Category Archives: Sailing

Spanish Wells to Stuart

We arrived in Spanish Wells on April 5, 2019, and left on June 19. Normally we spend one month in Spanish Wells, but due to having to replace the saildrive, we stayed 1 1/2 months longer than past years. We  are usually sad to leave Spanish Wells because it means the end of another cruise to the Bahamas. This year, however, we were anxious to get back to Florida. The last half of our visit in Spanish Wells was not fun. 

We were finally able to leave Spanish Wells and on June 18 we made the short sail to Royal Island. While it’s a nice anchorage to start our cruise back to Florida, we have never found a good place to take Sailor ashore. Not sure why we never saw this small beach before, but Mark was able to take Sailor there. It was small but still a beach.

We left from Royal Island on June 19 at 0640 and arrived in Chub Cay at 1430, a distance of 56 nm. Chub Cay is a private island with a very expensive marina. The marina is full of large Sport Fishers since shortly after leaving Chub, you are in deep ocean water where the fishing is great. We can’t take Sailor ashore there, but there is an island right next to Chub where he can legally go ashore after a long day on the boat. 

The next morning we left in the dark at 0525 since it was a long sail to our next stop, Bimini. We made excellent time with a perfect beam reach wind, arriving at 1510, and decided to anchor in North Bimini, something we have never done. We have always stopped at Bimini Sands Marina in South Bimini, but their slip fees had gone up to $2.50 a foot (we paid $1 a foot last December) and not worth the cost for one night, especially since the weather was sunny and the sea was calm. We anchored off the east side of North Bimini where there is no development but there were several nice beaches for Sailor. 

The next leg of our cruise was back to Florida. On 6/21/19 we left North Bimini at 0600 and arrived in Lake Worth at 1435. We got a big boost from the Gulf Stream since we were motorsailing with the current. The seas in the Stream were flat and the wind was NE at 12 kts,  but we were still able to go 9.5 kts while motorsailing. We always motorsail on days when we have a long distance to go in order to arrive in daylight. When Sailor actually doesn’t mind being at the helm while on the ocean, we know it’s a good day and he stayed outside all day.

 As often happens, after 8 1/2 hours on the calm ocean we knew we were back in Florida as we entered the Lake Worth Inlet and were waked by a local large Sport Fisher, MV True Grit, going full speed behind us and passing us within a few feet. Three or four seconds later he slowed down to a stop to turn north, probably to his marina. Knowing this would happen, since we are used to being waked in Florida inlets, I had already put away everything breakable. Regardless, we were happy to be back in Florida. After anchoring in Lake Worth, we took the dinghy to Peanut Island to walk Sailor. 

On 6/22/19, the last day of our 2018-2019 cruise, we left at 0640 from Lake Worth and entered the ICW. Many times we have arrived in Florida on Memorial Day Weekend and the boat traffic on the ICW is crazy. We hoped since we were well into summer now it might not be bad on a Saturday in late June. Wishful thinking! 

Of course, we were waked by numerous boats going out to fish early in the morning, which we expected, but when we passed a guy paddling in a large kayak right down the middle of the channel we had a new ICW experience. He yelled at us to slow down!!! We are a sailboat motoring at 7.3 kts. I wonder what he said to the speedboat pulling a water skier who came zooming by us a few minutes later or the large Sport Fisher that waked us so bad a few minutes earlier that after the wake hit us the waves pounded the seawalls of the homes on the ICW shore. I wonder if it bothered him when multiple Seadoos zoomed by him. I’m always amazed at the people in kayaks and SUP’s who think they should be right in the middle of the ICW when they obviously don’t need the depth and there is plenty of room for them along the shores. This kayaker, however, took it to a new level claiming we were going too fast for him. As we neared Jupiter, we had to slow down because for some odd reason numerous pontoon boats and small pleasure boats were out in full force going very very slow, motoring side by side, and taking up the whole ICW in front of us. What??? Were they having a parade on the ICW?? Were they going to raft up in one big group and pretend they were a big boat? They were oblivious to us behind them trying to get to the next bridge opening in time. Apparently it was one extreme or the other on a June day on the ICW in SE Florida.

We arrived at our home port, Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart at 1215. You can see from the photo below why it is called Sunset Bay. Thanks to good friend at our marina, Terri on SV Sailbatical, for taking lots of sunset pictures. This one shows us on Dock B.

During the previous seven hurricane seasons we have spent at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, we have been on the outside of Dock A, tied up on one side and open to the wind and St. Lucie River on the other side. When tropical storms and hurricanes have come through the area, we had to move to Dock B, also only tied up on one side but more protected from the open water and a floating dock, much safer when there are storm surges. There are no slips at this marina wide enough for our 25 ft beam. This year we were allowed to be on Dock B, a much calmer dock since we no longer are banged against the dock by waves when the wind is high and bounce around with wakes from the dinghies racing by to the dinghy dock and boats passing by the marina. We were also able to move quite a bit closer to the parking lot making for a much shorter walk to the car. Dock A is wider, though, with white cool cement on the edges of the recycled plastic dock. Dock B is narrower without the cement on the edges. Since the recycled plastic boards on the dock are very hot, Sailor now wears booties when he walks on Dock B.  Below is a screenshot from our InReach track for our current position on Dock B at Sunset Bay.

We have made the decision not to go to the Bahamas for the 2019/2020 cruising season. By the time we reached Stuart we realized we were burned out. It was an expensive season, starting out with the replacement of the jib furler when we were in Miami last November. Everything went smoothly from then on until we discovered that we needed to replace the sail drive in April, which was not only expensive but also delayed our return to Florida by over a month. Living on a boat is expensive. They don’t call the money we spend B.O.A.T dollars for nothing. It stands for “Bring Out Another Thousand.” We spent a total of $20,000 in Miami and Spanish Wells for the two repairs. 

We have always said when we are through cruising we wouldn’t mind living on this boat at a marina indefinitely. Seas the Day is a very comfortable boat, more or less a floating condo. It remains to be seen if we decide to cruise again or if we might even consider selling the boat to become CLODS (cruisers living on dirt). There is no hurry to make a decision so in the meantime we are happy to be back in Florida, enjoying shore power so we are able to turn on the air conditioning and use unlimited power and water. We also are happy to be able to shop in well stocked grocery stores that don’t depend on a weekly delivery of food via a supply boat. Mark and Sailor miss going to beaches twice a day but love walking to downtown Stuart then sitting on benches there as well as visiting with friends at the marina. I am happy to be back at my yoga studio and water aerobics classes. We moved aboard Seas the Day on August 21, 2008, so we have lived aboard for exactly 11 years. We never thought about how long this would last and at this time we haven’t made any decisions about our future.  

Blackpoint to Georgetown

On January 3, 2019, we motorsailed south from Blackpoint for 2 1/2 hours to Cave Cay and anchored near a cut to the Exuma Sound. At 0715 the next morning we weighed anchor and exited the shallow Bank to the deep water Sound through Cave Cay Cut. Sometimes we take the nearby wide Galliot Cut to Exuma Sound, but on this day the conditions at the narrower Cave Cay Cut were calm so we used it. At 0726 we were outside the cut and turned south to head to Georgetown. By noon we were anchored at Monument Beach across Elizabeth Harbour from Georgetown. We had reserved a mooring ball in Hole 2, but were unable to reach Wendle, the owner, by phone so we stayed the night anchored and went into Hole 2 at high tide the next day.

We have two favorite destinations in the Bahamas, Georgetown and Spanish Wells. This is our seventh cruise to the Bahamas and we make a number of stops on our way to these two towns, but we don’t spend as much time exploring the other areas anymore.  There are people who spend all of their time in Georgetown, mostly in the winter and spring, and don’t like the bother of waiting for weather to leave from Florida, then crossing the ocean to the Bahamas, all the while spending time and money working their way to Georgetown. Some people leave their boats on a mooring ball in one of the hurricane holes in Georgetown year round and fly back and forth from their home, usually in the US or Canada.  There are also people who own houseboats and keep them on mooring balls in Hole 1 or Hole 2. Hole 3 is only for boat storage and you can’t live there on your boat.  Friends John and Christina have a houseboat in Hole 2 named Oasis. They fly from their homes in Canada and North Carolina several times a year, including visits in the summer, and stay on their houseboat. There are quite a few other people who do the same. Below is a photo of Hole 2 in Georgetown. Some of the boats in Hole 1 and Hole 2 are empty for most of the year with owners flying in to stay on their boat in the mooring field or traveling to other destinations, returning to the mooring field  when they are ready to fly home. When we were there this year, sometimes about half the boats were empty.

This is a drone view of Honeymoon Beach in Elizabeth Harbour when there was a big party with lots of people and dinghies. Above it in the picture is Hole 2. We are on the catamaran in the middle with the blue sunshades. At the top of the photo is the Exuma Sound, deep ocean water with a miles long sugary sand beach. On the far right side of the photo is Hole 1, next to Chat N Chill and Volleyball Beach. On the left, just beyond the photo is Hole 3, where boats are stored with no liveaboards. 

This is our friends’ houseboat Oasis in Hole 2. There are four houseboats in Hole 2 and more in the Fruit Bowl, part of Hole 1. It’s called The Fruit Bowl because many of the houseboats located there have fruit names such as Mango, Cantaloupe, Pineapple, and Tangelo. Some of the houseboats have working motors and at times they leave the mooring field and anchor out in the harbor. 
This is our seventh visit to Georgetown. In 2009/2010 we anchored in the harbor.  We came with two other boats and didn’t meet many other people that year. The next two winter seasons we stayed in Florida while we worked on having our propulsion system switched from an electric hybrid to twin diesels. During the 2012/2013 season, we crossed from Miami to Bimini and then spent 17 days in January waiting for good weather to continue on to other islands. We met cruisers on about a dozen boats waiting with us at Bimini Sands and we particularly enjoyed being with Cathie and Tom on their sailboat Interlude. When they left, we boat buddied with them to Georgetown. When we got to Georgetown they went in Hole 2 and we anchored in the harbor, but the next year we joined them in Hole 2 and have been there every year we have gone to the Bahamas since. That year I had both knees replaced a few months before we left for the Bahamas and going on a mooring ball seemed very inviting where the water is always calm and it would be easy to get in and out of the dinghy. At least that was a good excuse. We got spoiled with not ever having to think about the wind direction or speed since Hole 2 is very protected on all sides. We also started playing Texas Hold’em at the St. Francis Resort every Tuesday and Thursday. We had a group of friends on boats in Hole 2 who also played poker so we had “Saturday Night Poker on Seas the Day.” That year the same group of six couples came to our boat every Saturday for three months. Each couple brought homemade snacks to eat during the break, which were always excellent. It became more of a social get-together where we also played cards. The buy-in is always $5 and we have three winners with third usually getting $5, second getting $10 or more, and the winner getting the most, depending of course on the number of players. Since that year, we have continued to have poker on Saturday nights on our boat and we always have had a fun group, sometimes up to 18 people. It’s one of the highlights of our time in Georgetown.

This is a picture of our first Saturday Night Poker group back in 2013. Besides being a great group, we were amazed that every one of us was smiling and looking at the camera in this picture. Mark and I and Christina and John (back row, middle) are the only couples left of this group still going to Georgetown. We miss the other good friends and I know they miss Georgetown and cruising. Almost always several of us were at the final table at the St. Francis game and the rest of us sometimes stood nearby chanting “Hole 2, Hole 2” when one of “us” won. 
Here are several pictures from this year. We start with the men at the cockpit table and the women inside at the salon table, then we combine at the salon table when there are about eight people left for the final table. We break halfway through to enjoy our drinks and snacks. We usually don’t wear our Hole 2 t-shirts when we play but one night a few of us decided to wear them. In these pictures, the “final table” is playing and the “losers” are watching.

Even Sailor is part of the group. As the people arrive at our boat in their dinghies, Sailor greets each person with a different toy. Some people always get the same toy.
On the Hole 2 beach, we sometimes have get-togethers with food and a bonfire. This year we had a few but I forgot to take pictures so here are a some from another year.
The first thing we do after picking up our mooring ball is to take the dinghy to the nearby dinghy beach next to Hole 1 where there is a path to the unbelievably beautiful beach on the Exuma Sound. It is almost always empty or no more than a few other people are walking on the beach since most cruisers spend their time on Volleyball Beach where all the activities are held every afternoon, or the many beaches on the harbor side of Elizabeth Island where the water is shallow and better for swimming. We don’t go to the big beach every day, but we do go to other beaches in the harbor twice a day with Sailor.

A few years ago there were two certified water aerobics teachers in Georgetown who were there on their boats. Then they left.  I am not a certified water aerobics teacher but I do go to classes almost every day at LA Fitness in Stuart during the summer and fall. When the teachers left, I volunteered to lead the class. This year when I arrived in Georgetown, the teachers had not come and a few cruisers who had been there since December were leading the class. I was talked into doing it again, which I gladly did with two friends, Robin from Endangered Species and Sandy from Ananya . The classes were a lot of fun and we always had a good size group, sometimes as many as 40. Mark and Sailor came in the dinghy with me to our class and while I exercised, Sailor and Mark took a walk and played on the beach with a ball.

I love to use our kayak and standup paddleboard in the calm water of Hole 2 and Hole 3.
As many of you reading this know, Mark was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the fall of 2017 so we didn’t come to the Bahamas for the 2017/2018 cruising season. He is still undergoing treatment but we were determined to come to the Bahamas this year. He had to fly back twice for an injection he gets every three months and he also had to get pills he takes daily shipped to wherever we were each month. That is not easy to do in the Bahamas. (For other prescriptions we can get a six month supply before we leave Florida but this cancer drug is very expensive and can only be prescribed monthly.)  In February we were in Georgetown when Mark had to fly back to  Florida for five days. Sailor was not happy to see him go and he sat on the forward deck waiting for Mark to return for days, even in the rain. One day I had to go into town with friends and Sailor was going to stay on the boat with a friend from the boat next to us who offered to dog sit. I left thinking Nancy was on her way, but we got our wires crossed and she didn’t come. While in town I got a text from Tangie, another friend in Hole 2, with a picture of Sailor. He had jumped into our dinghy and was howling. I’ve never heard Sailor howl, so he must have been very upset. A friend who saw it happening called to another cruiser in Hole 2 who was coming past our boat in his dinghy. He got Sailor back on our boat, Nancy heard the commotion and came over so all was well. When I got back I said, “It takes a village.”
A few days later when Mark arrived back to our boat in a water taxi, Sailor was very relieved and happy that he was back.
I always do a lot of baking while we are in the Bahamas. Several years ago I got a recipe for “No Knead Bread” from Pam, a cruiser friend. It makes two very delicious loaves of bread. After our coconut bread from Blackpoint was eaten, I started thinking about how I could make something similar. The unique thing about that bread is it has a swirl running through it. The swirl tastes like a mixture of coconut, brown sugar and butter. I made the mixture, rolled out the dough and spread the mixture on it, then rolled it up and baked it. It turned out great. Click here for the recipe. http://svseastheday.com/no-knead-french-bread-with-coconut-filling.
After another wonderful Georgetown visit lasting three months, we dropped the mooring ball on April 2 and started north towards Spanish Wells. Sadly, each year more and more of our cruising friends who spend the winters in Georgetown are selling their boats and becoming CLODs (cruisers living on dirt). We miss them, but each year we meet new friends in Georgetown. Because there are so many cruisers who spend extended time there, the area has a feeling of “community.” Cruisers help each other when needed and there are multiple opportunities to socialize. During regatta week, there are usually up to 300 boats in the harbor and at other times there are usually around 200. It’s a very large harbor with a lot of places to anchor as well as the mooring fields, so it never feels crowded. We have no idea how many more years we will be able to sail the boat to the Bahamas, but will never regret the decision to buy a boat in 2008 and live on it for the last eleven years. Our experiences have been life changing, but probably the best part of this has been the people we have met. Georgetown is the place where most of that happens. 

 

 

Big Majors to Black Point

On Wednesday, January 3, 2019, we motorsailed about six miles from Big Majors to the Black Point anchorage. Many cruisers have decided to skip the Big Majors Spot/Staniel Cay anchorage filled with speeding boats and megayachts for the nearby quieter, friendly settlement at Black Point, located on Great Guana Cay . 

Black Point is perhaps the most cruiser friendly of all of the towns we visit. While we feel safe and welcomed everywhere we go in the Bahamas, other than Nassau, the residents of Black Point seem to go out of their way to attract cruisers to their settlement and make them feel welcome. 

The Black Point residents no doubt noticed that many tour boats stop at Big Majors/Staniel Cay to see the swimming pigs and to snorkel at Thunderball Grotto, plus cruisers stop at the large anchorage. They wondered how they could attract more people to Black Point. Sadly, the massive amount of tour boat visitors has taken its toll in Staniel Cay.  The pigs are getting aggressive and many tourists have been bitten by them. Very few cruisers get out of their dinghies and go to the Pig Beach, but most people on the tour boats go ashore there, feeding the pigs and swimming with them. Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay is a fun place to snorkel, but the hoards of tourists who arrive on tour boats have caused the once colorful coral to die, since they step on it, and there are far fewer colorful fish inside the grotto than there were when we first snorkeled at Thunderball nine years ago. There aren’t many affordable restaurants in Staniel Cay, but Black Point recently added a new one so now they have at least four with a short walk between each one located on the main street. The tour boats that visit Big Majors and Staniel Cay now leave that area and go six miles south to bring tourists to Black Point for lunch.

The Emerald Sunset View Restaurant and Bar was built since we visited Black Point two years ago. It is on a piece of land at the southern end of the main street called  Regatta Point. Previously this land was an observation point and during the Black Point Regatta temporary shops were set up there. We heard it has a great brunch. 

Mark and Sailor enjoyed the view of the anchorage from stone benches next to the restaurant.  Scorpios Restaurant and Bar is a favorite of cruisers for Happy Hour. They have great pub food as well. Rum Punch is a popular drink in the Bahamas. Since rum is cheaper here than rest of the ingredients, including pineapple juice and grenadine, the drinks at bars are extremely strong.
Mark peaked through a hole in a large rock in front of Scorpios. I have a feeling when the bar was built, this rock was just too big to move!
DeShamon Restaurant is known for their barbecue and pizza.

Lorraine’s Cafe is a must stop for anyone looking for a typical Bahamian meal. Many of the establishments in Black Point have free wifi. Lorraine has a separate room attached to her cafe with tables and chairs for people who want to use her wifi.

Another draw for cruisers to come to Black Point is Lorraine’s mom’s coconut bread. Next to Lorraine’s Cafe is her mom’s house. To order loaves of bread, cruisers enter her house, go back to her kitchen and tell her how many and what kinds of loaves they want. Coconut bread is available in many of the Bahamian islands we visit, but her special recipe has a delicious swirl of a freshly shredded coconut mixture running through the bread. It makes exceptionally good French Toast. I talked to her for awhile this year while waiting in her kitchen for the bread to finish baking. When I complimented her on the unique coconut bread she bakes she said, “I think I was put on this earth by God to make people happy with my coconut bread.” She has been known to make more bread in the afternoon for the cruisers if she runs out in the morning. I suppose the local residents and tourists who stay nearby also buy her bread but she made it clear to me that she makes it specifically for the cruisers who come to Black Point.

We bought three loaves of coconut bread and two loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, froze four and enjoyed them for a few weeks. Of course we made coconut bread French Toast several times.  (I realize the two pictures below are sideways. I kept editing them to rotate but they seem to want to stay this direction.)

 

Perhaps the most popular place to go in Black Point for cruisers is Rockside Laundromat, run by a busy businesswoman named Ida Patton. It is on a par with a good laundromat one might find in the US. The laundry is always clean and the washers and dryers are in excellent condition. When we were there this time, one dryer stopped working and immediately a workman came to repair it. Even though we have a washer/dryer on the boat, we always bring several loads to Ida’s. Ida also has a small store attached to the laundromat, she gives haircuts, and there are coin operated eight minute hot showers available upstairs. She even has a VHF radio in her store turned on so cruisers can hear calls. Since we were here two years ago she has added several new docks where cruisers can tie up their dinghies while they do their laundry. This allows cruisers to bring their laundry right up to the shore and they only have to climb a few steps to Rockside Laundromat rather than walk several blocks from the free government dock carrying their bags of laundry.

This is one of several new docks by Ida’s laundromat. It can be used for the larger tour boats that come for lunch in town.

This is Ida’s new dinghy dock for her customers.

Ida has a well constructed covered porch where customers can sit outside in the shade while they wait for their laundry to finish.

I suspect almost every cruiser who stops in Black Point does some laundry here. It’s also a good place to meet and  talk to other cruisers. All laundries in the Bahamas are much more expensive than in the US. Most charge $4 a load for the washers and $4 a load for the dryers. While US and Bahamian money are both accepted everywhere, the coins are different so they always have you buy tokens for washers and dryers. 

Ida has a small store connected to her laundry. There is only one grocery store in Black Point and it is rather small so this is not a stop cruisers make to provision. If they stay here for a long period of time they sometimes make a quick trip back to Staniel Cay where there are three very small grocery stores. Ida always has fresh pastries for sale and cold drinks in her cooler as well as shelves stocked with a few marine supplies, souvenirs,  and other items cruisers might need.

Mark and Sailor waited outside the laundry since dogs aren’t allowed inside.

Mark needs a haircut but after losing it all a year ago during his chemotherapy treatments he’s thrilled about his new curly long hair so he refuses to cut it. He promises not to have a man bun or ponytail. 

This is Rockside Laundromat from the street side. The laundry and store are on the lower level and there are showers on the second floor.The area is always neat and clean, as is the rest of Black Point.

Ida also rents beach cottages and golf carts. A sports game shop is located next to her laundromat.  She is a true entrepreneur and is a very busy lady with all of her businesses.
The first thing you notice when coming ashore at Black Point are the very friendly local residents, in particular the children. We think they must be told to greet all visitors, because that is exactly what they do.
The first time we came here, in 2010,  I volunteered to help in a classroom at the Black Point All Age School.  I visited one primary class and read a book to the students. The children were extremely well behaved and respectful, standing to greet me when I entered the room and listening politely to me. The next time we visited Black Point I asked about volunteering again but so many other cruisers had been volunteering in the school they were a bit overwhelmed so I didn’t have another chance to visit the classrooms. Many cruisers bring school supplies to Black Point and drop them off at the school when they pass through. There are schools on most of the other islands, but there is something about the people of Black Point that makes cruisers want to return the kindness. The first picture below was taken on a Sunday and it appears either a teacher or the principal was there working.

We attended a church service in Black Point along with several other cruisers a few years ago. At the end of the service the pastor thanked the cruisers for coming to Black Point, saying how much everyone appreciated them visiting, and asked all of us to stand. The congregation and pastor applauded.
Farther down the main street there is a sign in a yard that reads “Garden of Eden.” Willie Rolle gives tours of his driftwood garden. He travels to various nearby islands to find interesting looking driftwood and rocks, places them in his yard and explains what he “sees” in them, including animals, sea creatures, a ballerina and George Washington. It takes a bit of imagination but they truly do resemble what he describes. He also has a fruit and vegetable garden.  He doesn’t charge for his tour, but of course everyone probably gives him a tip, as we did.
Adderley’s Grocery Store is small but has fresh produce, canned goods, and other basic necessities that can be purchased if you arrive on the day the mailboat comes to Black Point . A few days later most of the fresh food is gone. Sometimes no one is in the store so you have to call a phone number and the owner usually quickly appears. I love the sign about credit cards located at the checkout counter. The day we were there, I tried to purchase a few items several times and no one answered the phone or arrived at the store. The door was open but no one was inside. I later found out that Ida was watching the store for Lawrence Adderley whose wife was very sick and he had flown to Nassau to be with her. Ida was also watching her laundromat and had to attend to something at one of her vacation rentals. which is why I never did get to purchase anything at Adderleys that day.

Next to Adderleys Friendly Store is a house with a Justice of the Peace office which is also run by Lawrence Adderley.
Many of the islands in the Bahamas charge for taking cruisers’ garbage then burning it in their dumps. In Georgetown it costs $2 for a small bag and $3 for a large bag. A few years ago in Staniel Cay it cost $6 to leave a bag of garbage and we heard it is now $10 a bag, although it is possible to walk down a road to the city dump and leave your garbage bags there for free. Someone told us that in Compass Cay, which is a private island with a marina near Staniel Cay, garbage costs $20 to dispose of, which is probably priced that high to discourage anyone from bringing their garbage there. In Spanish Wells you can put your garbage in large cans located on any street for free, even in front of someone’s house. In Black Point there is a large garbage container next to the government dock. Cruisers are asked to leave a donation after leaving their garbage bags..

After leaving a dinghy at the government dock and turning north on the main street, it is a 15 minute walk to a sandy beach on the Exuma Sound. We usually turn south and walk towards the town of Black Point.

Near the government dock is a spigot where you can get free reverse osmosis (RO) water. It’s not as convenient as the one in Georgetown which is located on the dinghy dock at the Exuma Market where you can fill your water jugs while they are in your dinghy, but if you are willing to bring your jugs a short walk from the Black Point government dock you can have some fresh potable water to bring back to your boat.

Sailor enjoyed watching a few sharks near our dinghy. A local fisherman was cleaning fish on the government dock, which always attracts sharks.
A well known boat builder who has won many races in the local regattas sailing his boat Smashie lives in Black Point.  A few years ago Mark was invited into his house and saw shelves full of trophies from the racing regattas he won. His house is on the main street and we have always enjoyed looking at the current boat he was building. Sadly, we heard he died this year.

There are a number of government offices in the Black Point settlement. I don’t think you would want to spend a day in the city jail which is next to the police office. The first picture below is the Black Point jail. We have heard that on the small “family islands,” if someone commits a serious crime they are sent to jail in Nassau and are not allowed to return to their island. This is perhaps one of the contributing factors to the high crime rate in Nassau. Behind the jail you can see a tall cell phone tower. Wherever there is a cell phone tower in the Bahamas, a Batelco (Bahamas Telephone Company) office will be located next to it, which is the yellow building in the background. Since Black Point is a very small settlement, the office is only open a few days a week.
All government offices in the Bahamas are color coded. These are several others we passed on the main street.
One reason we stop at Staniel Cay is to go to their fuel dock to top off our tanks. Black Point is building a fuel dock and hopefully it will be available when we return to Black Point next year. Just another way the residents of Black Point are working to help the cruisers. 

Along the main street we passed a house that is partially built. This is common on many of the islands. Someone starts building a house, runs out of money, stops, and continues building when they get more money. 

The anchorage at Black Point is huge, which usually makes it easy to leave a nice distance between each boat. Big Majors also has a large anchorage, but it is often filled with mega yachts, large powerboats and people zipping through the anchorage on Seadoos or even water skiing behind a fast boat. Black Point is much calmer and thus preferred by owners of sailboats and smaller powerboats. We only stayed at Black Point one night and left early the next morning to sail south and anchor near an inlet to the Exuma Sound.

 

Boat Repairs in Ft. Lauderdale

“Plans made on a boat are written in sand at high tide.” We know that, but still thought we’d be able to leave Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, November 24, after spending four days at a dock on the New River and completing all the repairs on our list except a jib that wasn’t furling well while sailing on the ocean coming to Ft. Lauderdale.  On Saturday, while trying to fix it, the jib furler froze up completely and we realized we’d have to contact a rigger for help.

Monday morning we called Ft Lauderdale based Nance and Underwood, riggers we have worked with before. Unfortunately they couldn’t  get to us for a month, possibly in two weeks if they have a cancellation. We texted Scott, the hybrid guru who helped all of the Lagoon 420 owners when they were electric sailboats. He texted back immediately from France and gave us the name of a local man whom he highly recommended.

Kyle came to check our furler this morning. The good news is that he can help us. The bad news is we need a new one. Parts will be ordered and should be here in two weeks. We will go to Miami tomorrow morning and wait at Dinner Key on a mooring ball until Kyle can bring the new furler to us and install it. Mark has been able to fix 99% of the repairs on our boat, but this is one time we had to rely on an expert. In the last week and a half Mark has repaired or replaced a VHF radio, our watermaker, a bilge pump, the inverter, and  our chart plotter. While we heard the saying, “Everything on your boat is broken…..you just don’t know it yet,” soon after we moved aboard Seas the Day, I hope that is not true right now. We definitely need a break from this.

 

 

Lake Worth to Ft. Lauderdale

We left Lake Worth at 0645 on Tuesday, November 21, 2018, and arrived at Slip 4 on the New River Docks in Ft. Lauderdale at 1340. We arrived at 1240 at the 17th St. Causeway Bridge just around the corner from the inlet and went under the bridge at the next opening at 1300. It took us forty minutes to get to the New River Docks and tie up at along the sea wall just before the 7th Ave. bridge. We had to request two bridge openings on the New River and luckily got under the railroad single bascule bridge five minutes before it closed for a train. We went a total of 51.86 miles in six hours and 56 minutes, staying about a mile offshore with small swells on the port aft side of the boat.  It was comfortable enough that after exiting the Lake Worth Inlet and motorsailing for awhile, Sailor was convinced it was “safe” for him to go outside and sleep under the helm seat.

We have gone up and down the New River many times, every season except last year, since 2008. The river is not very wide and there are numerous megayachts,  sailboats, powerboats, fishing boats, tour boats, water taxis, pontoon boats, seadoos, kayaks, floating tiki bars, gondolas and small pleasure boats on the river. We have never had a problem, but this time on our way to our slip Mark moved over for a tour boat to pass us going the other direction and we went aground! The New River is dredged to the sea walls on either side, but unfortunately we found an area where the depth was less than five feet deep. Mark quickly backed out and we probably had no damage, but it was a shock after an uneventful trip here.

We are staying in a slip on the New River until Sunday, partly due to weather on the ocean for our sail to Miami, partly because we have a few boat repairs, partly so we could cook a Thanksgiving meal using various appliances, and mainly to rest and enjoy our last unlimited power and water at a dock until we return to Sunset Bay in May. 

We are located right across the river from the Broward Performing Arts Center. Several years ago we were here in December and saw “The Nutcracker.” Right now, “The King and I” is showing and the next production is “Legally Blonde.” The buildings are beautifully lit up at night and will probably be adding more decorations for the Christmas holiday. To the left of the Performing Arts Center in the photo below is the Huizenga Pavillion. Wayne Huizenga Sr was a well known businessman, entrepreneur and the founder of Blockbuster Video, Waste Management , AutoNation and owner of a number of sports teams. The family is well known throughout Florida for their philanthropy. His daughter and son-in-law are owners of our home marina, Sunset Bay. The pavillion is used for events and dining before attending the theater productions. The photo was taken from our boat.
Before we left Stuart, we purchased all the “fixings” for a Thanksgiving meal. Mark cooked the 14 pound turkey in our Magma Grill. In addition he made all the side dishes: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, steamed asparagus w/hollandaise sauce, homemade cranberry/orange relish, stuffing and gravy. We have lots of leftovers in our refrigerator and freezer.
My job was to clean up after the meal. Naturally we don’t have a dishwasher, but even after meals this huge, I don’t miss it. However, it would be nice to have an empty cabinet to hide dirty dishes in until they can be washed. You can see the Broward Performing Arts Center lit up across the river through our galley window.
We are in a slip next to a small park and the paved Riverwalk runs past us. We are also in the widest part of the river at a turning basin, where boats have room to turn around. There is a lot of boat traffic, but the whole river in this area is a no wake zone so most boats go by very slowly and rarely make our boat rock.  Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a noise ordinance and some small craft have speakers spewing loud music at all hours of day and night. The bridge tender near us must have gotten fed up last night because we heard him yell over his loudspeaker to a passing boat to turn the music down or he was calling the police. The music abruptly stopped. Below are a few photos of the area around us. There are lots of high rise condo and apartment buildings on this part of the river. Farther to the east, toward the ocean, the river edges are bordered with huge mansions. The little park area below is a few steps from our boat. It makes walking Sailor very easy, although I suspect he prefers riding in a dinghy to the beaches.
Thanksgiving Day was rather quiet on the river, but the day after everyone who has a small boat must have been out, along with a few large yachts that have been farther up the river at the Lauderdale Marine Center having work done. The megayachts are so huge they are required to have tow boats guiding them.  We even saw a tiki bar pass by in the late morning, a little early for drinks, but I’m sure they tell their customers, “It’s 5:00 somewhere.” In this  picture you can clearly see the brown railroad bridge down and one of the the pink bascule bridges further on that opens on request.

Early Friday morning we woke up to the sound of bow thrusters. Many powerboats, all yachts and some large sailboats have these devices so they can maneuver sideways into slips or away from a hazard. Yesterday morning our boat was the hazard. A yacht was held up for almost a half hour waiting for the nearby railroad bridge to go up. Every 5 to 10 seconds, the captain used the bow thrusters to keep away from our boat as the current was strong. The bow thrusters can be heard through the water and I woke up to them at 6:55 am. I came into the salon, looked out the window and saw this.
Just after I took this photo through the salon window, in my nightgown, three men on the yacht’s bridge waved at me. Hopefully they thought that was a dress I was wearing. We don’t worry about any of the large yachts hitting us, since they have very experienced crew. The entire half hour they were next to us, two crew members were standing on her starboard side watching that she didn’t get too close to us. Several more crew members were on the bridge and the captain was using the thrusters as needed.

We always watch out for The Jungle Queen, a large tour boat that goes up and down the river constantly. Since we are in the turning basin, it is wide enough for boats to pass her here. Sometimes she comes so close to us we are tempted to say, “Pardon me, would you have any grey poupon?” (Google “Grey Poupon Commercial” to watch on YouTube if you are too young to remember this.) The photo shows a trawler easily able to pass the Jungle Queen. At some parts of the New River, this would be difficult. We always wait to hear where the Jungle Queen is located before we start up the New River. Seas the Day is 25 ft wide so coming around one of the many bends on the river to see the Queen might be hazardous. 

Grey Poupon?
Of course, Sailor was delighted to arrive on the New River. He seemed to remember everything from previous visits. Below are a few pictures of Sailor investigating the area.

Sailor was very patiently waiting for Mark to finish a boat chore so they could go for their walk.
Once they were on their walk, they crossed the bridge and walked on the other side of the river where they found many interesting sights. Below is a sculpture of a sailboat riding a wave with pictures of various local scenes covering the boat.
Of course, Sailor insisted on getting his picture taken on a huge chair that he had seen small children climbing on for their photo.
Since Seas the Day was across the river, some of the photos included Sailor’s home.

This area of Ft. Lauderdale is very colorful.

Walking a few blocks to Publix for a few items yesterday, we had to stop and wait for a train at a crossing. The recently added Brightline passenger trains are what is causing havoc in Ft. Lauderdale, not just the numerous prolonged closings over the river, but also stopping street traffic all over the city.

After a long walk, Sailor always insists on resting on a bench. Back home in Stuart, the chosen bench is either in downtown Stuart or in front of Sailor’s Return Restaurant located next to Sunset Bay Marina. Sailor has many friends in the area of Stuart near our marina, so he is always greeted and pet by many people. I think he misses the adulation he experiences in Stuart since he was mostly ignored by the people here. Sadly, every year we stop in Ft. Lauderdale there seems to be more homeless people. They are either sleeping on benches or walking around with large garbage bags holding all of their belongings heaved over their shoulders. 
The string around Mark’s neck is there to hold onto his hat in case the wind blows it away while we are sailing. I wonder what people who see him think it is. It looks kind of like one of those necklaces that light up in the dark. The string does seem to work since he hasn’t lost his hat yet, so perhaps he should get a patent for it.  Incidentally, the numerous bruises on Mark’s arms are due to blood thinning drugs, but seem to have gotten worse due to the hormone treatment he has been taking for his prostate cancer. 

We are staying in Ft. Lauderdale until Sunday and then will sail to Miami. We missed the latest weather window to sail from Miami to Bimini on Saturday and Sunday. The next chance as of now is at the beginning of December. We’ll spend the waiting time on a mooring ball at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, part of the Miami area. 

Our tracking device, a Garmin inReach Explorer, will enter a new track every ten minutes while we are moving. The link to see it is  https://us0-share.inreach.garmin.com/seastheday

Finally, one nice thing about being on shore power is that we were able to decorate our boat for Christmas and actually turn the tree lights on! We purchased our three foot Christmas tree with attached lights ten years ago for our first Christmas on the boat. The pothos plant in the decorated pot is very special to us. Pothos grow wild in fields in Spanish Wells. Several years ago we took a small cutting to remind us of one of our favorite stops in the Bahamas, our last one each trip. 

Stuart to Lake Worth

We left Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart at 0947 on November 20, 2018, and dropped the anchor in Lake Worth at 1544, a total of 5 hours and 57 minutes to go 37 miles. We went under 12 bridges, beginning with the Old Roosevelt Bridge next to our marina, and ending with the Riviera Bridge. Three are 65 ft fixed bridges, which we can sneak under with our 63 ft mast and an anemometer (tells wind speed) on top of it. The rest either open on demand or twice an hour, on the hour and half hour or at :15 and :45 after the hour. We rarely have to wait for openings but today we reached the Indiantown Bridge just after it had gone down so had to wait a half hour. We are now anchored in Lake Worth very near the inlet to the ocean. We haven’t been on the ICW since May, 2017, but Sailor seemed to remember just what to do.

The plan had been to leave yesterday, but as they say, “Plans on a boat are written in the sand at high tide.” We were all ready to leave at slack tide, 0730, when we discovered our chart plotter was dead. This instrument has our maps and routes on it. That was just after we turned on our VHF radio and called a station for a radio check. There was no answer and the radio was not working. We stayed at Sunset Bay and Mark spent the day fixing them. We had a spare chart plotter so he replaced the dead one and he was able to fix the radio. We suspected that perhaps we had a power surge or maybe were struck by lightning, although both devices had worked a week earlier when we moved to a different slip in the marina and there hadn’t been any storms. Today everything seemed to be working as we disconnected from the power at our slip and motored to the fuel dock. Away from shore power, the boat gets its electric power on the 12 volt DC system unless we turn on the inverter and then we have 120 volt AC.  Everything on the boat works on the 12 volt system except anything that has to be plugged into the electric outlets plus heat and air conditioning. We do have 12 volt outlets and we use them to charge batteries, phones, tablets, etc. Today we discovered the inverter is not working. Mark thinks he can fix it but if not we’ll have to buy a new one before we leave for the Bahamas.

We always avoid going on the ICW on weekends, and especially holiday weekends. Apparently this is a holiday week, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, because today the boat traffic was as heavy as we have ever seen it. This meant we got waked multiple times, since many power boaters love to go fast on the ICW and don’t care who rocks wildly from their large wake after they pass. To be fair, a few power boaters do give us a slow pass, and we always try to thank them on the radio. There were two or three today. We also had problems at a few bridges. The photo below shows a typical example. This Sportfisher was going north waiting on one side of the bridge and we were going south waiting on the other side. We called them on the radio and told them we’d need to stay on our port (left) side of the bridge since this is a single bascule bridge and our 63 ft mast would hit it if we stayed on our starboard (right) side of the bridge. They didn’t answer our two calls, so we had to slow down when they went on the side we needed. Then they sped up and waked us just as we got close to the bridge which caused us to rock back and forth. Another time two powerboats were waiting on the other side of the bridge.  They didn’t answer our calls on the radio so we informed the bridge tender that we would wait for them to go under before we started. Usually boats waiting for bridge openings on opposite sides call each other to decide who is going first, although the “rule” is that the boat going against the current goes first. Most boaters don’t know which way the current is going or don’t care. The two powerboats probably heard us talking to the bridge tender and they went first. The two pictures below show a single bascule bridge with only one span going up. This is the one where the Sportfisher almost caused us to hit our mast on the bridge. The second one is a much easier bascule bridge to go through since both sides go up straight in the air.
Sailor hasn’t been sailing for a year and a half but he remembered exactly how to be a boat dog. He is always tethered to the helm seat with his life jacket on. He usually sleeps there unless it gets rough. Today, he had enough of the waking so he made me get in a bed with him. After we dropped the anchor, we took Sailor in the dinghy the short distance to Peanut Island. President John Kennedy spent time in Palm Beach and had a bomb shelter on Peanut Island. There is also a Coast Guard station on the island. Google it…..very interesting history. In the photos below you can see how close our boat is anchored to Peanut Island. The walkways are lovely and there are some nice sandy beaches.
While we were going back to our boat in the dinghy we had to wait while a cruise ship that makes short trips to the Bahamas out of Lake Worth was leaving. Sailor seemed to be thinking that he might like a bigger boat to travel on to the Bahamas.
However he has to be satisfied with our sailboat.
Tomorrow we will get up early and go out on the ocean to Ft. Lauderdale. The seas are predicted to be 2-4 feet and the wind is going to be following us from the north. We will stay about a mile offshore. The Gulf Stream is a few miles offshore here and with the north wind blowing against the Gulf Stream which is flowing north, the seas will be higher in it. We have reservations at the New River City Marina in Ft. Lauderdale for four nights. Hopefully we won’t need to stay that long, but the wind and seas are picking up on Thursday so we might have to wait a few days to sail to Miami. It will be the last marina we stay at, other than one in Bimini where it is difficult to anchor, until we return to Sunset Bay Marina next May.

Getting Ready for Bahamas Cruise #7

For the last year and a half, since June, 2017, we have been at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, Florida. Oddly, I did not post a blog about our stay in Spanish Wells and another one about our cruise back to Florida at the end of our sixth trip to the Bahamas. I thought I had, but haven’t looked at our SV Seas the Day website since returning.  

Here is a brief summary of the last month of our Bahamas Cruise in 2016/2017. We stayed  in Spanish Wells until May 22, 2017. We then sailed directly back to Lake Worth, Florida,  leaving Royal Island, near Spanish Wells, at 10:05 am and arriving at Lake Worth the next morning on May 23 at 6:30 am. We had to slow down at the end so we could enter Lake Worth in the daylight. The next day we traveled north on the ICW back to our home port of Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.

We didn’t go to the Bahamas the following November, 2017, due to some medical news we received after returning to Florida. Mark had a physical and his PSA had risen. Over the summer of 2017 it continued to rise until he eventually had a PETscan which showed cancer in his prostate that had spread to his spine. Chemotherapy began in the Fall but after horrendous side effects, his oncologist changed the treatment to a hormone injection every three months and daily hormone pills. There were no side effects, Mark gained back the 25+ pounds he had lost during chemotherapy and he got his hair back. After a few months, he felt 100% better, changed his diet from mostly sugar to mostly organic and has been healthy ever since. A PETscan a few weeks ago in October, 2018, showed the cancer is gone from his prostate and spine. However, the hormone treatment will continue for the foreseeable future. We had decided shortly after his diagnosis that we would go to the Bahamas for the 2018/2019 season and that is what we are doing. He will have to fly back to Florida every three months for his injection and have his hormone pills mailed to him each month in the Bahamas. For this reason, we will quickly get to Georgetown, which has a good airport nearby and stay there until April. Then we will go directly to Spanish Wells for the rest of the season. Spanish Wells also has an airport in nearby North Eleuthera.

So what have we been doing for the last year and a half? First, as always, we made some changes to  Seas the Day. For example, we have never liked the one inch deep cushions in the cockpit. We have a large seating area around the table, but it was uncomfortable. Therefore we had new cushions made, now much thicker and very comfortable. In the previous post, you’ll see an older photo of our cockpit seating with two boat chairs in the corners. Since the padding was so thin we always put these chairs on top of the cushions. The new cushions are the same color and material as the old ones, so they look similar, just feel different. In the picture are two of our new Seas the Day pillows. Mark also sanded the drop leaf table he made several years ago and put a new coat of finish on it.  Also in this picture, we changed the chain for the hanging lamp, since the old one had rusted. 

At the same time, we replaced the helm seat. We had already had a new one built a few years ago since the one that came with the boat was extremely uncomfortable. However, that replacement was not exactly what we wanted so now we have a seatback that is high with a thick cushion seat.  Our sunshade panels in the cockpit were starting to wear out so we had new ones made, once again the same color and material as the old ones. We were never satisfied with the SPOT satellite location device we have used since 2008. Sadly while the tracking was good,  it disappeared after a week. Therefore we have no online record of all of the places we visited during the ten years we have cruised on Seas the Day. SPOT was the only device available when we moved aboard, but a few years ago the inReach device became available. Starting with this cruise, we will be using an inReach and the track is permanent. It also includes the ability to add a message, along with many other desirable features. Our new tracking link for inReach is here. It can be found on the menu of our website under “Location.” Each time we move, we will turn the tracking on and it will update our new location every ten minutes. At the end of that leg of the cruise, the tracking will stop and I will write a short message about the trip on the inReach page. 

When Hurricane Irma came through Florida in the fall of 2017, we had to evacuate. This is the first time we had to leave town for a hurricane. We drove 28 hours to Knoxville, Tennessee, and stayed there for one week. Under normal conditions, this trip would take us less than 12 hours, but of course the roads were clogged. However, when we arrived in Knoxville we stayed at a wonderful LaQuinta which was across the street from a Starbucks. 

The Treasure Coast of Florida includes the counties of Indian River, Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach. In other words, it runs from Vero Beach, south to Palm Beach with Stuart in the middle. Amazingly, while Irma went through most of Florida, the Treasure Coast was hardly touched. We returned to our marina to find there was no damage to our boat or the marina as a whole. When we knew we were evacuating, we of course removed the sails and everything that was on the deck of the boat. Since we were worried about losing power, we purchased an Engel refrigerator/freezer and planned to empty our freezer and bring the food with us. Unfortuately, the Engel did not arrive in time so we had to give away our frozen food. However, now we can use the Engel while cruising. It uses much less power than our current freezer and can also be used as a refrigerator. 

During our last Bahamas cruise, a cruiser friend (Penny from M/V Pretty Penny) sent us a photo of a display she saw at a local Florida store, Bealls. Everything had “Seas the Day” written on it. Of course, when we returned I immediately visited Bealls and bought numerous items with our “logo” on them. Now we have new cups, insulated glasses, rugs, wine glasses, plates and trays with the name of our boat on them. I don’t know why anyone else would want something with Seas the Day on it and of course they were all on sale for that reason.

After getting the results of Mark’s PETscan a few weeks ago, we began to seriously start to provision and make purchases of spare parts. Mark was very busy with the “to do” list he had been avoiding for awhile. Provisioning was very different from past years since we are now eating very little meat, lots of veggies and fruits, and whenever possible “organic” foods. Our eggs and chicken breasts are from free range chickens, our beef is from grass fed cows and our salmon is “wild.” We did end up buying quite a bit of meat with those qualifications, which of course meant everything was more expensive. We saved a lot by not buying massive amounts of candy (for Mark) and ingredients for all the cookies, Rice Krispie Treats, and homemade caramel rolls I regularly made while in the Bahamas. Instead of coffee, we bought green tea. We didn’t have to buy any cases of Coke for Mark.

As always, we have to make preparations for Sailor. A few months ago I sent away for the paperwork he needs to enter the Bahamas. He had his yearly physical, during which our vet signed the Bahamas paperwork. Provisions for Sailor are seven months of food, treats, Heartguard meds, Nexguard (flea and tick), shampoo and conditioner, and one final grooming. Speaking of Sailor, I’m sure he has missed running on Bahamian beaches, but he has enjoyed his twice daily very long walks preceded and followed by sitting on the marina porch.

Now that we are ready to go, as usual something breaks at the last minute. This year our freezer is not freezing. While we have the Engel, we bought too much and the excess frozen food was placed in our large freezer. Tomorrow Mark will order the part we need and in the meantime, another cruiser is having freezer problems too and they have friends who have an empty freezer in a house, so we were able to put our freezer contents in it. Whew! I have lost count of the number of times our freezer has failed and we have lost massive amounts of food.

Tuesday, November 12, was a good day to make the three day trip to Miami, but we won’t be able to do that. As usual at this time of year, fronts pass through Florida and delay our departure from Stuart. We should get another window to leave at the end of the week.

Below are a few photos of our activities from the last year and a half.

In March, 2018, since we were in Florida for once, we were able to go to the Spring Fling, an annual reunion party put on by Sailor’s breeder Moss Creek Goldendoodles. We drove to Orlando and stayed for several days in a hotel. The romp was held outside of Orlando, where Sailor got to play with hundreds of his relatives.

Sailor has worn the same costume for every Halloween of his five years. Before he came home to us, I had already purchased his sailor costume in small, medium and large. He’s a good sport about wearing it. In the Crew section of this website, you’ll see a photo of Sailor the day we got him wearing his size small sailor outfit.

Sailor has a BFFF (best furry friend forever) named Zorro. His dad Chris visited us in the spring of 2018 at our marina in Stuart on their way to the Bahamas. Zorro fell off a dock at Vero Beach so he couldn’t run and play with Sailor. However, in the second picture of them they were running together on the beach in Hole 2, Georgetown, Bahamas several years ago. 

 

While I didn’t write about our visit to Spanish Wells in April and May of 2017, below are two of my favorite pictures from this island. I had hundreds to choose from and selected one of Mark and Sailor playing “fetch” on the beautiful Spanish Wells beach. The other is a picture of our favorite activity in Spanish Wells – going to get a soft ice cream cone at Papa Scoops. We always rent a golf cart for the month we are there, which makes it easy to get to Papa Scoops, which is only open in the evenings.

One advantage of staying in Stuart last season was I got to have my daughter Jennifer visit more often. It was especially nice to be with her during the Christmas season. We always went to the beach when she came on her once a month visits. Her dad had surgery during the summer and she got to stay with us for a month, not her usual three day visit.

 

I also got to go to some of Jen’s Special Olympics meets. Below she was competing in a track meet. Loving to win, she was very disappointed that she got second place.

Finally, while at a dock we have unlimited city water, so of course we do as much washing as possible before we leave. Besides washing pillows, quilts, curtains, dog bed covers, and rugs, Sailor’s toys got baths. He is used to this so he slept through the whole process. Below are a FEW of his toys. 

As I was writing this blog entry, our water pump stopped working. Mark will work on it tomorrow, and has temporarily fixed it so we can take showers tonight. Each time we get ready to leave for a winter/spring cruise, something goes wrong. Once we got to our first stop at Lake Worth/Palm Beach and while trying to lift the anchor, the electric winch fell into the anchor locker. A week later we had ordered a new one and moved to a marina from the anchorage to install it. Another time we got to Miami at Dinner Key Mooring Field and had to use our dinghy to go ashore.  The motor froze up and it couldn’t be repaired, so we had to order a new one. Such is the life of a cruiser. We were told when we first purchased Seas the Day that “Everything on your boat is broken.  You just don’t know it yet.”

 

 

Georgetown to Spanish Wells

After spending our longest time in Georgetown during six cruises in the Bahamas, we were ready to leave on April 2, 2017. We had been on a mooring ball in Hole 2 for four months and a few days, so it was time to start heading north. We like to leave one month at the end of the cruise to spend in Spanish Wells before sailing back to the States at the end of May.

The first leg of our sail north from Georgetown up the Exuma chain is on the deep water of the Exuma Sound, so  we have to watch the weather closely and usually we have to wait at least a few days for favorable weather. This year the trip on the Sound to Galliot Cut, which we crossed through to the shallow Bahama Bank, was calm. After filling the diesel tanks the day before and making one last trip to the Exuma Market, we left the Georgetown Harbor at 0730, traveling with True North. They travel a little faster than us, and stopped in Emerald Bay for fuel. We got ahead of them but we both ended up at the same time as we anchored next to Blackpoint at 1410.

We can always tell how calm the sea is by watching Sailor. He is perfectly happy sleeping at the helm if there is little movement, however as soon as we start to rock a little too much for him, Sailor goes to the salon steps leading down to a bed. He has finally become willing to stay on the bed alone, where he seems to feel safe. This makes me happy since I have spent many hours on that bed reading my Kindle while he sleeps. Notice in the picture below he doesn’t seem to get the idea that he is supposed to be on the towels. People who visit our boat often ask what we put away when we are sailing. It’s a catamaran. Unless the seas are rough, or we expect someone to wake us on the ICW or an inlet like Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale), we leave most things where they are, especially in the cockpit where none of the items seem to move even in rough weather. Incidentally, if any of my childhood friends from Duluth are reading this, notice the bowl of rocks between the shell arrangements. Those are the ones I picked up on our trip to Grand Marais last summer and I will always treasure them as a remembrance of the three days we spent together. 

When we entered Galliot Cut and got on the bank, where it is much calmer, Sailor suddenly thought it was going to be too rough for him so he went to his safe place. The cut can be very rough, especially if the wind and strong current are going different directions, but this time it was near slack tide and wasn’t bad. Sailor stayed on the bed until we approached the anchorage at Blackpoint. After four years of living on the boat, Sailor recognizes that when the engines slow down it often means we are stopping. If he sees land, he wants to be ready to get off the boat, which usually happens shortly after we drop the anchor.

After we anchored at Blackpoint, we went ashore, passing True North. Sailor recognized his friends Cathie and Tom also getting ready to go ashore.

Sailor looks very happy to be going ashore.

We spent one day in Blackpoint and had only one goal – to get a few loaves of Lorraine’s mother’s coconut bread. Hers is the best we have ever had, especially since she uses freshly grated coconut which of course she gets from palm trees on the island. Her bread is baked in the morning so on April 3, we went into town about noon and got two fresh-out-of-the-oven loaves. Sailor got a few beach runs that day and on April 4 we left at 0850 to head to Warderick Wells. Cathie and Tom stayed behind to do a few more things and we met up with them again in Warderick a few days later.

On the way south last November, we stopped at a number of cays to snorkel and give my son Peter a taste of the beautiful water of the Exumas. Sometimes we visit our favorite cays on our way north, especially if we were trying to beat weather to get to Georgetown quickly on our way south a few months earlier. This year we went directly from Blackpoint to Warderick Wells and spent some time there with friends. There were a few poker games on our boat since Carina, True North, and Riff Raff were there with us. Also, Mark had time to retrieve our sign from Boo Boo Hill and add some updates. The photo below is from when he went to get the sign to bring it back to the boat. It held up fine through Hurricane Matthew last fall. He added “17” and touched up the paint a bit. Our friends Jeff and Jane on Carina had put their sign next to ours earlier this year. It’s always fun to see how many boat names we recognize when we are on Boo Boo Hill. As you can see, many signs end up in a pile. You would think that in hurricane force wind all of these pieces of wood, located on a high hill, would blow away but oddly they don’t. The rules are that you can only use wood for your boat sign. Just like you can’t take anything away from the Land and Sea Park, you also can’t leave anything that is not natural. Our sign has stayed there since we first put it up in 2010 on our first trip to the Bahamas. Boo Boo Hill overlooks the north mooring field on one side and the Exuma Sound on the other.

The “plan” was to stay in Warderick Wells a few days and then across the Exuma Sound to Eleuthera. Those few days turned into eight days. The wind picked up, which meant the sea did too, and we waited until everything calmed down. It took eight days to do that. Meanwhile, the mooring balls filled up as more and more boats looked for shelter from the wind. I continued to do a water aerobics practice each day by myself in a small sheltered cove near the Emerald Rock mooring field. Sailor got plenty of time running and chasing his ball on that beach. Dogs cannot go off the beaches on the trails, but he would love to go chase the hutia (plump brown rabbit size rodent) that are found all over Warderick Wells. 

On April 5, we heard what sounded like a helicopter warming up. We had passed a mega yacht on mooring ball 1, reserved for large boats, when we entered the mooring field and noticed there was a helicopter on the upper deck. Sure enough, the helicopter was preparing to take off. It was a very windy day, but the pilot was obviously capable and soon the helicopter flew south. A few hours later it returned, perhaps with visitors who had flown on a plane into nearby Staniel Cay,  or perhaps the people on the yacht were just taking a tour over the nearby islands. Again, the expert pilot  dropped the helicopter on the deck.

We always try to stay in the north mooring field at Warderick Wells. The setting is extremely beautiful. This photo was taken from Boo Boo Hill and we are the catamaran on the far right side of the field.

While we love being at Warderick Wells, eight days was more than enough time there we were anxious to cross over to Governor’s Harbour the first day the weather on the Sound was moderately calm. Mooring balls in the Land and Sea Park for boats over 40 feet are $30 a night and we hadn’t planned on spending $240 in Warderick Wells. We left through the inlet at at the exit from the north mooring field  at 0823 on April 12 and arrived in Governor’s Harbour at 1615. We have been here many times, but only stayed one day and started north the next day at 0635, motorsailing off the coast of Eleuthera to Spanish Wells, arriving at 1250 on April 13. We left Governor’s Harbour under a beautiful sunrise with calm water, as can be seen from the fact that nothing in the salon had to be put away.

We were now at our final destination in the Bahamas, Spanish Wells, where for the past six years we have spent our last month before returning to Florida. 

(This blog entry was written in May, 2017, but somehow I forgot to upload it until today, November 12, 2018 as I started to write a new blog entry.)

 

Georgetown, Part Six

It’s hard to believe that this is our sixth visit to Georgetown with the first one occurring in 2010. It is a popular stop for cruisers who spend time in the Exumas. A great many arrive to spend a few days and stay for weeks or even months, returning year after year. It is the ideal place to provision for going further south, so some stop, shop, and continue on their way. Occasionally  cruisers avoid Georgetown at all costs. Some have heard stories about it being “adult daycare.” Others don’t like to be around so many boats, although there are numerous anchorages in Elizabeth Harbour and some are frequently empty. You can be surrounded by other boats or anchored all by yourself. Last year I wrote an extensive post about Georgetown. It’s located here.  This year we are doing and seeing all of that and more.

We arrived in Georgetown at the end of November and quickly settled into our routine. As more cruisers arrived, the activity level picked up. Add to that the opening of the new resort at Lumina Point where we had an additional place to eat, exercise, dance, listen to cruiser jam sessions, and attend Happy Hour. When we arrived in Georgetown there were less than 20 boats here. The number peaks during Regatta Week. Below are two photos of the dinghy dock at Exuma Market. The first shows my son Peter, Mark and Sailor on the dock with five other dinghies when we first arrived in November. Mark is holding the hose hanging where cruisers line up in their dinghies to fill jerry jugs with free RO water, provided by Exuma Market. Yes, that is free. Other places in the Bahamas RO water costs 50 cents a gallon, sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less, but never this convenient and free. The second picture was taken in March when there were about 300 boats in the harbor. Notice the dinghies lined up to get water. By the time we left in April, there were less than 100 boats remaining. When the Regatta ends, some cruisers continue on their way south to the Caribbean, some head back north through the Exumas or Eleuthera and on to Abaco or other islands, and others follow different routes, eventually ending up in the States before hurricane season begins.

This is our third year in Hole 2, a hurricane hole mooring field. Not only do we enjoy the protection from high winds, but we also get to meet new friends each year because as a group we are “Hole 2.”  Michelle and Dan on Sea Monkey hosted a number of fun get-togethers, including a Valentines Day party and a jam session with Shannon and Bob (Category 1) and Gary (Tamaki) singing and playing their guitars. One afternoon Michelle offered to read our Chakras, which was very interesting. The bonfire parties on our beach in Hole 2 are legendary, but this year our main organizers, Joanne and Jack on Houseboat Panda, sold their boat and returned to Canada early. Jack was great at building bonfires and we only had one after he left – someone needs to take on that job. Most of the boats have kayaks and/or SUP’s and it’s not unusual to see several of us padding through the holes together since it’s always calm on the protected water. Below are a few get-together pictures with our Hole 2 friends and a photo taken, I believe, by Ingrid from Tamaki as they flew over Hole 2. The four mooring fields are on the west side of Stocking Island in Elizabeth Harbour. The long sandy beach on the east side of Stocking Island is on the Exuma Sound, aka the ocean. That beach is one of the most beautiful in the world and oddly, even when there are hundreds of visitors and cruisers in the area, rarely are there more than a few people walking on the beach and sometimes we are the only ones. Most cruisers spend time on the beaches on the harbor side of Stocking Island or in town. 

Below is a photo of the women of Hole 2 when we had a farewell luncheon at Lumina Point for Joanne on Panda and a welcome to Jill, the new owner. 

Saturday Night Poker on Seas the Day continued this year.  It is the highlight of our week and a good excuse to get the boat cleaned. We host 12-16 people with the men in the cockpit (seats aren’t as comfortable) and the women in the salon. (A note to the men – we hope to get the cockpit cushions replaced before we come back next year with much thicker seats.) When the number of players left in the game gets down to about 7 or 8, we combine the tables into one, usually in the salon. Most of the cruisers who come are from Hole 2. In fact three years ago when we began this, all the players were from Hole 2 the entire season. The last two years we have also invited friends from the anchorages when there aren’t enough players on the Hole 2 boats as cruisers come and go. Halfway through the game, we stop to chip up (trade in our chips for higher value ones) and eat a variety of always delicious snacks contributed by the players. New friend Holt (SV Agandau) is a gourmet snack maker and we hope he’ll be back next year, not just for his food. The name of his boat combines the symbols for silver (ag) and gold (au).  Sailor greets each dinghy pulling up to Seas the Day with one of his stuffed toys and kisses. He even has special ones he always brings to the same people. For example, Cathie consistently gets Mr. Squirrel. 

Three years ago we started to play poker at the St. Francis on Tuesday and Thursday. When we arrived in mid November this season, there was one table of about 10 people playing, including the three of us. Once hundreds of boats had arrived a few months later, the limit was set at five tables of ten each and we needed to register by about 5:15, with registration beginning at 5:00 or we would not get a place. Play starts at 6 pm. Mark and I won money enough times that we probably broke even. Buy-in is $5 with all money going back to the top five winners at the St. Francis and top three on our boat. Mark actually made it to the final table at the poker tournament during the Georgetown Regatta where there are many more players than the normal 50. He came in fourth place and won a very nice St. Francis shirt, a bottle of wine, and money – around $50. Pam on SV Dejarlo won the tournament, which was fitting since it is the last year she and Ollie will be coming to Georgetown after many years of being involved in numerous activities and volunteering through the years for just about everything. They will be missed. Below are photos of the final table at the Regatta Week tournament and Jillian, co-owner of St. Francis giving Mark his prizes.

Free yoga classes at Lumina Point Resort were offered during November, December and part of January. They were held on a large deck also used as an outdoor restaurant, a small deck overlooking the harbor, or, when weather was rainy, in their exercise gym. The teacher is from Andros Island and was trained in the States. She is also their massage therapist and is excellent  in both positions. I attended classes every day until the middle of January when I discovered that some of the poses were hurting my shoulder. Starting about that time, the classes switched to three times a week and there was a small charge to attend. The free classes attracted 20-30 people or more. Once the nominal fee was charged, the attendance dropped sharply. Luckily at that time free classes were offered by Agnes, a cruiser teacher, on Volleyball Beach. As the new resort started to get more guests, they stopped having so many activities for cruisers. It is an eco-resort, with solar power running everything and all aspects designed to be environmentally friendly. They even hand carried all of the building materials through the property to build the cottages. The paths are carefully cut through the thick foliage. Lumina Point Resort will no doubt attract visitors who are there for a relaxing, peaceful vacation. Cruisers tend to be noisy!

About the time I stopped going to yoga classes, a few of us realized that our two aquafit teachers from last season would not be coming to Georgetown this year. I volunteered to teach the class and Joanne from SV Bristol Cream provided the music and led the arm exercises. I have taken water aerobics/aquafit classes for many years, both in Columbus, Ohio while I was working and now in Florida. I researched poses that would work in the open water, rather than in a pool, and designed a routine that has a warm-up, followed by aerobics, then exercises strengthening each part of the body, ending with a cool down. As cruisers who came to our classes left Georgetown,  I gave them each a copy of the routine to follow as they visited other islands or back home in their own pools, lakes, rivers, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many new friends who came to the classes. Having retired from classroom teaching 11 years ago, I had forgotten how much I like being a teacher.

While we still paddle in our kayaks, mostly in the smooth, calm water of the four large mooring fields, this year we added an inflatable SUP (stand-up paddle board) to our “water toys.” I have to admit the main purpose was to give Sailor something to ride on with us. He hopped on our friend Christina’s SUP last season and seemed very comfortable, so now he has his own spot on the “pup deck” at the front of our SUP. So far he has behaved perfectly, sitting the entire ride. However, I am worried that if he ever decides to stand up, we’ll both go over into the water. 

Lumina Point Resort held several open mike sessions and we discovered there are many musically talented cruisers. One of my favorite sessions was when Sarah, on MV Borrowed Horse, played “Dueling Banjos” on her banjo with another cruiser on his guitar. It was incredible. Our friends Shannon (aqua shirt below) and Bob (red hat playing his guitar) are from Nashville, and their country music was fantastic. 

Activities in Georgetown increase substantially during the Regatta. There are usually close to 300 boats in the harbor and while the highlight is the big boat races, there are many other daily events, such as the poker run, bocce ball, beach golf, small boat races, the coconut challenge, a scavenger hunt, and much more.  A variety show is held the opening night in Georgetown at Regatta Park. The participants are both cruisers and Bahamians.

Our friends Cathie and Tom were on SV Interlude when we met them in January, 2013 in Bimini and they introduced us to Hole 2 three years ago. After selling Interlude, last summer they purchased a Tolleycraft motor yacht they named True North. Of course she goes much faster than a sailboat, up to 25 kts. One night we were invited to take a sunset cruise in the harbor with other friends from Hole 2 and we got a taste of Tom’s need for speed. 

We can’t write about our Georgetown activities without including Sailor’s adventures. He does have a great life on the boat. While in the Bahamas he goes ashore twice a day to play on the beach, plus he goes most places with us since the Bahamas are very dog friendly. He hasn’t met a friend as special as Zorro, his Portuguese water dog BFF. They were inseparable two years ago on the Hole 2 beach and later on in Long Island and Spanish Wells. This year a puppy named Bentley, which incidentally is the name of Sailor’s father, was the one dog who loved to run up and down the beach with Sailor.

After each visit to the beach, Sailor has to be washed off with fresh water. Then he is wrapped in this towel so he doesn’t shake water all over the boat.

In past years, we have never checked into the Bahamas before January 1. This year we arrived in Bimini on November 14 and Georgetown on November 27. A huge celebration on the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, is Junkanoo. In the larger cities such as Bimini and Nassau, a second Junkanoo is held on New Years’ Day, beginning at midnight. The parade held in Georgetown was colorful and fun. The groups practice for a long time and in many cases make their own costumes.

Groceries are always an important consideration when visiting the Bahamas. We provision for our entire winter/spring cruise, seven months this year. However, we always have to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy products and the Exuma Market and the Shop Rite Mart in Georgetown have great selections, but fresh produce only lasts on the shelves for a day or two after the supply boat brings food. These are by far the best grocery stores we shop at in the Exumas and other than Nassau, the second best we go to during our Bahamas cruise. The best is the Food Fair in Spanish Wells. Below are photos of one shopping trip at Exuma Market and some of the food we have enjoyed on Seas the Day.

Broccoli, muchroom, and cheese quicheMarinated boneless pork loin pork chops with pineapple and maple syrup, fried rice, and asparagus

Multi chip (and multi calorie) oatmeal cookies

These are items we purchase almost every week

Caramel pecan rolls rising overnight to bake in the morning 

Rice Krispie treats – not fancy or unusual but we couldn’t make them without bringing Rice Krispies with us from the States since cereal is very expensive here

Of course there are many good restaurants in Georgetown. A tradition is Valentines Dinner at St. Francis, always with a wonderful gourmet meal. It is so popular that it isn’t even “advertised” on the morning net, but the reservations fill up quickly.

I often say that the best thing about cruising is the friends we meet. This year, we met Tucker and Robbie on SV Pixie Dust. They were in Hole 2 on a ball near Seas the Day. Little did we know that Robbie would give us a very special gift the day before they flew back to Michigan. She is a talented artist, and she certainly captured our boat, Mark, Sailor and me in the water color picture she painted of us. Each day, we picked her up on her boat to go with us to water aerobics. We looked just like this arriving at Pixie Dust. 

We left Georgetown on April 2nd to start our way north. We’ll be back next year to create more memories. The sad part about leaving is that each year some of our friends do not return to Georgetown the next cruising season when they sell their boats and become CLODS – Cruisers Living On Dirt. Our 2016/2017 cruise is not over yet though. We still have two more months to enjoy the Bahamas as we travel through the Exumas, across the Sound to Eleuthera and on to Spanish Wells.

Great Harbour Cay to Cambridge Cay

On November 18, 2016, we left Great Harbour Cay Marina at 1500 and motored to nearby Bullock’s Harbour, about 1.5 miles north of the cut into Great Harbour Cay. Even people who have been in and out of the marina many times do not do it in the dark in a large boat. There are several tight cuts and turns to navigate through.  Since it was our first visit to this marina, we were definitely not leaving in the dark from the marina slip the following morning and that was necessary in order to get to Nassau in the light.

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Since we saw “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,” we left the next morning for Nassau. Actually, we checked the weather forecast first and had a fairly pleasant motorsail, averaging 8 kts. Part of the route was over deep water, called The Tongue of the Ocean, and we did have large swells, but they were on the port aft beam, about 12 seconds apart, so they were manageable. We left Bullocks Harbour at 0520, in the dark, and arrived in Nassau at 1435, pulling into a slip at Nassau Harbour Club with several hours of daylight left. Very few boats were there, since the majority of cruisers hadn’t crossed to the Bahamas yet. We walked across the street to the strip mall, stopping at Starbucks and also picking up some fresh fruits and vegetables at the Fresh Market. It’s not the chain from the States, but is an equally nice grocery store and the last well stocked store we would see until the Exuma Market in Georgetown. In the Bahamas, we rarely look at prices, and buy what we need since there really isn’t an option. Except for a few dairy products, almost everything is much more expensive than in the States and of course we don’t always find the brands we prefer. Since we have stocked dry goods for seven months, we usually only have to buy fresh vegetables and fruit and eventually cheese, eggs, yoghurt and other dairy products. I freeze several months worth of yoghurt and eat it frozen for breakfast every day, so I don’t have to buy any for quite awhile.

The next morning we left the marina at 0755 and motorsailed across the shallow bank, arriving  in Shroud Cay, part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, at 1340. Until we exited the Park after Cambridge Cay, we would have no Internet or phone service since there are no cell phone towers in the Park. For most of the rest of the way to Georgetown we would be on the “bank” which is shallow water. Therefore unless the winds were extremely high or from the west, which isn’t protected since we travel on the bank with islands to the east of us, or if there were squalls, we could move from cay to cay without encountering uncomfortably rough conditions. We chose this stop over the more protected Norman’s Cay, a few miles to the north, because we wanted to take the kayaks into the mangroves. Unfortunately there were swells on the beam in the Shroud Cay anchorage/mooring field so it was an uncomfortable stay and Norman’s Cay would have been a better choice for our first stop in the Exuma chain.  We didn’t paddle in the mangroves long because the tide was going out and it gets shallow even for a kayak, so we could end up walking back and dragging our kayaks behind us. However, this is a favorite place to snorkel in the midst of nature and silence so it was worth the rocking and rolling night. 

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The next morning at 0725, we sailed south to the headquarters of the Land and Sea Park, Warderick Wells, and took a ball for two nights. When we arrived at 1000, we were the only boat on the balls in the North Mooring Field, except for a lonely sailboat that belongs to the park. Over the two days we were there, a few more boats came in but it was not full the way it is later in the season. Of course we had to go up to Boo Boo Hill where cruisers leave handmade driftwood boards with their boat names on them and there is a beautiful view of the Exuma Sound and surrounding Park foliage and water. Even though Hurricane Matthew passed over the Exumas a month earlier, there were still plenty of signs on the hill, including our Seas the Day one that we first put on Boo Boo Hill in 2010 and have added to in subsequent visits in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Mark originally carved into the driftwood and painted the letters, but the past few years had just used Magic Marker and it had washed off. He brought the sign back to the boat and painted the dates. We’ll probably stop at Warderick Wells again this season, so will add “2017” on that occasion. (Usually we stop here on our way south in January or February, so we had already been here in 2016.) We also went snorkeling in the north mooring field and around Emerald Rock. Peter used his GoPro camera to shoot a video and got some nice shots, although the coral is not as bright as it was when we first came here in 2010. After two days we were ready to move on.

Seas the Day, alone in the mooring field

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Peter stopped to look at the skeleton of a 53 ft sperm whale, who died after swallowing a plastic bag.

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Dogs must be kept on a leash in the park and only on the beaches, not the numerous trails. We take Sailor to a beach by Emerald Rock  so he can swim and fetch his ball.

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The Park Headquarters are in the building on the hill, with access by dinghy from a dock or a beach near the sperm whale skeleton.

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Peter walked up the path to Boo Boo Hill.

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Views below are from the top of Boo Boo Hill.

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Video of snorkeling in Warderick Wells in the north mooring field and near Emerald Rock, by Pete Beagle:

We had one more stop in the Land and Sea Park, Cambridge Cay. We left Warderick Wells at 0915 and tied up to a ball in Cambridge Cay at 1130 on 11/23/16. Again, we were the only boat in the mooring field. We only stayed one night, but it was an exciting, and a bit frightening, afternoon. Since it was still very windy, we took the dinghy to The Aquarium, a sheltered area with a coral wall and lots of tropical fish. We all went in the water and then started back to the boat. One of us had to stay in the boat with Sailor or he would have joined us.

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As we passed near the cut to the Exuma Sound by Cambridge Cay, where the waves were high and choppy, our dinghy engine suddenly quit. Mark is proficient at fixing motors, but he could not get it started. We were bouncing around and water was splashing into the dinghy while he attempted to restart the engine but we soon realized we had to get ashore quickly to get out of the waves in the cut. In the Land and Sea Park, except for Warderick Wells where the park rangers stay, almost all of the cays and islands are uninhabited. While we always bring a handheld VHF radio with us in the dinghy, unfortunately this was one of a handful of times over eight years that we forgot it so we were unable to call for help. However, we were fortunate to be near Bell Island, owned by Aga Khan, the leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslim community. His purchase of Bell Island was quite controversial, since it is in the Land and Sea Park, the one area of the Bahamas left that is kept in its natural state as a “no take by land or sea” zone. The Aga has dredged a marina for his megayacht and built a mansion and other buildings on the island.

Because this was the Aga Khan’s island, it was probably the only one where we could hope to find someone who could help us. Mark and Peter rowed through the waves to a small sandy beach on Bell Island, surrounded by mangroves and sharp rocks. We had protection from the large waves on the east side of the hill pictured below. We knew there was civilization on the west side of Bell Island, so Mark took off walking through the mangroves and sharp rocks. Luckily we had all brought hiking shoes. Peter, Sailor and I stayed on the beach and waited. Even Sailor knew something was wrong because he was on a beach but just stayed near us, rather than run back and forth like he usually does.

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Periodically, Peter walked to the top of a hill and said he could see buildings and a few workers on the other side of the island but didn’t see Mark. By now it was late afternoon and we hoped we wouldn’t be sleeping on the beach. We could see our boat in the mooring field, but it was far too rough to attempt rowing there. We had almost given up hope when Mark came around the end of the island in a large open boat with two powerful motors and a Bahamian at the wheel. He was a maintenance worker on the island and kindly towed us back to Seas the Day. We gladly gave him $50 and thanked him profusely for saving us. I doubt that he expected any money, but he certainly earned it! If not for the kindness of this Bahamian, we would have been sleeping on the beach. We were incredibly lucky that the motor died where it did. I believe a guardian angel was watching over us that day.
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After this harrowing experience we decided to leave the park the next morning and move on to more populated Big Majors Cay and Staniel Cay. This meant we couldn’t snorkel in one of our favorite spots at the Rocky Dundas Grotto or visit the Bubble Bath on Compass Cay, but the water was too rough and high tide for the Bubble Bath, when waves crash over the rocks from the Exuma Sound into a small pond on the other side creating numerous bubbles, would be in the late afternoon the next day. Most importantly, we had no way to get to either of these without the dinghy.

We hoped that Mark could find out what was wrong with the dinghy motor, which is only one year old, when we arrived in the anchorage at Big Majors Cay the next day. If not, we wouldn’t be going ashore again until we arrived in Georgetown where we could ride on a water taxi to town and possibly bring the motor to a repair shop. When cruising, a dinghy is our “car” and our only way to go ashore. We do have two kayaks and an iSUP, so we could possibly use them to get off the boat, but with the high winds we had on the entire trip so far, and choppy water conditions, it wouldn’t be the preferable mode of transportation. We are fortunate that Sailor will “go” on the boat, using the trampolines on the forward deck. However, we were looking forward to snorkeling in Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay, showing Peter the swimming pigs, and eating lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.