Assorted photos

I found these guys hanging out in Spanish Wells.
A guy stopped his car and actually asked them
how they were doing!

Typical tidy homes of Spanish Wells on the waterfront

Spanish Wells was clearly one of the more affluent of the Bahamian communities that we visited.  The manager at the marina told us the community did well because it did not depend on tourist dollars.

We met this guy in Warderick Wells Land and Sea park.  Although he did a nice job of cleaning up the crumbs in our cockpit he was a bit of a pest.  He moved into our cabin.  It took a little coaxing to get him to understand that we didn't want him there!
I thought I saw some blue-gray birds in the surf during our rough passage from Georgetown to Cave Cut but no - they were flying fish leaping out of the waves and gliding 60 feet or more.

Here we are on the pink sand beach.
There is the slightest of pink hue in the wet sand.

We made it to Harbor Island from Spanish Wells by way of the Devil's Backbone.  We cheated.  We took the high speed ferry.  At points it seemed like we could reach out and touch the beach as we flew past.  Some of our new friends hired a pilot to take their boats across the Backbone but the shoal depths made me wary even with a pilot.  It would have been a quicker way to get north to Little Harbor in the Abacos but it wasn't for me.  We rented a golf cart with Alan of "Unabated" and toured the island that is reputed to be the vacation destination of the rich and famous.  The famed pink sand beach was a little less pink than I was expecting - but nice.

Here's the Bo Hengy II our 25 knot aluminum
catamaran ferry to Harbor Island and back.
It felt like sailing in fast forward mode!

An example of the cuteness factor in Hopetown.
This was on someone's front lawn complete with
the Hopetown Lighthouse

This path was lovely - no cars allowed - but the telephone
cable didn't even clear my head!

Hopetown was almost too cute but as you can see from my picture some of the infrastructure in the Bahamas is a little below the standards we have in the states.

If you have money you can do anything you like.  We saw more than one big motor yacht with water slides like this.  They usually also sport 4 or more jet-skis.  Who decides to market water slides to these guys? http://freestylecruiser.com/
This is the latest in "must have" toys for the big boys.    You can't buy them off the shelf - they have to be designed "to the exacting standards of your yacht."
We'll be ordering one of the first slides designed to be deployed from the spreaders of a sailboat.

The ubiquitous Bahamian lizard - chameleon?

These little guys are everywhere all over the Bahamas.  We were surprised to find one in our cockpit at anchor.  We couldn't figure how he got there.  I carefully unfurled a ziplock bag and tried to urge him to enter it.  I'm a little squeamish so I didn't really want to handle him.  He was not happy with the bag.  He preferred to jump onto my hand.  You'd be surprised how sticky his little feet are.  I reflexively shook my hand but he wasn't leaving his perch.  I also used some salty sailor language but he was unmoved.  Finally with my hand in the bag I was able to rub him off and give him a ride to shore.

Alan from the Pearson 424, "Unabated" and I explored a ruins on Royal Island.
It doesn't take long for tropical plants to take over the structures. 

Royal Island was our jumping off point for about a 65 mile sail out in the ocean from the Eleuthera area to Little Harbor in the Abacos.  Our AIS showed plenty of ship traffic traversing the Northwest Channel.  We even saw a 3 masted sailing ship shortly before we were hit with a drenching squall.  Fortunately, there was no lightning and very little wind associated with the downpour.  One of the boats sailing with us reported seeing huge whales that they thought might be sperm whales.  I'm sorry I missed them - Maryanne is not.

It's hard to keep up the blog with such poor internet access.  We had a wonderful time with Chad & Nicole.   We went snorkeling off the beach on a small island north of Great Guana Cay, also snorkeling on the Atlantic side of Fowl Cay, and finally swimming Mermaid Reef outside Marsh Harbor.

After rigorous training Chad & Nicole show some aptitude for
relaxation.  The sailing life agrees with them.

Homes on the Sea of Abaco outside Marsh Harbor
near Mermaid Reef where we did some of our best
snorkeling.

Chad and I went scuba diving with Above and Below off Fowl Cay.  When Kay, the dive master began stroking a big friendly grouper I began smiling too widely causing my mask to flood slightly.  Clearing the mask is simple but the fact that I had to do it made me laugh.  Fortunately, I kept my regulator firmly in my mouth.  The dive was so much fun - being able to do it with my son made it even more special.

Maryanne has become very comfortable with swimming and snorkeling.  We had to swim a couple hundred yards from the beach to get to Mermaid Reef.  We were able to swim together only a foot or so above the shallower parts of the reef.  The yellow snappers came right up to us probably looking for a handout.  Other fish and lobsters were more shy, hiding in little nooks under the reef.  We didn't see any barracuda at Mermaid reef but there were a few at Fowl Cay.  Fowl Cay was a bit of a challenge since we had to dinghy out to the reefs beyond the Cay.  We also had to board the dinghy from the water.  Maryanne and I have mastered the technique of going vertically underwater and then swimming and kicking hard straight up to scramble into the dinghy.  The entry onto the dinghy isn't particularly graceful but it beats having to swim a mile and a half through a cut with strong currents.  We are really enjoying the snorkeling in the Abacos.

We will be leaving the boat in the Abacos for a couple weeks while we return to NY for Maryanne's teaching.  In NY I may be able to get some more pictures up on this blog.

Swimming in Marsh Harbor is not recommended.

Marsh Harbor is not a good place to swim - too many boats discharging effluent.  I did take a little dip at the dock on Friday.  The wind was pushing our boat too far away from the dock for Maryanne to get off the boat.  The wind was strong - but so am I.  I put my feet on one of the dock lines and pushed it down to get the boat in.  Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing my tight rope walking shoes.  My foot slipped and then instantly I found myself swimming in Marsh Harbor under the dock.  It happened so fast I was swimming before I realized I was in the water!  So...my BaTelCo wireless card is not waterproof.  No more posts via BaTelCo.

The docks pose many problems.  I landed at the dock at the Conch Inn on the downwind side with strong cross winds.  As scary as the landing was - it went smoothly with help from the dock hands.  The dockmaster when he returned later was unhappy with the berth that we had taken and told us that we would have to move.  The wind was blowing 30 mph so I let him know that moving would be difficult in the extreme.  He reluctantly agreed to make some adjustments while I stayed put.  The next day he announced that we would have to switch berths.  He left but gave us two dock hands to help out.  The wind was again gusting over 30 knots sideways.  When the boat backs the stern tends to walk to the left - in the same direction the wind was pushing us.  To complicate matters, as we left the dock there were 2 pilings we had to thread 20 feet behind us.  The situation was really close to impossible.  To make everything really bad our stern line slipped off the cleat just as we were beginning to back out of the slip. Our stern swung 45 degrees off the dock toward another boat and a piling.  A dock hand was able to throw the line back to me and pull me in for our next attempt to leave.  We backed out smoothly thanks to an amazing performance by a cruiser who pushed our boat into the wind as we pulled away from the dock.  With his dinghy acting as a side thruster or tug boat we were able to back in a straight line.

Our departure on Sunday was less smooth.  As we backed out of our slip into strong wind another boat came off their dock blocking the path behind us.  We pulled back into the slip and managed to barely hang on until the boat passed.  Again we backed out of the slip but didn't get far enough into the wind to make our turn going forward.  With the boat at right angles to the slip our stern began drifting into the bow anchor of a sailboat next to us while our bow pulpit looked like it would hit a piling in front of us. Chad was able to push hard against the bow pulpit of the boat with the threatening anchor while I tried to power the side of the bow to slide past the piling.  Nicole pushed against the piling and somehow we managed to escape with only a splinter in Nicole's hand to show for it.

We have a new definition for docking:
Good docking is when no one is bleeding after the attempt.
Great docking is when you can still use the boat afterwards. 
 So far we are doing somewhere between great and good docking.

Hopetown, Abacos

Hopetown Lighthouse from our mooring.
Kerosene flame lit by lighthouse keeper each night

The first harbor we visited after successfully anchoring by Linyard Cay in the Sea of Abacos was Hopetown.  Hopetown is a village of charming little homes of all different pastel shades overlooking the harbor.  The entrance was challenging.  We were warned not to attempt to enter until half tide or more.  To enter the harbor you have to aim for a beach about a half mile away and then follow the beach to the left.  Depths are about 6 feet with nearby patches of 4 feet.  The harbor is one of the prettiest we have seen in the Bahamas.  

Cemetery restoration project in Hopetown

We took a walk up a street closed to vehicular traffic to an historic cemetery that is being restored.  If it mattered to me where I was to be buried I would choose this cemetery.  It has one of the best views I have ever seen.

The perfect way to end a dead end road.
We saw this on our tandem bike ride through Hopetown.

This is a fun building in Hopetown -
a good place for ice cream but not for lunch

We spent two days in Hopetown - met some really nice people - a couple aboard Katahdin - from Cape Elizabeth, Me.  We also enjoyed spending time  with Richard and Ward from Bagheera - a trawler that we met on our crossing to Rock Sound, Eleuthera.  Ward gave us a ride to a restaurant in Spanish Wells on his rented Golf Cart. 

A park on the Atlantic Ocean in Hopetown.

Entrance to Hopetown

In the next Blog: Mishap in Marsh Harbor

Eleuthera and beyond

We departed Warderick Wells in the Exumas Saturday morning as soon as we had enough light to see the channel out of the park.  We were a little apprehensive about getting through the cut but only a little - the tide and wind seemed to be right.  It was a little bouncy but the wind was perfect for a fast passage into the ocean and 35 miles across to Rock Sound in Eleuthera.  Once we hit the banks next to Eleuthera we had to pay attention to the channels through the shallow sand and coral for 10 miles.  We only had to dodge a few coral heads.  Our Furuno Navnet 3D Chartplotter gives us a clear picture of where to steer the boat through the channels.  If we had to do it all without the electronics we would have an incredibly difficult job.

We anchored in Rock Sound in about 8 feet of water.  The entire harbor is very shallow.  We dinghyed in to Pascal's restaurant where we had a fabulous meal.  Maryanne's vegetable quesadilla has set the bar for all future vegetable quesadillas.  We were concerned enough with the lack of business that we and one other couple who happened to be dining there the next night offered to publicize the restaurant to the other cruisers.
Pascal, the chef/owner, volunteered that he would do a happy hour the next day with free appetizers.  The next morning Maryanne made an announcement on VHF radio to the other cruisers about lunch at Pascals and about the happy hour.  From our boat we could see a good crowd at the restaurant for lunch.  We had a nice gathering at the happy hour where we were able to met a number of interesting people who were anchored in the harbor.

After our first night at the restaurant we decided to take a short walk to the local grocery store just to see how far it was.  When we got there it was closed but I went up to the door to check out the hours.  As I turned to leave one of the several employees who were closing up opened the door and asked if we needed any items.  It was 7:20 - 20 minutes after closing.  I was sure they wanted to go home but we mentioned that there were a couple items we would like to buy before the store closed until Monday.  We were invited in to do some quick shopping.  I couldn't believe they were willing to open up for a couple of strangers well after their store hours!

On Wednesday we left the harbor for Hatchet Bay.  We had a wild ride with very strong winds and some chop.  The entrance to Hatchet Bay, a man made harbor, was different.  The entrance was cut through cliffs and was supposedly 90 feet wide.  It looked a lot narrower.  We aimed at the middle of the channel, watched the cliff walls on either side of us and held our breath as we glided into a perfectly calm pond-like harbor.  Once again, like our experience with Cave Cut, we felt like we were entering a different world.

Jon of Langeline, one of the cruisers we met at Pascal's happy hour was incredibly helpful to us.  He met us in a dinghy at a mooring near his boat and threaded some lines through the mooring for us.  The mooring was  well coated in bird poop but he didn't hesitate to string our lines.  Later we had a good time aboard his boat with his co-skipper, Nancy and with Alan of "Unabated."  Jon and Nancy's boat is an immaculate Tartan 43 in showroom condition.  I wanted to volunteer to toss a little clutter around but I resisted the impulse.  Alan had been sailing his Pearson 424 single-handed from the Caribbean and through the Bahamas.  This is also his first time in the Bahamas.

We sailed with Alan the next day to Current Cut while Jon and Nancy hitchhiked to Governors Harbor for the day.  We arrived at Current Cut well ahead of time.  The current is very strong so we had to wait a coule hours for the tide to change.  We turned off the engine and sailed at 1.5 knots or less for a couple hours until the tide change.  While we drifted toward our destination I replaced a noisy fan in our berth and rewired a quieter fan.  At least I got something done during the wait.

We arrived in Spanish Wells on Thursday and decided to spoil ourselves with a couple nights on a dock at Yacht Haven.  Spanish Wells is a picturesque fishing community that produces at least 50% of the lobsters from the Bahamas.  This town is different than any of the others we have seen.  All of the homes are well kept and painted all different pastel shades.  In all the other communities we have visited many of the homes and buildings looked care worn with some real poverty evident.  This community has enough water so that there are lovely gardens and lawns around most of the homes.

For a little change of pace we decided to take the high speed ferry to Harbor Island - supposedly the hangout of the rich and famous.  The ferry took us across the infamous "Devil's Backbone."  This is an area of shoals that cruisers are advised to cross only with a pilot.  The ferry zoomed across the shoals - at one time close enough to the beach that I could touch it if the windows opened.

A Blue Hole: The water in this pond comes through caves from the ocean.   In
some of the caves above water there is graffiti from the 1700's.  This Blue Hole
is just outside of town in Rock Sound

We rented a golf cart with Alan and toured Harbor Island.  We visited the famous pink sand beach which looked pretty much like any other beach to me but there were a few grains of reddish coral that gave wet sand a slight hint of a pink hue.  Lunch was at Valentines - and was excellent.  As we ate outside in the shade we could see "Happy Destiny," another Tartan 43 arriving with a pilot aboard - pulling his boat behind them.  Cindy and Pete hired "Bandit" as a pilot.  We spoke with him as we finished our lunch.  He explained that for him piloting isn't difficult.  He's been driving boats around here since he was a young kid.  Born in Spanish Wells, he is no young kid now.

Big Majors Spot and Warderick Wells

We did get to spend a second day anchored in high winds near Thunderball Grotto.  We did some more snorkeling and saw even more varieties of fish the second time.  Thunderball has become our favorite snorkeling spot.  After Thunderball near Staniel Cay we  went to Big Majors Spot.  No one seemed to be on the beach - no pigs - no nothing.

We heard a call from Andrea Cay, a megayacht next to us, for anyone who would trade some benadryl for a bottle of wine.  We were all over that but on second thought we declined the wine.  The skipper of Sunrise took some benadryl over to Andrea Cay before they were able to come over to us to pick it up.  Bill, the skipper of Sunrise, said he was concerned when he heard the request.  Since he had some special medical training it was good that he checked out the situation.  (It turned out not to be serious.)  He explained to us that the pigs would come out when we sent ashore.

We set off to the beach and were quickly approached by two extremely enthusiastic swimming pigs.  One of the pigs snorted and repeatedly butted our dinghy with his snout.  These pigs were gourmets.  They rejected the carrots we offered.  They obviously expected something better.  Oh well.  We departed munching on our carrots. They seemed fine to us.

Hey, I  didn't swim out here for some lousy carrots
from a cheap ass sailor!  Give me a break

After our visit with the pigs we had a fast downwind sail to Warderick Wells.  Our autopilot started acting up again.  As we tried to make a U-turn to grab our mooring, the steering seemed balky.  It got stuck and released in time for us to slowly approach the mooring to pick it up in the strong current.  Once again I found the autopilot in the bilge and a box holding the rudder sensor ripped off the bulkhead.  I spent some more time in the engine compartment trying to get a large bolt deeper into the autopilot than I had before.

The next day we headed to Boo Boo Hill to see if Maryanne could summit this time.  She got way ahead of  me and was ready for the final assault when I reached her.  Up, up and away she went - all the way to the top. She found our driftwood sign at the top and spent some time searching for Chad's 2010 Sabbatical sign.  No luck with Sabbatical but she did find Alesto from our friends Lee and Sherry.

Chuck & Maryanne atop Boo Boo Hill

Since we had so much fun snorkeling at Thunderball we decided to try Exuma Land and Sea Park's coral garden again this time.  Last time we saw only one or two fish.  This time as we were climbing into our dinghy next to Symphony's transom we saw two schools of good sized fish.  Some of them hung around as though they were expecting a handout.  We headed out to the dinghy mooring at the coral garden.  We were a little concerned because last time we were unable to climb back into our dinghy.  That time we swam the dinghy to Alesto to climb out of the water on their ladder.  This time there was no catamaran for us to board.  We planned to swim the dinghy to a sand bar to climb back in.  The coral garden surprised us.  There were many more fish than we had seen last time and they were bigger than the fish that we had seen at Thunderball.

When it came time to move the dinghy I decided to try a strategy that Al from Windancer had suggested.  He told me to push myself underwater straight down and then kick my swim fins hard to get as much altitude out of the water as possible.  I tried.  It worked!  I was able to tumble into the dinghy and figured I could tow Maryanne into the sand bar.  I suggested she try the technique.  She was less than enthusiastic about receiving lengthy instructions.  She was getting pretty cold.  She also tried the technique - and with a little help  she, too, was able to scramble into the dinghy.  We now know that we can snorkel from the dinghy and do not need to be able to stand  next to it in order to climb in.

Today Monday, March 26 we are sitting in Rock Sound Harbor with barely a breath of wind at 9:30 p.m.
We arrived here from Warderick Wells on Saturday after a beautiful full day of sailing.  We moved across the harbor yesterday in anticipation of strong winds and squalls from the west.  The squalls arrived this morning and did a great job of washing the salt off of the boat.  Fortunately, the winds were not too bad.  We will probably spend some more time here waiting out strong winds associated with a secondary front due here tomorrow evening.  It's ironic that we are in a sailboat and that most of our delays have been from too much wind!

Thunderball

We were very happy to find that the autopilot works fine.  We used it to sail from Black Point on Guana Cay around Harvey Cay to Staniel Cay.  We topped off our fuel and water tanks at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  Water is 40 cents a gallon.  The Bahamas would be virtually uninhabitable without RO water.  Reverse Osmosis water is seawater that has been squeezed through a membrane at high pressure.  The membrane allows only water molecules to pass through.  Salt molecules are too big to pass through the membrane.  RO water is very pure but expensive to make.



We sailed through a very narrow passage between two rocky islands to an area on the chart that said: "Good holding."  I hope so because as I write this the wind is howling again through the rigging as a squall passes over us.  I'm seeing a pretty consistent 25 knots, the rain is pounding us, and we are pitching up and down a bit.  Chris Parker says expect 36 hours of this.  We hope to go back to Thunderball Grotto tomorrow but if it gets too rough we will pull up anchor, thread our way back to the channel, and head over to Big Majors Spot, home of the swimming wild pigs.

Entrance to Thunderball Grotto

Today was our absolute best snorkeling experience.  We are anchored not far from Thunderball Grotto (of James Bond fame).  Both Maryanne and I were able to swim into the Grotto and out.  The grotto was impressive with sunlight streaming through a hole in the roof.  Near the entrance it felt like we were swimming in an aquarium with all kinds of fish swimming with us.  We saw beautiful blue fan coral and fish of every hue and color!  The fish hang out at the entrance to the cave because people feed them there.

After our swim we celebrated with supper from the bar menu at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  The Yacht Club was a great people watching spot.  Tommy Lee Jones and his brother were spotted there the day after our last visit.  No celebrities were in evidence today but it was fun people watching anyway.