Love in Long Island

Today is Thursday February 24th and our second full day in Thompson Bay, Long Island. We had a splendid sail up from Hog Cay to Water Cay in the Jumentos. We covered over 50 miles in nine hours averaging high sixes to seven knots all the way. Celebrian was enjoying her new sails and kicking up her heels. The next day we motorsailed the remaining 35 miles from Water Cay to Long Island. We were welcomed to Long Island by a dolphin who enjoyed playing in our bow wave. Dolphins have even been known to ride the wave made by large whales...that must be something to see.


Yesterday we motored into the Long Island Breezes Resort to do laundry and other chores. We were able to get all of our laundry in the big resort machine so we didn't have to book the three smaller machines which were in large demand. There are close to 40 boats in the harbour and many of them in dire need of laundry services. While doing laundry I was able to use the restaurant internet to send my blog entries. We joined Peter and Lynn and many other cruisers for lunch and then it was off to the grocery store. The mail boat arrived yesterday and so it was timely to pounce on the fresh vegetables and fruit. In fact we waited patiently for a half an hour or more while they found and unpacked the celery.

We returned to Celebrian with our clean laundry and fresh food along with our two jerry jugs of diesel. Filling Mr. Yan's tank with diesel from the jugs is never one of our favourite jobs but a necessary one. Three trips to the fuel dock will fill the tank and leave the five gallon jugs full for emergency. Considering how long it has been since we bought fuel Mr. Yan had only used 24 gallons. The tank holds 45 so we were a long way from empty.

To finish off the full day we joined Lynn and Peter at a local restaurant for a Bahamian buffet. There were only a dozen of us for dinner but it was a nice group and the food was delicious. Truffina does all her own cooking and the buffet is only available once a week. So in keeping with the cruiser's mantra of seize the moment last night was the night.

Dr. Bob on Savage Son is hoping to take out my stitches on Saturday. The timing will work well because we may leave Long Island for Conception early next week and Savage Son is off to Georgetown soon after. Hopefully Lynn and I can stay out of trouble!?!

Today we are going into town for more diesel and a cruiser's pizza party at the Long Island Breeze. Nothing like filling up your fridge with fresh food and then going out to dinner but that is what happens when we get to civilization.

Last Days of the Jumentos

It has been a week since Maxine's party and finally the wind direction has given us an opportunity to make our way back up the Jumento's chain. We have enjoyed our stay at Hog Cay.

The Lady Jane, a fishing boat from Nassau joined the cruisers for a beach party and provided some fish the other night. Each cruising boat brought something to BBQ and a dish to share. There is always plenty of food at these gatherings. One of the cruisers brought a little stereo and a few of us did some dancing in the sand under the moonlight. It was a fun evening and a good opportunity to meet other boaters. Before the night was through we had several of the crew of the Lady Jane dancing with us. The Bahamians are so friendly and welcoming.


Just as Lynn is healing I caught my leg on a sharp stick and took a tumble. Gratefully I didn't land on razor rock but I took quite a chunk out of my leg. After trying to doctor my wound ourselves we thought we should see if Dr. Bob could take a look at it and it was a good thing that he did as I ended up with five stitches. This is when you are glad that you have a good medical kit and carry antibiotics on board. My foot was quite sore and swollen for a day but it is feeling better today.

The Captain C Done Reach Duncan Town

As is often the case the mailboat, The Captain C done reach Duncan Town a day late this past week. In the Bahamas one has to be patient and never in a hurry. Since we were already in Southside Bay and ready to go we decided to hike into town and take the computer to do some internet. I was able to do a couple of postings; however the signal wasn't strong enough to use Skype to call my mom (calls using the computer). Batelco can often be experiencing problems and using the internet here is another way to test one's patience. To upload each of the pictures on the blog might take upwards to 10 minutes so you can see how one can spend several hours doing computer work. The school lets the cruisers use their signal in return for donations. The local teacher insisted on driving us back to the bay at the end of the afternoon after several frustrating, but reasonably successful computer hours. We were happy for the lift as it was late pm and we were carrying some oranges and grapefruit for First Edition and ourselves.

The following day I spent some time paddling and shelling. I was delighted to find this huge, empty west indian chank shell on my travels. One can shell for days and not find anything and then happen upon a great find. Rob went ashore with his two large green garbage bags and cleaned the beach. This he finds satisfying even though the bags are filled almost immediately. The dump is on the way into town so this is his added incentive....save the world!? In the afternoon we hiked into town with Peter to pick up our few groceries. The picture shows how Peter and Rob cope with grocery day?! Lynn was running a fever and fighting an infection from a cut on her leg after her fall so she is still recuperating. Her face has four stitches and she is very bruised and swollen; however she remains positive and hopeful that she will not have any scarring.

we bought some lobster tails and fish from Percy who is somewhat of a local icon in Duncan Town. He was born here; however he lived in the US for many years as an engineer working in the oil business. Now he seems to do a little of everything....salt production, fishing, construction, and jewellery making. He delivered our snapper just in time for dinner. Rob had given Percy twenty dollars and said give us a mixture of lobster and fish. We got in return 9 small lobster tails, 3 yellowtail snapper and 1 market fish. we were pleased and our freezer has never looked so good.

Lynn and Peter went around by dinghy delivering cake that she had baked the other day before her fall for Jay on Farniente's birthday. Only Lynn would try to hide behind a plastic plate. As of yesterday Dr. Bob took out her four stitches and she is very happy with the way things look. We are often scrambling around on razor rock in These islands so Lynn's fall is a reminder to all of us to be very careful when hiking.

Happy Valentine's Day ....Ragged Island Style

The must do festivity of the cruising community of the Jumentos is Maxine's Valentine's Party on the beach at Hog Cay. Maxine runs the tiny grocery store in Duncan Town and she likes to thank the cruising boats for their business by putting on a luncheon beach party. She doesn't expect payment; however the cruisers all chip in twenty dollars a couple to give to Maxine. Maxine makes it possible for boats to stay here longer by ordering food from Nassau. Without her we would all be living on our staples and not enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables. There were 35 cruising boats at the party this year and lots of local folk from Duncan Town came by small boat. One of the pictures show the school children arriving with their teacher.

The luncheon included beer so the party was in full swing by 1:00 pm before everyone was fed. The cruisers brought desserts and appetizers to help out so no one went hungry. Maxine had turkey, ham, peas and rice, and several salads and she must of fed well over 100 people. Lynn and I didn't even have a drink but were soon part of the Junkanoo dance group!? The guys from town had brought their drums and shakers as well as some one size fits all Junkanoo party outfits. Junkanoo is a celebration that is held at the beginning of a new year and is something akin to Mardi Gras. It was a fun afternoon and particularly enjoyable because of the involvement of the local people. We returned to Celebrian tired and very full of good food by the time the sun set.

The trade winds have filled in and it looks like we will be stuck at Hog Cay for over a week. The trades blow primarily from the east and the northeast and that is the direction we need to go to Long Island. These winds are above normal in strength (plus 15-20 knots) so it is not like we can motor into them. The ocean seas are 9-11 feet according to Chris Parker, our weather forecaster. The good thing is that we are safe and comfortable here; however the bad thing is that we were hoping to get to Long Island this week to do laundry. In desperation we are about to wash our sheets in ammonia, a cruising tip to save water. Of course now it is so windy that we can't hang the sheets out so the admiral keeps washing the pillow cases etc. by hand and keeps her nose on the pillow while sleeping. Such is life on a sailboat with only two sets of sheets?!? Some of the larger cruising boats like First Edition have 6 pairs of sheets and don't have to worry; however they will have a lot more laundry to do than us. This could prove tricky as many of these boats are planning on heading north around the time we are and we may have some laundry wars over the two washers and two dryers available in Thompson Bay, Long Island.

We try to get to shore for a walk or get off the boat if we can each day; however today the wind has really ramped up and we may not get to shore. I baked some muffins, did some hand laundry and down loaded some pictures on the computer and soon the morning will be gone. Rob is reading in the cockpit and well entrenched in his book. I plan on joining him this afternoon with another book from First Edition's library called Empire Falls. We just finished a book called Little Bee by Chris Cleaves and would highly recommend it. We had trouble putting it down once we started to read it.

Shark Encounters of the Third Kind

The pictures are from the Guide to Corals and Fishes book that we have on board. The top picture shows the bull, followed by the lemon shark, nurse, blacktip and sand tiger. We routinely see nurse sharks but they are harmless.


Since my encounter with the bull shark I have been a little more anxious swimming in these waters. Unfortunately everyone hunts here and the waters are always being chummed with fish guts and lobster parts. Nonetheless I like to swim before my shower and besides what are my chances of seeing another shark? I jump into the water with my snorkel and fins on and head out to check the anchor and just past the anchor I see another guy in a gray suit. The water was a bit murky so I began to wonder whether I was seeing things but I decided not to go back in the water. The following day both Rob and I decided to have a dip before dinner and as luck would have it I spotted the shark before Rob even got into the water. This time I had decided to stay close to the swim ladder and this time Mac the Mako shark decided to swim close to the boat. I was glad that Rob got to see the shark as I was beginning to think I was seeing things. I talked to Percy and asked him if there were any local sharks and sure enough he said that there were two Mako sharks, each over 6 feet that cruise the bay. Evidently they even follow Percy's boat when they hear the motor. We don't have any information about Mako sharks on board; however they are ocean pelagic sharks. Intellectually I know that they are unlikely interested in me as a food source; however I must say seeing a top ocean predator less than twenty feet away is very frightening. Rob on the other hand is wishing he could see the shark and get a picture?!

More and More Jumentos

From Double Breasted Cay we motored over to Margaret Shoal which is another anchorage and only about a mile away from where we were anchored. First Edition left us to go back to Raccoon Cay where the lobster hunting is better. We spent two days on our own off of Margaret Cay doing lots of kayaking, beach walking and mangrove exploring. We had hoped to find the baby sharks we had seen the other day at low tide in the mangrove and take some pictures but we couldn't find them at high tide. We think that they were either black tip or lemon shark babies and possibly had left for the big ocean. People don't seem to anchor at Margaret because there is more surge but we found it bearable and the worst roll when the tide was changing. Everyone's sense of comfort is different and many people anchor at Hog Cay and seldom move because there is negligible surge there.

From Margaret we headed over to Raccoon Cay for a change and to see a new anchorage. We did some paddling and some snorkelling. The water is so warm (25 C or close to 80 F) and clear that it is great to snorkel even if there is not a lot to see and usually there is something even if it is just sea biscuits on the bottom. I watched a funny worm creature come out of its burrow and clamber up on our fishing reel and try and eat the chicken bait the other day when I was snorkelling by Celebrian. We weren't tending the pole and eventually either the worm or some fishes nibbled off our bait. Our friends on Windswept 4 said that you have to cast and reel in your line but we are lazy fisher people and besides we now need a lesson in doing that. It is a good thing we have friends who are fishermen.

We were joined at Raccon by First Edition and a flotilla of boats that came to help out Becky and Kevin on Mirabelle who had lost their dog. Danny, part border collie, elderly and deaf had run off after some wild goats and been lost. They had been searching for two days already. We joined another dozen or more boats to help search the island. We were both physically and emotionally exhausted after three hours of clambering through thick brush and rock in the heat. Lynn fell on a rock and cut her leg and the inside of her mouth. Gratefully one of their boating friends is a doctor and Bob was able to stitch up her mouth. She will be very sore for the next few days but as she says it could have been worse. Some of the men who are hunters went out in the afternoon to see if they could find any tracks but to no avail. Rob and I both felt so sad as we sailed away from Mirabelle. My heart just ached for Becky as she was so upset about Lynn being hurt and of course not finding her dog. It will be so hard for them to give up searching and leave the island.

We are back in Southside Bay and will have the long trek into town to pick up groceries for both ourselves and First Edition. In addition I hope to get in touch with my mother and post a couple of blog entries.

More Jumentos

My last blog entry was sent from the Duncan Town School where we had joined a group of cruisers for a BBQ to raise money for a school trip. The eleven students from kindergarten to grade nine have never been off the island and the teacher is hoping to taken them to Nassau on the mailboat. The BBQ was a great success and the local ladies provided some very good food. One of the ladies working had grand ma looking after her daughter...take a look at those sandals!


One of the great things about exploring the beaches in the Raggeds is that you never know what you might find. We put Mr. Johnston, our 3 HP outboard on Goldberry and explored Little Ragged Island. We combed the beaches for shells with little luck; however we did find some sea glass on the ocean side. We also came upon a Haitian sail boat wreck up on one of the ocean beaches. It is not unusual for people in Haiti to pay large sums of money to try and escape to The Bahamas in these wooden boats. More often than not they get caught by the Bahamians and get sent back and the boats are abandoned to become ship wrecks.

From Southside Bay we headed north with First Edition to a new cay call Double Breasted. The area is like an archipeligo of islands and there are lots of places to explore. The first day we headed to shore with Lynn and Peter and spent some time sea glass hunting on the ocean side. Lynn is planning on doing a chandelier of sea glass for her new house. The following day we paddled the kayaks and did some exploring on our own. Peter and Lynn went hunting for lobster. Peter had some lessons on spearing lobster from another cruiser and is doing quite well. In fact Lynn has said that she is almost tired of eating lobster...mind you they have been travelling with some other boats that routinely have lobster that they have speared. Unlike Celebrian's crew who have to buy lobster and as of yet are not tired of eating it. Rob would rather spend his time paddling and exploring than hunting and even though I enjoy eating lobster neither Rob nor I have the killer instinct. We spend our time rescuing conch stranded by the tide; although We have wet our fishing pole once and the fish cleaned off our bait without us noticing. We also had an opportunity to buy some crab legs from Raphael this past week and we had a crab fest on First Edition and met Karen and Chris from Synergy.

This was the first time I have had crab legs fresh from the ocean and they were delicious. We cooked up the rest of the legs that we bought and they are in the freezer for future dining. They were huge and Rob had to use channel pliers to crack the shell. We paid two dollars a claw and everyone said that that was an incredible deal.


The following day after our crab fest Chris speared several hog fish and dropped off a couple of fillets for us and they were scrumptious. What we lack in fresh produce we make up for in fresh sea food in the Jumentos.

Duncan Town Delights

From Hog Cay we motor sailed back south of Ragged Island to Southside Bay. From the anchorage it is about a mile and a half walk to Duncan Town. Duncan Town has a population of about 80 and is the only settlement in the Jumentos. As you can see by the map it is quite far south in the chain in the Bahamian Islands. From where we are it is only 60 miles to Cuba.

I spent some time in the morning doing internet and talking to my mom in the post office/town hall building. Both the town hall and school have internet that they let the cruisers use; however using internet here is not like using a signal at home. The signal can come and go and depending on the number of people it can be a long and onerous task getting things done; however I did manage to do three postings without totally going crazy. Besides we were waiting for our grocery order from the mail boat. Maxine's order seemed to be the last delivered and by late afternoon we still didn't have our groceries. We were determined to wait so we joined a group of other cruisers in the local bar and had a drink to put in the time. We trundled our bundle buggy and back packs back to the anchorage as the sun was setting. It had been a loooooooonnnnnnnnggggg day but a good day.

Our refrigeration system has been acting up and we were afraid that we were going to have to change our cruising plans and head to Nassau. You can well imagine the fear one gets when you see your freezer start to melt. We talked to some other cruisers and got some suggestions for trouble shooting. I am both relieved and happy to say that we seem to be back in business. Rob soddered one of the wires and we are hoping that the problem was electrical and has been solved.

We spent a glorious day paddling out in the ocean from Southside and doing some shelling and snorkelling. The limestone rock in this area is quite stunning and in the picture of Rob in the kayak it almost looks like snow. Today we are going to trek back into town to go to the school lunch fundraiser. It will be Bahamian staples of peas and rice, macaroni, coleslaw and conch or chicken. It should be fun and Lynn and I hope to do a little computer work before the BBQ.

From here we hope to make our way north back up the Jumento's chain visiting some cays that we have not seen and returning to some favourite spots with First Edition. I think we are planning on staying in the Jumentos until Valentine's Day when there is a big party in Hog Cay. After that we will head to Long Island for provisions and to do five weeks of laundry. I do what I can by hand but two sets of sheets and towels are all we have so we have to make due. Sometimes Celebrian's lifelines look like a clothesline. It is all just part of life living on a sail boat.

Why is this man smiling? He was so delighted that I wanted to take his picture. This is my favourite picture taken in Duncan Town.

First Edition and Celebrian Together Again

First Edition and Celebrian decided to rendezvous at Coco Bay which is as far south in the Jumentos as you can safely anchor. From there it is about 60 miles to Cuba. This is the fourth year that we have met up with Lynn and Peter and we try to spend a little time sailing together. It is always a joyful reunion and we just take up from where we last left off...a true sign of a good friendship. Lynn and Peter are taking a year off next year to live in their new house on Chesapeake Bay. This is after 4 years of living full time on First Edition so needless to say they are excited. We saw their plans the first night we had dinner with them. Peter had caught a mahi mahi a couple of weeks ago and Lynn had frozen some for us....a treat for Rob's birthday. She also surprised him with a cake since she knew he was only getting birthday bread from his wife.

The next day in Coco Bay we awoke to a surge and decided that we should look for a more comfortable anchorage. We headed north to Hog Cay which is a popular cruising anchorage because it is usually surge free. For the first day we were here it was so windy and cloudy we decided that it would be a good day to stay aboard. I read one of the books Lynn had saved for me from First Edition's library called The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. The story is narrated by Enzo the dog. He lives with Denny who is a race car driver. It is both heart wrenching and funny look at human life....as only a dog could tell it. I would highly recommend it for everyone, not just dog lovers as it has a message for us all.

We spent a night at Johnson Cay and then first thing on the captain's birthday we motored a mile over to Man O War Bay to be ready for the cold front. The captain had a choice of either birthday bread or birthday oatmeal cookies and as you can see from the picture he chose the bread. I had been trying to come up with a nice meal idea for Rob`s birthday dinner but after a month after provisioning options are not too exciting until Raphael came into the anchorage. Raphael lives in Duncan Town and makes his living diving for conch and lobster. We were able to buy 6 small lobster tails from him for ten dollars. So the birthday boy had lobster for dinner and what a treat that was. Many cruisers dive with pole spears and spear their own lobsters. Rob used to have a spear but it didn`t get put on board when we left Bayfield and it is not exactly the kind of thing you want to carry in your luggage. Peter has one so we are hoping that he can be the great white hunter for both First Edition and Celebrian.

I decided to go paddling at Man O War before the wind picked up and also do some snorkelling. The reef on the one side of the bay was beautiful and had lots of fish. We had decided that the smart thing to do in the Jumentos was to snorkel off the kayak so that if we got rattled we could always get out of the water. We see lots of rays and the occasional nurse shark but we know that they won`t bother a swimmer; however I saw my first pelagic shark, a bull shark about 20 feet away that I learned from other crusiers in the bay was close to 8 feet long. Unlike a nurse shark they are unpredictable and can be a problem with divers. Needless to say I was grateful of my kayak and have little recollection of getting out of the water and up on my kayak. Evidently the folks I spoke to had speared a couple of lobsters and nothing brings sharks faster than blood. I also didn`t know that Raphael had been cleaning conch and lobster in the bay or I would have stayed out of the water. It was something amazing to see; however that will do me for a life time.

Today, sunday January 23rd we are sailing south to meet up with First Edition. It will be wonderful to see them both. Later in the week we will be in town to pick up our mailboat grocery order from Maxine and do some blog entries.

Christine at the helm on a warm day in the Jumentos.

Life in the Jumento Cays

From Flamingo Cay we had a great sail south about 25 miles to Nurse Cay. From Nurse Cay we headed another 12 miles down the chain to one of our favourite anchorages Johnson Cay. Johnson provides good protection from every direction but the north as it is wide open to the ocean. It has a lovely crescent beach for walking and lots of rock for climbing and exploring. Unfortunately most of the Jumento beaches are on the bank side and are poor for shelling but they are great for walking. Buenavista Cay has a beach that is about 1.5 miles long and we walked the whole beach without finding any treasures; however we did make a rescue.

At low tide we saw a small pile of sand moving on the beach. Rob uncovered a beautiful helmet shell and its occupant who we named Herman was high and dry and definitely in trouble. As much as we love helmet shells we have never taken a shell with a live occupant and so while singing Born Free we moved Herman further out to sea. Just to make sure that he was indeed healthy and happy we returned to see how he was doing the next morning. We had suggested to him that he get a move on and by the next morning Herman was no more to be seen.

Before going to Buenavista we spent a night at Man O War Bay as it is a good spot to anchor for protection from the north and the west. We did some kayaking and snorkelling right off the boat. We often see sting rays around the boat and it almost seems like they associate boats with food. While the weather is forecast to be good we decided to head up the chain a few miles to Buenavista Cay. The beach is the longest in the Jumentos. The day we found Herman was the warmest day we have had in The Bahamas and we had to keep dipping in the ocean just to stay cool enough to walk. This seldom happens in the winter as the trade winds dominate the weather patterns. From Buenavista we motored down to the northern end of Raccoon Cay where once again we spent a glorious day paddling and snorkelling. It is such a pleasure not to fight the trade winds.

We have talked to Lynn and Peter on the VHF radio and we are hoping to connect with them by Monday. This weekend we are expecting a front that will keep us pinned down for a couple of days and even though we are only 12 miles apart the weather gods rule. We have been anchoring by ourselves for the most part; however we may have to share the anchorage for the front as there are fewer places to hide in poor weather. Next week we hope to get to Duncan Town, population less than 100 and the only settlement in the Jumentos. The local little store will order groceries for cruisers and then you can pick them up when the weekly mail boat comes. We may try and do this as we are as of today officially out of lettuce. Thank goodness for cabbage and canned bean and potato salad. We are not starving yet?! The little school lets cruisers use their lunch room for internet and just asks that you leave a donation so that is also on our Duncan Town list of things to do. When you are sailing down here you are really in the remote Bahamas and last night we didn't see a single light except for the full moon which has been absolutely stunning.

Today we had hoped to move to another Raccoon Cay anchorage but the wind and the surge is making us change our mind. We will head back to Johnson Cay and be comfortable for the day. Besides I want to make yoghurt and the bacteria don't like to be jostled so we need a relatively settled anchorage. That being said you have to realize that rocking gently is as good as it gets anchored in the Jumentos. Not having a surge is a pleasant surprise.

This picture shows how the conch shells have become part of the limestone on many of the beaches. It must have taken a thousand years or more we thought. I think that there were more conch alive in those days that died natural deaths and just washed up on the shores of the various islands.

A Dolphin Welcomes Us Back to the Jumentos

We spent an enjoyable evening at Deshemon's Restaurant eating our old favourite, conch pizza. Simon and Dianne run a small restaurant in Black Point with a nice patio and a free internet signal. It is popular with the cruisers. I sent off my last update and called my mom as I knew it would be awhile before I would have internet again.


The next morning we left at dawn for our motorsail to Coakley Island. We had our first dolphin come to play in our bow wave and it is always such a joyful sight. After ten hours and about 50 miles we anchored safely in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The sunset picture was taken the evening at Coakley. Coakley offers some protection out on the banks and allows us to get within sailing distance of the Jumentos. Wenesday January 12th will see us sailing about 35 miles to Flamingo Cay dodging coral heads a good part of the way. We will seek shelter at Flamingo Cay for the next 3 days as the wind is to blow 20-25-30 knots and squalls are expected. Gratefully the wind is from the north and east and we can get good shelter at Flamingo.


It is now the third day we have been hunkered down in Flamingo Cay. We are getting good shelter from the wind; however the surge here, like many of the anchorages in the Jumentos can be pretty ugly at times. Surge is the term for the waves that refract around the islands and end up rolling into the anchorage. These waves start the boat rolling and just like a child on a swing we continue to roll after being pushed. This is the motion that we hate the most and we call it the death roll. The first day we put out a stern anchor to try and keep Celebrian from lying in the trough of the waves. It has worked quite well and now we are doing a motion we call cork screwing and it is not nearly as bad as death rolling. The first night Rob slept in the salon so that I could sleep across the berth and not feel like I might roll out of bed. Picture lying in bed and rolling from side to side without any control and that is how our first night felt. Sleeping while moving is definitel a cruising skill. Lynn and Peter will be glad that they decided to stay in Long Island for this front.

The remora or shark suckers that are attached to Celebrian's keel think that she is a big shark. They use a suction cup action with the top of their heads and attach themselves to sharks, turtles or in our case Celebrian's keel. They eat the cast offs of their host;however they didn't think too much of the cabbage leaves we tossed overboard. They must be getting quite hungry. They are obviously not the brightest of fish.

Yesterday we managed to get ashore for a walk and a break from the boat. We are hoping to do the same this afternoon. Tomorrow the wind is dropping enough to allow us to head further down the chain of islands. Gratefully the forecast is for some settled weather so we are hopeful of getting diving and kayaking. The water temperature is about 23 degrees C / mid 70s F. That is an improvement from The Exumas of a couple of degrees and it makes a big difference when you are in the water for a period of time.

The Lives of the Rich and Famous at Bell Island, Exumas

From Hawksbill Cay we motorsailed on Exuma Sound, the ocean side of The Exumas and tucked in behind Bell Cay for protection from the upcoming cold front. Most of the anchorages are on the eastern side of the islands and they are fine when you are anchoring in the trade winds; however when the wind comes from both the north and the west it is trickier finding places to be safe and comfortable. Last year we had anchored at Bell and had enjoyed some snorkelling right off the boat.
This year we arrived at our anchorage to find a much more happening beach. Since the island is private we don't venture onto the beach but this year there was a Bahamian police boat that stopped by and made sure that we had no intention of landing on the beach. Evidently someone from California had landed on Johnny Depp's island this year and gone right up to his house. We anchored beside his island last year and I put my big toe on one of his beaches while snorkelling by. Often the islands that are privately owned will have posted signs that say please do not come ashore unless you have been invited. We weren't sure how to get an invitation from Johnny so we just had to be content with watching one of his movies.



As the day unfolded we watched a half a dozen helicopters come and go, an 80 plus foot speed boat fully crewed arrive from Grand Cayman and a sea plane land. The police officer told us that the island was owned by some diplomat and he had other friends in high places. Obviously so as we were not invited to the cocktail and beach party under the various palapa and tiki huts but whoever was on Zarkava, the big boat beside us was. Zarkava had passed us on the banks going about 50 miles per hour. Now she was anchored beside us and once night came we watched as her neon red sign glowed and her underwater lights frightened all of the sea creatures in the anchorage. It was fascinating watching all of the comings and goings on the island. There had to have been at least a million or more dollars worth of play toys out in front of the beach....six sea doos (sea maggots we sailors call them), several ribbed dinghies, three high speed fishing boats and more. Life is certainly different for the rich and famous.

Today we are anchored just off of Sampson Cay Marina. We arrived here yesterday and anchored in a westerly chop which was a little uncomfortable. We spent most of the afternoon ashore doing chores...the laundry, filling diesel jugs and of course the internet...hoping that the wind would drop and the boat would be more comfortable. Finally in the night the wind went down and things settled down so this morning I am able to work on the boat without getting sea sick. In fact we are dead calm this morning and there is a star fish sitting on top of Big Bruce, our anchor.

We are going to go to shore for one more load of diesel and then for a walk before we move south to Big Major off of Staniel Cay. Tomorrow morning we will pick up some groceries in Staniel Cay and then we will be ready to head to the Jumentos.

Celebrian Returns to The Exumas

We arrived at Highborne Cay in the northern Exumas after a pleasant day of sailing and motorsailing. It took us about nine hours to cover the close to fifty miles. The passage over what is called the Yellow Bank is always the scariest of the whole trip as we dodge coral heads for a couple of hours. Their dark purple colour makes them easy to spot but looking into the sun makes it tricky nonetheless. The bank is sometimes only 7 to 8 feet deep so you do not want to run over any of the coral. Celebrian draws about 5 foot 4 inches. In the Bahamas you have to get used to sailing in water that often leaves only a couple of feet under your keel. That is just the nature of sailing on the banks.
Unlike Royal Island, Highborne Cay had lots of boats. Many arrive daily from Nassau as it is only about 30 miles across to New Providence Island. What surprised us was the number of mega yachts of 100 feet and more. Usually we don't see them until the spring when the Gulf Stream crossing is easier from Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
The next morning we headed south about 15 miles to Shroud Cay where we did some paddling and exploring of the mangrove creeks. Shroud Cay is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park so it is very pristine. We saw some water birds and fishes along our excursion and enjoyed the first of some real warmth.
The following day we made a short five mile hop to Hawksbill Cay, another park island and a new anchorage for us to explore. We anchored Goldberry off a small beach and bushwacked our way over a path to the ocean. As you can see by the picture the path was rather crude...notice the blue string on the bottom left hand side cornerof the picture marking the trail. Gratefully it was only about a half a mile across but an adventure just the same. On our way we came across two large Bahamian snakes. We have only seen one other snake in all our time spent hiking in The Bahamas. They are harmless but both of them were close to four feet long. We saw and heard lots of birds as we crossed the island to the ocean side. The ocean side was quite lovely....beautiful white sand, casuarina trees lining the shore and the clear blue ocean of Exuma Sound. After doing some beach combing...nary a shell we had our picnic under some casuarina trees.


Today is Wednesday January 5th and we have finally caught up with First Edition. They are in Georgetown which is the largest settlement in The Exumas and about 70 miles from here. They are on their way to Long Island to attend to a couple of matters and then on to the Jumentos. We look forward to meeting up with them in the Jumentos in the next week or two. We are on our way to Bell Island today to hide out from a cold front for a couple of days. After the front moves through we will head to Sampson Cay to pick up some diesel and on to Black Point to do some laundry and find something lettuce like if possible? Black Point is the only settlement that has a laundry facility in the Exumas until you get to Georgetown. Black Point may have a population of one or two hundred so having a laundry is quite impressive. Ida is a smart business woman and she and Lorraine, who runs Lorraine's Cafe have put Black Point on the cruiser's map. From Black Point we will disappear for a couple of weeks in the Jumentos or what are also called the Ragged Islands. The Raggeds used to be really off the beaten track but there are now charts available and more cruisers are going there; however you still have to be self reliant because the sailing is in very remote areas and not recommended for everyone. We spent a couple of weeks there two winters ago and had hoped to return last year but couldn't get there because of the weather. We are hopeful that this year's weather patterns will be more normal.

New Year's Eve in Royal Island, Abaco

We are on our way to the Exumas after a wonderful layover day in Royal Island. The sun is shining, the temperatures are climbing and we are motor sailing in the mid to high six knot range....all is well on the good ship Celebrian.

We left Marsh Harbour on Thursday afternoon and made our way down to Lynyard Cay. Friday morning we were on our way as the sun rose over the Atlantic ocean. The passage to Eleuthera is about 50 open ocean miles. We had one of our best sails down with speeds in the 7 plus knot range; however we were sailing closer to the wind than normal and were heeling in the 15 plus degree range. I prefer sailing with less heel but we were safe and making great time. With the old yankee sail we would not have been sailing anything as well so it was a good purchase and Celebrian is sailing like she is a young girl again!? First Edition will be impressed when she sees how spry Celebrian has become. We arrived to a Royal Island anchorage with no other cruising boats and that is after sailing down alone. Usually Royal Island is a popular anchorage with upwards to 30 boats but we spent two nights anchored with nary another cruising boat. Maybe everyone wanted a livlier New Year's eve? Afer our boisterous sail down we were both done by 8:30 and didn't even manage to stay awake to what we call sailor's midnight (9:00pm)!?! After a good 10 hour snooze we welcomed the new year by spending a lovely day at rest. We paddled the north end of the anchorage and found a small beach to get on shore. The island is supposed to be part of a huge development of new homes; however it would seem that things are on hold and the only activity we have seen is the odd security person coming and going by small boat. We walked the north part of the island and found an area that was cleared of scrub for a golf course. The first year that we stopped here there was some activity but over the last couple of years development has ceased.

I had my first dip in the sea before showers and I found it a little cool...barely 20 degrees/not quite 70. Here is hoping that the water in The Exumas is warmer? We enjoyed our turkey so much for Christmas dinner that we decided to do it again for New Years and once again we enjoyed a delicious feast of turkey with all the trimmings. It is a little more challenging in the galley with every pot brought into service and keeping an eye on an oven that likes to either go out from time to time or climb higher and higher in temperature but it is all worth it when you have a scrumptious meal to enjoy.