Staniel Cay, Bahamas

 

Yeah, this is why I love the Bahamas!

A lot has happened since we were here last year. The island was in the path of Hurricane Irene and sustained some damage. The Staniel Cay Yacht Club faired pretty well. One cottage had some roof damage. They had removed all the planks on the dock, numbered each board and replaced them after the storm came through. That effort spared the main support timbers of the dock.

The Yacht Club has a big construction project ongoing. They have built 4 new cottages to the left of the club. These all have been given copper roofs. They added a new fuel farm behind the hill and will be removing the tanks visible from the club and building a house to be a rental in its spot. They added another dining room to accommodate the new renters and put in new electric stanchions on the docks. They also are moving the fuel dock from the main dock to an adjoining dock.

 

New cottages below the pink house at the Yacht Club

A new "wash house" is being built by a Bahamian native for cruisers to use near the club, and there are several new houses being built on the island.

Sampson Cay Marina and Resort lost their West dock outside the marina that is more protected and are currently awaiting a electrician to come replace the electric connections on that dock.

One private island nearby had between 5 and 7 huge windmills to produce electricity for the island that were destroyed. They were replaced with 3 more that appear to be sturdier than the other ones. Building is going on on a number of private islands near Staniel and keeping native Bahamians fully employed. One island, Halls Pond Cay, is owned by Johnny Depp and he is building a kind of resort on that island. Construction also continues on an island owned by a Saudi Prince.

What we have noticed this year is a much greater number of mega-yachts, both owner used, or rentals in the area. This means that for the first time we are seeing a huge increase in the number of sea doos and other small watercraft flying through the anchorages at all hours of day and night. We then heard that there had been an article written in a yachting magazine naming Staniel Cay as one of the top 10 of yachting destinations! Trust us, the word is out!

 

Just a few of the big yachts in the area.

 

The "big daddy" yacht in the area. Seven Seas owned by Steven Spielberg.

Rita-Kay and Clay enjoyed the visit by her son Casey, and his fiancee, Elizabeth that arrive for 5 days. We were part of the welcoming committee at the little airport when their flight on Watermakers Air arrived. We enjoyed their visit as well.

 

Rita-Kay, Casey, and Elizabeth when they arrived at the airport on Staniel Cay.

 

The three boats that crossed to the Bahamas together at anchor in Staniel Cay. Scooter, Carleigh, and Pretty Penny

We arrived in time to be settled in for Christmas. We had Christmas Eve dinner on the boat with Rita-Kay and Clay. Bob made us Lasagna for dinner. Christmas Day we went in for dinner at the Yacht Club with Rita-Kay and Clay and had lobster and beef tenderloins.

 

Christmas Eve dinner with Rita-Kay and Clay

 

Bob and I on Christmas Eve

 

Santa arrives by boat at Staniel Cay for the Children's Party

 

Float Plane arriving at Staniel Cay to deliver a passenger

 

Captain Bob out watching the float plane arrive.

The week between Christmas and New Years was filled with parties. We did not attend the Commodores Party, but did attend the Pirate Party on the 29th. I had carried with us for a couple of years, the fabric to make us costumes to wear to the party and this year I finally made them.

Our friends Jim and Janie on Pirate arrived on the 29th in time for the party. They stopped by our boat with their parrot, Max,(Max is a female, but they didn't know that when they got her) aboard. I went and got our fake mechanical parrot and took it out to show Max. Max was thoroughly enthralled with our Polly, bobbing her head up and down in response to Polly. Jim and Janie brought Max to the party for a short while and then took the parrot back to the boat.

This is a party where everybody dresses up and the costumes go from a bandanna tied around the head, to full blown pirate costumes that could have been costumes used in one of Johnny Depp's Pirates movies. I half expected him to show up.

 

Bob and I in costume for the Pirate Party

 

Rita-Kay and Clay at the Pirate Party

 

Jim and Janie and Max off Pirate

 

Bob and I trying a Vodka Shooter, guaranteed to stain your clothes!

 

Our friend Ollie on Dejarlo that we did not recognize until he talked to us!

We chose to sit out the New Years Eve Party. We have gone to this party in the past and seems to be for a much younger crowd.

We split our time between an anchorage close to the yacht club and one behind the next island north called Big Major. Big Major is an uninhabited island, unless you could the swimming pigs, a herd of goats, and wild chickens. There are three beaches off the anchorage on the island. One is the primary residence of the famous swimming pigs, one is known as dog beach, where people take their dogs to be watered and run, and the last is used by cruisers to have pot luck, happy hour get-togethers, and campfires.

The cruisers beach has sustained a lot of damage in the hurricane. As it is in a corner, it received piles of sea weed. There had been a plastic table used to place food on that had disappeared as well. There was no sign of where the fire pit had been. The folks on No Agenda, Windemere, Discovery, and Pirate when they arrived, and Bob worked on cleaning up the beach to make it usable. A tremendous amount of work was done cleaning up the beach, digging out a new pit and lining it with rocks, adding three board seats (even set in concrete) around the fire pit, and a buffet table. Jim and Janie on Pirate brought over a new picnic table and some umbrellas. I'm really impressed with how nice it turned out.

 

Cruisers at a cocktail hour on the newly re-done beach. Fire pit and new seats in background.

 

New fire pit and benches.

 

Picnic Table under construction

 

Max showing the camera his best side while getting to enjoy the beach too.

 

Janie, Max, and the newly constructed food server table

The day of New Years Eve a regatta with three of the A Class Bahamian Sloops was held. Two were from Staniel Cay (Lady Muriel and Tida Wave) and one from another island called Courageous. This race is more of a practice race and they let cruisers participate as "pry sitters" or "board meat", along with the really good Bahamian racers. Our friend Rita-Kay and Pete off of Scooter were on Lady Muriel which came in second overall. Neither Bob or I are strong enough to do that. We did go out and cheer them on and take photos of the race.

 

Lady Muriel in the race.

 

Lady Muriel after race two. Rita-Kay sitting on right.

We will stay in the area through the rest of January at least before moving on farther south to the George Town area.

 

Rita-Kay and I enjoying the afternoon on our floats behind the boat.

 

Rainbow over Staniel Cay

Happy New Year to all our family and friends!