Lee Stocking Island

On the 13th, we moved the boat North to the next island up the chain called Lee Stocking Island. The guidebook said that the island is the home of the Caribbean Marine Research Center, which is one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Undersea Research centers. It is affiliated with several US universities and the United States Geological Survey. The guidebook said they offered tours and descriptions of their many ongoing experiments.

Unfortunately, the facility was closed due to servere damage from tropical storm Noel last November. This caused most of their labs to be flooded and other damage. It was disappointing to find out they were closed. Bob had been interested in finding a good anchorage in preparation for a front to come through on Sunday and Monday and this anchorage was protected by hills on the North and East sides. We found out later that the facility is to re-open this June, so hope to be able to tour it next winter if we come this way.

So instead of visiting the facility, we took the dinghy and explored several beaches we had passed on the way. Bob managed to get a little too much sun, so we spent the next day reading on the boat.

This little anchorage by the now a temporaily mothballed scientific facility, was filled with about 8 boats the first night. Our second night it looked like we would have the anchorage all to ourselves until late in the afternoon when a sailboat called “Better Days” arrived. We dinghied over and met Connie and Steve. They were in the process of going to George Town. We were able to share info on George Town and they provided us info on several islands we have not been to yet. We had them over for a nice evening watching the sunset and dinner. They have plans to make it to Panama.

On Sunday, the water was like glass (calm before the storm). Let’s see, what shall we do. Another day lolling on the beach and floating in the water on a beach all to ourselves. Oh darn.

Sunday night, the wind that was projected arrived, but no rain is expected. We are wll protected in the anchorage. Since Bob was a lobster from the sun yesterday and day before, we decided to stick near the boat. Bob covered up well and got out the boat wax and worked on the boat a little. I got out my paints and started a project doing a plaque of some of the landmarks in George Town.

There was just one boat in the anchorage with us last night. The boat named “Paradise” was owned by a young couple sailing with their infant son. Brave souls.

This morning I happened to check and see if there happened to be any Internet connections and discovered there was one. I was able to let family know where we were and why they had not heard from us, before the connection ended. Usually we had BaTelCo coverage just about anywhere we anchor, just don’t at the present.

Monday night, Bob decided to put a couple of poles in the water and see if there were any fish. When you look at the water in these anchorages, you rarely see any fish. Well, we caught a small fish and let it loose, then we caught another which we think is a Snapper. Anyway, it will be dinner for several nights for sure.

Our Dinners

We put the pole in Tuesday night and Bob caught something really big, but thankfully lost it. We think it was a nurse shark that apparently hangs out in the cove. I saw it Wednesday night at dusk as it swam past the boat. If there had been any smaller fish, they would have been scared away by the shark.

While we were waiting for the waves to die down before we moved on Wednesday, a plane landed in the water to drop off someone for the NOAA research lab. I got a neat picture of it taking off. Seaplanes are the equivalent of the bus transportation here in the Bahamas for all these small out islands.

Sea Plane Taking Off

On Thursday morning, we thought we would dinghy over to a lovely beach on Lee Stocking we had been to several times before we left. Unfortunately we discovered that the waves were still to great to make a safe landing. We both got out of the dinghy and Bob took our chairs to the beach while held onto the dinghy and the waves swamped the dinghy. We managed to bail it. Luckily, the motor and gas were ok and we got back to the boat vowing to never try that again.

I'm on a slow connection, so will add more photos to this post later.