It was time to "Get Wet"

But before that happened there was the golf cart parade. Down here at Guana Cay there is one basic road that passes Grabber's, The Pirate's Den, Orchid Bay Marina (where we are) and then winds up at Nipper's. At every stop they have food of various kinds out for free. I have to admit Nipper's put out quite of spread of meats and rolls for folks to 'Nosh' on when they bought up drinks.

All of the carts meet up at Grabber's for the start and as a result prior to the parade while we were in town we were almost run over by several of the drinking cart drivers. I'm thinking that drinking and doing anything is normal around here especially given the T-shirt I've seen. It has a motto on it "the liver is evil and must be punished". The parade of carts is led by the rescue vehicle which is a pick up with a siren and maybe some tools of the rescue sort. The parade started at sunset and was composed of dozens of carts decorated with lights and etc.. There was some associated noise and cheering as the parade wound its way along the shore of Orchid Bay. It was fun to watch from our vantage point on the aft deck of Freedom.

The next day we rode out on the Guana Dive boat with some folks we met and went snorkeling while they dove. Since it has been years I was diving I opted to snorkel even though the dives were non-technical and shallow.

We saw many different sorts of fish and the colors were vivid in many places. Quite a good ride although the water was rough on the reef at the first site we visited. Several folks were sucking water into their snorkels as a result. Not fun in 30 feet of water. While we did not see the shark the divers saw, we did see all of the Barracuda and other fish they did including some large Nassau Grouper (tasty) which are currently out of season. Regardless we were at the Park just South East of Guana Cay and retrieving anything is strictly forbidden.

At one point while snorkeling near the boat at the first (rough water) site, two schools of grey snapper and yellow tails were swarming all around me. What I did not know was that (sadly) a few folks were sea sick on the boat chumming...

But to the credit of the dive operator they called in a smaller boat to bring them back early. We met a few of them later on at Grabber's and she was telling us she still felt like she was moving even though she was standing still. It sounds like it's going to be a while before she gets back into a boat again.

So tonite is New Year's Eve.

Everyone have a safe time, and good luck in the new year! Don't forget to punish the liver tonite. I have some more photos that should be in the bucket soon.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.....

The last few days have been difficult. It's challenging for us to decide whether to go to Nippers for conch fritters and frozen nippers or if we should go to Grabbers for conch fritters and frozen grabbers. The pricing is the same as well as both establishments having good fritters. I know the frozen nippers are a wee bit stronger but grabbers has better wifi.

Life can be so difficult sometimes.

Anyway we've been taking long walks on the beachs collecting shells and taking some more photos. The bucket has been updated. This photo is a collection of snail trails I happened to find on the beach.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.....

NOT!

Maybe in the sun but the fireplaces down here are not working hard. Besides, they didn't have any chestnuts at the local grocery store here on Guana Cay. So we're suffering without them. But we did find evaporated milk to go with the canned pumpkin we brought over from Florida. Don't let anyone know. The duty on pumpkin is severe we understand... Since we didn't want to pay 5.50 for a single frozen pie crust we made one from scratch.

The pie is good ok, we didn't wait for Christmas day. Here we are in front of a Christmas Ferris Wheel. It's sort of different to see the inflated decorations with the snow blowing around inside them. But hey, it's Christmas time!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Dan and Deb

Gumeleni Cay

Today the winds were light. They were something like 5 MPH so we could go about anywhere we wanted to with the dink because the water was like glass.

We anchored out in the sea of abaco a few miles north of Marsh Harbour and then went to Scotland Cay. We poked around a bit in between Scotland and Guana cay enough to see a few bone fish an some grey snappers.

From there we went north to the beach in the photo which is on Gumeleni Cay. This is just off the north end of Guana Cay. It was pretty sterile as you can see looking at the sand. On the other side of this small island is the Atlantic Ocean. Once again, the water was amazingly clear since the wind has been light for a couple of days. That gave everything a chance to settle out and moving slowly through the water we could see all sorts of sights. The star fish in the first shot had to be about 5 feet below the surface.

Spoil Island shell hunt

Spoil Island is an Island off of Loggerhead channel that is manmade. At one point the locals wanted to have cruise ships (Disney?) coming into Guana Cay. The deal folded either at the hands of environmentalists, or, at the hands of skippers that did not want to handle the channels in bad weather. They face directly into the Atlantic. Anyway, we took the dink over from Orchid bay. It was perhaps a 15 or 20 minute ride at speed to get there.

Upon pulling into the shallows from the deeper water (maybe 30 feet deep at the most) we spooked a couple of spotted rays that wound up going right under us. They had to have a wingspan of about 4 feet, and it took some maneuvering to make sure we wound up leaving them in one piece.

Once on the island, which may be a weekend anchorage kind of hang out for the locals, we picked up a few shells and headed back out.

On the way out we ran into a number of schooling baracuda. Also on the bottom we could see many large starfish. Obviously the water was extremely clear, and with the light winds the surface was flat enabling us to see deep into the water .

Maybe tomorrow we'll bring the rod and reel since the structure in this area supports quite a bit of fish. Either that or we head to Scotland Cay to the south where there is a channel to the Atlantic and perhaps more fish.

What does it take to travel to the Bahamas by boat?

We met an interesting couple the other day, Lou and Deb. They also have the dream of coming down here and going further to Georgetown. We used to think that Freedom was a bit cramped for this sort of jurney until we met them. The boat is just about totally independent of shore requirements and has 6 months of food on it!
All of this in something like 28 feet. Amazing, and it reflects nicely on some words (on the test floor) I heard in reference to our intentions to make this trip; "that's the biggest pile of sh*& he's come up with yet".


Suffice it to say, we are not roughing it, and my hat is off to this couple that are also enroute! Note that if you click the photo, you will see there are two outboards one for the dink and one for the sailboat. No impressive horsepower required here.

Checking the Zincs

Since we have migrated to the salt from fresh water, concern over zinc life has surfaced. So I took out the 2 mil suit and jumped in.

I know you folks are expecting 6-12 inches of white stuff back up at home. It looks like it'll be white for Christmas up there also!

Anyway, the zincs and underwater gear looked ok. We have a vibration on the port side so we must have whacked something with that prop again. However there was no damage apparant so hopefully we can make it back to the states where services are readily available as long as we take it easy.

Night fishing

The water here at Orchid bay is quite clear and once in a while I have been turning on the transom lights at night. One night we here this strange slashing noise and figure there is a large fish down there worth exerting a bit of extra effort to see. As it 'terned' out, there is this heron of some sort hanging out on the swim platform way past his bed time scarfing up all the bait fish! Obviously this bird had been on boats doing this before because it did not care if we made noise, it moved to a safer spot under the dink. Interesting...
With all the time we have on our hands maintenance items have been getting taken care of. Cetol has been (and will continue to be) applied to the bow pulpit and rails and other general clean up will get done.
I have to admit with being away from the Rondout the boat stays much cleaner on the outside. There is no gravel mine dust and train exhaust to settle on the boat. We get light grey streaks down here, not black streaks.
Hopefully the wind settles down today (as predicted) and we get to do some fishing.

What piece in this photo doesn't belong with the others?

Ok. I had nothing to do with it. It was like that when we walked up to it.

Anyway, today we walked quite a bit of the beach here on Guana Cay and if you were looking for a (almost) white Xmas, this is a pretty good start.

We checked out several of the places on the island which included 4 restaurants, a dive shop, grocery, post office and pharmacy. All within walking.

Today we had a pleasant surprise to find that a couple we met at West End and again at the GTC made the crossing around Whale Cay today. They had heard on the Single Side Band that if they did not do it today, they were going to be out of luck for quite a while. Tonite we are going to the Full Moon party at Nippers -> http://www.nippersbar.com/ which includes a special Prime Rib dinner for 20 bucks a head.

The ships log gps data was getting too large and that was what took down the converter. So the compressed file on the server has two sections now. If you have issues displaying the data in Google Earth, let me know.

Hint: Jimmy is all boned up.

Great Guana Cay fom Green Turtle Cay

This was the part of the trip that had us most concerned excepting the Gulf crossing. We could either go out into the Atlantic around Whale Cay from White Sound or we could attempt a shallow water passage to Marsh Harbour via Don't Rock. With the current weather forecasts being laced with gloom (gale warnings to the north affecting wave action locally), we were resolved to sitting at GTC for at least another week since Don't Rock is very risky due to the possibility of bottom bouncing from wave action. In other words, if a big wave trough pulls enough water out from under you, 'badabing' you bounce on the bottom. Not good in a 20 ton boat.

So this morning I decided to request local information via VHF 16. I received a reply from a sailboat that Whale Channel was only 2-3 foot rollers. Nothing serious. We were all surprised and another boat decided to run it also. A respected Caribean forcaster was all wet. He was suggesting it would be 6-8.

We checked out and stowed everything and left for the channel. As it turned out it was a bit rougher than reported but all's fair since the wind was building. When we were about 2 miles west of Whale Cay we found ourselves in 3-5 square on the bow. Freedom was plodding along at 9.5 knots and running the waves comfortably. We however were getting bounced around. A couple of 'holes in the water' produced deep breaths but otherwise going out around Whale Cay into the ocean was fine. We both thought we were going to be ok since we could see the Atlantic well enough to know there were no whitecaps.

Later as we swung around into Loggerhead channel we were in 3-5 quartering and again Freedom performed well.

And here we are at the Orchid Bay Marina/Resort. We are sitting in a washing machine because the wind is out of the South East. At least the bow is into it. It's sort of like Lincoln Harbor without all of the clanging (and burning boats as of late news). We're behind the break wall but it's kinda sloppy in here.

We walked over to Nippers and had some conch fritters and a round knowing that now the rest of the boat movement is in relatively easy waters with no large obstacles or weather dependencies. This photo is of us sitting at the rail looking out at the Atlantic wondering why it looks so calm here... The wind is at that time is now SW so the Atlantic near shore is in the lee.

I'll have GPS data shortly. The formatting tool is whining.

Touring GTC (Green Turtle Cay) by golf cart

This is the preferred method of travel since it's cheap. Only 55 bucks for 8 hours. I can rent a car from Enterprise, have them pick us up, drop us off and keep it for 24 hours cheaper. Hey that's life in the fast lane I guess..
It's easy enough to walk the island, but we have such a limited amount of time and so much to get done these days. We feel that given the island is about 3 miles long, renting a golf cart for 8 hours has mande us expert regarding where everything is.
There are a few roads here that are quite a bit of fun to drive, like the beach road on the east side. That's where I took a few of the photos in the bucket (see link on main blog page). But there are others that walking, let alone driving, is a bit risky because of all the ruts.

We'd like to move on to Orchid Bay at this point, but the weather is not cooperating at all. Few boats are willing to chance Whale Channel at this point given the recent wind direction and speed. Some have been turned around out there and come back in. Friday is looking like we get a very small window, but since we have been toasted by small windows on the way down here we are a bit concerned about pushing it.

There are much worse places to be stuck.

Bluff House and New Plymouth

Yesterday we walked over to the Bluff House Resort which is right across White Sound where Freedom is now. It's really a great looking facility and we will probably stop there on the way back up North.
The docks are in great shape and all the facilities are laid out conveniently. They are currently offering the same special GTC is, in that your dock fees are subtracted from your total restaurant bill.
Today we took a dink ride over to New Plymouth since the wind was out of the east and our path lay in the lee of Green Turtle Cay. Walking around the town was interesting. There are no tall buildings there, it all seems to squat down out of the wind. Duh.
We bought a few things and then went over to Black Sound to the boat yard and had a security cable made up for the dink. Riding a dink down here in clear water is quite a bit different from riding a dink on the Rondout Creek.
See the photo link for new photos.

Public Aquarium

Tonite the snapper were all around the transom. Hopefully this shot lends a little bit of realism to the clarity of the water.

We're not talkin' Rondout Creek here!

The water is about 4-5 feet right here and drops off under the props quite a bit. If you click this photo it will probably open up quite a bit for you. It was interesting to note that the first night, we had all these bait fish all over the transom eating up the krill, or very small fish. Tonite, when these fish showed up, all the bait fish from 1/2 to 3 inches was gone. Ya think?

Green Turtle Cay and Points South

We made reservations today for extended stays at a couple of marinas. When we get the next decent break in the weather we head over to Orchid Bay. Probably in a week or so we'll leave Green Turtle where we are now. The weather looks ugly for a while with high winds again.
After Dec at Orchid Bay and others, we have Feb booked at the Sea Spray Marina, and March is booked at Treasure Cay. We're thinking if those calling us to visit are serious, that Treasure Cay (March) is a good time to visit since it has an airport on the same cay, and, we will be there for a while.
Candidates must be able to sleep in a V-berth which has a disadvantage of being a bit cramped and some wave noise all night.

See the photo bucket link on the main page for photo updates now.

Well the sun is setting on a great day here, and it's time to stop hacking away at the pool side and take a dip before the sun goes down. With that I'll rest my glass and turn my attention where it belongs...

Sale Cay and Green Turtle Cay

These two parts of the journey have been kind to us. We left for Sale Cay thursday bright and early with about 10 other boats.

Passing through the shallows at Indian Cay was not that bad, we had a few feet to spare for the most part. Everyone took it slow and easy since the channel is narrow and not marked at all. What one does is plug some way points into the gps and fly by wire so to speak. But once through the water gets to all of ten feet deep all the way to Sale Cay. I have no idea why they called it Sale Cay since there are no stores there thus no bargains. All there is there are mosquitos, which stay ashore thankfully.

Arriving we dropped anchor and immediately it started to drag. As it turned out the Fortress was not good in sand and weeds, so out when the CQR. The fortress clogged with weeds and then bounced along the bottom. Ray are you out there? The CQR held like a rock not the Danforth! It's a totally different game down here and we are glad we had a selection of anchors to work with. Once sorted out the sun went down, and the water turned into a mirror that blurred the definition of sky and horizon. It was too dark to photograph however.

In the morning on we went until arriving here at Green Turtle. This place is how all marinas should be (except for the no-see-ums). Your restaurant bill is subtracted from your dock fees.

GPS tracks are uploaded, and photos are going to the bucket soon. I have to start commenting on the photos... I'll update this entry when the photos are there with the link.

Edit:

Updated the main page to include a link to the photo bucket, and started commenting the photos so they make a little sense.

It's time to start moving again...

Ever since Friday last when we crossed the Gulf Stream, we have been kicking back waiting for the weather to lighten up a bit. We need two days of light winds to get around to Green Turtle Club and Marina.
This trip is composed of a couple of legs around 50 or 60 nm each. That means we anchor out since there is really not much in between these two places (West End and Green Turtle). The accepted anchorage is Sale Cay. It's pretty much the midway point and offers good protection from North and East winds. Since the prediction is that the wind will be composed of these directions, we should be good to go.
And many folks here at west end feel the same way since we are all leaving the marina tomorrow headed for the same place.
We are going to take the short cut through Indian Cay, while several others that pull 5 feet of draft are headed further north to Memory Rock before they turn east to Sale Cay. We'll all be in touch via radio.

But-

To bring you up to date, we took the local bus service from West End to Freeport. The bus is your basic 8 passenger van with a small diesel engine. It was actually a great ride. Everyone that got onto the bus said good morning to everyone and everyone on the bus responded in same.
It was only 7 bucks apiece each way instead of what would have been 70 bucks for a taxi.
We landed at the Straw Mall in Freeport, and it was immediately depressing. It looks like it got whacked a ton by the hurricanes of '04 etc. and it never recovered. Very sad. There were only a handful of vendors sticking it out.
So we hopped onto the bus and went over to LuCaya. It seems like this is where all of the tourism industry has migrated to leaving Freeport behind.
We had lunch and bought some things like sandals. I was going to buy a Hawaiian Sling to spear lobsters with but Deb said that spear would not sit well in the cramped corners of the micro bus so that was out. Lunch in RumRunners and then back onto the bus for the ride back.

Here at the marina in West End, the water has finally settled down and we can see the bottom again. Last night we had some 3 foot tarpon swimming around in the transom lights looking for bait fish. Tonite, even tho the water is clear, all we see is the small stuff again. Perhaps as the sun sets further more action will occur.

So while we are on the move, I am sure we will not be updating the blog until we reach Green Turtle. Hopefully the only challenge on these legs is the anchorage and passing through Indian Cay.

In this photo, we see the lobster fisherman at work. There are a few of them here, and they are of humble means. They drag a beat up cooler around by a line, and hunt out lobsters. They are out there all morning swimming around harvesting lobsters. When the man came around the dock with his cooler I bought three for 20 bucks. We have had several meals out of them, and I hope he had a couple of meals or other things he needed with the dollars we gave him.

Gmail ID

By the way the Gmail id is damapes@gmail.com