Breeze On

Our exit from the slip at Emerald Bay went much more smoothly than our entrance. The wind was in the mid-to-upper teens from the NE so, although some waves had built up in the channel, they weren’t too bad. We turned to the NW and sailed in 4 to 6 foot seas to Rat Cay Cut with just the mainsail. As we made our way to Children’s Bay we passed by a rock that looks like a mushroom. It almost looks like it was placed there. We anchored at Children’s Bay to wait for tomorrow morning’s high tide. I decided yesterday that my hair is too long and out of control. George agreed to cut it for me this afternoon and I think he did a pretty darn good job. 

This morning Doug rented a car and we toured Great Exuma Island. Our rental car had the steering wheel on the right hand side. Doug did a fine job of driving on the left hand side of the road and avoiding the potholes on the edge of the road.  First, we went south to Georgetown.  After walking around Georgetown and visiting a few of the shops we got back in the car and continued south to Little Exuma Island. To get from Great Exuma to Little Exuma you have to drive over a short one lane bridge. Fortunately, no vehicles were coming the other way at that moment! After we crossed over the Tropic of Cancer we stopped and ate an early lunch at Santana’s. The food was delicious traditional Bahamian food. Doug, Laura and George ordered ribs and I ordered grouper. We all had sides of cole slaw, peas & rice and corn. Before lunch, though, we bought baked goods at Mom’s Bakery next door. After lunch Laura noticed what looked like sharks swimming back and forth near Santana’s. It was...

A few hours after we swam with the dolphin a line of squalls came through. The wind shifted to the north and the surge increased, making the anchorage very rolly. It remained rolly all night and we had a miserable night’s sleep. At one point I had the thought that the dolphin wasn’t worth all of the rolliness. (It was.) We got up at 6 am and had the anchor up by 7 am. One advantage of staying the extra day was that we had a nice, fast sail across Exuma Sound.  We decided to pull into the Marina at Emerald Bay, just north of Georgetown instead of anchoring at Georgetown. A cold front was forecast to come through today and we might be stuck on the boat of we were at anchor. Also, Doug and Laura need to get to the airport on Wednesday and it will be much easier to do that from the marina, given the forecast for the next few days.  The wind started out in the teens yesterday morning but increased as the day went on. By the time we were near the marina it was over 20 knots and the ...

This afternoon, just after we dropped the anchor at Calabash Bay, Doug, Laura, George and I went for a swim. We were all in the water when Doug noticed something swimming toward him. At first he thought it was a snorkeler but it was swimming too fast to be a snorkeler.  Then he thought it might be a shark or a ray, or maybe a dolphin. It swam under him and headed for Laura and me. He yelled over to us that a dolphin might be headed our way. We didn’t hear him but we did hear the dolphin blow air out of it’s blow hole behind us. I turned around and saw that it was within 6 feet of me!  It swam closer and I thought I might be able to touch it. I couldn’t quite touch it before it swam over to visit George. Then it swam away. It was the coolest experience we have had in the Bahamas. A dolphin visiting each one of us!  We left Thompson Bay yesterday morning and motored up to Hog Cay. The water was so calm and clear that we could see everything on the bottom as we motored along...

This morning we ventured to shore for the first time in three days. It was still quite windy and choppy but we needed to pick up our friends, Doug and Laura, at the airport. Once we got the dinghy in the water and the motor on the dinghy, the ride to shore wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We went into an area we call “the cove”. We thought the water would be calmer there and it would be easier loading their luggage onto the dinghy from there. Since we were renting a car to pick them up we also took the opportunity to do our laundry at a laundromat 30 minutes away. After we met them at the airport we stopped at the Forest Takeaway for our late lunch/early dinner. We returned to Thompson Bay by the late afternoon before the sun set. George took three trips with the dinghy to get the four of us, our laundry and their luggage to the boat. The weather forecast has been so uncertain that we aren’t sure where we are going from here. We have a tentative plan, but it could always change...

Neither George nor I like to clean fish. Therefore, we don’t catch any. Most cruisers in the Bahamas do catch fish, conch and lobsters so we are in the minority. This morning, though, George did make a catch. He was looking around the anchorage and happened to spot a pool noodle sailing our way pretty quickly. By the time we got the boat hook, the noodle had caught on the anchor rode. Easy catch! It has a slit up the side so most likely came off of someone’s boat upwind of us. Tomorrow morning, on the VHF morning net, we will ask if anyone is missing a pool noodle.  It is very windy today (mid 20’s, gusting to 30) and is forecast to be even windier tomorrow so we are staying on the boat and doing boat chores, reading and watching a movie. 

As the northeast US is getting slammed by a snowstorm, the same cold front is affecting us with more wind. Right now the wind is from the southwest, a direction for which there is no protection at all in Thompson Bay. We opted to stay here because the southwest winds were not forecast to stay very long before clocking to the west, behind Indian Hole Point. The southwest wind will be with us longer than we had hoped but we will survive. Because there is no protection from land a wind chop builds up in the water. Right now it is about 2-3 feet and all of the boats in the harbor are bouncing.  This morning I attended another aqua fitness class and was once again the only student aside from the instructor’s husband. George drove me in the dinghy and went for a walk during our class. (He is not an exercise class kind of guy). The choppy water made the class even more challenging and I got hit in the face by a wave more than once. Then we had quite an exciting dinghy ride back to Breeze ...

We have not moved Breeze On for a week and our hot water tank is out of hot water. The water is heated in one of two ways: from the engine, or from an element that works when we are plugged into shore power. The hot water lasts about two days. This year we purchased a sun shower to give us hot water when we have been at anchor more than two days. We keep it tied on the deck most of the time then hang it from the arch when we want to use it to rinse off after our salt water bath. As long as the sun is shining it works really well.  This morning I attended an aqua fitness class in the water at the beach. It was good exercise and fun. Diane, from Boatel I, arrived in the anchorage yesterday and announced the class this morning on the net. There were just three of us there, Diane, her husband, Ted, and me. We plan to round out our “busy” day by going to a cruisers’ happy hour at Tiny’s Hurricane Hole later this afternoon.  We hadn’t intended to stay at Long Island more than a week...

Turns out the problem with uploading the photo was because the blog writing app I use needed an update. I am trying again and hope the update did the trick. 

The awnings I made in 2016 were a disappointment. The one that covered the v berth hatch was too small. The rain would bounce of the deck and into the hatch. The design I came up with for the salon hatch awning, attaching it to the sail cover with Velcro, didn’t work. I remade it while were in the Bahamas last year but it was still the wrong size and shape. This past summer I started over and made new awnings. Since I was starting over I used Stamoid fabric instead of Weathermax. I made the v berth awning as large as I could and I redesigned the size and shape of the salon awnings. I am happy to say that they both work! The v berth awning covers enough of the deck surrounding the hatch that water doesn’t bounce off of the deck into the hatch. I used rings of spectra line instead of stainless rings for the bungee cord attachment points. That way, if the awning flaps and hits the deck in a strong wind it won’t damage the deck. We tend to use the v berth awning much more than the salon aw...

This evening we attended our first ever dink n’ drink. Cruisers tie their dinghies together, share snacks and provide their own drinks. It was another calm day so Bess suggested we would have fewer bugs if we met on the water as opposed to meeting at the beach. It was a lot of fun.  George spent the earlier part of the day digging out and replacing the caulk where the toe rail meets the hull of the boat. It was a big job but today was a good day to get it done. He stood in the dinghy to work and the calm water made that easier. We have a few more days of lighter winds then we are expecting two big back to back cold fronts. 

This morning we took advantage of the calm conditions and dinghied over to Long Island Petroleum again for another 15 gallons of diesel. The water was so calm that it was difficult to tell where the horizon was located. Yesterday afternoon Bess, from Alibi II, organized a get together on the beach. Everyone brought food to share; my contribution was a sausage and cheese quiche. It was a fun afternoon and we returned to Breeze On just before sunset as the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were starting to attack. 

This morning was the local farmer’s market. There were a lot of people there, most were land-based and came in cars. It is a really popular event around here. It is a good year for produce at the market since Long Island wasn’t hit with a hurricane. We bought arugula, mustard greens, tomatoes, carambolas a papaya and even a pomegranate!  We also bought eggs that we had heard were delicious. We plan to verify that tomorrow morning. 

This evening we went to a happy hour at Sou’ Side Bar and Grill. There was a very nice mix of cruisers and people who live in homes on the island. We reconnected with people we have met before and also met some new folks. Holly from Hampshire Rose baked a delicious pineapple upside down rum cake as a birthday cake for Sou’ Side’s owner, Tyrone (aka Tiger).  Yesterday was a day for errands. It was a holiday in the Bahamas (Majority Rule Day) so some businesses were closed and others closed early. We started with the long dinghy ride to Long Island Petroleum for 3 jerry cans of fuel. We have used quite a bit of fuel this past week so we will be returning in a day or two for more. Next, we went to Hillside Food Supply for groceries. As usual, they had a good supply of fresh foods. Today we went Seafarer Marine, a fantastic marine store, to look for a deck swab. He doesn’t carry them so that will go on the list of things to buy when we get home. We have found that wiping the deck down ...

A dolphin came for a visit just before we raised the anchor at Hog Cay.  A lovely way to start the day. After raising the anchor we motored south along the coast of Long Island and stopped briefly at Dilda Rocks. We found free WiFi when we anchored there last Friday.  George hoped to use it to download a couple of books. The WiFi was weak and slow today but George was able to get his books. The wind picked up while we were anchored so we were able to sail the rest of the way to Thompson Bay, where we plan to stay a week or so.  Dolphin at Hog Cay Sunset at Thompson Bay

As promised, here our some photos we took while snorkeling. They are a bit disappointing, but it may be due to the skill of the photographers. Pam and Brad took much better photos with the same camera last year. 

We had a very nice time snorkeling and walking on the beach at Conception Island.  We talked about staying longer but we decided it was time to leave in order to avoid the forecasted NW winds. We had hoped to sail back toward Long Island this morning but the winds were six knots or less until we rounded the northern tip of Long Island. We sailed the final hour to our destination, Hog Cay. We stayed at Hog Cay one night last year and enjoyed it. After anchoring this afternoon we went snorkeling nearby and then dinghied around Joe Sound. The Explorer Chartbook describes Joe Sound as a spot with good all-round protection but a very challenging entrance. They weren’t kidding about the entrance. It is shallow and narrow with a very strong current. We checked the depth with our hand-held depth sounder. It was 6 1/2 feet just inside the entrance at mid-tide. No thanks. Inside the sound there is a mix of derelict boats, abandoned boats and occupied boats that look like they might never lea...

We anchored last night in East Bay, Conception Island. As the name implies it is on the east side of the island. Since the trade winds are usually from the east it is often not a desirable place to anchor. We thought it might be a better choice than West Bay, though, since the winds were light and forecast to clock around to the west. Nevertheless, there was still a swell coming from the southeast so it was somewhat rolly all night. We decided to go snorkeling right after breakfast, before the clouds on the horizon moved in. We hadn't yet put the dinghy in the water so we decided to just swim from the boat. On the way to the reef we passed over a ray resting on the bottom. It moved slightly as we swam overhead but then must have decided we weren't a threat. Fortunately, it wasn't a threat to us, either. The reef had all sorts of coral and a wide variety of fish, too. George took some photos but I won't be able to transfer them to my iPad until we get back to a place th...

After a calm night at anchor we left Rocky Point just before sunrise yesterday morning. Frances and Laurie from Glory Days had assured us that we could make it through Jewish Cut so we saved five miles and took that route rather than going around Duck Cays. When we were planning this trip we thought we could make it from Rocky Point to Long Island in one day instead of the two it took us last year. There are two shallow areas along the route, one at Jewfish Cut and another at Comer Channel. This year we thought we would make it to Jewfish Cut before high tide and Comer Channel around mid-tide. We made it through Jewfish Cut without any problems although it is quite narrow with a lot of current. After we came through the cut the wind was on our nose in the mid-teens and the seas were building to 3-4 feet with short periods. We were slamming into the waves and it was really unpleasant. If we had known the conditions were going to be so much worse than the day before we would have waited ...

After almost two weeks in Black Point we are finally on the move again. We love Black Point but we tend to get restless after staying somewhere four days or so. We have been waiting for more favorable winds so the we could move south and east to Long Island. The winds weren’t all that favorable today but at least they weren’t awful. We started out motor sailing, then sailed for about an hour, then dropped both sails and motored into the wind the rest of the way to where we are now anchored, Rocky Point. In the late morning I noticed four motor yachts in the distance off of our port side. They eventually passed us then anchored in a shallow area behind a large rock. We then passed them. About an hour later they were on the move again and following us. Three of the boats have AIS and it was amusing to see the armada following us on the chart plotter. They are now anchored nearby.  Yesterday afternoon we had our VHS radio on and heard a May Day call. It is something we have never hear...

We rang in the new year with an early dinner at Emerald Sunset View Bar and Restaurant. David and Alex from Banyan joined us for a very pleasant evening. We were back on Breeze On and asleep by the time Emerald Sunset View set off the fireworks. It was quite a display.  This morning we took a walk over to Little Bay. There were three mega-yachts in the harbor. Jet skis were zipping around and tents were set up on both beaches. Quite a different scene from the times we have been anchored there alone.  New Year’s Eve at Emerald Sunset View Little Bay with two of the three mega-yachts Alone at Little Bay, 2017