Pigs Can't Fly, but Can They Swim?

Staniel Cay

     After a long and bumpy night at Warderick Wells, we were happy to be in a Marina.  Staniel Cay Yacht Club was the perfect haven for us.  They have great facilities and a town nearby with an airfield.  We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Yacht Club after we spent the day scouring the town for some fresh fruits and vegetables.  We are so used to having everything we could possibly need.  Life on the islands is something to get used to.  The choice of vegetables was a few lemons, onions and potatoes.  Pretty slim pickings.  Dinner was really nice after having taken some hot showers.  After dinner we hung out at the bar and made a few new friends.  Erik (who is with NYPD) and his wife Helena and Bob and Craig who are here on Bob’s boat the Eyamana.  Craig is a crew member on Bob’s yacht and also flies Bob’s plane.  What a great time we had telling stories and drinking a little too much.  Our bartender had a bit of a heavy hand you see.   We finished the evening with a night cap on Bob’s yacht.  Nothing like a pina colada to top up a half dozen G&T’s.  We may run into Bob in BVI – he’s not sure where his next destination will be. 

     Before heading out to Farmers Cay, we stopped at Major Cay to see a sight you would not believe if I didn’t have the photos to prove it.  We took the dinghy in to feed the pigs.  They actually swim out to the dinghy for the treats.  Who knew that pigs could swim.  They are pretty fast swimmers as well keeping up with our dinghy that was doing about 1.5 knots.

General Stuff

     Well, my attempts at flag making have led me to believe it would have been worth the $100 to have it made professionally.  The fabric I used is fine, but the paint just doesn’t stand up to the beating and the weather.  I tried to repaint it, but the paint doesn’t stay on worth a darn.  It comes off so easily.  Even if I should put the blue painters tape on it, it comes right off.  I either need to find a more durable adhesive fabric paint or give up on the idea.

     On our long sailing days, I spend my time reading.  I just finished reading a book by a new author Amor Towles.  Very well written, interesting, good build up of characters and quite entertaining. 

We’re still making our way through Dexter Season Five and The Shield Season Two.  We spend our evenings cooking and playing cards.  Uno, Rummy 500 and we plan to teach Liz and Eric to play Euchre. 

Leaving Exuma Cays and Heading to Long Island

     We headed out of Exuma Cays and over to Long Island today.  A journey of around 56 knots.  Fairly high seas, big swells and the wind coming from the East which was the direction we were heading.  That meant motoring all the way.  We anchored in Calabash Bay just outside a resort.  We had to pass through some reefs to get into the quieter waters and a quiet night.  The water is getting warmer as we head south – around 25- 27 degrees C.  Perfect for an evening swim before dinner.

Another beautiful sunset in the Bahamas. 

Long Island to Mayaguana

     It has been a long two days with a 36 hour sailing trip from Clarence Town Long Island to Mayaguana Island.  And then an early 2AM start to head over to Turks and Caicos.  But we sailed 98% of the way – strong winds, not necessarily in the best direction which meant some tacking and a longer trip.  But that’s the life of a sailor. 

Night Sailing

     No photos here but I can describe what it’s like to sail at night.  When it’s a clear sky with no moon, the stars pop out at you so you feel that you can touch them.  With no light pollution or obstructions, they reach from one horizon to the other.  Imagine the Little Dipper hanging in the sky looking as though it’s about to take a scoop out of the ocean.  It really is incredible to know you are sitting in a small boat in an ocean that is sometimes up to 20,000 feet deep and no land in sight in any direction.  Somehow the stars feel a little closer.

     Another great catch yesterday – just as the sun was coming down and we had just about given up catching anything.  Along comes a Wahoo.  What is a Wahoo you say?  We’ll, first we all started by saying wahoooo!!! We caught a fish; and a big one too.  Then Eric looked it up and found it was a Wahoo that we caught.  They are a long, narrow bodied fish with a long snout and a long dorsal fin.  It’s a dark blue on top and pale blue on the bottom with blackish blue vertical stripes.  They are said to get as big as 6 fee in length and up to 100 pounds.  I think the one we caught was about 2 feet long and around 10 pounds.  Still plenty of good eating to be done. 

Wahoo!

     We had a nice encounter with some dolphins the other day.  There were 5 or 6 of them swimming around the bow of the boat.  Playing with the stream of water from the boat and with each other.  They stayed with us for about 15 minutes.  Really nice to see them.  Again, I’m just not quick enough on the shutter to get a good shot of them.  Next time I’ll use my little movie camera.  Stay tuned for that! 

Can you see the dolphin just below the surface of the water?

     A scary sight – Eric spotted a tornado at sea.  Headed right for us.  Jens got the engine going and I went down to put the zoom lens on the camera.  We sailed out of its way and I was able to get a few good shots.  Quite a thing to see.  Apparently tornadoes at sea are called waterspouts and can be quite dangerous.  They say that the Florida Keys can have 400-500 per season.  

     We are now settled at the South Side Marina in Providenciale, Caicos.  We'll be here for a few days and hope to get some diving in.  Yippee!

Warderick Well and Staniel Cay

What they say about The Exumas in Wikipeadia:  The Exumas are an archipelago of 365 cays and islands, beginning just 35 miles southeast of Nassau, an exotic collection of tiny jewels set in the most beautiful aquamarine and sapphire water you’ve ever imagined.

I definitely agree with the description of the water.  It's a beautiful sight.  We left Allan's Cay sailing south for six hours to Warderick Well.  This is part of the Exuma National Reserve - so no fishing allowed.  We have a strong wind coming in from the N/NE which made for good sailing, but not so good for mooring.  Our fellow sailors were also looking for spots to get in out of the wind for the night and all the good mooring spots were taken. 

We are the boat on the far right out of the shelter from the wind and the waves.  Rocking and rolling all night long!  Not a fun time at Warderick Wells that night.

We were not so lucky and had a very bouncy night.  So bouncy in fact that none of us slept more than a few hours.  We headed out at daybreak and arrived to Staniel Cay around noon.   Sailing with only the Genoa up we were making 6.5 to 6.9 knots in a wind gusting up to 20 knots.  Staniels is turning out to be a great spot - with a nice marina, friendly staff and a lovely town.  We take the chance here to get some laundry done and do a bit of housekeeping on the boat.

At Wardericks Well, we explored the Island hiking to Barefoot Beach and up to BooBoo Hill where we left a piece of driftwood with our ship's name on it (like thousands of others before us).  We learned how to get the meat out of the Conch shell and tips on how to cook it from a fellow Canadian sailor.  

We will have a nice dinner tonight at the marina, a good sleep in a quiet slip out of the wind and the waves and tomorrow we'll continue on our journey. The cold North wind will be with us for a few more days it seems.  Seems the Captain has prepared the sundowners ---- that's all for today.  Till next time we run into a wifi spot!  Cheers! 

From Nassau to Exuma Cays

Catching Jack Fish on the way to Allan's Cay.

Iguana's in Allen's Cay

We have arrived to Allan’s Cay after spending 2 nights in Nassau Harbour.

Allan’s Cay is at the northern end of the Exuma Cays – a narrow band of islands or small groupings of rocks.  Allan’s Cay is known for its iguanas.  No one lives on most of these cays and many are part of a national reserve.  Surprisingly, we are here with 11 other boats of which at least four of us are flying Canadian flags. 

Our stay in Nassau was interesting.  This town has suffered from the recession, but I would hazard to say that it has been on the decline for some time.  Don’t get me wrong, it is still beautiful and friendly.  And there is still plenty of money around – huge homes and estates, name brand shops and so on.  But you can see that the money is only spent on the areas where the big cruise ships come in.  It is clear they have refurbished a 1 mile strip from the docks; after that it quickly changes back to a worn out, unkempt looking island.  The harbour is noisy and busy.  We spoke to a couple at the antique map store who say the recession has been hard on them but they believe Bahamas is back in the top three favourite destinations.  The number of cruise ships coming into port have increased from one or two per week to two or three per night. 

It was nice to get out of there and back to the clear turquoise waters of the Bahamas.  Twenty meters deep and you can still see the bottom.  There was almost no wind so the sea was flat and smooth.  A gorgeous day for traveling, but not enough wind for sailing.  We caught two Jack fish and a Barracuda on the way across to Exuma Cays.  We didn't keep the Barracuda (too big) but had the Jack fish for dinner.  So the score is now tied at 4 all.  

We plan to stay in Allan’s Cay for the day and start heading south again tomorrow morning stopping at Warderick's Well and then off to Staniel's Cay.  

Exploring Bahamas

We have been in Bahamas for 5 days now.  We are definitely getting the Island disease where one day just runs into another and who really knows if it's Monday, Tuesday or Friday.  Does it matter, after all?  We made our way from West End, Grand Bahamas to the Berry Islands and have now anchored outside of Atlantis in Nassau.
The Bahamas are still a very popular place for the big cruise lines.  It's incredible how big these ships are. We can see five of them from where we are anchored today.

We headed down to Berry Islands, trying our hand at fishing.  We invested in some fishing line and lures and so far, I am sad to say, the ROI has not been great.  The score is Segwun 1; Fish 4.  Meaning, we have caught 1 fish and the Fish have stolen 4 lures.  But we are on a learning curve and the joy and excitement of catching that first ocean fish was definitely worth it.  We're still not sure what it was we caught, but we fried it in a pan of butter and garlic and it sure was delicious.

We also ate our first Conch at the restaurant in Grand Harbour.  Deep fried conch tastes a little like calamari.  I've never seen so many conch shell in my life.  I always thought they were quite rare, but here in the Islands, they are plentiful!  

We spent some time on a 7 mile long beach - on which we were the only sun bathers.  Great choice as the other end of the island is home to the cruise ships.   As we passed by the next day we saw crowded beaches, seadoos, parasailers and lots of boat traffic.    

Some of my TP colleagues may recognize the blue bag.  It is not so far from home - Miami is just across the Gulf...  In the background are Liz and Eric taking in the sun.  The water is a beautiful blue, skies are clear, sand is like sugar.  Perfect!

Our Little Harbour anchorage where we hoped to meet Chester and enjoy some of his cooking for which he is famous.  Unfortunately, he was out all day and couldn't accommodate us.

Ok last picture ...  always a favourite of mine are sunrises and sunsets.  Day after tomorrow we plan to head out again, hoping to reach Allan's cay.  We probably won't have internet for a while.  Stay tuned!

Moving on out of the ICW

Our last night on the ICW - a short one for Jens and I as we wanted to be sure to arrive at West End, Grand Bahamas during daylight.  We set out at 2 AM .... yes, 2 AM!!!   It was a beautiful, clear night with no wind and a fantastically bright moon following us from behind.  The sea was calm until we hit the Gulf Stream where it takes on a life of its own.  Swells of 4 to 5 feet and movement in all directions.  Needless to say, this sailor turned a little green again and had to lay down for a bit.  Or was I just a little tired from our early rise?  No, I'm pretty sure my stomach doesn't like the turbulent seas.   I was able to get a nice sunrise shot of our first day in open water - no sign of land in any direction!

I can imagine how difficult this crossing could be in high winds.  Not to mention rain and cold.  We had to motor all the way, but I think we have to consider ourselves lucky that our crossing was as smooth as it could be.

Our crew, Eric and Liz, also felt it.  This was the first time in any kind of waves for both of them.  Luckily it wasn't too bad, just a slight feeling of being nauseous and the more you think of it, the worse it gets.   They are both getting quite comfortable on the boat and are good at getting us anchored, moored and ready to set sail.  It's nice having the company and I have to say we have been eating some very nice meals.  Now we have to test our fishing skills.  We have lures and line and are hoping for a bit of beginner's luck and start adding fresh fish to the menu.
We reached the Grand Bahamas around 1PM - much earlier than anticipated so it gives us an afternoon of chilling out, enjoying the beautiful clear aqua coloured water and perhaps a wee nap.  LIz and Eric were in snorkelling and they have already found a treasure.  A fantastic conch shell which has since been sent back to it's ocean home.