25 February 2015

Day 5 of Exuma portion of the cruise

I was up at six this morning after another good night's sleep, eager for our trip over to Black Point Settlement and finally access to a wifi so we can post the last five days of entries. Something made me have another look at the course I had initially plotted for the trip and I am really glad it did. Turns out there are two paths from here to there but one of them, of course the shorter one, is for shoal draft vessels only. I was changing waypoints as the sun came up and now instead of a 7 mile trip we now have on that is 10 miles but we have a much better chance of not running aground or bumping into a coral head. I am also very happy that Barb bugged me into getting the AIS working again as it is very useful not only with commercial vessels but also with the increasing numbers of pleasure boats that are broadcasting AIS signals.

Meanwhile yesterday's excursions have managed to get all of my shorts wet and since there is a fair amount of condensation during the nights, this morning none of them are dry. Oh dear. Nude romping until we can get to a laundromat. What's that, Barb. We can wear our swim suits? Where's the fun in that? On well.

At the eleventh hour, or should I be more accurate and say at 05h00 in his morning I decided that since we will be in Black Settlement by close to noon, Peri, the long suffering pooch who won't use the little green mat acquired expressly for his use, would have to forego his early morning poopambulation and wait till then. This gave us a more relaxing AM, to get the dink up in the davits ( I had briefly toyed with the idea of towing it since the trip should be less than two hours, but the vision of it breaking away and us chasing it through the coral heads didn't appeal), do my first parade, have breakfast and be ready for a 09h00 departure.

At the appointed hour we were off and two hours later we were in Black Point and the work day is was over, or was it? For the first time in ages our CQR failed us and I was able to see what was happening. The sandy bottom was so hard packed that after the first couple of inches the plow just slid along the bottom on its side. No problem. We will just use the claw anchor. Sigh. The line rode for the claw anchor jumped off the lead and jammed up. What a mess! I had to pry it loose with a screwdriver much to the amusement of all the boats in the vicinity. Finally. Finally. Finally, we were anchored and we could get in to the town and check the place out.

Black Point Settlement. This is how these communities should deal with the cruising tourist. Free wifi in every business all you have to do is be a customer. Interesting little businesses and restaurants all very glad to see you. Prices not too high. The state of the art public laundromat is the best one that we have seen on this trip since we were in Port Washington NY and they have their own dingy dock so you can motor up to do your laundry, and you can buy groceries there, and you can do your wifi stuff for free, and you can have a piece of carrot cake and coffee while you wait. The folks in Staniel Cay could take a lesson from these people. Thunderball Grotto will only get you so far. We are interested in finding out how people do their banking in these places since there don't seem to be any banks in evidence.

We intend to come in for dinner tonight or tomorrow night as a personal treat. When we got back to Nelleke we were invited to Troubadour for dinner so I guess the dining out will be tomorrow. Troubadour was selected as Barry was having outboard problems and it would be easier for us to come to them rather than the other way around. As we had just finished our own bout with outboarditis I could feel his pain. Fortunately for him, the problem turned out to be a simple one that he could fix himself. It took some research and experimentation but eventually he found the problem and he is good to go. So, now they will be coming here. Spring rolls, chilli, and brownies. How does that sound? Not exactly Bahamian cuisine but good tasty chow nevertheless.

During our walk ashore we met a very charming but challenged young man who with huge smiles welcomed us to Black Point (I guess it was obvious that we didn't come from here), got us to sign his guest book and sold us two beautiful shells that cost several times less than elsewhere in the community. He seemed quite disappointed that we didn't have a boat card to give him so we will make it a point to go back tomorrow with one to let him have.

There are about 35 or more boats in the anchorage with Canadian boats being in the majority and québécois being in the majority of those. It is definitely a sailor's stopover as unlike many other places we have been, the vast majority of anchored boats are sail. Regardless, the are all sorts from trawlers to yawls, from racing sloops to comfortable ketches. The dress code ranges from mumus to topless, from shorts and singlets to speedos. This is what we came down here for. I haven't been able to convince Barb of the cooling effect of setting them puppies free but maybe after a while....We have put the wind scoop up to be able to survive and sleep through the night but as of 15h00 the sunlight reflecting off a nice sheltered anchorage with all these boats is worth the trip. It is definitely an extremely popular spot and although there is room in the anchorage for lots and lots of boats, shoal draft and keel boats as I said there are less that 40 here as I write this. Some of the folks here don't seem to understand that roaring through an anchorage kicking up a wake is not only bad manners it is also potentially dangerous but some still do. Ah well. We have never been to Georgetown so I'd be interested to know if that sort of thing is policed there. In this town it is beneath the critical mass of cruisers to warrant a harbour police, only 40 boats vice 400. It is the second most populated town in the Exumas apparently and they certainly go out of their way to make visitors feel welcome. The anchorage is safe from North through East to South but if there is any major West in the forecast this ain't the place to be. Fortunately for us the next couple of days is only calling for SE, ESE, and SSE so we should be OK. Once the sun set the evening cooled down and when the wind did pipe up a bit gusting to 15 I took the precaution of dropping the wind scoop. We don't there the extra sail area to put that much more pressure on the anchor and we don't want to risk damage to the scoop. The anchor seems to be holding. Cross your fingers.