Sunday, March 22, 2015

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!


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