=================================================
Feb.2
=================================================
The best part of staying at Warderick Exuma Park is that we have "happy hour" every night. Since cruisers don't have a perseption of the
weekdays, every day could be a Friday - and consequentially, it means "Happy Hour"! We usually start at 5pm and everybody leaves like by
the order around 7pm, when it's already really dark around and we nobody wants complications on the water in the dark.
These happy hours are great for exchanging information on where and what to explore further, also, you actually make friends and try to
keep up with them while traveling your own route (yes, we meet with Southern Belle on almost each island! independently of difference of
ours
or theirs plans). At the last happy hour we learned that we absolutelly HAVE to stop at Cambrige Cays for snorkling in the caves and see
Reachel's Baths. So... no civilization for another couple days then..., more vegetarian dinners, meanning getting fatter for Marina. The
good news is we can finally fish again outside of the park boundaries.
Today the wind is no better, of course, it's South Eeast again, exactly the direction we are traveling. But Kevin decides to go anyway
because I had meltdown today morning feeling trapped in one place for long time. The trip was not pleasant at all, even motorsailing was
tough and we barelly were making 4nm/h. We had to change our plans for the anchorage, because landing near Cambrigde Cays was
impossible,
or dangerous with our lack of experience, due to the very shallow approach to the anchoring spot.
So, first we made it to the private Bell Island with huge three villas and groomed beach and waited there for the slack time before low
tide.
We decided to land at the Compass Cay, the best technical choice for us in this cituation. Crossing the channel took some time and a lot
of effort from out "iron horse" in the engine room! But we safely anchored near the Compas Cay Marina in very beautiful and quite little
bay.
We managed to the very expensive ($2.50 a foot) Marina, paid $10 per person to get out on the shore (!!!), walked around a bit, used the
restroom with AC working (it's been too long without AC!!!!), tried to shop at the Marina's store - $5 for a bottle of beer, no rum,
the lettuce in their refrigerator was NOT for sale - we settled on the beer. At 6:30 pm Marina has a potluck, of course, we attended
(since
we don't have much left in our food storage, we made popcorn) this event hopping to meet more new people. That was big disappointment!
Well, we should expected that by the look at the megayachts and huge motorboats parked here. From all the people at the event (around 20
people)
only one lady was happy to talk with us, she was German and I tried to use German as much as I can (remember), but luckily she could
speak
some English too. She was a grandma for the kids of the Marina's manager, leaving in one of the villas on the island and visiting this
island
every year.
But, the food at party was great! Grilled lobsters, chicken, fried fish... Yam...
==================================================
Feb.3
==================================================
Big plans for today - in the morning went for a hike around the island to see Rachel's Baths. It was very nice about 3 hours event, we
felt
so happy to finally walk again, even in sand and on the reef hills. On the way we saw some ruins - seems that originally it was a
big house which might be destroyed by hurricane recently. Interesting, that one of the workers at the marina build there open air gym!
With the punching bag, weights, bench press, etc. Cool!
We decided to have our lunch at the marina's little shop - and, oh boy, $15 for a hamburger... I had a bottle of Guiness and powerbar
for
lunch.
Afternoon at the low tide we managed to snorkle in the reef's caves Rocky Dundas - that was amazing site with stalctites and stalgmites
in the cave. We could not explore this site at the best because seas were not very calm, but still we got a good feel of this cave.
Talked with our friends (Island Perl) on VHF, they are in Black Point, and we really want to see them, but there are couple more stops
we
want to make before.
==================================================
Feb.4-6
==================================================
Waiting for the high tide to leave Compass Cays and sail (or motor) to Big Major Cay - the island of the swimming pigs!
After motorsailing and anchoring among hundreds boats we dinghy to the nearby Stainley Cay. We finally filled up gas for the dinghy,
got some disel in jerry can, got 20 gallons of water and bought phone minutes at the local BTC office. Funny, the BTC (bahamian phone
service) office works 2-4 pm, the grocery stores work whoknowswhat hours but definitelly 2-4. Between three grocery stores on the island
we got some fresh (well, it's relatively fresh) produce, some chicken, yogurt, bread and rum. Wow, we can have great dinners with
drinks! In the Isles General store Kevin bought fishing spear with the sling to fish for lobsters and fish. Good luck, Kevin!
On the way back to our anchorage, we stopped by at the marina's bar to get some food (not prepaired by me finally!), drinks and meet
some people. We met with a couple of about our age from North Carolina who worked at IBM too, and at the same location where we worked
with Kevin in RTP. Wow, such a coincidence. The difference is only that we travel by a sailboat, but they use faster means for that -
little airplane which they fixed themselves. It was very nice meeting surprise.
Next day in the morining we made it to the island with swimming pigs and that was so funny and exciding! These pigs are huge, about 500
lbs and they practically attack the dinghy to get some food. So far, this island is Marina's favorite. Well, after seeing pigs we did
not get much more excitment because we decided to spend some time on our "internet" work - updating a blog, answering emails, calling
by skype. Kevin finally got online chat help for the company which manages our voice mail (since our USA service is not working here
anymore), but at the most important point the power went off on the whole island, bummer again! It's about two weeks and we still
cannot use our data minutes on our phone because pin numbers are not valid...Not sure how people claim that they can work remotelly on
the islands, we would say - this is a myth!
===============================================
Feb.6-8
===============================================
Made it to the Little Farmer's Cay - the home of the February First Friday party and C-Type sail races. Our friends, Rork and Sherry,
made it here too, that was very nice reunion after we separated in Nassau. We had very exciting and fun time at this place, and Kevin
and Rork got great education on spearfishing. Thanks to the very nice young local guy who took us on a spearfishing adventure on the
nearby corral reefs. He got for us six huge lobsters and cought a huge fish for himself. Rock was so lucky to get another lobster too!
The girsl, Sherry and I, had to stay most of the time on the dinghy and drive when it driffed too far from the fishing place, and still
we were able to snorkle a bit. Afternoon, we had to go to the Ocean Cabin Bar - the place of entertainment. We both were judges and
participants for the party games at this bar - wet T-shirt contest, guys buns and legs contest, eggtoss and plunger game - that was too
much fun!
We had an amazing lobster dinner at our boat that night! Next morning we went fishing ourselves, without our guide, and did not have
much luck - Rork cought only one lobster and Kevin none (however, he practiced with his spear to kill lionfish).
Afternoon the whole island was full of the visitors from the other islands for the C-Type sailing race - there were couple hundred
people on the island with only 60 original citizens.
==================================================
Feb.9-10
==================================================
Time to move again - at some point we have to make it to the civilization, do laundry, buy normal food and, most important, get the
cash. Not many places in past two weeks accepting credit cards, and we did not expected that.
Left Farmer's Cay and landed at Lee Stocking Cay, near the former Caribbean Marine Research Center - this is our midstop before
Georgetown. As soon as we parked, Rork and Kevin were eager to go to spearfishing again. It's a beatiful place here with some good reef.
As soon as we stopped at the best reef for fishing, Kevin spotted a huge shark cruising near him, so, in panic guys got back on the
dinghy and decided not to go back in the water again. Our mistake - we went in the high tide time when sharks are coming from Exumas
Sound to Exumas Banks throug the cuts to get some food. We did not want to become their dinner, and, we did not catch anything for
dinner. Macaroni and lentils again...
=================================================
Feb.11..13
=====================================================
We are in the oasis of civilization - Emerald Bay Marina. It's very nice marina, only $1 per foot a day. And, there is an amazing state
of the a;om, great spacious restrooms and showers, huge TV in the community room at the marina with great expensive
furniture where we have happy hours almost every day. It's a DREAM spot to "lick our wounds".
Every day I was doing lundry - washed almost everything from our boat, including pillows and blankets. It's absolutelly amazing feeling
to sleep in the clean bed and in dry clean cloths. We found very cheap liqure store in walking distance and couple grocery stores.
Chicken for dinner, finally!
Nearby resort has nice and busy restaurant (not counting tonns of the bugs eating you while you eat - use "Get Off!") where we had
couple dinners with our friends from "Island Perl" and "Joerney". Kevin even had chance to start limbo game on the beach while locals
were playing drums (of course, he won!). We tried to hunt for lobsters and fish, but not successfully.. however, we found a bunch of
huge coconuts in the nearby golf course and Kevin extracted coconut water to mix with rum.
But the weather is getting better, so we can move further south to Georgetown. So sad to leave this clean place...
===================================================
Feb.14..22
===================================================
We actually sailed (!) all the way to Georgetown, that was very pleasant trip. By the description from other cruisers Georgetown seems
to be a city well compaired to Madrid or Paris! Will see...
Today is Valentine's Day and we are going to famous Chat and Chill to.. well, chat and chill with other cruisers, and dance! they had
valentine dance at the bar. It was fun! We met with crew, Will and Stephany, of one of the megayaht parked at the marina. Next day we
met the bar and Kevin made sure to be invited to their boat, while the owners were not there. It was very nice excursion: the machine
room is very impressive, as a jacusi on the deck! We went dance after in the nearby bar and ... Kevin started Limbo game again! To his
disappointment he did not win this time, but he got very famous on the island - next days people on the street greated him as a "Limbo
guy". Not everything just a play around here: we had to provision our boat, get cash from the bank's ATM ($100 in a time and $3 for
service), purchase more phone minutes from BTC, connect to internet and do some work and checking on things, skyping, etc. Well...
internet is really bad around here and it takes very strong nerves and great patience to do anything online.
While staying in this capital of Exumas (there are maybe about 100 people leaving here, looks more like a village with one beatup road
and couple old cars, the only concreate buildings belong to two banks and BTC phone office) Kevin was able to earn $50 from the boat he
offered to change zincs on the prop via free diving and holding breath for some time under the water and. We spent this money on the
same day in the nearby bar... The other day Kevin's ability to play pool paid off well - he got a second place in the pool tournament
with the prize $15, which payed for our drinks, but the drive home in the dinghy at night was absolutelly horrable!
We play voleyball at the Voleyball beach, take long walks on the island, talk with other cruisers who is going further south to
Caribbeans, swim, drink and .. wait for two packages to arrive (supposed to show up couple days ago, but hey, it's island time....)
================================================
Feb.23
================================================
Sad day for us today! All our friends are left in the morning to the next islands - Conseption and Rum Cays, but we have to stay in
Georgetown because we did not get our packages sent DHL OVERNIGHT(!) to the shipping spot at the store Top2Bottom. Well, the overnight
grown into a week now, and it's a possibility to get them maybe (please please please) tomorrow, on Monday.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
People don't understand us
We have made some friends along the way, actually we have been hanging out with the same people we left Marathon Florida with. This is crazy. We traveled from Marathon to George Town Exumas with the same people. Sometimes they pass us, or we pass them, but some how we all keep meeting up. If anyone would have told me I would be traveling with the the people I met in Marathon, I would have laughed hysterically. But sure enough.
They are all nice people, we are just a bit younger than most. Some how we find the people we want to hang out with and they kinda stick around. But they don't seem to understand us too well. We used to have parties at our house, which I'm sure most of you remember, they were fun. Nothing terrible happened, we all just had a good time. Well these people have no idea. We have not even started to have fun yet and they are scared of us. They think we are off our rockers. I think they are all stuck on their rockers. Most of these people don't swim, don't fish, don't stay up past 8pm, don't play pool, don't drink too much, don't smoke, don't swear. I am not sure what they do, but it's hard to get them to play.
I was in charge of the wet t-shirt contest and the plunger game. It was like pulling teeth to get them to play the games. The T-shirt contest I understand, but the plunger game is fun and easy. They just wanted to watch. Most of the participants were the organizers of the other games going on so they had to be there.
Tonight we went out with some original friends. I didn't they one couple would ever hang out with us again. I guess I got a little out of control. Nothing I would not have done at home. But they tried to hang out again. I don't think they will do that again. We had dinner then went to the bom fire at the beach. We were late, the party was over, so we started it up again with a game of limbo. Me and Marina were the only ones playing....and the band. The rest of the people did not play. I kinda felt like we were going out on a limb and being rebels, but nothing bad was happening, just limbo by the fire at the beach. That lasted about 1 hour then we headed back to the boat. Picked up the coconuts we hid and then stepped in a big puddle.
Tried to play pool with a tourist, but he was with his children playing. I did play with our 2 friends, that was fun. Had pot luck dinner. So much food. That was nice.
It is fun, I just don't think they understand us yet. I will give them some more time.
On ward to Chat and Chill for Valentines day party tomorrow night.
They are all nice people, we are just a bit younger than most. Some how we find the people we want to hang out with and they kinda stick around. But they don't seem to understand us too well. We used to have parties at our house, which I'm sure most of you remember, they were fun. Nothing terrible happened, we all just had a good time. Well these people have no idea. We have not even started to have fun yet and they are scared of us. They think we are off our rockers. I think they are all stuck on their rockers. Most of these people don't swim, don't fish, don't stay up past 8pm, don't play pool, don't drink too much, don't smoke, don't swear. I am not sure what they do, but it's hard to get them to play.
I was in charge of the wet t-shirt contest and the plunger game. It was like pulling teeth to get them to play the games. The T-shirt contest I understand, but the plunger game is fun and easy. They just wanted to watch. Most of the participants were the organizers of the other games going on so they had to be there.
Tonight we went out with some original friends. I didn't they one couple would ever hang out with us again. I guess I got a little out of control. Nothing I would not have done at home. But they tried to hang out again. I don't think they will do that again. We had dinner then went to the bom fire at the beach. We were late, the party was over, so we started it up again with a game of limbo. Me and Marina were the only ones playing....and the band. The rest of the people did not play. I kinda felt like we were going out on a limb and being rebels, but nothing bad was happening, just limbo by the fire at the beach. That lasted about 1 hour then we headed back to the boat. Picked up the coconuts we hid and then stepped in a big puddle.
Tried to play pool with a tourist, but he was with his children playing. I did play with our 2 friends, that was fun. Had pot luck dinner. So much food. That was nice.
It is fun, I just don't think they understand us yet. I will give them some more time.
On ward to Chat and Chill for Valentines day party tomorrow night.
And further into the Exumas
=================================================
Feb.2
=================================================
The best part of staying at Warderick Exuma Park is that we have "happy hour" every night. Since cruisers don't have a perseption of the
weekdays, every day could be a Friday - and consequentially, it means "Happy Hour"! We usually start at 5pm and everybody leaves like by
the order around 7pm, when it's already really dark around and we nobody wants complications on the water in the dark.
These happy hours are great for exchanging information on where and what to explore further, also, you actually make friends and try to
keep up with them while traveling your own route (yes, we meet with Southern Belle on almost each island! independently of difference of
ours
or theirs plans). At the last happy hour we learned that we absolutelly HAVE to stop at Cambrige Cays for snorkling in the caves and see
Reachel's Baths. So... no civilization for another couple days then..., more vegetarian dinners, meanning getting fatter for Marina. The
good news is we can finally fish again outside of the park boundaries.
Today the wind is no better, of course, it's South Eeast again, exactly the direction we are traveling. But Kevin decides to go anyway
because I had meltdown today morning feeling trapped in one place for long time. The trip was not pleasant at all, even motorsailing was
tough and we barelly were making 4nm/h. We had to change our plans for the anchorage, because landing near Cambrigde Cays was
impossible,
or dangerous with our lack of experience, due to the very shallow approach to the anchoring spot.
So, first we made it to the private Bell Island with huge three villas and groomed beach and waited there for the slack time before low
tide.
We decided to land at the Compass Cay, the best technical choice for us in this cituation. Crossing the channel took some time and a lot
of effort from out "iron horse" in the engine room! But we safely anchored near the Compas Cay Marina in very beautiful and quite little
bay.
We managed to the very expensive ($2.50 a foot) Marina, paid $10 per person to get out on the shore (!!!), walked around a bit, used the
restroom with AC working (it's been too long without AC!!!!), tried to shop at the Marina's store - $5 for a bottle of beer, no rum,
the lettuce in their refrigerator was NOT for sale - we settled on the beer. At 6:30 pm Marina has a potluck, of course, we attended
(since
we don't have much left in our food storage, we made popcorn) this event hopping to meet more new people. That was big disappointment!
Well, we should expected that by the look at the megayachts and huge motorboats parked here. From all the people at the event (around 20
people)
only one lady was happy to talk with us, she was German and I tried to use German as much as I can (remember), but luckily she could
speak
some English too. She was a grandma for the kids of the Marina's manager, leaving in one of the villas on the island and visiting this
island
every year.
But, the food at party was great! Grilled lobsters, chicken, fried fish... Yam...
==================================================
Feb.3
==================================================
Big plans for today - in the morning went for a hike around the island to see Rachel's Baths. It was very nice about 3 hours event, we
felt
so happy to finally walk again, even in sand and on the reef hills. On the way we saw some ruins - seems that originally it was a
big house which might be destroyed by hurricane recently. Interesting, that one of the workers at the marina build there open air gym!
With the punching bag, weights, bench press, etc. Cool!
We decided to have our lunch at the marina's little shop - and, oh boy, $15 for a hamburger... I had a bottle of Guiness and powerbar
for
lunch.
Afternoon at the low tide we managed to snorkle in the reef's caves Rocky Dundas - that was amazing site with stalctites and stalgmites
in the cave. We could not explore this site at the best because seas were not very calm, but still we got a good feel of this cave.
Talked with our friends (Island Perl) on VHF, they are in Black Point, and we really want to see them, but there are couple more stops
we
want to make before.
==================================================
Feb.4-6
==================================================
Waiting for the high tide to leave Compass Cays and sail (or motor) to Big Major Cay - the island of the swimming pigs!
After motorsailing and anchoring among hundreds boats we dinghy to the nearby Stainley Cay. We finally filled up gas for the dinghy,
got some disel in jerry can, got 20 gallons of water and bought phone minutes at the local BTC office. Funny, the BTC (bahamian phone
service) office works 2-4 pm, the grocery stores work whoknowswhat hours but definitelly 2-4. Between three grocery stores on the island
we got some fresh (well, it's relatively fresh) produce, some chicken, yogurt, bread and rum. Wow, we can have great dinners with
drinks! In the Isles General store Kevin bought fishing spear with the sling to fish for lobsters and fish. Good luck, Kevin!
On the way back to our anchorage, we stopped by at the marina's bar to get some food (not prepaired by me finally!), drinks and meet
some people. We met with a couple of about our age from North Carolina who worked at IBM too, and at the same location where we worked
with Kevin in RTP. Wow, such a coincidence. The difference is only that we travel by a sailboat, but they use faster means for that -
little airplane which they fixed themselves. It was very nice meeting surprise.
Next day in the morining we made it to the island with swimming pigs and that was so funny and exciding! These pigs are huge, about 500
lbs and they practically attack the dinghy to get some food. So far, this island is Marina's favorite. Well, after seeing pigs we did
not get much more excitment because we decided to spend some time on our "internet" work - updating a blog, answering emails, calling
by skype. Kevin finally got online chat help for the company which manages our voice mail (since our USA service is not working here
anymore), but at the most important point the power went off on the whole island, bummer again! It's about two weeks and we still
cannot use our data minutes on our phone because pin numbers are not valid...Not sure how people claim that they can work remotelly on
the islands, we would say - this is a myth!
===============================================
Feb.6-8
===============================================
Made it to the Little Farmer's Cay - the home of the February First Friday party and C-Type sail races. Our friends, Rork and Sherry,
made it here too, that was very nice reunion after we separated in Nassau. We had very exciting and fun time at this place, and Kevin
and Rork got great education on spearfishing. Thanks to the very nice young local guy who took us on a spearfishing adventure on the
nearby corral reefs. He got for us six huge lobsters and cought a huge fish for himself. Rock was so lucky to get another lobster too!
The girsl, Sherry and I, had to stay most of the time on the dinghy and drive when it driffed too far from the fishing place, and still
we were able to snorkle a bit. Afternoon, we had to go to the Ocean Cabin Bar - the place of entertainment. We both were judges and
participants for the party games at this bar - wet T-shirt contest, guys buns and legs contest, eggtoss and plunger game - that was too
much fun!
We had an amazing lobster dinner at our boat that night! Next morning we went fishing ourselves, without our guide, and did not have
much luck - Rork cought only one lobster and Kevin none (however, he practiced with his spear to kill lionfish).
Afternoon the whole island was full of the visitors from the other islands for the C-Type sailing race - there were couple hundred
people on the island with only 60 original citizens.
==================================================
Feb.9-10
==================================================
Time to move again - at some point we have to make it to the civilization, do laundry, buy normal food and, most important, get the
cash. Not many places in past two weeks accepting credit cards, and we did not expected that.
Left Farmer's Cay and landed at Lee Stocking Cay, near the former Caribbean Marine Research Center - this is our midstop before
Georgetown. As soon as we parked, Rork and Kevin were eager to go to spearfishing again. It's a beatiful place here with some good reef.
As soon as we stopped at the best reef for fishing, Kevin spotted a huge shark cruising near him, so, in panic guys got back on the
dinghy and decided not to go back in the water again. Our mistake - we went in the high tide time when sharks are coming from Exumas
Sound to Exumas Banks throug the cuts to get some food. We did not want to become their dinner, and, we did not catch anything for
dinner. Macaroni and lentils again...
=================================================
Feb.11..
=====================================================
We are in the oasis of civilization - Emerald Bay Marina. It's very nice marina, only $1 per foot a day. And, there is an amazing state
of the art FREE laundry room, great spacious restrooms and showers, huge TV in the community room at the marina with great expensive
furniture where we have happy hours almost every day. It's a DREAM spot to "lick our wounds".
Feb.2
=================================================
The best part of staying at Warderick Exuma Park is that we have "happy hour" every night. Since cruisers don't have a perseption of the
weekdays, every day could be a Friday - and consequentially, it means "Happy Hour"! We usually start at 5pm and everybody leaves like by
the order around 7pm, when it's already really dark around and we nobody wants complications on the water in the dark.
These happy hours are great for exchanging information on where and what to explore further, also, you actually make friends and try to
keep up with them while traveling your own route (yes, we meet with Southern Belle on almost each island! independently of difference of
ours
or theirs plans). At the last happy hour we learned that we absolutelly HAVE to stop at Cambrige Cays for snorkling in the caves and see
Reachel's Baths. So... no civilization for another couple days then..., more vegetarian dinners, meanning getting fatter for Marina. The
good news is we can finally fish again outside of the park boundaries.
Today the wind is no better, of course, it's South Eeast again, exactly the direction we are traveling. But Kevin decides to go anyway
because I had meltdown today morning feeling trapped in one place for long time. The trip was not pleasant at all, even motorsailing was
tough and we barelly were making 4nm/h. We had to change our plans for the anchorage, because landing near Cambrigde Cays was
impossible,
or dangerous with our lack of experience, due to the very shallow approach to the anchoring spot.
So, first we made it to the private Bell Island with huge three villas and groomed beach and waited there for the slack time before low
tide.
We decided to land at the Compass Cay, the best technical choice for us in this cituation. Crossing the channel took some time and a lot
of effort from out "iron horse" in the engine room! But we safely anchored near the Compas Cay Marina in very beautiful and quite little
bay.
We managed to the very expensive ($2.50 a foot) Marina, paid $10 per person to get out on the shore (!!!), walked around a bit, used the
restroom with AC working (it's been too long without AC!!!!), tried to shop at the Marina's store - $5 for a bottle of beer, no rum,
the lettuce in their refrigerator was NOT for sale - we settled on the beer. At 6:30 pm Marina has a potluck, of course, we attended
(since
we don't have much left in our food storage, we made popcorn) this event hopping to meet more new people. That was big disappointment!
Well, we should expected that by the look at the megayachts and huge motorboats parked here. From all the people at the event (around 20
people)
only one lady was happy to talk with us, she was German and I tried to use German as much as I can (remember), but luckily she could
speak
some English too. She was a grandma for the kids of the Marina's manager, leaving in one of the villas on the island and visiting this
island
every year.
But, the food at party was great! Grilled lobsters, chicken, fried fish... Yam...
==================================================
Feb.3
==================================================
Big plans for today - in the morning went for a hike around the island to see Rachel's Baths. It was very nice about 3 hours event, we
felt
so happy to finally walk again, even in sand and on the reef hills. On the way we saw some ruins - seems that originally it was a
big house which might be destroyed by hurricane recently. Interesting, that one of the workers at the marina build there open air gym!
With the punching bag, weights, bench press, etc. Cool!
We decided to have our lunch at the marina's little shop - and, oh boy, $15 for a hamburger... I had a bottle of Guiness and powerbar
for
lunch.
Afternoon at the low tide we managed to snorkle in the reef's caves Rocky Dundas - that was amazing site with stalctites and stalgmites
in the cave. We could not explore this site at the best because seas were not very calm, but still we got a good feel of this cave.
Talked with our friends (Island Perl) on VHF, they are in Black Point, and we really want to see them, but there are couple more stops
we
want to make before.
==================================================
Feb.4-6
==================================================
Waiting for the high tide to leave Compass Cays and sail (or motor) to Big Major Cay - the island of the swimming pigs!
After motorsailing and anchoring among hundreds boats we dinghy to the nearby Stainley Cay. We finally filled up gas for the dinghy,
got some disel in jerry can, got 20 gallons of water and bought phone minutes at the local BTC office. Funny, the BTC (bahamian phone
service) office works 2-4 pm, the grocery stores work whoknowswhat hours but definitelly 2-4. Between three grocery stores on the island
we got some fresh (well, it's relatively fresh) produce, some chicken, yogurt, bread and rum. Wow, we can have great dinners with
drinks! In the Isles General store Kevin bought fishing spear with the sling to fish for lobsters and fish. Good luck, Kevin!
On the way back to our anchorage, we stopped by at the marina's bar to get some food (not prepaired by me finally!), drinks and meet
some people. We met with a couple of about our age from North Carolina who worked at IBM too, and at the same location where we worked
with Kevin in RTP. Wow, such a coincidence. The difference is only that we travel by a sailboat, but they use faster means for that -
little airplane which they fixed themselves. It was very nice meeting surprise.
Next day in the morining we made it to the island with swimming pigs and that was so funny and exciding! These pigs are huge, about 500
lbs and they practically attack the dinghy to get some food. So far, this island is Marina's favorite. Well, after seeing pigs we did
not get much more excitment because we decided to spend some time on our "internet" work - updating a blog, answering emails, calling
by skype. Kevin finally got online chat help for the company which manages our voice mail (since our USA service is not working here
anymore), but at the most important point the power went off on the whole island, bummer again! It's about two weeks and we still
cannot use our data minutes on our phone because pin numbers are not valid...Not sure how people claim that they can work remotelly on
the islands, we would say - this is a myth!
===============================================
Feb.6-8
===============================================
Made it to the Little Farmer's Cay - the home of the February First Friday party and C-Type sail races. Our friends, Rork and Sherry,
made it here too, that was very nice reunion after we separated in Nassau. We had very exciting and fun time at this place, and Kevin
and Rork got great education on spearfishing. Thanks to the very nice young local guy who took us on a spearfishing adventure on the
nearby corral reefs. He got for us six huge lobsters and cought a huge fish for himself. Rock was so lucky to get another lobster too!
The girsl, Sherry and I, had to stay most of the time on the dinghy and drive when it driffed too far from the fishing place, and still
we were able to snorkle a bit. Afternoon, we had to go to the Ocean Cabin Bar - the place of entertainment. We both were judges and
participants for the party games at this bar - wet T-shirt contest, guys buns and legs contest, eggtoss and plunger game - that was too
much fun!
We had an amazing lobster dinner at our boat that night! Next morning we went fishing ourselves, without our guide, and did not have
much luck - Rork cought only one lobster and Kevin none (however, he practiced with his spear to kill lionfish).
Afternoon the whole island was full of the visitors from the other islands for the C-Type sailing race - there were couple hundred
people on the island with only 60 original citizens.
==================================================
Feb.9-10
==================================================
Time to move again - at some point we have to make it to the civilization, do laundry, buy normal food and, most important, get the
cash. Not many places in past two weeks accepting credit cards, and we did not expected that.
Left Farmer's Cay and landed at Lee Stocking Cay, near the former Caribbean Marine Research Center - this is our midstop before
Georgetown. As soon as we parked, Rork and Kevin were eager to go to spearfishing again. It's a beatiful place here with some good reef.
As soon as we stopped at the best reef for fishing, Kevin spotted a huge shark cruising near him, so, in panic guys got back on the
dinghy and decided not to go back in the water again. Our mistake - we went in the high tide time when sharks are coming from Exumas
Sound to Exumas Banks throug the cuts to get some food. We did not want to become their dinner, and, we did not catch anything for
dinner. Macaroni and lentils again...
=================================================
Feb.11..
=====================================================
We are in the oasis of civilization - Emerald Bay Marina. It's very nice marina, only $1 per foot a day. And, there is an amazing state
of the art FREE laundry room, great spacious restrooms and showers, huge TV in the community room at the marina with great expensive
furniture where we have happy hours almost every day. It's a DREAM spot to "lick our wounds".
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Marina's Diary through the Bahamas
Jan.22-25
================================================
It was painless 4 hours motorsail from West Bay to Nassau Harbor together with our friends. At the entrance to harbor you have to request
permission to enter via VHF because there is some traffic in this harbor, predominaly, huge cruise ships. We landed at Yacht Harbor
Haven Marina ($2 per foot/night - $80 a night). It's nice to be at sturdy ground again, having restroom, shower, trash bins and laundry.
At the same day we checked out nearby marine store and .. bought a new Mercury 15hp outboard 2 stroke engine! Feels like Christmass again.
We blow off our budget out of proportion, but it's time to replace our 43 years old Mercy (running only on one cylinder now), at least
it's $500 cheaper then in Florida!
Starbucks (2 of them) and Whole foods (called here Fresh Market) made it here to Nassau! Very expensive coffee and outragiously expensive
groceries. What can you get for $50 in the grocery store? Well, for this money I got one zucchini, cup of ricotta, box of green salad,
ice cream and gallon of distilled water. We reallly need to figure out this fishing thing...
We did not like Nassau much - downtown is packed with tourists from cruise ships, everything is very overpriced - impossible to afford
a lunch in downtown restaurants and, it's dangerous to walk couple blockes up from main street and after dark on any streets because of
the street gangs.
In Nassau we found a dentist for Kevin, but have to wait for his decision if he can create a new crown for Kevin's implant - it's nothing
easy on the islands! Well, after two expensive but comfortable nights at the marina we will return to our original anchorage in West Bay.
Motorsailing again..no wind.. when finally we will have a chance just to sail all the way?
Hiding at this anchorage from the front with strong winds. Nice, we meet our young friends here - they try to use only anchorages and no
eating out (we have to make an effort to live by their example). We spent a relaxing day at the Clifton national park - walked this place
all over. The beaches are very nice here and one of the beaches, Jaws beach, is famous for screening "Jaws" movie.
It's a nice place here but too far from civilization, and we are out of bread...and then I found out that my dry east is not good anymore
Yea, live on the boat is not fun every day. At night three couples meet for planning the next trip to Exumas!
Everybody is convinced that Exumas are Heaven, will see tomorrow... And, I got a replacement for my "unactivated" yeast - Anjella and Cody bought the fresh
one for us in Nassau, yes, now we can make bread again!
================================================
Jan.25-26
================================================
Early in the morning, at 6:54am we left West Bay (actually, we should leave earlier, like at 6, but it never happens) and sailed to Allan's
Cay in Exumas. We were surprised to find that anchorage full of boats, and worked a bit harder this time to find space to lay an anchor.
Next day right after breakfast we got into dinhgy and started exploring beaches and little reef islands scattered around. Our goal was to find
something to eat, if not fish then at least a lobster or a conch. Otherwise we have to eat vegitarian dinner again...
Anjella and Cody joined us in our quest for food. Guys were snorkling with spears (looking like cavemen) hopping to catch something, but
after couple hours it was clear that "our" food was picked up by somebody else already, and there was a 6 feet bullshark swimming around.
We decided not to take chances with that creature and just hang out on the beach and enjoyed interactive activity with jaguanas - hundreds of
them on the beaches! They are such unattractive and rude and fearless creatures, and they might be considered as a source of dinner, but we
were not sure if we can eat them, so we left them just crawl around asking for our attention (they got used for tourists to feed them
all kinds of things). Today we finally satisfied our desire to swim and snorkle around for the whole day, that was a very fun day
(including jaguanas).
===============================================
Jan.27 - 28
===============================================
Still at Allan's Cay. Today is somewhat maintenance day for us - Marina is backing bread and Kevin dove to check bottom of the boat. Turned
out that our camera is fully covered with barnicles and zinc is gone on almost all bottom parts, which means.. yes, we have to find a marine
hardware store, again, and again.
Afternoon we motored (yes, there is no wind at all!) to Highborne Cay. It's mostly a private island with very overpriced marina. We just
anchored nearby and took our dinghy to get water and check out the store - we are low on salt and alhocol. Water was $0.50 per gallon - not
bad, but we could not affort to buy anything in the store other than salt, rum and cigarettes. This marina was occupied with multiple huge
megayahts, everything is very clean and very "brittish" (the megayahts are coming here from England).
We made friends with local fishermen - Kevin suggested work with them for free, actually, just for fish for dinner. They gave us three
fresh red snappers in the exchange for entertaiment: Kevin has to prove that he knows how to clean fish. Well, that did not go very well,
but we still got fish for dinner and got free rum and coke, we even exchanged phone numbers in case we need each other (life is funny,
everything can happen).
We fried the fish the way locals told us and food was delishious. Later at night we caught a huge unknown to us fish, broght it in
the cockpit and quick found it's picture in our fish reference book. Turns out it's a horse-eye jack, which is poisonous with ciguatera.
So, we had to let our fish go.... so sad, because it could feed us for at least 3 days.
Next day we saw a sailboat ran aground (corral reefs) in the channel and he could not get out himself for a while. We rashed on the
dinghy to help and joined other bigger boat there already trying to pull poor sailboat out of the reefs. We worked on that at least an hour
but in vain, so sailboat had to stay aground waiting for hight tide hopping that will help him to get out of this trap.
It was very good excesize for us - so we would know what to do in situation like that.
On the way back we saw about 20 HUGE bull sharks swimming around - that is very creepy scenery! Cannot swimm here...
At this marina we met our buddies in motorboat who we met yet in Clearwater, Fl and then met them again in Bimini. Definitely, we have to
hang out together! So, we decided to go with them to Shroud Cay this afternoon.
In the evening we visited Southern Belle (our buddies trawler) for drinks and talks - as usually, Kevin entertained everybody with our
previous sailing stories.
================================================
Jan.29
================================================
Shroud Cay is uninhabited island but has a lot of nature attractions. While checking out nearby a little beach with very white sand
we found a water well in the depth of mangroves which are growing on reefs. The water here accumulated from rains and was pretty clean-
we washed our salty dirty bodies and our clothes in FRESH water, that was a treat!
We had very busy day exploring nearby island Norman Cay by dinghy. We snorkled at plane crash (from the drug war in 1980s), saw the caves
in the reef walls where drugs were stored (maybe?) and explored deserted beatiful beaches with absolutelly amazing water of different
colors. Color of the water is defined by the depth of the water and terrain on the bottom and we are getting much better at "reading water"
because it's essential survival skill here, in Bahamas. At the middle of the day we stack with our dinghy in the middle of the huge Normand
Cay Bay - it was the low tide and whatever was before 2-3 feet depth now was just sand! This change happened very quickly, so we did not
have time to get to deeper waters. As a result of that, we got a hard and great workout just drugging our dinghy by hand throught the sand
to the deeper waters, that was a loooong drug... But we were revorded by the deserted beatiful white sandy beach where we allowed ourselves
to swim nacked, pick up sanddollars, check the sea stars in the water and have our lunch in the shade of only one tree on the beach.
With all this beaty around you notice some human's non-positive involvement in the nature: we saw a lot of trash on the beaches, predominaly
plastic cans of different sizes and functionality. It's very sad to see that in such a beatiful nature.
================================================
Jan.30 - 31
================================================
We made it to Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (VHF 9) after about 4 hours of motorsailing (again). Very nice park with very slow and expencive
wifi - $15 per 24 hours, plus $20 for mooring ball per day. And... no restrooms or water or trash disposal or any other amenities.
But it's very beatiful wild nature park with typical Bahamian vegitation, blue holes, nice snorkling reefs, and fearless birds (they eat almost
from your hands!). And we saw a very weird animal at night near the office, which remined a very fat rat, but without a rat tail. We still
don't know what is was. By the tradition any new arrived boat has to bring a drift wood with the name of the boat to the Boobo Hill - and we did.
We met some new cruisers here and saw our old buddies, Southern Belle (we keep bumping with them at any place we go!). Every night somebody
from the cruisers organizes a happy hour, which is great opportunity to meet new people and share experiences.
Oh, and we had our 11th anniversary on Jan.31. Marina made nice dinner: mashed potatoes, salad from last cucamber and last tomato, last two chicken
breasts (can't believe they still were frozen!) and last bottle of nice red wine (Phantom - our favorite).
=================================================
Feb.1
=================================================
Waiting for better weather today - wind is to strong to move to another island. Maybe tomorrow we can finally sail to the civilized place - it's time to
get some provision and water would be great. Laundry is already so long time overdue too...
We use today for some maintenance of the boat: changed wind generator blades (the new once supposed to be more efficient), made a bread, listened to all
weather staition Kevin could find on HEM radio.
================================================
It was painless 4 hours motorsail from West Bay to Nassau Harbor together with our friends. At the entrance to harbor you have to request
permission to enter via VHF because there is some traffic in this harbor, predominaly, huge cruise ships. We landed at Yacht Harbor
Haven Marina ($2 per foot/night - $80 a night). It's nice to be at sturdy ground again, having restroom, shower, trash bins and laundry.
At the same day we checked out nearby marine store and .. bought a new Mercury 15hp outboard 2 stroke engine! Feels like Christmass again.
We blow off our budget out of proportion, but it's time to replace our 43 years old Mercy (running only on one cylinder now), at least
it's $500 cheaper then in Florida!
Starbucks (2 of them) and Whole foods (called here Fresh Market) made it here to Nassau! Very expensive coffee and outragiously expensive
groceries. What can you get for $50 in the grocery store? Well, for this money I got one zucchini, cup of ricotta, box of green salad,
ice cream and gallon of distilled water. We reallly need to figure out this fishing thing...
We did not like Nassau much - downtown is packed with tourists from cruise ships, everything is very overpriced - impossible to afford
a lunch in downtown restaurants and, it's dangerous to walk couple blockes up from main street and after dark on any streets because of
the street gangs.
In Nassau we found a dentist for Kevin, but have to wait for his decision if he can create a new crown for Kevin's implant - it's nothing
easy on the islands! Well, after two expensive but comfortable nights at the marina we will return to our original anchorage in West Bay.
Motorsailing again..no wind.. when finally we will have a chance just to sail all the way?
Hiding at this anchorage from the front with strong winds. Nice, we meet our young friends here - they try to use only anchorages and no
eating out (we have to make an effort to live by their example). We spent a relaxing day at the Clifton national park - walked this place
all over. The beaches are very nice here and one of the beaches, Jaws beach, is famous for screening "Jaws" movie.
It's a nice place here but too far from civilization, and we are out of bread...and then I found out that my dry east is not good anymore
Yea, live on the boat is not fun every day. At night three couples meet for planning the next trip to Exumas!
Everybody is convinced that Exumas are Heaven, will see tomorrow... And, I got a replacement for my "unactivated" yeast - Anjella and Cody bought the fresh
one for us in Nassau, yes, now we can make bread again!
================================================
Jan.25-26
================================================
Early in the morning, at 6:54am we left West Bay (actually, we should leave earlier, like at 6, but it never happens) and sailed to Allan's
Cay in Exumas. We were surprised to find that anchorage full of boats, and worked a bit harder this time to find space to lay an anchor.
Next day right after breakfast we got into dinhgy and started exploring beaches and little reef islands scattered around. Our goal was to find
something to eat, if not fish then at least a lobster or a conch. Otherwise we have to eat vegitarian dinner again...
Anjella and Cody joined us in our quest for food. Guys were snorkling with spears (looking like cavemen) hopping to catch something, but
after couple hours it was clear that "our" food was picked up by somebody else already, and there was a 6 feet bullshark swimming around.
We decided not to take chances with that creature and just hang out on the beach and enjoyed interactive activity with jaguanas - hundreds of
them on the beaches! They are such unattractive and rude and fearless creatures, and they might be considered as a source of dinner, but we
were not sure if we can eat them, so we left them just crawl around asking for our attention (they got used for tourists to feed them
all kinds of things). Today we finally satisfied our desire to swim and snorkle around for the whole day, that was a very fun day
(including jaguanas).
===============================================
Jan.27 - 28
===============================================
Still at Allan's Cay. Today is somewhat maintenance day for us - Marina is backing bread and Kevin dove to check bottom of the boat. Turned
out that our camera is fully covered with barnicles and zinc is gone on almost all bottom parts, which means.. yes, we have to find a marine
hardware store, again, and again.
Afternoon we motored (yes, there is no wind at all!) to Highborne Cay. It's mostly a private island with very overpriced marina. We just
anchored nearby and took our dinghy to get water and check out the store - we are low on salt and alhocol. Water was $0.50 per gallon - not
bad, but we could not affort to buy anything in the store other than salt, rum and cigarettes. This marina was occupied with multiple huge
megayahts, everything is very clean and very "brittish" (the megayahts are coming here from England).
We made friends with local fishermen - Kevin suggested work with them for free, actually, just for fish for dinner. They gave us three
fresh red snappers in the exchange for entertaiment: Kevin has to prove that he knows how to clean fish. Well, that did not go very well,
but we still got fish for dinner and got free rum and coke, we even exchanged phone numbers in case we need each other (life is funny,
everything can happen).
We fried the fish the way locals told us and food was delishious. Later at night we caught a huge unknown to us fish, broght it in
the cockpit and quick found it's picture in our fish reference book. Turns out it's a horse-eye jack, which is poisonous with ciguatera.
So, we had to let our fish go.... so sad, because it could feed us for at least 3 days.
Next day we saw a sailboat ran aground (corral reefs) in the channel and he could not get out himself for a while. We rashed on the
dinghy to help and joined other bigger boat there already trying to pull poor sailboat out of the reefs. We worked on that at least an hour
but in vain, so sailboat had to stay aground waiting for hight tide hopping that will help him to get out of this trap.
It was very good excesize for us - so we would know what to do in situation like that.
On the way back we saw about 20 HUGE bull sharks swimming around - that is very creepy scenery! Cannot swimm here...
At this marina we met our buddies in motorboat who we met yet in Clearwater, Fl and then met them again in Bimini. Definitely, we have to
hang out together! So, we decided to go with them to Shroud Cay this afternoon.
In the evening we visited Southern Belle (our buddies trawler) for drinks and talks - as usually, Kevin entertained everybody with our
previous sailing stories.
================================================
Jan.29
================================================
Shroud Cay is uninhabited island but has a lot of nature attractions. While checking out nearby a little beach with very white sand
we found a water well in the depth of mangroves which are growing on reefs. The water here accumulated from rains and was pretty clean-
we washed our salty dirty bodies and our clothes in FRESH water, that was a treat!
We had very busy day exploring nearby island Norman Cay by dinghy. We snorkled at plane crash (from the drug war in 1980s), saw the caves
in the reef walls where drugs were stored (maybe?) and explored deserted beatiful beaches with absolutelly amazing water of different
colors. Color of the water is defined by the depth of the water and terrain on the bottom and we are getting much better at "reading water"
because it's essential survival skill here, in Bahamas. At the middle of the day we stack with our dinghy in the middle of the huge Normand
Cay Bay - it was the low tide and whatever was before 2-3 feet depth now was just sand! This change happened very quickly, so we did not
have time to get to deeper waters. As a result of that, we got a hard and great workout just drugging our dinghy by hand throught the sand
to the deeper waters, that was a loooong drug... But we were revorded by the deserted beatiful white sandy beach where we allowed ourselves
to swim nacked, pick up sanddollars, check the sea stars in the water and have our lunch in the shade of only one tree on the beach.
With all this beaty around you notice some human's non-positive involvement in the nature: we saw a lot of trash on the beaches, predominaly
plastic cans of different sizes and functionality. It's very sad to see that in such a beatiful nature.
================================================
Jan.30 - 31
================================================
We made it to Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (VHF 9) after about 4 hours of motorsailing (again). Very nice park with very slow and expencive
wifi - $15 per 24 hours, plus $20 for mooring ball per day. And... no restrooms or water or trash disposal or any other amenities.
But it's very beatiful wild nature park with typical Bahamian vegitation, blue holes, nice snorkling reefs, and fearless birds (they eat almost
from your hands!). And we saw a very weird animal at night near the office, which remined a very fat rat, but without a rat tail. We still
don't know what is was. By the tradition any new arrived boat has to bring a drift wood with the name of the boat to the Boobo Hill - and we did.
We met some new cruisers here and saw our old buddies, Southern Belle (we keep bumping with them at any place we go!). Every night somebody
from the cruisers organizes a happy hour, which is great opportunity to meet new people and share experiences.
Oh, and we had our 11th anniversary on Jan.31. Marina made nice dinner: mashed potatoes, salad from last cucamber and last tomato, last two chicken
breasts (can't believe they still were frozen!) and last bottle of nice red wine (Phantom - our favorite).
=================================================
Feb.1
=================================================
Waiting for better weather today - wind is to strong to move to another island. Maybe tomorrow we can finally sail to the civilized place - it's time to
get some provision and water would be great. Laundry is already so long time overdue too...
We use today for some maintenance of the boat: changed wind generator blades (the new once supposed to be more efficient), made a bread, listened to all
weather staition Kevin could find on HEM radio.
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