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.

 The Big Deal about Spanish Wells – Royal Harbor Island, Eleuthera

 Ron and I have been anchored in Royal Island Harbor for the last 6 days.  It’s nice as it offers 360 protection, which we needed so we stayed.   There are always roughly 7 boats here, though not the same ones since they come and go.  One of our “crossing buddies” invited us to happy hour on Sunday and we happily obliged.  They were a lovely couple, on their 4^th year here with their monohull.  Sadly, they called us the next morning to say their captain came down with a high fever shortly after we left, and they hoped it was not the dreaded COVID.  Oh great. 

 Well, we were supposed to meet the rest of the “cruising parade” tomorrow for lunch but declined due to our exposure to who knows what.  Instead, we got off the boat and decided to simply walk around Spanish Wells to check the place out.  We had heard it was the most amazing place to provision, and fun stuff to do.  We were very underwhelmed.  While there is a small grocery store, health clinic, couple marine stores, and we did hit it on a holiday (everything was closed), there still isn’t much there.  It seemed very run down with a bunch of stucco houses in disarray.  It was not nearly as nice or quaint as Hopetown.  We ended up on the patio of a small restaurant called Wrecker’s.  Good pizza and the first time we have had draft beer in two months!  So, there is that!

 At this point, I feel like we have seen what there is to see here and am not desperate enough for provisions (by any means!).  We hoped to take off tomorrow since neither of us of want to stay on the boat another 5 days til there is a multi-day break in the weather on next Tuesday.   Well, surprise surprise, we did end up staying til Tuesday.  There wasn’t anywhere protected enough for us to get to in one day.  A few boats went to Hatchet Bay, but we decided to wait since the holding there was unpredictable and did end up getting a chance to have lunch with a few of the cruisers after all at Buddah’s here in Spanish Wells.

 To entertain ourselves, Ron went snorkeling and caught 4 more lobsters.  He made some new friends as he gave three away and kept one for himself.  The water was very cold, and I didn’t brave it.  He wasn’t in there long but just enough time for his seafood stash.  We also hit the main grocery store to pick up a few extras and had lunch for the second time at Wrecker’s. 

It is starting to get easy not bad for 10 minutes in the water.

 The new plan is, is we take off tomorrow and head down to Highborne Cay.  It is another little place, only 9.5 hours away, with southerly protection and easy anchoring.  Ooh – free anchorage with restaurants, laundry, and seahorses!  Sounds perfect.  At least we won’t have a 20-minute dinghy ride (which keeps us on the boat here during bad weather in Spanish Wells).  I have seen all there is to see here and am ready to go but it has been important we learn to be patient as our weather windows are key to our success.

 En Route to Royal Island 

We took a dinghy tour of the mangroves off the coast of Lynyard Island yesterday to see the turtles and boy were we rewarded.  We saw no less than 100!  It seemed they were everywhere snacking on the turtle grass enjoying the warmth of the shallow waters.  Very cool but contrary to popular belief they are fast, and we didn’t get a good photo.  It’s like trying to capture the dolphins.

The mangroves were pretty cool in their own right and it has been a while since we have driven that close to them.  Apparently, the mangroves are endangered due to loss of habitat.  Typically, they occupy very shallow water and are important to build habitats for baby reef fish, sea grass for the turtles, and coral reef.  Their complex network of roots is quite beautiful.

We are heading down today to Royal Island, and it is the last open ocean cut we will have to do since our plan (boat insurance) doesn’t let us go any farther south than Clarence Town.  The Abacos are beautiful but based on the time of year, just a bit too chilly to swim and I am looking forward to heading south.  We will likely pass back through here on our way up as there is still plenty we have not yet done here (i.e. Man-O-War snorkeling).

For now, we are off to Eleuthera and so far we have made it through the cut and the swells are not too bad.  Sailing hubby has nailed another weather window!  It may be our last for a bit and being south gives us some more options without braving the open ocean.  Seems are part of a 7-boat parade this morning and there are plenty of others who had the same idea we did.  We also have heard there have been a few COVID breakouts in Georgetown and Nassau so if we can stay away from the bigger cities, there are many places to simply anchor offshore when we get south.  Also if they shot anything down again, I sure would like to be in the Exumas!

Beautiful sunrise to start this passage

Have the rod out looking for dinner

Crazy traffic on this passage

We counted 6 ships coming together at one time.   AIS is pretty helpful in these conditions.

Hopetown, Bahamas 

My International education has been coming along nicely.  I have learned that Hopetown has the smallest cars to fit their teeny tiny streets which is awesome.  They use very little gas and the island isn’t that big.  Compared to the USA and the consistent, truck/SUV fetish everyone seems to have, it is a bit startling to see them.  They all seem to look like cartoon cars.  Also, when walking home one night after dark, there are NO streetlights…at all.  It was so dark I could hardly find the road.  These are things we take for granted and come across as surprising to me in my sheltered little life.

Dark as in DARK

One of the bigger vans in the island

Then there are the prices for everything food & drink related.  Beer is $80 a case which makes me miss Walmart where cheap beer can be had for less than $20 a case.  We happened to find and excellent deal at one of the restaurants here selling out their stock of Island Beer for $25 a case so we bought 4 cases so far and may go back for more.  Needless to say, we did not provision our beer very well.  A box of Cheerios is $9.27 here vs. $3.98 at home and they heavily tax cheese which makes me sad.  Even hummus is $11 for a little package of Sabra.  That is quite the duty.

Speaking of duty, our boat parts are in and we decided to head back to Marsh Harbour for another lovely walk and to pick them up.  As long as we were at it we could pick the SIM card we didn’t get last time.  We paid $241 total for the boat parts plus $86 in shipping then add the duty of $170.  OUCH!  We left thinking we had every boat part known to man then the only thing we don’t have breaks.  Of course, Murphy strikes again.  Sadly, it is a necessary item we cannot run the engine without so…$497 poorer, we will get our parts.  Well at least we had snorkeled the prior day and have seen the best reef we have seen since “The Indians” in BVI.  Ron had caught 4 Lobsters with his handy little Hawaiian sling, and he was eating high on the hog…for free!  He ended up trading two for chocolate cake.  Not sure how I made out on this deal but cake?  Smack the donkey!  I love traveling!

Biggest Stag horn coral we have seen

Very heathy reef

Dinner for a few days

The day after our snorkel adventure, we headed back to Hopetown Harbour to pick up our mooring again since we were full on water, needed to remedy our trash situation (which was getting full), and some weather was heading our way.  We planned to fix the engine and wait this out before heading south to Little Harbour.  Ron let me drive the boat back into the harbor and I only scared one boat on my way in.  Not too terrible for a first time.  I have driven the boat before a little but only our where I have nothing to hit.  there is a bit different and let’s say, I have some practice to do.  I handed the reins back to Ron to pick up the mooring, so we didn’t lose the other engine!

As we were tromping around Marsh Harbour the next day in a full downpour, we were joking about our new mode of transportation…walking, which somehow just became funny.  The good news is our boat parts were in, we attempted to get a SIM card with no avail, and we made a last stop at Maxwell’s grocery.  Strikes me as funny again but did you know they still make Sanka Coffee and Tang?  I think they stopped selling these in the U.S. back in the 70’s.  I am not knocking this as Funyuns had made their way into my cart which ironically have 0% onions!?!  Anyway, while heading back waiting on the Ferry we met another older gentleman who as we chatted with as he downed a 6 pack of beer in less than an hour.  That there is talent, but he said it fixed his back issues so there you have it.  The secret cure.

One small seal stopped everything

$500 worth of boat parts. We celebrate cheaply

January 1, 2022, Tahiti Beach, Hopetown Bahamas

Happy New Year!  So, I have this curse from my father that when someone gets hurt, I think it’s funny and laugh before I can pull it together to ask if they are all right.  Now this only applies to slapstick falling down stuff, not cutting your finger type stuff.  Anyway, Ron and I had spent the last several days at Tahiti Beach ringing in the new year and enjoying the “Thirsty Cuda” which is a floating beach restaurant bar.  It is a beach party every day.

Tahiti Beach

Thristy Cuda

Cheap Beer but does it really matter?

So, picture this, beach full of people and we zoom up on our dinghy.  Ron wants to be cool and just drive the dinghy up on the beach to “beach” it then throw out the anchor.  The way it played out didn’t look like that.  Instead, it was more like Operation Neptune.  Don’t tempt Neptune, he will win every time.  We pulled up to a hard crash into the beach which lurched Ron onto the floor of the dinghy!  Uh, opps!  So now I am laughing hysterically while Ron is trying the get off the floor of the dinghy and still pull off looking like he knows what he is doing.  Didn’t happen and I think those who were paying attention got as good a laugh as I did from it.  Rookie Mistake #2 don’t try that again, slowly head to shore and get out before attempting to throw the anchor!  Apparently there some things you simply must learn the hard way.

On a more serious note, we took a 5-mile hike on the other side of the island this morning which was beautiful.  It was mostly beach with island base exposed where the hurricane had taken the sand.  We came across a house which was a blatant remanent of Hurricane Dorian.  Seems there are reminders of her everywhere.  The house was beautiful before this horrific event.  You could tell from the exquisite woodwork on the ceiling which had fallen in, time and detail taken in the shelving of the office and design on the kitchen and fireplace.  It was so sad.  We climbed up the infinity pool which was empty and neglected and gingerly tiptoed through the house.  A reminder of how grateful I am for all that I have when there are still folks here struggling to rebuild their lives.

The beach erosion tells the story

Totally Gutted!

The pool view would of been incredible

 Hopetown, Bahamas

Norman Rockwell was an American painter famous for his reflections of American society for over 50 years, Christmas specifically.  He painted the perfect view of the 1950’s family sitting at the table all around a perfect turkey enjoying the day, drama free.  I was one of the lucky ones and it was how I grew up, in a Disneyworld environment and I will be forever grateful to my parents for creating this.  I lived up to this standard and created this for my children most of their lives whether they remember it, I don’t know.  Outside of the drama my divorce created, it was all they knew.

Then came COVID, then came my kids starting to choose their own college and job experiences.  These are all choices they are now learning have impact since not all these choices were close to home.  The Christmas they once knew were not happening every year as not all of us were together.  When your family starts to fan apart geographically, how does Christmas still feel like Christmas if you are not all together?  When you are managing a blended family with multiple ex-spouses and schedules, how do you keep the traditions alive you once knew to be a part of every year?  We pondered some of these questions and headed back to spend the perfect day back in Tahiti Beach on a sandbar in the middle of the clearest water I have ever seen.  I wonder how Norman Rockwell would depict a Zoom Christmas.

Sailing Husband was still wrestling with the water pump, which he determined was a larger issue than we thought causing us to fix before we could move on.  Ron ended up figuring out a way to get a rebuild kit shipped to Marsh Harbour.  The next day we headed into the harbor to make water and anchor for the day.  After our drama of yesterday, a change of scenery was in order, and this was the perfect excuse.  In the event making water works (please work!), we will not need to add water-maker parts to our water pump order.  We planned to go into Marsh harbor later in the week to pick up the order.  Once fixed, we could move along in our journey.  If we are going to be waylaid, this really is the perfect place!  It’s a tough life but we will try to suffer through.  I think snorkeling is in order today.

One small seal can delay everything

Inported parts at 100% duty, time for celebration!

Merry Xmas from Tahiti Beach

 Marsh Harbour, Bahamas

 We needed to get up early today to take the Ferry over to Marsh Harbour, as it was our only hope of finding a freight forwarder to ship back my work computer.  Normally we would have taken over the boat and anchored for the night but apparently there were still unmarked sunk boats sunk in the harbor, and we were uninterested in taking the chance of hitting one.  I think we were both shocked to see how much devastation was still left untouched after the hurricane.  It was like nothing I have seen since the Xenia tornados when my parents took us over to see the damage as kids. 

While we were waiting for the ferry, very nice South African man sitting near us started chatting and he was a builder working in Hopetown for the next few months.  Well, there was certainly plenty of work for him.  We chatted with him on the ferry most of the way over.  We took off walking to the shipping place and he pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride.  Well since we were professional hitchhikers now (this being time #2), we hopped in and away we went.  Very nice guy and he dropped us at the shipping office saving us a 2 mile walk there.

We went to three different shipping places and after the third we were still out of luck.  Tired, sweaty, and discouraged, we took a seat on the front steps of a little plaza in front of a few shops.  One happened to be the Bible bookstore and a sweet old lady who asked if we needed help?  We told her our dilemma and apparently, she knew a guy for that!  We took his number and arranged a meeting at the only gas station around which was of course a few miles down. 

He appeared to be a legit freight forwarder who had an export license, so we handed over our package and the cash.  Again, things that happen here that I would never do in the states, but the sense of community here is amazing.  I was thrilled we had found a way to get this done and we grabbed more cash from the only bank we could find and tried to get a sim card but had no luck.  We made our steps goal today at around 18,000, were exhausted, and out of options, we made the long trek back to the ferry and home.

Could be worse places to walk

Long pull back to the water

95% of the houses are just riped apart!