On 3 May, we left the Jumentos for the 2 day trek north back to the Exumas. We made a stop in Blackpoint for laundry and trash disposal and a fabulous meal of fresh mahi-mahi at Lorraine's Café.
We moved up to Staniel to get our broken motor bracket welded by an expat from Connecticut who now lives on the island.
We enjoyed a Cinco De Mayo celebration at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club with lots of cruisers and local Bahamians. The food was surprisingly good for a Mexican feast in the islands. We had chicken, fish, and beef fajitas, beans, rice, guacamole, and all the fixings with lots of tortillas as well as chips and salsa.
|
Comments [0]
The weather finally broke and we were able to move north to Flamingo Cay then Water Cay. Water Cay is our favorite stop as the snorkeling/diving is fantastic. There are numerous reefs and 3 blue ocean holes. We did some spear fishing (that's Alan filleting one of the fish) as well as conching. The blue holes were fabulous and loaded with fish, including several huge grouper. We didn't spear fish in the holes due to the large populations of sharks just waiting to nab your catch.
|
We have spent a week at Raccoon Cay weathering strong trade winds causing rough conditions that no one wanted to travel in. We had 5 cruising boats in the anchorage along with a Bahamian fishing boat. We were able to still do some conching and spear fishing in order to live off the sea.
|
Off the beaten path like this, there are no trash cans, so we all gathered on the beach for a trash burning "bonfire". That's Denny on JusDreaming tending the fire.
|
We found a blue hole on the island and were able to do some snorkeling in the hole and find the exit to the sea where the incoming water was very cold.
Afternoons were filled with beach walksâ€"combing the beaches for shells, sea beans, and other treasures.
|
We discovered a broken motor bracket on the starboard engine and a broken alternator bracket on the port engine. Cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic places sometimes! With our cruising friends, we were able to jury-rig a "splint" for the alternator bracket using a piece of stainless steel from a spare chain plate one of the boats had. The repaired bracket of the alternator was swapped to the starboard engine so that we would have one intact engine (the port one) that could be run. We tried to find a welder on Ragged Island by making a VHF call, but the only welder was leaving the island for 2 weeks. We will have to wait until we are back up in the Exumas to weld the motor bracket.
|
