Heading North

You read that right.  It is time to head north.  But, we will drag our feet for a bit.  At least, up until it is time to really pick up the pace.

Next stop, central Exumas.

I am tempted to not even post this update, just to keep this location a secret.  It is that nice.

Unlike back home in Ontario, spring is starting to settle in here.  The days are getting hotter.  The sun more intense and mercifully, the winds a little lighter.  You add all this up and it just means fun.  We have fished more.  More fish are biting.  We have dove more.  The water is clearer.  Changing locations  is not quite as thrilling as some trips past.  And I am good with that.

Leaving Georgetown, we fished most of the 76nm that we travelled that day up to Black Point Settlement.  There was literally fish everywhere.  We saw over 15 bait ball feeding frenzies.  There were tuna launching themselves all over the place.  As a result, we zig zagged all over the place.  We tried going straight through them, we tried going beside them, we tried circling around them.  We caught nothing.  Fortunately, through it all, we managed to catch a couple Mahi mahi when nothing seemed to be going on.

More nice weather gave us the freedom to play around for a bit.  My parents were coming and we had already put ourselves safely in position.  Time to go scout out some fun places before they get here.

One little gem that we missed on the way down was Compass Cay Marina.  Now, Compass Cay Marina is a fine marina on it's own, but we were there to visit their 'pet' Nurse sharks.  Tour boats from all over the Exumas bring customers in to see Tucker's sharks.  The added bonus was meeting up with some old friends that we have met along the way.

A wedding party shows up to see the show.

Macara holding court.  Telling these girls all she knows about sharks.  And more.

This is what this trip is all about!

Yes, Kerri needed her turn.

Of course I got in the water with them!

Smile.

Nurse shark teeth.

And a Compass Cay sunset for good measure.

After leaving Compass Cay, we made a very short trip into the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.  Right smack, dab in the middle of the Exumas, this is what the Bahamas is all about.  Protected by the Bahamas National Trust, fish populations here are through the roof.  The Park is working so well, this is the only place that we have seen Lionfish in any numbers.  I guess the locals outside the Park have figured out Lionfish are tasty.  In our very first snorkel after leaving Compass Cay Marina, we saw a Green Sea turtle, a juvenile Lemon shark (both first for me in the water), a Caribbean Reef shark, 3 Nurse sharks and a Stingray.  Most of which brought Macara a lot closer to me, but she never asked to get out.  Slowly,  she is getting over her fear of sharks.

Back to Staniel Cay to wait for my parents to arrive.  Our only worry is figuring out which order we will visit all these great places.  Snorkelling, fishing and some kid time, we should have no problems making a week of that.

First up, the swimming pigs at Big Majors Spot.  I wanted an over/under shot, but I think they had already had enough to eat for the day.  They weren't playing.  They just sat on the beach and stared at us. But, this stingray seemed very interested in our dinghy.  In I went.

Next up, Thunderball Grotto, the same Thunderball Grotto of James Bond fame.  The trick to snorkelling at Thunderball is waiting for slack low tide.  Any time that the tide is ebbing or flowing, the current is too strong.  If you go at high tide, you had better be able to swim a long way under water to get inside or bring your scuba gear.  But at low tide, you can snorkel all the way through.  The day we were there, it was a light tide and we were able to get in several minutes before scheduled slack tide.  As a result, we had the place to ourselves for most of the time that we were there.  Definitely not the norm.  Normally, you can expect 15-20 people all at once.

Macara and Papa

My Bond girl 

It looks like my dad's having fun.

After Thunderball Grotto my plan was to take my parents up to Compass Cay and get them used to sharks before we did much more snorkelling.  In the Bahamas, you are not going to spend much time in the water without seeing sharks.  After seeing Macara out on the dock petting sharks they said they had to make a decision, either call Children's Aid or get in and join her.  I am happy to report they both came down to pet the sharks.  My mom totally shocked me by getting in the water and wading around with Macara and there was sharks all around them.

With a wealth of snorkelling sites in the area, the only thing left was to get them out fishing.  We tried once earlier in the week and the Sound was a little rough forcing us to turn around.  After that attempt, we were worried that would be our only chance to get out fishing.  The wind gods favoured us and we actually got out fishing twice.  The fishing right now is on fire.  Day 1 started slowly.  We had a release and then nothing.  We watched another boat reel in 3 in a row, not 100 yrds from us.  Still nothing.  Then the fun began.  First off, we got one for dad.  Then we tried to get one for mom.  We had 5 rods out and three released all at once.  One was a miss.  Another was a huge bull that we could not stop and finally it broke the line.  I watched it jump and flip several times as it took off.  But, the third was also a bull, but smaller.  We let mom reel the fish in right up beside the boat, then my dad and I switched spots.  I came down to gaff and I let him take the wheel.  "Keep her pointed into the waves.  Nice and slow", I said.  Somewhere after that things went bad and we lost mom's fish.  I think that the Captain (not the one on the wheel) will have to wear this one, even though mom gave my dad a hard time.  With all that action, we tried again the next day to get Honey her fish.  We had 3 fish dart through our spread and never actual strike a lure.  We had two more on, they took to aerials and spit the hook before we could set the hook for good.   And we had yet another hit hard enough to release the outrigger and yet we brought home nothing.  That's fishing.

Can you guess who's island this is?  Big fans of his on this boat!  The story that we were told was that when he is home, the flag is up.  We saw both, so we assumed he was home.

The other day we were sitting at Staniel Cay Yacht Club and it dawned on me that Staniel Cay was not a Port of Call.  I had thought that because my parents had flown in and out, that I would be able to fix our immigration problems there.  Nope.  You see, Bimini had only given us a 90 day immigration pass and it expired all too quickly.  So, it was either back to Georgetown or all the way up to Nassau.   I wanted to see more of the Exumas, but we probably needed a kick in the butt or we never would have left.

As soon I am done typing this, I need to come up with a plan.  I know, my life is tough, isn't it?

Long Island (the one in the Bahamas)

Our trip from Georgetown to Long Island was almost too calm for fishing.  We gave it our best, actually taking a longer route just to get more fishing time in.  The best we could produce was one Bonita.  The Bonita is a member of the tuna family, but by all accounts that I have heard, not very tasty.  Lucky for him, back he went.  With weather this nice we decided to take anchor in the north end of the island, Calabash Bay.  Absolutely beautiful!  Big long sand beach, crystal clear water, a half dozen boats.  Georgetown was quickly becoming a distant memory.

We have been in the Bahamas now for a couple months, yet I can't say that I have really got any good dives in yet.  Some out of this world snorkelling, but the diving has proven difficult given there is just the three of us.  So, it was time to hire the pros.  First thing in the morning I was on the phone, Stella Maris can you pick me up, I need to get wet.  Seeing as the dive sites are all close by to where we were anchored, they picked me up right off our boat.  Kerri and Macara joined Ryan, Tasha and Morgan as they were renting a car to see the island.  I went diving.

It had been so calm for over 24hrs that the water was absolutely crystal clear.  As we motored between dive sites in 50ft of water we could see stingrays and sea stars and other fish.

Red Lionfish

Spotfin Butterflyfish

Queen Angelfish

My driving force for getting to Long Island was to dive with some sharks.  Short of chartering the entire boat myself, I had to wait a couple days for the dive operators to round up another couple divers to make it worth their while.  Fortunately, a nice German couple said they were willing to go.  Game on!

You would have laughed to have seen me the night before while I was getting my camera ready.  I was nervous like a little school girl worrying about what to wear.  My problem was too many choices, a good problem to have.  The key to good underwater photography is getting close.  The less water you have to shoot through, the clearer your images will be.  My favourite lens for wide angle is my 16mm fisheye lens.  On a cropped sensor camera you do not get the full wrap around affect of that lens, you only get the crisp centre with a tiny bit of barrel distortion.  Overall, a nice choice, but I feared the sharks would not come close enough.  Quite the opposite of most peoples fear of sharks, don't you think.  I needed something not quite so wide.  I have a 20mm lens, but it is in desperate need for Nikon to give it an update.  If focuses slowly and often gets confused.  I wouldn't want that to happen in the middle of all the action.  That leaves me with my least favourite wide angle lens, my 12-24mm.  Designed for cropped sensor cameras and having a top notch focusing motor built into the lens it should be my favourite, but for some reason and only while used underwater, the corners are quite soft.  It will have to do.  I believe that I will need the 24mm reach.  And I was right.

Overall, it was a good dive.  The divemaster mistakingly put us down in some pretty soft sand.  This lead to some excitement early and didn't help my pictures at all.  You see, the way that Stella Maris runs their shark dive is they circle the boat a few times and the sharks come a running.  There were 5 sharks around the boat before we hit the water.  We all jump in together and head straight for the bottom.  Once settled on the bottom we are given a few minutes just to enjoy the sharks, which are mostly circling the back of the boat.  They know the drill, they aren't interested in us.  The plan is to sit on the bottom while the guy on the boat tosses in a bucket of fish that is weighted down so that it lands right in front of us.  So far, so good.  The sharks then help themselves to the fish inside the bucket.  As to be expected, the sharks become quite eager and lots of commotion ensues.  Now comes the exciting part.  Because we got dropped over the soft sand, the feeding frenzy leads to a sand storm.  Soon, we too were almost engulfed in a zero visibility feeding frenzy.  Sharks were flying out of the cloud of dust and were right in your face before you knew it.  Not good.  Time to back up.  Then, one of the smaller sharks gets a nice big piece and he is out of here.  But, then a couple larger sharks decide that they too want that piece.  Just like that, half my sharks are gone.  Damn!  After everything settled, a couple sharks stuck around hoping for a second handout.  Finally, some photo ops.

Caribbean Reef Shark

Caribbean Reef Shark

As much as I loved Long Island, it didn't seem to love us.  Remember how nice I said the weather was upon our arrival, well that all changed around 3am on the second night.  I believe the technical term for it is it turned into a 'Shit Show'.  We ended up puncturing the dinghy while trying to get it on the boat.  Inflatable dinghies do not float very well without air in them and with 15hp motors dragging them down.  With some brute force and a little foul language, the dinghy was saved and nobody got hurt too bad, just some bruises.  We rode out the rest of the night, sleeping on the couch or on the floor.  With the first sign of daylight we were off for Stella Maris Marina.

And this is why cruisers carry spares.  Here is a little taste of cruising life.  First you have to make at least a half dozen phone calls.  Fortunately, the locals are friendly and are all too quick to offer a helpful suggestion.  And, more often than not, they know the next guy's phone number.  Finally, we locate a dinghy patch kit way down in Clarence Town.  Go figure, the other end of the island, some 85km away.  They call it Long Island for a reason.  Now we need to rent a car.  Ever driven in a country that drives on the left side of the road?  Every turn feels unnatural.  So, now that we have the patch in our hands, we might as well make the most of a bad situation.  Tourist time.  First stop, Dean's Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world, some 600ft deep.  A pretty little beach with this strange geographical formation in the corner.  Back in the car and thinking it is soon time for lunch.  Macara turned her nose up at the road side conch shack, so we stop at the next beach side grill.  A fun little open air establishment, with great big portions.  Finally, back at the boat and the no-see-ems are horrendous.  No repairs tonight, straight into the boat.  After all that, when we begin our repairs the next day, we find out that the contact cement is old and the patch does not look like it will take.

Enough of this, it looks like we have to head back to Georgetown.  We need our dinghy.  Being on a boat without a dinghy, is like living in a house, but not having a car.  The wind is blowing pretty strong out of the north-east, but if we stay on the Great Bahama Bank, things won't get too rough.  Protected for most of the 22nm, we would only have to face the ocean size waves for the last 7nm.  It turns out our impatience came around and slapped us right in the face.  We made it within 3nm of our inlet before making a radical about face and headed back for Long Island.  If the open ocean was this bad, there was no way I wanted to attempt an inlet with an outgoing tide.  Most certainly the roughest seas that we have seen in this boat.

Rather than head right back to the marina we left, we made our way south to the Thompson Bay/Salt Pond area.  A pretty anchorage to say the least.  A few boats, but spacious, with great holding.  And we needed it, the wind ripped for the next 48 hours.  With no place to go, we picked up our trusty Bahamian cell phone once again.  Unable to locate another patch kit, we were able to find some fresh glue.  We needed an ounce, all they had was a gallon!  Such is life in the islands.  You have to imagine me in a dinghy with a patch that is barely hanging on.  Can't trust the patch enough to take the motor, I am going to have to row to shore.  Certain that I am going to get wet, off I go.

The glue is exactly as expected and the new patch seems to take instantly.  What a relief!!!  It's a beautiful evening and we finally get to relax and enjoy it.

We are still in Long Island and there are lots of things that we would like to do while we are over here, but it is time to start making some decisions.  What is the weather going to let us do?  Soon we need to start making our way north.  Kerri hasn't had a chance to dive yet in Long Island and over breakfast she expresses a desire to do so.  

Only a few moments later, the generator trips.  Oh come on!!!

Life without a dinghy is an inconvenience, life without a generator is impossible.  Long Island doesn't want us here, we need to run.  Georgetown is not our island paradise, but it does have resources.  Straight back to the Exuma Yacht Club, we need shore power until this is resolved.  Worse still, Easter weekend is coming, nothing is going to be open Friday, Sunday or Monday.  Knot Yet has not been up on cruise for so long, for a long time.  We have got to hurry.

The genny tripped on high temperature.  We must have picked something up in the raw water.  We might have torn up another impeller.  Yep another impeller, that means that I have already used up my spare.  Hats off to Georgetown, I was able to locate a new one within a couple phone calls.  Down to the engine room and further inspection.  Oh my, the coolant reservoir is completely empty!!!  That is not good.  Did I boil the engine completely dry?  It sure took a lot of water to top the engine back up.  Now topped back up with coolant, I give the engine another try.  The raw water flow is fine, so the impeller is okay.  Maybe I had something on the strainer and that long run, cleaned it off.  Everything seems fine.  The genny loaded up fine and the temperature is good.  I guess we are fine.

Off the dock, we are free again.  First stop a shallow reef and Macara and I go for a quick snorkel.  We then pull anchor and head to a deeper spot, it is time for Kerri to blow some bubbles.  We must have found somebodies spearfishing spot.  Within no time a barracuda is harassing us.  It follows us completely around the coral head.  Not natural, but we can handle it.  But, then it gets in front of us and turns back in our face.  It starts posturing at us.  It starts showing it's teeth.  Before I know it, Kerri is using me as a shield.  With the fun now gone, we decide to surface.

The dive was surely shortened, but we are still a pretty happy crew.  The dinghy is fixed, our generator crisis has been averted.  We can dive anywhere, it doesn't have to be Long Island.  We grab a spot to anchor for the night and Macara agrees to try her hand at making spaghetti for dinner.  I am chopping and Macara is mixing ingredients, we have the sauce on simmer, when... you guessed it, the genny tripped again.  Nope, not dealing with it tonight!!!  I am in too good of a mood to be brought down.  We finish dinner on the butane burner and play a board game and go to sleep.  Whatever is wrong with the genny will have to wait until tomorrow.

First thing in the morning we are back in our usual slip at the Exuma Yacht Club.  Clevon is not even in yet, we know the routine all to well.  He has given us the same slip every time.  This time we just help ourselves.

Down to engine room I go, again.  The genny is out of coolant, bone dry, again.  Determined to blame the raw water side I take the heat exchanger apart.  There is some debris on the tubes.  Maybe that is it?  I give the heat exchanger an acid wash.  Yep, Barnacle Buster, the same stuff I got in my eye back in Stuart.  This time I work safety glasses.  I am smart like that.  I refill the coolant and start her up.  It runs fine for a while, then the temperature starts to shoot up.  Something must be wrong on the fresh water side.  That is the more expensive side, I didn't even want to look there.  Maybe the thermostat is stuck closed?  I tear the thermostat housing apart only to find out there is no thermostat in there anymore.  Somebody already removed a failed thermostat and never bothered replacing it.  Not good, but it has been like that for a while.  That will need fixing someday, but it is not my problem.  If anything, that makes the engine too cold.  I still need to ensure that my fresh water pump is working fine.  It could be just air locked from being drained and then not being properly vented.  So, I add more coolant, start the genny and try to bleed the air out of the fresh water pump.  Now, I have my laser thermometer and I can see that I have flow across the heat exchanger.  Hotter here and cooler there, that is a good thing.  But, the reservoir level keeps going down, so I add more coolant.  I wish I had typed this blog post from the engine room, maybe the fact that I needed to keep adding coolant may have dawned on me earlier.  We have a leak stupid!!!  Yep, vibrations have worn a pin hole leak right through the heat exchanger.  At least now I have a smoking gun.  At least now I know what needs fixing.  But, it is Easter Weekend in the Bahamas.  It could be a week before I can get replacement parts and at what cost.  I need to find a fix on my own.  I consider soldering it.  I locate a torch.  Then a neighbour overhearing my problems offers me some Marine Tex.  That just might work.  As of right now, I seem to have a working genny.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.  Let's hope this fix gets us back to the USA at least.

My body aches.  I am tired of doing repairs.  I have been twisted upside down for days.  I am down on sleep.  I sure am looking forward to some fun in the sun.  Please, no more issues.  The weather looks good for Tuesday and a run north.  My parents are coming to join us in Staniel Cay in about a week or so.  The last time they visited both Kerri and I took sick.  It sure would be nice to get ahead of the game for a while.  

Tomorrow we will have fun again.

Georgetown, Exumas

The blog sort of went sideways for a bit when we arrived in Georgetown.  I have tried several times putting my thoughts down about the place and always ended up deleting them.  So, let's try this again...

We met some truly amazing people in Georgetown.  We caught up with people that we haven't seen for a while.  We met some real jerks.  Macara finally got to hang out with some other cruising kids.  She grew a lot there.  I actually really do like the place.  I am so happy to have left.  Confused?  Me too.  Let's keep going.

Georgetown always was our main goal.  It offered so much for us.  Provisioning, protection from many different wind directions and a great location to fly in family and friends.

Because Georgetown was our goal and because we had family and friends coming, we let that dictate our schedule a bit.  We wanted to have a couple weeks under our belts before anybody showed up, that way we would know our way around.  So, when we got a couple really nice days we left Staniel Cay.  I sure miss that place, we will be back.

A group that we met in a bar in Bimini, bumped into again on Highbourne Cay and became friends with at Staniel Cay turned into our cruising friends for a while.  When they said you got to see Black Point Settlement, we said, "sure, let's go".  They were right, we loved it.  A tiny little Bahamian village with no resorts.  Not totally untainted though, they like to cater to us cruisers.  So, we obliged them.  We dropped off our laundry at the local laundry mat and proceeded to take in the town.  Laundry mats have turned into our dirty little secret (bad pun), for a few extra bucks they will wash, dry and fold your clothes.  Hell ya!!!  Less chores and more fun, it's a 'no brainer'.  We walked the streets for a while, stuck our heads into a tiny little school house.  We chatted with a few locals while the wove straw baskets.  Soon noon was approaching and we had a Kalik in our hands, you know how it is.  Later that night, the Kaliks were not the problem, it was the Rum Punch and Happy Hour at Scorpions that was the problem.  Apparently, us cruisers pack the place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday because they put out some free appetizers and serve cheap rum.  We are so easily tricked.  The next morning afternoon there were a few murmurs of 'hair' hurting.  Without much chance of catching the morning slack tide, a few of us tried our hand at lobstering in the afternoon.  Ya, I got one! ;-)

A couple more days of good weather meant pressing on to Georgetown.  It was like school had let out. Everybody was out on Exuma Sound rather than hiding up on the banks.  With all the time in the world and smooth seas, we broke out the fishing rods.  And then we put them away again.  No fish, this is starting to get a little embarrassing.  Mercifully, on day two, just before arriving in Georgetown, after fishing for about 70nm, we caught a fish.  A Skip Jack tuna.  I tell you, after eating that fish, it is going to be hard to go back to tuna salad sandwiches from a can. Yum, yum.

Skipjack tuna

I have been avoiding it, so let's talk about Georgetown.  Some strange little cruising utopia, and like all utopias, it's flawed.  A lot of the people that come here have the maturity of grade schoolers.  Magnified exponentially by the fact that the cruising regatta is on during our time here.  There is a morning Cruisers Net on Ch 72 that is designed to relay information amongst the cruisers.  Let me tell you the whining and complaining covered up by others clicking their mics to stop others from talking was beyond belief.  I very quickly realized that I was happier not knowing what was going on than listening to that garbage.  And then quite the opposite, on Ch 68, any time of day you can fire a question off into space and usually get a pretty descent response.  I was having battery issues, so I tried it, "does anybody have a Group 31 deep cycle battery that they no longer need"?  Sure enough I got a reply.  So, when another boater woke up a couple days later with dead batteries, I was more than happy to jump on the radio and tell him that I would be right over and give him a boost.

No more Cruisers Net and a little Ch 68 was getting me by, but there was still all the commotion of the regatta.  Just like the Cruisers Net, I decided that this too was the root of all evil and shall be a avoided to maintain my sanity.  Somehow, I still managed to get recruited into the 'Coconut Challenge'.  Something about being young and having a small 'dink' (slang for dinghy) made me a target.  I figured what harm could come from a contest that requires no apparent skill.   Well, I still managed to get our team disqualified on a rules violation.  We were in 2nd place at the time too.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

Coconut Challenge

The focal point in Georgetown for us was Volleyball Beach / The Chat 'n Chill.  It was a great place for those of us with kids to meet and let the kids run around.  Anytime around 1pm or 2pm the kids would start to arrive and it would be next to impossible to get them to leave before sunset.  That meant time for some school in the morning and a place that serves drinks while the kids play.  It worked for me.

Chat 'n Chill

Our spot under the rope swing

Our view while at the Chat 'n Chill

As I was saying earlier, our plan was to be in Georgetown early, have everything all worked out for when our guests got here.  Put on a show.

First up, our "cruising/diving/drinking/brother from a different mother" friends.  And did we put on a show?!?!  We showed them exactly what cruising was all about.  We showed them bad batteries, we showed them bad weather, we made the best of a bad situation and ended up having a blast doing it.  We did get some diving in, a little fishing and showed them our spot under the tree at the Chat 'n Chill.  That's cruising. 

Some people may find the following image offensive.  Sorry you had to see this.

I have tools and I know how to use them.

Mahi mahi

Up next were Kerri's parents with only a 48hr turn around.  If you ever hear of Kerri and I as hosts in the charter business, please assume that we have spent too much time in the sun and have completely lost our minds. Actually, it wasn't that bad, but cleaning the boat bow to stern and provisioning on a time line felt like work and we haven't done that for a while.

As far as guests go, having the In-Laws aboard was pretty easy.  We didn't feel that great need to impress, we knew they were here for one reason and one reason only... to see their grand-daughter.  Sure, they will deny that it was not quite that simple, but we knew.  All we had to do was keep the boat from rocking too much and everybody would be happy.  If anybody has ever received the complete tour of Georgetown, they did.  Beaches, fishing (skunked), walks through town and you guessed it, an afternoon or two at the Chat 'n Chill for yet another lesson in Goombay Smashes.

Having Grandma and Grandpa aboard provided us with a rare opportunity, a babysitter.  And I am not talking about let's just go out and have a quiet dinner, just the two of us, type thing,  I am talking Exuma Heritage Festival.  For those of you who are fans of the movie Captain Ron, this was our little island festival.  We went out with another couple and a single guy from France, together the 5 of us amounted to about half the Caucasians in the place.  This was not a party put on for the tourists, this was the locals having a good time.  And, so did we!  All around the outside of the festival grounds were vendors showing off their local cuisine, up on stage were bands from all over the Bahama islands.  We ate, we danced, we drank, we dinghied back to our boats in the black of night.  Ya, we had fun!

As much fun as we had, all night long we talked about the fact that it was time to move on.  So, on the first break in the weather, Hideaway, Senara and Knot Yet were on the their way for Long Island.  We were cruising again!

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

Wow!  I am simply blown away by the beauty of this place.

Not having a feel for how the park works, we headed straight for the park's headquarters.  Mooring balls are the preferred method of 'anchoring' in the park, thus limiting the disturbance of the sea bed.  Park headquarters are located at Warderick Wells.  The north mooring field is a stunning vista.  Unfortunately for us, we booked a less than stellar mooring ball.  It treated us okay, until the tide change.  The outgoing current, together with the wind had our boat sitting almost exactly sideways to the surge coming in from the ocean.  This just won't do, we had to move.  Just before sunset we grabbed our new mooring at Emerald Rock.

Our time at headquarters was not wasted, we had gathered exactly how we wanted to spend our day.  We had time to get school done before slack tide.  Then it was into the dinghy and race to the coral gardens located in front of headquarters.  Slack tide is not a long time, but long enough for a nice swim.    As the current began to switch Macara got a good look at her first Spotted Eagle Rays.

After a couple nights at Warderick Wells we followed the Exuma Bank down to Cambridge Cay.  Our original plan was to grab a spot close to Little Halls Pond Cay (a private island owned by Johnny Depp).  We snorkelled for a bit, but were never really satisfied with our anchorage and soon lifted anchor and picked up a mooring ball a little further south at Cambridge Cay.

Just east of the southern tip of Little Halls Pond Cay, there is a spot marked on the charts called 'Sea Aquarium'.  It's a snorkelling site with a pair of dinghy mooring floats.  I can safely say that I have done a fair bit of diving throughout the Caribbean.  This location ranks right up there as one of the best dive sites that I have ever been on.  And you can snorkel it.  We will be back!  The only down side, there was a barracuda there that did not appreciate my camera.  It stalked me all over the dive.  Posturing and being very aggressive towards me.  A very uncomfortable feeling.  Give me a shark any day.

Being our first time in the Exumas, we are kind of darting around here and there, trying to get a feel for the place.  Hoping to quickly figure out where we want to spend some time.  Georgetown better be amazing, because I am liking what I am seeing right now.

Tonight we are anchored west of Big Majors Spot.  There are pigs on the beach.  They swim out to your dinghy begging for food.  Swimming pigs, that's pretty novel.  We brought a couple carrots for them.  Just around the south side of the island is Thunderball Grotto of James Bond fame.  Of course, I will have to dive that!

But, that is tomorrow.

This is what we came for.

Nassau continued...

We had our day of fun at Atlantis Resort, but we had a few more things to take care of before blasting off towards the Exumas.  The folks at the Atlantis Marina were ever so helpful, so we decided to take advantage of that.  We needed some produce to go along with our 2 freezers full of red meat and 30 cases of beer.  No problem, they ordered us a taxi and told us that we will find everything that we are looking for at the market.  I still had Nassau of 20 years ago on the brain and I was thinking we were headed to a farmers market or something.  Nope, a supermarket as fine as any grocery store that we usually shop in back home.  And some of the prices were better.  Pleasantly, surprised.  

Our next task, a cell phone.  I am starting to feel like an international spy with my collection of pay as you go phones.  No long term contracts here.  I needed a new phone anyway.  $30 a month for data and then put on a few bucks for voice.  Use the minutes as you go.  I now have my Canadian, US and Bahamian phones all charged and on the ready.

Last minute chores taken care of and the weather letting up, it seems like it is time to move on.  Exumas here we come!!!

As it turns out, our weather window was not quite as clear as we had lead ourselves to believe.  We were hoping to get off the dock eventually, but after all the wind and the chop, we were easily lured into a very nice little marina offering Super Bowl specials.  Sounds like fun, count us in.

This is the Bahamas that we have been looking for, an open air restaurant with a big screen TV serving island pub specials and sharing the Super Bowl with some 25 other cruisers.  Good fun!

With the cold front now through, the next week appears to be offering a steady weather pattern.  Finally, we are off the dock!

First stop, Norman’s Cay.  

During the 80’s, Norman’s Cay was the epitome of Bahamas’ drug problem.  Owned by Columbian drug lord Carlos Leder, this is the place where allegedly a few cruisers meet their hostile demise coming too close to his operation.  

I doubt this guy was delivering care packages to the needy.

At home under the wreckage.

Today, Norman’s Cay offers several fine anchorages to fit almost any wind direction.  Sounds good to us.

After school lets out, it is time for a little snorkelling.

Look... treasure!

Just before climbing back in the dinghy, I found this brute.  Our first lobster!  This guy fed us dinner, then lobster omelets, then lobster salad sandwiches and he is still good to go for more omelets again tomorrow morning.

One heckuva big lobster.

 Good night...

Anchored at Norman's Cay.

Halfway to Oh No

It's official... our year long journey is half over.  Not to worry though, we are just getting to the good part.

We left Bimini on the 28th of January.  We fished for the first hour or so.  No luck.  We are proving to be the worst sportfish on the water.  The wahoo are biting,  just not for us.  We crossed onto the Great Bahamas Bank at Gun Cay and started making our way for Chub Cay.  We had a 20knot breeze directly on our nose and once again Knot Yet proved her worth.  Others had a lot less pleasant ride than we did.  My original plan was to drop anchor in behind the reef at the Northwest Passage, only to find that it offered a lot less protection than I had envisioned.  To heck with that idea, we dropped the hammers and made the extra hour run to Chub Cay Marina.  It is a lot more fun trying to imagine how rough it might have been out on the hook, rather than living it.  A quick washdown of the boat, a nice dinner aboard and then slide up the marina bar for a couple Goombay Smashes.  A long day on the water is soon forgotten.

There is a fair bit of open water between Chub Cay and our next destination of Nassau.  The weatherman told us to hold tight for one more day, so we did.  The girls got to school work first thing in the morning and I went for a walk about the island.  Upon my return, there was a gentleman sniffing out our Canadian flag and checking our dinghy davits, so I introduce myself.  He is from Montreal and only on his 5th day on the water.  Conversation soon drifted to scuba diving and he made mention of having ties to the wreck of the Empress of Ireland.  He invites me over for a drink later that evening with plans to talk diving.  I gladly accept.

A family day.  Today is one of the good days.  The boat is in good shape, provisions are full, school work is done, let's go have some fun.  My morning walk convinced me that there would be some good snorkelling right outside the marina, so we load up the dinghy and out we go.  Our visit to the Shark Lab in Bimini is already showing instant returns.  As Macara started to roll out of the dinghy she asks, "What type of sharks are there here"?  "None, maybe a Nurse shark, if any", I replied.  That was good enough, in she jumped.  The girl is learning so much and making her own decisions.  I love it!

After snorkelling, there was still plenty of afternoon left, so we decided to take in a little beach time.  The view was kinda nice.

Happiness is sinking in and it looks good on her.

Back to the boat for a quick shower and I mix myself a drink and saunter over to Phil's boat to chat some diving.  Phil turns out to be a very interesting man.  He knows a lot of the big names in the scuba industry.  The reason, his ties to the wreck of the Empress of Ireland.  A fairly technical dive, even by today's standards, Phil was making his first dives in the early days of scuba diving.  As a result, he amassed a very large collection of artifacts from the wreck, including the ship's bell.  All of which are now in a museum in Ottawa.  Phil is now embarking on a new phase of his life, cruising the world and documenting the wonders of the sea on video.

With a cold front on it's way, Thursday is our weather window to push on to Nassau.

A 'few' years ago, Kerri and I Honeymooned on New Providence.  Diving everyday we never got off the resort.  That is how we liked to travel.  With dive travel trips, you cannot dive the day before your flight.  You need to ensure that all the nitrogen is out of your body before going up in the atmosphere.  It's a sneaky way to get 'the bends'.  Anyway, I had in my back pocket a plan to take her into the city for dinner on Paradise Island.  As it turned out, it was way to hot to want to do anything, but sit on the beach.  So, I never brought up my plan for dinner.  Some months later, I see a special on TV featuring the Atlantis Resort and I make the rookie mistake of mentioning that I planned on taking her out for dinner there on Honeymoon.  Well, I finally made good on it.

To say the Atlantis Resort is impressive, is like saying the Grand Canyon is a nice ditch.  The place is massive.  Everything is larger than life.  It truly is fun for the whole family.

You have your casinos and night clubs and fine dining, but you also have a water park that sprawls all over the resort.  There is an aquarium like I have never seen before.  They have lagoons where you can swim with dolphins or another one where you can snorkel with stingrays.  But, for me the highlight is a giant water slide that takes you through the middle of a shark tank.  And not just one way, there are two different slides that pass through the middle of the tank.

The high speed method.  A 60ft near vertical drop sends you body surfing through the tank.  You don't see a damn thing, but what a rush.  Kerri was almost in tears laughing as I dragged my sorry butt out of the pool.  I guess there was a bit of terror written all over my face.  I had to do it just one more time, just to save my honour.  My butt still hurts from hitting the water so fast.

The more leisurely method puts you on a inner-tube and you corkscrew down the same 60ft, but at a much more controlled pace and then gently glide through the shark tank.  If you actually want to see the sharks up close, this is the way to go.  The girls actually had one of the Nurse sharks resting on top of the acrylic tube as they passed through.

That cold front that I was talking about made water sports a little less appealing, but this place is so amazing we all jumped in happily.  This evening, the wind is blowing a good 20-25knots, so it doesn't look like we will move for another day or two.  Let's see what kind of fun we can find here in Nassau.  For only money, they will let you do almost anything.