Polite Compromise

It has been a busy past few months! We left Titusville in early January and moved south, arriving in Fort Lauderdale on the 14th. We stayed just long enough to pick up mail, resupply the galley, take Ron to the dentist, and wait for that all important Weather Window. We pared up with another boat, "Our Log" (Hi, Bill and Tina!), and arranged to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas together. Tuesday the 23rd, the winds were 10-15 kts. out of the southeast, with waves 2 to 4 feet with 6 second intervals (the best opportunity we had seen). The crossing was fairly easygoing and once we made it to the shallow Bahama Bank area, we anchored out to catch a few hours of sleep before moving to Green Turtle Cay in the Abacos to check in with Customs and Immigration.

The weather caught up with us there and we had to stay for a week before it was calm enough to pass through the Whale Cut. GTC is not a bad place to be "stuck"! We were anchored with other boats, "Isla" (Hi, Wayne and Brenda!), and spent the time exploring the island. Our 44th wedding anniversary was on Friday the 26th, which coincided with the weekly Sailors Pub Crawl Night so we celebrated in style! Please note that Green Turtle is a very small island with only 3 bars (and we actually skipped one) ending the evening dancing at Pineapples Bar and Grill. Our small three boat flotilla finally left on Feb 1st. Wind was 10-15 kts, 4 to 6 foot seas, with the occasional 10 ft "surprise" wave. Ron plowed our bow into a couple of 10 ft breakers. You know it's bad when he says, "Karen, you did close all the hatches? Right?" Good thing I was too busy taking photos to be nervous!

We split off from the other two boats and headed to Treasure Island to spend a few days with friends (Melissa and Carl on "Bay Breezin") we met last year while motoring through the Great Dismal Swamp in NC/VA. Treasure is a gorgeous little cay and has one of the prettiest beaches I've seen anywhere. We moved from there to Man O' War Cay for a couple of days and then on to Hopetown and Marsh Harbor.

This trip to the Bahamas might be our last for awhile so we wanted to stop at our favorite places and try to visit cays that we hadn't had the opportunity to see before. We moved to Lynyard Cay, through Little Harbor Cut with no problems - seas were up to 7 ft, but not steep. Anchored off of Egg Island - small anchorage with only room for a couple of boats, had a nice little beach but the water was very rolly so it was hard to sleep. From there we moved on to Highbourne Cay and found that we had problem with our mainsail - we have an in mast roller furling system (meaning the sail rolls into the mast instead of dropping down onto the boom). Our sail jammed about half way up the mast as it was coming out and we couldn't get it to release, so we rolled it back up and sailed on using only our jib. This wasn't much of a problem - slowed us down a bit, but that's all. Our sail plan was to go to Georgetown on Great Exuma Island to enjoy the Cruisers Festival and we figured we could get help there to fix the sail. However, we did get a little flak and trash talk on the radio from other boats along the way... "Hey Compromise! Is your sail compromised??"

By now it was the middle of February. We stopped at Normans Cay, Shroud Cay, Hawksbill Cay (took the dinghy through the mangroves, chased sea turtles and hiked up to Camp Driftwood to take photos), and finally on to Warderick Wells which is one of my very favorite places. We hiked, put our painted boat sign up on top of BooBoo Hill, snorkeled on coral heads near our anchorage, watched turtles and humongous eagle rays swim under our boat, and enjoyed a sunset happy hour on the beach.

Next stop was Compass Cay so that I could see Rachael's Bubble Bath - a local tourist spot where the water in this little lagoon foams like a bubble bath. It happens on a high tide when water breaks over the coral barrier with an east wind. You have to walk about half a mile to get there, but it was worth the visit. Afterwards, we took the dinghy over to Rocky Dundas. It is a natural cavern that is only accessible to snorkelers on a low tide. Ron tried to get in, but there was too much surge and I was worried about getting slammed around against the rocks. So instead, we decided to snorkel on a coral reef in a more protected area. Saw some gorgeous fish and Ron took photos with his go-pro camera.

The next morning we visited Compass Cay Marina - I wanted to swim with the nurse sharks that I was told gathered there. Ron decided to take photos instead of getting the water with me (feel free to draw your own conclusions). There is a guy on the dock that tells you not to put your fingers in the water because the sharks might confuse them with food and try to take a bite. Then he starts throwing bits of food in the water (basically he's throwing chum at me) and the sharks come for a visit. About 30 of them, and some were 6 to 8 feet long. It was obvious that they are only interested in the food (and not me) so I was able to touch them and feel around on them. Nurse sharks don't have sharp teeth like other species - they have molar plates for grinding their food. But still... it was pretty exciting!

We moved on past Staniel Cay, Big Majors, and Little Farmer's Cay - down to Rudder Cay to anchor for a few days and wait for good weather so that we could go offshore. Rudder is owned by illusionist David Copperfield and out in the lagoon, he has added an underwater sculpture of a mermaid at the piano. She's in about 15 feet of water so it is an easy snorkel. We visited with other boats ("Tao Pao", "Caribbean Dream", "Moon Glow", and "Another Adventure") and waited for calm enough water to pass through Rudder Cay Cut and move onto Georgetown.

Finally! We went through the cut with 4 other boats. Wind was 10-15 kts., 4-6 foot seas with a slight rage to 7 feet. A little scary at first, but it was a fun sail (even if we could only use our jib). We anchored that evening in Georgetown off of Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island next to the boats we had been sailing with - and near old Kemah friends, Debbie and Moray on "Sol Purpose". Moray was kind enough to come over and help haul Ron up the mast so that he could fix the jammed main. Yay! Our sail was no longer "compromised"...

The Cruisers Regatta is an annual event that attracts hundreds of boats for a week of sporting events, activities, and fun. Think of it like adult summer camp and you won't be wrong. I signed us up for five different things - including the dinghy poker run, volleyball tournament, in the harbor racing, coconut challenge - and we lost all of them! Well, technically we did win a 3rd place flag in the harbor race. But Ron will be quick to tell you that prizes were awarded for each division (I think there were six divisions) and ours only had 3 contestants in it. So even though we won 3rd place, we were the LAST boat to cross the finish line! We might be slow, but we had a great time!

Friends, Jim and Linda, from Houston flew to Georgetown and spent the week with us. I hope they enjoyed themselves at least half as much as we did. We rented a car and drove on "The Queen's Highway" from one end of the island to the other. Stopping at the Tropic of Cancer Beach was one of the highlights of the week. It was gorgeous!

So now it's time to move again. It's taken a couple of weeks, but we have returned to Florida and at the moment we are in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon. The next part of this grand adventure is for us to move over to the Western Caribbean. We will sail to Key West and with the first weather opportunity, cross the Gulf to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We have ordered charts and guides, and I've been doing some online research - current plan is to get Compromise settled into a marina in Rio Dulce, Guatemala no later than mid May. Rio Dulce is an accepted "hurricane hole" for our insurance coverage so we plan to spend the summer in that area. We will keep our satellite tracker on so that you can watch our progress if you wish. I'll send out a link later. Thanks so much for keeping up with us.
Bye for now - Karen.