Blowin' in the Wind...

The time has blown by; I can't believe it's been over three weeks since the last blog post.  So here's an attempt to bring you up to our current clear water anchorage position. 

Lots of time to read....

In our last episode, we had left you to go hide, once again, from the next big nasty 30+ knot blow.  The veteran cruisers in these waters have all claimed that this El Niño winter has been unusually tough, with so many strong cold fronts.  It's not that it's actually been terribly cold, but more that these frequent fronts bring strong winds that clock around from the predominant east-northeast direction, which makes it easier to find those hidey holes in the calm western shores of the beautiful Bahama Islands to drop a hook and wait it out.  When it blows from the south to west to northwest, every boat scrambles to find good holding in the less common eastern side or lee of the land out of the wind and waves, like kids playing musical chairs or hide and seek. We've been doing this since we arrived in the Bahamas in mid-December. Don't get me wrong, it's still paradise, but it's restrictive and we're all ready for more fair winds.  In the aforementioned 30+ knot blow, there were about 15 or more of us hunkered between two islands near Staniel Cay that we call The Majors.  That night was sleepless, with constant vigilance not only for our boat, but for others who might drag their anchor into other boats, or worse and end up on the rocks.  About 2:30am that night, in the howling wind (it's always worse at night), we did watch a boat drag for about a quarter of a mile before he either caught himself or his anchor reset itself. Actually, all we could see in the pitch black was his anchor light atop his mast in motion and other boats yelling on the VHF radio while also blasting an air horn to wake him up.  The next night, in one cove south of us, we listened on the VHF radio as two boats did collide and their attempts to maintain and/or regain position while assessing damage.  These winds create a dramatic, lonely, howling sound on the boat as they pass through the various shroud cable lines holding our mast up. Can't really call it music, but rather like a background noise for a cold Jeremiah Johnson flick.

We have an app on our tablet called Drag Queen (luv the name). We set its GPS coordinates according to where our anchor dug in.  A terrifying middle-of-the-night alarm will sound if we drag outside of the designated circumference.  It's not perfect and we've had several heart-attack false alarms, but we learned real quick to scan the horizon points before assuming we were in danger.  So far, our faithful 44lb Rocna anchor with 3/8 chain rode AND our well-rehearsed anchor procedure has stuck (knock on wood as we sit waiting the next inevitable blow)  

Back at the Majors anchorage,  I did a quick scout with my metal detector on the nearby beach  (nothing but a few aluminum cans).

We left the Staniel Cay area after two weeks and headed for Black Point; a beautiful large harbor with a claim to fame for its new modern laundromat and great happy hour bars and old faithful blowhole. 

 

Black Point

We stayed here for four days, meeting a wonderful variety of other cruisers.....and stocking up on provisions for the next leg.  But alas, the next "leg" found us running back up north to our fav hidey hole (the Majors) for another westerly blowing cold front. Sorry to be so redundant in my weather reporting, but can you see what the pattern is here?  Two or three days of calm and 1-3 days hiding.

  

 

Finally, on January 30th, we left our snug comfort zone between the Majors on a promised beautiful day of 10-15kt SE winds.  With full sails (read: no motor), we buddy-boated with Butch and Susan from S/V Dreamcatcher for the next three hours to a peaceful anchorage north of Little Farmers Cay and it was peaceful.

The next morning found us onshore exploring inland to a large cave with a large freshwater pool complete with bats amongst the stalagmites-n-tites.  

Lil' Farmers Cay

Harbor sea turtles

The entire next week was a long overdue calm reprieve on the quaint and VERY friendly Little Farmers Cay.  They were preparing for their largest annual event of the year, the 5F's festival.....First Friday in February Farmers (Cay) Festival.

Wood carver and conch horn seller----JR

Part of my search in the Bahamas was for a conch horn. and I found it at JR's woodcarving!! It takes practice, but it's a tradition amongst cruisers to salute the setting sun with a symphony of blowing conch horns.










One of the 5F's main events included the popular C-class Sailboat Regatta and was supposed to draw 300 spectator boats.  We anchored ourselves right in the middle of the race course amongst other cruisers and had a blast.  

Sail 'em full!

The 17ft Bahamian sloop racing boats carry a huge cotton sail and use up to 3 planks called Pry Boards for human ballast.  It was a beautiful day and really very exciting.  

?? Fun Can't Done ??

Woohoo! Found a ring for a $200 reward

The last evening at a party on the beach, a Bahamian woman lost her gold diamond ring while playing volleyball. She was very distraught.  The next morning, I scanned the area with my metal detector and found it----earning a $200 reward--- woohoo!

 

For a week, Tim interviewed and recorded local folks for one of his best documented videos yet----don't miss this one----soon to come and will post when ready.

We're hidden behind the large yachts 

We could have stayed a few more days, but on the eve of Super Bowl Sunday, we hightailed it two miles south to ride out another front while tucked into Cave Cay Marina (aka Safe Harbor Marina), where the harbormaster's name is Shark (a personal highlight of this marina for us). This marina  (only our second in two months) is in a dredged-out cove with all-around protection.  We were the small, humble sailboat tied amongst the very large power boats seeking refuge.  But another reason we chose this marina is that at the regatta we had met a lovely couple, Vic and Gigi on Salty Turtle, who were heading there and invited us onto their large yacht to watch the Super Bowl. But the odd part was that they had been invited onto another VERY LARGE yacht for the party, so they left their yacht to about eight of us to enjoy (while the wind raged outside). Love the trust amongst fellow cruisers.   (yeah Broncos!)

Next morning the winds had subsided. 

Copperfields mermaid & piano

 

So while we waited for the tides to turn in our favor, we headed down two miles to Rudder Cut Cay in search of a mermaid and a piano in about 12 feet of water.  A commissioned life-sized sculpture by David Copperfield, who owns the nearby island.  With GPS coordinates, we found her---truly a highlight as I thought about my mermaid sisters---Nancy, Krista and Susan.  But snorkeling in the strong current was exhausting and we left her way too soon.  

Our next big adventure and challenge was something I've read and researched ---navigating the "cuts".  The cuts are the openings between the cays that connect the shallow "banks" side of the island chain with the deeper "sound" side of the islands.  Most cruising in the Exumas is straightforward daysailing with land in sight.  The potential danger is caused by the huge volumes of tidal waters flowing off the shallow banks through the restricted narrow cuts between the cays, especially when this easterly flowing ebb current meets strong easterly winds at the cuts at mid-ebb tide.  The steep, confused breaking seas are locally called a "rage", a wall of water-waves with short intervals like a washing machine gone bad on steroids.  As long as the current flows with the winds, it's no problem.  So we timed ourselves with the current and winds heading east out of Rudder Cut, then bearing southeast for eight nautical miles on the Exuma Sound to dodge back west into Adderly Cut and tuck up between Norman's Pond Cay and Leaf Cay. Whew, this was a big accomplishment for me, as these Bahamian ocean currents demand respect.  You'll hear story after story of boats that "went for it," punching their way through the cuts---white knuckles on the helm, wishing they had their snorkel on. Nope, not for this sailor girl if I can help it.

Now, the other part about all this tidal current in the shallow waters of the Bahamas is that it frequently is stronger than the winds.  So, an anchored boat will tend to face the direction the wind is coming from, but if a strong current dominates, things can get cattywompers and pretty soon your anchor chain is running aft under your hull with the anchor way behind off the stern, which creates a loud scraping of chain on your hull in the middle of the night. And then there's always that unknown mysterious noise at night---what was that?  Hold your breath and listen---"dunno, maybe a bear....or a barracuda?"

Between dragging anchors, shallow waters with coral heads, raging currents, and the weekly high winds (usually every Sunday) on a  Beaufort Scale force 7-8 (28-40 knots = 32- 46 mph = gale force).  Are we having fun yet?  Yes, we actually are.  Continuous sleep through the night is rare, so maybe that's why cruisers drink rum and go to bed by 8pm every night. :)   Ok, I digressed; where was I?  

Leaf Cay

We had fun around the Leaf Cay/Lee Stocking Island area, where we spent three nights. The large pink iguanas tried to steal our dinghy.

Dead research center

 

The island of Lee Stocking was known at one time for being the base of the Caribbean Marine Research Center since the late 80's; a project of NOAA, Perry Institute for Marine Science and several US universities.  But since 2012, it's an eerie ghost town of buildings that resemble an apocalyptic Hollywood movie set, where the humans were beamed up in the middle of their daily duties. 

The highlight of the island was a hike up to the highest point in the Exumas, Perry's Peak at 123ft.

Perry's Peak--our anchorage in distant cove behind us

On Thursday morning Feb 11, with a slack current and northerly winds, we made a smooth pass east back through Adderly Cut into the deep sea Exuma sound.  We had a reefed mainsail to give us power and stability in the waves.  On the "outside" of the cut we hoisted the jib and sailed beam-to-broadreach strongly, no motor, only pure wind for 6 hours at 5-6knts with following seas and 15-18kt easterly winds all the way to Georgetown, or the Emerald City/OZ as we dubbed it---looking for a salty wizard to give us a life direction? a million dollars? bottle of rum? or maybe just some sense.......or some-thing.  

Georgetown.....at long last

Gtown is actually where we're planning on staying for a couple of weeks? or months? figuring out what's next in our life as we know it.  In the meantime, we're hunkered down once again with 25 knot winds and a free fresh rainwater bath for Fiesta--- it's not all bad.  We'll explore this large harbor and islands amongst the great support of a couple hundred other great floating salty adventuresome vessels like ourselves that are also looking for the Holy Grail of Life.......or not. 

Till next time blog-followers----cheers!

Cruising Bahamas video: