H is for Happy in The Exumas

Happy is being in The Exumas instead of Nassau.

Pipe Creek is a favourite place for us.

H is for Happy in the Exumas We are so happy to be in The Exumas instead of Nassau. We have spent the last couple of days at Warderick Wells snorkelling and paddling. We finally feel like we are cruising. There are usually a lot of boats around the park; however there were only 8 boats in the main north anchorage and none on the moorings at Emerald Rock where we anchored. We paddled over to what is called the Ranger's Garden and drifted with our kayaks in tow. The last time we had seen 8 eagle rays flying in formation. This time I counted 14 huge rays flying under us as we drifted in the current. It was a sight we will never forget. You can only drift dive there at slack tide or the current gets too strong. The tide becomes slack about an hour before and after it changes so you have to time your dives carefully. The next day we moved Celebrian out to Malabar Cays to snorkel the reef there. We did find a lobster and a nurse shark but no turtle on this dive. The weather was so calm and settled that we stayed out at Malabar over night. What a wonderful couple of days we have had. Chris Parker was talking about a strong cold front reaching us on the weekend so we hoisted anchor and moved down to Pipe Creek. Pipe is one of our favourite stops along the Exuma chain. There is lots to do here....paddle, shell, walk and even find a few pieces of sea glass if you are lucky. The only down side of Pipe is that you have a fierce current here and you have to time your paddling and swimming carefully. The current rules here and sometimes the wind is blowing from one direction and the boat is lying to the current. The tell tale sign is the flag blowing toward the boat instead of away. The other concern we have is with Big Bruce and how he is doing with Celebrian`s pirouhettes. Sometimes an anchor can trip itself with the chain so today I snorkelled out to see what Big Bruce looked like. Gratefully he was dug in well and our chain was stretched out and doing fine. We are expecting very high winds tonight and tomorrow so we need to feel confident that the anchor will hold. My snorkel was like swimming in a wave pool. I would not have wanted to try doing it without my fins. Last night we had high winds and wild current changes in the night. The anchor chain thumps and clangs when we are tacking back and forth in the current. Needless to say it makes for a night of awakenings; however once again Big Bruce was our hero and continues to be so today as we are still getting winds in the 25 knot range. We are hopeful that tonight won't be as crazy as last. We have been doing some boat jobs as well as reading out books. Yesterday I made a raisin cinammon loaf from a recipe that my friend Jane, a sailing neighbour at the condo gave me. It definitely is a keeper and will become one of the staples on Celebrian. Today is Sunday February 12th and we will be here until tomorrow when we hope to sail down to Black Point. We will do our laundry and go out for conch pizza at Deshomon's Restaurant where I will get a wifi signal to do some internet. From Black Point we hope to go to Georgetown, the fourth largest settlement in The Bahamas...population 1,000. We haven't been to Georgetown since the first year that we sailed to The Bahamas so it will be interesting to see if there are many changes. Georgetown has a huge protected harbour and during the cruising regatta in March there can be several hundred boats there. This murex had a tenant so we took his picture and let him go. Those of you who have received sand dollars will be happy to know that we have managed to collect a few more for next season.

The rising moon is beautiful.

G is for Good Sailing and Good Grief Too

We had a very good sail from the Abacos to Eleuthera.

This picture was taken in Man O War before we headed back to Marsh Harbour. They are famous for wooden boat building in this community.

Sights of Man O War

This green turtle hung out at the local Sail Shop.

One more major shop in Marsh Harbour and we were ready to head to The Exumas. G is for Good Sailing and Good Grief Too We returned to Marsh Harbour for the top up shopping and last minute things that needed attending to. In a day and a half we managed to do three trips to two grocery stores, three trips to the liquor store, several hardware and bakery stops, a shoe store, one trip to the laundromat, propane tank filled, happy hour with Richard and Carol on Kalissa and Harry into the Honda dealer for a check up. It was quite the frenzy; however we were trying to get to Lynyard Cay to stage for our trip to Eleuthera as it sounded like Friday was going to be our window for our ocean passage to Eleuthera. Our ocean passage to Eleuthera was a sleigh ride in 20 knot plus easterlies with Celebrian with a double reefed main sail, her new stay sail and yankee moving us along at her hull speed of 7.5 knots for most of the day. It was boisterous and wet but we made very good time and we were going so fast that we hooked our first dorado. Unfortunately before we had a chance to reel the fish in it managed to get off the hook. Nonetheless that was our first dorado. Before the day was gone something else bit our hook and took the whole lure...stainless steel leader and all. We were just as glad that whatever it was got away or it might have slowed our speed down. As we turned to make our approach to Eleuthera we had difficulty getting the engine started. It did finally start but it was a little anxiety producing. The last hour was brutal as we had to power into the wind to reach our Royal Harbour anchorage. We had had an exhilirating day but were plenty exhausted. The good grief occured when we realized that the valve to our water tank had been left open during our sail and our water tank had filled with sea water. The only saving grace was that we only had about 15 gallons of fresh water in the tank. It took our little pump 45 minutes to pump the 100 gallons of water overboard. Such is the sailing life. The captain is working on the engine today. He has just commented that he is tired of working on the boat...fixing things in exotic places comes to mind once again. The admiral can say that she is tired of living in chaos and clutter as a result of the captain having to fix things. We were hoping to continue south across the yellow bank to The Exumas tomorrow; however we need to stay until Rob can figure out what is wrong with Mr. Yan. Today it is howling with plus 20 knot winds and squalls. We are hoping for a squall that will fill our poor empty water tank. Once again we are grateful for our three emergency water jugs. We will use them until we can make water. Rob spent a second day trouble shooting our engine. We think that the problem may be related to the alternator and the battery charging system and it may some how be connected with the new wind generator? It looks like we may have to go to Nassau and have a mechanic help us out as Rob has done has much as he can to sort out what can be causing our charging problems. Nassau is an easy day sail of 35 miles from Royal Harbour so we set out for Nassau the next day. After the engine was on for several minutes Rob checked the volt metre to find that it was charging the batteries as it should. We immediately made a course change and headed for the northern Exumas delighted that we did not have to sail to the big city. The interesting thing was that the wind generator had been turned off while we listened to Chris Parker's weather forecast on the ham radio. It causes interfere with the frequency of the radio bands. We still are uncertain as to what is going on; however if the wind charger is off while we are motoring we are able to charge our batteries normally. When we anchor we turn Hal back on and he is happy to continue to charge the batteries. We were a very happy crew as we anchored at Ship Channel Cay in the northern Exumas. Not only did we not have to go to Nassau, we were able to make water for most of the 8 hours that we were under way to The Exumas. We now will have close to half a tank of water. Unfortunately we were not able to pump all of the salt water out of the tank so it is still slightly salty, but gradually becoming less so as the water is diluted. We have vowed to never ever have that happen again. Thank goodness for the water maker and the engine that is now able to run Anthony. We are hoping that we can now begin to feel like we are cruising instead of working in a boat yard. We spent the first day in Ship Channel Cay catching our breath. In the morning we did some cleaning and organizing and in the afternoon we did some exploring around the cays. We had anchored here before but never taken the time to paddle and explore the area. Powerboat Adventures from Nassau bring a boat load of tourists here every day for snorkelling, lunch and an afternoon at an island beach. They take them over to Allen's Cay in the morning to see the iguanas and then along the coast to their spot at Ship Channel for the afternoon. It's about 40 miles to Nassau from here but the boat can probably get them here in an hour...a little faster than we travel?! Today is Wednesday February 8th and we are heading south to Warderick Wells, the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We hope to snorkel at Malabar Cays where we saw the large sea turtle and nurse sharks the first time that we snorkelled there.

Ship Channel Cay welcomed us back to The Exumas.

The Powerboat Adventures have a great spot at Ship Channel Cay. What a great day trip for people holidaying in Nassau.

What an incredible sight and we couldn't even get them all in the picture.

This eagle ray was about 6 feet across.

The nurse shark was resting in the coral at Malabar.

Celebrian anchored at Malabar Cays at Warderick Wells.

A beautiful Malabar Cay sunrise greets us in the morning.