Woman Overboard!

Well, today was a first for me. We had a storm last night. There was a lot of lightning over the island, but no thunder, and the winds picked up quite a bit. This morning we had whitecaps in the harbour right outside of George Town where we are anchored. We had decided to put the dinghy in and so looking to find the person who runs a local WiFi that we were picking up to get service, do some grocery shopping, and fill our water jugs. It was a bumpy ride over to the dinghy dock, but we didn't get very wet and it was a short ride. (Those coming from the other side of the harbour weren't so lucky.)

On the way back, we needed to drop off an access card for the Internet to another boater here in this archorage. That boat was outside the point that protects us and we were getting really splashed. We finally found him and headed to our boat. While I was trying to get off the dinghy onto our boat, a wave hit and took me overboard. Luckily, the water temp and air temp are around 84 degrees today, so it was like falling into a bathtub. The water was rough though. I hung onto the dinghy and Bob pulled it over to the side with the swim ladder, so I, and my very wet ego could get on the boat.

Bob failed the man overboard drill test because he was laughing so hard I had to ask him to give me a life preserver. Bob says we should change the name of the boat from "Pretty Penny" to "Bobbin' Penny." He kept humming Amazing Grace all through lunch. I can't wait till the day he falls in.

The grocery store here is restocked every Wednesday and Thursday. The boat that brings the food comes on Tuesday. We decided to go again today to see what else had been put out. We find that the produce goes quickly, but so far, have been able to find what we need. The store reminds me of the corner grocery store where I grew up and was sent to as a child to get things for dinner. From what we have seen, it is the best thing, second only to the stores in Nassau. Food prices are higher, as you would expect. There are no chain stores here, nor is there a Wallmart anywhere in the Bahamas.

Bob taking groceries to the dinghy dock in Lake Victoria

Exuma Market

Exit from Lake Victoria back to the harbour

Well, I must show a photo of the little shack where the guy that runs the Internet service. This guy also has the roosters that I hear in the morning, middle of the night, and all day. At least we have a slow Internet service for $15 a week. How often do you run into a small business owner that runs and Internet service and raises chickens?

The "High Tech" Hut

That blasted Rooster

The weather should get back to normal later in the week. The nice thing is that the storm front reduced the humidity, so today is very pleasant.

George Town

We heard that there is a weather front coming through on Tuesday, so we decided to make the run to George Town on Sunday. Part of the trip we follow the West coast of the Exuma Island chain (the more protected side), then at Little Farmers Cay, we need to cross through and follow the Eastern shore of the chain. When the weather is bad, that latter half of our trip could be difficult. As it turns out, we had a great trip with water almost as smooth as glass.

Three Sisters Rocks in the Exumas

George Town is the largest city in the Exumas and has a harbour protected by Stocking Island, a narrow strip of land from which I assume it got its name. This creates an anchorage that is about 6 to 7 miles long. It is also a great place to come by boaters cruising the Bahamas for the winter and serves as a turn-around point for many.

The town is geared for supporting the boating community and has a nice grocery store that has its own dinghy dock in a protected inlet called Lake Victoria and they allow boaters to leave their trash in the dumpster for free. They also have free water at the dock for boaters to fill their jerry jugs at.

There is a Straw Market where locals sell T Shirts and local crafts and baskets made by the ladies on the islands. It is not as large as the one is Nassau, but has about the same selection, minus the fake designer purses. You are pretty much only going to find the “basics” here, but a good selection of those. Bob was surprised to see that the store had capers, and that there were eight different kings of them!

At this time of year, there are between 400 to 500 boats in the harbor. Bob had been looking through the binoculars on the way South and said all the masts in the harbor reminded him of a forest about a year after a fire, where all the bark was stripped off the remaining trees.

We docked close to Stocking Island the first night. It was near a little beach with a food vendor run by a little hotel and restaurant in George Town called Peace and Plenty. We got off the boat and walked on the beach and played with a couple of “beach kitties” until they were treed by a couple of boat dogs. We had thought about having a pet on board, but am so glad we don’t have to find places where we can take the dogs to be watered two or three times a day. We’ll stick with “Fred” the toy parrot for now.

Beach Kitty Standoff

The second night, we moved in close to the George Town side near the only marina in George Town. It turns out our friends on Belleza, Grant and Brenda, although about a day behind us, decided to make the run on Sunday from Staniel Cay using the outside route all the way. We ran into them in town on Monday, and they were moving to the marina, so they could get water, fuel, and do laundry. We had dinner with them on Monday night.

Tuesday, a man that provides weather services on the radio every morning held a training session at the Community Center for all the boaters and Grant and Bob attended that.

This cruising community is quite organized holding events, sharing information, on the “Cruisers Net” every morning at 8:15 on VHF 72. It appears that because this island has regular airline service to Nassau, a lot of boaters have guests arrive and depart from here also. They even announce when someone is leaving so that they can share the taxi van when leaving. They also announce when someone is leaving and can take mail for people back to the states or to Canada (for the Canadians).

The first week of March, there is a cruising Regatta here, when my daughter Mindy and her husband Jim will be here visiting us. The place should really be jumping then. We’ll spend some time in town with them, and then head out to anchor off some of the many beaches on the less populated islands and snorkel and fish.

The water is now around 84 degrees, so swimming is almost no longer refreshing. Because there are so many boaters here that are almost permanent and they all dump tanks in the harbor, rather than making a day trip out three miles to dump, the guidebooks recommend that you not do much swimming in the harbor itself. The town is looking into having a pump-out service for the boats anchored here.

The following photo is an unusual cloud formation - Note the blue streaks.

Sunset in the Exumas

Black Point

We left Staniel Cay this morning for s short hop to Black Point. It is another small island. We were only underway about 2 and half hours to get here. We had lunch at a local restaurant and found a place with Internet. The best thing is that there is a Laundromat here. We can stand to do some laundry. We don't use our washer much since our watermaker is not working. The part comes early March. I do use the dryer a lot though.

Here is a photo we took off the dinghy dock in Staniel Cay of a nurse shark. They hang around the dock when the fishing boats come in each day. It is amazing how clear the water is. We have no trouble checking to see our anchor is set.

We will leave tomorrow morning for Little Farmers Cay, then we go to George Town. Weather will be rough starting Tuesday night, so we need to make waves in the meantime. Have a great weekend.

Staniel Cay

We left the Exuma Park on the 21st and arrived on Staniel Cay the same day. It is a very small island and town, where they drive golf carts and few cars, much like on Tangier or Smith Islands in the Chesepeake Bay.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club Cottages

Dinghy Dock and View from Dock of Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Swimming Pool at the Yacht Club

We anchored out close to an island that is inhabited by swimming pigs - I am not kidding - they really do swim.

Bob checking up on email at eh Yacht Club. A real boaters hang-out.

Exuma Land and Sea Park - Day #2

We decided to stay another day here at beautiful Warderick Wells, part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. It started out a really hot and humid day, although the water is so clam, we thought we were sleeping on dry land last night.

We went over to the Park Office and paid for another day. This time I took the camera and got some photos from the porch overlooking the moorings.

Dinghy beach with the bones of a 52 Ft. Sperm Whale bones displayed on the beach.

North Mooring Field

Second photo of North Mooring Field

Emerald Rock Mooring Field (We are one of the boats in the distance)

The day cooled off this afternoon and it is really pleasant again. We took the dinghy over to one of the beaches. This is what the trail looks like - you need really good walking shoes.

Dinghy on the beach

Bob enjoying life

Allans Cay and Exuma Land and Sea Park

Iguana on Allans Cay

We left Nassau on the 15th and headed on to Allans Cay. This little island is uninhabited - that is - there are no people. However, there are a ton of iguanas. The island, and a couple of other smaller ones are home to what appear to be tame animals. They are not. The guidebook says to leave your pets and toddlers on the boat! Twice a day cruise tour boats show up for people to walk around with them.

Tour boats have arrived for the iguanas to see the people!

Well, while we were in the anchorage at Allans Cay, we experienced some boat trouble again. This time the fuel oil pump on the generator failed. Lucky for us the folks on Deuces Wild, Bruce and Carla, had an extra pump on their boat and Bob got it to work. Bless you Bruce!

Deuces Wild

Then Bob started the engine on the port side and it died after running for a couple of minutes. When he started it again, it ran even less - third time it made no attempt to start. That sounded to us like a fuel problem, so Bob changed filters, and luckily it started! One of our friends has said that a trip like this is an exercise in "fixing complex systems in exotic places!" How right he is.

Boats at anchor at Allan Cay

While we were there, Grant and Brenda on Belleza caught up with us too. It is always comforting to see some of the folks we've met along the way again. We puttered around in our dinghy enjoying the area and swimming near the boat. Beaches were out since the iguanas own them.

Belleza

We decided to move on yhesterday to the Exuma Land and Sea Park. This is a 176 mile area of cays, rocks, and reefs running from Little Wax Cay int he north to Conch Cut in the south, and is founded by Exuma Sound on one side and the Exuma Bank on the other. No fishing or taking of anything are allowed.

The Park Headquarters in on Warderick Wells Cay. We arrived to late yesterday to check in, so we $e up to $20 a day to tie up to a mooring ball and $10 a day for Internet. What a deal. This place could not be more beautiful. It is the kind of place you will only see by boat. There are no places to rent on land in the way of a cottage or hotel, and no airstrip.

We took a walk across the island to the other side after checking in. It was a tough walk to say the least. We wish we had retired sooner. It was quite hot and we had onlyh taken one water bottle with us. We were really bushed when we got back, but the scenery from the top of the island where you could see both sides was incredible. We had not carried our camera, so I'm including a link to some info on the park. We'll take photos tomorrow. http://www.bnt.bs/parks_exuma.php

The snorkling here is fantastic. I found this site of some photos taken of the underwater life that are better than anything I could take. We will go snorkling tomorrow. http://www.pbase.com/imperium/exumas_underwater

We are moored next to two small sailboats with children aboard. One has three children and the other has four! I can't imagine doing that, but I'm sure the kids are having a ball. Many people do this and home school their children as they travel. So it is not just old retirees out here travelling by boat.

It is so peaceful here that I almost hate to make the keys on the computer click. Good Night.

Nassau and Paradise Island

Approaching Paradise Island - that is the Atlantis Hotel in the background

On Sunday the 10th, we moved over to the Nassau harbor, staying at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina. The weather was expected to get very windy - the leftover storm that passed through the East Coast earlier in the week - was due to hit the Bahamas.

Houses along the Paradise Island waterfront that weren't here 5 years ago.

Our friends on Belleza, Grant and Brenda, also moved to this marina too. Tom chose to stay at Hurricane Hole Marina the first night and then he anchored in the harbor.

Shemya following us into the Nassau Harbor.

We had some rough nights, but overall we were happy to be at the marina. Brenda and I walked to downtown Nassau one day and "did the town." We took a Jitney back to the marina for a $1. Well worth the money. The next day, Bob and I went over to poke around the Atlantis Hotel. Most of the really good things to see are now part of a $30 per person tour. We had seen the tunnel under the huge aquarium when we had visited Paridise Island a few years back. There were some huge ships in the harbor there. Most were titled in the Cayman Islands, probably due to tax breaks. Our boat would have been a dinghy there.

Brenda and Grant at Atlantis
This boat was painted a gold and black sceme. That is a zebra striped gold cart nest to it on the dock.

Atlantis from the Harbor

Bob was supposed to leave and go back to the states this week for a consulting job, but was unable to get a flight out in time to connect to his meetings. The bad weather in the states messed up flights as far as the Bahamas! As a result, we at least get to spend Valentine's Day together.

We've been busy doing last minute things to the boat and getting groceries. This will be the last port we will hit until we get to George Town in the Exumas. We will leave tomorrow and hope to get South of some bad weather again headed our way. Most of the other boats in the marina that were hanging out till the weather cleared, left today. The marina is expecting a lot of boats coming from the Miami Boat Show soon, so they want us out of here.

Another interesting sunset cloud formation.

We'll post again when we get Internet. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Rose Island

This is the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island taken with a zoom lens from our anchorage near Rose Island.

"Little" boat anchored by us off Rose Island. They had all the toys too - sea doo, kayak, towable raft, and dinghy.

Tour Boat from Nassau

Next we went to an anchorage on the South side of Rose Island within sight of Nassau. After four tries to set out anchor, we finally got the anchor to set in sand like concrete. The wind was strong and we had the worst night sleeping so far. There were times I thought I should just sleep on the floor for fear of falling out of bed. The next morning we discovered that our swim ladder was missing off the end of the boat from the strong waves. Bob put the dinghy in and went looking for it in the rough waves all along the craggy coastline. After about two hours, he finally gave up. I think it is probably washing up in Gibraltar now. (We did find a replacement for it in Nassau, at twice the cost of West Marine, but hey, “ya gotta do what ya gotta do.”)

We then moved around to the North side of Rose Island and found a beautiful anchorage – the kind we came to the Bahamas for. White sand beach with such calm water I could lay on the float and not go anywhere. It had some nice snorkeling reefs too. Our friend Tom, and Grant and Brenda on Belleza from Vancouver, joined us at anchor there. They all came over to our boat and we sat on top the boat and had wine and chatted. We could see fireworks near the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island.

Chub Cay and Super Bowl

Lighthouse on island we passed along the way.

We left the morning of Feb. 2nd, and continued on to Chub Cay, where we anchored for the night. There is one marina on Chub Cay that we found out is very private. They charge a $100 fee just to bring your dinghy in to the dock and have a look around. Needless to say, I only took pictures from the water. It appeared that they catered to large sport fishing boats. There were many houses that could be rented along with the beach and a club house. The island has a small airfield for arrival and departure of guests.

The next day, we moved around to another part of the same Cay, although it is called Frazier’s Hog Cay on this part. On this side of the cay there is one very small marina. Luckily, they had two large screen TVs where we could watch the Super bowl Game. There were some other cruisers there and a lot of local folks that came to watch the game. Turns out, the locals were NY Giants fans, so you can imagine how excited they all were at the end of the game.

We had not been able to anchor very close to the marina. By the time the game was over, it was pitch black, and we had forgotten our flashlight. There was almost no light at the dock. We had to climb down a ladder and get into the dinghy, feeling with our feet to make sure the boat was there. Bob had thought to purchase a stern light and a bow running light for the dinghy before we left Florida.. Once we got on the dinghy, he was able to turn those own, so we had some light. Next time, we WILL remember to take a flashlight also.

Earlier on Sunday after we had anchored, we took the dinghy over to a little beach nearby. Bob tied up one of our rafts to the dinghy anchor and I floated in the shallow water while he read on the beach. We had the small beach to ourselves, but it wasn’t a well protected, or cared for beach.

We decided to stay at our anchorage on Monday as well. We tried doing some laundry by hanging it in a mesh bag off the boat and letting the waves “agitate” it. I then rinsed the clothes in fresh water and hung them up on a clothesline Bob had put on the radar arch. We then put them in the dryer to finish them off and soften them a little. Seemed to work great and it saves fresh water, since we need a part for the water desalination system.

It is interesting to be able to see the hull of the boat in the clear water here. The water goes from what I call “Vick’s Menthol Rub Jar Blue,” to “Empty Coke Bottle Green” and all shades in between. You can “read” the water depth by learning what shade of water goes with what depth. The water seems like molten glass.

The next day we took our dinghy around the end of the island in pretty shallow water. There were large dark shadows in the water that looked at first like loose floating grass. It turned out to be rays swimming below and around us.

Still unable to add photos, will add them when I can.

Crossing the Great Bahama Bank

We left February 1st to cross the Great Bahama Bank on our way to Chub Cay in the group of islands called the Berry Islands. It is really quite shallow for open water. There is a really shallow area about half-way to Chub Cay (Cay is pronounced Key). We dropped the anchor for the night there. It was probably the most peaceful night we have had. Imagine, being the only boat with nothing but water around you, no land in sight, and millions of stars above. There was a little glow to the Northwest horizon which we determined must have been the Miami area, but that was it. It was nice that the water was calm too.

Crossing the Gulf - Piece of Cake

This is one of several houses outside of Miami that are supposedly available for rent (I think by Introverts only!) No one appeared to be using the ones we saw. Need a secluded spot for a vacation?

We successfully crossed the Gulf on the 31st, leaving from Coconut Grove, FL, and arriving in Bimini the same day. The cruise was uneventful – thank heavens. Although not as smooth as the prior days cruise, which was like glass, we really only had a 2-3 hour patch with any waves of significance. We had picked a fairly nice day to cross the Gulf Stream. The day’s cruise was no longer than most of our cruising days, getting in well before dusk. We had connected with another boater that was crossing the same day, and we stayed in touch as we crossed. Tom, the Captain of the Shemya had made the trip a couple of times before, so it was comforting talking with him along the way. We met him in Bimini at the marina and had a nice chat.

Entering BiminiEntering Bimini #2
Bob took the dinghy over to the Customs and Immigration dock to check us in. You have to put up a yellow flag on the boat and only the Captain goes to check in. Once you are cleared, you take down the yellow flag and put up a Bahamas courtesy flag along with our American flag on the boat. We then broke out the Champagne and toasted our safe crossing. Life is good.

Flying the Yellow Quaranteen Flag Big Game Marina on Bimini