Sail Pandora

It’s Sunday afternoon and we are waiting for the tide to rise enough to get out of the harbor for a run the few miles to Man-O-War Cay.  I have to say that it would be easy to spend a few more days, no make that another week, or more, here but it seems that we should be moving on.  Moving on is more about seeing something new than a particular need to be on the move.  This is a very pretty spot and a welcome, and more cosmopolitan change from the very rural and simple settlements that we visited earlier in our trip in the Exumas.

From our limited visit to date it seems to me that the Abacos are the “white Bahamas” as opposed to the “black Bahamas” that we have seen for much of our travels further south.  I’d also say that it seems to me that southern areas are more like what I would describe as “real” and I like that. Yes, there are blacks here too but it seems that they are the employees of the white Bahamians.

It’s hard to say which I like better but this area is much more like the US than the Bahamas, as nice as it is.  It’s certainly easier with more, if fewer, protected harbors.

A traditional boat type that was developed in the Abacos is called the Abaco sloop.  I understand that these “type” boats are still made in Man-O-War Cay and I am looking forward to seeing a shop, or two, while we are there.   This one has been sailing all over the harbor since we arrived.  She is a very nice boat with beautiful lines.We saw another one that was stored, as they all seem to be, under a shed roof.  In this sun the seams would dry out pretty fast and the boat wouldn’t hold up for long.  A pretty view from the “boat house”.   Getting things around town, with the very narrow streets, is a challenge.  Sometimes, it seems, you have to improvise.  Perhaps enclosing this photo is a bit random but I though it was fun.  With water being in such short supply here these tanks are used to catch rain water, as infrequent as it is.  Speaking of rain, we had a deluge last night and the dink was filled about half way to the gunnels this morning.  I guess that this tank would have filled up PDQ had it been in place. So, now for the “fishy” part.  I have taken quite a few videos but it seems that they just don’t look as good as it seemed when I took them.  Perhaps underwater photography is one of those “you had to be there to appreciate it” sort of things.

Having said that, here’s two that are pretty good.  This one is of a very nice queen trigger that I saw back in Warderick Wells, in the park area.
This one includes a shot of a really pretty nurse shark with his or her own personal remora in tow.
Well,  perhaps this post has a bit of seemingly unrelated items.  However, it’s my blog so there…

One of the most iconic images of the Bahamas is the candy striped lighthouse here in Hope Town, a lighthouse that is very much a part of the island and culture here.  It seems that the love of the lighthouse wasn’t always the case in it’s early days.

The early residents of Hope Town were transplanted loyalists who escaped the newly formed United States following the revolution.  Their goal was to bring to this little Bahamas Island the life that they left behind in the States.  They planned to transplant their agrarian lifestyle, complete with slaves, from the life that they had left behind in a country that no longer wished to be connected with their British homeland.

However, there was one important problem that they seemed to overlook in their goal to begin anew and that was the availability of the water to grow crops.  Oops…  It seems that this island, as is the case with so many here in the Bahamas, lacked a good source of fresh water.  Alas, growing crops wasn’t going to work for them.

So, what’s a loyalist to do?  Here’s an idea, let’s salvage wrecked ships…  As luck would have it, not for ships but great for the island residents, the reefs just offshore, on the Atlantic side, were particularly nasty and claimed many ships each year.  It seems that poorly marked reefs were as much a part of the Bahamas back then as they are today.

The reefs were not so great for the ships and their crews, but a great opportunity for the new residents of Hope Town.  Here’s an idea for a business plan… Let’s rescue the crews and passengers of those foundering ships?   Oh yeah, and we’ll keep the cargo and salvageable portions of the ships to compensate us for our troubles.  On top of that, we can take the wood from the ships, build new ships, and sell them too.

Good news, sinking ship persons!  We’ll rescue you.  Bad news… about your valuable cargo.  Finders keepers…  Sounds like a pretty good business model, actually, and it was.

So, fast forward to a time when there was a move to put up lighthouses, to warn unsuspecting mariners, along some of the particularly nasty areas of the Bahamas.   What do you think that the residents of this island said to the idea of a lighthouse to warn ships that they were straying into dangerous waters?  You guessed it.  NIMBY! (If you’ve been living under a linguistic rock, it means Not in my back yard.).

The islanders fought tooth and nail to keep this lighthouse from being constructed, even going so far as denying the construction workers access to fresh water to make concrete.  Keeping a lighthouse, designed to save lives is a particularly interesting way to keep the local economy healthy, for sure and probably not an unexpected response from folks who kept slaves.

After years of wrangling, the lighthouse was eventually built and today it is one of the most beloved symbols of this still fiercely independent island community.

While the Bahamian government has let most of the lights and markers fall into disrepair in these waters, the Hope Town light not only operates each evening, but it is still powered by kerosene and it’s original cable and weight mechanism that has kept the light rotating since the mid 1800s.

The once maligned and now beloved light is kept operating by a group of volunteers that have done a wonderful job of keeping a Bahamas icon in top shape when every other light has been converted to electric operation, if it operates at all.  This is what Wickipedia has to say about Hope Town and this remarkable landmark.

Hope Town   “Hope Town features one of the last operational kerosene-fueled lighthouses in the world. This lighthouse was built in 1862 and became operational two years later,^[1] it is striped horizontally red and white. Its light can be seen from 23 nmi (43 km) away.^[2]

The Hope Town Lighthouse is one of only three Manual Lighthouses left in the World. It has a spring mechanism that has to be hand cranked every several hours to maintain the sequence of five white flashes every 15 seconds. The lamp burns kerosene oil with a wick and mantle. The light is then focused as it passes through the optics of a first order Fresnel lens^[1] which floats on a bed of mercury.”

Brenda and I took a self guided tour of the light and were really impressed with it.  I loved the machinery and inner workings of the light.  Brenda was impressed with just how creepy it all was. Yeah, nice inner workings Bob…  Seen enough?

The light stands like a candy striped sentinel over the harbor.  It’s the tallest thing in the area, higher than even the BATELCO cell tower.  This view, from town, shows just how big this light is relative to the low islands of the Bahamas.The grounds, while a little scruffy, are well kept. There is a wonderful spiral staircase with some 200 steps.  Brenda loved that feature the best, as you can imagine.  Can you say dizzy?  Wait, is that rust I see? Are those stairs safe to stand on…At the bottom of the staircase there are a number of five gallon jugs of kerosene waiting to be carried up the 200 steps to power the light.  I’ll bet that the keepers are in great cardio shape after feeding this light night after night.  The kerosene is pressurized in these chambers to keep the light burning.   Pop quiz…  What is the operating pressure needed to keep the light burning?  The gears that make the light turn are really wonderful.  It’s hard to believe that this mechanism has been cranking steadily since 1864.  Perhaps it’s their liberal use of the ever handy “3-in-one” oil.  Can’t anyone pick up after themselves?The views from the top are spectacular.  Can you pick out Pandora down below?For the more “mature” readers…  Yes Mom and Dad, that’s you.  Here’s a, sort of, close up of Pandora.  As you descend that wonderful spiral, there are a number of windows with great storm shutters and fabulous views.  Can you imagine what it would be like to stand in front of this window when a hurricane is blasting through town?  Good thing that the wall thickness is measured in feet instead of inches.  It’s clear that the residents of Hope Town will continue to fight to keep this lovely landmark operating with as much enthusiasm as their fore bearers fought to keep the tower from being built.  That’s a good thing.

It’s hard to believe that we have been here in the Bahamas for three months.  It was on January 18th that we cleared into Nassau and began our journey through the Bahamas.

In some ways it seems like it’s been a lifetime since we crossed over from Ft Lauderdale and yet in some way it feels like we have been here for just a few weeks.  Our perception of time aboard has changed.   For our nearly 40 years of sailing, our trips used to be measured in days, weeks at most.  Now, with months aboard we aren’t in as much of a rush… “Let’s fit in as much as we can into this weekend!”  Now we often stay in the same harbor for a week at a time, something that would have been unthinkable prior to this trip.

We have seen and experienced so much, so many firsts…

Preparing to head out into the “almighty and scary” Gulf Stream was a major focus for months with fretting on what it would be like.  In retrospect, it was not that much of an event, probably because we chose a good weather window and were well prepared.  Actually, some of our longer crossings here in the Bahamas have been much worse.  Go figure.

Brenda’s first overnight sail was a very big deal for her as she had never done that before.  For me, it was my first overnight that involved water so shallow that you could see the bottom, in the dark!!!  And doing this with no aids to navigation made me very anxious.

Having spent my life sailing in the ever-so-well-marked US waters, sailing toward the impossibly narrow Northwest Channel Light in the middle of the night with squalls all around (where there are absolutely some nasty rocks but, alas, no light) was a major fright for me.  Passing between rocks in the wee hours of the morning that would have torn the bottom out of Pandora while she was barreling along on a broad reach made my mouth dry.    The problem was that I did not trust the Explorer Charts and the recommended waypoints to steer toward yet as I had not used them before.

As it turns out, the coordinates, as I had been told many times by those who knew about such things,  were indeed “spot on”.    However, on that first night when we ran from Ft Lauderdale to Nassau to clear in, I have to say that I wasn’t confident and, more than a few times, wondered if our trip to the Bahamas might end up being one of the shortest on record.   For sure, the squalls that hit us off and on that night contributed to my unease.

So, what was the Bahamas like?  Well, that depends…

The Bahamas, or should I say, the Bahamians are very friendly.   The people that we have met have been warm, welcoming and quick with a “good morning”.    Everywhere we have gone we have met folks who are proud of their country and when they learned that it was our first visit, they wanted to know where we had been and what our impressions were.  Mostly, they dress with care, perhaps no better defined than by the uniforms worn by school children and the very natty uniformed police.

We experienced the very rural, perhaps best defined for us by our time in Rum Cay where it’s so remote that the entire island only has about 50 full time residents, all of whom, including the resident dogs, show up in force when the weekly mail boat arrives.  Having grown up near New York, where nearly everything is available 7 days a week, these out-islands were a very new experience.   Imagine having your life and everything you need be dependent on the once-a-week boat showing up?   On some islands the mail boat is more of a “ship”, well, sort of a ship…On others, like this one that services several islands in the Exuma chain, perhaps “boat” is a better word.One way or the other, EVERYTHING that comes to these islands comes from somewhere else.    On top of that, there is precious little to choose from in the tiny shops.  And if you come in a few days after the mail boat, there’s not likely to be much in the way of fresh food left.

When we were preparing for our trip and provisioning the boat back in the US, we did wonder, more than once, if we were overdoing it with all that we were putting on board.  Did we really need 20+ packages of pasta?  (Actually, it turns out that we needed more than that)  We have needed most of what we brought and more.  It’s a good idea to bring what you need to live for months from the states as purchasing it here in the Bahamas was going to be much more expensive, if it’s available at all.  The fact that the government puts a 40% import duty on everything that comes in makes many items a lot more expensive than in the States, if you can get it at all.  And that combined with the complexity of getting it to the islands makes the final cost on the smaller islands very expensive and about twice the cost of the same item in the States.

Making friends has been really great.  Sometimes for a week or more we would “buddy boat” with another couple when we were both going the same way.  When our plans were no longer in sync, we headed our separate ways with a promise too hook up again soon, if not here, perhaps this summer in Maine.

Miles and Loreen aboard Ariel, are a couple that that we enjoyed spending time with.  They shared some of their favorite spots with us including Compass Cay, where we mugged it up with some of the “locals”.  We hope to see them again in Maine and I expect that they will visit us in Essex too.  Harry and Melinda from SeaSchell, took us under their wing and showed us the ropes during the early weeks of our trip and Melinda, along with Maureen from Kaluna Moo made a point of recognizing Brenda’s birthday.  Can you tell that she was a happy birthday girl?  We loved the opportunity to learn new things.  Brenda learned basket making from Nancy on Trumpeter, who shared this Bahamas art form with her.   I have to say that Brenda’s getting pretty good at this and has 9 under her belt to date.  One thing that we haven’t gotten used to is the difficulty of doing laundry.  I won’t admit how long we have gone between cleaning the sheets but it’s sufficient to say that it was WAY TOO LONG.  Getting haircuts has proved to be tough too and it’s not a matter of finding a suitable spot to have your hair cut.  It’s about finding ANY place to have your hair cut.  I went for three months between cuts and by the end, which came a few days ago, I felt that I had a small mammal perched on my head, and it wasn’t a very cooperative mammal.

Speaking of wildlife.    We’ve seen plenty.   In particular, the number of sharks , that we have seen.   Most were the harmless nurse sharks, but not all.  In Rum Cay, in addition to the nurse sharks, there were plenty of Lemon and Bull sharks, and they aren’t selective about what they eat when there’s blood in the water.  Where ever there are fish being cleaned there are sharks.  There are loads of turtles but, alas, they are just too fast to take pictures of.  In some places, we saw literally dozens of the 2′ wonders swimming about.

We really love these little curly tailed lizards.  They are everywhere and are oddly curious, often running up to you for a better look.  These tropical long tail birds are beautiful.  Oddly, there aren’t a lot of birds in the Bahamas but these are some of the most beautiful. Perhaps the most complicated part of being in the Bahamas is the weather.  Because most of the anchorages are only protected from one wind direction, you have to be constantly aware of the coming weather, not just tomorrow but days from now.  There were several times when we found ourselves 25 or 50 miles from protection and only a day or so to get there in advance of nasty, unfavorable winds.  That makes for high anxiety and something that has taken some getting used to.  However, assisted by the ever patient Chris Parker, the weather router that we use, we have made it around just fine and in doing so have had some amazing sailing.  

This photo of Pandora was taken by Jay of  Take Two whom we had never met prior to his presenting us with photos of Pandora, under sail.  Jay came up to our boat a few days ago and presented me with these and several other photos.  He took them when we were sailing across the Northwest Providence Channel about a week ago.  Take Two has been the home of Jay and Tanya for the last 5 years.  They began their journey with their 4 children on board and now have 5 including  a two year old.  Yikes!!!   I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be on board with that many folks.  Check out their blog to learn more about this remarkable family.  

Nice photos from Jay?  I think so.

So what do we think of our visit to the Bahamas?  All and all, it has been great with fabulous weather, warm water and spectacular sunsets.   Yes, there have been challenges but much of that was anxiety about the unknown as it’s all so new to us.  But, now that we have been here for a few months, it all seems clearer.  Well, a little bit clearer anyway…

So, we will make the best of the next few weeks prior to Brenda’s flight back to the states and our “other life” in Essex.  I look forward, with a bit of anxiety, to my 900 mile trip back to New England and hope that the weather will cooperate for a quick passage.

Speaking of making the best of things.  We enjoyed a nice visit to a resort yesterday, the Hope Town Inn and Marina.   For the price of a beer, or two, we were able to spend a few hours in the pool.  What a spot and only a short dink ride from Pandora.   Can you say “fresh water?”  It was great.  We may never leave here.Today we will rent a golf cart to tour the island with our friends Jeff and Susan from Meltemi.    We ran into them yesterday as they entered the harbor.  We had not seen them since we were in St Mary’s around Thanks Giving.  With all the islands in the Bahamas, it’s indeed a small world.

As the American revolution was heating up and it seemed that the British would be expelled from The Colonies, those loyal to the Crown fled the soon to be  United States.  Many of them settled in the Bahamas and some in the Abacos on Elbow Cay and founded the lovely village of Hope Town.

Today, Tuesday, Brenda and I weighed anchor in Marsh Harbor and made the short trek, less than 10 miles, to Hope Town.  While we enjoyed Marsh Harbor (I finally got a haircut, my first since January) this island, even though it is very close to Marsh Harbor, is beautiful and a world apart.

When I was reading some of the comments on Active Captain, a sort of Web based cruising guide, one reviewer likened Hope Town to Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, a lovely spot known for their tiny Victorian cottages.  I agree, Hope Town has the same feel and is actually even nicer and better kept.  We went ashore and toured the Island, primarily to find a spot for dinner tonight and here are some of the sights we enjoyed.

The main settlement of Hope Town is built around a very compact harbor.  The homes are lovely and each is more beautifully kept than the last.  The colors of the buildings, in true Bahamas style, are very brightly painted.

These two pink buildings, perfectly maintained, with green grass all around, are home to an art gallery.  How magnificent.
Out in back of the gallery, with a view of the ocean, is a lovely deck.  I’d love to have this sort of layout on the back of our home in Essex.    I can’t imagine a better spot to host a gallery opening.  I’d go, assuming that they were serving wine.  That’s what they do at openings, right?The island is known for it’s candy stripe lighthouse.  It’s the last manned light and only kerosene light in the country.  The keeper still winds the mechanism and lights the lamp each night.  Actually, there are precious few lights that are maintained at all, manned or not in this country.   I expect that the locals have something to do with this status of this light as there is clearly money on this little island. This is a good example of one of the “streets” that run all around the island.  Golf carts are the preferred form of transportation.   The plantings are lovingly maintained. This was a particularly lovely walkway on someone’s property.  The large pendent trumpet flowers are datura.  Really impressive flowers.  Some folks in the US grow them as a summer patio plant.  Here, they grow well year round. Some of the plantings on the island are very old.  This one is from Captain Bligh’s stash of breadfruit plants brought on the Bounty from Tahiti.   Pretty amazing.  Someone has worked hard to keep this plant living for all this time.  Breadfruit is clearly not an invasive species as this tree is showing it’s age.
Everywhere you turn there is another lovely home to enjoy.   The trim work on this one is perfect. So, did we find the perfect spot for dinner tonight?  You betcha!!! We will be dining at the Hope Town Lodge.  Check out their site as it really gives a feel for how nice the place is.  The dining room requires “appropriate attire”.  “What would appropriate attire be”, I asked?  Hoping that we had something suitable aboard Pandora.  The answer was shorts and a polo shirt…and shoes.  Whew… I can do that.

Prior to dining we will enjoy one of our favorite “adult beverages” on this terrace.  As luck would have it, the patio faces west so we can enjoy yet another Bahamas sunset.  I can hardly wait.  So, is this the real Bahamas?   Right again and one of our favorite stops yet.   

After a few days in Little Harbor, we moved up island a bit to Marsh Harbor.   Marsh Harbor is the third largest city in the Bahamas and a good provisioning spot for anyone planning to cruise the northern Bahamas.  It’s been an alarmingly long time since we have had access to laundry and  a proper grocery and we are anxious to have clean sheets and some fresh food.

And, provisioning has been on our mind so far and with less than 24 hours in the harbor we have already visited the grocery twice.   Can you say avocados     Don’t ask what they cost…

The evening before last we had rain for the third time since arriving in the Bahamas in mid January.  It rained hard and for several hours.  The dink filled up with some 6” of water and the boat was very well rinsed.   Everything had gotten pretty salty over the last few weeks since the last rain so we were happy to have a rinse-off.

As you may recall, prior to our arriving in Marsh Harbor, we spent a few days in Little Harbor.  While we were there we went for a walk and visited a small blue hole that someone had told us about.  A blue hole is a salt water pond where the water has worn away the limestone rock and connected the hole to the ocean through an underground cave which might be a mile or more away.    As a result, as the tides rise and fall, the water in the blue hole rises and drops too.  These holes can be miles from the ocean and yet have a connection so that fish can swim from one end to the other.    One of the blue holes in George Town is reputed to be over 5 miles long from the “hole” to it’s ocean source.

In this case, the hole was very small and came up in the middle of the island over a mile from the ocean, assuming that the cave from hole to ocean was in a straight line, which it might not be.   The water in this hole was perfectly clear and just chock full of reef fish and some varieties that I had not seen prior to this spot.Some of the folks that we has spoken to had taken fins and mask and had gone for a dip in the “pool”.  It hardly looks big enough to swim around in, though.

The vegetation in the Abacos, while still pretty desert like, was much more lush than in the Exumas and areas south of there.   I expect that it’s greener here as there are so many more cold fronts with squalls and rain showers hitting this area in the winter than further south.  These cacti were pretty impressive specimens. Bromeliads (related to pineapple but grow on other plants and not in the ground) are fairly abundant too and quite large.  This one was about 2’ tall.   We also saw some native orchids,  but none were in bloom.  I think that they were encyclia.On our way back to the harbor we passed this very nicely painted home.  It seems that bright colors carry the day here.   Colorful buildings are the norm here.  Even the government offices are brightly painted, usually pink.   I like it.So, after two days in Little Harbor we made our way out of the channel, which is only three feet deep at low tide, and sailed north to Marsh Harbor.  The run was about 15 miles and quite circuitous given the many sandbars and shallow shoals that we had to go around to make the run.  I was very glad to have a self tending jib so that jibing around each way point and shoal was less of a production.  By the time we made it to within sight of Marsh Harbor the wind had piped up to over 20kts ahead of a squall which made for a spirited sail.

Last night we will have a couple over for cocktails to share stories and to hear what their first winter in the Bahamas was like.  They were from Rochester NY so I am sure that the temperatures here was a welcome change from winters at home.

Today we did laundry!!!  Clean sheets!!!  I tried to get a haircut, my first one in several months.  No luck…  Hopefully tomorrow morning.

It’s Friday morning, the sun is up, the surf is pounding in the distance and it’s another wonderful day aboard Pandora.

Yesterday we enjoyed the sights ashore in Little Harbor, a diminutive harbor here in the Abacos.   For our friends aboard Nati, this is their favorite harbor in all of the Abacos and one that they enjoy visiting at least one each season.

After only one day here I can certainly understand why this is a spot that’s so popular with cruisers and charters alike.  The harbor is totally protected, unlike most in the Bahamas that only offer limited protection from wind and seas, and it has the wonderful shore side attraction of Pete’s Pub on the beach.

Pete’s Pub is one of those quintessential beach bars complete with palm trees and and open air bar.  The food is quite good and we enjoyed one of the best hamburgers in quite some time.  Most spots in the Bahamas serve fried foods and to get something that hasn’t been bathed in oil and served along with french fries was a treat.  The burger came with a wonderful pineapple slaw and some Bahamas rice.  Yum…

For me, this photo says it all.  A real beach bar where you pull your dink up on the sand and step inside to watch the afternoon setting sun while bathed in warm tropical breezes.   Actually, “inside” is a relative term as there are no walls and the floor is sand.  It’s a fun and colorful place. Brenda and our friend Anne of Nati enjoying a cool one on one of the decks in  comfortable Adirondack chairs. While Pete’s Pub is the center of the social scene in these parts, the harbor is also the home of a world renowned sculpture studio that creates and casts work in bronze.   As luck would have it, the studio had scheduled a pour for yesterday and had invited anyone interested in viewing the process to visit the studio.  I understand that this studio is fairly unique in that they do the design of the pieces as well as the casting, a combination that is not common.  Most sculptors take their work to a foundry and have the actual casting done by someone else.   We met a young women,  Kristen, who was visiting for a few months to assist in the studio and work on her own pieces.  She was very nice and talked to us for a while about her work.  As the studio has been around for many years, there is a riot of old molds for designs everywhere along with some great pieces on display. I was particularly struck by this piece of a pompano fish, about two feet long.  I would love to have this in our home in Essex.  I didn’t even ask about a price, if it was for sale at all, as I was certain that it was well above our pay grade. The area around the studio had a number of large pieces on display.  These two really big rays were a wonderful installation that would also be perfect for our yard in Essex.  I wonder how they would look under three feet of snow?   Hopefully, I won’t be in Essex to find out any time soon when there’s that much snow on the ground. The furnace, powered by diesel fuel, was blasting away all day and around 2:30 the guys suited up in protective gear for the pour.  Imagine how hot it was in all those clothes.  Sweat much?They poured about a half dozen pieces in just a few minutes.  It was quite a spectacle.   After they are removed from the mold, there is plenty of work to be done before they are sold.  Right next door there is a very nice gallery where you can view, and purchase, their work.   To look at it, the gallery would be just as much at home in Arizona as in the Bahamas.  We have enjoyed watching rays in the water over the last few months and couldn’t resist purchasing one of the little cousins of the big ray sculptures in the outdoor installation to take home.   While not large enough to put in the garden, it will look great on our coffee table.  It’s all wrapped up so you will have to wait till you visit to see what it looks like.

Along the waterfront are lovely palms and well kept sandy roads and beaches.   This place is quite scenic and being the home to some artists has likely contributed to the look of the place. Of course, a shot of the harbor and Pandora is always nice to have in a post.   Isn’t this scenic?    You will have to trust me that Pandora’s in the picture, framed by palms swaying in the tropical breezes.  Get the picture?   I could get used to this.  No wait, I AM USED TO THIS!!!There’s even a very nice boardwalk leading from the Pub to the beach, complete with a nice bronze piece along the way. When you reach the top of the walkway this view greets you.  Pretty dramatic.  I am always struck by how violent the seas look from land and never seem anywhere as nasty from the deck of a boat.    Having said that, I expect nasty wouldn’t begin to describe the view if you were close to this shore in a boat.  These breakers would make quick work of Pandora if they had the chance.  Better be sure I never get close.    Note to self…stay well away from the hard stuff.All and all, Little Harbor, and it is indeed little, is a great spot and our timing to visit couldn’t have been better.

It’s Thursday morning and we have moved into a nice little harbor, named appropriately, “Little Harbor” home of the famous “Pete’s Pub” a real beach bar, complete with palm trees, sand and all of the other features you could imagine in a romantic island retreat.

The harbor is ever so small with an approach depth of only 3′ at low tide.  As you might imagine, with Pandora’s 6′ draft, we timed our arrival today to coincide with high tide.  Coming into the channel was a bit of a nail biter as we saw less than two feet under our keel a few times.   The channel is so narrow that I’d hate to get stuck and force other boats to delay their departure or arrival.  That would not be a popular move here, I am sure.

To say that this is a small harbor doesn’t really make the point.   It’s really tight and I don’t think that there are more than about 20 moorings.  Happily, there were a few open when we arrived so that’s good.   We are so close to one of the docks that it would be easy to toss something to someone from Pandora.  I did check to see if we’d hit if the wind shifted by moving the boat in circle on the mooring and we cleared the dock by less than a boat length.

For the last two nights, since our arrival, we anchored near one of the nearby beaches, a very pretty spot.   Yesterday I headed ashore to check out the local beach as a possible shelling spot.  Given the popularity of the beaches in this area, I wasn’t expecting to find anything.  However, after a few minutes, I realized that it was a GREAT SPOT to shell and headed back to Pandora to get Brenda.  We returned to the beach and after less than an hour we had a great haul of shells including nearly a dozen sea biscuits, a sort of sand dollar.  There were many scattered around the shallows at low tide.  The live ones are black and are covered with little spines, sort of like a sea urchin.   When they die, the spines fall off and what’s left is a white skeleton.  They are very pretty.    The ones that we picked up are still a bit dirty looking but a bit of bleach and some time in the sun will make them look much better.

Our “haul” from the beach was great.  With a little bleach and some sun, they will really clean up nicely.  This is one of the sea biscuits.    They have a very intricate structure to them.   Very pretty.  When we were entering through the cut into The Sea of Abaco, perhaps better described as The “Lake” of Abaco as it’s just not that big, especially after a 50+ mile run through water that was a deep as 17,000 feet at points, our friends on Nati, hailed us on the radio.  We had not seen Anne and Dick for some time after spending a few weeks with them in Rum Cay and Conception Island more than a month ago.   They have spent some time in the Abacos in past years and agreed to go over our chart books with us to help us get some ideas on what places to visit in over the next few weeks.   We had a very enjoyable cocktail hour with them and were impressed with a tour of Nati.  Nati is a 38′ catamaran and is their full time home.   We hope to see them this summer as they may go to Maine.  It would be great if they visited us in Essex too.   

The view to shore here from Pandora is really nice.  This spot gives the impression that you are in some remote island retreat.  Of course, that impression is somewhat belied by the number of homes lining the shore.  Very pretty, never the less.  I love the whole palm, sandy beach and thatched umbrella thing.   This is the famous “Pete’s Pub” as viewed from Pandora’s bow.  I’ll bet that they sell drinks that have little umbrellas stuck in them.  Perhaps 11:00 is too early to confirm that.  Perhaps later.  Yes, later… that would be good.    And, I expect that we will be able to find our way there and back without getting lost.  Pretty close.  Well, lots to explore and I hear that the ocean is very close, just over the dunes.  I can hear the surf pounding.

I can smell suntan lotion from down below so I guess that Brenda is about ready to check out the local sights.  With that in mind, I’d better finish this post up and get the lead out, PDQ…

With that in mind, I’ll sign off for now.

It’s Tuesday afternoon and we are making our passage from Royal Island at the top of Eleuthra to Great Abaco where we will begin the final month of our visit to the Bahamas.  We had not planned to make two long runs in two consecutive days but the weather was particularly cooperative today so we decided to head out for the 50nm run.  While yesterday’s 40nm run was a pretty long day, it was across the banks and in protected waters.  That sort of run has it’s own challenges as it took us across some very shallow banks, mostly under 20′ deep and through a great number of coral heads, some only a few feet below the surface.  For a while avoiding these reefs was sort of like running a slalom course as I changed course moment to moment to stay out of harm’s way.

The good news is that with the clear waters of the Bahamas as our guide, seeing the coral heads was quite easy, assuming that the sun was shining, which it was.   These “heads” grow up out of the bottom and show like a sort of “ink spot” against the surrounding blue sandy bottom.    The contrast, under the right conditions, was marked.  This shot clearly shows how these dangerous spots show up.    What doesn’t show is just how many of them there were.  Happily, with some exceptions, they were separated by several hundred feet of clear water so avoiding them was easy even if it required constant vigilance.

While staying away from these heads was a bit of a worry, the wind was favorable for a good passage.  At the end of the day we had only run our engine for about 45 minutes and covered over 40nm, a good day’s run.  Last evening we were happy to discover that our friends and fellow SAGA 43 owners, Ginnie and Ted aboard Firecracker were in the same harbor so we invited them to join us for cocktails.  We had a great time sharing our experiences from the last month or so since we had seen them in George Town.

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent some time, three nights actually, at a really nice resort marina, Highbourne Cay Marina.   It was a real treat and the only time on this trip that we have spent any time in a marina, beyond Rum Cay which was free and didn’t count.   Highbourne Cay Marina is a first class spot and it was a real treat to have high quality meals and stay in such a lovely spot.  Pandora, while a decent size boat, was a peanut compared to the other boats in the harbor and for our first night, was the only sailboat.  I understand that one of the largest sports fisherman boats there, perhaps 100′ or so, was owned by the Bacardi family of Bacardi Rum fame.  There were some boats that were even larger so Pandora was clearly the dink of the marina.

On one of the evenings the chef and crew of one of the yachts put on a lovely outdoor feast for the owner’s guests under a beautiful gazebo , complete with tiki lamps and lovely flower arrangements.  At the end of the evening we saw some of the children making smores on the grill.   So, that’ s how the other half, no, make that the 1/10% lives.  I would do that.  My mother used to say that the wealthy were miserable but based on what I have observed on this trip, it isn’t always true and she was just trying to make me feel good.

Interestingly, the only reasonable way to get supplies to the island is by boat and the one that services this island is a 1920s vintage Chesapeake Bay Oyster boat. The owner told me that he brought it to the Bahamas over 30 years ago when he was in his 20s. The contrast of this vessel to the massive yachts was very marked.  Getting anything to these islands is a major effort and the prices reflect it.

However for a price, and I won’t go into what that price was except that it was a lot more expensive than dropping our anchor in some secluded anchorage, we were able to enjoy a few days on this wonderful island.   Perhaps this shot of Brenda reading on the beach, says it all.

Actually, she was reading from high up on a bluff overlooking a two mile beach, half of which was meticulously raked every other day to keep it looking fresh and clean.  And, let me tell you, plenty of stuff washes up on these beaches each day, some natural and some man made, or should I say, “man discarded”.  They even went so far as to line the paths to the beach with limestone walls.  What a great attention to detail.   We will be back.

Well, perhaps I should head back up on deck to keep an eye on things.  Brenda’s not feeling great as the swells are pretty large so she’s taking a nap and only the autopilot is keeping things moving.   Only another 23nm to go of our 50nm day and we will be in our first Abaco anchorage.   We are very much looking forward to our time in what is called “the Near Bahamas”.

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.