Georgetown

We have arrived Thursday Feb. 21st. at Emerald Bay Marina about 10 miles north of Georgetown. We sailed here from Black Point yesterday. We left the anchorage at Black Point at 7:15 a.m. hoisted the main and headed for Dotham Cut. Because the tide was against the wind at that time of the day we hobby horsed out the cut to the Exuma Sound. The Sound on the east side of the Exumas is more like being in the ocean. The waves are higher and the water a lot deeper than on the Banks which is on the West side. We had anticipated 12-14 knt winds out of the east based on Chris Parkers morning cast, but the winds were consistently above 20 and the waves 4-6 ft. We had about 40 miles to go to our destination. It was a bit rough.

Our stay in Black Point was very enjoyable. We had dinner at Lorraine's Cafe (a Bahamian buffet) and met a nice young couple from Montreal who were on a captained charter for 10 days. Their experience was very different from ours. No boat repairs, meals cooked and served, taxi service to and from shore, and no cleaning up.They want to buy a boat and bring it down sometime in the future. 

 We visited "the garden of Eden" which is a garden of driftwood sculpture that takes some imagination to define the subjects. The sculptor, Willie, lives in a house in the middle of the garden and he came out to give us a tour. He is an elderly gentleman with a great sense of humor. He described what each sculpture was in his mind but understood that we might envision something else. There must be about 30 of them. He then took us on a tour of his vegetable garden and fruit trees. It was quite amazing to see how much he could grow in between the rock that made up his yard (apple, papaya, banana, grapes, peas, squash, lemon grass, almond and much more)

I forgot in an earlier update to tell you about the Pig Beach in Staniel Cay. It is a beach on the West side of Big Major Spot where the island pigs, expecting to be fed, swim out to meet the incoming boats.. They are huge and great swimmers. We went just before the big blow so it was a bit rough with the wind starting to pick up. We had heard from other cruisers that the pigs try to get into the approaching dinghies and can do damage. Fortunately for us, there was a tour boat bringing out guests with lots of food for the pigs. They swam to the tour boat and we were able to watch them and take a few pics. They ignored us and rightly so as we did not bring food. 

Today we did laundry and are waiting for the fuel dock to open (the fellow who mans the dock had to drive to Georgetown for a part) and then we will take a walk. 

Black Point Settlement

Well here we are in beautiful Black Point Settlement. We arrived on Monday and walked to Lorraine's Cafe and had a couple of Kalicks and got internet. Met up with good friends from Annapolis on Alibi 2 and spent the evening catching up. 

We left Warderick Wells mooring field in the Park last Thursday before the front was scheduled to move through the area on Sat. We found a protected anchorage behind Thunderball Grotto in Staniel Cay and we stayed there through the blow. There were many boats trying to find a safe place to be in the days leading up to the front. We feel like we lucked out as our anchorage was fairly calm throughout. John kept an hourly watch on Sat. night as the wind clocked around from S to SW to W to NW throughout the day and night. We don't know how high it got since our wind indicator is not functioning. It was noisy at times. Our anchor held fine. (Thank you again Sheila and Chris) In fact, in our anchorage, no one dragged. There was a 64 ft. Hatteras, brand new, that lost it's anchor up between the Majors (which is a narrow corridor between two large cays where many boats rode out the blow even though the current is quite strong). He ended up on the rocks and started calling for help around 4 a.m. Finally a salvage boat came to his rescue and towed him off the rocks and into the marina. We heard on the VHF that he had prop damage. He was very fortunate that he didn't end up with a hole in the hull. 

We snorkeled in Thunderball Cave when the wind settled down some. It was full of many beautiful colorful fish of various sizes and shapes. Many more fish than we remember from last year. (cousin Mary-my snorkel gear worked wonderfully well-thank you). 

After listening to the weather guru on Monday at 6:30 a.m. we decided it would be a good day to leave Staniel and head for Black Point. We had a wonderful sail down and found a good spot to anchor  just off the settlement. We visited Scorpios for happy hour on Tuesday and are now doing laundry and preparing for a long walk and later dinner at Lorraine's Cafe. Tonight is the special buffet. 

Tomorrow we plan to sail through Dothan Cut and on down to Georgetown.

Hope you are all enjoying the winter.

Elyse and John

Black Point

We are now in Black Point.  Had a good if short sail today to get here.  Hope your life is good.

Thunderball Grotto

Happy Valentine's Day 

We are in Staniel Cay.  We are anchored next to Thunderball Gratto where the movie Thunderball with James 

bond was filmed.  We will dive in the grotto tomorrow.  We are having a wonderful trip.  Hope your life is as good or better.

John & Elyse

Exumas

Our location in Waderick Wells, the Exumas Land and Sea Park and Elyse's update are below.  We are having a great trip.  Touch wood, the boat is performing well.  There are a lot of fronts this year so you grab your chance to move and then enjoy yourself and wait for the next opening.  Most evenings are spent with new and old friends on someone's boat.  This evening a Canadian couple we spent 10 days with last year in Rock Sound are coming over.  They are on their way back to Nassau for engine batteries.

We had talked about this being our last year cruising but as we spend time in beautiful places with warm weather we may come again.  

We will leave tomorrow for Staniel Cay.  That is the location where Thunderball was filmed.  We will snorkel into the grotto where James Bond climbed on the rocks.  

Hope you have a great week.

John & Elyse on Spunky

Exumas

We left Nassau and headed to the Exumas. Our first stop was Highborne Cay where we anchored for the night and were anchor up and heading south early with a destination of Hawksbill Cay which we thought would give us a little more protection from the winds than Shroud where we stayed last year. 

Hawksbill was beautiful. Just what you imagine the Bahamas should be. There are clean white beaches that taper into turquoise water. We stayed two nights taking the trail across to the Sound side. It is one of the cays in the Exuma Park and there are rules preventing visitors from fishing or removing any wildlife including shells from the park.

Each morning on VHF the park office announces openings for the mooring balls in Warderick Wells (there are 22 balls in the North Mooring Field). Our name came up at the top of the waiting list and we were assigned a ball so we pulled anchor and headed down. This will be our third day here. Yesterday we climbed Boo Boo Hill and left a piece of driftwood with our names on it along with many others left by cruisers from past years. We have been visiting with new friends from this year and also friends from last year who happen to be here. 

Right now John is listening to the weather which we hear each a.m. on SSB so we can decide if we shall leave here tomorrow for Staniel Cay where we will anchor and ride out 25-30 knt winds from the north or stay here through Monday when we will be able to travel once again.  

We are hoping the winter is not too harsh wherever you may be. Love hearing from all of you.

Elyse and John

We have arrived

We have arrived. We overnighted from Miami leaving Tuesday morning and arriving Wednesday at noon. A calm crossing. Motored most of the way with little wind. We were able to sail from N. W. Channel marker to Nassau. We pulled into Nassau Harbor Club Marina where we stayed last year and customs was there to check us in. We met up with several boats we met in Bahamas last year and some that we met in the states. It was a nice reunion.

Today we walked to McKensies under the bridge for conch salad which the expert makes in front of you while you wait. It is unbelievable how fast he is with his knife. Yum!! There are many outdoor stalls under the bridge with "restaurants" and veggie stands etc. We went to the Green Parrot for lunch and to use their wifi but it was down. 

Yesterday after we arrived we walked to Batelco to get our phone set up. We purchased a data plan but it is not yet working. When and if it is we only have 1 gig of use before we have to pay again so we can't download attachments like photos. Please email us as we want to hear from you but please don't send photos until we return to the states. I spent quite a while unsubscribing to many sites so they won't automatically download to my phone. If we can't get it to work then we will rely on finding free wifi as last year so our email access will be very spotty and infrequent. If you need to reach us our Bahamas # is 1-242-462-6820. If you text it is less expensive. 

Tomorrow we hope to leave and head to the Exumas. This year the fronts are moving through with greater frequency so travel will not be as easy as last year. It seems there is usually only a day to get from one spot to another before you have to set anchor and hunker down and wait for the winds to calm and the seas to lay down to travel to the next cay. 

We are happy to be here. It is beautiful and the weather is lovely. Will send an update when I can.

Elyse and John

Monday is the day

Hey gang,

Happy Groundhog day.

It looks like Monday will be the day we leave, we think.  We plan to leave mid day and sail overnight and arrive in Nassau Tuesday afternoon.  We will make a final check of weather Monday morning to be sure but it looks pretty good.  I don't think there will be much wind so we will probably motor most of the way.  

We are hoping to spend enough time in Nassau to do our laundry and get some conch salad from under the bridge.  When we leave the states, we will put our phones on vacation.  I live by my smart phone.  It's hard to believe there was a time when I couldn't call or check email at will. We will activate our Bahamian phone so we can reach the states.  Our wifi will be much more intermittent.  We will check in from Nassau but many of the islands (cays) where we stop do not have wifi.  

Yesterday we commissioned our new water maker.  We were excited to drink our first toast.  We will be much cleaner in both body and boat this year.  It makes 20 gallons an hour.  In the Bahamas you have to pay for water in most places.  Normally we would take our 6 gallon tanks in the dingy to a dock where we would pay as much as 50 cents a gallon.  We would then bring them back to the boat and pour them into the tanks.  A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs and lifting a 50 gallon can is an effort. 

Have a wonderful weekend and go San Francisco.

John & Elyse