january 3 2004 : royal island, bahamas
Happy New Year! I hope everyone is still going strong on those new year’s resolutions. I didn’t make any this year, but my resolution last year was to make sure that we actually made this trip a reality in 2003. I guess I should resolve to cross the Pacific in 2004.

We are now on a mooring in Spanish Wells harbor. After a quick 90 minute motor over from Royal Island. It’s a nice little town, but strange as just about everyone is white with a Bahamian accent. However strangest of all, and I’ll quote the guidebook here, “Generations of isolation have concentrated the gene pool, reflected in prevalent inbred traits…half the island is named Pinder.” And that isn’t an exaggeration.

After we got in we went out to eat and then saw a sign announcing fireworks that night. So we went to watch the fireworks display at the harbor entrance. It wasn’t quite what we were used to at home. They would set up one bunch of fireworks, light it off, it would light up the sky for 5 seconds, and then we would wait 5 minutes for the next set. There was also a group of kids between 6 and 10 years old running around with firecrackers and lighters, and just throwing them wherever they wanted. They were throwing them at people, in boats, in the water, wherever. And all the adults just sat there not saying a word. It was bizarre, these kids were way to young to be playing with lighters, much less using them to light off explosives. But I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting old.

Yesterday we went to the beach, but then suddenly clouds rolled in and we all got soaked by a downpour as we raced back to the boat to shut the hatches. Today we were back at the beach, and again we had to race home to avoid being caught in another downpour. We did get a nice couple of hours there though, and Katy was able to find some shells.

Tomorrow we leave here for Dunmore Town on Harbor Island. This is the trip that we had to hire a guide for. We hired the guy who owns the moorings that we are currently on. He seems like a really nice guy, and he’s been doing this trip for years. The only problem is that he has to meet someone over there at 8 am to lead them back here. So that means we are leaving at 6:30 in the morning. He offered to take us any time today, but we decided to hang out here another night instead. We had talked to another cruiser in Nassau who said he thought he paid $75 for a guide back in 1988, so I was expecting it to cost at least $100. We were happy when he said it was $70. Of course that is one way, maybe the guy I talked to was talking round trip. But I’m sure it’s worth it. Everyone we have talked to has said it is beautiful over there.

january 5 2004 : harbor island, eleuthera, bahamas
Yesterday at 6:15 a.m. our guide showed up to take us through the Devil’s Backbone. He is a really nice guy, about 65 years old I would guess, and has spent his whole life living on Spanish Wells. He gave us a lot of local insight and even brought us a fresh baked loaf of bread from his wife. Anyway, we motored over very uneventfully, and by eight we were anchored off Dunmore Town on Harbor Island.

This is a great little town, full of beautiful houses, lots of shops, and quite a few restaurants. But best of all is the beach on the other side of the island. It’s the best beach yet. It must be 100 yards wide and 3 miles long. And the sand is pink. Not quite as pink as I expected from reading the guidebooks, but pink nonetheless. We went swimming, had a couple drinks at the beach bar, and went to bed early.

Today we walked around the entire town, checking out a lot of the shops. Ali has been searching for a toilet paper holder. So when she found some local ladies handmade straw baskets that were the perfect size she had to buy them. We didn’t tell the nice lady what they would be used for however.

We then went back to the beach and laid out for a couple hours and went swimming. Then on the way back to the boat we stopped at one of the little take-away shacks. These are just tiny (10′ square) shacks that are the Bahamian equivalent of a fast food restaurant. They usually serve burgers, chicken, conch, and fish. We got dinner and took it back to the boat.

january 6 2004 : harbor island, eleuthera, bahamas
Just another day in Dunmore Town. This morning we went out for breakfast, stopped at the grocery store, where Katy bought some more Mountain Dew. She is still willing to pay the $1 per can for her caffeine fix. We went to the beach again. Went to the take-away shack for dinner again. Yikes, it didn’t take us long to fall into a routine did it? It was 89 degrees today. It’s hard to remember it’s only January.

january 8 2004 : royal island, bahamas
Well we are back at Royal Island. What a day. We decided to transit the Devil’s Backbone without a guide. We had the route marked on the computer charts from the ride over. So why pay a guide again right? Well to start with the wind was 25 knots and it was cold (like 70 degrees). We got out to the Backbone and that was as nervous as I’ve been on our boat. The waves were rolling in about 6 feet tall and we had to hug the coastline. I mean hug it. Like 100 feet out from the rocks lining the shore. If we had lost an engine we would have been wrecked in a hurry. But with one eye glued to the computer, the other watching the instruments and my hands constantly tweaking the autopilot, we made it. No problem. Next time maybe I’ll try it in the dark with no charts.

While I was doing all this, Katy was laying in bed reading a book and Ali didn’t even seem concerned. Either they didn’t realize how crazy that trip was or they just trust me. I’m leaning towards the first one.

After we got through Spanish Wells the wind calmed to a nice 15 knot breeze and we were able to sail the last 6 miles into Royal Island. It’s a little chilly today with a NE wind so I am working on some small projects around the boat. We have one bilge that has two tiny screw holes that go right through the boat into the keel. So they leak a little bit all the time. I have been trying to get them filled in with epoxy for months with no luck. So what was my solution today? More epoxy. I think I might have it this time.

Then there was a bilge pump switch on the other side that wasn’t working so I replaced that. And we also have no fuel gauge on our tanks. I’m not sure what they were thinking on that one. So today I rigged up a couple lines that I can pull out of the top of the tank to see how much diesel we have left. Think knowing how much gas you have might come in handy sometime. We’re hoping to head back to Nassau tomorrow. Katy flies out on Sunday afternoon so we need to get her back.

january 10 2004 : nassau, new providence, bahamas
We are back in Nassau. For a couple days anyway. We left Royal Island yesterday morning at 7 without a breath of wind. The ocean was smooth as can be and about a mile out from the island I saw my first shark. He looked about as big as me and just ghosted right on by the boat. I have no idea what kind he was, and would probably jump right in the water to take a picture of some man eater without even knowing it. Eventually the wind came up to about 7 knots. Enough to at least throw up the screecher and motorsail the rest of the day. It was 81 degrees and a smooth ride all the way over.

We finally got to Nassau around three and headed straight for the fuel dock. While I was filling up Ali ran over to the Yacht Haven to see if they had any slips available. They gave us one and I motored in only to find that the spot was only about 15 feet wide and we have a 21 foot beam. So while I was idling in the middle of the marina the manager of the marina happened to be having a drink onboard one of the boats nearby and she pointed us to a spot that would be open for a few days while the owner was out fishing. So once again we are tucked safely into the marina. We ended the day by going out for steaks at the Outback Steakhouse. I felt like I was sitting in a restaurant in any suburb in the States. But it was delicious and a great way to celebrate a couple nice weeks of island hopping.

This morning we ran some errands. I went to the marine store to get still more fishing gear. Ali says no more after this. I also bought a couple parts we needed for some small fixes on the boat. Then we went to the hardware store for screws and walked out with a bag full of Tupperware. Last trip was to the grocery store. $200 poorer we are ready to be self-sufficient for a while.

In the afternoon we played tourist and went to see a few of the sights of Nassau. We visited the Queen’s Staircase, cut out of solid limestone by slaves in the 1790s. Up at the top was a water tower built in 1928 to provide water pressure for the island. We climbed to the top where you could see nearly the entire island. At the bottom of the water tower was Fort Fincastle. This is a tiny fort built in 1793 to protect the town. It was never really used but it still has some cannons for you to check out. All this history cost us 50 cents. And today I present it to you free of charge. Back at the boat right now we are contemplating Domino’s pizza for dinner. There is no cooking when in a marina.

january 13 2004 : allan’s cay, exumas, bahamas
Well today was a day of ups and downs. We left the marina this morning at 7:30 without crashing into the docks or another boat. That was an up. We lifted the sails as soon as we got out of the harbor and had a nice breeze at 10-15 knots. Up. We saw dolphins again. They swam across in front of us and then surfaced a few times along side of us before taking off. Another up.

I had the trolling lines out and Ali and I were laying up in the sun at the front of the boat. As I saw us sail across a rocky shallow area I got up and started walking to the back of the boat. Ali asked where I was going and I told her I was sure we caught a fish. Just as I got to the back of the boat one of the lines jerked tight. I reeled him in and found a nice Yellowtail Snapper. At least that is what we thought it was after looking through our fish i.d. book. Score another up for me.

Then the wind suddenly gusted to 25 knots and we had to get the screecher sail furled in. It didn’t roll up very well though and after we had put up the other sails it suddenly got loose at the top of the roller furling. It was flapping around like crazy and it took us a few tries and a lot of yelling to finally get it back under control and rolled up tight. That was the first down.

Around 2:30 we finally got to Allan’s Cay. We got here and found about a dozen other boats and not many places left to anchor. So as we motored around looking for a good spot Ali suddenly asked how deep it was. I looked down to find it was at 3.5 feet. Exactly how deep we are! I tried to turn us back to deeper water but it was too late. The depth rose up more and we were aground for the first time. It was pure soft sand so there was no need to panic. The only real danger was from the waves picking us up and dropping us back on the ground.  It sounded terrible on the boat. So I immediately jumped in with my mask and could see we were only about 3 feet away from deeper water. Ali dropped the anchor down to me and I walked it out about 50 feet into water about 5 feet deep. She then cranked in the anchor with the electric windlass. Within seconds we were free and floating again. That was pretty stupid of us as it was clearly marked on the chart. Another downer on the day.

We eventually got anchored and it was time to cook dinner. Ali got the filets out of the freezer to find they were frozen solid. The freezer in the fridge never gets that cold so we were both surprised by that one. Without a microwave we had to find another way to defrost them. We tried to put the bag of filets in a pot of boiling water. Unfortunately all this did was semi cook the outside ball of filets and leave the rest of it frozen together. Now our fish was looking really gross and slimy. We couldn’t eat it now. That’s our 3rd down in a row.

So now looking back at the day I see that we have four ups and three downs. How about that, we still came out ahead on the day. Another bonus for me was that Ali was impressed that I knew how to get us off the sand; and we did it in about two minutes. She was envisioning us having to ask all the other boats in the anchorage to come pull us off.

This picture is from January 2003; that’s our car under the cover outside our Chicago condo. What a difference a year makes.

january 14 2004 : allan’s cay
Spent the day exploring Allan’s Cay. This island is crawling with iguanas. The iguanas are an endangered species but appear to be doing very well thanks to the two tour boats per day that show up loaded with tourists and fruit to feed them. We didn’t have any fruit so we fed them Saltine crackers. They seemed to enjoy the change in their diet.

We also moved the boat about 200 yards to Southwest Allan’s Cay. It’s a great spot in calm weather because only one boat can fit in here, unlike the other anchorage that currently has 14 boats anchored in it. This morning one boat hit another while they were trying to raise their anchor. No damage but I was glad to move.

january 17 2004 : allan’s cay
The days are flying past while we sit at anchor here at Allan’s Cay. We have such a nice peaceful anchorage all to ourselves that we are finding it hard to come up with any reason to leave. In the picture of Ali feeding the iguana’s you can see a little bay behind her. That is the place we moved to on our second day here. Since then there has been virtually no wind but plenty of sun. We have fed the iguanas over on our island about two loafs of bread. They seemed to like that, since when I cut some of the fruit that is hanging on the trees on the island they just seemed to ignore it. I don’t know what kind of fruit it is. It looks like a lime on the outside, but inside it looks more like a dried up orange.

Yesterday we had a visit from one of the local birds. He flew over to the boat and soon Ali was feeding him and giving him a bowl of water. He spent the entire afternoon sitting nestled in one of our lines just a few feet away from us. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come back for more today.

january 20 2004 : norman’s cay, exumas, bahamas
We ended up staying at Allan’s Cay another day. A couple nights ago we went to bed in complete calm. There was no wind at all, so we were just drifting around in circles. Suddenly at 6 a.m. Ali wakes me up and says, “I think we’re moving!” I jumped out of bed into the cockpit and sure enough we are dragging fast. We were literally 10 yards from the rocks when we got the engines fired up and pulled away while bringing the anchor up. Scary stuff. Especially when you are still trying to shake off being in a state of sleep.

We then couldn’t get the anchor to reset and had to wait for a half an hour for the sky to lighten up. We eventually got anchored again and I even put out a second anchor Bahamian moore style. We figured what happened is that during the night while we were just drifting around in circles the chain must have gotten wrapped up around the anchor. Then when the wind picked up in the morning (only to 15 knots) the chain must have pulled the anchor right out of the sand. So anyway, once again we avert disaster. And by the way, the little bird did show up the next day for breakfast. However around lunchtime he started bringing friends over with him. Eventually there were four of them crapping all over the place and we had to shooo them away.

Yesterday we left for Norman’s Cay. It was only about 12 miles but was right into the wind, so we motored. We arrived at Norman’s Pond which is a large bay that only has one tiny little entrance at one end. You have to come in between two rocks which are 50 feet apart. Then you have to try to find the one narrow little deep spot that you can get across to get into the deeper bay. We came in about two hours before high tide so the water was about a foot low still. We poked the front of the boat into a couple spots that looked like they were probably the entrance channel but with no luck. We kept running it up on the sand and having to back off it in a hurry. So we decided to go back outside the rocks and wait a couple hours for high tide to try again.

When we got out there a powerboat anchored nearby called us on the VHF. He said he got his friend through earlier and that his friend was going to come back out at high tide in his dinghy to lead him through the channel. I asked if he would mind if we followed him through and he said sure. So a couple hours later his friend comes out and everybody gets ready. They go between the rocks and when we get through the rocks we see his friend is standing in the water up to his shoulders with his dinghy anchored about 30 feet away in presumably deep water also. He is waving for us to go right between him and the dinghy. The powerboat went through first and we could see that he was scraping along the bottom but still going forward. So in we went, and with about a foot to spare we were in. This place is incredible.

There are giant stingrays everywhere. We must have seen 10 of them with wingspans of at least six feet. The anchorage is great, it’s at least 1 1/2 miles long by about 1/2 mile wide. There are only about ten boats in the whole place since not many boats are even shallow enough to get in here. The only problem I see is that MacDuff’s, the only restaurant on the island, is about two miles away by dinghy.

january 23 2004 : norman’s cay
We continue to waste away the days sitting in Norman’s Pond. What an incredible place to do it though. A couple days ago we took the dinghy out to find some more of those stingrays I was talking about. We found them hanging out in 20 feet of water right in the entrance between the rocks into the pond. It turns out they aren’t stingrays they are spotted eagle rays and they are huge. There was one that had a wingspan of at least 8 feet. I swam down near him and stretched out my arms above him and I wasn’t even close to being as wide as he was. And his tail must have been at least 20 feet long. Apparently they used to be hunted, and their tails used as whips, but that practice is gone now.

We finally made it over to MacDuff’s yesterday. It turns out they are only open Thursday to Sunday. It is a great little bar. Lots of t-shirts and bras hanging  on the ceiling, an outdoor bathroom, and great food. Needless to say we were in heaven there. While we sat there drowning our sorrows (or lack thereof) we met a group of young cruisers. They are in their mid-twenties and we became instant friends. All of us commenting on how few cruisers our age are out here. We also met a guy from Canada and his son who were sailing on a 30′ monohull with a friend of theirs. We had a nice chat with them and then gave them a ride back out to their boat. In return they gave us a loaf of bread they had just baked that morning. Score! We are nearly out of bread and have at least a couple weeks before we hit an island with any sort of store on it.

january 28 2004 : norman’s cay
Norman’s Pond still. I know it’s been like ten days now, but we were going to leave. Then the weather changed. Today we loaded everything up and were just waiting for high tide. Then in the last hour or so the wind starting gusting up around 25 knots and we decided it wouldn’t kill us to stay put another day or two. So we haven’t been doing much of anything. Reading books and playing cards. It’s too wavy outside the pond to go snorkeling and MacDuff’s is closed.

january 30 2004 : exuma cays land and sea park, bahamas
We finally got off our butts and got underway. We left yesterday afternoon even though the wind was right on our nose once again. It was supposed to be the same for the next three days so we decided to just get going and motored on down to Warderick Wells Cay about 20 miles south. We got in last night and picked up a mooring ball. That was about the extent of it. This morning we headed ashore. It’s a nice park, they’ve got trails running all over the island. The thing about the Park is that there is no fishing, no taking shells, no garbage, nothing allowed. They are committed to keeping the area pristine, and it looks like they are doing a good job.

Unfortunately, today I was snorkeling, and there were these big grouper just sitting along the bottom. I know I could have speared us a good dinner. The fish probably think they are pretty smart living here. The park is 22 miles long and 7 wide and includes a whole bunch of islands. I’ve heard the penalty for fishing is confiscation of your boat.

I forgot to mention that Ali finally cut my hair a few days ago. Not too bad either, considering the only scissors we have are the ones that came with our cutlery set. Something that we thought of the other day is that according to the itinerary we should be completing our circumnavigation right on our 10 year wedding anniversary. That would be pretty cool huh? At least I could probably get out of buying a gift.

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