One of the best things about cruising is that it offers a wide variety of adventures, but even if you’re careful, you can sometimes find a few misadventures. We take each day as it comes and are always amazed by what reveals itself. Each day, Tom diligently studies the charts, checks in with 3 separate weather forecasting sights,  and is proactive in maintaining Southern Trawl’s mechanical systems.  This has kept us out of any real trouble so far…

Having made our successful crossing down to Roberts Cay, we ventured south to Allen’s and Leaf Cays at the northern tip of the Exuma Islands chain, for our first taste of the spectacular clear Exuma water that we had heard so much about. These two cays create a beautiful protected anchorage, and are also home to the endangered, bizarre looking, and inquisitive Iguana.

Having seen these huge lizards reminded us that we had not seen Lizardo in quite a while. We weren’t really too concerned since we were accustomed to his disappearing on the boat for a week or so at the time. About that same time, I became disgusted after seeing another live cockroach. I had hoped that having Lizardo on board ,would help keep those pests under control. I asked Tom to please shake out the chair covers that we keep stored in the wicker table on the back deck. I thought that seemed to be a likely place to harbor roaches. It was also one of Lizardo’s favorite hangouts, so I got prepared with a pot with clear glass lid in case Lizardo should run out when Tom pulled out the covers. The plan was to keep a sharp lookout, grab him, and keep him secure while we shook out the chair covers.

Tom slowly and carefully pulled the cover loose and sure enough, 2 or 3 roaches scurried out. I made quick work of them with the flyswatter.  Next Tom opened out the cover, again very slowly, and decided to shake it out over the water in case any insects were hanging on. At the last minute, we saw a lizard fall into the water. We both hollered, “Oh no, there went Lizardo!”. Tom quickly jumped down onto the swim platform and scooped him up. I grabbed the pot and Tom dropped him into it, and I clamped the glass lid on top. We looked into the pot, through the glass lid, and were very surprised to see that we were not looking at Lizardo. It was a baby curly tail.

 

(Sharon this one is for you!)

The only logical and reasonable explanation for this, is that our beloved Lizardo had decided to make his transition to island life complete.  He couldn’t quite aspire to being an Island Iguana, but he could see himself as a curly tail and morphed.  Realizing it was time to set our little one on the road to independence, Tom took an old peanut butter jar and poked holes in the lid. (just like the ones our moms used to make when we were catching fire flies or tad poles)

We put little LC (Lizardo Curly Tail) into the jar, took a dinghy ride to shore, and gently set the jar down. We carefully opened the top of the jar on the beach at the base of a beautiful palm tree, on an idealic uninhabited island. LC ran out as fast as lightening , then paused for a moment on a beach rock. He looked up at us while Tom said a few words of encouragement, then took off to disappear underneath the ground cover of leaves and sand.

 

Next we anchored at Highborne Cay, the setting of another recommended book about island life called “Life on a Rock, A Bahamas Out-Island Adventure” written by K.A. Albury. Since the publication of the book, Highborne has new owners and much improved facilities enjoyed by beautiful mega yachts. The marina is very pricey, so we enjoyed anchoring out and then taking the dinghy ashore for long hikes with incredibly beautiful overlooks and deserted soft sandy beaches with gin clear surf.  The westerly facing restaurant/bar is the perfect spot to catch “The green flash” of sunset, which appears just as the sun’s fireball sinks below the horizon.

During our Highborne Cay hike, we got carried away and wandered down through the resident village area and over to the far side of the island, and ventured a little farther than originally planned. It was very hot and sunny, and we were out of water, so we decided to take a break and wait for a ride back to the marina. Being a boat access only place, the wait was a little more than Tom could take.

Moving our way down the Exuma chain, we had been looking forward to visiting the Exumas Land and Sea Park. The park was established in1958 and is one of 25 parks and protected areas managed by the Bahamas National Trust.  The park is a “no take zone”, meaning there is no fishing, shelling, conching or lobstering allowed within the boundaries of the park which covers 176 square miles, and is famous for its pristine beauty, outstanding anchorages, and breath taking marine environment. Our first anchorage  in the park was spent at Shroud Cay. That afternoon  we slowly drifted our dinghy on an outgoing tide, along a beautiful mangrove creek from the banks side of the cay to the ocean.

Be sure to click on the little thumbnail pictures to enlarge them if you would like to see the detail and intensity of colors. 

ALL PICTURES:    CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 

Th next day we picked up a mooring at  Warderick Wells Cay which is the location of the park headquarters. Having joined the Bahamas National Trust as a support fleet member, we received complementary, the 3 nights mooring. We enjoyed meeting the park staff and exploring this beautiful cay.  Remoras are known as “shark suckers” or “sucker fish” . Their dorsal fin takes the form of a flat modified oval , sucker- like organ with slats that they can open or close to create suction and attach themselves to the skin of larger marine animals. They have a pronounced underbite and scoop their food quickly with a snapping sound. I dropped a left over crust of bread into the water, and a 3′ remora darted out from underneath our boat to scarf it right up. We had read that they sometimes attach themselves to the bottoms of boats. Later that afternoon while we were snorkeling, we spotted two remora underneath a neighboring boat. When they spotted us, one turned and headed our way. I had a moment of panic until the creature decided to turn around and head back over to it’s previous spot.

We moved further south and out of the Land and Sea Park to anchor out at Compass Cay. Tom fell in love with this laid back friendly island and threatened to jump ship. Tucker, who has managed the marina since 1964, was welcoming and cooks the best cheeseburger-in-paradise to be found. We ventured ashore on Sunday morning, which has become a traditional waffles and bacon breakfast on the dock for the locals and the returning cruisers. They generously invited us to share in this delicious custom.  On the wall of the marina store are the  pictures of recent guests poising with Tucker including Michael Jordan, Labron James, and Johnny Depp.

Compass Cay is also a very popular tourist destination, as you are encouraged to swim with the nurse sharks who hang out and are well fed by the tourists.

Next we made our way to Staniel Cay where our friends Mary Jane and Bob White and their son, Adam, flew in on Friday March 27th, to come on board for 5 days. Adam is a senior at Chapin High School and was on spring break. We were delighted he and they agreed to spend the time with us. 

The night of the their arrival we had a bit too much excitement and a frightening wild night at the docks.  We had been warned that there are very few places that offer protection during westerly winds. Staniel Cay Yacht Club Marina is no exception. We had been closely watching the forecasts and were a little concerned that north/northwest winds from 15-20 knots were being predicted. The marina has a policy that if westerly winds get to 20 knots, that they will clear the marina.  All boats must leave to prevent damage to the boats and the dock.

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Staniel is a very busy marina frequented by yachts of all size including those 100′ or more.  With the upcoming weekend events, the marina decided to play down the weather report and let all the boats stay to ride out the front.  Fortunately  we were on the inside slip where the winds would blow us away from the dock, not into them. Tom had added additional lines to the dingy to keep it away from the boat and had strapped a couple extra fenders between our boat and the dock in case of wind shifts and bounce back from the waves. Around 3:30 AM the storm raged. We went up on deck and watched helplessly as the rain poured down and gusts of up to 38mph whipped up high waves and tore at all the boats in the full marina. “Joan’s Ark” is a magnificent 112′ yacht. She  was tied along the outside slip and her captain and crew had to use their bow thrusters to get her off the dock enough to try to free up one of her enormous fenders. The fender had gotten wedged up under the dock as the waves were lifting and crashing her up and down . The force of the crash caused a section of her railing to be ripped off. As Tom had no way to safely jump from our boat onto the dock in the raging water,  He managed to lasso a forward piling with an extra bow line, and then one of the men on the dock  caught a additional stern line to strenghthen our hold to the dock. The big yachts who had tethered their 30′ chase boats alongside, had to have their captains jump down into the smaller boats and ride out the storm to prevent both vessels from being severely damaged from crashing into each other during every wave.  The storm finally passed at dawn and we were finally able to catch a little sleep.

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We had reserved our slip in Staniel Cay Yacht Club Marina well in advance since Saturday March 28th they were hosting the annual 007 James Bond Casino Night. Party goers are highly encouraged to “dress the part” and enjoy a festive night of casino gambling. This hugely popular annual fundraising event is in support of the Staniel Cay “A Class Challenge” regatta. Several Bond Movies have been filmed here, as this is home of the famous underwater snorkeling open cave referred to as “Thunderball Grotto”. Mary Jane came prepared with tuxedo T Shirts for the guys and a beautiful Bond girl dress for herself. I decided to wear my dive skins, complete with gun holster weight belt and strapped on a large dive knife to my arm. We had a blast, and much to my delight, I was crowned “Ms. Thunderball ” and won 2nd place in the Bond Girl costume contest. Sorry we don’t have any pictures! I decided to leave the photography  to Adam and his GoPro shots! Still waiting to get those back. Hey Adam, we know they are great ! Please share !!!!

We enjoyed the White’s visit. Tom especially enjoyed having Cap’n Adam taking the helm on our journey to and from Black Point,  assist in anchoring and un-anchoring,  and planning the navigation.

During their vist we visited the swimming pigs of Big Majors Cay, snorkled Thunderball Grotto and saw a few more iguanas at Bitter Guana Cay.

On their last day we decided to take an exploratory hike around Black Point which is located on Great Guana. All was well until I got the bright idea to leave the group and  take a “short cut” through some dense vegetation. Well Brer Rabbit, I am NOT ! It wasn’t long before I realized the error of my ways, but I was so entangled in the sharp scratching underbrush, that I was convinced I should forge ahead instead of trying to turn back. After what seemed like a life time, I began calling for help. I could not see above or below the bushes and briars and my calls were muffled in the canopy. Finally I heard Tom calling to me. It took a little over an hour for me to get clear and Tom to finally reach me. As it was now around 3:00 and we hadn’t eaten much breakfast or any lunch, I insisted on buying everybody a beer and lunch. My legs and arms were completely covered in scratches and 2 days later I broke out in the dreaded awful poison wood rash. Poison wood is much like poison ivy but much hotter, continues to break out for several days and lasts about 2 weeks before the itching stops. I used topical hydrocortisone and also the locals recommendation of vinegar. Needless to say, Tom was a saint during my tribulations and never once said “I told you so!” He did say I smelled like a pickle after my daily vinegar baths. Big adventure, Lesson learned!!!

We headed down toward our current location of Georgetown, but made a couple of stops along the way. One was at a tiny little settlement of Little Farmers Cay. We went ashore and met a local fisherman who sold us some fresh conch salad.

He was a very entertaining fellow who talked to us while he prepared our lunch on the dock.  One funny story he told us was that since he is a fisherman he eats a lot of protein which makes him capable of producing lots of babies very quickly. He said when his wife had 2 children shortly after they were married, his mother-in-law advised that they needed to “cut it off, or “tie it up”.  He assured us that his wife had gotten “tied up” because “He wasn’t gettin spaded or notin!”

We anchored out one night at Musha Cay and Rudder Cay which David Copperfield owns and has created an incredible island paradise. You and 23 of your closest friends can rent a portion of the island and a staff of 30 to tend to your needs, for around $45,000.00 per night. Of course that $$$$ could go up depending on the season.

We have made it to Georgetown, which may be the end of the line, or our Southern most destination. Georgetown is the turn around point for many cruisers. It is such a popular spot, with as many as 400 boats anchored here in Elizabeth Harbor, that there is a cruisers net on the VHF radio channel 68 every morning at 8:00AM. When your listen in you will hear the weather forecast, find out what the local businesses are offering that day,  listen to who are new arrivals to the area, who’s departing, find out where and when Yoga, dominos, bible study, or water aerobics can be found.  Today we followed directions and signed up with 20 other folks to share a water taxi over to Georgetown to go to the local “Rake and Scrape” for dinner and dancing tonight. Next week is the SUPERBOWL, WORLD SERIES, NBA FINALS, MASTERS TOURNAMENT, and OLYMPICS of Bahama sailing. It is actually called the Bahama Family Island Regatta. There will be 5 classes of racing boats which are all wooden, hand made and must be built in the Bahamas, by Bahamians , and skippered by locals as well. The small vessels are so overpowered by the cotton sails, that they crew with 6-8 big guys who hike out over the side of the boat to add weight to keep it from flipping over. We’ve heard that we can follow along beside these boats in our dinghy to cheer on our favorites. Should be fun! Check back to see all of the excitement .

Seems like no matter where we are, or what time of day it is, the view just keeps getting better.