The Bahamas - Bee-uuu-tee-ful

Wow. The Bahamas truly are beautiful. Sailing along in 7 to 12 feet of calm, clear, turqouise water. Watching the starfish on the bottom. They look so clear and close. It seems like you could reach over and pick one up.
We set sail from Rum Cay and on to Long Island with our daughter Becky, who joined us for a week before she went to Cuba on a project. We anchored off the Santa Maria Resort. We were joined by our friends on II Audeacious. Lots of wonderful meals at the Resort where friends Marlene and Guy were staying. We enjoyed the warm water and some great snorkeling. After a few short days we sadly said goodbye and hoisted anchor for Georgetown. We had a great sail. As you can see Sharen found time to work on her tan on the way. After dropping anchor, Becky and Sharen stayed on the bow for some mother daughter bonding time. I know when to stay away.
Georgetown is the sailing mecca for Florida boats in the south Exumas. Actually there were hundreds of boats here from everywhere. This is one of those places where sailing folks get stuck! Sometime for a whole season. Quite nuts. It has some nice places but also some serious setbacks. The best anchorages are across a sometimes very choppy, large bay from the main town. This bay can get very stormy and I for one almost upset my dinghy on a seriously steep wave set. I was sent skyborne and was heading for a backwards flip with my motor fully revved out when the back of the dinghy thankfully caught the next wave and came crashing down right side up. After which I felt the need for a solemn moment. Another near death experience. I bumped along slowly trying to sing the theme song from "Love Boat" until I finally got across.
We hired a rental car and toured Grand Exuma Island and came upon this wonderful looking restaurant. It was closed at the time but we noticed this sign in the window. Too Cute.
We had Becky's birthday on the boat before she left for 2 months in Cuba as she would be away on the big day. This was going to be a wonderful break for her. Although she would be very busy, she would get to perfect her Spanish and also take some time off after finishing some taxing contracts in Edmonton.
We left the boat in the hands of a wonderful gentleman in a wet dock in a very protected lagoon near Georgetown while we flew home for our grandson Max's birthday. A date we felt most important to return to Canada for. We also attended to some incidentals such as taxes and the sale of one of our properties. All a distant second to seeing the grandkids and the rest of our family.
We returned after a week to sail north up the Exumas. As we left we noticed another boat going in our direction. They hailed us on the VHF radio. They had sailed this way many times and suggested some changes in our routing and urged us to join them near Thunderball cavern (Where a portion of the James Bond movie was made). This is near Staniel Cay. They were Larry and Sharon and introduced us to their friends on Figment, Barry and Di Di upon our arrival. We anchored off a quiet island nearby where the famous swimming wild pigs roam the beaches. These are farmyard pigs set free several generations ago. They swim out to your dinghy to see if you have any food for them.
We dinghied to Thunderball Island with new friends Barry and Di Di who were lots of fun, to snorkel the cavern and were thrilled by the amount of fish. It felt like we were swimming in an aquarium. We followed them in one 6" high entrance through the cavern and out another even smaller exit on the other side. We tried to swim around the island and back to our dinghy. We soon found ourselves caught in a current which we could not easily swim through so we turned around and retraced our route through the cavern once more and back to our inflatable, quite pooped.
Our next stop was Norman Cay, made famous by the Columbian Drug Lord Carlos Lederer back in the in the 80's who took over most of the island, building a runway, villas, bars and dance floors. A full on party place. The central bay has a partially sunken airplane. The story is not of a failed drug run but a plane overloaded with sod for Carlos, the drug kingpin. He wanted to have a nice lawn. We snorkeled the plane even finding a nurse shark hanging out near by. The island is now in serious disrepair. The result of a fed up US gov't who finally decided to raid the island when the local Bahamian government failed to do anything which would stop the steady cash flowing to their personal bank accounts. The story goes that Carlos traded time in prison for the names and payments to the Government officials. Needless to say there followed a wholesale change in the Bahamian officialdom.
A quick stop with Barry and Di Di at Highbourne Cay as we heading north up the Exumas. Here Sharen found a new job as an aid to a stop sign.
We stopped briefly at Allen Cay to get some photos of the local inhabitants. Then off to Nassau to join our friends Larry and Sharon and Barry and Di Di on Figment, a home built steel sloop, (his wife always thought the completed vessel was a "figment" of Barry's imagination). Here we needed to return to Canada once more as we received word that my 93 yr old father was taken to hospital. He ended up improving and has just had his 94th birthday. We trust he will get to enjoy many more.
We returned to the boat with Karla our niece who was taking the summer off prior to entering med school this fall.
We did a short visit to Paradise Island where we were able to sneak past the guards stopping day visitors from entering the beach/entertainment area. The development is amazing. Especially the Mayan Temple slide where you slide thru a tube thru a shark aquarium. Quite neat. We stopped at a wonderful little bay in Royal Island. Here we swam in 96F water. Quite amazing. A neighbouring boat traded some fish for cookies and we dined very well on freshly barbecued mackeral. We sailed on to the Abacos stopping off in Little Harbour and Man o War Cay. Little Harbour's main claim to fame seems to be Pete's Pub. It was interesting as it was set into a hillside with couches and large chairs you would normally find in a family room set on a flattened out area of the bank such that the head of the patrons occupying the seats were at the same height of the head of the bartender standing behind the bar and they were close enough to have a good conversation and to pass another beer. We sailed on to Man O' War Island but we made a navigational error and ended up stuck on a sand bank in a rising tide. This gave us an opportunity for Karla and I to do some serious cleaning of the hull. We were so busy we did not notice when the boat had floated free. We are not sure how long we were adrift.
Man O War is a quiet beautiful landscaped, surreal kind of place. This picture of Karla & Sharen is of typical front entrance to a home. Everything about it was peaceful. We had heard stories of close families with some serious inbreeding. What we found were beautiful beaches and some wonderful people who vacationed here in solitude. The main mode of travel is golf carts. This picture is of a group of locals who just came to sit and chat. The store is closed and there were no ferries. They were just all sitting and passing the time of day. Who does that anymore?
We left Man O' War reluctantly and sailed off to Marsh Harbour, another of those places famous for "Stuck" boaters. Quite amazing. Several hundred boats who come in the fall and leave in the spring. Nice spot but....there is more to see out there folks. We did enjoy a Junkanoo Festival in Goombay Park. We saw this strange performance that seemed to have African roots done by this strange looking character. We never quite figured it all out.
We backtracked on our route to join our friends on II Audeacious who caught up to us. We joined them in Hopetown on Elbow Cay. We toured on foot as a rental was impossible to find and dined at at this wonderful hotel on the beach. They allowed us to have a swim in their pool. Ahhh. Fine wine in a nice warm pool in the Bahamas anyday. (My glass is out of the picture)
We bid farewell once more to our friends Tommy and Marianne as we wanted to get on towards our goal of getting to the Chesapeake before the hurricane season. This was going to be our first year we were going to finally make it and get our boat out of hurricane area and keep our insurance in full force.
Next stop Green Turtle Cay. Here we were twarted from our plans to enjoy the island as we found it impossible to get properly anchored. I dove the anchor several times trying to jab it into the bottom. Impossible and I was not interested in any chance of another fiasco like we head in St Martins where we dragged anchor past 4 boats and almost plowed into a local billionaire"s vessel worth over 15 million.
We finally searched around and were able to get some semblance of security and did a quick dinghy tour of the harbour and a fast supper before heading back to our boat. The next day we were off early again as "we had a long way to go and a short time to get there." Karla seemed to enjoy the sail. We stopped in the only refuge. Sale Cay which is a small flat cay far and away from anything else. We sailed into a litte anchorage to find 5 other boats. The only purpose of this anchorage is as a semi safe spot to put your hook down and get some sleep. We were the second boat out in the morning and noticed that all had up anchored before we were out of sight. All heading in different directions.
We stopped in Old Bahama marina on the fartherest west end of Grand Bahama. This was by far the most expensive marina we have ever stayed. It was nice and it was good it was there as it is the last port of call before you head across the gulf stream to Florida and the first place to tie up when you come across. We rented a car (actually it looked more like a gangsta mobile - I'm sure there were blood stains on the roof) and drove down to visit our friends on Figment at their home port in Ocean Reef Marina next to Freeport, Grand Bahama We decided to listen to them and bring Slow Dancing into their marina while we flew home for a week to attend another very important birthday, our grand daughter's 3rd. We would never be forgiven if we missed it. Thank god we only have 2 grand children. We couldn't afford the flights if we had more. Ocean Reef is one of those developments where a long trench was dug out and all the streets of houses have a back door onto the water. Ocean Reef is about 1&1/2 kms inland from the sea so we feel quite protected. This became very important because when we arrived home we discovered our son had decided to join our development company and it was necessary that we stay home to help him get started.
We tied the boat as if we would be returning in a week. We left the refrigerator going, sails on the boat etc. This became a major concern to us.
As things turned out, god brought us an angel.
When we were leaving for the plane and gentleman came up to us to say hi and told us he lived on his motor yacht 2 boats over. He said not to worry, he would keep an eye on our boat as he was close. I told him I was not concerned as I we would be back in a week to 10 days. When we realized we weren't going to be back I asked him if he could take a peek and throw out the stuff in the fridge. He and his wife has volunteered to wash, clean and basically take over the care of our poor abandoned vessel. We are very relieved that we have someone as generous as this to look after our baby.

Jamaica, Cuba, Turks & Caicos to the Bahamas

Hi
We were excited to get this picture. My dad is now 93 and losing his eyesight and he wanted to see a picture of the boat with full sails up. We were in light wind. Our friends took it as we sailed close by. It would have been better to have one taken when we were powered up in 20 knots and on an 18 degree heel, but maybe next time.
We truly enjoyed Jamaica and with much complaining from my mutinous crew, I was forced under the pressure of time to move on as it was necessary to continue making our way north to get our boat out of hurricane area by July 1. With Norfolk, Virginia still 1750 nautical miles away, we needed to get going.
We met a wonderful young man in Jamaica who accepted our invitation to join us and assist us on our multi-day (and night) sails to Cuba and on to the Bahamas. His name is Tyrone and although his sailing skills wane somewhat (which always kept us on our toes), his penchant for neatness, desire to clean, an ability to repair anything and amazing skills in the galley, made him a welcome and enjoyable addition to our crew list.
We left Errol Flynn Marina and sailed overnight to Santiago de Cuba on the south coast of Cuba. Although the weather was predicted to be a maximum of 10 knot winds out of the SE, we experienced 25 to 30 knots on our tail almost the whole way. Tyrone was able to land this beautiful tuna. It is still frozen in our fridge waiting for the perfect recipe.
The entry into Cuba was interesting for 2 reasons. Our arrival coincided with the arrival into the entrance of the narrow channel with a huge freighter. We agreed to let him proceed first. Might is always right. Also, when we tied up to the marina, we were welcomed by the most rigorous search and scrutiny of our sailing adventures so far. It was to the point of rediculousness. Sharen and I were interrogated at great length about our knowledge of Tyrone and as to whether he could be a druglord, subversive or whatever. We had 20 plus customs, immigration, port authority, a medical doctor, veterinarian, quarantine officers, a dog and god knows what other sudo government representative poke and search and sniff their way thru our boat. The one that was most difficult was a tall 20 something year old guy who was intent on finding some elusive drug stash hidden in some far corner of the boat. After several attempts to ask him for his name he finally volunteered. His name was Yuri. This guy was a Russian. After some inordinate amount of searching where I was, needless to say, excessively helpful to being a bother, his boss finally put him and me out of our misery by calling him off. Besides being in a decaying marina that had not had any sort of mainenance done to it in over 50 years, and being downwind of a cement factory that poured oil pollution from its stacks onto our nice clean boat everynight, Cuba is wonderful. Santiago de Cuba was the original capital of Cuba before it was switched to Havana. This picture shows a model of the harbour. Sharen is pointing to our Marina. The city of Santiago de Cuba is at the far end of the bay (top of the picture). We rented a car and took several trips into Santaigo de Cuba and one night stayed in The Grand Hotel so we could go out for dinner and not have to worry about driving home in the dark. Night time driving is a frightening experience. Although there are very few cars, there are numerous pedestrians, horse drawn buggies and no street lights. The hotel is on the central square and we watched numerous impromptu bands start up, various guitar playing singers and enjoyed some wonderful music.
We met this colorful gentleman outside the hotel. He was fantastic. Hit the play button and listen to him. Notice that he plays his guitar with a knife.


In a tour of the city we came upon the home of former Cuban resident Emilio Bacardi. He inherited the business from his grandfather and grew it to a major international business. He chose to leave after the revolution (when Castro nationalized his business) and relocated to Puerto Rico. This mansion shows some of the disproportionate wealth of Cuba before 1959. It takes up an entire city block.
We stopped at the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia which is famous for the changing of the guard every 30 minutes. It is the burial place of most of the deceased famous (and infamous) people of this area of Cuba. It was really surprising to see the guards do the straight legged march the Gestapo did in WW2. Quite weird.


Another stop on our tour of the city were these barracks (now a school building) riddled with bullet holes. This was a hiding spot of Fidel during his war on Batista. It is interesting to note that the bullet holes have never been painted over. Fidel likes to keep these reminders around of the revolution. The entire country's history, books, billboards, school teachings and media is about only one man. Fidel. It is very strange how he can be so dispised and still be in power.

We wanted to do some island exploring so we drove across the island to Holquin and the seaside tourist development at Guadilavaca (roughly translated to Guard the Cow - not sure if it was named by some lifeguards who watched over the overweight beauties on the beach).

Life in Cuba is very difficult.
This picture shows how the farm materials are shipped around the country. What is hard for us to understand is that these 2 gentleman probably have undergraduate degrees but only receive about $13.00 per month.
This picture shows fishermen out on the water in the harbour lying on tire tubes with coiled up fishing lines. This is how they make a living and feed their families. The next picture shows how many of them are out there. They have a very hard and difficult life but they all greeted us with a big smile and wave when we met them at the end of a day on the water. Here are some oxen pulling a cart to market. A normal everyday mode of travel in Cuba.
We stopped to pick up hitchhikers as often as we had space. There are very few cars so hitchhikers will wait most of a day for a ride. There really is no other way for people to get somewhere. Buses are almost non existent and at a pay scale which averages $13.00 to $14.00 per month, they can't afford a car. The normal Cuban will have been college educated, very well spoken, hates Castro and wants to better themselves but are stuck in a regime they feel they can not escape. But to a person, everyone is very pleasant and always greeted us with a big smile and were extremely thankful for anything we did for them. This was truly one of the places we enjoyed the most.
This is George. He is one of the marina dockmasters. When he first met us he asked me to step aside so he could talk to Sharen. He said to her "Now I know I am the best looking man you have ever seen, but I need to tell you; I am married and I am very sorry but I love my wife and I am not available." He was a hoot. He spoke English perfectly and explained that he formally taught English in University but asked to switch to this position. Here he had an opportunity to gain more for his family from travelers.
After a week, we were sad to leave Cuba but we needed to push on for The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. The island of Inagua was only a day or so away but, due to its poor and potentially dangerous anchorages we decided we would carry on for 2 nights and 2 days to Provinciales in the Turks and Caicos. On the way we passed Guantanamo Bay and were a little spooked so we stayed 6 miles off. We hailed them as we approached to identify ourselves and were thanked. Not so bad! This picture is from 6 miles away. These structures are big whatever they are.
On the second day we spotted a huge US Coast Guard Vessel about 3 to 5 miles off. They stopped about a mile away and hailed us on our VHF to identify ourselves. We politely responded to all their questions such as name of vessel, names of all on board, which port we departed from and which port we were destined for. This was not a problem for us as it is nice to have them out there but when we thanked them for their presence, they did not respond. I guess they are not used to dealing with niceties. I do regret not asking them for their names and positions. I mean we were almost 200 miles from US waters. They did proceed to hail a small sailboat that looked like a Haitian fishing boat. With no response they offloaded a speedboat and came alongside it. We saw the boat lower its sails and we expect they were all escorted back to Haiti (50 plus miles away). Interesting but we decided to carry on to Provo instead of reducing sail to slow down and watch the goings on.
The sail to Turks and Caicos was otherwise uneventful. We had comfortable winds and relatively flat seas. It was really a "sailors delight". We arrived off Turtle Cove Marina, in Provo, about mid day. We requested a guide boat as the approach was very dangerous, with about 2 miles of reefs to pick our way through, to get in. About half way I began to curse when I saw another boat coming out as we would have to pass in one of the narrowest passes between the reefs. This was until we noticed this lady on the front looking a lot like Marianne from 2 Audeacious. It was them. Our friends from Puerto Rico. They were heading out for the nite to an island with some guests to do some snorkeling and would return the next day.
We enjoyed their company for over a week in one of the super special places in this world. They told us of a traumatic experience they had while sailing thru the night on the north coast off The Dominican Republic. They caught a floating net in their prop while they were motor sailing in uncomfortable seas. This stuff always happens in the middle of the night. With nothing to do, they shut the motor off and waited for daylight, slowly floating towards a reef strewn shore. At daybreak, the seas were still too rough to attempt a dive under to try and free the line. Luck was with them and a few careful turns of the engine in reverse and they were able to get sufficient mobility from the prop to move enough to control the boat. Once into their next port, they were able to cut out the rest of the line. Sharen is holding it in this picture. We again rented a car and drove around to some of the nicest beaches and visited the New Regent Grande Hotel which is truly awesome. One day we all piled into the small rental car and headed off to the far east end of the island (Yes. Everyone in this picture in a small compact) . We took a high speed ferry to Middle Caicos. Marianne organized a 12 passenger van to tour us around Middle and East Caicos. Wonderful to see. For the most part it is undeveloped except for a few resorts in various stages of growth or decay. One stop was especially memorable. Mudjin Harbour. It wasn't a harbour but a beautiful beach where huge waves broke over a 30 foot high volcanic reef island just offshore. It was awesome. Marianne and Tommy heard it was Sharen's Birthday and these Birthday Glasses were their way of identifying who the Birthday Girl was.
We were sad to leave but needed to keep pushing north and we had some friends booked to meet us in Long Island in the Bahamas. With a promise to keep in touch we left for a 2 nite sail to Stella Maris, the only spot we felt was safe to check in where we didn't need to worry about reefs. Big Mistake. We should have taken one of the reef strewn port of entry alternatives.
On our way Sharen took this shot of some dolphins jumping. An exciting moment in an otherwise uneventful sail. Well. That is except for the squall that overtook us. We finally heard back from our weather router "after" we left Turtle Cove. His advice was to stay put as there was some chance of squall activity. We thought about turning back but decided to carry on. I mean... how bad could it be??? A day and a half out and about 12 hours from Stella Maris, on Long Island, we found out. The rain was, well just rain. Coming down very heavy but it was warm. And the wind wasn't really all that much. What was uncomfortable were the seas that built up for about 5 to 6 hours. We did feel pretty good about getting caught and realizing that we could handle it.
Stella Maris on Long Island had a shallow entrance which was reported to be over 6 feet at High tide. We had a full moon high tide which we felt would give us sufficient water depth such that we would have no problems. Wrong. We grounded out on sand about 2 miles from the marina. We decided to push through it and were able to get into deeper water and get into the marina and pick up our guests, friends Guy and Marlene McKay from Edmonton who were meeting us there. We also needed to get Tyrone to an airport as he needed to return to Jamaica asap as he was being interviewed for his US citizenship. He was hoping to join his wife and child who live in California. Here we checked into the Bahamas. A nice little bunch of forms and a $300 fee to bring the boat in. (They have discovered that boaters will pay and they are charging. Highest cost in Caribbean). We toured the island finding lots of beautiful beaches and this closed up cottage which we stopped to enjoy a rest on their deck before moving on.
We stopped at Dean's Blue Hole. I guess these Blue Holes are common in the Bahamas. This appears to be the deepest at over 600 feet. The guy being interviewed (on the left) is the world's champion free diver. His name is Will Truebridge and he won an international competition held here a few days before. He dove down 311 feet without oxygen, flippers or aids of any kind. He showed the interviewers how he inhales enough oxygen to hold his breath for so long. As he drew in his breath his chest expanded and it was very odd. His chest seemed to be almost 3 times its normal size. During his dive he has to swim hard to get down the first 50 feet. After that the water pressure compresses his chest so he free falls the rest of the way. Then he has to fight to get back up to the 50 ft level again where his chest air expands and lifts him. Why would anyone want to do that???? Very strange. Sharen wanted me to give it a try but I think she doesn't know I have just canceled my life insurance policies.
After 2 days I noticed the high tides were lowering everyday (as we moved farther from the full moon), so we decided to get going before we were totally stuck forever in this marina. We thought we had it figured as we discussed the best route out with several experienced local mariners. Wrong again. As it was, we full throttled it through sand for 4 whole miles. Finally getting to deeper water we wiped our brows in relief and enjoyed a wonderful sail to Conception Island about 30 nautical miles away. We had nice gentle seas. We were happy as it was an introductory sail for both Guy and Marlene. They did very well and turned out to have cast iron stomachs. Like the shirts?? Conception is an uninhabited island with some of the nicest & cleanest beaches in the Caribbean. It seems this beach goes around the entire island. The next day we left for Rum Cay. This turned out to be quite the adventure. Part way across I noticed the engine was overheating and the water cooling system wasn't working. We knew immediately that we blew out the seawater impeller while we were ploughing our way thru the sand out of Stella Maris. This is one of those moments when real sailors shine because real sailors would have a spare on board. We didn't. Here we are. No engine and traveling from an uninhabited island to one with a population of 60 and we needed a specialty part. We thought we were screwed. This is at the very least going to be "very" expensive. We were comforted when we called the Marina from 20 miles out to tell them of our predicament and we would need a tow in. We were relieved when they said they would come for us when we got closer. That was the last we heard from them for 4 hours. When we arrived off the marina there was no answer to our many calls on the VHF. Finally a good samaritan responded and although they did not have a boat, they promised to chase up some help. They were able to get a hold of the island policeman (he was in a bar having a beer with friends) and he was able to find the owner of the marina, (I think they were drinking together). They finally called us on our radio and said they would be right out for us. This was good as it was getting dark. A half hour passes and no boat. It is getting darker. They again respond to our calls, saying they are coming. Still nothing. We are tacking back and forth around some very dangerous reefs. I'm starting to make plans to sail off overnight to another island when this puny little skiff appears. On it is this long haired hippie with braids and a giant negro. I'm thinking nasty thoughts. These guys look like riff raff and I'm trusting my nice boat to them. It turns out the long haired hippie is Bobbie. He owns the marina, the restaurant and just about every other enterprise on the island. He is a super guy who is really enjoying his life here. If there is not much going on in a day he will load up all who want to join him and journey off to the far side of the island to go surfing. The giant negro turns out to be "Rasta" one of the nicest people you will ever meet. We nick named him the Giant Ewok.
Bobby does it all. At night he is the chef coming up with the most fantastic creations. The Good Samaritans turned out to be Clint and his wife Nancy who have built their vacation home here. They commute back and forth to their home in Florida by their own plane. They offered to fly us out to get Guy & Marlene back to Long Island and to pick up Becky who was flying in there to join us for a week before she headed off to Cuba where she was coordinating an agriculture project for some 20 graduate students from Canada. Clint and Nancy also flew us back the next day to pick up the impeller (and a spare). This was truly one of the wonderful experiences that one is lucky enough to find once in a lifetime.
We sponsored a dinner party for all those that helped us. That night we met Silvan (on the left), Eric (on the right) and 2 friends from Sweden. They were sailing their boat La Bonita, a small 27 ft sailboat Silvan had purchased in the Caribbean, back to Sweden. They were not having any beers and when I asked them if it was due to money they responded that "money was always an issue" so we bought them a couple of rounds. What was interesting was Bobbie made them dinner free so they would have a full stomach before they set off the next day across the Atlantic. As it was, their departure was delayed. They slept in. Eric stopped by our boat to see if he could help us take the impeller out. He had done it several times. (I think he realized I was a klutz around engines). He had it out in an hour. It would have taken me 4 days. We had the new part installed in a few days and were off for a sail with Becky, back to Long Island (Not Stella Maris!).
Rum Cay will stick in our memories forever.