Round Trip ...Norman's Cay and Back to Pipe

Round Trip...Norman's Cay and Back to Pipe

I am sittng under a towel on the patio at DeShemons Restaurant in Black Point using Simon's restaurant signal. We had hoped to have our usual conch pizza; however most of the residents couple of hundred citizens are in Nassau for a funeral of a 95 year old sea captain. The town is a little quiet; however Ida down at the laundromat is opening and closing Adderley's Grocery whenever someone wants into the store. We actually found several grapefruit there and some oranges...a wonderful find since Isle's Grocery had neither. We are now well provisioned and ready to head to the Jumentos if only the weather will cooperate? It sounds like it may be closer to the end of the week before we get our weather window. Once we leave you may not get a blog entry for a couple of weeks as we are really in the boonies in the Raggeds.

Before making the decision to go to Nassau Lynn and Peter had taken First Edition into Staniel Cay to try to find a motor mechanic to look at Mr.Mac the Merc. After waiting and not getting much help they decided that a trip to Nassau was a better choice so sailed back north to join us on the ocean side of Norman's Cay in a new anchorage for both of us. We had left in the morning (Monday February 15th) for the 35 mile trip to Norman's before we knew their new plan for Nassau. We have now decided that we will head to the Jumentos later this week rather than wait for First Edition to return from Nassau. We will pick up some diesel, do some provisioning in Staniel Cay and laundry in Black Point and take the next weather window to The Raggeds. We had returned through this area on our way back from the Dominican Republic last year and had really enjoyed getting off the beaten track. There are good charts for the Jumentos now but the navigating is tricky and there are no settlements for 60 miles so you are on your own. Lynn and Peter weren't with us last year because they had to pick up Peter's daughter in the Exumas so are really hoping to get there this year. If all goes well with Lynn's visit home and the outboard repair in Nassau we should meet up with them in the Jumentos or on our way back to the Abacos. At least we can stay in touch on the Single Side Band radio.

After reaching our anchorage yesterday we rowed to shore to do some beach exploring. There are a couple of lovely beaches but the shelling is poor; however it is always great to get to shore and stretch one's legs. This morning it is cloudy but we have decided that we will row to shore and explore the northern end of the cay. Lynn and Peter loaned us a book called Turning the Tide which is about Carlos Lehder's cocaine smuggling days on Norman's Cay in the 1970s so we are interested in exploring the ruins from those days. Rob rowed Lynn and I ashore in Goldberry and then returned for Peter. We explored and walked the north end of Norman's all afternoon. We found Lehder's house called the Volcano in his glory days on a cliff over looking the ocean. The house is being renovated slowly and has seen better days. We also found the remains of gates and other buildings in the compound. Another building built with a large deck over looking the ocean seemed to fit the description in the book of the party place. Ledher has been in jail since the early 1980s serving a 135 year sentence. He was in his late twenties when he was the king of cocaine. It is hard to believe that this small island was the centre of the Columbian cocaine trade. The book also mentions that Lehder was doing a fair amount of experimentation in the development of crack cocaine in a lab on the island. The captain rowed all of us back in one load...Lynn and Peter in the stern, then Rob and me in the bow. Goldberry was the star and the captain worked up an appetite for Lynn's dinner of linguine and clams. Lynn loves to cook and we are always spoiled when we have dinner on First Edition.

We had planned on staying for another day with First Edition but the wind direction was too good to pass up for a sail south. We seldom do our hull speed of 7.5 knots but we were seeing speeds of 8 to 9 knots and this is with a reefed main sail. The old girl was just a flying and the crew was working hard too. We had hoped to get to Staniel Cay for the mail boat but the wind direction and speed has driven us back to Pipe. We plan to leave tomorrow and with any luck there may be some groceries left because other cruisers couldn't get to the store. The mail boat can get to Staniel in most all weather conditions but the sail boats have to be more choosey. speaking of weather we have never worn our fleece as much as we have this year and we have seldom slept without a blanket on our berth. The cold fronts just keep on reaching the Exumas and that is not usually the pattern. Today we are bundled up in our fleece and staying below decks because the wind has a real bite to it. You can see from the picture of Rob at the helm that our fast sail back to Pipe was chilly. The captain keeps reminding everyone that it is winter in The Bahamas.