Day 280, Saturday March 29th-still in Hopetown

 Day 280, Saturday  March 29th

Still in Hopetown.

End of Yoga class

We listen to the cruisers net on the VHF and there is an invitation for yoga on the grass at the Hummingbird gallery so Julie opts for that exercise while Dawson goes for a run.  Julie meets Beth and Craig from Emerald Tides who has also been announcing she will lead a class if she can find a spot to offer the classes and she indicates she will do a class on Sunday around the lighthouse.

Joanne and Toby

There are about 10 of us in the class which is just on the patio or grass in the backyard of the gallery overlooking the ocean.  It is a beautiful spot.  Sadly at the end of the class the instructor is asking for $15 from each of us.  We are taken aback as none of us has even brought money, and there are free classes at the marina on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Julie would never have attended the class had she known as all the classes offered so far on the trip have been volunteer instructors and we are cash poor and are closely watching our cash purchases to have enough to pay for our mooring ball.  All of our purchases are at places that take visa.  Donny who collects for the mooring ball only takes cash so we know we have to set aside the funds to pay him.  There are 3 or 4 of us who are quite shocked as the invitation on the VHF radio did not present as a business at all and the instructor had no business processes at all such as registering the attendees or attempting to collect money at the beginning.  She is very firm on having us pay and lets us know where we can drop off the money around town so that she will get it.  It is not a nice way to start the day.

Dawson and Julie at SIP SIP's

Mexican train with Joanne and Toby

We head back to the boat and do a myriad of miscellaneous time consuming activities such as blogging, French class, reading a novel, eating cleaning.....next thing you know the day has disappeared.

We have arranged to have dinner at Sip Sip’s again with Toby and Joanne and Fred and Debbie however Debbie has broken her toe so they don’t make it so it is just the 4 of us.  After dinner we play some Mexican train dominoes and then head back to the mothership.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 279, Friday March 28th

Day 279, Friday March 28^th

Well March is idling away.  We had hopes of sailing a bit more around the Abacos, but the storms and high winds continue.  We decide to hang out in Hopetown for another day.  We are trying to sail south for the day to go back to Little Harbour to purchase a sculpture as a memento of our trip.

Dawson heads to shore for a run by 9:15 motivated by the garbage pickup deadline of 9:30.  Julie chooses to study French vs. go for a power walk, she plans for a power walk later in the day.

View of harbour from lighthouse

We do a few errands as we have been invited to Toby and Joanne’s boat for dinner so we are on the hunt for some baking.  We have great success as today is the 1 day of the week the baking lady comes to town for a couple of hours and we only have to wait about 10 minutes and we are inundated with lots of fabulous choices.  Pecan squares, and some sort of sugary chocolate square make the menu.

View from lighthouse

We also head over to climb the lighthouse and get some fuel and bait to catch some Mahi hopefully.  We need to spend at least $20 so they will take visa as we are still cash poor.

Back at the boat we also put together an appetizer as we are having sundowners on the patio over at the marina.  We just assume someone will be around to chat to so we are pleasantly surprised when we pop over to Silver Maple to find out they had been trying to raise us on the radio to invite us for appetizers and drinks on the patio.  Turns out there are about 20-30 people meeting up on the patio and the selection of appetizers was amazing.  For any boaters coming down for this lifestyle bring lots of crackers, and nachos, and appetizers dishes, and ideas and dip ingredients because the socializing with food is constant.  We have fun chatting and eating, but then we head with Toby and Joanne over to their boat for dinner and bridge.  Small servings is the order of the day as we are all full from appetizers.

Another pic of Gael Na Mara at dock

We play a couple games of bridge and sure have lots of giggles and fun.  We manage to find some room to put the dessert in our bellies along with more white wine.  Tomorrow we will have to do a couple of power walks as Julie never did fit hers in today.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 278, Thursday, March 27

Day 278, Thursday, March 27

Another beautiful day in the Bahamas.  The winds continue to kick up and clock around so we stay in our nice safe haven of Hopetown.  Julie spends some time polishing stainless and tidying the boat.  Clutter gathers very easily.  As Julie is cleaning the transom she yells to Dawson that a blue hulled boat in entering the harbour.  Dawson looks over and is stunned to realize it is our old 33 foot mirage Gael Na Mara.  Dawson yells over to them a hello but we are not sure of who is on the boat.  We had heard that the Ramsey’s had sold the boat.  Anyways we are quite shocked and thrilled to see the old Mirage as we loved that boat and there are many fabulous memories of our summers raising the kids.

Gael Na Mara motoring into Hopetown

After about an hour we hop in the dinghy and go looking for where Gael Na Mara has parked.  We find her at the Hopetown marina and go over to say hello and we are pleasantly surprised to see that it is in fact David and Kathy Ramsey, and their friend Gretchen.  Retirement looks good on them as we hardly recognized them.  They welcome us aboard and regale us with some of their stories, although an injury to Kathy (falling off the boat while on dry dock) caused them to cancel their 2012 sailing plans, she is well on her way to recovery and they are enjoying the 2013/14 season here in the Bahamas.  It sure was great seeing them enjoying the boat and they spoke lovingly of all of Gael Na Maras assets.

Time for long pants!

We head over to the patio for an afternoon game of Banana gram, however between chatting and welcoming Toby and Joanne back to Hopetown we end up just chatting for a couple of hours.  Toby and Joanne and us then head over for dinner at the Edge and for the first time in a long time, both of us put on long pants for the evening.  It is great seeing Toby and Joanne as we had not seen them since November and their boat Comocean was one of the few boats we sailed down to the Bahamas out of Hampton Virginia with so we have a wonderful shared experience.

Dinner at the Edge with Joanne and Toby

After our late dinner at the water’s edge we head back to the boat for an early night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 277, Wednesday March 26 - Still in Hope Town

Day 277, Wednesday March 26th

Well last night the wind sure kicked up.  We had at least 30 knot winds with some gusts even higher.  Julie of course was up quite a few times checking we were still where we were supposed to be.  Luckily the direction of the wind, no one was going to smash down on us if any moorings let go.

We headed to town for a run and power walk (of course Dawson was the runner, while Julie was the walker).   So far everyone’s knees and body parts have been cooperating for this trip.  Prior to departing we had stocked up on all sorts of meds for many sick scenarios, and so far, luckily that was a waste of money, can’t regret not using the medicines.  Not even a cold between us. 

We realize we are short of cash so head to the bank looking for an ATM, but sadly the bank is only open 3 hours a week and that was yesterday, and there is no ATM.  Guess we will have to watch our spending until we find a bank in a couple of days in Marsh Harbour.

Dawson replacing the screens

Back to the boat for French lessons as Julie has not been as faithful the past week on doing her daily Rosetta stone French lesson.  She is on disc 3 of 4 and each disc takes about a month to get through if she is dedicated.  Guests, Christmas, and tax season will, and have interfered with the French lessons. 

Randy pops over midday to let us know the “whole gang” is heading over to Sip Sip’s tonight for dinner and we agree we can fit it into the schedule (they take credit cards so we are okay to spend).

Julie spends the afternoon making some potato salad, while Dawson puts new screens into the hatches (so he can tick off another job from his list).

By 3:00 we are getting restless so go for a dinghy ride over to the marina where we located Randy and Lee playing a game called Banana-gram.  This is an interesting game making words etc. so we pull up a seat and while away an hour or so of the afternoon, prior to heading over to the wine bar.

The "Gang" at Sip Sip's

The wind starts to calm down a bit by evening and we head over to the main part of the island for $2.50 Heiniken time and “the gang” soon joins us for the evening dinner.  Once again we have a nice time at Sip Sip’s, meeting Louise and Guy from Sarnia on “Ellie” and John and Debra from “Mandalay”.  Lee and Randy are also in attendance but sadly our BFF’s from Lyric did not join in as Debbie got an emergency family call regarding her father and was busy planning her next day flight home to see her dad. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 276. Tuesday March 25 - Still in Hope Town

Day 276, Tuesday March 25^th 

Another very windy day ahead.  We head into the coffee shop early in order to post some blogs.  After blogging it is time for laundry.  We head over to the lighthouse marina as we had been told it is not as expensive as the marina.  That information however was wrong.  Hopetown has the most expensive laundry so far in the Bahamas.  It is $10 to do a load of wash and dry, a sad way to spend $20, but a necessity.  We are surprised to see another Caliber 40 in the harbour.  This one at the lighthouse marina.  After we toss 2 loads of wash in we head over to say hello to Cresenda which is a 2006 Caliber 40 owned by Mary Jane and Melvyn of Virginia.

Dark sky over Hope Town

We are welcomed on board and have a lovely Caliber chat.  Not many changes to the boat from our 1998 to 2006.  They have modified the stern railing though which makes the stern chairs much more useful.  Otherwise they look pretty much the same.  After our visit, Dawson heads back to the mothership as it looks like some very dark clouds are approaching, while Julie tends to the laundry and has a poke around the gift shop.  By the time laundry was done and Julie was radioing Dawson for a pickup it was raining hard, but luckily only for about 10 minutes.

We spend the rest of the day lazily reading.  Dawson has completed his one job of the day which was to remount the barbeque. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 275, Monday March 24th – Back in Hope Town

Day 275, Monday March 24^th – Back in Hope Town

Well it is good to be back in Hopetown.  It is a very safe and beautiful harbour.  Dawson was up early, for a run, but Julie was a bit of a sleepyhead, as she awoke to the VHF radio as Dawson turned it on upon his return from his run.  There is not much on our schedule of activities as the winds are scheduled to be high for the next 4 or 5 days so kayaking is out of the question.  We have already done most of the touristy things so exercise, French studies, some administration are all we are hoping to accomplish.

We do head into town for a walk around and stop at a few of the shops.  There is nothing we particularly need except for some milk and yogurt so we are not big spenders.  Back to the boat for lunch and then we spend the afternoon reading by the pool until Randy and Lee show up and challenge us to a game of bean bag toss followed by ping pong.   Both Randy and Lee are from central Ontario (Fenelon Falls and Haliburton) so it turns into a battle of North vs Central Ontario. We represented northern Ontario well with a win at Bean Bag toss and Julie is now the reigning ping pong champion.

Julie pool side at the Hope Town Inn

Dawson and Lee (North Ont vs Central Ont)

Randy watching the game

We have planned on heading to Captain Jack’s for bingo and dinner for 6:00.  We were heading over around 5 in order to secure a table, however when we got there all the tables were spoken for.  Only 10 minutes previously the whole deck had been empty.  Plan B is quickly instituted and we head over to the Wine Bar called Sip Sip’s for dinner with Randy and Debbie along with Lee and Randy.   They have a decent book exchange also that we are able to utilize.  Sip Sip’s is wonderful, a real deal with lovely wines and big crystal wine glasses for only $5 a glass, and fabulous flatbread pizzas.  We have a great evening of giggles with our new BFF’s, but of course are safely back on the boat shortly after boater’s midnight.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 274, Sunday March 23rd

Day 274, Sunday March 23^rd

We have a good sleep although around 11 pm Dawson gets up to release the surge bridal as the wind had changed.  The day is bright and starts off with an exciting “Toast Bar”, as we had some homemade bread we had bought in Hatchet Bay.  While we are enjoying our toast and coffee we listen to the Abacos cruisers net to find out what is going on.  Once the net is over we start to consider what to do and where to head.  This discussion is quite long as we have two main goals, 1) to get down to Little Harbour to visit the foundry gift shop as Dawson wants to buy a bronze turtle sculpture, and 2) find a safe haven for us during the upcoming cold front.  The cold front is expected to bring winds in excess of 20 knots from all compass points, with Chris Parker adding his recommendation of seeking shelter by Monday night.  In the end we decide to head the 16 miles north to Hope Town while the cold front passes and then to head back to Little Harbour for the shopping after. 

Julie at the helm

It is 10 by the time we make the decision so we quickly pull the anchor and head out.  We’ve chosen to head to Hope Town for a couple of reasons, 1) offers 360 degree protection and 2) and a number of amenities to keep us entertained for the 3 to 4 days we plan on being there.    There are lots of boats on the move, so it now turns into a race to see who can get to Hope Town first and secure a mooring.   There is sufficient wind to sail on a couple of legs of the trip but not for others (due to the track you have to follow to stay off the sandbars) we only put out the Genoa and motor sail.  We get the feeling the 4 boats ahead of us are heading for Hope Town as well so must beat them there.  About 3 miles along our route the Explorer Charts offers an alternative shallow draft route which would cut off about 2 miles.  We talk about this and decide that as it is a rising tide (about 2/3 risen) and the shallows sounding is ~5’ (we draft 5.5’) we will take it.  We have found the Explorer Charts to be very accurate all through the Bahamas.  It still is somewhat nerve racking as we cruise over the sand bank and see we only have a foot under the keel, but a 1 foot is the same as 100’.   We make it with the shallowest reading being 6.5’ and we are now well ahead of our competition.

Last mooring ball in Hopetown

We arrive at the entrance to Little Harbour just before high tide and cruise into the harbour followed by another sailboat.  Hope Town offers excellent protection but only on moorings, if we don’t find a mooring we will be looking for plan B.   We spot an empty mooring as soon as we enter and quickly tie up, the mooring has a note that it is set up for a max of 40’ boat.  We are 40 feet but a heavy one and it  makes us wonder if it will hold us.  We see a number of other empty mooring and make the decision to drop the one we are on and get one of them.   We quickly make our way through the harbour and find that all the empty moorings have bottles marking them as reserved.  Julie makes the snap decision to head back to the one we left before it gets taken.  We tie up again as two other sailboats pass by looking for a mooring. 

Just after we tie up the owner of the mooring comes up to collect his fee ($20/day), and Dawson ask about the 40’ max.  His answer is that he and his neighbouring mooring had issues with the mooring over lapping with boats greater than 40’, neither of the them would move so the harbour board told them they could only service boats up to 40’.  So the issue was with length not weight.

Walk to Da Beach 

Once we are settled at the mooring we head off for a walk around town.  We know the town and Cay well as we spent around 7 days here during our Abacos tour in Nov/Dec.  We end up walking the beach about 2 kms up to a beach bar we knew aptly called “On Da Beach”.  We enjoy an excellent cold Kalik and then walk back to the dinghy.  Upon arrive at the dinghy we decide to do a dinghy ride to see where our friends boat Comocean is tied up.  During the ride we spot another Caliber 40 and head over to say hi.  We are quickly asked aboard and have a great time talking about calibers and our adventures with our new best friends for ever Dale and Debbie.  We make a date with them to join up for Bingo the next day at Captains Jacks.  During the conversation, it turns out they know Randy and Lee from Silver Maple who we had met in Cape Eleuthera and that they are in Hope Town as well.  We say good bye to Dale and Debbie and head over to say how do to Randy and Debbie.

Debbie and Dale on Lyric (Caliber 40 LRC)

We catch up with Silver Maple since we last spoke while enjoying a drink on their boat.  We firm up the bingo for the next day and tell them we will be back tomorrow.  We head back to Jazzebelle getting back just after 6 having enjoyed a great “do lots and get nothing done afternoon”.  We have a late dinner, a game of Kings Cribbage and yes a coffee and then off to bed we go.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 273, Saturday March 22nd - the start of the way home

Day 273, Saturday March 22^nd

We are up before the sun to get an early start on the 55 mile crossing to the Abacos.  At 6 we are on deck getting ready and see two other boats heading out.  By 6:30 we are ready to go and we are off the hook and heading out.  There is a slight glow to the east as dawn approaches.  As soon as we are out of the cut Dawson heads downstairs to listen to the Chris Parker show to get the latest weather updates.

Julie steers the boat east over ground which we have now become familiar with.  Around 7 Dawson emerges with the latest weather.  It is a good day for the crossing but we will have to find protection for a south then west wind over night. Winds for the crossing are to be 12 to 14 knots out of the South East.   We get two fishing lines out as we enter the passage between Little Egg and Egg Island.  When we did this route last time with Ross there was lots of fish activaty so we have high hopes.

Sail boat in a swell

There is a line of boats exiting the banks off Eleuthera heading to the Atlantic with everyone running the “magenta line”.  The magenta line is a suggested route from the explorer charts, which people have a tendency to run along making it water highway.  Once we clear the cut we all spread out and the race is on.  The point of sail is a beam reach letting us run at about 4 to 5 knots.  We do want to get there so occasionally we fire up the Iron Genny to ensure that we make landfall with lots of time get settled in for the night.  About 3 hours into the trip Dawson has to detour around a freighter that is coming out of the North East Providence Channel.  On the AIS the CPA (closest point of approach) was estimated at 0.0 nm.  About 3 hours after the freighter we spot an interesting cloud bank to the East of us which is showing some rain, we decide to turn the motor on and see if we can’t get ourselves out of the way of the rain.  After 30 minutes of motoring we have dropped the clouds off to our stern and are back under sail.

Another boat in a swell

Around 4 o’clock we are ready to enter the Little Harbour Cut, Cuts are always a little unnerving as they are littered with reefs and breaking waves, fortunately as always it goes without any issues.  Once we are through the cut we pick up some cell service and the forecast is still for wind out of the South clocking to the West over night so we begin the search for a safe anchorage.   We have missed high tide by about 2 hours so it eliminates going into Little Harbour and Hope Town, so we pick a new anchorage for us called Spence Bight just south west of Sandy Cay.  As we make our way to the anchorage we follow a flotilla of four fellow Canadian Boats in.  This is a group from Quebec that we had crossed paths with a couple of times, earliest at Black Point Settlement and most recently at Hatchet Bay.

The anchorage is good, nice sand bottom offering good holding and protection from the south and west.  It is somewhat roly due to the swell and there is a fire burning on shore which we may get to smell overnight.  We set the surge bridal and this calms down the roll nicely.  We have a nice supper and settle in for the night.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 272, Friday March 21st A day of Cuts

Day 272, Friday March 21^st A day of Cuts

Well we are really torn today about where to go.  Choices are to head south to Governors Harbour which looked like a great town to visit and the winds and weather are perfect for getting there and anchoring there, or heading north to Royal Island and making our way to the Abacos.  There is nasty weather in 5 days time for a couple of days so that has to factor into the decision.  After an hour of weather and charting research we decide to point the boat north.  This truly has the feel of “the trip is over” now it is back to work getting ourselves north.  Until now it has been new territory, new exploration, but by end of day today we will be in the anchorage we landed at on Nov. 9^th when we landed after our 6 day crossing from Hampton Virginia. 

Today will start with us exiting the cut here at Hatchet Bay, transiting the Current Cut and then entering Royal Harbour via the narrow cut at it's entrance - therefore a day of cuts.

Dawson hoisting the DRS

DRS is up

The only technical challenge today is to time getting to Current cut which is a narrow passage so lots of current with the tides.  It is ideal to reach at slack tide which is about 1:30/2:00.  We say our good-byes to Miraki who are heading to Governors Harbour and weigh anchor at about 10:30.  We have 16 miles to get to the narrow passage, but by the time we get the anchor up and sails set it is 11:00 so we are cutting it close.  The wind is not as strong as we had hoped so our speed is only 4 knots.  We could run the engine but we chose to put out the asymmetrical sail instead.  This increases our speed to 5 but we were down to 2 knots for the 30 minutes it took us to rig it.  It is a beautiful sail and we are also doing some fishing with 2 lines out the back hoping to snag a mackerel or something else edible.  Unfortunately we do get a bite, but don’t manage to hook anything.

Glass Window from the water

Dawson enjoying the sail

Current Cut off the bow

We get to Current Cut at about 2:00 which we think is the desired time and there are a couple other boats around so seems like we all made the same timing decision.  Approaching the cut it was mixed water levels with shifting sands so we had to be careful not to run aground especially since it was high tide and we would be stuck until it cycled back to high tide 12 hours later and hope for a higher tide. As we are getting closer to the cut we see a dolphin on the right side of the boat.  It decides to go under the boat and pop up on the other side so we take this as a good luck sign for getting through the narrow passage.  As we get closer to the entrance to the cut and we could feel the current.  We started to accelerate and from 5 knots of speed to 10 knots of speed.  We had started the engine to ensure we could manage the boat if it was pulled in a direction we did not want.  Fortunately the current just pulled us along in the direction we wanted.  There must have been at least 4 knots of current as we normally would only do about 6 with the RPM’s we had the engine churning at.  Once we were spit out the other side of the cut the winds seemed to pick up a bit and we had to change the direction of sail to get to our destination at Royal Island Harbour.  We were now on a close reach and the boat heeled over quite a bit.  Not as comfortable a ride as we had previously.  We continued to fish, but no fish wanted to be our dinner sadly, so we took some fish out of the freezer.  This is our last serving of Mahi Mahi that we caught a couple of weeks ago.

By 4:30 we are safely anchored in Royal Harbour for the 3^rd time.  There are another 10 boats in the harbour and we suspect there will be a big sailboat race to the Abacos tomorrow.   Dinner is wonderful and we spend the evening planning and preparing for tomorrows sail and off to an early bedtime as we are getting underway at daybreak.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 271, Thursday March 20th - a land tour

Day 271, Thursday March 20^th 

We get the call at about 8:30 on the VHF from Lucy that there is supposed to be a car available for them to rent ready for 10:00.  They had arranged on Monday for a car rental pickup on Thursday morning for 24 hours to ensure they could get their son Jim to the airport for 6:30 a.m.  All week they have been assured a car, but it was iffy until this morning whether it would actually fall into place.  Lucy had mentioned to us if the car was large enough we could join them for the Thursday field trip.  We get the next call at 9:45 that yes indeed there was an old beat up van that has the left hand steering wheel  (same as Canada), but for left lane driving (like England),  with no fuel in it available, so we head to shore with our bathing suits, cameras, snacks, etc. ready for a day of car vacationing and glad to be included.

A trusty well used Mini Van - 230,000 miles on it

Lucy and Dawson in the Van, note the surf board 

We are happy it is a van as Jim has his surfboard loaded in and although it blocks one of the windows, it fits very easily.  We head north as we all want to see the Glass window which is a narrow bridge connecting North Eleuthera with Central Eleuthera and provides view to both the east, the Atlantic ocean, and to the west the Exuma Sound.  It is an interesting stop as the ocean swells are pounding the shore even though the winds are not high.  Originally there was a natural rock arch connecting the north and central but a big storm, and years of waves bashing it took it away.  Now you can drive across it whereas the old natural bridge I doubt any cars could use it.  We are all suitably impressed.

Glass window, Exuma Sound on the left and Atlantic Ocean on the right

Next stop was to pick up propane at Upper Bogue a few miles north, then on to the water taxi terminal over to Harbour Island.  Harbour Island is a famous tourist stop for the wealthy.  It is dangerous areas for sailing unless you pay a pilot to help you weave your way in between the coral heads.  We don’t think we will get there by sail so we want to at least have a look across the bay and view the island from shore.

Patio at the Lizard Cafe

We then head south looking for a lunch stop and come upon Lizard Cafe which has organic foods and is an excellent choice for some healthy eating at a reasonable price.  Next stop is Surfers Beach where Jim wants to do some surfing.  We drop Jim off at the crest of the hill as the lower road is too bad for driving.  Rainstorms have caused huge ruts in the road ready to swallow the van.  The vans shocks are not very good either.  The 4 adults then head over to a local farm which is only a few miles away.  The name of the farm is the EIO Farm (Eluethera Island Organic Farm).  We chat to the owner, however he has nothing for sale as he has to fill cooperative orders (weekly family orders) tomorrow and he only has sufficient to meet those needs.  

Entrance to EIO farm, with old silos

Bananas with protective plastic bags (prevents sun and salt burns)

It is a nice chat to him though about the state of farming in Eleuthera.  He tells us also that the cattle farm just south of us got their cows by rounding up the wild cows from the Rock Sound area that were left over from the cattle hey days of the 50’s and 60’s. Eluethera has the most agriculture that we have seen in the Bahamas with small holders across the island.  In the 50 there was a large cattle operation which had concrete silos built all along the highway.  The project failed as they required more water then was available.  An error that the owner of EIO will not repeat.

World class surf beach

The Surf Shack, Jim is in the middle

We head back to the beach area and walk down to the surfers area.  Jim has been out once to ride some waves, but currently back on shore.  No one is actually surfing as the waves are much larger than usual.  Some of the sand has also been taken away leaving some nasty sharp coral on the shoreline.  We find a great shady spot to sit and enjoy the view.  Jim decides to head out for one more hurrah, Lucy watches with concern and we all get our cameras out.  Just watching Jim make his way to the outer surf is interesting as the waves just crash over him as he pushes his way out on his board.  We had done surfing lessons in Peru and found it a lot of work just getting out to the outer waves and our waves were much smaller.  Finally Jim is just a dot at the outer reef.  Everyone on shore is watching him go up and down as he assesses the waves and picks the one he wants to ride.  He often disappears in the swells also.  After about 15 minutes he picks a wave.  They come in sets and he has chosen one in the middle of a set and manages to ride for a minute or some, but gets sent crashing.  He surfaces and paddles a bit back to his starting point and we watch him sitting on his board assessing waves again for about another 15 minutes.  This time Jim catches a good one and manages a full ride.  It is very cool to watch him change directions and control the board.  After this ride which probably only lasts a bit more than a minute he paddles back in to shore.  Even this is tricky as landing with the crashing waves and undertows requires paying careful attention to the water.  This beach is well know in the surfing community, having hosted world surfing championships in the past.  

The five of us then head back to the car, and head south towards Governors Harbour.  We do stop at one more farm to buy a few tomatoes.  Governors Harbour is a very pretty town.  We had missed sailing to it as its anchor holding and protection is not great and the weather was not suitable so we sailed on past.  Governors Harbour is a quick stop as it is getting late and we did not bring lighting for our dinghy rides back to our motherships.  We do want to see the pink sand beaches that the west coast brags about.  We once again head down some roads that are not in the best nick, however we proceed slowly.  Eventually we find a pink tinged beach so we can now tick that off our list of things to see.  It is now almost 7 so we point the car homeward and get back to our boats before darkness.

Selvie on the Pink Beach at Governors Harbour

A quick dinner and then we have a picture downloading session as Dawson has captured a few good surfing photos of Jim we want to share.  Managing pictures takes quite a while because with digital technology we take so many, and have the opportunity to then engineer them and then many options for presenting them such as movies, slide shows adding music etc.  We could work full time just managing photos.  We do manage to copy the pictures of the last couple of days onto a flash drive and Jim and John pop over for a visit.

We do not manage to fit in the traditional kings cribbage game, although we do manage our evening coffee then off to bed.  Amazing how we can sleep given we fill up on coffee just an hour before bedtime.  We must have no stress or worries on our minds.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 270, Wednesday March 19th - A calm day

Day 270, Wednesday March 19^th 

Lazy morning today, Julie slept in until 9, mainly because she was up a couple hours in the night most likely due to coffee and sorting through our own life decisions on where to work and live etc.  Once awake it was time for Rosetta Stone while Dawson went for his run. Today Dawson ran down the Queen's Highway along the coast to the south. 

Upon Dawson’s return, Julie decided to try her luck at still fishing and some casting as Lucy indicated they had caught their dinner for tonight this morning from the boat.  Julie sadly caught nothing, but perhaps it is not the fishes mealtime.  Tomorrow we will try earlier.

Location of snorkeling adventures

After lunch we head out with Maraki to go snorkeling just outside the cut.  The winds are low and it is absolutely beautiful.  The water clarity is great, and the limestone cliffs make a fabulous backdrop.  In the water we are treated to a fabulous coral garden and surrounded by literally millions of silver side fish.  The fish are small, and move together in hoards.  We felt like we were in a Jacques Cousteau movie with the fish moving all around us.  We went to 3 different sites all quite close to each other in the hopes of spearing dinner, but no luck.  Dawson sees some mackerels but they don't come very close. We sure enjoyed the scenery and exercise though.  After about 90 minutes we had enough and went back to the mothership to clean off the salt.

Bahamian Ambassadors to Canada house

After cleaning up we head into town to post some blogs.  We decide to try a different location and end up at the Twin Brothers.  Their claim to fame is ice daiquiris of which Julie orders a pina colada, it looks great and tastes better.  Unfortunately the internet is not working so once Dawson finishes his beer we head back to the Da Spot.  Another lesson that the dives are the best spots.  We set up our computer station and spend some time getting caught up on the blogs.  Interesting Julie arrives with her daiquiri, which is kind of weird but then the Barmaid has one delivered to her while she is serving us.

After we get caught up on the posting and Dawson listens to some stories from the local Crab Fishermen we head back to Jazzebelle for dinner, coffee and a game of Kings Cribbage.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 269, Tuesday march 18th – a neat cave exploration

Day 269, Tuesday march 18^th – a neat cave exploration

Goats hanging out in the shade

Up and at em to explore a new anchorage.  Dawson starts the day with a scouting mission a.k.a. a run.  He heads over to the east coast to try to reach the ocean.  He makes it to the beach and sees goats on the way, but nothing else too exciting.  Total run about 8 kms.  Julie stays dedicated to her French lessons.  We swing by Maraki on our way to town to drop off our garbage and fill a few water bottles, to see what they are up to.  They suggest going to the caves which are about 2 miles away.  They have bicycles, but their visiting son Jim does not have one, so one of them will hitchhike with us.  Typically we have not hitchhiked but often people stop to offer rides.  This time we are actually going to hitchhike.  Chad from Meridian is also joining us but we end up waiting about 45 minutes on the shore as he is helping Drew load the boat with water as they are departing tomorrow. 

Sign at Queen's Highway 

Once us walkers are gathered we head out and it takes about 15 minutes and then a white pickup truck stops and offers us a ride.  We are glad for the ride as it takes the vehicle a while to get where we are going.  Soon enough we are joined up with John and Jim to start the cave adventure.

The caving starts with an easy entry but soon enough we are going downwards into the bowels of the earth.  We are looking at all the graffiti trying to locate the oldest signature.  1872 is the oldest we see, but we don’t really believe it.  The cave is amazing and we walk underground for about a km.  there are bats, and underground river, lots of stalactites and stalagmites.  Overall it was one of the best caves we have ever been in.  To get out

Start of the cave, note the graffiti on the back

one of the many room in the cave

Julie enjoying her cave tour

of the cave we climb a rope ladder after ducking low to get under an overhang.  The rope ladder is in a cylindrical hole in the ground about 10 feet across and 60 feet deep.

Chad making his way out of the cave 

Jim emerging into daylight

 After the caves we go for a snorkel in an inland lake nearby that is salty as it is fed by the underwater rivers from the ocean.  It is not as salty as we are used to which is refreshing. 

Snorkeling in salt pond i

Jim with his pet seahorse

Lucy and Julie 

We look for seahorses, but do not see any, however Jim found one and brought it over for us to see.   The snorkel was nice as we were getting quite hot from our underground caving.

It is now about 3:00 and we head back to the town centre.  We get a ride immediately with a woman on her way to pick up her daughter from school.  She has the air conditioning on which is a luxury to all of us.  Four of us squish in and enjoy the 5 minute car ride that would have taken us an hour to walk.  Chad, Dawson and Julie head over to Da Spot for a cold one, while Lucy awaits John and Jim who are biking back from the caves.

Chad and Julie at Da Spot

We are joined at Da Spot by Drew also from Meridian, and Deb and Glen from Oriel Sea.  We say our good-byes to them as they are heading out tomorrow towards Florida and we may not cross paths again (although we may see them along the US coast once we head on our way also).

We don’t stay too long at Da Spot as we want to make the grocers to

pick up some bait in the hopes of fishing on the banks and in the harbour to complement our groceries.

Once back on the boat we cook up our feast and as always enjoy our coffee and King’s cribbage game before heading off to bed.  We also chat to Ross as he is making plans and sorting through career and academic decisions and seeking some input from us.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson