Bahamian SideBars

· The Bahamas are a series of islands and cays (pronounced key) that are grouped together in regions. We are in the region known as the Abacos which are the northern most group of islands and cays, closest to the USA coast. This is the area which we are cruising.
· There are many things that distinguish islands from cays but one of the most important is fresh water source. Islands have a fresh water source (like an artesian well, natural springs, etc) while cays have to either import, catch from rainwater or use RO (reverse osmosis) to make fresh water for their daily needs.
· The US dollar and the Bahamian dollar are direct exchange … i.e. they take their value from the U.S.
· Green Turtle Cay should be renamed Rooster Hallow due to the extreme amount of chickens and roosters that roam around freely and are the morning alarm clocks. Turtles? Never seen one there other than statuary!
· VHF Channel 68 is the Cruisers Net from 0815 until approx. 0915 Monday thru Saturday. All kinds of useful info starting with the weather report can be gleaned from this morning show. Other topics are events around the islands and cays, celebrations, newcomers & go’ers and emergency messages. This is strictly for the Abacos area but is a great service to the boating community.
· The BEST bread to be had in our opinion is the coconut yeast bread. Use this as the basis for French Bread and its absolutely the best breakfast you’ve had lately! Top with syrup or better yet, your favorite jam! Yummmm!
· Hopetown’s Anglican Church plays two hymns from its bell tower daily . . . noon and 1800 hours. A large variety of hymns are played, most of which we recognize. All activity stops as folks listen to the beautiful music of the chimes.
· A sea turtle seems to have taken up residence in the Hopetown Harbor. This wiley creature is quite quick about his surfacing for air so that even with a camera handy we’ve yet to catch him on film!
· Candy cane striped Hopetown Lighthouse is a Bahamian Landmark and is an active working lighthouse since it was built in 1863 by the British. It graces the Harbor entrance and is seen from both the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic Ocean for a distance of 20 miles. Its fired by 2 kerosene lanterns that are tended by 2 Lighthouse keepers who rotate their duties. The light mechanism must be hand cranked every 2 hours while in use during the evening and night hours.
· Whenever there is a questions about a cultural or procedural item that is different from what we Americans are used to, its casually dismissed or explained as . . . “It’s a Bahamian Ting!”

Fishers Bay, Great Guana Cay, Jan 14-15, 2010

We reluctantly left our dock at Leeward Yacht Marina at 0730 so we could take advantage of the high tide and safely navigate the channel at Black Sound with our deep draft boats. Once again Scat, Solitaire1 and Indian Summer headed out together in a light winds day that was overcast and cool. The much talked about & sometimes dreaded “Whale Channel” was very calm (2 to 3 foot swells at the worst of it) and allowed us to fly our staysail in the light winds for an extra power boost to the iron jenny. We said bon voyage to Scat who was headed to Marsh Harbor as Solitaire1 & Indian Summer continued to Fishers Bay at Great Guana Cay. By 0945 we had picked up a mooring ball and after shutting down systems headed to shore for Ruger relief.

The afternoon the Fab Five went ashore to look at the town, see the beach at Nippers and just sightsee and stretch our legs. We were all amused at the ‘billboard’ for Nippers which was a colorfully painted piece of construction equipment (see picture). The beach and ocean were beautiful and the resort quite quiet for a Thursday afternoon. Walking into town we picked up some groceries, viewed the ‘stairs to nowhere’ and finally decided that the beverages on Indian Summer where every bit as good as the ones at the two famous beach bars and quite a bit cheaper!

Sunset from the cockpit included lovin’ from Uncle David, another stunning sunset and lots of good eats . . . so no dinner for anyone in this crowd! Stephen conched down the sun, we all made an early night since we are headed early morning to Hopetown, Elbow Cay . . . another channel entrance that is best taken nearer to high tide then low!

Tree with Patchwork bark

Allins Walk on Fisher Bay

Billboard of sorts for nippers

Hamming it up with Uncle David

Thursday, Jan 7, 2010.

We are OFF! . . . for a long day’s sail from WestEnd, Grand Bahama Island to the anchorage at New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay. We’ve decided to bypass Great Sale Cay since there is another front getting ready to roll in and we don’t want to get ‘stuck’ there as it’s a real chore to get Ruger ashore. Been there done that! Anyway we have roughly 114 miles to go! The day is beautiful and we leave our dock at 0700 hours, the first of 3 boats (Indian Summer, Skatt, and Solitaire!) to leave. We are greeted by a flying stingray as we left the channel markers which we took to be a sign of good luck. Around Memory Rock Solitaire1 took the lead with Skatt following and we pretty much maintained this procession until we anchored. The day was sunny with light winds and calm seas. We did fly the staysail about half the day, the jenny only got an hours’ worth of workout and the balance of our thrust was provided by our iron jenny called Yanmar! As lovely as the day was, the sunset was gorgeous and the night spectacular. So many many stars and so very dark the night sky. We anchored easily about 2330 hours and were enjoying a wee dram of scotch at midnight awaiting the arrival of Skatt. Donning our strobe lights for her shortly after midnight she too easily anchored and we all went to BED!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

WHERE has this week gone? After we arrived at New Plymouths anchorage, we arose the next morning to land Ruger and order coconut bread from the local grocer. Stephen and David took a dinghy tour of the Black Sound anchorage/mooring field/docks, and shortly after 1300 hours on Friday we headed in to Leeward Yacht Marina for a lovely and inexpensive stay on their face dock. Free wifi, free showers, a very nice pool and semi reasonable laundry ($6 to wash & dry). We spent the week in the many activities associated with a boat . . . some of which are routine maintenance (boat washing, stainless steel & life line wiping, cabin cleaning); hunkering down in the rainy blows that hit over the weekend; looking for sand dollars and running Ruger in the surf on one of the beaches; shopping in the village of New Plymouth; making mouthwatering French toast with coconut bread; renting a golf cart with buddies Catherine & David Allin of Solitaire1 to head to White Sound for conch fritters & Grouper sandwiches at the Green Turtle Club; more beach walking; being blissfully unaware that we were under a tsunami watch for 2 hours due to the terrible earthquake in Haiti until the geologists realized it wasn’t the type of earthquake to send waves; wishing for warmer weather and less winds but not complaining too much since our relatives and friends are not experiencing quite the weather we are. (high was 70 with light winds and sun . . . the low was rain, rain, rain, 50’s and lots of wind). So we are headed out tomorrow (Thursday) to cross the Whale and find out what Guana Cay is all about . . . specifically Fishers Bay. Lin (on Mo) has indicated that Nippers is the place to go so dinner will be there and we are totally looking forward to it! So tomorrow is an early day as we leave shortly after 0700 to take advantage of the high tide. The upside is that we should be well grounded by 1030 and dinghying to our next daily adventure. Keep you posted!

This is the actual tree with the philodendron vines climbing up its trunk~
Hard to believe this is a variegated philodendrum but it is. This one is climbing an aged tree and I made Stephen stand next to it so you could get an idea of its size and scope!

Catherine & Ruger play in the water’s at Green Turtle Cay. After an afternoon of fetching sticks in the waves we had one very tired and very wet pup!

Sunday January 3rd, 2010

WOW! What a Mass we attended this morning at St. Michaels Roman Catholic Church! It lasted 1.5 hours and was very enjoyable. Father Cooper's message was great (even at 25 minutes); the congregation was very outgoing and friendly and I swear I've never heard the music sung quite the way I remember the melody! It was very 'bahamian', upbeat, and loud, with bongo drums, electric guitar, tamborine and keyboard. No one cared how they sounded they just sang lustily! The sign of peace must have taken 15 minutes since everyone greeted everyone and Fr. Cooper rocked out to the music at the altar with a big smile on his face. Afterwards we were shepherded into the cafeteria for breakfast which was grits with your choice of simmered corn beef, tuna or sardines and veggies. The sardines and veggies were the best followed by the corn beef in a tomato veggie sauce. Finally an hour later we had 8 to 10 'rides' arranged to take us back to the marina. It was smashing and took the village little time to tell everyone about the two 'guests' at the marina that had come to share Mass and fellowship with them. That afternoon we spent doing some cockpit cleaning and waxing and then cooked dinner aboard for Solitaire. And the wind howled . . . , and the boat rocked . . . , and we were snug as bugs on our boat.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

We had LOBSTER for dinner. Sharon had to run down the local lobster guy on the beach this morning and for $20 we had four lobsters . . . well the tails anyway as that's all we really wanted. Some Old Bay seasoning and steaming and they became dinner. Delicious! Its been years since we've feasted on lobsters and will have to procure some more. Meanwhile due to the heavy winds and weather . . . doubtful anyone is headed out tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent doing boat chores, reading and walking into the 'village' of West End. When you say town, everyone here assumes you mean Freeport! The wifi doesn't work on anyones laptop computers but thankfully the hotel has 3 computers set aside for guests. This allows all to keep up on correspondance AND to check the various weather sites to see if its a safe bet to leave or not. The answer for us is NOT. The reason has to do the route option which is Great Sale Caye (uninhabited anchorage and open to directional winds and an 8 hour or so sail) and then to Green Turtle Caye (which is another day sail). Suffice it to say we need 2 days of good weather not one to make a comfortable and safe passage from Westend. BUT at least we're in the Bahamas!

Update

January 1 2010

Sharon reports that they arrived safely in West End but will be mooring only a few days then will anchor offshore......