Breeze On

Since arriving in George Town we spent one night at anchor in Masters Harbour, then moved yesterday morning to “Da Middle,” an area roughly in the middle of the harbor but relatively close to town. We dinghied into town to get fuel, beer, and a few groceries. The harbor outside of George Town, known as Elizabeth Harbour, is huge and can hold hundreds of boats. When we were here in early December with my brother, Dave, there were only about 40 boats here. Now there are over 200. Everywhere we went while running our errands yesterday was crowded but we managed to get everything done. After returning to Breeze On we cleaned the cabin and I baked some chocolate chip cookies in the GoSun oven.  In the afternoon we raised the anchor and moved across the harbor to a mooring ball in the Gaviota Bay East mooring field, near the Chat ‘n Chill Beach Bar and Grill. It is close to shore and should allow us to get to shore for hikes and to eat out on occasion while our daughter and son-in-law ar...

Yesterday morning we left the boat bright and early so that I could go to the Farmers Market.  George stayed with the dinghy in order to avoid having to tie up to the iron shore. I had much better luck at the market this week, buying a large bunch of collard greens along with arugula, eggs, chives, a coconut tart, and two sapodilla fruits. I was disappointed that all of the delicious tiny tomatoes had already been snapped up by other vendors at the market. After I finished at the market I walked up to Hillside Food Supply to buy lettuce and a few other items.  Once we returned to Breeze On we raised the anchor and headed north to Hog Cay near the northern tip of Long Island. Hog Cay is a small private island with an unusual large octagonal house and a long, pretty beach. There is an osprey nest on the cupola of the house. The calls of the resident osprey pair remind us of the Chesapeake   The island also has a large habitat for West Indian Whistling Ducks. These are noctu...

Good news. The flex feeder is securely attached to the mast. The replacement leaf springs are on order (one to spare) and should arrive at our daughter’s house in time for her and her husband to bring them to us when they visit next week. Fingers crossed the shipment will arrive before the major storm hits their area this weekend.  The windy weather here continued through much of the day yesterday. George and I ventured off the boat briefly to cut each others’ hair on the beach. Today has been a lovely, calm, sunny day. We joined Dee & Ron and Jean & Michael at Dapple Cafe for lunch. George has been thinking of Dapple Cafe’s mocha smoothie ever since we arrived a week ago. We have so enjoyed hanging out with our friends but are all going our separate ways tomorrow.                                                         George’s mo...

Our time here at Thompson Bay has flown by. Yesterday we ate lunch at Sou’ Side with Dee & Ron and Jean & Michael. On our way back Dee and Ron stopped at Breeze On so that Ron could take a look at the stubborn screw that didn’t want to come out. He and George worked on it a while until the head came off the screw. In the meantime a front—which we had hoped would not come this far south—arrived and the wind picked up. George and Ron continued to work on removing what was left of the screw and tapping a new hole. At some point they noticed that the leaf spring—a part that goes under the flex feeder—had broken off. George suspects it had been cracked by whatever stresses ruined the old flex feeder. A new leaf spring was not included with our replacement flex feeder so George has ordered two new ones (one to spare.)  George and Ron have a bit of fine tuning to do on the flex feeder then we will wait for the new leaf spring.  The front brought quite a bit of rain last night...

George has been working on removing the old mainsail feeder track but is not done yet. He has been applying penetrating oil to the screws and tapping them with a hammer. In addition, he has been using his oscillating multitool and hot knife to cut away the plastic feeder track to allow better access to the screws. Then he heated the screws with the hot knife. The first screw came right out, but the second screw is proving to be more stubborn. He is applying more penetrating oil to that one and will allow the oil to do its work overnight before trying again tomorrow.  When we arrived in Thompson Bay, I was very much looking forward to going to the farmers market on Saturday morning.  Just as we were about to leave the boat for the market a heavy squall arrived. We waited for it to pass then went to shore.  I didn’t find nearly as much to buy there as I did two weeks ago, but did come back with some arugula, sapodillas (a very sweet, soft fruit that tastes like brown sugar)...

After stealing an idea from Dee and Ron we decided to leave George Town yesterday at noon, taking advantage of the SW wind to sail east to Thompson Bay, Long Island. The conditions were great and even allowed us to turn the engine off and sail with just our very small jib. We arrived about a half-hour street sunset. Thompson Bay is wide open to the SW and, although the anchorage was somewhat bouncy, it was tolerable. The anchorage calmed down after the wind moved further to the north overnight.  George attempted to replace the mainsail feeder track before we left George Town but wasn’t able to remove the old screws. He doesn’t want to strip the heads of the screws so he is proceeding very carefully.  This afternoon we joined Dee, Ron, Jean and Michael at Vantage Pointe for a late lunch. The food was delicious—George and I had the pan fried grouper and finished with key lime pie, yum.  It was a pleasure to be able to turn the engine off and sail with the jib. We won’t be u...

Our package containing the new mainsail feeder track arrived at Staniel Cay Yacht Club late yesterday afternoon.  There was a moment when we were concerned that it hadn’t arrived. George watched as the golf cart bringing the packages from the airport to the yacht club was unloaded and there weren’t any packages the size of our part. He was relieved when they said another golf cart was on the way. As soon as we got back to the dinghy with our package we raised the anchor and motored six miles south to Black Point, dropping the anchor just after sunset. This morning we were underway to George Town before sunrise. Although we were motoring into the wind the conditions weren’t bad since the wind was so light. We had just finished anchoring in George Town when a brief heavy squall arrived. We will stay here a day or two until the worst of the next cold front passes.                       George with the package containing our r...

It has been a gloomy day here as we wait for our part to arrive. There was a slight chance that the part would arrive at Staniel Cay today, but George called and found out it would not be arriving at Staniel Cay Yacht Club until about 3:30 tomorrow. We chose to wait at Bitter Guana Cay—2.5 miles south of Staniel Cay as the crow flies—because it is quieter and less crowded. The occasional tour boat comes by taking tourists to view (and possibly feed) the Exuma Island iguanas on the beach. We have visited the iguanas in the past but found some of them to be quite aggressive toward others so we passed it up this time. There were three sailboats with us in the anchorage last night. After they all left today a large motor yacht joined us. Later this afternoon a helicopter landed on the yacht, unloaded, then left, then another helicopter landed right after that. George took a video of the second helicopter which is posted below.  Our trip from Cat Island to Bitter Guana yesterday was une...

Yesterday we did something we don’t often do—we did our laundry at a laundromat! Gilly’s Laundry Depot in New Bight is so clean and nice that we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. After the laundry was finished we left our clean laundry there and walked to the New Bight Food Market, picking up our laundry on the way back. Today George ran the water maker and worked on trying to track down the feeder track for our mainsail. He found out that it is in Fort Lauderdale and should be flown to Staniel Cay Monday or Tuesday. We plan to leave Cat Island tomorrow and travel to the Staniel Cay area so we will be ready to pick the part up when it arrives. A weather front is due to pass through next week and we hope to get to George Town—after we pick up the part—in order to have protection from west wind. Fingers crossed everything falls into place.  This afternoon we went to CeeDee’s Restaurant and Bar for our dinner. I had steamed turkey with some sides and George had fried chicken wit...

When we were chatting with the photographer, Yontalay Bowe-Kirkendall, a few days ago we learned that there were some plantation ruins a very short distance from where we stood.  She also told us that there were once 30 plantations owned by British loyalists on Cat Island. Yesterday morning we visited the ruins of the Henry Hawkins Armbrister Great House.  After that we stopped at Olive’s Bakery for some delicious baked goods. Later in the day we went back to shore, hoping to get some tropical conch salad from Duke’s Conch Stand but he was out of pineapple and mango. The supply ships do not run for two weeks over the holidays so it is not usual for supplies to run low this time of year. Duke was able to get the pineapple and mango today so we had our tropical conch salad. It was worth the wait.  This morning we walked up Mount Alvernia to the Hermitage. At 206’ Mount Alvernia is the highest peak in the Bahamas. The Hermitage was designed by Father Jerome—an architect who ...

When we were chatting with the photographer, Yontalay Bowe-Kirkendall, a few days ago we learned that there were some plantation ruins a very short distance from where we stood.  She also told us that there were once 30 plantations owned by British loyalists on Cat Island. Yesterday morning we visited the ruins of the Henry Hawkins Armbrister Great House.  After that we stopped at Olive’s Bakery for some delicious baked goods. Later in the day we went back to shore, hoping to get some tropical conch salad from Duke’s Conch Stand but he was out of pineapple and mango. The supply ships do not run for two weeks over the holidays so it is not usual for supplies to run low this time of year. Duke was able to get the pineapple and mango today so we had our tropical conch salad. It was worth the wait.  This morning we walked up Mount Alvernia to the Hermitage. At 206’ Mount Alvernia is the highest peak in the Bahamas. The Hermitage was designed by Father Jerome—an architect who ...

As it turns out, we chose to leave for Cat Island yesterday morning. The conditions were good for sailing but since we now have a problem with our mainsail we motor sailed with just the jib. The lower part of the track that holds the luff (front edge) of the mainsail has widened and chafed so it allows the sail to pop out as it is furling. Until it is replaced the only way to furl the sail is to drop it on the deck then furl it into the boom. We are working on getting that piece replaced.  Early this afternoon we went ashore for a walk and to check out the Cultural Village area where we are anchored in New Bight. We first stopped at a tent where a photographer, Yontalay Bowe-Kirkendall, was selling her products. We had a nice chat with her and bought one of her lovely photos. After walking down the street we decided to stop for ice cream at Lil’ Gippy’s. We will definitely be back.  New Cat Island sign has been installed since we last visited. Very nice. Ursa Minor is seen bet...

Yesterday morning George dropped me off on shore for the Salt Pond/Thompson Bay Farmers Market. I love going to this market and buying home-grown vegetables, local eggs, and home-baked goodies. I was quite pleased with my purchases—collard greens, thyme, arugula, chives, green onions, sapodillas (a local fruit), guavas, coconut cake, coconut tart, pineapple tart, and the tiniest, most delicious tomatoes I have ever eaten. In the afternoon we walked a mile to the liquor store for a small bottle of vodka. It was meant for our laundry, not to drink. I recently finished reading a book called Laundry Love. The author suggests spraying vodka on clothing to remove odors. I thought I might give it a try.  This afternoon we went back to Tiny’s with Dee & Ron and Jean & Michael for a late lunch. Yes, we have been eating out quite a bit but we want to take advantage of the opportunity while we have it.  It looks like we will have a chance to go to Cat Island after all. Now we jus...

The calm, cool weather we have had over the past few days has been delightful. George took advantage of it to polish the stainless on the boat. This morning we loaded the jerry cans in the dinghy and took them to Long Island Petroleum to purchase diesel. Early this afternoon we joined Dee & Ron and Jean & Michael for lunch at a new-to-us restaurant, Dapple Café. Great food and coffee beverages. We will definitely be back. Dapple Café does not have water access so we put the dinghies on the beach at the regatta site and walked the relatively short distance south. After lunch we went back to Long Island Petroleum with two of our now emptied diesel cans and one gas can to buy more fuel. Now we are set for a while.                                                                              ...