OUR BAHAMAS ADVENTURE SLOWLY DRAWS TO A CLOSE...

            I’m sitting on the boat in Green Turtle Cay watching the heavens dump on us like a cow does to a flat rock (how’s that for a simile!) as a very strong low pressure passes over the Abacos. Thus far the dire predictions of weather guru Chris Parker have not materialized with a minimum of wind and only brief lightning storms, but we know more is to come and the rain amount is incredible! Even so, our time here has almost come to an end we have very mixed emotions about leaving. But, I get about a week ahead of myself…

One of our favorite marinas of the trip...and they
have a wonderful baker!

 After a week at Hope Town, both Diane and I were anxious to continue moving and ready for a change in venue, even though we had a wonderful time and met equally wonderful people in this picturesque harbor. Our next destination was to be our last “big city” before heading home, so we were looking forward to both a marina stay, a place to stretch our legs and do a bit of shopping. We stayed at what has become one of my favorite marinas, Mango’s Marina in the heart of Marsh Harbor. We’d had a bit of a run around with our slip reservation with both parties thinking we were coming on different days. 

The Marsh Harbor anchorage flanked by several
very nice marinas.

When I’d called them the day prior to our arrival I was told that they were “hoping” to have a slip for us. What about our reservation?!!! The morning we crossed over from Hope Town I called the marina on the radio to hopefully confirm our arrival and get a slip assignment. The voice on the other end of the mike (Ray, the dockmaster), in a heavily accented Bahamanian accent immediately came back with a; “….sorry Captain, we are full up and have no space!” There was a short delay and then he came back with;  “…JUST KIDDING, come on in, we’re ready for you!” A few minutes later we pulled into the last available slip at this small marina with Ray ready to take lines and generally scurry about both the dock and our boat to ensure we were securely and correctly tied up. I must say that he was easily the most professional dockmaster we’ve seen since leaving home last fall and actually knew what all our lines were supposed to do. During our entire stay, we was a wealth of information and interesting to chat with.

            At the same marina and in the anchorage were a couple other boats we’d been with throughout our Exuma cruise and it was fun to reunite with the crews of Pegasus, Java, Lipari, Hooligan and Sunbow. Tied up to a marina dock for the first time in over 2 months, we took advantage of the free water (almost unheard of here in the Bahamas where water is metered and costs between .20-.60/gal!), inexpensive electrical power (unlike most US marinas, power at most marinas here is metered and usually costs a fraction what is charged at home), and the ability to jump off the boat for a walk, trip to the grocery or a jog. We were livin high on the hog! Oh yea, the restaurant at Mango’s has a baker who made the best sticky buns I’ve ever eaten! Just a few second walk from Magic was bakery heaven!

            Marsh Harbor is the largest “settlement” in the Bahamas after Nassau and Freeport and has almost all the amenities found in similar-sized towns in the US, including a really nice grocery, hardware stores, shops, etc. Although this is slowly changing as the internet generation homogenizes our societies (not sure if this is entirely a good thing), every settlement in the Bahamas has a distinct flavor. Dialects and customs are different and all are fiercely independent. For those of use who sail on the Chesapeake Bay, once again the residents of Tangier and Smith Islands come to mind. Only a few miles apart geographically, they are totally different, just like all the towns here. It was interesting to meet the locals and get a flavor for each place.

The "Castle in the Clouds" in Marsh Harbor.
In an area with lots of interesting architecture,
this one stood out!

            Both Diane and I were keeping one eye on the calendar, knowing our time here in the Bahamas was necessarily coming to a close. Our stay in Marsh Harbor was only three days, but we both felt we got a great feel for the place. We walked (and occasionally jogged) all over the place and even found the “Castle in the Clouds” a beautiful home built by the “Out Island Doctor,” Evans Cottman, who moved to the Bahamas in the early 1940’s and although not a “real” MD, was licensed by the government as a “practical doctor” and traveled throughout the islands taking care of the locals until his death in the late 1970’s. A fascinating story detailed in his autobiography, “Out Island Doctor.” Anyone interested in reading about life in the islands before the days of phones, reliable transportation, electricity, etc., should pick up a copy….you just can’t have mine!

         

Cold beer, toes in a pool
Doesn't get much better!

   From Marsh Harbor we made short runs to both Guana Cay (home of one of the most famous watering holes in the Bahamas, Nipper’s), to the place with reportedly the 4^th prettiest beach in the world; Treasure Cay. At Guana we finally were able to rent bikes and explored the island on two wheels and spent Easter Sunday afternoon at Nippers watching a beach-side egg hunt and eating some pretty good local food. With more weather coming, Diane and I moved to a secure cove at Treasure Cay where we enjoyed a couple days in this snug harbor, walking the beaches, and exploring their world-class marina/resort. It was a nice place, but whoever said it was the 4^th nicest in the world missed a couple better ones in the Exumas! After our two days here we were again ready to move.

Charter catamaran. STAY CLEAR!!

In order to get to the northern part of the Abacos, we had to navigate “Whale Cut” channel which is the only passage between the lower and upper Sea of Abaco. Winds out of the wrong direction creates sea states in this area that make passage no only a bad idea, but downright dangerous! Magic was lucky, it was just about calm when we transited this tricky channel and the elephant seas this passage is infamous for produced only bunny rabbits!

Bluff House Marina in Green Turtle Cay.
Another great place to relax for a few days!

           Our last real Bahamas stop was Green Turtle Cay, This is one of the last settlements in the Abacos chain and, in my opinion, one of the prettiest! We motored into “White Sound” at high tide (yup, we are still slaves to water level!) and proceeded to the Bluff House marina/resort. For those of you who may eventually come to the Abacos, this marina is a true do-not-miss place. First of all, it is well run with experienced, friendly staff and up-to-date facilities. Best of all it is the cheapest place we’ve been since leaving home over 5 months ago! Although we were only here 4 nights, we thoroughly enjoyed our time even though we experienced yet another bad cold frontal passage.

            Tomorrow (Sunday, 7 April), Diane and I plan to leave here and begin a two day sail back to the US mainland. We are both terribly sorry our time here in the Bahamas is coming to an end and very excited to be getting back to the “world.” If the God of calm seas and gentle winds behaves, we will drop anchor in Ft. Pierce, FL just 36 hours from now. Not sure how we’ll react when we walk into our first Publix’s SUPER GROCERY STORE, or see our first traffic light in 5 months, but we’re looking forward to it all! I'll blog more about our hopefully uneventful crossing adventure as soon as we have internet access back in the states. Thanks for reading. The adventure really does continue!

Peaceful anchorage...somewhere in the Abacos!

       

THE MARCH NORTH CONTINUES!

We bid a mostly fond farewell to Spanish Wells after 11 days on “the island time forgot.” While I highly recommend a visit to the place, not sure you need to spend that long, but weather has ruled our lives since leaving home in early November and it hasn’t changed! After one last beach walk by Fleet Admiral’s Diane and Patty, we dropped our secure moorings in the harbor and motored to Royal Island, only 6 miles away but a great jumping off point for our separate trips toward Miami (Veritas) and north to the Abacos (Magic).  

Think this was the cook-house at
the Royal Island mansion

Huge living room and fireplace.
Beautiful, but sad

Believe it or not, there is a
building under there!

Although we were only there for an afternoon and evening, there was exploring to be done! The four of us jumped into our dingy and explored both this very protected anchorage by water and then went ashore to walk around this interesting place. Once on land we discovered the ruins of a huge, abandoned estate with crumbling concrete piers, buildings with ornate tile-work still intact, and old paved paths which led all over the island. The guidebooks say that the place was built, 30 bricks at a time (that was all which could be brought on small boats from Nassau) by a very wealthy man (duh!) from England in the 1930’s. Abandoned in the aftermath of World War II, it has sat, slowing being reclaimed by island growth, ever since. I could definitely see a Steven King novel/movie set in this place! Beautiful, but spooky at the same time.

            There are signs of life on the island however. A developer has fairly big plans to build a resort here, complete with a golf course, marina, restaurant and both time-share and rental villas. While I doubt it will ever compete with Harbor Island to the east, Royal has potential and hopefully will be able to succeed where many others in the area have failed.  

            Jennings on Veritas is a well-known night owl and it takes a minor emergency to get him out of a snug bed before 7 or 8 every morning. Well, their departure at 0400 (!!!) was an emergency of sorts…they were running out of Sierra Nevada beer and the closest dealer was in Miami! I happened to get up (yea, had to p--!) about that same time and watched our buddy boat crank his anchor up and motor out of this very snug but comfortable harbor. We heard from them a couple days later that they got to Miami, safe and sound but only after Jennings drank his last Sierra Nevada as they entered the harbor! Whew!! Our plans had been to remain at Royal Island for an extra day to wait for slightly calmer seas, but around 7 am when we saw the anchorage literally empty with a parade of boats all headed to the Abacos, we decided to join this flotilla, thinking that many boats can’t all be wrong! It was a hurried departure for us, but we quickly joined this group of almost 30 (!) sailboats as we all sailed (well, mostly motored) the 50 miles north to the Abaco Island group.

Pete's Pub in Little Harbor,
Abacos. Next door is
Johnson'sStudios, famous
for their sea life
bronze sculptures. 

The Abacos is a large group of islands east and north of Grand Bahama with literally hundreds of cays, many with beautiful anchorages. You could easily spend years here and not see all this area has to offer. Unfortunately, many of the most popular attractions have pretty “skinny” water and boats such as ours with over 5’ draft are restricted to close to high tide entry and exit. On the good side, the Sea of Abaco, where many of t
he best destinations are located is fairly small and if you time it right you can leave one harbor and make it to the next during the same high tide cycle. Still, most cruisers tell us that if you are going to hit bottom during your cruise to the Bahamas, it will be here in the Sea of Abaco! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Our first landfall here was atJ the southern end of the Sea of Abaco, Little Harbor. Aptly named, this tiny anchorage gave us our first taste navigating through a really “skinny” channel where even at high tide we saw only a couple inches below our keel as we s  l  o  w  l  y worked our way in. We stayed here for 2 nights, enjoying lunch at Pete’s Pub and long walks along the back roads and beaches where Diane continued her never-ending search for the perfect sea bean.

This is a Bahamian "A" Class racing sloop called "The Rage"
based in Hope Town. That's human ballast onboard...
28 people this day for a local race! NO LIFEJACKETS!!

Moving north along the Sea of Abaco we stopped for a couple hours at one of the best snorkeling spots in the area where we swam among some beautiful coral formations and, as we were about to complete our dive, saw a formation of 7 spotted eagle rays glide below us. Absolutely breathtaking sight! Once again, wished I’d had an underwater camera even though I know no photo would have done it justice.

The next stop on our slow journey through the Abacos was Hopetown harbor on Elbow Cay. Yet another skinny channel greeted us into the harbor where we were incredibly lucky (luck seems to be a theme for us this cruise!) to snag the very last mooring in this picturesque harbor, and then only because its’ owner shooed several boats off to hold it for us! We were incredibly lucky this time since that night we saw the worst thunderstorm we’ve seen in several years…an almost unheard of event in this tropical environment. Even the locals were amazed at the amount of rain, wind and violence of the lightning.

This is  "Queens Road" in Hope Town, the main
street through the settlement and one of the
widest! Unlike (unfortunately) much of the
Bahamas, the houses were all pretty
and well maintained.

Hopetown was easily the prettiest, most quaint settlement we have been to this trip. It reminded me of a small coastal town in New England, just with a Caribbean flavor. Guarded at the entrance by the only oil-lit, manually operated lighthouse remaining in the Western Hemisphere, this place is a magnet to people from the mainland (US, Canada, England, etc.) who want to escape the cold, get away from it all, but still want to be close to shops, restaurants, grocery stores, churches, etc. The small harbor has about 30+ moorings and a couple marinas, all of which were absolutely full the entire 7 days we were here. This is a very popular place but still retains that small town closeness I’ve always loved. We met any number of “ex-pat” Americans who have either moved here permanently or keep a house/boat here 5-6 months a year and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Capn Jack's. Our home away from
home in Hope Town 30 seconds
from Magic's mooring!

We spent hours exploring the island, checking the beaches for sea beans, walking the narrow streets of Hopetown and eating WAAY too much fried food at Capn Jack’s bar right in front Magic’s mooring.
    One of the highlights for me was exploring the lighthouse where we could see where the volunteer keepers light the “wick” every evening and then hoist the counterweights (a lot like a grandfather’s clock) that rotate the Fresnel Lenses…a task that must be repeated every 2 hours all night long!

View of the Hope Town lighthouse
with Magic at left.

Harbor view from lighthouse

     I can understand why this is the last one like this but thankful the Bahamian government and local citizens banded together to ensure this slice of maritime history remains intact.

100 stairs to the top. 

WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!

"Grandfather clock" machinery

in lighthouse. Must be wound by

hand every 2 hours at night!

This is the "doorknob" leading to 

viewing platform. Symbolizes

the keeper pulling a cable to 

keep the lens rotating. Cool!

Before I end this particular blog I have to say something…about Bareboat Charterers. When Diane and I chartered boats in the past, I always wondered why long-term cruisers in anchorages where we dropped the hook always stayed pretty far from us. Well, now I know why! There is an old saying that you should never, EVER buy a rental car. The same is true for charter boats. During our time in the Exumas, nary a charter was to be seen. Here in the Abacos, it seems like every other boat has “Moorings,” or “Sunsail” on the hull and the anchoring techniques we’ve seen are nothing short of amazing. I have a feeling that these companies use a credit card as proof of boat handling expertise! In Hopetown we saw a young couple pick up a mooring next to us. At one point they decided to adjust their lines and in so doing, allowed the boat to drift free of the mooring. With the engine shutdown and no one at the helm this large catamaran spun around and literally speared a cat on the other side, hitting that boat (not a charter) with a huge crunch of cracked fiberglass and gelcoat. OUCH. Later after they finally got back on their mooring I was below when Diane loudly called me to the cockpit. When I got there I could see that this charter cat had decided to run their engine on the mooring but forgot to take it out of gear and was about to ram Magic! We were charging our batteries with the engine so I quickly put the engine in gear and narrowly avoided yet another collision. Clueless. My advice here….STAY WELL AWAY FROM CHARTER BOATS!! Nuff said!

What a beautiful sight of the Hope Town Harbor from the lighthouse.
Magic is to the left near shore.

     Our next stop is Marsh Harbor, biggest town in the Abacos, a whopping 7 miles across the Sea of Abaco from Hopetown and I’ll write more about our time there soon. The adventure continues!!!!

    Smooth Sailing!

THE ISLAND TIME FORGOT

           When I last blogged, we were preparing to leave Hatchet Bay and head north to Spanish Wells, a small island just to the north of Eleuthera. We were definitely excited about leaving that place behind even though it provided superb protection from the high winds we saw over a period of several days

The so-called Government Dock at Current Cut. Missing
roof shingles and broken-down vehicles kind of
tells it all...

            As we cleared the narrow opening to Hatchet Bay we set course for the only “challenging” part of this 35 mile trip; Current Cut. Aptly named, this narrow (not as bad a Hatchet, but pretty narrow!) opening between Eleuthera and Current Islands is notorious for the speed of the current at any time other than slack high or low tide. We’d gotten all sorts of advice on how to time slack tide and, along with Veritas, decided on a departure time which would get us there at when we thought would be high tide with very low if not totally slack current. OOPS! Guess we listened to the wrong guy because despite our best efforts to time our arrival, we were still met with a 3+ knot current directly against us as we made the final turn and negotiated the tricky channel leading through the cut. We made it just fine but REALLY SLOWLY as the current dropped our speed over the ground to about 2 knots for 10 or so minutes!

Our mooring field at the SE end of Spanish Wells harbor.
Tight fit!

            After we left the grips of the current at the cut, we turned right and headed for Spanish Wells (SW for now on), passing several beautiful islands on the way with some interesting names (Egg, Royal, Meeks Patch, etc.). Fortunately for us, Jennings on Veritas had called the day prior to “Bandit” on SW and Jock (his real name) had reluctantly agreed to hold a couple moorings for us. As we entered the small harbor I called Bandit on the radio to ask which moorings Veritas and Magic should go to and was told, in a very matter-of-a-fact voice, “…there are only 2 left so I think you should take them!" With only a little difficulty (this is a really small mooring field with just 8 spots) we picked up our moorings and settled in. We were incredibly lucky there since over the period of the next few days, no less than 10 boats came looking for a mooring and were turned away since the weather got progressively worse and not one of the boats here were leaving!

Spanish Wells fishing fleet

            We’d heard a LOT about this unique island in the Bahamas…and it all turned out to be true! First of all, this is the only place in the country that doesn’t rely on tourism for its’ economy. This is a fishing town and they provide a huge majority of the lobster tails (not really lobster, they are known as crawfish here) to places like Red Lobster. It is also the only predominantly white settlement in the Bahamas and although I cannot confirm it, we were told that a number of years ago, black workers here had to leave the island for Eleuthera (a 5 minute boat ride) every night by 5pm! Even today, there are very few black residents. 

Main channel. Note the "NO WAKE"
sign. They actually honor it here!

For those of you reading this familiar with the Chesapeake Bay, this place reminds me a lot of Tangier Island, the isolated fishing/crabbing town in the middle of the bay. The people of SW even have a similar, almost unintelligible accent that is part Bahamian, part English and part….well, I’m not sure. When we haven’t been able to understand someone we’ve kind of gotten good at smiling and nodding our heads a lot! It seems to work! Maybe they don’t understand us either!

Do not adjust your set. JL
with a COKE!!

Even though the fishing has declined in recent years, this is easily the most prosperous place we’ve been to since Nassau with well-maintained (and very New England’ish style) houses, well-dressed kids and adults, clean streets and nice shops and other businesses. It is a little like a place that time forgot 50+ years ago.  While the island is officially “dry,” and none of the restaurants (there are only 4-5!) serve alcohol, several allow you to BYOB with no “corking” fee! There is one place here where you can buy basic booze/beer…run out of a closet-sized room in a private home that also doubles as one of the few beauty salons/barbershops on the island! Kind of an off-the-books package store. Good news for us is that just a short dingy ride away on Eleuthera there is a well-stocked liquor store with a good selection of wines that even offers a discount when you buy case-lots. Not a problem with our little group!

"THE" way to get around
Spanish Wells!

One last item we all found interesting is that all (and I mean ALL) the men over 50 look alike! It is truly amazing, there are all these men, driving around in their golf carts (the primary mode of transportation on this 2 mile long island), wearing checkered shirts, ball caps and jeans, with weathered, suntanned faces waving to you as you walk by! I swear it is a big joke to them and there are really only a couple dozen men on the island and they make sport of changing shirts, hats and golf carts to confuse the visitors! I do not mean to make fun of these very kind, friendly and helpful people and truly loved meeting them.  

   We happened to get here right in the middle of Stone Crab season. Those of you familiar to this cousin of crabs all over the place, know that Stone Crab is a truly renewable resource since only the claw is eaten and when caught, just one claw is broken off (that’s gotta hurt!) and the crab is returned to the sea to grow another one. They are also VERY expensive and I’ve seen them at home for well over $30/lb. Here, right off the boat, the claws are an almost cheap $10/lb and we took advantage of the price twice during our stay and had a couple pretty good meals on our boats! I have found that Stone Crab tastes a bit more like Maine lobster than crab and definitely tastes better than the “spiny lobster” popular around here! Other than Stone Crab, we’ve feasted on a lot of local fish and have definitely helped the economic situation of the locals!

The "Express" delivery ship from Nassau. If the ship is green,
 it must be Thursday!

As in much of the Bahamas, life around here revolves around the arrival of whatever delivery boat is due in. On Tuesdays, it is freight with whatever larger items the island needs from toilets to construction materials. On Wednesday night, produce arrives in refrigerated trailers on a barge-like ship with a front-loading ramp. This ship comes into the harbor and turns around literally feet from those of us moored at the eastern end. Quite the experience. Only a couple weeks ago the wind caught this guy and he had a choice; either hit a moored sailboat or crash into a dock on the island. Luckily, he chose the dock but left quite a mess! Finally, the “Express mailboat” arrives on Thursday morning with other fresh goods like baked items. Everyone times their trips to the “big” supermarket in town based on the arrival of whatever food staple they need. Oh yea, even though I’ve seen a lot of eggs from the states in the market, I’m not sure why. This place has a zillion chickens and enough roosters to take care of business for a long time! Even if I wasn’t getting up at 0600 to listen to the marine forecast every morning, the crowing roosters would make sure I was up!

Do you think they sell beer here? Only a dingy ride away.

After a week here, all of us on boats were beginning to feel a bit like we were being held hostage and were ready to leave. Unfortunately, the weather was still uncooperative and with offshore seas exceeding 10-12 feet, even the fishing fleet remained in port. We were finally able to score a rental car on Eleuthera and set out one day to explore many of the sights we’d missed on our weather truncated trip up the island. 

The "Glass Window" on Eleuthera.
Narrowest spot on the island. As the
tides change, water rushes through
a very small opening. 

The road at the "Glass Window" on
Eleuthera. A storm shifted it 8' and
killed several people standing here!!

I’ve included some photos that will hopefully give you a feel for the rest of the island.

Diane trying to slay the dragon of
the Glass Window blow hole. Pretty
impressive sight with water
spouting up 15-20 feet!

Tim gives JL a lesson at Surfer's Beach, Eleuthera

This is what is left of a Club Med destroyed by
Hurricane Floyd in 1995.

We just had to make a return
trip to Hatchet Bay for their
frozen daquari. Just like
ice cream...with a kick!

Even with this one-day escape we were not satiated, and there was one “must see” spot we’d missed.  So yesterday, we booked passage on the high speed Bahamas ferry on the run from Nassau to Harbor Island just off the northeast coast of Eleuthera with a short stop here. Harbor Island is one of those places where the rich and beautiful go to see and be seen, eat tiny portions of perfectly prepared, very expensive local food at their exclusive "members only" resorts and bask on the pink sands of the beaches hoping someone will notice how cute their skimpy bikinis are! No kidding, the sand has a pink hue to it, or maybe that was the reflection off sunburned skin! For us, it was a way to get off SW for a day and even the $46 per person round-trip fare didn’t faze us! Of course, the weather got in the way again and the high seas cancelled this run for a couple days and then, after we’d gotten all gussied up and ashore this past Tuesday, discovered that day’s ferry was just for cargo, not people! But, we were told, the next day they were running people again so off to the ticket window we went.

This is the "Bo Henly," queen of the Bahamas Ferry fleet.
It can do almost 30 knots!

 To be honest, while the girls were looking forward to the shops and sightseeing of Harbor Island (“…is that Brad Pitt over there??”), for Jennings and me, it was the ride there and back which peaked our interest. The “channel” from SW to Harbor Island winds through an area aptly called “The Devil’s Backbone,” a couple mile long obstacle  course around some really mean coral reefs…and the ferry does it at 20+ knots! It is so difficult and potentially dangerous that few personal yachts even attempt it except in calm seas and even then only with an experienced pilot. It was an absolutely amazing experience, especially since I was able to wrangle an invite to the bridge on the way back and got to watch it done standing next to the Captain. 

I had to put an airplane photo in! Probably some movie
star headed back to the states from Harbor Island.

This guy (the most senior employee of Bahamas’ Ferry system) deftly maneuvered this 150’ high speed catamaran with one hand on a joystick rudder control and the other on the 4 throttles as he worked our way around the Mack-truck coral formations, missing them by only feet. I was just observing and the hair on the back of my next was standing straight out! He, on the other hand, was telling stories and cracking jokes the whole time. Of course, he's done it hundreds of times. When I asked him what trips for the company he normally did (they go all over the place), he pointed out that as the #1 Captain, he got to do what he wanted and this was “his” route…he didn’t like excitement! HUH? Fascinating. I took several photos, none of which came close to correctly showing what it really looked like. We'll try to post a video on FB.

Richard, the owner of Queen Conch
makes the world's second best conch
salad. His wife makes THE best!!

     While on the island we again rented a golf cart and tried to hit all the high spots; the pink beach, the Haunted House, the many shops and finally, "Queen Conch," where supposedly the best conch salad in the world is made. Guess what....it is! If you ever get to this island, you have to visit his small place on the west side and order his "exotic" conch salad. It is truly to die for. 

    In many ways, this has been one of our very favorite stops in the Bahamas and I look forward to more visits, but it is time for us to get the heck out of Dodge. As I sit here in the cockpit of Magic, a weather window for us to head to the Abacos (a 45 mile run) looks to open this Saturday. In company with Veritas, we will slip our moorings tomorrow and head to nearby Royal Island to stage ourselves for early departures the next day. At that point, we will have to bid a sad farewell to our “buddy boat” for the past couple months as they are headed back to Miami via Bimini while we are going to extend our stay a few more weeks. Veritas has family visiting there and Jennings has a few maintenance issues he needs to address, so we will split up and go our separate ways…at least for a while. Diane and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy boat to accompany us since we left Bimini seemingly just days ago and we will miss them a lot. We look forward to more sailing with them on the Chesapeake Bay this summer.

As for us, the Abacos beckons. I’m not sure (again!) how good internet service will be up there, so please bear with me and I promise to blog whenever I can. One final note; several of you reading my missives (there really are a few!) have commented that they wish they could do what we’re doing. To that I say….DO IT! Life is not a rehearsal and none of us are getting any younger. You don’t need a huge boat or fat wallet to do this. We don’t and while there have been challenges, wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Nuff said. Till next time….

MELTDOWN ON ELEUTHERA!

Magic underway to Eleuthera.
Wonderful sail!

     As I mentioned in my last blog, while still at the beautiful anchorage of Cambridge Cat in the Exumas, we had a difficult decision to make; stay put for another week or more to await another weather window or leave the Exumas and make the 48 mile crossing to Eleuthera. It was a tough decision since we loved the Exumas and particularly the various anchorages of the Exumas Land and Sea Park. Rationalizing we’d be back in a year or two, we decided to set sail and head east. We had another beautiful sail with winds just behind the beam of Magic and made almost 7 knots the whole way across. Yea, I know if you are powerboater, 7 knots is barely steerageway, but for us ragbaggers, that was truly flying! Once again Diane tried her hand at fishing, and ran out two lines with lures she was told were guaranteed to catch a huge fish…I think she needs to read that guarantee again because the only thing we caught was a big piece of seaweed, at least until we were in the shallow water near the southern tip of Eleuthera when a small barracuda took the bait. Since those fish are hard to bone and are pretty fishy tasting, we were not at all disappointed when it threw the hook just as we got it near the boat!

Tim, JL and Patty in the caves
at Rock Sound

Great shot of the root structure leading from
outside the cave all the way down
to the floor. Easily strong enough to climb
to the top.

            Approaching Eleuthera we had a navigation challenge to work our way between some pretty shallow banks into Rock Sound and even though we spied a few coral mounds near our course, found the route relatively easy. The Rock Sound settlement itself is yet another small community of mostly fishermen with only a few stores and restaurants, but they make do pretty well with what they have! Not the most protected anchorage we’ve been in, our short dingy rides to shore proved to be pretty wet but worth the effort. First of all we discovered the Eluetheran version of the “Mall of America” with a small (even by US standards, but huge here!) strip mall complete with a great grocery store, a hardware store, bank, and even a NAPA auto parts store! Easily the best shopping we’ve seen at least since Georgetown. 

I had to include this photo! In Rock Sound, he same guy
sells liquor, coffins and has property (graves?) for sale!
You just can't make this stuff up!!

On our first full day here, the crews of Veritas and Magic went ashore to explore the area on foot since we’d heard of an interesting cave system near town and of a very deep blue hole unusually situated ashore (most blue holes are part of a bay and so named because they are so deep the water is a dark blue). After a fairly short walk we found the caves and spent a lot of time exploring, taking photos and avoiding both some pissed off bats and their “bomblets” of guano. It was amazing to see the root systems of aboveground trees extend right thru small holes right to the floor of the caves. Some of these roots hadn’t yet reached bottom and could be used like rope swings! You could just imagine swashbuckling pirates hiding out here to avoid British warships. Alas, no treasure…unless you count the guano which we were somehow able to avoid! Next came the “Ocean Hole” right in the town, which formed a small park complete with benches and a swimming platform. The water in this pool of water is supposed to be over 600 feet deep (!!) and is refreshed by small holes in the rocks leading to the sound. We were told that someone put a shark in this pool a few years ago as a joke, which the rest of the locals didn’t find very amusing!

            In this blog I’ve mentioned that cruising is the act of fixing your boat in exotic locations, and Rock Sound was no different. There are several absolutely essential items on our boat that just have to work. Among them are our outboard and dingy (otherwise known as the family car and which finally seems to be working well), Magic’s diesel engine, our watermaker, refrigeration and finally our batteries to provide power for just about everything we use or do. 

This is the melted fuse block. Could
have been really bad!

Except for the watermaker, all the others have suffered some sort of failure during this trip!   Almost since leaving Miami we’d noticed that it took longer and longer every day to top off our large storage batteries when relying on our three solar panels. Since I’d sized and installed the solar panels specifically to exceed our everyday battery (power) needs of the boat, this was both perplexing and a growing concern. Finally, during a break in our shore action in Rock Sound, Diane coaxed me into doing a bit of troubleshooting. It didn’t take me long to discover that a required fuse I’d placed near the batteries had somehow overheated (and not blown – ouch) and literally melted both the fuse holder and the top of one of our “house” batteries! In a way, we were lucky since our batteries are not the old “wet cell” style and instead use a gell medium. Had they been the former, we could easily have had a catastrophic battery failure and possible fire…a really bad thing to have on a boat! Luckily, we discovered the problem before it got really bad, replaced the fuse and holder with another and put the system back to work.

If you look closely at the spot
with the "2" on it, you will see
the dime-sized hole in my battery!

The sun is now making electricity just like I’d originally planned. In examining the failed fuse holder and associated wiring, I’m pretty sure the failure was mine. One of the crimps I made to attached a fitting to the wire was not as tight as it should have been and over time a minute amount of moisture allowed corrosion to get in, adding resistance to the wire and converting the influx of power from the panels into heat rather than filling our batteries. Needless to say I’ve inspected just about every crimp I’ve made on the boat to ensure that doesn’t happen again and high on my purchase list is a professional grade crimper to ensure all my future efforts are secure! In short we dodged a bullet here and were lucky.

Narrow entry into Hatchet Bay. Don't see it until
you are literally at the entrance!

            After a couple days in Rock Sound we were anxious to get moving again, especially since yet another frontal system was approaching and we wanted to be in as protected location as possible. On the island of Eleuthera, that means Hatchet Bay, a 7-hour sail north. Our mini-convoy departed Rock Sound early the next morning and had a pleasant motorsail up the island in our quest for good protection. Hatchet Bay is unique in the Bahamas in that it affords literally 360 degree protection from both winds and seas. Located a few miles south of the largest airport on the island, the bay was a created when the government blew a hole in the rocks that separated this large salt water lake from the sea, forming a narrow opening leading into a ½ mile long bay.

This is at Twin Brothers bar and restaurant. Those are the
BEST daiquiris in the Bahamas...and cheap! Almost
like soft serve ice cream with a punch!

You can just add your own
caption here!! This isn't
the only place we
saw signs like this.

Easily the most protected anchorage in the Bahamas, Hatchet Bay was an almost perfect place to hole up for a blow with free, government-maintained moorings, a small grocery and really nice, helpful people.

On the "bad" side, the Hatchet Bay settlement itself was almost depressing. Of the three restaurants, one was closed (Twin Brothers) because of a kitchen fire (!), one was very nice but pretty expensive (Front Porch) and the last (Forget-Me-Not) was open on a spotty schedule (like most places in the Bahamas). The ONLY rental car in town was broken and both internet and cell phone coverage was spotty, with the entire system down for hours or even a day at a time. Finally, and possibly most depressing, unemployment appeared rampant. We found very few people actually working, but a lot of locals just sitting around with apparently nothing to do. Sad. Still, we made the most of it and explored all over the place, including hikes to the Atlantic side of the island in search of sea treasures. It would be unfair of me to totally pan this place where the people were extraordinarily nice, food at the restaurants that were open was really good (especially the smallest, the Forget-Me-Not Café and Bar, which had wonderful food at extremely reasonable prices) and we had a good time meeting fellow cruisers hiding from the weather. 

No blog of this trip would be complete without a photo of a Kalik
beer place! This one at Hatchet Bay had them for just $2.50!

I have to also mention that even though the restaurant closed due to fire did have its bar open serving the BEST and possibly cheapest daiquiri in the world! The forecast weather blew through one night with a vengeance and even though we were on a secure mooring, no one got much sleep as the boats were rocked by 35+ knot gusts. Even though we were in a secure place, Veritas and Magic were definitely ready to leave when another window to sail to our last stop here; Spanish Wells which I’ll detail in my next blog.

            Stay tuned!!!