Black Point to Nassau,
2018
Thursday, March 29,
2018. Beautiful morning, 78 degrees,
partly cloudy, wind very brisk out of the east @ 20+. Not uncomfortable where we are anchored, but
there is more current through here than one might expect, and with the east
wind there is a bit of a chop.
John (Sea Breeze)
came over to check the aft refrigerator.
It has quit cooling in the night. He checked everything and thinks the
issue might be low voltage. When the
generator is running (and the charger/inverter is behaving), the refrigerator
is acting normally. We have had little
sun the past two days and the solar panels are not keeping up with the usage. He suggested we run a larger #4 wire directly
off the batteries and put a switch/circuit breaker near the cooling units.
If/when we replace the inverter charger, is should be moved closer to the
batteries, so that will involve some re-wiring also.
Saber Tooth, Greenstone and Summer of 42 (with Down Tme
aboard), pull out heading to Pipe Cay to explore the old Decca ruins (a British
“listening installation” for WWII).
At 4:40pm we head over to Scorpios for yet another happy
hour gathering. Sat with Sea
Breeze. We saw Cherrie, our ranger
friend from Warderick Wells. This is her
week off and she is here with her friend Stanley.
Friday, March 30,
2018. Good Friday. Most of the
businesses on the island are closed until 3:00pm. Restaurants and bars until 5:00pm. Lisa and Laura (Sea Breeze) walked to the
beach and came back with lots of treasures.
Lisa found 3 hamburger beans and two heart beans. She gave on the heart beans to Laura as they
have none. Having a heart bean on board
means good luck and your boat will not sink.
Lisa found 2 Machineel beans (not common) and a couple of huge Country
Almonds. These are very common and are
on the beaches this year by the hundreds. They also found lots of shells,
especially queen conch shells and lined top shells (which are lined with
mother-of-pearl and used in jewelry making).
Saturday, March 31,
2018. 75 degrees, partly cloudy,
wind East@15. Lisa and I walked to the
beach (the same one she visited yesterday).
We spent some time combing through the “wrap” left by the abnormally
high tides. We found three more heart
beans! That’s five from this beach in 2
days!
We had a cook out on Sea Breeze. A great meal and great company.
Sunday April 1, 2018.
Easter. April Fool’s Day. And a full moon.
Lots of boats left this morning.
Easter is the traditional day that many of the “snow birds” start for
home. We talked to Greenstone and Saber Tooth. Greenstone
is headed back to Staniel to pick up guests. Down
Time is now aboard Saber Tooth
and they are at Warderick Wells. Summer of 42 has started the trek back
to Florida.
We went looking for Hoodless
(Barbara and Larry), but they are not here.
We had internet again today and were able to get some bills
paid, our tax extension squared away with our accountant, and a bunch of email
caught up.
Lisa made eggplant parmigiana for dinner. Yummmm!
A movie on board and popcorn topped off the evening.
Monday, April 2,
2018. Partly cloudy, wind SE@5-10, 75 degrees.
9:15am Anchor up, headed north to Warderick Wells to meet Saber Tooth and Greenstone. We motored there
today to (hopefully) put a full charge into the batteries.
11:30am Talked to Saber
Tooth on the VHF. They are at the
top of Boo Boo Hill (at Warderick).
11:40am We talked to Exuma Park on the VHF. Nicola assigns us to mooring #6.
1:40pm we pick up the mooring at Warderick.
24.6NM today
24°23.86’N 076°37.99’W
1:50pm a huge old “training (sail) ship” comes in and picks
up the mooring ball between Saber Tooth and
Greenstone. The captain says they are “69 feet on deck”,
but they have at 10 foot bowsprit and at 5 foot swim platform – making him 84
feet overall! 24 students on board, plus
6 crew.
3:00pm John (Sea
breeze) came over to help check the grease in the lower unit of our
outboard. He was working from his dinghy
and the outboard was on the rail of Rhiannon.
He inadvertently let all the old oil/grease (80 weight oil actually) out
and it all ran into his dinghy! What a
mess! Good to change the oil anyway….
4:00pm We went snorkeling at the “Coral Garden” with Sea Breeze. John (Saber
Tooth) stopped by. We also said
hello to Greenstone, their daughter Angie and her husband Justin and their two sons, Emmett and Henry.
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| Find our driftwood sign...... |
Tuesday, April 3,
2018. Sunny, puffy clouds, 80 degrees. We went to the office to check in,
Nicola was there. Great to see her once
again. We dropped off a bunch of books
for the lending library (which we have read) and found a couple to read. We watched “the show” as several large yachts
come into the mooring field. Greenstone now has the “sail training”
ship on one side and an 80 foot power yacht on the other.
At high tide we went snorkeling at the north side of
Alligator Cay. We took a dinghy ride
through the cut to the Sound north of the anchorage, but it was very rough, so
we turned around and went all the way to the south end of Warderick Wells Cay
and around to the east side and the anchorage known as Hog Cay. This is a small anchorage and as stories go,
pirates used to hide from the British Navy here. This is one of the most secluded and
beautiful spots you will ever find.
We had appetizers and cocktails aboard Sea Breeze with John and Laura.
Laura gave Lisa a black “t-shirt dress” with a lacy top. Very nice.
Nice day, nice evening.
Wednesday, April 4,
2018. Sunny, puffy clouds, 80 degrees, wind S@10-15.
9:00am We met Greenstone (and guests) Saber Tooth and Down Time ashore and walked up to Boo Boo Hill to place their signs
in the “pile”. Many “new” signs here since our last visit, but ours is still
attached where we left it.
11:00am We drop the mooring and head south the Staniel Cay
to pick up our guests, Jim and Judy who are arriving on Friday. Their boat is named Tug-a-Long and we met them our first year coming south on the ICW
(2012-2013). Saber Tooth is also headed the Staniel to drop off Roger and Connie
(Down Time) for their flight
tomorrow.
1:00pm Anchor down at Staniel Cay Yacht Club, just west of
the club and the docks. It is raining as we arrive and we get the anchor down
in the rain. Saber Tooth is anchored
nearby.
19.4NM today.
24°10.28’N 076°26.81’W
Once the rain stops we walk to the Blue Store (Burke’s) and
to Isles General Store to check what they have for inventory. We dropped off one of our propane tanks to be
refilled at Isles.
At 4:00pm, we meet John and Nora (Saber Tooth) and Roger and Connie (Down Time) at the yacht club for an early dinner. We are sorry to see them go. It was a nice visit.
Thursday, April 5,
2018. Today is a day of boat chores.
It is partly cloudy, wind s@5-10, 80 degrees and more humid (it usually
is with a south wind). We dropped off
trash and left laundry to be done, bought wine, shopped all three grocery
stores (The Blue Store, The Pink Store, and Isles), picked up the filled
propane tank (Saber Tooth’s
also). Then we delivered Saber Tooth’s tank to them, refilled the
water tanks, the diesel fuel and the gasoline for the outboard using the jerry
cans and dinghying back and forth from the fuel tank to the boat – 3 trips
to/from the fuel dock and 3 trips to/from town.
Lisa cleaned the black marks (from deck runoff) off the
boat, cleaned the stern, changed sheets on both beds and organized stuff so our
guests coming tomorrow have a cabin. It
had been being used as storage for this trip.
We met John and Nora at 5:00pm at the yacht club for an
early dinner, then we played Mexican Train aboard Saber Tooth. Busy day, nice
evening.
Friday, April 6, 2018.
Sunny, light breeze from the South, 80 degrees. More yacht cleaning in
preparation of guests. Pick up the
laundry so everyone has fresh linens.
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| Sunset at Staniel Cay on Saber Tooth |
At:4:30pm, we met Jim and Judy at the airplane.
Chuck and Carmen (Soul Mates) and Joseph and Nicola (Exuma Park Administrators) were
there also. The flight was right on
time. Lisa and Judy went to the yacht
club and Jim and I took the baggage in the dinghy to Rhiannon and then joined the ladies. Another nice meal and another nice evening.
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| Jim and Judy arrive at Staniel |
Saturday, April 7,
2018. Sunny, wind SW@10-15.
10:00am Anchor up and we head over to “pig beach” at Big
Major Spot.
11:00am Anchor down at “pig beach”. We dinghy ashore to visit and feed the pigs. This time of year there are lots of people
and pigs and the pigs will get quite aggressive over food. Therefore, you shouldn’t feed them from you
hand, nor should you feed them from an inflatable dinghy. Many an inflatable has been ripped open by
the pigs hoofs as they try to climb in after the food.
11:45am Anchor up, heading to the north end of Compass Cay
to visit Rachael’s Bubbles.
1:45pm Anchor down at the north end of Compass Cay. It is high tide and not a lot of wind,
perfect conditions for Rachael’s Bubbles.
This is actually a low spot in the rock on the Sound Side (East side) of
the island. Behind this low spot a pool
has formed with a creek leading out to the west side of the island. Waves crash over this low spot and create
massive bubbles and foam in the pool.
The pool is always warm because it is relatively shallow and protected
from the wind.
3:00pm Anchor up, heading a bit farther north to Cambridge Cay.
3:00pm Anchor up, heading a bit farther north to Cambridge Cay.
4:00pm picked up a mooring at Cambridge Cay.
15NM today (in total).
24°18.15’N 076°32.38’W
A swim, then showers on board. Dinner on board, pork chops on the grill,
mashed potatoes and broccoli.
Sunday, April 8,
2018. Very windy overnight. At
2:00am, we are up securing everything.
We can see a lot of lightning in the east. 3:00am, we get some light
rain, but no storm.
8:00am Beautiful morning, 75 degrees, puffy clouds, wind
still SW@10.
9:00am We went over to Bonsai Island (one of the small
islands bordering the anchorage) to snorkel.
We tried out the new full face snorkel masks that Jim brought. Very nice.
10:00am Lisa made a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy,
eggs and bacon.
12:00 Noon We went ashore and walked the beach on the Sound
(East) side of Cambridge Cay. Made
several displays of “beach treasures” as the Park is a “No Take Zone”.
Nice afternoon.
Hamburgers on the grill for dinner.
Monday, April 9,
2018. Sunny, wind S@10-15, puffy clouds, 75 degrees. Talked to Saber
Tooth. They are still at Big Major.
Greenstone has guests (Janet and Don) flying in tomorrow, so they will wait and
decide where they are heading tomorrow.
10:00am Dropped the mooring and head out through the cut to
the north into the Sound and sail north toward Warderick Wells.
11:30am We visit Hog Cay.
As we said before, one of the prettiest places anywhere.
12:30pm We pick up mooring #15 at Warderick Wells, Exuma
Park. This is the mooring right next to
the park office.
1:00pm Lunch on board, mac and cheese with spam, Yum.
10NM today. 24°23.63’N 076°37.98’W
After lunch, Jim and Judy went for a swim at the beach.
Dinner on board, Chicken Marsala, very good.
Tuesday, April 10,
2018. Sunny, wind SE@10-15, puffy clouds.
9:00am, we went to the office to say good-bye for this
trip. We were able to get an updated
weather forecast, even tho’ the Park internet is still not working correctly.
10:00am We dropped the mooring and continue north toward
Shroud Cay. Wind SSW@10-15 and we are
making 6 knots under foresail alone. Because of the south wind we decide to
anchor on the north side of the small islands that are north of the mooring
field. The water here is very thin, so
we are very careful as we maneuver close to the shore (and out of the wind).
1:45pm anchor down.
21NM today. 24°32.89’N 076°47.70’W
4:00pm We take a dinghy ride across the Cay in one of the
mangrove rivers. Beautiful ride,
beautiful water. On east side of the
island is a lovely beach. Here we find
guests of one of the mega yachts and their attendants. Jim talked to the “Assistant Captain” and
found out that the vessel is 210 feet long and can be chartered for 10 days for
$800,000 plus food, liquor, fuel and dockage.
Wednesday, April 11,
2018. Sunny, high clouds, wind still SW@10-15, 75 degrees.
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| Sunset at Shroud Cay |
7:50am We raise the anchor and head north. We are motor sailing at 7+ knots.
9:50am We are passing Highborne Cay.
10:55am We are passing Ship Channel Cay, wind West@10.
1:00pm We can see rain squalls to the East.
1:30pm It looks like the squall has moved to the south and
missed us for now. Wind shifted to the
NW as the squall passed and increased to 20-25, but has eased back to 10-15
now.
2:30pm Looks like another rain squall to our north – the direction
we are headed.
3:00pm Wind has shifted to the north and it is raining. We have headed off to the east to keep wind
in the sail and make the ride more comfortable.
3:30pm Wind still north, but rain has passed and the wind
has ease4d to 10-15. The sail is in and
we are motoring the last three miles to Current Cut.
4:30pm We are through Current Cut. We ran against the tide, but was still able
to make 3.5 knots headway against the current.
The wind on the north side of the cut is N@15+. We decide to continue on to Spanish Wells. We call Yacht Haven and they will have a slip
for us.
6:30pm We motored into the wind the last 10 miles, but are
now tied up in slip #4 at Spanish Wells Yacht Haven. Lots of boats here and
many hands to help us get tied up securely.
Another squall line to the east of us.
68.7 NM today. 25°32.47’N 076°45.37’W
Showers for everyone, then dinner at Wrerckers at the
marina. Lisa, Jim and I had flat bread
pizza. Judy had a prawn salad, which was 6 large prawns (heads and all) over
lettuce and tomato.
Good food, nice place.
The whole facility has been rebuilt (including the docks) in the past
two years.
Thursday, April 12,
2018. Sunny, wind E@15-20, 80 degrees.
We rented a golf cart and toured Spanish Wells and Russell Island. Sea
Breeze (John and Laura) and Entre
Nous (Mike and Gwen) came to visit us on the dock. They are on a mooring at the east end of the
island. We saw them again at the beach
and then at The Gap (a local eatery) for lunch.
After lunch, we gave Rhiannon
a much needed bath. Dinner was at Buddas’,
followed by ice cream at Papa Scoops (todays flavors were French Vanilla and
Coffee).
Friday, April 13,
2018. Sunny, wind NE@15+, cooler 70 degrees this morning. We filled the boat with diesel (from jerry
cans) and water (reverse osmosis water on the dock), then took the cans in the
golf cart and refilled them at Ronald’s Service Center (16.5 gallons). We went to the Food Fair and restocked on
groceries. This is a nice store, much
like a US supermarket. Then we stopped at
Kathy’s Bakery, but she was out of coconut pie as she had given them all to the
church for their annual fair this week-end.
We were able to secure a couple of small carrot cakes, tho’. We stopped
at R&B Seafood and got some frozen lobster (out of season as of April 1)
and some frozen stone crab to add to the stores.
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| Spanish Wells Waterfront |
We had lunch at The Sand Bar out on the west end of Russell
Island.
We spent the afternoon getting Rhiannon ready for an early
departure to Nassau in the morning.
Dinner was at the Shipyard on the east end of Spanish Wells
with John and Laura (Sea Breeze),
Mike and Gwen (Entre Nous), Jeff and
Jenni (Zen) – who we met in Bimini in
January and the four of us (Lisa, Me, Jim and Judy). Great food.
Very nice evening.
We stopped at Papa Scoops on the way back to the
marina. Today’s flavors were cheesecake
and blueberry. I had a half and half,
yum, blueberry cheesecake!
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| Us, Judy and Jim |
Saturday, April 14,
2018. Sunny, puffy clouds, 77 degrees, wind SE@15.
8:30am Off the dock.
Jenni and Jeff helped us off the dock.
1:00pm Wind SE@15-18, sunny, some clouds on the horizon. Wind
20-20 degrees off the bow. Motor sailing
at 6-7 knots. Nassau on the horizon. Jim
has been on the wheel since noon. Waves
4-6 feet. Pretty bumpy.
3:00pm Sail down, pass Porgy Rocks, turn into the channel
for Nassau Harbor. Called Nassau Harbor Control for permission to enter the
harbor.
3:30pm Tied up in slip #48 at Nassau Harbor Club. Peter (dock master) there to greet us and
help secure the boat.
45NM today. 25°04.49’N
077°18.81’W
Oops! We forgot to turn on the satellite tracker! Those of you following us on the Garmin
website will think we are still in Spanish Wells!
We walked to East Villa Restaurant for dinner (a couple of
blocks east). It is a Chinese and
American restaurant and the food and service were great. Jim had a big steak, Judy had Chinese pork
chops, Lisa had ginger grouper and I had spring rolls and grilled vegetables
with rice.
This facility is really showing its age. The docks are good and sturdy, but the rest
of the place is a bit run down. The
restaurant is closed. The price is
reasonable for Nassau, however. It is
right across the street from a major shopping center and a Fresh Market. The showers work and the machines in the
laundry are recent and all work. The
people here are very nice and helpful. There is good security, which is
important here.
Sunday, April 15,
2018. Another beautiful day. Sunny, 80 degrees, wind SE@15-20. We called a taxi and all went downtown to the
straw market. We visited the market and several other shops. Jim and Judy bought t-shirts and other gifts
for folks at home. We had lunch at a
tapas restaurant on Pompey Square, then went to a souvenir shop on the East Bay
Street that also sells ice cream. A cab ride back to the marina with
Cassandra. She was very well dressed her
car very clean. She told us there are
now 30 or more driving cabs in Nassau.
Jim and Judy spent the afternoon packing for their departure
tomorrow morning. I washed the salt off Rhiannon.
At 7:00pm, we called Cassandra and she sent Charlotte to
pick us up and delivery us to The Cricket Club. A cricket tournament was just
ending when we arrived. Busy day. Unfortunately, because of being so busy, they
are out of steak and mushroom pie and chicken pie. We all order the seafood pie (shrimp and
lobster) and it was as delicious as ever.
They are also out of Pink Sands, one of our favorite beverages. Charlotte came when we called her and gave us
a ride back to the marina. A nice day in Nassau.
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| Lisa and Royals Captain Robert |
Monday, April 16,
2018. Rain overnight and windy.
Still raining this morning, but by 9:30am it has stopped.
10:30am Cassandra is here to give Jim and Judy a ride to the
airport. It has been a great visit and we hope to see them on our trip home
after laying up the boat for the summer.
More rain after they depart.
Lisa and I did some boat chores, looked at the weather predictions,
then walked over to the shopping center across the street. We visited the Fresh Market and some of the
shops, but the only thing we bought was an ice cream at the Dairy Queen.
Dinner was left over seafood pie from the Cricket Club and
salad. Still yummy a day later.
Tuesday, April 17,
2018. Wind in the north this morning and cooler than it has been in a
while. Boat chores (clean the bilge, fix rub rail we knocked loose entering
this slip, move items back into the “storage” room). Lisa did some laundry and I got this post
ready to publish. There are lots of
pictures this time. We will check
weather and (hopefully) depart tomorrow for the Berry Islands.
Click on this link for lots of new pictures
