Mar 8
The day started off slow. A cold front came through overnight, which meant the wind is blowing across the bay and making the waves hit the back of the boat. I have probably explained this before, but when we are in a marina, and the waves hit the back of the boat, it makes a lot of noise. Our cabin is in the back of the boat, so it makes sleeping a little hard, even though I know we are secure at a dock. It sounds like you are in a fifty-five gallon drum and somebody was hitting the outside with a baseball bat. So, it wasn't the best night's sleep, although it was better than I thought it would be. I had a couple of odd dreams that the noise figured into.
Our big plan today is to participate in the Coconut Harvest event of the regatta. This means first dinghying across the harbor in the large chop. We managed this without getting as wet as we expected. We stopped by our old friends Toby & Donna's boat to borrow their spare dinghy. The point of the Coconut Harvest is to use a dinghy with no motor, to collect floating coconuts. Each team has four people, and you propel yourselves by using one swim fin per person to paddle through the water. There are twenty teams and eight hundred coconuts floating in the water. This is all done in a very protected bay behind Chat N Chill. You can also have a bucket aboard to bail water out of your dinghy, or dump water into somebody else's dinghy. By borrowing Toby & Donna's motor-less dinghy, we don't have to mess with taking the motor off ours.
Our team was Barb and myself, Clyde from Gypsy, and Jean Claude from a Canadian boat. Doing this event was Clyde's wife's idea, but she has been delayed in returning form the States, so we picked up Jean Claude as a replacement. We all had to face away from the water as the coconuts were dumped in the water, then run to our dinghies, load up and paddle off. We got a good start and were one of the first few boats to the coconuts. A few coconuts were painted with numbers and got bonus points. We got as many as we could and paddled back. We counted sixty-one total, and three of those were bonus ones. Once the coconuts were counted, there were four other games played by each team to earn more points. There was building a pyramid out of coconuts, coconut basketball, coconut bowling, and coconut bocce. We did very well in bocce, fair in bowling, good in basketball, and fair in the pyramid building. All in all, we felt good about our chances.
We figured we had 270 total points at the end. The third place winner had 309. The first place winners had 419. They had gotten a big lead by getting quite a few on the bonus coconuts. So, we didn't win anything (the first prize was bottle of rum for each team member), but we had a lot of fun. I must say though, it was more exercise than we have done since retiring. It pretty much kicked our butts. After it was all over, we towed the dinghy back to Cariba, and boogied across the bay before it got dark. The ride back was pretty rough, but we didn't get to wet. You wouldn't think getting wet would be a big deal, but the cold front that came through last night has left us in the low 70's today, so being wet and in the wind is not too comfortable. (I can feel all the sympathy from our northern friends now.)
We got back to the boat just before dark. We took hot showers and had a light dinner which was supplemented by rum and Advil.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 9
Today was a quiet day. The wind has been blowing hard for two days now, making the marina quite uncomfortable. There is not only the wave slap noise issue at night, but the boat is rocking quite a bit from the waves coming from the southeast. We had been warned that the marina could be rough, and that is correct. You have to weigh the fact that we are securely tied to a dock, and the boat is not going to be hurt, against the bouncing motion and the noise of the wave slapping the back of the hull. I planned to leave today and go back across the bay to anchor. It would be smoother on the other side, in the lee of Stocking Island, but, the closing ceremonies of the regatta are here in town Saturday night. We really want to see that, and it would be a wet dark ride home if we moved to the anchorage. So, we decided to stay here until Sunday.
We are both very sore from yesterday's physical activity. That playing stuff was hard work. It was a four-Advil morning.
We spent the day playing on the computers and browsing the net, since we have a good wireless connection here. I helped a single-hander dock two slips down from us and in the process broke the new boat hook we bought a week ago. The store where I got it is out of them now, so I'll have to make an announcement on the morning net to see if I can score one from another boat that might have a spare.
About 16:30, we joined Clyde from Gypsy for drinks and dinner at Two Turtles. While sitting at the bar before dinner, we observed the most amazing thing. As we were talking, we noticed a grasshopper on the bar right in front of us. He was sitting at a circle of water left from when my beer bottle had been served to me. He appeared to be drinking the water. We went on with our conversation for a bit, and then noticed that he had moved over to Clyde's bottle and was working on the water which had run of it. There was no trace of the original circle of water from my bottle. Now he had our attention. As he slowly moved down the trail of condensation from Clyde's bottle, the bar was completely dry behind him. When he got near the end of the rivulet of water, I carefully poured a little beer in a puddle in front of him. He moved back a tiny bit at first, but then carried on into the beer. We were ready to move inside for dinner at this point, so we don't know if he got drunk and fell over, or if I killed him with alcohol poisoning. Inside we enjoyed a good dinner and then retired to our boats by about 19:30.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 10
Another windy, bouncy day in the marina. I keep weighing the pros and cons of staying here through Saturday night, vs. getting wet on the ride across Saturday night if we move back. I decided to stay, although I'm not sure why. We spent the better part of the day aboard, again enjoying Internet access and unlimited power. We did join Toby & Donna from Cariba, our old dock neighbors from Kemah, for lunch at Eddie's Edgewater Grill. Eddie's does an advertisement on the morning VHF net about every other day, which the girl concludes by singing "Eddie's Edgewater" in a style like you might have concluded a commercial back n the 50's. The food at Eddie's was very good, reasonably priced, and enough to stuff us. We were joined at lunch by Toby & Donna's guests from Austin, Brian & Kelly, and by Rich and Nancy from Feral Cat.
Later in the afternoon, Clyde joined us for the free happy hour at the Peace & Plenty Hotel pool bar. Every Monday & Friday at 18:00, they have free rum punch and hot snacks while they last. Of course cheap cruisers know about this, so it's a popular spot. We enjoyed several cups of rum punch, and a few meatballs and chicken wings each. Since we had such a big lunch, that was dinner for us. When the rum punch ran out, we walked down the street to Two Turtles bar and had another beer with Clyde. Linda, his wife, is returning from the States tonight, so about 19:30, we went back to the marina where he waited by the street and we went back to the boat. Her flight was late, so she didn't get to the marina until almost 21:00, but when she did, she had our mail, which we had shipped to her daughter's house while she was there. We were anxious to get the mail so we can file our taxes.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 11
I made an announcement on the morning net that I was in need of a boat hook. Once again, I was amazed at how these things work out. I not only immediately got an offer of a boat hook, but the boat that offered it was also in the marina, so no dinghy ride was necessary to get it. To top that off, Tim, on Pooka, would not accept any money for it. He said he'd picked up several for $10 each at the Annapolis boat show last fall. I told him I'd buy him a drink later, which I did. I am not that surprised at the generosity of cruisers, but the way those who have hook up with those who need, no matter what odd thing it is, amazes me.
Soon after morning coffee, etc., I started working on our taxes. I use Turbo Tax, so even though this year is very unusual for us, the program makes it easy. In addition to normal income this year, we have unemployment income, trading of regular stocks that I did, sale of employee stock purchase plan stocks, stock option exercises, 401K to IRA rollovers, and the sale of Barb's house. But with Turbo Tax, I whipped out both of our returns in about four hours, including electronically filing them and printing them. We are both getting nice refunds, so we are glad we got to do this here instead of having to file an extension and do it once back in the States. The online world makes this lifestyle so much easier than it was even five years ago.
There was much radio chatter regarding some police action going on in the anchorage. Apparently, the police boat was going from boat to boat with two cops, and a Customs man, checking that you had the proper cruising permit and checking any firearms you might have. If nobody was on a boat, they boarded it anyway and went inside, looked around, and left a form to be completed and returned to the police department with your cruising permit within the next couple of days. Although I'm not aware that they found anybody without the proper paperwork, many boaters were upset by this action, which to everybody's knowledge has never been done before. People were especially upset about the fact that they would board and enter an unoccupied boat. This made many people stay aboard to wait for them instead of enjoying the sand sculpture building contest and scavenger hunt going on during the day at Volleyball Beach. It was curious that it happened at all, and the timing couldn't have been worse.
The final event of Regatta Week, is the variety show. It is an opportunity for speeches to be made thanking everybody for helping or participating in the events, as well as a fun variety show with acts from both the cruisers and the locals. It's held in Regatta Park, which is in Georgetown, not on Stocking Island. This is why we stayed in the marina, and many people moved their boats to Kidd's Cove, which is just off Georgetown but is not as protected from the normal east wind as the Stocking Island side. We didn't know until Saturday morning, that there was going to be a special water taxi running for $8/person from Chat N Chill to Georgetown, just for the event. Had I known that I would have moved out of the marina two days ago.
The variety show was great. There were some skits, some musical acts of various quality, but mostly good, a celebrity voice impersonator, and a couple of stand-up comics. Toby from Cariba plays guitar and did a couple instrumental solos. His guest Brian, played guitar and sang a couple of original tunes. A girl named Chris from Rock N Roll, was introduced as Beth Dockworthy, and did a stand-up "You Might Be A Cruiser If..." routine in the fashion of Jeff Foxworthy and "You Might Be a Redneck If...". A couple of locals sang solo gospel songs, and a group of four locals did a modern dance routine. The school band performed a number. The show went on from 18:00 to about 22:00, and the large crowd stayed through the whole thing.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 12
I spent Sunday morning wrapping up quite a few computer related things while we still had good Internet access. I upgraded Quicken on my computer, downloaded all our financial stuff from several sources, and got the confirmations that our tax returns were accepted and we should have our refunds by the 24th. I love online filing.
The wind is still blowing hard from the east, which means we are pinned against the dock, but I tied our windward dock lines pretty tight, so we are almost held off the piling. There have been a few light showers this morning, just enough to have to close all the windows. About 11:00, I hooked up the hose and filled all the water tanks, including our two jerry cans for extra. They trust you to read the water meter yourself, so after doing that I went up to check out of the marina and pay the bill. I didn't realize the office closes at noon on Sunday, and I just made it with five minutes to spare. I guess we would have suffered through another night of the marina if I hadn't gotten there when I did.
Once we were paid up and the marina staff had gone home, I figured it didn't really matter when I left the dock, so we collected Clyde & Linda and went to Peace & Plenty for lunch. Since it's Sunday, they seemed to be about the only place open. We took our time, or was it that they took their time serving us? At any rate, we enjoyed a couple hours and several beers, and then went back to the marina. Clyde came to our slip, and Tim from Pooka, and our next-slip neighbors all helped us get out of the slip without the wind pushing us against the dock and doing any damage. We went back over by Volleyball Beach, in almost exactly the same place we had been and anchored. The wind is still blowing about seventeen knots, and there are considerable waves here, but at anchor, the boat points right into the waves and the ride is much smoother and quieter than the marina. We had a nice dinner aboard and enjoyed the relative comfort compared to the last few nights.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 13
Still blowing hard from the southeast. We have no plans today other than to relax and read. After the morning radio nets, I heard Toby on Cariba telling another boat that he thought he had a serious engine problem. From his description it sounds like he had a main bearing going out. The boat is twenty years old, so this probably means having to replace the engine. He now has to decide whether to try to sail back to the States with no motor, and if he does that does he go to Annapolis where they normally spend summers, or Florida, or to try and get an engine shipped here and do the replacement here. He came over to our boat to use our sat-phone to call our friend Jeff back in Kemah who is a Yanmar engine dealer so he could get an idea of prices of rebuild parts vs. a whole new engine. Glad I don't have to deal with that.
Since it's still a little bouncy for a dinghy ride, we just stayed aboard all day and read and relaxed. We started planning our next couple of weeks. Looks like we will take a side trip to Long Island, Rum Cay, Conception Island, and San Salvador, then come back here before starting north again. I entered waypoints in the chartplotter and made some routes. How long we take to do this little circle will just depend on the weather and how much we find to do.
Late in the afternoon, I saw a funny sight. There is a large power catamaran anchored behind us, and they are at least a hundred yards off the beach. We saw them kayaking yesterday. There were two kids in small one person kayaks, and two adults in two person kayaks that each had a dog sitting in the front position. That was funny enough. Today though, I saw one of the adults kayaking towards the beach, and I could tell there was something in the water behind him. It was the dogs swimming. They swam to shore, took care of their business, rolled in the sand and chased sticks for a while, then Dad hopped back in the kayak and they swam back to the boat. Keep in mind, there was a good foot-high chop on the water, so the dogs heads were getting splashed by the waves as they swam. I bet they slept good after that workout.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 14
Today the wind has abated a little, and is forecast to just about stop by late this afternoon. We again, stayed aboard reading, etc. until late in the afternoon. Eileen Quinn, who sings songs about this crazy lifestyle, is giving another one of her free concerts on Volleyball Beach at 17:00. So, about 16:30, we went ashore.
We had heard a boat called Driftwood talking on the VHF to Cariba. Turns out Driftwood was another boat from F-dock back in 1999 when I first got MoonSail. They have been cruising for several years now and were coming north from the Caribbean. They were only spending one night in Georgetown before continuing north to meet guests in the Abacos. I hailed them on the radio and we caught up a little. They planned to be at the concert, so we said we would talk more there, but we never saw them.
We did however meet a couple at the concert whom we had met in Georgetown, MD last fall. Theresa and Stu are from Long Island, NY, but they had just bought a new-to-them boat in Georgetown and Theresa was working on getting it ready to cruise, while Stu was still working in NY. As we were sitting there listening to Eileen, Theresa caught my eye and I was trying to remember where I had seen her. Turned out she had seen me and was also trying to put the face to a place. At just the same time, we both remembered and said hi. Turned out they had just gotten to the Bahamas in the last couple of weeks. After the concert was over we chatted a while and caught up. Pretty ironic to have met originally in one Georgetown and then meet up again in another Georgetown. Of course, as many Georgetowns as there seems to be, maybe it's not such a stretch after all.
GPS N 23-30.914 W 75-45.232 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 3971.
Mar 15
We're leaving Georgetown today. At least for a while. We are going to take a week or two and go see several other places south and east of Georgetown. The first stop will be Thompson Bay Long Island. Long Island is about 60 miles long, and Thompson Bay is near the mid-point on the western side. A huge group of boats have the same idea we do and they started pulling out of Georgetown about 06:30 this morning. We were not originally planning on leaving that early, but once I finished listening to the weather forecast on the radio, we weighed anchor and brought up the rear of the pack.
The wind that has been blowing so hard for a week has stopped entirely today, so we motored all the way to Thompson Bay on a glassy clear sea. Most of the trip is in pretty shallow water, under twenty feet deep. We could stand on deck and clearly see hundreds of dark starfish on the bottom as we passed. At one point, we heard boats ahead of us talking about six dolphins checking them out. We kept our eyes open and sure enough we eventually got to them. When we got there, the six had split up to two groups of three. One of the groups came over to us and passed under our bow once. They didn't seem to want to play in the bow wake, but rather just checked us out as they passed. We alerted a couple of boats who were now behind us, since they had kids aboard, so they got a treat.
Once at Thompson Bay, we dropped the hook with about forty other boats. Quite a few of them are boats we know, and almost every one is a boat we have at least heard of on the radio while in Georgetown. Pat and Dori on Sol y Mar are here and they were gracious enough to introduce us to several other boats who they are friends with. They also clued us in on some plans for the next few days and made sure we were included. The first event is a bonfire and cookout on the beach. This is actually an activity put on by some locals, but they invite the cruisers to come join in, and several of the boats have been here many times before and know the locals.
We dinghied to the beach about 17:30 with hot dogs to cook and some crackers and dip to share. The fire was burning to get coals ready for cooking over. The air was still very calm, so several smoking pieces of wood were set around the area to try and keep the bugs at bay. It worked fairly well. We met a number of new people, both from boats and locals. The local residents were very excited because this was the largest number of boats any of them could remember ever having. We stayed until about 20:30 and then went back to the boat. The party on the beach kept going for a while and we could hear singing and carrying on from our cockpit. About 21:30, the wind suddenly picked up significantly, and shortly thereafter a heavy rain shower came through. The people left the beach and quickly got in their dinghies and headed to their boats, which they probably had left hatches open on. The people on the boat next to us, who we don't know, had a little excitement as they returned. The wife fell in the water while trying to get out of the dinghy and onto the boat. I'm not sure, but I think she may have been over served on the beach. There was quite a bit of yelling and splashing as her husband got her back into the dinghy and then onto the boat.
GPS N 23-21.593 W 75-08.299 Miles made good this leg 35. Total miles covered 4006.
Mar 16
Today we are going to tour the island. Pat & Dori from Sol y Mar, Bobby & Francie from Barefootin', and Jim and Betsy from Smiles, have rented a mini van, and Clyde & Linda from Gypsy are going to share a car with us. We can't get our car until noon, and the van was ready first thing in the morning, so we are going to meet up with them for lunch at the north end of the island. We picked up Clyde & Linda and went ashore about 10:30, just in case the car we were getting was returned early. We had our hand-held VHF and the guy promised to call if it came back. The rental car place is just down the street from the dinghy dock. There are many communities on Long Island, and Salt Pond is the one where the dock is. We walked a little further down the street to the grocery store and were pleasantly surprised at how much they had. We found a couple of things that we couldn't get in Georgetown, including kitty litter. We underestimated our stores of kitty litter when we left the States, and in Georgetown we bought the only bag they had, which was a small one. Here we were able to get a larger bag and another small bag, and there was more on the shelf.
The car came back about 11:40 and we were on the road north at noon. We have about twenty miles to go, so we tried to make good time even though it's only a two lane road and it goes through many communities. I had to stay conscious of driving on the left also. We got to the Cape Santa Maria Resort about 12:30. The others pulled in just a minute behind us, so the timing was perfect. This resort has residential lots, as well as rental units. The main building is very nice, with a large bar and restaurant, as well as patio seating facing the beach. We enjoyed drinks and lunch and got to know the others in the group who were new to us.
After lunch, the van group moved on south, while we went a little further north to the Columbus Monument. This monument is on a high bluff on the northern tip of Long Island. You drive down a rough dirt road about a mile and a half from the main road and park at the base of the hill. There is a rocky dirt path to the top where you find the monument. The monument is dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the native Lucayan Indians who originally inhabited the Bahamas. The view from this point was spectacular. You can see the Atlantic breaking over the reef to the east, and the Caribbean to the west. There are white cliffs around this point, and there were several vantage points from which to admire them. We spent quite a bit of time here just absorbing the view.
Back at the main road, we went north for another mile or so to the very end. There is a stop sign at the end, as if you had a choice. There is a small bridge and a dirt road going onto Newton Cay, which is only separated from Long Island by a creek and a flats area which is dry at low tide. It is said that the waters on one side of the bridge are the Atlantic, and the other side of the bridge is the Caribbean. It wasn't as impressive at it sounded, but it makes for a good story.
We headed south again, this time driving a little slower and taking in the sights. There weren't any other specific landmarks we wanted to see on the northern end of the island, but it was interesting just observing the towns and people we saw. We stopped at a roadside liquor store and got four cold beers to go. I'm not sure of the legality of having an open container in the car here, but it's certainly not discouraged, and I haven't seen a policeman or police vehicle on the island, even at the police station. We got back to Salt Pond where we were to rendezvous with the van gang again at Burgers and Beer. You gotta love a tour planned around food and drink.
Burgers and Beer is a typical island restaurant. The sides fold out to reveal a bar/counter with stools where the customers sit around three sides and the kitchen is in the back. Ms. Deb runs Burgers and Beer. When we got there, we were the only customers. We ordered beers and watched CNN on the bar TV while waiting for the van gang. After almost an hour, we decided perhaps they had changed their minds about coming here, so we ordered burgers. By then a few locals had been there to eat, so we had seen the size of the burgers, so we decided to split a burger and an order of fries, since it hadn't really been that long since we had lunch. The van gang showed up right after we ordered and they joined us and placed their orders too. Ms. Deb and one helper prepared everything as well as kept our drinks full. We met a couple who are from Chicago, but live here six months of the year. They have been doing this for thirty years, but now that they are getting older, they are more concerned with the lack of medical services in the out islands, so their house is for sale, and this will probably be their last winter here. We joked with them about which was worse - winter here with no medical care, or winter in Chicago with cold and snow. We stayed at Burgers and Beer partying until about 21:00.
We parked the rental cars down near the dinghy dock and headed back to the boats. Tomorrow we'll do it again to the south.
GPS N 23-21.593 W 75-08.299 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4006.
Mar 17
We picked up Clyde & Linda at 08:30 and headed for the dock. We met the van gang there. The first thing we did was go north a mile or two to the Thompson Bay Club, where we are having dinner tonight. As is common in the Islands, we needed to let them know we were coming and what we wanted to eat so they prepared enough. We then headed south. Our first stop was a beach on the Atlantic side of the island near the community of Deadman's Cay. This beach is in a little alcove along the shore. We parked on the side of the road at the top of a path down to the beach. A little ways down the path, when you could first see the beach, it looked like we were going to the town dump. The entire beach was covered in trash, mostly plastic, that had washed ashore from the ocean. Well, it turns out the point of stopping here was because of the way the trash collects in this alcove, it's a great place to collect sea glass, or sea beans, or fishing net balls, or any number of other interesting items. The whole group fanned out over this pile of garbage hunting for things. Barb and I looked primarily for sea glass, and found a large amount. Of course we also found a plastic container to carry it all in. We joked about how eleven affluent cruisers could have so much fun picking through trash. It was sad though to see how much stuff floats ashore. Most of it comes from garbage thrown off cruise ships and other large vessels transiting the ocean. It is legal to throw garbage overboard when you are out at sea, but it is never supposed to contain plastic. Ninety-nine percent of what floats ashore is plastic.
From here we went on south to Clarence Town. We had to stop at the marina here to drop off a CD of pictures for somebody. This was a delivery from Georgetown that involved three different boats. It's funny how things get done in the Islands. A little south of Clarence Town, we stopped at the Forest Restaurant for lunch. Dudley was the owner and only person on duty. He pulled several tables together for us and took our orders. He managed to cook the food, serve the drinks, and deliver all the food at the same time by himself. As usual, the food was good and we enjoyed meeting a very pleasant local.
The next stop was the Goat Pond Bar. The Goat Pond Bar is literally a shack on the edge of the road, operated by Ms. Susannah. Ms. Susannah is guessed to be eighty-six years old. She live in a nice little house back off the road behind the bar. Next to her house is the stone shell of an old house which her grandfather lived in when slavery was abolished here. We pulled in for a beer and few moments with Ms. Susannah and had a great time. She welcomed us, personally met each one of us, took pictures with us and told us stories. She told us how she had not had any visitors yesterday and she had prayed last night for some business today. And here her prayers were answered. You help yourself to the beers, and there even is about a six-bottle bar. I think they were all rums. We spent about thirty minutes here and settled up our tabs. Most of us were very generous with Ms. Susannah, as she was really what we stopped for.
Next was the southern end of the road. As in the north, there is a stop sign at the end, where if you continue, you will soon have your feet wet. We parked and walked on the beach for a few minutes. We didn't stay too long though, because there are other beers waiting. Heading back north we stopped briefly in Clarence Town again, this time to look at one of the two prominent churches here. Father Jerome was an architect by training, and an Anglican priest. He designed and built an Anglican church here, as well as six others on Long Island. Over the years, he left the church and had several other occupations. He eventually returned to religion, but this time became a Catholic priest. He returned to Clarence Town where he now designed and built the Catholic church. He eventually retired to Cat Island where he built his retirement home called The Hermitage.
From Clarence Town, the next stop is Max's Conch Shack. Gary, at Max's, is reputed to make the best conch salad in the islands. The place is again a typical fold-out counter type of place. A fun sidelight here though is a miniature golf course behind the restaurant. We had some conch salad and it was indeed the best we have had. A little spicier than others we have had, and more conch. Also cheaper than anywhere else we had been. And Gary was a pleasant fellow who chatted with us as he worked.
Next was a blue hole. This blue hole is in an alcove on the eastern shore, similar to the one where all the trash was. If you imagine a comma shaped inlet, the blue hole would be at the very tip of the comma's tail. The surf was breaking out at the entrance, and the water in the whole inlet was only a couple feet deep, but the hole at the end was about a hundred feet across and is of unknown depth. The sand edge drops off almost vertically. Two steps from the edge and you are in deep water. It is a great place to snorkel, although most of us are not going to partake in the interest of time. Clyde and Caroline, Sol y Mar's guest, did snorkel for a little bit though. They said it was spectacular. We will have to remember this if we pass this way again. Bobby & Francie from Barefootin', brought there little Yorkie, Kippen, with them today. He saw Clyde out in the water and jumped in to swim to him. Clyde did not know he was coming, as he was face down snorkeling. About the time Kippen got to Clyde, Clyde dove under. Kippen was looking around for him and then Clyde popped up with his back to the dog. We were all laughing and Clyde turned around to see what we were all pointing at. Kippen was about a foot from his face and about scared him out of his swimsuit. Kippen then swam back to shore.
From here it was off to dinner. Dinner is at the Thompson Bay Club. This is a real sit-down restaurant and bar. Triphena is the woman who does the cooking and generally all the serving. We have fifty-one people here for dinner tonight (another record) and a few more just for happy hour. Terrie and Miguel from Bodett are bringing a karaoke machine for our entertainment. Terry & Miguel have been here many times and know lots of the locals, including Triphena. Happy hour started at 17:00, and we were there about 17:30. The crowd picked up pretty quickly. The Long Island Rum Punch specials were flowing freely, and there were free conch fritters being passed around. Dinner wasn't ready to be served until about 19:30, since this big a crowd meant a lot of prep. Dinner is served family style and all at once. When the food did come out, there was plenty of it. Triphena had a couple other ladies helping her out tonight with the serving. There was potato salad, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, rice and peas, ribs, grouper, fried chicken and fried conch. Nobody left hungry.
After dinner, the karaoke machine was cranked up again. The first song was The Perfect Country and Western Song, which every good Texan knows by heart. Pat from Sol y Mar was singing, and I grabbed the second mic and joined him in a duet. Yes, I sang karaoke. The only other time I had a karaoke mic in my face was in New Orleans during Pardi Gras a couple years ago. I couldn't see the monitor with the lyrics, and I drew a total blank on the words to Cheeseburger In Paradise of all songs. Well, tonight, with the help of all that rum punch, I also sang Cheeseburger, Fruitcakes, and Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw. Remarkably, several people complimented me on my voice, and I think they were sincere. We partied until after 23:00 and then headed home. We successfully drove back to the dinghy dock, then delivered Clyde & Linda to Gypsy, and got back to our boat with no problem. We haven't partied this late in a long time.
GPS N 23-21.593 W 75-08.299 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4006.
Mar 18
Today was a relax day. I got up at 06:30 as usual to listen to the weather forecast, but then went back to bed afterwards for another hour. When we got up at about 08:30, we spoke to a couple of the folks from last night who are leaving here this morning. Jim & Betsy on Smiles, Bobby & Francie on Barefootin', and Clyde and Linda on Gypsy are all heading north to Calabash Bight today. We will be heading that way tomorrow. Sol y Mar was planning to go that way too, but there is no signs of life aboard Sol y Mar yet.
After coffee, I dinghied ashore to turn in the rental car. I went down the road and got gas, and filled the gas can for the dinghy while I was at it. $4.25/gallon. I don't want to hear my friends in the States complaining about gas prices. I dropped the dinghy gas can back at the dinghy dock, then turned in the car. I walked back to the dock and zipped back to the boat. We then read, wrote, and ran the motor all morning to charge batteries. I'm thinking more and more that my batteries are nearing the end of their life spans. Hope they make it back to FL.
About 14:00, the guy on the boat anchored next to us came over in his dinghy to alert us that a fishing boat was unloading at the government dock, and that if we hurried we might score some fresh fish or lobster. I jumped in the dinghy and chased him across the harbor. When we got there, the boat was gone and we thought we missed our chance. Turned out though, they had finished unloading and were putting the boat out on a mooring. The catch was in the back of a large pickup truck with two crew members just waiting for the captain to get back. I waited for the captain and then scored six good sized lobster tails for $35. We'll have two tomorrow and we froze the other four.
The big event tonight is a party at a bar south of here, which will include quite a few cruisers and locals. It is being organized once again by Terrie & Miguel from Bodett, and will again include Karaoke. Since nobody has a rental car anymore, Terry has arranged for a cruiser who also has a house and cars here to pick us up at the dinghy landing and drive us the ten miles or so to the Midway Bar. We got to Midway at about 18:00. We met Gary the owner, and met a few other cruisers who we hadn't gotten to know yet. There were a couple of locals at the bar when we got there, but they seemed a little uncertain of all this activity, and soon left. Midway does not normally serve food, but for this party, Gary has arranged to have some free appetizers, and has set up a grill out back to cook hamburgers and hot dogs for sale. As usual with Karaoke, a fair amount of time and alcohol have to pass before anybody except the organizers (Terry & Miguel) sing anything. During the first hour a few different locals showed up and didn't seem to be afraid of us. One of them started singing country songs, although he was too shy to get in front of the crowd. He just sat on his bar stool and sang, and was pretty good. More locals showed up and in the end there was about a dozen or fifteen cruisers and an equal number of locals. One of the local young men, Julian, was introduced to us as the Deputy Prime Minister's son. Back when we were in a taxi in Nassau, the taxi driver had blown his horn and waved at a car where the woman in back waved back vigorously. The taxi driver told us she was the Deputy Prime Minister. Turns out she is his mother. A couple other locals got into the karaoke. Notably, there was a young man named Nelson. When he first came in, several people yelled for him to come sing, but he said he had a cold and acted shy about it. A little later, with some prodding, he took the mic and turned out to be very good. Once he got started, you couldn't get the mic away from him. There was also a group of four girls who were getting into it. Late in the evening, a guy who had already been over served, came in carrying a trumpet. He started blowing on the trumpet to accompany the song that was playing, but he wasn't following very well. I don't think he really could play the trumpet even if he had been sober. Gary, the bar owner, got the trumpet when the guy went to the men's room, and hid it behind the bar. When the guy came back, he asked Miguel to play a Louis Armstrong song. He cued up What A Wonderful World, and this little drunk guy belted out a pretty good Louis Armstrong imitation. The crowd was amazed. After that he went downhill and kept yelling "Is this a party or what?" randomly, and hunting for where he left his trumpet. He went out to look in his car, and found that he didn't have his keys either. Apparently a friend had secured them too. In case you're wondering, yes I did repeat my karaoke performance of the night before. Except this time, Pat wasn't there to duet with, so I was flying solo. My repertoire included, The Perfect Country and Western Song, Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw, Margaritaville, Cheeseburger In Paradise, and It's Five O'clock Somewhere. I wanted to do one of my favorite Buffett songs, A Pirate Looks At Forty, but they couldn't find the CD. Nobody threw anything at me, so I guess it was ok.
About 23:30, we hitched a ride back to the beach where the dinghy was. A few folks stayed until about 01:00 from what we heard the next morning. When we got back to the boat, we found the cat had had an adventure. We had left the boat open, including the hatch over the bed in the aft cabin. When we went to go to bed, the screen was pulled out of it's frame and was hanging there. Apparently Mr. Bimmy had gone out on deck, which he is not supposed to do, and stepped on the screen from above and fallen through. Wish I had a video of the look on his face when that happened.
GPS N 23-21.593 W 75-08.299 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4006.
Mar 19
Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me. Yes, today is my birthday. This will be an easy year to remember my age - it's the same as the year I was born in - 53. We are moving today. Our destination is Calabash Bay, also on Long Island, about twenty miles north of where we are in Thompson Bay. Several other boats, Catnap, Christine, and Pegasus are making this move also, and they left before us. Christine and Catnap both tried to sail, but the wind is non-existent. We quickly passed them just outside Thompson Bay, and then caught and passed Pegasus about halfway there.
The sea was flat and glassy so the ride was smooth as can be. That didn't stop the cat from getting sick though. It was quite puzzling why he threw up, since he shouldn't have felt any different than when we run the motor at anchor to charge batteries. It was so flat, that Barb baked me a birthday cake while we were underway.
Once anchored in Calabash Bay, we hopped in the dinghy for a little exploring. There is a body of water inland from the beach, which is very shallow. Turns out there is a creek of deeper water that goes around the outside perimeter of this large round body of water, and then goes further inland to a small marina. Even this creek gets too shallow to navigate though at low tide, and we were just about at dead low tide. Even in the creek, we churned up mud with the propeller a couple of times, and actually had to raise the motor and row some. We did find an interesting cave inside this bay. Back out in the big bay, we went around the point to see where another boat we had seen went. There is another bay just north of Calabash where this boat had anchored. We thought about going ashore at the Cape Santa Maria Resort, but since we had been there by car a few days ago, we decided to save the money that we would have spent at their bar, and just went back to the boat. On the way back, we passed Pegasus, and Russell held up a huge lobster he caught since we anchored here. It measured thirty-six inches from stem to stern, and the tail was easily ten inches long.
We got back to our boat and tied up the dinghy. Since the dinghy leaks, I am in the habit of bailing the collected water before I get out. As I scooped the first bailer-full out, I saw something dark go in the water. Turned out the bolt and nut that clamps the extension handle on the tiller had vibrated off, and that was the nut that went overboard. So, on went the bathing suit, mask, and fins and I retrieved the errant nut. I took the opportunity to look at the bottom of the boat, and there are a few patches of growth happening under there, so next time we are in a calm anchorage and I'm looking for something to do, I may have to get under there and clean it.
We had a birthday dinner, of salad, lobster tails, and yellow cake with chocolate icing. Can't beat that.
GPS N 23-39.421 W 75-20.298 Miles made good this leg 18. Total miles covered 4024.
Mar 20
Today we are going to Conception Island. Conception is a National Park, similar to Warderick Wells, except there is no park headquarters here. It is a totally uninhabited island, surrounded by reefs. Again, there was little or no wind, and what there was, was right on the nose, so we motored all the way. Christine, Catnap, and Pegasus also made this leg. Clyde and Linda, on Gypsy, have been a day ahead of us, but they are at Conception and staying another day, so it will be good to meet up with them again.
In the anchorage when we got here was a very large sailboat, with a fancy paintjob. The name on the side in large lettering that took up the whole length of the hull, was "Life At The Extreme". Once anchored, I had checked it out and it was obvious that this was a racing boat of the type used in the Volvo Around The World races. We wondered what it was doing here.
As soon as we got anchored, we got in the dinghy, picked up Clyde & Linda, and went to explore the inland creek. The entrance to the creek is about a mile and a half south of the anchorage, so we had a good ride, splashing into the chop since we were not protected much by the island from the southeast wind. We had been warned that this inland creek also gets too shallow to dinghy at low tide, which was why we went immediately, since the tide is falling. We found the entrance and went in. Once inside the opening, the water was shallow and smooth. The attraction to this creek is that lots of fish and turtles come up the creek at high tide to feed on smaller things that stay in the shallow water all the time, and then they all have to leave as the tide recedes. We timed it perfectly, because we saw dozens of turtles making their way back out the creek as we went in. We also saw a ray, and found a deep hole where other smaller fish were. We didn't spend a lot of time up the creek, because the tide was falling, but it was cool.
We then dinghied back north to the anchorage and past the boats to the northern end of the beach. The island is very narrow here, so we were able to easily walk over to the eastern shore where there is supposed to be good snorkeling. We hiked a short path which was "paved" with chunks of foam that looked familiar, to the beach on the other side and donned our gear. Unfortunately, there is more surf on this side than there had been yesterday when the folks who gave us the advice to do this had been here, so there was a little too much surge to really enjoy it. Clyde kept at it for an hour or so, but Barb, Linda and I gave it up after a few minutes and just enjoyed walking the beach instead.
Back at the dinghy, Clyde decided to walk the beach back to near Gypsy, and then swim back to the boat. I took Barb and Linda in the dinghy and headed towards Gypsy. Along the way we spotted a large fish in the water and tried to slow down to look at it through our glass-bottom bucket. As we would approach, it would move. We chased it around in several circles before giving up. We never got a good look, but determined it was a four foot barracuda. We moved on back to Gypsy and got aboard. A minute later two guys in another dinghy stopped by. They were from the Volvo boat. They are from Sweden and are crewing on the boat for a few weeks from St. Maarten to Ft. Lauderdale. The boat, it turns out, is a sponsor boat for the race. The race goes around the world in several legs, with a break between each leg. This boat goes ahead of each leg so it's at the next destination before the racers and it's used to entertain clients, etc. during the festivities when the race boats arrive. The race boats are now in Brazil and the next race stop is Baltimore in April. These guys had sailed from St. Maarten to here, and were leaving for Freeport in the morning. There are very few places they can even stop in the Bahamas, because the boat draws ten feet, and the Bahamian waters are so shallow. It was interesting chatting with them for a few minutes. Their real interest in us was to see if we had any cigarettes. They had misjudged their quantity when they provisioned in St. Maarten. While we were chatting with them, Clyde swam up between Gypsy's hulls and climbed aboard. Right after he got out of the water, I pointed out the four foot shark that was right behind him as he swam. We also told him about the barracuda. He decided not to swim there anymore.
We ended up staying at Gypsy and enjoyed a steak and lobster dinner with them. MoonSail was anchored right next door, not a hundred feet away. I noticed the cat up in the cockpit, standing right on the edge of the coaming as if he were going to go out on deck. I was just waiting for him to take another step so I could yell at him and bust him. But, he looked around and went back in the cockpit. We went back to MoonSail about 20:00 planning to hit the sack early. It was dark, and we noticed a spotlight over the horizon to the south of us. There had been a large dive boat anchored down there earlier, but I thought the light was probably that damned helicopter out looking for illegals again. Turned out it was the dive boat. They were underway and came up to our vicinity. We are anchored inside a reef near the shore, and there is not room inside the reef for them. The were just outside the reef and kept shining the spotlight on us and the other boats. They finally anchored out there. I'm not sure what the spotlight was all about, since they are here every week and know the waters. The boat was the Caribbean Explorer I, which is based out of Georgetown and is a week-long live-aboard boat that carries twenty-some divers.
GPS N 23-50.893 W 75-07.236 Miles made good this leg 18. Total miles covered 4042.
Mar 21
As I have said before, cruising plans are cast in Jell-O. We had planned to go from Conception to San Salvador Island. San Salvador is one of the places that claims to be Christopher Columbus' original landfall. There is a monument, and a museum there, as well as a small town, a marina, and a Club Med. Unfortunately, there are no good protected anchorages, so the marina is a must. Using the marina doesn't bother me at all, but we have been warned by others, and the cruising guide also says, that you can't come or go from the marina with any westerly component to the wind, or a northern swell in the ocean. The weather for the next few days includes two cold fronts which will include some west winds and then the weekend is supposed to have three days of strong north winds north of here, which will generate a northern swell, so we could get trapped there for awhile. We also know of a boater who ignored the prevailing advice and lost his boat there last year trying to leave the marina when there was a large northern swell. So, we decided Columbus will have to wait, and headed south to Rum Cay instead.
Gypsy is going to Rum Cay today also, as they are heading south to the Turks and Caicos. Of course, Rum Cay is southeast of Conception, and the wind is blowing straight from the southeast. The trip is about twenty miles, so even though we will be bashing into the wind and seas, it's not too long. We headed out and were surprised how much chop there was given that the wind was only about ten knots, and had been that or less overnight. Once clear of the south end of Conception Island, we had about a three foot easterly swell coming at our port beam from the open Atlantic, and a three to five foot wind-driven chop on the nose that only had a couple of seconds between each wave. It was more uncomfortable than we expected, and we took lots of water over the bow and up on the dodger. Of course this was when we found that the gasket on the forward hatch had come loose on the corner again, so a considerable amount of water was getting in the v-berth each time a wave crashed over the bow. I couldn't risk opening the hatch underway to tuck the corner in, so Barb did the best she could of covering everything with a large sheet of plastic we have. Unfortunately quite a bit got wet already when we noticed, but nothing that can't be dried out.
Remarkably, the cat never got sick on this leg. He slept on the cockpit floor the whole way. Why he got sick in the calm conditions a couple days ago, yet can handle this is a mystery to me.
There is a marina at Rum Cay, and it too has a tricky approach channel, but it's not dangerous to the point you could loose your boat. Worst case you might just run aground in the sand. The channel is well marked and if you just believe the markers and not the water color, you'll be fine. We approached and were directed to come all the way around the corner to the last dock. Bobby, the marina owner met us there and helped us tie up. We are the only sailboat in this small marina. The other boats are all large sport fishing boats with the exception of one large cabin cruiser. Gypsy came in right behind us and tied up on the other side of the same dock. The dock we are tied to is about seventy feet long and the end of it is quite askew where it has been hit by something. Bobby told me that the local freighter hit it, and it's the second time that's happened. I asked him if the freighter was expected soon, and he said no. The dock being askew doesn't affect us any, but it made Gypsy have to tie up a little askew to match.
We are going to do a Radio Margaritaville interview this afternoon. We haven't done one in two weeks. Carson called us a little before 16:00, and we filled him in on what we have been up to. If you don't already know, you can catch these interviews on www.radiomargaritaville.com or Sirius Radio channel 31.
After the interview was done, we headed up to the marina bar. It is called the Green Flash Bar. We have been watching sunsets throughout the trip, trying to see the elusive green flash. Well, now we can say we have definitely seen the green flash. The Green Flash Bar. The signature drink of the Green Flash Bar, is the GFTini. I'm not sure what went into it, but it was a green drink, served in a martini glass, and there were several liquor bottles involved in the making. The bar does have an excellent view of the western horizon, so maybe we will actually see a green flash while we are here. I think drinking numerous GFTini's before sunset may help.
We met several guys in the bar who are here every winter from North Carolina on the sport fishing boats. I'm guessing these guys are not the owners, but rather captains or crew. I don't know if the boats are chartered or just used by their owners on visits.
Tonight is pizza night at the Green Flash, so we stuck around for dinner. The choices of pizza were, vegetarian, meat, lobster, or conch. I have had a shrimp pizza before, so I had to try lobster. You ordered how many pieces you wanted, and the pieces turned out to be fairly small, about 4" x 3" rectangles. I ordered three pieces of lobster, and followed them with two pieces of meat. As usual, I didn't clarify the price first and it turned out to be $5/piece. Well, it was the best pizza we've had outside the States, but it was pricey.
We met a couple of other cruisers while at the bar, including the couple on the big power catamaran that had the two black labs that we saw swimming to shore behind the kayak back in Georgetown. Another couple is on a catamaran anchored offshore. They are from Cape Cod, and built the boat themselves in their shop on the shore and then rolled it into the water over logs. We left the bar about 20:00 and turned in early. The guys from the sport fish boats had warned us that there are mosquitoes and no-see-ums here when the wind is calm. We found out they were right. The temperature was ok for sleeping with windows open, so I wasn't planning to use the air conditioners. We closed windows that didn't have screens, but the way the breeze is blowing, that left little breeze coming through the boat. Also, the no-see-ums got in through the screens. I should have just given in and turned on the air conditioning, but instead we suffered through the night being too warm under a sheet to keep the no-see-ums from biting us. Tomorrow we do a/c.
GPS N 23-38.203 W 74-49.919 Miles made good this leg 20. Total miles covered 4062.
Mar 22
We started the day as usual, but then hung around the boat waiting to hear our Radio Margaritaville interview at 10:00. Once it was over, we headed into town to explore with Clyde & Linda. Port Nelson is the town here, and it is about a half mile from the marina. Our first stop way Kaye's Bar and Restaurant. It was almost 11:00, and the door was open, so we stopped in for a cold one. We met Kaye, and her mother Delores. The place is a typical small, old, building, that most Americans would not dare set foot in. It is, however, the kind of place we have had the best experiences in in the Bahamas, and today was no exception. Inside the floor of the bar area was covered in fine sand. There was a pool table that had such old felt on it that it looked furry. The bar itself sat about ten people, had a TV behind it, and shelves that contained the liquor and other various stuff. In the other half of the building was the restaurant portion. There was seating for about twenty and equipment for a small band. The walls were covered with pictures of people, some visitors and some who were probably locals. There were quite a few of people in suits who I would guess were some Bahamian officials. There were several of Sidney Poitier who is from Cat Island, just north of here. I had just speculated out loud if Jimmy Buffett had ever been here when we spotted a picture of him with Kaye and Dolores at the bar. We asked Kaye about when he was here. She recalled that the picture was from 2004, but he had been there a couple of times since. Not surprising since bone fishing is one his passions, and this is prime bone fishing country.
We inquired about lunch availability, and Kaye said it would take her an hour or so to prepare us lunch. We said we would be back in an hour. We walked down the street and found the local grocery. It was sparse but had basics. The cute thing here was the proprietors two small children each laying stomach down over a straight chair, sound asleep. Next door was the police station. As we passed we waved and said hello to the local policeman. We turned north on the next street and walked about a quarter mile until we came to Toby's Bar. Again, this was just a shack of a place. Toby was inside and we ordered another cold beer. We sat in the dark, sparsely furnished room, with lots of recent graffiti on the bare walls from cruisers passing through. While we were there, the police car pulled up outside. The policeman stayed in the car, while another man came in and ordered two beers. He then produced an empty pint rum bottle. Toby, took a large bottle of rum and filled the smaller bottle for him. While this was happening the police car tooted his horn and hollered something. The other guy took one of the beers out to the car and then came back for his beer and rum. Things are different here.
We continued our walk around the town and came past the Ocean View Restaurant. Here was the police car and the policeman and the other guy. They were sitting at a picnic table enjoying their beers. A young man came out of the restaurant to give us a flyer advertising their buffet dinner tonight. We had already heard about this and told him we would be back for dinner at 19:00.
We got back to Kaye's at 13:30, just in time for her to serve us our lunch. We had not ordered anything specific. Lunch was going to be whatever she fixed us. There was another group of six men just finishing their lunch. They were driving a pickup truck with NY license plates. We had heard earlier that they were working on a new hotel project on the island. We inquired about it and were told it will be built over the next two years and will include rental cottages, purchased condos, and a 200 slip marina. He told us to check out www.rumcay.com for more info. He said the company was British and was called Montana Investments. We sat down to eat, and Kaye served us a baked fish dish that was nicely spiced, salad, large chunks of a cooked squash, which they called pumpkin, but it wasn't like a Halloween pumpkin, rice & peas, and bread. The food was all excellent, although we had to be careful to avoid the occasional bone in the fish.
We chatted with Dolores some and she showed us her book about Rum Cay. We each bought copies. We have learned from the book that on his maiden voyage to the New World in 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall on San Salvador, located 20 miles northeast of Rum Cay. The famed navigator later discovered Rum Cay, which he named Santa Maria de la Concepcion. The island's current name was derived from a rum-laden sailing ship that wrecked upon its shores. Cotton Field Point, the second highest point on the island, offers a glimpse into the past and future. Once the home of kindly pirates, many have reached this special place. In the 1700s, Rum Cay was a popular refuge for American Loyalist farmers, who grew cotton, pineapples and sisal on their plantations. As the 20th century approached, Rum Cay developed into a major salt exporter and center for horse and cattle breeding in The Bahamas. Evidence of Rum Cay's history has remained relatively untouched for centuries. The remains of Loyalist plantations remain hidden in the heart of the island, although stone-wall plantation boundaries peep through the foliage and undergrowth. The original salt beds are still visible in Rum Cay's Salt Pond. To this day glass bottles, ceramics, tools and other artifacts from the early settlements can be found on plantation sites.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, and then went to the Green Flash for sundowners. There we met a couple who are on a huge motor yacht that came in today. They were very friendly and very interested in our lifestyle of cruising on a small boat without a professional captain. After a couple of drinks, we headed into town to the Ocean View Restaurant for the Wednesday night buffet. We walked the half mile or so of dirt road with Randy from Coyaba, one of the sport fish boats that we met last night. There were probably thirty or forty people there, including Bobby the marina owner, and the staff from the Green Flash, which is closed tonight so they can come here for dinner. There were local Bahamians, cruisers, several Americans who live here in houses, and a few folks who flew in and are staying in the rental cabins at the marina.
The food was excellent and exceeded my expectations. There was the usual ribs, chicken, macaroni & cheese, and rice & peas. Additionally, there was broiled fish (bones included), a conch stew, a cold chicken salad, potato salad, green salad, curried chicken, and four different deserts, including two cheesecakes, a chocolate cake, and a pecan pie. There was plenty to go around, and nobody left hungry. After visiting a little after dinner, we walked back to the marina in the very, very dark. Nobody tripped or fell in the water.
Clyde & Linda are leaving in the morning for points south, so we said our goodbyes on the dock. That's the hard part of cruising - you make fast friends, but usually part company at some point without knowing if you will ever meet up again or not.
GPS N 23-38.203 W 74-49.919 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4062.
Mar 23
I woke up at 06:30, as usual, and saw Clyde on the dock getting ready to leave. I went out and helped him with his dock lines and bid them farewell. The large motor yacht had left at about 04:30 according to Clyde. That made his job easier since the large yacht had been blocking the channel a bit.
Today's project is to test batteries. We have been fighting the fact that we don't make as much electricity as we use since we left. But the past week or so, I have noticed that we seem to be discharging even faster that before, which I'm afraid might be an indication that the batteries are getting to the end of their lives. We can't replace them until we get to the States, so I am going to do some tests to see if perhaps one of the four is bad, and I can bypass it. In order to test this theory, I have to disconnect all the battery cables so I can measure the voltage in each battery independently. I started with the two in the engine compartment, which as #3 and #4 in the chain. I disconnected the cables and measured the voltage. They both had 12.15, which is low for having just been connected to the battery charger. I then moved to batteries #1 and #2, which are under the main cabin floor. As soon as I opened the cover, I saw a problem. The negative cable that connects #1 to #2 was detached. The cable had come out of the crimp-on connector. That will explain a lot, since that means we were running off just the first battery instead of all four. The problem is, where to get a new cable end before getting back to Georgetown. Since we are staying in the marina until then anyway, it's not a big deal if we have to wait. Thinking I was wasting my time, I went to ask Bobby, the marina owner, if he had or knew where I might get a new cable end here. He smiled and said, "I just bought some of those". He took me to a bag of parts he had just brought from somewhere, and started rooting through it. We quickly found exactly what I needed. Normally these cable ends are crimped on using a special tool, but he said to just use Vice-Grips, which I did and it worked fine. I reconnected everything, turned on the charger and could tell immediately that it was working harder to recharge the three batteries that were disconnected. After it was fully recharged, I turned off the charger and we held the voltage I would expect. Wow! A successful project made even more special because we found a part in a remote island.
To celebrate, we went to the Green Flash for beers and lunch. While there another sailboat came in and docked next to MoonSail where Gypsy had been. It was Rio, and old Morgan which we had first seen in Staniel Cay many weeks ago. We had also seen them in Georgetown, but had not met the folks. Peter and Kelly came in for a drink while we were still at the Green Flash. Peter is a freelance writer who writes for various boating magazines. I asked him how that paid, and as I suspected, it isn't a lot, but maybe someday it could help the cruising kitty.
GPS N 23-38.203 W 74-49.919 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4062.
Mar 24
Today, we are renting a golf cart to explore the island. Josie's Jalopies is operated out of the Green Flash, and I arranged for a cart last night. In typical island fashion, there was a discussion of the availability of a cart. There was one there, and I wanted it today. The girl who tends bar said "I need one Saturday". Well, I need it Friday, so that's not a conflict. Then the guy who works there said that the only one available has a slow leak in a tire. He said it takes a week to go flat, and he inflated it yesterday. OK, guess that won't be a problem either. So we finally agreed we can have the cart. I got the cart about 08:30 and we headed off.
Our first destination is the north beach. The road from the Port Nelson, on the southwest corner of the island, to the northern beach is paved to the airport, which is about halfway across the island. The airport's existence is important to the future of Rum Cay. They had a dirt air strip but nothing you would land a good plane on. The government has just built this new airport, with a 4500 foot paved runway and parking for quite a few small planes. There are no buildings at the airport yet, but there are plans to build facilities including Customs & Immigrations. This has paved the way for future development. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
As we passed the airport, we saw four of the free-range cows that live on the island. As soon as they saw us coming, they started running towards the road. I wasn't sure if they were defending their territory or just happy to see somebody, so we kept going. They stopped short of the road and watched as if they were disappointed we didn't stop to talk.
The road to the north beach past the airport is dirt, but not bad. The golf cart we have was one of those high wheelbase knobby tired kind that is intended for use on other than a golf cart path. When we got to the beach we found a beautiful cove, with a beach over a mile long. We parked, shed shoes, and walked the beach. There are tons of small shells on the beach, at the tide line on the talcum powder-like sand. There is no sea glass though. There is also very little plastic trash. I am still amazed at how different each beach can be in terms of the type of sand, and the stuff you will find on it. I'm sure there is some logic to it, depending on which way the beach faces, etc., but I haven't put the energy into correlating it all.
After walking the beach for an hour or so, we went south just a little to a fresh water pond we had been told about. This pond was about a hundred feet in diameter, and almost a perfect circle. There was vegetation all around, right up to the edge of the water except for the one little path from the road. The shore was sandy, but dropped off very deep within a couple of feet from the edge. The water was clear, but dark, probably from the runoff from the vegetation, similar to places in the ICW that we encountered. Maybe it just looked dark because it was so deep. We stepped in just to our calves and rinsed the salt and sand from wading at the beach.
We continued back south to the airport, and this time drove in. The cows were nowhere in sight this time. The parking lot had two vehicles - an old Land Rover with a flat tire, and an apparently deserted BATELCO truck. The BATELCO truck was a Ford F-450, with a bucket lift utility bed that didn't look that old, but it had a couple of flat tires and obviously had just been left there. Out on the tarmac were three planes. One was a four or six passenger single engine prop parked right by the gate in the fence, that probably brought somebody recently. One was a tiny Piper Cub that had a cover on it and I think is the plane that they advertise as being "on island for emergencies". The third was a bigger twin prop tail-dragger that has probably seen it's last flight. I don't know what kind of plane it is, but it is smaller than a DC-3. The engines don't have props and one looks like it has been partially disassembled. Every island airport needs a plane like this.
We continued south and were almost to town, when we saw a dirt road heading east. I should clarify my use of the word "road". In this case, other than the paved road from town to the airport, and within the town, the dirt roads are quite rough. You would not take your average car on them. Perhaps a pickup, and in some cases a four-wheel drive vehicle. The cart is ok for them, but the ride is rough. We went east, vaguely remembering a conversation I overheard at the bar the other night about ruins at the end. We went for over a mile, and as the trail got even rougher, we decided another crumbling old building wasn't worth the torture that we and the cart were taking. So we turned around. As we did, Barb asked me where my shoes were. I had not put them back on at the beach since my feet were wet, but rather, put them on the floor of the cart behind my feet. They were gone now, no doubt due to the bumping along this road. So, on our return we kept a keen eye out for errant shoes. We found mine and somebody else's and a shirt that hadn't been there very long. I put my shoes back on to avoid future escapes.
Back at the edge of town, we turned northwest towards where we think the new development is going to be. The island has a natural bay on the southwest corner. Port Nelson is at the southern end of this bay, and it goes north and west from there. This road was running right along the beach that we can see from the marina. We passed what appeared to be the old airport, which was not paved, and also had no services. We came to a clearing where the development has been unloading supplies from freighters. The island freighters are similar to ferries in that they have drop down ramps on the bow to unload. In this case, the Government dock was not sufficient to bring in a freighter with full-sized 18-wheeler containers of supplies. So, they just bring it to the beach where they have built a rock outcropping, and the freighter drops it's ramp on the rocks, and they unload. There were half a dozen empty flatbed trailers here, and the pallets of cement blocks they had been carrying were stacked nearby. We continued down the road to a point where sand had been obviously piled up to close the road. I mentioned that this was an "off-road" golf cart didn't I? We went up and over the pile of sand and continued. I mean after all, maybe it was piled there by accident (see my logs of Anegada in 2003 if you want more explanation of that one). A half mile or so further down was another pile, this time of brush and sand. OK, maybe we aren't supposed to be down here, although there never was any sign saying "private" or "keep out". We turned around and headed back, even though there was a lot more beach to explore. Before we got back to the unloading spot, we parked under a tree just off the beach and ate the sandwiches Barb had prepared, and partook of the jug of rum punch she made. Further along the beach, where we couldn't get, we saw another building and evidence of clearing. We wondered how you got there.
On the way back, there was another "road" a little inland of the beach road we were on. This road had obviously been made recently with a large bulldozer-type machine which left large track prints in the dirt. We followed it quite a ways until we came to the bulldozer, with two men sitting in it, apparently on their lunch break. We stopped to say hello, and asked if this was the new development. They told us this was the Billy Davis development, and that the Montana Investments development was back down the road. He also told us that we could keep going down the road they had just cleared and get back to the beach. We did this and sure enough, were back on the beach road at a point past where we had been stopped by the piles of sand. We kept going along the beach road, looking for the building we had seen from our lunch stop. We eventually found it, although we were surprised at what it was. The "building" was not a building at all, but rather a washed up refrigerated container that had fallen off a ship along the way. Boaters worry about errant containers all the time. It may seem odd to the non-boater, but hundreds of containers fall off the huge ships that carry them every year. The shipping industry just writes it off as a cost of doing business, but it creates a huge hazard-to-navigation for boaters. But, it occurred to me why the foam we had seen on the path back on Conception Island looked familiar. It was the foam that is used to insulate a refrigerated container. Once I put two and two together, I remembered it from my trucking days. We followed this road almost to the end and then turned around.
We got back to the site of the old airport and took a road north that appeared to be recently traveled. A little ways down this road we found a large area of palm trees and other tropical plants that had been obviously planted like a nursery, complete with a drip system to water them. We asked a couple of guys building a fence around this area if this was the Montana Developments development. They said it was. There is a hill here, which is consistent with their description of the plans. We went up the hill and found the house where the half dozen or so current workers are staying.
We went back to town and towards the marina. We stopped at Kaye's Bar to drop off some books at their book exchange. We planned on just leaving ten or so, but Dolores went to her house and came back with four more for us to read. Barb looked at them and got away with just taking one. Of course, we had to have a cold one here, and we were joined by the local policeman who again enjoyed a Heineken for lunch.
There was one last area to explore, and that was the point on the other side of the marina. We took the road that looked like it must lead there, and found the land across the inlet from the marina. We got a good picture of the whole marina from here. From here, we took another "road" south and up a steep hill. This brought us out on top of a beautiful bluff looking south from the island. It was one of those views that makes the trip worth it.
When we returned the cart to the marina, we learned that there was going to be a potluck tonight in the other restaurant on the premises, which is not open at the moment. Barb made some Jambalaya and we were up there at 18:30. Turned out we were told 18:30, and everybody else was told 19:00, so we sat and chatted with Bobby about his coral carvings while he lit the little candles in many of them. We had heard from Peter on Rio that Bobby has sold the marina and it is going to be redone to look like Bora Bora in the South Pacific. Bobby feels this is a good thing. His first love is the coral and stone carving that he does. He runs the marina to keep a steady cash flow coming in. With the sale of the marina, he will have the money he needs to live on and can concentrate on his carving.
Lots of people started showing up at 19:00. The majority of the people were locals as opposed to boaters, although most of the boaters were there too. Bobby had cooked chicken, and some fresh tuna, and provided ice and an open bar. Two women who usually work in other restaurants coordinated everything in the kitchen.
Bobby has numerous dogs and cats on the property. While we were waiting for the crowd to arrive, four dogs and four cats made themselves at home inside with us. You can tell who really runs the place. Once the party got started, they moved to the sides, but while people ate they were alert for crumbs on the floor.
After everybody was finished eating and some folks had left, we again engaged Bobby in a conversation about his art work. You can really tell this is his passion and it was fun to see him excited as he explained various pieces to us. Kelly from Rio was admiring a small bone fish carved from a conch shell, when Bobby noticed her. He told her to pick the one she liked, then he put a lanyard on it to make a necklace for her. He refused any payment for it, and told Barb to come by the carving shop tomorrow to pick one out.
Once again, we were treated to a wonderful experience that you just don't get in everyday life. We met other boaters and non-boaters and enjoyed hearing their stories and they ours.
GPS N 23-38.203 W 74-49.919 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 4062.