02/20/2010, Rum Cay, Bahamas
We sailed from Calabash and arrived at Rum Cay at four o'clock. We anchored in the roadstead anchorage next to one other boat. This place is considered what old Bahamas is like. Beautiful white sandy beaches and only 50 people live on the island. The wind calmed for the night and the seas were light so we had a great nights sleep. A strong storm was predicted to hit us the next day so we decided to move into the island's small marina. I drove the dinghy a mile over to the marina to talk to someone about entering the very tight and shallow marina entrance. The marina manager is a big Rastafarian who's name is Rasta. A very nice guy who ensured me he would come out with his skiff and guide us through the tough entrance. They is nothing like local knowledge and we use it whenever possible.
We pulled anchor and headed over to the entrance waypoint. Rasta showed up as promised and he and his dog carefully guided us through towering coral heads pass a sailboat, which wrecked up on the reef two days prior. We made it safety and secured Four Points with two other boats in the marina.
We had a beautiful day, sunny and calm... we took a long walk along the beach and visited "town" but the two shops were closed because it was Sunday. Rum Cay is truly set back in time, except the marina has internet....
In the early afternoon some local fishermen came back to the harbor with their day's catch (Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Snapper). They line up and clean the fish and drop the leftovers in the water. All the local animals come out, dogs, cats, and mostly sharks. They do this enough that the sharks show up everyday at around five o'clock even if there are no fishermen. It was amazing sitting there on the dock looking three feet down on the crystal clear water and having a nine-foot Bull shark swim under you. There were about seven sharks circling fighting over fish scraps. There were Bull (maneaters), Lemon, and Basking sharks.... quite a spectacle.
The small group of boaters got together to watch the sunset (another awesome Green Flash) and have drinks and appetizers. Rasta came out with fresh breaded and deep fried Wahoo (caught that afternoon). It was some of the best tasting fish I have had in a long time.
Well, the storm hit as promised all through the night and into the next day. We thought the storm may end, but the next night it blew even harder and rained vast amounts. The weather guy we listen to on the SSB said today that this is a forty plus year record winter here in the Bahamas. There are six storms predicted hitting us in the next seven days.... At this point, we aren't sure when we can leave here. We like to have wind when we are sailing but these storms can get to 50 knots and many of the anchorages are exposed to the wind and seas. So, very little safe havens along the way.
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02/19/2010, Long Island, Calabash Anchorage
We left George Town after a week of fun and decided to continue to make our way towards the Caribbean. I had to navigate and number of different options because the wind and swell direction was a little in question. After working through reefs we made it to open sea and found we had to motor sail very close to head on into the wind but it was light so we were making some headway. After determining our speed for the day we decided to head for the Cape Santa Maria on Long Island. Our charts showed a bay called Calabash that may offer us some protection from the swell and wind. As we approached the roadstead anchorage we saw a couple of boats anchored inshore and began the slow process of inching our way in always looking for shallow water and rising coral heads. We found a shallow spot in good sand and dropped anchor. Because the wind was ninety degrees from the swell the boat was rocking side to side. This is the most uncomfortable position for the boat. I remembered a technique I read in a book about creating a bridle and having the anchor come off the windward side of the boat. I got to work and rigged the bridle. This brought the bow around into the swell, which changed the boat from rocking side to side into rocking less bow to stern. It worked out great and the boat and us were very happy. We had a good night sleep and woke up early to head out for the next island.
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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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