February 25, 2019 Monday Rachel’s
Bubble Bath, Compass Cay, Exhumas to Belle
Island, Exuma Parks, Exhumas 8.3 nautical miles.
24°18’32.6″N 76°33’06.5″W
24.309068, -76.551796
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Under our dingy
Compass Cay Mangrove Creek
The Exumas Land and Sea Park – Plane Wreck off O’Brien Cay
The Exumas Land and Sea Park – The Aquarium off O’Brien Cay
The Exumas Land and Sea Johnny Depp’s private island – Little Hall’s Pond Cay (near O’Brien Cay)
House front
House backside
Neighbors
This starfish looks like a cookie. It is about the size of a 12″ dinner plate.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The beautiful sandy beaches in the Bahamas are courtesy of the Parrot fish. Parrot fish poop sand. They eat algae that grows on coral rock, munching pieces of coral in the process which is digested and released (pooped), as much as one ton of sand a year.
February 24, 2019 Sunday Staniel
Cay, Thunderball Grotto, Exhumas to
Rachel’s Bubble Bath, Compass Cay 15.5 nautical miles.
24°16’35.7″N 76°31’32.0″W
24.276593, -76.525557
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Pulling anchor
Aquaman at the helm
Spider Woman at the anchor
In with the Pigs …
Mary cut up all the celery in refridge up to feed the pigs and tucked it back into the plastic celery bag. Sarah bravely threw out the first piece of celery towards a pig ….. 5 feet, maybe. She and Mary were suddenly swarmed by pigs. Cowardly they ran into the water. Pigs followed. Mary yelling stop go back to the pigs as if they would listen. She “Hail Maryed” the bag of celery to Sarah. Sarah snatched it and once the pigs turned towards her she tossed it back to Mary. A game of pigs keep away. Mary and a pig raced to the bag which had landed in the water. The pig beat her to it. It snatched the plastic bag of celery and ran. Mary hotly persued the pig. Screaming at it. Mary grasped the plastic bag which the pig had firmly clenched in is snout. The tug of war over the celery bag began. Neither party was backed down. Finally the bag split in two. The pig trotted off victor with the celery end of the bag. Everyone laughing but Mary.
Truth be told there are also goats
and chickens as well as pigs on Big Major Cay. When the Staniel Cay throws a
fund raising or community BBQ some comes out and kills a pig or a goat. We
couldn’t find the goats.
Chicken following pig
The fun wasn’t over yet. Off to
Rachel’s Bubble bath and the conch walk.
For some reason the yellow and black fish in the bubble bath liked
Sarah. Really liked Sarah. They kept swarming over and nibbling/biting her.
Mary had to help scare them aware. Unbelievably there was no wind today. As a result very few waves broke over the rocks to
create bubbles.
Sarah and Mary
Conch at Rachel’s Bubble BathBahamas BluesSarah’s toesCoral Sunset
Neighbors
Gold Finger – Minella
Minella from Turkey – Built in 2018 and not for charter https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-50962/minella.htm
Disambiguation
Term: Sea Level – Typically “sea level” refers to the AVERAGE MEAN Sea Level, essentially the mid point between the daily high and low tides heights. Daily sea level will vary from place to place, but roughly 3 feet or a meter is a reasonable approximation of NORMAL tide variation.
The
location of the sea level datum is at Newlyn in Cornwall. It was
established by the Ordnance Survey with the mean sea level calculated from
hourly readings taken over a six-year period from 1915 to 1921.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The surface of the Pacific Ocean stands about 40 cm higher than the Atlantic Ocean with respect to the 1000-decibar surface, and the North Atlantic and North Pacific stand respectively about 14 and 17 cm higher than the South Atlantic and Pacific.
24°10’28.7″N 76°26’47.7″W 24.174651, -76.446581 Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Woo. Woo. Sarah is here for a visit.
Staniel Cay Airport
Hi Sarah! 17 hours of travel!
First stop was the only boutique store in town to get Sarah flip flops and a Kalick (Bahamas beer) t-shirt. Off with the Minnesota sweater and on with the Kalick t-shirt. Off with the Minnesota shoes and on with the flip flops.
Boutique. Handmade baskets
(Sarah is camera shy so I won’t get
many pictures of her.)
Sarah had both Minnesota road salt
and Bahamian sea salt on her pants. We dingyed back to the boat to complete the
Bahamian transformation. Swimsuits! Then off to Thunderball Grotto.
Grotto top
Grotto entrance
Grotto entrance
007
We had supper at the purple
restaurant Taste and Sea, the only restaurant besides the one at SCYC. The
restaurant is open for lunch Monday-Saturday 11:00am to 1:00pm. She makes a
noon special and feeds most of the workers on the island to go lunches in the
matter of 15 minutes. When she runs out, they/you need to order from the menu. Then there are suppers….. Taste and Sea is open Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, Saturday 6:00pm to 8:00pm. We got there promptly at 6:00pm like
everyone else who wanted supper. The waitress went around the room and taking
order from everyone at the same time then bringing them to the cook. If you
ordered a baked potato you needed to wait for it to bake. All the food for
tables for all the tables came out at one time.
Neighbors
Who needs TV when you can watching
100+ footers do the docking dance between other 100+ footers, catamarans and
dingys. I’m surprised there isn’t more youtube on this. It’s a toss over which
is more entertaining the Yacht Cub or the Fuel dock.
24°10’28.7″N 76°26’47.7″W
24.174651, -76.446581
Elevation: 0 ft
The wind. The wind. The wind. A
couple of boats pulled out of the anchorage this morning. We crept forward towards
SCYC along with a couple of other boats in hopes it be in less wind and current.
Along the Way
Yes, we are still married.
Dale’s hand was in the right spot
at the wrong timing helping Mary onto the dingy. A rogue wave curled around Yes
Dear and smashed into us. Mary didn’t fall in but Dale’s finger was smashed into
the swim deck by the dingy. It swelled. A lot. After a couple of days the swelling
on the finger hadn’t gone down. The ring
had to go.
Mary’s fingers are pretty pudgy too.
But that’s from getting smashed. It’s from living the good life. If she keeps
that up she might have to cut her ring off too.
When we started the Loop we were
warned. At the end of the Loop you will need to do 3 things:
join Weight Watchers
join AA
get marriage counseling.
We are good on the last bullet but
the other two not so much. (NO, alcohol was not involved when Dale hurt is
finger.)
Cool clean water.
The other day Howard said we could bring our containers and come get free water at his dock. We took him up on it. It isn’t so much that we couldn’t afford to buy the water at the marina for $.40 a gallon, but it was the spirit of adventure and the opportunity to visit with Howard again. Howard is really great. He knows so much about the area.
The dock is huge! Each dock post cost $1000. There were a lot of them and there were also 2 dolphin moorings. A hole into the rock had to be drilled for each post. I counted 64 posts on the dock and each dolphin had another 6. $70,000 in dock poles alone.
Dale counted 14 inbound planes
landing in Staniel Cay by 4:00 pm and maybe he missed few. Tourism is big to
fly in to Staniel Cay see the pigs and then to Compass Cay to see the nurse
sharks the back to Nassau on the small charter planes. $$$$$
There are no flight controllers at the smaller
cay airports.
Our new Staniel Cay friends Mark
and Donna picked us up on their run about for a tour of the cays. Both Mark and
Donna come from a rich heritage of Bahama Loyalists. Mark lived and worked for
a salvage and rescue company off Sampson cay for over 25 years. He knows everybody! Donna grew up
running sailboats from the east coast to the Bahamas. She is filled with
Bahamas history and lore.
First a quick drive by the pigs.
Dr. No’s house. (Actually,
it’s owned by a drug lawyer from Nassau. Close enough.)
Dr. No’s house. (Actually, it’s owned by a drug lawyer from Nassau. Close enough.)
A stop at the salvage yard where
Mark used to work. The Intrepid boat behind the little boat hit a coral head,
flipped and tore the top off. The boat in the back on the left had side is the
100 foot salvage and rescue boat.
Salvage yard
what the boat should look like
Lunch on Compass Key
A nurse shark swam by. You should
have seen Mary scramble out of the water.
Thanks ever so much to Mark and
Donna for taking us on the awesome outing exploring the cays from Staniel Cay
to Compass Cay.
The Mail Boat came in today, but we
weren’t there to greet it. We ran into Howard late this afternoon and he gave
us the scoop. It came a day later than scheduled. The boat had been pinned down
by weather on one of the islands south of here and couldn’t run. It’s actually
kinda a big deal as people on the island and all the tourists depend on it for
fresh produce and groceries.
Neighbors
This pilot was a mad man. Not only
a short runway he started turning the minute he was off the water.
Out Rigger
WTF
The wind picks up about 5-8 mph every night between 6pm and 1am. If it’s currently 0 mph it goes to 8
mph. If it’s currently 10 mph it goes to
18 mph. Crazy. The Yes Dear bounces around in the wind and gusts. Drives Dale nuts. I suppose we could move but
the anchor is holding and it would be work move.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Mail Boats are subsidized by the
Bahamian government for carrying mail. They also take on freight and
passengers. It is an inexpensive way for Bahamians and adventurous tourists to
travel around the islands.
All Mail Boats carry and extra set
of props. Mail Boat captains know the waters but still even with all their
experience pay the price for an error or a new shoal.
Mail Boats used to go to the cays once a week.
With increasing expenses they now travel 3 times a month on a published schedule.
24°10’34.8″N 76°26’50.1″W
24.176342, -76.447252
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
We picked up a passenger in our dingy our way in to Staniel Cay this morning. One of the neighboring sailboats hailed us and asked us for a lift in to get fuel. They didn’t have enough gas to run their dingy in. WOW.
Today we were going to walk about
and to buy bread since we didn’t manage to accomplish that yesterday. We had
been forewarned to get the bread early in the day, definitely before noon.
There are 3 stores in town, the
yellow store (Isle General), the pink store (Pink Shell) and the blue store
(Burkes). Each sells a little bit of
groceries and a little bit of other
stuff.
First stop was the yellow store. Another patron went to summon Vivian at here house to come down. She had customers lined up. They didn’t have bread yet and the fishing gear was not to Dale’s liking.
Store Isle General Store owner’s house
Store Isle General Store (yellow store)
We got to the pink store at 10:20 am.
The bread was delivered at 10:30 am and people were flocking in to buy it.
Elenore, the shop keeper, told us the lady who bakes bread for the entire
island will be out of town till next Tuesday. Hence, her store would be getting
two deliveries of bread today. The coconut bread would be in at noon. We paid $7
for a regular loaf and prepaid $8 for a coconut loaf that she would put aside
for us. The 18oz bottle of Hunts BBQ
sauce was $5. Elenore said she would hold the groceries for us until we came
back. (Wonderful woman but wouldn’t let Mary take her picture.)
Pink Store
All the bread was sold out when we
got back there at 1:00 pm. 10 loaves of
regular bread and 10 loaves of coconut bread. There used to be another bread
baker in town. Her oven broke about 3 months ago and hasn’t been baking bread
since.
The blue store offered the best
selection of items.
All of the stores were waiting for
the Mail Boat to come in for fresh produce and other supplies.
Government dock. At the government dock we met Howard. Howard too was checking to see if the Mail Boat was in. He is 80 years old and the caretaker for one of the homes on Staniel Cay. Howard used to be the captain of the home owner’s yacht. About 2 years ago he told the ownersthat he was getting too old and wanted to retire. They said OK, we were getting old too. They sold the yacht and asked him to be the caretaker for their Staniel Cay home. Howard lives on Staniel Cay for as many months of the year in their home as he feels like. He hires and manages the caretaking staff and flies in and out a couple of times a year to check on things. He’s always there when the owners are there. His wife travels with him occasionally.
Coral House
A sign at the Government Dock said there is roller skating and a BBQ on last Friday of every month.
Green and Yellow HouseTaste and Sea Restaurant (where we had supper last night)
Woo woo. We ran into Mark and Donna
on the beach and visited for a while before going back to the pink store to
pick up our groceries.
Staniel Cay – Dingy dock and dogs.
It’s a good life for the dogs. We’ve seen the two of them all over the island
wherever we’ve been walking.
SCYC Dingy dock and dogs. It’s a good life for the dogs. We’ve seen the two of them all over the island wherever we’ve been walking. The coconut bread is some of the most amazing bread I’ve ever eaten. It’s a yeast bread, not a quick bread. The coconut in the loaf has been finely grated, making the loaf is moist and dense. The coconut taste is very subtle.
Neighbors
Unaffordable Housing
Yellow House on ridge. We were told it has 13 bathrooms.
The owner of the Black Hawks hockey
team owns a house here on Staniel Cay. Supposedly he and the players are down
here a lot. I wouldn’t recognize any of them.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The man that invented Watermakers (reverse osmosis salt water desalinater) also started the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (SCYC). Watermakers are the source of water for all the communities in the Bahamas. Almost all of the mid-size and large sailboats and yachts have watermakers installed. (We could too for about $4k plus installation) The guy is rich. Bahamian residences and businesses pay $.04 per gallon and non-Bahamian residences pay substantially more. It will cost us $.40 per gallon to refill our potable water next week at the marina.
24°10’34.8″N 76°26’50.1″W
24.176342, -76.447252
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
First a dingy about
Staniel Cay Yacht Club Docks
Staniel Cay Yacht Club
Staniel Cay Yacht Club guest
Staniel Cay Government Dock
Isle General
…. then a walkabout in search of a grocery store for bread
busy road
Button wood tree
Staniel Cay cottages
Mary being Mary was taking pictures and admiring the quaint rental cottages. A voice from above hailed us and invited us up for a beer. You didn’t need to ask Dale twice. We met two delightful people from the North Carolina, Mark and Donna. Our walk about pretty much didn’t go much further than that. Well, maybe about 1000 feet further to Big Dogs Bar for a beer and then to the Taste and Sea restaurant for an amazing blackened grouper supper.
Donna and Mary
Mark
Pat – Great swing
Two pirates
Two Pirates. Mark had worked as a modern day pirate (salvage) for 25+ years off Sampson Cay about a mile north. Well, the rest of you know Dale.
By the time we got back to the dingy
dock the tide had come in. Mary had to wade out almost to her naughty bits to
untie it and drag it to shore. We hadn’t planned on staying in town past dark
so we didn’t have any navigation lights. Good thing all the boats stop moving
around at dark.
As we left the dingy dock we passed
super yacht G3. Honest to gosh I swear Richie Rich was standing at the back of
the yacht. A shorter, slightly pudgy blonde youth with parted, wax hair greeted
us and waved. His little brother, who
looked exactly like him, came out to greet us too. Jeeves was nowhere around.
A pontoon?????? Where did this come from? First we one have seen in the Bahamas. (Locals call tourist boats packed with lot of people cattle boats.)
In the background of the pontoon picture there are a couple of kite boarders. We have heard Mark Zuckerberg is in the area with his super yacht Ulysses and that he and a couple of buddies are kite boarding the length of the Exumas.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Can you name the two fears you
were born with?
(1) Falling (2) Loud noises. You had to learn the
rest.
February 18, 2019 Monday Compass
Cay, Rachels Bubble Bath, Exhumas to Staniel Cay, Thunderball Grotto, Exhumas 13.7 nautical miles.
24°10’34.8″N 76°26’50.1″W
24.176342, -76.447252
Elevation: 0 ft
Along the Way
Rocky Dundas and Fowl Cays by
Compass Cay – We dingyed over a look before we pulled the anchor. We plan on
going back next week. Mary had a quick snorkel just so she could compare it to
Thunderball Grotto.
Dive boat
Top
Looking out
Fowl Cay is a private island. No trespassing and beware of dogs. Crashed airplane. Emergency landing and too short of runway
We passed by Pig Beach on Big Major Cay as we pulled in to Staniel Cay. There must have been over 50 boats anchored at Pig Beach. (another day)
Once anchored we watched the world
go by.
Private plane landing on Staniel Cay.
It wasn’t the jet we saw earlier but it was still cool.
Fuel dock traffic jam at Staniel Cay.
We just sat and watched. Fuel boat went into fuel dock just before superyacht 4
Puppies comes in for fuel. Space is tight and water is skinny. HA. For a short
while I thought 4 Puppies was going to try to raft with Marbella. Eventually 4
Puppies backed into an end cap on another dock to hold. It took more than several hours for the fuel
boat to unload.
There is a black plume of smoke
over Staniel Cay and the air is filled with the lovely smell of burning
garbage. The wind changed and it is
blowing straight at us. It hurts Mary’s lungs. Garbage in the Bahamas is
managed by burning and burying. Everyone is encouraged to toss organic garbage
into the deeper water and away from the cay shorelines.
Good Night
Moon over Thunderball Grotto
Nauti Words
This symbol wasn’t taught in our nautical classes.
February 17, 2019 Sunday Shroud Cay, Exhumas to Compass Cay, Rachel’s Bubble Bath, Exhumas 26.4 nautical miles.
24°16’47.2″N 76°31’30.0″W
24.279772, -76.525004
Elevation: 0 ft
We left Shroud Cay as soon as the
sun wanted out. Dale wanted OUT. (He can’t fish in Exhuma Park). We set passage
to the closest location outside the southern boundary of the park, the north
west tip of Compass Cay and set anchor. The water is amazing.
Along the Way
Rachel’s Bubble Bath on the east
side the cay. It’s caused by a crevice in the rock where waves crash through.
It happened again. We met two couples from Minnesota in the middle of nowhere.
They were from Mound and Chanhassen on catamaran ENCHANTMENT anchored right
next to us! I’m beginning to think we should fly state flags as well as
national flags on our boats.
Minnesotans!
Minnesotans
Minnesotans
Neighbors
Lucky Lady
Toy room
Lucky Lady – Charter $300,000 to
$335,000 per week https://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=my-lady-lola-1134
Good Night
Mary got it! Not a big green flash, but definitely a flash. Mary has been
on the hunt for a green flash since we went to the Green Flash Bar/Restaurant
on Sanibel, Island with the Hammies (see blog January 12, 2019).
She has been taking pictures at every sunset just in case the universe aligned
and it flashed.
The below pictures are the same – just different degrees of magnification.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Green flashes occur because the Earth’s atmosphere can cause the light from the sun to separate out into different colors. Green flashes and green rays are meteorological optical phenomena that sometimes occur just after sunset or right before sunrise. When the conditions are right, a distinct green spot is briefly visible ; the green appearance usually lasts for no more than a second or two. (It is doubtful that would ever see a sunrise one)
February 16, 2019 Saturday Highbourne
Cay, Exumas to Shroud Cay, Exumas
14.5 nautical miles.
24°32’07.7″N 76°47’54.9″W
24.535471, -76.798592
Elevation: 0 ft
Good morning!
It’s fun to toss the wet garbage
overboard to see what shows up. Today’s toss was lettuce. Today’s dinner guest
was a 4 foot Cobia (aka Ling).
Pulling the anchor in 15 feet of
water at Highbourne Cay.
Chain – 15 feet of water
Anchor – 15 feet of water
Along the Way
Highbourne Cay Cut – Heading East
Dale caught a BIG FISH in
route to our anchorage. Mary had to put the boat in reverse for a couple of
seconds to help him out. The drag on Dale’s reel is set so hard he can’t pull
the line out manually. But the line sang zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
After about a 5 minute adrenalin rush the 150# test line broke. ☹
The fish probably made it into some coral and it cut it.
Wax Cay Cut – Heading West
Exhuma Cays Land and Sea National
Park – Shroud Cay dingy creek. The interior of Shroud Cay is a vast tidal lake
that is underwater a high tide. There is a dingy creek loops through the middle
of Shroud Cay with several branches. In the middle of all this we ran into
another dingy filled with Minnesotans for Chisago City. Their catamaran is
named GYPSY SPIRIT.
Juvenile turtle – 6i nches
Boat load of Minnesotans
We got to the far end of the creek and
headed south in the direction of our boat per
our chart. Our seaman’s eye told us things didn’t look right. We pulled onto
sandy cay where we could easily look around the area to see where we were. Lost. Lost in the Bermuda Triangle! No boats
in sight. We got back into the dingy and retraced our route.
Shell pictures from the beach we
pulled into to figure out where we were. 6 in queen helmet shell and 8 inch I
don’t know what???
Neighbors
There are more 100 foot yachts and SUPER
yachts here in the Exhumas than boats like ours. Sailboats greatly out number
all the other boats. We see a few smaller motor boats, dingys off the yachts,
and a few Viking fishing boats (the boats with the fishing towers). Mary is
going to try really hard to not take a picture of every unaffordable boats and
only take pictures of yachts over 100 feet.
February 15, 2019 Friday Harbor
Club Hotel and Marina, Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas to Highbourne
Cay, The Exumas, Bahama 36.4 nautical
miles.
24°42’32.5″N 76°49’42.0″W
24.709031, -76.828329
Elevation: 0 ft
Aquamen Andy and Dale. Good bye to Looper Boat AQUAMAN. We’ll catch them later on the eastern seaboard.
Mary broke down and bought a queen
shell she had been eyeing from the marina conch man.
Conch man
Queen Helmet Shell
Mary’s going to miss the Starbucks Coffee.
She never bought coffee there because the line was always too long. She used their
free internet. The fastest we’ve seen in the Bahamas.
Along the Way
Leaving Nassau Harbor – Yachts
Home, the white boat is privately owned. Adastra is $30,000,000 trimaran super yacht owned by Hong Kong shipping magnate and owner of Fenwick Shipping Services Anto Marden and his wife.
Snorkeling tour just outside the east end of the Nassau Harbor. Boats and people!
Leaving Nassau and on to Highbourne Cay in the Exhumas. Marv’s Weather and other weather channel got it correct today. Swells under 1.5 feet and 5 seconds apart. No or very little wind.
Leaving Nassau – on to The Exhumas
Neighbors
Boater Greeting: Thanks for the wake Asshole.
Neighbors – Highbourne Cay anchorage, The Exumas
Two SUPER yachts came in and anchored after Mary put her camera away. There are also several in the marina. We heard Mark Zuckerberg and a couple of his friends were anchored here last week. They are kite boarding the length of the Exumas.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
A stranger piratical trio could not
have been found than “Calico Jack” Rackham, Anne Bonney and Mary Read. Anne
Bonney and her penniless sailor husband had moved to Nassau seeking employment
where she met Calico Jack and was swept off her feet. She eloped with him had
headed off to sea. (Guess her first husband died but don’t know for sure.)
Bonney took a shining to Mary Read, who was disguised as a man. Read outed herself to Bonney. Now along comes Calico Jack who threatens to
shoot Read because his wife is spending too much time with him. Read had to out
herself again.
When Calico Jack finally
surrendered in Nassau, Anne Bonney, Mary Read and one other sailor were the
last fighters on the deck. All others had fled below. Calico Jack awaiting the
hangman’s noose asked to see his wife one last time. Anne Bonney instead of
consoling him chastised him. She said she was sorry to see him there but if
he’d fought like a man he wouldn’t have to die like a dog.
Mary Read died in prison, escaping the hangman’s
noose. For whatever reason some notable Jamaican, possibly a friend of Anne
Bonney’s wealthy father, interceded for her and she escaped the noose, was
never executed and apparently died a free woman.
February 14, 2019 Thursday Harbor
Club Hotel and Marina, Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas 0
nautical miles.
25°04’28.8″N 77°18’47.7″W
25.074653, -77.313249
Elevation: 0 ft
Happy Valentines Day!
Along the Way
We walked down Bay Street to the downtown
area of Nassau. There were no or very narrow sidewalks for most of the way. As
crazy as the traffic is we didn’t feel safe walking on the sidewalks. We felt
less safe wandering off main roads, away from the people and traffic.
Old Church and grave yard
super yacht
Government building
Polish Merchant Marine Academy students
Slavery Museum
Cruise ship passengers had been released
and were on the crawl in downtown! Shuttles
from the resorts had also dropped off people. The down town Nassau was
crawling.
Mary was amazed at all the high-end
stores in down town Nassau. They could put Rodeo Drive to shame. Store in the downtown
area you could walk in and out of like ordinary US stores. Stores anywhere else
you had to be buzzed both in and out.
Nassau Parliment building
Potters Cay off Bay Street
Store fronts
from the backside
Cleaning conch out the back door.
There are a lot of Financial Service Buildings and Banks on Bay Street.
Nassau Bay Street – Inter-American Development Bank. Bahamas flexible and permissive tax regime is a major draw for investors. No taxes are levied on personal income, capital gains, corporate earnings, dividends and inheritance. Anyone purchasing a house for $500,000 or more automatically qualifies for residency. If your house/property is $1,000,000 or more your residency qualification is fast tracked. With the prices of food and goods in the Bahamas I think they are all still pirates that live here. Everyone we talked to in the US said “well, it’s a bit higher”. My guess is that everything is about 1/3rd higher.
One of the treats to get in the Bahamas is the Bahamas Rum Cake from the Bahamas Rum Cake Factory. We walked past it on Bay Street and stopped in. The 80 year old owner was working behind the counter. Of course Mary needed to buy one. Camera was dead or you would have gotten a couple of awesome pictures of the little bakery and women working in it. I’m sure it’s not FDA compliant. Check it out https://www.thebahamasrumcakefactory.com/
Rum Cake
The Harbor Club Hotel and Marina is
a dump and undergoing serious renovations. The new owner is pumping serious
money into it. The work crew works 24
hours a day. Slip fees will be $4 a foot or more when renovations are completed.
Tomorrow we head to the Highbourne
Cay in the Exumas. Weather is predicted to be beautiful for the crossing.
Fingers crossed.
Bahamas map – to Exhumas
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Receptacle for Rogues. Nassau was known as the Pirates Republic from 1690 to 1717. It’s estimated that as many as 1,000 pirates were operating in the Bahamas by 1713. “Calico Jack” Rackham, Charles Vane and Stede Bonnet the “Gentleman Pirate” based their operations in the Pirates Republic.
In 1718 Gov Woodes Rodgers put an
end to that …. Many pirates accepted pardons. The holdouts were hunted down and
executed.
Woodes Rogers rescued Alexander Selkirk from the
Island of Juan Fernandez. Rogers account of this gave Daniel Defoe the inspiration
to write Robinson Crusoe.
February 13, 2019 Wednesday Fowl Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas to Harbour Bay Marina, Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas 42.9 nautical miles.
25°04’28.8″N 77°18’47.7″W
25.074653, -77.313249
Elevation: 0 ft
Un Berried! Farewell to the Berry
Islands.
From the Boat Poet Laureate (Tom F, Mary wrote this for you)
Today was the day.
Anchors aweigh.
On to Nassau,
a new place to play.
Along the Way
The wind was NOT in our favor in
route to Nassau. It didn’t materialize into the north west light wind predicted
weather window we had waited for. We left anyway. Leaving the sanctuary of our
anchorage we crossed over to the east side the cays into the Northeast
Providence Channel for the crossing. Smack into waves rolling directly out of
the Atlantic directly at us. Waves, not swells. Occasionally reaching 6 feet. Now
add the wind blowing perpendicular to the waves. On more than one occasion the
bow pulpit buried into an oncoming wave, water slushing over the bow. We now
have a clear understand how the infamous Bahamian rouge waves happen.
Better be brave!
Look at that wave!
Oh Shit!!!
We’re gunna get hit!
This one’s going to rock a bit.
Small waves on the beams
feel bigger, it seems.
At least for now
we’re taking it on bow.
Holy crap!
Did you hear that wave slap?
We kept rethinking our decision to
leave for the first 2 hours of the trip. The waves eventually started to lay
down. 3s and 4s and then down to 2s + or -. The wind never did come from
predicted north west.
We saw a lot of flying fish today.
Ponder this…. A bunch of flying fish in the water is called a school. When a
bunch of flying fish are flying above water is it called flock?
The Nassau harbor is busy with all
the ferries, mail boats, cruise liners, cargo ships, etc. and pleasure boats.
Before you can even enter you need to
secure permission from the harbor master.
Coming in to Nassau Harbor
Atlantis. All the people on the beach
Helper boat for current and wind
working harbor
Nassau Harbor Cruise lines. Enchantment of the Seas is the same ship we saw outside of Sail Cay in the Berry Islands.
Cruise Ship Marina
Enchantment of the Seas
Nassau Harbor Potters Cay
Derelict boats
Derelict boats
Derelict boats and Mail Boat
Nassau Harbor other stuff
Harbor Beach
Yoga Retreat
Atlantis
Water Taxi
After checking in we were on our
way to the pool and we ran into Cindy and Andy on Looper Boat AQUAMAN! And it’s
a Bayliner!
Harbor Bay Marina conch man. He is clean conch off his boat. The live ones are under the towelsHarbor Bay Marina. Quick dip in the pool before the storm. If felt really good to be fresh water clean. Yes Dear got a good bath too. The marina is a dump and completely under reservation. It will be nice when it is completed. and expensive. Yes Dear is the boat with the black bimini just off the wall.
BTW There are birds here. Pidgeons
and sea gulls.
We walked to the Poop Deck restaurant
for supper as we had heard there was good Bahamian food there. The food was
good but it was a little higher end than we expected for a place named ‘Poop
Deck’.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Mayday distress signal is still
used to this day. “Mayday” is said to have originated from the French
phrase “M’aidez” – meaning “Help me.”
Disambiguation
The leak/water in the bow – The
wetness is still mystery. Good news is that we don’t think it’s a leak. We took
a whole lot of big waves today and buried the bow pulpit a couple of times. The
floor is not wet. Our best guess is that
it was bilge water that somehow sloshed up the interior ribs to a spot it could
run through into the V berth carpet. Whew.
February 12, 2019 Tuesday Fowl Cay,
Berry Islands, Bahamas 0 nautical
miles
25°36’49.0″N 77°44’12.5″W
25.613611, -77.736814
Elevation: 0 ft
Because I’m Minnesotan I need to talk about the weather.
Minnesotans always talk about the weather. Wow is it nice again today. Still
heavy winds but we’re still in a sweet spot of an anchorage.
When Mary dumped the wet garbage
overboard this morning a small shark darted out from under the boat and
attached the avocado pit. He immediately spit it out then scoped out the
celery. Neither of those were to his liking.
Work before play. Boat cleaning. We’ve been dumping old coffee down our sink drain. It looked like a giant poop stain. Gone!
Along the Way
Flo’s on Little Harbor Cay. Chester
built Flo’s in 1993 and named it after his mom. He’s lived on the island alone
since his mother died in 2010. Chester
will make you bread or a meal but you need to make reservations a day in
advance. Everything is fresh and meals are whatever he makes that day,
typically conch fritters and snapper or grouper. You can stop in for a drink
any time. Chester did make us some conch fritters. In the background a dog
occasionally barked and a rooster kept cadence crowing. The bay was full of
green turtles and rays.
Little Harbour Cay, Flo’s Conch Bar
Dock – Shoreline is all mounds of conch.
North side
Front entrance
South side
Southwest view from the door
Northwest view from the door
Placing an order with Chester
An order of conch fritters mostly eaten
Guano Cay
Attack of the mangroves
Conch grave yard – 6 inches of water
Dale fished when we came back to
the boat (like he does all the time). He caught a medium sized barracuda. As he
reeled it in a shark about the size of the barracuda shot from under our boat
to look at it. Another small shark took a hard look at Dale’s bait on his next
cast. Since we didn’t have any Italian meatballs left Mary threw out a piece of
ham. The shark liked that. Shortly after
a large shark swam by deep in the water.
Guess we won’t be swimming tonight.
Neighbors
Green Turtle
All of the boats along this western side left today, the family boat that was a mile away and the 4 sail boats that were about a mile away.
The only thing around is this cargo ship anchored on the east side the cays. It’s in the same place we see the cruise ships anchored at night. Must be a good holding spot. Guessing the cargo ship is waiting for clearance before heading to Nassau harbor. Bet it’s tomorrow morning. (I was right)
WTF
For the past 3 days we have been having
issues with the house battery holding a charge and we find ourselves running
the generator a lot. We’ll have to
check it out when we get to Nassau. We are hoping it’s just because it just run
down and not that the battery is bad.
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Sargassum seaweed is a genus of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses sometimes over a mile long.
It’s edible (but not tasty) and harvested to feed livestock. Sargassum seaweed has played a part in Chinese medicine as far back as the 8th century, treating goiters (high iodine content), and made into tea to control phlegm.
Sargassum reproduction is asexual,
which means that every bit of the same species could probably be traced back to
its original ancestor.
As long as we are on the topic… Do you know where the Sargasso Sea is? I didn’t, but do now. I had always thought it was some were in the mid Caribbean. Boy I was off.
The Sargasso Sea sits in the whirlpool of several major Atlantic Ocean currents.
The term Sargasso Sea was probably
coined by Portuguese sailors – which has even been attributed to Christopher
Columbus (1492 expedition: first time someone reported crossing the Sargasso
Sea).
The Sargasso Sea is a primary
nursery area for a variety of commercially important fishes such as mahi mahi,
jacks, and amberjacks.
Disambiguation
Dale’s white shirt – A couple of
you asked ’What’s up with Dale’s white shirt?’. It’s a UV shirt for sun
protection. HA. It even has a hood so that when Dale snorkels his bald spot won’t
burn.
February 11, 2019 Monday Fowl Cay,
Berry Islands, Bahamas 0 nautical
miles
25°36’49.0″N 77°44’12.5″W
25.613611, -77.736814
Elevation: 0 ft
About 6:00 am we saw a cruise ship
crossing on the Atlantic side. It was a little rolly and a little dark…
Not all days are sunny but they are still great. Our anchorage is still in a sweet spot for the weather. The wind is still 20+ mph. We’ve thought a couple of times about pulling up the anchor and dropping it a little closer to Fowl Cay for a bit smoother anchorage. The thing is that our anchor is holding. Best not to mess with what is working. We’ll take the rollies and the surge.
The neighbors, not in a sweet spot
left this morning in heavy winds. I wish
them a save journey. I wouldn’t have left!
Along the Way
High Tide. We went in hunt of the Berry Island Inlet blue hole. We never discovered the blue hole. Instead we concluded there is no single blue hole but there are a lot of deep crevices, sudden drop offs into infinity.
Our big high tide event was to venture up a creek on the west side of Hoffman Island. The first thing we saw was a shark guarding the entrance. And then Mary got her camera out.
Hoffman Cay Berry Island Inlet
Mangroves
fishing
catching
Mangroves are long-legged aliens, intent on world domination, slowly.
We saw a couple more birds today
one that resembled a grey heron and one that resembled a white heron.
Neighbors
None!
Dale
Mary
Pecan whiskey
(sorry kids) 😮
Drolleries and Yuks
A ship load of blue crashed into a
ship load of red paint. The crews were marooned.
Stupid joke Mary! You get the
berries for that one.
February 10, 2019 Sunday Fowl Cay,
Berry Islands, Bahamas 0 nautical
miles
25°36’49.0″N 77°44’12.5″W
25.613611, -77.736814
Elevation: 0 ft
Another awesome day. Still hooked
behind Fowl Cay because of the wind. Chores done and we’re off on the dingy.
Today Dale Fixed
Work morning. Today Dale fixed…. an
impeller for the septic system. Ugh. Mary made gaskets for him.
Along the Way
We found Conchville! There were 30+ conch within a 25 feet of each other. And, we found many more than that! We were really excited to see all the conch because conchs are so over harvested in the Bahamas they are expected to be nearly depleted in 10 years if active measures are not taken soon.
The is the biggest conch we’ve seen.
Look at the lip on it
Surprise grap
Sucking in
Eyeballs on left
Almost sucked in
Top side
Pink Conch
Pink Conch
Orange Conch
Orange Conch
Exactly as found
The one Mary kept
After today Mary is on the wagon with conch pictures…..
Holes…. Don’t know what is making them. Either little eel or fish. Some are about 1.5 inches in diameter
We also saw a lot of big mama rays,
small barracudas and other fish. We also saw the two birds again today. Same
place they were yesterday.
North end of Hoffman Cay – Alien roadway entrance to the Bermuda Triangle
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Water colours
Water that’s blue is deep and true; As it shades to green the water gets lean; White or yellow will ground a fellow; If the water is brown you’ll run aground; If the water is place you’d better tack. ~ Author unknown
And then there is the sea grass. It mixes everything up.
February 9, 2019 Friday Fowl Cay,
Berry Islands, Bahamas 0 nautical
miles
25°36’49.0″N 77°44’12.5″W
25.613611, -77.736814
Elevation: 0 ft
Today was a blast! Mary was on a
mission. She wanted to see conch eyeballs. We explored the south east corner,
Atlantic side, of Devils Cay then worked our way north on the sheltered west
side. We then worked our way north along the west side of Hoffmans Cay. The
western side had a lot of sheltered areas where there were a lot of sea
biscuits. Mary called those areas bakeries.
One thing strange about the cays
we’ve been on is that there are not a lot of birds here. We did see birds
today. Amazingly we haven’t seen any sea gulls yet. I thought they were
everywhere.
Along the Way
First stop the south end of
Devils Cay. Mary had read there was good shelling there. Wrong.
HA. Misplaced Floccinaucinihilipilification:
The Bahamas are Tertiary limestone windblown deposits about 1,000,000-2,000,000
years old. The eroded limestone edges are honey combed and extremely sharp. The
cays are very flat with on a couple higher than 100 feet. The highest spot in the Bahamas is on Cat
Island (not in our float plan) at just over 200 feet. The cays are cover with cacti,
scrub brush, a few flowers and rare tree.
coral on beach
Mary had expected it to be a little
lot prettier. The beautiful water makes up for it though!
Devils Cay rock wall. We were amazed it was there. It’s old.
Low Tide at Hoffman Cay
Hoffman Cay – Birds
Hoffman Cay low tide. Not sure
what creating these little mounds but we suspect clams.
underwater bump
Hoffman Cay low tide
sand dollar low tide hideout
sand dollar low tide trail
Sea biscuit camouflage
Sea biscuit trail
Sea biscuit trail
Starfish – now you see him
now you don’t
Sand dollars and sea biscuits cemeteryDead thing. Not sure what this is.
Conch.
trying to turn over
trying to turn over
trying to turn over
On the run! Head is on the little end
Conch eyeballs
Neighbors
Conch Neighbors
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Under the weather – Its origin of the phrase comes from the
sea of course. When the weather was rough, passengers on a boat would retreat
to the lower levels where the effects of the choppy seas were felt less.
Dale and Mary are under the weather tonight with 26 mph
wind. Fortunately, neither of us get sea sick.
Believe it or not our anchor is holding!
February 8, 2019 Friday Hoffman Cay,
Berry Islands, Bahamas to Friday Hoffman Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas 500 feet maybe less
25°36’49.0″N 77°44’12.5″W
25.613611, -77.736814
Elevation: 0 ft
Fowl Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas – Mary managed to crawl out of bed before sunrise.
Boat SAND FLEA moved to a new location. We immediately pulled anchor and reset in the location just vacated. Great holding sand and less surge than yesterday’s location. (SAND FLEA is the sail boat in the sunrise picture.)
Today was so much fun Mary can’t
wait for tomorrow to do it all over again.
Along the Way
First stop Hoffman Cay off to find the blue hole.
The cool thing to do here is jump the 20 foot cliff into the hole. Practicing what we preach …. never go first. No one else was jumping and we couldn’t really see where to climb back up we passed on it for today. Nick F and Jake T I bet you would have been all over this!
Sea turtle
We met a family along the beach.
Allison, the daughter took us on an aquatic walk
A 4 foot shark came into check us out but turned tail when he saw how big and how many of us there were. Mary tested out the underwater camera. We weren’t snorkeling. She just plunked here hands underwater and shot away.
Dead conch
Live conch
Allison’s sea biscuit city
Back to the boat for more sun screen
and off again.
Next stop White Cay and then Saddleback Cay. More underwater plunk and click photos.
Coral and little fish
Last stop for the day was Big Gaulding Cay. There were a lot of sand dollars and sea biscuits all round.
All the cays were small. Each a
little different.
Good Night
Sunset, Berry Islands, Bahamas
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas, is home to more than 200 blue holes.
Andros in not on Mary and Dale’s float plan ….. this year.
February 7, 2019 Thursday Great
Harbor Cay, Berry Islands to Hoffmans Cay, Berry Islands, Bahama 28.4 nautical
miles.
25°36’51.5″N 77°44’15.2″W
25.614304, -77.737542
Elevation: 0 ft
The day started with one foot waves
from the East and they continued to grow to about 2-3 feet, with an occasional
4-5 foot. I must say 4-5 foot waves are a little rolly when we get hit on the beam.
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A Shedd
We will be exploring here for a couple of days while waiting for a weather window before we move on to Nassau.
Along the Way
Little Stirrup Key ENCHANTMENT of the SEAS – TendersSail boat heading north
Hoffman Cay Anchorage. We threaded
the needle coming into this anchorage. Just follow the magenta line ….. Straight
in and then a hard left. Plenty of depth in center channel (about 300 feet wide).
Shooting the White Cay Devils Cay cut – White Cay on right – Heavy swells
Saddleback Cay and hang a hard right
We’re in. Looking back.
White Cay Devils Cay cut – Saddleback Cay and White Cay
Saddleback Cay and White Cay approaching anchorage
One too many on the beam.
WTF?
I’m still thinking about a new
heading category. Maybe instead of What Dale Fixed Today it should be WHF? I’ll try this heading out today.
For starters it took 7 anchor drops
in 3 locations before we could get the anchor to set. Then when Mary went to
record metrics for the neither engine hour gage had recorded any times. Lastly,
when we went into the forward stateroom…. the carpet was wet.
We finally got the anchor to in a
sandy area between Fowl Cay and Hoffmans Cay. HA. It’s right in the middle of
the surge between the two island. It’s like anchoring in the middle of river. Mary
is monitoring and the anchor is holding. Love that Vulcan anchor.
Dale trouble shot the gages.
Neither was getting power. Corrosion. Resolved.
Beats the heck out of us why there
the forward stateroom carpet is wet. So far none of our theories has proven out.
Out to dry (check out Mary’s stash of TP)
Neighbors
Light pollution in the middle of no where. This cat had one heck of an anchor light
Floccinaucinihilipilification
At least 1000 lives were
lost within the last 100 years in the Bermuda Triange. On average, 4 aircraft
and 20 yachts go missing every year.
Lloyds of London, a
major insurer of ships and boats, does not charge any extra premium for vessels
plying the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. If the insurers don’t charge more,
they obviously don’t think it’s a risk. In actuality, considering the amount of
ocean-going traffic in the area, the incidence of losses in the waters of the
Bermuda Triangle are no worse than any other place.
February 6, 2019 Wednesday Great
Harbor Cay, Berry Islands, Bahamas 0 nautical miles.
25°45’49.2″N 77°53’00.4″W
25.763656, -77.883432
Elevation: 0 ft
What to do? What to do? What to do? I got it! Let’s go to the Beach Club!
Actually decision making was a littler harder than that. We were debating moving to the other side of the island and decided it might not provide enough shelter from the wind. So we walked there 2.5 miles to the Beach Club.
Along the Way
We dingyed into the Government
Dock. It was a bee hive. The mail/delivery boat was in and being unloaded. We headed
off on foot to find the beach, 2-3 miles away. The shops along the roadway were
shacks with a simple hand painted sign identifying what they were selling.
We asked a young woman on the
street for directions to the ‘Beach House’ bar/grill. She very surprised we had
planned to walk that far and told us to just ask someone for a ride. She said that the police station was just up
a couple of blocks and they would surely give us a ride if we asked. We didn’t.
They are everywhere!
Delivery van
Sign in middle of nowhere!
About 3/4s of the way to the beach
and some old guy pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Dale climbed in so
Mary followed.
The ‘Beach House’ bar/grill had free internet. That’s why you got yesterdays blog post. 😊 Mary had her first Goomba Punch, the rum drink the Bahamas is known for, and a Bahama Mama. (Please excuse yesterday’s miss-spellings).
Beach House
Beach House other direction
After roaming the beach for a while we started to walk back to the boat.
The Rat Pack in the 1960’s had a
hotel/hide away here off the Atlantic side beach in Great Harbor Cay. Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Laford, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr, Angie
Dickenson, Cary Grant, Bridget Bardot, Walter Cronkite and other spent their
time there. Today it is in shambles. We roamed through the building. We could
tell that at one time it must have been an awesome place. The only thing that
remains is the golf course.
Mary stopped at a roadside patio to
watch a couple men clean conch. Dale bought ice from the guys sister’s store across
the road. He then inquired if either of them could give us a lift back to the
Government Dock. Tada! We had a ride. The young woman was right. Just ask.
We were back on the boat before
6:00 pm when the evening conch shells were blown.
Great Harbor Cay – Sunset
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Rum punch can be made in various ways, but this
ditty helps you recall the basics. One part of lime juice (sour); two parts of
sugar syrup or a sweet juice like orange or pineapple (sweet); three parts rum
(strong); and four parts water or any lighter juice (weak).
Disambiguation
We used a different camera today and it didn’t work as well as Mary’s good camera. The battery immediately died, missing many of the really good pictures.
