Michael's Birthday Squall

Early Wednesday morning we left Eluthera to sail to the Abacos with two other boats. 55 miles of no wind, and large ocean swells that rocked and rolled the boat to the point of making me queezy. We arrived at Lanyard Cay, dropped anchor near some other boats, and noticed the sky in the north was dark and forboading looking. Within 15 minutes the winds kicked up to ferocious, (later other boats said they measured 40MPH) and our anchor started to drag. FAST. We then had about 15 terrifying minutes of trying to control the boat as the wind and waves push us toward other boats and a rocky coast, with winds so strong Michael had a hard time getting the engine to work enough against the wind to stear forward, and I had to be on the bow getting the dragging anchor and 100 feet of chain up out of the water so we could manuver the boat out into deep water away from other boats. (No, I did not have to physically pull it up, we have an electric motor I operate that does the pulling.) Wind, seawater and rain were blowing sideways. I have never been on the boat in weather like that before. All ended well,  we found a quite little remote anchorage that was as calm as a lake, and we were exhausted. Michael's banana creme pie will have to wait for tommorrow, but he ate a whole bag of gummy worms in about 5 minutes after the squall calmed down.

We did catch another mutton snapper going out. Our fish count is now 3. I don't know if all our recent luck is due to:

A) location

B) time of year

C) a large octopus looking lure with a huge hook we just started using (thanks Vaughn & Jean)

D) luck

E) all of the above

Whatever the reason, they have been delicious eating.

Sailing to Spanish Wells

pot luck dinner on the boat

part of Spanish Wells pristine fishing fleet

Beach view

Shallows go on for miles

Waterfront where fishing boats parked in front of the house

bromolids that look like they are lit up

cemetery

little Spanish Wells house

We had a very gentle sail across the bank to Spanish Wells, catching a mutton snapper within minutes of throwing out a line, (earlier something big grabbed our line and broke it). We had no idea what kind of fish it was until we showed someone later the picture we had taken, but it was delicious. I hope we catch another going out. Our fish count is now up to two.

Spanish Wells is  a small island unlike any place we've been in the Bahamas. It is a busy, industrious island with well kept boats, houses and lots of activity. It is also a dry island (no alcohol) but on Saturday we saw boats running back and forth to a liquor store on  Eleuthera, the neighboring island, a short hop across the cut. This is the first settlement of of the Bahamas that succeeded, and was founded as a place to practice religious freedom (Eleutheria is the Greek word for freedom). Everyone has a strong distinct accent, with most of the families dating back to the original settlers from the 1600's. Looking in from the outside, it has a bit of an utopia look to it, with beautiful beaches with shallow water that stretches out almost a mile out, cute quaint houses and happy people. 

We will be spending a few days here waiting for winds enough to sail up to the Abacos. For the first time since we've been gone, there is almost no breeze, and no see-ums are on the prowl. 

Michaels birthday is Wednesday, so I'm planning his traditonal dinner of hamburgers, potato chips (almost $5.00 for a small bag!) and banana creme pie. Oh and coca-cola, his latest craving. Every place we land he is ashore searching some out. I'm giving him 2 cases of coke for his birthday. (shhh!) We have eaten enough stored food to find room to stash it all.

Heading Back

May 3

We took off Sunday morning thinking we would head over to Cat Island and onto Conception (some more remote parts of the southern Bahamas) but as we got out into the ocean and set our course the seas were just too big and we would have to head into them which creates constant up and down pounding. On the spot we decided to turn around and head back up the Exumas, retracing our path down. The sailing was fast and the seas were rough with lots of whitecaps, it was kind of fun after being stationary for 2+ weeks, but not a relaxing sail in the least. (Pattie, you would not have enjoyed this) Winds were even higher yesterday and today so we anchored behind an Island and went exploring. We found a huge cave we had been told about by other cruisers, as well as an osprey nest (not is use at the moment), and the swimming is d really nice. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to calm down and we will head out again. So in some sense, we are headed back home. Right now we are planning to jump up this island chain stopping at  a few of the islands we missed on the way down, and then sail to the Abacos via Spanish Wells, and play along those islands for a while. 

the close finish losers

osprey nest

inside cave

mouth of cave we found

just cause you have to see another regatta pic

Georgetown Family Regatta

April 25-29

What an event. Traditional Bahamian sailing skiffs with huge masts and booms for enormous sails begin arriving by freighters and under tow for days before the event begins, from Islands from all over the Bahamas . Georgetown is a clammer of hammers as food and drink shacks are thrown up in every available space. The food shacks had things on the menu like sheep's tongue, and goat, We stuck to conch salad and jerk chicken.  The racing takes place over a 3-4 day period and in between races and into the night, people drink. Goombay Smashes, rum punches, and  more deadly sounding concoctions. By the evening people are beginning to be stumbling drunk. We didn't stick around to see how wild it got. And the women are decked out for trouble. The "live" music is called rake & scrape, (I kept seeing signs outside restaurants for rake and scrape night and I thought it was the name of a dish on the menue!) is really a dj playing music with a preformer talking, not rapping, over it all with a mike.

At the beginning of each race all boats are lined up, anchored on the starting line, with sails down.  At the shot from a very loud cannon, anchors and sails come up, and off they go with a flotilla of dinghies and motorboats in tow; following the lead boats and clustered around the next turn. Some of the finishes were spectacular.  I took over 500 pictures of the racing (the boats are absolutely beautiful, I couldn't stop adding more pictures) and the people scene as well. Below is a sampling of what all caught my eye. It was definitely an experience where we felt like the outsiders looking in.

The lubricant of choice for the whole regatta

girls, girls and more girls

Add caption

Rake and scrape superstar

police band in parade

school band

boats arriving from out islands

hoisting sales

the race begins

the race is on

human ballast

very close finish

Strong Winds

April 20

There is a tropical disturbance off in the Atlantic and we are starting to get winds and waves from it. We are comfortable on the boat, tucked up in a place that protects us from any waves, but the dinghy ride we took to town yesterday was a different story. The ride there was fine, we sort of surfed with the waves. Back was hell. The wind had picked up some and we were headed into the wind waves. I t was so rough The dinghy was almost folded in half from the force of the waves and water continually splashed up all over us and into the boat.I had been treating the ride as a bit of a joy ride but that wan't the case. So much water came in that all our groceries, my purse, camera ect were filled with water, and the dinghy was swamped. Salt water had filled the bag of potatoes, and carrots, my camera appears to be dead (I'm hoping it dries out and works again) luckily my IPhone survived and is still working. I have stuff spread out all over the boat trying to dry it all out. And things wet with salt water does not dry out easily. I guess all the salt residue keeps attracting moisture from the air.

So the dinghy is a problem. It has sprung another leak (we've patched it 3 times so far) and it does not handle waves because of it's design. Lots of other boats dinghies are buzzing back and forth with no problems. We won't be going back across the harbor to Georgetown until the rough seas let up. Which sounds like it could be a week or more. Plus for now only a few pictures I took before the joy ride. If the camera is dead for good I guess it will force me to get out the big SLR camera Michael gave me for Christmas that I have barely used because it is so intimidating. 

April 23

Camera is officially dead, and the winds have been howling, particuarly at night. Sunday is supposed to be the worst, with lots of squalls expected to come thru at night. Our anchor has held well so far, so it is pretty secure, but we have not endured tropical squalls yet. I'm not looking forward to it. Next blog hopefully has pictures from the SLR as well as a report on how Sunday night went. From here we start our route back, the exact path is still under discussion, and more importantly, to be determined by winds. By the time we are home we will have explored all but a  few southern islands of the Bahamas, but no trips further south..

More on Georgetown

Georgetown is interesting. The town itself has the best stocked grocery store I've seen since Nassau, (I actually got to choose between ) varieties of cheese, nice wine selection, and fresh meats all at close to US prices. We've been eating more like we do at home while here.  The town seems less scrappy and beaten down than most other settlements we've stopped at.The boating contingency is very well organized. They have a radio net that makes announcements every morning, from who's newly arrived and whose leaving, to where to take your trash, what businesses are available in town, and what activities are planned for the day/week. I've been going to yoga on the beach 3 mornings a week, there is an art group, volleyball,  card games, dominos, all stuff you might find at COA. Some parrothead organized a Jimmy Buffet world tour  launch party with his tampa concert broadcast on XM radio. I never new so many people happen to carry parrot head hats on their boat. And for last night they were announcing  full moon nude volley ball. (sorry no pictures of that one folks). So thats one side of Georgetown, people who come straight down here every year (I met a women who is on her 34th year) and make this their winter home. Surprisingly with all these social opportunities, we have not gelled into it at all. Maybe we should have gone to nude volleyball......

We are anchored in  Sand dollar Bay, off a barrier Island called Stocking island. It has a beautiful long beach on the harbor side that is calm and flat, and all these groomed trails up to rocky ocean cliffs and  to ocean side beaches that go on for a couple of miles up the island. We have taken to going ashore and walking the beach late afternoon each day.  We may see one other person on our walk. Many times a day we spot sea turtles swimming by the boat, today a huge ray jumped out of the water within 10 ft of the boat. The water temperature is really pleasant, and a cool breeze is always blowing. It's easy to see why so many boats cluster here. The next Georgetown chapter will be the Bahamian sailing Regatta that takes over the area next week.

Black Point pictures

Boat in progress. We'll see these racing in Georgetown

You know who

Trash filling limestone cavern in Black Point

Driftwood garden in front of home

Regatta Point at Black Point