Thursday, February 16, 2006
We are at Great Harbor on Great Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands in the Bahamas. That's a mouthful. You can see our current location on a map if you go to www.winlink.org and lookup our location listed under my call sign of kb1kyu under the locate ship (or something like that) page of the website. Everything is great. We are traveling with 3 other boats we met at West End, our first port in the Bahamas. One boat Mesmariah has been cruising in the Bahamas for several years and is leading the way. Our anchorage is picture post card with the island in the background and white sand beach. Tonight we had a barbecue on the beach with the other boats. Someone caught barracuda and we grilled that up over a fire. It was good although Genie was reluctant to try it.
We left at 11:00 pm on Tuesday night from Xanadu and sailed all night to get here arriving at 10:00 am Wednesday. The ocean was quite rough making it a bit unpleasant sailing, but Island Time handled it well.
Little Harbor – Berry Islands
We stopped at Little Harbor where the only building on the island is Flo’s restaurant. We anchored behind Cabbage Cay where you have to catch the edge of the sand to get good holding (too shallow to go all the way onto the sand bank). The wind was light so it was not a problem for the anchor to hold. We had to call ahead to order our meal at Flo’s. The Entrée choices are fish, lobster or cracked conch. We had left our buddy boats and had dinner with crew from two other boats Idunno and Quest III that were in West End the same time as us. The meal was excellent served with sides of conch salad, rice and cold slaw.
While in Little Harbor John discovered that a bolt holding the alternator has sheared. We checked with the other boats in the area and we managed to find a new bolt that would work until we got to Nassau. No matter how many spare parts you have there will also be something that you don’t have.
Nassau:
The trip to Nassau across the Northeast Channel was uneventful. Thirty miles with small seas and no wind. Upon entering Nassau we had to call Nassau Harbor Control to request permission to enter the harbor. We stayed at a marina so we could get our shopping done and laundry etc. There were a number of marine supply stores where we could get more spare parts including bolts. John did a permanent repair on the alternator. Of course the cruisers got together for dinner at an all you can eat ribs place.
The strangest thing about the stores in the area of the marinas is that you have to ring a bell and then the door is unlocked to let you in. We did not go to the tourist areas where this probably is not case.
Heading for Exuma National Park in Warderick Wells tomorrow. They have moorings so we are planning to wait out the coming cold front due Sunday/Monday with 20-30 knot winds there.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
We finally made it to the Exumas in the Bahamas. Right now we are anchored at Norman Cay. Very nice spot right next to the wreck of a DC-3 airplane that crashed in the harbor. It was part of a drug ring that operated on the island. There are many ruins here left over from the drug operation.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
We are at Exuma Sea Land Park in Warderick Wells, Exuma which is a Bahamas National Park. We stayed put today as the wind was blowing 25 knots and we didn't feel like going anywhere. We are on mooring in a well protected harbor still it was rocking and rolling all day as the area has a large current which opposed the wind. I goofed off all day, but Genie worked on making side curtains for the cockpit. We will probably be here until Tuesday as a front is projected to move through tomorrow.
We will go Staniel Cay then Black Point before going to Georgetown for the rest of March.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
We went ashore today to Pirates Lair where there is a sweet (fresh) water well used by real pirates. They unrolled there sleeping mats in the clearing near the well and inadvertently left seeds of non-indigenous plants which took hold. So there is an area of hardwood trees among the palms. We are in the south anchorage not near the park office. It is a 2 mile dinghy ride to the office and with the winds it would be wet.
Water is warm (77 deg F) but we have not snorkeled yet as I injured my foot last week while on a walkabout with an Aussie we met up at Big Stirrup Cay, so I and somewhat limited in mobility. Saw a barracuda and a shark swimming under the boat. The water is unbelievably clear. You can easily see down 30 feet.
Ate fresh Mahi Mahi the other night. The boat we were traveling with "I Dunno" caught a 60 pounder on the way down from Norman Cay to Warderick Wells and invited us over for a fish fry. It was delicious.
Norman Cay: From Nassau we crossed the Great Bahama bank to Norman Cay. Forty miles of water 20 feet or less. Norman Cay was famous in the late ‘70’s and early 80’s for cocaine smuggling. All that is left representing that era are some buildings with bullets holes and the airplane in the middle of the anchorage. There are many photos of the plane with only its fuselage above water. Now the body of the plane has rusted and you can still see the wings under the water.
Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park
We motored (no wind) about 20 miles in Exuma Sound to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The park is comprised of 176 protected acres of cays, reefs and water where no fishing is allowed. The park headquarters is on Warderick Wells Cay. The park has 22 moorings in the north anchorage near the headquarters and 4 moorings in the south anchorage at the other end of the park. We obtained a mooring in the south anchorage. Very few boats left during the time we requested a mooring as a cold front was approaching so we were fortunate to get a mooring. The cold front swept through at night of course with winds gusting to 30 mph. Boats called in from the Abacos up north and reported winds up 50 mph. I am glad we listened to the experienced cruisers who said go south to the Exumas first and then go back to the Abacos in April.
Idunno the boat we were traveling with caught a Mahi Mahi on the trip down (outside the parks boundaries) so they invited us over for fish fry that night- excellent!!
The south anchorage was supposedly a hangout for pirates. A trail inland to Pirates Lair, an area where the pirates camped on land where there is fresh water in the crevices of the rock. Non native vegetation grows here due to the pirates. The woven mats that the pirates brought ashore to sit on had seeds from the trees in the southern US.
After the front passed and the seas quieted we dinghied to main headquarters about 2 miles to pay and investigate the other end of the island. The “hills” in the area are actually large sand dunes that have vegetated. On the top of one hill is Boo BOO Hill where cruisers have left items with their boat names inscribed. The items consist of wood with the names carved, rope nailed on to form the name, the name spelt in nails; painted shells; painted rocks; painted pie tin; and, most impressive, a rock with the name chiseled in beautiful script (very high quality). We were not prepared so we didn’t leave anything but we will next time. We recognized several of the boats as we had crossed paths with them some where along the way.
Staniel Cay: Sixteen miles south of Warderick Wells we stopped at Staniel Cay. Our anchorage was west of Big Majors Cay with a beautiful beach. As one approaches the beach the piggies run out to greet you into the water in anticipation of being fed! According to the bartender at the local restaurant there are about 25 pigs on the island most of which are feral. We only saw four that had the beach begging to an art. The pigs are very particular; they would not eat lettuce or tomato but liked the bread and cheese.
Staniel Cay has a small village with couple of small resorts and three small stores; the pink store, the blue store and the Isles General Store. At the pink store we arrived just as the bread came out the oven – so we hot fresh bread. We tied our dinghy at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. The dock is about 10 feet above the water with ladders to climb up. The height gives us a great view of the water at the dock where fish where being cleaned which attracted a large ray (about 5 feet across) and numerous sharks (also about 5 feet long).
The mail boat only comes on Fridays so we hustled to get a card in the mail for our son’s birthday. We mailed it on Thursday, March 2. So we’ll see when it arrives in Vermont.
Staniel Cay has a small airstrip where flights can be arranged to Nassau.
Friday night we went to a bar-b-que at Club Thunderball. More ribs.
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