We have not updated for a while because we have been having problems
with Internet access. Our connection this time is
slow so no photos this time.
We spent a week at Rock Harbor moving from one side of the
harbor to the other depending on what the winds did. We did have several opportunities to go to
town and check things out. One of the
features in town is an ocean hole, which is a large hole filled with water that
is fed with salt water from the sound.
Outside of town, but still within walking distance is another hole and
close by it was a cave. Touring the cave
was interesting since there were opening above letting light in and there were
what looked like trees growing through them.
In reality it was root feelers that connected to the bottom of the cave
and helped feed the tree above. While we
were there Lee and Cheryl on Shalaylee came in.
They planned to stay for one night but stayed for several. All of us went out for dinner at Rosie's which
is on the other side of the island. She
offers pick up and drop off service and we all had a great time and great food. On Tuesday Phil on Sea Ya rented a Cadillac
Escalade and eight of us toured the island.
We started by trying to get to Lighthouse Beach on the south end of the
island. There is no real road to get
there but there is a rough and narrow path that we drove along. By the time we got back on the highway the
vehicle had some pretty bad scratches from rubbing against the brush on both
sides. The beach was ok; I wouldn’t
advise trying to go there again. From
there we turned north and worked our way north eventually turning around at
Gregory Town to return the car before closing.
Along the way we checked out the towns and harbors. We arrived here on the 21st and on
the 30th we pulled anchor the final time to move on.
We moved out of Rock Sound Harbor and set course for Ships
Channel Cut in the Exumas. The wind was
off the quarter but not enough to sail efficiently so we ended up motor-sailing
all day. Once in the Exuma Banks we
moved down to an anchorage just off of Ships Channel Cay. In the morning we pulled anchor and motored
sown to Allen’s Cay. The main attraction
of Allen’s Cay is the native iguanas.
They are used to people and come out to the beach to see if they are
going to be fed. They are about a foot long
and very prehistoric look but are not aggressive. While there we started talking to two couples
that arrived in their dinghys. It turns
out that they both have the center cockpit version of our Pearson. We had a mini Pearson Rally among the
iguanas. We pulled anchor again and
headed off to move several islands down to Shroud Cay. This being part of the National Park has some
rules that need to be followed, certain areas are off limits to motorized
vehicles (dinghies), no going to certain shore areas, no fishing, taking conch
or shelling, etc. On Monday morning we
took the dinghy out exploring the north part of the island along with Kim and
Les on Willamia. The river on the north
end is open for motorized dinghy’s so we rode into the center of the island and
then out a small opening onto the other side.
The center of the island is a mangrove swamp area with a variety of
wildlife. We saw a variety of fish, a
ray and several turtles in the clear water.
We stopped for lunch on the other side and climbed the hill to Camp
Driftwood where cruisers used to leave mementos but it is no longer allowed by
the park management. On the way back
down the river it started to rain, which turned into a downpour with high winds
and waves. We made a fast run back to
the boat with 20+ knot winds and 2 foot seas.
For the next hour we hunkered down while the storm moved on. Once the front moved on the winds switched
back to the east and everything calmed down.
On Tuesday we planned to move down to Wardwick Wells to
check in at the park headquarters and get more information on the park. We got a call from Bo and Allison on Selah
and agreed to meet up with them at O’Briens Cay to check out the Sea
Aquarium. We got there before them, only
going aground once while maneuvering around the islands. We dropped anchor and launched the
dinghy. When they arrived we went over
to pick them up to go snorkeling. There
is a spot called the Sea Aquarium where it is almost like swimming in an
aquarium. A large variety of beautiful
fish swarming around us. I shot some
video of it so watch for that being posted to our YouTube channel. On the way back to the boats we stopped at
another marker to check out an airplane that crashed there. The other attraction was Johnnie Depps house
on the neighboring island. No one is
allowed ashore there and I doubt that he was home. I didn’t mention the naked Canadian, but we
did run into one. As we passed an
anchored boat there was a naked man on the swim platform. We moved on.
In the morning we moved back out to the banks and proceeded
down to Big Majors Cay. Once out in the protection
of the islands we turned into 20+ knot winds and 2 foot seas on the nose. Once we arrived at Big Majors we anchored
with all of the other boats out of the wind.
We took the dinghies to shore to see the swimming pigs. This island has a herd of pigs that when you
approach the shore they swim out to be the first to get fed. Cori brought some lettuce to feed them so we
were popular with about five of them. At
one point some small piglets came squealing out onto the beach to find their
mother for a quick lunch then back into the brush. After checking out the pigs we raised anchor
again and moved to the other side of the island to anchor off of the Staniel
Cay Yacht Club. We dinghied over to what
is called Thunderball Grotto for more snorkeling. Thunderball grotto is famous for its use in
the James Bond movie Thunderball. There
is an underwater cave that feed into a large grotto with some openings in the
ceiling letting in some light. There is
again a large variety of colorful fish both outside and outside the
grotto. Again I shot some video so watch
for that to be posted when I get it edited.
I have to say snorkeling the grotto is one of the coolest things I have
ever done. After going back to the boat
and getting cleaned up we went to the marina to buy some gasoline for the
outboards and generator. Then it was
into the yacht club for drinks soon to be joined by Bo and Allison.
We have made the decision to move past everything around us
and go further down to Little Farmers Cay for the annual 5F festival. It sounds fun and we figure we can move back
up island to see what we passed later.
We also heard via email and VHF that our friends Vic and Gigi on Salty
Turtle would be there. We ended up
motoring against the wind all the way to Little Farmers but it was not blowing
as hard as the previous day. Once we got
close we tried working our way into the anchorage only to find we went about it
the hard way. It seems there is a
discrepancy between the depths the chart shows and what we were seeing. Approaching the anchorage we had a stretch
with less than a foot under the keel eventually anchoring in 8-10 feet where
the chart showed 3 feet. Had we found a
boat to follow in we would have had a better time arriving. We dropped anchor next to Salty Turtle and
when they came back from going ashore then stopped by for a drink and
stories. Later we went over to Loon for
drinks with Ben and Craig and Debbie from River Rat. Then it was time for happy hour at Ty’s,
cheap beer and appetizers. We were
joined by Salty Turtle, Salah, and Nightingale Song. After making plans for breakfast we headed
back to the boat for the night.
Friday was the beginning of the Festival and we headed to
Ty’s for breakfast, stewfish and kalik beer.
This was different then the stewfish we had at Green Turtle. This was a whole fish in a bowl of brown
sauce. It was delicious but a bit
unsightly. I have a photo I will upload
when I get a faster connection. After
breakfast we went back to the boat to trade out the 3.3 horse outboard for the
9.9. We then made the trip around the
top of the island to the town dock to look around. This is a small island with about 60
permanent residents so the festival is a big deal. There were booths being set up for the weekends
festivities. We walked around a bit
stopping at JR’s woodcarving shop getting a tour of his garden and descriptions
of his plants and trees then checked out his carvings. He is a talented carver. After the walk and no booths open we got back
in the dinghy and finished riding around the island. At one point I glanced back and saw a ray
jump about four feet out of the water.
We turned around but did not see it again. We went over to Salty Turtle for the boat
race and rode out to the start line in their dinghy and followed the fleet
around the course. These are the C class
traditional Bahamian boats and this is the first time we had seen them race. They start out with the sail down and
anchored in a line. At the starting
signal then pull up their anchors and as the anchor comes aboard they raise
their sail. There is only one sail and
it is a big one, way overpowering the boat.
This is compensated by having boards extend out the sides that the crew
sits on to balance the boat. At the end
of the race everyone met back at Ty’s for food and drink before the next race. The second race is around and somewhat through
the anchorage so we watched it from the upper deck on Salty Turtle. For dinner we went back to Ty’s for ribs and
chicken then tried to carry on a conversation over the music. Finally giving up we headed back to the boat
to be ready to leave in the morning.
The festival is scheduled to run through the weekend but
there is a strong front coming through sometime Saturday night and into Sunday
and we need to move to someplace we are protected from the west. We raised anchor and followed other boats out
of the harbor keeping track of the route for future reference, raised the sails
and had one of the most pleasant sails back up to Pipe Cay, a trip of about 20
miles. Once we reached our waypoint we
dropped the sails and motored around the islands to a cove that Vic had pointed
out would be protected. We maneuvered
around until we found a nice patch of sand and dropped the anchor. Once we were settled in Cori launched the
kayak to go exploring. Shortly Selah and
Nightingale Song joined up maneuvering around for a spot to anchor. Salah had stopped in Blackpoint to pick up a
few items and we had them pick up some bread for us. During the night the wind picked up and we
heard a sound we had never heard before.
We were up immediately to check it out.
It turned out that the combination of tidal current and the wind had us
pulling forward on our anchor instead of pulling back. This had the chain going under the boat
instead of off the bow. As the boat
would swing the chain had to move itself from one side of the keel to the other
making a lot of noise. This is the first
time we have had the wind and current working to push the boat in a completely
opposite direction then how she lays with just the wind. Needless to say we slept a little lighter
after that. We are used to most of the
noised we hear regularly so an unusual one really catches our attention and
will wake us up.
Sunday, we had strong winds out of the west then turning
northwest blowing all day. It is real interesting
to watch the current point the boat one way and the wind pushing it from
another. Normally the boat points into
the wind when at anchor. The winds were
in the upper 20’s all day with gusts just over 30 knots. Other areas around us reported even higher
gusts. This is the first time we have
started the engine and let it run at idle in case the anchor didn’t hold. At the end of the day everything worked as it
is supposed to.
Monday Cori took the opportunity with the lower winds to
take the kayak to shore and follow a path over to the other side of the island
to look for shells, glass and sea beans.
As the front passed it changed the winds from the north and the
temperatures dropped, time to pull out an extra blanket. Tuesday the winds went back into the 15-20
knot range so we stayed aboard and did a few projects. We re-bedded a leaking stanchion, resealed a
leaking window and did some troubleshooting on a problem with the single
sideband radio along with a couple of smaller projects. I also did some editing of videos and got
them ready to upload when we get a good internet connection. Cori spent her time between helping me and
with sewing projects.
Wednesday we finally launched the dinghy to get off the
boat. We started out making a run up to
Compass Cay to check out the marina and follow a small river up into the
mangroves. We were then joined by Selah
and Nightingale Song for a run up to Rocky Dundas Cay to snorkel into a couple
of caves and check out the coral and fish.
From there we crossed back to the north end of Compass Cay to check out Rachel’s
Bubble Bath. This is a shallow pool that
is filled at high tide and then as the water flows out waves break over the
barrier rocks causing the water to bubble up, thus the name. Cori took the opportunity to swim around in
it. When we got back to the boat it was
time for showers and hot chocolate, unfortunately after sitting this long we no
longer have hot water so it was a cold shower in the cockpit with a cold wind
blowing. Thus the need for hot
chocolate.
Thursday has the wind out of the north going to northeast
and we decided to leave. We had not seen
everything there was to offer here at Pipe Creek but expect to be back
again. We made the decision to move down
to Staniel Cay to top off the fuel and then move down to Blackpoint Settlement
where we can do laundry and get good internet.
Once out on the banks we turned south and put out the headsail and had a
great sail to Staniel. Once we got close
we fired up the engine and proceeded in.
Once we were in range of the fuel dock we were told it would be about an
hour before we could get fuel, there were a number of boats ahead of us. We decided to anchor and wait. When we dropped the anchor and started to
backdown there was a metallic noise from the engine compartment. We pulled the anchor and moved to a less crowded
area and tried to re-anchor. The transmission
would not come out of gear, when put into reverse it made a very bad clunking
sound and killed the engine. The engine
restarts but will not come out of forward gear.
We were wishing we had our friend Vic from Salty Turtle with us since he
knows people that can fix things and more knowledgeable than we are. Just as I was ready to dive overboard to
check that the prop was not fouled we see Salty Turtle going by. We hailed them and once they had anchored they
came over to take a look. He immediately
knew who to call and it happened they were anchored around the corner. We pulled anchor and moved over to the Big
Major anchorage and re-anchored. Soon
Vic and Scott from Catalyst came over to check it out. Scott went back to his boat, did a little
research and made some calls. I also did
some Googling and found the same results Scott.
When this model transmission fails, it locks itself into forward gear so
you can still get home. Any attempt to
go into reverse will kill the engine. It looks like we will be making a trip to Nassau
for some transmission work.
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