On our own again

When we had completed our visits with Corinne, Calvin, and Megan we turned our bow south towards Georgetown on Great Exuma Island.  This the hub for many cruisers who stay in this spot for the entire winter where much socializing is done. For us it was a jumping off point for islands to the south and east of the Exumas but not before visiting ‘Rake and Scrape’ night at Eddie’s Edgewater Cafe. Rake and Scrape is a traditional Bahamian style of music played largely on the out islands and usually includes an accordion, (in the old days a concertina) a goombay drum, and a saw that is often played with a old rusty screwdriver. The band on this night also had a guitar, bucket base, and a tom tom drum. There is nothing fancy about the evening but the rhythm is contagious and eventually everyone is dancing.

The Goombay drum is on the left and the saw player and tip bucket on the right

The rest of the band.

Most of the creature life is below water in the Bahamas but we do occasionally encounter insects such as this spider that was suspended between bushes on a deserted beach at Jack’s Cove.

Creative photography makes it appear larger than real life

Don’t know what type of beetle it is but it sat perfectly still for this portrait

The effect of the wind and waves on the limestone landscape can be very dramatic as we saw just outside Black Point.

Another dramatic spot with the Exuma Sound in the background. Can you find the "horse" in this photo ? 

 The weather since the beginning of March has been unusually settled.  The trade winds blow from the east every day and as a result there are few fronts moving through and the waters have been very calm.  On the day we sailed from Georgetown to Long Island the Exuma Sound was like glass as the temperature increased the closer we were to the Tropic of Cancer.  It was so calm that we stopped in 5000 feet of water to let out all 200 feet of our anchor chain to untwist it.

 

You can probably feel the heat just looking at the Exuma Sound.

  
Long Island is 100km long and quite narrow with one main road running the length of it.  It was the third island that Columbus landed on in the New World. As always the people were welcoming and are only too happy to stop and give you a lift to where ever they are headed. The major highlight was wonderful grocery shopping  where we loaded up on vegetables and fruit.

The very dry climate of the south Bahamas is ideal for cactus type plants.

It is always surprising to see such beautiful flowers surviving in rock and minimal soil

And everywhere you go – coconut palms

Landscaping with rock

Landscaping with rock - It may be difficult to see the hours of work that must have been spent landscaping this front yard. Clearing the scrub out, building the walls, and using rocks to create ‘gardens’ around each tree must have been a huge effort.

The ‘weather station’ at Salt Pond, Long Island.  Not so good at longer-range forecasting.

Our time on Long Island was cut short by the amazingly settled weather when we realized we could spend time on tiny Conception Island.  You might wait a few years to have weather that is settled enough to anchor at Conception as it is open to most weather. The surge from the ocean wraps around the entire island which makes for uncomfortable rolling in the one achorage.  It is a National Park (the deserted island type of park) and another of the three islands that Columbus stopped at.  It is an important birding area, and the mangroves are a playground for sea turtles. We took the dinghy into the mangroves and enjoyed the sizable turtles popping their heads up all around us but didn’t have any luck catching them on camera – they are a shy bunch.  The reef on the north side of the island is the longest continuous example of Montastraea reef in the Caribbean. The reefs were huge and looked ancient, and it was a little creepy to be in the middle of so many giant sized coral heads so close together .  We saw some of the largest fish we have ever come across  including three really scary looking Barracuda.  It was all a bit much for one of us who left the water to sit in the safety of the dinghy … guess who?

Some of our neighbours on Conception

More birds in the mangroves with the turtles

Classic Brain Coral

Some of the ancient coral, very different from the smaller, cuter stuff in the Exumas

This was the biggest parrotfish we have seen yet

A very large Tang

More ancient pillar coral on the north side of Conception

Coral on the west side of  Conception is much smaller, phew!

Eventually the winds shifted and the anchorage became quite rolly so although we still had more investigating to do here we moved on to Cat Island, but we’ll be back another year.

Settled into the Exumas

The improvement in the weather has helped us to settle into the rhythm of cruising life. The trade winds have set in so we have consistent 15 – 20 knot east winds and a steady 75F for temperature each day. It definitely feels like Bahamas winter! Corinne was our next visitor to take shelter from the Toronto weather.  The local airline that flies into Staniel Cay is Flamingo Air.  Their stretch plane has 12 seats and the regular one has eight seats. The fleet of three planes appear to have the tail of each plane hand painted with a flamingo and of course we walk out to greet the plane.

Calvin and Megan left on the stretch plane.  Check out their hot-weather clothes.

Corinne arrives on the eight seater

Grocery shopping is always a surprise.  We wonder if the ‘store’ owners know what is coming until it appears on the mail boat. The boat arrives once a week unless it goes aground (which it did last winter) or it is the week that the boat doesn’t come … then you need to dip into your canned foods collection. We see a big change this year – both the Pink and Blue stores (for those of you who are familiar) now have Signs! Apparently it was a good summer so there must be a little money leftover.

Roosters are a regular sightings on walks through the settlements

Now that the weather has improved we spend part of every day in the water.  Our underwater photos are improving as is Kim’s spear fishing. Corinne tried her hand at shooting the Hawaiian Sling and terrorized numerous rocks in the process. (but she looks really good doing it)

We are very happy to be able to show you some of what we see under the water. Our fish friends like to hang out about 10 – 15 feet down, so the challenge is still descending and staying down at their level until someone swims by.  Scuba gear would be the answer for sure. We aren’t always sure of the names of the fish and coral we see but have done our best to label them.

The violet ‘sea fan’ and branch like ‘sea whips’ are forms of soft coral and are anchored onto hard corals.

We think these are sea sponges with a juvenile Angelfish hiding behind.


Corinne found this beautiful ‘eye’ that opens and closes if you get close. We think it may be a Colonial Feather Duster Worm.  The white and violet tubes are gills.

Colonial Feather Duster Worm

More soft coral and a Queen Parrotfish.

Cathy tries not to scare the Sergeant Majors.

Corinne and Kim came across two sting rays while snorkelling at Big Major Cay (of swimming pig fame) and were amazed at their size. The spotted ray had a 5 foot wingspan and a 10 foot tail.  It was burying it’s nose in the sand to try and dislodge some dinner.  We often see rays when fishermen are cleaning their catch.

This Southern Ray was just a little bit smaller than the Spotted Ray above.

The great fisherman practices his aim… and sometimes brings home dinner!

The Exumas has endless beauty above the water as well as sea life.  The cays of the Bahamas are Limestone that was laid down between one to two million years ago along with more recent coral  that formed during the glacial periods. Of course new coral is constantly growing today.  The limestone erodes with the sea and rain water to create blow holes and numerous caves.  We decided to hike to one of these caves with Corinne and our friends Sheryl, Kevin and their rock climbing dog Champ.

‘The Oven’ is a large rock that marks the general location of the cave we visited.

This cave had a pool of fresh water at its base

Cathy and Corinne exploring the cave

Stalactite meets stalagmite ?

The ‘old’ folks walk Jack’s Bay shore … another deserted beach.

 

The view from our back door, ahh!

Year Two Begins

Once the cold of January settled in to Toronto we escaped by car to Hinckley Yachts in Stuart Florida where we left the boat for the summer.  We thought we could warm up from the bitter cold of the north but on our third day of driving we woke to –7C in  south Georgia. Later that day we were most relieved to find it was 75F in Stuart. As always there was much to be done in preparing the “Q” for launch including the installation of new holding tanks, bottom painting, waxing and the wiring of a second freezer (the freezer is a VERY exciting addition which has transformed our meal potential). We needed to purchase much of the food and wine we would need until June in a new place where we knew few of the labels or which stores to shop in.  After a few thousand dollars and many days of work, shopping, cataloguing and storing food, we were ready for launch.













The “Q” in the slings of the travel lift















On the way to the splash.

The captain ‘supervises’ activity in the launching

Some of our neighbours on the hard.











After two one hour trips to Homeland Security in Fort Pierce we thought we were finally ready to go but the thermostat on the big engine and the fuel pump on our 1 year old outboard had other plans, so it was back to the dock for repairs. All through this time we had Sheryl Bremner and Kevin Loughborough keeping us company as they worked on‘Quantum Leap II’ in the Hinckley boatyard.  It was great to have such good company as we toiled away in the hot sun for endless hours each day (no, you don’t need to feel sorry for us!). We finally left the dock in late January and headed for our favourite spot in West Palm Beach.

Our favourite place to anchor in West Palm – you can see why! (this building – a private club?? is actually on the Palm Beach side of the channel)


                   

Sheryl and Kevin caught up with us at West Palm as we made our way south to Fort Lauderdale.  Quantum Leap II looking very regal at the Royal Palm Bridge.    The offshore weather was not cooperating, so we made our way (for the first time) down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale. 19 bridges in one day, and most of them opened at scheduled times. This required careful planning of time, speed and currents but we made it for sunset.

Mega-yacht shrink wrapping.

The number of unoccupied mansions (because the owners are wintering else where) is mind boggling.

Fortunately the winds improved enough for us to embark on a bit of a rolly offshore sail from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. We were up close and personal with three container ships that day.

Boat storage Miami style.


After waiting five nights in South Beach Miami we set out from No Name Harbour to cross the Gulf Stream to Bimini.  The conditions were Cathy’s favourite … light to no wind and moderate seas, in other words motor sailing/motoring all the way.   Quantum Leap  joined us for the crossing.

Kevin admiring their bow wave on the gulf stream crossing!

The reward for crossing – the view from the docks at Bimini.
Our next leg was to cross the Bahama Banks. It takes two days to cross the banks so we actually anchor overnight in the middle of nowhere with no land in sight. Then it was off to Nassau to pick up Calvin and Megan for their holiday.  We then headed straight to our favourite area of the Bahamas, the Exuma Islands. Our first stop was to Allens Cay to snorkel and visit the iguanas. Because of some very strong northerlies we had a very rough night on anchor. The next morning we high tailed it to the protected bay at Cambridge Cay in the Exumas Land and Sea Park. Unfortunately the wind continued to howl from the north and it was a cool 70 degrees for much of their visit, but of course they made the best of it.

These endangered Rock Iguanas are always up for a pose.

The Rock Iguana is only found on two cays in the Exumas.


The anchorage at Cambridge Cay is protected from weather on all sides so we have spent many nights here. It also has some of the best snorkelling in the Exumas.

            





Fortunately, Calvin figured out how to take panorama and underwater shots using our new camera. You will have to bear with us as we fine tune our photographic skills and ability to dive down and hold our breath while waiting for the right fish to swim by.

Megan swimming with the fish (Sergeant Majors) at ‘The Aquarium’. These little fish are friendly and plentiful and are always looking for some food.

Damselfish are plentiful and come in all sorts of colours.

A delicate sea fan coral and staghorn coral.

A tiny Angel fish hiding among the coral.

Mega and Cal on Honeymoon Beach.

Vegetation is rather stunted from the dry conditions and lack of soil in the Exumas. This is a very typical scene on the uninhabited islands.

And then every so often it feels good to stop into the local yacht club … this one is Staniel Cay Y.C.  It’s claim to fame – the hang out for the cast of the 007 film ‘Thunderball’ with Sean Connery.