Breeze On

There is a period just after sunset when the West African Whistling Ducks at Hog Cay become active. We had just finished setting the anchor when we heard their call and saw them flying. Yesterday morning we raised the anchor at Hog Cay and set sail for Conception Island, about 20 miles away. After a great morning of sailing we were surprised to see so many boats already anchored at Conception Island. By the end of the day there were 16 boats in the harbor. There is no cell phone tower around here so this post is made using the Iridium Go satellite phone. The photo—small because it is posted using the satellite phone—is of Hog Cay in the morning. There is an osprey nest on top of the house and we heard the osprey call as we were leaving. It reminded us of home.

In the  post  about our arrival in the Bahamas I wrote about how the immigration official refused to give us more than 60 days in the Bahamas. At the time he said we could just renew it if we wanted to stay longer. Easier said than done. The time for renewal happened to land right around the holidays. George found instructions for requesting a renewal online and he submitted it in mid-December. After receiving a brief response saying the request was received and he should receive an answer in 7 business days he heard nothing more. He sent emails, he made calls, and the only responses he received were filled with conflicting advise or transfers to numbers that no one answered. We finally decided to abandon the electronic renewal and attempt an in-person renewal. (We hadn’t done that before because one of the people at immigration had told George that once he made the electronic request he should not attempt an in-person renewal.)  Yesterday George spoke with a helpful man ...

Today we went to Chez Pierre for a delicious lunch with our friends, Jean and Michael. We have had meals there before but this time we anchored nearby and took the dinghy ashore. Jean had made the reservations—they are an absolute must to ensure the restaurant will be open. We felt safe eating indoors at Chez Pierre because we suspected there would be no other customers—and there weren’t—and much of the restaurant is open to the outdoors. As always, the food and the company were fabulous. 

The water in Thompson Bay is silty and cloudy. Nevertheless we decided to try snorkeling at some small islands in the middle of the bay. We saw a few fish and interesting plants growing in the sand but not much else. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the outing anyway. 

This morning Chris Parker—on his morning webcast—said that the weather this week in the Bahamas was going to be splendid. Today certainly was. The sun was shining, we had just enough breeze to stay cool, and the humidity is lower than usual. We’ll take it. We started the day by taking the dinghy down to Long Island Petroleum to get a few more jerry cans of fuel. We have heard that there have been shortages of diesel here and we are concerned it may become worse after hearing that a tanker that services the Bahamas sank late on Christmas Eve. Evidently a 200 ft. mega yacht rear-ended the tanker sending it to the bottom of the ocean. The mega yacht did not sink but now has a hole in the bow. Next we cleaned the cabin of Breeze On then went for a brief, but lovely walk on shore.  Yesterday was Christmas Day and we went to our friends’ boat for a delicious dinner. The food and company were fantastic. We will most likely be here a few more days before moving on.  Loading the diesel...

Yesterday we had a wonderful day of sailing from George Town to Thompson Bay, Long Island. The waves were quite large and hitting us on the beam when we left the southern end of harbor but settled down nicely as we got further away from the deep water of Exuma Sound. Once we arrived at Thompson Bay we saw that there were no other cruising boats in the harbor. We were traveling with our friends on Desiderata II and, after we got settled, we all went for a mid-afternoon meal at Tiny’s Hurricane Hole. This morning we dinghied to shore and dumped our garbage, visited the wonderful Seafarer’s Marine Supply, and then Hillside Food Supply. The welcoming attitude toward cruisers as well as the sturdy dock, convenient spot for garbage near the dock, marine store, and food store are all things that make Thompson Bay a favorite anchorage of ours.  As we were walking from Seafarer’s to Hillside it started to rain. We didn’t mind getting wet, though, because we were happy the boat was finally g...

We have spent most of the past two days working on chores. Yesterday we dinghied 1 1/2 miles to shore and walked a short distance to a laundromat, Baranki Wash. We tied the dinghy to a cinderblock on the wall of a boat ramp. The laundromat was extremely busy—with laundry from local residents, not cruisers—but we were able to get two loads done in 1 1/2 hours. Not bad. George spent the entire afternoon fixing a problem we had with a cracked hinge on the dinghy. We believe the hinge cracked from the torque created by the spinning propeller on the outboard, not by lifting the dinghy with the motor attached. The Porta-Bote company states that our dinghy should have an outboard with a maximum of 6 hp. Ours is 8 hp, so we aren’t surprised that the hinge cracked. George switched the cracked hinge with another one that isn’t under any force. In addition, he reinforced the hinge.  Today we stayed on the boat awaiting the arrival of a front. We were hoping for enough rain to wash the salt of...

After two long days traveling 114 miles from the Ragged Islands we arrived at George Town this afternoon. Yesterday was a splendid day of sailing from Hog Cay to Water Cay. Today was a long day of motoring—with a brief period of motor-sailing—from Water Cay to George Town. The anchorage at Water Cay was rolly and it seems that is the case no matter what the wind and seas are doing. We left Water Cay before sunrise this morning to make sure we entered the shallow Comer Channel near high tide. We opted not to try the even shallower Hog Cay Cut even though it would have shaved four hours off of today’s trip. We are anchored on the west side of the harbor in anticipation of a west wind that is forecast to arrive tomorrow. It is actually quite nice here Sunrise in the Jumentos Cays.  Views of the Master’s Harbour anchorage. It is pretty and peaceful here at the moment.  We like our anchorage on the west side of Elizabeth Harbour. Most boats are anchored near Stocking Island on the ...

A cold front is forecast to come to the Bahamas early next week bringing S-SW-W-NW winds so it is time for us to leave the Ragged Islands and find an anchorage that is protected from these wind directions. Our current plan is to go to George Town for a few days. It will take us two days to get there and we will be off of the grid again until we arrive late Monday afternoon. Two of the five boats that have been here this week have already moved on and the two boats remaining after we leave will most likely stay in the area. They are both catamarans and have more options for anchoring in shallower waters. We have enjoyed our time here and may return again sometime this winter.  Taki hut where the cruisers gather most afternoons.  Last night’s full moon illuminating a cloud. 

Yesterday we went snorkeling at Hog Cay with Shiera from Gemeaux. She is an avid snorkeler who goes out every day. She had talked about seeing octopuses—I looked it up and that is indeed the correct plural of octopus—and I very much wanted to see one. In the five years we have been snorkeling in the Bahamas we have never seen an octopus and we weren’t even aware they were here. Shiera’s way of snorkeling is quite different from ours. We usually look for coral heads and then use the look bucket to check for colorful fish. If we don’t see many we don’t bother. Shiera snorkels very slowly near ledges and even over grass and sand, as well as coral and looks for all kinds of wildlife. She pointed out tiny fish called blennies that hang out on the coral and an octopus that was hiding in a hole and had a blue tint at the time. I saw an octopus on my own and it, too, was hiding in a hole. I tried to point it out to George so he could get a photo but he wasn’t able to see it. George and I were ...

This week has been windy—20’s gusting to 30 knots—but Hog Cay is an excellent place to ride out a wind. The bluffs of the cay as well as the ability to anchor fairly close to shore make the anchorage calmer than many other anchorages in the Bahamas. We have been able to get to shore each day for hikes and the daily gathering at the tiki hut.  Our system for pulling the dinghy up with the outboard still attached seems to be working well. It cuts the time and effort involved in raising the dinghy in half. We like to pull the dinghy out of the water each night; if it happened to get away it would most likely end up in Cuba. When we are traveling we will take the outboard off.  Lobster Hole Bay

Yesterday we defrosted the fridge for the first time in 10 days. George had added some gasket material to two sides of the door opening and there is some evidence it may have helped.  Later on we went to shore for a hike up over the hill to the east side of the island. At four pm we dinghied to the tiki hut for the usual gathering of cruisers but this time it was just us with Dee and Ron from Ursa Minor.  Given the wind conditions, we were surprised when another boat motored into the anchorage in the afternoon. Dee and Ron had invited them to join us at the tiki hut but the new arrivals said they were tired from a long passage.  Before we went to bed we tried one more thing to reduce the sloshing in the water tank. Our friend, Michael, had suggested a pool noodle. George was a little concerned that the noodle would degrade in the water—or would lead to bacterial growth—so we cut the noodle up, put the pieces in ziplock bags, and dropped them in the tank. Stay tuned… Breez...

After three days and over 120 miles we arrived yesterday at Hog Cay in the Ragged Islands. It is as far south as we will go in the Bahamas. The photo below shows where we are—for those who don’t follow us on our Spot Tracker or Marine Traffic.   We had plenty of wind for sailing all three days. Since the wind was often further south of east than we expected we had a fair amount of upwind sailing. Of course, the wind also meant we had waves. We were bashing into some and, on the second day, some were breaking over the beam of the boat, soaking us and everything in the cockpit. Once we anchored at Flamingo Cay we spent some time doing our best to wash the salt water off of the cockpit, cushions, pillows, ourselves, and our clothes.  There were two other boats at Hog Cay when we arrived yesterday and one other boat joined us later in the afternoon. It is quite windy today and forecast to remain windy for the next week. Most boats are hunkered down wherever they are so we don’t ex...

After one more night in Black Point we plan to leave tomorrow morning and start heading for the Ragged Islands. The trip is over 100 miles and we plan to break it up into three day trips. The Ragged Islands will be as far south as we plan to go in the Bahamas. Yesterday we took a brief trip back to Staniel Cay to top off our diesel and gasoline. The last time we visited the Ragged Isalnds we started rationing our trips in the dinghy to make sure we didn’t run out of gasoline before we returned to a place where we could buy gas. While we were at Staniel we saw our friends Jean and Michael from Desiderata II. Later on we had them over for sundowners and had a lot of fun catching up. We have been just barely missing each other for months. Today the four of us went for a late lunch at Scorpio’s. This morning George and I worked on a method that will allow us to raise the dinghy while the motor is still attached. The transom on our dinghy is not very strong and we don’t want to risk damagin...

We spent a few hours yesterday morning doing laundry at Rockside Laundry. We were happy to already have our machine  tokens because Ida was not there—although she had left the door unlocked so we were able to get started. Ida is quite an entrepreneur and was most likely out working on one of her other businesses. In the evening we went to happy hour at Scorpios—the first time this season we have socialized with a group.  View of Black Point harbor taken from the porch at Rockside Laundry. Breeze on is not in the photo.  Sunset after happy hour at Scorpios. Breeze on is on the right. 

We left Bitter Guana Cay yesterday after the wind turned more to the south, making the anchorage somewhat bouncy. We traveled a few more miles south to Black Point, a settlement we like and which has better protection from south winds. We took our dinghy to shore this morning to dump our trash, walk around, and stop in at Rockside Laundry for a chat with some cruisers we know. We plan to return to Rockside Laundry tomorrow to do our laundry. After returning to Breeze On this afternoon we gave each other a haircut. Cutting hair was a bit more challenging than it is at home, especially when tour boats would speed past kicking up a wake. Fortunately, no one was injured.  High tide at the dock. There are a few boards missing from the dock so George is wisely watching his step.  Interesting use of old tires.  There is evidence of new construction throughout the settlement.