Long Island to Eleuthra

Salt Pond on Long Island is a very typical anchorage: rock ledge with run-down houses on the fringe; low. scrub filled hill behind. This is the furthest south we'll get this trip. From here we set sail to Hog Cay(23° 36.251N, 75° 20.590W) a lovely crescent shaped sand beach surrounded by two resorts and several private homes. Poor snorkeling, however.

Next stop, New Bight on Cat Island where Father Jerome (1876 - 1956) build The Hermitage. Seems the converted Anglican, Roman Catholic priest who was also an architect and mule skinner came to the islands to build churches. He did a fabulous job. This was his retirement home.

The Hermitage

Two stations of the Cross

Off for Frenandez Bay (24° 19.076N, 75° 28.421W), around Alligator Point to Bennets Harbour (24° 33.834N, 75° 38.461W) and then on to Half Moon Bay on Little San Salvador. Two huge cruise ships took up a good part of the anchorage along with the swimming designated areas, para sail boats with tourist attached 100 feet up, Hobie cats, wave runners, etc. All pretty uneventful. Rock Sound (24° 51.777N, 76° 09.733W) on Eleuthra was just the same as we saw it two years ago. Water still too cloudy to make water (silt clogs the water maker filters), no fuel except to lug it from the gas station in jerry cans, and no RO water. Good grocery, 'though.

Soon as the weather was right, we took off for Governors Harbour (25° 12.136N, 76° 14.869W: third anchorage we tried due to the hard bottom and the strong (25 - 30 knot) NE, E winds. The passage to Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco's Little Harbour is way too rough for a relaxing sail: waves up to 20'. So we'll wait here at Governors 'till the winds shift around to the S and knock down the seas, probably this weekend.

Well, I managed to dump my butt, and my camera, in the ocean getting back into the dingy. So, no pics 'till I can get a replacement or pics from our friends on Semi-Aquatic and Caper. We're still together, having dinner and Mexican Train almost every night. Even Magic the Andersen's cat comes over to check things out.

Sailing has been great using both the "regular" working sails and the spinnaker. The spinnaker moves us along down wind at about 65% of the apparent wind speed. We even tried a whisker pole on loan from Caper. Although about three feet too short, it still kept the jib out and full getting us up to 9 knots at one point!

Oh, did I mention (No!) we caught two mahimahi of 6 and 7 lbs. We also lost Byrl Raper's pole and reel to something huge just after we landed an Almaco jack of 5 lbs. Must have been a great lure! Sorry Byrl!

Warderick and Beyond

The sail to Emerald Rock at Warderick Wells was very pleasant: winds and seas cooperated sending us along at over 7.5 knots. Unfortunately, no luck fishing, though there is a no fishing zone all around Warderick as it is a marine park.

Warderick Wells looking N. from the park headquarters

Poor weather sent us south to Big Majors Spot (24° 11.2N, 76° 22.5W) which is just a short dingy ride to Thunderball Grotto (24° 10.8N, 76° 26.84W) where 007, James Bond, jumped through the roof into the water below. The grotto is about 40 yds. in diameter and 10 yrds. tall. Full of little, colorful fish 'cause people bring food for them. Big Majors is the anchorage for Staniel Cay and is also famous for the herd of pigs that run down into the water to greet the cruisers who come by to stare.

Linda and Harry, the guy with a beard, at Staniel Cay (L background) and Thunderball (R background)

From here we set sail for a short jaunt to Black Point settlement (24° 6.15N, 76° 24.1W) 12 nm further south. Weather kept us there for four days. In fact on the third morning (4 a.m.) Linda got up to find the wind had swung around and into 0.8 m of water (we hit at 0.7m) with the beach 30 yds. off. Wow! Pulled up the anchor in 3 ft. seas and a head wind of 20 knots and moved out to deeper water. Mighty cold and wet. More than enough excitement for one morning.

Black Point settlement

Kuhela at Black Point just off the beach/flats

After four days there due to the passage of another front we headed south to Galliot Cut (23° 55.6N, 76° 16.6W) and transited out into the Exuma Sound bound for Lee Stocking Island and the Caribbean Marine Research Center (23° 46.274N, 16° 6.315W) for the night. We had picked up a left laundry bag for another boater which we were able to deliver high and dry.

Next day at 6 a.m. sharp we hoisted our anchor and headed for Hog Cay (23° 25.1N, 75° 29.5W) at the southern approach to Georgetown. We missed G'town intentionally as we were close on the heels of Jose and Bill Andersen of Caper who were already at Long Island where we set down our anchor at 5 p.m. after 11 hours of NE winds at 20 knots and seas up to 4 feet. Sure enough they were there at Thompson Bay (23° 20.451N, 75° 7.504W)

NE shore of Long Island on the Atlantic

I ditched the beard this morning as Jose said I looked like a pedophile.

Nassau, Bahamas (25° 04.550N 77° 18.645W)…..

We’ve been here for six days waiting for our mail from our mail collectors-forwarders, Jim and Jane Caltrider in Longwood, FL. Seems the box arrived in two days, but was held at the main post office instead of where it was addressed. It was easy to find as it had a USPS tracking number.

Steve and the famous 79 year old Flo, namesake of Flo’s Conch Bar, Little Harbour, Berry Islands, Bahamas

Our trip from Little Harbour was a little more than we expected: from now on we’ll add a negative (bigger and from the wring direction) 25% to any forecast. The waves coming down the Northwest Providence Channel from the NE built up to 4 -5 feet with a period of 6 -7 seconds on the outgoing tide and the shallows as we exited Little Harbour Inlet. Blue-green water was crashing over the bows and rolling back over the salon roof back to the wind screens which we had luckily put up just in case. Once we were able to get the jib up we picked up speed to over 7 knots on our rhumb line of 154° True (T). As the depth sank to its eventual 6,000’ we settled down to the occasional large, breaking wave sweeping over the deck and winds gusting to 27 knots from the SE. The chart plotter was dead on and we motor-sailed to the entrance to Nassau Harbour at around 4:30 pm where we requested permission to enter. Permission was granted by Harbour Control and we motored east through the harbour past five cruise ships tied up at the Cruise Ship Pier, under the twin bridges to Paradise Island, and turned into Nassau Yacht Haven Marina for the night.

Bahamian racer: look at the guys on the hiking boards! Nassau Harbour looking NE over Kuhela

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny and we moved to our present position on a 20’ deep bank ½ north of Potter Cay just east of the last public marina. Steve of Semi Aquatic caught up with us and is anchored 30’ off our starboard side.

Manta at Atlantis Aquarium









On Sunday we took our collapsible bicycles (sold to us by Jack and Marion McGrath of the Barclay neighborhood group) ashore, pumped up the tires and rode (on the left, left, left…) over the bridges to Atlantis. What a spectacular complex: hotel, casino, shops, aquarium, marina, and beach facilities.
<On Sunday we took our collapsible bicycles (sold to us by Jack and Marion McGrath of the Barclay neighborhood group) ashore, pumped up the tires and rode (on the left, left, left…) over the bridges to Atlantis. What a spectacular complex: hotel, casino, shops, aquarium, marina, and beach facilities.

Front entrance to Atlantis

The marina was dug by a contractor, Shoreline Foundations, which I had the pleasure of bonding several years ago. Unfortunately this particular job was unbonded. Several Shahuli (spelling??) glass sculptures adorn the casino: incredible how he does his art! I hope the few attached pictures give some sense of the place.

Now that we found our mail we’ll be leaving in the morning if the weather holds up as predicted: NE winds 15 – 25 knots; seas 5 -7 feet. We’ll head for Norman’s Cay or Shrouds in the Exuma chain SE of here 35nm and 40 nm respectively.

Allens Cay (24° 44.954N 26° 50.277W)….

Would you believe I have on long pants, tee shirt, sweatshirt, foul weather jacket and hat to keep warm: its 68° with 12 – 24 knot NE winds and I can’t even guess what the wind chill factor is. Bahamas; Exumas; 24° N; February 17th! Anyway, a great sail here from Porgee Rocks just east of Nassau Harbour. Blue and turquoise seas were 1 – 3 feet from the north with a period of 10 secs. We got up to 8.4 knots and averaged 7.2 knots with one reef in for the 29 nm trip arriving at around 3 pm. The black coral heads surrounded by white sand scattered over Yellow Bank were easy to see even though they were well below our three foot draft. There are 27 boats of all types anchored here which makes it as little crowded. Allens Cay is famous for the last remaining Bahamian “prehistoric” iguanas which we’ll check out in the am. Ugly:

Allens iguana

Next stop was Shrouds Cay (24° 31.883N, 76° 47.798W) to meet some Colorado friends of Steve. Jim and Nancy Holland of Summer Breeze were there on their way back to Nassau to replace their macerator, a smelly job. Checked the rudders again for parallelism and they were fine. Moored first on a mooring ball, and then when forward and anchored in 8 feet of crystal clear water. We’d had an electrical problem which I traced to the main battery breaker after cleaning the battery leads and checking that each cell had the proper amount of water. We must have slipped into the tip of the Bermuda Triangle 'cause my battery clock also went on the fritz showing Pacific Time and 12:12 pm! We made it safely to Warderick Wells.

Little Harbour, Barry Islands, Bahamas….February 10, 2009

After a fine sail from Lake Sylvia (Ft. Lauderdale) where we replaced the starboard engine raw water pump which had sprung a leak, we anchored in 10 feet of crystal-clear, calm water just before sunset (red sky at night, even) at the northern edge of North Bimini Island (25° 46.2N, 79° 14.6W).

Using Google Earth one can put in the Lat/Lan coordinates

and see exactly where we are on our adventure.

No fish, but still a 10 – 12 knot breeze from the SE propelled us along at 5 – 6 knots for the best part of the day. Friday morning as the sun came up we steered a course towards Little Stirrup Cay (that’s Key, not Kaye) 74 nm east at the top of the Barry Island chain. The Barry Islands lie south of Grand Bahama Island approximately 56 nm from Port Lucaya. A front was coming down from Florida, so the 12 – 15 knot winds had switched around to the NE. As the squall line came at us late in the afternoon, we took down the sail and were socked in with driving rain. Keeping a weather eye on the chart plotter (couldn’t see anything over the side) we continued towards our way point and turn SSE to Great Harbour Cay marina (25° 44.85N, 77° 51.6W). It’s now pitch black and raining off and on. We’re in 5 feet of water looking with our search light for the two very skinny, short poles that mark the 4 nm long channel to the harbor entrance: a hard to starboard 100 ° turn thru an 80 foot wide canyon cut thru the cay’s western flank just before you run into a bluff. While all this was going on I lost the right lens to my glasses, so I’m driving the boat with one wet eye. Linda was crawling around on the deck looking in vain for it. She finally resurrected my other pair of glasses we’d put in the ditch bag. This is no way to cruise, but… Anyway we docked at around 10:30 pm without hitting anything and fell into our well deserved sack.

Sunday dawned bright, but cool, with winds from the NNE at around 12 knots: good sailing weather. So, off we go saying bye to Gabriel the Dock Master (oops, there I go again demoting him: the Marina Master) and head out the canyon and on to our southerly, twisting course through the shifting bottom sands on the west side of the islands. The waters here are very shallow – we bump several times and drag our rudders along for a good part of the trip as the tide rises – and we have to use VPR (Visual Piloting Rules) and discern the depth by the color of the bottom. Yup, it’s not easy, but doable. We made it around mostly under sail to Little Harbour Cay in about five hours. As we motored north in between Little Harbour Cay (25° 34.242N, 77° 43.213W) on the east and Lizard Cay and Cabbage Cay on the west we stuck to the Lizard/Cabbage side as we had done the last time we were here. No, no, the shifting sand had done their thing and bump, buuummmppp: hard aground 6 feet east of the “channel”. Nothing would pull us off, so we waited for the next high tide which floated us off in the wee hours of the morning. Waiting consisted of taking the dingy to Flo’s Conch Bar, watching the Super Bowl, drinking Kalik Beer, and munching on cheese and crackers: rough life of a cruiser.

The weather has deteriorated into front after front with 20 – 30 knot N - NE winds and cool (high 50’s and low 60’s) temperatures. However, tied to Chester’s (Flo’s son) mooring ball at $10/night and with our CQR (looks like a farmer’s plow) anchor out 90 feet to windward on 5/8 chain, we felt quite secure.

We’re here with two other, smaller cats and a trawler. Two other sail boats, a sloop and a ketch, are anchored south of Lizard Cay, apparently afraid to navigate the shallow channel. Boy are they rolling. Miow has a new first mate aboard from the last time we saw Dave as a single handed sailor down to a can of peaches. Semi Aquatic’s captain Steve is a friend of our Canadian friends aboard Caper: Bill and Jose Andersen. We hope to catch up with Bill and Jose somewhere in the Exuma Islands in the next few weeks, weather fronts and seas permitting.

Ft. Lauderdale

I was just told by the Ft. Lauderdale water police to leave and never come back. How's that for hospitality? Wonder what the Chamber of Commerce would think? We had anchored in Lake Sylvia on Friday night. It's near the 17th Street Causeway and Bahia Mar Yachting Center off the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). Seems there is an nonenforceable (it's contrary to Florida statute) city regulation saying one cannot anchor for more than 24 hours. The million dollar homes/taxpayers around the lake have spoken. We had engine trouble - the raw water pump on the starboard engine sprung a leak which I didn't have the expertise or specials tools to fix - and had to wait for a mechanic to come out on Monday. The Friday "cop" was flexible and understanding: difficult to maneuver on one engine; expensive at $187.50/day to go into a marina; etc. We were told that the city could not fine us nor tow us away, so we rented a car and went to Orlando (3 1/2 hours north) for four-person birthday birthday party in the "hood" (Barclay Ave. /Avern Ct. on Lake Orienta in Altamonte Springs) plus our two grand children's birthdays on Sunday. Yes, a good time was had by all over the weekend. At 0845 we awoke to be told "You are not welcome in Ft. Lauderdale." Oh, did I mention the "bad cop" called us in Orlando on Sunday to ream me out for leaving the boat unattended and over-time. He really wanted to give it to me in person even after reading the note we left him aboard explaining the situation. What a guy!

As soon as we are fixed, we're headed for Miami, then on to Bimini.

Waiting...

Still at Port Salerno under cold, cloudy skys 'cause of the wind and our friends near here: Bill and Jose Andersen of S/V Caper who are getting ready in Indian Town 20 minutes away. We'll all transit to Mi-jami later next week to cross to Bimini, wind permitting, on our way south to warmer climes.

I left Linda to go to West Marine yesterday and she started drag racing across the anchorage. Eventhough she had started the engines, thank God for Dietmar aboard another sailing cat, Joker, who saw what was happening and came to help her re-anchor. Seems our CQR anchor (looks like a plow with a movable arm) isn't good for all conditions after all, especially a muddy bottom. So Dietmar put down not one but two anchors (Fortress and Danforth) stopping the race just before she hit the Hinckley Marine dock: ok, she still had 20 feet to go. She was in first place as two other boats did the same thing with the same CQR anchors. When I returned we move back into the center of the anchorage and re-set both "proper" anchors. So far so good: swinging around the anchors as the wind and tide change, but no dragging. Only cost me a beer and a couple of single malt scotches to show my/our appreciation.

Yes, it has finally happened...we have left Titusville and our dear friends to start our around the world adventure on January 4th, 2009. First to Port Canaveral, then Ft. Pierce and St. Lucie Inlet's Port Salerno in Manatee Pocket: delightful and picture-squey. Next to Lake Worth, Ft Lauderdale's Lake Sylvia, and Dinner Key in Coconut Grove/Miami where we'll wait for the wind (nothing with a northerly component as it kicks up the Gulf Stream something awful) to head over to Bimini in the Bahamas.