Eighth Trip Report -- Monday May 12,2008

Departed: Nassau, Bahamas
Miles Traveled: 34.3 nm
Arrived: Allen’s Cay - Exumas
At Anchor: 1:45 pm

Happy Whit Monday!  I am not sure what it is supposed to celebrate, but today is Whit Monday in the Bahamas and everything is closed – a great day to go sailing.  Whit Monday is pegged to the occurrence of Easter.  It was about 4 weeks earlier this year than last – when we experienced it in Marsh Harbor in the Abacos in 2007.

We were afraid we were going to be forced to spend the day in Nassau.  In addition to everything being closed, about three days is the maximum I can take of Nassau.  We were concerned by the weather forecast and the impact of the front that was moving from Florida through the Bahamas.  This morning when we got up, it didn’t look that bad and to the extent we could determine from the internet and the XM weather hookup, it looked like it would get worse, if anything, if we waited another day.

We are very spoiled as to our access to weather information in the US.  The Bahamas has exactly 2 weather reporting stations for the whole country, Freeport and Nassau.  As a practical matter, you get to do your own forecasting over here from whatever raw data you can get your hands on.  Some of it is NOAA weather data for the east coast of Florida and some very large scale maps of North America showing fronts.  The XM weather downloads wave height, direction and period information for the current period and also occasionally for 12, 24 and 36 hours in the future.

In any case, as best I could determine, we were facing 10-15 knot winds from the southwest and seas of 0-3’ and we decided to go.  Since we were going to be sailing southeast, this meant that we should be able to sail.

For once reality matched forecast.  We had a very nice 5 hour sail under jib alone down to Allen’s Cay, our first stop in the Exumas.  Allen’s Cay is known for its non-native Iguana inhabitants who have become very used to being fed.  Land on the beach and they come running down to greet you.

There are a group of students who are paying researchers for the opportunity to help in the study of these Iquanas on the island.  They are based on an old 50’ sailboat based out of Miami.  The last time we were here on a live aboard dive trip, all of the Iguanas had numbers painted on them.  I don’t think this group has caught and painted them all yet.

This is a small anchorage with some current and some surge.  Because of the tightness of the anchorage, we are anchored with two anchors in a Bahamian Mooring.  Essentially, one anchor is about 100’ in front of the boat and the second anchor is directly behind the boat, with both anchor rodes tied to the bow.  This causes the boat to swing with the current in a very narrow range.

We spent the afternoon visiting the Iguana’s, snorkeling and reading.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, we plan to head for the Exumas Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells Cay.  I hope to be in either Staniel Cay or Georgetown on the 19th because both places have airstrips to fly into.

Skip has now been recertified as a diver and when he arrives we will focus on getting some diving in.

Tuesday May 13,2008
Departed:, Allen’s Cay - Exumas
Miles Traveled: 32.7 nm
Arrived: Warderick Wells Cay - Exumas
At Mooring: 1:30 pm

We had a very sleepless night.  The anchorage was tight and not all of the boats had two anchors down.  The winds were very gusty and there was a significant surge in the anchorage making it a very rolly place to spend the night.  When we got up in the morning, we were only about 20’ from the boat in back of us.  He had only put one anchor down and had ridden forward on the change of tide.  After analyzing the weather, we decided to get out of there and move to the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  To our surprise, the water outside the anchorage at Allen’s Cay actually felt calmer than inside!

We had the wind to our backs, starting the day out of the NW and switching around to the NE.  We tried sailing, but didn’t have enough wind to make 4 knots, so we invoked the 5-6 knot rule and motored down to Warderick Wells.

The Exumas Land and Sea Park is 176 square miles consisting of 15 large islands and many smaller ones.  It was created in 1959 and acts as a replenishment area for the wildlife native to this environment.  The park headquarters is at Warderick Wells.  The park has installed a lot of mooring buoys off various islands of the park and at various dive sites so that damage to the coral reefs from boat anchors can be avoided.  First, to orient you as to where we are, this is a general map of the Bahamas and the Exuma chain.

We are about ½ way down the Exuma Chain.

We are planning on spending several days here.  To our surprise, it is possible to get WI-FI at the park headquarters.

We are in the north mooring field – which is the most popular field in the park.  We were lucky to get in on the first try because there are only about 20 moorings in the field and people stay on them for several days at a time.  We picked up mooring #14 which is the second closest to the park headquarters and means that I can get an internet connection on the boat without having to take my computer to the park office.

This is the park headquarters and living space for the park warden.  The guy on the porch is on his computer and is a boater who was too far away to get WI-FI reception on his boat.

This picture was taken from the park headquarters.  The water is crystal clear and it looks like the boat is just floating in air.

We caught up with our friends Mike and Linda who arrived three days ago.  They had arranged to go “hooka” diving with some people they met on another boat.  We went along and snorkeled above them.  The site was called jeep reef for the old WW2 jeep that was sunk at one end of the reef.  As Sandy reminded me, we had done a dive on this reef 5 or 6 years ago when we were aboard the Aqua Cat live aboard dive boat.  If you haven’t heard of a “hooka” rig, it is basically a surface compressor in a float that supplies air down a line directly to divers.  The compressor gets towed along as they swim.

Its helpful if all four divers go in the same direction, but it is funnier to watch when they go in different directions.  By the end of the dive they get their hoses pretty well tangled up.

Warderick Wells is a great site and the place Linda and Mike chose to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

Mike and Linda hosted us as well as their new friends to a dinner of filet and fresh mahi-mahi.  It was a great evening with a gorgeous sunset.  The perfect end to a great day.

Tomorrow I have to figure out our next few days and determine where we are going to be when Skip arrives.  I’ll let you know what we decide in the next trip report.

Jerry and Sandy
S/V Rum Daze

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Ninth Trip Report -- Wednesday May 14,2008
At Mooring #14 – Warderick Wells Cay – Exuma Land and Sea Park

Somewhat out of order, but I just got a copy today of the picture Sandy took of Linda and Mike on their 30th anniversary last night.

Today we spent exploring some of the Exuma Cay Land and Sea Park.  This park was established in 1959 and it is a beautiful park.

There are miles of paths to explore.  One goes to a place known as “BooBoo Hill” where tradition has it that you take a piece of driftwood and mark and leave it as a remembrance.

The role of the park in the replenishment of animal species became even more apparent as we hiked.  In the tidal ponds, we saw many juvenile fish species including barracuda and Southern Rays.

The water color down here is amazing and the views make it a place we plan to spend a couple of more days to just relax and enjoy.

We also started making final arrangements to meet up with Skip on the 20th.  He will fly to Nassau on the 19th, and then catch a very small plane for the hop to Staniel Cay.  Staniel Cay is about 20-25 miles from where we are now and it boasts two marinas and an airstrip.  Since Mike broke a couple of pawl springs in his main winch, Skip will also be bringing Mike some critical spare parts.

We are also trying to arrange some diving with a shop out of Staniel Cay.  Contact has not been easy, but if we pull it off it looks like we will have a chance to dive a newly discovered wall.  We still have to work out the details of where we have to be and what day the dives would take place.  Once we leave here, the only way of making any kind of contact with the dive shop will be VHF radio.

Mike and Linda will take off tomorrow morning and head south – maybe as far as Georgetown.  The want to take advantage of forecast North winds and they have already been here four days.

Thursday May 15,2008
At Mooring #14 – Warderick Wells Cay – Exuma Land and Sea Park

Mike and Linda departed today for parts south.  They may go to Farmers Cay or they may go to Cambridge Cay.  They plan to figure it out as they go depending on the wind speed and direction.  Before they left, they ordered some spare parts for their winch and radio and had them shipped to Skip.

Skip has pretty well got his travel plans to Staniel figured out.  We both have the same question as to how does it take 3 ½ hours to fly from Nassau to Staniel?  He may be getting the sightseeing flight.

Sandy and I spent the day in Warderick Wells relaxing, reading and taking a long dingy ride around the island.  The weather has been a little cooler than usual and sleeping has been great.

Late in the day we finally heard back from the dive shop.  They wanted $180 each for a two-tank dive in the shallow areas of the park.  If we wanted to do the wall, there would be a $70 surcharge.  We spend $60/2 tank dive in the keys and from $100-$120/2 tank dive in the rest of the Caribbean.  We have done 20 or so dives in this general area and we decided that is was unlikely we would feel like we had gotten our money’s worth.  There are other dive operators in the Exumas we will check out in the future.

Late in the day we heard from Zydeco.  Instead of going south, they went north to Shroud Cay.  Today was the last day they could explore by dingy.  Starting tomorrow, exploration of the interior of Shroud is by kayak only.  Our other friends, the Manleys on Manana are north of us in Highborne Cay.  It looks like all of us will connect in Staniel Cay in a few days.

Tomorrow I have to figure out our next few days and determine where we are going to be when Skip arrives.  We are tentatively heading for Cambridge Cay.  I’ll let you know what we decide in the next trip report – but it might be 4 or 5 days from now.

Jerry and Sandy
S/V Rum Daze

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Tenth Trip Report -- Friday May 16,2008
Departed:, Warderick Wells Cay
Miles Traveled: 9.9 nm
Arrived: Cambridge Cay, Exumas
At Mooring: 11:15 am

Since we have now arrived at our cruising area, the distances we travel each day will be a lot smaller.  We moved south this morning in very light air conditions (on the nose again.)  We decided to travel down the Exuma Sound side of the Exuma chain.  We had been on the bank side (west side) up to now.  The reason is that the bank side is shallow and navigation with a 5’ draft is trickier than going “outside” where the water drops off to thousands of feet a couple of miles offshore.  The trip south was short and it puts us at the last major stop that is still in the Land and Sea Park.

After picking up a mooring and waiting for Zydeco to arrive from Shroud Cay, we went to a place identified as the “Rocky Dundas” to snorkel. 

This is a small island that has been undercut and which had some prehistoric caves.  These caves have stalactites and stalagmites that were formed thousands of years ago when the water level was much lower.  Snorkeling is best on the low slack tide.  The slack tide is to avoid the current that rips through the area and low tide is to get enough head clearance to enter the cave.

Sandy spent much of her time trying to get “good” fish pictures.  Fish are notorious for turning away at the wrong time.  Most fish pictures are “tail” pictures as the fish turn to flee.

Later that afternoon, we hiked the island and got a different shot of our boat in the anchorage.

Saturday May 17,2008
At Mooring Cambridge Cay – Exuma Land and Sea Park

We waited for the low slack tide and then went to two snorkeling sites.  The first was called “Sea Aquarium” and it was very nice indeed.  It is obvious that these fish have been fed.

The second dive was called “plane wreck.”  The name is self evident.

Sandy was able to capture a decent picture of her favorite fish – the Queen Triggerfish.

The pictures do not do the fish justice.  The actual blues are an iridescent color.  This fish is about 18” long.

We have a couple of sharks and rays in the mooring field.  The water is so clear you can see them ten feet below the boat.  As the day went on, the wind died completely and the waters went glass calm.  What a contrast from our trip in 2007 where 20-25 knot winds were normal.

Sunday May 18,2008
Departed:, Cambridge Cay, Exumas
Miles Traveled: 14.2 nm
Arrived: Gaulin Cay, Exumas
At Anchor: 5:00 pm

As I said earlier in these report, our plans often do not survive contact with reality.  The plan for today was to leave the mooring field and head south.  This would take us out of the park into more commercial areas.

We were headed for an anchorage between Rat Cay and “The Mice.”  We were able to do a little motor sailing and got there about 11am.  We use a “Bruce” anchor as our primary boat anchor.  This anchor works great on most of the bottoms we have in Florida, but it does not do well on grassy bottoms.  Because the water is so clear, grass grows in 15’ of water, where in Florida, it usually doesn’t grow if the water is much deeper than 8’.  In any case, the bottom was grassy and the anchorage was a relatively narrow channel with very steep sides.  We made two or three attempts to get the Bruce to hold and it finally caught.  However, when Sandy dove on the anchor, it was actually caught by only one fluke and had drug about 50 yards before it had caught. 

We decided to deploy a second anchor, a Fortress which works much better in this type of bottom.  We only have about 8’ of chain for this anchor, and the anchor only weighs 23# so it can be deployed manually using the dingy.  I deployed the anchor.  Sandy dove on it and made sure the flukes were going into the sand and I set it with the dingy.  We were now fairly comfortable that the boat was not going anywhere.

The four of us got into the dingy and made the two mile trip to Sampson Cay for lunch.  We’d been eating our own cooking for a week and decided to treat ourselves.

Sampson Cay deals with a much more upscale clientele than represented by Rum Daze and Zydeco.  At least they were willing to let us eat there.

The food was very good (Sandy and I had cracked conch) and the price was actually quite reasonable.

One of the things this marina has is a fish cleaning station.  A byproduct of the cleaning fish and throwing of fish parts into the ocean is a thriving local shark community.

Notice the clarity of the water.  It was about 10’ deep at this point.  This was a few of the estimated 25 sharks in the immediate area.

As I mentioned, this marina was above our station in life.  There were no sailboats and there were several boats longer than 75’ with professional crews in this small marina.

We dingied into the marina.  When we got there, the dingy dock was available.  Then another boater with only a 63’ Hatteris pulled in.  We barely got our boat, visible in the lower right corner just off the end of the dock and behind the Hatteris, out so we could go back to our boat.

On our return trip, we circumnavigated Rat Cay.  This area of the Exumas has housing of some form on most of the islands – mostly owned by people who can afford second houses. 

This lighthouse was on a Cay just north of Rat Cay and marks the site of a large compound of buildings including a heliport.

When we got back to the boat, we were at low tide and the channel we had anchored in looked very narrow.  We observed how the boat was moving with the tides and winds and got very concerned as to how near we were coming to a reef.  Zydeco was in a wider part of the channel and swinging 360° would cause them no problem.  We really didn’t have many good options at that site and made the reluctant decision to move.

We pulled anchor and headed back out through “OverYonder Cut.”  This is a narrow passage to Exuma sound that was fun to negotiate against a 3 knot current, but once outside, we had enough wind to sail for about an hour.

The new anchorage has a lot more swinging room and we were able to find a sand patch to bury the anchor in.  We expect to be here two days.  We have reservations at Fowl Cay for dinner in their upscale restaurant tomorrow night.

Jerry and Sandy
S/V Rum Daze

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Eleventh Trip Report -- Monday May 19,2008
At Anchor: Gaulin Cay, Exumas

We are about three miles from Staniel Cay.  We got up this morning and dingied over to Staniel.  We wanted to check out approaches to the marina and the fuel docks.  Unfortunately, with the winds out of the southwest, the marina is not protected and it did not look like a comfortable place to be docked.  We are moving to plan B, that is to take the boat to Staniel tomorrow morning and try and find an empty mooring off “Thunderball Grotto” – a cave that played a roll in the third James Bond movie.  We will either get fuel and water before we take up a mooring, or the next day when we plan to leave Staniel for Black Point.

We found a little store with a dingy dock within short walking distance of the airport.  We plan to pick Skip up at 11:30 am tomorrow and will ferry him to the boat at the new mooring.  The airport is a little skimpier than you have probably experienced for most of your commercial flights.

In any case, we got a hold of Skip, who had just landed in Houston and was between flights, and gave him the revised pickup arrangements.  (Note: AT&T and T-mobile phones work fine in the Bahamas – just expensive at about $2.50/minute.)

With the pickup details well in hand, we grabbed the computer and went to the Staniel Cay club to access the internet (with the previously mentioned unusable result) and to have a great conch burger lunch.

Staniel Cay is small so it was easy to explore by foot and the people are very friendly.

The colors of the island are bright and cheerful and there are brilliant flowers everywhere.

Shopping is a little more restricted than we are normally accustomed to.  The island has three small stores.  The main grocery stores are the Pink store and the Blue store.

The Pink store is the one that advertises itself as a “Supermarket.”
 
The Blue store, which refers to itself as a “convenience store,” has the better selection of the two.

Water on the island, as is true of many of the islands in the Bahamas, is produced by Reverse Osmosis and is relatively expensive.  We expect to pay from $.40 to $.60 per gallon.  I point that out because water is probably what we most need from this stop.  We carry 80 useable gallons and have now used 50.  The next water we can probably purchase will be in Georgetown, which we will hit in 3 or 4 days.  With two of us, we have been using about 10 gallons per day.  Obviously that will increase once Skip gets aboard.

On a trip like this, one of the major activities is reading.  At most of the marinas and at some place on many of the islands is a book exchange.  You can trade your books one for one with books left by previous travelers.  Sometimes the selection is remarkable good.  Other times one gets exposed to authors we might not normally pick up.

Sandy and I were fortunate on this trip to have been given the final manuscript of a new book by a friend of ours, Jeff Kaye.  Jeff was a police officer in the Reno PD and spent several years undercover in the drug world.  His first book, “Two faces have I” is fiction but also includes a lot of what he actually experienced while undercover.
His second book, “Mainline” which we were honored to be able to read before it is published, is also about the drug trade – and specifically the main route from Mexico to the US for drugs.  That route is I5 across the border to I80 across the US – the mainline.  Jeff has a two book deal under which this book will be published.  He is near the end of the first cut of the third book which will be published with it.  That book is a non-fiction, true crime book.
It has been fascinating watching the process of writing a book.  It is far harder that I would have imagined.  While the development of a plot and the writing of the book are hard enough, that is just the starting point, then there is re-writing, editing, proofing, setting up/negotiating the publishing deal, and the critical book promotion.
Jeff’s first book is available on Amazon.com.  Watch for “Mainline.”  If you like the genre, it is an excellent read.  Jeff’s first books are good and getting better fast.  I predict that he will be a major writer in the not too far distant future.

Tonight we go to dinner at Fowl Cay.  Dinner is the only time non-guests are allowed on the island.  Sandy and I went over today to check out the dingy dock and find the restaurant.  The resident manager who wanted to know our business politely met us at the dock.  It was clear that we were not going any further.  However, we did determine that we could use a second dingy dock on the north side of the island for dinner.  That is important because there is a very narrow cut between Big Major and Fowl Cay that can have a very big current.  Passing through it in daylight is one thing, but having to do so after dark to get back to our boats was something we wanted to avoid if we could.

Zydeco has joined us at this anchorage.  We will go together tonight to dinner.  We have to get relatively dressed up for this dinner as the restaurant is upscale by Bahamian standards.  For men, it requires a collared shirt and shoes.  Fortunately, I brought a couple of shirts with collars.

Tuesday May 20,2008
Departed:, Gaulin Cay, Exumas
Miles Traveled: 2.8 nm
Arrived: Staniel Cay, Exumas
At Mooring: 9:15 am

Last nights dinner was at a very nice restaurant.  There is only one seating and there were only four tables being served – this is not a peak period in the Bahamas.  The dinner choices were Rack of Lamb or Shrimp and Asparagas.  Mike and I chose the lamb – which I don’t think I had had in about 30 years.  The ladies chose the Shrimp.

The dinner was just ok – and probably overpriced for what we got.  The meal was $100/each, including tip but not including drinks.  However, we did have a nice evening.  In the hour and a half prior to dinner but after the start of the cocktail hour we played pool and darts.  We had a fantastic view of our boats isolated in their own anchorage which I will send in the next trip report.

I am writing the last of this trip report in the Staniel Cay Yacht club.  The WI-FI is free, but slow.  Yesterday it was so slow as to be unusable.  Today it is working much better.

We got up early and motored from the Gaulin Anchorage to the fuel dock at Staniel Cay.  We didn’t need much fuel, but I have become gun shy when it comes to assuming someplace will actually have fuel for sale.  Gasoline was $5.73/gallon and diesel was $5.85/gallon – kind of puts into perspective $4/gallon gas.  What we really needed was water.  Our front tank holds 50 gallons, but it still had water in it this morning.  Here we pay $0.40/gallon for RO water and it is metered.  It took 49 gallons to fill the tank.

From the fuel dock, we went back and picked up a mooring at Thunderball grotto.  Our plan is to snorkel there on the slack tide today.

We had no sooner picked up our mooring, than we got a VHF radio message – Skip had arrived 2 hours ahead of schedule.  He was on a twin engine plane that was “hand painted.”  Apparently they pick their route depending on who is on the plane and where they want to go.  In his case, 3 of the 4 passengers wanted to go to Staniel Cay and the 4th was going to Farmers – a cay we will visit in a few days as we continue south.

Anyway Skip and all of his luggage and the spare parts Mike ordered have arrived and we are set to depart for the settlement of Black Point on Big Guana Cay tomorrow.  We desperately need to do some laundry and there is a Laundromat on that island.

Jerry and Sandy
S/V Rum Daze

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