Staniel Cay to Sampson Cay

After three days tucked into a pond on the south side of Staniel Cay, we moved back out in front of the Yacht Club. It is nice to be in calm water for a day (and no longer in the flight path for the airport)! That’s right – back to back fronts are expected, so we expect to have to move to protected waters tomorrow again. At least it is giving me time to make earrings which I enjoy.

 

Plane landing at Staniel Cay Airport - view of the pond

The pond we were in is surrounded by homes owned by Americans who winter here on Staniel. We met some of those nice folks as they are friends of Chris and Pete on Scooter. They are Interesting people who, for the most part, have spent many a winter on this island. Many of the Americans, who own property here, also have small airplanes to get back and forth from the US.

Carleigh had come out from being at Sampson Cay Yacht Club back to Staniel and were anchored nearby. We went in to the club and met them to watch the Ravens/Chiefs game.

Looks like we will be staying around Staniel while we wait for parts to arrive from the states for our generator and a new VHF radio. There is always something that needs to be fixed on a boat it seems. It sure keeps the Captain busy.

On Tuesday morning, Bob went over to Staniel Cay to see if a loaf of bread we had ordered was ready. While there, he ran into Sarah and Monty Lewis. This couple has charted the Bahamas and the Explorer Charts are the mainstay of all us cruisers in the Bahamas to guide our way. They told Bob that new editions of both sets of charts (near and far Bahamas) have recently been published. These charts also serve as a cruising guide with all kinds of local information about what is available on every inhabited island. Bless you Sarah and Monty!

Along with the theme that there is always something – Bob checked the anchor and it looked fouled, so he dove it and found that the anchor chain was entwined with an old mooring line on the bottom. It was too heavy for him to fix, but Carleigh came to our rescue! After a little maneuvering, we were free again. We moved over to Sampson Cay, our first visit here this year (Carleigh had stayed here during the last blow). The manager was off island back in the US getting a kidney removed today as it was cancerous. We heard that the surgery went well and were happy to hear that when Rita-Kay and Clay met us for Happy Hour at the club.

 

Rita-Kay and Clay at Sampson Cay Happy Hour.

 

Bob and I at Happy House

Wednesday started out calm with winds slowly building throughout the day. In the afternoon, Rita-Kay and I walked the island of Sampson Cay. There are about 5 or 6 beaches on the island with some very rough trails between them. A path on these rocky islands are anything but level or smooth.

 

Carleigh off the marina at Sampson Cay behind us (We had rain all around us all day and never got a drop where we were.)

 

Sampson Cay Club and Marina off our starboard.

 

Beach Gazebo at one of the beaches Rita-Kay and I walked to.

 

Rita-Kay with view from that beach

 

Penny by a small sculpture left on the beach.

 

Penny on a typical ruged path on the islands.

 

One of the new paintings in the club's restaurant all around this similar theme. Really beautiful.

The excitement for the day came when a float plane landed in the creek leading into the marina where we were anchored right beside us. I was able to grab the camera and get shots of the whole landing, disembarking of the passenger, and take off of the plane. We have witnessed float planes landing in previous years , but this was the closest we have been to one.

 

Float plane landing beside the boat - glad I had my camera close by.

 

Boat going out to pick up the passenger.

 

Plane taking off - think he was close enough?

 

Another close-up shot. I'm sure the pilot was focusing on gaining enough altitude to get over the hill in front of him!

On Saturday, we had expected the winds to die down and we would move back to "Staniel to be able to watch the football games, however, the winds continue one fairly strong, so we decided to stay at Sampson Cay. Carleigh decided to brave it and move to Staniel and left us mid afternoon. Our friends on Gigi's Island, Gigi and Vic, and Victoria Gaye, Buck and Vicky, arrived at noon. It was great to catch up with them.

The heat exchanger for the generator arrived by Watermaker Air and was delivered to us, so Bob decided to spend the afternoon doing the install. It went well and seems to have fixed the problem. This has broken twice at 5 year intervals, so guess we will plan on it in 5 more years and put it on the maintenance plan. We are still waiting for our new VHF radio to arrive, but are getting by with our hand-held unit.

 

Some of the new sea-glass wrapped earrings I am making while hanging out on the boat through the wind storms.

Normans Cay to Staniel Cay

I am actually going to back up and post some photos taken of Christmas at Nassau that I downloaded from the small camera.

 

Clay and Rita-Kay at Christmas 2010 in Nassau

 

Bob and Penny Christmas 2010 in Nassau

 

Goofy Bob thought the grill pan cover I gave him made a great "cooking helmet."

After making two turkeys this year, Bob decided to make a standing rib roast for our Christmas dinner.

 

It was a beautiful roast.

 

Clay and Rita-Kay exchanging gifts.

 

Leaving the dock in Nassau at sunrise. That is the 150 foot yacht - the Maritani X - that we were docked next to in the background.

We made it Staniel Cay from Normans Cay by early afternoon and found our favorite anchorage off the cottages of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club pretty full, so we anchored across from the Yacht club to the East behind a large rock and near the famous Thunderball Grotto where some of the Bond “Thunderball” movie was filmed.

 

Rock off Staniel where we anchored.

At low tide we have less than 2 feet under the keel, but that is fine. Our position is a good one for watching the mega-yachts come into the yacht club for the end of year festivities. First activity is the famous Pirate Party on the 29th, next day is a free cook-out for islanders and boaters alike where they have an auction prior to the cook-out. The 31st there is a regatta of the two A class boats owned by the island, Lady Muriel and Tida Wave. Cruisers sign up to participate and get to ride out on the prys and are otherwise known as “board meat.” The sails are so much larger than the boats, people have to sit on these boards and hang out over the side to provide balance, people hang off the sides on boards to keep the boat upright when tacking. If you fall off, a chase boat has to collect you and get you back on the boat or it is disqualified.

There is a New Years Eve Party at the Yacht club followed by fireworks at midnight. On New Years Day, there is then a cruisers regatta.

We went to the Pirate Party again this year and had our usual blast. This year we were interviewed by a local TV station out of Nassau with our boat parrot we call Polly. From a distance, because the parrot is mechanical, we get a lot of strange looks as its movements are pretty real looking. It has fooled a few folks until they get us close.

 

Sarah, Penny, and our boat parrot, Polly at the Pirate Party

I donated a couple of pairs of earrings for the auction to raise money for the regatta, but restrained myself and did not purchase any items this year and I could have purchased 4 Bond movies for $20!

 

One of the week's events is the "long drive contest" off the dock. This guy was still in costume from the night before - partly anyway!

The day of New Year’s Eve, we decided to move the boat behind the neighboring island to get protected from the wind and change the scenery. We found 4 mega-yachts anchored in that anchorage, large sport fish boat, and a large number of cruisers, both sail and power. This island is uninhabited except for a group of pigs that are famous for their swimming capability. They will swim out to dinghies and collect food scraps. With this large number of boats, I don’t think they are hungry!

 

Clay and Rita-Kay joined us for New Years Eve.

Sunday, we took the dinghy out to Sandy Cay and had our first lazy day here lying on a beach. I never really feel like we have arrived until we do that. We took our umbrella, beach chairs, lunch, and books with us. Wayne off My Sharona and Paul off Independence showed up with their kite to practice wind surfing. Paul is learning how with Wayne.

 

Bob helping Wayne and Paul take the kite down.

 

Our little piece of paradise!

 

That evening, we had a "sunset" watch party on the beach with friends from My Sharona, Independence, Scooter, Different Drummer among others that later turned into a bonfire on the beach.

 

The sunset was worth the wait.

Monday we were getting ready to move back over closer to Staniel and our friends on Carleigh, when Bob started the engines and I noticed no water was coming out as it is supposed to. Bob shut the engines and went down to troubleshoot. He determined that the water pump on the engine needed a new impeller – boats just eat those things – and replaced that and a leaking seal and got us up and running again. By then it was time for lunch, so we had lunch then proceeded to leave again and found that the anchor windlass was not working. So, Bob got out his tools and went to work on it and we finally got it working and moved the boat. It seemed like Bob could not get a break on Monday.

Tuesday, Rita-Kay and Clay asked us to go on their boat over to Blackpoint Settlement on a neighboring island for lunch and a visit to the best darn Laundromat (although it is spelled “Laundermat” on the front of the building, and “Laundramat” on the sign by the dinghy dock). All machines work and the place is immaculate. We had lunch at Lorainne’s Café. Lorainne provides internet for cruisers and great lunches and dinners. She had a rather late in life “surprise” last year when Joshua was born. He is the happiest child I think I have ever seen. Always great to stop and see Lorainne and her family. We returned back to Staniel and were happy to see our boat still where we left her!

 

Bob and Clay on Carleigh

 

Returning to Pretty Penny

Our friends on My Sharona, Independence, and Different Drummer, all headed south toward George Town today. A front is coming through tomorrow and Friday and they wanted to move ahead of the storm as My Sharona has a guest arriving on the 9th in George Town. We moved into the bight south of the little Staniel Cay airport where we will be better protected from the winds. This storm will have some squalls with it too.

We put the dinghy down and headed back to the north side of the island with some Dr. Pepper for our friend Butch on the island, and with the two boxes of school books to deliver to the school from the Bahamas Project run by The Seven Seas Cruising Organization. We are also having trouble with our Bahamian cell phone, so stopped at the Batelco office to find out why we could call people, but we could not receive calls. The nice lady, also named Penelope who works at the office, was able to get us all fixed up.

 

Delivering books to the Staniel Cay School

 

One of the small classes. There are only 12 children enrolled this year divided into 3 groups by age. A couple serve as the teachers of the school. Once these students reach high school age, they will go to Nassau to attend high school.

 

Our friend Sarah that was my inspiration for making jewelry. Sarah paints sea beans and incorporates them into jewelry. Some of her painted pieces of driftwood hand above the display case. She encorporates a lot of sea themes, including mermaids, into her work. Her work is being displayed at a new little restaurant on the beach at Staniel.

 

Bob and I at Taste and Sea, the new beach restaurant on Staniel.

 

Sunset off Staniel - Good Night!