Hope Town, Elbow Cay, The Abacos

This morning was a snorkeling expedition – we visited a protected reef right off Sandy Cay, part of the Bahamas Underwater Marine Park and very popular. The reef is large and deep – if you surface dive, you can swim through “canyons” between coral heads that rise to the surface. The reef was teeming with life and many different kinds of coral. Among the most exciting things we saw were a huge spotted ray, a turtle swimming through the canyons, a nurse shark just hanging out and a huge grouper just ambling on by.

The afternoon was spent taking a 10 mile run up to Hope Town, a picturesque community and a sheltered harbor with its own candy striped lighthouse.

Some sailboat’s keel was sitting on the bottom, next to our anchored boat in Sandy Cay. Hopefully this didn’t occur in a storm

The nurse shark, hanging out in 15’ of water

The spotted ray, on the left, was probably 6’ across – huge. The turtle, on the right was the size of a (very large) platter

The turtle let me follow him, which usually doesn’t happen – it must have felt safe in the park

Elk Coral – a rarity, there were huge stands of it in the park – conservation works!

You try and take the picture and they just turn and swim away 

Hope Town’s iconic lighthouse

Sandy Cay, The Abacos

Today we explored Robinson’s Bight by dinghy. Next door to Little Harbor, the bight is a large circular shallow bay that teams with Turtles and fish.  It also contains a number of blue holes – basically holes in the sea floor that are connected to the ocean – they are usually surrounded by fish and, if the conditions are right, “pulse” with the swell from the sea.

Our intent was to explore a couple of the blue holes, but as it turned out, we arrived at dead low and most of the them are in a very shallow part of the bight – you need roughly half-tide to get back to them in a dinghy. We did snorkel a lovely rocky coral area at the mouth of a cove that was teeming with fish that were feeding on the incoming flood tide. We also tried to fish a bit – no luck.

We left Little Harbor mid-afternoon, a little before high tide, and anchored the boat a few miles North at Sandy Cay, which is part of the underwater park system. We plan to do some snorkeling there tomorrow.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, but here is some budding antler coral and some of the fish that were feeding

Sunset at Sandy Cay

Day's End

Our anchor chain, taken from the bow looking down into 10 feet of water at dusk – for a guy that grew up swimming at Coney Island, I am always amazed at the clarity of the Bahamian waters

Little Harbor, The Abacos

Today's weather was favorable for the 50 mile hop North to the Abacos – ENE winds (5-10) and mostly sunny skies with the slight chance for a Thunderstorm – we were up and off by 6:45am, knowing it’d be a long day.

The passage was rollicking – the boat was very happy with a nice breeze a little forward of the beam and with relatively mild seas (perhaps 1-2 feet) – we averaged about 7 knots, and made well over 8 for the last hour or so as we rode the flood tide into the Abacos. We did have to dodge a few freighters and a cruise ship as we crossed one of the major shipping channels into and out of the Bahamas. We also spent about 45 minutes in some very confused (and higher – perhaps 4-5 foot) seas that we think were caused by the tidal bore as the banks switched from ebb to flood. All in all, it was an exhilarating passage.

We happened to arrive on the Abacos bank close to high tide – this enabled us to go into Little Harbor, a very snug anchorage (My Weigh, drawing 5 feet, can only make it in here at half-tide or better). We treated ourselves to dinner at Pete’s Pub, a well-known, on the beach open air Pub and Restaurant that has been in Little Harbor since the 80’s.

Royal Harbor at 6:45am

Dinnertime – Sue had Wahoo

I had Yellowfin tuna – it was a lot of food – we took doggy bags home

Royal Island, Eleuthera

To get home we need to get to the Abacos, the Northernmost and closest Bahamian Island group to the U.S. To get to the Abacos from Nassau is 2 hops off the banks in open and deep water: first, a 35 mile run Northeast to Royal Island at the top of the Eleuthera Island group followed by a second 50 mile hop due North to Little Harbor at the bottom of the Abacos.

As mentioned in the last few blogs, the weather has been unsettled for the last week or so due to Tropical Storm Colin. While it has been gradually improving, today’s forecast still indicates that thunderstorms are possible, if not likely. Since the skies looked relatively clear and the winds were favorable (South) and relatively light (5-10) we decided to take the chance and headed off for Royal Island.

It turned out to be a good decision – we had a very nice and comfortable 6 hour run up to Royal Island even though were hit by a nasty squall about three miles before we arrived: 35 mile an hour winds and zero visibility rain socked us in for about 20 minutes. Fortunately, there was little lightning and thunder (all of a long distance away) and the storm had mostly passed by the time we arrived at the harbor entrance. We were happy o be able to motor inn, drop our hook and just hang out for the rest of the day.

Next morning was June 11, Kerry’s birthday – Happy birthday sweetheart – hope you have nothing but the best on this special day.

Today’s wind is out of the Northwest – not at all favorable for the hop to Little Harbor – besides, we try and not put two long sail days back to back. So today was a hang out and relax day – we did some snorkeling around Royal Island (mostly soft coral gardens with small fish and one wall at the Island’s edge) and did a little exploring at a resort that Roger Staubach and Jack Nicklaus had invested in on the Island – t was to include a Jack Nicklaus Golf Course (that was never built) -- the resort failed and is currently being marketed as a rentable “Villas” ( http://www.villainbahamas.com/rentals/villas-in-bahamas-royal-island-112289.html) – there are 5 “luxury” villas (1500 square foot each), a Bar/Restaurant, a fitness center and a pool, docks, beach, etc. No customers or staff were there – the place was well kept and we even saw a caretaker or two in the distance, but otherwise no sign of life. A little spooky, I’d say.

Leaving Nassau, we passed the south end of Paradise Island, the (in)famous home of the Atlantis resort –the south end is residential and looks like parts of Long Island and/or the NJ shore from the water

 One of our chart books got soaked in the squall – its plastic protective envelope had a hole in it. We inserted paper plates between the pages (after we carefully went through and wiped each page dry) so the book could finish drying without having the sheets sticking together 

Entrance to the empty resort – Minimum booking is 3 Bedrooms, 6 Guests, $12K per night

The resort's pool

Each of the high Palm trees along the beach marks a Villa (they are there and brown if you look carefully)

 Beach chair anyone?

Nassau, New Providence Island

The weather is going to keep us in Nassau for the day. So, to pass the time, we decided to take a long wall to the Ardastra Gardens and Zoo. It was great fun – the highlights included feeding some Lorry Parrots, watching a Flamingo show and watching a male peacock court his potential bride, who was all dressed in white.

We walked to Ardastra (probably a four mile jaunt), but took the local busses back ($1.25 per person, a bargain) -- only problem, the driver gets to choose the music, and it was LOUD.

We met these Nassau policemen on the way to the gardens – very British looking (and polite) – you don’t actually see any police dressed like this away from the “Cruise Ship” area in Nassau – the uniforms are for show

Welcome to the garden and zoo

Another colorful welcome parked outside the gate

Feeding the parrots -- The trainer gave us apple slices to hold and they flew right to us

 Lorry Parrots are native to Australia and were brought to the Bahamas many years ago

They were very friendly and, as you can see, would land anywhere on you to get at the apple

They would leave the apple’s skin and your hand would be full of remnants when they were done

Flamingos are spectacularly beautiful birds

It's amazing what they can do with their necks

This is apparently a comfortable position -- go figure!

The potential bride -- a lovely peahen

Being courted by a manly peacock

Not a great shot, but you can see his display -- he's a courting!!

And she was definitely paying attention

 I was a little leery of getting too close to the white macaw – they bite!

This guy was chattering away -- including "Over Here", "hello" and a misogynistic wolf whistle!

This guy was the size of a kid's tricycle

Catching some rays!

Nassau, New Providence Island

We have spent the most of the last few days moving North and dealing with weather issues. Tropical Storm Colin which tore through Florida on Tuesday (yesterday) is the culprit – while it didn’t hit us directly, it created a lot of unsettled weather here in the Bahamas.

We left Big Major on Monday morning, figuring we’d go to Shroud Cay, at the top of the Marine Park, to explore its coral gardens and mangroves. We got to Shroud by early afternoon and picked up a mooring, but the wind had shifted to SW and there was quite a swell in the anchorage. This made it too difficult for us to set up the dinghy; since generally the winds have calmed overnight, we decided to spend the night and try again in the morning. Unfortunately, the winds stayed up – we had a rocky night and the swell was no better on Tuesday morning. After waiting a bit to see whether things would calm down (they didn’t), we finally threw in the towel on seeing Shroud Cay (catch it next time) and continued North to Highborne Cay, our planned kickoff point to Nassau, and eventually, the Abacos.

Highborne anchorage also proved to be exposed to the SW winds, so we went a bit further North and dropped our hook in Allan’s Cay, well protected from the SW wind – hooray, no rocking. We had a pleasant swim and dinner and settled in for a quiet night.

Of course life is never so simple on a boat – we were hit by a Thunderstorm at 2am – the wind howled and there was lightening all around – fortunately it passed quickly and did no damage although it did spin the boat around a couple of times on the hook. The threat of more rain forced us to close up most of the hatches, the air was hot and humid and with no breeze, sleeping was at best uncomfortable.

We woke up the next morning to strong (15-20) SW winds and overcast skies. Most of the weather reports indicated that thunderstorms were a low probability until later in the day, so we took right off for Nassau, which is about 30 Miles NW from Allan’s.

Because we’d be on a broad reach, the feisty winds were quite manageable, even helpful. However, we also had 3-4 foot seas on our quarter, causing us to wallow when the right sequence of waves come along – which happened every few minutes. It is incredibly impressive how the seas can push around and roll an 18,000lb boat like it weighed nothing. Needless to say, it was a wild and tense ride up from Allan’s, but it went well and we arrived in Nassau by 12:30.

The weather is supposed to remain unsettled for another day or two, so we might not get out of here tomorrow – we will use the time here to refuel, re-water, re-provision and recharge our batteries and ourselves before continuing our journey home through the Abacos.

Pix:
Sorry – we took none – too busy dealing with the weather issues!

Big Major Cay

Our original plan for today was to head a few miles further south to Cave Cay to snorkel and do some exploring, but the day started out overcast and was expected to remain so, making underwater visibility poor. So instead, we decided to turn around and start our journey back north, our first stop being BlackPoint Settlement on Great Guana Cay.

BlackPoint is a large settlement by Bahamas standards and, for our purposes, notable for two things: Ida’s laundry (expensive, but excellent) and Lorraine’s Café (best cracked conch in the Exumas).
With those two objectives in mind, we hauled anchor and headed north, arriving at BlackPoint around noon. After an on-board lunch, we loaded up the dinghy with the laundry and spent the afternoon washing, drying, folding and repackaging 5 sacks of sheets, shirts, bathing suits, underwear and the like we had accumulated over the previous few weeks. We then went back to the boat to spend a quiet evening, figuring we’d take a walk, have lunch at Lorraine’s and then move further north the next day.

Of course, plans always change – our quiet evening was interrupted by Redbone, a huge jovial Bahamian who circled our boat with his at about 9:30 pm calling out for some help. There was no room at the Government Dock for his boat, so he asked us to follow him to a mooring in our dinghy and then take him to shore. I told him I’d be happy to help out and moments later was off in our dinghy to give him the ride in.

Next morning, we dinghied into BlackPoint around mid-morning, figuring we’d take a walk, have an early lunch at Lorraine’s (got to have some of that cracked conch) and then move the boat further north afterwards. One problem – it was Sunday, Lorraine was at church and the minister for today was special, brought in from Nassau. Needless to say, we knew none of this. We had a nice walk and arrived at Lorraine’s around 11:30 and initially told she should be back in “about 20 minutes”. Well, the Nassau minister had different plans; we could hear the singing from the Baptist Church just a house or two down the street; and it went on and on. We sat in Lorraine’s for a while, took a second walk and eventually (around 2pm) finally got served our lunch – it was worth the long “Island Time” wait.

After lunch we went back to the boat and moved it about 7 miles further North to Big Major Cay – this would position us nicely to take a big hop tomorrow up to Shroud Cay, at the top of the Bahamas National Underwater Park headquartered at Warderick Wells.

The BlackPoint Government Building

Saturday afternoon fun for the kids

 BlackPoint Highlights: Lorraine’s is listed; Ida’s is not

Redbone’s mooring was in here; the mooring field is very different at night

Laundry Day

On our walkabout

The sign pointed to a path to a blow hole – it was wimpy, not much spray came out

Spring in the Bahamas: flowers everywhere you look

More spring color