Loving the Bahamas
12 June 2009 | Green Cay, Bahamas.
Mark
Friday, 12 June. We have been having so much fun that I have been remiss in not posting notes, so let me catch you up. We sailed back from Devil's to Chub to pick up our friends Dottie & Larry. We had a great sail jumping back and forth from 30' to off soundings (about 3000') as we went. Caught another barracuda, but nothing else. Comfortable night at Chub. Dottie & Larry arrived Sunday morning as expected, but because of various problems Dottie had to fly back to Florida Monday and return on a commercial flight (to Nassau) Wednesday. Larry, Deb and I went to lagoon at Bird/Whale at noon and found a few conch - also saw several Lion fish, really beautiful, but poisonous - then back to Frazers for the night. Tuesday we sailed from Frazer's to Nassau. No fish en route. Going under the bridge was VERY hair raising. The stated height of the bridge is 76' and our stated 'air draft' is 62.5', but I swear there was nowhere near 6' and the second barely had 3' above our antenna, but WE MADE IT! Spent the night at Nassau Yacht Haven Marina. ($2.00/foot, but had laundry and hot showers) Dottie arrived shortly after noon and we had lunch 'under the bridge' - conch salad and cracked conch, then got provisions at the market. We did not want to leave the next morning and waste hours checking out, getting fuel and finally clearing out of Nassau, so we left Wednesday, got our fuel, and then decided to head across the Banks a ways and just anchor out on the Banks thus making the next day's journey that much shorter. Thursday we finished crossing the Banks and arrived at Norman's Cay by noon. What an incredible place! Water like you cannot imagine if you have not seen it (will post pictures when we have internet). We snorkeled a crashed airplane, found lots of conch and tried to find fish to spear (but nothing worth the effort). Went ashore and saw some of the abandoned houses and storage buildings from when the island was a major drug trafficking point. Decided to set off across the Banks again before dark so that we would have a shorter distance to go tomorrow AM. Sailed off and dropped the anchor in the middle of nowhere - out of sight of land - in 16' of water. Great night. Friday we sailed to Green Cay, getting there by noon. Anchored far enough off the shore that we hoped we would not have mosquitoes. Snorkeling the reef, we found lots of fish and lobster ("summer crabs" as lobster are not in season, but crabs are). I found an absolutely huge lobster - 10# if it was 1 - but it turned out to be an egg bearing female so we had to release her. Dottie & Larry are such great companions. We just mesh and enjoy each other so much. Tomorrow will be a long day sailing to get to the Jumentos. We are having great fun.