February 22, 2009

Norman's Cay, Norman's Cay, Norman's Cay - it felt like we were going to be at Norman's Cay forever and that our SSB would never, ever arrive. Jim and I did our best to keep up our cruising spirits and filled the days with more beach hikes, scuba diving, snorkelling, eating conch and more lobster and venturing over to Highborne Cay in our dinghy for fresh vegetables and most importantly, ICE CREAM, which we devoured over by the marina cleaning station so that we could watch the dozen or so Nurse sharks swimming below us. Not a bad life at all.

At last, the moment we were waiting for! Kennedy, aboard his sailboat, Far Star, called to let us know that he would be arriving at Norman's Cay by evening. We were overjoyed to receive the good news and made preparations for their arrival by chilling the beer and preparing conch for conch fritters. Kennedy and his friend, Marion, joined us for Sundowners on the Emerald Seas and then we all headed off to MacDuff's for dinner. Great company, great food and a few beer and rum later and we were almost ready to leave and get back to our boats when all of a sudden we hear on the pub's VHF radio a boat calling franticly for Emerald Seas!

Jim answered the call and to our great distress and panic, we were told that the Emerald Seas was dragging anchor at a considerable pace and was heading out of the harbour. Oh oh. We are at MacDuff's, its pitch black outside, the wind is howling (it wasn't before...), we've been drinking, there are no street lights of any kind. Beth (of MacDuffs) saved the day and drove us to our dinghy. We quickly dragged the boat into the water and bounced and splashed our way through the choppy seas towards Emerald Seas. Once aboard, we quickly ascertained that she was where she was supposed to be as we had set an anchor watch on the GPS. However, the vessel who had called us, was not so fortunate. It was she who was drifting and not us. A collision between the vessels was barely avoided and they headed out and re-anchored. Wow. So much excitement in so short a period of time really gets the adrenilin flowing.

February 23, 2009 As soon as we awoke, we hurried away from Norman's Cay and set sail to Wardrick Wells, location of the Exuma Park Headquarters. We were assigned a mooring ball over at Emerald Rock - it was a great place to be- no rolling and no current to worry about. We hiked across Wardrick Wells to the Exuma Sound Trail, up to Boo Boo Hill and over to the park headquarters. Luckily we had packed some water and a granola bar - by the time we got back to the boat, we had been gone 6 hours. It was an excellent hike, lots of information posted about the different plant life on the island, wonderful views of the sound- there were large seas breaking on the shoreline and we were glad to be ashore.

Next day we sailed to Staniel Cay where we could buy some food - our supply of vegetables and meats and junkfood were gone. Our supply of Spam, canned corn beef, mystery meat and canned vegetables is there if we need it but fresh is so much better. We bought chicken weiners and they were really good.................we couldn't afford anything else they had...Later we enjoyed a beautiful sunset followed by a crescent moon with the planet Venus nestled alongside.

Awoke bright and early again as we had to get to Thunderball Cave in time for the 8:30 AM slack tide. This cave was featured in the James Bond movie, Thunderball. We got to the cave and jumped into the crystal clear waters. To enter the cave you have to snorkel down and through the tunnel opening to get into the grotto. There were colourful fish everywhere and rays of sunlight filtering through the waters from a hole in the grotto. We explored the various openings in and out of the cave and enjoyed the outside reefs. This location has to be the finest snorkel experience we have ever had! Back to the boat, ditch the gear and now we zoom over to the beach so we can feed the pigs that live there and get some photos. They were about 5 pigs - 2 adults and 3 smaller ones. They had no fear of us and even put their feet up on our dinghy. They like to swim out to boats for food and obviously have no fear of sharks.

We returned to Emerald Seas and did a short sail over to Blackpoint, the location of the LAUNDRY- this almost mecca like facility has been mentioned by nearly every cruiser we have come across. Here in the Bahamas, water is in short supply and you either make your own, collect rain (which never seems to happen) or buy it for $0.50 a gallon if you can find any. Laundry services are available in certain Bahama communities but can be very expensive. I have heard of one boat that had their laundry done without requesting the price up front and were charged about $100.00! Anyhow, the laundry at Backpoint was top notch. We nearly cried when we left it, who knows when the next washing machine and dryer will show up.Note from Jim ... We did not really cry about the laundry situation, some of us like to wear the same stuff week after week.

Arrived at Big Galiot Cay on Friday the 27th. From there its out into Exuma Sound and onwards towards Georgetown. We stopped the first night at Lee Stocking Island and put down two anchors, in preparation for a big Norther that was scheduled to arrive before dawn. It hit us at around 5 AM in the morning - winds picked up, rains crashed down and then it passed. The day was windy but the forecasted 40 knot squalls did not appear. We joined 30 other boaters and went on a tour of the Perry Marine Institute and its recompresson chamber. This facility reminded us a lot of the Bamfield Marine Station. It is funded in part by the NOAA and the John Perry foundation and several American universities. We learned about the seriousness of the invasive lionfish- they are very voracious and studies have shown how dramatically they decimate other marine populations. A visiting scientist was doing studies on coral bleaching and he gave an interesting talk on the causes. The Perry Marine Institute of Ocean Sciences is extending its program during the winter months to schools, Girl Guide groups, Botany clubs and others. Its busiest time is between May and September when university professors and graduate students are on site conducting various studies. This year they will be having a NOAA research team doing dives to 300 metres in their submersible. They plan to collect specimens which might be used for pharmaceauticals.

GEORGETOWN- TUESDAY, MARCH 3RD Neither of us can quite believe we have actually made it to Georgetown on Great Exuma Island! There must be about 400 boats here and we are just in time for the 29th annual Georgetown regatta-sailpasts, races, dances, parties, parties, parties and more noise and chit chat on the VHF radio than we have ever heard before. Lots of sailing friends are here and we have met up with Alan and Liz on Kokopelli and Kennedy on Far Star. We stocked up yesterday at the grocery store and now have food on hand for entertaining at Sundown!

Chris Parker is in Georgetown and we were able to attend a seminar about Caribbean weather. Chris broadcasts everyday but Sunday at 6:30am on the SSB. He is listened to by most sailors throughout Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean and is the author of "Coastal and Offshore Weather, the Essential Handbook". Sailors subscribe to his service and he will email weather and trip planning advice along with his SSB broadcasts. As with every expert out here, he recommends patience with the weather - waiting is part of the game here and if you can't do the waiting, you shouldn't be doing the sailing! Its very windy here - blowing over 20 knots and gusting up to 30 from the NE- no change for the better expected till at least next week. Its quite rough where we are anchored. We are considering finding a better spot but with hundreds of sailboats all around us looking for a "better" spot, it doesn't look likely that we will meet with any success. Another windy, noisy and rocky night to look forward to!

Jim has the SSB hooked up! Now we have to figure out how to use it!

Best regards to all!