George Town to
Spanish Wells 2017
Tuesday, March 14,
2017. Wind shifted South 15-20
overnight. Once again bumpy in the
anchorage.
7:50am Cloudy, murky, wind Southeast 15-20. Anchor up.
Lots of boats leaving heading north or south (to the Caribbean). We are sailing north at 7+ knots.
10:00am Rain showers, wind Southwest 15-20.
11:00am showers clear.
1:00pm Wind now West@15.
Traveling with Heaven (Randy
and Ellen). Randy was helping another
boat with their wind generator, when the brake gave way. One broken finger and 57 stitches in his
right arm after he was air lifted to Nassau.
He is on his way back there to have the arm checked and hopefully the
stitches removed. Be careful around
those spinning blades.
2:00pm Wind West @ 15. Motor sailing into the wind to get to
the cut at Little Farmer’s Cay.
2:45pm Farmers Cut.
Wind and tide going in the same direction – west – the same direction we
are going so the transition through the cut is easy.
3:00pm Anchor down at the anchorage on the SE ide of Little
Farmers (in between Little Farmers Cay and Big Farmers Cay).
45NM today. 23°57.45’N
076°18.94’W
Dinner on board. Pam and Jerry, who are coming to visit,
will be coming on Friday instead of Thursday due to weather in the
northeast. We heard Saber Tooth on the VHF.
Hopefully, we will see them soon.
Wednesday, March 15,
2017. The Ides of March. Wind NNW
15-20. It blew NW all night. There is lots of current in here, flowing
between the islands and in and out of the cut.
During the night, the boat anchored beside us was actually going in
circles on the outgoing tide (6 hours). The bow pointed in every direction, it
swung from 50 feet from us to well over 200.
I do not know why the action did not pull his anchor out. We have never seen a bout do that at
anchor. None of the other boats here did
that, they all laid with the current.
Maybe he was stuck in an eddy???
Anchor up at 9:00am.
Nice to get away from the crazy boat making circles! As we motor North into the wind, we are head
on into 4-6 foot seas. Not much fun, but
we are only going 8.5 miles!
10:45am Anchor down on the south side of Black Point (Castle
Beach – so named because of a house there that looks like a castle. It was originally going to be part of a new
development (marina, resort, golf course) that went bust in 2006). The wind is supposed to shift into the North
and then Northeast, which it does by late afternoon. The anchorage in the lee of the land is calm
even though the wind is howling.
8.5NM today.
24°04.83’N 076°23.22’N
Thursday, March 16,
2017. Wind North @ 15-20, but comfortable where we were anchored overnight.
7 other boats here, cloudy 70 degrees – cool night. Anchor up at 8:45am –
motoring North into the wind. Not as
rough as yesterday, but Rhiannon is
covered with salt from the spray.
11:00am Anchor down in the cove west of Staniel Cay Yacht
Club. A little choppy here but not bad.
We are close to the airport and town, so it is a good place to pick up the
Janas tomorrow. We hear Saber Tooth, Green Stone, Summer of 42,
Baila, Robyn, and Mariposa on the VHF.
They are all over at Big Major – about 2 miles north.
11NM today.
24°10.26’N 076°26.80’W
Friday, March 17,
2017. Wind NE, cloudy, cool 68 degrees. The mailboat came in last
night. It is the first one in over a
week because of the high winds. The
shelves in the stores were all pretty bare.
9:00am. The Janas
arrive on Watermakers Air. There is a dingy dock across from the airport. In addition to the runway and a parking area,
the airport has a small terminal building, and a covered pavilion, which is the
waiting area. Because these flights are
technically a “charter”, they fly into the “executive” terminals in the US, so
there is virtually no security to deal with.
11:00am We all go to the grocery, then the liquor store for
wine, then to Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch.
3:00pm We move Rhiannon
2 miles north to Big Major Spot. We
anchor close by Saber Tooth and Nora
brings us cookies! We love Nora’s baking!
4:00pm Lisa, Pam and Jerry go to see the swimming pigs, the
attraction here at Big Major. People
come from all over to see the “wild pigs” swim for food. I made dinner (Chicken
Lillian), Still cloudy and cool, 75
degrees, wind NE @ 15+. Flat here in the
anchorage.
2NM today.
24°11.12’N 076°27.64’W
Saturday, March 18,
2017. 8:00am Cloudy, wind NE @ 15+, cool 65 degrees, very cool
overnight. We heard Destiny IV US on the VHF. (;00am, we talk to Exuma Park and were
able to get a mooring in the north mooring field for tonight.
9:45am, anchor up, wind still NE @ 15+, but the sun is
trying to peak out. We have a nice sail
north to Warderick Wells at 6+ knots.
1:15pm on mooring #5 at Warderick Well (Exuma Park). We made
our way to the park office and checked in, renewed our membership for another
year, and introduced the Janas to Sherry, the ranger working the office. We all piled back in the dingy and went for a
sight-seeing ride along the coast of the island south past Emerald Rock and
then back to the boat.
20NM today. 24°23.88’N 076°38.01’W
Lobster, potatoes and fresh broccoli for dinner.
Sunday, March 19,
2017. Partly Cloudy, still windy, NE @ 15-20. Still cool 65 degrees. We went to the office to buy some internet
time (only communications available here in the park) so Pam could check
email. We then walked up Boo Boo Hill
and showed Pam and Jerry the blow holes and the oile of signs of boat names
left by cruisers. The tradition is that
you write your boat name on a piece of driftwood to appease the spirits that
inhabit the island. Lisa and Pam then
walked the length of the island and Jerry and I went back to the boat. Outbound was here. First time we have seen them this season, so
Jerry and I stopped by for a visit.
Dinner on board – pork chops cooked with sage, potatoes and
carrots for dinner.
Monday, March 20,
2017. Sunny, 70 degrees, wind down a bit NE @ 10-15. Jerry made everyone breakfast, nice!
9:45am Off the mooring and sailing south to Cambridge Cay
(still part of the park) at 6+ knots. We
entered Cambridge Cay anchorage from the south at mid-tide and the lowest water
we saw was 6.7 feet. Saber Tooth is on their way here, but he
draws 7 feet, so we let him know the water depth. They opt to go around to the north entrance,
which has more water. The tide is only 2
feet today.
12:45pm Anchor down south of the mooring field at Cambridge
inn 13 feet of water (the moorings are all taken, but there is plenty of
anchoring space). Pam made lunch for all, salads and sandwiches.
1:45pm I try to fix
our “marriage savers” (2 way radios we use when anchoring or docking). On one of the head sets, you can speak but
can’t hear. While I work on that, Pam, Jerry and Lisa go to the beach. Turns out to be a broken wire inside the
headset. I was able to re-solder it, now
it works!
Dinner on board. Lisa
made pasta. Saber Tooth and Greenstone have anchored nearby.
11Nm today.
24°17.93’N 076°32.33’W
After dinner, Pam and Lisa went to visit Saber Tooth and Lisa borrowed their
paddle board, her first time on one. She
was rescued by Bob on Greenstone.
Tuesday, March 21,
2016. Beautiful morning,l 70
degrees, no clouds, wind East @ 10. We
went over to the small islands at the west side of the anchorage and
snorkeled. This is a great spot because
you can anchor the dingy in water shallow enough so that folks can get in and
out of the dingy and yet you are only 50 feet from the coral islands where
there are lots of brightly colored fish, turtles and fauna. We also saw a large barracuda (probably 6
feet). Luckily he went his way and we
went ours. They can be unpredictable and
move with great quickness.
While we were gone from the boat, Nora and John left more
cookies and a set of fins that will fit Jerry (size 14).
Dinner on board, left over Chicken Lillian (always better a
day or so after original preparation).
Wednesday, March 22,
2016. Cloudy, cool morning, wind East @ 5-10. Clouds clear by 9:00am, beautiful. 9:30am We
all go ashore and because the tide is out, we have to walk the last 20 yards to
shore. Pam commented that it reminded
her of a scene from a Brooke Shields movie (the water colors, the sand, the
green island, gorgeous!). We walk across
the island to Bell Rock and then walked the beach on the east side of the
island. We found several whole welk
shells, but no sea beans.
12:00 noon. Lunch aboard, then the anchor is up and we head
out the north entrance, around Bell Island and over to the northern tip of
Cambridge Cay. We anchor in a small cove
there, out of the waves and the wind at 1:30pm.
We dinghy to shore and walk east up a sandy creek to Rachel’s Bubbles. At the east end of this creek is a pool
(which feeds the creek). This is pool is clear and deep. There are rocks and coral between this pool
and the ocean. The waves hit the rocks
and the water, spray and foam come over the rocks into the pool. When this happens lots of bubbles appear when
the white water hits the calm water of the pool – hence Rachels Bubbles. Not sure who Rachel is?? Besides being fun to
watch and swim in, it is a beautiful spot and the weather is perfect. The waves are just right to produce the
desired bubbles and the water temp in the pool is over 80 degrees. When we get
there, a “school ship” full of students is leaving and we have the place to
ourselves for the hour we are there.
3NM 24.16,78'N 076.31.51"W
3:30pm Anchor up and we head south along the west coast of Compass
Cay and then south back to Staniel Cay.
5:30pm Anchor down just west od Staniel Cay Yacht Club,
pretty much the same spot we were in when we picked up the Janas on Friday.
11Nm today.
24°10.26’N 076°26.80’W
6:30pm Dinner at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. We did not realize that you have to make a
reservation for dinner and pick you entrée ahead of time. However, they allowed us to eat in the bar
area (which we like) and pick items from the lunch menu. Very nice evening, including key lime pie for
dessert, nice ambiance and great company.
We will misss Pam and jerry when they leave tomorrow.
Thursday, March 23,
2017. Clear, 75 degrees, no clouds, wind east @ 5-10. We all went to town, dropped off trash, went
to Isles General and the Blue Store for groceries (the Pink store is
closed). There has not been a mail boat
in a week, so the shelves in the stores are pretty bare. Pam and Jerry got packed and we all went in
to Stanbiel Cay Yacht Club for lunch.
The club will give folks a ride to the airport (1/2 mile), Pam and Jerry
leave their luggage at the hotel office.
After lunch, we said our good-byes and head back to the boat. We intended to go to the fuel dock to fill up
fuel and water, but there is a line of boats waiting, so instead, we fill the
fuel tank from jerry cans.
2:50pm, we lift anchor and head south 8 miles to Black
Point. A cold front is coming tonight
(seems there have been a lot of those coming this far south this winter), with
winds predicted from the East and Northeast.
Black Point should be a good anchorage for this front and we can do
laundry and get a hair cut.
4:15pm Anchor down at Black Point. Wind has built to East @ 15 with stronger
winds predicted. Pretty flat in the
anchorage. Dinner on board, the last of
the Chicken Lillian.
Robyn, Dawn Treader,
Baila, Providence, Saber Tooth, Greenstone and about 20 other boats here.
9 NM today. 24°06.06’N
076°24.07’W
Dinner on board – the last of the Chicken Lillian.
Friday, March 24,
2017. The wind built over night, 25- 30.
At 5:00 am there were gusts over 40, howling! Even though we are in the
lee of the island, we are about ½ mile from shore and there are 2 -3 waves
rolling through the anchorage. Because
there is little current here, we are sitting into the wind and the waves, which
makes it a bit more comfortable. Rain, heavy at times and lightening as the
front passes. Six boats broke loose and
two of them were trying to reset their anchors in amongst the other boats –
dangerous and foolish. The others went
somewhere else and were not here when the sun came up. I don’t think anyone thought the wind would
build to that level. When the wind was
that strong in George Town, we lifted the dingy out of the water. We should have done so last night. A couple of the boats in the anchorage lost
their dinghys overnight.
8:00am Wind still at 30+.
Rain. We spent most of the day
reading. Too dangerous to try to go
about in the dinghy.
6:00pm Some breaks in the clouds. We are anchored close by a big boxy
catamaran. It is swinging crazily from
its anchor, but his anchor is holding.
Maybe we will try to anchor away from the kinds of boats in the
future. There are a lot of positives to
these catamarans – mainly living space, but they a large and have a lot of
windage.
Saturday, March 25,
2017. More wind and rain overnight. Clear at 8:00am and the wind is 20 NE. It is flat by the shore and the wind is
supposed to die down during the course of the day. We took a bunch of laundry in to wash. We had one of Miss Ida’s pastries for
breakfast. There is no one here but us
until noon. We have never seen the place
empty before. I had a shower and a
haircut and Lisa went down the road to Miss Florence’s to learn how to plat
palm fronds so she can make straw items like the natives. She took Miss Florence some material that she
uses to line the inside of the purses she makes (actually, Down Time brought it over for Lisa from a Walmart in the States).
Lisa also delivered cinnamon, raisins and vanilla to Miss Peermon, Lorraine’s
mom (of Lorraine’s Café) which she uses in making her famous Bahamian bread.
We had lunch at DeShamon’s with Providence, Carrie Mae and three other boats while the last load of
clothes went through the dry cycle. The
food was ok and the wait long. Greenstone dropped off their guests at
Staniel today and Saber Tooth is
dropping off theirs tomorrow.
6:00pm The wind has built back to 30. Dinner on board.
Sunday, March 26,
2017. 8:00am Wind East @ 20+, 70 degrees, sunny, but dark clouds on the
horizon. We talked to Saber Tooth and we decide to head north
back to Big Major.
9:50am Anchor up.
Nice sail north to Big Major Spot.
11:30am Anchor down
close to Saber Tooth. We had a 27 knot
gust on the way here this morning, but it id flat in the anchorage.
3:00pm Only puffy clouds.
Wind down to 15+. Lots of boats
here. Saber Tooth, Greenstone, Summer of 42, Sea Turtle and about 20
others. Lisa went snorkeling along the east edge of the anchorage with Nora and
John (Saber Tooth) and Bob (Greenstone). I spent the afternoon
getting at least one layer of salt off Rhiannon.
9NM today.
24°11.09’N )76°27.54’W
Monday, March 27,
2017. Blue sky, puffy clouds, wind down to East @ 10. Lisa is not feeling too well this morning,
upset stomach. I took the dinghy over to
Staniel Cay. Dropped the propane tank
off to be filled and bought some groceries at Isles General Store, dropped off
trash, and filled water and fuel jerry cans at the club fuel dock.
3:00pm Lisa is working on an eye splice in the new line she
brought back with here when she returned from Fred’s funeral. Earl (Seeker) taught us how to do this last
year, but it has been a year. The one I
tried to make is a mess. The new line is
to replace the one we put in last year as the outhaul for the main sail (the
rope you use to pull out the sail). The
current one is too fat (1/2” diameter) to go through the sheet stopper. The new one is 7/16” and should pass through
the stopper easier. While she is working on this, I went back to town, picked
up our now full propane tank and more water in Jerry cans.
Lisa feeling better.
Dinner on board.
Tuesday, March 28,
2017. Sunny, puffy clouds, 72 degrees, wind east 8 – 15. Beautiful
morning. Lots of boats moving both north
and south. Greenstone and Saber Tooth
headed to Norman’s Cay to dive for crawfish (lobster). Baila and Robin headed
for Shroud Cay.
We called and made a reservation at Spanish Wells Yacht
Haven for Friday. We talked to our
insurance agent (for the boat). It is frustrating dealing with them. The past two renewals have gone right down to
the wire before they get the coverage finalized. The policy renews April 1. We hope to leave the boat in Florida this
year if we can get the insurance to agree.
9:30am Wind East 5-15.
Both sails up, motor sailing north. We see several mega yachts heading
north at speed.
Noon Wind E < 10.
75 degrees. Puffy clouds. Saber
Tooth, Greenstone, Night Star and Summer
of 42 headed to Normans Cay. Baila, Robyn to Shroud. VHF conversations with both groups about
water depths at approaches and anchorages.
2:40pm Anchor down at Shroud Cay south of the mooring
field. Baila here. Sunny, 80
degrees, wind E 5-10, puffy clouds – perfect!
38NM today.
24°31.68’N 076°47.76’
Cook out aboard Rhiannon
with Baila – chicken, hot dogs,
hamburgers, pasta salad and salad.
Cookies for dessert. The kids
(Anna, Izzy and Avery) watched the movie Wall-E. Nice evening.
At sunset there was conch horn blowing by the kids (Avery too!). There
are at least two dogs on the island and they are barking almost continually. We are told that they cross over from Pelican
Cay at low tide (across the flats) and then get stranded when the tide comes
back.
Wednesday, March 29,
2017. Beautiful, sunny, wind East @ 10, puffy clouds, anchorage flat. 10:00am Lisa and I go dinghy exploring up the
mangrove river at the southg end of the island.
This ends at a beach on the east side of the island. There is another river at the north end of
the island that is very similar and one in the middle of the island that
connects to the north river.
Almost to the other side of the island we meet the dogs.
There are three of them. They look very
skinny, but are extremely friendly. We
scurry back to the boat and get some chicken soup and fresh water. After feeding and watering the dogs we walk
the beach on the east side. Not many
shells and no sea beans. We have three
companions on the walk. If we knew they
were healthy and not full of critters, Lisa would have brought all three back
to New Hampshire with us. We bid them
good-bye and hope they find their way home.
We had a late lunch aboard.
A tender about 30 feet long from one of the mega yachts came to the
beach on this side of the island and set up for their guests (tents, beach
chairs, towels, a rug). They then went
back to the yacht and brought the guests ashore. During all this, they apparently forgot the
tide was going out and stranded their 30 foot center cockpit tender in a
sandbar. It was 8:00pm before they could
get it off!
Lisa went paddle boarding with Lynn (Baila) and the kids used our 2 person inflatable kayak.
Dinner on board Baila.
Pasta. Nice evening.
Thursday, March 30, 2017.
7:00am. Another nice morning. Sunny, wind East @ 10, no clouds, flat in
the anchorage.
7:40am Anchor up.
Good-bye to Baila. They are headed to Rock Sound on Eleuthera
(center of the island due east from here) as are Saber Tooth and Greenstone. We are headed north to Spanish Wells (at the
northwest tip of Eleuthera). Hopefully,
we will see all these folks again in the Abacos.
8:30am Fore sail out, wind East @ 10. Motor sailing at 6.5 knots. We need to be a Current Cut by 6:00pm to make
sure we can go through with the tide and not against it. The tide through the cut runs up to 4 knots!
9:30am Passing Highborne Cay – wind now 14, boat speed over
7 knots – sailing – both sails out.
Occasionally, with a good gust we are hitting 8+ knots! Lovely!
Noon Wind now Southeast @ 10-15. Average speed has dropped to 5.5 – 6. Still a nice sailing day!
We received an email from our insurance agent saying we
should be all set with our insurance.
The only issue is the price on the binder is $350 more than the price on
the quote. She will check to see why. Now we need to decide where we want to leave
the boat for the summer.
3:30pm Sails down, motoring, wind 8-10 directly on the
stern. 1 hour to Current CUT.
4:40PM Current Cut – tide is still favorable. We are registering 10.6 knots through the
Cut. Once through the Cut, we experience
the same phenomon as last year. The wind
on the south side of the cut is coming from the SE, on the North side it is
coming from the West. It must wrap
around the island. We decide to continue
on to Meeks Patch, and island just south of Spanish Wells.
6:10pm Anchor down on the east side of Meeks Patch. The anchorage is flat, wind Southwest @ 10,
sunny, no clouds.
63NM today.
25°30.91’N 076°46.61’W
Dinner on board. 4
other boats here.
Friday, March 31,
2017. Partly cloudy, wind South @ 15, 75 degrees. Spent the morning working on communications
(plumber for one of our rental units, boat insurance, summer home for Rhiannon, bills, etc).
2:00pm Anchor up and we head in to Spanish Wells (one of our
favorite stops).
3:00pm Leroy (Dockmaster) is on the dock to take lines and
greet us at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven.
All of the construction we saw over the last two years is complete and
the place is beautiful. The marina has
been dredged and where we ran aground 2 years ago trying to get into a slip, we
now have over 7 feet at low tide. Lighten Up is here. That is the sportfish we met last year. We had Dennis and Bart to dinner last year
(they were waiting for the owner to arrive) and they gave us some freshly
caught Wahoo. Jeff and Patty and Leona
(cocker spaniel) on Avalon are here
too. We have been crossing paths with
them since we left George Town.
5NM today.
25°45.37’N
076°45.37’W
Dinner at Buddas and then we walked to Papa’s for ice cream,
both favorites of ours.
Saturday, April 1,
2017. Clear, wind South @ 10. 80
degrees. Today they are having a
“Birthday Party” at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven to celebrate the re-opening after
the construction. This is being done by
the restaurant, which is franchised out.
We rent a golf cart and get fuel and groceries (great grocery store and
much cheaper than in the Exumas). We go to Robert’s Seafood and get some
lobster and grouper. They have it flash
frozen and vacuum packaged. Nice for the
boat. We pick up some gifts to take home
and stop at the shell shop to drop off a license plate we brought for Daryl
Sweeting, who collects them. He wasn’t
there and no one was home so we left it in a hidden spot and left him a phone
message. We stopped at Bernard’s Fish
Pier to get some fresh fish, but they only had lobster. Oh well, lobster will have to do. Turns out Bernard is Daryl Sweeting's father. His grandfather was there too
(he makes the conch horns) and his mother!
Met the whole family! We had
lunch at The Gap restaurant. It is a
locals’ place and the food was excellent and the prices reasonable. Lisa had the Catch-of-the-day sandwich and I
had a chicken plate with cold slaw and squash casserole. Excellent!
The local politicians were there campaigning and it was interesting to
listen to their political issues. Many of
the people on Spanish Wells think Trump was a good choice for the US. Time will tell.
Yesterday was the last day of lobster (crawfish) season in
the Bahamas, so all the fishing boats are coming in today and unloading
lobster, stone crab and fish. At every
dock there are family member waiting to greet the returning fisherman. Reminds you of Gloucester.
6:00pm. The wind dies
off and the black flies (midgies, no-seeums) are out in force. Dinner on board tonight. The “party” at the marina/restaurant is still
going strong. Mostly young locals. The have now set up music at the pool and
there are 30-40 people in it. At 8:00pm
a DJ starts with the loud rap/hip-hop music and that continues until 2:00am,
when the action moves back to the pool until 3:00am.
Sunday, April 2,
2017. Sunny and warm, 80 degrees. We gave Rhiannon a bath, filled the water
tanks and worked on correspondence. We
met with Mike and Kaysey on Canallun to talk about their upcoming trip to Key
West and out trip to the Abacos. Shared
a beer and some cheese with them and had a nice visit. She is a chef from New Orleans and he is a
doctor from DC.
We filled the propane tank and put three cans of diesel fuel (24 gallons) in Rhiannon's tank, then refilled the jerry cans.
We also filled the jerry can for gasoline (5 gallons).
Dennis (Lighten UP) was filleting a wahoo and showed hoe its
done. Looks easy, but you have to have a
razor sharp knife! We had cocktails aboard Lighten
Up with Dennis and Bart, who are waiting to meet friends of the owner and
take them out fishing for a week. They
reviewed our fishing tackle and made some recommendations, made us some leaders
and gave us a cedar plug lure, which they say works great.
Avalon, Moon Dance and November Rain all departed
today. Avalon headed to Royal Island
then to the Abacos tomorrow. We saw
Laurent and Claudze (Dorenavent). They came in by dingy, but are anchored out
at Meeks (where we were Thursday night). They too are headed to the Abacos tomorrow.
Dinner on board, then we set up our two rods and
reels as per suggestions from Lighten Up.
Click on this link for pictures of George Town to Spanish Wells
Want more pictures? Click on this link!
