Yes, it’s windy but hey… I saw a turtle and a big one at that…

It’s Wednesday evening and I thought it would be good to do a short post prior to hitting the rack.  In the interest of truth, I had to look at the date on the computer to recall what day of the week it is.  I guess that’s good as I am not working these days.  Yes, it’s acceptable when you are in crusing mode not to know what day of the week it is.  However, if you are in a “land home” you are assumed  to be “confused”.   I prefer relaxed, personally.  Not quite ready to be “confused”.

As usual, I digress.

Today was the first day of the passing of the most recent cold front, a weekly occurence.   As we are further south, the effect was a lot less severe with the west winds only lasting for a few hours.  In the northern portions of the Bahamas the winds are a lot more nasty, stronger and from the west for longer.  I am happy to be in Georgetown as the passage of the front is a much less of an issue than up north.  That’s good.

Now that the front has passed the winds are back to the east which means that most all of the anchorages are protected but the winds are still very strong.  The forecast calls for winds gusting to near 30kts on Thursday and the strength of the winds are not expected to diminish until Sunday.  By that point we will be totally ready to “get out of Dodge” as Georgetown is a bit too organized for our taste.  They actually have announcements on the radio each morning here as there is so much to do.  It’s sort of like adult camp, or day care.  At least day care for retired “A” types, not always a nice combination.

Our next destination, once the weather improves and the wind strength becomes more reasonable, is likely to be the Jumentos as we have not yet visited that part of the Bahamas.  They are south and west of where we are now and quite close to Cuba.

The Jumentos are very remote with the smallest fishing settlements and only a hand full of people on any given island if there is anyone at all.  One key requirement, if you are going to visit this area, is to be fully self-sufficient.  This means that you have to bring all the food you will need along with all your own water.  Happily, we have a watermaker which will keep us going for a long time without a visit to any sort of water source.  Fresh food, that’s another issue as it only keeps so long.

So, when will we leave to visit there?  Probably not till the weekend or early next week. That’s when the winds are supposed to subside and turn to favorable direction.  Due to the fact that much of the area in the Jumentos is very shallow, we will have to go quite a bit out of our way to get there as the more direct routes are just to shallow.  If we play the tides, making a point to move at high tide, we might make it through the closer route.  However, we might not and to run aground in shallow water would definitely ruin our day.   With that in mind, we will have to take the safer “long route”.

We have been told that the Jumentos are very beautiful but wild and quite remote.  If you are into spear fishing for lobster and fish, you have to be prepared to deal with sharks.  It’s not prudent to spear any fish if you are not close to your dink so you can get out of the water pronto when you catch something.  Spear a fish and you are sure to attract sharks within minutes.  Not my first choice as I’d prefer not to be fish food any time soon.  And, these sharks are the “real ones” with the pointy sharp shark teeth.  A friend told me he was fishing and when he got his “catch” to the boat all that was left was the head.   The rest of the fish was “shark bait”.  Better them than me.

Unfortunately, the lobster season closes March 31st, just a few days from now, so fishing for lobster won’t be on the agenda.  I am told that there are many in the area so it is unfortunate that we will miss the season.  Perhaps next year we will go there earlier in the season.

I hope that the weather will support a run down to there as it’s a place that I really want to visit.  Fingers crossed.

On a more local note, today the wind in Georgetown was really strong and Pandora pulled hard on her anchor all day.   I spent a good deal of time reading in the cockpit, enjoying the view.   Several times a really big turtle, some 3’ across swam buy.  Getting a photo of these guys is notoriously difficult as they tend to stick their heads up and duck from sight in a blink of an eye.  However, I was able to get my first “turtle sighting” photo.  Here it is.  Not terribly exciting for you perhaps but it was for me, so there.Thursday we plan on doing a bit of beach combing and some shelling.  Perhaps lunch out at one of the local resorts.  Wind or not, I am looking forward to getting off of the boat for a few hours.  One thing for sure, it will be plenty windy with sustained winds in the mid 20s and gusts to 30.  That’s too much wind, actually.  However, at least these winds are in the 80 degree range.  It sure beats a winter storm with sub zero temps. 

Yes, warm is good.  And did I say that it’s sunny?  If not, I am saying it now. It’s sunny, really sunny.  Don’t forget your sunscreen.

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