Hawksbill Cay and homeward bound….

We left the Black Point area and headed to an island in the Land and Sea Park that we didn’t stop by on our way down.  As I have now said a million times, this was absolutely beautiful. 

I think this was the prettiest place we have stopped so far.  We were so excited that the tide was high enough that we could reach the southern 3 mooring balls that gave us great protection and put us within a landscape that was breathtaking.

Best of all, the bugs didn’t seem to know anyone was around and we were able to enjoy an evening with just the 2 boats in a secluded area.

We enjoyed a fantastic sunset.

…and over enjoyed an evening of cocktails (mourning balls creates a sense of security)

The next morning brought a couple of headaches and the park wardens letting us know the treasure of a location that we just found was privately owned and we needed to vacate.  Our dream location within the Exumas, was already taken/owned by someone else.  Wow, are they lucky!!

We moved on to some mourning balls that were north of the same island, but the wave and wind direction were going to make for a bumpy evening.  We decided to move on the Highbourne Cay marina (for the 3^rd time) and enjoy an evening on the dock.  We went for a fantastic dinner in the restaurant, after 2 previous attempts, where we were finally able to dine.

We moved on to Nassau the next day/night and then over to Bimini, where we have been hunkered down since Friday because of the conditions in the gulf.  We wanted to be home in Marco by Sunday, but the 3 W's (wind/weather/waves) are asking us to stay.

The best part of Bimini has been the people watching and the local folks selling conch and “summer crabs” (lobster) on the docks.  We finally were able to get some lobster after almost 8 weeks in the Bahamas.  Night 1 – grilled lobster, Night 2 – surf and turf, Morning – 3 Surf and Turf Benedict,  Night 3 – lobster Mac and Cheese. 

This along with a couple of conch salads we have made over the past couple of days, have made our stay in the very “Miami-esk” marina tolerable.  I have learned over the weekend that we definitely are very calm, quiet people and our bathing suits have way too much fabric – no matter what you look like – or your gender.  What a difference a 2 hour drive across the state of FL makes.

We have overstayed our welcome in Bimini, but will stay another night.  We woke up this morning (Monday) at 5AM ready to leave and we all had a group discussion whether to stay or go, as the 3 W's haven't improved as we expected.  We learned our lesson last year and Russell and Vicky learned theirs a couple of years ago.  Yesterday (Sunday), we watched several boats leave in the afternoon and return an hour or so later, as they turned back because of the wave height. Some force their way back to FL in conditions that our size boat wouldn't find very comfortable - even with stabilizers.  We luckily have the luxury to wait it out a bit more.

Rudder Cay, Cave Cay, and Black Point

We headed south as planned and found anchorage at Rudder Cay.  It was a beautiful, protected cove (protected on 3 sides). 

The only issue with the cove was that it was very tight for 2 boats.  During our trip, we have encountered 2 pretty large storms that has made us very cautious about anchoring and making sure we have plenty of room in all directions to swing if the wind changes.  This again was a concern in this anchor spot.  We ended up putting the 2 boats very close to each other (but not the rocks) and hoped for the best.

 We celebrated Russell's B-day in the afternoon with tea and cake (from Roosevelt's wife) and spent the evening consumed with concern about the boats in this small cove.

The night brought a pretty significant threat of a storm, but it passed to the north and west of us.  Both Dan and Russell where up until 2:30AM watching the storms and making sure they were ready it they came at us.  The weather stayed calm and Dan/Russell were relieved, but tired.

We decided to move on from this spot because of the anxiety it caused the night before.  Before we left, we explored the area and found a cave with a rope to swing on and a stainless steel piano and mermaid that was placed by David Copperfield (the magician) right outside of an island that is adjacent to his.  We suspect he placed the statues outside of someone else’s island to divert traffic away from his.

This is Drew diving down to the piano.  His life jacket was removed so he could try to go down.  He did a great job in getting down in a very strong current.

Our next stop was Cave Cay.  This is a partially developed island that has/had the intent on creating a vacation destination for both cruisers and folks who want to enjoy island life.  It is a family owned island.  They began building this island (dredging their very protected cove) 23 years ago. It took them 8 years to dredge out the cove/marina.

The island is still not complete.  The housing is partially built and is deteriorating because of the lack of attention.  We all felt like it was a scene out of Jurassic Park.  A very cool place, but just not complete and just not right.  

We found on the internet that the island was for sales for a mere 90 million dollars. I have a feeling that they were trying to recoup the millions they have already invested.  It looks like they just simply ran out of money.  The place has SO much potential to be great.  We found ourselves talking for several hours about how we could fix it and what we could do to make this work.  Dream on....

We spent a couple of days in Cave Cay, one day walking and relaxing on the pristine beaches, another afternoon spear fishing.  Dan is getting much better.  He speared 4 fish in about 15 minutes.

We moved on from Cave Cay and stopped for a couple of nights, a couple of coves down from Black Point (3.2 miles south).  The area is what you would imagine Exumas to be.  

The anchorage site was very shallow so Dan and I had to anchor much further away from the shore than we wanted to.  This brought pretty significant movement during our 2 day stay.  We headed into the settlement on day 2, to get on land for a bit.  The dingy rides over and back were intense, but we did some small provisioning and took a small tour of the island with Shory, our "driver".

We are moving to Hawksbill Cay today (Tuesday) as we keep heading north for our return trip home.

Farmer's Cay

Our plans changed a little bit because of the wind direction on Tuesday.  We were planning to drop off the Asbell’s at Black Point and stay there a night or 2, to walk into the settlement and to do some light provisioning, but the winds turned to be from the west.  The Black Point cove didn’t provide us any protection with that wind direction.  Instead we decided to advance down to Farmer’s Cay.  

Farmer’s Cay is an extremely small settlement that has roughly 60 residents.  We have observed in the past couple of days, most cruisers (like ourselves) really don’t advance past Staniel Cay (where the pigs are).  After Staniel Cay, the traffic and the amount of boats significantly decreased.

We booked ourselves into the Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club for a couple of nights.  As you can see by the picture below, we were a club of 2.  Our vessels occupied the club’s docks.

We went to the “club” for lunch and enjoyed cracked conch and whole fried snapper for lunch with our new friend Roosevelt Nixon (not kidding).  He is a 4^th generation Nixon who owns this island/settlement with his family.  He couldn’t have been any nicer.  We talked about the settlement, politics, the Bahamas, and his general take on life.  We invited him for coffee the next morning, for which he obliged. 

Since the local baker (Nancy) was out of flour, he offered to make us a couple of loaf's of bread and a carrot cake for Russell's birthday.  Wow, was it good.

We enjoyed sunset from the dock before heading to dinner.

We went to dinner that night at Ty’s Bar and Grill.  Once again, we were the only people in the restaurant.  We were picked up by Captain Harvey after sunset and driven in a golf cart down the airstrip to the restaurant.  The mosquitoes were out in force, with backups.  The kids played with some local kids during dinner, we drank rum punch, fought off the mosquitoes, and had dinner (in the company of the mosquitoes).  The cook and Harvey couldn’t have been nicer despite the mosquitoes, warm restaurant, and our 1.5 hour wait for food (considering we pre-ordered our meals earlier in the day).  We are fairly sure they didn’t have the supplies for our dinner and had to provision from another source OR go out and catch our dinner.

The next day, we spent some time catching up on boat chores and planned (mapped out) our next several days.  We then headed into “town”.  The mail boat had not come to the island in almost 2 weeks.  The shelves of the markets were bare.  We walked around for about 30 minutes and returned back to the boats to go fishing.  Before we left, Dan and I stopped by a local fishing boat, where we purchased 4 conchs to make conch salad for appetizers later.

We headed out, with all 6 of us in tow and went fishing on the dingies.  Boy, did we miss the Boston Whaler.  Dan, once again was in the water, helping direct fishing traffic, while the rest of us where on the dinghies (tied together) fishing.  We came away with 8 snappers and 1 smaller grouper.  Of course, we left the fish scaling tool on the Boston Whaler, so Vicky was scaling the fish with a potato peeler, while I cleaned the fish on the back of Summer Chaser.  Surprisingly, the peeler worked well (used the peeler upside down).

Vicky and I prepared the conch salad (2 ways – scorched and regular) and made roasted fish and potatoes for dinner. 

We are headed south on Thursday to another island – TBD.

Moving down south again...

Our new/old (not age related) friends, Wendy/Greg/Revil/Kim departed us within the last week.  I had a fantastic time meeting and spending A LOT of time with my new South African friends.  Kim and I spent endless hours talking during fishing, while Revil was 30 days of pure comedy.  The words I have learned, the jingles I now sing, the accents I have come to understand, and the fun I have had, has and will be part of a lasting great memory. 

As for Wendy and Greg, another great vacation, another 2 weeks spent with my some of my favorite people on earth.  We all got our war wounds (bumps, bruises, scrapes, etc) like we do on any fun vacation.  Our biggest challenge of each day was to try to figure out what cocktail we wanted to start and end with and what we were going to have for dinner (dinner plans were created usually while eating breakfast).  These are definitely 1^st world problems.

Our 2^nd loss of the trip was our vessel of fun.  We watched our beloved Boston Whaler depart the Atlantis Harbor in the hands of Captain Jamie and Maximo, who flew in – fixed Russell's generator and departed in the morning to return back to FL (Saturday).  Our deep see fishing and scuba diving portions of our trip have expired.  Sadness has fallen over all of us.  Bringing the Boston Whaler was the best decision we made.  Jamie left Nassau at 9:30AM and arrived in Ft. Lauderdale by 6:30PM.  The boat can fly when it does not have to follow us (Summer Chaser).

We have traded in Wendy/Greg/Revil/Kim for a new group of friends – Sarah/Rob/James/Matthew.  The kids are excited to have friends on board and we are excited to have a new set of friends to experience the Exumas with.

We headed back to Compass Cay for a couple of nights so we can go snorkeling, relax on the beach, play with the sharks and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. We encountered our first true rain day upon our arrival to Compass, but the next was absolutely beautiful.  Russell/Vicky/kids/Asbell's all went snorkeling while Dan and I relaxed on the beach for several hours.

The following day we headed to see the pigs.  The kids fed and chased the pigs on the beach, while Sydney viewed the pigs from the boat.  Surprisingly, she didn't freak out like I thought she would.  Maybe the shear size of them intimidated her like they do me.

We will be dropping the Asbell's off at Black Point to catch a flight to Georgetown to return home tomorrow (Tuesday).  We are then heading to Farmer's Cay for a couple of days.

Nassau and then some....

Upon arriving in Nassau, we quickly cleaned the boat and headed to the hotel after meeting up with Sarah/Rob/Matthew/James who are joining us for the next leg of our journey.  We, once again, headed to the “rapid river” and enjoyed a couple of hours on the Atlantis property.

The next morning was filled with “not – so – fun” poop duty.  One of our heads (toilets) stopped working.  Dan bravely headed down into the engine room to figure out what had happened.  After making a couple of calls, he changed a fuse, heard the pump run again and hoped that the issue would be fixed.  I will repeat…hoped.

Kim/Revil/Wendy/Greg/Dan and I went to a Rum factor to do a quick tour, try some rum, have a morning Pina Colada, and then headed to lunch.

Upon our return, we realized the head wasn’t fixed, even though it was running.  No suction was coming through the system.  Dan headed down to check out the problem and to take apart the macerator pump.  Well…..”sh.. hit the fan”…literally, and Dan was elbow deep in whatever Greg had for dinner the night before.  Dan attempted to change some duck valves, but that didn’t resolve the issue.  I can tell you, Dan was borderline – disgusted, sick, nauseous, and appalled.

We went the pool that is right next to the boat for a couple of hours and waited for the “boat fixing guy” to come.  Apparently, the most common issue for boats in the Atlantis marina is head issues.  In other words, as he (actually I said and he agreed), the owners in this resort are full of sh….  Upon their investigation, they (Dan and the repair guy) requested the pump to be turned back on and all Wendy could hear on the headset that was connect to Dan was “….oh sh…..,” as the pump burst again while both of them were working on it and poop flew everywhere in the vicinity of the macerator.  Disgust then laughter was heard through the headset.  Anyway, the repair man checked out the issue and determined that the connection after the macerator and before the external out hole, was clogged.  Dan then jumped into the water, went to the bow of the boat and started plunging (like you would do for a clogged toilet) the side of the boat.

 

He finally was able to loosen the wad of toilet paper,that caused the pump to fail, with a coat hanger.  Once it was released, a plumb of poop, exited the boat and the Olympic swimmer Dan, bolted away.  I cannot describe to you how funny this whole situation was.  The laughter that continued, was non-stop.  Greg felt bad, Wendy was in laughter tears, I tried to contain my hysterics….and Dan is still nauseous as I write this entry the next morning.

Compass Cay

On Friday (7/3) we moved on to Compass Cay, a very friendly, small, quaint marina.  We reserved 3 nights here so we could enjoy the 4^th of July in the comfort of a marina.  Compass Cay is known for their sharks. 

It came to be a common phrase from the kids on the dock to say – “mom, I’m going to go play with the sharks…” and the parents would watch from the dock. 

On Friday night we enjoyed a bonfire on the beach organized by our friends on Algorithm.  The “men” tried to build fire and were saved by Captain Danny from Algorithm with a cup full of gas.

The 4^th of July started with a fishing trip with the guys from Algorithm.  The boys caught a Mahi Mahi.  I, the master fish cleaner, had to clean the fish upon their return with sharks swimming between my legs (cleaned the fish behind where Alex is petting the shark above).  There is nothing that makes a person (me) more nervous than dripping blood in the water with sharks swimming (literally) between my legs on this very low dock.  I have never cleaned a fish so fast.

We enjoyed a “Tucker” burger for lunch, went to spend the afternoon at the beach, had a great dinner with patriotic cocktails.  Greg and Wendy gave all of us t-shirts for our couple week adventure, which we proudly wore.  The front says Exumas 2015 and the back says “Everyday is Saturday in Paradise” in honor of Armando Sr’s (Dan’s dad) favorite saying. 

Our night ended with a full display of fireworks provided by the mega yachts in the marina.  The captains of the yachts all put their fireworks together to give everyone in the marina a 30 minute – almost professional – firework show.  It’s nice to be the “small guy” in the marina full of mega yachts.

The 4^th of July wasn’t that great for Sydney though.  She was charged by a happy dog on the dock (Bear) for which I picked her up, just in time. Next, she was attacked by a cat on our walk.  I nailed the cat squarely in the head with my VHF hand-held radio.  She then went to the beach with us and tumbled in a wave when she tried to come out to meet us in the ocean, she fell out of Dan’s lap while trying to rest, and finally I found her cowering in the bathroom corner upon my return from the massive firework display. To make her feel better the next day, Dan and I took her to swim with the sharks.  

Apparently, she has looked better in the days and Wendy has renamed her “Tijuana Stray”.   Poor girl…..

The next day we went diving and enjoyed an afternoon on the on the boat.  The kids spent the day playing with the sharks and running from mega yacht to mega yacht playing with their new friends.  I am pretty sure Drew was swimming with, jumping on, and petting the sharks for almost 5 hours that day.

On Monday, we returned back to the plane wreck and to the “washing machine” for Greg and Wendy to enjoy.  We headed to Highbourne Marina were we hung out and enjoyed a very relaxing evening on the dock with our cocktails and dinner.  We “needed” to come back to Highbourne to get more Bahama Pepper Jelly which we inadvertently bought 8 jars between all of us who went to the store at different times…LOL.  Apparently we were all on a mission.

We are headed to Nassau on Tuesday for 3 nights to drop Revil/Kim/Greg/Wendy off to return home.

From Beach to Bacon

We decided to stay in Cambridge for one more night (Tuesday) as we knew that Staniel Cay didn’t have a beach that we felt would be nice to spend the day (you will see why later).  We spent the day enjoying the waters and taking a small hike to Honeymoon Beach – which was likely the most beautiful beach we have seen to date.  It was on the Exumas Sound side which had some waves.  

We all played in the waves and sand for a couple hours and headed back to our “camp” site for the rest of the afternoon.  

Of course, we enjoyed more Mahi Mahi for dinner that night as well, thanks to Wendy.

The next morning before leaving for Staniel Cay, we took a small hike to go visit Bell Rock via another  conch shell lined path we found.  

Greg found a small place in paradise that someone had built from debris that washed ashore.  This pretty much sums up the location we were staying.

In the early afternoon, we headed to the much anticipated Staniel Cay – where the swimming pigs reside.  This is the one place I really wanted to visit on this trip.  The swimming pigs didn’t disappoint.  

They swam right to the boat – begging for food/treats.  We had brought some old veggies and potatoes to feed the pigs. 

What Alex doesn't see - won't hurt her (look at my face) - 

They were huge,swimming, oinking pigs.  They came right up to the side of the boat, placed their jaws on the side and begged for food.  I would say, we missed the mouth more than ½ of the time when trying to feed them, as the lazy pigs only ate food that was perfectly placed (tossed) in their mouth.  Trust me, they weren’t starving by any means.  What we could have done with a rotisserie spit.....

The next day, we spent the day in the Staniel Cay settlement.  

We walked this very small settlement that has a population of 80.  The walk was pretty fast with a couple of very small markets, a house that made bread, a cafe/restaurant that runs out of food by noon, and a marina (and bar) with 18 boat slips to support the island. We proceeded to the Staniel Cay Yacht club for a couple of beers, cracked conch, and conch fritters.  

We returned later that evening (via the Boston Whaler) to eat in the restaurant for our 1^st dinner out of the trip.  We were very excited not to cook.

The consensus at the table was that Vicky and I and the Braai Master (BBQ Master) Revil, do much better at preparing a tasty dinner.  

We are off to Compass Cay marina for the next 3 nights and for the 4th of July.

Special note - as you can see the internet is blazing fast and I was able to post a bunch of pictures...LOL