Makani Update 3/7/2015

We left Lynyard Cay in the Abacos on December 22.  We have just returned to Lynyard Cay after logging about 700 miles over 74 days.  Our travels took us to Eleuthera, Little San Salvadore (aka Half Moon Cay), Cat Island, Long Island, Conception Island, Rum Cay, back to Long Island, over to Georgetown on Great Exuma, then up the Exumas chain, back to Eleuthera and finally back to Lynyard Cay in the Abacos.  We had some great sailing, some bouncy sailing, and a little white knuckle sailing.  

Pizotes

Our last blog post had us getting to Georgetown in the Exumas.  Shortly after arriving, Kathi left to go to Costa Rica (Feb. 14) for a week to meet her mom, 2 brothers, and our son, Dakota. While she was gone, I spent the week doing boat chores; changing oil in the engine and generator, checking all fluid levels, sanding and re-staining a hatch cover, replacing a hatch screen, and generally trying to keep busy.

Repelling

Kathi on the other hand was zip lining, repelling, horseback riding, white water rafting, trekking over the canopy on suspension bridges, sitting in natural hot spring pools, getting massages, surfing, dining at the Avion, staying at the Fuselage Hotel, swimming in 84 degree oceans, viewing exotic flora and fauna, and generally having a great time with family.

Mono

Fuselage Hotel

That's my 75yo mother

After Kathi got back, the cruisers regatta was going on in Georgetown.  It is a week long celebration with lots of daily activities and we were signed up for the poker tournament on Wednesday night , but we saw a weather window to start heading up the Exuma Chain and we left (Feb. 24).  They do a great job of putting together all sorts of organized social events in Georgetown, but it is just not our gig.

So, we headed up the Exuma Chain which consists of hundreds of small islands, cays, and rocky outcroppings.  We visited Rat Cay, Hamlet Cay, Musha Cay, Great Guana Cay, Staniel Cay, Big Majors, Compass Cay, Bell Island, Shroud Cay, and Highborne Cay.  At each stop, we got into the water and explored and hunted in the water and went on shore to see what each little Cay had to offer.  We saw the swimming pigs at Big Majors and attended a meet and greet on the beach.  We saw the nurse sharks at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. We went to the “Sea Aquarium” off O’Brien’s Cay and watched the private helicopters fly in and out of privately owned Bell Island.

One item we were disappointed about is the difficulty we had in finding lobster.  In the Abacos, we know lots of spots where the lobsters congregate.  In the other islands we visited we weren’t able to figure out the habitats that they frequented.  The lobsters we did get however were huge!  Also, The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park covers 176 square miles of the Exuma chain and includes over 15 major cays and numerous smaller ones and: of course, a no take zone.

Swimming Pigs

On our travels up the Exumas, the biggest highlights were the grottos that we visited.  The most famous, Thunderball grotto near Staniel Cay is famous for being used in the movies Thunderball (007 movie) and Splash.  The other two grottos, located near Rocky Dundas were maybe more spectacular, if less famous, because of the stalactites coming down from the roof.  Another highlight was a “bubble bath” at Cambridge Cay where ocean swells spray up over a narrow rocky ledge into a large pool.  If the water were warmer, it would make a nice hottub!  As it is, it’s a refreshing pool to enjoy.

Bubble Bath

Grotto

Musha Cay is owned by David Copperfield.  It is a magnificent development with several cabanas, large hottub pool and lots of other fancy buildings.  We took advantage of the hottub for a short while one evening.

Bell Island is owned by Aga Kahn and has been a political hot button in the Exumas for many years as the owner has been raping the island of its natural beauty to overdevelop the island with extravagant structures and has paid many a politician to look the other way as he dredges, builds, and destroys whatever it takes to build his empire without regard to the Bahamian values or ecosystem.  You can read about this by googling his name or the name of the island.

Another great Exuma story is about Norman’s Cay and the drug kingpin Carlos (Joe) Lehder.  We did not visit the island on this trip but will on our next visit to the Exumas.

Thunderball Grotto

Nurse Sharks at Staniel Yacht Club

There are some great dives that we had intended to do on our trip north, but weather did not permit any diving.  It has been extraordinarily windy the entire time since we left Georgetown.

Check out this guys web site. He came to the Bubble bath at the same time as us, along with his entire filming crew.  What a piece of work!

After leaving Highborne Cay, we took an alternate route than we have before through a passage off of Ship Channel Cay then through Flemming channel called the White Banks where we were required to keep a sharp lookout as this area is shallow and has scattered coral heads, some of which rise close enough to the surface to be of great danger.  You don’t know which ones are shallow enough to be dangerous, so we dodged them all.  Overall, this cut our trip down by a day and allowed us to get to Royal Island in 7.5 hours and leave from Royal Island the next morning, during the same weather window, and travel the 55 miles to Little Harbour inlet in Abaco.  We arrived at 5:30pm Friday, March 6 - hungry and exhausted. I wish we had fish pictures to post, but we were unable to land any of the Mahi Mahi that we caught and we threw the Barracuda we caught back.

Being back in the Abaco’s feels like home.  In fact, it was the first time in a very long time that we had consistent internet. and when a video on the internet said “not available due to your location” I forgot that I still wasn’t in the United States.  But the real welcoming package came today when we went to one of our favorite hunting holes and found more than a dozen lobster.  We took two for dinner and left the rest for our guests coming in two weeks.  We also went sea glass hunting and came home with a bucketful of treasures.  Now THIS is our gig.