BYOP – Cat Island, Bahamas, March 13, 2022

We took the short bumpy crossing to Cat Island, and I got to drive most of the way while Sailing Hubby ran the sails.  So far it is the longest run I have had at the helm which was fun even though it wasn’t a terribly long trip.  We were heading to Hawk’s Nest Marina since there was more weather headed our way.  Get this, the “Bermuda highs” are supposed to last about 2 weeks (which cause all the high winds and storms).  We are on week #11  Ron is a bit frustrated to say the least so instead of trying to wrestle with this at anchor, we are taking a break and getting a marina slip.  This is our first since Green Turtle when we checked in.

Hawk’s Nest is a great little all-inclusive place with a restaurant, beach, marina, showers, laundry – you name it.  The owner JR is awesome as well.  I feel bad for her since she has a 15-year-old son, has lived here, and managed the marina for the last 22 years.  Her husband was electrocuted at the marina (he ran all the fishing tournaments) last year.  Extremely tragic story but she is a great lady who does a great job and loves the cruisers who visit.  Not all marinas are good at this, and we were grateful.  The only strange thing is you have to walk across the runway to get to the office & restaurant.  I have never had to stop and look both ways for air traffic before crossing the “street.” 

How often do you have to yield for aircraft?

Just a normal walk back to the boat through the airfield.

We spent a quiet day catching up on laundry and our buddy boat made pizza dough crust for a few of us to “decorate” and bake so we could all have dinner together and discuss next steps.  It was her version of a BYOP – bring your own pizza since no one had an oven big enough to cook more than one at a time.  Hazards of sailboat living, I guess.  It worked out great as she is a wonderful cook! 

We were unsure at this point if we were going to change our insurance and go south or return north to finish a few key projects on the boat.  Thus far we had planned to take her back to Florida to get set for the Eastern Caribbean next year since we got our confirmation for hurricane haul out back in St. Augustine.  We will need to make the decision before we leave Cat Island since it will determine if we go back to Georgetown and continue from there or back to Royal Island to wait out the clocking winds…again.  It certainly has been a season of running from the weather.

Now That’s a Lobster! – Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas, March 9, 2022

Ron and I decided to move up to Calabash Bay on the northern side of Long Island after a long while at Salt Pond.  With lots of amenities, Salt Pond was great but, we were looking for a change.  We were heading north to Cat Island later this week and hoped to make it a shorter trip, so we headed north for a new view.

Somehow it seems everywhere we anchor is more beautiful than the last.  Calabash Bay is picturesque.  There is a small resort here and I can see why.  It has the quintessential white sand beaches, turquoise water, and the resort is beautiful.  We stopped to have dinner at Stella Maris Resort Club & Marina one night after being on the boat for the last several days and though expensive, it was lovely.

 The next day we checked out the beach, lounged on the hammocks, and went snorkeling at a couple of the reefs.  One of the reefs, a ways out, was very rough so we moved on to Rocky Point Reef.  I was surprised at how healthy the reef was and we saw so many fish.  Ron had his spear and was lobstering.  It didn’t take long before he speared the first and had it in the boat so when we moved onto the second guy, it was the biggest lobster I had ever seen crawling across the reef.  I can’t believe he got him!  You must see this:

It was so big; we went back the next day looking for his brother.  Sadly, no luck, so he only has those two in our freezer.  He chased a snapper for a while but no luck.  We headed back to get ready for our trip north tomorrow.  Supposedly the water in Cat Island is a bit greener than it is here so we are interested to see but want to time our arrival to Hawk’s Nest Marina for afternoon so don’t have an early morning departure which is good since it is pouring right now.  It’s cool to snorkel in the rain since you can hear it “crackle” while you snorkel as the rain hits the water.  That is kind of fun!

Let there be Light – Salt Pond, Long Island, March 2, 2022

The good news is my resourceful Sailing Hubby was able to locate an inverter!  It is a 2,000 watt one, which is exactly what we had before, and it is on our way.  He found a used one online and it’s close in Georgetown!  Amazing.  We have cruiser friends there now, who offered to pick it up for us on their way to Long Island.  It’s a great coincidence and we are thrilled we do not have to go to Georgetown for that. 

Our friends showed up and hubby got right to work.  Now, since our inverter is placed in a very inopportune place, Ron moved it, so water is not an issue again anytime soon.  He spent several hours trying to locate the leak and never did find it.  It is hard to fix something you cannot find.    

Looks new, but does it work?

Hard to tell in photo but a night was needed relocate this.

The good news it works as promised so I got right to work making brownies and Ron made me homemade pizza!  

Mmmmmm free pizza

The last fun factoid was when we hit to beach, Ron wanted to Lobster a bit on the reefs we snorkeled yesterday, so I decided to walk the beach in search of my hamburger bean.  I found one!  I also found a purse bean too (whatever that it).  I am very excited and surprised as most people take several seasons to find one.  Very fun!

Now the bad news, we have a long list of more storms coming and we are truly over it.  The weather has been non-stop and even many of the sailing veterans we have met along the way have agreed this is unlike any other season they have had.  Global warming perhaps?  Anyway, we only have a couple choices, since there may be a 45-knot west wind coming.  We can go back to Georgetown (our” favorite place. “), or we can go to a marina.  The marina is sounding better and better all the time.  The worse news, there are only a couple marinas that can take a catamaran.  This should be fun and let the competition begin.

We are trying to avoid the anchor shuffle everyone does.  Whenever there is a storm coming, people pile into one of the protected anchorages and seem to anchor as close together as possible.  I don’t understand since when there is high clocking winds and the boat swings, it requires the anchor to reset.  This means you may need a bit of space to drag a little before the anchor resets.  

Ron and I are those people who are usually 5 minutes early for everything so when we see weather coming, we get to the protected bay early and like to pick our spot.  We are wondering if this is the best strategy since somehow after we are there a day or two, someone ALWAYS ends up coming in at dusk the night before the storm and anchoring 50 feet away (way too close).  This is exactly what happened to us last time we were in Georgetown.  Is it better for us to be the folks coming in last minute deciding how close we want to get to someone, even if we don’t have the best anchor spots to pick from?  Time will tell but we are considering a change in strategy.

Armageddon – Long Island, Bahamas, February 27, 2022

And suddenly, we are Amish.  Imagine the song “Taps” playing in the background right now.  The AC inverter is dead and during its death it also took out the DC portion as well.   Zero power, black screens, nothing.  How did this happen?    Somehow we ended up with a mystery water leak under our sink.  No big deal, right?  Well, guess where our inverter and DC systems are mounted…under the kitchen sink.  This is the worst possible scenario when your boat depends on electrical power.  Things in our boat that run from electrical power…nearly everything.  This includes hot water (unless we run the diesel engines), water pump, oven, stove, refrigerator & freezer, washing machine, our electronics to see any weather updates & navigation.  Imagine sitting in your car with your eyes closed, and needing to drive across the state without opening your eyes.  No fun.  

What is not powered by the electrical system, the grill, our diesel engines, we can run the water maker with the gasoline powered generator, and the sails.    The positive side is we are anchored a very well stocked place with a fantastic marine store, awesome grocery store, fuel dock, and restaurant within walking distance!    In desperate times we also have peanut butter and rum.  This will be an expensive fix if we must replace the inverter but certainly possible.

Sailing husband has never met anything he couldn’t fix and had already started working on this one.  After the first few attempts, the inverter is truly dead.  He was able to get our DC power back which means we can charge a few devices, I have cold water (the water pump works) & drinking water, fridge & freezer, and our electronics (navigation).  He is currently scouring the internet for an option to ship here but our worst-case scenario is still very livable and if we have to simply do without it, it is possible for a few months until we get back to the states.

Where do I start?

The moment of terror high power, water and sweat!

 We had hoped to leave for Conception Island this morning but at this point, I am unsure if we will go or not.  The marine store opens at 8:00 and we will be lined up at the door to see our options.  Even a smaller inverter (like a 400 watt) would help us so we will see what they have.  Ours was 2,000 which has been difficult to find, and I have to assume impossible here not to mention the associated duty (+45%) we have been unfortunate to experience once already.  Let the Long Island adventure continue, I guess.  The cherry on top…no internet on Conception Island.  There is never a dull moment on our boat! 

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.

 Auf Wiedersehen – January 30, 2022

We had spent the last several days hanging out on the boat and Ron was fixing everything he could get his hands on.  He also baked me the best artisan bread ever!  We ended up eating it for lunch the next several days with bean dip, marinara, and oil with spices.   Gotta love a man who can not only cook but bake too!  I won the jackpot!

I also read through a cool book called “Follow me to Alaska” by Ann Parker.  Although the specifics of her situation are drastically different, our experiences are eerily the same.  As empty nesters they made a huge life change that everyone thinks they are insane for doing.  I understand and appreciate this.  One of my retirement goals was to have more time to read and it was great to finally have that.

As we waited out our final day today for the sea state to calm down, we decided to hike back to Boo Boo Hill to leave a plaque with our boat name and names on it.  Clearly, this was not an original idea, and we were not the first to arrive.

Ikea scrap Mariposa Sign.

Lots of boat signs over the years.

Once again the view from the top is always almazing

Tomorrow morning, we were heading to Staniel Cay since it was the only place we could get fuel and we now needed not just gasoline, but we decided to get diesel as well.  We were down to ½ a tank and would have few opportunities the farther south we went.  We enjoyed our time here and will potentially stop back at the park on our way back through but for now, auf wiedersehen.

 Exuma Land & Sea Park January 26, 2022

We have been waiting for some bad weather to come through on Saturday and with little interest in competing for mooring balls south in Cambridge or Staniel Cay, we decided to stay here til it let’s up on Sunday.  Several other boats we have been hanging out with decided to stay too which is great.

We have been having happy hour with all our cruiser friends the last few days and Ron is so excited to get one bread recipe to try.  Our friend learned from a lady who teaches bread making at Georgetown!  She made the best fresh bread and hummus for us the other night!  It was amazing!  We all headed out snorkeling to Judy’s Garden today which was the best coral and largest fish we have seen yet.  I got caught up in the current and was swept out for a bit but crawled my way back on the rock and made it back.  Oops – burned a few calories there.

There is never a lack of things to do and opportunities to help are everywhere if you make yourself available.  We have been volunteering to clear some of the trails.  Having borrowed their machete and branch cutter, we simply take them with us on our hikes.  We have cleared 4-5 trails so far and want to do a few others (mainly poisonwood forest & the ruins) which were very difficult to follow as it was so overgrown. 

The current plan is to go to Staniel Cay, as we will need gasoline to make water and for our dinghy.  Our provisions & Diesel seem to be holding very well, we just don’t have any fresh vegetables any longer.  An ugly cob of corn and two sad brussel sprouts are all that remain.  At least we still have nearly a dozen eggs and a few onions.  We will likely wait till we get to Georgetown to add to our stash there but have plenty of frozen and canned to last a while.  

The only boat part needed is for our shower drain pump.  It drains SOOOOO slowly now it is sad.  Ron took it apart already and it is unfixable (without something like an innertube).  Now I get to gingerly hold down the bilge button 4-5 time longer than normal while taking a 10 times shorter shower.  Not an easy task so this will also be a priority.  We are hoping it lasts til we have a chance to get the part.

Best bread ever!

 Exuma Land & Sea Park, January 23, 2022

It was my bright idea that I wanted to see the Davis Ruins on the Island and that would be a good activity since it was cloudy, and it would be a nice cool hike.  So, off we went.  We found the trail and started off.  Well, it was so poorly marked, I swear the rangers have a camera on their office and simply laugh as tourists get lost wandering around in circles.  Is it clear yet that yes, we were lost again? 

 We made it to the top of the hill and the bonus was – we have three bars of internet!  Sweet!  Aw least we know where we can get it!  Not to mention it was gorgeous!  Now blazingly sunny, we continued our wandering looking for the ruins, we found a “wall.”  I am using this term loosely.

Wonder what the sign says?   Probally something about death

In the Bahamas Ruins typically mean a pile of rocks.

The views from the top however are always worth it.

We were unsure if this was the ruins?  Are we here?  There was no sign, no trail marker, nothing.  Then of course, we see the ruins…on the top of the hill next to us.  Whoops.  We attempt to make our way over to the ruins via a “path” (also a term I use loosely).  As we made our way through poisonwood forest…again, we finally made it over to the ruins.  Yes, there was a sign.

This is considered a marked trail.  Notice the poison wood everywhere

Now the fun begins, we must go back…through the forest and how did we get here?  Ugh.  Since we finally made it back to the beach and neither of us had poisonwood yet, we found another hike. 

On a neighboring beach, we tried the Palmetto Forest and after nearly poking my eye out (close save), we did that one and Sahara Dessert hikes which ironically looked exactly the same…minus the eye issue.  If we leave the park without poisonwood, it will be a miracle. 

Ater our afternoon of “fun” Ron made me homemade pizza and we did a sunset hike up BooBoo Hill to pray to the Internet Gods with minimal success.

Stretch tall, turn south and bam you have 1 bar of cellular

 Exuma Land & Sea Park, January 22, 2022

Sailing Hubby & I knew we wanted to get involved in giving back in our early retirement and thus far we had expected our opportunity to come in the form on hurricane relief (which had not happened yet).  Instead, we had something else smacked us in the face.

One of the cruiser’s runs a charity called www.fishingforplastic.com

Bill and Angela recruited fellow cruisers to do a massive beach clean-up effort for the Land & Sea Park.  They have only 3 rangers and limited volunteers to keep up with a massive park system.  There are 32 parks in the Bahamas, and they manage all the Exuma Islands which has the largest and oldest.  It is also known as the strictest as a “no take zone.”  There is no internet, no trash, no grocery, or much civilization but there is abundant nature which is unmatched.

We spent the morning with just Ron and I and we gathered roughly 5 200-gallon trash bags of trash off 5 separate beaches.  Everyone spread out and covered all the beaches in the island.  I swear I found the body bag from Jimmy Hoffa.  In total there was 821 pounds of trash, so it was significant, and we then sorted is all into glass, aluminum, and plastic/landfill. 

At that point it would be transferred to Nassau where it would be either recycled, burnt, or landfilled.  The craziest thing the group found was an octopus trap used in Europe which has broken off their line and travelled across to be caught here from one of the storms.  Angela said they once found a message in a bottle and contacted the family of and 11-year-old boy who sent it out.  Very cool and I hope we can do more of this.  It’s amazing when you “put yourself in the path” what opportunities arise.  Are you in the path?

Fun group of crusiers to spend the day with

The amount of plastic was incredible

Park warden bringing in the load.

After a very hard morning on the sun, we relaxed in the afternoon.  I attempted to just float off the back of the boat but there were two circling 6-foot lemon sharks that continued to get closer, so Ron instructed me it was time to get out of the water.

We attended a cruisers beach sundowner happy hour that evening, and I spent time talking with the park ranger.  He said there are “host boats” who can sign in through the Bahamian Trust which runs the park to help them enforce the no take rules and keep poachers from fishing or trashing within the park boundaries.  Hmmm, more opportunities?

 Exumas Land & Sea Park, January 21, 2022

This place is exquisite.  There is no other way to describe the natural beauty here.

The water color is incredible

We arrived yesterday afternoon and after checking in promptly went for a snorkel at the “Coral Garden.”  How cool is that?  We saw a nurse shark just hanging on the bottom, it was the closest I have ever been to spotted eagle ray, and there are turtles everywhere that you can see popping there head out of the water to breathe.  It’s like the animals know you cannot hurt them.

The next morning started with a bit if excitement in the anchorage.  A 54’ charter yacht grounded itself (no clue how) and they had two land & sea boats there to try and pull them off.  I was on deck with fenders while Ron was helping to push them with the dinghy.  We ended up having to move and re-moor our boat to get out of the way enough to allow them to get off the sand once the tide came up enough.  After we got settled again, we headed off to hike the island.

What would possess you to drive into 1 foot of water?

It took us 2 hours to hike two miles.  Now mind you Ron and I can walk 6 miles on a regular sidewalk in 1 hour and 45 minutes.  This was more like hill climbing and bush whacking!  It would have paid to bring a machete.  After a very hot, long hike through the poison wood trees when we headed back to the boat.  I would be shocked it we are not both covered with it here soon.  We were grateful it didn’t rain since even if it drips on you, you get the rash!  We swam & relaxed in the afternoon then headed to sundowners on our neighbor’s boat.  All in all, a successful day in paradise!

The hike to no where

It is easy to follow the signs if you can see them

Posion Wood tree, most hikes were through the posion tree forest.

Yes this is part of the hike, this is considered a bridge

Hey here is a hole with a ladder, has to be cool right

The ladder was totally safe, right?

Was the climb down worth it?    NOPE!

American Made & Pablo Escabar – Norman Cay, Exumas

We finally got out of Royal Island and Spanish Wells!  There was nothing was bad about it, there just wasn’t much there and we had not been off the boat in 4 days.  I was rejoicing to be sailing again.  We had settled on a destination of Exumas Land & Sea Park and Norman Cay was on our way.  We stopped over for the night since at least we could get off the boat and it was only 10 miles away.  after our unwelcome time at Highbourne Key, we were glad to be heading here.

After we dropped anchor, we tried to snorkel pablo esbar’s plane wreck but the water was freezing – even for Ron.  We went to plan B which was to explore the island.  Honestly, other than a super yacht marina and an airport, it was pretty desserted.  Wran accross a beautiful stone path and stopped two locals (the only people we saw on the island), and they told us this is where the movie American Made was filmed (with Tom Cruise) and the movie crew had built all that was here and left it to the island we they were finished.  Now I understand the airport and super yacht marina.

Because 21 is too fast

Huge Docks but no Marina?   oh and $7 a foot to stay

The runway is almost as long as the entire island

After our walk down the yellow brick road, we decided to have happy hour on the beach.  We gathered our chairs and camped out to await the sunset, grill, and get a good night’s sleep before we headed to the mooring we had reserved at the park tomorrow.  It was anchors up at 9:00am and we were off!   Best thing about most things here in the Bahamas is all of our entertainment and 1/2 our rent is free! 

Not a bad way to end the day.

Our own deserted beach bar.

Our First Squall – Royal Island, Eleuthera – January 17, 2022 – Ron’s View

Royal island is a pretty enough place if you like looking out the window at paradise and not being able to go to paradise.   See Royal island’s lone value is a luxury vacation destination that will cost you $20K a night.   I am sure Beyounce or JLo frequent this place, we however are not welcomed.  They “discourage” you from getting off your boats here.  What it does provide is incredible protection from the frequent cold fronts the Bahamas tend to get this time of year.    We know this because well we have had 4 fronts come through in the week we have been here.   Each front would come beat us up and then pass.  Each time our anchor held firm, well until the last one.   

Last night is best described as a shit show I would call a learning experience.    A bit of history, Winter Storm Izzy which produced a ton of snow to the states, also made her presence here in the tropics.    It is a bit different here then what you get in the states.  Instead of snow we get the squalls.  They means the front moves through.   Let me explain a bit about weather.   

As the fronts come through the difference in temperature and pressure feed a 360 degree wind shift.  360 degrees protection from that kind of wind shift is almost non-existent in the Bahamas.  Royal Island is one of those places. so you tolerate the inability to step on land.   We will call this “Hotel California” you can check out any time you want but you can never leave.   

Anyway, back to the squall night we had.   To keep it simple around 9:13, because well I watched the clock waiting for it came and with it a 50+ knot gust that pushed our boat out of its safe space, which resulted in the anchor dragging.   An anchor dragging is not a great thing, especially when you are being pushed into shallow water where ell the boat does not float.    We got that, in about 5 seconds.   Let me tell you that things become crystal clear in times like these.  Time tends to slow down in chaos, the following is what we did that saved our boat.   

Anchor alarms goes off, captains shits his pants (no time to change them).   At the very same time the chart plotter alarm goes off saying the depth is too DEEP to anchor.  Confusion sets in because, well we are actually too shallow to anchor. 

Wait let me explain a chart plotter.  If you remember back to the packman days it is the device that tells you where to go to eat the dots and stay away from the guys that eat you.    It is rather important when it is pitch black and your anchor is dragging.  The plotter tells you things like where are you dragging and where can you go to save yourself.  When a chart plotter is telling you that you cannot anchor where you are, you cannot see a path to get out.  Fun times.  In the end Sally held my phone in the companion way with the anchor dragging app running so I can see a path to safely move the boat.  

Anyway, back to the story, in the 5 second time we realized we were dragging, I had the engine running to drive into the wind to reduce the pressure on the anchor so we could get it to reset.  In a squall of 50+ knots of gust, the rain comes down so hard that it eats the flesh off your eyeballs.   I swear my eyebrows are gone and you cannot see or even open your eyes to determine which way you drive the boat.   I imagine it is much like walking through one of those automated car washes.   You know the kind that does not really clean your car but will rip the windshield wipers clean off.      That was pretty much it.

In the 5 minutes of terror, we stopped the drag, drove into the wind and found the exit to Hotel California.   Luck?  Skill?  Who knows what it was but we drug 100 feet in that time of 5 seconds and another 20 feet would be put us in water that was too shallow to float.   It made for an interesting night.

Two questions…was there beer involved?   No, we knew this could be a bad night, we need a clear head, and two…why did you drag?   We really do not know.  We had all of our chain out, which gave us an anchoring scope of 13:1.   You should have 5-7:1, so we were way better when we needed to be.   The anchor is over size for this boat and I dove it myself prior to make sure it was actually dug in.   We have nothing to change to make sure this never happens again.  Sometimes shit happens.  

All of this is in a matter of seconds that lasted a lifetime.  We are fortunate.   Three other boats in the same anchorage drug, so I guess strength is in numbers.  Now where did I place the rum?

Here it comes.