Wednesday, May 4, 2016

It's all about da love.....and rum

After 8 nights in the protected harbor of Hatchet Bay in Eleuthera, we busted out one fair day and made our way westbound 16 miles across to Current Cut.....a gap in the islands with a monstrous current....so get your ducks in a row and watch your p's and q's.  We did.....we made sure the tide/current AND wind were in sync flowing with us....we clocked our fastest speed yet at 11 knots (12.6mph)------yeah Fiesta!! woohoo!




Spanish Wells
We were on our way to the very northern island in the Eleuthera chain called Spanish Wells.  It's claim to fame is the largest fishing fleet in the Bahamas for lobsters----and many other fish varieties. It was a culture shock on several levels.  First was the clean and well kept appearance of the soft pastel colored houses.  Second, was that the citizens were all white Bahamians.....descendants of the British Loyalists that fled other parts of the Bahamas when a slave uprising drove them out in the mid 1800's.  It soon became all to obvious to us that there was a definite gene strain common to all.....not only was there a physical similarity with the family name of Pinder everywhere.....but there was this....accent....unlike anything I've ever heard.  I kept expecting a mid-west or Texas accent to come out of these common looking white folks.....but instead, it was truly indescribable.  A linguist would have a blast with this one.  One young waitress pronounced Bahamas.....as Bee-yamas....very cute if not quirky.

S/V Grateful (Dead)---farewell Jamie and Niki
But here's the best part of our stop in Spanish Wells.....the first night we had just crawled into the V-berth bed and I checked phone messages.  Lo and behold, an old childhood friend was anchored in the same harbor....about 150 yards out from us....and they were leaving early in the morning to catch up with us in the last harbor we had just left!!!!  Out of bed.....lower the dinghy down and reinstall the gas tank....start it up and off we went in the dark to a distant catamaran with a fading light shining from the cabin. It was a great reunion of Elenbaas and Wyly that our partying parents in the 1960's would have been proud of.

Tim, Leslie, Niki and Jamie Elenbaas--sailors passing in the night
We hung together for a couple of days exploring the island, reminiscing old times and catching up on the current news.  This was yet another amazing "large ocean....small world" story.  
Jamie and Niki will continue on through the Bahamas.....down to the eastern Caribbean....and eventually over to the Mediterranean....and onward.  

Sail safely my friends.....may the winds favor your wandering direction.



I tell ya......this whole trip has been about the journey.....not the destination. 


Dolphins off the bow
There's been some high hi's......and low lo's.....as with everything in life.  The lo side of this life is the farewells....it's hard to see a boat pull out of harbor.  It sets in a certain melancholy that says.....time to move on too.  And so we did. 













We took our departure from Spanish Wells....westbound to the beautiful Berry Islands.....and found serenity surrounded by turquoise blue for 7 days.
Berry Islands.....or is it Gilligan's Island?
The conch critter is still in there!  


Another secret deep blue hole--Hoffman's Cay

  


Great Harbor Cay--north Berry Islands









We spent 4 nights in Great Harbor Cay waiting for a weather window for a 76 mile passage (19 hours) over to the Bimini Islands.....but made a quick decision to leave one afternoon around 3pm and go all night with a full moon.  It was one of those difficult passages.....though the winds were a perfect 10-15kts, the rolling waves on our beam threw us around quite a bit....thank goodness for that full moon to keep us oriented.
 We arrived in Cat Cay anchorage at 10am.....wiped out.  
Final Bahamian Island.....Cat Cay---south of Bimini

Gulf Stream---pics can't capture those steep waves....
 This was our final stop in the Bahamas......time to go home for real.  We slept all day and spent an extra day and night resting and waiting for that picture perfect window to cross the BIG river.....the Gulf Stream.....back to Florida...70 nm.  It was Friday April 22 (oops...mariner taboo says never leave a harbor on Friday)....when we woke up, the winds were on the frisky side for a GS crossing....SE at 15-20kts....which means the waves will also be high......but we went for it....because the next few days were going to be calm.....and we're not into motoring for the next 60 miles.  With a reefed mainsail and full jib, we made 6-7kts for the first part of the day.  Winds were actually perfect, but the waves were exhilarating....with the taller ones hitting us on the broadside at about 10 feet. The weather experts predicted these waves to be 4-6ft....because they take the average height of the highest 1/3 of the waves--- individual waves may be more than twice this height.  Nonetheless, we were so happy to have an Island Packet yacht that day....we sailed her strong and she handled it beautifully.  To compensate for the strong GS current, we steered 25 degrees southwest-ward off our direct 240 degree bearing for 8 hours, until we finally felt the Gulf Stream push against us dropping our speed to 2-3kts....oh yeah, here she is.  So we had to fall off northward of our intended bearing to make any way.  There's nothing that says...."Gulf Stream River here!"  
Gulf Stream approx location

The edges move around east and west over the 2000ft deep trench.  You just know it when the compass and speed goes weird. 

Anyway, long after a beautiful sunset we pulled into Key Largo to the northside of Rodriquez Key and dropped the hook among a dozen sleeping boats at 11pm.....exhausted.  The downstairs salon area looked like a war zone......there was stuff everywhere.  Even when I thought everything had been tucked away or battened down, the mighty ocean showed me different.  The mighty ocean.....keeping sailors humble for centuries....and chasing that bottle of rum.  

This current blog is being reported to you from the warm and secure bosom of Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, Florida Keys....where we will hang for the next month....on a mooring ball.

Here we have run into several of our crazy neighbors from C-dock in our home marina of Regatta Point.....and more are enroute on there way here....it's gonna be fun to see them all again.  As of today, we are scheduled to return to Palmetto,FL (Regatta Point Marina) by June 1st.....and then decide where our future will be from there.....
       
Last note observations.....there are a few things we would like to include after our 4.5 months in the Bahamas.  First of all is the abundance of friendliness of the citizens.  Except for one tyrant in one harbor, the general majority of Bahamians are "all about da love".  It's customary to say "hello!"  to everyone you pass....it is so warm and friendly.
Also remarkable here is the security we felt while drifting around.  At no time did we feel ourselves or Fiesta or our dinghy in jeopardy. (though we did not visit Nassau, Freeport or Marsh Harbor where caution is prudent) 

Another note of interest was the availability of fresh veggies.  Most come from afar and always via the Mailboat, though that's typical anywhere in the world these days. We ate very well supplying our meals from the the little mom and pop stores all over the islands.  We actually both ate well, lost weight and gained muscle 
in this live-aboard transient lifestyle.

Lastly, because we don't favor the drama side of life, we went prepared and though there was a daily risk to everything we did, we stayed on the cautious side of that fulcrum.   With due diligence on engine and boat maintenance, we had only three minor repairs....and returned happy and satisfied with a journey of 1138 nautical miles 
(=1309 standard miles) All those miles and only $300 spent on diesel.
Well done....now let's have some rum!



2 comments:

  1. Glad you guys are back safe and sound. What a great way to spend the winter (other than skiing of course)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Welcome back to the states. Have you heard who the 'publican nom for oligarch-in-chief is? Thinking of heading back out to sea!?!
    :-0

    ReplyDelete

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