Our arrival in the Bahamas
31 March 2017 | Great Exuma Island
John
We departed Turks and Caicos at 0915 on Tuesday, March 21st with our pilot boat showing us the way through the reef, bound for Abraham Bay on Managuan Island, some 60 miles. During the morning, we listened to the weather and learned of another wind storm due in two days which necessitated us finding another marina. We secured reservations at a marina in Clarence Town, Long Island beginning March 23rd. We then arrived at Abraham Bay through the reef opening at 1715 on March 21st, and got into the bay as far as we could, which was still 2 miles from land due to shoaling. Good holding and the wind was up. The following morning we awoke to the sight of a sailboat up on the reef, about a mile from our anchorage. We radioed the guy, who was from Maine, to ask if they needed help, and he explained that his wind vane hadn't been working well the past week, and he went to sleep during night and awoke to the catastrophic thud of his boat which had run up on the reef. A couple of rules broken here, so I asked if he needed help, and knew how to kedge the boat off the reef. He said he didn't need help, would wait for the high tide, and he knew how to kedge the boat off. 45 minutes later, he radioed us, and asked if we knew when high tide was, and also to explain the term "kedge". These questions, along with the circumstances of his grounding, firmly established his level of competency.
At 0930 we left Abraham Bay for Atwood Harbor on Acklins Island. The Bay was deserted, and Acklins Islands is the home of the major production salt pans of Morton salt. Uneventful night, and we left the following day for the protection of our marina on Long Island.
We arrived at Flying Fish Marina in Clarence Town, Long Island at 1530, and at the marina were our friends Linda and Bob aboard "Argon", whom we had met in Turks and Caicos. The marina was quite small, and very nice, filled with mostly big game fishing charter boats. Clarence Town was hardly a town, but had two restaurants, and a grocery store well out of town. The wind storm hit the night after we arrived and lasted 4 full days. The first day we rented a car and explored the island, stopping at the Blue Hole, which is the deepest ocean sinkhole in the world, and a nice beach on the leeward side of the island. We also went for a cave tour of some limestone caves that had petroglyphs, bats and large cockroaches, that the islanders used for shelter from the hurricanes. The following day we went to a beach at the south end of the island where Sharon gave Bob and I haircuts. We were impressed by the numbers of hurricane damaged houses on the islands, and very small towns that had been abandoned due to hurricanes. Bob is an avid bone fisherman, and found a spot near the marina he could practice his passion. The first day, our second day on the island he hooked one, but it shook the hook, and the second day, he landed one (but released it), so he was a happy boy. During our second day, we also jerry canned diesel aboard the boat, putting in 25 gallons, engine hours 2258, generator hours 1345. On the third day, we thought we could leave, but the breakers over the reef opening were still in place, so we stayed an extra day, leaving Flying Fish marina at 0930 on Tuesday, March 28th, and beating all the way up the island (45 miles) to a Calabash Harbor at the north end of Long Island. The anchorage was extremely shallow with only a couple of feet below our keel.
The following day we had a nice downwind sail 25 miles to Stocking Island, outside of George Town. Everything went fine, but we fouled the gennaker on the take down, wrapping it around the fore stay a couple of times. We also skied the entire sail, but amazingly enough had all that under control after about 20 minutes of frantic activity. Not good seamanship, but everyone is entitled to a bad day. At the Stocking Island anchorage, we hopped aboard the dinghy for a shore explore, going through the various bays and canals of Stocking Island, then had dinner at the famous Chat and Chill, on volleyball beach, which had good ribs and lots of manta rays working the shore.
On March 30, we moved over to George Town proper, anchoring in front of the Peace and Plenty Hotel to clean the boat, provision, and get staged for our crew change the following day.
Mid day March 31st, Melinda arrived back onboard with her brother Dave, his wife Rachel, and two kids, Jocelyn (17) and Cael (13). We bid a fond farewell to Bob and Sharon, who were headed back to Seattle. They seemed to have a good time, I think the adventure quotient far exceeded their expectations, and the leisurely days, palm trees, long sandy beaches and tropical drinks quotient may have not met their expectations. Bob did get in some good bonefishing however.
Picture is of the azure Bahamian waters that greeted us....