04/02/2010, Rock Sound, Eleuthera
As we make our way north we have passed some real and some imaginary mileposts in the sand. In Georgetown we crossed back to the north of the Tropic of Cancer, which runs right across the main street. We made our first dip into the tropics fifteen months ago in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and then reached our most southerly point at midnight on September 2nd off Punta Maniato in Panama, where at 07 10.3 N we were only a little more than 430 miles from the equator. Her in Eleuthera at 025 15.9N we are still more than 400 miles south of our start in San Diego. At Mathew Town in Great Inagua we reached our most easterly point at 073 47.0 W which is a little more than 2,000 miles to the east of San Diego. Along the way we have sailed more than 5,500 miles and slept in more than 100 anchorages. If nothing else our anchoring technique has improved.
Through most of those anchorages, when there are other boats, they are mostly of a kind and Mandy is often the most distinctive and to our eyes at least, the prettiest. However, the day after we crossed the 40 miles from the Exumas to Rock Sound, Eleuthera, blown fast amid the pouring rain, thunder and lightening of yet another pre-frontal disturbance, David Clarke and Marge Grigg sailed the Friendship, Maine based schooner "Winfield Lash" into the sound and the bar was raised several notches. David spent eighteen years building this beauty and delights in showing her and the wealth of detail he included to anyone who shows an interest. What's not to like on a ship where the compass binnacle, cast of bronze, is a half clad nymphette with perfect breasts and very alert nipples. In the horse business the aphorism is "keep your horses in the worst company and yourself in the best". I'm not sure how that transposes to the mariner, but for now we and Mandy are in great company sharing stories with David and Marge and laughing at his fierce New England wise cracks and at his silly T-shirt which boldly asks "Have you hugged your binnacle today?"
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03/12/2010, Compass Cay, Exumas
The word is that not in living memory has there been a winter like this one in the Bahamas with cold fronts marching through one after another and almost no sign of the prevailing easterly winds. The cold fronts are coming straight here from the east coast of the U.S. which is our destination in a couple of months. Of course up there the fronts are much colder and we are not in a hurry to move much further into them. Our progress has been tempered by north to north west head winds every three or four days, the winds clock around and then there is another front. It is all very unusual for the Bahamas. We have not done very much snorkeling or swimming as the air temperatures are chilly and since we are water wimps anyway, it doesn't take much to put us off. This was on a good day though, the water was so sparkling and clear I could not resist. This bay is stunning and is just across from Compass Cay marina where they have a group of nurse sharks hanging out underneath the docks where they wait for scraps from the boats. We will be continuing up to Eleuthera and then to the Abacos Islands after that as soon as we get some south or south easterlies to blow us up there.
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Twilight is in Panama right now. Torgeir the buyer is power sailing to Norway. I guess it can sail any where.
That place seems like a nice 'hot tube' after diving up on the north coast.
03/06/2010, Georgetown, Great Exuma
Cathy and Bruce Goforth have gone forth. Actually they have gone back to the Far Bahamas and then will be going on to Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico. We met them at Great Inagua when they let us tie up to their boat Serenade in the very surgey boat basin, where space was very tight. Since then we have travelled together and enjoyed their company over many shared dinners, drink sessions, dinghy rides and hikes across various remote islands. They are actually the most travelled people we have ever known as they were teachers all their lives in multitudes of foreign American schools, their daughters grew up in places like Yemen, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Jamaica. It is sad to say goodbye when the time comes, but we hope that as with our lovely friends on Sidewinder, we will meet up again some time in the future.
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03/03/2010, Georgetown, Great Exuma
Whilst sheltering up from a brisk frontal passage in the well protected Redshanks we anchored right across from fellow BCC "Calypso" with Jeremy, Nica and their two children Maddie and Julian. They are headed south to the Dominican Republic so time was brief but we spent a couple of good evenings with them and look forward to meeting up again when they return to the U.S. later in the year. That's just the second BCC we have seen since we left San Diego.
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After some months of lonesome anchorages Georgetown comes as a bit of culture shock. Relatively easily accessible from the U.S. East coast this large, beautiful area has become a terminus, winter hangout and aged baby boomer cruiser holiday camp. There are as many reasons to cruise as there are cruisers and many here do it for the camaraderie and community. Discovering the unknown is not part of the formulae. We have visited a few of these cruiser metropolises: Cartagena, Barra de Navidad and La Cruz and they each offer plenty, but at a price. The radio traffic becomes claustrophobic and despite all resistance, herd mentality creeps in and creates considerable inertia. You need a lot of horsepower to escape the vortex. As a dog's needs are all contained in "Fire, bed and bone," a cruiser's are in anchorage, supplies, water, laundry and e-mail access. Having spent considerable effort to put to sea and escape, as soon as we return to land we go to great length to log on and get connected.
In the less travelled places the cruiser demographic has some variety, at least of age and country of origin. Here we are homogenous: mostly American, fifty-ish, couples, dressed the same in raggedy old tee shirts and silly hats. In the line to refill propane tanks, inexplicably an all male job, Virginia got so confused by the sameness that she feared she might return with the wrong husband, not new but gently soiled!
When it comes to regulation volley ball tournaments, trivial pursuit with ninety players and tree decorating for grandparents day it is time to have cool ale at the Chat and Chill Bar and Grill and plot a course to somewhere way out there.
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03/01/2010, Georgetown, Great Exuma
At first glance this video clip might look like some cruiser's regatta underway in choppy seas whipped up by high winds, but look closer... all the boats are swinging on their anchors in Elizabeth harbor in Georgetown, Great Exuma. There were upwards of 250 boats gathered for the famous Georgetown regatta week. The highest wind speed clocked that day, as we were subjected to another norther passing through, was 50 knots. Amazingly, or perhaps because the holding is good, no boat dragged on its anchor and only one dinghy escaped, to be recaptured by an intrepid young sailor who charged off after it like a rodeo cowboy, returning it to its fretful owners within minutes.
It is easy to just anchor where the crowd is gathered and assume that it will be a reasonable anchorage in a blow. We had done exactly that and although we did not drag, the wind and waves were so high that MANDY pitched repeatedly onto the bottom at low tide. We also sustained some major chafe; ΒΌ inch groves in our Samson posts worn by the snubber line, which the next day had to be cut off with a knife; it had bourn so much stress. Needless to say, before the next blow we found ourselves a deeper, more protected, less crowded hidey hole.
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