Bimini to the Banks to West Bay

A few more pictures from New Year’s Day –

Loaded onto the beach, with no apparent place to go, cases and cases of beer.  Full cases.  They’ve been there a while because the boxes are faded out.  No clue why they would be left there, but the pallets have huge boards held down with slabs of concrete so no one has managed to snag a few beers! We suspect that the owner of one of the several liquor stores lives in one of the relatively nice houses nearby.

Me on the beach, finding my first sea glass of the season.

The beautiful shore and the wreck that sits on it.  It was here 2 years ago, but not in quite such bad shape. Stark testimony that the sea is a harsh mistress.

We were surprised in the mid afternoon by the sound of drums….it was the  BUB-AS.  Don’t know what it stands for, but it means ladies in white dresses marching down the main street of town. 

Following the marching ladies, more ladies in white, riding in golf carts.

And bringing up the rear, the drummers, along with a lot of the local kids, helping keep the beat.

BUT!  Around 8 p.m., we again heard the sound of a parade.  This one was much more elaborate, with Junkanoo style headdresses and floats plus the endless drums, bells, whistles, and horns.  Note the 2 jumping sailfish on the lead float. The banner states "Da Bimini Stomper".

It was hard to catch the parade in the dark.  But a careful scan of this picture shows some of the madhouse goings-on.  Quite a wildly happy parade!

Finally happy with the weather window, we left Bimini’s Blue Water Marina bright and early on Jan. 2.  Early enough, in fact, to see the sunrise from Latitudes as we motored from our slip.

After the holiday rush, Bimini’s docks are a bit empty and lonely in the somber light of dawn.  Only 2 boats left in our marina compared to 10 or so while we were there.

Our voyage today took us 60 miles across the shallow banks east of Bimini. The normal depth here is from 10-16 feet.  We are actually sailing!

It was quiet so of course we tossed out the ol’ fishing line.  Couldn’t believe it, but we again caught dinner!  This time is was a Cero, a member of the mackerel family, but not as oily and yucky as many mackerel.  We had the fresh fish for dinner, along with homemade bread for dinner.  It was calm enough for me to make yeast bread while we sailed.

Smokey isn’t at all interested in our fish catches.  The sushi part of it, yes, she likes a bit.  After that she just sleeps like a cat.

A long but uneventful 12 hour day had us anchored on Grand Bahama bank about 4 miles off of the direct ship route. The nearest land was about 20 miles away, except for that about 10 ft straight down.   The night was calm as predicted. Smokey and I are awaiting sunset, watching the still milky water.

We weren’t disappointed!

On Friday morning we left the banks and headed out into The Tongue of the Ocean.  Just as named, this is a “peninsula of ocean” that extends between islands in the chain of the Bahamas.  Out of our 7 foot deep anchorage  on the banks, we were quickly into over 8000 feet of deep blue ocean.

A REALLY interesting story about The Tongue of Ocean that we just learned from a fellow cruiser who is a retired Naval Aviator…West Bay, where we presently are at anchor,  (New Providence Island) is only 20 short miles from Andros island.  Andros hosts a US Naval base, which is an AUTEC facility. In summary, this is a highly instrumented US submarine exercise area where submarines playing war games in the 8000 foot deep water can be closely monitored and evaluated. 
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/autec.htm is interesting and a quick read.

Today was a boring (we like that….) 10 hour trip.  Luke and Smoke amused themselves by reading and sleeping.

We arrived before dusk at our favorite New Providence anchorage, West Bay.  This anchorage has always been fairly empty, seldom more than 2 boats here.  Today there are about 5 sailboats and THIS monstrosity.

 That sailboat behind her is probably over 50 feet long.  We can only imagine how long this huge thing is.

Safe again at yet another anchorage, Smoke contemplates her world.  That wooden snake in the foreground?  That’s Eve, First Snake.  She and Smoke do an amazing job of keeping the birds (and their droppings) off Latitudes!

 Tomorrow we plan to leave and actually make it to the Exuma chain of islands.