Exumas

Warderick Wells.

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Saturday, March 14, 2015.  8am, winds calm, sunny and 75 degrees.  We checked our email, paid the bill at the marina, and were off the dock at 9:45am. Once outside the marina protection, it was very rolly. Wind ESE @ 15.  Noon, wind SSE @ 15-20, sunny 85 degrees.  The water is 4000 feet deep here.  1pm wind SSE 20-25.  Big Rollers – maybe 10 feet!  Very rough!  Making 7 knots – the water comes up from 4000 feet to 35 feet as we approach the cut to Warderick Wells. We saw a pod of dolphins as they chased the boat – they are only 3 or 4 feet long – different species than we are used to seeing.   There is no room in the northern anchorage – we asked for the waiting list.  At 4pm picked up mooring E-10 @ Emerald Rock anchorage in 10 feet of water.  35NM  42SM.  24°23.06’ 076°37.56’

At 7:15pm, we watch the sunset and and saw the “green flash” as the sun goes down.  In all the years of traveling in the Keys and now the Bahamas, this is the first time!  It is actually more of an “aurora” than a “flash”.  Still cool to finally see it!

For reference, we are 9 miles farther south than Key West and 207 miles east of Miami.

Sunday, March 15, 2015.  9am We hear on the radio that we have been assigned a mooring in the north mooring field, so we drop the one we are on and head over there – it is about 5 miles.  We are close to the rangers’ station, and go ashore to register.  We went with Kachina and some other boats to the “Rangers Garden” to snorkel, but misjudged the tide so the current was a bit strong.  We did see lots of coral and fish, plus several large eagle rays and a black tipped shark.

There were cocktails on the beach at sunset, but there is land between the sea and the sky, so no green flash!

The only mammals on Warderick Wells are “Hutia” that come out looking for food at sunset.  They look like nutria, or big furry rats (see pictures).  The north end of the island is closed because of nesting birds, but word has it these rodents are decimating the nests.

Monday, March 16, 2015.  Today we made the pilgrimage up to Boo Boo Hill with Kachina (John and Joanne) and Majestic Phoenix (Phillip and Joanna).  At the top os Boo Boo Hill is a huge pile of driftwood – no not a bonfire, but each piece of wood has the name of a boat who visited here and the date – see pictures.  Afterward, we swam from the boat to the huge sandbar in the middle of the anchorage.  Dinner was hamburgers on Majestic Phoenix and then movie night.  We were joined by Kachina and Neverland (Jim and Cindy).  The movie was really bad, but a good time was had by all.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Saint Patrick’s Day. Several boats left today.  Neverland and Kachina heading south (Kachina to pick up visitors at Staniel Key), Majestic Phoenix to Nassau to pick up family visitors.  We met Vesper Light (Dodd and Becca and crewman Dennis) just back fron 4 years in the Caribbean, Over Budget (JW and Jeremy) and Double Wide (Clark and Michelle and Tug Boat (Mini-schnauzer) and Sailor (Yorky). 

Lisa made up a nice sign for Rhiannon out of driftwood, carved and painted with finger nail polish, and we took it up Boo Boo Hill and reverently placed it there for posterity.  We also took a long dingy ride around the anchorage.  We managed to get the internet at the ranger station and were able to send out a few emails.  No phone service here.

Click here for pictures of Warderick Wells

Staniel Key and Big Majors Spot

Wednesday, March 18, 2015.  We dropped the mooring at 9am.  Partly cloudy, 75 degrees, rain on the horizon.  Wind SW 10-15.  We decide to tow the dingy, but we can only do about 5 knots to keep the dingy stable.  11am cloudy, wind SW 10-15.  Noon – rain finally passed by with only a couple of sprinkles.  Noon sunny and wind SW @ 10. 80 degrees.

1pm, anchor down @ Big Major Spot just north of Staniel Key.  Green Stone, Saber Tooth, Pearl, Neverland and about 20 others here.  10 LARGE yachts anchored here as well.  As we get the anchor down, we see a large Nerf Shark swim by the boat.  20NM 24SM today.

24°11.10’N  076°27.54’W

John (Saber Tooth) comes by and let’s us know that there will be a birthday party for Connie (Summer of 42) on the “Pirate Beach” this evening.  Pearl is also on the radio and it looks like there will be two parties on the beach this evening, as it is Val’s (Pearl) birthday also.  We make our cheese spread (recipe below) and arrive at the beach at the designated hour.  There are indeed two parties.  We know folks at both, and there are lots of people we do not know.  Music is provided, a bon fire, and a good time was had by all – that is, until the no-seeums came out.  At sunset, there were many people with conch horns to blow.  A nice time was had by all.

Thursday, March 19, 2015.  Sunny, 85 degrees, no wind. Today, we visited with Saber Tooth and went to the “pig beach”, where “wild” pigs roam.  Everyone that visits feeds them and rumor has it someone does so regularly.  There are also goats and chickens (noisy roosters).  The animals will come right up to your dingy looking for food.

We snorkeled at Thunderball Grotto, which is a cave you can swim through.  It has holes in the ceiling that let in sunlight – beautiful.  You have to do this a low slack tide as the current can be quite strong. Lots of boats and people, but very nice.  We swam all around the little island and saw rays, a shark and lots of coral and colorful fish.  We then dingyed to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and had refreshments with Kachina and others.  Bruce (Island Time) and Boudreau (golden retriever) are also here.  We have not seen them since Bimini.

Friday, March 20, 2015. Sunny, 80 degrees, wind SE @ 10. Today we spent doing boat chores.  I dingy into town to fill jerry cans (water, diesel, gasoline) – took a couple of trips.  Lisa worked on cleaning the bottom of the boat and defrosted both refrigerators.  We are sitting in water that is 90 degrees and the refrigerators work had to keep stuff cold.

Saturday, March 21, 2015.  Today was my Dad’s birthday.  Sunny, 80 degrees, wind SE @ 10. We walked the town.  Tried to go to the Purple restaurant on the beach for lunch, but it was closed.  We went to the Blue and the Pink grocer’s and bought some fresh vegies and apples.  You can get fresh produce in most of the Bahamas, although you may not get exactly what you are looking for.  There seems to be plenty of meat in the stores also, although it is all frozen.  We wound up having a late lunch/ early dinner at the Yacht Club (grouper and conch fritters).  The food was very good and these dishes were not expensive.

Black Point

Sunday, March 22, 2015.  We made a quick trip into the pink grocery to get more fruit.  We weigh the anchor at 2pm.  Partly sunny, 80 degrees, wind S@10.  We have the main up, but have to motor sail south to Black Point (Great Guana Cay).  We hear Saber Tooth on the radio. They are at Bitter Guana Key (not as far south as we plan to go).  We have the anchor down at 4:15pm at Black Point Settlemet.  Le Second (Patrick, Julie, Damien, Mary Lou and Nicholas) are here, as well as Island Time, Jancris and about 20 other boats.  14 NM  17SM.  24°06.00’N  076°24.10’W

Every other Sunday Lorraine’s Restaurant has a Cruiser’s BBQ Buffet, and today is the day!  We call and get on the list for dinner at 6pm. The food was great and there were about 25 others there.  Nice evening. 

Lorraine’s Mom bakes bread, so we ordered 3 loaves to be picked up tomorrow (wheat, cinnamon, coconut).

Monday, March 23, 2015.  Heavy rain overnight, nice to get some of the sail off the boat, but the wind has shifted to the SW and we have 3 footers coming through the anchorage.  Bouncy, bouncy! Sunny and a bit cooler with the wind howling.

There seems to be two main reasons people stop at Black Point.  One is Lorraine’s and the other is Rockside Laundry.  It is run by Ida Patton and is a big, clean laundromat (about 12 each washers and dryers).  So, today we did laundry and Benny got a haircut (another service of Miss Ida).  We walked to the ocean side of the island and looked for sea beans but did not find any.  This is becoming a quest and we have not found any yet.  We picked up the bread we ordered from Lorraine’s Mom – she live just behind the restaurant and had lunch at Lorraine’s – grouper fingers – yum! 

We had dinner aboard Le Second (Patrick, Julie, Nicholas, Marilou and Damien).  Julie made lobster and pasta from lobster caught by Patrick and we brought shrimp (from the freezer).  Very nice dinner.

Cambridge Key

Tuesday, March 24, 2015.  Another beautiful day, sunny, 80 degrees and the wind has died down and therefore, so have the waves.  We haul our trash ashore and het water in the jerry cans at the public faucet (2 trips - water is heavy).  We go to Adderley’s market and they still have a few fresh vegies (melon, tomatoes, red peppers).  Lisa bought a straw woven beach bag made by Mrs. Adderley (Lillian).  Beautiful. 

12:30, anchor up, wind SW @ 10-15, sunny, 80 degrees.  4pm, anchor down at Cambridge Key.  No mooring available tonight.  Kachina, Greenstone, Saber Tooth, Down Time (Roger and Connie – met them in St. Augustine) are here.  John (Saber Tooth) comes over with his glass bottom bucket to check the set of our anchor.  We also check the area behind us so we can let out more scope. We are anchored in 20 feet.  Lots of coral, very pretty.

There are cocktails on the beach at 5:30, but we elect to pass tonight.  One of the issues with these “sundowners” is that you really never get to eat supper.

20.5 NM  24.5SM today.  24°18.26’N  076°32.43’W

Clink here for pictures of Cambridge Cay

Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Sunny, wind SE 15, 80 degrees.  Another beautiful day.  We occupy a mooring as some boats move on.  We venture north a bit in the dingy to the “Sea Aquarium”, which is a coral formation with LOTS of coral and fish.  It is beautiful, but there are lots of people here, the mega yachts sending there “dingys” loaded with people and go-pro cameras.  We dingy around the “river” at the north end of O’Briens Cay and then over to Soldier Cay (privately owned) and then to Little Hall Pond Cay, which is one of two islands owned by Johnny Depp.  There is a yurt and a bunch od platform tents on the beach that are left from his wedding.  There is a sunken plane (looks like a Cessna) we snorkel on at the south end of that island and then back to the boat.

At 4pm, Down Time and Saber Tooth come to the boat for Mexican Train, and then we all go for a “dingy drift” to harass the other boats in the anchorage.  Silly, but great fun.  Actually, almost no booze involved.  Nice day.  Tired tonight.

Thursday, March 26, 2015.  Sunny, Wind S@10. Chris Parker (weather guru on SSB) is predicting a frontal passage and squalls, so we elect to stay here.  There are few spots in the Exumas with protection from wind in every direction.

There are 4 little islands just to the west of the anchorage and today we snorkel there.  There are beautiful coral reefs, fish and turtles to see.  Very nice.  In the afternoon, we dingy to “mesmaria beach”, just south of here, and hang out with a bunch of other boats – beautiful sand and water.

Outbound (Deb and Steve) came in today.  Great to see them – last time was at No Name Harbor in Miami.  We have them over for dinner to catch up.

Kachina left today to head over to Staniel Key to drop off their guests who are flying out.

Friday, March 27, 2015. It is sunny, and the wind is starting to build.  We are supposed to get squalls tonight and the clouds and wind are getting stronger.  We go ashore at the beach closest to us with Saber Tooth, Outbound and Down Time and walk across the island to the ocean side.  Nice beach there, but again, we find no sea beans.  We walk north along the ridge of the island and take in some beautiful, rugged, scenery.  It is a long walk, and it is 2pm by the time we get back to the boat.  Onward has arranged a beach bocce ball tournament for 5 pm and about 8 boats show up.  At 6:30, Joe (organizer, Onward) declared everyone a winner and we left the beach before the no-seeums took over.  We stopped by Down Time for a beer on the way back to the boat, and then back to the boat for dinner and to bed.

At midnight, we see a lot of lightening on the northern and western horizon, and get everything “battened down”.  A 3am the rain, wind and lightening arrive.  Lots of each.  Glad we are tucked in safely here.

Saturday, March 28, 2015.  The wind has died down considerably, but it would still be pretty uncomfortable in an unprotected anchorage.  It is a bit cooler and cloudy.  Lisa took the dingy to go visiting this morning.  Last night we brought to dingy gas tank aboard to refill it and she took off without it this morning.  Needless to say, she didn’t get far.  John (Saber Tooth) rescued her. Saber Tooth and Greenstone leave to take folks to the airport at Staniel Key.  Hopefully, we will run into them again soon.

A 130 foot motor yacht has apparently run aground at Big Major.  We don’t know all the details, but the short of it is that it was on the beach during the high winds.  Not sure why they did not have a watch posted on a crewed vessel that large, but apparently not.

Cambridge Key to Big Majors Spot

Sunday, March 29, 2015.  9:30am we drop the mooring at Cambridge Cay.  It is cloudy and cool, 72 degrees, wind NE 15-20.   Good day to go south.  The wind was out of the east all night and the current through here runs north and south.  While were safe enough, we were lying sideways to the waves generated by the wind and the current.  Very rolly. Down Time is leaving too and gives us depth readings as they head out the south entrance to this anchorage, especially by Kiss Rock – very narrow channel and very shallow.  We never saw less than 7 feet as we stayed about 50 feet off Kiss.  Outbound is leaving also and follows us out.  Onward calls on the radio with more advice/information about the south entrance.  Nice to have help.  We put up the sails and were able to sail all the way to Big Major Spot.  20 NM, 24SM. 

24°11.10’N  076°27.54’W

In in the evening we had Outbound, Saber Tooth and Down Time over to play Mexican Train.  A good time was had by all. 

Monday, March 30, 2015.  Today we did boat chores We also saw Le Second again.  They are headed north.  Hopefully, our paths will cross again.  We went over to Down Time to make horns out of a couple of the conch shells we collected at Bimini.  One of them had a chamber that was completely closed, so was unsuitable as a horn.  The second one (Lisa's) came out great. Everyone met at Staniel Cay Yacht Club for a late lunch, early dinner (Greenstone and new guests, Saber Tooth, Kachina and guests, Outbound, Down Time and us).  A great time was had by all!

Big Majors Spot to Black Point

Tuesday, March 31, 2015.  Anchor up at 8:30am.  Wind NE 10-15.  Cool, 72 degrees, sunny. 10:45am, anchor down at Black Point.  5NM  6SM.  24°05.80’N  076°24.30’W

In the afternoon, we did laundry, took showers, had conch fritters (they prepare them at the laundry - $1 for 5).  Afterwards, we went with Saber Tooth to the creek at the north end of the island to look for sea beans.  Did not find any, but did find a boat hard aground.  The boat is Cimarron, and the last time we saw this boat was in Marathon last spring.  The guy who owns it had married, and the lady had her own boat – and they were rafted together at the north end of Boot Key Harbor.  The current story with Cimarron is that the Bahamian Defense Force handcuffed him and took him away – no one knows why – and the boat went aground in the creek during the most recent storm.

A bunch of people went to Scorpios’ for happy hour, but we missed that.  When we and Saber Tooth finally got there it was over but every one was still there (Kachina, Green Stone (and guests) , Outbound, Down Time.  Soon after, everyone was headed out to dinner.  We wound up at DeShamon’s for pizza with Kachina and Saber Tooth.  It took forever (longer than usual even for the Bahamas – they lost our order, then when it showed up, it was 2 pizzas instead of 3 – and it was just OK).  Still an enjoyable evening.

Click here for pictures of the two stops at Big Majors and Staniel Cay

Black Point to White Point

Wednesday, April 1, 2015.  We went ashore to run some errands (trash, water, post office, ice grocery).  Lisa was able to visit with Mrs. Adderley for a bit.  The local children are out of school today and playing April Fool’s jokes on everyone (your can is leaking water, your bag has a hole in it, your money fell out of your pocket, etc.).  Kachina is starting back north today, we hope to see them again.  Outbound is headed to Georgetown.

It is a beautiful day, sunny, 80 degrees, no clouds, wind SE @ 10.  We pull the anchor at noon and head 5 miles south to White Point.  Beautiful beach and anchorage.  Saber Tooth, Greenstone and Down Time are here.  24°02.11’N  076°22.31’W

At sunset, there is a bonfire on the beach.  Very nice.  Attending were Rhiannon, Saber Tooth, Greenstone (and guests) and Leisel.

Thursday, April 2, 2015.  The wind has picked up considerably and is out of the SE, which is causing “rollers” to come into the anchorage from the south.  The wind is supposed to swing more northerly later in the day, which should make this anchorage more comfortable.  It is sunny and 80 degrees.

We head to shore to hike across the island at Hetty’s Land.  There are some remains of houses/buildings inland and we assume this was once owned and farmed by Hetty.  The hike across the island is interesting, first there is sandy flatland, then an almost dry “lake”, then rocky hills (at the coast).  We are here with Greenstone and Saber Tooth to search for Sea Beans.  Sea Beans are seeds that wash ashore.  They are dropped by trees in the Amazon, are washed out to sea, and eventually make it to the Bahamas and Florida.  Greenstone has found them in this area previously.  There is tons of junk washed up on this shore, and as luck would have it we find three different kinds of beans (see pictures).  No hamburger beans tho’.  These are about the size of a quarter and are shaped like a hamburger.  The top and bottom are lighter than the middle – like a hamburger in a bun – hence the name.  We did find four “Lucky Beans” (aka Sea Hearts, Columbus Bean), 2 Starnut Palm and 1 Laurelwood.

The wind has built up a bit more and as we get back to the boat, we are hoping it will change direction as promised.

Click here for pictures of White Point.

Black Point #3

Friday, April 3, 2015.  The wind did not change direction overnight and we rolled side to side most of the night.  Not the best.  Today it is sunny snd 80 degrees and the wind is still blowing 18 out of the SE and we decide to head back to Black Point.  We are as far south as we will go on this trip.  We are 205 nautical miles east of Miami, 91 nautical miles south of Key West and 1198 nautical miles from Meredith, NH. As it turns out, this will be the southernmost point of our trip.  At 9:30am, we lift the anchor and have a very nice sail the five miles north to Black Point.  This week-end is Easter and there is a fishing tournament, 2 cook-outs and lots of other activities here.  Lots of boats in the harbor.  At 12:30 we dingy to shore and then walk over to Regatta Point with Down Time and Saber Tooth) for a cook-out sponsored by the local Baptist Church.  Lots of food including 2 kinds of conch salad (regular and Caribbean (contains fruit)).  Mrs. Lillian Adderley was there (Lisa bought a straw purse from her the last time we were here).  Her husband, Lawrence, in addition to running Adderley’s Grocery, Cottage Rental, Golf Cart Rental, etc, is the local church pastor.

A good time was had by all, but everyone ate too much.

Saturday, April 4, 2015.  Sunny, 80 degrees, no clouds, wind SE 10-15. Today we trekked to another beach on the east side of the island to search for sea beans.  We were in the company of Saber Tooth and Down Time.  Nora (Saber Tooth) has been to the Bahamas several times and has yet to find a bean, so Lisa gave her one of the Sea Hearts that we found yesterday.  Connie (Down Time), on the other hand, has found many beans, and  today found one of the rare Hamburger Beans.  She gave it to Lisa, very nice.  We also found a "golf ball" bean, another Sea Heart, and another Starnut Palm bean.  A good day.

Dinner was a pot luck and "bring your own meat to grill" on Down Time.  It is a beautiful evening, and we watch the clouds build from the east.  We get back to Rhiannon just as the rain begins.  It is over in a few minutes and a full moon is out.  Lovely.

Sunday, April 4, 2015.  Easter. Weather is the same as yesterday.  Boring, but in a good way.  We attend Easter services at Gethsemane Baptist Church.  Bahamian church is very musical and the people are all dressed to the nines.  We will spend some time looking for another suitable conch shell and then have dinner ashore.  Tomorrow, we will begin the slow trip northward toward the Abacos.

Click here for pictures of the three stops at Black Point