As I sit here in the cockpit beginning to tap out this blog, I realize that it's been quite a while since I've updated. It's likely to be quite another while before the words that I blog here will actually be posted, due to scanty Internet where we are in the Jumentos Cays.



We LOVE LOVE LOVE it here in the far out-islands of the Bahamas! We're further south than we've ever been on the Nancy Lu--closer to Cuba than George Town, Bahamas. We hear Spanish on the VHF radio occasionally, now. Not nearly as many cruisers come down here. It's more remote with less opportunity to replenish necessities of the cruising life such as fuel for us humans (food and water), fuel to cook our food (propane), and fuel for our vessels (gasoline for the dinghy and diesel for Nancy Lu).



There's really only one small town, Duncantown, and its population is less than 100. There's been plenty of the fuel by which Nancy Lu is meant to be powered (the wind), but we've been sitting anchored in the same spot enjoying ourselves for 12 days! We're part of a small temporary community that, for the past few days, has included 7 sailboats: Nancy Lu, Discovery, Hold Fast, Krazy Lady, Andante, Amante and Journey. We're all anchored off of Hog Cay (there are several Cays called Hog; this one is part of the Jumentos Cays). Our little community will break apart tomorrow with some of us traveling together to other places and others staying here or exploring different pieces of paradise.

Before I give you a glimpse into our little community's customs and habits, I'll fill you in on how we got here.

It actually took two tries. Everything we do as cruisers is dictated by the weather (and by weather, I mean wind, its velocity, direction, and where to get protection from it). Our original plan had two parts. The first part was to participate in the Long Island Rally with its 60+ fleet of sailing vessels. This was a just-for-fun, approximately 30 mile race organized to take place after the Cruising Regatta in George Town. The second part was to sail south from Long Island to the Jumentos Cays after taking part in some of the Long Island Rally festivities, which included an awards banquet and dance held at The Island Breeze Resort. The first part of the plan took place without a hitch. In fact, we had a BLAST racing to Long Island--we came in first place in our class of 16 sailboats. We were in B class with the bulk of the boats being in C class! We got started around 7:30 am at the back of the first pack of boats to leave.



It was a lovely sight. Every time we passed a boat along the way, I would take a picture of them to share, later.



I noticed that we were passing quite a few boats, and we started to say to each other, "Hey, we might be a contender in this thing!"



We found out that we WON at the awards ceremony a few nights later!



The most fun for me that night; however, was the dancing. Sarah from S/V Mirador was a FUN dance-buddy! I have to say that Mark is pulling his weight as my main dance partner, though--true love!

Something that I was looking forward to on Long Island was seeing the new daughter of some cruisers/free dive instructors and free dive world record holder, Ashley and her husband, Ren Chapman on S/V Nila Girl. We met this interesting, sweet couple in Long Island last year while she was newly pregnant with little Ani. Before we returned to the Bahamas this year I checked in on Nila Girl's blog for an update on the baby situation. It worked out that we got to see them in Long Island,



again in George Town where they came to give a free-diving talk,



and again at Hog Cay, Jumentos!

On Long Island, along with the awards banquet and other get-togethers with the Long Island Rally participants,



we did fun hiking and beaching adventures. Most of these adventures were had on our own, but one was organized by one of our group of sailboats. One morning, S/V Silent Faith announced to the anchorage over the VHF radio that they had made a deal with a local man who owns a big box truck to take a group of us to a beach that he said was good for shelling. About 13 of us were interested, and we gathered at the road behind Long Island Breeze Resort to catch our ride. I think the trip over there is the closest I've come to the experience of being transported in a paddy wagon. Once we were off the paved road, we had to find something to put over our noses and mouths in order not to breathe in the fine dust, and I started to worry about someone falling out of the open back (not to mention one of a couple of holes in the bed of the truck) because of the bumpy ride. We all made it there safe and sound, coated with dirt, but no worse for the wear! Like a lot of the things we experience as cruisers, it was not the typical vacation tour package, or the typical price. Our driver charged us a flat rate of only $40 for all of us, but the experience was priceless!

When we would have gone on to the second part of our plan and left to sail to the Jumentos, we decided (due to weather) to join all of the other boats going back to George Town. There wasn't good protection from the predicted wind either at Long Island or the Jumentos Cays.



It turned out to be another glorious sail back to George Town, and going back ended up being a very good thing. During our stay there, we developed a new plan to head south with a few other boats that ended up being a part of our little Hog Cay community. We made a firm plan to "buddy boat" with two boats,



S/V Hold Fast and



S/V Discovery. We got reacquainted with Hold Fast, who we met briefly last year, at Beach Church in George Town after we returned from Long Island, and we met Discovery as part of the Long Island Rally. One of the single-handers, Andy, on S/V Andante, who also sailed to the Jumentos Cays with us often referred to Nancy Lu, Discovery and Hold Fast as the "Nancy Lu Posse" ☺. Another good thing about going back to George Town was finally crossing paths with Fred and Debbie on S/V Early Out who we know from our marina in Brunswick! They came over for dinner and a rousing game of Rummikub. They taught us a modification to the game that allowed me to finally break the losing streak with Mark that had recently developed ☺ !

After a haircut, a little bit of laundry, a small grocery-shopping trip (the mailboat had just come in, which meant fresh produce was available!! Some of it had not even been put on the shelves yet, but I didn't mind choosing from the box!), and a fuel run in George Town we were ready to leave for our Jumentos Cays adventure on March 18.



We made our way to our most southern destination, Hog Cay, by way of an overnight stop at Thompson Bay, Long Island;



another overnight stop at Water Cay, Jumentos;



and a couple of days stop at Raccoon Cay, Jumentos.



We got our first taste of the beautiful snorkeling that exists throughout the Jumentos while anchored at Raccoon Cay. This is also where Mark and I started to develop into more hunter-snorkelers rather than an observing-the-pretty-fish-snorkelers that we have always been! We were determined to use our pole spear to catch a spiny-lobster that the Bahamas are famous for, which was about to go out of season. Also of interest was grouper or snapper (which I hear in my mind with the melodious, lilt of the Bahamian accent as Groopah or Snahppah). I was also quite interested in a Hog Fish. These round out the good-eating fish that I'm able to identify on sight. Well, we weren't ever successful hunters on our MANY snorkeling expeditions throughout the Jumentos Cays, but we had an exciting and enjoyable time trying! Part of the excitement was due to the abundance of shark and barracuda in this more remote area where commercial Bahamian fisherman come from both faraway and nearby to fish, and they clean their catch right off their small vessels. I'm still surprised that I got used to swimming warily with these toothy fish. While snorkeling, if the shark or barracuda didn't leave after our first sighting...we did! The enjoyment was experienced for many reasons:



the beauty, the exercise (much more enjoyable than an aerobics CD),



and the camaraderie with our fellow snorkelers!

Now for the glimpse into our community:



We are a "hunter/gatherer" society. I've described the hunting part at which Mark and I are a poor example, but some in our community had some success. As for the gathering that we do,



it takes place when we hike on various marked trails to the other side of the cay where we can enjoy magnificent views and windward beaches that collect all kinds of flotsam and jetsam.



Some of these beaches are downright trashy collecting anything from buoys, nylon rope and nets to toys, bottles, crates, and any style of sandal imaginable etc.!



The trails are marked by cruisers with various interesting pieces of this trash, and it makes me giggle and take pictures as I pass by. Walking these beaches, we get a sense of the pollution of the oceans that is hard to appreciate most of the time because of the vastness of it. We rarely see any plastic or trash when we're sailing over the water, but it's out there. Back to the gathering...This trashy kind of beach is where you are most likely to find the prized sea beans that all of us beachcombers like to gather and collect. We find them among the other lightweight natural "trash" (seaweed and such) that washes up with all the other trash.



We're always happy when we find a "heart bean" that can be polished up and made into a necklace, but the most coveted sea beans are the more rare "hamburger beans" (they look just like teeny little sliders)! I had not ever found one until we came to the Jumentos Cays,



and now I've collected 5! I've learned that these beans come from South Africa and get caught in currents where most sink to the bottom of the ocean. A small percentage of them get washed up here and throughout the Caribbean. Yes, we're definitely gatherers (Bob on Discovery has the most competitive attitude toward this way of life)! We also like to gather conch from the grassy sea bottom that we find in some bays. I've tried my hand at conch salad with some of the conch I've gathered since being in the Jumentos, and it turned out pretty good!

This leads me to tell you about another custom in our little community. We really like to get together to share food. Sometimes this takes place on each other's boats as was the case when I fixed conch salad or when Bob on Discovery and Mark and I



broke down and bought some spiny lobster from some local fishermen who were fishing about 100 yards off our stern. That night we invited Hold Fast over to jointly prepare and enjoy it on Discovery (it turned out DELICIOUSLY).



Other times, our entire community will meet on the beach for a potluck dinner under a pavilion that was erected by cruisers who have come before us using various found or donated materials and decorated with signs made from flotsam and jetsam with their boat's name displayed on them.



Nancy Lu was proud to add our relic with all the others to the pavilion that serves as a civic center for our community. We had our last one of these potluck events on our last night at Hog Cay.



It took place the evening of the afternoon that I began typing this blog. Most of the time I just can't finish writing a blog entry in one sitting, and this time I had to stop to go cook my contribution to our last potluck dinner. I get to mention it; however, since it took place in the April 2 time frame in which this entry is written. (Whoa, could I be a little OCD about this blogging thing?) Anyway, another time that we made good use of our "civic center" was for a gathering arranged by Ann on S/V Krazy Lady, a single-hander who is buddy boating with Andy on S/V Andante.



She taught a few of us how to play the Chinese game, Mah-jongg, one afternoon. It was really fun!

Like other more permanent communities, a percentage of our population attends church together in order to worship their god. We had two church services while our little community was together. One was the first morning after we arrived, and we held it at the pavilion--uh, I mean, the "Hog Cay Civic Center". The last one was the next Sunday,



and it was held on the Nancy Lu. This small group's little worship service was held in honor of the One True God and His Son, Jesus! Hold Fast, Discovery, and we attended both. Myron on Hold Fast acted as preacher,



and Mark and I led music!

I'm going to miss the people of these last 7 boats to inhabit Hog Cay while Nancy Lu was still there; we decided to call ourselves "The Hog Cay Hold Outs". I enjoyed being with them and others that had been gone for a few days by the time I began writing. I'm sure other cruisers have since enjoyed the place where our community called home for a short while! I think that Vera and John of S/V Amante who we first met last year, and were thrilled to cross paths with this year are still there.

The weather and need to start heading back north in order to make it back in time for moving our Claire out of her second year at college and to take advantage of opportunities to contribute to our more permanent community in Texas dictates that we leave the Jumentos Cays.

I'll wrap this up with an exhibit of a few artifacts that I've created along the way:




Christmas tree ornaments (?) made with my Highbourne Cay sand dollar finds



Some tiny little plaques made with the sea glass I found on our box truck trip to the beach on Long Island



I decorated the cork coasters that we've been using for the last three years with the Nancy Lu "logo" and her initials



A dishrag that I knitted with some cool yarn that I found at Michael's in West Palm Beach

There are more pics in the gallery tab at the top right of the blog. You can leave us a comment by clicking on the word "comments" just below and to the right of this sentence.