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.

Wednesday, 1/28:  The winds calmed down through the night and after Kathi had made some modifications to our “Flopper stopper” we were not rolling uncomfortably any longer.  We went for a snorkel to where the shallow reef meets the wall, dropping from about 60 feet to over 1000 feet.  The day was cloudy so we decided against a dive.  Snorkeling we saw spotted eagle rays, turtle, barracuda, and a shark.  We’ve looked in both deep water and shallow water around the reefs near Port Nelson on Rum Cay but have not found any lobster to photograph or shoot.

Thursday, 1/29: The wind and swells have decreased and we decided that it was time to head for the Georgetown area on Great Exuma Island.  Kathi has a flight out of Georgetown on 2/14 to fly to Costa Rica for a week where her mom and brothers will be vacationing.  Friends that we met at Long Island, Matt and Lindsay are there also and it will be good to visit with them again.  The first stop though will be Long Island which is about 26 miles away; Georgetown, another 24 miles after that which we will do the next day.   One wind/waves forecast calls for about 15 knots of wind, 2-3 foot swells with a 4 second period.  We don’t like the short wave period but 2-3 foot swells would be nice.  Another site forecasts 20 knots of wind, 5-6 foot swells with an 8 second period.  We’d like the longer wave period but could do without the larger swells.  The first third of the sail was excellent.  After that, the wind picked up and I think we got the worst of both forecasts; 6 foot swells with a 4 second period along with 25-30 knots of wind.  Fortunately we had enough wind to keep the boat on a fairly steady heel but it made for a very robust and somewhat bumpy sail.  We reached Long Island, settled in without even putting the dinghy down.

Friday, 1/30:  We left Long Island heading to Georgetown with winds forecast to be very light, probably too light to be able to sail efficiently.  For once, stronger than forecast winds worked in our favor, rather than having to motor all the way we were able to put up all sails and have a beautiful trip with about 10 knots of wind and sunny skies.   About half-way there we got a call on the radio from Matt and Lindsey on Kindred Spirit passing us about a half mile away heading for Long Island, the place we’d just left.  They’d had enough of the Georgetown area.  We had hoped to see them in Georgetown but now we’ll have to wait to hopefully see them sometime in the future. We had never been to Georgetown before but were aware that this is the location that a lot of cruisers call their winter home; often, between 300-400 boats are in the area.  We anchored off of Elizabeth Cay which is just south of where most of the “permanent” boats anchor.  In the setting sun, the masts in the distance looked like skyscrapers from the New York skyline. 

Saturday, 1/31:  We headed into town to see what sights were there.  The town surrounds a small pond, Lake Victoria, which has one small water entrance from the rest of the harbor.  To enter the pond, you pass under an arched stone bridge with a vertical clearance of 8 feet and a horizontal clearance not much more than that. 

Entrance to Lake Victoria

During the local regatta, locals will play chicken with the bridge using high powered boats.  They will gun their boats, bringing the nose almost vertical heading straight for the bridge at high speed.  The first one to drop their bow loses.
We walked around the town and were less than impressed.  I think we thought that since Georgetown is the major settlement for this part of the Bahamas, and so many cruisers make this their winter home, the town must be bustling.  It has everything that a town needs: two small grocery stores, gift shops, a few restaurants, gas station, liquor store, but not much more than that.  It certainly has everything that we would want but I think we were expecting more.  For us, having access to free fresh water, located at the dinghy dock, is an important asset.   Since we are in the area to experience the sights and meet some fellow cruisers we moved the boat to one of the three main anchorage areas, this one the northern-most of the three.

Sunday, 2/1:  Super-Bowl Sunday!  Even though neither of us cares who wins the game, we knew we had to find someplace to watch. Fortunately, right by the anchorage, is a small resort showing the game and offering drink and food specials; imagine that!  In the morning, we took a walk to the highest point on Stocking Island and got some good photos of the boats in the harbor. 

Georgetown Harbor

Superbowl

  After the nice walk it was time to find seats for the big game.  We got there early, and had a table just in front of the big-screen projector TV.  Shortly after we arrived, the place started filling up.  Two guys came by and remarked to Kathi that we had the best seats in the house, they went to the rear and sat down.  Kathi went and invited them to join us since the table had seats open.  One, Paul was a cruiser who is here with his wife, the other man, Rob, had just flown in from Canada to visit them for a week.  They were great people to visit with and we all placed bets on who would win.  Rob and I were for New England; Kathi and Paul for Seattle. Needless to say, it was a great game with lots of ups and downs for both sides.  Of course, everyone knows, I picked the winning side.

Monday, 2/2:  Most of the Harbor area is a no-fishing zone.  We dinghied about 3 miles north to get to some of the outlying cays so we could snorkel and spearfish.  The swells at the cuts to get into Exuma Sound were breaking all across the cuts so we opted to stay to the inside of the cays.  We saw some nice coral, but nothing to catch for dinner.

Tuesday, 2/3: The ocean swells were still pretty large but had  decreased to where four or five large swells would break in the cut, then about the same number would be small enough to not break.  We timed them perfectly and took the dinghy into the Exuma Sound.  We had been told that there were lots of coral heads with lots of fish.  Kathi snorkeled while I stayed with the dinghy to keep its nose into the swells.  She saw lots of beautiful coral heads with the tops about 6 feet from the surface and the base about 30 feet down; a little too deep for her to easily spearfish.  We travelled about 3 miles looking for an area where the coral might be a little shallower, but many of the swells were breaking over the shallower reefs closer in to shore and all of the reefs we found outside of the breaks  were too deep.  Kathi got back in the dinghy to discuss what to do and a 5 foot shark followed her and came within 3 feet of the dinghy.  We thought it would hit the boat!  Knowing that friends of ours in the Abacos had their daughter seriously attacked by a shark, we are now much more leery of them.  We still enjoy seeing sharks, we just don’t want it to be close up and personal.  We headed back to Makani, once again having to time the swells to enter the cut without fighting a breaking wave.  One more day where we didn’t catch anything to eat; fortunately we still have fish and lobster in the freezer. In the evening, on Tuesday and Thursday, one of the local resorts has a Texas Hold-em poker game; $5 buy in.  We joined the fun and although we didn’t end in-the-money, we felt pretty good about how we played and enjoyed the company of fellow cruisers.

Wednesday, 2/4:  We chose a new area to snorkel but had little more luck than the past few days. Kathi got one lobster but that’s all we saw.  We never had problems in the Abacos finding lobster but have not had much luck so far in the Exumas. In our e-mail, Lindsey from Kindred Spirit wrote that she had been attacked by a shark; it had aggressively come towards her, she held out her spear and the shark grabbed it and shook her like a rag doll (her words). Fortunately, she did not get bit. The evening entertainment was a dance at the beach bar.

Thursday, 2/5:  We decided to leave Georgetown for a few days to explore some more of the southern Exuma Islands.  We headed north, having a great sail and then had to choose an anchorage for the next few days.  I opted for Rat Cay, Kathi wanted to go to Black Cay just a mile south.  The weather the next couple of days is supposed to be very windy, so we will be stuck in the place we choose.  I got my way, we anchored at Rat Cay.  The snorkel that afternoon reminded us how strong the current can be going out some of the cuts.  There was no way we could get in the water at the coral heads near the cuts and swim against the current.  We found no lobster and went back to the boat empty-handed, again.

Friday, 2/6:  The winds blew over 30 knots, the anchorage was choppy, and I had to admit that I might not have chosen the best anchorage for the weather conditions.  We managed to take the dinghy to Black Cay, saw that the anchorage there was much more tranquil than ours and also managed to find a couple of lobsters to get for dinner.  Moving to this anchorage from where we are at, even though it’s only a mile away, would entail going out one cut and into another with swells breaking across both of them.  We hunkered down and John heard about his poor choice of anchoring spots.  Oh well, live and learn and eat crow for a long time.

Saturday, 2/7:  Winds have died down some, but the water is still choppy.  We decided to go to the beach for a picnic and found a small beach very close to the boat.  I decided that we should take Kiwi along to give her some time off of the bouncy boat also.  We put her in her harness, attached the leash and a longer rope, and headed for the beach.  Kiwi, as soon as we were at the beach, took off running into the brush.  We got the picnic out knowing that Kiwi can’t go far being on a leash.  Wrong.  As soon as she reached the end of the leash, she did a Houdini-act to work her way out of the harness and off she went.  We finished our picnic, calling for Kiwi every now and again.  Our picnic over, no Kiwi in sight, I went back to the boat to get camping gear to set up on the beach for the night, figuring that eventually Kiwi will find her way back to our beach.  About a half-hour into setting up camp, Kiwi comes bouncing back to the beach, looks at me checking that I’m still around, then runs back into the brush to chase another bird.  For an hour, I tried to coax her out of the brush but the birds kept her entranced, and far enough into the thick brush that I couldn't get to her.  

Kiwi checking out our blog

Kathi came back from the boat just before dusk to see how I was doing.  Between the two of us, we rounded-up the reluctant cat and herded her back to the boat, both of us wanting to strangle her.  Another lesson learned: no shore excursions for Kiwi except on very, very small, non-brushy islands where she can’t disappear.  We try to be mad at her but how can you stay mad at a cute kitten?

Sunday, 2/8:  Clean-up day.  Kathi kicked me off the boat to do her cleaning; I took the dinghy to the beach and cleaned it.

Monday, 2/9:  Time to head back to Georgetown, tomorrow they say it’s a gonna blow.  We had a decent sail and picked an anchorage with protection from the west and north winds forecast for tomorrow.

Tuesday, 2/10:  They forecast a blow, and blow it did.  Fortunately we were in the best location for the wind and waves.  We had the radio on and one of the first calls in the morning was someone warning about a 200 foot long freighter, filled with sand that was dragging from the center of the harbor towards the boats in one of the main cruising anchorages.  People scrambled to get out of the way before the freighter finally got engines going and away from the cruising boats.  After that, call after call came about boats dragging.  One boat that had gotten towed into the anchorage the day before with a broken shaft started to drag so several “neighbors” came with their dinghies to help get the boat back into position to re-anchor.  As we’ve often said, better to watch the show than to be the show.  We went to town and got laundry done.  The biggest disappointment of the day was the cancellation of poker night due to the rough seas; cruisers would get wet dinghying into the resort.

Wednesday, 2/11:  We took a dinghy cruise to Crab Cay, about 5 miles south of where we were anchored.  The day was cold so we just toured the area, didn’t even get into the water.

Thursday, 2/12:  Kathi caught an octopus while snorkeling.  The evening’s entertainment is poker night at the local resort.

WOW!!!! What a crazy week we have had. Sunday we wanted to go around to the Cape Santa Marie point and do the cut that almost cost us our lives last week on a calm day so that we could appreciate it and not come home with excrimate in our wetsuits.  The cut looked pretty flat (only 2-4’ swells vs. 6-8’ swells last week), but the current was going the wrong direction for me to swim through it.  It was sucking me in through the cut and I was afraid I would not be able to swim back through it to get back to the dinghy and I didn’t want John to have to take the dinghy through the cut with 2-4’ swells.  This is something we will have to put on the list to do on a much calmer day.  We snorkeled the area off of Cape Reef and John got a fish for dinner.

Monday: We rocked and rolled all night last night (Sunday, January 18) and not in a good way. The surge in Calabash bay was horrific and we didn’t sleep a wink, so as soon as there was sunlight, we anchored up in search for a calmer anchorage. We headed south to duck behind Hog Cay, but the surge was just as bad.  We also tried the anchorage to the west of Hog Cay, but we were just getting beat up.  We tried to put sails up and see if we could get on a heel and stabilize and sail to George Town, but no matter what we did, the boat felt like she was ripping apart at the seams.  We had to pass the entrance to Joe’s Sound on the way to Hog Cay and when looking at the entrance, it looked way too dicey so we ruled that out initially. Now after bobbing for over an

perfect ending to a rough day

hour, every which way, like a toy boat in a hot tub with all the jets on, we reconsidered. The entrance is dangerous enough on a calm day much less with 2-4 foot swells pushing you around, but we had to get somewhere protected.  Since we had been in Joe’s Sound before, we had a track on the GPS to follow so we felt like we could get in safely.  The problem was the seas had more control over the boat than I did at the helm.  I had to punch the RPMs up a bit to overcome the swells pushing me about.  Not something you really want to do in 5.5’ of water with jagged rock within 3 feet of the boat on either side. Just as I punched the engine up a bit a big swell pushed us half way through the entrance and the engine died. I yelled at John to throw the anchor down as we drifted through the cut and just past the jagged rock ledge.  We anchored in the channel while John assessed the engine problem.  He diagnosed that the fuel filter was clogged so he switched to the forward tank and we were able to pull up anchor and re-anchor in a comfortable spot. It is a world of difference inside a protected anchorage.  We finally get to relax and have our first cup of Joe. Matt and Lyndsey had not left Joe’s Sound since we left them.  They came over and introduced us to Dave and Leslie on Texas Two Step. Later they brought surf boards over and we went “durfing” (dinghy surfing).  We used the surf boards just like wake boards and had a blast.  In the evening we had dinner on Makani with Matt and Lyndsey bringing fried grouper, Dave and Leslie brought fish soup and fresh homemade bread and we made a beet salad. We visited well into the night as we lost track of time in this calm, quiet, peaceful anchorage.

Our "new" fishing pole

Tuesday, January 20. Matt and Lyndsey and Dave and Leslie headed out early with plans to go to George Town.  We looked at weather and are set on going to Rum Cay and Conception, so we stayed in Joe’s Sound.  We went out snorkeling about a 1/2 mile off of Calabash Bay.  I spotted a lobster almost immediately after getting in the water, but it was too deep for my capabilities.  John came over and nailed it.  We swam around some more when I noticed a fishing rod and reel on the sand.  I dove down to get it, but the line was tangled in the coral and it was deeper than I had anticipated and I had to drop my spear and scurry to the top before my lungs burst.  Again John was my hero as he came over and cut the line and retrieved the fishing pole and my pole spear.  The fishing pole could not have been in the water for long as it functioned perfectly.  After cleaning it up, it looked brand new.  We estimate it was about a $300.00 find. In the evening, we made preparations for an off shore as we have decided to go to Conception Island tomorrow.

Our "new" mixing bowls

What a difference the seas look on our way out of Joe’s Sound from when we came in.  Within a half hour of starting out to go to Conception Island, the engine died again.  We had to bail into Calabash Bay and take the fuel lines and blow them out. The whole process took about an hour and we were on our way again. Things are calm, too calm.  We had to motorsail all the way to Conception Island as there was little to no wind. Conception Island is an uninhabited island with no facilities and a preserved land and water park. Obviously a no take zone so we will just enjoy its loveliness with our eyes only, and LOVELY it is.  We dropped anchor and immediately went for a snorkel off the north end of the island.  We saw all sorts of fish and we were in about 6 feet of water when a bull shark decided to check us out.  The coral heads were abundant and many broke the surface so swimming through them left few options and the bull shark was just taking the same route we were. After the incident with our friends daughter getting bit by a shark last month, we are much more weary around sharks than we used to be.  I swam the 1/2 mile back to the boat while John rowed the dinghy just to get exercise.  I noticed there was no trash in the sand and we noted there was very little trash on the beaches which makes this spot all the more beautiful.  The one exception to this is I saw something shiny near our boat and I dove down and it was two bowls stacked on top of each other.  The one thing that we lacked on the boat this trip was mixing bowls.  We only have one, which I thought would be sufficient, but many times we have wished we had another or even two more and whala. I had found mixing bowls at some of the stores we had been in, but did not want to pay upwards of $30 for one. Later in the day, I wanted to do another snorkel, but could not find my hood.  We looked everywhere, but it was gone.  The sea givith and the sea taketh away.

Thursday, January 22.  We got up early to hit high tide to explore the mangroves.  Basically, Conception island is a ring of land with the entire center being mangrove marsh.  We saw lots of turtles. We were able to take Kiwi with us as this was a relaxing dinghy ride.  After we left the mangroves, we went in search for the dive buoys located off the southern shore.  We found the buoys and went back to the boat to drop Kiwi off and then suited up for a dive.  We dove the Conception Island Wall, described to be the most beatiful reef in the Bahamas and it did not disappoint. It is a very deep dive with the reef beginning at 60’ and a vertical wall dropping to infinate depths.  The coral is fantastic and there was a lot of fish and a bull shark followed us around. When John and I came up from the dive, we both immediately said this could very well have been the best dive we have ever done. Really, dives like this, there are simply no words that can describe it.  One thing that is notably absent on Conception is lobster.  Of all the snorkels and dives we have done here, we have not seen a single one.  This is quite curious to us since we thought we would see many big ones with it being a protected area.

to think we have been throwing these away

Huge lobster

On Friday morning, we pulled anchor to move about 2 miles south, just off of the dive buoys.  As we were leaving the anchorage, we saw the mega-yacht Rosa unloading all their toys, one of which was and amphibien car - pretty cool. We dove just south of the site we did yesterday and were equally impressed with the beauty of the coral and the wall.  It is amazing to go over the wall. The colors are quite impressive and the varieties of corals, sponges and fish are incredible. It is also awesome to anchor 50 feet off the dive site and be able to dive directly off the boat.  We can get ready in all the comforts of home and have snacks between dives and warm up and read and relax in our surface interval. After our second dive, we anchored up and planned to go to Rum Cay although we could stay here and dive this area for weeks.  Because Conception is uninhabited, it also means there are no services and no internet so we were unable to get weather reports while here.  After pulling around Wedge Point at the southern tip of Conception, the seas were confused and the swells were 4-6’.  It is only 14 miles to Rum Cay, so by the time we did everything in our game book to try and get into a comfortable sail, we were pretty much committed to go to Rum.  We were able to sail for about 7 miles of the trip, but we were only going about 4 knots with the swells and wind right on our nose and a northern antilles current running between the two islands. It wasn’t a totally uncomfortable ride, but it wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t until we were about 1 mile from the anchorage that things settled down. We had to get into the anchorage in daylight hours so we motored the last 7 miles. Getting into this anchorage was like walking through a mine field.  John was on the bow watching for coral heads and we zig zagged our way into Flamingo Bay.  Many of the coral heads are only 1-2 feet beneath the surface so avoiding them is critical.  We finally found a sandy area to anchor.  We put the dinghy down to sound the surrounding area and felt that we were a bit too close to a few shallow coral heads so we re-anchored about 150 feet further into shore and felt good about our position.  We could swing 360 degrees and have adequate distance from the shallow corals.  John said he would take care of the snubber and I could go for a snorkel since we didn’t have much daylight left.  Before John had even secured the snubber, I yelled at him to bring the dinghy and collect the bounty.  We got 2 HUGE lobsters both with tails over 10”.  Dave and Leslie told us the best part of the lobster was the legs.  We had never tried them before and had been throwing them out.  Tonight we made a meal (and a half) with just the legs off of these two lobsters and one knuckle fed Kiwi. Dave and Leslie were right, the legs ARE delicious.

Saturday, January 24.  The plan for the day is to snorkel the wreck of an old Haitian freighter about a mile and a half from our anchorage.  We will maneuver the dinghy through the coral heads until we come to  a mile and a half long shallow reef with the wreck on the northern tip of the shallow reef.  We are able to stick to the plan as the weather, waves, and wind are cooperating.  We found the wreck and were impressed by the size of the ship and the preservation of things such as clothing and metal staircases.  John always wonders about the cause of the accident, loss of lives, circumstances, etc. and wants to come back to the boat and read everything he can on

Haitian freighter wreck

the wreck.  We explored the area for a little over two hours and then headed back for some lunch and relaxation.  At 3pm we went out for another snorkel to get some fresh lobster to go with the steak we are grilling tonight.  We were amazed that despite snorkeling 10-15 coral heads in the same general area as finding 3 HUGE lobster last night, we found nothing but conch, lots of fish, a few turtles, a shark, and lots of fun.  On rare occasion I am able to talk John into a night snorkel and tonight was one of those nights.  He had just enough to drink to relax and explore a few coral heads with me. We played with a few trunk fish and saw lots of silversides and some shrimp. We have had Flamingo bay to ourselves and this gorgeous, calm private anchorage makes one uninhibited. The water temperature is 81 degrees. The water is crystal clear. The beach is pristine and I think there are more stars visible here than anywhere I’ve ever been.  This is paradise.

On Sunday, we sat through several squalls and thought it was going to rain all day.  We cleaned the salt water off the deck and decided to collect water when the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out.  We took advantage of the break in weather to up anchor and go to the Southeast part of the island where the only settlement that still exists on Rum Cay is located.  We have been out of touch with no internet and no update on weather so we thought we would get wired in and then decide what was in store for us next.  The first thing we found out was that the weather was going to be turning bad and we were going to be in a bad spot for the wind and waves that were predicted.  The second thing we found out is that the marina that we thought we could duck into if the weather predictions were bad, was closed.  We went into the settlement and found that just about everything is closed.  Not because it is Sunday, but because this settlement is dying due to economy, closing of marina, etc. Everything the books and charts and explorer snips said about the settlement are history. We went out for a snorkel and lost one of our oars.  John noticed it when he took me to explore a reef 2 miles away from the boat.  We abandoned the snorkel and went searching for our missing dinghy oar.  We found it floating near our original destination quite thankfully.  

Last night was a bit of a rolling night, but this morning it is outright vomittsville.  We went into the settlement to shop the two grocery stores to see what fesh fruits and vegetables we could get.  Both stores had very limited selection and all of their “fresh” stuff was molded, soft, or sprouting.  We decided we didn’t need anything and went out for a snorkel.  We had to battle 4-5’ swells to get to any coral heads and when we arrived, the water was so stirred up that you couldn’t see and we didn’t see anything that we could get for dinner.  Frustrated, we returned to the boat and sat rocking and rolling while trying to play poker and distract ourselves from this very uncomfortable situation.  The weather predictions call for this to continue until Wednesday, so we will see if we can improve the situation when there is daylight.

Tuesday, January 27. Neither of us got a wink of sleep with the boat rolling to and fro and bucking like a mad bull.  John found a “flopper stopper” on the internet so we set a goal to build one and see if we could get some relief from this surge.  We went into the settlement and pilfered all of the materials we needed out of trash bins.  We cut a triangular piece of plywood, attached some weights and tied it to the spinnaker pole and launched our new flopper stopper.  I snorkeled the surrounding area and made some adjustments until we got the flopper stopper working.  Of course after spending about 4 hours gathering materials, constructing the flopper stopper, and making adjustments, the winds had decreased somewhat and we weren’t rolling as bad.  We can still tell it makes quite a bit of difference. I cleaned the hull of the boat and swam for about an hour because when it is this rolley, you want to be anywhere but on the boat.  By evening, things had calmed down to where we knew we could get some much needed sleep. It is times like this that are very demotivating for boat life.  The seas are too strong to enjoy getting out on the dinghy. Things are too stirred up to have enough visibility to hunt. We are at a location where there is nothing to do on land. It is unsafe to take the dinghy out in the ocean to dive. You can’t read without getting seasick. I’m glad we have very few days like this.

Monday, January 5 - We moved the boat a few miles SW to McQueens to be closer to our jump off point for our anticipated crossing from Cat Island to Long Island with plans to bail to George Town Exumas if the weather conditions vary from the forecast. We went for our last snorkel at Cat Island only to find a few scattered coral heads.  On each of the coral heads were a lot of fish, but mostly not the type we eat.  We were just jumping in the water and taking a quick look and then moving to the next coral head to do the same.  Getting a bit frustrated and thinking we may have to eat Top Ramen for dinner, I didn’t even put on my fins at the last coral head we were going to check out.  As soon as I jumped in I noticed hundreds of barracuda and a large turtle so I swam back to the dinghy and asked John to hand me my fins.  I was putting them on in the water and went to buckle the second one which required that I look between my legs and I see shark swimming straight towards me.  I hop into the dinghy and tell John there are sharks below.  I grab my spear and jump back in and John jumps in to see the action.  For just a few scattered coral heads, we saw a lot of fish and had a great snorkel.

Tuesday morning John lets me sleep in while he anchors up and single hands around Hawks Nest Point which I really appreciate as we have not had the most restful nights of sleep on Cat Island and last night was like heaven.  It turns out the weather was exactly as predicted so we are sailing nicely, on course, to our desired destination: Calabash Bay, Long Island.  We make one pit stop at Tartar Bank which is a huge underwater mountain which rises within 7 fathoms of the surface from it’s surrounding depths.  I jumped off the side of the boat to take a look, while John manned a life line since the current and tides are very strong in this area.  Really wasn’t much to see, but it was a fun diversion.  Just before we reached the bank, the fishing reel began singing the tune “I have a Mahi Mahi on” and the pictures of that will speak for themselves.

 The sailing was excellent using our main and a partial headsail; most of the time we were sailing at 6 knots with occasionally getting up to 7 knots.  We made the 34 mile trip in just under 6 hours.  As soon as we anchor, Matt and Lyndsey dinghy over from Joe’s Sound and say hi and ask if we want to go for a snorkel.  We go to the north end of the island and see some beautiful reef and a monument in honor of Columbus, but no lobster.  Nevermind, we have Mahi Mahi.  We give Matt and Lyndsey half the Mahi and cook a bit up for ourselves and then since we are both tired from the crossing, we bug out early for a good nights sleep.

Entrance to Joes Sound

Wednesday, January 7 - We take the boat into Joe’s Sound at high tide because that is the only time you can make it into Joe’s Sound.  The entrance is very narrow and it looks like you have to drive the boat on to the shore to maneuver it correctly and not go aground.  Matt took videos from under water as we were coming in and they are super cool and show just how difficult the anchorage is to get into, but now we are in a very protected anchorage.  We go out for a snorkel because I want to see the cut we just came in from the keels point of view, and check out the rocks just outside of the cut for dinner.

Anchored in Joes Sound

View from the cockpit

We visited with Matt and Lyndsey and took a walk around the area which used to be a marina.  When we walked in the old building that used to be the office for the marina, a bunch of bat moths flew right at me and scared the bejeezers out of me. Later in the evening we were visited by these bat moths and John caught one and took it below for Kiwi to play with. Unfortunately, the video of that was too dark, but she had a blast.

Kiwi's Playmate

Kiwi Hunting the moth

Thursday was windy and rained on and off all day.  These are the days that are very demotivating as you don’t feel like doing too much, but when we got a short break in the rain, we set up a golf course and played a couple of rounds of golf on the dry sand flats.  Joe’s Sound is really nothing more than a creek and at low tide 100’ in front of us the sand beds are dry and where we are anchored, our stern sits less than 20’ from shore.  We have swung 360 degrees and have not gone aground, so we are in the perfect spot despite being able to step off the boat, into the dinghy, and on to shore. We had a line out like we almost always do, and I heard it sing, so I went to grab it and it was a ray.  It broke my line and stole my bait AND my $10 weight.  I snorkeled for 30 minutes looking for the weight, but could not find it.

On Friday, Matt and Lindsey invite us to join them on an excursion to Hog Cay.  Hog Cay is privately owned and visits ashore are by invitation only. Hog Cay is home to the largest flock of West Indian Whistling Ducks in the Bahamas.  The owners of the island feed them (at a rumored expense of $10 grand a week).

Whistling Ducks

 We heard a rumor that the owner of Hog Cay was offered $80 million for his island and turned it down.  My question is, why on earth would you want an $80 million island that smells like duck shit and has really annoying whistling birds on it?  Anyhow, we had a nice hike around the island and while leaving the island, I just had to snorkel the surrounding rocks and nailed two nice size lobsters for dinner.  In the afternoon, we went to explore a blue hole just north of our anchorage.  It truely was a sorry excuse for a blue hole, but on the way there, we saw a couple of guys trying to swim across the river to see the blue hole.  The current is very strong through here and you could tell they were struggling, so we picked them up in the dinghy and took them to the blue hole and ferried them back to their shore where they were staying in a vacation rental.

Pizza Night!

Saturday, January 10 - John and I are hankering for pizza.  We start planning and know we have all the ingredients we need, but could really use some mozzarella cheese.  At high tide, we decide we will take the dinghy across the sand flats that are dry during low tide and visit Burnt Ground which claims to have a small grocery store. It’s a 2.5 mile dinghy trip and about a half mile walk, but we get the mozzarella and a few more items and spend most of the day making fresh pizza dough, fresh pizza sauce and chopping ingredients for pizzas.  We have invited Matt and Lyndsey to join us.  We have done all the prep work so I decide to go for a swim. I am particularly interested in swimming the cut at the entrance to the anchorage as we plan to leave tomorrow and I want to take a good hard look at where the boat needs to go to not go aground or ashore.  I was quickly reminded of the strong current as I was swept past the cut and was having a hard time slowing down.  I grabbed a big rock and pulled myself close to shore and looked at Makani which was now about 100 yards up current.  I knew that John was down below and would not hear me if I yelled for help.  I pulled on rocks until I was at the cut and then started swimming like hell.  Halfway through the cut, I look down and see my $10 weight, so I dive down and grab it and got a burst of adrenaline from my fantastico find and reached the other side of the cut.  I was so excited to find my weight that I swam all the way back to Makani, but did not realize it.  I looked up and two sharks were headed straight for me.  I lifted my head to see where Makani was and she was way in the distance (or so I thought).  I swam as hard as I could and looked up again to see if I was making any progress against the current and saw a dinghy tied to the side of the boat and thought “crap, Matt and Lyndsey are already there”.  I swam about another 30 feet before looking up and realizing I was way past Makani and was swimming towards Kindred Spirit.  I relaxed and let the current carry me to Makani where we enjoyed a night of great pizzas and fine socialization.

What’s a little wind (30 knots) and a little rain on a Sunday? Well it ruined our plans for leaving our anchorage and exploring more of Long Island because the cut in and out just looked too ominous to risk. We went outside of the cut in the dinghy and of course that side of the island is in the lee of the wind so it is calm.  We were able to snorkel and see some really interesting underwater landscape. I like to swim against the current for about a half hour every day and I was just about done with my swim when Matt and Lyndsey called and invited us for dinner.  When we returned to our boat, Kiwi was going crazy chasing bat moths and the boat was full of broken moth wings.

Monday - After cleaning up moth wings for about an hour, we got in the dinghy to assess the entrance/exit to Joe’s sound one more time before we head out to check out Thompson Bay.  The wind is stronger than forecasted, and Matt and Lyndsey came by to invite us on a snorkel with Patrick.  We decided to stay in Joe’s Sound and meet Patrick, who ownes a houseboat and 32 foot sail boat that he keeps in the Sound for use during the winter.  The rest of the year he is in NYC on his 100 foot sailing schooner doing charters (The yacht is moored in the financial district). We saw his boat while visiting New York and took pictures of it. When we came into Joe’s Sound a few days ago, he was in Norway visiting his girlfriend.  Matt and Lyndsey were anxious for us to meet him and he’s quite the character.   Matt and Lyndsey got a grouper and Patrick and John got a few lobster so we met at Patrick’s houseboat and shared dinner that night.  Patrick took us to some of his favorite snorkeling spots, one of which was a very rough dinghy ride through 6-8 foot ocean swells and into a small bay.  After arriving, we decided it was too rough to snorkel so back out the cut we go, up and over 6-8 foot swells with some breaking on either side.  It was the scariest dinghy ride Kathi or I have ever been on.  We all survived the trip and had a wonderful meal at Patrick’s. Patrick was in NYC on 9/11 and was one of the many boats that ferried people across the bay to safety.  He had some great stories to tell.

We’ve wanted to explore more of Long Island so we left on Tuesday with the intention of sailing to Thompson Bay, about half-way down the Island, 22 miles away. Unfortunately the wind was on our nose so we motor-sailed until we saw a line of squalls on the horizon.  We decided to anchor off of Bain’s Bluff, about 7 miles away from Thompson Bay.  We took a short snorkel where Kathi caught a few crabs to have with dinner and made it back to the boat shortly before a strong thunderstorm hit.  After we let the heavy rain rinse off the decks, we opened the scuppers to divert the rainwater into our water tanks.  In about 15 minutes, both tanks were full. The lightning was incredibly close and the thunder was deafening.  Kiwi was scared to death and for a while we just knew we were going to get hit by lightning.  We still had lightning and thunder all around us when we got up to go to the bathroom at 4am.

On Wednesday we made it to Thompson Bay and filled up with 14 gallons of dinghy fuel (We had been down to our last cup of gasoline).  We walked to the grocery store and explored the settlement somewhat.  We both were very tired from not sleeping well with the storm last night so we went to bed very early.

Thursday we walked to the ocean side of the Island carrying our snorkel gear hoping to find a great reef and dinner. It was pretty rough with much surge and opposing currents which made snorkeling a bit unsafe and things were stirred up so much that visibility was limited.  We left our gear on a cliff and walked about two miles down the beach where we found a beautiful cove.  We had to hike uphill about 100 yards and then we looked down a steep cliff.  It looked like a great seaglass spot so we did a bit of mountain climbing to get into the cove.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find any seaglass AND, we had left our camara in our bags back at the original cliff so this beautiful Kodak moment will have to be in our memories.  When we returned to the boat, another couple that owns a Gozzard stopped by to say hello, so we invited them for cocktails and appetizers and visited with them.  They are doing the opposite route of us so they told us all about the places we are headed to and we told them about the places they are headed to.

 We decided to leave on Friday the 16th but the winds would not cooperate so we hunkered down in the anchorage, did laundry and played games. We tried to snorkel in several spots, but things were so stirred up, that visibility was about 2 feet. The middle part of Long Island doesn’t seem to fit with what we like to do; snorkel, spearfish and look for seaglass.  Most of the area we explored is very sandy with little or no reef. 

We decided that we should move back up to the north end of the Island on Saturday so we can explore our options which are to head over to Conception Island and Rum Cay or go west to Georgtown.  We sailed the entire distance using our main and the staysail.  Our average speed was 6.4 knots and our maximum speed was 7.6 knots—a very robust sailing day for us!  At times we wished we had less sail out, but Makani was sailing fine and we just had to get use to the amount of heeling.  We anchored in Calabash Bay then went for a snorkel and got two lobsters with 8+ inch tails.  The area we were hunting in was about 25’.  It is quite a different workout getting lobster in 25’ vs. less than 10 feet.  The lobsters here are way back under shelves, so finding them is challenge number one.  Then you have to dive down with spear ready to go and shoot them.  I have to leave my spear in them and dive down a second time to retrieve the spear and the lobster because I can’t hold my breath long enough to do it in one dive especially if the lobster wants to fight.  Sometimes I swear I am going to drown getting a big lobster, but I never get sick of doing this and the lobster dipped in fresh homemade pesto butter was delicious.

December 31, 2015:  On Wednesday morning, we looked online for the cruise ship schedules to see if we could stay in our comfortable anchorage or if we would have to move.  It’s not that we can’t stay where we are, it is just that the cruise line has purchased this island and have built on it what they feel are peoples dreams for a vacation.  The island has water parks, private cabanas, buttered party rooms, restaurants, and of course all the toys like jet skis, paddle boards, and wind surfers as well as all the snorkeling, glass bottom boats, horseback riding and fishing excursions that guests might want.  They don’t own the water and can’t tell you not to anchor there, but we don’t think vacationers want to pull up to their fantasy vacation spot and see a sail boat with dive gear hanging out to dry and two old people reading books and drinking coffee.  From what we read, the ships arrive at 8am and it was now 8:30am so we thought we lucked out and this was a day no cruise ship was coming in; although, we did look at the shoreline and saw what looked like ants scurrying everywhere raking the island and polishing it up like they expected guests. Sure enough 15 minutes later the ferry boats that shuffle passengers to and from the cruise ship came out of their private harbour and rocked our boat.  We had failed to look up the schedule of Carnival cruise ships which was bought by Holland America. We scurried to get Makani sail ready and got out of the anchorage before the first passenger disembarked from the cruise ship.  There are well over a thousand passengers on those cruises so we didn’t really want to be in the epicenter of all their activities.  We anchored about three miles south in about 20’ of water to check out the steep drop off.  The way the wind was blowing set our stern less that 50’ to the drop off so we swam off the back of the boat and observed the drop off and saw some hog fish and sharks.  We then dinghied close to shore to hunt and got two very large lobster.  

Kiwi inspecting dinner

One of the lobsters had a 10 1/2 inch tail and might be a boat record.  It certainly is the largest we have found this season.  John about drowned getting it back to the dinghy.  We found more huge lobster, but we have no room in our freezer for lobster this big.  

After we returned to the boat, we decided to go ahead and move on to Cat Island where there aren’t so many people.  We anchored at the north end near Orange creek next to another sailboat.  Just about the time we got our anchor set, Matt and Lyndsey from s/v Kindred Spirit came over to introduce themselves.  They came aboard and we learned in a very short time that they knew people we knew and they were both nurses and had in fact worked at hospitals I had worked at and in the same departments.  We were most excited to learn that they like to do many of the things we like to do while cruising including fishing, spearfishing, snorkeling, diving, and playing cards and games.  We invited them over for dinner to share in our monstrous lobster and play some cards and ring in the new year together.

Thursday, January 1 2015:  We had planned to go for a snorkel with Matt and Lyndsey in the morning, but the winds were a bit heavier that we expected and more southernly so the anchorage got a bit sloppy and lumpy.  Matt came over and shared some movie files and music files he had and told us they were going to move south and try to get into a calmer anchorage.  We told him we had some exploring to do in this area and may see them later.  We dinghied to the farthest northern point called sand point where there is supposed to be a beautiful reef and lots of sharks, but as we approached the swells on the ocean side were too large to safely leave the dinghy and explore.  We did a bit of spelunking, but a big swell crashed into the back of the dinghy and pushed us ahore and the next swell filled the dinghy with water so I took a quick look in the cave and then returned to the dinghy to finish bailing it out while John took a quick look in the cave.  We snorkeled a beautiful small reef not far from where we were anchored and then went into the Orange Creek Settlement forgetting that it is January 1 and none of the shops were open. Still recovering from last nights festivities, we headed to bed early, but now the wind has changed course again and it is opposing the current and waves so we are rocking and rolling and I’m up well past boaters midnight waiting for the sleeping pills to kick in.

Friday, January 2, 2015:  We put up with as much rolling as we could stand; in fact, probably one of the top 5 worse nights we have experienced on the boat. We got up early and anchored up before having our coffee or making the bed to move south to Fernandez Harbor which we hoped would have some protection from the swells we were experiencing.  We called Kindred Spirit who had anchored a few miles south of us and they had the same idea.  We had a very good sail, tacking once to make our way to the harbor.  On the way, Kathi caught a 20 inch fish, either a bluefish or a mackerel.  After anchoring, we went out on a short snorkel to explore the area; unfortunately not finding any nice reefs.  Matt and Lindsey joined us for spaghetti, an antipasta appetizer plate and fresh bread that Kathi baked.  We ended the evening with a game of Rummycube which got interrupted by a discussion about sea glass when Kathi found out Lyndsey was as much of an enthusiast as her. We made plans for a hike to the ocean side for some beach coming tomorrow.  The night was not as rolly as the previous night but still very uncomfortable.  Things would be calm for about 3 minutes, then 4 or 5 surge waves would sweep in, roughly rocking the boat from side to side.  

Oceanside Beach

Saturday, January 3, 2015:  Kindred Spirit moved up to Smith Bay, a couple miles north, which is very protected but also very small. We didn’t feel we could comfortably get Makini into the bay.  We dinghied up to meet them and took a long walk to the ocean beach on the southeast side of the island.  Kathi and Lyndsey went one way down the beach to look for treasures and Matt went the other way.  Matt has been finding brand new hardwood 4X4 ’s probably from a lost shipping container and he carried one all the way back to the dinghy. He has found several and has gathered 4 of them, but his boat is already listing from the weight of these posts.  I don’t know what he is going to make with them, but he is determined to get a few more to take back.  

The beach was beautiful, clean, and deserted.  Once again that evening we put up with the rocking swells and made plans to move the next day.

Father Jerome's House

Sunday, January 4, 2015:  One of the best known and most visited sites on Cat Island is the Hermitage.  Loceated on the highest point in the Bahamas, 204 feet above sea level, the Hermitage was the home of John Cecil Hawes, also known as Father Jerome, who was an Anglican Priest.  He also was an architect and was sent to the Bahamas in 1908 to help restore churches damaged by hurricanes and to build new churches.  He is well known for many of the beautiful structures that he was responsible for building.  We moved from Fernandez Bay to New Bight and anchored just below the Hermitage.  We could already tell that this anchorage was much smoother than the one we just left and after our visit to the Hermitage planned to move 4 miles further south to another anchorage that we hoped would be calmer still.  

The walk to the Hermitage took about 30 minutes and we passed several small farms, more like large gardens, growing tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, ochre, beans and corn.  All of the crops were growing in very rocky ground, ground that would be considered unusable in the US, and with limited water.  The local farmers sell their crop to supplement their income.  

Chapel

One of the Stations of the Cross

At Entrance to path

Hearth in Kitchen

The path to the Hermitage is up a rocky hillside where the stations of the cross had been built by Father Jerome.  The entire experience of walking up to the Hermitage and the building itself was AMAZING!  Kathi said the excursion to the Hermitage was well worth all the rocking and rolling and sleepless nights.  It was our favorite thing on Cat Island.  The building looks larger than it actually is, and consists of a chapel, belltower, bedroom, kitchen, bathing area, and guestroom.  It is a fabulous looking building with views of the ocean that cannot be surpassed.  

After returning to the boat we moved the 4 miles to the southern anchorage in the Bight and have the calmest anchorage that we have experienced on Cat Island.  We are looking forward to a nice nights sleep.