
government offices, and get this - a stoplight. Our guide said the Immigration Office was in
the Dove Plaza Shopping Center, a short walk from the town dinghy dock. When we got to Dove Plaza, we learned the
Immigration Office had moved to a new government building on the edge of town. It was hot and sunny, but we survived the
mile walk and got our visas extended for 30 days. The best thing about the walk back was it
ended at the Golden Grouper Restaurant. Our
lunch of grouper fingers for me and cracked conch for Bill was served in air
conditioned comfort. It was excellent.
We emptied the remaining jugs of rainwater into our water tanks,
bought fuel for the boat and rum for us, and sailed out of Marsh Harbour on May
22 bound for Green Turtle Cay. We were about
half way there when we saw an unoccupied 19 foot center console motorboat named
Patti Wagon just drifting. Worried that
someone might have fallen overboard, we put down our sails and motored over to
investigate. When we got closer I realized
the boat did not have a motor. The outboard
was gone, the electrical cables had been cut, the steering cable was hanging
over the transom, and the engine mounting bolts were laying in the cockpit. Bill phoned the police in Marsh Harbour. They asked us to tow the boat to Green Turtle
Cay where an officer would be waiting.
We managed to tow both our dinghy and Patti Wagon the rest of the way to
Green Turtle Cay… out the Loggerhead Channel into the ocean, around the ocean
side of Whale Cay, and through the Whale Cay Channel back into the Sea of Abaco. We got all that done without sinking either
the dinghy or the motorboat and without getting either of two tow lines in our propeller. We must have been an interesting sight to the
passing boats. Of course, when we got to
Green Turtle Cay and were preparing to anchor, it began to rain by the bucket.
Bill towed Patti Wagon with our dinghy to the Government
Dock at Green Turtle Cay. He was gone
for quite a long time. I was beginning
to worry that the police had detained him. It just took him a while to fill out the statement.
The boat was owned by some
people who live on Lubbers Quarters, another island in the Abacos. Bill got a very nice email thank you from them.
Two other boats we know, Pearl and White Pepper, were also
at Green Turtle Cay and headed north to the US. All 6 of us enjoyed an afternoon swimming on the beach
and then sundowners and supper at the Sundowner Grill.
The weather forecast was for 15 knot winds from the south or
southeast with 2-4 foot seas for the next five days giving us a window to sail
to Charleston. On Monday the 25th we decided to sail a little farther north even though the wind was actually
20-25 knots, anchor for the night, then take off for the US on Tuesday. We had a nice sail to Crab Cay at the north
end of Great Abaco Island and anchored off the beach there. The chart described the palm tree shaded beach
as a “Rubble Beach” and it was rocky. Try as I might, I could not walk on it.
Tuesday morning we deflated the dinghy, put it on deck, and left.
The wind was stronger and the waves much
higher than predicted making our trip in the Atlantic a little rolly. We sailed only starting our engine to charge
the batteries and cool the fridge. It
took us a little over 72 hours to reach Charleston. We were tied to the Mega Dock at Charleston
City Marina by late morning on the 29th. Two Customs officers were walking down the
dock looking for another boat. They came
on board and cleared us in. While we
were having our celebratory beer, a woman and a little boy who were walking
down the dock spoke to Bill. We ended up
giving them a boat tour. That took the
place of my much needed nap, but it did not interfere with my much needed
shower. After supper at a restaurant, we
went to bed and began clearing away our three nights of sleep deficit.
Because of the Spoleto Festival the marina was fully booked for
the weekend. We needed to leave Saturday
morning. The wind was coming out of the
east, and that was the way we wanted to go, so we began motoring on the
Intracoastal Waterway through the hordes of weekend small motorboat traffic. As the day wore on, the boat traffic thinned
out, but their place was taken by an even greater number of green head horseflies. We killed them with flyswatters, shot them
with bug shooters, and vacuumed them up with our Dust Buster. We did not achieve the ‘final solution’, but
we came close. Anchoring for the evening
in the South Santee River, we held them and their mosquito allies at bay with
our screens and had a pleasant and cool evening in a pretty and lonely spot
among the salt marshes.
Sunday morning we motored in the ICW to Winyah Bay, went out
the inlet into the ocean, and sailed on an overnight trip to the Cape Fear
River. We arrived at the Cape Fear sea
buoy in the dark, but the sun was up by the time we were in the river. With the current from the rising tide behind
us, the trip up the Cape Fear River and along the ICW to Wrightsville Beach was
speedy.
We anchored at Wrightsville Beach for a few hours, then we went
out Masonboro Inlet around 5pm for another overnight sail, this time to
Beaufort. We entered the Beaufort Inlet
at sunrise, started our engine, motored in the ICW through Morehead City and
north to the Neuse River. From there it
was just final few hours to our slip at North West Creek Marina. We were putting in our air conditioner when
the thunderstorm we had been watching caught up with us. The storm did not last long, and soon Irish
Eyes was washed of her salt, cooling down, and drying out.
This year’s trip was great. It was fun, and we got to see some new places.
It was good to be tied to our home dock
at last. We should be back in Tennessee
soon.
Have a wonderful summer.
