Breeze On

Late yesterday morning, after making fresh water, we raised the anchor and had a leisurely 20 mile sail/motor sail south to Rock Sound. Unfortunately, when we furled the mainsail it was still quite noisy so the problem is not yet fixed.  While in Rock Sound we plan to run a few errands and then, when the wind is right, we will continue making our way north.  When we were last in Rock Sound in November there were just a couple of boats here. Now there are 22. I suspect that half are making their way north—as are we—and half are recent arrivals to the Bahamas making their way south.  A few days ago I mentioned the many birds we heard while we were anchored at Ten Bay. One was especially loud and seemed to call most at sunset and sunrise. We could hear it but we never saw it. I eventually identified it—using my Merlin bird call identification app—as a Limpkin. They are freshwater birds which explains why we never saw it. There is a small lake near where we were anchored...

George went up the mast once again yesterday morning to take a look at the main halyard sheave. A stuck/malfunctioning sheave is our latest theory on why we have so much noise when we furl the mainsail. George took a lubricant with him to spray on the sheave but he found that it turned easily and seemed to be working just fine (he lubricated anyway!). I suppose that is good news, but we may not have solved the noise issue. We will find out the next time we furl the mainsail.  The wind is light but out of the west, causing us to shift around into shallower water. George checked the depth and found it was 7.3 feet at high tide. With a two-foot tide we would be sitting on the bottom at low tide. We raised the anchor and tried to find a spot with a sandy bottom in deeper water at Ten Bay but no luck. The problem at Ten Bay—and in many other places along the coast of Eleuthera—is that the bottom is sandy close to shore but there is grass and rock shelf on the bottom when you are farther...

This anchorage is our favorite in Eleuthera. It is peaceful here as long as the wind is from the east. Our first night we shared the large bay with two other boats and a lot of different birds. Last night it was just us and the birds.   Yesterday morning we rode the dinghy 1 1/2 miles to a defunct marina and beached the dinghy at the boat ramp. Then we walked 3/4 mile to Eleuthera Island Farm for some fresh produce. I bought three types of lettuce and several other vegetables.  In the afternoon George cleaned an instrument we call the speedo. It is a device that goes through a hole in the hull of the boat and measures depth, water temperature, and boat speed. When we were sailing here the other day I noticed that it was not measuring boat speed. When George removed the speedo we could see why. When we are at home in Maryland he removes it every time we return to our slip. While in the Bahamas we just leave it in, hence the growth. Our GPS tells us our speed over ground. The bo...

We had another day of great sailing yesterday—70 miles from Cat Island to Eleuthera. We left Bennetts Harbor before sunrise and dropped the anchor in Ten Bay just before sunset. We sailed all but the first hour and one five mile stretch when we had to go into the wind.  Along the way we passed by Little San Salvador, a private island owned by the Holland America Line. The cruise lines refer to the island as Half Moon Cay. Every time we have been by this island we have seen one or more cruise ships anchored in the harbor. Yesterday the ship Carnival Pride was pulling in just before we passed by. George was curious about the ship and its itinerary so he looked it up. It turns out the Carnival Pride was at the end of a two week, clothing optional “Big Nude Boat 2023, Return to Bare-adise” cruise sponsored by the Bare Necessities travel agency. Who knew??!? Apparently clothing is optional on board the ship and some of the excursions. As we were passing by, but before we learned about t...

Yesterday we had a delightful day of sailing from Old Bight to Bennetts Harbour. It is a pretty harbor with a nice beach and potential snorkeling opportunities but we want to take advantage of favorable winds (we hope) for sailing north to Eleuthera today.  Sailing into Bennetts Harbour.  It has been a while since we dumped our trash. We read that cruisers can dispose of their trash in a bin at the government dock. It was close to low tide and there were no ladders at the dock so to get to the bin we beached the dinghy next to the boat ramp and behind one of many huge piles of conch shells. 

After staying another three nights at Old Bight we are raising the anchor and heading north to Bennett’s Harbour. While in Old Bight we walked the gorgeous beach every day. Yesterday we spent a few hours trying to fix the squeal we hear when lowering the mainsail. It had been much better after George and Matt worked on it at Hog Cay but now it is quite noisy again. After greasing the furling system again we have decided the noise isn’t coming from the furling boom. Our current theory is that it is the halyard or the main halyard sheave (pulley over which the halyard passes at the top of the mast.) George will go up the mast again on another calm day and inspect it.  On one of our walks we saw these cute little birds. I used my Merlin app to identify them as semipalmated plovers.  Abandoned house and outbuilding. Not sure what the outbuilding was. It reminds me of a bus stop, but it’s more likely an outhouse.  For a few hours on Tuesday we had west winds. Fortunately, they...

Sailors are a superstitious lot and we are no exception. When I thought about writing this post regarding solving a problem, I hesitated. I worried that writing about it may make the problem come back. I am ignoring those worries and writing about it anyway.  For a few years we have had a problem with an intermittent knocking noise in the steering system when sailing in following seas. George tried everything he could think of to solve the problem but it persisted. The only thing left to try was drop the rudder and inspect it, the rudder post, and the rudder bearing. It is a big job but we decided it was worth the effort just in case the noise was a symptom of a problem with the rudder.  George decided to have the job done last August when the boat was hauled out for its annual coat of bottom paint. While the boat was high in the travel lift the staff at our boat yard, Generation III, worked to release and drop the rudder. It is not always an easy job but they got it done....

As we were sailing from Old Bight to Fernandez Bay at a blistering four knots George took the opportunity to use the garden sprayer to spray the salt off the dodger windows. The sprayer comes in handy to wash off the salt we get from salt spray during times when we don’t get rain.  While at Fernandez Bay we took a dinghy ride through Fernandez Creek, snorkeled around the rock in the middle of the bay, and ate a late lunch at the resort.  This morning we will motor back to Old Bight and stay for another few days.  Spraying the salt off of the windows.  Encrusting red sponge at top of photo.  Rope sponge.  Although it was interesting snorkeling through the rock formation we both thought we had been spoiled by the fantastic snorkeling at Warderick Wells.  Blue tangs and grunts.  I can’t identify these fish yet. They swim in large schools near the surface. We often see them near the boat. 

Since leaving Warderick Wells we spent two nights at New Bight and two nights at Old Bight. Yesterday we took a leisurely sail from Old Bight to Fernandez Bay where we plan to spend another night. At New Bight we dumped our trash, walked a mile to the grocery store, did laundry at the fantastic Gilly’s Laundromat, and ate some wonderful conch salad at Duke’s Conch Stand.  George’s was a traditional conch salad and mine was tropical. In addition to all of the usual ingredients mine had mango and pineapple. Yum.  At Old Bight we walked on the gorgeous beach where we saw a few immature cushion sea stars. We ate dinner at Rollezz Villas Beach Resort. The owner, Yvonne, told us that many of the salad ingredients were home grown. I asked if it was difficult to grow a garden there. She said no, the biggest challenge was keeping the garden watered since they have to buy their water.  Duke’s Conch Stand, New Bight.  Sunset, New Bight.  My hero!  When we were lifting...

Here are the rest of the photos we took while snorkeling at Warderick Wells.  Stingray partially buried in the sand. You can see part of the head with the eyes on the right and the tail in the left. I stared at this for quite a while before I figured out what it was.  Stingray’s eyes.  Sea turtle.  Sea turtle.  Caribbean reef shark. Like nurse sharks, they are not usually aggressive toward humans. Phew! French Angelfish.  Scrawled filefish.  Scrawled filefish. They have the ability to change color to match their background. Notice how it looks darker here compared to the previous photo.  It is much lighter here… …and here… …then turns darker again. So interesting. George took these photos and I am glad he did. I saw the fish but didn’t see the changing colors.