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If the weather follows the models this time tomorrow will see a high pressure ridge drop down from the north and push the tradewinds far to the south of us.  It looks like several days of light and variable winds.

Based on that we expect to be underway out into the ocean about noon tomorrow to cover the 240 miles or so to Mayaguana.  Depending on which model is “more right” we could end up motoring for most of the 2 days it will take us to get to there. There is a place or two along the way that might tempt us to stop if the weather is settled enough, but Plan A is to to go all the way in one straight shot.

Lat:  N 24º 10.92′
Lon: W 76º 27.69′
Big Majors Spot, Bahamas

Today we sailed about 30 miles south on the “inside”, that is , west of the Exuma Cays on the shallower water of the Bahamas Bank.  It was a great sail, close reaching and close hauled all the way in 20 to 25 knots of wind in a short, steep chop, at boatspeeds of 7 to 9 knots.  Sort of like sailing back in San Francisco, except with clear blue water and warm wind!  A short video…

We are now anchored off Pig Beach, so named because there are semi-tame pigs here on the island who expect every boat and dinghy to bring them food, and will swim out to meet them. They have become quite the tourist draw, to the extent that there are other islands who are promoting their own swimming pigs.  But these are the “Real, Original” swimming pigs–if that matters.  We haven’t been ashore yet to get pictures and close-up experience, although there are definitely pigs on the beach.  And chickens too.  Bacon and eggs anyone?

Our weather outlook is very good. In two days the forecast is for the trade winds to die off, giving us the chance to make good time to the south and especially to the east. I expect we will be taking a two day ocean passage all the way to the island of Mayaguana, our last stop in the Bahamas.

Another of the most beautiful places ever!

And here is a slideshow of the pictures from our exploring yesterday I promised…

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Lat: N 24 31.6′
Long: W 76 47.8′
West side of Shroud Cay, Bahamas

Yesterday we had a delightful sail down from our previous stop. We took the ocean side–hoping to snag a fish, but that wasn’t to be.

Today we did a little exploring around the island of Shroud Cay which is part of the Exumas Land and Sea National Park. There is a shallow winding cut all the way from the Bank side to the Ocean side. Lined with mangroves it was a beautiful dinghy ride to the amazing empty beach on the ocean. On the way Karen spotted her first Bahamas sea turtle. We expect to get pictures posted tomorrow when we hope to have an internet connection.

We’d spend a lot more time here snorkeling and further exploring, but we want to be further south to catch a coming weather window. Our challenge here is we need to move quite a bit East to get to the Turks and Caicos Islands. When the trade winds are hollowing at 20 knots out of the east every day that’s not so easy.

In three or four days we expect a break in the trades, and we’ll take advantage of that to get as far to the East as we can, certainly to Rum Island, maybe as far as San Salvador.

Log: N 24º 44.9
Lat: W 76º 50.3’
Allen Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

We waited for our weather window to cut across the “Middle Ground” from Nassau to the chain of islands in the Bahamas known as the Exumas. Although it was only a few days, it did at times feel like we should be getting somewhere instead of waiting! One of our guide books uses the reminder “Safety, Comfort, Pleasure” to remind us why we are out here and that sometimes waiting for the weather to cooperate with our plans is the best thing.

When I woke this morning just before daybreak the wind was nearly calm, I roused Karen, and we were weighing anchor as the first rooster on the island crowed. Our sail over to Allen Cay was delightful, fast and fun. The winds picked up a bit, and steadied between 15 and 20 knots all the way with enough North in them that we were on a close reach at 8 knots the whole way. We arrived just about noon.

We are tucked into a small anchorage between Allen and Leaf Cays, both uninhabited islands. We were a bit surprised when we arrived to find one of Harmonie’s sister ships anchored here under a French flag. Finding our own spot took a bit of sailing by braille, as we harmlessly bumped bottom in sand a couple times.

We are in a narrow cut that channels water between the shallow banks and the deep ocean, so a strong current reverses with each change of tide. To make sure the boat sits in a safe spot and doesn’t swing out over shallow water as the current changes we set two anchors in what is called a “Bahamian Moor” that keep us more or less centered in the channel as the current reverses. I think this is my first time setting this up in the “real world” although I have taught an uncountable number of students how to do it.

These uninhabited islands are nature reserves for the native rock iguana. The islands are small, but host a huge number of these large lizards. Posted signs ask visitors not to feed them, but they certainly behave as if they expect a visiting dinghy to be bringing food.

Karen is having the time of her life. I have lost count of the number of places we have been she has pronounced as the most beautiful place she has ever seen. But she’s right, each place has been more beautiful that the last.

How many different colors of blue are there???

Harmonie (on the right) and her sister ship, the Marie-Alice

First there was one…

Then there were two.

Then there were four…

Ok, this is starting to get creepy…

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As of yet, no unicorns have been sighted, but rainbows are definitely around.

Tonight’s moonrise over Rose Island

The first rule of making your way to windward in the trade winds is to not argue with Mother Nature.  In steady, settled weather the wind blows steadily–and hard–from the East or Northeast, day, after day, after day.That’s just great if you want to go south or west, but if your destination is to the east you have two choices: wait for a break, or beat yourself and your boat up going upwind.

Those breaks in the weather typically come from those winter cold fronts that bring snow and freezing temperatures to much of North America.  By the time they get down this far south, the freezing part is long gone, but they push the trade winds back for 24 to 36 hours as the wind clocks around to the west and northwest

Right now our next destination is to the ESE, about 30 miles away, so a good strong cold front would be nice, but there doesn’t seem to be one on its way for the forecastable future.

When I woke up this morning, hoping for a break, the winds were still roaring at 20 – 25 knots out of the east. So I did the smart thing, I went back to sleep.

The forecast for tomorrow is for a little bit of a break down to about 15 knots, so if that holds up, we’ll wake up early again and again see what we hear outside the boat.  We are both getting a bit itchy and want to go somewhere new and fun.

Taking over the saloon for dinghy bag repair.

Well, part of a day at least. The storage bag that came with our dinghy we use to store the dinghy when we have it on deck.  The bag is of a reasonably functional design, but some of the materials were not chosen with an eye to long term sunlight exposure.  The strip that attached the zipper to the bag literally turned to dust with a few months of tropical sunshine.  So it needed to be taken apart and reassembled with materials more suited to the outdoors. That was most of my day yesterday.

And one dinghy back in the bag.

If the winds stay on the lighter side we will be headed off of the Exumas tomorrow.  For tomorrow the forecast is marginal, so it is possible that we’ll have to wait one more day. The forecast for the next day (Thursday) is good, so we’ll be out of here soon in any event.

It’s usually nice when the weather forecast you made your plans on turns out to be spot on, and that’s what we had yesterday and last night.

We are in an anchorage that has pretty good protection all round.  To the north is Rose Island, to the south and east are shallow reefs with only a narrow opening to the west.  The Guide Book lists this as especially good in Southeast winds.  Which it is, but (there is aways a “but”): The reefs certainly block any dangerously large waves from the Southeast, but small waves come over the shallow water, and then run into the island to the north of us.  That would be the end of that if it was a sandy beach, but it is not.  It is a sheer cliff of coral rock, so the waves bounce back.  In a little while the boat is being smacked by waves from the front and the back at the same time. Very noisy and uncomfortable.

We put up with that the other night, and then, just as forecast, the wind started to clock around to the South, then the West, as the line of clouds that indicated the forward edge of the cold front were visible approaching from the Northwest. The wind continued to clock to the Northwest as the front blew over with a modest lightening show and a little bit of rain. Late last night the wind continued to clock around to the Northeast and settled in to blow hard, 25 to 35 knots. Our anchor was set well and deeply in sand and had done right by us, not shifting in any way as we pulled on it from different directions.

A catamaran did drag its anchor most of the way across the anchorage last night, coming to a stop just a few dozen feet from a rocky reef. That would scare me, and not just because of the immediate danger. If your gear has trouble holding bottom here in shallow, deep, clear sand in 30 knots of wind, you’re going to continue to have trouble in lots of conditions where you really NEED to stay in one spot.

We’ll be sitting here for a few days until a break comes in the wind to let us safely and comfortably head south and east toward the Exumas.

On our way from the marina in Nassau back to Bottom Harbor south of Rose Island, we were treated to an afternoon race of the Bahamian Sloops that I mentioned yesterday.  To be very technical about it (and I KNOW I’d disappoint some people if I wasn’t very technical about it!) they are not sloops, but rather cat boats–sailboats with a single mast and a single sail set on a boom.  But no matter what you call them they are pretty…

From another world completely, anchored off Rose Island, is the Cristina O, that’s “O” as in Onassis…

At 315 feet long, she is 31st on the list of largest private yachts in the world. Look very closely at the picture and you will see the little tiny people on deck.  She is available for charter at about $560,000 a week. She has 13 cabins, so that works out to $6000 per cabin per day. For your trivia of the day… In the ship’s bar the stools are covered with leather made from whale penis.  There is lots more interesting stuff to know about this ship’s history if you look it up on Wikipedia.

We are tucked into Bottom Harbor safely anchored to wait out the weather for a few days.

After reviewing the weather forecast last night, we have had a change in our short term plans.  Weather for Sunday through Tuesday is supposed to be, in a word: Stinky. Thirty plus knots from the Northeast with rain.

Rather than poke around the Exumas trying to find a good spot to hid that out, we are going to hang here near Nassau in a harbor we know and are comfortable with until the next weather window.  So later today we’ll be heading over to Bottom Harbor south of Rose Cay where we were last week. Once the weather breaks we head off south and east.

Today was a busy day, we spent our morning touring Potters Cay, the local market and wharf.  The picture below shows the towers of  the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island (renamed from the less touristy label “Hog Cay”) in the distance, small local boats in the foreground, and Potters Cay is in the middle distance under the bridges.

Potters Cay is probably one of the least touristy places on the Nassau waterfront.  It is dominated by local fish and produce markets and is the loading point for many of the inter-island cargo boats.

The causeway to the island is lined with shacks in varying degrees of decrepitude. Each of them faces the street with a bar or food stand.  A few make the pretenses needed to attract tourists, but most cater primarily to locals.

Most of the space on the Cay itself is devoted to the fishing fleet. Many land conch, but there are other products too.  Some shell collectors, and several of the boats were selling whole frozen snapper.

A look down at the shell collector’s boat cleaning his catch.

Seems like whatever you need from the ocean you can get by calling Rasta Willie!

Cleaning the day’s conch catch.

A load of starfish drying in the sun.

I’m not sure what this boat did, but it was sure full of lots of “stuff”.

The outlying islands in the Bahamas are served by the Mailboats.  While I am sure they do carry the mail, they carry just about everything that is needed, as well as passengers.  Loading is a study in controlled chaos…

I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that the citizens of this island nation have a passion for sailboat racing.  Racing not just any sailboats, but a distinct class of boats know as Bahamian Sloops.  They are about 28 feet long, wide, shallow draft, tall masted, long boomed boats descended from the traditional local fishing boat.  Some are lumpy and rough, others are sleek and smooth, but almost all sport great paint jobs and show pride of ownership.

A traditional Bahamian Sloop

Our afternoon was spent retrieving our mainsail from the sailmaker.  When we got there it was in the last stages of sail surgery, running the last seams through the sewing machine.  It’s now installed back on the mast where she belongs.

Harmonie’s mainsail being put back together.

We hauled our jerry jugs off to the local gas station to pick up some diesel fuel for the main engine and gasoline for the dinghy.  We are getting ready to head east to the Exumas hopefully tomorrow morning.