Day 268, Monday March 17th

Day 268, Monday March 17^th

Daylight savings time is reeking havoc on Dawson’s ability to get up for the Chris Parker weather show on SSB.  Normally we just woke up at 6 in the morning but now our bodies don’t want to wake until 7 and that is too late.  It seems sinful to set an alarm.  Oh what to do.....

We want to go north about 20 miles to Governors Harbour, but the anchorage there will not protect us from the westerly winds expected on Tuesday so we opt to go further north to Hatchet Bay.  This is about a 40 mile sail with the winds mainly behind us.  We manage to sail wing on wing for a chunk of the trip.  Wing on Wing is when the jib is out on one side of the boat and the main on the other side.  It keeps the boat nice and flat which is comfortable to be able to do things during the day while undersail.

Sailing wing on wing

The guilty cockpit drain!

Entrance to Hatchet Bay, Alice town, Eleuthera

The sail is absolutely beautiful, we are play some dominoes along the way but tragedy strikes, one of the tiles falls to the floor and Julie watches it as it jumps up and does a swish into the cockpit drain, never to be seen again.  It was like slow motion watching it say it’s final good-byes.  We continue the game not knowing which tile has left us.   Once we discover which tile is missing the whole set will become garbage, but until then we can keep using it.  Dominoes is quite popular here so we will have to buy another set.

Narrow entranceway

We find the entrance to the harbour by around 3:00.  It is a narrow channel cut through the rocks into a deep saltwater pond.  One of the safest havens we have found, but with the waves behind us the surf in was a little intimidating as the entrance is only about 90 feet wide which seems narrow when you are in it.  About 2 hours after we anchored however a small freighter ship left by this narrow passage so we dinghied over to watch.  They handled it like pros of course, but not a lot of room for maneuvering.

Upon arriving in the anchorage we see the red boat Miraki, Lucy and John which we have not seen since the C&D canal north of Annapolis.  This is also the boat that we had taken a picture of getting trapped in one of the Erie Locks and had turned sideways.  We were happy to see them and joined them for Happy Hour (sundown is getting too late now so we are back to Happy hour) at a bar called “Da Spot”.  Once there we also meet up with Jim, their son who is visiting and had been surfing on the Atlantic side.  With Jim are the crew of Meridian Chad and Drew who we have also been seeing on and off and had spent time with in the north part of the trip.  Oriel C, Deb and Glen were also there so it was like old home week.

By 7:00 we head back to the mothership but swing over to check out the fishing boats at the town docks.  The have barrels of stone crab, which Julie was going to write off as a dinner option as crab is too much work.  Dawson however asked a few questions and turns out it is just the claws they harvest so they have barrels of claws.  We ask if we can buy a pound and they say sure, but they are just cooking them in a large pot in the middle of the boat.  Come back in 20 minutes.  So we swing by Miraki to see if they want some and they are keen also.  Dawson swings back to get the crab and the guy does not even want to charge him the $8 he quoted us, but Dawson insists.  How nice but not necessary.  A pound of crab got us 3 large claws to share.  Not a huge amount but probably the Canadian food guide recommended amount.  We dipped them in melted butter and it was delicious.  So glad we had investigated the activity over at the docks.

We have a quiet evening of Kings cribbage of course and off to bed.

Dawson eating stone crab claw

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 267, Sunday March 16th - A hike to the Atlantic

Day 267, Sunday March 16^th

Well still in Rock Sound.  Because it is Sunday, everything is closed so we are hiking over to the Atlantic side of the island in the hopes of finding a famed pink beach and perhaps a restaurant for lunch.  The distance is only 1.5 miles each way so not a huge undertaking.  We head off around 11 by the time we have spent a leisurely morning reading, planning and dinghying over to the docks. 

Road to the Atlantic

Along the road there are lots of lizards moving about in the dry growth, and birds.  More birds here that we have seen anywhere.  It may be a bit more lush, perhaps a bit more rainfall here.  There is lots of garbage along the sides of the road.  It is really sad to see the lack of pride.  There are a few homes, most are very tired looking, a few “in construction” homes, which may take decades to complete, and a few nice homes.  We reach the crest of the high point and can see the Atlantic to the east and Rock Sound to the west. 

Julie on the road to the Atlantic

We continue walking and come to a “T” junction.  Hmmm which way to go.  A sign says restaurant to the left so off we go.  The first driveway to the right we take as it looks like it may be the restaurant or a small resort.   There is a lovely tennis court and the place is in great nik, but as we get near the main building we realize it is a private residence.  We turn and head back to the road and continue on.  Soon we find the road ends and there is a house/restaurant building but sadly it is closed today.  We should not be surprised.  We have brought lots of water and a couple apples with us in the event no lunch could be found. 

Julie on the beach over looking the Atlantic

We retrace our steps back to the “T” junction and head the opposite direction and find the beach access.  The beach is only a 500 yards or so from the road, so we are quickly at our destination.  The beach here is not pink.  It is not a great beach.  Lots of reefs, and the sand is grainier than many beaches, but it is a beach.  We walk along for a short bit, then plunk ourselves down on our blanket and stare at the waves while eating an apple.  So much for an exciting field trip.  

After a 15 minute or so rest, we head back whence we came.  The only difference on the way back was there was now a dead snake in the middle of the road.  Just a large garter snake we think.  We also got a ride offered to us when we were about10 minutes from our starting point.  At first we thought we should keep walking, but when they asked, “are you sure”, we relented and hopped in.  Lisa and Kevin are the names of our ride and they are from Connecticut here on vacation for 2 weeks.  Turns out they also had tried the same lunch spot, so were now in search of an eating establishment.  We knew Sammy’s was open so we all headed there.

Kevin and Lisa with their travelers

View of Rock Sound

Lunch and Kaliks and comraderie were wonderful over lunch.  After 2 hours we said our good-byes and headed back to our dinghy.  Once upon Jazzebelle we prepared to change anchorage as the winds and waves were setting up from the south and there was better protection if we moved in the bay about 3 miles.  We had a head wind of about 20 knots so we were happy we were bothering to move.  The bad night at Shroud was still fresh in our memories.  We were surprised none of the other boats were moving. 

We got to the new spot in about 45 minutes, but unfortunately the ground was iron rock with just a bit of sand on it and for the first time we had trouble anchoring.  We went another 1 southwest and tried again and same problem.  Uh oh was going through our minds.  The whole time we are anchoring the shallow alarm is also blaring away at us as it is low tide, and a full moon so the low tides are very low.  We have the alarm go off when we only have about 18 inches under the keel, so we have enough water, but it adds to the drama having the alarms going off.  We decide to head back up the coast where we came from a little bit to see if we have better luck and we are wondering perhaps that is why the other boats did not move, they knew the ground was not receptive to our anchor here.

So a ½ mile from the first spot we tried we get lucky, the anchor finds enough sand to dig in.  We are glad otherwise we were just making our way back to where we had been anchored the previous 2 nights.  We mark the spot on the GPS so we can track whether we are dragging or not.  All is good for the 5 hours until we go to bed so we should be good for the night.  We do get up and check a few times, but we are nice and snug and the boat is quiet and still all night.  We wonder how comfortable it was for the boats that did not move. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 266, Saturday March 15th -Off to Rock Sound

Day 266, Saturday March 15^th -Off to Rock Sound

Today is moving day so no time for French lessons or for a Dawson run.  All the sailing vessel s (5)are heading out and get off the dock before us, 2 of them heading north and the other 2 heading south.  We are not going as far so not so important to ruin our leisurely departure.  We help throw lines for 2 of the boats.  One of them whacks into the  piling.  Like Rick had said the day before, “sometimes you get to be the show and sometimes you get to watch the show”.  We fortunately got to watch the and try to learn from their mistakes as you never know when it is your turn for a bad experience.  Next it was our turn and we had one person help throw the lines.  Some of the tricky parts are that there are pilings to get the lines off of in a timely fashion before the winds send you sideways.  It was a cross wind for takeoff and the wind just grabs the bow.  We started reversing but Julie was concerned the stern was not going to clear the piling.  Dawson yelled we were clear so Julie gunned it and we were fine.  The winds did grab the bow but we managed to clear fine.  Yes, we did not get to be the “show”.

Bodilla sailing pass

Today’s trip is just about an 11 mile excursion to the east.  Sadly the winds were on the nose so we only had the jib out for one small leg of the trip.  Otherwise we were motoring.  It was shallow the whole way, about 10 feet deep.   We dodged a few coral heads or at least dark spots but otherwise uneventful.  We did pass by Bodilla who we have not seen since the Erie barge canal.  Dave and Dawson chatted on the VHF and Dave made a few suggestions regarding our next few anchorages as he had just come from that direction and is heading north.

Once nicely anchored at Rock Sound we head to the grocers and liquor store.  We end up spending more for coffee than liquor which was surprising.  We have experienced a couple of coffee shortages so trying to avoid that.  This grocer also had one of the best coffee selections we have seen in the Bahamas, even some locally roasted coffee.  We spent $72 on coffee beans and grounds, shocking, but essential.

Julie beside the Ocean Hole

Back on the boat for a quick lunch and off to tour the town.  There was an “ocean hole” in town, which is a self contained pond 600 plus feet deep that is not connected on surface to the big water.  It is kept filled through underground water tunnels.  There was lots of fish, but not much else.  There was a park around the ocean hole albeit it was looking a bit tired.  The rest of the walk around town did not produce much.  We found a few shops, and located Sammy’s restaurant, but the restaurant was more like a diner and not near the waterfront and we weren't hungry so we took a pass. 

Sign at the Ocean Hole

Back at the mothership we spent the afternoon reading and relaxing.

Sundown at Rock Sound

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 265, Friday March 14th - "Some days you watch the show and some days you are the show"

Day 265, Friday March 14^th

Well we awake to another beautiful day.  After the Chris Parker Show Dawson heads out for a run, along a known route.  Upon his return it is time to do some work around the boat.

Dawson cleaning up the water "issue"

 1^st thing to be done is to top up the water tanks, which is the main reason we are in at the marina.  It has been 7 weeks since we last filled up; you have to like having 200 gallons of water tanks on the boat.  We start filling the boat and Dawson takes the opportunity to write an email unfortunately he overfills the forward tank.  While he is cleaning up the overflow the aft tank overflows not a good thing to happen.  Julie’s mantras during the 1^st part of voyage was “moisture is the enemy”, which she has been battling the whole journey so Julie is not a happy camper about the spillage. 

Shark joining us for lunch

We get that cleaned up as best as we can by sponging under the floors however we cannot reach it all and we head out for lunch over at Pascal’s the resort restaurant.  We arrive at the restaurant to find Eva and Rick from Calypso there so we join them for lunch.  As we wait for our lunch Dawson spots a couple of Nurse sharks in the harbour.  When you look closely you can see these  guys have been tagged by the Shark Research at the Cape Eleuthera  Institute.  Lunch was good and we head back to the boat around 2:00pm.

Around 4 Dawson goes in to pay our tab while Julie stays on board. 

Rick and Julie shark watching

Just while Dawson is in the office 2 boats come in to slips just over from where we dock.  One is a 44’ Bayfield and the other is a 42’ Cabo Rico, both nice looking boats.  While they are docking Randy from Silver Maple goes down to give them a hand.  He just arrives and yells for Julie as there are some problems.  The wind has come up and one of the boat rams the other before boat before they are securely tied up.  The ramming boat gets his anchor caught in the life lines of his buddies boat so they are trying to untangle that mess while not being tied and just have a few people hold them in a high wind.  We are shaking our heads glad it is not us.  No one seems too upset and we get some spring lines on the first boat so we are not having to push and pull so much.  The second boat then using one of the pilings to rotate on, something we would never do without a fender to protect.  We actually have not used that technique ever, however have heard about it.

After they are successfully dock we invite them over for sundowers.   Both boats are Canadian with the owners being from Calgary and Kelowna, British Columbia.  It is their 5^th and 6th season cruising (or is it cursing) down here.  They join us for sundowners where Rick tells them not to worry about the docking with the following saying “Some days you watch the show, and some days you are the show.”  We have a good time as we watch the sun go down while snacking on the appertizers people have brought.  Julie brought fresh baked bread along with a tuna dip spread to share.

Back to the boat but no dinner for us as we once again filled up at sundowners.  A game of King Cribbage and off to bed we go.

Good night

Dawson and Julie

Day 264, Thursday March 13th – a very interesting tour

Day 264, Thursday March 13^th – a very interesting tour

We awake to a very windy day, the wind are going  to clock today from South West, and through West to North as yet another cold front passes us. (Note they aren’t actually cold, just unsettled winds that do a full 360 degrees within about 36 hours, we can’t really complain because we know everyone back home got nailed everytime we have a cold front).  We both slept well even with the wind starting to build.  Dawson is up at 6:30 to catch his favorite radio show and by 8:30 is heading out for a run and Julie is going off to finish the laundry, just doesn’t seem fair.

Dawson’s plan for the run was to head South East towards an old resort development project which as many in the Bahamas just didn’t get finished.  The plan was to run about 4 km out and then 4 km back but there are so many paved roads, power lines that after the 6 km mark Dawson is starting to wonder about the route back.  It comes to the point where he is noting the location of the sun and the direction of the wind to give him some guidance on the way back to the boat as he has taken so many turns on the run.  He also starts marking each turn he makes to ensure he is not running in a circle.  It all worked out it just turned out to be a 12 km run instead of the planned 8 km.

Dawson arrived back at the marina just in time to assist Julie in folding the clothes and bringing them back to the boat, while Julie hung out near the electricity to complete some blogging.  By 11 the wind had picked up in velocity as they clocked with the winds reaching over 30 knots in the gusts.  By 2 pm the winds calmed down so we decide to take a walk. 

Dawson earlier in the day had talked to a young woman at the store who was a teacher at the Island School located just up the road from the marina.  Lynn of Windward had mentioned they had taken a tour of the school a couple of years ago and found it quite interesting.  During the conversation with the teacher Dawson confirmed that the school was still doing tours and to just walk up and ask for one.  The school is located just over a kilometer from the marina. 

En route to the store a fellow who we had met the day before at the resort pulls up to see if we want a ride.  We decline but we talk for a while and it turns out he had just rescued  two woman in a car who had spent an hour lost in the roads of the old resort where Dawson had gotten confused this morning.  He guides them back out to the highway which is when we meet up with him.

The facility is actually 2 different entities, the Island School which is a high school and the Cape Eleuthera Institute which is a research station.  The teacher had mentioned to check in at the Institute for the tour.  We got to the institute just after 2:30 and were immediately welcomed at the door of the office.  We asked about a tour and were told just to wait a couple of minutes and a tour guide would be over.  Soon a young man by the name of Matt joined us and took us for the tour.  Matt is from Simcoe Ontario and had just graduated from Guelph University in the spring of 2013.  The concept of the Island School and the Institute is to promote sustainability and to provide training and work opportunities to young people and locals.  The high school offers semesters for grade 11 and 12 students (mostly from North America) and the Institute is the body that does research and supports the high school.  It was an excellent tour.

Island School Boats and Boat House

The school and the research center are focused on Sustainable development, and have taken it a step further by attempting to be totally self-sufficient.  They are working on  combining Aqua Culture/Hydroponics where they will raise fish for the table and then take the nutrient rich water from the fish farm and feed it into hydroponics where they will grow all their own vegetables.  Right now the fish farm is in the research stage and the hydroponics is delivering all the lettuce for the dining room.  It is quite an undertaking.  The school offers a full high school program with emphasis on work in the field, for example part of biology class would be working in the hydroponics.  The school is fairly self sufficient on electricity having fully embraced solar panel/solar water heating and they  operate a large wind turbine.  They even operate a small farm raising pigs, each semester they kill and butcher a pig with all the students in attendance so they know where pork comes from.

After the tour we head back to the marina and arrive just in time for happy hour with our fellow sail boaters.  We enjoy ourselves and of coarse eat too much which leads to dinner being cancelled once again.  We tell the other boaters, Rick and Eva from Calypso and Randy and Lee of Silver Maple about the tour, while they tell us about their adventures. By 6:30 it is getting windy and a little cold as we are all dressed in our shorts and short sleeves shirts.  We head back to our respective boats for the evening.

We have a pot of coffee and play a couple games of Kings Cribbage, but before bed we look up the Island school on the web.  They have a very good website and also quote the price for a single semester - $27,500 for a four month term.  Wow.

Cape Eleuthera Marina

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 263, Wednesday March 12th – a lovely sail across the sound

Day 263, Wednesday March 12^th – a lovely sail across the sound

We wake up to a dark bouncy day.  The wind had turned to the South East over night leaving us exposed to waves set up by the wind.  We had not paid enough attention to the weather forecast and paid for it with our sleep. 

Dawson gets up to listen to the Chris Parker show and see if there is any changes to the weather forecast, and Julie takes the opportunity to catch up on her sleep.  By 7:30 the show is over with no changes to the weather forecast with winds blowing 12 to 15 out of the south.  Looks like it will be a lovely sail. 

Sails up for a great day

Julie is up by 8 and we are underway by 8:30.  We have to leave the Bank (east side of Shroud Cay) and cross over to the Exuma Sound side (west side).  The bank is shallow water 10 to 20’ deep while the sound is over 2000’ deep, during tides there is a large flow of water through these cuts setting up quite a current.  On the ebb tide (tide dropping) the current is quite strong going out to the East if the wind is from the east the seas around the cut can get quite rough.  On this passage the wind is out of the south south east but we still had a fairly rough passage for about 15 minutes just where the cut reaches the sound.  The seas were frothy with about 7 foot waves.  If you sail down here you have to avoid areas when the current is opposite to the wind.

Fishing line ready for action

We transit the cut with no issues and quickly get the fishing line out, we have hopes of catching a third fish.  As it was a rough night Julie heads below and tries to take a nap but as soon as she heads off the jib sheet comes lose so she is quickly back on deck to get it back under control as it is whipping around and banging the boat.  The wind is just aft of the beam and the waves at the aft quarter on the starboard side making for a lovely point of sail.  We single tack the whole passage (~26 miles) and average just under 6 knots.  The passage was great the only problem was that no fish sacrificed themselves to us.

Catching some zzzzz's on deck

We arrive at Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina just around 3 pm, and pull into a slip.  It is a good looking marina but not very busy.  There are two other sail boats which we are tied up next to.  A Canadian boat out of Toronto, Silver Maple, and a 40’ Sabre, Calypso which we anchored occasionally with previously.  We first met them at Black Point about two months previous.  There are only so many routes down here so you often cross paths with boats several times. 

The marina has a small store where we are able to get some beverages and do some laundry.  In the evening we head over to the only restaurant, Pascals, not to fancy but the food was good.  We head back to the boat, catch up on our blogging and make it a very early night.  

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 262, Tuesday March 11th

Day 262, Tuesday March 11^th

Dawson coming to a dead end

Very clean swamp

We set off early for a kayak paddle up the southern branch of the Mangrove swamps (hardly swamps though as the water is clear and beautiful).  We took one arm of the stream in the hopes of a short cut but it backfired and came to a dead end.  We retraced our steps and took the charted route.  Yesterday in another area of the interlocking streams we had been able to connect some branches of the streams that the charts had said were dry, so we had thought we might be lucky again, but did not happen!

Julie's green toes and very shallow at low tide water

Out to the big water again and found the correct entrance to the arm of the swamp that would reach the Atlantic (Exuma Sound) side of the island.  With all the turns the trip was about an 8kms round tour plus the extra kms. that had backfired on us.  Luckily the winds were not high as we were against the current and the wind so it was a bit of work to get to the other side, but after about 2 hours of paddling we were rewarded with a beautiful spot on the beach all to ourselves.  The last 500 meters we pulled the kayaks as with low tide there was only about an inch or 2 of stream.

Time to tow the kayaks

We have been surprised at the lack of wildlife in these streams.  Previous explorations in similar conditions have provided lots of turtles and rays along with fish, but both yesterday and today we only found a few fish and baby sharks along the way.

Once at the beach, Julie worked on her tan, while Dawson hiked along the debris line.  Sadly there is plastic which is brought in with the storms up high on the beach.  This is very common.  None of it is local litter and it is all plastic which does not decompose.  We all need to think seriously about our plastic usage.

Dawson towing last 500 meters

We have our picnic lunch, and frolic in the beautiful inviting waters.  This is the first time that we have been that there are no people, nor do we expect to see any people.  Generally there are other cruisers around.

We head back to the mothership as it is about 2:30 now and we have at least an hour or 2 paddle to get back.  Our swim was refreshing.  We have not been swimming a lot as the salt water is often not as inviting as we are used to, as we have been spoiled by the Great lakes which are fresh water.  Normally we only swim if we are going snorkelling.

The paddle back was lovely as we had both wind and current working with us.  We were able to shave a good 30 minutes off of our travel time.

Exuma sound side

Back at the boat, we prepped for the next days sail by deflating the kayaks and hoisting the dinghy.  A few games, dinner and off to bed for another lovely day.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson