Discovering Paradise
11 May 2009 | Tahiti Beach, Abacos, Bahamas
Sunny, warm, light winds from the east/southeast
Lighthouse in Hope Town on Elbow Cay, Abacos, Bahamas.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Yeah! Gromit is back in the water. And we are off to discover why people call the Abacos 'paradise'.
Every morning at 8:15, Patty Toller on 'Blue Dolphin' runs a cruiser's net on the VHF radio. She supplies information about the weather, world news and markets, the state of the sea for those who want to go out onto the ocean, community events, new arrivals, departing boats and an open mike session, where anyone can ask questions and get more information. It is a great service for the boaters here, especially 'new to the Abacos' boaters like us!
A day before we left the boat yard, I contacted Patty and asked her where a family with three kids, who love to swim and play in the sand could go. She directed us to Tahiti Beach, a few miles south of Hope Town, on Elbow Cay.
Elbow Cay (pronounced 'key') is a thin slice of land that runs north - south, along the eastern outer edge of the Bahamas, separating the ocean from the Sea of Abaco. The Sea of Abaco is quite shallow. Its depths range from 20 feet to just 1-2 feet. Needless to say, we have to be careful where we go, as Gromit has a 6 foot draft.
We arrived at Tahiti Beach around 5pm and anchored. Without a moment's delay, we did what we've been waiting to do and promising the kids we would do, for months - no years: we jumped off the back of the boat into crystal clear water.
We are anchored in about 8 feet of water at low tide. The tidal range is about 3 feet. That means, at high tide, we are in about 11 feet of water. This is not only perfect for Gromit, but also for us to go diving down to the seabed. The seabed is covered with sea grass which is only about 4-6 inches high. It is this grass that gives the water its greeny-blue look. In areas where there is bare sand and no sea grass, the colour of the water is a shimmering sapphire-turquoise. Breathtaking! It is exactly like the pictures in those advertising brochures that want to lure you to the tropics!
Zoe, Maia and Liam have been diving down and finding conchs and sea biscuits (a shell that looks a little like a dounut). Also near the boat, we have seen sea anemones. These are round, ball like creatures that have, what look like prickles covering their bodies. Never step on one of these, because their tentacles, which contain millions of venomous stinging cells, are triggered to fire when they come into contact with your skin.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - day 2, Tahiti Beach
We gathered all our snorkeling gear and took the dingy to Tahiti Beach, a 5 minute ride. There, to our great surprise and delight, we saw a huge starfish. Michael described its size as comparable to an 8-slice pizza. We floated above it watching what starfish do. Nothing. They are very slow moving creatures we found out.
Starfish have no bones. They use feet on their arms to move around. These feet are like tubes and they fill up with water. The water-filled tubes make the starfish rigid enough to walk. Water gets pushed out of the tubes to move the starfish forward.
They have mouths right in the middle of their bodies. When they find their favourite food; shells, like clams and oysters, they use their arms and tube feet to pry open the shell. Then they turn their stomach, which is connected to their mouth, inside out and push their stomach inside the shell. The stomach wraps around the soft body of what is inside the shell and begins to digest it outside the body of the starfish. Wow. How appetizing!
Next, we saw our first ever sting ray. It was very exciting! We did keep our distance though. Sting rays are not aggressive. More likely, a sting from a sting ray could happen by accidentally stepping on it, as they like to bury themselves in the sand in shallow areas. When a ray is startled, like being stepped on by an unwary snorkeler, it whips its serrated, bonelike tail into the intruder.
After a couple of hours of snorkeling, we went back to the boat tired and sundrenched. What a great day.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Hope Town, Elbow Cay
Hope Town is a few miles away from Tahiti Beach. It took us an hour to get there with our dingy and 2hp motor. We skirted the shore line and saw some beautiful rock formations and tiny sand beaches. The water was clear and always changing between the blue-green and sapphire-turquoise.
Hope town is best known for its beautiful candy-striped lighthouse. It is one of the world's last working pre-electronic-age lighthouses. It was built by the British Imperial Lighthouse Service in 1863, and still uses a wind-up brass mechanism to send a beam of light which can be seen for up to 20 miles. We walked up its spiral staircase - 101 steps. The panoramic view at the top was stunning. The Sea of Abaco to the west dotted with islands and boats. The azure Atlantic Ocean spanning as far as the eye could see, to the east.
We wandered the streets of Hope Town, which are no more than narrow concrete paths set between houses which are painted the most interesting colours: pinks, greens, turquoise, salmon, yellows, blues, gray and white. We went into one of the grocery stores to enjoy a tradition we started in Marsh Harbour across the bay. We bought a tub of chocolate ice cream, found a quiet spot at the entrance to the harbour, pulled out the spoons we brought along for the ice cream event and in no time at all, were scraping the bottom wondering how it had disappeared so quickly.
Back to 'Gromit' in the dingy, dinner, reading and then to bed. A day on the water and wandering around town made us all very tired.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday Tahiti Beach, Abacos
We found another coral reef south of us and snorkeled for a few hours. The colours and shapes of the plants and fish were beautiful. Back at the boat, Michael thought an afternoon movie would be good and add to that some popcorn - what a way to round out the afternoon.
We took the dingy to an inlet about 20 minutes away in search of a grocery store. We were hoping to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables. They didn't have much in stock. Almost all the fresh produce in the Bahamas must be flown in and therefore, availability and selection are sometimes not great. Also, the prices are doubled, sometimes tripled.
Tomorrow, Monday, May 11, 2009, we will be sailing about 7-8 miles south of here. This will bring us close to an opening leading out to the ocean. When conditions are right, we will sail to Eleuthera on our way to Nassau. From there we will sail to the Exumas. We aren't sure when we will get there or when we will have internet again.
We'll check in again when we can.