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It’s Friday morning and we are tied up in the Highbourne Cay Marina (http://www.highbournecaybahamas.com/highbourne-cay.php) on Highbourne Cay at the nortern tip of the Exumas  waiting for a cold front to come through with some nasty thunderboomers.   The sky is grey and the wind is picking up.  Happily, after this front comes through we are promised a week of wonderful “spring Bahamas weather”.  Given the lovely summer sort of weather that we have enjoyed much of this winter, I am looking forward to even better weather now.

The year round variation of temperatures in the Bahamas is less than ten degrees.  However, in the winter the winds are stronger and are influenced by the gales off of the US east coast.   As winter turns to spring, the weather here moderates as it does up north.  This is good for us as the Abacos, the most northern islands in the Bahamas, have much windier weather from December through April than do the rest of the Bahamas.   As a result, many cruisers opt to visit there in the spring and spend the earlier winter months in the southern portions of the Bahamas.    With the spring weather we too will head north to the Abacos.   The islands in the Abacos are much more developed than the areas that we have been cruising so far so our last month in the Bahamas will offer more civilized opportunites and we are ready for that.

Our visit to the Highbourne Cay marina is our first time in a marina since Rum Cay and our first time in the Bahamas to pay for a slip.  However, as it’s been weeks since we have been anywhere with even a rudimentary grocery store and laundry so we decided to treat ourselves with a few days tied up in a protected marina.  Another good reason, beyond the desire to be pampered, for tying up in a marina is that this cold front is expected to be accompanied by some nasty squalls, and being tied up in comfort beats being buffeted at anchor by 50+kt winds.  Somewhat north of here the winds are expected to be as high as 70kts which is a scary thought.

We chose Highbourne Cay as it is also home to one of the best restraunts in the Bahamas and our dinner last night bore this out.  The restraunt, Xuma, is an open air spot overlooking the neighboring islands and the views of the setting sun last evening was spectacular.    The evening was so nice that there was a camera crew shooting some footage for a travel program highlighting luxery getaways.  A two bedroom cottage here goes for $1,000 a night in high season, a bit above the Pandora crew’s pay grade.

The grounds are lovely with very nice buildings and well kept docks.

They even have nice spots to grill out if you are so inclined.

The nearby two mile long beach is spectacular and perfectly groomed regularly so it’s free of debris.  They even provide thatched umbrellas for you to lounge under.  Not bad.  Believe it or not, even the paths to the beach are raked and are lined with stone walls.  Very civilized indeed.

Of course, this spot, being so tony attracts some well heeled visitors.     You can get to the resort, and the entire island is a private resort, with your own boat.  Or, you can come by seaplane, one of which landed just ouside of the marina when we were coming in.

Speaking of coming by boat, Pandora is like a canoe compared to some of the other “boats” in residence.     We had a nice talk with a crew member of this huge yacht Dreamer, last night at the bar and heard that the launch forDreamer, Olivia, was brand new and cost $400,000 with her tripple 300hp outboards.   Dreamer is nearly new being built in Turkey in 2011 for a guy out of NY.  Of course, he’s in finance.  It seems that the recession didn’t hurt everyone.

There was also a massive go fast yacht, a sort of 150’ speed boat, that came in briefly last afternoon to discharge it’s bikini clad passengers who were dancing on the bow to disco music.  They were dropped, some dozen of them, at the dock for a visit to the bar.  Following afternoon cocktails, they were whisked out, by launch, to the yacht which had anchored outside of the marina where they all showered and dressed for dinner.    An hour or so later they returned, by launch, dressed to kill and ready to party, compliments of the owner who looked like he couldn’t be a day over 40.  Happily, my back was to the action as the view would have been even more difficult to ignore than it was for Brenda who was facing them.  Of course, Brenda kept me entertained with a running commentary of the antics of the revilers.   I expect that they are running a bit slow this morning.  One can only hope.

Well,  all isn’t totally perfect here today as it’s cloudy and a little cool (a relative term) given the approaching front.   However, all the better for a nice walk. We wouldn’t want to sweat too much, would we?

And, now for something completely random.  How about a shot of one of the iguanas , some up to 20 lbs, at nearby Allen Cay, where we anchored the other day.   These guys are very used to people and are always ready for a handout.  Yes, I was as close to him as the photo suggests.

Oh yea, speaking of wildlife, I almost forgot.  Yesterday we bought fresh grouper filets from a local fisherman.  We’ll have them aboard Pandora for dinner tonigh.  A guy’s gotta eat…

For the better part of the last week we have been exploring inside the borders of the Bahamas Land and Sea Park, one of the many protected areas here in the Bahamas.  These are no-take zones which means that you can’t fish or take anything out of these areas.  As a result, there is an abundance of fish life on great reefs that you can explore.   I went snorkeling a few times and had a great time.    Because of fishing you rarely see grouper and lobsters in non-protected waters.  Here, there are plenty because they are protected.  Interestingly, when a grouper gets distressed, they make a loud grunting sound.  It’s pretty funny, and loud.

On one dive I saw a nurse shark as well as a more intimidating reef shark that looked like it could easily have made a portion of me into a snack.  He wasn’t nearly big enough to big enough to have gulped me down but he certainly could have taken a good chunk had he been so inclined.   I have to say that I hitched my breath when I saw him swimming by and looked up to see where my dink was.    Not so close…  Happily, he continued on and swam slowly away.  They say that shark attacks are very rare but somehow that’s not much of a comfort when a shark is 20′ away.  I don’t know if he saw me and I certainly wasn’t going to do anything to announce myself.

I took a lot of great photos but am only sending a few as we haven’t had any internet or cell coverage  in some time and the only way that I can post is to do so over the SSB radio which is very slow and can’t handle large files.  I was stressing the system, I am sure, by sending three photos.  Oh well.

This queen trigger, about  a foot long, was just the most elegant creature.  She/he didn’t seem to be particularly concerned with my following for a photo.   I wonder if there are any King Triggers, and if so, do they mate?  Hmm…

I also saw quite a number of lobsters and it was amusing that they “charged” me albeit slowly when I approached them.    I guess that they know that they are not going to be broiled any time soon.   A park is a good place to live if you want to avoid being seafood.  Here fishy, fishy…

On Monday, after a terrific Easter Sunday celebration pot luck at the park warden’s home with perhaps 50 or so other cruisers, we headed over to Shroud Cay, another island in the park but one that is primarily a mangrove swamp.  There are channels meandering through the mangroves with water, at least at high tide, that is impossibly clear.  The roots of the mangroves make the most amazing sculptural sight.  The ariel roots help the plants roots get enough air and help excrete excess salt.   These are very tough plants and are critical to keeping islands from washing away in storms.   In fact, mangrove swamps are a great spot to tie up a boat to avoid a hurricane as they are very solidly rooted and you can tie up to them and be safe from a storm.  They also break waves and keep wind down.   Me, I am not planning to test this out any time soon.

At high tide we took our dink into the mangroves and crossed over to the ocean side of the island and enjoyed one of the most beautiful beaches we have seen so far.  For two hours we walked from one end to the other.  The soft white sand contrasted beautifully with the blue sky and water.  It’s hard to believe that we could have such a beautiful beach to ourselves for our entire walk.  What a sight.

We have been invited over to a friend’s boat for cocktails tonight, which will be fun.  We will have to bring our Conch Horn, a large conch shell with a hole cut in the top.  You blow into it, like a trumpet, and it lets out a great sound.  Blowing the conch at sunset is a great tradition in these parts.  Brenda’s very good at it am learning too.   We are looking forward to showing our stuff at the Essex Yacht Club this summer.

On Wednesday we will continue to head north and will probably stop at Highborn Cay, home of one of the best restaurants in the Bahamas.  A really good dinner out will be a treat as there aren’t many good spots to eat in the Bahamas and very few in the Exumas.   Actually, there are only a few places to eat at all in these parts.

Friday we will have to be sure that we are in a good spot that is very well protected as there is a nasty front coming through that is expected to bring with it very strong thunderstorms.  Last night we watched lightening flash to the north for hours just after dark as a particularly strong line of squalls headed by.   I understand that some of these squalls packed winds in the 50kt range.  I guess that we are due for this as we have only had rain twice since arriving in the Bahamas three months ago.
Wish us luck.  I am glad that I have a good anchor and lots of chain.  Fingers crossed.

It’s Saturday morning and we are on a mooring in Wardrick Wells, a national park and wildlife refuge here in the Bahamas.  As we headed south a few months ago we passed through here on our way to George Town to meet up with our boys, Rob, Chris and friend Kandice.   While we had stopped here already, we only stayed for one night as we were still in “delivery mode” and in a hurry to get to George Town.    We didn’t have the luxury of stopping for long as we had a deadline and we were going to make it.  Stopping was more about ticking off a list of destinations while waiting for weather.  We were in a rush and while it was fun to visit, we really didn’t have time to relax.  Deadline of not, we were not in the “cruising mode”.

Now, after three months we are moving a lot less and looking around a lot more.  Yes, the weather continues to be a major consideration as to where and when we move but there have been plenty of days when we have stayed put because we wanted to even if the weather said “sure, you can go”.  And when the weather isn’t cooperating we feel virtually no pressure to move.  That’s nice.   In the interest of total transparency, I may never be completely comfortable with staying put, but I have made great progress, that’s for sure.

However, I’d say that we have reached a state, or certainly Brenda has, where staying put is not a terrible thing.  I can’t recall when I have spent more time reading than I have in the last three months.  Excluding the hours spent on planes that were delayed buy snow or on some sort of mechanical gate hold back in my travel days.   Now it’s different and while I haven’t kept track, I’ll bet that I have read a dozen books, perhaps twenty since leaving home.

When we were preparing for this trip a question that we were often asked was “what do you do all day on the boat?”.    Folks that have not sent long periods aboard just can’t imagine what one could possibly do to keep occupied for days, weeks and months on a small boat.  It’s funny, but we are never bored.

Today it was dark when I got up and actually a bit chilly by Bahamas standards, in the high sixties.    Since the wee hours of today I finished a terrific novel,  Black Cross by Greg Iles.  While it is fictional, it is a gripping account of life in a Nazi concentration camp.  I won’t say more but I recommend it highly.   The whole breakfast and lunch thing, some housekeeping and some maintenance on the water maker and other piddly items plus a walk on the beach kept me busy.

You’d be amazed how much time can be taken up with shopping for groceries.  Going shopping?  Forget making a list, when you go into one of the pint sized little stores in the Bahamas, some little bigger than a small bedroom, you have to buy what they have and if the mail boat hasn’t been there in a few days there’s not likely to be much selection at all.  Produce is usually limited to onions, potatoes, carrots and perhaps green peppers.   About a month ago we spied something exotic,  a avocado, the only one we have seen in perhaps two months.  Without hesitation, we bought it.  Not quite like shopping in the states.  Actually, it’s been more than a week since we have been anywhere with any sort of settlement, much less a store.    The good news is that we will likely be somewhere by mid week where there is at least a little grocery.   Not a lot of “running out for a few things” here.

Here in the park, a 25 mile stretch of islands that are protected,  there is no fishing or taking of wildlife.  The water is clear and blue and the snorkeling is first rate.  Unfortunately,  while I had my underwater camera with me yesterday it malfunctioned and none of my photos came out.  I’ll be going again before we leave here so I am sure that I expect that I will have plenty of photos to share.   While I have not seen a single lobster in the months in the Bahamas,  there are plenty here and I am sure that I will take some great photos, again.   Yesterday when I was snorkeling I spied a large lobster, perhaps 3’ in length sitting on the sand near a coral head.   I looked at him and approached.  He did the same until we were nose to nose.  When he touched me with his antenna we both jumped and he backed down.  I was amazed by how aggressive or more likely, curious he was.  I guess that even lobsters know when they are safe.  The fish were also pretty relaxed and seemed to be more curious than afraid.

Well, how do we fill our days?  I too am amazed at how quickly the days go by but they do.  Yes, one does blur into the next and the weeks go by, but it’s a pleasant blur and I feel blessed to be able to experience this.    Generally the mornings are consumed with chores and the afternoons with exploring.

The other day, in Compass Cay, a bit south of here, I did a little fishing and caught a little fish.  Don’t worry, I threw him back.  Alas, nothing “table worthy” for Bob the mighty fisherman.  Nice looking fish.

As I sit here the view in the harbor, which is protected from nearly all directions, is one of shades of blue.  At low tide there are huge sand bars that cut across the harbor separated by deep blue channels where the park has placed moorings.  The boats are lined up with the current and if you watch you can see huge rays glide by every so often.

The strong tidal current keeps the water very clear and limits the time you can snorkel to about a half hour at low and high tides.   Swimming against the tide is tougher than you ‘d imagine so it has to be slack water.

Last night we had our friends Miles and Loreen from Ariel over for dinner.  We have been sailing with them for the last few weeks and now they are headed back to Florida and we will heading further up the Exuma chain and then on to the Abacos.  We will see them again this summer in Essex, perhaps in Maine and certainly here in the Bahamas next winter.   We have enjoyed our time together but now we will each go our separate ways.

I heard our friend Harry and Melinda on Sea Schell, another couple we spent time with, on the SSB radio this morning.  They are in the Dominican Republic, headed to Panama.  I doubt that our paths will cross again for quite some time, but we will stay in touch.   We’ll have a terrific reunion when we do see them again though.   The community of cruisers is sort of “virtual”.  While we normally define a community as a place.  With cruisers, the community is movable.  It’s great when our paths cross with old friends and a bit sad when they leave.   However, in a way, that’s one of the best parts of cruising.    Greeting, hanging out and eventually saying goodbye until the next time our paths cross.

As we have so often enjoyed on this trip, tonight, Saturday evening, will be marked by a pot luck on the beach here at the park.  I know that we  will see fellow cruisers we know and make new friends.   Tomorrow is Easter and we are a little sad that we won’t be with family.   While it’s not the same, we will be with another sort of family, cruisers here in Wardrick Wells.  The park ranger is cooking a turkey and ham and everyone will bring something to share for an informal Easter Dinner on the beach.   Yes, it would be great to be able to “blink” ourselves back to CT and family but this will be great fun as we head ashore to share food, drink and stories with others who are here and enjoying the beauty of the Bahamas.    I understand that on Easter morning at 06:00 there will be a sunrise service with some of the other cruisers on the hill overlooking the ocean.   I’d love to go.  We’ll see if we can get out of bed, to shore in the dink, up the beach and hike up to the hill, and all in time.  Not sure about that.

Yesterday was a landmark for Brenda who took off in the dink by herself to return a friend to her boat who had been visiting for a bread making lesson.  Brenda started the motor, delivered her charge and returned to Pandora.  I was so thrilled, I had to take a picture.  What next?   Blasting around the harbor at speed with a bougenvelia branch, thorns and all, clamped between her teeth?   Who knows?

So, as we say goodbye to friends, others arrive and we  continue to poke along on our way from island to island enjoying the warm blue waters of the Bahamas.     We are enjoying this chapter of our lives and it’s nice to take the time to collect such great experiences, s.l.o.w.l.y…

We have been here in Compass Cay for a few days now.   I guess that not knowing the exact number of days is a sign that I am now getting into the “cruising mode”.    I am also becoming more comfortable with the SSB and am now testing the waters with “traffic” on the Cruiseheimers net in the morning.   This “net” is designed to keep boats in touch with each other and to facilitate help with problems.   I generally check in on a fairly regular basis to let folks know where Pandora is.

Another advantage of the net is that when others check in I can request “traffic” and make contact with a particular boat that is monitoring the net.  Unlike VHF, where most boats monitor channel 16 when they are aboard, SSBs are generally not left on all of the time, at least not aboard Pandora.  Unlike VHF radios, SSBs use a good deal of power, even in the standby mode and there are dozens of channels with no dominant hailing channel unlike 16 with the VHF.

My first experience with requesting traffic with another boat was several days ago when I spoke with Sea Schell, a boat that we spent a good deal of time with in the first month aboard in the Bahamas.  Harry and Melinda, liveaboards, are headed to the western Caribbien and are currently in the Dominican Republic.  It was fun to catch up with Harry on the SSB yesterday and share stories.  In spite of their being so far from us, we were able to hear each other perfectly.

Some folks I spoke to when I was considering whether or not to purchase an SSB suggested that the technology was not “modern” and that with a sat phone you didn’t need a long range radio.  Perhaps that’s true, but being able to easily speak with someone who is very far away is a great thing and I am enjoying using the radio more often.   I’d like to get my HAM license and will likely work on that this summer.  Being a “Ham” offers some additional benefits and is certainly sets you apart from others on the sideband.  An important benefit is that you have greater knowledge about these radios that are certainly pretty complex.  More to come on that.

Yesterday Brenda and I took our dink for a tour into the mangrove swamps nearby here at Compass Cay.  There was a winding channel into the swamp and we were able to navigate quite a way in in spite of it being low tide.  Along the way we spied a good number of bone fish, a highly prized game fish here.   I understand that they give a great fight for their modest size.  We also saw a massive ray, perhaps as much as 6′ across.  While we have seen plenty of rays on this trip, none have come close to being that large.  It was impressive to see such a large fish in a narrow creek that was only a few feet deep.  I understand that rays eat conch which are abundant in these creeks.

We stopped on yet another beautiful deserted beach to look for shells.  It’s interesting that each beach that we have visited has it’s own characteristic and the sorts of shells that we find vary tremendously.  Some beaches have a wide variety and others lots of one or two types.  The slope of the beach along with the sorts of coral heads or reefs that are off of it has a lot to do with what we find.  It’s fun to visit a new beach as you never know what you will find.

This beach was particularly pretty but alas, not a single shell.

We were greeted by this curly tail lizard.  There are lots of lizards in the islands but this particular type is uniquely curious and often run up to greet you.    Most lizards run away but these guys, about a foot long, seem fearless.  It’s pretty funny to see how close you can get.  In this case, it was about four feet away when he finally took off.

We expect to be here for another day while we wait for the fairly strong north winds to shift more to the east which will make heading up the chain easier.  I don’t particularly like motoring into the wind but perhaps that won’t be too bad if the wind is light.  Perhaps that means I am not totally into the cruising thing yet.  Hmm…

Fingers crossed for more easterly winds.   Ever hopeful…

It’s Monday morning and we are anchored in a lovely spot in Compass Cay for the third day.   We arrived from Staniel Cay where we left to avoid the coming west winds that would have made anchorage uncomfortable given the exposure there.  This harbor offers much better protection from nearly all directions than most harbors in the Exumas.

Staniel Cay is a very popular stop and was particularly appealing to the big boy yachting set given a planned James Bond Casino Royal charity event.  Staniel Cay is home of Thunderball Cave, of the James Bond film of the same name.  Attendees of this charity event were encouraged to come dressed the Bond part.  There were plenty that would fit that mold and a number of “bond girls” too.  Unfortunately, we had to leave due to the weather and missed the big event.  There were at least a dozen big yachts in town with the largest at 220′.  That one had an enclosed launch, actually referred to as a “limo launch” to get the guests to the event.  These mega dinks, cost as much as several, no make that a half dozen, Pandora’s. I can’t imagine the cost of keeping these babies on the move. ” If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”, they say.  OK, got it.

Since my last post we have begun our run north through the Exumas with the goal of stopping at some of the spots that we missed on our way south in January.  This time of the year we are supposed to be seeing more easterly trade winds which make travel north and south easy.  Unfortunately, it’s not looking like we will see much other than northerlies for much of the week.   Given the fact that all the islands we want to visit are north of here, we won’t be sailing there any time soon.  Perhaps, if the winds cut down a bit, even if they remain from the north, we will motor somewhere in a day or so, depending on the strength of the wind.  The good news is that the islands are very close together in this area so we wouldn’t have very far to go.

Happily, this spot, Compass Cay,  is very well protected and quite pretty with long sandy beaches and mangrove swamps that you can take a dink into at high tide.  I expect that we will enjoy doing some beach combing and sightseeing for the next few days here.  There’s even a small marina nearby where we will be able to have a lunch out.

Speaking of spending money,  we are running short of cash as there aren’t any banks in this area.  Having said that, there’s not much to spend money on anyway as only a few of the islands have any sort of settlements.  The good news is that most places, where there are inhabited “places”,  take credit cards although they charge an extra  5% for the privilege.   Oh well,  we have to keep our strength up so an extra  5% it will have to be…

The spot where we are anchored is about 20′ deep and is surrounded by flats that nearly dry out at low tide.   The water color ranges from nearly white in the shallow flats to a deep blue in the deeper spots.  It’s quite dramatic.  The tide really rips through the deeper areas so we tend to point toward the current, not the wind.  That can make for Pandora laying at some odd angles to the wind but keeps things interesting.  The views are beautiful and you can walk for several miles, on the flats, in water that is less than 1′ deep at low tide.   It’s still pretty shallow at high tide as the range is only a few feet here.   All over the flats, there are loads of sand dollars and really interesting starfish.    Brenda and I enjoyed posing with some of our new “friends”.  (Editor:  No starfish were harmed taking this photograph.  Traumatized yes, killed, no.)   And yes, the water was very warm.

We are still buddy boating with our friends Loreen and Miles of Ariel and one daily activity for us is to find a shallow spot near the beach to sit and enjoy staying cool in the water.  Me?  I have trouble sitting still for very long so I tend to abandon the “sitters” and walk along in the shallow water with my glass bottomed bucket looking for shells.  I have also been successful in finding palm fronds for Brenda so she can continue to make her baskets which are getting better and better every day.Conch and discarded conch shells are everywhere here in the Bahamas but this is the first, and certainly largest and most colorful, hermit crab that I have found.   Actually, I have never ever found a hermit crab even close to this size.   I guess that if there are big shells, there will be big hermit crabs.

With about six weeks left for our visit to the Bahamas, our thoughts have turned to logistics for our return to Essex.   Brenda will be flying out of Marsh Harbor Abaco on or about the 9th of May.    A good friend of mine, Craig, will be flying down to spend a week sailing with me after Brenda’s departure and after that I’ll have crew coming down for the run back to CT.

My good friend Chris from CT will be joining me for the run north and perhaps one other.   Logistics are always an issue when it comes to moving Pandora but I am used to that after years of practice in getting from points A to B.  I am hopeful that the weather will cooperate for our run north to the Abacos, Brenda’s departure, crew arrival and the run to CT.   Details, details…