Monday, March 12, 2012 Thompson Bay Long Island

We couldn’t seem to pull in Chris Parker at all this morning on 4045, 8104 or 8137 so didn’t get the forecast until I talked to Mary. It sounds like this week and part of next week, we’ll still have 20-25 knot winds from 070 degrees to ENE with squalls expected. I’m really starting to think that unless we get some surprises in the weather that the Virgins are not in our forecast for this year.

On a brighter note – there are definitely worse places to be holed up than here at Salt Pond Long Island! I really do like this place. Thompson Bay is a great anchorage and the people on Long Island are wonderful. There’s a Mutton Festival coming up this weekend that’s similar to our county fairs back home (from what I’m told). It was over near the Long Island Breeze at the government dock last year and everyone was expecting it to be there again this year but it’s been moved to Clarence Town instead. Jackie (at the Long Island) let everyone know on the radio this morning that a school bus would be available to run everyone down to Clarence Town at 10am and then run us all back to the Long Island at 6pm. So it looks like we’ll be able to be here for that (smiling).

News from out and about –
We heard from Aurora in the Virgins. They’re going to put in to the same boatyard as last year and they really like it there. So we might get to see them again if we don’t get to make it this year, then next year! Other news from our boatyard – Klaus & Barb are getting lots done on their boat and they let us know that Stubby (the alligator) is no more :( I guess he was wandering up the boat ramp (spotted someone’s little dog strolling about?) and AJ and Dennis called the authorities to come get him and they shot him and carted him off. The joys life near a swamp. Who belongs and who doesn’t? It’s not for me to say…especially when one or two gators are larger than poor stubby and better connected. Since Stubby probably struggled to find a meal (missing a foot) I guess his struggles are over.

It’s been a while since I made a large breakfast. Since it’s blowing snot out (winds are roaring and it’s raining) I decided to make some fried potatoes with sausage and onions, Canadian bacon and scrambled eggs. Wow! I was amazed at how good it tasted, so I know it’s been a while .

I was feeling ambitious today so tackled the icebox. It’s smelled a bit off so I figured it was time. The freeze/thaw cycles in it tends to produce water that sits in the bottom. When you add the various items that might get dripped into it, etc…, it was about time. After that I chopped up a salad (Mary Clare’s was soooo good) and fried up some sausage (must have been that email from Barb & Klaus) to go with the salad and that’s what was for dinner.

I keep forgetting that we brought some movies with us, so tonight’s movie was “Rumor has it”. It was a cute one.

Sunday, March 11, 2012 Thompson Bay, Long Island

Daylight Savings starts today! We spent a lazy day aboard the boat. I fixed a few teak fittings that had either broken off (handle to locker) or come loose (nav-station peg), and reattached the foam pieces that help insulate the icebox top. Then I checked out the charts and read some more of Bruce Van Sant’s Passages South book. Patience, patience, patience…The weather just isn’t cooperating for us this year with all these strong fronts that keep coming through. Hopefully Chris Parker’s weather report tomorrow morning will give us some good news other than 20-25 out of the ENE or NE or E…

Wayne read and did some Suduko puzzles.

I made some brownies and took some items for salad over to Azaya’s for dinner. It was salad fest for dinner. Quite yummy! Romaine, tomatoes, carrots, garbonzo beans, artichoke hearts, eggs, turkey breast, olives, beets, tangerine, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few other items, but quite a treat and then brownies with walnuts to finish it all off! As we sat around chatting after dinner, some heavy-duty clouds started rolling over the island and we could see the rain pouring down. It looked like it was to the south of our boats, then more clouds started building covering the island so we decided it was time to scurry back to the boat. The winds started kicking up again and I thought we were in for it for sure! The rain did miss us, but the winds are steadily picking up and making our boat dance around on its anchor and chain.

Saturday, March 10, 2012 Jackie's Birthday! :)

Flowers for Jackie

Happy Birthday Jackie! I hope you have a wonderful day of sunshine and smiles to make it a special day for you . Funny thing this thing called life. The older your kids get, the older you get. But the mind refuses to believe what the body tells it is true…until the body smacks you during a thought process and says “feel that???” “Now stop it, ya ain’t 20 anymore!” Each year it seems the thought process isn’t as sharp, the muscles just not as strong, and the body definitely not as limber as it once was.

We listened to the weather (Chris Parker) over coffee this morning and while monitoring the radio, heard Jackie at the Long Island Breeze come on and let people know that she now has enough water so that if 6 boats would like to do 2 loads each, that that would be doable. Boats started calling in to get their names on the list but we were interested in showers. Sigh…

Mary & Axel came by in the kayak to say hello. They were headed to the beach to work on the dinghy and I think Mary said yesterday that they were going to do a beach walk. Wayne & I were talking about what to do today. He’s looking for places in Puerto Rico and the Virgins where we can haul out for the hurricane season and if we’re going to do an Internet search we need to scoot over to the Island Breeze (they have pretty reliable internet) today. They’re closed on Sundays and Mondays. We also need to grab some more diesel fuel if we’re over there. While we were talking things over, Jackie got on the radio again to let everyone know that a couple hadn’t shown up so there were a couple spots still open. One boat hailed her back and when a few beats of the heart lapsed without anyone else jumping in, I radioed back asking “what about a couple of showers?” She said if you’re frugal, okay. Its little things like a hot shower that makes our day! We gave her our name and said we’d be right there. We scurried around the boat to collect our computers (Wayne’s for searching places, mine to upload pictures to the blog), shower stuff, jerry cans, money and throw on some clothes, then raced over to the Breeze (at turtle speed – still breaking in the little motor). The waves weren’t bad in here at all today – deceptively calmer than what is on the other side of the island! We piled out of the dink, and into the Breeze to get our showers. Ahhhhhh so nice to have clean hair again! Then I claimed a table near an outlet and chatted with Bruce from Zingara while Wayne went to the gas station to fill our jerry cans. There were a couple of long tables set up in the main dining area – a Church Womens group are meeting here at 2pm. So Jackie told everyone that if they wanted lunch they needed to order pretty quickly. I grabbed a menu and spotted a couple eating pizza. I had to investigate.


Best Pizza (bar none) in the Bahamas - at the Long Island Breeze



While Jackie went to help out some other folks that were checking into the Breeze I mozied over to a table that had the most awesome looking pizza I’d seen in a long time. Unfortunately, Jackie told me that they’d only made pizza dough for 6 pizzas and they were all sold. Arghhhh… the next pizza came out of the kitchen… mmmm it looked as good at the other one…are you sure Jackie??? I must have been drooling something furious each time she came by because while I stood perusing the menu and eyeing the pizza she said okay, okay, okay…let me see if he possibly has another one. Let me see what I can do… She came back out and said okay. But this is it! NO MORE PIZZA FOLKS! So for $23 I got the most awesome large thick crusty supreme pizza and a ginger beer. Needless to say everyone coming in wanted pizza. I was seated by the door and between ours and the other 2 pizzas; you almost had to order a pizza. I tried to hail Azaya on the radio to come share the pizza with us but got no response. So their radio was either off while working on the kayak or they were out of our hand held range. With all the requests for pizza, Jackie said she’d take pre-orders for Tuesday if people wanted them (Sunday and Monday they’re closed). Wish we could get ahold of Azaya but I guess they don’t have their ears on.

 We worked on the computers, ate pizza and chatted with Bruce while others were watching the basketball games on the TV and the Ladies Axillary Club had their luncheon at the tables behind ours.


Bruce - Zingara



I’d gotten quite involved in the computer then when I’d gone to the store and returned (I’d already packed my computer) Bruce (Zingara) was showing Wayne some grib files… Needless to say, my computer was turned back on – I’d thought I’d had this program already. Yep… But Bruce was showing me various things on it and we got to chatting again. There was a gathering on the beach at 4pm that I’d planned on going to, but when I looked at my watch it was 5pm already. We made it back to the boat just before sunset. So much for the beach party. I had 2 pieces of pizza I could take, but yikes, that wouldn’t go far as far as sharing… We decided it was too late to crash the party and stayed aboard. A bit after dark, someone’s dinghy disappeared from the beach (gotta love those escaping dinghies that go off exploring). A call went out, and it was found. What a scary feeling. That’s pretty much tantamount to losing your car on land. In the water it’s worse… So glad it was found and didn’t escape out to the larger waters!

We laid up top looking at the stars and Jupiter and Venus as they come closer together. To bad we don’t have extenders for our seats – there are nights I could just sleep up here gazing at the stars. The winds feel warm tonight, even though they’re still blowing from the E-NE…Delicious



Friday, March 9, 2012 Thompson Bay, Long Island Exumas

We tucked in a little closer to land again by shortening our scope back to 75ft from 100ft. The winds are lightening up a bit and with Night Hawk no longer next to us we felt comfortable hauling in a bit of our chain to see if we could pick up some intermittent internet.

I was very happy to see that we have a signal again (albeit intermittent). So I was able to upload some of my pictures to my blog. I started with the earlier ones in the boat yard but was only able to get some of them loaded before losing the signal. I got up to February 13th then lost the signal (drat). Once the signal was lost I started downloading pictures from my camera to the computer so most of the day was spent on the computer until Mary hailed me. We decided we both needed to escape the boats so the big question was – kayak or dinghy? The dinghy won out. Since it was still a little choppy with windy conditions and we were going to the Hilltop grocery store after a walk to the Atlantic side of the island it just made more sense.


This one has a bitten off section

 I was happy to see the little Colman outboard motor started up on the first try! It’s so nice to have a motor that works again! Wayne keeps reminding me No full throttle until it’s broken in… It isn’t broken in yet???? Sooooo I zipped (like a turtle) over to Azaya to pick up Mary and we had a nice leisurely ride to the first set of docks near Fox Motors. Climbing up to the dock, Mary spotted a shark in the water. It was a beautiful teak brown color against the white sand beneath it. It looked like part of its left fin was bitten off. Ouch! I know that some of the fish and a shark or two like to hang out at this dock. The fisherman’s cleaning table is here and the predators and scavengers pick up the scraps that are thrown into the water. Not a good place to fall in or go swimming. I flashed back to last year when Glen swam over to our boat (yikes!). The half-fin shark we saw (after looking it up) was a nurse shark – their favorite food: shellfish, but they’ll eat anything as opportunists.


This nurse shark has all parts accounted for

After securing the boat and grabbing a picture or two we headed to the main road. I wasn’t sure which way the road to the beach was but thought it might be near the grocery store so we hung a left at the main road towards Hillside Supply and groceries, then took the road heading east towards the Atlantic. Not a good choice. The road started heading in the right direction, then turned and paralleled the main road and we were walking south. I knew this wasn’t right but we decided to keep going to see if it would turn or not. It hit another road that intersected the main road and this one continued on to the Atlantic coast. That was the road I remembered. Soooo next time instead of turning left towards the grocery store from the main road, turn left towards the market. This stretch of beach is a little cleaner than some of the others and while we didn’t see a lot of evidence of beach walkers there were a few footprints. I managed to find one sea bean, but that was all.

The walk back to the main road from the beach was definitely shorter (laughing) but we had to walk back to the grocery store too (not a big deal). I love the produce at this place (Hillside Groceries) and the meat at the other one near the Long Island Breeze. We (as women tend to do) explored all the aisles, picked up what we needed and headed back to the boat.

Wouldn’t you know that I’d buried my camera under the groceries I bought? When we got to the boat, another shark (nurse shark) was there and a sea turtle too. So I had to empty my back pack to get to the camera. The turtle was happily munching on stuff under the water and wasn’t about to come up and smile for me, and the shark was circling about looking for handouts. Since we didn’t seem to have anything and weren’t about to volunteer to become its next meal, it deemed us uninteresting and swam off. Guess it was time to load up the dinghy and head back to the boats.

After dropping Mary off and getting back on the boat, I realized that I was hungry. We’d been talking about Mexican food and I thought mmmmmm some kind of rendition of a spiceless soft taco (Wayne’s not into spicy food). I had tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, ground beef, tortilla wraps, and guacamole. Throw a little hot sauce on mine and mhmm that’s what’s for dinner tonight.

Thursday, March 8, 2012 Thompson Bay, Long Island

Thompson Bay, Long Island

Slow starting day. After coffee and weather Wayne spent the morning reading and I spent the morning dumping programs and items from my computer that I don’t use and downloading pictures from the camera to the computer. It’s a pretty day out. The sky is blue, sun shining and puffy cumulus clouds build over the land as the sun heats up the island causing the air to rise and then condense into cloud droplets. The winds are still in the 20s, sometimes going up to 32 knots (gusts). There’s a constant deep whistling sound as it flows over the boats and flutes the masts and makes the rigging hum. I almost don’t notice it now. It’s become a white noise unless I consciously make notice of it.

Around 2pm we put the diesel cans in the dinghy and met with Mary and Axel over at the Long Island Breeze. From there you have to walk the jerry cans to the Esso Station. Their fueling dock was taken out in an accident a few years ago and has never been rebuilt (things move slowly here). Wayne walked them over and back to the dingy (he used my cart – makes it easier to roll them as opposed to carrying them), while we sat and chatted at the Breeze. When he got back, we went and checked out Hardings grocery store and the hardware store to see what the mail boat brought in, then we walked over to the erosional side of the island to the Atlantic shore. It has a beautiful sculpted shore where the waves have carved out parts of the layered sandstone, coral and limestone rock. Mary, Axel and Wayne walked northward towards the wave cut platforms where the original land surface had been eroded by waves, creating notches where the waves carved out small cliffs. I walked to the south, toward a few sea stacks. They jut out of the water and remind me of old sentinels that stand watch of the changing tides and weather patterns that shape and eat them away. They stand as testament to the high power of the waves and currents that continually create these features, and then destroy them over time. The one sea stack that I just couldn’t get enough pictures of, I would classify as a Tombolo. At low tide, you can walk out to it – almost a little sea island instead of a sea stack. As I stood mesmerized watching the clouds move faster and grow darker over the water, I had to get a few more shots of the rain as it started pelting the water, the sea stack then me. It was a race to get my camera put away and by the time I met up with everyone else, it was back in my baggy but I fear it got a bit wet. We were all drenched for the walk back to the other side of the island. I felt a little guilty walking into the grocery store soaking wet but really wanted some lettuce. It looked good and the good produce goes quickly once the mail boat drops it off at the stores!



Jackie at the Long Island Breeze



At 5pm there was a get together for some acoustical music at the Long Island Breeze. Jackie put out some conch fritters for the cruisers and there was a pretty good turnout for the musical happy hour that went until about 8:30pm. Salty Paws (Jim and Bentley), Night Hawk (Ray) and First Look (Val) supplied guitar, banjo music and singing, Mary brought some shakers, Bonnie Lass brought spoons, and another person from Guardian Spirit, brought a little device that I was unfamiliar with (a concertina?). It looked like a miniature accordion that made the most amazing sounds. It reminded me of a snake charmer’s pipe. Its melody was so hypnotic. It made me feel like I was in the Greek Isles. I was ready to start snapping my fingers and stepping. It really made me want some Oozo! It was nice running into the folks from Saugatuck again and meeting new folks that we’d never met before. We’d heard that The Dove is over in Puerto Rico. We haven’t seen them in a couple years and it was kind of neat to hear about them and their travels. We headed back to the boat a little after 8pm. It’s quite a dinghy ride but the waves were calmer (we were traveling with them) the salt air smelled good and the full moon lit up the anchorage as it peeked in and out from the clouds that were racing across its face. We were able to pick out our little boat. It was one of the further ones out so easier to spot from the other 25 or so boats further in. The moon was beautifully bright and full, the constellations dimmed by its brilliance. The two other bright objects in the sky could not be dimmed though – Jupiter and Venus! Each night they get closer and closer together. They’re just beautiful! The first night I noticed them was when they were lined up perfectly with the moon a few nights ago. What an incredible sight to see 2 bright stars lined up with the crescent moon (I know, I know they’re not stars)…

Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Thompson Bay at Salt Pond, Long Island

Thompson Bay, Long Island


Howling at the moon tonight


In looking more at our water pump problem, it appears that we can’t really change the old one for the new one until we’ve put in somewhere for the season. It’s like a gobble gook of hoses, fittings, tubes and wires down there. The bilge pump hasn’t gone off again and we’re beginning to think that it’s the weight of the water in the tank that’s causing the leak problem at the pump. Whenever we fill our tank the bilge pump goes off. So while it doesn’t appear that our tank leaks, we’re thinking the head pressure on the old pump or one of the fittings causes the leak until it reaches some sort of equilibrium. We dinghied into shore to the Long Island Breeze for burgers and internet then went over to the grocery/hardware store to see what they had in the line of hoses, valves, and PVC caps. The chop was a bit much until we got closer in and we did get a bit wet during our bouncy ride over to the dinghy dock.

The produce didn’t look too hot, but we saw the mail boat trying to come in which means that tomorrow there should be better produce. I could use some lettuce and cabbage.

Back at the boat, Mary & Axel came by for sundowners around 5pm. While Axel had been working in the bilge all day, Mary had made apple walnut brownies that were deeeeeeelicious (Wayne even liked them with his beer LOL). Those with some cheese, sausage, palm hearts and crackers made up our fare with our beers, wine and G&Ts. The winds while still in the 20s have quieted down a bit (they were at the 30 knot range). The moon was so incredibly bright and full that we had a “howling at the moon” time again as it rose and the sun set. This howling at the moon at least once a trip is starting to become a tradition. It was fun though no matter what the other boats may have thought. I actually thought I heard someone else howling back…who knows!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 Thompson Bay, Long Island

Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Thompson Bay, Long Island

Incredible winds today; sometimes reaching 33knots. Wow! I woke up at 12:30am this morning to the sound of the bilge pump going off again. I’m so not liking that. Yesterday it had a 6 hour cycle, and today it went off again at 6:30 this morning and again around 1pm. We were supposed to go to the Thompson Bay Club for the buffet but between the snubber that keeps coming off, the water leak that we couldn’t seem to find, and the winds, I pretty much wrote the day off.

We took the front berth apart to see if our water tank was leaking because it seems like whenever we fill our tanks, the bilge kicks on so we figured that maybe it was leaking near the top. We hadn’t filled it up recently but did put 20 some gallons in at Georgetown, so we emptied out the compartment of our toilet paper, paper towels, sail bags, and miscellaneous items that we stash under the berth, next to the water tank. No obvious leaks there and the floor under and next to the water tank looked dry. Checked the thru hulls, no leaks there;

Next we tore the floor boards up. The area around the mast was pretty wet; the area around the water pump was pretty wet; No visible leaks; Checked the thru hulls near the engine and the sink areas. No leaks; Took the stairs and cabinet off the engine to check the back of the boat and bilge area. Some wet but no visible dripping; the packing around the cutlass bearing looked good;

We decided to wait a couple of hours to manually set off the bilge pump and catch some of the water and give it a taste test. Wayne tasted it and said it didn’t taste salty enough for it to be coming from outside the boat. Ugh… my turn. I have sharper taste buds… No salt. So it must be coming from the hoses connected to the water pump or the water pump itself is leaking. Back to the middle of the boat to examine those hoses more closely and the pump. The good news is…it’s not water entering the boat from the outside. The bad news is…our fresh water supply is slowly being pumped outside the boat and we don’t have a cutoff valve from the water tank to the pump. There’s also no water to be gotten here on Long Island because there’s been a lack of rain and the water boat won’t be venturing over here in gale conditions. So if we dismantle the pump we’re going to lose a bit of water that at this point we can’t replace. We’ll have to clamp a hose until Wayne can put a valve on it so we’ll have to visit the hardware store and see if they have any valves we can use. Then Wayne can replace the water pump. At this time of the day though, it makes no sense to head into town; Odds are by the time we got there, they’d be closed and we’d be frazzled (more than we are now) from fighting the waves to get to shore in the dingy. It’s also time to go to the Thompson Club’s Cruiser buffet but to be honest; neither of us are in much of a mood to go. So we’ll stay aboard and rock in the 30 knot winds and watch the other boats dancing on their anchor chains too. Night Hawk said we looked like we traveled about 20-30 miles today. Yep, we probably have, we probably have. It’s good to see all the anchors set in the bay. Nobody has drug yet but as I recall, this is an awesome sandy/silty bottom. Probably some of the best holding in the Exumas!

I don’t feel much like cooking tonight (want some of Trapheena’s cracked lobster) but time to make dinner. It’s getting dark. I’m thinking pizza tonight.

The winds continue to howl like a wolf pack…

3/5/12 Thompson Bay, Long Island

Thompson Bay Long Island

Happy Birthday Greg! What a night. March is definitely coming in like a lion!

It was incredibly warm and still most of the night. Needless to say, the sheet had been kicked off and was bunched up. Then at 4am the winds just started roaring from 20 knots and gusting higher. The strong breeze came blasting through the hatch above our berth, the boat swung about, pivoted and tugged aggressively at the chain and anchor. I needed a breeze but wow! It’s been roaring ever since then.

We picked up the weather this morning from Chris Parker and it sounds like all week we’re in for 20-35knot winds with gusts and squalls 40 maybe higher. I was able to connect to the internet briefly (10 minutes) from the boat. Long enough to read an email from Pam (Blue Pearl) but when I tried to respond found I no longer had a connection grrr…frustrating. But it was good to read her email at least! It’s too windy out to venture putting the dinghy in so we’ve spent the day aboard reading and putzing about. I chatted a bit on the radio with the boat next to us (Night Hawk). He has a beautiful boat. I’d love to chat more with them. They got here yesterday after a 4 day trip from St. Thomas – good winds, the trades were with them. It will definitely take us longer to get to St Thomas since we’ll be heading into the trade winds and currents…

Someone gave the weather for Salt Pond in Mike’s (the Long Island Breeze) absence today. Billy Bob came on at 8:30am on the VHF channel 18. It’s pretty much the same forecast that Chris Parker gave – NNE-ENE 20-30 knots with 7-10ft seas in the ocean for today and tomorrow, then Wednesday from the NE with Gale force gusts. Tides here: High tide today is at 07:30 with a 3.4’ rise. Low Tide is at 13:47 at 0.8ft; then high tide again at 19:52 at 3.2ft and the next low tide at 01:58 tomorrow morning with .6ft above datum. When I can get it I love this site for weather here: http://www.bahamasweather.org.bs/index.php?page=marine

The internet keeps coming and going from the anchorage, so I’ll post when I can and maybe even get some pictures uploaded this week finally. Needless to say we’ll be here sitting out this front that’s bearing down on us. So it’s a good time to download pictures while I’m listening to radio chatter and reading. It looks like one of the cruisers is talking with Trapheena at the Thompson Bay Club and there’s going to be a Cruiser’s buffet tomorrow night. She puts on a wonderful spread (ribs, cracked conch, cracked lobster, chicken, mac/cheese, plantains, peas & rice, slaw and potato salad) I hope we can get to shore without being blown away in our little dinghy!

Sunday, March 04, 2012 - Great Exuma to Thompson Bay

Elizabeth Harbor, Great Exuma to Thompson Bay, Long Island

We were going to leave at 9:30am but left at 8:30am. I was glad we did. We had a beautiful sailing day with winds 10-15knot out of the south southeast (about a170 degrees). It was just perfect sailing for us. After we left the south entrance, past 3 Fathom, then Middle Rocks and the N. Channel Rocks, we put our sails up for the 7 mile run to Pigeon Cay, motor off, and we sailed under partly cloudy skies doing anywhere from 5.5knots to 7.5 knots. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had all our sails up and it felt wonderful. Kolibrie loved the close reach and beam reach all the way to Thompson Bay. At one point I was heading down into the cabin for something and Wayne said “Hey there’s another Bayfield” I looked up and saw Sapphire going past us, then saw another Bayfield 40 (I think Maya). I hailed Mike & Kathy to say hello! They’re heading to Georgetown for guests and their friends were heading to Emerald Bay. I think that after Georgetown they’re heading back to Long Island so maybe we can catch up before we depart for Conception or Rum Cay. I’m not sure exactly where we’re heading after Long Island. I guess we’ll see after the blow that’s supposed to come through.

While plotting our course on the chart I noticed that we’d reached the Tropic of Cancer - almost to the exact point that I’d marked it last year (laughing). So Kolibrie has made it to the Tropic of Cancer one more time!

We got into Thompson Bay and set our anchor by 3:30pm and were looking forward to catching some showers at the Long Island Breeze. Problem was, while hailing them; someone came on and told us that they were closed on Sundays and Mondays… Talk about heart break! I’ve been longing for a nice hot shower. But after dropping our sails and motoring into the Bay, we have hot water. Soooo we decided to have cockpit showers. I haven’t had one of those in a long time and it was delightful to have hot water and get soaped up and have clean hair again.

It was just too hot to cook, so I made cheese and tomato sandwiches for dinner and we enjoyed a quiet evening in the cockpit looking at a very bright three quarter moon. It was so nice to just be able to enjoy the day. It’s seemed like such a mad rush to get down here. Just rushing from one point to another - I can’t say that I like beating into the wind/waves. This is supposed to be enjoyable – I definitely would love more days like today! I almost forgot to mention the sandbars today. We passed by quite a few that were quite extensive off White Cay between Little Exuma and Long Island. They looked miles long along the horizon and were so pristine looking. With nobody around, I was very tempted to stop and dally for a while, but the winds were so nice… For a while I watched the depth sounder to get an idea of the topography. You could visualize the sand beneath just by reading the depths. I could almost draw the sandbars and tell you which way the prevailing currents were by the depths: 17ft, 15ft, 12ft, 9ft, 8ft, 19ft… It was pretty neat!

At sunset, someone blew a conch horn, so I also had to blow mine, and then a chorus of horns went up around the anchorage. It’s time to put on the anchor light…It’s very still out tonight. The breezes we enjoyed today have disappeared. The calm before the storms I guess. I could use a breeze...

Saturday, March 03, 2012 Elizabeth Harbor

Elizabeth Harbor, Stocking Island AKA Georgetown, Great Exuma

I’d forgotten what a “ToDo” it is here. After trying to listen to Chris Parker’s weather forecast on 4045 at 6:30am (it was really full of static), Georgetown has their own radio programing on Channel 72 at 8am. People hail each other on 68 instead of 16, then switch at 8am for the updates in the harbor - Any new boats? Departing Boats? Local businesses? news? Then Boaters General; Weather; Regatta news; and a host of people looking for things, or selling things (Mary sold her Bahamas phone). The “Around the Island Regatta” starts at 10:00am and I believe there were 27 boats that signed up for it. We’ll be crossing paths as they come by us in the anchorage and we head out for fuel and water.

The winds started picking up last night so we had a wet dinghy ride for diesel and water. Mary & Axel offered to help us – 2 dinghies hold more than 1 and ours is not the biggest nor the fastest but it gets us there. We cut through the race path with no problem. A few boats had already come through the start line, but Azaya has a speedy dink! I honestly can’t remember one time when I made it to Georgetown and back and stayed dry (laughing). Wayne loaded our 2 jerry cans and 4 water jugs in our dink. By the time those get filled there’s no room for anything else. I brought our 6 gallon water can and garbage in Azaya’s dink and we borrowed a jerry can from them too, so we have roughly 15 gallons of fuel and 26-28 gallons of water. I’d forgotten how heavy those 6 gallons of water can be! Loading the diesel and water into the dink from the gas station and water spout, I could feel my hip and back compressing – oh oh…

It was a nice morning in Georgetown, most of the yachts were involved with the race so it wasn’t congested in town. I was able to get some cash from the ATM, Axel found his needed stuff at the hardware and Minn’s watersports, I got bread and a pepper and some oranges and went in on some tomatoes with Mary, and they were able to download email on their IPhones. 

We got back to see the finish of the 32nd Georgetown Regatta. It was pretty cool to see a monohull come in 1st with 4 catamarans coming in 2nd to 5th place. Major event of the regatta… 249 was the official count of boats in the harbor. Nocturne and Glory Days 1st & 2nd place…

I made some peppersteak and rice for dinner and we sat up top enjoying the breeze and eating dinner. You can normally hear sunset here in Elizabeth harbor, but I think most people were at St Francis for the awards and dinner ceremony. I did my part with the conch horn though!

Friday, March 2, 2012 on to Georgetown - Elizabeth Harbor

Cave Cay (23 54.114/76 16.170) to Stocking Island (Georgetown) Monument Anchorage (23 31.819/75 46.247) Departure time: 7:30am Arrival time: 3:49pm 41.9 nm traveled.

The weather news from Chris Parker this morning was not good… All the weather models are predicting strong sustained winds for the next 8 days or so. When he says to expect 20-30 knot winds…that’s worrisome, especially when he mentions 35 knots sustained possible and plenty of gusts in that area. He almost spit out the word “tropical wave” gah…those aren’t supposed to happen in the winter! I don’t particularly like the idea of beating into the winds and seas but today is probably the milder of the days so we headed out at 7:30am. Going through the cut, we got up to 4 knots speed at 2000rpms then once through the cut I throttled up to 2500rpms and we were doing a whopping 2.5 knots into a current and bucking the waves/wind. Azaya is a faster boat than us and I started to envy their speed. Before long, they were a blip on the horizon and then we couldn’t seem to make radio contact with them. We averaged between 3-4.5 knots most of the day in choppy water (4-6 ft) until we approached Emerald Bay. Then it started easing up a bit and we gained a little speed as we approached Elizabeth Harbor. We heard someone asking them if they could follow them in, but didn’t couldn’t hear their reply. Entering the harbor we saw a ton of boats. What an amazing sight. Mast after mast after mast lined the harbor with trawlers and mega-yachts also here. It’s to be expected though. It’s Regatta Week so there are probably at least 250 boats in the harbor.


A view as we approach Elizabeth Harbor coming in from Conch Cay Cut - I couldn't believe all the boats in the harbor!

After getting over my shock at seeing so many boats, we threaded our way through the shoals and coral heads, first this way then change course at this point and head in another direction for ½ a mile… Wayne said he spotted Azaya right before the Monument near Hamburger Beach. I couldn’t see them but he said to pick out the tallest mast. In this light, all the boats look whitish yellow but his visual was confirmed when our radio started beeping. It was Azaya, and yep that was them. They said there was plenty of room by them. Good thing too because that’s where I was heading (laughing). We pulled up next to them, said howdy! Then pulled up between two other boats and dropped our anchor. We’re not the entertainment tonight. Our anchor dug in deep and true and as I backed down on it. We didn’t budge.

Our anchorage

It feels so good to be at anchor. We lost the knob off one wet locker and the Stay that holds our berth door is missing. A few items were pitched about in the salon, but for the most part our little hummingbird “did good” with what we put her through. I sure hope they have fuel in Georgetown. We haven’t filled up and I think this is the longest we’ve ever gone without picking up some diesel. We really need some. I feel drained, Wayne’s drained, Kolibrie is sighing a relief to be at anchor… It was a beautiful, sunny day to be sure…

Now we sit at the adult winter camp right off the Peace and Plenty to the North of Monument hill. We’ll dinghy over to Georgetown tomorrow for fuel and water. Right now, it’s time to crack open the last of the Blue Crab dip and grab some beers. Company’s coming – I hear Mary Clare in the Kayak. They were going ashore for a walk then coming by. Tonight I’ll properly blow the ole conch horn at sunset. This is the place to do it and sunset isn’t far off. Now time for those sundowners!

Thursday, March 1, 2012 Great Guans to Cave Cay

Black Point, Great Guana Cay to Cave Cay (32 54.310/76 16.75)

Axel & Wayne out fishing in the dinghy

 Turned on the SSB to listen to Chris Parker and thought shucks – lets try the big SSB. After plugging in the power cord I could hear Chris Parker! I thought woosh! Lets tune him in better. Then lost the signal and never could get the radio to work again or find the right frequency. Arrrggghhhhhhhhh!!!! So I listened to the weather on the small hand set. The prognosis for the coming week is dismal! After Sunday there are some wicked fronts coming through with 20-35 knot winds expected for almost a week! Ugh… Axel kayaked over to find out about leaving today/tomorrow and I guess we’re all for it. I don’t like the idea of sitting in Georgetown with 250 boats during regatta week with storms coming through but where ever we are, we’re going to be for a bit. So we packed up the boat and headed out to look for an anchorage around Galliot’s Cut and ended up a little further near Cave Cay Cut. Either will shorten our time getting to Georgetown tomorrow. It felt funny to go past Little Farmer’s Cay and not stop in. We could hear Terry on the Radio with people looking for moorings. He sounds in better spirits this year (not so good spirits last time we were here) so I’m thinking all is well there! Wayne really wants to pull into Emerald Bay for a night to gas, water and shower. We’ll see. The day winds are supposed to be 10-15ESE the direction we’re going then they’re supposed to increase tomorrow night to 20 which will kick up the seas. If we go into Emerald we may be stuck there (actually I probably wouldn’t mind except for the cost) for a while.

Looking a little south from our anchorage we can see Musha Cay – nightmare last time we were there – I was boogying in my sleep to Cher, etal…ALL night long Hopefully it’s a little quieter here! 6 boats are here and I’m thinking they’re all staging for the big blow. I’m not sure how many are getting ready to leave tomorrow for Georgetown but if they don’t go tomorrow, the next chance will be Sunday – the window we were looking at before hearing the weather this morning. The window narrows.

Axel and Wayne took Azaya’s dinghy out fishing in the cut. They didn’t catch anything, lost a lure and tangled a fishing line in the propeller. Mary came by in the Kayak and we went over to Lansing Cay to see if we could find some more sand dollars. They were all over the place last year. This year, we didn’t see one, but it was fun to kayak over there again. We found a couple milky conch shells, a cowrie shell and a few other ones but not a single sand dollar. The boat on the island was still up on its stand and the mushroom rock further out on the sand bar still was impressive to look at in the setting sun at low tide. I blew my conch horn at sunset and it’s now time for some tuna salad for dinner.