Sorry for the blog overload, but the winds are gusting and the rains are spitting, and the wifi seems to be working well so, I thought I’d get us all caught up and ready to move on to the next exciting chapter!

Storm clouds rolling through

After a good “post crossing” nights rest, we headed out across the Bahama Bank toward Mangrove Cay. When your vessel draws 4′ and change, it takes a bit of getting used to, to go cruising full steam ahead, when the average depth is 6 feet, even if your “full steam” is 7.5 knots.   Did I mention that the water is spectacular and extremely clear?  This can have a few scary side effects.

The afternoon before, we had enjoyed watching the sportfishing boats come in and clean their catch, dropping the fish heads and carcasses into the water. The difference between watching this here, and at Mariners Cay, Folly Beach, is that while we were looking down in the gin clear waters , we could plainly see an 8 foot nurse shark swimming around, directly beneath our dock. She nudged a fish head, then swam off to go find something a bit more appetizing. It brought back to life all my memories of the recent TV shark week episodes.

Saturday afternoon we arrived at Mangrove Cay, without another boat in sight.  After enjoying  a leisurely dinner, I took a cushion, light blanket, and glass of wine up onto the bow, and relaxed into the rythum of the peaceful sea. I sat staring up into the  star studded sky, listening to the gentle lap of the waves on the side of the boat, and the faint sound of klinking plates and glasses as Tom finished washing up the last of the dinner dishes. BLESS HIS SWEET LITTLE HEART !!!

Tom soon joined me, and began pointing out some of his old friends; Cassiopeia, Taurus the Bull, Pleiades (seven sisters), and everybody’s favorite, Orion. We talked about the chaotic frenzy of preparation that we had been through over the last two years. Selling our home on Little Oak, buying, moving into, and preparing the Folly Cottages for vacation rental, closing on the sale of his business…..  As we talked in hushed tones, in reverence to the quiet night sounds, all of those past trials and tensions seemed to drift away with the outgoing tide. I felt that it was at this very moment, that we had truly arrived.

Even in this great expanse of open water and islands, often with no civilization for many miles around, we had been told it is a very small world indeed, down here in the Bahamas cruising world. Next morning we were surprised to see that another boat had come into the area during the night. Tom recognized the boat as an Albin 27. When she started her engines and prepared to head on with her journey, Tom hailed the captain on the VHF, and said ” Jim is that you?” Sure enough, it was Jim, whom we had met, only via radio, and had wanted to buddy cross with. He had left at daylight Saturday morning and had a very long day, and into the night, across bumpy seas, to make it to this peaceful place. We were glad to know he had made it safely, and we would catch up with him again in the days ahead.

Enjoying a neighborly chat with Jim

Jim said he was heading  to New Plymouth on Green Turtle to check into customs, then back to Manjack to visit with Bill and Betty Sue. We left shortly after Jim, but headed in the direction of Grand Cay. We asked Jim to tell Bill and Betty Sue that we were on the way, but not in any hurry!

We made our way to Grand Cay and enjoy the cracked conch and fried grouper that is Rosie’s claim to fame. We were not disappointed !

Rosie’s famous cracked conch! Simply the best!

If my lovely daughter in law needs a break from Chilly Philly, I know just the place we can go for lunch!

Instead of anchoring out behind the island near the abandoned drilling platform, or in the marina, area we opted for a more scenic and sheltered cove.

I’m sure we are not the first Mariners to be lured into a sunny shallow curvaceous cove with a pretty face, only to be disappointed when the weather had a nasty change of heart. Such was our fate.  That afternoon when we dropped anchor, all was ideal. Soft breezes and clear skies, even though the forecast was for an incoming front. After dinner we stood on the sundeck and enjoyed a dramatic and powerful show of lightening flashes and distant deep rumbling thunder, as somewhere down south in the chain of islands, a few were getting hammered.  Next morning things changed.

Just before daybreak, I took my yoga mat up onto the sundeck wearing shorts and a tank top as the temperature was around 75 degrees. I began moving the furniture around to spread out my mat, when all of a sudden, every inch of uncovered skin came under attack by millions of tiny hypodermic needles. The vicious no-see-ums were out in full force. A few thousand of them followed me as I hurried back inside. We let the sun rise and breezes pick up before daring to venture out again. Later in the day we enjoyed gunkholing in the dinghy and snorkeling around the boat.

As evening drew near, we battened down the hatches against another possible no-see-um invasion, cranked up the generator and began making dinner. Unfortunatly we were not paying close enough attention to hear the winds pick up, or feel the subtle shifts of the boat in the current. Around 7:30, to our horror, we saw mangrove branches pressed up against the galley window. We raced out on deck to find the sky pitch black and rainy and the winds whipping around. Our anchor had given way, and Southern Trawl was wedged up against the rock bank in our very narrow cove. The bottom in this area was mostly covered with grass on top of a very shallow sand and rock base. . We turned on our instruments and were relieved that our depth sounder showed 4′ under our keel.  We had no idea if there were any coral heads or rocks near our propellers. Tom started the engines. He ran up front to untie the anchor snubber line. I was in the flybridge waiting for his direction. He told me to listen carefully as I put the boat in gear. We had to get away from the edge and back into the middle of the passage way.  He told me that if I  heard any loud or unusual sounds, I was to return the engines immediately to neutral. I held my breath and put the port engine into forward gear. We began to inch forward,  so I put the starboard engine into reverse, asking the boat to turn right and forward.

I was steering blind into the black night, only able to see what Toms’ handheld Q beam flash light could point out. I steered with the electronic shifter/throttles as the steering wheel was useless in such tight quarters. We were extremely fortunate to make it away from the coral bank and back into deeper water with no apparent damage to our boat. Tom dropped and secured the anchor once again.

We had no more confidence in this holding than we had in our previous one. We decided that sleep was not an option We began taking inspections every 15 minutes , by going up on deck, shining the flashlight onto the bank behind us and the rock coral head formations in front of us to try to determine if the anchor was secure or if the boat was sliding backwards, in addition to swinging side to side with the wind gusts.  Around 2:30 AM, we decided it might be safe to try to get some sleep, as our position seemed to be stable. Tom got up at 4:15 and began making plans for our exit at first light.  We learned the winds had been 25-30 knots during the night

Even though the winds were forecast to continue gusting, creating rolly seas, we decided to make a break for our next destination. We pulled anchor and headed out for a very rough ride. I would categorize this as much more than riding a pony with a very bouncy trot. I’d compare our day to having signed on for an 8 hour professional bull ride at the rodeo.

Even though Tom had not had any sleep, he got us safely to Manjack Cay where our friends welcomed us, and the sheltered bay provided safe harbor from the winds and choppy seas. The owners of a large portion of this beautiful island, offered us the free use of their mooring, or strong holding for our anchor, just out front of their beautiful palm lined sandy beach.

At the time, we had no idea just how special this island really is, but I’ll stop now and give you those details another day.