12/16/2010, Pipe Creek to Black Point

December 9th and 10th Pipe Creek

We worked on boat projects, took dinghy rides around the area, and attended a beach party in the evening. "Night Hawk" and "Kokomo" caught up with us and found room to anchor behind the "Mice" with us. It's like old home week here.

Our VHF radio is not working... we can send with lots of power but can't receive so I made the trip this morning to attempt to get one ordered and flown in... and at this point am not having any luck with the phones out in both Samson and Staniel Cays.

December 11th to the 14th... Pipe Creek

On Sunday/ Monday night the wind slowly ramped up and around 2am the front hit us with 35 knot winds and squalls... I had put out another anchor to keep us from swinging into the shallow water to our east and the rocky island to the west but it was still scary to have that much wind screaming through the rigging for hours on end. I was up all night on anchor watch and was very happy to see the sun.

The wind never dropped below 25 knots on Monday and we had to forgo Roland's birthday party ... putting it off until tomorrow.

There were no waves so "Sapphire" rode smoothly enough to get some work done. We have been plagued for about 2 years with a very slow water leak which I finally tracked down to a supply line under the vanity in the head. I cut off the fittings and removed the pipe to find an area with two or three small holes. I cut the area out and put in a union before reconnecting everything. Finally, our bilge pump stopped going off every 4 hours and level of fresh water in our tank stayed up where it should.

Tuesday, Dec. 14 Pipe Creek to Big Majors....

"Fine Lion" was been anchored ahead of us in an area that was really narrow. They were forced to re-anchor during the height of the storm and a couple times more when the wind changed. They were going to have to move again today when the wind shifted to the north so they decided to head back to Big Majors ... We all were tired of the same scenery so a little before high tide we weighed anchor and motored south to Big Majors.

Wednesday 15th

After a great night of sleep... no anchor watches, and a good breakfast we dinghied in to the Yacht Club at Staniel Cay for a walk and some lunch. We stopped at the store for a couple of items and watched Oakland beat Tennessee on an afternoon replay. Steve had called for a beach party so we headed back to the boats around 2pm to find that our anchorage had grown from 6 to 25 boats. With the good weather, boats that had been holed up to our north all headed south and had decided to stop here for the night.


We had a nice time meeting folks at the party and chatted with "Discovery" who had sailed in with the fleet and planned on staying in the area for the Holidays.

Thursday, 16th

This morning we said good by to Pig Beach and headed south to Black Point to do some laundry and to say hi to friends.

Comments [0]

12/16/2010, Lucaya to Staniel Cay

December 2nd & 3rd 2010 Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas

We had a nice lunch with Carl and Marilyn, checked out of the Marina and pulled out of our slips around 3 pm. A front has passed yesterday and north winds had filled in nicely moderating to about 20 knots by the time we left.

With the island blocking the waves for the first couple hours, we set a course for the northern point of the Berry islands which was a little more than 50 miles to our SE. We made good time with the wind on our port quarter.

There was quite a bit of shipping traffic through the evening as we "Fine Lion" was only one that was not gigantic. They were approaching from the south and south east as well as over taking us from the north west. It was exciting and made the time pass much more quickly than normal. When ships are are only about 200 yards away it keeps you awake at the helm.

When we reached the Berry's we altered course to the south and left the shipping lanes to the big boys. Heading almost directly down wind now with sloppy seas, we changed sail plans to stop the flogging (Moved the head sail to the starboard while main and mizzen stayed on the port).

We still didn't have a destination but it was looking like West Bay at New Providence was going to have to be our choice as we were not going to have time in the afternoon to make it across the banks in daylight. Steve called a little later and promoted heading to Nassau to make a little better time and a more comfortable ride so we headed to the SE again aiming for Nassau which was by that time only about 40 miles away.

Still with 20 + knots seas built during the day and by the time we arrived around noon we were rocking and rolling.

Since Nassau Harbor Control uses ch 9 on low power we couldn't hear them so Steve checked us in before entering the Harbor. We anchored out of the wind and I spent the afternoon sleeping.

December 4th, 2010 Nassau to Normans Cay, Exumas

We waited until about 8:30am before departure to get the sun high enough in the sky to see the water and then made our way to the southwest to a waypoint that allows us to miss both the White and Yellow banks where dodging coral heads is sometimes a full time job. Once there we had a perfect sail the rest of the day in light to moderate air and almost flat seas.

After anchoring at Normans we organized the boat and got cleaned up to head in to the only restaurant within about 50 miles. We lowered the dinghy, winched the outboard down from the rail and headed in only to find no one home. It was Saturday night and there were a few lights on but after a search of the area we couldn't find anyone to open the place up for us....

We had some shrimp to use up so I decided on Jambalaya and invited Steve and Kim over for dinner. They came over a little later with some baked brie and fresh bread while Kathy opened one of our cherished cans of Dilly Beans. It was short notices but everything tasted great.



December 5th, 2010....Normans Cay to Big Majors Spot, Exumas

We weighed anchor about 8am and set a course to the south east skirting the Exumas to our east. Winds again were about perfect all day, dying a little in the afternoon. By the end of the sail we were running down wind with our head sail poled out and the main prevented as wide to the port as our stays allowed. Racing along at 5 knots we rounded Sandy Cay and made our way into the anchorage.

Wind from the west and north west we forecast for the next to days so we worked our way in to the best NW we could find off Fowl Cay.

December 6th , 7th and 8th

We were the only boats in the anchorage and we bounced around in west and NW winds for a couple of days. We went ashore for palm fronds but it was too cold for swimming. On Tuesday we made the trip into the Yacht Club for lunch and had a good time visiting with the workers there.

With a major front scheduled for the weekend we took off on Wednesday morning for the 5 mile run into Pipe Creek where we would have good shelter among the many little islands.

Comments [0]

12/02/2010, Lucaya, Grand Bahama

November 30-December 2, 2010 Lucaya, Grand Bahama
Let's see, we've wandered Lucaya, had lunches out, done some boat maintenance, and met new friends. A big Sea Ray pulled in full of young men and a couple of older guys. Turns out it was a bachelor party. The groom-to-be asked his future father-in-law (on Saturday) to drive them over on his boat. They were very much fun on the dock.
We celebrated Steve's birthday on the 30th. We had a not so good lunch out, then went back to do some boat work. We decided to try for a better dinner at Shenanigan's Irish Pub, as we had heard they had a great Guinness steak. The boys tried the steak, which was served as a type of pie, I had a delicious chicken pot pie topped with puff pastry, and Kim had Sheppard's pie-all was delicious!
As much as we like Lucaya, it is time to move on. We met Carl and Marilyn (Discovery) for lunch. That was fun. Now we are getting the boat ready to leave. Not sure where we're going, we will post when we can.
We've had some rain, we've had some sun, we've had some fun!

Comments [1]