Changes in Latitudes...Changes in Attitudes
Today is Tuesday March 9th and we are in Black Point. Since my last entry we have met back up with First Edition, sailed 15 miles south to Galliot Cay and anchored for the night and continued on another 12 miles south to Lee Stocking Island where we have stayed for the last two nights. We had hoped to stay longer; however our plans of sailing to Cat Island and Little San Salvador evaporated when we listened to Chris Parker's forecast this morning. Once again we have a westerly cold front bearing down on us in the Exumas; however this time we are going to use the front to sail to the sothern part of Eleuthera....we hope.
The anchorage at Galliot Cay was very pleasant and we had the whole place to ourselves; however the temperatures kept the skinny dippers shivering and under cover. We have used our oil lamp most evenings to keep the chill out of the air. That being said the days have gradually been warming up and we seldom don't get in the ocean for a dip. We had a great sail down to Lee Stocking and were making high 6s and 7s on the knot metre. Once we got settled Peter picked us up for a walk ashore to stretch our legs. The next day we had a tour of The Caribbean Marine Research Centre. Its purpose is to conduct various reef and fish studies on the island and in its surrounding waters. One of the students who is interning there gave us our tour. She had just finished a three month study of tiger sharks in Eleuthera and is now studying the effects of global warming on coral...two very different subject areas. The centre had a group of 12 students from Bloomfield College in New Jersey there for a week's course. What a great experience for these young people. After our tour we hiked up Perry's Peak, (39 metres/125 feet) which is the highest spot in the Exumas. We made the mistake of taking a different route home along the razor rock edge of the island. It proved to be quite the challenge and we were grateful once we got safely back to our boats. Some of us are wearing bandaids today but for the most part we were very lucky considering where we had walked. After lunch we took the dinghy around Norman's Pond Cay where we had hoped to see the abandoned ruins in the salt pond. We had tried to get there when the tide was high enough to get into the pond; however by the time we had reached the mouth the tide had started to ebb so we decided to go shelling instead. We came away from the shelling with quite a number of conch shells that the captain is hoping to fashion into beautiful bowls. We were upset to see the number of small immature conch that were cut. Legally the conch are not to be fished until they have a significant lip which means that they are mature and can reproduce. As with so many sea creatures the conch are being over fished and it is not the cruisers that are doing the damage.
Today we had hoped to stay and do some more exploring at Lee Stocking but we decided that it was more important to take advantage of the good sailing day and to head north to Black Point. Before we left today we saw two dolphins fishing along the cay near where we were anchored. Unfortunately they did not come by and give us a smile for a picture but it was still nice to see them. We had a great sail up to Black Point averaging once again high 6s and low 7s on our knot metre. At least our short trip to Lee Stocking didn't cost us much in diesel fuel. Peter and Lynn had a two foot mahi mahi on their line but it spit the hook just as they had it up to the boat. We had one strike and the fish spit the hook before we even tried to reel it in. Thank goodness for chicken!? We are going to head into shore to do laundry and then to Deshemons for our usual conch pizza treat. Tomorrow we will continue north and stage ourselves for a sail to Eleuthera with the idea that we will still go to Harbour Island but from a different direction. Of course tomorrow is a new weather forecast and we always have to be prepared for changes in latitudes and changes in our attitudes!
Today is Tuesday March 9th and we are in Black Point. Since my last entry we have met back up with First Edition, sailed 15 miles south to Galliot Cay and anchored for the night and continued on another 12 miles south to Lee Stocking Island where we have stayed for the last two nights. We had hoped to stay longer; however our plans of sailing to Cat Island and Little San Salvador evaporated when we listened to Chris Parker's forecast this morning. Once again we have a westerly cold front bearing down on us in the Exumas; however this time we are going to use the front to sail to the sothern part of Eleuthera....we hope.
The anchorage at Galliot Cay was very pleasant and we had the whole place to ourselves; however the temperatures kept the skinny dippers shivering and under cover. We have used our oil lamp most evenings to keep the chill out of the air. That being said the days have gradually been warming up and we seldom don't get in the ocean for a dip. We had a great sail down to Lee Stocking and were making high 6s and 7s on the knot metre. Once we got settled Peter picked us up for a walk ashore to stretch our legs. The next day we had a tour of The Caribbean Marine Research Centre. Its purpose is to conduct various reef and fish studies on the island and in its surrounding waters. One of the students who is interning there gave us our tour. She had just finished a three month study of tiger sharks in Eleuthera and is now studying the effects of global warming on coral...two very different subject areas. The centre had a group of 12 students from Bloomfield College in New Jersey there for a week's course. What a great experience for these young people. After our tour we hiked up Perry's Peak, (39 metres/125 feet) which is the highest spot in the Exumas. We made the mistake of taking a different route home along the razor rock edge of the island. It proved to be quite the challenge and we were grateful once we got safely back to our boats. Some of us are wearing bandaids today but for the most part we were very lucky considering where we had walked. After lunch we took the dinghy around Norman's Pond Cay where we had hoped to see the abandoned ruins in the salt pond. We had tried to get there when the tide was high enough to get into the pond; however by the time we had reached the mouth the tide had started to ebb so we decided to go shelling instead. We came away from the shelling with quite a number of conch shells that the captain is hoping to fashion into beautiful bowls. We were upset to see the number of small immature conch that were cut. Legally the conch are not to be fished until they have a significant lip which means that they are mature and can reproduce. As with so many sea creatures the conch are being over fished and it is not the cruisers that are doing the damage.
Today we had hoped to stay and do some more exploring at Lee Stocking but we decided that it was more important to take advantage of the good sailing day and to head north to Black Point. Before we left today we saw two dolphins fishing along the cay near where we were anchored. Unfortunately they did not come by and give us a smile for a picture but it was still nice to see them. We had a great sail up to Black Point averaging once again high 6s and low 7s on our knot metre. At least our short trip to Lee Stocking didn't cost us much in diesel fuel. Peter and Lynn had a two foot mahi mahi on their line but it spit the hook just as they had it up to the boat. We had one strike and the fish spit the hook before we even tried to reel it in. Thank goodness for chicken!? We are going to head into shore to do laundry and then to Deshemons for our usual conch pizza treat. Tomorrow we will continue north and stage ourselves for a sail to Eleuthera with the idea that we will still go to Harbour Island but from a different direction. Of course tomorrow is a new weather forecast and we always have to be prepared for changes in latitudes and changes in our attitudes!
