In the meantime, we are enjoying beautiful water and weather and caught a slipper lobster the other day for dinner. We saw 2 huge lobsters yesterday but we were not able to get them-they had good holes.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Waiting!!
So here we are stuck in George Town waiting for our mail to come. It was sent priority over a week ago and it took 4 days to get from Jacksonville to Miami. Now it is in Miami getting "sorted?" Bad mistake--someone told us it took 2 weeks to get his mail. Live and learn!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
A note on Pictures
Slowly but surely I am getting pictures uploaded. What I have done today is create new slideshows but the pictures will not be available all at once. Keep checking any slideshows from Highborne Cay on for new pictures.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sailing the Exumas
Hello from George Town!! Burrrrr!!!!! It was 66o this morning when I woke up and the wind is still blowing although it has now clocked around to the east which is more protected. We got here Saturday afternoon.
The Exumas are the island chain on the eastern side of the Tongue of the Ocean.
When we left Fresh Creek we headed due east about 54 miles to Highborne Cay at the northern end of the chain. The wind sped us along and a lone dolphin joined us for a few minutes. We anchored at Highborne Cay just before sunset while we watched 2 seaplanes deliver guests to the live-aboard next to us. The next day we took the dingy to Allen’s Cay where there are Exumas iguanas. Boats from Nassau bring people there to see them and feed them grapes and the iguanas emerge from the bushes when they hear boat motors. We went over to a neighboring island which was ruled by a huge iguana. The water was crystal clear and the shallow reefs we snorkeled were beautiful.
Sailing is leisurely once in the Exumas. The islands are close together and for most of the way you usually have a choice of sailing on protected water either on the inside banks or the outside Exuma Sound. Over the next few days (they are all running together now) we Island hopped and snorkeled accompanied by Marion, Boyd and their dog, Zola on s/v Chinook Winds. From Highborn, the next stop was Norman’s Cay on Jan. 30. There is a harbor with beautiful water, a perfect little island, and the wreck of a cargo plane that was being delivered to the drug lord that used to live here during the ‘70s and 80’s. It is said that pilot ran out of gas and didn’t make it to the runway. Shortly after we anchored there was a rainstorm and the wind picked up but we still got a good snorkel at the airplane. It was windy and stormy all night but we were well sheltered in the harbor.
Next stop was the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we took a mooring ball for the night at Emerald Rock. We hiked up Boo Boo Hill and to the blow holes—and, of course did more snorkeling. Then on to Compass Cay where we spent a VERY rocky night causing us to move the boat the next day to a more sheltered part of the island. Marion wanted to see the Bubble Bath, which is a walk up a creek to a basin where the waves crash in and make a bunch of foam. While walking back we surprised an octopus who squirted a big bunch of ink.
Once we got out of the park we could fish again and look for lobster but all we have done is fish and not catch and the only lobsters we have seen were there because they had good holes. It used to be when looking for lobster you had to be wary of long-spined sea urchins and moray eels. The sea urchins disappeared for a while—a disease killed most of them but they are back now. A new impediment to lobstering is lionfish. They are everywhere and hang around holes in the reef where lobsters might live. They are not the least bit shy and do not move when you approach. I have come close to hitting one with an arm or leg before I knew it was there. Bill and I will come up, at some point, with the best way to spear and bring some lionfish up for dinner. They are good eating and my blackened seasoning would be great.
Staniel Cay was our next stop. This has become a very popular spot and many people were there for the Super Bowl Party at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Thunderball Grotto is a spectacular snorkel during low slack tide. This large cave, open at spots at the top, was a scene in the James Bond movie Thunderball. It is surrounded by coral and sponges and friendly fish inside and out. Inside sponges rule but it takes a camera flash to see the bright colors. We also found an interesting drift dive that I later discovered was called Blue Valley by the local dive shop. We just got out of our dingys and held onto the ropes as we drifted by soft coral, Nassau groupers and a large eagle ray. The dive ended at a shallow coral reef where we picked up a couple of conchs. The next snorkel was at a small reef near Fowl Cay where I found an octopus that posed for a picture. It suddenly disappeared and when I asked Bill if he knew where it went he replied that the octopus was hiding from the shark. Sure enough—I looked up to see a 6 foot reef shark—he was not very interested in us though, and just swam by. We did not tell Marion and Boyd until we were back at the boat eating conch salad.
Staniel Cay was the end of the road for Marion and Boyd since they have to be back in Sasketchtuan in April so they headed back to the park and we proceeded south stopping at Black Point to do laundry at one of the nicest Laundromats I’ve been to. Then it was on to Little Farmer’s Cay. The number of lionfish on the small scattered patch reefs there was quite remarkable. Often a dozen would be packed in and around one hole. The one lobster I saw there was not an option because it was surrounded by lionfish.
The winds had been light and from the south so there was not much sailing to be done. We motored between islands charging our batteries and didn’t even bother raising the sails for the trip from Farmers to Lee Stocking Island. It was a good opportunity, though, for making water with our R/O unit since we were now on the Exuma Sound side in deep blue clear ocean water. Still no fish! At Lee Stocking Island we got out the SCUBA gear and dove a beautiful reef just south of Adderly Cut then came on into the mooring balls field just off the CMRC research station. I was lucky to have spent a week working there about this time in 2003. Since then I have always had a piece of me there. The water colors are just incredibly beautiful. Bill wearies of me staring out and wistfully saying “beautiful water”.
I wanted to stay a couple of days at Lee Stocking Island but the wind was so favorable for the sail to George Town and the weather was predicted to be rather poor for the next few days. We glided down Exuma Sound at 8 kts. with no motors. So here we are anchored in front of the Chat n Chill bar, the gathering point for cruisers here. There are about 300 boats in the harbor right now and at night the anchor lights look like a city. Yesterday Bill and I played volleyball—haven’t done that in probably 30 years—we managed not to hurt ourselves. Thank goodness the sand is soft.
There are several things we will do while in George Town in preparation for the next part of our trip that will take us “off the beaten path” to the most southern part of the Bahamas. Internet is somewhat reasonable here so I will try to update everything before we continue.
The Exumas are the island chain on the eastern side of the Tongue of the Ocean.
When we left Fresh Creek we headed due east about 54 miles to Highborne Cay at the northern end of the chain. The wind sped us along and a lone dolphin joined us for a few minutes. We anchored at Highborne Cay just before sunset while we watched 2 seaplanes deliver guests to the live-aboard next to us. The next day we took the dingy to Allen’s Cay where there are Exumas iguanas. Boats from Nassau bring people there to see them and feed them grapes and the iguanas emerge from the bushes when they hear boat motors. We went over to a neighboring island which was ruled by a huge iguana. The water was crystal clear and the shallow reefs we snorkeled were beautiful.
Sailing is leisurely once in the Exumas. The islands are close together and for most of the way you usually have a choice of sailing on protected water either on the inside banks or the outside Exuma Sound. Over the next few days (they are all running together now) we Island hopped and snorkeled accompanied by Marion, Boyd and their dog, Zola on s/v Chinook Winds. From Highborn, the next stop was Norman’s Cay on Jan. 30. There is a harbor with beautiful water, a perfect little island, and the wreck of a cargo plane that was being delivered to the drug lord that used to live here during the ‘70s and 80’s. It is said that pilot ran out of gas and didn’t make it to the runway. Shortly after we anchored there was a rainstorm and the wind picked up but we still got a good snorkel at the airplane. It was windy and stormy all night but we were well sheltered in the harbor.
Next stop was the Exuma Land and Sea Park where we took a mooring ball for the night at Emerald Rock. We hiked up Boo Boo Hill and to the blow holes—and, of course did more snorkeling. Then on to Compass Cay where we spent a VERY rocky night causing us to move the boat the next day to a more sheltered part of the island. Marion wanted to see the Bubble Bath, which is a walk up a creek to a basin where the waves crash in and make a bunch of foam. While walking back we surprised an octopus who squirted a big bunch of ink.
Once we got out of the park we could fish again and look for lobster but all we have done is fish and not catch and the only lobsters we have seen were there because they had good holes. It used to be when looking for lobster you had to be wary of long-spined sea urchins and moray eels. The sea urchins disappeared for a while—a disease killed most of them but they are back now. A new impediment to lobstering is lionfish. They are everywhere and hang around holes in the reef where lobsters might live. They are not the least bit shy and do not move when you approach. I have come close to hitting one with an arm or leg before I knew it was there. Bill and I will come up, at some point, with the best way to spear and bring some lionfish up for dinner. They are good eating and my blackened seasoning would be great.
Staniel Cay was our next stop. This has become a very popular spot and many people were there for the Super Bowl Party at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Thunderball Grotto is a spectacular snorkel during low slack tide. This large cave, open at spots at the top, was a scene in the James Bond movie Thunderball. It is surrounded by coral and sponges and friendly fish inside and out. Inside sponges rule but it takes a camera flash to see the bright colors. We also found an interesting drift dive that I later discovered was called Blue Valley by the local dive shop. We just got out of our dingys and held onto the ropes as we drifted by soft coral, Nassau groupers and a large eagle ray. The dive ended at a shallow coral reef where we picked up a couple of conchs. The next snorkel was at a small reef near Fowl Cay where I found an octopus that posed for a picture. It suddenly disappeared and when I asked Bill if he knew where it went he replied that the octopus was hiding from the shark. Sure enough—I looked up to see a 6 foot reef shark—he was not very interested in us though, and just swam by. We did not tell Marion and Boyd until we were back at the boat eating conch salad.
Staniel Cay was the end of the road for Marion and Boyd since they have to be back in Sasketchtuan in April so they headed back to the park and we proceeded south stopping at Black Point to do laundry at one of the nicest Laundromats I’ve been to. Then it was on to Little Farmer’s Cay. The number of lionfish on the small scattered patch reefs there was quite remarkable. Often a dozen would be packed in and around one hole. The one lobster I saw there was not an option because it was surrounded by lionfish.
The winds had been light and from the south so there was not much sailing to be done. We motored between islands charging our batteries and didn’t even bother raising the sails for the trip from Farmers to Lee Stocking Island. It was a good opportunity, though, for making water with our R/O unit since we were now on the Exuma Sound side in deep blue clear ocean water. Still no fish! At Lee Stocking Island we got out the SCUBA gear and dove a beautiful reef just south of Adderly Cut then came on into the mooring balls field just off the CMRC research station. I was lucky to have spent a week working there about this time in 2003. Since then I have always had a piece of me there. The water colors are just incredibly beautiful. Bill wearies of me staring out and wistfully saying “beautiful water”.
I wanted to stay a couple of days at Lee Stocking Island but the wind was so favorable for the sail to George Town and the weather was predicted to be rather poor for the next few days. We glided down Exuma Sound at 8 kts. with no motors. So here we are anchored in front of the Chat n Chill bar, the gathering point for cruisers here. There are about 300 boats in the harbor right now and at night the anchor lights look like a city. Yesterday Bill and I played volleyball—haven’t done that in probably 30 years—we managed not to hurt ourselves. Thank goodness the sand is soft.
There are several things we will do while in George Town in preparation for the next part of our trip that will take us “off the beaten path” to the most southern part of the Bahamas. Internet is somewhat reasonable here so I will try to update everything before we continue.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Fresh Creek
We headed south to Fresh Creek with Chinook Winds following and anchored out just behind the barrier islands. We had good sailing and , on the way, a Mahi accepted our invitation to dinner. I reeled it in--my first. Yesterday we came into the creek and docked at the Lighthouse Marina so that we could do some laundry and get a few supplies and introduce Marion and Boyd to the "hogfish" at Hanks Bar. Today it was pretty wavy but we dingied out and snorkeled on the Porites coral reef. No sharks--that's good.
Tomorrow we will head for Highbourne Cay and the Exumas.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Morgan's Bluff
Yesterday we went back to the reef and snorkeled all afternoon. I found a beautiful area of staghorn and elkhorn and lost myself in taking photos. Something made me glance up and I noticed about 6 reef sharks swimming around like a gang of punks. They were VERY interested in me and would come up close then veer away. I started swimming towards the boat shooting pictures and looking backwards but they just followed for a while then I guess got bored and swam off.
Today we are heading for Fresh Creek.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Morgan's Bluff
We said good-bye to Chub Cay Wednesday morning and headed to the north end of Andros. We had some wind but ran an engine so that we could use the watermaker--it worked!! While Bill was reading on the deck he saw a sailfish right beside the boat. Bill had a Mahi on the line but it shook off the hook before we could get it on board.
Before anchoring at Morgan's Bluff, we stopped near Joulter's Cays where we had luck spearing a fish before. Unfortunately there were no big fish to be found other than the resident queen triggers but we had a good snorkel. In spite of the stop we anchored in the Daylight!!
Surprisingly, Chinook Winds was already anchored there. We had met Marion and Boyd in Bimini and had spoken to them on the radio in the morning. Their plan was to go to Nassau. They decided it was too far. They already made arrangements to go to the farms to get produce in the morning so we tagged along. Shalom, our driver, took us down the Queen's Highway to the Mennonite Farm then, on the way back we drove by Lowes Sound, a fishing village.
Yesterday we hung out on the boat since it was a bit too windy to go out to the reefs. I snorkeled around the harbor and did a little kayaking. Keith, on Dolphin Leap, came in during the early afternoon and announced over the radio that he had caught a Mahi that he needed help eating. Of course we accommodated him.
Today the wind switched position so we, Marion and Boyd, and Keith headed out in our dingys to find some reefs. The first place we went to was mostly hardbottom with a small stand of elkhorn coral. We then went further out where we saw waves breaking and found a beautiful healthy reef that was perfect for snorkeling.
Morgan's Bluff is the fabled lair of the pirate Capt. Morgan. There are some caves that are reported to be his hideout.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Chub Cay Update
The plan is to remain at Chub Cay today and travel to Andros tomorrow. I am experiencing internet difficulties, particularly with uploading photos so please bear with me. It appears that I can write (but I really want to post pictures).
Chub Cay is a private upscale resort. They are not too friendly to riff-raff in small boats and charge $100 to shop at their store. Therefore there is nothing to do on the island. There is some nice snorkeling and shallow diving in the area, though, and we visited Mama Rhoda Rocks yesterday. This is a moderate-relief reef with a diverse although sparse coral coverage. It used to have a nice stand of staghorn coral but it appears that it has recently died and just a few living branches remain. There is some nice elkhorn, and, as I said, a fair number of other species of hard and soft corals. Large schools of fish drift in and out of the rocks and coral--grunts, goatfish and small snappers are thick.
The water was chilly (thank goodness for wetsuits) and the cool breeze chilled us to the bone when we got out. I got some good underwater pictures but Bill's video camera was found to have a loose connector so it did not work. Along with that we had some trouble with the dingy motor but we finally got it started (all in a day's boating). Bill cleaned out the carborator when we got back (ethanol gas clogs it up) and now it is fine. The stern enclosure was nice and warm. Later we investigated some rocks to the north. This area was mostly shallow hardbottom with some patchy rocks and corals. I stuck my head in the water to survey and soon spotted antennae sticking out of a small ledge. Of course we did not have the lobster gear in the boat (we were actually looking for conch) but I had a pair of gloves and the dive flag post served as a tickler. So I went in and grabbed the biggest one--probably borderline legal size-- so I let him go. next time I will have the equipment on the boat! Other heads and ledges came up empty. No surprise since there are several lobster fishermen that work this area.
Today is breezy but warmer, I've had my breakfast, and I am ready to get in the water again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)