05/13/2007, Lee Stocking island, Exumas, Bahamas
Another night, another squall. It took us about 36 hours to tire of Georgetown. People are not really happy there and the cruising scene is kinda weird. It has the nickname 'Senior Daycare Center' for the hyper organized activities (bridge to volleyball), all geared around cruisers rather than locals. Predictably, the locals aren't real friendly towards cruisers. We're outa here! We had a nice, though slow, sail up to Lee Stocking Island averaging 4 kts. in 8 kts. of wind. We were shooting for Cave Cay, but the wind died completely and we would have had to motor to make it in time for slack tide, helpful to minimize the currents when entering the Exuma cuts between Exuma Sound and the Exuma banks. Turns out we're probably better off at Lee Stocking than we would have been at Cave Cut anyway. Dream Catcher stayed behind in Georgetown with what they thought was a leaking prop shaft. However, just as we were anchors down at Lee Stocking they called on VHF. Now we were some 25 miles North of Georgetown, beyond the range of VHF, so we were a bit puzzled that they could reach us. Then Jan asked to switch to channel 17, knowing full well that 17 is a low power channel, just to tease us some more. Turns out, they had a change of heart, pulled out of Georgetown, and put the pedal-to-the-metal to catch us. While we were hove to (standing still in the water) waiting for slack water, they spotted us and figure out where we were going in. In stealth mode, they followed in and surprise us they did! Of course, we were just delighted to have their company in this lonely anchorage: just the two of us, in fact. We'll see what the weather brings, but we'll probably stay here to weather a rather nasty front due in on Monday. We are really ready to done with the squalls. Every night they roll in between midnight and 3AM and toss us around. They pass on, we crash and wake up again with the Sun a few hours later, bleary eyed and not in our best form. One night's OK, but its been three nights running and more promised. Enough already!
Island Star motored hard to make Staniel Cay, a popular island and made famous for the nearby grotto used in Thunderball (James Bond). Talking with Charlie on Island Star last night, it sounds like a zoo there and he's not happy with the anchoring situation. Dream Catcher also gave us a negative report on the cruising situation at Staniel. The grotto is a must see and we'll need to top off with whatever provisions we can find there, but we'll probably not linger long before moving up to the national park. Though Staniel may still be a zoo, most cruisers have already packed it North or South for Hurricane season so we do not see a lot of boats. Island Star and Dream Catcher, like us, are also pushing on to get holed up mid-June for the season. That's life in the tropics.
The Exumas include a deep water sound and a huge shallow (average of 6 feet) bank separated by a chain of low lying (less than 123 feet high) limestone islands. Because there are no river or other runoff of significance, the water is clear as glass and its not unusual to see the bottom fifty feet below. The color is such an intense cyan that is colors the cloud bottoms and the very air above the banks! With a tidal range of about two feet, 33% of the water on the banks has to flow off and on with each tide. The result is some very strong currents that flow between the breaks, or cut, between the barrier islands. There is some signs of development here, but not much. There are many long, gorgeous beaches that you can have all to yourself for the cost of a dinghy ride. Lee Stocking Island is home to a research center that studies local sea life, such as Conch and the Spiny Lobster, that are important to the Bahamas and becoming scarce. They also study the effects of global warming on reef systems and are working on the Caribbean reef bleaching disaster. Unfortunately, they also lost their funding and are now closed half the year, as in right now. Bummer, they used to give tours of the facility and of their two person deep sea sub. The owner of the island has closed it, so we can't even go ashore for the many hiking trails. Ah well, we did make a delightful dinghy tour of the area this morning (The highlight was a small cay with a rare and endangered iguana. The were curious and as soon as we landed, many came off the rocks down to the beach to great us.) and its nice to be in water where we can have a nice swim off the boat to cool off.
Last, but not least, Happy Mother's Day!
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05/11/2007, Georgetown, Bahamas
We arrived in Georgetown late yesterday with Dream Catcher, motoring up from Clarence Town, catching us just at the East entrance and Island Star blowing past us motor sailing fast. We even fired up the diesel for a couple of hours, until the alternator belt shredded. As always, it was wonderful to see Jim & Jan again and we look forward to getting to know Charlie and Sandra on Island Star, a Hinkley 50. Dream Catcher picked up a 15 lb. Dorado on the way. We hooked a cuda and a smaller Dorado, but blew the boarding and she swam away to another fate. Dream Catcher had a horrific time of it in Clarence Town, which is open to the North, from the Northerly swells coming off tropical storm Andria. They had ten foot breakers in the harbor and four foot seas where they were hiding behind a small islet in the harbor. We sure hated being holed up in the Rum key marina, but it sounds like the mosquitos were the lesser evil that nature had to offer at the time. We're here in Georgetown to sit out the squalls forecast for the next several days. We were going to leave and do a night crossing from Conception, but decided on an early exit given Chris's forecast. Sure enough, we were slammed last night by a vicious squall around 1:00 AM. We came out fine, but a few boats dragged and another broke their anchor chain during the storm. A small motor boat went up on the rocks. Unfortunately, it looks like we can only look forward to more of the same for a few days. Still, we're glad to not have met that monster while at sea or, worst of all, been hit by the high West winds while anchored at Conception.
A word on weather and cruising. Living on the water, very little separates us from the weather outside and we spend hours a day listening and discussing weather forecasts. When it rains, we're wet. When it blows, we struggle. When the seas are high, we fear. In our region, there is no weather radar, no Weather Channel. Conventional radio does not reach here and most weather analysts don't care what's happening here unless its a tropical storm that might threaten the States. Thus, we depend entirely on long distance short wave radio with all its vagaries: noise, propagation conditions, sunspot interference, and the like. We can receive government forecasts from November Mike November (NMN) out of Boston, but those forecasts are geared towards commercial shipping. Weather 'features' that a ship could care less about could be a real problem for us. For us and our cruising friends, the morning ritual revolves around listening and consulting to Chris Parker of the Caribbean Weather Center (http:// www.caribwx.com/). He is a sailor and a specialist in Bahama and Caribbean weather. A 65' sailboat was lost in Andria; he keeps us out of that kind of trouble. All of us here owe Chris a big thanks, the recommendation to seek safe harbor before last night's squalls being only the latest case in point.
Georgetown is one of the larger settlements in the Exumas, but that's not saying much. There are basic provisions, laundry, and, we think, an Internet hotspot, but the situation was better on Long Island. No marine supply and prices are three times the Stateside prices, whether fuel or beer. Clearly there is significant tension between the locals and the cruising population, who have essentially taken over the area and not always the most considerate folks around. Glad to have seen it, look forward to a rumored excellent burger on volleyball beach (where we are anchored), and we'll be glad to be gone once weather permits. The Bahamas are beautiful and, from an ocean life perspective, far more alive than the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the Bahamian government is doing their best to discourage people from cruising here. The Bahamas have the highest entry fee, $300, of any island from Venezuela to Florida. We just found out, after taking six conch, that cruisers are no longer allowed to take Conch from Bahamian waters. That really sucks. Lobster will be next no doubt. $300 is no big deal for the sport fish or vacation crowd, but for cruisers, often on tight budgets, it will be an effective deterrent. The Bahamian government is also selling out, to developers, land that locals contend do not belong to the government. The latest of these blunders is Bakers Bay in the Abacos, adored by cruisers and locals alike. They've started to build high end homes, partitioning one of the loveliest public beaches in the Atlantic into numerous private, porch front beaches. Then there is chemical run off from the planned golf course onto the surrounding reef system. Tom Cruise is a major investor in this development, BTW. A guess we'll consider the Bahamas, like Culebra, Puerto Rico and Nonsuch Bay, Antigua, as one of the places we have been lucky to experience before the developers ruined it for a dollar or two.
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05/09/2007, Conception Island, Bahamas
Yahoo! What a day! We spent the last few days in a marina waiting out weather. We don't expect high winds, but high seas radiating from a fierce low due to make landfall in the states tomorrow. The Abacos in the North Bahamas saw 25 feet. Down here we saw 12 feet. Even in the marina the boats were sloshing around and banging against the pilings. We generally hate marinas because they are very expensive and you are essentially on land: bugs, no wind, and hot. Oh yeah, no cooking allowed on the boat to force you to eat out or endure PB&J. Fuel? $4.25/gallon. Water $.60/gallon. Yikes! The mosquitos and no- see-ums were vicious. We had to keep the boat closed up tight in the stifling heat and still look positively diseased from all the bites. Then there's the supposed 7' depth in the slips. Try 5'6" in ours - we were aground, albeit gently, at low tide. With that picture, you can perhaps understand how absolutely delighted we were to get out (we had to wiggle the boat with dock lines while in reverse to work back out through the sand) and away from Rum. The swell was still running today, but the forecast was for little wind and no swells tomorrow: perfect conditions to visit Conception Island, a marine park in the Bahamas. We figured we could deal with the rolling swells one night, but, in fact, we were able to anchor further up the bay than the charts indicate and are quite comfortable watching a stunning red sun sunset. The big news in our little floating world was our second Dorado, caught shortly after leaving Rum cay as we ran along the drop off. 15 lbs.! Enough for several meals! I really don't think I can land a bigger fish onto the boat. When they get this big you have to gaff them (hook with a meat hook-on-handle affair), but I've never done it and know there's something to the technique to keep them from jumping off. Regardless, it turns out our gaff is too short to really reach down below the fish. Spence and I are really just beginners when it comes to the fishing thing and have much to learn. It may seem picayune, but watching the sport fish guys clean Dorado it appears you should skin the fish BEFORE filleting. Duh, I guess... Sure enough, you can can just peel it off (perhaps 'rip with pliers and two hands' is better than 'peel') while the fish is still whole. Lovely. I don't know how we'll ever eat fish back home after eating grilled Dorado less than six hours from sea to table. The meat is moist, light, and almost sweet. Just incredible! Our fishing luck has definitely improved since the Caribbean. My theory is that the Caribbean is dead. Cath insists that our recent success is due solely to her spit on the lures: a recent modification of our trolling technique. We haven't had the chance to snorkel and explore Conception island, but it sure looks good from here. We'll keep you posted! ... Since we haven't been able to post, here's the conclusion of Conception. The weather is not really cooperating with us. The wind has switch to the SW (from the NE), not forecast, and put us on a lee shore here. There's not much wind, so its not immediately dangerous, but a little uncomfortable. In our weather briefing this morning, Chris advised us to seek safe harbor for expected severe squalls Fr- Su. Bummer, but at least the nasties of today will pass North of our path. The low pressure that's been bother us only indirectly has become the seasons first named storm: awful early. The storm plus moisture from the South has made things unstable and tropical in our region for a bit. Soooo, we had a quick snorkel (pretty good for the coral, but Rum was better for the fish), raised anchor, and are heading for shelter in Georgetown. Fortunately, as we're sailing over to Georgetown the conditions are picture perfect without any squalls in sight and 10 kts. on the beam, which allows to go 6+ kts, and no seas to speak of. Add to that the dolphin that escorted us out between the reefs at Conception, and we're feeling pretty good about the trip, if not the rush to take cover.
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05/08/2007, Rum Cay
Sure, sure, it's seven feet deep at low tide, you can make it. That's what the marina said over the radio. And we believed them.... until we ran aground in the marina. But we got pulled out so we could run aground in our slip. Too bad our winged keel acts like a giant anti-reverse barb. Nonetheless, we docked in the nurse shark infested marina without further incident. We visited the town, Port Nelson, a short walk away. The population of people is about 100, and there is plenty of mosquitoes to go around, not to mention the hordes of no-see-ums (see Bahamas Shakedown). We met people from Annecy, in France, as well as Boulder. The gourmet restaurant was anything but gourmet. We ordered 3 fish and 1 chicken. We waited for 2 and a half hours until they brought the chicken and told us they were out of fish now. We went to another restaurant to dine with our Boulder friends the next day. Mommy's shark paranoia aside, we went snorkeling and got some fabulous fishy photos. The sport fishermen took over the marina because of the upcoming fishing tournament. The fish carcasses were greedily snatched up by the nurse sharks. Our next destination is Conception Island., supposedly the best island in the Bahamas....
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05/07/2007, Rum Cay
We are now at Rum Cay waiting for the nasty front generating close to hurricane force wind in the eastern US, before we get to the Exumas. We heard great things about this island, but so far, we have not been impressed so we are catching up on blogs from the Sumner Point marina (we tucked in here because of the predicted 12 ft swell and the poorly protected anchorages). Note to other cruisers: this marina is a total disappointment from the lavish advertisement in the guide. You can't go in at low tide with a 6 ft draft (after being told 'no problem' we ran aground), the gourmet restaurant is no longer here, the only place they have serves fried chicken wings for $20, no showers, and the place is full of no-see-um (flying critters that bite at dusk and dawn). The only thing good so far is the wifi that allows us to post pictures, and we heard the snorkeling is great, so we'll check it out when the waves are down.
The other highlight of our stay in Long island was a thorough course (from Jan on DreamCatcher) on how to clean conchs. Conchs is to Bahamian what beef is to American. It goes like this: you dive for conch until he finds at least 4 big ones - it is hard work because each shell is heavy so once you find one you have to bring it back on shore or to the boat and go back out for the next one. Then you go to a beach (see picture) with painkillers (not the meds but the local rum-based drink) and try to get the mollusk out of his shell. It's quite a perfected art that locals can do in 2 seconds when it took us a good 30 min at first. It requires a hammer and a chisel to severe the critter's spine from the outside of the shell at a very specific spot. Once detached from his shell, you pull what must be the ugliest creature on earth. You then chop his 2 eyes out along with all his intestinal parts. The locals eat raw a long skinny gelatin looking body part (called the "style") rumored to be an aphrodisiac. Yuk. You keep the white muscle part - that is hard as rubber when you first extract it. Then you pound that puppy until it is tender, and you now have the flesh with which you can make conch fritters, conch chowder, cracked conch or conch burgers. I wonder if they sell conch at Whole Foods now ..... By the way, if you want to keep the beautiful shell as a souvenir, you can also boil the critter out, but you pretty much ruin the meat doing that.
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05/06/2007, Rum Cay
Sorry this blog is a bit late, but better late than never. I celebrated my 16th birthday not too long ago and spent an amazing day that I will never forget. When I first woke up in the morning there was a Happy Birthday balloon hanging from my hatch. Then we enjoyed French toast (Daddy's present-I LOVE French toast!). Once we were filled with breakfast I opened all my presents. Since thank you cards are difficult to come by here, I'll do it right now. Thank you to Grandma, Grandpa, Mamy, Mom, Dad, Spencer, and Katie Schweber. You're presents were AMAZING. It's kinda scary how well you know me ;) And thank you to everyone who sent me an email/posted a comment wishing me a Happy Birthday. Even though we're a long way from home, you all made me feel like this distance didn't exist. We joined our friends on Dream Catcher and mosied on up to Stella Maris with the rental car so they could clear customs. On the way back down the island, we stopped at the Stella Maris resort for lunch. The food was exceptional and the service was superb. Of course, everyone had to embarrass me by telling everyone that it was my birthday, but hey, I guess that's what I get for turning 16 J While roaming the lobby we found a broken piano with a bunch of broken keys. Little did I know, when I started to play it, it was also out of tune. But after 3 months of no piano, I absolutely had to play it. Then we found the foosball table....everyone was laughing so hard that we were crying. It was absolutely hilarious. So funny. We spent the afternoon driving to and seeing the Colombus monument. Man, that view was to die for. It was gorgeous. To top the day off, we did some basic provisioning and enjoyed a quiet night on the boat, complete with pesto pasta and a movie. I haven't ever spent a better day in my life.
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05/04/2007
Last week we spent a couple of days discovering Long Island (not the one in NY Howie!) with our friends, Jan and Jim on DreamCatcher. What a beautiful, clean and well provisioned place. We had no idea we would find this type of provisioning here - the marine store was a little McGuckin in and of itself and Jan and Jim said that was better than George Town. We even found a DVD reader cleaner in there to stop the skipping we now experience when watching movies :) You should see our faces when we find fresh produce. That's a highlight of our days after seeing green or no tomatoes in most other places. What most impressed us about this island is how clean it is, how many churches it has, the stores and the world's deepest blue hole - 600 ft straight down and right off the deserted beach (see picture). To see all these things, you have to rent a car as the island is mostly a long stretch of land (70 miles long to a couple of miles wide). So the 6 of us rented the one car the marina across the anchorage had - a compact little Suzuki with a big "Keep left" sign (Bahamas drive on the left). Spencer started in the trunk then finally gave up and agreed to sit on his mom's lap :)
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05/02/2007, Clarence Town, Long Island
We are now in Long Island where we reconnected with Dream Catcher, after temporarily losing them in our voyage. We spent a day in Mayaguana, recuperating, diving up conch, et doing the standard customs clear in process. The Bahamas beat the record for the entry fee for vessels - $300. Yikes. Maybe it matches the quality of the water and the richness of the sea life. We had not seen that many fish, rays and even nurse sharks since we left. The water is just unbelievable here and we can't help but jump in as often as we can, but not as often as we wish, considering we need to rinse off after every event and we are making our own water on board. Spencer had an impressive catch on the 24 hr sail from Mayaguana to Long Island: a 7 lb dorado. Howard, you would have been proud of him. We are grilling the critter tonight and sharing it with Dream Catcher who caught 2 'cudas and 1 mahi-mahi that escaped them. Life is hard in the islands.... Tomorrow Shelby is turning 16: without any friends, but with an incredible scenery, and some French toast for breakfast (her request). Internet is scarce here - the recent posts are done via satellite phone, so we can't post pictures. We are hoping to find a wifi spot soon and will make sure to give visuals of the past days.
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