The Excellent Exumas

Hi Everybody,
    I know it's time for another blog but before I get started...did you notice my new blog profile picture?!?!  David & I are holding our local St. Augustine newspaper, The Record.  We'll send this pic. to the paper with a little blurb and they will post it in their travel section.  It's fun to see where St. Aug. folks travel.  It's even better to see where I travel!

     In a lazy, down-island, lifestyle existance, it's hard to be very constructive. But we do have our bad hair days.  Sailing isn't all fun and games, this is a sampling of our not-so-fun times.

David delving into the Chartplotter problem

    Our main navigation tool just up & quit on us.  With the help of other friendly boaters, David gutted,  tested, reassembled, (repeat gut, test, reassemble 4 times) cussed and pondered the problem.  We're not sure what he did to eventually fix the all-important Chartplotter but it's working now.  We decided to just thank the benevolent God of the Ignorant.

This is our mounting system for the horn, the Radar and the GPS.  It should be standing up tall and proud instead of swinging by the internal electric cables. On one particular bumpy passage the whole structure came crashing down.  Sailing - always an adventure waiting to happen.

Our gaily colored, light wind, spinnaker sail looks pretty when she's flying.  I have no picture showing what happens when the winds pick up- the tangled lines, the sail in the water & caught under our keel.   Can you visualize that picture???

The Exumas 

      We might have had a hard time beating our way South to get to Georgetown at the bottom of the Exuma chain, but, by damn we did it!

      The reward was 6 weeks in clear, clear water & white sand beaches surrounding uninhabited islands.  Along the way we found fresh bread in thesmall Bahamian settlements.  We've  met friendly boaters and have shared sunset drinks with some great people. 

      An amazing thing about these islands is how up close and personal you can get with the local wildlife.  (not sure if that should include the boaters, or just the animals)

Curly Tails are everywhere. I was feeding this one stale crackers.

 In Staniel Cay, the local nurse sharks have learned to come by for an evening snack from the fish cleaning station.  They seemed to like the shade from our boat while they waited.

Okay, so I have to explain about these pigs.  On the island of Big Majors, you have an assortment of wildlife - a herd of goats, chickens & the ever-crowing rooster, and ......swimming pigs.  They'll swim to your dinghy snorting 'n sniffling.  But I realized that unless you managed to drop the food right into their open mouths,  they couldn't eat the treats.  

So thoughtful me, I brought the food to the pigs.  

Notice I'm not hanging around to socialize with these guys.

                                              We called this anchorage our Bay of Pigs.

But it's the harvest from the sea that everyone enjoys.

Well, maybe those fish & conch had better days.

 Georgetown 

 Georgetown, Exuma is a boaters' mecca.  There were probably 250 boats anchored behind the protection of Stocking Island.  This is Monument Hill.  During a fun Equinox Bonfire Party, an intrepid group of us climbed the hill.  Doing it in the dark and the rain just made it more interesting.

A long, wet, bumpy dinghy ride gets you to the tunnel entrance into Lake Victoria and the town's dinghy dock.  Georgetown supplied us with groceries, coconut rum and a $20. anchor windlass part that ultimately cost us $240. Life's not cheap in the Bahamas.

My big purchase from Essie in the town's straw market.  Many women "plait" with split palm leaves.

    I'm going to end this rambling blog showing you what makes this sailing life so great.

  Many nights we found ourselves anchored in the middle of our own private paradise.  This is when I sit with my sunset drink and think..."Ahhh, life is good."

  Please don't tell me you would rather be poolside at a Holiday Inn!

     It's now mid April.  We are presently in the Abacos working our slow way North back to the states.  We'll get there eventually.  Until then.....Fair winds.

Alice & David on our 36' Endeavour Cat, Alice Mae

Bahama traveling

The Adventure Begins One More Time
   Sailing is always an adventure.  We left Florida in mid-February and plowed our way across the Gulf Stream to Bimini.  It was a long 24 hour slog. The crossing was rough enough that a porthole jarred itself loose and I found 5 inches of water on the floor of the forward bunk.  My newly laundered clothes were floating and sloshing about in the saltwater.  It was fun.
    Since the crossing to the Bahamas, we have headed south, working our way through the Exuma chain of islands.  These islands are low, scrub coral with drop-dead, beautiful, clear waters.  A great sailing area.  Too bad the winds and waves are ALWAYS on our bow.  (this means,motoring,  no sails and lots of up & down banging and crashing of Alice Mae.)  We keep telling ourselves "the sail North will be great!!!!!!!!"

Warderick Wells, in the center of the Exuma Land & Sea Park, is a protected zone for everything above and below the water.  That's Alice Mae - second from the back.  I'm moored and happy. This beautiful, clear anchorage offers a safe harbour for sailors from all over the world.  Our bay seemed to have three resident eagle rays.  They glide around morning & evening.  There is also a VERY big manta ray.  Way Cool!

  

I went on a little hike.  On the down-hill scramble I shot this picture.  Check out the curve of the horizon. 

 

Boo Boo Hill overlooks the North Anchorage on Warderick.  Vessels carve driftwood signs to mark their passage through this region. 

FYI:  I now have a piece of driftwood, David will carve.  Watch for a picture on our return trek north. (that will be some time in the future- can't tell exactly when!)

 

This is what David likes to do- work on the dinghy motor.  He does it all the time so he must love it.  While I explore island beaches, buy fresh bread, kayak and hike, David is sprawled in the dink whispering sweet nothings at the dismantled motor.  It's a very strange relationship. I keep my distance.

Dinghy Beach at Warderick Wells.  Bones of a 52' sperm whale shows what happens to you when you hang out in the island sun for too long.

Current population of animals hanging out in the island sun for too long.

 

The beautiful  waters of the eastern, windward side of the islands.  This is a picture-perfect calm day. 

 

The problem is, we always seem to be traveling in not-so-picture-perfect day.  Here is my journal entries for the sail (motor) down from Cave Cay to Emerald Bay, just north of Georgetown, Exuma.

To make this final run, you have to go out into the deep Exuma Sound- where the big waves are and there is nothing to stop the 20+ knot winds.  These are the times when you say "Why, exactly, am I doing this??"

Saturday, March 3

9:00     N23 50.42   W76 14.30

Out in the Exuma Sound. BIG rolling waves. Wind at 18-20 on our nose. Not a fun ride but we have 24.7 mi to sfe harbour.  I will do this.

11:00     N23 47.55     W76  05.64

Across from Adderly Cut. Rockin & Rollin.  Same beating waves.  Same 15-20kt winds.  Off our same nose.  A very bumpy ride.

1:00   N23  41.07     W75 56.02

Killing ourselves. the wind is up to 24 kts. Brutal.  Lost the stainless steel mounting for our radar and electronics.  Just crashed down.  Almost there!

2:30  N23 37.77   W75 55.08

Tied up at Emerald Bay Marina!

Looks like we're in cat city, and we're the little kitten.  Boats streaming in. Nobody wants to be stuck in a bad, crowded anchorage in the coming big winds.  And besides, the marina has TV, internet, showers, laundry, a comfy lounge, and ... the piece d'resistance.....a beautiful pool table.  Let the winds blow.

But when life gives you lemons you make lemonade........  The big winds blow down coconuts, and suddenly I have the makings for an island pina colada. 

Life is good.

Alice & David aboard Alice Mae

Alice Mae on another Adventure

December 13, 2011

   Well, we're off again!  This is our 4th Winter cruise.  It'll hopefully last 5-6 months and eventually get us to the  Bahamas- specifically the Exuma chain & the surrounding islands in those southern latitudes. 
   Sounds like a great plan doesn't it?? Course we can't manage to stick to our daily sail plan so what can I say... In sailing, and on Alice Mae, there are NO guarantees.



New Roller Furling Jib

Alice Mae with old jib and canvas top

   For several years I've wanted to switch out our cumbersome, hanked-on jib with a stream-lined, easy-open, easy-close roller furling system.  Much to David's dismay (his philosophy- if it ain't broke, don't fix it.) I forged onward.  I am now proud to say, Alice Mae boasts a fine, new sail and roller furling system!

   Just so you can appreciate how desperately I wanted this new jib system, here is a journal entry from last years' log.....



New Jib

8:30 Sail up. Mainsail went up pretty smoothly, Jib another matter. Battens snagged on stanchions, downhaul line wrapped around the forward standing rigging, and last but not least.. the sheet line got loose and pulled out of all its holdings and flapped in the wind in front of the boat.  Used our boat pole to retrieve the damn thing.  I am too much of a lady to mention the loud swearing, threatening ultimatums and stomping of the feet.

Miami

December 22, 2012

 We've made amazing time this year- averaging about 60 miles a day.  That's good for our little over-loaded, fat-bellied, double-wide-on-the-water.   So......here we are in in Miami. We like to anchor in Marine Stadium- a derelict basin with a bunch of derelict boats. Our kind of people.  The neon-colored skyline is an amazing nighttime backdrop for Alice Mae.

view for our Sunset drinks.  Not bad.



Boot Key Harbour in Marathon, Florida Keys

December 24, 2011

This City owned mooring field for 250+ boats is an active, fun loving community of boaters from all over the world.  David & I always enjoy our time here.

                                                                        David waiting- it's his job.

New Year Celebrations - Keys Style

 The Harbour had a lively New Years Eve Party.  Food, music and a conch blowing contest to mark the sunset of another year. My conch blowing sounds like a deflating frog.  Not exactly a winning sound.  We lasted until 7:30.  I listened to the midnight cheers from the warmth of my berth.  We're wusses.



Brave Polar Bear jumpers

On New Years Day, in keeping with tradition, the Harbour has it's own version of the Polar Bear Plunge.  The hardy participants line up at the dinghy dock, throw an ice cube into the water and, at the strike of noon- plunge in.  I believe they were eventually joined by a dog, a frisbee and a couple of stray kids.

Storm at the Moorings

Cold front coming in with big winds. White caps in the harbor.  A 2-quilt night. 

I'm so glad I'm moored.

    I'm so glad I'm moored.

         I'm so glad I'm moored.

    

Ahhh, the Abacos

    The Abacos are an extensive island chain that surround and protect  the blue, clear waters of the Sea of Abaco.  A beautiful inland sea -  sailor friendly with plenty of mooring balls, reasonably priced marinas, RO water, an A.M.. Cruisers Net on VHF 68, and a plethora of restaurant/bar beachside establishments.  We have spent about a month cruising and exploring the Abacos before heading home. 
Life is Good.

Some excerpts from our time in the Abacos

April 24, Easter Sunday
Little Harbour to Tilloo Island
9:00 Weather's overcast, 17-19kts wind but I'm ready to head elsewhere.  A rough, blowing Easterly, lots of white caps & BIG rollers off the ocean.  David gave me the helm just as we approached the N. Channel Cut. Tanks a lot! Alice Mae rolled & wallowed and bobbled her way through.

11:30  Anchored south of Tilloo Cut.  We're schooched in behind a little west-curling finger of land  on Tilloo Island.  This should help if the wind takes a northerly turn.
Footnote to this journal entry:  We truly were protected from the NE storms but were hammered when the winds shifted to the South. 

Thurs. April 28
Man O War Cay to Marsh Harbour, Mangos Marina

island racing boat - check the boom

    Like many of the Abaco Islands, Man O War has moorings.  It's a tight little mooring field, but we're here.  MOW seems like a quaint working town.  Narrow lanes populated by golf carts.  This island is known for it's boat building and sail making heritage.  They make some fine, hand-crafted, wooden sail boats.


Island Banker hours



 10:30  Life goes by on Island Time.  Breakfast with some of Lola's fresh baked bread, listen to the Abaco Cruisers Net then on to Marsh Harbour.  Finally got around to leaving MOW.  We  were tied up at Mangos Marina by noon.  Islands are close together here in the Abacos.






Hope Town -  Another colorful, sailor friendly island.  The harbor is crowded with an assortment of mooring balls.  We ended up just grabbing one and hoping it wasn't a private mooring.

    Marilynn (my sister) has been visiting.  We walked through  town, enjoyed Hope Town's great, local museum, bought some batik Ambrosia cloth, strolled on the windward beach and then spent the evening playing JACKS (Bingo) at Jacks Bar.  It was, after all, a strenuous day.

   Next day we climbed the old lighthouse stairs to enjoy the beautiful view from this working Hope Town Lighthouse.





 To explain the newspaper...our local paper publishes travel pictures showing St. Augustine folks traveling around the world.  I want my shot at fame.


on top of the Hope Town Lighthouse



Wed. May 4

Hope Town to Little Harbour

I'm really getting bad. Not sure when we left Hope Town, but the winds are calm, we have our sails up and heading south to Sandy Cay to try to do some snorkeling.

1:00 Sandy Cay

We hit it right.  Calm enough conditions to drop a hook (2 tries) and dinghy to the mooring balls on the outside of this little inside reef.  We saw lots of staghorn coral and one HUGE brain coral.  Lots of fishes. The water is sooooooo beautifully clear.

3:00 Moored back at Petes Pub in Little Harbour.  Spent a fun evening drinking their signature "Blaster" drink and talking to the locals and tourists.  Good thing David could locate Alice Mae in the dark. As you can probably guess, Marilynn & I were not much help.



 

Saturday May 7

Great Guana Cay

Managed to snag a mooring in the little harbour at Guana.  I'm never sure if I'm grabbing a mooring ball, a fish trap buoy, a private mooring or a shallow-ground marker.  If I come back, I'd drop a hook just around the corner, in the northern bay.

Grabbers, on sandy Sunset Beach, under palm trees.  We found our place!

A friendly bar with a fresh water pool and a pretty sand beach for a backdrop.  Since it was Derby Day, we made our own Derby Hats and dinghied to the bar.   We were a hit!  Had a fun, fun time getting the entire bar watching and cheering during the 2 minute Run for the Roses.

Sunday, May 8   Mother's Day

Rented the reigning mode of transportation- a golf cart.  Spent hours (well, maybe 2) touring Guanas golf-cart sized roads.  I like their Yard Art.

Drove our trusty rental golf cart to Nippers for the big Sunday Pig Roast.  The food was good, the music was real loud, and the patrons were young.  

David & I managing to have fun at Nippers



 Friday, May 13

Green Turtle Cay to Allans Pensacola Cay

N26 45.70       to       N 26 59.20

W77 20.70       to      W 77 41.60

8:30 Dropped our mooring ball. (never did find out who to pay!) Allans Pensacola is an uninhabited cay about 25 mi. from Green Turtle.  Our sails are up but the wind is very minimal.  We be moto-sailing.

11:00 approaching Cooper's Town on our port.  Doing about 5kts. Winds coming from our "no-sail" zone at about 9kts.  Pretty, puffy clouds in a blue sky. I guess it's another day in paradise.

12:30  Crab Cay. made our last course heading change to 304dgs. About 6 mi. to go to A.P.

2:00 Anchored in 3.5 ft. of pretty, clear water with about 5 other boats.

2:10 David down for his nap.  Such a strenuous day.

May 15 - May 17

Little Grand Cay, Rosies Marina



Alice Mae at the dock at Rosie's


 

Rosie's colorful rental cottages



Spent 3 lovely days hanging out in this low-key, working community of black Bahamians. They live close to their waters.  They know the reefs and the fish  and the shallow sand banks.   They know where the conch are and where the lobster is hiding.  Seems the weekend contingency of sport fishing boats had arrived.  It takes them 4 hrs. from Stuart, Fl. in these fast boats. (what can I say, there was a deep pang of jealousy when I heard that.)  We walked around the golf-cart streets until we found Rosie's Marina Bar & Restaurant.    Rosie is the island bar/restaurant/fuel dock and cottage rental kingpin. Just remember, if you go there-  Rosie is a man. 

Tomorrow we head home.  After 4 months of cruising on Alice Mae, we cross back through the Gulf Stream and head north to St. Augustine, Fl.  We go back to our house, our dog, and our landlubber life.  Life will still be good, just a little less exciting.

 Alice & David on Alice Mae

Conchs, Quilts & the Abacos

Conchs- the Rite of Passage

 Like sailors of old wearing a gold earring as a statement of rounding one of the world's Southern Horns, blowing a conch horn at sunset is declaring to the world (at least those that can hear you,) that you have Crossed the Gulf Stream.  Since David, Me & Alice Mae are true champions of the crossing, I was bound and determined to make my own conch horn and learn how to blow it.  Easier said than done.

   Getting a conch in these Bahamian waters is easy.  There are literally mounds of them.  But these conch shells all have holes punch into them in order to get the conch meat- I needed a no-hole shell.  The solution was to purchase a solid shell. 

   
      With my conch shell on board, we proceeded to hacksaw the tip in order to make a blow hole.  Here's where the tricky part comes in....
I thought you are supposed to count 3 rings in and then cut.  So we did.  For a sweaty, hard hour we sawed away.  (the hack saw was old, rusted and dull, the conch shell was shiny, new, and VERY solid.)   Then we realized, maybe it should have been  4 rings in before we cut. Damn.  So, more sweating more groaning, more cutting. 

 But success finally came.  (I think I needed a second drink to finish)  Getting a clean sound from a conch is a learned talent.  At least, I have to learn and I am not very talented.   So, here are my learning pictures.  Try to invision a bloated frog being slowly flattened- that's my first sounds.  But I'm getting better.  The frogs are getting smaller and quieter.  I can eventually hit the clean sound, but by the time I manage, I'm out of breath.  Like I said, I'm not too talented.

Quilting

While we were in Eleuthera, we spent some time in Spanish Wells.  A clean, tidy town with colorful concrete houses packed tightly up & down both sides of this narrow, rocky spot of land.  This is a strong fishing community of blond-haired Bahamians.  Their unique accent sounds almost Irish.   

While in this quaint village I met a wonderful older lady, Oliviad, an island quilter, born & raised on Spanish Wells. All 3 children are married and living right in Spanish Wells.  Amazing!  Oliviad invited me into her home to show me her work.  She said "It's just me & my sister now that quilt.  The other women are too old and no young people want to learn the craft".  She looked at me and said "It'll die out after we're gone." 

Waterways &Wildflowers - Winter 2010

So, just to prove her wrong, I am sending you some current pictures of my latest quilt.  I am also including a picture of the boat quilt I made last year.  Hand quilting is still alive and stitching aboard the Alice Mae.



using a template to mark my pattern on this latest quilt



Crossing to the Abacos

Tuesday, April 19

Eleuthera to the Abacos

8:25 

 Finally! dropped our mooring line, skimmed by Ridley Head Point, through the coral channel (thank you Alice Mae for your shallow draft!) and out into the wild blue of the Atlantic.  Hope we have fair winds and following seas. We have a 45 mi. crossing to do.  My stomach is in a knot.

11:00 

  32 mi to go to the waypoint for Little Harbour- the southernmost entry into the Abacos.  The day is beautiful.  We're motor-sailing, doing 6.6kts.  That's REALLY good for Alice Mae.  My stomach feels better.

Here are some pictures of Little Harbour and the "famous" Pete's Pub  and Art Gallery.  Pete advertises as being in the heart of downtown Little Harbour.  That's good since Pete's Pub is Little Harbour. 



not sure if that's David or the dock that is crooked.





  David paying up at the beach bar




walkway to the windward side

And just in case I haven't mentioned it before...............these Bahamian waters are truly clear and beautiful.  I found this starfish in the shallows where we were anchored.   Life is good.