Long Island, Bahamas, February 21,2022

No, not New York.  It was a smooth 37-mile sail over as we led our buddy boat to Thompson’s Bay.  We were afraid after watching all the other boats leave Georgetown that it would be very crowded here.  Much to our pleasant surprise, it wasn’t and as we dropped anchor as are one of half a dozen boats in a large bay.  Then the relief set in.  THIS is what we had been waiting for.  The weather was warm, quiet anchorage, it was sunny and beautiful, pristine beaches, and friendly locals.  We got our anchor set in great holding and after a few hours, headed over to the local beach bar, Tiny’s hurricane hole for some beers on the beach. 

Tiny’s was the only thing open, and it was a bit crowded, but we met some terrific locals!  They had cruised the Caribbean for 10+ years and now owned a house here.  They believed it was the best place they had ever visited, and right about now, we agree.  The only downside is the mosquitos are no joke and we raced back home for bug spray and shelter.  We are still paying for that one but were glad to be home by dark.  We checked out town the next day but found the Atlantic side of the island was too rough to snorkel which was disappointing, but we are still hopeful to find some good spots in this side. 

As the snorkeling spots were non-existent, we ended up renting a car with some fellow cruisers.  The first place we checked out was Hamilton’s Caves.  It is a privately owned cave and is the largest in the Exuma’s.  It used to be used as a hurricane shelter but no longer is.  I tell you; it gave Mammoth Caves a run for its money!  It is run by the owner Leonard who gave us a fantastic tour!  He even had his own small grove of banana trees.

One on the coolest parts of the cave was the “oasis” in the middle of it.  It was created by the wild Fig roots that are a relative of the banyan tree in Cambodia.  It will bust a hole in the ceiling looking for water and grow from there.  It was very beautiful even if it was invasive.  As of yet, Leonard had not tried to control it but at some point, he expects to have to. 

 We also saw 4 different species of bats.  There were only about half a dozen of each type, but he said during their mating season, there are thousands that come there.  There were fruit bats and insect eating bats.  They didn’t both us and I was happy.  He has had many paleontologists and professor’s from local university’s coming to study and all the artifacts from the Lucyan people, who as the natives of the island, have been removed and are now in the hands of the Bahamian Trust.

The caves will remain the family and he has 4 grandson’s who will inherit.  He said his youngest is very interested in running it which was great to hear it would be preserved.  Good thing, Ron wants to move in!    More to come on the next post of our adventures in Long Island.

Leaving Georgetown en route to Long Island, 2-17-22

Every city has a party boat if it’s located on the water.  St Augustine has one.  It looks like a little tiki hut & just drives around as a booze cruise. 

One good flair gun shot and up in flames.

So, after sailing hubby being awake for majority of the last 4 nights – we discovered why no one was anchored on this end of the bay.  You guessed it.  In front of starfish beach, where we had a nice firm anchored set…in comes the Georgetown party boat. 

Imagine 30 screaming drunks 50 foot from your anchored boat.  

The bad news, this one actually just beached itself about 100 yards from us.  Music blaring, drunkards whooping it up and the full treatment.  So…there went our nice restful night at our last available anchor spot.  Seeing as it was after dark it isn’t the preferred time to re-anchor anyway.  So, lots of techno & strangely- country!?!  Who knew?  

The crazy thing was he had the gall to bring a skiff over the next day to scold us on the fact we were parked too close to the only part of the beach he is allowed to go into.  It was the most un-Bahamian thing we have experienced to date.  It wasn’t like there was a sign or anything!  Most Bahamians are awesome and very helpful as they rely on tourism for their income.  He wasn’t scheduled to come back until Sunday evening, and we would be long gone by then!  So glad to be getting the heck out of Georgetown and this was the cherry on top.

However, a few days of relaxing on the beach, reprovisioning, and we were ready to go.

Saturday morning, we headed out, limping.  Sailing Hubby had identified a leak last night in one of the bilges.  Sadly, our other freshwater pump on the other side is now leaking quite badly.  Ugh.  Good news is when he ordered the part to fix the issue on the other side and imported the parts, while we were in Hopetown, he ordered two!  Both engines have nearly 3,000 hours on them, and they have not ever been replaced.  It will be good to have both done but we didn’t think we would end up doing both on this trip and had hoped we could do it in the off season.  Oh well.  With the parts, he can at least make it all better in Long Island.  He made the command decision to leave this morning anyway as it was a short 6-hour sail to Thompson Bay, and we were buddy boating if anything went wrong.  We can run on one engine and only use the leaking one if any other issues come up.  We will run about 5 to 5.5 knots which is slower than we want but we will still get there by 3:00 this afternoon.  After we dropped anchor, Ron spent the next hour fixing the pump so he could sleep! 

Boat yoga!

Ron has his fishing pole, gaffe hook and all the gear in hopes of catching some fish for dinner tonight.  He hopes to keep whatever he catches this time as the fish he got last time was shark eaten by the time he reeled it in.  He was very sad.  

Fish head soup anyone?

Lastly, Ron submitted the renewal for our immigration papers.  For some odd reason, they will grant you a 1-year cruising permit and fishing license but make you renew your visa after 90 days.  Now we await the extension as we don’t yet have a plan to return home and now that we are near an immigration office in Georgetown, we know we could come back if we need something more to get renewed.  I guess bureaucracy is just part of the fun of international travel.

Our Long Island Adventure – Part 2 – Long Island Bahamas, February 24, 2022

The day we rented the car, we tried to cover as much of the island as we could, so we also checked out Dean’s Blue Hole near the caves.  There is the Bahamian Free Diving contest help there each year.  We saw a plaque of all the diver’s who had lost their life trying to do this.  Very sad.

 We then went to the Columbus Monument, on the north side.  It was a great look view and was very nice the see the monument itself was not only dedicated to Christopher Columbus but the Lucayan people as well. 

We also drove over some “Costa Rica Roads” to get to Adderly’s Plantation Ruins.  After a nerve-racking drive and one small scratch on the car (not the like the wombat sized issue we had in Australia), we arrived.  As our luck would have it…the ruins (as nearly all Bahamian ruins seem to be) were nearly nonexistent.  It was supposed to be nine buildings and the online photos were kind of a bait and switch.  Here is what we ended up seeing.  You can also sprinkle in some poison wood trees on the hike.

With the sun starting the set, a sundowner was calling out name. 

We passed the next few days with boat projects, and I have to say, our stainless is looking quite fabulous!  We also decided to leave a souvenir behind at Sou’ Side Bar & Grill.  If you see the Ohio plates, think of us!

A Plan is Coming Together – Hopetown, Bahamas, March 22, 2022

It has been a productive few days, and we leave tomorrow for Green Turtle to stage for a Monday crossing to Florida.  The weather looks good, and it appears now like we have a 4-day window to make it to St. Augustine without much turbulence.  This is extremely important to have calm waters as we cross to keep the sail membrane from further damage.

Ron has been working on multiple routes so if we need to make this sail a bit shorter, and not do a long run direct to St. Augustine, we have the option to bail out somewhere like West End, Fort Pierce, or Cape Canaveral.  We also increased our coverage with Tow boat USA which can come get us within 50 miles of the Florida coast.  It is kind of like AAA for boats.    

Our next step after we get to Green Turtle

·         go to Sail Cay (50 miles) and spend the night

·         leave for Florida at dawn the next morning to Florida (42 hours at 6 knots – so roughly 2 days from Sail Cay). 

 This will be the longest continuous sail we will have ever done, with a gimpy boat.  Well, here we go.  This is the preferred route if the seas cooperate. 

 Before we attempt our long run, we do have a few fun things on our agenda as our buddy boat is celebrating a birthday and our 10^th Anniversary is coming up on March 26^th!  Guess I have to keep him now 😊.

 As far as land life, we scheduled a haul out date early April, will stop in Jekyll Island for a day to visit, then head to Ohio to see Family.  After a week, we head back to Florida, and have a house rented for the following month.  This gives us a chance to work on the boat before we housesit for my parents the month after.  Sometime in there we will need to rent/buy a car or bring our motorcycle down to Florida to ride for the season.  I hope we can ride the bike since it would be much more fun than a car!  However, once again, we must have good weather to ride the bike.  Lastly, we will head out to the west coast to see daughter #1 who is renting out there.  Whew – never a dull moment!  Perhaps this will keep us young?  We are glad to have a plan as we move back towards the states.

 February 15, 2022, Georgetown, Great Exumas Island, Bahamas

Sailing hubby & I had no expectation that sailing would be 100% perfect but thus far, we had woken up with the mantra of “I love my life.”  This might be the first day where we didn’t.  Sailors always say, “the highs are higher, and the lows are lower.”  I never knew what that meant til I was on this journey.  We are starting to feel like we couldn’t find good weather if it smacked us in the face.  Let me tell you it isn’t all sunshine, adventure, and rum out here.  OK – well there lots of rum.

Let me explain what I mean.  Yesterday we heard the announcement that there was a diver who has been run over by a dinghy.  Then the weather kicked in.  Our last two days have included:

•        anchored near too many boats that came in last minute and anchored too close, making us move and re-anchor in crappy windy weather. 
•          Ron has been awake most of the last two nights trying to make sure we are not the ones dragging while listening to the VHF (which is insanly loud and impossible to sleep through) all night
•          we have slept fully clothed and awake at 6:30 to listen to our weather service webcast from Chris Parker
•          last night a boat south of us (glad we re-anchored even if it was 4 times) that was not only dragging and had run into two boats, but ALSO got his anchor caught on one of the other anchors and was now dragging BOTH boats!
•          Our anchorage is rolly as heck and I am debating taking a seasick med just in case we end up having to do anything

75 boats where there should be 30 during a stormy weather

 The best of all is its only Tuesday.  The weather is expected to get worse tomorrow and not stop til Thursday morning.  We get a couple days rest then another front coming through from the winter weather starting next Tuesday and since it takes a couple of days for the seas to calm down, travelling in the open ocean in between is not a great idea and I think we are stuck here through the next system as well.  If we were to attempt to sail in open ocean, the waves would be 10 feet.  This is not an option for us and thus, we’re here for the foreseeable future.

So, while folks up north are trudging through the snow and shoveling driveways, just know it’s not all sunshine and starfish here either.  Winter in the Bahamas is no joke — trust me.  Right now Georgetown is ground zero.  We hope to be back to “I love my life” mantra but right now it’s on vacation somewhere there isn’t 35 knots of wind with overnight squalls.  It isn’t in the Exumas.

 Georgetown, Bahamas February 10, 2022

And we made it to our destination of the SEASON!  All I have to say is it must have been everyone’s destination of the season as there are nearly 350 boats here, all trying to anchor in the same small space.  Don’t get me wrong, I am glad we are here and made our goal of making it at LEAST this far, but it could not be more crowded. 

 Our insurance only covers as south as Clarencetown and there is not shelter any farther south than Georgetown, everybody stopped here, perhaps that is why it is known as Chicken Bay.    We made it and our first order of business after anchoring 4 (literally 4) times was to unwind at the epic Chat N Chill.  This is THE restaurant here in Georgetown and quite a lovely beach bar not unlike the Soggy Dollar in BVI.   We knew we wanted to at least try Georgetown to #1 – say we have been here but also #2 because we had heard mixed review and wanted to make up our own minds on the place and not listen to any specific person. 

 Over the next few days, we checked out the town, filled our gas cans, and took in some trash.  It is a small little town not unlike Spanish Wells and they have a decent grocery store, liquor store, couple of restaurants, and lots of cruisers.  We grabbed some groceries and we had lunch at the yacht club which was nice but expensive.  We hiked all of Stocking Island one day which was fun since we hiked straight up to the Monument itself and were rewarded by a wonderful view of the harbor.  The hikes were interesting in that they were marked with things like…coffee cans…and blue paper plates.  Noteworthy but it worked.

Navigating the hikes is simple, just follow the pile or rocks, Plastic plate or empty coffee can.

The Monument at Monument Beach.

View is pretty but way to many boats!

Happy Valentine’s started with a stressful morning when the weather hit about 4:00am Monday morning.  Ron was up and had the guy anchored next to us flashing his strobe light yelling that we were too close.  Mind you, we were anchored first and already told him he anchored too close and NOW he chooses to agree?  As he drug anchor closer to us, we finally ended up moving since when we changed directions, our anchor reset too close to the boat behind us.  After driving up and down the harbor for about an hour, we anchored 4 more times (seriously 4), and got ready for the next set of winds which were moving in tomorrow.  Winter in the Bahamas and spending a good chunk of time doing weather avoidance is annoying at best.  It impacts our decision to come back next year, and we have learned a lot.  We plan to stay in Georgetown for the next week since after this weather system there is one directly after it that lasts til next Tuesday.  Long Island may be next.

 February 8, 2022, Rudder Cay, Bahamas

No, there is not a BW3 here.  There is apparently nothing ashore here, but we have still found plenty to do.  We were going to have Ron teach me to operate the dinghy, but the waves were a bit too rough yesterday so, change of plans it was.  Ron wanted some lobster to trade our buddy boat and I am on the hunt for my new fun – hamburger sea beans.  I learned that they are actually seeds that drift in the ocean from the rain forests and land on tropical shores.  Many of the beans land here (and in the US too) from South America.  They look like little hamburgers and are the size of a quarter.  If you polish them, they have a value of about $50 in Nassau as a tourist souvenir, but I just think they are cool and have no intent of polishing.  They are so cute cause they look like little hamburgers!  Therefore, I am on the hunt to find my own on the beach which was my afternoon activity.

Hamburger beans just add water.

I am also continuing my international education and learned a new term from another cruiser.  One of my favorites to date – “bitch wings.”  Apparently when a cruiser is attempting to anchor and you think they are too close, you can go on deck with your hands on your hips, known as bitch wings, which is the unofficial sign in cruiser language for “get off my lawn or WTF.”  Used correctly in a sentence would be “Honey, get out the bitch wings!”  It just makes me laugh.

Since I had “endless” power yesterday for our sail over with engines running, I made chocolate chip cookies, sundried tomato pasta salad, and vegetable pot pie.  A great way to use those canned veggies and successful morning indeed!  We are finally starting to make a dent in in all the provisions we purchased at the beginning.  It’s hard to believe we are nearly 3 months into the trip already with 5 more to go.

We also had the chance to do some snorkeling and saw “The Musician” (Mermaid and piano).  It was cool but there were several other tour boats that just kept coming.  It was a piece of art commissioned by David Copperfield whose private island was right next door, Musha Island.  We have seen his yacht already also – Illusion 2.  It is insanely big.

We then headed over to see an octopus lair Ron had found to see if we could see him.  Ron had caught his second lobster for the day (in addition to 2 lionfish earlier) and we tried to bait him out with the head.  No luck.  He traded his fishing bounty for fresh homemade cinnamon rolls.  I am really making out on Ron’s spear fishing.  Well worth the trade! 

 February 6, 2022, leaving Blackpoint to Oven Rock

After walking Blackpoint Settlement, checking out the blowholes, and doing another beach trash cleanup, we headed out.  I don’t think we can do any more nights at Scorpio’s where rum punch is 2 for $4.  Is it bad to have too much of a good deal?  A fun night anyway.  We met more new folks so hey, all is well that ends well.

We also had the chance to have lunch at the famous Lorraine’s café.  I was impressed they had veggie burgers as that tends to be a rarity here.  Many of my restaurant meals these days consist of a side of homemade mac & cheese or peas and rice (the national dish) and these are on every menu.  Ron went on the hunt for cinnamon rolls the next morning since we smelled them baking the night before.  Sadly, he struck out, but he did get the chance to meet Lorraine’s Mother and he scored a fresh loaf of bread which makes incredible PB&J and grilled cheese!  This was still a worthwhile trip in my book.

Our new Oven Rock anchorage was notably rolling so we decided to get off the boat for a while and head to the cave.  It was the largest I have seen since Mammoth Caves over 10 years ago.  Check it out!

It would be hard to find if it was not marked with a plastic jug

Pretty incredible view inside

Complete with a fresh water pool

We joined in on a cruiser event at the island next door, Farmer’s Cay.  Ocean Cabin has the most fun bar tender, Terry.  He will size you up and make you a drink based on the color shirt of your shirt or your personality.  We decided to pass on the rum tonight and just stick with beer.  It was fun watching him do this for our buddy boaters.  The next test was they had to guess the ingredients.  They got 4 out of 5.  Clearly after cruising for 4+ years, they are more experienced with their rum palate!  They got rum, pineapple Juice, grapefruit juice, and what is the blue liquor?  Anyway, since rum is cheaper than the mixers here, the rum is always the heaviest ingredient in every drink.

After a quick weather report this morning, we confirmed our intent to head to Rudder Cay today.  This is 10 miles closer to Georgetown and there is supposed to be some great snorkeling.  We wanted to see the Mermaid and the Piano under water!

 Break us in slowly – Blackpoint, Exumas, February 2, 2021

We had an insane 30+ knot wind heading down to Blackpoint.  It didn’t seem that bad when we started but the winds didn’t seem to let up the trip.  Ron had waves up so high they were crashing over the boat, and it was completely covered in salt when we arrived.  Thank goodness it was a short 1 hour 45-minute sail.  Whew!!  I was inside doing my best not to be seasick and thus far, it has worked.

Of course, in true form as soon as we get the boat settled, we went to shore to check out the town.  We went to see the blowhole which sadly, since it was low tide, seemed under-whelming.  The views reminded me of Australia as the violent waves and rocky coastline.   I was very sad to see how littered the beach was.  It appeared no one had paid any attention here and I managed to see about ½ a dozen octopus traps, again.  So, we did what any cruiser’s would do, stopped, and has a beer.