Visitors; Giant Fish on!; Abacos

Daughter Ashley joined us for a week at Georgetown during the 33^rd annual Georgetown Cruisers Regatta organized by the adult day care people I mentioned earlier.  It was a well-organized event starting with a talent show on the opening night which was excellent and a” nobody would believe this unless you saw it event”.  Ashley and Brenda teamed up with another mom and daughter to enter the coconut challenge…3 events starting with a hilarious, furious paddle (using swim fins from inside the dingy), to try to gather as many coconuts of the 1100 they dropped in the harbour – 26 dinghies competed so you can imagine the chaos. I tried my hand at poker and made it to the second last table (top 20 out of 50 players)...ok for a beginner I guess.

Ashley had a good time but sadly had to go back to work.  Brenda then went home from Georgetown to babysit grandson Cameron and will rejoin me in Marsh Harbour. My friend Rob joined me for the sail up the Exumas and over to the Abacos. great motorsail up to Rudder Cut, then surfed 10 foot waves to get through as we didn't quite time the tide change -- thes cuts can have some significant "rages" or rip tides as the whole ocean tries to cram in or out of the narrow cuts during tide changes.  Best time is to go through at slack water 1/2 after high or low tide if you can time your arrival just so. We then sailed up the Exumas again and from Highbourne Cay Exumas to Royal Harbour off Eleuthra in a flotilla of six boats plus about 5 more that were at our anchorage at Highbourne Cay. We met these folks at Blackpoint and agreed to buddy boat to the Abacos as we were all heading there.  

It was a great close haul sail, but too bumpy for Rob's liking...he really does not travel well. I caught a 2 ft Barracuda but threw him back as these fish get some disease and I didn't want to chance it. I later learned I could have eaten him as he was small.

Next day we were up at dawn and left for Great Harbour Abacos, now with 2 other boats, as the Gemini Cats were too small for the expected 1.5 meter waves...it was a glorious sail with the wind off the beam and the swells were easy rollers...well, not so much for Rob. I caught 2 fish this day...the first one got off the hook after a 10 minute fight, the second one was a monster... he took a thousand feet of line out on the highest drag setting, he jumped twice, the second time cleared the water and looked to be 3 feet long 1000 feet out so was likely bigger... I think it was a Blackfin Tuna from the profile…Rob and I both tried to reel him in, me pulling the line in six inches at a time, hand over hand, Rob cranking the reel....the line snapped at the rod tip after 15 sweaty minutes!!!! It was exciting nevertheless. March 20 we had a beautiful sail up to Marsh Harbour. Yesterday did groceries & got propane, went to lunch at the Jib Room – another cool Bahamas Resto/Bar – had the fabulous fresh fish Reuben sandwich.  Today explored the town, did laundry and ate at Snappas – another fabulous Bahamian resto/bar on the harbour – ate the delicious blackened grouper sandwich!

Plan to sail the area this week and visit a few other places before Rob has to leave on Tuesday and Brenda rejoins me for the sail through the Abacos and then back to the US. CIAO

Georgetown - a winter playground for adults

We had a great visit to the community of Blackpoint and headed south towards Georgetown, which will be our southernmost destination this year.  Our daughter Ashley, is joining us in Georgetown for a week or so & then Brenda has a babysitting gig back in TO.  I will move the boat from here to Marsh Harbour if I can scare up the right crew.

On our way south from Blackpoint we cruised the bank side past Musha Cay which is owned by David Copperfield and rented out for $320,000 US per week for the whole island including it’s 5 cottages with maximum 20 guests  - he does own the most magical water we have seen –try googling it. We anchored at Rudder cut, then went out the cut in the morning…we were a bit early for the complete tide change and so surfed over 8-9 foot waves on the way out, before settling into the 3-4 foot waves as we went the last few miles to Conch Cay cut and into Elizabeth Harbour – Georgetown -  We had anchors down by 2pm off the gorgeous beach on Stocking Island.  We are about a 1 mile dingy ride to Georgetown, which makes me glad we bought the biggest hard bottom dingy we could tow with the 15 HP 2 stroke Yamaha.  Other cruisers are clearly handicapped in some of the tiny underpowered rigs they are driving.  Interestingly  -- this advice, often not followed,  is recorded as a top piece of advice in the bahamascruisersguide.com , came from other experienced cruisers we spoke to in researching our trip and is well published other places.  Of course we also saw a sailboat that was barely 2 feet longer than the 14, kayak he had tied to his rails…some folks just enjoy the challenges.

We made good time into Georgetown and had the anchor down by 2 PM.  We are hanging out at Hamburger Beach, named for the multi-coloured burger shack and tables that is situated beside a path to the ocean.  Georgetown isn’t a harbour as I know a harbour.  It is really a long channel. The east side is a long island, Stocking Island that runs parallel to the shore but with a one mile side stretch of water between the two.  The boats are anchored all along Stocking Island.  The island shore is covered with the beautiful white sand beaches.  The town of Georgetown is really Elizabeth Harbour.  Cruisers have been coming here for many years.  In the heyday, before 2008, there were 500 boats in the harbour at this time of year but this year there is only 240.  Still it seems a lot after the trip down from Nassau and sharing the anchorages with 4 or less.  Georgetown is winter camp for retired people. There are organized activities every afternoon at 2 until 4.  You name it you can do it here –poker, golf, volleyball, horseshoes, softball, sewing/knitting, scrabble, ma jong, bridge, poker.  Every am at 8am the cruisers net comes on to announce the events of the day and week, gives the weather, ads from local businesses , expressions of thanks to other cruisers, no complaining is allowed.  And really who should be complaining in this lovely spot?  The town is typically Bahamian.  Most services are available.  The cruisers host an annual week long Regatta raising funds for the community for various projects to enhance it here for everyone – dogs in costumes parade (to music), 1100 coconuts release in the lagoon and chased by dingy teams, golf tournament, volleyball etc and of course in harbour and round the island races.  The kick-off party is at volley ball beach on Monday night with live music and sand dancing….sounds like fun.

Sailing in Paradise at last

Arrived Staniel Cay, which is about midway down the Exumas) late in the afternoon and anchored behind Thunderball rock, where the dive grotto (underwater cave) made famous in the James Bond movie Thunderball, is located. The current was very strong at tide changes in this area - we took a mooring ball for a night but didn't feel comfortable in the current and with the tackle itself - not sure if these balls are maintained. When I re-anchored the next day and explained why to Wind Warrior, Ron dove on his ball and found that it was down to 2 strands where it chafed on the slot in the ball (yikes! - the grotto area has rocks all around if it let loose)...he McGyvered a line of his own on the ball and stayed another night, more relaxed except for the 5 knot current at tide change plus the 20 knot winds. Our anchorage (only 100 feet away on the sand bar) was better as we were out of the current at least, so just had the winds - it was a rocky few nights

I dove in the grotto at slack low tide and it is as fantastic as they say...you are surrounded by schools of fish in an underground cave only accessible to snorkelers at low tide. Brenda dislikes caves so passed.

We toured the rustic Bahamian town (Google Staniel Cay to see pictures of it) the next day and later when the wind clocked around we moved over to Big Major spot anchorages where Breathless was anchored.   Our boat buddies sailed on ahead to Black Point Settlement but we stayed another day to explore and feed the famous wild pigs that swim out to your boat.  We went for a great dingy ride up to see Sampson Cay (very beautiful) and Pipe Creek anchorages.  Exploring by dingy is a good way to scope out anchorages for future trips. We will be back here for sure!  There are several out island resorts in these Cays that are pretty nice, some are still being developed, slowly.

On Sunday we sailed the whole way (about nine miles) to Blackpoint settlement and anchored with our friends from 5 other boats at the bay past the settlement itself – there is another perfect beach, a castle and a half built mansion and an undeveloped resort here– we met the owners Peg & Frank O’Brien and we had sundowners on the beach and a bonfire with our friends. Peg & Frank moved here several years ago, after sailing down here and falling in love with the place.  They bought the first lot from the developer and have optimism that it will eventually develop as planned into a 72 home resort and marina.  Meantime they have sole use of this beautiful beach with sugar white fine sand and fantastic sunsets.

Yesterday we came back to the Blackpoint settlement which is a laid back genuine Bahamian town with about 250 residents.  They are very proud of their town & it shows.  There is a Laundromat with showers and marine/hardware supplies, 2 restaurants and a restaurant/bar, all offering Wi-Fi.

 I counted 36 visiting yachts in the harbour so add another 80 or so visitors.  We lugged free water (many places charge 40 -50 cents per gallon) from the town spigot into our jerry jugs, into the dingy, onto Tango and poured it into our tanks to replenish. We shopped in the local stores and went Scorpios for the Valentines evening.  This restaurant and bar is another cool spot filled with locals and visiting cruisers.  Today (Wed Feb 15^th) we used the showers and plan to spend some time at the beach.  We get the weather report daily on the vhf, currently broadcast from Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and also check on windfinder.com to get the forecast.  Weather is critical to safe and pleasant sailing down here.  Cold fronts come through and are accompanied by higher winds 20+ knots which make for uncomfortable travelling, and if not anchored in the right place, rough nights.  We are getting adept at picking our weather for the best passages, estimating the tides, and picking anchoring spots accordingly.  Things look good for the next several days until another front will pass through on Monday, so our plan is to sail down to Little Farmers Cay tomorrow and then on to Emerald Bay marina then Georgetown by the weekend.   We are taking lots of pictures but the internet connections are not strong enough to post them at this time…so meantime you can Google some of our locations mentioned to get an idea of what we are seeing and we will post our personal pictures when we can. CIAO, Chris & Brenda aboard S/V Tango

Paradise - each island beautiful as the next

We are Wardrick Wells, it is part of the Exuma National Park. You can check out the photos on the Internet official site. We had an uneventful crossing from Nassau to Highbourne Cay then spent two rocky nights there. The water is crystal clear and you can see easily 15-20 feet down in detail. We snorkelled on the reef and saw some amazing tropical fish including lionfish, parrotfish, a spotted ray, blue coral etc.

We saw our first group of megayachties.  The one boat anchored here rented for 240,000 a week with 7 crew and all the toys you can imagine. It was a couple of sandwich families.  Must be either the owners of Quiznos or Subway who rented it.  There were jet skis, power boats, chefs and maids posted to the beach to entertain the kids. 

We went to see the iguanas at Allen Cay.   These prehistoric looking creatures come running to the beach in large numbers looking for fruit...not supposed to feed them so we didn't but a powerboat full of 10 minute adventurers showed up and had them dancing for grapes on sticks - quite a site.  Next stop was Norman's Cay. Much quieter and prettier.  Met up with some other folks there that we had met on the way down, so we were from six boats at the beach with our dingies. I think 80% of the boats are Canadian. Went to a unique, funny little restobar called Macduffs back in the trees where we watched the Superbowl with 20 other people.  Norman's Cay has an interesting history with drug dealing Carlos Lehder in the 70's. There is a downed plane and only about 12 houses on the island. There is a small airstrip where a brother-in-law could easily land a plane. We met a young couple  from Scotland that rented a plane in Orlando and has island hopped from Orlando to Turks and Caicos and back.  There are a number of small airstrips on the Exuma chain. 

Yesterday we came here to Wardrick Wells. We had to go around two huge sandbars, shifting ones, that were a mile farther out into the ocean than charted to get here.  Immediately upon anchoring a large nurse shark started circling our boats looking for food...don't feed these either lest you want to attract bull sharks which are nastier cousins. We are heading to Staniel Cay later today, one of our party is having a medical issue so wants to be closer to planes to civilization.  We have a short wifi connection so cant' post photos yet. ciao

Still in Nassau

I dove yesterday to replace the anode on my drive shaft which had been reduced  by electrolysis to the size of a dime from about a 12 oz cone od zinc.  I had to plan this for high tide slack tide to avoid the 3-4 knot current flowing through Nassau harbour which would have made the job much more challenging - about a dozen snorkel dives later, the job was done successfully.   Electrolysis  happens in marinas when stray electrical current from surrounding boats or the dock create a pefect battery reaction with the salt water and eat the softest metals first (sacrificial zinc anodes are installed for this purpose) before eating your prop and driveshaft and ultimately sinking your boat!

Nassau not on my list of favourites...we are in the grubby end of town, no sidewalks, sketchy neighbourhood - one of our party was mugged in broad daylight on a main street for his gold chain - he punched the thief a few timess and got his chain back but lost his wedding ring off the chain in the scuffle.  We immediately took our watches and jewelry off when we have gone out since.  They seem have a poverty and crime problem here which may account for the poorer tourist turnouts. Bimini was much friendlier.

The wind is still blowing 20 knots so we opted to stay another day and plan to go to Allen Cay/Highbourne Cay in the Exumas chain tomorrow (33 miles approx). I am getting Marina fever. Cio

Pre-dawn departure

We staged the boat over at hurricane harbour and inched our way out at 5am following our boat buddies. I had not yet figured out how to turn down the power on the new chart plotter so was temprarily blinded.  Brenda sheilded the screen from me and I focussed on following the leghts of our buddies.  We made it past all the anchored boats and out of the Key Biscayne Channel.  We had a great crossing, despite the N/NE winds of 10-17 knots.  We had the advantage of the night lees with the early morning departure and were more than halfway accross before the seas could build to  anything. We landed exactly as planned by about 2pm at North Bimini channel, Alicetown and checked into the Big Game Club Marina - a 5 star resort catering to the sport fishing crowd but virtually deserted this time of year.  We had full use of the facilities including a nice pool  for our dockfees @$1.75 per ft.  After checking in with Customs and Immigration where we obtained our cruising and fishing permit9$300 for a 40 ft boat), we walked around this quaint Bhamian town. Houses are brightly coloured and small. Transportation is by 16 seat Golf cart train, which also takes the smartly uniformed children to school in the morning.
As the weather looked like we may be staying a few days we moved next day over to the Bimini Sands Condo/Resort/Marina which is has a more protected harbour and is cheaper - about $50/day dockage all in for the use of the same facilities others pay much more for when staying at their condo or renting same.  Brenda woke up to an aquariaum of fish at our dock behind our boat with dominoes, angel fish barricuda, sting rays etc. We went out the beach a short dingy ride away and had it to ourselves.  Here we cleaned the barnacles off the bottom of the dingy that had accumulated while moored in nutrient rich Boot Key Harbour.  We noticed another local man in distress as his motor had quit & he was a ways out.  He had a shark circling his boat and poured a bit of  gasoline on it to chase it away. We put the motor back on our dingy and went out to rescue him and give him a tow...we found out later from another local the man we had rescued Maggio, was in fact an ex US Marine and he likely could have swam to ashore and fought off the shark as he told us he was about to do.

On Wed. we went to the weekly local get happy hour and Karaoke get together at the end of the Island Sand |Bar owned by the same complex.  The transportation was provided by a rickety old bus, steel on steel brakes which made us glad it was a flat road and whose door would not close so the dust blew through.  Our driver, complete with shiny Rasta braids just turned up the Bob Marley music and we bumped along and enjoyed the short trip.  We quickly made friends with the bartender and he was the first singer to kick-off the Karaoke.  He did a credible rendition of Hotel California and we and the whole bar sang along.  Subsequent singers got progressively worse and the bartenders continued to ring a large ships bell to try to get them to stop -- they ignored this, the place got noisier as it filled up and everyone had a fun time.  The beer was cheap at $9 for a bucket 6 of the local Bahamian beer and the food was great.  We left at 10:30 (late bedtime for boaters) just as the place was getting full...same driver got us safely back to the resort at the other end.
After five days of strong winds we were glad to see a 2 day window for our trip to Nassau.  We had to wait for the tide to rise a bit so Ron & Jan could get out of the harbour as they draw 5 1/2 feet so we left at a respectable 9am.  We got to NW Channel light at about 7pm and anchored just at dark on the Bahamas Bank, with no land in sight.  Next day we finished our perfect crossing to Nassua where we are now.  We will likely leave here on Wed or so, weather permitting bound for Rose Island then southward.  Seems communications and wifi may be a little more scarce in some places so we will post when we can.  Wifi in Nassau is harder to come by, we had to lug the computer to the Texaco where it is free but I am running on battery alone (no place to plug in) so can't upload the many great pictures - will try to do this later for the Miami and this post when technology and time allows.

Miami Beach

We arrived back in Miami Beach the next day and Ron guided us to a new anchorage near the Miami Yacht Club in the lee of Belle Island(previously we stayed at Coconut Grove - another great part of Miami).  On the way in I spied Breathless, a 39 Beneteau owned by Rick & Doreen Itensen who had provided me some sage advice via email & phone before our trip began.  While in this harbour we also met 2 other Canadian sailing couples - more Canadian sailor friends we expect to see in the Exumas.

This anchorage is perfectly located and  has a dingy dock where you can get rid of garbage and access the City.  Shopping is close by for groceries, liquor, laundry, restaurants etc. and convenient access to South Beach Miami via a 25 cent bus.  The sunset and night view of the City from the harbour is spectacular - we will come back here.  We stayed a couple of days here and determined the right weather window for us to cross the Gulf stream was approaching so we prepared and planned to leave in the morning.