We are continuing to buddy boat with Jason on Monica on Breathe - a Manta 40. They take much better photos than us - and you can view daily photos and their blog on their facebook page.We left our nice anchorage at Hawksnest Cay in the Berry Islands on Monday sailed the 30 miles up to Sandy
Point, on Great Abaco Island. Winds much higher than forecast, so bit of a bumpy ride. Did have a nice sunrise to start the day.
Sandy Point is on the SW corner of the island. We went there as there are new Manta
catamaran owners that have a house there.
The boat they bought is located in Anacortes, Washington, and they will
head there to spend some time on it, and eventually bring it through the canal
over to the Bahamas. We wanted to say
hello to them, and also learn about their work with Bahamas Marine Mammal
Research Organization. (BMMRO).
Charlotte and Diane pretty much are the BMMRO, and study several
different variety of whales, dolphins, manatees in the Bahamas. They have done some fascinating work. We went over to their very nice home on the
beach on Sandy Point for dinner on Monday after we arrived. Had a good time and great conversation. The anchorage was a bit bumpy, but forecast winds were to switch around to the NE and die down.
Next day turned out to be a boat day, as the winds
forecasted did not happen, and we ended up spending a very lumpy day on the
boat with swell and wind not the same direction, so very confused waters.
Next day we were able to get off the boat, and had a nice
walk into town.The town is quite small,
but clean and nice for the most part.
Very small community, surprised to see a fire station - old trucks but appear to still work.
Nice school, with some pretty nice murals on the building
Stopped at small grocery and got a few supplies.
Nicely maintained roads
Nice palm on the beach
On Thursday, we went again into Diane and Charlottes home,
where they showed us the varied bones from marine mammals, and explained more
about their work, which is quite fascinating. Learn more here: http://www.bahamaswhales.org/home.aspx
Small seahorse sitting on sperm whale tooth (tooth is about 6" long)
Diane, showing the skull collection, and educating us
Charlotte in the computer lab/office with more interesting information
They then took us down to Rock Point, where they knew there
was good snorkeling, and they were right.
Lots of fish, and healthy corals.
Had a great snorkel.
Beautiful large area full of sea fans
Healthy coral, nice to see
There were lots of healthy Elkhorn coral, and lots of fish
A truly beautiful spot to snorkel.
Later in the evening we met Charlotte and Diane for dinner at a local restaurant for a nice dinner out.
Left to right on top row: Monica, Jason, Diane. Bottom row left to right: Charlotte, Dean, Kris
A change in winds forecasted so we left early Friday, and sailed about 25 miles north into
the The Marls.
The Marls are a
large areaof shallow waterand low lying small islandsdotted by mangrove stand.It is a popular area for Bonefishing, and is
supposed to be one of the most unique and productive fisheries in the
Bahamas.We did see some fish, and
turtles, but there is lots of hurricane damage still, and not as much wildlife
as we thought there might be.
We will move
today and do some more exploring in The Marls for a few more days.
We went for a nice snorkel on Monday at the north end of Bonds Cay. Not much coral to see, but some large parrot fish and quite a few of them. Took the dink to land, but did not see any good trails on the island.
Had a nice rain on Monday, got about 15 to 20 gallons in the tank, and boat was nicely washed off. We motored up to Hoffman's Cay, as strong northeast to east winds projected - with rain.
We sat on the boat for the next two days while the winds blew 25 plus knots, and it rained. Good time to read books, relax, watch movies, and make bread and cookies. Went over to Breathe for a delicious taco dinner, with chocolate lava cake for dessert - so yummy. Made the dink trip in the rain worth it (plus the company was nice :)
The rain stopped and the sun came out on Thursday. We got off the boat and went for a hike to a blue hole, some ruins, and the ocean side of Hoffman's.
At the Blue Hole on Hoffman's Cay, unique overhang on west side.
Our friends Monica and Jason on Breathe - a Manta 40 joined us in West Bay. We went for a nice walk, to the staircase, which is just some steep stairs cut through rock leading to a rocky shore. We also snorkeled the statue Ocean Atlas, a underwater sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor. He has done several underwater sculptures. The water was a bit murky, and filled with small jellyfish. Some thumb sized, some half dollar sized, and a few large ones. You could not avoid them, there were so many, but we avoided the larger ones.
We stayed in Nassau until Monday, as we wanted to check and see if we could get brushes from a local shop in Nassau. Dean called about 4 electric motor repair/rebuild businesses - but they all said the same thing "You won't find those in the Bahamas". So we decided to give up and moved from Nassau proper around to West Bay, - still on New Providence Island. West Bay is much calmer, without the chop and bounce from constant boat traffic that you get in Nassau.
We also wanted to make water, and even though you can see the bottom in when you get around 8' deep in Nassau harbor, we did pull up an old tire on our chain, and you just know the chance of the water there being a bit icky is high.
We were lucky, the watermaker worked and we ran it for about 3 hours.
Next day was calm, so we headed out for a snorkel on the north end of Goulding Cay to explore the reef. At one time, this was one of the most beautiful reefs in the world - or so says some information on the internet. Snorkeling it, we can believe it. The reef structure is phenomenal. Unfortunately, most the reef is dead, and not many fish. It was like snorkeling through a ghost town. Kinda cool, but sad at the same time.
The white on the coral is dead coral. You can see the interesting shapes still
Lots of vertical coral formations - but mostly dead
Saw a couple of parrot fish, and a few others, but not many fish
Formations were very cool
Some formations tall - this one at least 10' from floor to top
Did see some signs of coral making a comeback, so hopefully that will continue.
Next day we took a walk, the only public access point is a small public beach called Jaws Beach, which also has a nice dumpster - so we got rid of our trash. Walked the road, and we were going to walk back through Clifton Heritage National Park on the trail - but it was $16.50 per person, so we opted out, and just walked back on the road again. Back at the beach, we walked the beach to explore an old sailboat washed up on shore.
At the SW corner of the island there is a large ship loading/offloading dock
West Bay anchorage as seen from beach
The sailboat "Moriah" from Oriental, NC. Has been hard ashore for a while, and mostly gutted inside.
Pretty boring the rest of the week. Winds picked up so had a couple of boat days. Kris did taxes and made brownies. Dean cleaned the boat bottom, and added some seal to a lower thru hull.
We did laundry - and made water again - but only after having to repair the motor brush again.
Our friends on Breathe arrived last night - and we will hang out here out West Bay today, and then will buddy boat with them for a bit over to Andros Island - were we plan on renting a car and touring the island - which will be fun. We understand that Andros also offers free good water - so don't have to worry about the watermaker for a while.
Our niece Lindsey flew into Staniel Cay on Monday the 20th in the late afternoon/evening, after a couple of delays in her flight. We got back to the boat, upped anchor and moved to Big Majors, as winds were clocking and becoming strong out of the NE.
Next morning, we made her suffer through 4 hours of motoring in to strong NE winds and seas, to get up to Waderick Wells. Now normally we would not do this, but we had to be in Nassau by Friday night, so we did the cruiser unthinkable - we made a schedule. Fortunately, that was the only unpleasant 4 hours of the next week - so not bad at all.
We went for a couple of nice walks on Waderick, and a great snorkel where we saw lots of fish, and a group of 3 large spotted eagle rays. The rays were a good 5 feet across and had tails that were 3 to 4 feet long. Spent 10-15 minutes watching and following them, very impressive. Unfortunately, forgot the underwater camera, so you will have to take our word on it.
Our niece Lindsey - beautiful girl, and beautiful water at Waderick Wells
We stayed a few more days at Pipe Creek, went snorkeling with Jason and Monica from Breathe, and walked the beaches with Breathe and Aaron, Julie and dog Piper from Turnerbout
Some nice large brain corals
Interesting clumps of corals and fishes
This goat seemed very curious about us, but eventually ran away when it spied the dog
Large crashing waves on the east side beaches
This little guy wasn't very afraid
Beautiful moon rise
After a couple more days at Pipe Creek, including a Pi day, 3/14, celebration on Breathe, where Monica made up apple pie and ice cream (sooo good) to celebrate Pi day, we headed south for the Black Point SSCA Gam, and Manta gathering.
Lorraine's café hosts the SSCA Gam SSCA website . Basically a bunch of cruisers get together for a fun time, with a nice buffet dinner at Lorraine's restaurant, and then two days of afternoon music, food and beach activities. We went to the buffet, had a good time, and did one afternoon of beach activities.
We also had a Manta catamaran lunch, with 5 of us Manta owners there (Charm, Breathe, Imagine, Sea Seeker, and Green Envy (power cat))
Full anchorage at Black Point
Fun beach activities and socializing
Monica and Jason participating in one of the many games - egg races
Kris joined in on the games, and at the end of the event they even gave out trophy's.
Kris's trophy
It has been a fun 3 days, but it is time to move on, now the festivities are over.
This morning woke up to heavy rain. Nice to have, it has been a couple of months now without rain it seems.
Cloudy rainy morning - filled the water tanks, and got the boat rinsed off
Our niece Lindsey gave us a nice surprise, and is flying into Staniel Cay, where we will pick her up, and get to spend a few fun days with her, before dropping her off in Nassau, where she will spend a week on a dive boat. So this coming week should be good fun spending time with Lindsey.
We have been having a week of swirly winds. First they are south, then west, then north, then east - you get the picture.
That means our travel is dictated by the winds, and were anchoring protection can be found - which is always the case, but this last week more so as normally we have a week or so of winds from the same direction (trade winds), but this last week is more like a day from the same direction.
We spent a couple of days at the south end of Big Farmers Cay. Just hanging out and had a nice beach walk, and spent a couple hours visiting with Ross and Phyliss on Kohina who have a 41' Maine Cat.
