Well, sorry for the long time in updating the blog. We have been mostly just working and sailing our way up the Exumas since arriving in the Bahamas. So maybe I will just start where we left off on the last post.
We arrived in Clarence Town, Long Island after 5.5 days at sea and checked in to the Bahamas. The immigration officer was a larger man, with a major sleep disorder (narcolepsy I think?). He fell asleep about 60 to 70 times while filling out the paperwork forms! I had to keep moving my chair to wake him up. It took a little longer to check in because of that, and the forms are largely illegible since the writing trails off in the middle of everything – but we are now legally in the Bahamas. So now it is time to try and fix the generator water pump. Got on the phone with a company in Nassau, and they actually have the pump we need on their shelf. We made arrangements for it to be flown to Long Island to the Stella Maris “airport”. That is at the other end, on the other side of the island, so we re-located ourselves there to be close to the airport. There is a small private marina there that we anchored outside of. One of the trips in, I turned around to go back to the dingy to put out the stern anchor, and as I looked over the side a Manatee looked back at me! It was huge, the size of the dingy. I could have petted him if I wanted to. They are so slow and graceful, and curious. Kind of like a giant puppy (except for the slow part).
The big fella had a couple of nasty looking scars on his back from being hit by boat propellers too. It seems to be a sad occupational hazard for being a manatee.
Our water pump for the generator was going to arrive in a couple of days, so we took the time to try and get a sim card for my backup phone. That was a 3 day ordeal that eventually resulted in us having to buy another cellphone. But we now have local cell data available for internet. We hitch-hiked pretty much the length of the island in the process. The Bahamian people are great! For most places that we have been, the people are pretty nice – but the Bahamians take to the next level. While hitch-hiking people would slow down and yell out the window ‘sorry, my car is full’, or ‘I am turning right here’. One guy went well out of his way for us and drove us all the way to where we were going, even though it was 15 miles past his turnoff. The day the pump arrived we walked to the airport and started waiting for the pilot to arrive. It was a private flight – the pilot was just bringing the pump for us. After a couple of hours we heard that he had not yet left Nassau because his passenger was late. So he said he would drop it off at the front of the marina for us after he gets in a few hours later. As it turns out, he gave it to a local heading past the marina. I met him at the gate, he rolls down the window and says ‘are you Scott’, and passes me the package. Alternatives to FedEx! Anyway, the pump works great, but I had to move the high flow cam from the old pump to the new pump, otherwise the generator was overheating. But as I write this almost a month later, there have been no issues with the generator (knock on wood). I almost miss being in the forward generator locker fixing it!
So then it is off to the Exumas, first stop Georgetown where we will ride out the weather front coming in the next couple of days. This is a major anchorage, with good protection and facilities are as good as they get in the Bahama outer islands (outside Nassau). So we tucked up along the south shore of Stocking Island and waited for the storm. The winds were predicted to be 40knots from the NE
There is a nice beach (the Chat’n’Chill) with party vibe that cruisers hung out at. We met a bunch of fellow cruisers and joined their bonfire on the beach one night. They were traveling with their kids (4 to 10 years old), and the 8 year old had a birthday party there. There were a lot of cruising families with kids hanging out. Makes me wish we had started this years ago when Sam and Quinn were young enough to be dragged along!
We spent about a week here because of the weather, then started working our way north along the Exumas chain. Here is a map that shows where we were. The white line is our position as tracked by the satellite system we have on board. At this scale, the islands don’t really show up very well, but the Exumas chain of islands is about 120 miles long.
Island hopping north, we got to Musha Cay which is a private island owned by David Copperfield. It is for rent if you want. Cost is quite reasonable at $50,000 per night, 5 night minimum, as many as 24 guests. You get the whole resort — food & drinks included!! We anchored off the beach and went ashore to check out the accommodations. Very luxurious.
We also took a dip in the hot tub/pool
The next day we headed a bit further north to Cave Cay… that night was quite an adventure though…the tides in that area are pretty strong, and they were against the wind as night fell. So the movement of the water was holding the boat in one direction, while the wind pushed hard in the other direction. The result of which is that the anchor was behind us, with the anchor chain and bridle pulling on parts of the boat that it should not be pulling on. The boat beside us pulled up and moved, and we did the same about 10 minutes later. It was pretty dark by the time we got to another place, but the situation was pretty much the same there too. We even tried out in the channel where we hoped that the tide would be less, but it was much much worse. I was worried that we were going to rip off the bowsprit (a short pole that sticks out in front of the boat, used for holding the bottom corner of some of our sails). Fortunately our bowsprit can be lowered out of the way, so I did that to protect it. We finally got ourselves settled (kind of) near the other boat that moved before we did.
So again working our way north, we stopped at Little Farmers Cay, Great Guana Cay, and Bitter Guana Cay. That last one had one of the funniest scenes I have seen in a while. We were the only boat for miles around, so Maggie went for a naked snorkel, asked me to pick her up on the beach after she made it ashore. Half an hour later she is walking along the beach (naked), and I get in the dingy to come get her. As the dingy approaches, all the pink iguanas hear the engine and start running along the beach to Maggie. These things are the local attraction, and people feed them. They ignored Maggie just walking, but there was a stampede of 20 or so thundering across the sand at Maggie, and they chased her into the water! We returned later and took pictures and fed them ourselves.
After the pink Iguanas, our next stop was at Staniel Cay. This is another major attraction on the Exumas, known for ‘the grotto’ and the swimming pigs. The Grotto is a cave that you can swim into at low tide and has lots of marine life in it. It is just on the edge of the Land and Sea park so everything is protected from being taken. We swam into it, and through the channel on the other side of the island. Lots of small colorful fish, but nothing fun like sharks or rays.
But the pigs were hilarious! Years ago someone brought pigs to the island, and they have established themselves. And they are good swimmers, and will come out to the dinghys that come in to beg for food. They actually get their front paws/hooves/feet onto the side of the dingy! I was worried they might damage ours.
Well this post is getting pretty long, so I will cut it short here for now.
I know you are home already, so you know I am a bit behind in my reading. Loved this episode with the swimming pigs and pink iguanas. You should write a book.
Donna Lamers