Catching up...

First, an apology --- this is a LONG blog. Too much time and too many things between internet coverage…We start in Georgetown, “summer camp for adults”…


Laundry, provisioning (groceries & alcohol), internet, cash, & good friends --- back in Georgetown. We got it all done. But I could have stayed another day or two.

We took a little walk across one of the small islands and encounter a little ground dove – cute little fellow, completely oblivious to us.

Here is a shot from the top of the hill of only a few of the 200 or so masts at Georgetown right now. There will be easily 100 more later.

We left Georgetown early on Thursday morning, taking advantage of a great weather window to sail south to Long Island, along with friends Cathy & Fred. Only 35 miles, but a big leap from the more traveled Exumas and the hundreds of floating winter homes in Georgetown. Here, at the north eastern tip of Long Island is Cape Santa Maria. Yes, named for Columbus’s ship. Long Island was the third landfall for Columbus. The other two were San Salvador and Rum Cay. Unfortunately, his ship Santa Maria ran aground here, therefore the cape’s name.

After getting settled in, we all scooted off to shore to look for shells. Cathy & I looked for shells while the guys talked sailing.

The beach is beautiful (of course) and we had a great walk and shell gathering .

Again, an early departure to Thompson Bay, about 25 miles further south down Long Island. We crossed the Tropic of Cancer!!! We are OFFICALLY in the tropics! And I believe it – it’s definitely more humid and hotter here than further north. Not complaining!! Thompson Bay is great little area, filled with the best bar/internet site ever (showers!!! $5!!!! All the hot water you can stand!!! And CLEAN!!! Very “American”). Thompson Bay is host to 25 or 30 boats, compared to the 200 +and expecting 300+ in Georgetown. We walked again across the narrow island for more shelling.

Didn’t find much, but the Atlantic Ocean side of the island is most impressive, with its high tide line.

The stone rock island on the Atlantic side gives evidence of the force of the winds and seas here.

A great sunset (but no green flash). The owner of the resort here has a picture she took of a green flash – very impressive. Wish I could see one.

We arranged for a rental car with Cathy & Fred on Saturday, touring the entire length of Long Island, 80 miles. It was fun, especially with Fred having to be the one to drive “on the wrong side” of the road! There are lots of old churches here, 2 of which were built by Father Jerome. The first was an Anglican one, St. Paul’s, built while he was still an Anglican priest.

It’s so small inside, limited by huge concrete pillars inside the church. Good hurricane protection, I guess.

The second one, St. Peters, was built by Father Jerome after his conversion to Catholicism. He built this one to outdo his previous one. It looks similar, still small, but is much larger inside.

Then we found the oldest church on the island, over 500 years old. This is St. Mary’s Church, thought to be built by the Spanish in the 17th century.

It’s in disrepair, but the walls are still standing.

This one was interesting ---- lots of churches here ---- very small, in the middle of a field, probably the private church of one of the two plantation owners from long ago.

Goats and sheep run freely on the island.

One an isolated beach, I found my first beach beans! These are seed pods that come from Africa, and wash up on the Atlantic side of the cays. Very cool. Cruisers make jewelry out of them, after doing a lot of polishing. There are several types – the most common is the simple beach bean, about 2” across.

Then there is the hamburger, smaller, maybe an inch at the most.

Finally, lunch! At the best conch salad place on the island. He was making it fresh when we arrived.

Here we are, Luke, me, Cathy, and Fred, all enjoying conch salad, conch fritters, and local beer. Life is hard….

On Monday we sailed from Tompson Cay to Water Cay, 42 miles, finally entering the Jumentos! The Jumentos is a string of skimpy cays drooping south eastward for over a hundred miles below the Great Exumas and Long Island area. Nearly all islands are uninhabited, the larger ones a few miles long, and a few hundred feet wide. Few offer all around shelter, so weather forecasts are important to plan on where to hide in a blow.

The initial part of our trip was some stressful miles. By stressful, I mean sailing wing and wing (one sail out each side), downwind in 20 kts of wind, doing 6 to 7 kts, with only 1 ft or so of water under our boat! But we did fine, thanks to Luke’s good navigating, and got some reassurance out of following another boat with a 6 ft draft compared to our 5.5 ft draft. . The rest of the trip was zipping along at over 7 knots, on a beam reach, in 20 kts, with a partially reefed main.

Along the way we got several nibbles at our lure, finally catching a 3 foot plus Great Barracuda. Now, no one wants a barracuda. They have lots of teeth, mean business with them, and large ones (over 5 pounds) also can carry a disease called ciguatera poison. It affects the nervous system, creating a numb sensation. Not any cure, plus it builds up in your system. So, after wrestling the rascal up to the boat, we decided to leave him in the water until he died. Too many teeth. And I wanted my lure back. The line ran out again a couple of times, so I decided to bring him up out of the water if he was dead so he wouldn’t attract a shark. Our decision was to filet it and use it for bait. Well…. We no longer had a barracuda. We had 2/3 of a barracuda! A shark had been busy. As I reeled him up against the stern (back ) of the boat, I saw a dark burr, saw the tip of the reel dip suddenly, and poof! The fish, lure, and all of my leader line was gone, taken by a large shark. A little startling to say the least.

Anchored at Water Cay, sheltered from the ESE wind by the NNE to SSW running 3.5 mile long cay. Not much here except the usual pretty scenery, clear water (80 degrees now), and a couple of other venturesome boats.

We left Water for Flamingo Cay midmorning, about 13 miles. Another romping sail, reefed main, full jib, in 17 to 20 kts, 80 degrees true, doing mostly 7 + kts. You can get off the boat at Flamingo and explore. Our first discovery was mid size lizard, popping out of his coconut tree to check us out. He was definitely not afraid of us. I guess he doesn’t see people very often.

We crossed the island, finding a tidal pond in the middle.

And in the pond, red shrimp. And I mean RED. These must be the guys that give flamingos their pink color (flamingo color is determined by what they eat). No, no flamingos here…

Crossing the island, we came into a large north facing bay. The seashell littered beach, along with the shell of an old sea plane.

Gathered a few great shells, and back across the island. There are plenty of cactus plants here, like the one pictured below. Unfortunately, Luke got close and personal with one, ending up with 2 of those pink flowered “buds” and about 6 needles each on his leg. Yes, I did, too. They hurt. When you pry the cactus with a stick, the needles stay behind, and have to be pulled one by one.

There were 3 fishing boats (conch and lobster) here when we arrived. This is fishing, by hand --- diving into the water to collect them). These guys are out a week or more at a time, moving from fishing area to fishing area. The “mother boat” anchors. This is where the collection is done by the divers using the small boats or dinghies. Here is where the fish are cleaned and frozen.

These boats are their world for a while, and certainly look like it.

More exploring the next morning –another beach, more shells! Only this one included a “drive in” cave on the side of the coral rocks.

The cave is shallow at the other end (only about 15 ft wide, 40 ft high), with an opening that you can climb out through if you like. There are 2 windows in the ceiling, letting in shafts of light.

Here’s the view from inside out.

Back on the boat, we saw our second Magnificent Frigatebird. Not the best picture, but a beautiful bird. This female had a wing span of about a yard. She was soaring gracefully, taking advantage of the thermal s to climb into the air.

Oh, yes – and this is the view from our boat ---

Next, Buenavista Cay. Beautiful. Paradise, yes?

But even paradise has a squatter. Not sure how it works, but this fellow has apparently figured it out. There are 4 fishermen here with him, helping him fix his alternator. They stopped by the boat to chat on their way back to their fishing boat (conch & lobsters). 3 from Long Island, 1 from Cuba. We are only 65 miles or so from there…

The island has a path across it, to the sound side. The trail is nicely marked by discarded flipflops.

On Thursday the 4 boats in the anchorage had “sundowners on the beach” towards dusk.

This poor guy’s dinghy decided to float way, but he saved not only the dinghy but also his beer!

The next day we hiked back across the island, across the somewhat arduous trail. The “trail” is coral, sharp coral, with lots of sharp points and no flat spaces. Lots of broken up coral, too.

On the Atlantic side of the island there is really no beach, just rock cliffs. The rock is called “iron rock”. One of the boats we are traveling with has found old metal fishing floats in areas like this, high on the rocks, at the very highest high water line, the one found only after hard storms. So…we went hunting. Bingo! We found 2 of the round old pewter floats, hidden in mangroves at the high water level. They both have writing but we can read only the larger one. It was manufactured by the Phillips Trawl Products, LTD, in Brimsley, England. It’s the “Phillips Deep Sea Model”.

Our second find was even more rare --- a directional metal float, manufactured in Lorient, France. But it’s patented by the Germans, The Deutsches Bundespatent, with patent number 911803. It’s the model “S.E.A. Le Beon”. Cool, huh?!!

I plan to look these up on the internet, when we finally have enough time and coverage to do it. Unless, of course, someone with a little extra time wants to check it out ….. (smiley face….)

We have arrived at the Ragged Islands, Hog Cay, Duncan Town. This is IT for now, will post this and then will blog again after we see Duncan Town, the most southward settlement in the Bahamas. The only native people we’ve seen between here and Thompson Cay was the one squatter on Flamingo. Duncan Town has less than 100 population, but ---as you can see --- we can get internet here!!!!

back to Georgetown

And you wonder what we do all day... well, gather water is one little thing.  We can collect 2 x 5 gal jugs at a time (45 pounds each).   Latitudes carries 150 gallons, so we try to keep it full.  This will last us about 3 weeks with careful usage.

We also have collected some coconuts.  Not as easy to shell as you might imagine.  It took a hammer claw and a lot of beating and prying to get the outer shell off.

But Luke won!  I haven't opened the actual coconut yet - maybe tonight.

En route from Black Point to Georgetown, we stopped for a couple of nights at Cave Cay.  Very beautiful beach, of course.

And here is the actual Cave Cay cut that we used to go into the Exuma Sound to head for Georgetown.

Laundry, internet, groceries, water, and diesel/gas today.  After we leave Georgetown, we plan to go further south than we've been before, to Long Island and the Jumentos.  I have no idea how much internet we'll have there.  It's fairly rugged with only a few small settlements -  the word is self sufficiency.  Take all the water you'll want, all of your diesel, and all food.  It will be interesting.

Black Point and the Garden of Eden

We’re back in Black Point, Exumas– 24⁰06’.14 N latitude and 76⁰24’4 W longitude, after a 9 mile, mostly down wind sail over the banks from Staniel Cay. Hi 70s during the day, mid to high 60's at night -- the natives tell us it's the coldest ever. We’re getting south!!! En route we passed a Bahamian Defence boat. They do a great job, sometimes involving boarding and searching boats like our friends’ Ken & Heather. Machine guns in hand, 6 big men who don’t ask questions, and you better have your papers. But they are doing their job, checking for drug dealers and terrorists.

We like Black Point, for a variety of reasons. First, there is the cruiser-famous laundromat here! Only a mere $7.50 for 1 washer/1 dryer load, but it’s clean, plenty of machines, and a gathering place for the cruisers. Laundry is not “woman’s work” in the cruising world. It’s a social thing. Necessary, but social.

AND – as a bonus, you can get your hair cut at the laundromat! Both women

And men. Note, the laundromat is also a hardware/convenience store. AND she cooked lunch (conch fritters) for us (6 for $1) while we were there.

But how many laundromats do you know that give you this view out of the door while you’re having your hair cut for $10!!!

First things first, Luke climbed back up the mast, replaced the wind indictor, and VOILA! We now have wind speed and direction again! Wonder why he’s not crazy about going up there…(It’s really REALLY high! 60 feet above the water! – Luke)

We met up with friends, had cocktail hour on the boat, and joined about 40 other cruisers at Lorraine’s, a popular dining place for cruisers. Good meal, lots of fun!

On Wednesday we did the tourist stuff, taking the dinghy to the Black Point Beach.

Here’s the local church complex.

Then on to “beach glass beach”, shown to us last year by Joanne, who promised beach glass at every step. It must have been picked over then, but it was sure bountiful this time!

It’s a beautiful beach, but very rugged at low tide.

She was right – here’s Luke with his first major find.

And here’s the booty! That’s as much as I’ve collected in 2 years! Luke was quite the help, finding about as much as I did!

The beach was interesting – Mother Nature takes care of herself. Lots and lots of plastic washed up on the beach. But here is a bit of growth, determined to make it’s way, even if it means going through a piece of plastic on the beach.

Next we walked through town. It’s still very depressed, lots of empty buildings, some dating back to British Loyalist times, just after the American Revolution..

But there seems to be progress, with a few new houses going up.

The Bahamians race a local style of sailboat, the C-Class Racing boat. Each island has a regatta each year. “Muriell”, a very fast boat in Staniel Cay, has a 28 foot waterline, and 60 ft mast! It needs a lot of movable human ballast. There is a huge amount of pride in winning these races.

Here is the skeleton of a new racing boat being built. The construction is a bit rough, and, as in days gone by, uses the crotches of tree branches as knees and elbows to provide high strength at sharp curves, like the keel.

A bit further up the main road and we came to the Garden of Eden. Oh, yes, art and all. The owner/designer, Willie Rolle, takes his inspiration from the clouds and finds driftwood to make his visions real.

Here for example, an iguana.

He has lottttts more, some more imaginative than others. Plus a garden built in the holes in the coral rock. The summer rain collects in these holes and provides the necessary moisture for growth, very uncommon here in the Bahamas. Back to the boat, with a coconut, compliments of Willie. There may be further pictures of us trying to get the thing open. We had cocktails on the boat with friends tonight. Based on the weather forecast, we’ll probably be here for a few more days. The plan is to go the local bar/internet provider (what a combo!!!) on Thursday to pick up e-mails and get this blog sent.