A Cruiser Friendly Port

We've spent the last five days enjoying the company and services of Southside Marina in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.  We haven't had years of experience at marinas, but so far, I would rank Southside at the top of the list together with Osprey Point Marina and Gratitude Yachts.  We had originally planned to stay in another marina, but after several failed attempts at hailing them on the radio, Simon from Southside, came on and offered to call them on the telephone for us.  Even then, they did not respond to so our radio calls, so we turned around and decided to stay at Southside.  It has turned out to be a very good decision!

Southside is a small marina on the other side of the island from all the resorts and condos making it a bit more peaceful.  However, since they are a bit far from shopping and things, Charlyn is more than ready to drive you where you need to go.  She was kind enough to take us to into town for our grocery shopping and at the same time gave us an orientation tour of the island.  The IGA supermarket is a dream!  The variety, I have to say, rivals the Foodland in Port Carling.  A bit more expensive, but that's to be expected.  The Wine Cellar was also a great stop - can you believe they even had Canadian wines!  And if you want to go out for dinner, Bob, the owner of Southside will take you over to Turtle Cove area (and back again if you are ready when he is!).  What other marina offers this type of service.

Charlyn and Evelyn

Simon doing is morning broadcast.

Simon and Charlyn do a fantastic job of looking after you and give the marina a feeling of community for us transients.  Simon, with his morning weather reports using his BBC radio voice, keeps everyone up to date with what's happening.

And the fearsome threesome (Bob, Simon and Charlyn) host a happy hour every night at five with Charlyn ringing the bells to call us all in for our sundowner! Thursdays is BBQ night.  Bring your own meat, a dish to share, and your own drinks.  People come in from their anchorages and other marinas and some locals join in as well.  It's a great opportunity to talk about where you've been and where you're going.  It's likely you'll find someone who has been where you're going and can share some advice; or they're going the same way as you and you know you may run into them again somewhere along the way.

January Map ... so far

The trip so far.  We'll be heading off to BVI in the next few days.

Diving off West Caicos

Jens and I headed out for a bit of diving today.  Liz and Eric went with Jason for a snorkelling adventure. We all saw lots of great marine life and coral.  They almost got a lobster.  Imagine- we could have had fresh lobster for dinner.  I guess we'll have to settle for some Wahoo and the Sugar Pie for dessert.

I brought my trusty Sony with the marine housing and got a few good shots of the sharks. Yes, Sharks!  At one point we had about three of them around us - circling, circling, circling.   A girl from Kansas was diving with us and she said she felt "terrorized" by them.  Maybe she's suffering from a bit of a 9/11 hangover.  I thought they looked quite friendly.

Ok - maybe this one scared me a little.

No - not a shark - a turtle :-)

Jens is the one on the right.

Sugar Pie for Dessert Tonight

I just made a sugar pie from scratch.  It looks and smells wonderful; I hope it tastes as good.  Yumm.

Sugar Pie

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.