I know it has been awhile since my last entry.
This has been a very weird year weather wise, so we have not moved around too much. Most of the time we are hiding from fronts that are continually passing through.
We spent a few weeks in Thompson Bay with Sapphire and Fine Lion, then we got a weather window that would allow us to go to Rum Cay. We started out just fine, but the good winds that we were supposed to have kept getting stronger and stronger. Don't get me wrong, we were sailing along at a really good clip when suddenly a rouge wave and wind took us by surprise and we broached taking in a lot of water in the cockpit (not to mention I thought we were going to die in that thirty seconds (Susan, not Barry). We took the jib in at that point and sacrificed our speed, but it was much more comfortable. We arrived in Rum Cay and stayed there for a few days. We were there sitting on Sapphire watching Second Wind, from Quebec, go out of the anchorage, then turn around and come back, then turn and go back out again. As we were watching we said, why is he heading for the reef, then "bang" he was on the reef. (Apparently his engine was heating up and he went below to check on it, with his jib up and no autopilot - dumb)We all went out with dinghies and one whaler and tried to pull him off. It was soon apparent that he was never coming off the reef. His keel was broken and his rudder was off and the boat was filling with water. Mario got all of his valuables off first, with the help of Sapphire, Fine Lion and Night Hawk taking what they could to shore, then he came back for a few more things. At this point he knew there was no hope and told the locals to help themselves - and boy they did. Very sad, but it shows how fast things can happen. Rum Cay has a lot of corals around it and you have to be very careful.
We came back and stopped at Calabash Bay with Fine Lion for a couple of days. Kim was leaving to go to Colorado for three weeks, so we went in to Cape Sante Maria for dinner. This was the best meal we have had in the Bahamas, wonderful food, beautiful sunset - Ahhh - what a life. The next day Barry and Steve went diving and we got four lobster and two groupers. We had dinner on Fine Lion - I made lobster Aux Grautin - yummmmm and Steve grilled grouper.
Next we came to George Town and have been spending time meeting old friends and making new ones. There were over three hundred boats here for the past two weeks as the cruisers have an annual regatta. They have all kinds of activities, pet parade, opening night acts, games, boat races etc. etc. Mike and Kathy's daughter Sam and her friend Nick came down for a week to visit and had a good time.
We met Jay Malrooney, Paul and Brenda's son (from Nova Scotia) who is crew on a huge mega yacht here in the harbour. We have been hearing about him for a few years so it was nice to meet him.
We went to Eddy's Edgewater rake and scrap then on to Peace and Plenty Resort the other night with a couple on Southern Cross a Hunter 45, Andy and Isabella, we had a great time and good food.
We have sat out a few fronts here in Georgetown and had two boats drag down on us when their anchors let go, one was Wolf and 50+ steel schooner and no one was on deck. We tried to call them on the VHF, no answer, so about five boats all started to sound their horns and they finally came up on deck with about 50 feet to go before they hit us. We could not move as they were directly over our anchor - whew!!! We watched a boat drag onto the boat next to us in another front and it actually hit the boat. The boat was an Island Packet and has a huge bow pulpit so no damage was done. These fronts this year are crazy.
We are now in a time line where we have to think about heading North to come home. We are booked for April 29 out of Fort Lauderdale to fly home to BC.
We will head up to Rat Cay then Black Point etc. Hopefully the weather will be better and we can do some more lobstering.
Happy Birthday to Lauren, March 17 and Stephen March 20.
We have now moved from Georgetown and are heading north up the Exuma chain. We went to one of our favourite spots at Ray Cay and got lobster and a grouper for dinner that evening - yeah back to "real" cruising. We then moved to White Point for two nights and walked the ocean beach etc.
March 20, 2009
We now moved to Black Point and are enjoying Lorraine's restaurant for great food and internet (really slow, but better than nothing). Black Point also has a wonderful laundry. We are going for cocktails on Glory Daze tonight, then will move to Staniel Cay/Big Majors Spot tomorrow to ride out the next front. We should meet up with Blue Bay, Sapphire and Fine Lion soon as they will be heading this way soon.
Hopefully I will have some more exciting news to add to the blog later.