Feb 1

We met a few new boats here at the marina.  Buoy N Sea is leaving with a hired pilot to guide them over to Harbor Island in their boat.  Gypsy is heading further south in Eluthera, and Dues Paid is going to Royal Island and then north to the Abacos.  We chatted some with all of them and said goodbye since they are leaving the marina ahead of us.

We took the opportunity this morning to update the website.  Now that we don't have the nice wireless internet connection, we have to find places to take the laptop in and pay for a connection.  Barb went to the grocery store to pick up a couple of last items, while I went to Computer Connections to upload the website update.

When we got back to the marina, Buoy N Sea and Gypsy were gone.  However, Treadwell, the marina dock guy was walking along with me to the dock and said Gypsy had a problem and was coming back.  We met them at the dock and found that they were taking on water from a crack in a seam right at the water line on their swim platform.  They thought they had fixed this once, but it was leaking again, so they will be looking for a fiberglass man today.

We got underway and made the seven mile ride to Royal Island again.  We're starting to wear this spot out on the chart plotter going back and forth.  When we got to Royal, there were only two boats there, one sail and one power.  They have both been staying here for a couple of weeks.  We anchored and shortly after us, Dues Paid came in and anchored near us.

We relaxed for the afternoon, reading mostly, and then went over to Dues Paid for happy hour.  We ended up chatting with Leo and Betty for several hours.  Dues Paid is a forty-two foot catamaran, and it is the second boat just like it that they have had.  Their first one got rammed by a tanker - while they were asleep below.  They were anchored, and properly lit, in Rock Sound on Eluthera when the tanker hit them.  Apparently the tanker was leaving the dock where it had delivered fuel and had to do so at high tide, which was around midnight.  The tanker captain said he had to swerve to avoid an unlit anchored boat, and was unable to correct his course before he hit Dues Paid.  He was in full reverse before they collided, so the tanker hit them and immediately backed off.  The bow of the tanker came through the hull about three feet from their sleeping heads.  It did substantial damage to the boat above the waterline, and put a foot long crack in the hull below the waterline which was leaking profusely.  As other cruisers came to their aid and bailed water to keep up with the leak, Leo was able to use some underwater epoxy to crudely stop the leak.  In the end, it all worked out.  The tanker company accepted responsibility, the boat was towed back to Florida for repairs and is still floating somewhere, although they didn't want that one anymore, so they replaced it with a new one just like it.  Pretty amazing outcome to what could have been a tragic story.

While we were visiting with them late in the afternoon, nine other boats came into the anchorage from Abaco.  At least one of these was a boat we met in Marsh Harbor called Cyrano.  I briefly said hi to them on the radio, but Eddie said Cindy wasn't feeling well so we did not go over to visit.

GPS N 25-30.945 W 76-50.700  Miles made good this leg 7.  Total miles covered 3800.

Feb 2

We were up at dawn to make our trip to the Exumas.  There are a couple of timing issues to this trip.  The first is getting through the reef which extends from Eluthera to near Nassau.  To do this we will go through Fleming Channel.  The current through Fleming Channel can be substantial, so you don't want to go against it if possible.  We are timing our passage to be before high tide, so the current will be running with us.  The second timing issue is the crossing of the Yellow Bank, where there are coral heads to avoid.  To travel an area with coral heads, it is best to have calm seas and the sun directly overhead.  Our timing should put us at this crossing about noon.

The wind of course is pretty much on the nose, so we have the main up for stability, but are motoring.  About a mile before passing through Fleming Channel, our first stressful thing happened.  One end of the dinghy fell from the davits, so the bow was hanging just out of the water held there by the painter which was tied to the davits.  Turns out the D-ring which the davit lines attached to tore off.  I quickly slowed to idle speed and turned the boat directly into the wind and waves to smooth the ride.  I then let the stern of the dinghy down to the water level, had to climb into the dinghy and put the drain plug in (the drain plug is always out while on the davits so as not to collect rain water), and then disconnected the davit lines so they could be tightened out of the way.  We then towed the dinghy the rest of the trip.  Without the motor on it, it tows fine, but it was another thing to worry about.

We got back on course and started to pass through the Fleming Channel.  The current was giving us a two knot boost, but the wind was strong and against the current, so the ride was rough for a mile or so until we got through the reef and out of the concentration of the current.  After that it was still quite choppy, but not as bad. 

We arrived at the Yellow Banks area a little before noon as we had planned.  I donned my foul weather jacket and life vest and went to stand on the bow where I would have a good view of any approaching coral heads, while Barb drove.  Of course the fact that I didn't know what I was looking for didn't help the stress level.  Once I spotted the first one, and realized how easy they were to see, it was a piece of cake.  The coral heads appear as a much darker spot in the water, most are quite large and actually look like something dark like oil floating on the water.  Barb usually saw them as well as I did and was already correcting the course before I signaled to her.  Then the cloud cover moved in.  With the sun obscured, the water all looked dark.  I wasn't seeing any coral heads anymore, and didn't know if it was because they weren't there, or I was just not seeing them.  Ratchet up the stress another notch.  All in all, I stood on the bow, in quite choppy conditions, getting splashed a lot, for three hours.  The sun did reappear a little near the end, and we didn't hit anything.  I did get to enjoy seeing three large flying fish fly away from our bow.  They were probably twice the size of any I had seen to date.

About 15:00 we arrived at Allen's Cay.  The anchorage here is actually between three islands; Allen's, Leaf, and Southwest Allen's Cays.  As is the case along most of the Exuma chain, there is a strong tidal current that runs between Exuma Sound to the east, and the Exuma Banks to the west.  The wind was blowing about fifteen knots from the southeast.  We anchored as the tide was going out, so the wind and current were together, and we laid nicely to our anchor with what appeared to be adequate room between ourselves and to other boats.  Counting us, there were fifteen boats anchored here.  I thought that made the place about full, but I learned later there had been twenty-eight boats here the previous night and there had been some banging around.

When the tide changed later in the evening, the current was now running north to south through the anchorage and the wind was still blowing from the southeast.  This meant two things; the water got quite choppy due to the wind opposing the current, and the boats swung around sideways to the wind because of the strong current.  This put the catamaran behind us, very close to our bow, although I don't think we could touch.  Also, it put our stern only fifty feet or so off the rocky shore.  If our anchor were to drag at all, we would be in trouble fast, as would every other boat here.

As it turned out, nobody dragged or bumped, but it was a restless, noisy night.  Not one of the things I enjoy about cruising.

In case Barb's brother Jim is reading,  Happy Birthday!

GPS N 24 45.098 W 76-50.285  Miles made good this leg 48.  Total miles covered 3848.

Feb 3

This morning, the wind is still blowing.  Several boats have left the anchorage, so we are going to move to the eastern side of the anchorage where there is more room.  The anchorage has deep water along both the eastern and western shores, with a shallow sand bar down the middle and across the northern end.  Most of the boats are on the west side, and the three that were on the eastern side have left.  We weighed anchor and moved around there.  We came up as far north as we could and dropped the hook again.  Once we dropped the hook, and let out about seventy-five feet of chain, we were in about seven feet of water.  Since the tide is about three feet, and it is near high now, this won't work.  So, up comes the anchor again, and we move south about a hundred feet to where we end up in ten feet of water.  This should be much better.  If it gets too crowded tonight, we were here first, so it would be the next guys responsibility to move, and if we drag, we would just go aground in sand rather than hit the rocky shore.  The current also doesn't seem to run quite as strong on this side.

The main purpose of stopping at Allen's Cay is to see the iguanas that live here.  On Leaf Cay and Southwest Allen's Cay, there are dozens of big iguanas.  According to the sign on the beach, this particular breed is only found here, and they are the largest animal native to the Bahamas.  We launched the dinghy and went to the beach on Leaf Cay.  As soon as you approach the beach, the iguanas start coming towards you.  They expect handouts.  They will get quite close to you, but if you wave at  them or move suddenly, they back off.  The cruising guide warns you that while they probably won't attack you, they are not tame and you shouldn't try to touch them or they may bite.  We didn't bring anything to feed them, so we just talked to them and took pictures.

There is a ruin on Leaf Cay, which you can barely see from the boat through the vegetation.  At the beach, there were a couple of concrete stepping stones visible that seemed to just lead into the brush.  We followed them and found the path to the remains of a house.  The building was reinforced concrete and the whole roof was collapsed inside.  Like the other ruins we have seen, it has graffiti all over it.  I did find that from inside, we could see MoonSail at anchor when looking out the front door.  We also found one large iguana inside the building.  He was the only one we saw that was not on the beach, but there were probably many of them lurking in the brush where we couldn't see them.

From here we dinghied to the south end of the anchorage and the beach on Southwest Allen's Cay.  There were iguanas here too, but not as many as on Leaf Cay.  We then dinghied back up to the shallow water at the north end of the anchorage and looked around a little with our glass-bottomed bucket (a.k.a the Bahamian TV).

Early in the afternoon, a boat called "any boat in Allen's Cay" on the VHF.  I answered him and he asked if there was room for another boat.  I told him there were fifteen overnight and only nine now, so I would think yes.  About an hour later, an Island Packet 48 was in the anchorage and heading towards us.  As he got closer, I could see how much he was being set sideways by the wind and current, and I don't think he realized it.  I was sure he was going to either hit our bow or catch our anchor chain on his keel.  Somehow, by the grace of Neptune, neither happened.  He passed to our port side with about a foot between our boats.  He laughed and waved as he passed as if nothing had happened.  I told him he better turn around because the water got shallow fast behind us.  He made a u-turn behind us and came back past us on the starboard side.  I yelled to him again that there is plenty of water and space up in front of us, but he refused to believe it was deep enough and took off over the shallow bar in the middle.  Fortunately for him, it was near high tide, so he did not run aground.  He dropped the hook right in the middle of four other boats where there clearly was not room for another.  One of them yelled at him that he was too close and couldn't stay there.  He hoisted anchor and circled again then left the anchorage.  Just goes to prove all you need to be a boater is money, not common sense or boating skills.

About an hour later, another boat came in the anchorage and looked like he was going to anchor in front of us where there was plenty of room.  But then he kept coming back towards us and then turned towards the shallow middle part.  About the time I expected him to run aground he turned back towards us.  Unfortunately, he had waited just a tad to late, because he went aground and was now sideways to the wind and current, so they were pushing him against the sand bar.  He was not able to move at all when he tried to reverse.  I quickly jumped in my dinghy and buzzed over to him and asked if he wanted me to push on his bow and try to spin him around to point into the wind and deeper water.  He was game for anything other than sitting there for several hours waiting for the tide to come back.  So, I pushed on his bow with the dinghy at full throttle.  Slowly, the boat started to spin around and point the right way, but it was still stuck.  About then another dinghy arrived, and with both of us pushing, and the boat at full throttle forward we pushed off the bar.  He was very appreciative and it felt good to have been successful.  Later, Adrian from Flyin Low came over to our boat by dinghy to thank us again for the help.  He, his wife, and twenty-ish daughter are on their first cruise.  They are from England, where he works in the summer and gets to take off six months in the winter.  Nice deal.  I don't know what type of work he does.

The night was much better than the previous one.  The wind calmed some overnight, and we swung with the current but not too close to anybody.  I got up three times to double check everything, but all was well.

GPS N 24 45.098 W 76-50.285  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3848.

Feb 4

I started the morning as usual, listening to Chris Parker's weather forecast on the SSB radio.  Today, I listened to something else too.  There is another radio net called Cruisehiemers on 8152.  This net covers the entire Caribbean and East Coast.  Basically, everybody just checks in with where they are.  It's a good way to keep track of boats you have met along the way.  When they called for boats in the Exumas, I heard several we knew.  I then checked in myself.  This was my first attempt at talking on the SSB.  It worked!  They heard me, knew we had never checked in before and welcomed us to the net.  I was tickled to know the radio actually transmits good, as that is where a poor installation of an SSB will show up.

There is supposed to be a strong cold front coming through tonight, with the possibility of heavy rain squalls as well as the wind shift to the north.  We have made a reservation to go into the marina on Highborne Cay for two nights so we don't have to fret about being securely anchored.  About 10:00 we weighed anchor and headed there.  It's only a few miles south to Highborne, but we have to go west out around a coral patch so, the miles actually traveled was about six.  It took us a little under an hour.

Highborne Cay is privately owned and the marina and one rental cottage are the only things here besides residences for the staff.  The marina is occupied mostly by large cabin cruisers or sport fishing boats.  We are the only sailboat, although two more came in after us.  They directed us to their long dock where we did a side tie on the north side of it.  The south side was occupied by a 137 foot motor yacht.  Being on the north side of the dock means that when the front comes, we are going to be pinned against the dock.  More on that later.

Once we were secure, I went up to the office and checked in.  The signs in the office indicated the price here is double what the cruising guide said it was.  So, I had a little sticker shock.  But, we are here, and I don't want to be anchored when the storms come, so we'll stay.  I asked where the showers were since we were looking forward to long real showers.  The lady told me where they were and that they took tokens which she had for $4 each.  This is the first we have had to pay extra for a shower, but I really wanted one, so I got two tokens.  I also got sticker shock when I bought a six-pack of beer.  Twenty bucks.  That's bar prices!  It would have been $24 if I wanted it cold.  I took a warm six pack and put one in the freezer.

Soon after arriving, a seaplane landed in the shallow lagoon just north of the marina.  Two adults and a small child and their luggage disembarked and the plane took off again.  The people came up to the ramada at the end of the dock and sat down.  Soon thereafter, another sailboat, Montana Mar, came in and tied up right behind us.  This boat had been at Allen's Cay also.  Turns out the people from the plane are joining the boat for a week.  We later met them all.  (Montana is really pronounced Montanya, with the little squiggly thing over the N, but I can't make my English keyboard make that squiggly thing.)

We went for a walk to see a little bit of the island.  The first thing we saw was the tropical style traffic signs.  A couple pictures are in the gallery.  On the brochure they gave me in the office, the text said not to miss seeing the spring on the south end of the island.  There was also a map, so we hiked off to see the spring.  Down the main road we came to a side path and there was a sign for the spring.  Down the hill to the shore, another sign pointed up a small trail into the brush.  We went up around the corner and found the spring.  It was a coil spring stuck on a branch of a tree.  Good joke.  On the way back to the marina, we passed four people going the other way.  They asked if we had been to the spring.  We just smiled and said yes we had.

I spent the next hour or so making a sign for us to leave at Boo Boo Hill in the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  We picked up a piece of wood on the beach at Royal Island, and I used my Dremel tool to carve out a sign indicating the boat name, our names, and the date.  We'll have a picture when we deposit it.  While I was doing this, Barb did her first load of bucket laundry.  So, far we have had access to laundry facilities at marinas along the way.  Here, you can get it done for $10/load, so we passed.  Sooner or later the hand washing was going to happen, so it might as well be now.

We had seen a sign up by the office advertising a buffet dinner tonight on the beach by the office.  Joel, a.k.a. Cool Runner, is the local caterer.  There is no restaurant here, but you can order food from Cool Runner and he will deliver it to your boat.  On Saturdays they do this buffet deal for $35/person.  We thought that was a little steep and were going to pass, but late in the afternoon, Cool Runner came by the boat to pitch the meal and try to sign people up.  When he pointed out it was all you could eat and included all the wine you wanted, we agreed to go.  Dinner was at 19:30.  We hoped the rain would not come by then, since the dinner is outside.  The wind was blowing extremely hard, still from the south making it necessary to hold onto everything while eating.  The food was very tasty though.  We started with homemade bread and the best conch chowder I have had yet.  There was barbequed ribs or chicken or fresh mahi mahi caught that afternoon, plus rice, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, green salad, and three different kinds of cake for desert.  They were very generous with the pouring of the wine too.  Just after everybody was done and the girls helping Cool Runner had cleared away all the trash, it started to rain.  Everybody hastily got up to go back to their boats, and the girls topped up your wine cup to go.

GPS N 24 42.605 W 76-49.353  Miles made good this leg 6.  Total miles covered 3854.

Feb 5

The front came through about midnight, just as forecast.  We were pinned hard against the dock, and the fenders were squeaking as they were mashed between the boat and the pilings.  Even though there was only about a hundred feet between us and the northern shore, the wind was able to kick up enough of a chop to slap the hull and make a lot of noise.  About 03:00 I went above to see if I could do anything to get us off the dock a little to lessen the noise of the boat rubbing the pilings.  I tried to pull the port bow line tighter to hold us off the dock, but couldn't get it any better.  The noise is not nearly as loud outside.  The bulk of the noise is coming from the fender lines moving over the lifelines.  They just move a hair, but it's just like drawing a fiddle bow across the strings, and we are inside the fiddle.  I slept restlessly the rest of the night.  Even though we were secure and being against the pilings wasn't hurting anything, the noise was very annoying.

After breakfast I decided to attempt to fix the dinghy.  There are two things to fix now.  One is the D-ring that broke the other day.  I can use the tow ring on the very front of the bow to hoist it, but that means the line comes around the tube very tightly and I'm afraid it will abrade the tube and puncture it.  The other problem is that water leaks in from somewhere.  It think it is coming from where the port tube attaches to the hull.  So, with the help of the guys from the boat behind us, I dragged the dinghy onto the dock from the side, as Barb let the davit lines loose.  Once it was on the dock, I took everything out so I could turn it over.  To my surprise, I didn't find anyplace where the tube appeared to be separating from the hull.  I went ahead and ran a bead of Marine Goop over the edges to be sure, but that may not be the source of the leak as I thought.  Then I glued a replacement D-ring that I had in the bow.  I would rather put a u-bolt into the floor, but I don't have one with me.  Hopefully the glue will hold the new D-ring, although I have my doubts.

About five hours later I lifted up the dinghy nose by hand using the new D-ring and it held.  So, I hooked the davit lines to it and dragged it off the dock and then lowered it into the water to see if I fixed the leak.  An hour or so later, there was water in it, so the leak is still there.  Frustrated, I hoisted it up.  Just as it got to the top, the new D-ring pulled off and the nose fell again.  I was real frustrated.  After plotting for awhile, I put a line from the front towing D-ring to lift it by, and wedged a throwable life preserver cushion under the line so it didn't pinch the tube as bad.  This will have to do for now.

There has been talk on the dock all day about watching the Superbowl.  There is no public restaurant or bar here, but there are about ten large powerboats with satellite TV antennas, so we were hoping someone might host a party.  Greg from Montana Mar behind us went around trying to wrangle an invitation, but no luck.  As in previous years, I really don't care much about the game, but I look forward to the new commercials.  Since we had nothing better to do anyway, we listened to the game on Sirius radio, but that was radio coverage with more commercials and tiny sponsorship mentions than a NASCAR race.  We were sitting inside the boat but the cockpit speakers were on, and several times we heard people talking as they lingered by our boat to hear the score.  A couple times people from anchored boats asked for the score.  When it was over I made an announcement on the VHF.

GPS N 24 42.605 W 76-49.353  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3854.

Feb 6

We are going to move south this morning to Norman's Cay.  It is pretty calm this morning and we could leave anytime, but since we are in no hurry, we are going to wait for Montana Mar behind us and the power cat behind them to leave first.  We considered taking marina showers again, but we did a little math first.  At $4/shower times 2 people, that's $8.  Water here is supposed to be $.40/gal.  We won't use twenty gallons of water on two showers on the boat.  So we moved the cat box and showered aboard.  Later we had the marina guy come unlock our water tap and we refilled the tank, so we are good for three weeks which will easily take us to Georgetown, where water is free.

While we were killing time waiting for the other boats to leave, we spotted a small nurse shark and a ray cruising in the marina.  The young girl visiting Montana Mar behind us was quite taken by them.

About 10:00, the power cat left, and then by 11:00, we helped Montana Mar get away.  We then cast off and moved over to the fuel dock.  Now that we are down in the more remote part of the Bahamas, compared to the Abacos, my logic is fill fuel and water any time you can.  We pulled up to the fuel dock and took about sixteen gallons to top up.  I then went to check out.  I have decided that they need to rename Highborne Cay to High-priced Cay.  I already knew the dockage was more than the cruising guide said.  It turned out to be $2.25/ft/day.  Then there was electricity at $15/day, then those two $4 showers, a $6 bag of ice, twenty-six gallons of water at $.50/gal (not the $.40 I expected), fuel at $4.12/gal, the beer and a couple other grocery things for $35, and a 4% surcharge for using my credit card.   Total $334 for two nights.  Well, it doesn't beat NYC, but it's close.

We got on out of town before they thought of something else to charge me for.  Once out of the marina area, and back on the Exuma Bank, we decided to sail.  We have done precious little sailing on this trip, and today was a perfect chance.  The wind is blowing from the east at eight to ten knots, we are going south, we are only going about ten miles, the batteries are fully charged from being plugged in, and we are in no hurry.  We unfurled both sails and shut off the engine.  We sailed at between three and five knots for a couple of hours before turning into Norman's Cay.

Norman's Cay has a shady history.  Back in the 80's, it was home to a notorious Columbian drug lord who shipped all his cocaine from Columbia through here to the US.  He built the Norman Cay Club and an airstrip and conducted business unimpaired for many years.  Today, the buildings of the club are decaying, but there is a fair amount of new development on the island trying to make it a fly-in destination.  We saw several planes use the runway while we were there.  One plane that used the runway back in the drug days now lies in about five feet of water in the bay east of the club.  It has deteriorated considerably over the years, but is still is clearly a plane.

Most boats anchor in the cut between Exuma Sound (deep water) and the Exuma Bank (shallow water) near where the plane remains are.  The problem with this in my estimation, is that here you have to deal with the strong current changes that come every five hours or so with the tides.  The water rushes from the Sound onto the Banks as the tide rises, and then back as the tide ebbs.  Since the wind is light and from the east, and forecast to stay that way, we decided to anchor on the west side of the island and just dinghy around to see the plane.  We were glad we did, since we ended up being one of five boats anchored there with plenty of room, while in the cut there were about fifteen boats worrying about the current and choppy water.

Montana Mar is anchored on the crowded side, and we stopped to visit them after checking out the plane.  Greg and Suze are the owners.  They are younger than us and just bought the boat a year or so ago.  They are newer than us at the whole boating thing, but they are taking little steps and learning as they go.  We visited for an hour or so and decided to head back the couple of miles to our boat before dark.  As I stepped on the swim platform to board our dinghy, my bare foot slipped on the varnished teak swim platform.  I started to go down on my butt.  As I went down, I whacked the inside of my elbow on something which will leave a bruise, but I just knew I was going in the water.  Somehow, I stopped and ended up sitting on the swim platform with just my legs in the water.  I didn't have anything in my pockets, so it wouldn't have mattered other than being chilly on the ride back, but I was amazed I avoided taking the whole dive.  Of course everybody was concerned that I was hurt, but I was fine other than the elbow.  Later it occurred to my that last time I suddenly ended up on my butt, I broke my back, but this time was less eventful.

After we got back to our boat, we were enjoying beverages in the cockpit and still had the VHF on.  We have gotten in the habit of keeping the radio on all day even when not underway, since it's used like a telephone here for boats that know each other to keep in touch.  We heard a guy hail "anybody who knew anything about boat transmissions".  We listened to him talk to several people about what might be wrong.  He was anchored at Shroud Cay south of us.  Over the next couple of days, we heard him tell people who were trying to help, that he had been in touch with a place in Florida who made it sound like the transmission was toast, and his choices were get to Nassau, pull it, ship it to FL to be rebuilt and returned in about three weeks, or sail to FL, etc.  It made us ponder what we would do if we had a serious failure like that.

Our old Kemah dock neighbors Dan & Jamie on Nereia, who we last saw in July in Tampa, left Tampa in December and headed over here.  They got as far south as the Exuma Land and Sea Park and then had to go back to Nassau to checkout a health problem.  Everything is fine with that, and they are returning from Nassau today.  There plan is to anchor south of Highborne Cay tonight and then go back to the park tomorrow.  We had hailed them on the radio several times during the day, but got no response.  A little before sunset, we heard a boat in Highborne's anchorage hail a "dark hulled sailboat", which Nereia is.  We called and asked if the boat's name was Nereia.  Someone answered that is was, so we waited a little bit for them to get anchored and then hailed them.  We said hi and agreed to hook up tomorrow, hopefully at the park.

I should explain a little about the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  It is basically a national park, that encompasses quite a few cays.  The main one is Warderick Wells, where the park headquarters is located along with about twenty-six mooring balls.  The procedure for getting a mooring in the park is that you call on the radio the day before and get put on a list.  Each morning, the park manager gets on the VHF at 09:00 and asks for the names of boats leaving that day.  They then go through the list from the day before and hail each boat, asking if you still want a mooring that day.  They then ask for people who want to get on tomorrow's list.  Then they go away for about twenty minutes and figure out how many moorings will be available today.  There is no limit on how long you stay, so everyday is a different deal.  There are other factors, like if you are a park "member" you get priority, and some mooring can hold only shallow boats, or short boats, so it's not simply first-come-first-served.  Nereia (who is a "member") had sent them an e-mail from Nassau that they would be back on Tuesday, but on Monday morning, I "officially" put both Nereia and MoonSail on the list for Tuesday.  There are over twenty boats on the list, so it may be a problem.

GPS N 24 36.164 W 76-49.251  Miles made good this leg 11.  Total miles covered 3865

Feb 7.

We had a pleasant night, as the winds were light and from the east, so we were protected by the island.  I was up at 06:30 as usual to listen to the SSB for the weather.  Nereia had said they were heading for the park about 07:00.  About 08:30, we spotted them southbound, a mile and a half or so to our west.  We hailed them on the VHF and said good morning.  Their radio doesn't seem to be receiving or transmitting as far as mine, so I told them when the park did their 09:00 thing, I would respond for both of us.

At 09:00, the park started the morning routine.  Only two boats said they were leaving.  As they read the list of people wanting to come in, I responded affirmative for Nereia and MoonSail.  When they came back with mooring assignment for the day, Nereia was first and was in.  They then assigned several other moorings.  Finally, they hailed us and offered us one of their three "outside" moorings, which are prone to a swell and current, especially if the wind is from the north or northwest.  I figured any mooring was better than none, so we accepted mooring number three, which is the closest in of the three "outside" moorings.  The forecast for tonight is for little or no wind, so it should be fine.

From Norman's to the park, we motored all the way.  There is less than five knots of winds, and we need to charge the batteries, so it's back to motoring.  On the way, we heard a plane hail Nassau Basra.  Basra is the Bahamas Air and Sea Rescue Association.  Kind of like the US Coast Guard, except they are all volunteers, using their own boats, etc.  It's like a volunteer fire department, vs. a big city paid fire department.  The plane was reporting the latest coordinates of a floating boat wreck.  Basra was aware of the wreck, which must have happened the day before.  The boat was a 125-foot motor yacht named Princess Gigi.  The hull was floating upside down and drifting, the superstructure from the top of the boat was floating separately, and there was a large debris field of furniture and other stuff spread over about fifteen miles.  We did learn that the people onboard had all been successfully rescued, but we have no idea what caused the accident.  The immediate concern was the risk to other boats of having this thing floating around out there.  Basra was sending a boat to light the floating hull overnight, and hoped to have a salvage boat on scene tomorrow.

We got to the park in about three and a half hours and picked up our mooring.  Nereia had been right in front of us and they went way inside to mooring number twenty.  We spoke to them and the park office on the radio and agreed to check in in the morning.  A little while later a dinghy approached and it was Clyde and Linda from Gypsy, who we had met last week in Spanish Wells.  They had gotten their leak fixed, gone further south on Eluthera, and then crossed directly to the park yesterday.  They heard us on the radio this morning and came to find us.  We enjoyed a beverage or two and chatted with them about what they saw on Eluthera that we missed.

After Clyde and Linda left, but before sunset, we were visited by Bubba the Barracuda.  Bubba is a fixture at the park.  He is about four feet long and just hangs around the stern of new boats.  We tried to feed him a hunk of bread, but apparently barracudas don't do bread.  He checked it out and ignored it.  Later, after dark, in the glow of the moonlight, we could see Bubba was still there.  I got my dive light out and suspended it in the water behind the boat.  Bubba was there as well as seven or eight other large fish that I have no idea what they were.  Anytime I shined the light right on the other fish, they moved away, but Bubba just hung there.

The water is so clear here that with the moon at about 3/4 full, we can clearly see the bottom.  It is quite eerie.

I remember this place from Brian & Tammy's visit a few years ago.  The name of their boat is Another Road, which is the title of a Buffett song.  This evening while listening to Radio Margaritaville, we heard Another Road.  I thought that was pretty serendipitous.

After dark, a large catamaran, which is a live-aboard dive boat, came in and took the mooring outside of us.  We had seen Aqua Cat up around Allen's Cay a few days ago.  This is probably a seventy-five foot, three decked boat, that probably holds thirty or forty divers and crew for a week at a time.  As we swung on the moorings, they came within forty or fifty feet of us, but it wasn't a problem.  Even though they had deck lights on all night and generators running, they were not a problem.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 24.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 8

For the first time since beginning to listen  to Chris Parker on the SSB give his weather report, I found him to be very wrong.  I don't recall if I have mentioned Chris Parker before, but he does a daily weather report for the whole Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida.  You can subscribe to get daily e-mails, which I do, or to talk to him on the SSB about your specific location, which I don't, but anybody can listen to the SSB, which I do.  He takes info from many sources, adds his own meteorological skills to it, and puts it out from a boater's point of view from his boat in Tampa.  He usually is quite accurate.  His forecast for last night here was light and variable winds.  Based on that, I would have stayed anchored at Norman's another night if we had not gotten the "outer" mooring.  Well, the forecast was about twelve hours wrong, because at 02:30, the wind suddenly shifted to the northwest and picked up to about fifteen knots.  This meant we were exposed to a good swell from the north.  At least we were on a good strong mooring, but I still hardly slept after that.  If we had still been anchored at Norman's, we would have been totally exposed to the north or west.  As it turned out, having Aqua Cat so near us probably helped, because at least part of the time we were in their lee.  For the non-boaters, that means they blocked the waves from us.

At 09:00, we listened to the park assign moorings, hoping we could move inside.  Unfortunately, there were enough "members" on the list, that we were not able to get further in.  I was quite disappointed, but the park guy promised to call on the radio if anything changed.

We launched our dinghy and went to visit with Dan & Jaime.  Even in the dinghy, you have to stay in the deep channel where the moorings are.  From us to Nereia as the sea gull flies is much shorter than following the channel, but at low tide the water between us is only inches deep.  Aboard Nereia we caught up with them since we last saw them in Tampa.  After an hour or so we decided to go to the office and officially check in.  Dan & Jaime hoped perhaps they could influence something and get us an inside mooring today.

We headed to the office and met Tom, who together with his wife Judy runs the park.  Jaime introduced me to Tom and he said he was about to call us on the radio.  Another boat decided to leave today, so we were in.  I thanked him and filled out our paperwork.  I knew the park has wireless internet available, but I asked Tom if they had a place I could plug in an Ethernet cable since I broke my wireless antenna.  They don't, but he said he just happened to have a USB antenna he no longer needed and if he could find it he would sell it to me.  He will look for it tonight.

We then headed up to Boo Boo Hill.  Boo Boo Hill is a place where cruisers leave signs documenting their visit.  We had picked up a piece of wood at Royal Island and carved it at Highborne.  See the pictures for the finished product.  Up on top we added our totem to the huge pile of previous visitors.  We looked for Brian & Tammy's from 2003, but did not find it.  We'll look again tomorrow.

In the same vicinity as Boo Boo Hill, are the blow holes.  The ocean side of the island has places where erosion has undercut the cliff, and then there are holes from the top of the hill, straight down to these undercuts.  When the tide is high, the waves come into the undercut, and the water shoots out the holes on top of the hill.  Unfortunately, we were there around low tide, so there was no action.

We walked back to the dinghy and took Dan & Jaime back to Nereia.  Back at our boat, we had a sandwich, and then I just ran out of gas.  I have been fighting a cold for several days.  I guess the phase of the cold and the poor sleep for several days caught up with me, because I just went and laid down for almost two hours.  I never really fell asleep, but just had no energy, ached all over, and felt like I had a fever.  I also have some sinus drainage causing that annoying dry cough that it does, which greatly contributed to last might's poor sleep.

Later in the evening, Barb made dinner, and since I felt a little better, I caught up writing the logs.  The park does have wireless internet, and Tom told me he may even have an old USB wireless antenna he'll sell me to replace the one I dropped in Marsh Harbor.

Well my captain took some NyQuil just a little while ago and is asleep while I proof read the log.  I want to wish my Dad a Happy Birthday today.  Hope he sees this and know I think of him often.  Life is good here in the Bahamas.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 9

Well, the captain doesn't feel very good today, so it will be a quiet day.  In the morning Dan from Nereia came over to use our radio to talk to another boat they know that is further south from here.  My radio seems to reach them, but Nereia's doesn't.  We got a hold of them and Dan chatted with them for a bit and arranged to catch up down the line somewhere.

I spent the morning reading and finished my book.  I had been reading a book we bought up in Little Harbor Abaco that was the history of the Johnston family who first settled Little Harbor in the 1950's.  Pete, who we met at Pete's Pub is the son of Randolph Johnston who moved his family there from Massachusetts.  Randolph was a sculptor and eventually built a home and foundry at Little Harbor to pursue his bronze work.  The book was very interesting and made me real glad I grew up in a cushy middle-class America and never had to work that hard.

Near lunch time, we dinghied to the park headquarters to get a bag of ice.  Ice is the only thing you can get here.  No water, no garbage disposal, no groceries, but they have ice.  Gotta have ice for those beverages.  While in the office, we met Judy who is usually in the office.  She had been away to Nassau for a couple days, so we had only met Tom, her husband, when we were in the office yesterday.  I asked her about the wireless antenna and she made a note to ask Tom about it.

In the office they have many books, t-shirts, and other stuff for sale to support the park.  I bought a new book which is all about the Norman's Cay story.  I mentioned earlier the drug trafficking history of Norman's Cay.  The book explains it all.  It is called Turning The Tide - One Man Against The Medellin Cartel.  It reads like a novel, but it all really happened.  It's a pretty incredible story.  Once we got back to the boat I read the whole book before going to bed.  As with several other books I have read on the trip, it was much more meaningful to me having just been there.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 10

Although I am still coughing and hacking from sinus drainage, we are going to explore some with Dan & Jaime.  We met at the dinghy dock at 10:00 and went in the office to see Judy.  I reminded her about the wireless antenna, and she said Tom found it, but she didn't know where he put it.  We told her we'd stop back after our exploration.

We headed down the west side of Warderick Wells Cay by dinghy and around the south tip to the south mooring field.  Our friends on Gypsy are here, and Montana Mar is getting a mooring here today, although they aren't here yet.  We beached the dinghies and followed a trail inland to Pirate's Lair, a clearing with a natural fresh water well where pirates were reputed to have rested when not pillaging and looting.  We then went back to the shore and hiked north to where the channel comes into the southern mooring field from Exuma Sound.  As it was almost low tide, we saw lots of little creatures that get stuck in little pools of water in the rocks when the tide goes out.

We turned around and went back to the dinghies and headed back around to the west side.  We stopped at a beach where we were able to hike over a narrow part of the island to the Atlantic side.  Wayfinder is a Nordhaven 47 powerboat which has three little dogs aboard.  They were on the beach already when we arrived, and the dogs were all digging madly in the wet sand at the water's edge.  We took our hike and walked along the shore on the Atlantic side.  The view was beautiful.  When we got back to the west side where the dinghies were, the dogs were still randomly digging in the sand.

At this point, Dan & Jaime went back to their boat and we stopped back at headquarters to see if Tom had brought the antenna there.  He had.  It was a Linksys like my old one, but a newer version.  I took it to the boat to make sure it worked before we struck a deal.  He even had come up with the driver CD.  I took it back to the boat and it works fine.  I'll pay him for it tomorrow.

So, the rest of the afternoon was spent doing banking, downloading e-mail from the real server, and other web browsing.  The connection is a little slow since we are on the fringe of reception, but it's better than nothing.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 11

The day dawned beautiful and warm.  The weather is supposed to get ugly tomorrow, but today is nice.  We had discussed the possibility of doing some snorkeling with Dan & Jaime yesterday, so we hailed them on the VHF.  Dan said he would come over in a little while and we would go.

Dan arrived about 10:00.  He came aboard to visit before we went snorkeling.  We were running our engine to recharge batteries when Dan arrived, and our conversation turned to electricity management aboard.  He is fairly well versed in the electrical nuances of boats, and feels that we seem to have to recharge too often.  I already knew we use a lot of electricity, but we do seem to be suffering in the recharging side.  The wind is usually not consistent enough to keep us even.  Tomorrow I will do some basic problem determination to make sure we don't have something obvious, like a loose or corroded battery cable causing us to not be using all four batteries.

The three of us loaded up in Dan's dinghy and headed out to a little spot near the entrance to the park to snorkel.  This spot is just west of the mooring ball we were on the first night we were here.  Dan and Barb actually snorkeled, while I walked around with our Bahamian TV (glass bottomed bucket).  Since I am still coughing a lot, I figured I would not enjoy trying to cough through a snorkel.  There was a lot of live coral and small colorful fish here.  I had to be very careful in my walking around to not step on any coral.  We spent over an hour there, and then took the dinghy due east to a small beach, where we walked around a bit.

While beachcombing, Barb picked up several pieces of seaglass.  The park has a motto - Take only pictures, leave only footprints.  We wonder if taking seaglass is allowed.  We suspect they won't mind.

We returned to the boat and Dan went back to his.  I have been unable to stay connected to the wireless long enough to publish the website update, so I loaded the computer in the waterproof Pelican case and dinghied in to park headquarters to be right near the wireless source.  When I got there, Tom was on the porch helping another cruiser with his computer, so I asked him how much he wanted for the antenna.  He said $25.  I was happy to pay that (or twice as much).  It would cost me $50 for a new one in the States, and to be able to find one out here in such a remote place was just amazing.  I setup the computer on the porch and had an excellent wireless connection, but the basic Directway satellite connection they have was still too slow to publish the web update.

On the porch where I was sitting, there is a glassed in box on the wall that contains little plaques with the names of "Special Friends" of the park.  That would be people who have obviously given substantial donations.  I was perusing the names while waiting on the computer, and I noticed Tom Cruise.  Right next to his plaque was one that said Nicole Kidman.  I wondered if they really were here, or if it was a joke to see if anybody really read the names.  I asked Judy about it, and she said it was in fact true.  The funny thing was that the names used to be on one plaque.  When Tom and Nichole split, one of them remembered the plaque and called and asked them to redo it into two separate ones.  While I find it incredibly petty to try and erase your marital history (like cutting your ex out of old photos), I find it even more incredible that they remembered the plaque was here.  One of the other plaques in the case had non other than Jimmy Buffett's name on it.  Small world.

Once a week, the park hosts a happy hour on the beach near headquarters.  The deal is each boat brings an appetizer/snack, and what they want to drink.  The park provides a bonfire and the ice for your drinks.  That may not seem like much, but remember, ice is like gold to cruisers.  The gathering started at 17:00 and we were there.  We met up with Greg and Suze from Montana Mar who are in the south anchorage.  Their guests left by seaplane today.  The seaplane landed right in the anchorage and picked the people up on the beach.  I asked what that cost, and it was $400 from Nassau to where-ever in the Bahamas.  You rent to plane, so one person or three didn't matter.  It wasn't as pricey as I would have thought.  We also met Ken and Cathy from Chill which is on the mooring next to us.  Turns out they left Kemah in 2004.  We partied on the beach until about 19:30 and then headed back to the boat.  I had forgotten to turn on our anchor light before we left, but there was a full moon, so finding the boat was not a problem.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 12

Both of us were a little slow responding this morning.  Must have had a little too much rum on the beach last night.  There is supposed to be a strong cold front coming through today.  It is part of the same storm system that is dumping a couple feet of snow on NYC today.  We did our normal morning radio things, including talking to Nereia and making plans to get together tonight for a two-boat pot-luck dinner.

The front is predicted to get here before noon, so we are staying on the boat and waiting.  The wind has built overnight and is blowing about fifteen knots from the south.  A little before noon, I was laying in the cockpit dozing and Barb was below, when the front came.  The wind instantly came around to just west of north and picked up to twenty five knots.  We had a few light showers during the morning, but no significant squalls as predicted.  The wind stayed a steady twenty five, with gusts over thirty all afternoon.  The tide is coming in now, so the wind and current are in sync and we are pointing nicely into the wind so the ride is not bad.  There are two boats on the outer moorings where we spent our first night here, and they are pitching wildly.  Glad we aren't there now.  When the tide shifts tonight, we will probably lay sideways to the wind and roll more but hopefully I'll still sleep knowing we are secure on a mooring.

About 15:00, we spoke to Dan & Jaime and decided it was too rough to dinghy around for dinner tonight.  So, we will postpone that until tomorrow.  We spent the rest of the day reading.  There are a couple of things I need to investigate and fix, but there's always tomorrow.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 13

The wind is still blowing today.  We are just staying on the boat reading.  We have heard other boats on the radio all day having trouble with dragging anchors.  I'm sure glad we are on a mooring.  Our ride is not too bad either.  The sound from the wind generator is getting a bit annoying, but we are making electricity.  We have not had to run the motor in two days, although we may need to tonight.

When listening to the SSB (long range) radio this morning, we heard about two boats down in Mayaguana that broke loose during the night.  One is on the beach getting beat by the surf, and the other must have been on a reef and was holed, and now it is a mile offshore taking on water.  Help is on the way, but they are in a remote area.  Not a good thing to hear.

We again postponed getting together with Dan & Jaime.  No sense getting us and the food wet getting there and back.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 14

The wind is still blowing today, but it has shifted around to the east, so the whole anchorage is much more protected.  The wave action in the anchorage is almost smooth with the wind from the east.  Mid morning, we hopped in the dinghy and went to shore.  We hiked up to the top of Boo Boo Hill again to look for Brian & Tammy's sign again, now that I have spoken to Brian and know what I'm looking for.  I spent about thirty minutes looking but to no avail.  Brian told me his sign was made on a piece of smoked Plexiglas, and they have a rule now that you are not to use glass or plastic.  I don't know if they might have removed his, or if it simply blew away in a storm since then.  There are lots of other signs there several years older, but who knows.

From Boo Boo Hill, we hiked to Boo Boo Beach which is on the Atlantic side.  The beach is small and pretty rocky, but the colors of the water from there were beautiful.  From there we took Mark's trail towards the west, which merged with the Huita Highway.   (Huita's are small rodent like creatures that look like mini-woodchucks that are native here.)  Huita Highway hooked up with Ian's trail, which then met Julie's trail back to the headquarters.  Along the way we found Murphy's Hideaway, a small cave.  There was a ladder there to give access to the entrance, but I wasn't convinced it was built for a fat boy, so I didn't go down.

At headquarters we visited a few minutes with Tom & Judy from the park, and Dan from Nereia who was doing some Excel work for them on their computer.  Later in the afternoon, we went over to Nereia for our twice-postponed dinner.  We stayed over there until after 21:00 catching up with them.  We had noticed that we were down to about a quart of gas left in the dinghy tank, so we told Nereia to leave their radio on until we called them to say we got back ok.  Otherwise they would have come out and towed us to the boat.  We made it fine and called them to say so.

GPS N 24 23.952 W 76-38.161  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3889.

Feb 15

Today we are leaving the park.  We waited until 09:00 to officially tell Judy during her morning VHF roll call that we were leaving.  We then headed west onto the Exuma Bank again for the twenty mile trip down to Staniel Cay.  The wind was blowing nicely for a sail, but the batteries were so low that if I shut the motor off, the autopilot would not have worked, so we motorsailed the entire way.

It took about three and a half hours to get to Staniel, where we tied up at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  Several other boats we know are here, including Gypsy and Montana Mar.  It will be nice to be in a marina for a couple of days.  We will get a good charge on the batteries, fill our water, gas, and diesel. 

Once tied up, I went up to the office to check in.  The "office" is the bar.  I filled out the paperwork and let them run my credit card.  I went back to the boat and told Barb to come on up to the bar and restaurant for lunch.  The place is very nice with a comfortable feel, free wireless internet, so many people have laptops at the bar, and a nice dining area.  They also had Buffett playing on the sound system, so how much better could it be?

We enjoyed lunch, checked out the boat memorabilia hanging from the ceiling, and relaxed.  We saw several souvenirs from Houston area boats.  After lunch we took a walk to the stores.  There are three "grocery" stores in town, and the weekly supply boat came this morning, so today is the day to get any produce.  These stores are the most primitive we have seen so far on the trip.  We got a couple of tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce.  We hit all three stores to make sure we weren't missing anything.

Back at the boat we got together with Clyde and Linda from Gypsy.  We went up the bar for their daily happy hour and had several of their rum punches.  After happy hour, we went back to Gypsy and visited for a couple more hours.

GPS N 24 10.321 W 76-26.761  Miles made good this leg 20.  Total miles covered 3909.

Feb 16

Today I attacked fixing our shower.  We noticed the other day that when we used it, there was water on the floor in the main saloon when we were done.  Also, the pressure in the shower didn't seem as good as usual.  I opened up the cabinet where the plumbing is and found the hose from the faucets to the shower hose was leaking badly.  So, today I took it apart, with the intent of swapping it with the one from the forward head that we don't use.  Unfortunately, I was unable to reach the nut to get the forward one out.  So, I set about seeing if I could fix the one that was leaking.  I took it apart and found a goobered up gasket in there.  I was afraid the problem was really where the hose was swaged to the fitting, but maybe it just needed a new rubber washer.  Of course I didn't have anything like what I needed, so I walked to Isle General Store, where they had a few parts and general plumbing stuff.  They did not have what I needed though.  So, back at the marina, I started asking people if they had something like what I needed.  Gypsy and Princess both gave me some flat rubber gasket material that I could try cutting by own washer from.  After three tries, I had it leaking much less, so hopefully that will do until I can replace the whole thing.

We went up to the restaurant for lunch again, and found some fisherman had just come in with lobster and grouper.  A crowd gathered to see what they had and ask prices.  We ended up buying two lobster tails from them for dinner tonight.  After taking the tails back to the boat, we had lunch and I spent a couple hours at the bar using the free wireless Internet connection.  I still am having trouble updating the website though. 

Late in the afternoon, at low tide, we went and snorkeled at Thunderball Grotto.  Parts of the James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed here in 1965.  There are several moorings for dinghies near the entrance, and we tied up along with about ten other dinghies.  We hopped in the cool water and snorkeled over to the grotto and went in.  By doing it at low tide, you don't have to dive under the entrance.  There were hundreds of colorful fish in and around the entrance.  You literally swam through them to get inside.  Once inside, you are in a large room in the rock.  The ceiling is probably thirty feet over you in a dome shape.  The room is probably fifty feet across and ten to fifteen feet deep at low tide.  The tide was still going out when we were there, so there was a noticeable current running through that you had to swim against.  I found that swimming hard on the surface with fins like that hurt my back.  Since I was not enjoying swimming against the current, we didn't stay inside very long and returned to the dinghy.  Getting back in the dinghy from the water did not prove to be as much of a problem as we had been afraid it would be.  I'm sure it looked like a sea lion getting up on a rock, but we both in on the first try.

We took showers after returning from snorkeling, and the leak persists.  Maybe in Georgetown I can find a replacement hose.  Or, I can spend a little more time trying to get the one out of the other head.

After watching another island sunset, we boiled up our fresh lobster tails and enjoyed them with a fresh salad and lots of butter, while listening to Radio Margaritaville on Sirius.  (OK, that's the make everybody feel jealous line.)

GPS N 24 10.321 W 76-26.761  Miles made good this leg 0.  Total miles covered 3909.