Tag: abacos

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Everything We Thought Sailing Would Be

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When we first took off for the Abacos last season, we had some pretty idealized expectations about the color of water (blue), the number of anchorages teeming with friendly young people (many), the weather (warm and perfect), and how many fish we would catch (lots).

We were so positive, in fact, that we took off with hardly any chicken in the fridge, convinced we would be damn near pescatarians with all our inevitable fishing success. (Ok, so maybe this had more to do with the fact that we provisioned at Walmart at 10pm the night before we left the dock and they were out of chicken breasts…. but nevertheless, we were confident in our fishing skills.)

In many ways our expectations were met, but other things weren’t quite up to par – the grassy anchorages were tinted green, not every boat invited us over for a party (and they were always going the opposite way!), lots of storms rolled through week to week, and we were looking pretty sad on the fishing front.

We headed to the Bahamas this year with more realistic expectations. This time we were prepared for cooler temps and rainy days with a metal detector -a new land activity for restless Lindsey so Paul could watch movies on the boat. Yet again, we found ourselves caught by surprise.

It turns out the Exumas are what we were seeing in our sailing dreams! While we are still pretty convinced that the Abacos as a whole are our favorite, our time in the Exumas seemed to be embody what we thought sailing really would be.

I mean, just look at this place:

We had better luck meeting lots of people this year too. Part of this was from storing our boat at Indiantown: Lots of the people we met there were in the Bahamas, and we got to meet up with several them or at a minimum keep up with each others’ experiences through Facebook. In addition to this, it just seemed like there were more young cruisers this year. (FYI, “young” is anyone younger than typical retirement age, but “old” is a mindset and has nothing to do with physical age). We wondered if the Exuma island chain is a more popular destination, but our friends told us even they saw far fewer young people in the Exumas last year. Between YouTube-inspired sailors and those figuring out ways to work remotely (or retire early or temporarily), it appears our numbers are increasing.

I’m sure it helped that we were going the typical cruiser route at the typical cruiser time – lots of boats were heading south to make it to George Town on Great Exuma (the island where Fyre Festival was held, or not held!) in time for the Regatta. We repeatedly found the same anchorages as Holiday and their buddy boat Elixer, finally getting to spend some time with them in Georgetown. We met up with One-O-Six in Nassau, Black Point, Farmers and Georgetown – they are documenting their journey on a YouTube channel How Not To Sail a Boat.  Our friends on Mariposa left George Town just before we got there, but luckily we still crossed paths and shared an anchorage for a night. There were a lot of other boats we didn’t get to meet but chatted with on Instagram as they always seemed to be close by.

We also met a Wisconsin couple who had flown into the Bahamas for vacation. It was fun to bring them out to the boat for dinner on a windy day. They got the “real” experience of wearing foul weather gear and getting splashed in the dinghy!

The loneliness we sometimes felt last year definitely wasn’t there this year!

Cohort at Galliot Cay

And of course, the best part, we got to meet up with Cohort several times. We didn’t exactly “buddy boat” (you’ll never catch Paul doing something with a name like that), but we’d meet up for a few days here and there as we moved down the island chain. They showed us a shrimp-filled cave we had no clue existed; we had many sunset cocktails; we discovered fish are scared of laser pointers (don’t ask); we swam & hiked; we got our first lobsters!

Stefan teaching Lindsey to wake board

Conch – legal sized adult shells have a large flared lip

Speaking of fishing, we did better with that too. Although the Exumas don’t have the large barrier reefs like the Abacos, we had enough luck on the banks to have a few seafood feasts. Triggerfish, conch, lobster, squid – we had quite the variety!

Fish, crab, lobster – Miss Fe and Cohort clean up!!
Squid – our night fishing surprise! Super cool critters and a very sustainable fishery
Squid = calamari pasta

The weather was, for the most part, incredible. Unlike the Abacos’ weekly thunderstorms, we had  mostly blue skies, and when the wind did come in, no storms accompanied it. The sunset on Valentine’s Day was the most incredible we’d ever seen.

Valentine’s View from Ty’s Sunset Grill

We had nights of pure calm where we’d turn on the deck lights to illuminate the water and go night swimming in our very own “swimming pool.”

There was one night when the wind shifted to the north but the waves came from the west, which meant that our normally still-as-can-be boat rocked back and forth all night. We could have moved next to Little Farmers Cay for western protection, but we’re pretty stubborn at 10:00 pm… and midnight… and 2:00 am…. so we suffered through it, stuffing our separate berths with pillows to prevent our bodies from rolling. But that night was definitely the exception. I can tell you that the cloudy day metal detector never got used.

Farmers Cay Yacht Club
Exploring a wreck

We enjoyed many new experiences in this part of the island chain.

We met J.R. the woodcarver on Little Farmers Cay. I think you can tell from the pictures that I was pretty excited to find some art I really liked. He gave us a tour of his property,  its many edible plants and fruits, and his small carving shop. Has been a woodcarver for over 50 years and has traveled all over the world doing promotions for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. He uses no electric tools and said a carving like the one I bought takes him 3-4 hours.

We cruised by lots of celebrity-owned private islands. Musha and Rudder Cays are owned by David Copperfield. We swam to the sunken mermaid statue. I had lots of great photo ideas, but the current was ripping when we got there, so these are the best we got! Of note, my free diving has greatly improved. Last year I could barely get 5 feet under water, but I’m up to at least 15 now!

David Copperfield’s Musha Cay

This area seemed to have some of the clearest, bluest water in all of the Bahamas. As we took the dinghy from Rudder Cay to Darby Island, looking down upon the coral, stingrays, and grass was like looking through glass.

View of fish from above water

Our reason for going to Darby was to scope out its “Nazi” history – according to folklore, the island’s former owner was a Nazi sympathizer who signaled to U-boats and carved out places for them to hide. We had to go see this “U-boat trench.” This is also where we would have the most dangerous moment of our trip.

We had grand plans of a lovely sunset hike on the island, but we immediately noticed the horrendous and aggressive swarms of mosquitoes and no-see-ums when we tied our dinghy alongside the concrete dock. We dove into the water, but we knew this would be a quick swim since the bugs were following us, waiting to attack as soon as we surfaced!

Eagle ray in the U-boat trench

It was easy to see why it’s suspected that U-boats parked here. The dock has underwater stairs and this narrow waterway between two islands suddenly plunges very deep and does appear to be man-made.  A stingray was buried on the bottom and an eagle ray glided by us.

Paul swam to the other side of the trench and then headed back towards the dock. Just as he reached the dock, we heard a noise, but we couldn’t see where it was coming from. Suddenly, from around the corner, two large, speeding powerboats carrying the models and photographers from a photoshoot on Rudder Cay blasted by us. I shot my hand up to make sure they saw us, which they did, but they didn’t slow down. We prepared to swim over their huge wakes and watched our dinghy bash into shore. When looking at the map for this area, it looked very shallow beyond the trench, so I didn’t expect boat traffic.  If I had known, we would have left the dinghy in the channel to warn boats we were there. We were a little shaken up from the fact that 30 seconds earlier, Paul would have been swimming right in the path of these boats, so we hopped back into the dinghy and zoomed away from the swarms of bugs back to the safety of Miss Fe.

 

Lee Stocking was one of our favorite stops even though Paul, fisheries biologist at heart, found it sad to see the closed down buildings of what was one of the nicest marine research facilities he’d ever seen. The caretakers said we could roam around, and the place was beautiful. There is a hike across the old airstrip and along the edge of the cliff to the highest point in the Exumas. It felt great to really stretch our legs!

Walking the Lee Stocking airstrip

Paul mourning the loss of these aquaculture ponds

Nearby on Normans Pond Cay is a cave with an entrance that is like a deep blue swimming pool and Leaf Cay is home to many pink iguanas – I thought maybe the iguanas were a joke until I saw them!

Norman’s Pond cave entrance

We had our first experience with someone anchoring way too close to us, and it was in a spot where the uneven current ensured the boats would not swing in sync. When it was undeniable that our boats were drifting closer together, we asked them to move since they had arrived after us. First the guy denied that there was a problem, but then he agreed with me that the current was not moving our boats the same way – yet he promptly disappeared back inside his boat after acknowledging the problem! We decided to be “the bigger person” and moved a half mile away where we had 6 white sand beaches all to ourselves.

Real-life objects are closer than they appear
A cool rock near our solitary anchorage

We worked swimming into our daily routine. Last year there were a lot of no-rinse baths when the evenings got chilly, but this year, come 5:00 pm we’d dinghy over to a beach, soap up, wash our hair, swim and talk until our feet were prunes, and then head back to the boat for an on-deck solar shower fresh water rinse. Is it weird that this was one of our favorite things of boat life?

And of course, we saw lots of cool aquatic creatures:

Anybody know what this is?
First live king’s helmet conch we ever saw

Just look at those adorable eyes
Cool black and white fish
Octopus!!

Can you spot the skate (or ray of some sort) and sea cucumber?

All of this added up made me realize that the trip had really started to meet more of our original expectations. I’m not saying it was perfect. Cooking and cleaning in a small space takes way too much time. We spend too much time sitting with movies and shows on the computer. I shed like a dog washing my hair in salt water (though my hair became awesomely wavy and not frizzy). We can never agree on a consistent bedtime. Sometimes, I’d wish for a normal bed with a nightstand. Or a normal flushing toilet. (Check out our friends’ the Litzenbergers’ podcast on boredom on boats for a reality check.) But overall, the Exumas lived up to the “paradise” we thought they might be.

 

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Last 3 Weeks in Paradise: 25 Bahamas Experiences

Disclaimer: Since it is hurricane season, we wanted to clarify that our boat is safely stored at an inland marina in Florida. This post covers our Bahamas adventures back in May. We’ll update you on the current situation soon!

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After leaving Grand Cay in March, most of our travel decisions were based on the idea of revisiting that particular island.  It is a jump-off point for scuba diving at Walkers Cay, which is supposed to be one of the best dive sites in the Bahamas. We’d provision and start to head north, only to realize we weren’t going to get a clear enough stretch of weather to make us feel good about venturing back into the more remote, less protected northern Abacos.

Once again, we were facing a nasty forecast in 3-6 days, so we decided we’d head south to provision in Marsh Harbour and then attempt to make it to Grand Cay. Ah, the sailing life – where it’s normal to turn grocery shopping into a multi-day adventure.

Spoiler alert: We never made it to Grand Cay! However these few weeks were the best of the trip. Here are 25 experiences from those weeks (in generally chronological order):

  1. We tried our Monitor windvane for the first time ever.  Can we say – WOW!
    The Monitor at work behind Paul

    The windvane is essentially an autopilot – it’s a wing on the back of the boat that you angle into the wind and connect to the steering wheel, and it steers for you. People told us we would love it, but really, wow! Normally this would be used in open sea to allow you to focus on tasks other than steering or to just take a break, but we continued to watch our course carefully and frequently adjusted the windvane since we were in a narrow area. It was just so cool to see it working!

  2. We had the most gorgeous day of sailing.  It was the only time in the Bahamas that we put up both foresails. Weather was sunny and beautiful. The water was paradise blue.

    This photo is from the day before…. only 1 sail up then haha

    We sailed at 5+ knots the whole time. The swell across Whale Channel was perfectly timed for a comfortable ride. It was a great reminder why having a sailboat is amazing!

  3. Dolphins escorted us into the Marsh Harbour anchorage. They were a mama and baby pair, and they played in the bow. We’ve had so few dolphin sightings in the Bahamas compared to the US! We also saw sea turtles and a nurse shark in the anchorage.

    Nurse shark
  4. We realized it’s a small world after all. We ran into a catamaran from Bass Lake, CA, a town near Paul’s hometown. We drove up to them in our dinghy, and it turns out they know a lot of people that Paul and his family also know.

    These snails agree its a small world!
  5. I tried to watch sunset and instead saw a big fat waterspout. That one disappeared before I could get the camera, but a second, skinnier one formed on the horizon – not nearby thankfully! We’d met the couple who owns the powerboat in this picture earlier that day, so I emailed them the photo. Their response: “Holy shit!”

    Left side of photo… the skinny water spout below the clouds
  6. We dined with cool cats at the full moon party at Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarters. We were greeted at the dock by one of their many bar cats.
    The welcome committee at Cracker P’s on Lubbers Quarters

    We got there before the crowds, when they were still making frozen drinks, and they were SO GOOD (not sure how much alcohol was in them but yummm). It was $25 for an all-you-can-eat-buffet that they kept refilling for hours and hours. By Bahamas standards, that is not an expensive restaurant meal and it was actually REALLY tasty – the chicken was excellent; the grouper and pork were good; the coconut conch was interesting.  Beer was overpriced, but otherwise this was one of our best meals out in the islands. The place has a little beach and paddleboards, so it would be fun to check out during the day next time.

  7. We accidentally attended another full moon party.
    Noticing some movement on the beach at our Mystery Island X anchorage, we got out the binoculars (are we creepy?) and saw several people building a beach fire. We were tired, but we decided to eat dinner and then drag ourselves to the beach after we saw what we thought was fire dancing…. which turned out to be a light-up hula hoop that I was required to use as initiation into the party.  There was singing and guitar playing and people from Chicago who had literally planned their Bahamas charter around attending this full moon party because they loved it last time they were here…. 12 years ago. Attending this fire ended up being the best idea because…
  8. We made friends who weren’t on the move! At the party, we met S & J, two experienced travelers and sailors who had been staying at this anchorage long term. As soon as J invited Paul to go spearfishing, I knew we’d be staying here a while, no matter how long Paul had to wait out the weather! In addition, we got to know the island’s residents who hosted the bonfire, and they were incredibly interesting and generous people – these are people who bought raw land and built it into a truly magical destination over the course of decades, with materials, groceries, and supplies they could bring in only by boat.
    Many people stop at this island to go walking, so there was always someone to talk to if you were hanging out on the beach. We met a lot of Canadians, including a family of 4 on a boat around the size of ours. They were homeschooling for a year while giving their daughters the adventure of a lifetime. The weeks were filled with dinners on boats, birthday celebrations, and more bonfires. Especially with S & J around, we got to experience the sense of community we really missed since we’d left the dock at Pineapple’s. We’re really so grateful to them for hanging out, showing us around, and tolerating all the times we yelled “ahoy” into their boat while S was on the phone!
  9. We swam with the “tame” sharks and rays. S told us about a spot where the tour boats feed the sharks and rays.
    One common activity is to put squid between your toes and let the rays suck it out. We didn’t try this!
    No one was feeding the animals when we arrived, so Paul put on his snorkel and headed in, while I stood in the shallow water trying to work up some courage while also keeping a close eye on the rays and sharks (lemons, reef, and nurse) that ventured in looking for tasty treats.
    Eventually, after seeing Paul not get eaten, I went in too. We tried to get cool pictures but the sharks were way too timid to pose for photos. I acknowledge calling them “tame” is a joke and there might be some stupidity in swimming where the animals are used to being fed, but like I said, there was no active feeding going on and unlike this woman who got bit by a nurse shark, I kept my arms to myself and my eyes open!

  10. We watched our boat neighbors battle a shark big enough to keep us out of the water. There was a big boat  anchored next to us a few days, and we later learned they were filming a pilot for an Amazon TV show (gotta get that boat tax write-off somehow, right?). We watched as one guy caught something huge on his fishing rod – he fought it for half an hour while people on the boat hooted and hollered and filmed whatever he was valiantly trying to reel in. After he gave up and caught the line, we took the dinghy by and shouted, “What did you have on the line!?”  He yelled back, “A 10-foot tiger shark!” We didn’t take any sunset swims after that.
  11. No-see-ums are way worse than mosquitoes. All of a sudden, it got warm enough for the bugs to come out in full force. We discovered this when a walk through the woods turned into a race to the beach as we tried to outrun the mosquitoes. Little did we understand that the no-see-ums would be the true enemy. For a week I’d wake up in the middle of the night as the little itchy bumps would suddenly fire up again. The boats in the anchorage kept moving farther out to sea, as they tried to find a spot far enough from the island that the mosquitoes wouldn’t come for dinner.
  12. We got to do some sweet scuba diving! Island X’s reefs are beautiful and full of little caves.
    Paul and I went diving on a rare calm day and spotted a magnificently huge elkhorn coral. J and I went the next day – he took me through some little caves and swim-throughs, where we saw a giant urchin, a moral eel, a big lobster, good-sized trigger fish, and a shark egg.

    Shark egg?

  13. The slipper lobster reared its ugly head. Have you ever heard of a slipper lobster? Neither had we. But they’re so ugly that they’re cute. And they taste good too.
  14. Bohnanza turned out to the be the world’s best card game. I’m not even joking. You get to be vicious and sneaky, but only if you want. Throw in a waterfront cabin and mojitos made with limes and mint straight out of the garden, and you pretty much have the best night ever.
  15. We discovered foods we’d never heard of. We met some folks kind enough to share from their garden. When going to the grocery store presents you with soggy potatoes, soggy onions, and broccoli, being gifted fresh food is like being given $1000, and we are forever grateful.
    And to see the  amount of hard work and love that these people put into their garden was pretty amazing. In our tour of the place, we discovered fruits we never heard of, such as the sour orange, surinam cherry and the chocolate pudding fruit! J kept insisting that 1 of every 7 surinam cherries is sweet and delicious instead of bitter. I ate like 30 of them and haven’t found the sweet one yet!
  16. We went land crabbing! J rolled up to our boat one day and asked if we wanted to go crabbing. Imagining this to include a trap being dropped in the water, I asked, “What does it involve?” He answered, “A canvas bag, long pants, long sleeves, flash lights, and bug spray… oh, and lots of rum. We’ll pick you up after sunset.”  When I told Paul, he said, “Oooooh, we must be going land crabbing!” I had no idea this was even a thing.land crab Abacos Bahamas
    On our ride to the scene of this activity, S & J gave us instruction on how to step lightly on the crabs’ heads and grab them behind the claws. Next thing we knew, we downed some rum and took off running down the trails, flashlights in hand. Soon enough, we’re busting through brush and diving into holes grabbing crab after crab, throwing them into bags and buckets…. and re-capturing the ones that managed to escape! The rum is an essential part of this because you have to give the grabs some sort of advantage.After caging and feeding the crabs for a few days to “clean them out,” a feast was had. I think we cooked something like 10 crabs for 11 people – those suckers are huge!

    I make ridiculous faces when handling crabs.
  17. Bioluminescence lit up our world. Have you ever seen a fancy power boat with decorative blue lights under the stern? That’s what bioluminescence looks like. Microorganisms in the water produce light when disturbed. We’d just barely seen this before in Puerto Rico and Florida, but then it was like a little green glitter in the water. Here it was like having a blue flashlight under water. We drove the dinghy in circles to make it glow. I would entertain myself endlessly by leaning over the boat and bouncing fenders in the water, watching the it light up and giggling. We couldn’t get the camera settings right to capture it in a photo, but google it and you’ll get the idea. We thought it would be so cool to swim with our bodies glowing, but then we’d start thinking about that tiger shark….
  18. Paul learned the art of spearfishing…. and shark fighting. When the weather finally settled, Paul went spearfishing with J. J knows the reef like the back of his hand, will chase fish into deep holes, and can hold his breath for several minutes, so Paul went truly as the student.In the Bahamas, you aren’t allowed to spearfish with scuba equipment, so you must hold your breath as long as it takes you to find, spear, and retrieve the fish. Paul’s spear is a pole attached to a giant rubber band. You pull the pole back to use the power of the band to launch the spear, but the band stays around your wrist so you don’t lose it.
    Problem number one – sometimes the fish fight back! Paul shot a fish, but before he could grab the end of the spear, the fish started to swim away, loading up the tension on the rubber band. The fish broke free and – “pop!” – launched the dull end of the spear right back into Paul’s chest. He recoiled, resisting the urge to gasp while 20 feet underwater.  Luckily, his only real injury was a bruise that lasted a week.Problem number two – the sharks know where J hunts. As soon as they hopped out of the dinghy into the water, the reef sharks were there, waiting for the spearing to begin. Normal protocol would be that if one person spears something, the other person acts as shark lookout/defense as you work to get the fish back to the boat. When Paul got a fish, he looked for J to signal it was time to roll, but he noticed that J had just speared a fish too!
    With 2 flailing, bleeding fish, they surfaced, trying to hold the fish out of the water as they swam for the boat, which now somehow seemed to be 100 yards away. The sharks were in hot pursuit, and the guys were ready to give them a good whack if they got within arms distance (don’t worry, they’re tough and wouldn’t be harmed). Though the sharks get close, J said they’re typical behavior is to look at you like, “What? You’re not a fish!” and then to swim off to the spot where the fish was originally speared.Trying to imagine what this is like? Here’s a picture from someone with a very similar experience:

    Sorry Joe, I stole your photo cause it’s just too cool
  19. Paul never looks happier than when he’s been fishing. :::love:::


  20. Nature is so freaking awesome. And sometimes you just don’t have the camera ready. Paul tossed a scrap of fish off Miss Fe into the water. Instantly, a shark darted out from under our boat and grabbed the fish – then a barracuda larger than the shark came out and stole the fish from the shark!
  21. We enjoyed the view from Foxtown. This little town on Abaco wasn’t originally in our list of places to visit, but as we made our way back towards West End to depart for the US, it offered us protection from easterly winds. The view from here, with all the rocks, made us feel like we were suddenly in a different country. And from the tall town docks (where the water is quite shallow, so dinghies only), we could see the sharks waiting for the fisherman to drop their scraps.
    Sharks and more sharks

  22. Bahamians don’t approve of Paul’s beer choices. Food was surprisingly affordable in Foxtown at Da Valley Restaurant – and holy crap the fried food platter was the best we’d had. And beers were $4, except for one called Bushcrack, which was only $3. Curious, Paul ordered a Bushcrack and the patron at the bar says to the bartender, “Did you warn him?!” Paul didn’t understand what the fuss was about though – it tasted light but still had 5.7% ABV. Plus the name is just funny.

  23. No boat repairs! They say cruising is just fixing your boat in exotic places, but after leaving Florida, we were fortunate to have no real problems. Here we were, 2.5 months in the Bahamas, and the only thing we were doing was splicing a bad section of our jib sheet. It probably could have made the trip home, but we didn’t want to risk it since we wanted to head back to Florida with some actual wind so that it wouldn’t take 19 hours (unlike when we came to the Bahamas).While we were splicing , I pulled up the charts and realized we were still 2 days journey from West End, not one day. We’d gotten so spoiled in the populated part of the Abacos that we’d forgotten that not everything else was just a 10-20 mile hop.
  24. We practiced our “rough weather” sailing. OK, I suppose it wasn’t actually rough weather in the mind of most cruising sailors, but it’s not a day the recreational folks would normally pick for “fun.” We had around 15 knots of wind and 3-4 foot waves as we headed from Foxtown to Great Sale Cay. There is no cell reception in Great  Sale, so the other boats were all over the radio discussing weather and Gulf Stream crossing plans. Despite the rough seas there were several boats who had just come from the US. The next day, en route to West End, the wind and waves had calmed down on Little Bahama Bank, but the waves were annoyingly choppy – I was fine with this as I still wanted to get used to rougher waters before we crossed. Paul even sailed through narrow pass near West End, and we had a big dolphin swim through our bow wake to say “farewell.”
    Checking the weather

    Once we were within range of cell phone service once again, we checked the weather again. Chris Parker’s forecast showed more intense conditions than previously predicted for Sunday night into Monday (we planned to cross Monday morning) – he now recommended crossing only for “Salty Sailors” with 5-6 foot waves and winds 14-19 knots, gusting to 24. This was about 5 knots and 1-2 feet more than we were hoping for. We debated waiting. We debated changing our haul-out date in Florida (a schedule is the enemy of sailors). We decided to wait a few more days. Then we questioned our decision. We researched some more forecasts. We consulted with J; he said we’d be fine.As we headed to the West End anchorage, we were exposed to the waves rolling in and they were about 6 feet. Getting to experience those waves made me feel better – they seemed manageable. We decided to head out Monday morning.

  25. We managed to anchor at West End, but it was hard to sleep as we thought about coming back to the US.
    Crossing the gulf stream
    Way too amped up to sleep – bye bye Bahamas! We’ll be back soon!

    Though we heard other sailors say that West End is “the worst anchorage ever,” we’ve actually had good holding both times we anchored there.  We also tucked back in far enough that we weren’t exposed to those 6 foot waves. The problem is the current. After emailing a float plan to Paul’s dad, calling my parents, and prepping the sails for easy deployment in high winds, we attempted to sleep but the current moved our boat in a crazy pattern all around our anchor and kept shaking the snubber lose. The chain would then start rattling, waking us from whatever almost-sleep we were getting. Add in the anxiety of a big crossing, and we most certainly weren’t asleep until after midnight.

In conclusion, these last few weeks were amazing!! Here a bunch more photos, and stay tuned to hear about our adventure crossing back through the Gulf Stream to Florida!

Little fish swimming through a wrecked barge

Angel fish
Nassau grouper
Huge puffer fish
Our first sighting of the invasive lion fish
Paul trying to kill the invasive lion fish

 

Upper left corner… this fish kept attacking the camera, haha
Heading to Cracker Ps
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The Shark Before the Storm

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Calm weather was predicted – finally! For most of our time in the Bahamas, the Atlantic had pounded the east side of the islands, and therefore the coral reefs, so we hadn’t had the scuba diving opportunities we’d been hoping for. For the next several days, no wind and no waves were expected, so we departed Green Turtle Cay and headed for Moraine Cay. We saw one boat “sailing” that looked like they were sitting still, so we kept the motor running. But even the clang-clang-clang of our motor couldn’t keep us from enjoying the Gatorade-blue water.

Moraine Cay sunset

Moraine Cay is a private island – you can rent a villa there and have it all to yourself! Or you can purchase it for less than $3 million! There is a fair weather anchorage marked on the charts on the southeast side of the island. Even with the ocean laying flat and looking like a swimming pool, our boat still rocked with the slightest motion of the sea. But we were so excited to take advantage of the calm ocean!

Calmest seas in the Bahamas!

We had a big day planned – snorkeling, fishing, and diving. We took the dinghy out to find the reef in the morning – we couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was! The best part of the reef is smack up against the island and its rocks – we explored some of the outer patches but the reef was less stunning the farther out we went. The reef near the island was dense with coral, with lots of pretty sea fans, reef fish, and hogfish in 10-30 ft of water. Paul even spotted a tuna. Visibility was near 100 feet.

Paul snorkeling Moraine Cay reef

We snorkeled for a while, and when we hopped back into the dinghy, I saw a large silhouette pass beneath us. I hung over the edge of the boat and threw my masked face into the water to see – 4 eagle rays were gracefully swimming past! Paul immediately hopped in after them with the camera.

Eagle Rays at Moraine Cay reef

To scuba dive that afternoon, we picked a spot a little further north on the reef. It was only around 20 feet deep, but there were lots of coral heads and crevices to explore. We were greeted by big angelfish. Paul went to face to face with a curious grouper. For nearly an hour we went up, down, and around the coral heads.

Fish swim among the coral heads at Moraine Cay

When we turned around to head back to the dinghy, Paul pointed to something, his hand in a closed fist. Oh crap, I thought, I cannot for the life of me remember what that means. I didn’t see anything in that direction.  I figured we were heading back, so maybe his closed fist was a navigational cue? But the thing was…. Paul kept checking over his shoulder….. and Paul NEVER checks over his shoulder when we’re diving. So nervously, I checked over MY shoulder. Still nothing. Maybe I’m paranoid…. nope, there he goes, looking around again. At this point, I knew what he was looking for, but without confirmation as long as we were under water, I could trick myself into thinking, nahhh, that can’t be it….

“Did you see the shark?” Paul asked as soon as we surfaced, at least 20 minutes later. It was far enough away that he could barely make out its shape, but even at that distance, it looked to be at least 7 feet long and was definitely NOT a nurse shark. The closed fist pointing was a danger signal – oh yeah, now I remember! I requested he hold his hand over his head like a fin to signal shark from now on! “People just don’t realize that every dive is a shark dive!” he exclaimed.

Sea fan at Moraine Cay
Sea fan
Elk horn coral

After that excitement, we took the dinghy out to some other areas for exploration. Eventually we passed into an area that I called conch city! Once we were in less than 10 feet of water, I started to jump in after them. It took us only 20 minutes to limit out. Here’s the thing about conch – they’re just too easy to catch! They poke their cute little snail-like eyes out of the shell, stare at you in fear, tuck the eyes back into their shell and start to run – at a pace of about 2 ft/minute. It just makes me feel guilty!

Private dock at Moraine Cay

The  next morning we did some fishing, but only got a little snapper that we tossed back. We jumped back in for some more amazing snorkeling. Then we took a walk on the island. Unfortunately, the end of the calm weather was coming, so we motored to Allans-Pensacola to tuck in for a few days.

Villa for rent at Moraine Cay
Putting the machete to work!
Paul’s gotten pretty decent at free diving.

On a side note, regarding food in the Bahamas: If those frozen burgers seem unusually and reasonably priced, there is a reason. The reason is that when they say it’s beef with “chicken filler,” they really mean it’s chicken filler with a little beef! They were seriously the grossest burgers I’ve ever tried to stomach. And we bought way too many of them. And with only grocery shopping about every 3 weeks, I knew we had to eat them. They are slightly more tolerable as meatballs than burgers. Just an FYI in case you ever make this mistake too.

Relaxed and not biting my nails… aren’t you proud, mom?!

We spent 5 windy, rainy, stormy days anchored at Allans-Pensacola Cay. We had wanted to explore this uninhabited island more after our short visit early in the trip.

Rainy day boredom = breadmaking

We checked out the maze of trails – the signing tree trail beginning at the “free beer” sign is still the best. We continued our hunt for remnants of the US missile tracking station with some success – we found a set of stairs and what we believe was a radar mount. You can tell it’s been hidden by the brush for a long time because the dates graffitied on it were more than 10 years old.

Matty's Track
One of the many trails – this short one lead to a rocky beach

US military ruins on Allans-Pensacola – and unfortunately the visitor trash dump
Head east from the signing tree – this marks the barely-there path to the ruins
Possibly a radar mount from the US missile tracking station

Two Bahamian guys had towed a big, motor-less powerboat onto the beach. They were camping in it while they conched and fished.  They told us there are at least 2 wells on the island. They let us take a photo with the huge sea turtle skull they found elsewhere on the island.

Sea turtle skull

We met some American powerboaters who invited us to their bonfire that was later cancelled due to rain, so when they were gone the next day, we made our rounds to invite everyone else in the anchorage to “our” bonfire. We had limited success – 3 boats didn’t answer our “ahoys” – but we did get invited aboard one boat by a couple who were only briefly in the Bahamas but the boyfriend had been living on his boat for 18 years. We had some beers and some laughs, but the guy had too much pre-dinner tequila so they didn’t make it to the bonfire.

We were thrilled that another boat did join us on the beach once the fire was lit – the owners were fellow Tennesseans who had just bought their catamaran and had a captain along to help them learn the ropes of their new boat. The captain, who was younger us than us, had worked in Andros and Florida, so she was full of good information about diving in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys. We put out the fire just as the rain was setting in, and we got soaking wet trying to unload the dinghy. My logbook notes about that night say, “Paul was happy and singing rap songs” as we scurried through the rain, so I guess we were having fun!

My other note says, “Paul said the wind howled overnight, but I slept like a baby. Luckily this is a very calm anchorage.” Well, in this case, I spoke too soon….

Watching the next storm roll over Allans-Pensacola Cay

When people express their worries about our trip, it usually involves sharks, or pirates, or the Bermuda triangle. However, my worry has been dragging anchor in the middle of the night during a storm, close to land, and having to be on deck of our metal boat with lightning striking.

After dark the next night, a thunderstorm set in. The wind suddenly picked up over 20 knots and our boat swung rapidly, putting us 180 degrees from where we’d first anchored days earlier. My eyes shot to the chartplotter. The alarm hadn’t even been triggered yet, but I knew: “We’re dragging!” I yelled to Paul. We were only a few hundred feet from the shallows and the boat was quickly picking up speed.

Instantly we sprang into action. Somehow, in the time it took Paul to start the engine, I managed to don shoes and padded gloves and got up on deck, trying to avoid contact with the metal as much as possible. In reality I have no idea if this would really help should lightning strike (Paul insists it wouldn’t do much), but I shouted to Paul to put on some shoes, when I saw that he was already at the helm – wearing only his boxers and sitting directly in a puddle of water on the metal seat.

I ran to the windlass and furiously pumped the handle back and forth, raising the anchor with record speed.  When I saw lightning apparently strike the water miles off, I honestly screamed, “I don’t want to die!”

“The faster you go the sooner we get out of this shit!” Paul yelled back. Once the anchor was up, Paul drove forward, carefully, in pitch black with only the GPS and his memories of where the rocks lay for a guide. Paul aimed for a sandy spot in very shallow water. When there was only a foot of water left under the boat, he gave the command and I dropped the anchor with gusto.  The boat drifted sideways for a nerve-wracking stretch of time until the anchor bit, and then our boat swung into line – and held! It was a miracle – this was our 3rd time anchoring here but the only time the anchor had set on the first attempt.

The “C” shape was our path for several days at anchor. The rest is our path as we popped loose, drove away from the shallows, and reset the anchor.

We looked around the anchorage and could tell by the lights and the crew on deck that some of the 8 other boats were dragging too, but there was no risk of collisions as long as the wind direction stayed relatively steady. We were setting alarms to wake up and check on things, when I saw a message from Other Paul, who was back in Florida. Florida had  just been hit with 35 knot winds and boat-damaging waterspouts, and it was heading our way.

My adrenaline was still kicking from resetting the anchor in the storm. Now my mind started racing over what we should do to prepare for dragging again. Paul insisted that I was being overly fearful and there was nothing to prepare because there wasn’t much else we could do besides what we’d already done. To begin with, it was unlikely that we’d drag again. If we did and our anchor wouldn’t reset, we’d either end up aground, hopefully on the sandy beach, or be trying to motor out of the anchorage into the spacious Sea of Abaco. We would not be tossing in our second anchor (Fortress FX- 37), which is what I was asking about, because it would be harder to raise if needed, would risk tangling the other anchor, and stood almost no chance of setting in the grassy bottom. What he said made sense to me, but I could not convince myself that doing nothing was the best plan. What about just in case? It turned into a pretty fierce argument.

Finally, under the principle of having to give a panicked person something to do, Paul told me to ready the anchor as long as I promised not to throw it in the water under any circumstances.  I debated if I should even bother, knowing he said this just to stop the argument. But thinking better safe than sorry I did it anyway, and I tried to think through what other actions I could take to prepare.

I checked the Facebook sailing groups to validate the forecast, and there were rumors that Chris Parker was predicting 40-70 knot winds (46-80 mph – yes land lubbers, Cat 1 hurricane starts at 74 mph). This was crazy! There was nothing but minor thunderstorms in the earlier forecasts (this was also months ago, so it was well before hurricane season if you were wondering). Once I saw that forecast, I knew then I wouldn’t be sleeping.

I stowed some of the sails below so they wouldn’t get shredded in high winds and to reduce windage. I closed the galley and head seacocks to prevent taking on water if the boat  were to end up sideways in the shallows (though Paul later explained that our boat is set up so this wouldn’t be a problem like it is on many other boats).

Ultimately, this was the worst night on the boat – not because of the weather, but because Paul and I will never see eye-to-eye on what happened that night. We fell from our most glorious moment of teamwork into the ugliest moments of discord. He saw me as panicked and irrational. I later admitted that I was afraid (of course!) but I felt I was logically thinking through possibilities. I saw him as careless while he felt he had thought through the facts and had the most realistic plan.

In Paul’s defense he remained calm throughout the night. Actually, I think he slept a little too well. In later discussions he said simply, “We weren’t prepared for hurricane force winds and there was nothing we could do in that anchorage that we hadn’t already done to be prepared for that”.

Paul’s take on the situation was this:

It was a sort of checkmate scenario we were staring down. Several boats and shallow waters made making our way out of the anchorage in the dark highly risky at best. Even if we could make it out, there were no other anchorages around that we could navigate into at night offering better protection. Furthermore, our boat doesn’t have the engine power to make headway against 30+, knots severely limiting our options if we did go out into the narrow Sea of Abaco. In reality, we had the anchor dug in hard and deployed with the absolute maximum amount of chain we could deploy without putting ourselves on the beach. If the winds really hit with hurricane forces and our anchor gave out, we probably would have been on the beach before we could do anything about it. I knew that on land we would be wet and miserable but safe. There would be no need for the life raft,  no weeks spent adrift at sea, no treacherous reef to tear us to pieces. Just a sandy beach and knee deep waters to wade through to get to safety. Knowing that if the worst happened we would be safe was enough for me, even if it meant we might lose the boat in the process. It was a freak storm well beyond what forecasts were calling for. We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow we were out of good options and left only with the choice to take the least bad option. 

I stayed awake until 3:30 am, and then I woke up every hour until sunrise, waiting for the winds to come.

Thankfully they never came.

 

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How You Too Can be the Turtle Whisper: Our Guide to Green Turtle Cay

[Google_Maps_WD id=10 map=5]

 

Green turtle cay the Bahamas

After several days at Piggyville, we were excited to head back to our favorite Cay so far – Green Turtle. We had tried to make reservations at Other Yacht Club, the marina associated with Pineapples Bar, because we heard a 40 knot storm might pass through on Monday, but they don’t take reservations. As we approached, we tried to call but there was no response on the radio. We headed into Black Sound anyway and tied up to the end of Other shore Club’s fuel dock. We were told they were out of fuel so the dockmaster Kevin was taking the day off, but Paul found Kevin still nearby.

“Do you want us to move to another part of the dock?” Paul asked him.
Kevin replied, “Do you need electric?”
“No.”
“Do you need water?”
“No.”
“You can stay there as long as you like!”

Sounded good to us! We took the short walk down the dirt road from Pineapples to town to explore a bit more. (Our reviews of the places we’ve gone in are in our guide, below).

Green Turtle Cay the Bahamas
Exploring quaint New Plymouth

At Sundowners that evening, we met up with Other Paul and Jamie. We had a few rounds of beers, talked loudly over Sax Man and the DJ, and inevitably I started dancing. Our friend from our previous visit, Mr. Z, was there with his wife – when she realized who we were, she exclaimed, “Oh, I recognized your husband on the street earlier today, but I thought he was a Conchy Joe!” After my inquisitive look, she explained that means a white Bahamian. I pulled Paul over to tell him his new nickname, which he loved. I then complained to Mrs. Z that Paul doesn’t dance, and she told him she’d teach him – she broke out some Zumba-like moves that he could mimic and it might have been the highlight (for me) of the whole Bahamas experience. Meanwhile, a lady who was bending and twisting every which way without spilling her wine, told me I was “too stiff” and tried to show me some moves. Who knew people were still having such a good time to “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

Who let the dogs out? I did.

Over the next 2 days we became the Turtle Whispers. It turned out Paul and Jamie hadn’t heard about swimming with the turtles, nor had the other people we met on the Pineapples dock – Phil and Marjorie of Tanager and two guys John and Matt who were helping move each other’s boats – so we made multiple trips there so we could show everyone else how cool it was. If you want to have this adventure yourself, all the details are below.

swimming with sea turtles
Coco Bay, Green Turtle Cay
Paul faces off with the hungry turtles at Coco Bay
Lindsey swims with the turtles

We ended up staying in Green Turtle a night or two longer than originally planned. Paul, Jamie, Phil and Marjorie were the first sailors close to our age that we’d met since NC back in November, plus John and Matt were just cool guys, so it was wonderful to actually get to hang out with people for multiple days and not say goodbye within a few minutes or hours of meeting! The first night we were all in Green Turtle was the first time we’d ever put all our new cockpit cushions to use, with 6 people piled in and chatting. I wish I had taken a picture!

Another evening, Tanager hosted dinner, and we stayed up late laughing, contemplating, and story telling. We heard about a boat John and Matt worked on decades ago, but the job ended when someone else used the boat to move drugs. We heard about all the mistakes Phil made his first day on his boat – so many it took him and Marjorie more than an hour to tell the stories as we all laughed hysterically. It’s hard to convey how overdue we were to just hang out with friends. Most of them were heading back to the US soon, so after a few days we said our goodbyes and see-you-next-years. While everyone else was using the calm-as-can-be weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, we readied ourselves for our next remote island adventure.

If you’re thinking of exploring the Bahamas, we highly recommend Green Turtle Cay as a start. Here are our reviews and tips for checking it out.

Our Guide to Green Turtle Cay

How to Get to Green Turtle Cay:

Green Turtle is easy to get to from the US. If you’ve come to the Abacos by boat, you can anchor on the west side of the cay, possibly anchor in White Sound (though it’ll be tight with the moorings), take a mooring or a slip in either White Sound (the northern sound, the more touristy area) or Black Sound (the southern sound, close to town and the local hangouts).

If you’re not a boater, it’s still easy as you can fly into Great Abaco through the airports at either Marsh Harbour or Treasure Cay, then taxi and take a ferry to Green Turtle – the Treasure Cay airport is much closer to the ferry dock. Rather than rewrite the book on this, I’ll point to GTC’s excellent information here.

Coco Bay – Swim with the Turtles

Coco Bay, Green Turtle Cay, the Bahamas
Swim with the turtles at Coco Bay

One of the best parts of Green Turtle! If you need to tie up your dinghy, there is a dock next to the Brendal’s Dive Center dock. We generally adopt a don’t-feed-the-wildlife policy, but if you want to feed the turtles, stop in the Green Turtle Club convenience store (near the fuel pumps) for some squid. Take the narrow road to the right of the convenience store to walk a path behind the GTC. You should see signs for Coco Bay and/or Ocean beach – first sending you left, then a right. When you meet the paved road, turn left. Then take the first path on the right to walk to the docks (if you miss the path, you’ll soon see the water and can climb down over a short wall to get there instead). The first dock if you come to is public if you want to walk out on it.

Turtles in Coco Bay
A remora catches a ride on this sea turtle

The bottom is just sandy here, so try to avoid kicking it up to maintain visibility. Swim out in front of the docks and, unless they recently got a big feeding, the curious turtles should arrive within minutes. We saw up to 3 at a time. Watch your fingers and your toes! They seem to be unsure of the difference between digits and squid. They’ll sneak up behind you and pop out of the water and breathe in your face – they are aggressive little devils!

This is by far one of the most magical experiences of the Bahamas. We’ve seen a lot of sea turtles on the trip, but we can’t imagine there are many places where they are willing to interact with you like this.

Green Turtle Cay the Bahamas Nurse Shark
Nurse shark at the Coco Bay dock

In addition, we saw nurse sharks, lobster, barracuda, needle fish and others swimming around – fun to view from the dock.

Ocean Beach

Incredible shot!

This is the beach on the northeast side of Green Turtle. When we were there, the ocean was really pretty rough and the water was cloudy. But our friends said they had a great time body surfing on the beach, and some had luck spearfishing at the reef that was an easy swim from shore. Careful where you go in, as there are some rocks really close to the beach.

Bita Beach

This is the Atlantic side beach at the bay in the middle of Green Turtle. We didn’t get a chance to spend time here, but we were told it’s a favorite for snorkeling. Honestly, I’m not sure if the good snorkeling is in the actual bay, or at one of the Atlantic access points to the north of the bay. If someone knows, please let us know! Side note: nearer the southern end of the Atlantic-facing beaches our friends found lots of sand dollars in the shallow waters at low tide – the little flat sand dollars, while we saw only the fat “sea biscuit” variety elsewhere.

Green Turtle Club

GTC was the first marina we stayed at in the Bahamas and were pleasantly surprised to find out it’s less than $2/ft. It’s located in White Sound, which is the more resort-ish side of the island, though it’s far from town. A possibly wet dinghy ride or golf cart is need to get to town, unless you can find a ride from a local. Staff is insanely friendly. They have the biggest laundry room we saw on our trip and you can use it even if you’re not a guest there. They have a sweet old bar where the walls are covered in money, and behind the bar there is an air conditioned lounge with leather couches and really nice bathrooms, if you need somewhere to chill down on a hot day. There’s a dining room we didn’t try since we didn’t feel like meeting the dress code. If you’re not sleeping on a boat, there are rooms and homes for rent. Brendal’s Dive Center is right next door for scuba diving, tours and golf cart rentals, plus there is another golf cart rental and a realtor on site.

Bluff House

Beach at Bluff House’s Tranquil Turtle Bar

Bluff House is another White Sound marina at under $2/ft, with restaurant options on both the sound and sea sides. Tranquil Turtle bar is open until dinner time with an excellent beach facing the sea of Abaco, complete with hammocks and chairs, which made this our favorite beach, especially if we hit it on a late afternoon when no one else happened to be around. We didn’t eat at Ballyhoo Bar & Grill, which is open for dinner, but we did walk around the very nice pool and shop area. They also have rooms, cottages, and golf cart rentals.

Fresh Greens

If you’ve spent time outside the cities of the Bahamas, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of trying to buy half decent vegetables – many are frozen during transport and variety is seriously lacking. We  were pretty excited to hear there was a place advertising “fresh greens.” They’re only open for a few hours 2 days a week – Saturday and Tuesday 10am – 1pm if I remember correctly. This hydroponic setup is on the road near Leeward Yacht Club on the Black Sound end of the cay. By dinghy, there is a small sandy patch to the right of Abaco Yacht Services where you can beach and walk to the road, turn left, and take a short walk to the greens. Various greens, peppers, and tomatoes are available. It is $8/lbs – a pound of lettuce fills a big bag, but I certainly wouldn’t want to pay that much for a pound of tomatoes.

Abaco Yacht Services

This Black Sound facility has a boat yard that was very busy when I went over to do laundry. The laundry room here is outside to those not staying here, though they do close about an hour before the marina office closes and there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers. The people I met here tell me there’s a laundry facility in town somewhere near Laure’s Kitchen that is slightly cheaper, but I haven’t yet seen it for myself.

Laure’s Kitchen

Asian food! This place is great for when you’ve tired of standard Bahamian and American fare, and the food is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, since we were there, they’ve announced that they’ve moved to Marsh Harbour, though their Facebook page mentions they still have a food van and deliveries in Green Turtle.

Robertha’s Faith Grocery

There are flyers around town advertising homemade ice cream, but once we reached this grocery store (across the street from Wrecking Tree) we were told the guy who makes the ice cream stopped making it but hasn’t taken down his signs!  Feeling a bit disappointed and maybe even tricked, I instead bought coconut cake to console myself. A little boy standing in the store told me, “You’ll want to eat it right away cause it’s really good!” The kid was right!

Wrecking Tree

Wrecking Tree restaurant

We’ll definitely be going back to this restaurant next year. This was the most flavorful fried grouper and conch we had. Nuff said.

Pineapples Bar / Other Yacht Club

Pineapple’s Bar

Pineapples is down a dirt road from town – the bar is across the water from town while the docks are behd the bar in Black Sound. Nothin’ like having a 10 foot deep pool mere steps from the bar.  During the day you can find both adults and kids hanging out and swimming here. They serve food at the bar (we didn’t try it but saw good reviews online). This place seems to quiet down at night, except for on nights when they have live music.

Toes in the sand at Pineapple’s

If you don’t require fancy accommodations, Other Yacht Club is your best deal at under $1/ft, with a friendly dockmaster and proximity to town.  The restrooms may have cracks in the floor with grass coming through, but they have hot water showers, which is a luxury to us! They don’t take reservations, but just call on the radio when you’re approaching. The entrance to Black Sound is known for being shallow when the tide is down, and we saw as shallow as 5 feet inside the sound even when above mid-tide.

Sundowners

Local favorite Sax Man takes the stage at Sundowners

We love to go here for drinks. It overlooks the sea, with a great view of sunset. With live music or a DJ on the stage, this place attracts both locals and tourists. There is a pool table and other games to play. The food is so-so – it’s bar food and we’ve had pizzas that were both over- and under-cooked, and a friend ate some questionable conch. But we love this place anyway for the atmosphere. We’ve tried but failed multiple times to close this bar down… suffice if to say its open late.

Sunset at Sundowners

2 Shorty’s Take Out

This food stand has the best prices in the Abacos with great quality. Long term residents love them for putting the most conch in their conch fritters. We met one of the owners (two sisters) who was super cool.

Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar

Enjoying the goombay smash at Miss Emily’s

This is the home of the goombay smash, a most famous Bahamian cocktail first served by the current owner’s mother. We haven’t figured out the best time to hit this place – we’ve seen it with a line down the street and when it was nearly empty – so good luck. The original secret recipe is available by the glass or by the gallon, no joke! They have a nice looking dining room in the back part of the bar, but we didn’t try the food.

Inside Miss Emily’s

McIntosh Restaurant & Bakery

We didn’t go inside, but we had a slice of cake from here and it was to die for.  We’ll definitely hit it up next time if that’s any representation of all their other food!

Papa Pete’s Bakery

I only ran in here looking for a loaf of bread  and walked out with coconut bread, which was the only thing in their display cases at the time. However, they advertise some pretty good sounding food including an all-lobster night, and they list a lot of specials on their Facebook page.

Turtle Crawl Cafe

This place , located between 2 Shortys and Sundowners, was nice for a “fresh” cafe style salad, sandwich or wrap. They had recently opened when we arrived and still seemed to be dialing in their menu. They re-open in the evenings to serve dessert and the line for ice cream was out the door when we walked past.

Harvey’s Grill

The restaurant looked nice and we heard good things, but we haven’t made it in yet. They do advertise ice cream, which will be my reason to check it out next time.

Sid’s, Lowe’s and Curry’s Grocery Stores

Curry’s Grocery in New Plymouth is closest to the town docks

The grocery stores have similar items and similar prices. People recommended Sid’s to us for variety and Curry’s for seafood. We didn’t find much difference between them and would recommend if you are doing a big grocery run here to spend some time comparing first (or travel to Marsh Harbour instead). They all seemed to be out of something – particular veggies, meats – at any given time. A lot of people time their shopping for mailboat day to get the best selection, but as one local said, “They always have the same old shit.” Marsh Harbor is only a day sail away with a much better selection quality and prices if you need a lot of groceries.

Plymouth Rock Liquors

The liquor store where you can eat breakfast! We didn’t get to experience the highly recommended morning meal, but you can sit at the bar for drinks and food throughout the day – or unlike in the USA you can take your drinks with you on a walk around town.

Bronze Sculpture Garden, old jail, Albert Lowe museum, library, shops

New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay

We scoped out the busts and sculptures to help us learn about Green Turtle Cay’s history, including the American colonists who came to the Bahamas because they were loyal to the British Crown.

We walked through the old jail just for fun. We didn’t get around to checking out the museum or library, and only briefly stopped in some other shops in town. Paul did find reasonably priced sunglasses in one gift shop and not-so-reasonably priced Cuban cigars in another (cigars were overpriced everywhere we checked). There was a home decor place and a hardware store that we didn’t go inside.

Island Roots Heritage Festival

Royal Bahamas Police Force band performs at the festival

We attended this festival in May with some friends. Near town they set up tents with food and craft vendors plus a stage for music and games. We got to see the Royal Bahamas police band perform, which was cool. We also attended a presentation about the early history of Green Turtle Cay that talked about the days of sponge and pineapple exports, the booming boat building business, the fashionable Victorian ladies who lived here, and the fact that people from Miami used to come to Green Turtle for provisions because it was the easier and closest place to go!

Tired  and a lil buzzed after enjoying town and the festival

There is another festival  called Cheeseburger in Paradise that occurs in July on a nearby unpopulated island. It looks like a ton of fun!

This list doesn’t capture every business available on Green Turtle – there are a few additional marinas, marine services, golf cart rentals, restaurants and shops. With plenty to explore and a much-sought-after islandy vibe, this is our top recommendation for anyone wanting to visit the Abacos.

Don’t worry, I will!
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West End to Allans Pensacola: God’s Swimming Pool

Miss Fe Sailing
Paul and Lindsey in West End Bahamas!

After a good night’s rest, it was up to me as captain to go ashore at Old Bahama Bay resort and clear customs. I also had a side mission to obtain a BTC sim card for our cell phone. Under Bahamas rules, only the captain of the vessel is allowed ashore to clear customs, so this was to be a solo mission. I launched my inflatable NRS kayak and began a rather long paddle to shore. The distance was short, only a few hundred yards, but the current was extremely strong and I was paddling dead against it to avoid being swept out to sea. My trouble was that the closer I got to shore the stronger the current got.

Eventually after a good morning workout, I made it to the beach and put my feet down into baby blue water and soft fluffy pink sand. “Paradise at last!” I thought to myself.  Nobody was on the beach so I walked slowly towards the marina, taking in the beauty of the morning and the accomplishment I had just made. I asked the dockmaster and he quickly pointed me towards the customs building. Lindsey had done our research and I was prepared with:

  • Passports for each person on board.
  • USCG documentation (state registration ok if not documented)
  • Bahamas Customs clearance form which can be found here if needed.
  • Cold hard cash sufficient to cover entry and duty fees. It’s $350 for boats over 35 ft and $150 for boats under 35 ft. Bring at least $350 because we have heard rumors of boats between 30-35 ft being charged $350.

Having my documents in order, I entered a hectic room with half a dozen or so customs officials and numerous fishermen. I smiled and went to the first person that was open. He looked some things over and then left. “Ok..,” I thought. A few minutes later a lady came over and started signing papers and asked me to pay the cashier.  I requested a spearfishing endorsement which is supposed to be free and provided on the cruising permit but she flat out told me no spearfishing (and we’re still not sure why – everyone else we’ve met got theirs). “Bummer,” I thought but at least I was charged only 150 for our documented 33 ft boat which was awesome as I have heard rumors others were charged more. The lady then handed over my cruising permit and said I was good to go.

“Thank you” I said “but don’t you want to stamp the passports?”. She looked at me puzzled for a moment then snatched the papers out of my hand.

“You didn’t see the lady and the other side of the counter first?”  she barked.

“No,” I  replied sheepishly.

“Go see her, and when your passports are stamped you can have your papers back,” she ordered.

Thinking myself a fool for cutting inline I gave my surroundings a good study as I walked over. All the uniforms were the same as best I could tell, there was no sign saying start here, and no line of any kind. How was I supposed to know where to start? Filling out the immigration cards went quickly though. They are the only thing that can’t be filled out in advance as they are carbon copies. With passports stamped I quickly collected my paperwork before anybody changed their minds.

Next I walked into the marina store and asked for a BTC sim card. “Sure,” said the cashier, ringing me up and handing me the card. Then another cashier chimed in and told me I couldn’t have it because they couldn’t sell me the minutes. “Can’t I just buy them off the BTC website?” I asked. “Nope,” was the reply as the card was snatched from me and my money returned. “Yikes, between spearfishing endorsement and sim cards people are kinda picky about making up their own rules around here,” I thought as I pushed the kayak back into the water for a rather quick drift back to Miss Fe.

There isn’t really much in West End worth seeing so we hauled anchor and with no wind in sight motored onto the Little Bahama Bank. The first couple miles were through a somewhat narrow channel but it quickly opened up. The little Bahama Bank is really quite interesting topographically speaking. It’s a rather large area ~50 x ~30 miles, but it’s very shallow, rarely exceeding 20 ft deep. It’s more similar to sailing protected waters of a large bay, like say the Chesapeake, except most of the bank has little to no land bordering it. On a clear calm day in the middle of the bank, you cannot see land in any direction but you can see straight to the bottom as if it were a swimming pool in your backyard. We were in awe. After a while I turned to Lindsey and said “I’ve never seen anything like this; it must be God’s swimming pool”.

Little Bahama Bank
Gods Swimming Pool

It was in fact so clear that we could even see starfish on the bottom as we passed by.

Starfish on little Bahama Bank
Starfish!

It was a rather quiet day as we all sat on different parts of the boat quietly taking in what we had accomplished. The crossing had been tiring, weather and other obstacles were no doubt ahead of us, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the moment we were in and trying to soak up as much of it as possible before it disappeared.

As dusk came we anchored at a small island called Mangrove Cay. It wasn’t very inviting so we payed it little attention. In the morning we pulled out our charts and decided to attempt to get to Walker’s Cay some 20 miles to our north. Walker’s Cay is unique for several reasons. It’s the northernmost island in all of the Bahamas and while once a thriving marina and resort, it now lies in a state of abandonment listed for sale since a hurricane forced its closure in 2004. It was also well known for shark diving and big game fishing.

Little Bahama Bank
Quiet day bound for Walkers Cay

The sail towards Walkers was great. For one thing, it was the first time we had the sails up since NC (2.5 months earlier!). In addition, we had great wind and with the genny up we were regularly making 6-7 knots. We also had some visitors: With no land in sight, a little bird landed on deck to keep Dave company for a while, and we also spotted our first Bahamian dolphin.

Little Bahama Bank Sailing
Dolphin

As we approached the old channel to the abandoned Walkers Cay Marina I had a change of heart. It was narrow, hadn’t been maintained in over a decade and just gave me a bad feeling. With nobody else in love with the looks of it, we diverted over to Grand Cay, just miles to the south, which has become the northernmost settlement in the Bahamas with Walker’s closure. We arrived at Grand Cay in time to bust our the dingy for the first time and take a quick evening trip ashore. We didn’t even bother to bring a camera, thinking we would be back the next day. We (well, Lindsey and I) had a good laugh on the way to town as Dave’s clean shorts got soaked with water. Note: Don’t put the big guy on the bow of the dinghy!

What we found on Grand Cay was a real slice of “the old Bahamas.” A small community of ~400 people. No ferries or airports service the town so the only visitors come by boat. The docks looked run down but were full of fishermen returning from a day out. The streets are uneven cement wide enough for one golf cart to pass. The beer was reasonable at $3 and it was our first taste of some very fine seafood salad (in the Bahamas seafood salad, or conch salad, is very similar to ceviche but without chips and often with the addition of orange juice. As with ceviche the seafood is raw.) The bar (an outdoor gazebo with picnic tables and the salad cart nearby) was hopping with locals of all ages – one guy told us Sundays are family days. Dave and Lindsey made a point of walking the town and were not disappointed when they found waffle cones filled with bourbon cherry and rum raisin ice cream at a little shop.

On the dinghy ride out of town, we made Lindsey sit up front. It was starting to get dark but we saw the silhouette of something rise out of the water a few yards ahead of the boat. We were trying to figure out what it was, when all of a sudden – SPLASH! – Lindsey got drenched. I quickly diverted my light to identify the culprit, and lit up the beautiful spots of 2 eagle rays swimming by!

When morning came I was up at 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker’s SSB weather broadcast. Since I wasn’t able to procure a sim card yet, it was our only source of weather and the forecast wasn’t good. Chris was calling for a gale out of the west in less than two days time. We were anchored completely exposed to west winds so I quickly shook Lindsey awake. “We gotta go babe, can’t stay here!”

As we got breakfast going we poured over every anchorage for 30 miles. Westerly protection was very hard to come by. As morning drew on we tried several anchorages around Grand Cay but the holding was no good. We even assembled our storm anchor, a Fortress FX-37 as big as Lindsey but it wouldn’t hold in the grassy seabeds. Disappointed, we agreed to set sail for Great Sale Cay 20 miles to our south. On the way there still wasn’t much wind but we did manage to motorsail and find a  4+ft loggerhead sea turtle to keep us company.

Loggerhead Seaturtle

Great Sale Cay is a large island in the middle of the Little Bahama Bank. Though there are some 1960’s ruins, it is completely undeveloped with the only visitors being boats looking for safe harbor. Thankfully it offers two large harbors with westerly protection, just what we needed.

Zodiac Cadet Aero
Paul playing on the Zodiac

The next day was clear as forecast and we took full advantage snorkeling and walking the remote beaches before the storm set in. We saw sting rays, barracuda, snapper, jacks, and various little tropical fish. As the day progressed, about half a dozen boats arrived to take cover with us. We made a good call with Great Sale as it provided cover while we were pinned down for the next day. By the third night the winds had subsided a little down to about 20 knots and we were up for an island with a bit of nightlife!

Paul picking our next destination!

Talking with a little catamaran named Toucan they had great things to say about Allans Pensacola Cay and Green Turtle Cay. We wanted to go directly to Green Turtle since it is populated but figured it was too far so we made a stopover at Allans Pensacola. With the strong winds we had a very enjoyable sail.

Dave enjoying our first good sail in the Bahamas.
Good to have the sails up.

Our time on Allans Pensacola was short but we did have time to hike across the island to the famous signing tree, where visitors leave dated signs with the names of vessel and crew. We hunted for the remnants of the US Missile Tracking Station that was once on the island, but found only the asphalt of a former road.

The signs marking the trail head. Always a day too early for the free beer!
Dave checking out the Signing Tree at Allans Pensacola.
Paul enjoying the signing tree beach at Allans Pensacola

The next day we were up early and bound for the civilization of Green Turtle Cay.

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Bahamas Bound: Sailing Across to the Gulf Stream

Gulf Stream Crossing
The three musketeers ready for a Gulf Stream Crossing

We had a fun filled week at Cooley’s Landing. We made new sailor friends, tried out all the local sailor bars, and got to spend time with our Florida family. We also completed some minor projects (like replacing a hose for the head, oh joy!). On the down side we were boarded by an infamous pirate, no joke. We threatened trial and hanging, but he insisted he was just inspecting our vessel for stowaways prior to departure.

Cat boards sailboat at Cooley's Landing
Pirate on board!
Told you he was an infamous pirate

All joking aside we enjoyed our time at Cooleys Landing immensely and had made some good friends while there, but Ft. Lauderdale was a pit stop for us, not a destination.

While at Cooleys we would wake up at 630 am every day to listen to Chris Parker’s weather forecast. Chris broadcasts forecasts  for the Bahamas and Caribbean via SSB (marine shortwave radio). These forecasts are extremely detailed and tailored towards boaters. He charges a fee if you would like to ask questions but you can otherwise listen for free. We listened each morning only to be disappointed with large seas and high winds forecasts. Finally on March 12 Chris mentioned things might be calming down later in the week. I scoured my usual sources for weather (Windy and NOAA) and it looked like there would indeed be a possible break in the weather. Normally this would have been enough but several other factors came into play, which made us take our weather forecasting up a notch.

  1. The Gulf stream is a strong north flowing current that we would have to spend a significant amount of time in. If weather conditions aren’t right, it can be down right horrible in any size boat.
  2. My dad David would be coming down to give us a hand with the crossing and spend a couple weeks exploring. He was buying a last minute plane ticket so any delay in our departure would mean less time in the Bahamas for him.
  3. It was our first “ocean” crossing and we wanted a smooth ride (can you blame us after the fun we had in the chesapeake?)

With all this in mind, I sent off a quick email to the folks at Weather Routing Inc (WRI) asking for a custom forecast for the weekend, using a coupon we had received at the Annapolis boat show. WRI has a team a meteorologists forecasting marine weather around the globe 24/7/365 for everything from small boats like us to giant oil tankers. Within hours they provided us with a very detailed report, which you can download here.  They also offer  phone consultations, which we will probably try out when we return to Florida. I can’t recommend WRI enough if you are taking a long passage and need really accurate weather information. With the forecast being excellent I made a quick call to my dad and told him to buy his ticket since we would be leaving Friday morning at about 1:00 am.

A small portion of Miss Fe’s provisions

After a not-so-quick trip to Walmart and the largest grocery bill either of us had ever had, we were set to go – except we could not depart directly from Cooley’s Landing due to the extreme currents that had already rattled us getting in. So Wednesday afternoon we ran the New River gauntlet but this time we were a bit wiser than last time. We waited until the current was completely slack and then went for it. We cleared the first bridge with ease but just as we did the blasted railroad bridge closed on us. We were trapped again between two bridges.

We were treading water when a mega yacht crackled on the radio that they were coming through the first bridge. “Lindsey, starboard tie,” I hollered.

“What?” she said, “We’re doing great right here.”

“Time to play it safe. There is a beautiful public dock we can tie off to and avoid playing bumper boats again.” So we tied off and waited.  By the time the damn railroad bridge opened, we were in the company of 2 very large mega yachts. Since we were docked we passed through the bridge last. The yacht in front of us told the next bridge operator that we would like to pass as well, and the bridgetender replied he would “clear traffic and get it open in a moment.”  This is the same 300 yard section we had trouble in last time. Not trusting that “in a moment” meant any short length of time, I yelled, “Port Tie, Port Tie,” and we tied up to a random restaurant’s dock, nervous to be here again but safe and undamaged.

We waited and waited for the bridge opening, and as we did, a very large sportfisher (~70-80) also pulled in behind us to wait.  “What the hell is wrong with these bridge operators? We have 4 boats crammed in with probably less than a 100 feet between us. Are they trying to cause an accident?” I said to Lindsey. Luckily all 3 of the other boats were equipped with bow/ stern thrusters so they managed to hold position without hitting anything. It was without a doubt some of the best maneuvering I have ever seen any boat do let alone 3 at once. After another 20 minutes of sitting tight, the bridge opened, we pushed off the dock and we were free at last, sort of.

Our anchorage options were pretty bad in Ft. Lauderdale, with only 2 options. We choose Lake Sylvia which is less than a mile from New River. Boats were crammed in like sardines, and it was the tightest we have ever anchored. We set our anchor alarm for a distance so short that inevitably even a small windshift would set off  the alarm, making for a long night. But the boat was safe and we were ready to cross, except we still were missing a crew member.

Due to work commitments, my dad David left TN Thursday afternoon  after we were already anchored out. Not wanting to setup our dinghy only to have to take it apart again, we asked our friend Ryan at Cooley’s if he would be willing to shuttle David out to us in his rather spiffy 20hp dinghy. Ryan quickly agreed, and on arrival David found him at the marina ready to go.

They bailed the recent rainwater out and started up the dinghy, going about 100 ft before it died. Again and again, they kept starting it only to go a few hundred feet before it died. After about an hour I texted David, “Everything ok?” to which he replied,”Motor trouble”. Uh oh, I thought, swift current and no motor would make for a bad ride. Luckily they troubleshot that the fuel pickup was not doing its job so my dad had to tip the half empty tank at an angle for the duration of his trip. After a 5:30 am start to his day in TN, our third and final crew member was onboard at 8:00 pm,  just 3.5 hours before out departure time. We had a beer, swapped some stories, and tried to get about an hour nap.

At 11:30 pm I turned on the radio and woke everybody up to The Struts “Could Have Been Me”, followed by some CCR, Zac Brown Band, and Chris Janson. We rushed to complete our final preparations, determined to get the anchor up before midnight, while it was still Thursday – it’s considered bad luck to leave for a passage on a Friday.

Everybody was in good spirits and ready for a 12 hour ~70NM ride to West End, The Bahamas. The anchor came up without issue, the motor started right up as usual, and we glided out of the overcrowded anchorage with a smart look on our face. “This is going to be a piece of cake” we thought.

We had one drawbridge to clear, but with a closed vertical clearance of 55 ft, we wouldn’t need it to open. To be on the safe side,  Lindsey called the bridge well in advance asking to confirm the height. The bridge replied, “Due to insurance reasons, I cannot tell you. You’ll have to read the gauge on right side of the span.” Laughing, Lindsey pulled out the binoculars and waited until we were close enough to read the gauge – 56 ft – full steam ahead!

Thirty minutes after departing the anchorage, we were exiting Port Everglade. The sky ahead was dark and full of stars while the city lit up the horizon behind us. There was very little boat traffic, and we were relieved that there were no large commercial vessels nearby. Gentle 3 ft rollers started to rock the boat back and forth, and our speed under motor dropped into the 3-4 knot range. With only 18 hp but 28,000 lbs, even relatively calm seas can slow our boat down when motoring.

A couple miles offshore as the lights of Ft. Lauderdale were fading, I sent Lindsey below to take the first break. Shortly thereafter I noticed the engine temp was climbing higher than I like, and we were making black smoke. Not good, but its hard to get the prop pitch right at night when everything is dark. I adjusted it as best I could and gave everyone strict orders to check the temp at least every 15 minutes.

Now this would have been the time to put up our sails and make 6-7 knots, but we had one little problem. We were so focused on a smooth crossing that we picked a day with smooth seas but no wind. I mean nothing. There was so little wind it would have been completely hopeless trying to fill a sail with it. Before I went down at the end of my first shift I looked at the ETA on the GPS. It said 7 PM arrival. Not possible, I thought. At daybreak the winds will set in, we will kick some ass and be having conch fritters by noon. Not so, my friends, not so. As a side note, the stars were incredible as the lights of Florida faded and the flying fish were out in force. It was spectacularly beautiful calm night. Sometime during the early morning  hours we entered the gulf stream. The motor was running as hot as I would tolerate, but at least it was holding steady.

Lindsey’s notes: After a couple hours of sleep, I donned my harness, clipped myself into the cockpit, and took the helm so Dave could rest below and Paul could have a break from steering.  The watch schedule we had decided on was 2 people on watch at all times, rotating a person out to rest every 2 hours (which means your watch shift was 4 hours). Even though the swell was small, the boat was rocking pretty good and it’s hard to quell the queasiness in the dark without a horizon to look at it. My watch consisted of steering, hopping up every few minutes to do a 360 check for other boats, and counting down the time until there would be light. My biggest concern for this trip was ships, but luckily we saw very few, and the ones we did see were far off and heading away from us. We were running a bit north of our rhumb line, but Paul warned me not to steer too far east while we were still in the Gulf Stream as our speed would drop below 2 knots if I did, and at this point we were still hoping to make it the The Bahamas before sunset!

Gulf Stream sailboat crossing
Morning in the Gulf Stream

Finally, when I started my second shift, daylight had arrived. Yet there was still no wind. The windex (wind direction indicator) spun slowly in circles, aimless.  Lindsey kept an eye on the wind generator, hoping for any sign that we might get to sail, but the generator’s blades remained still for the rest of the trip.

Glancing off the bow I noticed scattered but frequent clumps of sargasso seaweed. I hoped, in vain, that a Tuna or Mahi would be hanging around one of the larger clumps. I dragged a lure behind the boat on a handline and even detoured towards the weeds a couple times hoping for a bite.

To my surprise I also noticed many Portuguese man-o-war, a pretty jellyfish-like creature that looks like a floating blue balloon and packs one hell of a sting. No swimming in the gulf for us today, I thought. As the day drew on we all took naps and had a few snacks. Without sails up, the boat was a bit rolly and nobody had much appetite for more than ginger ale and crackers. It was beautiful out there though and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of South Florida. The feeling of adventure was setting in for all of us. Hour after hour went by, and there was nothing but deep blue water to keep us company.

Finally late in the afternoon we spotted the water tower at Old Bahama Bay Resort. Since the weather was forecast to be calm for the next few days, we anchored  outside the marina in a rather exposed anchorage, just as the sun was setting. 19 hours had passed since we raised our anchor in Florida but it was so worth it – we made it to the Bahamas!

Land ho!

The next day, despite the ridiculously strong current in the anchorage, I dove in with a snorkel to see if a fouled prop had caused  the engine to run hot. It was clean as a whistle. Going to the next option, I checked the strainer sure enough it was partially clogged. Note to self: check the strainer, check the strainer, check the strainer….