We left GT early in the morning of the 2nd April missing Pam’s morning net and set off to Black Point Settlement further north in the Exuma Cays. It was a lovely day and with the engine starting first time we were in good spirits. There was no wind and we motored over. BPS turned out to be another sleepy little place, wooden painted buildings along one street with some holiday development underway. Most of the shops and restaurants were shut when we walked along and the biggest excitement was seeing a shark swim off as we anchored.
We went back to the boat intending to have a quiet night but were visited by a young German couple and we invited them back later for a drink. We swam, me very close to the boat keeping a close shark watch but the water was lovely. Jules and Jan came back later, they had come away shortly after getting married for a year on a 28 ft boat, no fridge etc. having a lovely time. They were on their way back too and we may see them again in Bermuda. The following day we started our fitness campaign which was long overdue but really one or other of us had been ill since Jacksonville and we just hadn’t been up to it. It was the longest that I hadn’t run for years and this was evident after ten minutes when I realised I was going to be sick! We were going to have to go back to square one and start very gently indeed.
We enjoyed the rest of the day though, canoeing, swimming and visiting BPS. We saw the shark at close quarters from the canoe which was a real thrill and a little unnerving even though I knew that Nurse Sharks are next to harmless.
We enjoyed the 2 nights at BPS but didn’t feel the need to stay longer and set off for Cape Eluthera Marina on the southernmost tip of Eluthera on the 4th April. There was a nice breeze and we sailed over with the engine turned off now that we were hopeful it would start when needed. We had decided to stay in the marina for a taste of luxury but hoped to pick up a mooring ball which was considerably cheaper. We fished on the way but lost a Mahi Mahi before getting it to the boat, very disappointing. When we arrived at the marina entrance we were told over the radio that there are not any mooring balls and the only option was to pay for the marina. It was very nice with a pool, wifi, and nice docks and restaurant areas. However, we decided it was not worth spending too much and only stayed one night instead of the intended two. We ran in the morning, managing to double the first attempt without feeling sick, so massive improvement! We lazed around the pool and made some calls getting our money’s worth and left in the afternoon for Governors Harbour. We had been there for a couple of nights the year before and had really liked it. We arrived at dusk and the place looked comfortingly familiar.
Governors Harbour is a nice little town, big enough to have a couple of nice restaurants and decent shops. The only downside is there isn’t a dingy dock so you either need to pull up on the beach or tie up and climb up on the dock – not easy. Unfortunately the weather was looking dodgy again with the wind changing direction and threatening to pick up which would make the bay unsafe to anchor. Again, instead of the two or three nights we intended to stay we were going to have to move on. Another weather check showed that we would have to leave the following day which was a real shame. We got up early, visited the library where there is wifi and has a lovely community feel. We gave them the rest of the crayons and paints that we hadn’t got around to giving out in Cuba for their children’s activities which they were delighted with. We had a wander around the town, had breakfast but then had to return to the boat, pick up the anchor and make our way on. I had been looking forward to being in GH for a few days and getting to know it better so it was a shame but the weather was not to be messed with.
As we approached the narrow entrance into Hatchett Bay the wind had risen. The entrance is very narrow, bordered by steep sides and with rocks to avoid as well. It is so narrow that until you are lined up in front of it you can’t see any gap at all which is disconcerting. As we approached we could see that the wind against tide had caused waves and knew there would be a current to contend with. There was nothing for it but to commit and keep everything crossed. I went forward to the bow to keep an eye out for rocks and James pushed BB into the opening. As we came abreast of the cliffs the boat was screwed around and the bow bucked sideways towards the treacherous edge, James was pulling the wheel from one lock to the other and I couldn’t do anything at all. Like a cork out of a champagne bottle we were shot out the other side to see the lovely sheltered completely sheltered bay, what a relief. We got anchored and went ashore to have a look around.
Alice Town is shabby to say the least. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why one place is smart and buzzy and another shabby and quiet. The harbour and anchorage should make Alice town a popular stop but somehow it wasn’t happening. The little town straggled up a small hill, small huts and shed homes, a couple of tiny corner stores and a few open bars. We walked all around and saw a sign for Happy Hour at BJ’s Sports Bar. Always keen on a happy hour we went to look for it. This place is no more than four main, short crossed streets over a square mile. However, no one seemed to be able to direct us and we wandered around asking people where BJ’s was, not a comfortable question at the best of times! We finally found it and BJ, who was lovely, he said the town had been smarter but had become run down with no one making an effort to keep it up.
The following day we went for a run, thankfully this was becoming easier, and got ourselves ready for a trip out. We intended to hitch to the next town, Gregory Town another place we had liked the year before. As we left the dingy we met a man who was catching bait and he immediately spoke to us and asked what we were doing. He said he would take us as he was going back there. He was a mine of local information having lived there for 30 odd years. He also told us that there was more strong wind forecast for the following few days which worried us. We had a nice couple of hours around Gregory Town, had lunch at a local café and sat with an American family who were lovely and very interested in our trip. We walked up the road and put our thumbs out. In no time a car stopped and we piled in. This time there were two youngish lads, both drinking beer who drove us down the road at 60/70 miles an hour without saying a word. Thank goodness there were seat belts and it was a straight road, we were glad to see our turn off.
When we got back to the boat we checked the forecast and sure enough the wind was getting up again. Although Hatchett Bay would be very sheltered we didn’t want to get stuck there when our friends, Susan and Robin Riorden and 3 daughters were arriving in Marsh Harbour and Marcus and Margie were also going to meet us there after getting the mast replaced in Jacksonville. We decided to move on before the wind hit and get there ASAP.
We left the following morning at 10am trying to time it so we would arrive at first light. This would be our last double handed overnight passage until we got back to Portugal and we weren’t sorry. We sailed for the first 30 miles in a lovely brisk wind but then it died out to next to nothing and yet again the engine had to go on. It was an uneventful passage, we motored all the way, arrived about 4 am and anchored outside the harbour to get some sleep before it was light enough to go in safely. Marsh Harbour is a protected harbour but pretty shallow and there weren’t many places we could go. Luckily there was just enough space in one of the deeper pools and we squeezed ourselves in. On land we found some pretty major shops and supermarkets. Very expensive but at least we could get what we needed. James had compiled a pre crossing jobs list and we were planning to get stuck in. We wanted to rearrange the storage as we needed to have three clear berths and the boat listed to port as most of the storage, all the water and most batteries where on that side. We got lots of stuff out and tried to find places on starboard for the heavier things. Marcus and Margie had offered to do a big shop for us in USA to help out with provisions as it was so expensive in Bahamas and Bermuda. One example of the difference in price is that a carton of UHT milk is $1 in the US, $4.50 in the Bahamas and we wanted 30. This was a great help and incredibly kind of them, but we needed to find places for it all. Our running continued, getting better, we got the bikes out and started cycling again and we started on the serious preparation for our next Atlantic crossing. We were really looking forward to sailing with a crew but obviously felt the responsibility for the extra lives, especially when the second 3 compromise such a big chunk of the family’s next generation. The wind came in as forecast and some pretty heavy squalls of rain with it but we were securely anchored so sitting pretty.
Marcus and Margie arrived at lunchtime on Tuesday and we started the process of transferring our provisions across. They had done us proud and I was surprised they had been able to move the boat at all. The forepeak was stuffed full of just about everything we would need. As we would have 5 people, including 3 lads for nearly 6 weeks it was a mountain of food. They broke out the wine, we did lunch and it felt as though we had never left them in Jacksonville. The Riordens arrived later and we all got together for dinner at a local restaurant – not the best meal but great to be with everyone.
The next 10 days were great fun, we spent loads of time with the R’s, a road trip to the beach which was very windy, meals on the boat with us, on Island Kea and in the villa. Robin hired a motor boat and we had a great day out visiting Man O War Cay and Hope Town with the lighthouse and bouncing about on the waves. Unfortunately, the following day when they went off Susan bashed her back on an especially big bounce and was in considerable pain for the end of the holiday and her birthday which was on their second to last day. We went off to Little Harbour and Pete’s Bar which was a very pretty beach. We spent a couple of days at the villa while they went out doing loads of admin, internet jobs and laundry, generally enjoying the delights of house living for a change. Mainly we had lots of laughs ,a great catch up, it was lovely to spend time with the girls, Beth, Holly and Isabelle and we just loved having them here with us.
The only disappointment at this time was that our bikes with Marcus and Margies’ were cut off from the fence where we had locked them. We thought they had been stolen but noticed them dumped over a wall. They were still locked together and had obviously proved too much of a challenge to be taken but one of James’s wheels had gone and one off both Marcus’s and Margie’s with Margie’s saddle. As they are small wheeled folding bikes it is not easy to get spares, especially here and we knew anything we did find would be very expensive. We were glad not to have lost them but without wheels we were very restricted in our expeditions and after leaving them locked up all over the Caribbean it left a bad taste for this to happen here.
Once the R family left on Friday, 21st April James and I spent some time looking for a small but constant leak from our shower area. Marcus got involved which was very helpful as we were going in circles. They decided in the end that the shower tray may have a crack and set about sealing it having taken the washing machine out to check and looked behind most of the bulk heads and seats.
We were really on the countdown to the passages back to Portugal and with a week to go before the first crew arrived we wanted to get all the boat jobs done and make sure we were in the best possible shape.
We had a very windy and wet day on Sunday. We knew it was coming and everybody was ready for it. We got up in the morning after a lazy start and went to the shop just for something to do really. We bought snacks and later went over to Island Kea for a film and snack fest. We watched a couple of good films then played Mexican dominos in front of Carry on Cruising, as bad as I remembered and Dad’s Army film, as good as I remembered. We went back in the dingy in torrential and driving wind and rain and spent the night listening to huge gusts of wind coming cross us. Apparently, gusts of 50 knots where seen in Marsh Harbor and at the bottom of Eluthera there was 100knots of wind and broken masts in the marina we had been in. When we woke in the morning though it was as though nothing had happened, the sun was shining and the wind dropped off to nearly nothing by the following evening. One of the oddities of being at anchor is that the view always changes depending on the current and wind. We had gone to bed facing one way and woken up turned around 180 degrees. This is why we need to make sure when we anchor that there is enough room to swing and that no one comes too close. We were watching the weather patterns for the crossing and very aware that the changeable weather meant we would have to look carefully for a weather window to ensure we did not hit anything like this patch when we are out there.
We had a pleasant couple of days with lovely sunny weather getting the rest of the jobs done. We had an engineer out to look again at the charging problem with the engine. 10 hours of labour later he was pretty certain he had fixed it and improved the engine wiring too. Andy was a Brit and grew up very near to where James and I grew up, small world. He was good at talking James through what he was doing so James also got a good lesson on engine electrics for our money. We had booked into a marina for the last couple of nights in order to get Julian, Ken and Hywel on board, settled in and load provisions. James went off to the bank – we had managed to get a new wheel for the bike from a bike hire place – and I had been up at the laundry with Margie. We got back to find the boat at a severe angle, obviously high and dry and spent a horrible couple of hours waiting for the tide to turn and float us again. The fear was that we would slip further over, do damage to the hull or rigging, luckily we floated back up with no harm done as the tide came in again. However, our plush couple of nights in the marina were not to be as we couldn’t risk that happening again and we decided to wait for the crew to arrive and then go back out to anchor.
Despite this set back we were pretty much ready to go, the weather was looking good and the first leg of the trip back to Europe was nearly on us. I liked to think that we were both more confident and ready for the Atlantic crossing than we were the first time. I liked the idea that it was a series of shorter crossings rather than one very long one. We had great crew lined up for the whole trip and I was looking forward to spending time with all of them. However, I was still waking up at 3am each night and finding it hard to get back to sleep, the Atlantic is a massive sea however, seasoned you are and not to be taken lightly. A full and untroubled night’s sleep was probably too much to expect until we safely arrive in Lisbon – or the Azores at least.