Category Archives: 2013 – 2014 Bahamas Cruise

Peanut Island on Memorial Day Weekend

We arrived in Lake Worth from Bimini on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend and were not looking forward to the speeding boaters in the ICW on one side of Lake Worth and in the channel next to the anchorage on the other side. However being able to go to nearby Peanut Island is worth the time spent in the rocking anchorage. The island is a fantastic park with a paved walkway that winds through palm trees and other vegetation. It is a very popular area for the locals to come to on weekends and holidays, with Memorial Day Weekend being particularly crowded. Many visitors come by small boats and water taxis bring people to the island from Riviera Beach or Palm Beach. There is a tent campsite and numerous covered picnic areas as well as areas to swim and snorkel.

Palm Beach is home to large estates with ocean beaches on the east side and Lake Worth on the west side. The Lake Worth inlet is a popular one for cruisers to leave from to go to the Bahamas and to return to at the end of their trip. Peanut Island is located just inside the inlet. The western shore of Lake Worth near the anchorage we are in is mostly industrial.

After anchoring near the inlet, we took the dinghy to Peanut Island and on the way passed a large wooden vessel at a dock in front of one of the houses where a party was taking place. A closer look revealed she was the yacht used by five presidents. John Fitzgerald Kennedy spent the Christmas and Easter holidays on this yacht and in his Palm Beach home. During the summer months she was docked in Cape Cod. Each president could change the name of the yacht and Kennedy christened her Honey Fitz, after his maternal grandfather Boston mayor John Francis Fitzgerald, whose nickname was Honey Fitz. The yacht is now privately owned and can be chartered, renting for $5000 for four hours. She is docked at a marina in West Palm Beach, but retains her home port as Washington DC. There is a presidential seal on the smokestack and the Honey Fitz is decorated with memorabilia from the five presidents who used the yacht. It’s worth a Google search to find out more about her fascinating history.

The Kennedy family had a vacation home in Palm Beach purchased by JFK’s father in 1933. During the 1960’s it became the winter White House. A bunker was built on Peanut Island as a fallout shelter for Kennedy shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Kennedy bunker is now open for public tours. When we were in the Bahamas, we met a couple who live on Lake Worth next to the anchorage we are presently in and were cruising in the Bahamas in their yacht. They told us about the bunker and the local rumor that it was used by Kennedy one time, when he took Marilyn Monroe there! Three feral cats live on Peanut Island now and are named Jack, Jackie, and Marilyn.

In the early 2000’s Peanut Island underwent a massive construction project which converted it to the beautiful park it is today. It was completed in 2005 and the photos below describe the changes. (If you click on the photos of the posters, they should become large enough to read. Poster were under glass, so it was difficult to get a clear photo.)

Here are more pictures of our visit to Peanut Island.

Visitors line up on the dock to take water taxis back to Palm Beach or Riviera Beach. The docks are free to use during the daytime and small boats can also anchor near the shore or pull up on to the beaches, except the ones designated as swimming areas. The wide walkways and bridges run along the shore and weave through the interior of the small island.

This is the bunker built for President John F. Kennedy. The entrance is through a small tunnel.

I suspect that reservations for this tent campground are made at least a year in advance for Memorial Day Weekend. It was full all weekend, but completely empty by Monday afternoon.

There are numerous places to snorkel around the island. During the construction process, reefs were added where many varieties of fish can be seen in the crystal clear water.

Peanut Island is very dog friendly. When we stopped here on our way to the Bahamas in early March, Sailor was afraid to go in the water by the docks. He had never been swimming and ran into the water without realizing it was wet! Realizing his mistake, he raced to get back to solid land. This time, he enthusiastically fetched his wubba. He learned to love the water during his three months playing on many beaches in the Bahamas.

This is one of the covered picnic areas which are placed throughout the park.

The pond where Sailor swam and the tiki hut picnic area were empty every time we went to Peanut Island. There are several other beaches on the lake shore of the island which have lifeguard towers and were crowded with swimmers.

While Sailor was in the water, a kayaker paddled by with his dog on the front. They noticed each other but wisely did not try to get together.

After walking and swimming, it was time to rest on a bench and watch the busy boat traffic go by, including the Bahamas Celebration Cruise Ship which was leaving the Lake Worth Inlet for a two night cruise to the Bahamas.

We are staying in Lake Worth through Tuesday, when we will raise our anchor and go the short distance across the lake to Cracker Boy Boatyard where Nance and Underwood Riggers will remove our sails, unstep the mast, and bring them to Ft. Lauderdale to store until we have them put back on again at the end of hurricane season in November. On Wednesday we will take the final leg of our 2014 cruise back to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, FL.

The Motion of the Ocean

Yesterday we moved from the Spanish Wells Mooring Field about an hour away to Royal Island where we anchored for the night to make today’s trip a little shorter. This morning we left that anchorage and a little under eight hours later arrived at Chub Cay in a string of islands called The Berries. We have a nice three day window of calm seas and almost no wind to get us back to Florida so we left a few days before our month at the mooring field was up to take advantage of it. The wind never got above 10 kts today but since that resulted in almost flat seas, we didn’t mind going a little slower. The wind speed for the next two days is even lower, therefore the conditions should be great as we cross the Gulf Stream and arrive in Lake Worth on Saturday.

It’s been awhile since we have been on the move, and Sailor is still a fair weather sailor. The best way to keep him from panting and worrying about the sounds and motion of the boat is to take him into a bed. As long as he can touch me he relaxes, but he won’t stay in the bed alone. So, we went to the bed in the forward cabin, as far away from the diesel engines as we can get, and while I read from my Kindle, Sailor slept.

As the day went on he became more relaxed and slept in the salon. Perhaps he was anticipating rougher weather and realized it wasn’t going to happen. Twice he rang his “poochie bell” and Mark walked him up to the trampolines on a leash to “go.” This is only safe to do when the seas are this calm.

Once we got close to shore at Chub Cay we let him come up on the deck while we looked for a good place to drop the anchor. In Sailor’s mind, land equals beaches and I suspect he was checking them out hoping to get off the boat soon.

Shortly after we dropped the anchor, Mark and Sailor dinghied over to a nearby beach. While Sailor doesn’t particularly like the motion of the ocean on a 42 ft sailboat, he loves riding in a 12 ft long dinghy, which is a much rougher experience. Perhaps that is because he knows at the end of most dinghy rides he gets to run up and down a beach and swim out to fetch his wubba. Lately he has started hanging over the side of the dinghy with his face almost in the water looking at the sealife. In this clear water there is a lot to see.

Chub Cay is not our favorite place to anchor because it has a marina filled with motor vessels, most of them here for fishing, ranging from small powerboats to large million dollar plus sportfishers. The larger boats generally slow down in the short channel leading into the marina. The smaller powerboats, however, race in and out of the harbor creating huge wakes. The anchorage is on either side of the channel and of course they don’t think they should be slowing down to keep us from rocking. We feel like we are back in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Actually, some of the boats came over from Florida for Memorial Day Weekend. Other people leave their boats here and fly into the Chub Cay airport. In less than an hour we saw five small passenger planes land at the airport, all appeared to be able to carry at least 12 passengers. The majority of Chub Cay is an upscale resort and marina. There are private homes by the marina, as well as a restaurant and a huge clubhouse. Sadly, there is no shore access for those of us anchored here. A pretty beach near us is marked “private” on a sign, although all beaches up to the high water line are public in the Bahamas, even this one on the marina property. Sailor goes to a beach on tiny deserted Crab Cay adjacent to Chub.

We spent the day on the ocean and it was so calm we didn’t have to put anything away to keep items from falling off shelves, yet now we are rocking back and forth and have to rearrange breakables. Notice the difference in wake from the small powerboat speeding by and the large sportfisher slowing down in the channel. Believe me, we feel the difference.

Tomorrow we’ll motorsail almost 12 hours to anchor near Bimini. The marinas there are mostly full and have raised their prices for the holiday weekend. We heard that at Brown’s Marina in north Bimini their usual 90 cents a foot charge is $2.50 a foot for the next few days. Shortly after leaving Chub Cay, we’ll leave the deep water of the ocean and be on the shallow “bank.” Many people anchor overnight on “the bank” in calm wind and sea conditions, away from the route of the boats going between here and Bimini. We’ve never done that, but I’m beginning to think it would be much more relaxing than Chub Cay. Then again, Sailor wouldn’t get his beach time and that’s important too.

Here is the view from the boat as the sun was setting over the ocean in Chub Cay. We only have one more Bahamian sunset to watch after tonight.

Rain Rain Go Away and Thunder Too

We’ve been in Spanish Wells, Bahamas for three weeks and until a few days ago the weather has been great, very windy but mostly sunny and always right around 82 degrees in the day dropping to the high 70’s at night. The mooring field is protected on all sides and the water is almost always calm even with high wind speeds. We haven’t experienced thunderstorms or even much rain since we arrived in the Bahamas in early March, but this week has made up for it. The photo above was taken this morning at about 0700 when Sailor went up on the forward deck as he does every morning, checking to see if anything happened while he was sleeping. Being the smart dog he is, I suspect the gray skies did not make him happy, realizing he might not get to fetch his Kong Wubba on the beach today. An hour later, he was inside and this was the view out of the same salon window.

The lightning accompanying thunderstorms is usually a concern when you have a mast sticking up over 60 feet from the water. However, we are hopeful that there are more inviting targets in the harbor, especially the many large lobster and shrimp fishing vessels on the docks with their tall metal outriggers. After awhile you just can’t worry about lightning because it’s out of your control.

The concern for us with these storms is that Sailor has suddenly become afraid of thunder. Never having a dog with this fear before, I looked to Google for answers and it didn’t disappoint me with lots of links for this subject. Of course, one’s first reaction is to comfort a frightened dog, but I read this is not a good idea. Apparently it simply reinforces the fear, so instead we should continue whatever we are doing and not make a big deal out of Sailor’s reaction. When Sailor hears the first “boom” he runs down the four steps to the master companionway, sometimes going into the bathroom or jumping on the bed to get as far away from the thunder as possible. He’s worried, but not shaking, panting, or in distress, therefore it’s not too difficult to ignore the behavior. I read on a site that one theory is the static electricity in the air from lightning might affect some dogs and they go to a bathroom where the pipes disperse the charge. I also know that dogs can hear or sense thunder long before humans do, although Sailor doesn’t panic until the noise starts. I found two items in his first aid kit designed to calm pets, Rescue Remedy and Dog Appeasing Pheromone. These were purchased for our last dog Daisy to help her relax on long car rides, but unfortunately they have expired. A definite purchase when we get back to the States will be a Thundershirt although our hope is to work on getting Sailor to ignore the thunder, since it appears the longer the fear persists, the harder it will be to eliminate.

The high winds and now the thunderstorms have delayed many cruisers who planned to be back in the States by now, or perhaps wanted to move on to the next island. Spanish Wells is a jumping off point to go to the Abacos, which is about 60 miles away. Many cruisers spend the first part of their Bahamas trip in the Exumas and points south, come back north through Eleuthera to Spanish Wells and go to the Abacos before heading back to the US East Coast.

As we get closer to June 1 when we have to be back in Florida for hurricane season, we have started listening to Chris Parker’s Bahamas weather forecast webcast at 0630 again. (We can also listen to him on our SSB receiver, but the iPad and computer reception is much clearer.) As of now, the weather appears to be favorable for motorsailing back to Florida next weekend. There will be little wind, so true sailors won’t like it, but we will because that also means calmer seas. From here we’ll go to Chub Cay in the Berries, then on to Bimini, and the following day back to Lake Worth/Palm Beach. We’ll be getting the mast taken down there, part of our “hurricane plan,” and then we’ll return to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, FL for the summer and fall. Unfortunately, this time table corresponds with Memorial Day Weekend, so it might be dificult to get a marina slip in Bimini where anchoring isn’t good and powerboats could be coming from Florida for the holiday. Once in Florida I’m sure the waterways will be busy. “Busy” translates to lots of motorboats speeding around with their wake wildly rocking the anchored or moving cruising boats, i.e. rude South Florida boaters. Lake Worth, however, is less crazy on the water than Miami and Ft. Lauderdale so it shouldn’t be too uncomfortable. We will probably have to anchor there a few days waiting to get into Cracker Boy Boatyard for the mast unstepping.

In the meantime, today looks like a good day to read and relax on the boat. If things get boring we can always watch what is motoring past us in the harbor. This morning before the rain started, MV Legend II, a 200+ ft long commercial vessel, used the mooring field for her turning basin. Looking at the photo at the beginning of this blog entry of Sailor gazing across the narrow harbor, this is exactly where Legend stopped while moving east, then rotated until perpendicular with her aft close to the dock where the pink house is and her bow between us and a St. Francis catamaran on ball 8. Then she continued to spin around to face west and pulled up to a dock to unload supplies. When ready to leave, Legend was pointed in the right direction to go through the same channel she entered from earlier. These large vessels do this regularly when they bring shipments into the Spanish Wells port. It’s amazing how expertly they are maneuvered to turn around in such a small space.

Later today, the rain did stop and we were able to go ashore. Sailor got to go to the beach where he fetched his Wubba in the water and then ran and ran, expending lots of saved up energy. We shopped at Kathy’s Bakery for homemade bread and, of course, made our regular stop for a frappuccino, aka iced coffee.

Creature Comforts in Spanish Wells

While we love the simple life of being anchored next to a small Bahamian island with deserted sandy beaches, after awhile we do miss some of the creature comforts and conveniences we enjoy in the States. That’s just one reason we are in Spanish Wells for at least three weeks before we return to Florida.

Located northwest of Eleuthera and south of the Abacos, Spanish Wells, the only town on St. George’s Cay, and its neighbor Russell Island have a combined population of about 1600. They are connected by a short narrow bridge. The people are mostly white native Bahamians, descendants of British who came in the 1600’s and Loyalists from the 1700’s. Spanish Wells is very different from the towns we visit in the Exumas. Most of the islands in the Exumas are sparsely populated and have very few onshore facilities. Spanish Wells is a much more developed town. The main business is fishing and the large fleet of fishing boats here provide shrimp and lobster for Red Lobster as well as many other outlets. In fact, Spanish Wells exports more lobster than all of the other Bahamian islands combined. Lobster and shrimp seasons are over in the Bahamas so during the coming months the fishing vessels will be painted and repaired.

There is very little tourism here, although it is a short water taxi ride to trendy Harbour Island. There are plans to build a Jack Nicholas designed golf course with luxury estates, a spa and resort, a marina, and upscale restaurants on nearby Royal Island, which is a popular place for cruisers to anchor in the protected bay before heading to the Abacos. The project has already begun and when completed will certainly give Harbour Island some competition but probably won’t affect Spanish Wells, which is a five minute boat ride away. A number of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans own homes in Spanish Wells and spend the winters here with some becoming permanent residents. The homes range from small cottages to large estates and all are very well kept, most with beautifully landscaped yards. The roads are paved and the town is very clean. It’s obvious that the town is prosperous and there seems to be plenty of work for the residents. Unlike many of the Exuma islands, it is rare to find buildings that have been started and abandoned when the money ran out. There are construction crews working around the town building new homes and the craftsmanship is outstanding. In between many of the houses in Spanish Wells there are sandy paths to the 2 1/2 mile long ocean beach and there are also several parks on the beach. At low tide it is a long walk out to water and then it remains shallow, a perfect beach for fetching a wubba.

Along the mostly commercial road by the harbor, called South Street, there are marine and hardware supply stores, golf cart and car rentals, gift shops, an excellent seafood market, restaurants and take-aways (takeouts), a customs and immigration office, a small grocery store and even a boat lift where the commercial fishing vessels and pleasure boats are cleaned, painted and repaired. In 2010 we had our boat hauled out and the bottom painted here. It’s not unusual to see boats on the lift from Florida and other US cities.

In other parts of town there are more businesses, most located on Main Street which runs parallel to South Street, including a dive shop, several clothing stores, restaurants, churches, coffee shops, a Batelco office, a bank, an auto shop, a government clinic, a computer store, bakeries, a dentist, a canvas shop, hair salons, a homemade ice cream shop, a law office, an appliance store, a realtor, a cemetery, a small museum, and a large IGA type grocery store.

There are small ferry boats that take passengers to Eleuthera and Harbour Island and also a large “fast ferry” catamaran that makes the trip back and forth to Harbour Island once a day from Nassau with a stop in Spanish Wells. There are nearby reefs for diving and snorkeling and the harbor is perfect for kayaking. While we don’t fish, this is an excellent area for sports fishing on the ocean with world class bone fishing on the flats around Spanish Wells. The well protected mooring field where we are staying is a few boat lengths away from the docks along the harbor road and only has eight balls. There is also a marina, Spanish Wells Yacht Haven, that is currently doing major renovations with several brand new buildings. Below are photos of the mooring field and a small section of South Street across from us where the fishing boats dock and some of the commercial stores are located.

The mooring field is home to a family of dolphins who come by frequently to entertain us. As always, it’s impossible not to run out on deck when we hear them splashing in the water.

It might sound like I have just described a large thriving metropolis, but Spanish Wells is a small town with very friendly people. Most houses have a golf cart in the driveway as well as a car and the golf carts probably get more use. The grocery store is the largest we have seen since Nassau and it is well stocked with everything we need. Most of the other stores are small although very well supplied. There is a liquor store here but no bars. We have heard that the residents do not lock their doors and that crime is nonexistent. Perhaps that is the reason the police car is a golf cart.

In the past we rode our bikes around Spanish Wells, but this year we are hesitant to leave Sailor alone on the boat while not at a dock, so he comes everywhere with us. We decided to rent a golf cart for the time we are here and are finding it very useful for getting around town. The nicest beach area is too far to walk with Sailor, and he has discovered that while he doesn’t like riding in cars very much, he LOVES golf carts. After racing up and down the beach fetching his wubba, Sailor is ready to relax for awhile while we read in the shade of our beach umbrella. Another advantage of having the golf cart is we can bring chairs, an umbrella and other items to the beach. Driving on the paved streets is very easy and we return friendly waves to all of the cars and golf carts we meet.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that there are three dog groomers in Spanish Wells. Sailor desperately needed a haircut, as can be seen in the two photos above, so a few days ago we took him to one of them and he got a nice summer cut.

Of course one creature comfort I have been missing is Starbucks. Several coffee shops here sell their version of frappuccinos, and I must admit they are very close to what I’ve had at Starbucks.

Spanish Wells seems to be a perfect blend of tropical living without giving up too many creature comforts. It is a great transition to ease us back into life in Florida. In good weather it is a three day sail from here to Lake Worth. However, we still have the rest of May to enjoy the Bahamas.

Car Tour of Eleuthera

After a comfortable motorsail across the Exuma Sound from Warderick Wells to the town of Rock Sound in Eleuthera, we went grocery shopping, took Sailor to a beach and rested for the remainder of the day. The next morning we motorsailed to Governor’s Harbour and decided to rent a car to tour some parts of Eleuthera we hadn’t visited in the past.

First we drove to the northern end of Eleuthera and stopped at the Glass Window Bridge. The narrow bridge, which is very high above the water, falls away to sea level on either side, dividing the island in two with the dark waters of the Atlantic on one side and the turquoise water of a bay off the Exuma Sound on the other. Driving over the bridge is a little scary, especially knowing that in 1991 a huge rogue wave knocked the bridge askew by seven feet. The photo below was taken from the bridge looking down into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s impossible to take a picture of both sides without being above the bridge, so here is a link to some photos taken from an airplane http://www.eleuthera.com/glasswindow.html

We stopped for lunch at the Rainbow Inn in Hatchet Bay, which we highly recommend. Luckily for us almost all of the restaurants here have outdoor deck seating, usually looking over the water, because Sailor is always with us. In this case we ate on the deck but they were so dog friendly we could have eaten inside the restaurant. We had an enjoyable conversation with cruisers who live in Palm Beach and we learned we had anchored next to their home on Lake Worth where they also dock their yacht.

We visited two beautiful beaches with pink powdery soft sand on the Atlantic. The first, called Airport Beach, is at the abandoned US Naval Station which is a few miles north of Governor’s Harbour and close to Alabaster Bay. It is also near Surfer’s Beach, which is north of this beach where breakers can be seen in the photo. The beach looks like this for miles. There is a very interesting story about the Naval Station on the following link which also includes several hundred photos of the ruins. http://voices.yahoo.com/an-adventure-abandoned-united-states-naval-11874013.html?cat=37

The second beach is at the old Club Med, which was destroyed in a 1999 hurricane. Ruins of the buildings are still there on the hill above the beach. The area is now called French Leave and apparently the new owners are going to build a “marina village” on the property. Of course, we were alone on both beaches. These are only a few of the gorgeous Eleuthera beaches.

Below is what is left of the huge swimming pool at Club Med. Much of the property still has intricate stone walkways and lovely landscaping.

We also stopped at a small beach by Gauldings Cay, a tiny island in the Sound. The sandy beach is great for swimming and there is a nice little park by it for picnics. I had to take a picture of this unique table in the yard of one of the houses on the beach in case my son would like to do this with one of his old surfboards.

Last Stop in The Exumas

We like to end our Bahamas cruise by sailing from the Exumas to Eleuthera and then north to Spanish Wells. A good place to cross is at Warderick Wells in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We met up with good friends on Interlude, Cathie, Tom and their son Chris, who was visiting them, and enjoyed our last game of Mexican Train before they sail back to the States in a few weeks.

We stayed for two nights in the north mooring field which is one of the most picturesque settings in the Bahamas. In the photo below, Mark and Sailor are on their way back from a beach visit. The different colors of water are due to depth. It’s easy to find the deep part which is the darker color where the boats are moored. The darkest water color is on the left side of the photo where there is a cut to the Exuma Sound and very deep water. Snorkeling is good here because no living things can be removed thus we see large lobster and many varieties of fish. Shells cannot be taken from the beaches.

Everyone likes to hike up Boo Boo Hill where you can leave a sign with your boat name on it. The sign must be made from a natural material, usually a piece of wood. We made our sign in 2010. In 2012 friends Lynn and Shelley on Anything’s Pawsible found it and sent us a picture. We saw it next in 2013 and added the date of our visit. Shortly before we arrived here this year we got an email from Minnesota cruiser friends who had just been to Boo Boo Hill, found our sign underneath some others and put it in a more prominent place. Therefore, we quickly found it a few days later thanks to Bill and Judy on Jubilee. Mark had used a dremel and paint to create the original lettering, but this time we didn’t have the tool charged so we just added “RIP 2013” by Daisy’s name and added “Sailor” along with 2014 all in Magic Marker.

Another site at Warderick Wells is a skeleton of a Sperm Whale. Sailor loves bones, but he didn’t attempt grabbing these.

By now, Sailor is probably totally confused about where he is and we have lost count of the number of beaches he has visited. However, regardless of the island or the beach, Sailor is happy if he can just fetch his floating Kong Wubba.

Blowin’ in the Wind

Last year we were boat buddies for several weeks with some new friends traveling on a trawler. They had been cruising for a few years but told us that they were selling their boat…..and they did last summer. They were simply tired of always having to adjust their plans due to weather. We hear that frustration from fellow cruisers often, especially in the Bahamas. There are so many advantages to cruising in the Bahamas, but there is no question that you have to know the weather forecast and be ready to move, or not move, when the wind direction changes. We subscribe to Chris Parker’s “Marine Weather Center Services.” He broadcasts a weather forecast for the Bahamas Monday through Saturday at 0630 and 0800 on SSB (Single Side Band) radio, and on his webcast viewed on a computer or with his iPad APP. His Caribbean forecast is at 0715. We usually listen to him on the iPad. After his forecast, subscribers can ask specific questions about weather in their area or request recommendations for when to move to their next destination. Anyone with an SSB can listen to his forecast, but only subscribers can ask questions, view his webcast, or receive his daily email weather reports.

In The Exumas, each island has a shallow side (“The Banks”) on the western shore and a deep side (The Exuma Sound) on the eastern shore. We are always anchored on the Bank side. Very few islands in the Bahamas have anchorages good for all wind directions but most have several anchorages with protection from some wind directions, and if not there is usually another nearby island a few miles away where protection can be found. If the wind is from the west, often it is difficult to find a protected anchorage since most of the islands are open to the west. When the forecast is for very strong winds and possible squalls, the VHF radio is busy with calls to the few marinas to reserve slips and the mooring fields fill up quickly.

Last week we were at Staniel Cay in the Big Majors anchorage, where most of the boats stay…..until the wind clocks to the west when there is no protection in that area. We knew the weather would be changing, so a few days before the wind direction was due to clock, we moved to a different anchorage in the Staniel Cay area which has great west wind protection. We were alone in the anchorage until the day the wind direction was going to change. Beginning in the morning, boats migrated over to us from Big Majors and other nearby anchorages. Most followed good anchoring etiquette and spaced their boats well away from others hopefully putting out plenty of chain so they wouldn’t drag. One of the last boats that came in anchored right between us and another boat, even though there wasn’t room. There was plenty of space behind us, but apparently they didn’t want to go there. We knew as soon as the wind clocked from the south to the west we’d be in trouble. That happened in the middle of the night during a squall with 30+ kt wind. We watched as the boat passed behind us with only a few feet to spare. The squall continued as their boat floated back and forth very near us so finally I went into the cockpit and shouted back to them to let out more rode (chain) since they seemed content to stay on top of us. The young French woman (in her bikini) simply shrugged her shoulders. (I’m not sure if they didn’t understand English, which is doubtful, or she just didn’t care.) Finally, they did let out some more chain and then got too close to the boat that had been next to us before they squeezed in between us. Below is a photo I took through our salon window during the storm. They were even closer to us when they crossed behind us.

In Georgetown, where there are many available anchorages for all wind directions, some boats shuffle from one place to another every time the wind changes directions. We usually stay in one place unless the forecast calls for squalls with over 30 kts of wind since holding is excellent and we don’t mind a little rocking and rolling.

Of course, wind is also a big consideration for us when moving from one island to another, or crossing to and from Florida. When it comes to wind, there seems to be two types of sailors. One group loves to sail and waits for lots of wind, in a direction that will fill their sails. Also in this group are the sailors who don’t want to use fuel unless absolutely necessary. The second group, which we belong to, likes wind but not if it brings big waves. Therefore, we always wait for lighter winds and a calmer sea and then motorsail to our next stop. Of course no cruiser likes to sail directly into the wind, so if you are going south and the wind is from the south, you wait until it changes or drops unless you love plowing through waves and making slow progress. Further, crossing the Gulf Stream off the US East Coast, one never wants to leave with a wind from the north because this kicks up large waves going against the northerly flowing Gulf Stream. Right now, scores of cruisers who have spent the winter in the Bahamas are waiting for favorable wind and sea conditions to get back to the States and in a safe place for hurricane season, which begins June 1.

Finally there is one other reason we watch the wind speed and that is for power to our batteries. When the wind gets above 10 kts, we start to get good charge to our batteries from the wind generator. This is important overnight when the sun isn’t shining on our solar panels. With an overnight wind, we are assured that our batteries will stay charged sufficiently to keep our refrigeration running, which is our main power draw. If the battery charge drops too low at the buss, the freezer automatically turns off. (This is complicated by our voltage drop between the batteries and the buss, which I’ve mentioned in earlier blog entries.)

Sailor doesn’t care which direction the wind is from or the speed. But like all dogs, he loves to feel it blowing in his face.

Boat Repairs in Exotic Places

Some say this is the definition of cruising: repairing your boat in exotic places. Tied to a dock for six months, we rarely find anything that needs to be repaired because we don’t use many of the boat’s systems when we aren’t sailing and are connected to shore power. A few days before we left this year we turned on the chart plotter and discovered the backlight circuit had failed. It was cheaper to buy a used display than to get it repaired. We found several on eBay and drove a few miles to pick one up. Once we leave the dock and all systems are running it’s not unusual to discover something needs to be fixed. We hope that it happens before we leave the States where parts are readily available, but of course that isn’t always the case. There are old boats and new boats, but no matter how carefully they are maintained, repairs are a necessary part of cruising. Seas the Day is only five and a half years old and she has been at a dock for over half that time, during hurricane seasons. Even with excellent care, there are many intricate systems aboard and eventually parts fail.

Several days after we left Stuart we arrived in Miami and discovered the watermaker wasn’t working. A Spectra Watermaker technician who lived nearby diagnosed the problem, ordered a new pump and in a few days the watermaker was working again. When we got to the Bahamas, we realized that we were having a voltage drop between the batteries and the buss where the power is sent to everything that needs it. The batteries and buss are connected by a long cable. This was a major problem last year, but we hoped with the addition of a sixth battery and the new wind generator we would have plenty of power even with a voltage drop. If the voltage is low the freezer turns off, even though there is plenty of power in the batteries to keep it on. In the middle of the night our voltage might be 12.2V at the batteries but the buss reads 11.7V. Last season Mark made some changes which helped including putting in a better cable, but decided to take another look. After checking everything he couldn’t figure out anything else to do so he started to put things back together and suddenly there was a burning smell and a cloud of smoke came out of the top of the inverter. Mark has done the same procedure multiple times when working on the batteries and nothing happened. This time the inverter stopped working. Without the inverter, we have no AC power so the outlets don’t work and we can’t watch TV, do laundry, use the breadmaker or ice maker, or charge electric toothbrushes and camera batteries. We can’t use the microwave, the toaster, a blow dryer or a coffee bean grinder. We have 12V chargers (cigarette lighter chargers) for our phones, computers and tablets, Kindle, etc. so we don’t need AC outlets for them. Most of the systems on the boat run on 12V and they don’t need the inverter either. We didn’t panic, but realized if we weren’t able to replace the inverter, or repair it, our living conditions on the boat would change. Oddly, the next morning we noticed the inverter was back on! Apparently when it overheats it turns off and when cooled down resets itself. Broken parts rarely fix themselves so this time we were lucky.

Next, our 21KW generator (huge and left over from when we were a hybrid boat) stopped working. We use it to charge the batteries if the solar panels and wind generator don’t give us enough power during the day. We don’t run the generator often, but sometimes on a cloudy, still day we need an extra push to keep the batteries charged high enough through the night. Mark tried several possible fixes, but in the end discovered that the repair is inaccessible without removal of most of the outer cabinet work and possibly the genset body, which won’t happen until we get back to Florida. Our only alternative now is to run one of the diesel engines for a half hour or so to charge the batteries. This isn’t a good practice because it puts unnecessary hours on the engines but until we repair or replace the generator this is our only choice. Luckily we don’t have use the engines while we are anchored very often since there is plenty of sun and wind in the Bahamas to keep our batteries charged.

One day in Georgetown, the dinghy motor died while Mark was crossing the harbor to go to town. The current pushed him along while he tried in vain to fix it. A couple in an anchored motor yacht noticed his dilemma, lowered their dinghy to go rescue him, towing him back to our boat. After a few hours, Mark had repaired the motor. It would be a disaster if we didn’t have a dinghy motor because the dinghy is our “car” while we are here.

The next mechanical failure was the watermaker….again. Until this year, it had been working perfectly, making clean water out of sea water whenever we were away from a dock. The watermaker was running on our way from Williams Bay to Blackpoint but shortly after we dropped the anchor we ran out of water. I had done four loads of laundry on the way there that day, but this was not nearly enough to empty the tanks which hold 120 gallons. There is no gauge on the tanks but the watermaker makes 12 gallons of water an hour and the tanks should not have been empty. Removing the floorboard over the watermaker, Mark saw water running out of a broken part and collecting in the bilge. Until we were able to get a new part, the watermaker would not work. Many cruisers here do not have watermakers and get along fine. In reality you never make up the money it costs to buy a watermaker, but it is convenient to be able to have all the water you want, any time, any place. We were near Staniel Cay so we brought the boat to the fuel dock, purchased 120 gallons of water at 40 cents a gallon, emailed the watermaker dealer in Florida and ordered the part. Then we went a few miles north to Cambridge Cay to get protection from an approaching front and waited for the part to arrive. It’s very easy to get mail at Staniel Cay via Watermakers Air whose small airplane flies round trip from Ft. Lauderdale twice a day. Within two days our new part was waiting for us at Staniel Cay.

The watermaker is fixed and all is well……at least we don’t know of anything that needs to be repaired. Another saying is “Everything on your boat is broken……you just don’t know it yet.”

Photos below are from Cambridge Cay and Staniel Cay where we have spent the last few days.

This was the view from our mooring ball at Cambridge Cay. We were at the end of the field of 12 mooring balls, all taken by boats needing protection from a front passing through the Bahamas. Obviously this picture was taken before the strong winds and choppy seas arrived.

Some dogs love to stick their head out of a car window. In the Bahamas, our dinghy is our car and Sailor, like all boat dogs we’ve ever seen, enjoys riding in the dinghy and he doesn’t even need a window to feel the wind in his face.

In Staniel Cay there are three grocery stores: the Pink Store, the Blue Store, and Isles General. All three are in houses. Isles General is on the bottom of this two story home. (The Pink and Blue stores are much smaller.) There is a small room stocked with groceries and another small room with boating and household items. For $39.10 today, we got two large cans of juice, some fresh broccoli, a package of frozen broccoli, and two large containers of yoghurt. These prices are the reason we provision before we get to the Bahamas, but we still need to buy fresh food from time to time. The more populated settlements, such as Georgetown, have larger stores with more reasonable prices.

One of the highlights of Staniel Cay, besides having the James Bond movie “Thunderball” filmed here, is Pig Beach. Years ago a few pigs were left on Big Majors Island and every year there are new piglets. People come close to shore in their dinghies or small boats and the pigs swim out to beg for food. We didn’t get close enough for them to do that because Sailor might have jumped out of the dinghy to play with them and that would not be good!

Most of the inhabited islands in the Bahamas have a Batelco (phone) tower. Under it is always a Batelco store, which makes it convenient to find one. These islands have strong phone and data signals, but the ones that don’t have towers and are far from islands with towers have weak or no signals. Cambridge Cay is in the Exuma Land and Sea Park where there are no Batelco towers, thus there is a very weak signal coming from the tower on another island and sometimes no signal. We have a Wilson cell phone signal booster and by placing our Bahamas phone in a cradle with a cord running to an antenna outside the signal went from no bars to five.

We’ll be at Staniel Cay for a few more days and then will start north, stopping at a few islands before we leave the Exumas and sail to Eleuthera.

A Beach a Day

What is better than walking on a long sandy beach with clear turquoise water to wade in or swim through? The sky here is usually bright blue, there is often a breeze or stronger wind, and the temperature at this time of year is always around 80. It’s hard to believe but EVERY stop we make in the Exumas has at least one, and often several gorgeous beaches next to where we anchor. The water is clear and warm, the sand is soft and the beaches are almost always free of debris. They are usually free of other humans too, and if people are walking on the beach, there are never more than a handful. Every beach is dog friendly and of course no leashes are needed, although we do bring one to control Sailor if/when other people pass by us. All beaches in the Bahamas are public. Some of the more than 500 islands in the Exuma chain have been sold to celebrities and wealthy people, but even Oprah has to let us use her beach up to the high tide water line. It’s the law.

In the Exumas, there are two types of beaches. The calmer, smaller beaches are on the “bank” side, the inside of the islands. We are always anchored on this side. The water is shallow and usually very calm so these beaches are perfect for swimming. Of course, the soft sand is on the sea floor as well as on the beaches which makes walking out in the water no different than walking on the beach, just wetter.

A short hike over rocky hills, often on a trail marked by other cruisers takes us to the Sound beaches. (The “marks” are varied, including conch shells, rocks, cloth tied to branches, and even old sandals.) These beaches are bordered by high rocky hills which can be climbed for dramatic views of the Sound. The beaches are often as far as you can see, deserted, and covered with soft, white sand. Waves crash over reefs close to shore, but in some parts there are calm areas where you can safely swim, almost like ponds in the water. The Sound beaches are breathtaking because the water offshore consists of shades from light to very dark turquoise, depending on the depth and floor of the sea. There might be sand, rock, reefs, or grass underneath, which affects the coloration.

Pictures being worth a thousand words, below are some I took today while on a beach walk on the Exuma Sound side of Georgetown. Pictures in the previous post were at a beach on the Elizabeth Harbor side, where we are anchored. To get to the beach on the Sound we ride a short distance to a very small stretch of harbor beach where we leave our dinghy, throwing the anchor up on the beach. If it is high tide, we put the anchor out in the water so we don’t come back to a dinghy sitting on a beach when the tide goes out. We climb a rather steep rocky hill up and then down on the other side to the beach you see in the photos below. Although the trail is steep, there are branches and sticks deep in the ground to grab for support so it is quite safe. Today we walked for several hours along this stunning beach.

Relaxing in Georgetown

People have mixed feelings about Georgetown in the Southern Exumas. Some cruisers love it and spend the entire season here. Others come for Regatta when there are lots of activities and then leave. Cruisers who don’t like crowds totally avoid coming to Georgetown because there are usually hundreds of boats here, spread out over numerous anchorages, but still a lot of people. Yet, it is quiet and it is possible to find a place to anchor by yourself.

Georgetown is a small town with many facilities a cruiser needs. There is a well stocked grocery store, the Exuma Market, as well as another smaller one. These are the only grocery stores in the Exumas that aren’t in houses. There are several banks, places to get fuel and propane, a Customs and Immigration office where you can either check in or extend your stay in the Bahamas. Restaurants, rental cars, bus excursions, a Batelco (phone) store, a computer shop, laundromats, a cell phone store, various small shops and much more are available. A pumpout boat comes through the anchorages three times a week and new this year there is a trash boat. This is the first year that cruisers in Georgetown have not had free garbage disposal. Instead there are several ways to get rid of garbage, all for the cost of $2 a small bag and $3 for a large one. Water is free and there is always a line at Exuma Market on the dinghy dock where cruisers fill five gallon jugs to bring back to their boats. Even though we have a watermaker, we still get some free water from town. It’s RO (reverse osmosis) water, and very good. Every morning at 8 am there is a “cruisers net” on the VHF radio. You get to hear the weather, local businesses advertise, and cruisers can come on to try to sell or give away things, share rides to the airport, ask for help, etc. At the end of the net, people are invited to introduce themselves if they just arrived or say goodbye if they are leaving.

Since we arrived here eight days ago, we have walked on several beautiful beaches on the Exuma Sound side and the harbor side. We have played Mexican Train with friends and eaten dinner at the St. Francis. We’ve gone swimming several times at a beach called Flip Flop. We also went with ten other cruisers to Flip Flop Beach one late afternoon for sundowners. Today we went to a talk by a local historian who shared information for more than an hour about the Bahamian culture.

Normally by the time we get to Georgetown, we need to purchase food and perhaps get money from the local bank ATM, but since we came here so quickly we don’t need anything yet. Tonight we had BLT’s with tomatoes from our “garden” and every morning I have fresh picked strawberries with my yoghurt.

We’ll probably stay here until the end of March and then start heading north through the Exumas, very slowly. If the weather cooperates, we’d like to spend a few days in Long Island, a short sail south of here before heading north.

Unfortunately, Sailor does not like us to leave him alone on the boat, and he LOVES riding in the dinghy. So we are taking little steps to let him know it’s OK if he isn’t always going with us. Mark has gone ashore alone a few times and Sailor is adjusting to that, although he does stare towards where Mark went until he returns and whimpers a bit. Just as he learned when we were at the dock in Stuart that we will return, he’ll eventually learn that here too. We have discovered that he loves to swim. He swims out to us and then swims back and forth between us “letting” us hold him while he rests.

Our anchorage today was so still there were no ripples in the water. In the photo below you can actually see the sandy bottom. We also saw a (harmless) five foot long nurse shark swimming by our boat.

The Exuma Sound beach here is usually deserted with lots of room for Sailor to run off leash and for us to walk. We usually swim on the harbor beaches where there are no big waves.

In the Bahamas, our dinghies are our “cars” and below our dinghy and our friends on Interlude’s dinghy are anchored while we swim nearby on Flip Flop Beach. In the distance are buildings in Georgetown, across Elizabeth Harbor.

SV Seas the Day

Life Aboard Our Lagoon 420 Catamaran