Exuma Sound!

The winds kicked up a bit last night, gusting 20 kts from the south, and I fretted some in the wee hours that we wouldn’t have a good weather window after all for our passage  south on the Exuma Sound en route to George Town. From Cave Cay, it’s about 31 miles to Conch Cay Cut, the entrance into Elizabeth Harbour, and from Cave Cay south, our only straightforward route with deep-water. The water on the bank side to the west gets rather thin in the southern Exumas, so getting to George Town requires us to run down the Sound. 

Thankfully, the morning brought much lighter winds than the previous night. We were up early, and out of the Cave Cay Cut by 8:00 am. We were delighted with the calmer conditions; although we know Equinox can handle rougher seas, while we’re towing Tingum, we like to have the better conditions. And, the passage was just as we hoped: uneventful! 

View from the pilot house heading south on Exuma Sound

After a 4-hour cruise, we were close to arriving at George Town via Conch Cay Cut. It gets a bit dicey there, as boats must thread their way through isolated coral heads, shallow reefs, and sand banks to enter Elizabeth Sound. Charts are extremely helpful here, but it is still necessary to keep an eye on the color of the water to avoid the hazards. As we entered, we had fairly good light (despite the darn clouds that chose to congregate above us at our very arrival at the cut!) and Ron piloted us through without any issues. We even had a small eagle ray sail by us as we entered the harbor, which was a good sign in our book!

George Town is the “mecca” for sailors in the Bahamas, where for the past forty years or more, cruisers have come to spend time here. Some boats are en route to places farther south in the Caribbean, but most just stay the winter months. George Town is located at approximately 23 degrees 31’ N latitude and 075 degrees 47’ west longitude, just above the tropic of cancer. It’s about 350 miles from Miami, Florida, to give everyone some perspective.

Walking the beach on the south side of Galliot Bay

We had the anchor down near Gaviota Bay by 1:00, and went out in the tender to check out the lie of the land. We landed on “Volleyball Beach” and went up to the Chat ‘n’ Chill for a late lunch. It was exactly what was needed after a good morning’s cruise! We ended up talking with some local guys next to us at the C ‘n’ C, and before the day was out, Ron was aboard their boat, doing a bit of fishing! Ron totally enjoyed it and I relaxed a bit aboard.  

Great food, total island ambiance!  

No burgees, just t-shirts! The rafters are filled at the C 'n' C!

After Ron returned in the early evening, we went over to the Peace and  Plenty with Karuna and Greg for dinner and music. We took Eclipse, as the run across the harbor is a good mile of choppy water. We had a great dinner, taking part in the local benefit barbeque (proceeds to go towards the All-Island Family Regatta) and enjoying the ambience and reveling in the friendliness of the P and P. Great place!! 

On the move again!

Making our way south, we left Black Point and moved another 15 miles south to Cave Cay, where we anchored on the western edge of the cay. Cave Cay and Musha Cay to the south abut the Cave Cay Cut, where we plan to depart for George Town if the weather cooperates. Both islands are gorgeously remote; Musha Cay has a private, very exclusive resort on its western side and visits ashore are by private invitation only. The resort, Copperfield Bay, is owned by David Copperfield, and judging from what we saw, guests are flown in by seaplane or brought to the island by private yacht. Stunning cottages dot the picturesque palm tree-lined shoreline and beach area. Pretty sure the resort is out of our price range, but at least we had the opportunity to share its amazing beauty from the decks of Equinox!

One of the beautiful cottages on Musha Cay

Just north of where we anchored off Cave Cay, there is a beautifully protected cove with high bluffs all around with a marina inside. It has first-class floating piers and some other basic amenities. We thought it was closed, but came to find out it’s a privately owned island, so the owner doesn’t advertise the marina’s presence. It was open to those who inquired, and we met some other cruisers there at the marina, Donato and Bonnie, who invited us aboard their boat for a sundowner, along Dick and Carole off Heron in the slip next door. Turns out Dick and Carole both worked for Kadey-Krogen some years ago, so have many good friends within the ranks of Krogen owners and staff. Small world indeed!! We enjoyed meeting and chatting with them before we headed back to Equinox for dinner and a good night’s sleep. We're cruising offshore tomorrow!

The marina inside Cave Cay

More Bitter Guana exploration

Today was sort of a repeat of yesterday, as we walked about Black Point in the morning again. Lorraine’s Cafe was closed, unfortunately, though we still tried to use the wifi signal available to get online. But, alas, it was to no avail, and after several fruitless attempts at getting our mail to download, we gave up and returned to Equinox.

We brought Karuna and Greg over to Bitter Iguana Cay for a picnic lunch, and we did more exploration of the island. We did a bit of hiking, crossing the cay to the ocean side, where there are numerous cuts and coves carved out of the limestone. We returned to the western beach for lunch, where we waded and swam, and faced the stares of the iguanas all around us. They really aren’t shy! 

Another iguana friend lurking beyond our beach towels

Some of the dramatic limestone formations here on Bitter Guana Cay

In the evening we all went over in Tingum back to Big Major’s Spot and joined in a sundowner on the beach with other cruisers. It was a lot of fun, a lot of food, and we met quite a few of the cruising boats crew and made new friends, including the folks off Forever Young, a boat from our former stomping grounds, Baltimore Marine Center! They’re heading south in tandem with another boat, Pomboo (“dolphin” in swahili, I guess), so our paths may cross again! Most likely in George Town, should the wind ever die down and give us decent conditions for going outside on the Exuma Sound! Let's hope so!

Folks at the beach sundowner

Black Point Settlement, Great Guana Cay

At the town dock in Black Point

We moved farther south today along with Karuna SS just an hour’s cruise to Great Guana Cay, near the settlement of Black Point. It’s near Dotham Cut, where we could possibly head out to Exuma Sound enroute to Georgetown sometime in the next few days, but until then, we thought we’d explore a bit more. The settlement here is genuinely one of the out islands’ “non-touristy” communities, as there is no marina here, only a lovely anchorage. The mailboat comes weekly, although there’s a small air strip with daily flights to Nassau. The community is supposedly the largest in the northern and central Exumas, with a Batelco telephone office, police station and clinic, a school, a library, a couple of restaurants, a bar, laundromat, hardware store and two grocery stores, three churches, and a few other small businesses. Lorraine’s Cafe has wifi internet access for those with laptop computers, along with delicious Bahamian fare. Ron and I stopped in to check it out; besides the internet access (albeit it so slow as to be non-existent) there’s also a book-swap/lending library along the wall as you enter. Ron couldn’t resist having a cracked conch burger while we were there!

A Bahamian sloop under construction

We relaxed in the afternoon for a bit before we took Tingum north to Bitter Guana Cay and met their resident rock iguanas on the beach. They are prehistoric looking creatures, and rather large!! They clearly aren’t afraid of people; they approached us quite closely obviously looking for handouts.  

One of the rock iguanas on Bitter Guana Cay

The anchorage here is gorgeous: turquoise water in every direction, white sandy bottom with good holding and protected from the prevailing easterlies. We hiked up the barren, rocky hills overlooking Exuma Sound, marveling at the lunar landscape of the  limestone, worn away by the wind into twisted, razor-sharp shapes.

Rocky landscape looking out on Exuma Sound

Hiking on Bitter Great Guana

The evening was a quiet one,  just spent relaxing, watching the sunset and then a movie after dinner. Nothing fancy, but the location is just right!

Another windy day, too windy for diving. Looks like we’ll be land-locked for a bit here...even the locals are saying that this is more like March weather than April. So what else is new?? We had breakfast at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club today, did a bit of internet tasks, then ran errands. We dropped off an empty propane tank over at the Isles General store for a refill, and purchased a bit of groceries: celery, lettuce, cucumber, and cheese. We were told to return for the propane tank later in the day, to give the proprietor a chance to fill it. 

Folks at the Staniel Cay cook-out

The morning cruisers’ net on the VHF noted the Cay’s annual Easter cook-out, a fundraiser to benefit the All-Age Island School here, was going on today. It was to be on the public beach, starting at 11:00 and running all day. We ran our few groceries back to Equinox before we returned to the Cay to join in the cook-out festivities. There were hamburgers and cheese burgers with all the fixings, chicken wings, french fries, all sorts of drinks and even home-made doughnuts for dessert. 

Throughout the cook-out area, there were several small kids running about clutching paper bags, still in search of the remaining hidden eggs...too cute! We had a lesiurely lunch beneath the trees along the beach, enjoying the scene.

Some of the kids searching for Easter eggs

Later, Ron and I walked about the rest of the town, stopping in at the “Pink Store” and the “Blue Store”(ask they’re known) to see their wares and pick up a few last things to supplement our provisions. Flour, tomatoes, a few oranges, and...barbeque Pringles! (It was Ron’s sudden craving, not mine!) The stores here are tiny and quaint, painted in a rainbow of colors. The town is rather small, so after a short walk around the western side of the cay, we returned to the boat once again. 

The "Pink Store" at Staniel Cay

The "Blue Store" 

The anchorage here off Big Major’s Spot is crowded with boats of all sizes; we’re somewhat tucked into the lee although the winds remain brisk and the waters a bit choppy. Nevertheless, there’s always something to do! Dinner tonight is aboard Karuna, and then we’ll wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Swimming pigs!

The one drawback to being in remote areas is being without easy internet access. In general, access is so prevalent in the States that it’s taken for granted any more. Here, in order to get reasonable internet access, we need to take the laptops up to Staniel Cay Yacht Club to receive a decent wifi signal, and then buy airtime. We bought access online for $10/a day, (with a limit of 200 MB) so we used that to make some phone calls and download mail. I updated the blogs briefly  then sent out a bit of correspondence before we called Ally on Skype. 

Some of the colorful burgees in the SCYC

So...it was a quiet day. Since it was too windy to dive, we explored a bit in the tender, and then hung out on the boat on anchor, completing small jobs. Nothing fancy, nothing extreme, actually rather mundane with the beautiful paradise right outside! After chores, Ron napped, and Greg and Karuna came over to fill their water jerry cans. (Water here is .50 cents a gallon...use it sparingly!) We were happy to fill their containers, since the water-maker is once again working!

We used Eclipse to check out the beaches on Big Major’s Spot, near our anchorage. There are swimming pigs there, (believe it or not!) which will swim out to greet your dinghy in hopes of finding food. They apparently were brought to the island years ago by some Staniel Cay residents, and folks often bring leftover scraps to feed them. There were a few piglets along with their mother when we arrived, dining on some Easter feast leftovers.

One of the swimming pigs

Trio of piglets...didn't see these guys swim yet!

We returned to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club around 5:30 to check out the happy hour and evening activities...but no happy hour today. So we just hung out with Greg and Karuna, chatted and checked out the decor with its photos and nautical memorabilia. It’s a lovely place here, physically beautiful, and we're planning on doing more exploration of the island tomorrow to see more. Cruising is always an adventure! 

A partly/mostly cloudy morning, perfect for cruising! Of course, this was after a rather restless night for me, since I woke up at 1:45 a.m., thinking something sounded different. While the wind had died off a bit, the boat had swung around some so we were lying a bit differently from earlier, which was a bit disconcerting in the dark. As I tried to get my bearings, I got totally freaked out by the fact that we were so much closer to the megayacht off our stern than we were before!! I knew we weren’t that close before, so I double-checked the bearings to Highborne Cay, to the boats I recognized around us, (nothing different) and double-checked the radar and chart-plotter (which showed we hadn’t moved) yet...there was that boat. I couldn’t figure out how we could have come so close to it! Turns out, we weren’t dragging at all and the anchor was set safely...it was a new boat that had come in to anchor after dark, and dropped anchor right behind us! Oh well...better to be safe than sorry!

The cruise to Staniel Cay was fabulous --- totally uneventful!! We took the rhumbline south outside of the various cays and sand shoals, and arrived around 1:30. Anchor down and set at 1:45 at Big Major’s Spot, alongside and among...more megayachts. We are feeling downright puny in these anchorages! Our neighbor here is Odessa, a 52-meter ship which has more toys than many Bahamian resorts: small sailing cat boat, jet skis, surf boards....goodness, they even have an elevator!! It literally keeps rising out of the flybridge from time to time, and people then walk out...Ron and I thought we were hallucinating before we realized what it was. And here I thought the Exumas would be more secluded, with just sail boats and small trawler-type cruisers. Silly me!

Ron and I took a short cruise to check out the marina and town front of Staniel Cay...but didn’t find easy dinghy dockage available, as even the gas dock was sort of blocked by the plethora of large yachts at the pier. So, we just cruised around, scoping out the settlement and anchorages. We'll have to return with our computers if we are to get internet access, as it is non-existent elsewhere. After we returned to Equinox, while we were cleaning Tingum, who should arrive, but Karuna! We’d been hailing them sporadically all day since they said they’d be down here, but had no response. Turns out they were sailing down by Little Farmer Cay and only on impulse decided to come to Staniel. How fun to have them show up! Impromptu dinner together shall follow...!