Rock Point to Current Cut, Eleuthera ...A New Way

Some of the stunning scenery we saw in northern Eleuthera going a different route to Current Cut.


Rock Point, Eleuthera is another popular spot for cruisers as it has a great protected harbour, decent grocery and hardware store, propane, diesel, gas and internet. The only thing lacking is laundry facilities but the local general store will make arrangements for your laundry to be sent out; however it takes over a day and someone said that they thought the clothes were being washed in sea water so that is not what we want. For now I keep on doing daily hand laundry and when we are stopped for a day we swish our sheets and towels in a bucket with ammonia. You use warm water and no soap so there is no rinsing. It saves water because it is the rinsing that takes all the water. It sounds crude but it does work and by the time things are dry the ammonia smell has disappeared.
Sometimes we clean up okay despite our 19th century laundry ways!?!?

Rose's beach restaurant in her home was our night out in Rock Point. She does a very good buffet for $17.00 and Rob had seconds. The unfortunate thing was that it was a very cool night on her porch and we were all shivering. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable evening out with Peter and Lynn.

The next day we headed north along the coast of Eleuthera to Alabaster Bay. The bay offers good protection and is quite pretty. Lynn and Peter came for a spaghetti dinner on Celebrian and as always a pleasant evening was had by all. The next morning we sailed all along the western coast which is miles and miles of rugged imposing bluffs with dark caves and crevasses carved into the weeping limestone. Adventuresome "cliffdwellers" have perched their beautiful homes right at the water's edge 100 feet or more above the water. Some have elaborate stair cases down to the water and others have even carved their stairs into the limestone. It was definitely worth the detour to go further north this year as the scenery was spectacular.

We anchored near the Glass Window, now a breached bridge at the island's narrowest part. On its ocean side , where the reef is not continuous , waves gnawed at this weak point and broke the island's natural bridge in two. The manmade bridge over this scenic crevasse was knocked seven feet to the west by a rogue wave in 1991 and was impassable for some time. It is now repaired, and land travellers can tour the whole island once again. Imagine the wave it would take to knock down a bridge 85 feet high? We anchored in the bay near the bridge and went with Peter and Lynn in their dinghy for a tour. From the bank side it was like looking through a peephole to the ocean; however it was difficult to get high enough to see the water on the ocean side, but we did see the ocean waves coming over the rocks. The limestone cliffs set against the periwinkle ocean on one side and the aqua bank on the other create a stunning view from all angles.

The next morning we sailed off to Current Cut to time our trip through the cut with an ebbing tide. The current is quite fierce in this cut and Celebrian surfed through at over 8 knots. We had no problems; however First Edition got off the track a little before the cut and ran hard aground. We were ahead of them and did not know what happened until after the fact. The friends that we had met in Rock Point on Endorphins came to their rescue in their dinghy with a 35HP motor. If you are interested in the story click on the link to Lynn and Peter's blog....it is worth reading especially if you are a sailor.

The Joys of Cat Island

We anchored in Fernandez Bay after our ocean voyage from Conception. We had been to Cat the first year that we sailed in The Bahamas but not since then. The first year we had rented a car and discovered Fernandez Bay where there is a lovely resort. The bay is a nice anchorage; however it can also get a bit rolly as we discovered during our second night. This vist to Cat was such a pleasure as we discovered many creeks and mangroves to paddle with lots of wild life.
Right next to the resort is a great paddle up a mangrove creek and we took our lunch and explored much of the area until the dropping tide forced us back to the main creek. We happened upon three good sized green turtles who put on quite a show for us. They kept swimming around the same area and even poking their heads out of the water to take a peak at the big white fish that was hovering in their creek.

Before leaving Cat we decided that it might be a good idea to visit a clinic for a post puncture wound follow up. We anchored near the clinic in Smith Bay and paddled ashore. You never know until you get to the clinic whether there might be a doctor as the doctor rotates from clinic to clinic during the week. We happened to hit the day that Dr. Adderly was in smith Bay so we were very happy. Both the doctor and nurse felt that my wound was looking very good....in fact the nurse called it gorgeous. That is not a term that I would use to describe it; however it was nice to be told that what we were doing was working. The doctor prescribed another two weeks of antibiotics just to be on the safe side and a new topical antibiotic ointment. We left the clinic with 2 litres of saline solution to mix with peroxide, a bottle of peroxide, a two week prescription of Augmentum (a combination of amoxicillan plus clavulanic acid to fight bacteria that are penicillin resistant) , a tube of Bactroban ointment, 3 vaginal ovules in case I get a yeast infection as a result of all of these antibiotics, several packages of non stick bandaids, a wad of dressings, gauze, tape etc. and this time the bill was $60.00. Rob only had two fifty dollar bills and the clinic couldn't make change so the nurse said $50.00 was fine. You have to love The Bahamas.

After our clinic visit we picked up a few groceries at a local store and headed back to the boat and motored up the coast of Cat Island and anchored off of Alligator Point. It was like a sight seeing trip by car and we enjoyed our lazy afternoon. Alligator Point reaches out into the bay for a couple of miles so we took a lunch with us and paddled all along the coast. At the end of the point we saw a large osprey sitting on a nest. Our plan was to paddle into a creek access at the tip of the point but between the wind and the current we knew we wouldn't be able to go too far. The creek was beautiful and in the right conditions it looked like you could paddle a long way. The water was so clear that it felt like we were paddling in an aquarium. We wanted to go further but we knew we had to paddle back against the wind...always a challenge in constant trade winds.

From Cat we had a good sail to Little San Salvador. Little San Salvador is a private island owned by the Holland Cruise Ship Lines. The ship comes into the cove and people spend the day on the beach where there a Disney Land of things to do. The last time we were there we had watched a cruise ship arrive; however this time we missed all the entertainment. We did however see this big ship off of the Eleutheran coast.

Conception Island Paradise

We were glad that the weather cooperated and that we could stop at Conception Island. The anchorage is beside a beautiful white sand beach.

Paddling through the mangroves and seeing the green turtles was wonderful.

Conception Island is truly a paradise worth seeing.

The sandstone is quite stunning on Conception Island.

Life in Long Island....On to Conception

Where there is a will there is a way to keep one's leg from getting salty!

We spent sometime exploring the ocean beaches on Long Island.

Treffina makes the best rum punch! Tony from Georgia E, another Bayfield 36 agrees.

The Thompson Bay Club comes complete with rooster!


It is Wednesday March 2nd and we are anchored at Conception Island. The island is part of the Bahamas National Trust and it is being preserved in its primitive state. It is uninhabited and truly a place to cherish with its crescent beaches, crystal clear water, mangrove creeks, turtle nurseries and long tailed birds. It is just over 15 miles from Long Island but you can only stay here in the right weather conditions. As always our sailing decisions are dictated by the weather and gratefully this year we have been blessed.

Dr. Bob took out my stitches a week after my accident and thought that my wound looked okay. Since Savage Son was off to Georgetown and Celebrian was heading to Conception it was good to get his blessing.

We had happy hour with Treffina and several other cruisers at the Thompson Bay Club and made plans to leave the next day. From Thompson Bay we sailed north two hours to Simms, another settlement on the western shore. Simms happened to be one of the settlements with a health clinic and we decided to have my leg looked at as it was starting to look infected. We rowed ashore and waited forty five minutes to see Nurse Barr. She was excellent and before I was though I had a shot for tetanus, pain pills, antibiotic ointment, a 7 day supply of amoxicillin, gauze dressings, tape etc. and my wound cleaned and dressed....all for $46.90. We were thankful that we had decided to go ashore to the clinic and grateful to the Bahamas government clinic.

From Simms we sailed another couple of hours up to Calabash Bay near the northern end of Long Island. It was just over 20 miles to Conception where we arrived yesterday by noon. We had met Stuart and Tony on Georgia E, another Bayfield 36 during our stay in Thompson Bay . They are from Toronto and this is their first year cruising in The Bahamas. Stuarts' wife is flying down this next week for 3 weeks. She is still working but gave her blessing to Stuart to sail south. We joined them for an afternoon's dinghy trip to the mangrove creek. We pulled the kayaks for the 1.5 mile trip to the creek mouth. The creek is home to many green turtles and the creeks are great nurseries for the young. We didn't see any small ones but lots of mid size and larger. They don't linger long on the surface when they come up to look and they definitely don't hang around for photographs. In fact it was amazing to see how fast they swam ....a good skill to learn before heading out into the ocean. We paddled while Stuart and Tony putted along in their dinghy. It was a lovely outing and wondeful to see so many turtles. It was my first time back in the kayak after my leg injury. We came up with a how to keep my leg dry idea by using my sailing rubber boot along with a plastic splash wrap around my bandage. Where there is a will....there is a way. I am very grateful to be able to kayak if not snorkel.

The next day we spent hiking along the north shore of Conception Island. The ocean views were spectacular and the colours of the surrounding waters just beautiful. We found another lovely beach to hike and had a picnic along the shore before heading back along the trail. The ocean was looking very uninviting in the 25-30 knot wind. We were glad that we were anchored safely on the lee side of the island. We spent the last day in Conception walking the beach on the lee shore, reading and relaxing.

The winds were forecast to go down by Sunday but change in direction;however the change would mean a following sea (waves behind us) for our trip to Cat Island. We decided that it was better to leave on Saturday with a more favourable wind direction even though we knew it was going to be 20 knots and high seas. We sailed the 30 miles in 12 plus foot seas with 6 foot wind chop on top and Celebrian was a star as she just climbed those waves and made it look easy. Both Rob and I agreed that they were some of the largest swells we have ever sailed in. The worst part of our trip was the 10 miles over the bank at Cat Island. We had to sail close reached (closer to the wind) into a wind driven chop in 10-15 feet of water....it was ugly and wet. We decided to go into Fernandez Bay as it looked like a good spot for shelter and have been quite comfortable. We are hoping to go kayaking up a creek nearby and then head further north to Smith Bay. Smith Bay has a clinic with a doctor. My leg is still red and not healing particularly well and I am finished the oral antibiotics today. Even surface wounds take a very long time to heal in the tropics so I should not be surprised that this wound is being troublesome. I do hope that it heals well enough that I can get snorkelling again in the Abacos. For now I will just have to be patient.

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.