fetchinketch

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.

We came into Nassau to give the sail to the sailmaker for its repair, to get Kevan his connection for his flight back to Florida, and to have a bit of contrast for a few days. The sail should be done Thursday, and we can be on our way.

We are staying at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina.  The marina is in good repair, but the associated resort is a touch faded from its onetime glory.

Island economies are always strange things.  Frequently there is no obvious explanation for the prices of things.  Just by way of some simple examples, the cost of the sail repair is similar to what I’d expect to pay in the States, $75/hour of skilled work.

A visit to the grocery store is eye-opening…  Chicken, $18/pound.  Milk, $8/gallon. And my favorite–toilet paper, 4 rolls for $18!!!

Having seen those prices, we were a bit worried about the cost of a dinner out. It turned out that was surprising the other way. A dinner (which was delicious) for three with drinks came to just over $100.  Not much more, if any, than you would pay for a similar place in the US.  So if you are ever in Nassau, we can recommend The Poop Deck on Bay Street. Good food and good service.

Where are we?

And just a reminder for those of you who get this by email and don’t go to the website, you can get an update on our location anytime by going to this link:

http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Fetchinketch

There you will find a record of our location for the last three months.

Update…

It turns out that the initially reported prices from the grocery weren’t quite right… the shelf tags at the store were a bit confusing and out of alignment with the products.  Here is the real scoop…  Chicken $4.50, Milk $5.50, TP, $18 for 12 rolls.

We are bouncing around anchorages around New Providence Island, while avoiding the touristy kitsch of Nassau–at least for now.

On Sunday afternoon we thought we had found a great place , except the ocean waves came around the point and set the boat up to roll, a lot, all night. None of us got very much sleep. It was an easy and unanimous decision yesterday morning to move again.

This time we found a sweet spot. Clifton Bay. All the way on the west end of New Providence. Not crowded, well protected, good holding for the anchor. There is even easy shore access at a local park with a dock for the dinghy. The only thing missing is WiFi.

We’ll likely stay here until we sort out the sail repair, or the weather changes.

Today’s weather in Paradise, 81, Sunny, with an 8 knot breeze. Water temperature in the mid seventies.  Yeah… Rough.

What happens when we are at anchor in a place like this?  A few hours in the morning doing “boat chores” to keep everything working as it should. Then after lunch we take a chance to explore a bit.  Today our exploration consisted of snorkeling and swimming in the waters around boat.  .

We broke out our Brownie Third Lung for it’s initial testing today.  It’s an engine and a compressor on a float that pumps air down to a couple divers underwater.  It seems a well designed unit, and worked pretty much as expected.  I am taking it slow getting comfortable with it.  It’s a bit different than diving with tanks, but not in any dramatic ways.  It gives us the freedom to dive anywhere without having to worry about getting tanks filled or storing them on the boat.

Tomorrow morning we we are expecting a cold front to blow through, and drop the temperatures all the way to 78 or so…