On the hook in Georgetown, Bahamas

We’ve been in Georgetown now for about 1&½ weeks. There’s so much to do and see here that we’ll probably stay for at least another few days. It will also depend on the weather – it looks quite windy over the next week or so, so we’ll need to find a good day to head out.  We’re planning on stopping at Emerald Bay Marina on our way north for a couple of nights to get fuel. (We slightly underestimated when we fueled up in Florida).

We had a few more days of relative calm so we explored the harbor by dinghy and got out on our SUPs and kayaks as much as we could.

Martin SUP’ing (he stood on the way back but my camera flooded so no pictures!)

We had a pleasant surprise one afternoon when we were called on the VHF by another boat, Sea Monkey. Hike, Katrina & Troy were with us in the Dry Tortugas and we were lucky to catch them on their last night in Georgetown before they started back to Annapolis. They had us over for drinks aboard Sea Monkey. We had a wonderful evening sharing adventures and visiting their boat.  We were also able to catch up with Michel & Caroline from Sea Turtle one evening before they headed north as well. We were hoping to catch up with them and get to dive but I think we’ve stayed in Georgetown too long now. 

Katrina had mentioned visiting the meat market so decided to give it a try. They advertise in the morning on the cruisers net when the store will pick people up in town, usually Mon/Wed/Fri. About 20 people were waiting for the owner to show up in his pickup. He was right on time and we all piled in. A few lucky ladies got to sit in the cab while the rest of us jumped into the back for the <10 minute ride. It was a fun adventure and we came home with fresh grouper, a pork loin, cheese and a freshly baked scone.

“Selfie” from the bed of the pickup truck, en route to the meat store

The calm has ended now and we're back to windier, and lately, overcast conditions. I'm just recovered from being under the weather too. We’re living a fairly isolated life down here so I’m not sure how I caught a cold, but I did, so I was thankful for DVDs and my hand sewing a for a few days. I got sick just as Louise returned from the states so there was no hugging when she returned!  I was well enough to enjoy dinner aboard Vector though so we were able to catch up!

With me sleeping most of the day for a few days and the windier weather, Martin decided to test the sailing rig that we can attach to the kayaks.  He assembled the rig (which took a couple hours) and set off…

Martin on his maiden voyage. Sailing, sailing… (past Vector)

Oops!

I’m a bad wife, I admit it, I laughed so hard I almost cried. Sean saw an overturned kayak and came out to see if he could lend a hand…

Need a tow?

With the sail upside down in the water there was naught to do but swim her in. Poor Martin got his exercise in for the day.  Upon reading the instructions (post tip-over) we found that the ideal wind for sailing the kayaks is 5-10 knots. I think the 15-20k winds were a bit too much. Now we know for next time ;) 

The other night we had a squall blow by. We were just on the edge but had a bit of excitement just the same. At about 5:30 we woke up to the sound of a metallic crash. The wind was howling so we checked the fly bridge and boat deck. Everything was secure though we tied a couple things up more tightly. (I think everyone in the anchorage was out doing the same. Some in undies, some “au natural”. What a sight an anchorage is in the dark when a storm comes through J) When we checked inside, we found that the bathroom screen had been blown in with enough velocity to hit the opposite wall and knock some things down. That was the noise we heard.

Here is our anchor track:

You can see our second circle after we let out more scope. Normally, we move around and make a thick-ish line as we sail back and forth. Here you can see where there’s one movement that whipped us around.

Big gust!

Our Maretron system showed that the gust that woke us up was a strong one - 39 knots. It hit our starboard side, blew the window in and shoved Blossom right around. Yes, we’re happy that we let our more scope J 

So now, I’m on the mend and feeling better. The weather is overcast and cool (everything is relative – 74F feels quite cool at this point!) It’s been nice to have some gray days to stay in, cook and quilt.

Boat business:

• Transom shower. Martin dropped the shower head and it broke off last week. Sean had some hose and clamps amongst his spares so Mart was able to rig up a temporary fix until we get back to the states and can replace the nozzle.

Filling tanks

• Dive compressor. Martin used the compressor to fill our tanks so he could finish cleaning the bottom of the boat. One more day and it was finished.
• Gori prop. We were expecting squalls and high winds so we let out a bit more scope. While doing this, Martin ran our gori prop (the wing engine prop) in forward & reverse. We run the wing engine in neutral a lot because our hydraulics - thrusters and windlass - are powered by the hydraulic takeoff mounted to this engine but we rarely ever engage the prop (this is a maintenance no-no). He had knocked off a couple barnacles and wanted to make sure she was moving properly.

Georgetown, Bahamas

Entering Conch Cay Cut, arriving Georgetown

We’ve heard about Georgetown for years – that there’s a huge community of cruisers who spend the winter months here year after year… And finally we’re getting to experience it!  The prime time for cruising here is December through March. There is a “cruiser net” on the radio every morning where they give general announcements, the weather, locals and cruisers announce events, things to trade/buy/need, ask for help, newcomers introduce themselves, others announce that they’re leaving. There are organized volley ball games, prayer groups, aerobics and yoga classes, bridge games, snorkeling expeditions…you name it.  There's a water taxi that will take you to shore. Many cruisers get very involved with the local schools, businesses and charities.  We had heard that as it became more and more of a destination spot that it was getting dirty and there was environmental damage in the harbor. It looks like the community has tried to address this with a pumpout boat and garbage service that comes through the harbor regularly. We haven’t been snorkeling yet, but the water is very clean and clear.

We arrived around 3:30pm after a calm and beautiful cruise down the coast.  Sean & Louise had warned us about all the boats that were anchored in the channel and that we’d need to weave our way through. We had an easier time of it as about half the boats there had used the weather window over the past couple days to head out. We arrived just at the end of the season it seems. There were about 180 boats in the harbor when arrived, half as many as when Sean & Louise arrived and that was half again less than had been here about 2 weeks before. That’s a lot of boats! (It will probably get even quieter here once spring break(s) are over. There are lots of kids/family visiting these couple of weeks from the sounds of it.)

We found Vector and there was plenty of space to anchor right next to her - actually, in between Vector and Tabula Rasa, Scott & Paula’s Nordy 55. We had met them back in Ft. Lauderdale last year and were hoping we’d meet up with them in the Bahamas, so that was very cool.  We settled in and dropped Petal. Then Sean came over for drinks and we got to catch up on the past week J  Sean had the lay of the land and knew where to go so the three of us headed over to the St. Francis Hotel for dinner.

View from St. Francis

 Post water aerobics class at Volleyball beach

When we got in and settled I called Paula on the radio and she told me about a water aerobics class that is held every morning at Volley Ball Beach. It sounded like fun so Thursday morning she came by on her kayak and I got in mine and we went over to the beach. There were about 20 women there and we had a great time!  I plan on going as often as I can if we aren’t off doing other things. I even bought a noodle so I can really get into it next time.  In the afternoon we went into town with Sean and checked out the grocery store, the dive shop and the misc. store “Top to Bottom” which sells everything from pool noodles to boat line, shackles and back packs.  We scheduled a dive for Friday and headed home.  That evening we invited Sean, Paula & Scott over for drinks. We had a really nice evening sitting in the cockpit enjoying the perfect weather. Then we headed over to the Piece & Plenty Hotel with Sean for dinner and a “Rake and Scrape” (Bahamian dance party). We didn’t actually dance, I think we were all a bit tired and we had an early morning to go diving the next day, but we enjoyed the ambience.

This is where we beach the kayaks to go to the Chill & Chat restaurant or water aerobics class

 Signposts to the world

Friday morning we got up early and all headed over to the dive shop.  We went out for a 2 tank boat dive with Dive Exuma right off the east side of Stocking Island. There were only 9 divers aboard so the boat wasn’t crowded.  We dived a shallow reef first and then did a wreck dive on a 60 ft sunken tug. The dives were nice but a bit short. The downside of organized dives is that they always bring you up too soon but at 70 feet we could have stayed for a bit longer than 30 minutes!

The first dive I had an “interaction” with a fish. Given how afraid I am of sharks, it’s ironic that I had a close encounter with a remora. Remora’s are also called sharksuckers. They're harmless fish that stick themselves onto larger creatures (often sharks, rays, turtles) and get a free ride.  When we jumped in, the captain noted that there was a large remora (about 2.5 feet long) swimming around us. Martin and I were the last to go down because I was messing around with my weights (my new 5 mil wetsuit is very buoyant). As we descended, it was swimming around us. Then it decided it really liked me, swimming around my head and looking me in the eye. I thought he’d left when suddenly it clocked me on the top the head!  At first I thought it was trying to stick to me, but then I found this video which looks like a longer version of my experience and I think maybe it was trying to eat my hair. Well, after head butting me, it left! Freaky looking fish.

The diving was pretty. There was nice coral on the shallow reef and a decent number of fish. There were several large snapper and one as-yet-unidentified very large silver fish inside the tug. There was a big barracuda hanging out by the tug as well but he was curious and followed us up as we ascended. My, but they have big teeth! One of our fellow divers saw a lionfish at the first reef and we saw one at the wreck. We’ve been asking around and it seems that cruisers have done a pretty good job of fishing them off the shallow reefs.  It’s illegal to hunt them when you’re scuba-ing so we’re going to have to learn to free dive for them. We have our Hawaiian sling spears aboard and a fishing license so we’re hoping we’ll be able to help pick a few off while we’re here and have some tasty lion fish dinners.

On the way back to Blossom we saw Sea Turtle in the harbor and passed by in the dinghy to welcome them to town.  We also ran into our friends Nigel and his wife and son at the dive shop. It’s a very small cruising world and the Nordhavn crowd gets around J

We're starting to settle in here and really enjoy ourselves, there's so much to do and we've barely begun. We've spent a lot of time on Stocking Island (the long island east of Georgetown). We're anchored on the shore of Stocking Island so the businesses/beaches there are very close by. It's about a 3/4 mile dinghy ride across the bay to Georgetown proper.

Saturday morning Martin joined me at water aerobics. It was a smaller crowd but just as fun and Martin had fun hanging out with the ladies!

 Martin getting ready to head home after water aerobics

In the afternoon, Martin set up our snuba system and spent about an hour cleaning below the waterline on Blossom.  That evening Sean came over for drinks and we tried to go out but found that even on a Saturday night, the restaurants close at 6/7 o’clock. So we came back and had a lovely barbeque on Blossom.

Sunday morning Martin spent another 1.5 hours under the boat and I sprayed 303 protectorant on all things plastic including the kayaks, hatches and the epirb. The sun is brutal here and I’m hoping the 303 will provide a bit of protection. Then we picked up Sean and went over to the Chill & Chat for a pig roast. Lunch was tasty and we enjoyed sitting under the trees watching the kids and adults play and enjoy the beach.

People hanging out at the Chill & Chat pig roast

We’re finally getting out in the kayaks and into the water, we’re both a bit sunburned, we have bathing suits and wet suits hanging out to dry in the cockpit, are tracking sand into the boat, and we’re very happy J

Over the next several days we hope to get out snorkeling and free diving, take out the SUPs, do some hiking on Stocking Island (when the winds pick up and it'll be a bit cooler), explore the harbor by dinghy and explore Great Exuma Island a bit more as well!

Boat Business:

Flybridge radio. The radio stopped working when we left North Palm Beach. Suddenly, it came back on. We think there’s a leak somewhere in the flybridge helm and that water got in when the guys were cleaning the boat (we removed the cover for the cleaning). In theory it’s all water tight but we think water got in there and now it’s dried out.

Pilot House Radio. We turned it off the first night here because there’s so much radio traffic and in the morning it wouldn’t turn back on. Martin messed around with it and found that there’s a short between the back of the radio and the plug where the command mic plugs in on the flybridge. Water under the helm up there would explain both. Now the radio works unless the command mic is plugged in but it should easy enough for him to find the short and fix it.

Power management. We’ve turned off our direct tv satellite and turned on our second, 100A charger adding almost 50% more to our charging rate. (Thank you Sean! We’d been told not to do it because it could confuse the charger but Sean said we could and yes, it’s working just fine!)  We’re down to needing about 4-5 hours of generator time a day. It’s almost not enough time to cook, do laundry and make water ;)

Black Point to Georgetown

Martin checking out the anchorage at Black Point

 View north from anchorage

We arrived in Black Point on Monday afternoon (March 16th), waiting for the high tide which was later in the day. It’s only about 8 miles south of Staniel so it took us just over an hour to get there.  Black Point is a large settlement by Exumas standards. The bay is large and gorgeous with a shallowish sandbar in the center. There were about 25 boats there when we arrived. We anchored on the far north edge, at Dotham Point, since we’d be heading out through Dotham Cut on Wednesday.  It was a beautiful anchorage except for the wakes. We were in the direct path between Staniel Cay and Black Point so there was a steady stream of tourists buzzing down on jet skis and small boats and locals who probably work up north and live in Black Point. Next time we’ll check out the anchorage on the southwest end of the bay and see how it is down there. But even with the wakes, it was a quiet and beautiful anchorage.

We dropped Petal and headed in to check out the town in the afternoon. On the way in we passed a Nordhavn 50, Sea Turtle. We saw some folks on the deck so we went by to say hello. That’s how we met Michel & Caroline. It turns out that we had seen them in North Palm Beach in December when they were buying their boat. I remember saying hello as they walked by one day with James. They invited us over for drinks once we’d seen the town.

View of the bay from land. Blossom is the white blob way out at the tip of the piece of land just up and to the right of center

We had heard about Lorraine’s Café in Black Point from several sources including their radio announcements. We’d also heard about the fabulous bread you can find there. We searched out Lorraine’s, made reservations for their St. Patrick’s Day buffet for Tuesday and met Lorraine’s mother who bakes the bread. We went to her house and bought the most amazing loaf of coconut bread!  When we head back we’ll try her cinnamon/raison coconut bread. It’s reason enough to stop there J  We’d also heard some fishermen had lobster for sale but they were gone by the time we made it to shore.

After a successful trip into town we stopped by Sea Turtle. We had a great time talking with Michel & Caroline and wished that we weren’t parting ways. They’re accomplished sailors and big spear fishers/lionfish hunters and we would have loved to go out with them!  They were heading out the next day but we may see them in Georgetown next week. I hope we do, we’d love to have them over for drinks next time.  After such a nice evening visiting we came back to Blossom and had dinner out on the cockpit. 

On Tuesday we got up and decided it was time to shave Blossom’s green beard. She’s been growing some serious grass on the waterline that we needed to take off. We were anchored in 12 feet of crystal clear water and it was actually fun to take on this chore. I had a little silver & yellow fish follow me along the boat waiting for me to shake out my sponge. He was a bit of a glutton and definitely got a belly full. We didn’t see many barnacles at all, just the grass along the waterline. Now that we’re here and the water is so clean & clear we’ll have to do this more often. 

Watching the Royal Bahamian Defence Force (similar to the US Coast Guard) board a boat in the anchorage. (They were still flying a quarantine flag and had been in the anchorage for a day or two)

I managed to get a couple of blog entries posted and then we headed back to town for our buffet.  It was a tasty Bahamian meal of peas & rice, fried fish, mac & cheese, chicken, ribs & pork but the place was decked out in green for the holiday. We didn’t leave hungry or empty handed. In the back room/shop I spied a bag of shell napkin ring holders I’ve been looking for. We bought a few at Highbourne back in ’09 but they don’t sell them there anymore. I’ve been hoping to find some for Blossom while we were here and was thrilled to find the last set of 6. It’s the small things… 

Selfie of Lorraine & Martin

Approaching Dotham Cut

Wednesday morning we head out of Dotham Cut on a slack and building ebb tide with a slight southwesterly wind. I’ve been nervous about the cut even though conditions couldn’t really be better.  Even at just an hour & half past slack we rode the outgoing current and made 12 knots going through. (We cruise at 7.5 normally). It would have been slow-going had we been coming in! Other than the current and the light chop it created, it was a non-issue.  We followed three sailboat who left just ahead of us so I knew we’d done well at picking the right time to leave!

We're excited to see Georgetown and rendezvous with Sean to catch up on the past few days that we’ve been apart!

Big Majors

We had a great time anchored at Big Majors.  We arrived on Wednesday after a pleasant, if windy, day run from Highbourne.  Sean & Louise were anchored there, along with 60+ other boats. I couldn’t believe how many boats were anchored in the bay!  Back in ’09 I think the most we saw was half a dozen. We thought there’d be a lot of people because of the weather – this is a really nice protected bay for N-S winds.  We dropped the hook kind of in the middle of the bay and were fine. This is the up side of weighing over 72 tons, it takes a lot to make us uncomfortable in an anchorage (the downside being our 6’8” draft).

We were pooped and a bit loopy when we arrived and the thought of dropping and driving Petal across the channel seemed a bit overwhelming. So Sean & Louise dropped Scalar and the 4 of headed out to Staniel Cay for dinner. It was a very fun adventure!  The wind was whipping and it was a bumpy and wet ride. We hid behind blankets and towels and crossed the channel. As we approached the dinghy dock we realized that the bow line had been flung off Scalar when I was adjusting my blanket – we realized it because it wrapped around the prop. Doh!  We got tied up though, no harm done, and arrived laughing, hungry, wet, and salty. Luckily, I wore a dress with pants underneath so I was able to lose my wet pants (removed in a conveniently placed phone booth, such are my super powers) for dinner J 

Our first full day at Big Major we picked up Sean & Louise and went to visit the swimming pigs of course!  The pigs live on the cay and are fed by cruisers year round. There were 3 sows and two litters of young ones, some were tiny!  They know what it means when a dinghy arrives and literally come running/swimming. It can be a bit intimidating when the big girls are heading straight for you (they are not tame) and we watched some tourists learn that it’s best to drop the food and run, not run with the food…

Pigs on Big Majors

Swimming pig

Then we went over to Staniel Cay Marina to walk around and check it out.  We visited the 3 groceries stores. Just like in ’09, the Blue Store and Isles General were open, but the Pink was closed. (I’ve never been to the Pink Store when was actually open.) We walked by the airport where there were almost a dozen people waiting for flights. This is a good location for the megayachts to anchor/dock and pick up/drop off guests.  Then we had dinner at Staniel again and enjoyed watching all the people at the bar.

Me and Martin at the Isle Grocery

Staniel Cay Marina from the south

Nurse sharks at Staniel Cay, waiting for handouts

This nurse shark was quite enamored of this engine for some reason!

The next day Sean & Louise headed south to Galliot Cut to stage for their trip south to Georgetown.  We decided to stay at Big Majors for a couple more days, trying to decide when and from where we’d leave to go south.  Friday evening we were pleasantly surprised when Bruno & Beatrice from Trixie came by on their tender to say hello. We had seen them last fall back in the Chesapeake and said hello in passing. They’re a wonderful couple and we had a great time getting to know them. We went over to say hi and tour their boat Saturday morning (a gorgeous nordhavn 76!) and once again, had a lovely time talking and getting some puppy love from Bandit, their very adorable boat dog.

Originally we’d planned on heading south on Saturday but we changed our minds and decided to stay for a couple more days. My head was spinning, looking at tides and weather and cuts to exit through. The weather looked like it would finally chill out early in the week (after several days of up to 25k winds) so we threw in the towel and we decided to just wait until the winds were done.  So later that day we went out snorkeling.  It took a bit of courage for me to get in the water. I’m practically phobic about sharks…and yes I love to scuba dive and snorkel - it’s an issue.  We’ve been watching huge nurse sharks cruise under our boat and around the bay. I know that you can pound a nurse shark with a mallet and it would rather flee than attack, but I still can’t bring myself to get in the water with them. (I blame “Jaws”, I think it scarred me as a young girl, forever.) But I did get in and we explored the bay. 

Martin preparing to jump in

Contemplating…

And it’s cold!

We spent the rest of the weekend reading, cooking, relaxing, and enjoying the sunsets from our flybridge.  We loved our time here and can’t wait to come back later in April. We have so much to do yet – snorkeling, (including going to Thunderball Grotto), exploring Staniel a bit more, and visiting the restaurant on Fowl Cay.

By Monday the winds had calmed down and we were ready to move again.  It was time to head south to Black Point and get ready to head to Georgetown. We decided that we’d go out through Dotham Cut.  Sean & Louise are in Georgetown now so Louise can fly out on Tuesday.  We plan to arrive on Wednesday, when we can leave on an early slack. We'll anchor as near Sean as we can so we can keep him company while Louise visits California. 

I’m really excited about the next several weeks. We’ve never been south of Staniel Cay because we had to turn back from here in ’09 when we had engine trouble. For those who don’t know, from January-June, 2009, we lived aboard our 43’ express cruiser, I Got Lucky. We spent almost 3 months cruising the Bahamas, from Nassau to Staniel Cay. It was an incredible adventure and we met amazing people, some of whom are now close friends. It was by far the highlight of our 6 months living aboard Lucky and sparked the idea of living aboard in the future.

It’ll be a very different experience now, I’m sure. The Exumas have changed quite a bit and are more built up. It will probably be much more “crowded” since there were few boats here in ’09 because of the economic downturn. The megayachts in the anchorages mean lots of jet skis and tenders flying around the anchorages so it’s a bit more noisy.  Lucky only drew 3.5 feet so we were able to creep up close to shore and into nooks. Now, with almost twice the draft (6’8”) we’ll be anchoring in different places. We’ll also be more comfortable since Blossom has amenities that Lucky didn’t like floppers, 800+ gallons of water, a full size refrigerator, a freezer and a washer & dryer. We’re more self-sufficient and don’t need to stay in marinas at all, though it might be nice to pop into one now and then. Lucky was like camping, Blossom is like carrying a resort around with us!

One thing is for sure – it feels magical to be back here in this clear turquoise water…

Boat Business

Power Management.  Anchoring out for so long is giving us an opportunity to work on power management.  Blossom has a lot of big boat systems on a relatively small boat so we’re very “power-hungry”.  At first, we needed to run our gen almost 8 hours a day. While lots of “big boats” run their generators 24/7, we had hoped to only need to run ours for a few hours a day.

Our electronics use an incredible amount of power but we’d been leaving them on while at anchor so we could leave our GPS up and have our anchor circle up on our screen. This is the best way to see if you’re dragging.  (See the chicken pic from our post back at the end of February). Martin played around with them and we can now leave the one screen up which shows our anchor circle, but turn everything else off.  With this modification we’re down to about 5-6 hours of gen time which, while not great, is much better!

Highbourne Cay

[We haven't had a decent wifi connection for a while so I'm posting a blog entry that I wrote last week]

It feels so great to be back in the Exumas!  We arrived at Highbourne in the late afternoon on Saturday.  I’d forgotten just how stunningly beautiful the water is here. I was surprised how many boats were anchored on the NW side of the Cay. The other surprise is how many big, big boats we’re seeing. Like the reality show “Below Decks” :)  They’re the big 100+ ft boats with huge center console tenders, jet skis and, probably, lots of crew.  There were almost a dozen sailboats and catamarans, 3 big motor boats, Vector and us in the anchorage.

Blossom anchored at Highbourne Cay

Martin and I dropped Petal as soon as we arrived. We had drinks over on Vector and then went to the marina to have dinner at Xuna, the “new” restaurant (it wasn’t there in 09’). The food was very good, the view was excellent, and it was so nice to celebrate being here!

Louise at Xuna

View from Highbourne Cay

Nurse Sharks at the dock waiting for fishermen to clean their catch

The next morning Sean & Louise headed south to Warderick Wells and then on the Big Majors the next day. They need to get down to Georgetown by the 16^th and we’ll be meeting up with them there just a couple days later. The weather window isn’t looking very calm until after the weekend and since we don’t absolutely have to be there, we’re going to take a bit more time.  While it doesn’t look dangerous this week, it’s definitely rough enough that my sea sickness will be an issue. Waiting a few days also gives us the opportunity to slow down and even make fewer stops along the way. We do much better moving farther, fewer days, and having some down time in between.  As it turns out, we’re going to go straight to Big Majors tomorrow and Sean & Louise are going to stay since we’re on our way. So we’ll be able to hang out tomorrow night together.

Martin and I enjoyed our time at Highbourne. On Monday we took the tender up to SW Allen’s Cay to see the iguanas. There are two cays where the protected iguanas live. They’re very used to people visiting the island and feeding them – as soon as you approach in the dinghy they all come out onto the beach.  We’ve seen several tour boats bring people over and feed them grapes.  The guide books say not to feed them, so it’s curious that it’s part of the local tourism industry. I admit, we brought some lettuce that had seen better days and they seemed to appreciate it.

Heading over to see the iguanas - it really looks like this!

SW Allen’s Cay

Iguanas

Martin feeding iguanas

Martin & dinghy

On Tuesday we spent a few hours going over charts, tides and weather forecasts. We narrowed our route to Georgetown down to one of two cuts, Dothum or Galliot, depending on the day and weather conditions when we decide to head south. We also figured out what anchorages we’d like to stop at along the way south that have protection from the forecasted winds. It’s been really, really windy and it’s expected to continue up to and possibly through the weekend. We’re trying to anchor in places where we’ll have cell reception so we can keep up with the weather more easily.

Tomorrow we’ll have about a 6.5 hour run down to Big Majors.  That anchorage is known for two things – the pigs that live on the island that enjoy the handouts cruisers tender in to offer them, and Thunderball Grotto, an amazing snorkeling site that was featured in films, including the James Bond film, Thunderball.  In ’09 we stayed in the nearby Staniel Cay marina. We’re far too big and deep drafted for that marina now so we’ll enjoy hanging on the hook and feeding the pigs.

Boat Business: Martin also got a few boat chores finished while we were at Highbourne. 

Water makers. Both of our water makers needed their pre-filters changed out. We’ve been running them frequently and they pick up junk and need to be rinsed and replaced from time to time. We’re spoiled pretty rotten with 2, 35 gallon/hour watermakers.  Making 75 gallons an hour means we keep our tank topped off at all times. We rarely have less than 700 gallons of water on board. 

Flopper stoppers.  Our flopper lines drop the fish down to about 14 feet under water. It’s so shallow on the Bahama bank that we won’t be anchoring in anything deeper than 12 for a long time. They don’t do much just sitting on the bottom except maybe help keep up from sailing around quite so much! So Mart put a loop in the line to raise it up, it now sits about 8.5 feet under water. We deployed the port stopper and it’s been helping a lot in the 20+ knot gusty winds we’ve been having. 

Overnight to the Exumas

Vector at sunset at Man-O-War Cay

On Friday, we decided to head into town on Man-O-War Cay to check things out and search for milk.  Louise was struggling with a washing machine issue so she stayed aboard and we went off in Petal with Sean.  The town was very nice with several shops. We were able to drop off trash (we paid $1 to drop it at the marina and then found the free dump!) There were two grocery stores that were very well stocked with lots of fresh produce. They also had a batik shop where they sold goods made from the batik factory on Andros and a sail shop where they make all kinds of totes and bags from sail fabric. We didn’t do any shopping but the products were all lovely.

Ladies sewing canvas products

Lunch at Man-O-War Marina

Heading back to the boats, pre-adventure

On our way home the adventure began!  Just before exiting the cut, thank God it was before we got out to the bay, Petal died.  Out of gas. Doh! Luckily we have paddles and Sean & Martin were able to paddle against the outgoing current close enough to shore that it got shallow and I could hop out and pull us to a dock. It happened to be the dock to the dump site, that’s how we found out that you can dump your trash for free ;)

Pulling the portable gas tank out of the dinghy at the dump dock

Martin met a lovely couple that drove him and the gas can back from the fuel dock in their golf cart. Martin filled the tank and then couldn’t start Petal. So again, awesome group came by on their dinghy and towed us out to Blossom & Vector. Talk about the kindness of strangers making a rough situation so much easier. I love cruisers J

Getting towed back to Blossom & Vector in the background...

So after quite the adventurous morning/afternoon, we pulled up the anchor and headed out to sea via the Man-O-War cut.  It was a really nice trip. Chris Parker was right on – 3-5 foot rolling seas at the start and then almost nothing the rest of the way. There was a big bright moon out so it was quite light. We went through a brief rainstorm that washed the salt off as well. There wasn’t much traffic other than several cruise ships, all moving east to west. They are amazing huge to see all lit up at night!  Here’s a few shots of we saw traveling at night…

Rain over the Abacos

Sun setting

Moon rising

We arrived early, around 8:30 and dropped the hook right on the bank on the south west tip of New Providence. The winds are so mild that we don’t need any protection. There’s a little roll from surge but not much. What a difference!  In Lucky we would be rocking and rolling but in Blossom it’s a comfortable motion. Saturday was a lost day, as is usually the case for us after an overnight. We took a nap and then Martin worked on Petal. He just needed to prime the engine a bit better and she started right up. I washed the boat a bit. Then another nap. Then lunch. Then another nap. We woke up for dinner and enjoyed grilling and eating on the aft deck. Daylight savings is Sunday so we’d have an early day Monday.

We saw a lot of traffic out where we anchored. There’s a high end marina there ($8/foot + $200 daily “resort fee” for transients. Holy sh*!, I think that’s more than Atlantis charges) and a big snorkel/dive area on the west tip. There were a few huge megayachts, we anchored near one. We saw jet skis, dinghies, fishing boats and commercial snorkel boats going by. The megayacht Casino Royal cruised by this morning. We saw her all the time when we were here in ‘09.  We’re seeing all kinds of coral heads now - welcome to the Exumas. We didn’t see nearly as many up in the Abacos.

The route to Highbourne Cay was about 40 miles which is a long day when you’re hoping to be able to read water.  The wind had picked up and it was quite choppy on the bank - much less comfortable than we had coming down through the North East Passage! We ran through a squall just before arriving and then the sun came out and it was gorgeous.  We’re looking forward to visiting Highbourne and checking out the changes that have been made there, including a new restaurant. Sean made reservations for 7:30pm so we’ll have a nice evening ashore tonight! 

Once we were anchored I felt like I was in heaven. It’s Amazing here!  Photos in the next blog post!