02/11/2010, George Town, Exumas
We were excited to be underway again and looking forward to exploring our next landfall. We knew that George Town was a popular spot for cruisers but really did not know what to expect, especially after talking with other cruisers that have been there before. We often heard cruisers say; you either love it or hate it. George Town is also known as "Velcro Cove or "Chicken cove" because often cruisers stop here (year after year) and do not go further b/c they either LOVE it there or decide that they do not want take the challenging leap through the "thorny patch" of beating against the prevailing south east winds as they head further SE towards Puerto Rico.
Because we had to wait out a couple of storms that were back to back, we got a chance to explore the town and nightlife during our stay in George Town. George Town has a lot to offer, it has a small marina, Exuma markets (groceries), strawmarket (local crafts), restaurants, airport, marine supply (limited) all for a price $$ and if interested you can be part of any imaginable "committee" that you can think of (i.e. volleyball, yogalates, bridge club, men's group, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah) that the cruisers have set up.
The town was quite interesting but you just needed to know the code to find things. For example, you had to go to the Real Estate office if you wanted your laundry done or use the Internet or send a fax. To get a Wifi card you had to go to the car wash/pet store and if you wanted fresh fish/conch you had to go to the hair salon, maybe at this point you might be getting the code??? If you guessed that if you wanted to get your haircut you had to go to the attorney's /notary's office, then you are right! We got a chance to meet up with some other cruisers that are heading our way. Between storms, the weather was sunny and warm, with low humidity. Depending on the storms we would anchor on one side of Elizabeth Harbor or the other. Although it was a bit more crowded, we stayed mostly in Kidd Cove, due the proximity to town and we were able to get Internet on the boat!
We walked around town and ran into some other cruisers that were walking to the "fish fry" so we joined them for a yummy crack conch lunch washed down with a couple of Kaliks (local beer). One night we enjoyed listening and dancing at the "Rake and Scrape" with the locals and other cruisers at Eddie's Bar & Restaurant. The instruments used in this musical gathering are traditional tools like a saw scraped with a screwdriver; washboard and a bucket also included were guitar and drums. Although we did enjoy our evening the only danger we were afraid of was if we drank too many rum punches, we would be part of the "scrape" as in being scraped off the floor! Because it was between storms (again) we had made an attentive plan to move further south/east the next day but because it was my birthday we decided to hang in George Town for one more day. It also gave us a little more time to get a few last minute things done before leaving the Exumas.
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02/08/2010, Little Farmer’s Cay, Exumas
We arrived in Farmer's Cay through a shallow tight cut in the reef. The good news our little anchoring area was protected from the west wind, which was on it's way with another storm. We anchored with two anchors out each secured at the bow of the boat. They call this a Bahamian Moor because the wind and current shifts throughout the Bahamas. The bottom was mostly hard flat limestone but with patches of sand. I had to dive down and physically move our anchors and dig them into what sand there was. I was successful and our anchors held us good through the next blow, which came that night. We did take a walk and met some friends from Canada who have a great dog (Vicki) who is a Vizla breed. When we get back we want to find a Vizla of our own.....
After the storm we wanted to ride the northeast winds down the outside of the Exumas to George Town. We had to motor through a cut into the open Atlantic Ocean. As we pushed through the narrow passage the wind and current were opposed and we were taking waves over the bow. This was only very scary for about 15 minutes then we were in open Deep Ocean. It was a six-hour sail to George Town as we passed Cay after Cay riding four-foot ocean swells and sailing in 10-13 knot northeast winds.
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02/05/2010, Staniel Cay, Exumas
With another storm approaching we had to leave Big Major Spot because it was exposed to the west wind. We pulled anchor in the morning and motored a couple of miles through a narrow cut into the reef to a small somewhat protected area next to Staniel Cay. This is where they filmed the James Bond movie "Thunderball". You may remember the cave in the movie. We are anchored behind the very small Cay where the cave is located. We were the third boat anchored in this tight area but we were sure more would follow during the day. We made sure our anchor was secured and motored the dinghy over to the Thunderball cave entrance. We found a small dinghy mooring just outside the opening. The opening is underwater so you have to dive down and swim hard and make sure you come up inside the cave. Wow... what a beautiful cave... Nancy & I were alone in the cave except for 100s of tropical fish. They were all very interested in us because people usually bring bread to feed the fish (we will have to come back with food next time). The cave is large inside with a small hole at the top (35' ceiling), which lets in sunlight. I have to say this was so much fun and exciting with all the fish & coral. We explored the cave and found another entrance on the other side that you had to dive deeper to exit. Now we want to get a copy of Thunderball and watch the movie again.
Well, the storm did come as predicted. It blew 30 knots with very heavy rain. We were bouncing around some, but our anchor held because most of the blown when over us because of Thunderball Cay. The next day after the wind blew all night was Super Bowl Sunday. The small bar & restaurant was having a Super Bowl party. Some friends we met in Bimini (two young British guys who bought there boat in Florida) showed up during the day so we all hopped into our dinghy and headed over to watch the Super Bowl. Last year we watched the Super Bowl in El Salvador we another group of good friends. The game was great even if the electrical power at the bar (and island) kept going off.
The weather looked like we had about 24 hours before another storm hit so we decided to sail to Farmers Cay, which had some protection from the west. We pulled anchor and carefully left the shallow reef and headed out.
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02/04/2010, Big Major Spot, Exumas
We arrived at Big Major Spot well before dark. We were pleasantly pleased when the anchoring field was very large with plenty of room between boats with a nice sandy bottom. Also protected from the east- southeast winds. The water is crystal clear that you can watch your anchor hit the sandy bottom and dig right in....this also meant that we were going to be able to sleep soundly w/o any middle of the night anchor watches! Yay!
Since we had sometime before the sunset, we decided to dinghy over to the beach to stretch our legs with a nice beach walk and to see if we could make any truth to the "tale of the pigs" as said in earlier post about the island having "swimming" pigs. I gathered up some veggies, just in case we came across any pigs. As we got closer to the beach, we noticed that the beach was empty. We did our best pig call while waving our veggie bag above to see if we could get any pigs to come out of the brush. We went ahead and starting walking along the beach searching for shells, occasionally calling for the pigs. It was a matter of minutes before I caught a glimpse of a pig charging out of the bushes, heading right for me and for the bag of veggies! It caught me by surprise, as I gave a little scream and started walk quickly or should I say run in the opposite direction, only noticing she (the pig, she appeared to have just had a litter?) was running after me! As Brian stood watching and laughing, I tossed him the bag of veggies, which help change the direction of the pig towards him. It was my turn to stand and laugh, especially since the pig was jumping up, like a dog, trying to get the veggies from him. Naturally, Brian spoke to the pig as if it understood like a dog to "sit" but the pig apparently had not been trained this command. As we slowly walked towards our dinghy feeding the remaining pieces of our veggies, the pig followed us all the way out in the water, rooting for the last pieces of food in the water. Afterwards we spoke with some friends that watched the whole thing from their boat that said it was quite a comical scene! Unfortunately we did not take our camera with us, so you will have to take our word about the swimming pigs.
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02/03/2010, Allan Cay . Bahamas
After waiting in Nassau for a weather window and enjoying exploring the Atlantis Resort at night we were ready to head southeast to the Exumas. By the way, we explored the underwater aquariums at Atlantis Resort and loved it... it is the biggest and best resort we have ever seen. After five o'clock the guards go home and instead of paying $35 to visit you can explore for free. And as cruisers, we decided to go the free route, which I think was better because the place was empty.... guests getting ready for dinner or gambling at the casino. We walked through the huge aquarium and enjoyed the sharks and rays...wow... fantastic resort.
The next day we woke early and headed out for Allen Cay, which is 35 miles southeast of Nassau. Leaving Nassau harbor was tight with many shallow spots to navigate. We made is safety through the shallows and had wind at our beam. With all our sails up we were moving at 7 knots under sunny skies feeling good and free. We arrived at Allen Cay an uninhabited small island, except the only residents are large iguanas (when a speed boat showed up in the afternoon the iguanas came out for the daily feeding...). It was quite interesting to watch as the boat came up to anchor on the small beach for the tourists to see the "prehistoric iguanas". All the cruising guides mention that the iguanas should not be fed because they can become aggressive possibly nip at your ankles! I am sure the real reason is because the iguanas would not come out as predicted as the tourist boat comes ashore. Watching from our boat, it was like the iguanas have learned when they hear the boat approaching they start coming out on the sandy beach one by one to greet the tourists! Initially we could see two iguana sitting waiting patiently as the boat was nearing the island, then approximately twenty more came out as the boat was beached and the tourists embarked. Tourists then began throwing out pieces of food to them; you could see the iguanas scrambling to get their treat!
The anchorage wasn't the best with strong current and shallow spots throughout the area. We anchored and enjoyed another beautiful sunset. After getting a deceit night's sleep and contemplating about the predicted storm, we decided to head south in the morning. All the weather reports showed another storm heading our way with west winds expected. The usual winds are from the east - southeast so there is very little protection for westerly winds. After reviewing the charts we decide to head south for an area with better protection. Getting a later start then we normally would when we set sail, as well as not exactly sure where our next destination would be to hide out from the strong westerly winds. We scoped out an area called Big Major Spot on the charts that appeared to be a possible area to anchor and wait the storm out. Our concern was that we would have to sail 7 knots or more to make it by dark...and when you are sailing there's no guarantees that you can maintain that speed. As we set our wave point to our next destination, we noticed that we were not the only boat "out there" heading for a protected spot! We found out there was a closer area, Exuma Marine Park, that had one last mooring available that we reserved but once we got to the wave point to turn in, the wind was at our nose at 25 knots, along with steep seas and we were expected to go through a narrow cut to the other side (windward) to get to it. We decide to bypass the mooring and head to Big Major Spot. At that time we were able to motor sail with all our sails up and keeping a speed of 7.5 nm, resting assure that we were going to make anchorage well before dark.
We also had heard that there were pigs that swim out to the boats.
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Love, Susan & Kevin
01/30/2010, New Providence Island, Bahamas
Nassau is a busy place... we have seen at least five Cruise ships docked at a time. That means a lot of people visiting and a lot of people selling them things. We are anchored further down the harbor so we are out of the busiest section of town. When we get to a large harbor like this we always have a lot of tasks to take care of. We need to take care of laundry, buy food, get water, get fuel, and have some fun. One of the fun and interesting things to do while cruising is to get to a new place is to discover where everything is and how best to get things accomplished. We try to get at least a couple of tasks done per day in between meeting new people and touring the area. We are anchored off a restaurant called Green Parrot, which has a dinghy dock and free internet (also good food). The anchorage has a lot of current (4-6 knots at times) and switches 180 degrees four times a day. This makes it difficult in a crowded anchorage with everyone moving around like crazy. I put out another bow anchor offset by 180 degrees from my main anchor, which has help keep us pretty much in the same place.
We heard about a local eating place called the "Fish Fry" and found out we needed to take bus 10 and tell the driver "Fish Fry" he would know where to drop us. After asking around and exploring we found bus 10 and after a fifteen-minute ride we ended up in front of some small cabins built over the water with fishing vessels moored out the backside. We got cracked conch and red snapper, and a couple of the local beers, Kalik for under $30 for the entire bill. Not only was the food plentiful, it was great! The locals know where to eat good and cheap..... now we do too.
The laundry and food shopping are a dinghy ride away, which makes things easier when doing chores. We checked out the local marine store because we needed a better cruising guide for the Exumas, which will be our next group of islands we are going to visit. We found a great one, which will help when we get to even shallower water depths. We got fuel and water today. The plan is use some of the North winds that should be showing up tomorrow to head for Allen Cay. A large storm is forecasted for the weekend but we hope to be anchored somewhere safe for the blow. We are expecting 30 knot winds with squalls of 40 knots.... we are not excited about the upcoming weekend, but you have to take the bad with the good....
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We are happy and smileing for you!!!!!!
