It’s Thursday evening and we are still here at Great Harbor Cay Marina in the Berry Islands.  Currently between Cold Fronts, we are enjoying a few days of light winds.  It’s amazing how quickly things change when a front comes through, the wind picks up and the temperature drops 20 degrees in a few hours.  And no, I won’t talk about the “before and after” temperatures as it will just piss off my “northern” friends.  Did you know that you can wear socks with sandals?

Today we changed slips here in the marina so that we wouldn’t be so exposed to the winds when the next front comes through.   Now that we are in the “inner harbor” the WIFI is much better, which is nice.   It’s actually strong enough to make some calls on WIFI to avoid toll charges.  That’s a good thing as we will soon be leaving here and probably won’t have WIFI strong enough for the rest of the trip for that sort of luxury.   I had quite an audience as I backed into what seemed like an impossibly tight slip between a sailboat to port and cruiser to starboard.  Not a hitch.  Go me.  I won’t talk about how much a bow thruster helped.   Big tide, about 4′, nearly twice what’s normal. Pandora looking very low on the dock. Quite a few boats left the marina today to take advantage of the good weather and moderate winds and head south to the Exumas.  We opted to wait until after the next front comes through, perhaps on Tuesday or Wednesday to begin our run.

In spite of the delays so far, I expect that we will still probably head to Cuba by the first week of March.  Let’s hope that the weather cooperates.   Actually, if we can’t enter Cuban waters by around March 4th or so, we will have to re-apply to the USCG for yet another permit.   The one we have now is only valid if we leave the Bahamas between February 28th and the beginning of the first week of March a five day window.  In order to change the dates we will have to reapply and do so at least two weeks in advance of our departure.  And I need to know when I am leaving at least two weeks in advance, as that’s how long it takes the “new” permit to make it through the system.  Talk about red tape.

Anyway, for now, we still hope to visit Cuba.  However, with all of the strong cold fronts, we will have to see if the weather conspires against us.  Details to come, I guess.

Yesterday was such a windy day that a group in the marina opted for a “craft project”.   Hey, want to make a coconut fish?  Hmm… I can’t say that I have ever given it much thought.  Ok, why not…

It will come as no surprise that you begin with a coconut.  Someone actually asked “where can I get a coconut?”  Answer:  Under a coconut tree.  Good tip. Here’s a shot of some of the “crafters” hard at work.  The whole process brought back memories of grammar school, or a nursing home to be completely honest.   Actually, I am a lot closer to the latter than former.  Sad but true.  I don’t know if I should be depressed or happy with the image of myself with brush in hand crafting a fish out of a coconut.  It was actually fun and I can say with confidence that, unlike some of my earliest craft experiences, nobody cried and I am pretty confident that there was very little hair pulling or biting.  Pretty mature, wouldn’t you say?  Not surprising as most everyone involved was “very grown up” with an emphasis on the “VERY”.

“So, how long does it take to make a coconut fish Bob?”   Actually, it took about five hours, including a lunch break.  The “break” was prophylactic in hopes that my blood sugar wouldn’t drop so low that I’d revert to the sort of behavior that I was inclined to the last time I was painting a “project” on a picnic table.  And, I was the last to be done and as the organizers were cleaning up around me I became very anxious that there was a real risk that they’d take my favorite colors and my “special” brush.  “Don’t touch my paints!!!”   However, I kept my cool through it all.  So, not bad for a “tween” crafter.   ie:  Not in child day care or a nursing home. You know “tween” the “highs and lows” of craft age.    It was fun.  You might say that I was able to get in touch with my “inner guppy”.    “Bob, Bob, that was so lame.”
Brenda’s also being quite creative and has been doing some projects of her own although with a more “adult” bent.  In particular, she warped up one of her tapestry looms with a new project that will undoubtedly keep herself busy for longer than we will be aboard this season.  Check out her post to learn more.    She has also been doing some tatting.   Wondering what in Hell “tatting” is?   You’ll have to follow her blog in the next few days to find out for yourself. It’s good to have her feeling creative and happy.   Happy wife, happy life.

On a completely different topic.  We had some excitement today when a family of manatees showed up to “play” off of Pandora’s transom.   Did you know that manatees love having a hose sprayed on them and will hang around and drink their fill of the “sweet” water.   Just how cute is that?Mother and cub sharing a drink of fresh water.They also love the feeling of having water sprayed on their tummies and roll over to get the full effect.   Bliss…After a while my fridge cycled and they were attracted to the water coming out of the transom.  Surprise!  Not fresh. Mom smiling for the camera.   So adorable, especially for a 1,000 lb big girl. How about a short video of the pair that I took today too?I also took a photo of an oddly shaped fish near one of the pilings in the marina. The photo doesn’t show how neat the coloring was.  The fish just hung there.   Brown with bright blue spots. Crazy looking. But wait, there’s more.  Brenda and I went for a walk to the grocery.  We even got a head of lettuce, one of only four left and the mailboat just came yesterday.

I thought that this snail on a palm frond made for an interesting pattern. Well, that’s about enough excitement for one day here on Great Harbor Cay. Perhaps I’ll close with last night’s sunset.  So, there you have it, a post with a coconut fish, a real fish, a snail, a family of hose sipping manatees, some “boss” boat handling, a great sunset and a happy wife.  And best of all, no hair pulling or biting.  I just love this place.

It’s Monday morning here in Great Harbor Cay and there is a lot less wind than yesterday.  A front came through early yesterday morning and with it came sustained 25-30kts of wind out of the west and northwest.  While Pandora is tied up to a dock in a protected harbor, we are on the most exposed slip and with a 1/4 mile fetch behind us, the wind kept us straining at the dock all day long.  The wind was humming in the rigging, no make that full throated singing, all day long and I worried that we might chafe through one or more of our lines.   I see from the weather report that a repeat performance is in the cards for Tuesday so we had better enjoy today’s lighter winds.
Yesterday’s front was a particularly strong one and added some extra “excitement” to yet another challenging weather season here in the Bahamas.  Our friends Maureen and Bill, who are in the Caribbean say that this as additional evidence that we should just give up on the Bahamas and take Pandora further south to the Caribbean were the winds are much more consistent and fronts are not as threatening.  I guess we will just have to see what the future brings.

Our thoughts have begun to turn toward when we will be leaving Great Harbor Cay Marina to head south to the Exumas, the central Bahamas.  Brenda and I have been invited to visit Over Yonder Cay again, the private island that we visited two years ago and we want to be sure that we leave plenty of time to fit that in on our way south.

I expect that we will leave here next weekend or so after our two week stay is up here at the Great Harbor Cay Marina and head to Nassau to re-provision and then jump down to Over Yonder Cay.   With all the fronts that have been coming through, it would be nice to time our arrival when another front is forecast to take advantage of the perfect protection that OYC’s private harbor provides.  Our friends, Ethan and Jamie, who work on the island, have a new baby boy so it will be very nice to see their growing family.  Of course, Diesel their dog is a draw too.

One big part of coming to the Bahamas is preparing for the much more limited provisioning options available, especially in the out islands.   Everything that comes here arrives by “mail boat” that stops once a week.  In the case of Great Harbor Cay, that’s on Wednesdays, weather permitting.

Living in the U.S., we have become accustomed to near instant availability of most any consumer item one could wish for so a visit to the market in the Bahamas can be a sobering experience.  No Amazon Prime in these parts.

This is the local market, liquor store and bar all wrapped up into one.  Not exactly a Walmart Superstore.The selection of produce.  Let’s just say it’s somewhat limited.  This is the entire produce section in the market with the exception of a few items kept in the fridge, such as lettuce.  I think that they had four heads of romaine, actually. How about the refrigerated section?  Lot’s of eggs, butter and oddly, Snapple.
Interestingly, as a past British Colony, some of the most reasonably priced items are biscuits from the U.K. and most places carry a pretty good selection.  Don’t plan on buying cereal as it’s about $10 per box.  PopTarts?  Try $8 a box.  There is a 40% duty on imported goods and a new 15% VAT on top of the cost of shipping the items in.  There’s no income tax though.  I wonder how many accountants there are in the Bahamas.  Not many, I expect. Wednesday night is pizza night at the marina and this is what a $30 calzone looks like.   However, $30 or not, it fed us for three meals.  After finishing off the calzone on the third day, Brenda and I needed a walk., several actually.  Along the way we crossed a bridge.  The water is beautiful where it runs under the road.  This is the view toward the mangroves.  Because of the rushing water it’s scoured out quite deep near the bridge.You can’t tell from here but on the other side of the bridge the current really rips.Today we plan to head to the beach and lunch at the beachside cafe.  Like most every other place here, the menu is pretty limited.  However, they do make a mean hamburger. And, the view of the ocean there is terrific.

And that’s my report.

It’s Saturday morning and today marks the one week point since I arrived here from Ft Lauderdale.  I am making special note of this milestone as it’s hard for me to sit still for very long and I have been here for a while now and there is no end insight.  It’s not like me to stay put as I have a reputation of NEVER SITTING STILL, FOR EVEN A MINUTE!   There you are. I HAD to say it.  “Bob, no need to say it, we already knew! Relax. Down boy, down boy!”

Poor Brenda wakes up each morning to an onslaught from me that has much in common with Tigger from Winnie the Poo.  And that’s before she has had a cup of coffee.

Me?  I like to get up and go.  And, that’s why I am struggling to stay put after a whole week.  And, that’s on top of being in Ft Lauderdale for two weeks before crossing over to the Bahamas.  TWO WEEKS in one place.

Now that we are here all I can think of is where are we going to go next and what are we going to do while we are here.  “Brenda, want to go for a walk?  How about a trip to the grocery?  Want to go to the beach?  Let’s walk down the dock?  What?  You want to enjoy your coffee first?  Oh yeah, you just got up.  Ok, we’ll wait a while.  WHEN do you want to go for a walk?  TODAY?”   Besides, I have already had coffee…two cups.   “Want to go for a walk?”

Brenda is very supportive of my blog and I sometimes find myself wondering if it’s because it takes me quite a while to write post and that gives her some peace for a little while at least.  “Bob, it’s been a few days since you have written in your blog.”  Hmm…

“Brenda, want to go for a walk?”

As I said, I have been here for a week and the weather has been just about everything we could imagine during that time, short of a hurricane.  It’s been fabulously sunny, torrential rain, overcast, dead calm and windy.  Yesterday Brenda and I headed out to empty the holding tanks (you don’t poop in your nest).  We left the harbor and headed over the banks for a few miles.  Along the way, a pod of dolphins visited.  It was just great.  They cavorted on our bow pressure wave for a bit and then disappeared as quickly as they came.  I find them endlessly entertaining.  As quickly as they arrived, they were gone. The harbor where we are staying is very protected, which is good as most anchorages in the Bahamas are open to the west which means that you have to move and find shelter when a front comes through with it’s clocking winds.   A particularly strong front is coming our way and will bring several days of west wind.  That’s not common as most fronts only bring west winds for a short time and this one will last several days.  It’s good to be here with 360 protection.

The only entrance to this harbor was carved out of the limestone. It’s very narrow and about 15′ deep.  It’s pretty daunting to approach it as it is so tight.  If it weren’t for the waypoint to steer for on the Explorer Charts and the welcome sign at the entrance, you’d never find your way in.  Yes, there’s a marker but it’s tough to see unless you are quite close to the cut.   A couple from another boat in the marina were surveying the cut when we arrived.  “Smile for the camera.”  Not hard to do at Great Harbor Cay, that’s for sure. There are plenty of activities here and on Monday nights the folks in the marina have a “drink and drift” where everyone ties their dinks together out in the harbor and float around.  More than a dozen participated with us.  It’s a nice way to get to know the folks on other boats.

They also organize outings and there was a tour through the mangroves and a run down to the other end of the island, about 2 miles away.   Quite a few boats participated.
We wound our way through impossibly narrow passages in the mangroves that led to a beautiful section of shallows on the other side of the island. Everyone stopped for some beach time.  There were a lot of dogs in attendance and they seemed to love their time in the water together.   Dogs are very popular with cruisers but most/all of the canines aboard are of the “mighty dog” sort.  Large of bark but small of stature.   However, from my perspective, small or large they track plenty of sand aboard. Yuck.  When a front comes through, along with nasty winds, they usually bring amazing sunrises.  You know, the whole “red sky in morning, sailor take warning” thing.  And this, front inspired, sunrise that arrived in Ft Lauderdale just before Bill and I crossed was quite a sight.   .
And, speaking of Ft Lauderdale, some of the boats that we saw there were pretty impressive.  Remember the pilot boat that stopped to compliment me on Pandora in Ft Lauderdale harbor?  He passed us again as we were making our way out of the inlet to cross.  I like the lines on these “all weather” boats. Very solid. I also saw a boat that Brenda and I had raced against in the Newport Bucket Regatta a while back aboard the megayacht Marie. P2 is a remarkable yacht.  She handily won the three day series.    She was built of carbon fiber in Italy in 2008 and was recently for sale.  The asking price?  A tad under $10,000,000. Too late, she was sold in early 2016.  However, you can probably still charter her with 9 of your closest friends.  All boats in Ft Lauderdale aren’t HUGE.  This lovely cruiser turned my head.  Although not quite quickly enough to get a close up shot of her.  I love the raised bow. Well, the day isn’t getting any younger and I had better get going.   Besides, I really hate sitting around.

“Brenda…  Want to go for a walk?”  Wait, she’s still in her jammies.  “Can I help you pick out something to wear?  I want to go for a walk.”  I won’t repeat her reply.

Oh well, perhaps we can go for a walk later.    I guess sometimes I have to resign myself to sitting for a while longer.   (look of sad resignation comes over his face).  Perhaps that will convince Brenda to “get the lead out”.   No so far…

It’s not that bad.  We are in the Bahamas.  No snow here.

It’s Thursday afternoon and Brenda has returned from her visit home and is with me on Pandora.  I am so glad to have her back.  It was great fun having Bill aboard but I missed Brenda terribly.

Brenda made all of her connections yesterday and arrived on the shuttle from Nassau around 5:00 in the evening.   I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed as I saw her plane in the distance as it lined up to make it’s landing.  And, what a thrill it was to see her step off of the plane.  You’d have tought that she had been away for months.  I was important that she be with her friend during this difficult time but it’s going to be while until she decompresses and settles into a routine aboard Pandora.

We like the Great Harbor Cay Marina so much that we have extended our visit for a full month.  I doubt that we will actually stay here for all that time but I wanted to be sure that we had that option.  Happily, Brenda has already declared “I have waited my whole life to visit this spot. It’s my new favorite place in the Bahamas.   I am never leaving, ever.”  I guess that makes me look pretty smart.  Yes, I am goin’ with that.

On our way south, later in the month I expect, we will be visiting Over Yonder Cay, one of our “other  most favorite places”.  It’s a private island that we were invited to visit the last time that we were here in the Bahamas based on a blog post that I had written several years ago. The owner Ed, is a remarkable guy and has assembled an amazing mix of estates, vintage warbirds and yachts.  The islands manager, Ethan, contacted me yesterday to let me know that he and his wife welcomed their first son back in December.  When Brenda and I visited there two years ago, Ethan and Jaime were engaged to be married.  I guess that a lot has happened since then. I wrote about our visit in this post.

I can assure you that Over Yonder Cay is a totally different kettle of fish and it ought to be given it’s rental price of $65,000 per day. Yes, per day.  I’d say that Great Harbor Cay marina is more in our league and it’s really fun to be here.   And I am just so thrilled to find out that Brenda agrees.

The history of this island is similar to many other islands in the Bahamas with the story of big development that has come and gone. Back in the 60s this island was a hopping place with a resort that was frequented by the likes of Brigitt Bardot and Cary Grant, just to name two that visited regularly.  The resort is now in ruins.  This is how it looked at it’s peak. In the left of the photo above, you can see a walkway over the road. Here’s what it looks like after all these years.  I walked around in the “club house” today and took some photos. I could almost hear the laughter from the lobby bar. I expect that this kitchen prepared some magnificent meals.There was once a wonderful 18 hole golf course.  Today you can still play 9 of the holes although the “rough” is all that, and more. The grand entrance.   No longer looking so grand but it doesn’t take much of an imagaination to “see” what it once was.Nice archway opposite the “grand entrance” staircase.The marina where Pandora will be for about two weeks is just lovely and was built to serve the resort.  Happily it is just terrific. Hans, the manager who’s been here for many years has done a spectacular job of improving the place.  It’s wonderful and a good value.  If you are looking for a nice spot to visit in the Bahamas and want to take a break from  being “on the hook”, this is the spot.

The view from Pandora’s bow.There will be plenty more to say about this spot so stay tuned.   I guess it’s time for me to do a bit of bottom scrubbing.  I wonder if one of the resident manatees will pay me a visit while I am hard at work.  Better that then a bull shark. Fingers crossed.

It’s been a long journey trying to find our way to the Bahamas.  We spent a month in Florida, a good amount of that time waiting for a proper weather window to make the crossing.  But, Pandora is now safe and sound here at Great Harbor Key in the Berry Islands. This island was once famous for attracting well known guests from the Hollywood but now that building is in ruins.  It’s located just outside of the marina.  Bill and I walked by it yesterday.   Bill, flew down to Ft Lauderdale on short notice last week to make the run with me to the Bahamas.  We departed from the Middle River on Saturday to take advantage of a several days of light easterly winds.   Getting from FL to the Bahamas can be a “waiting game” unless you are what Chris Parker, the Weather router, calls “salty”.  Crossing to the Bahamas, against the easterly trades, the normal wind direction, for most folks means motoring into the light easterlies that usually follow the passage of a cold front.  This is about the only time that they winds settle down for a few days.   Alternatively, you can “ride a front”, This involves crossing as the winds begin to clock to the SW ahead of the front.   As the winds clock, they veer to the West, NW, North and ultimately back to east.  Properly times, you can sail all of the way.  This can be challenging, however, if the front ends up moving faster than expected and you can easily find yourself in the middle of the Gulf Stream with very rough conditions.  A northerly wind blowing against the GS kicks up short steep waves over 10′ and it can happen very quickly.  These conditions aren’t fun so most tend to head out when the wind is light and settled from the east.

With that in mind, we left as the wind was dropping and motored all the way here, around twenty hours.  The Gulf Stream was a “non-event” with swells of about 4′ but spaced quite far apart.   Crossing the banks, which are shallow, somewhere between 15; and 25′ deep, was a little choppy but Pandora did fine motoring into them.   As the sun set to the west we were treated to a spectacular sunset.  And, until the moon rose around midnight, the stars were amazing.  For some time now, I had been noticing that a small amount of salt water had been finding it’s way into the pan under the engine and after about 8 hours of motoring I was distressed to find that there was a few cups of water sloshing around in the pan.  Bill, who is very good with mechanical stuff, took a look and discovered that the tube on the vacuum break for the exhaust was dripping.  This isn’t a major problem, although it shouldn’t be happening.  Solution? He relocated the hose to drip into a part of the bilge that drains to the bilge pump.  Problem solved!

I had been trying to identify where that leak was coming from for weeks, with no luck. Great job Bill!   The elbow has a check valve that appears to have failed causing a slow drip.  Fortunately, it’s not a big deal but it has to be replaced in the spring.   This is quite good news as I was fearful that the problem was much worse.  The leak has probably been there for years given evidence of some rusty spots on the engine.

By the time we arrived at Great Harbor Cay yesterday it was early morning and we anchored outside of the cut that goes into the marina.  I hailed the marina and they had us come into the dock to clear customs.  The two officers that came out to do our paperwork couldn’t have been nicer.  All settled and legal now.  It’s good to be here at last. 

Great Harbor Cay Marina is very nice and after sitting at the dock for a few hours waiting for customs to arrive, I got to wondering if I should just sign up to stay for a few weeks after all.  Brenda and I had been planning to be here for ann extended visit and had booked a reservation months ago only to change it several times as weather delays kept us in Florida.

When Brenda had to fly out last week for a funeral of the son of her very oldest friend, we both felt that perhaps a stay at the marina wasn’t in the cards and I reluctantly canceled it.   However, after speaking with Brenda yesterday and hearing how exhausted she sounded, after such a difficult visit, I decided to try and re-book our stay.  The marina is completely full but happily, with a bit of shuffling, Kimberly, the dock master,  was able to accommodate us.

Brenda flies into Nassau on Wednesday and I have arranged for her to to Great Harbor Cay, a 15 minute flight.  The connection is very tight as she has to make here way through Customs and get her luggage in Nassau before heading to the “puddle jumper” flight.  I hope she makes it.  If not, she can stay in a hotel for a night and fly in the next morning.

As Bill and I were sitting in the cockpit last evening enjoying the comings and goings in the marina, a small runabout came by loaded, and I mean loaded, with lobsters and fish.   The fishermen moved their catch to the dock to clean and sell what they had and they had plenty.   Bill and I just had to have lobster for dinner.  I think that we picked the three on the left, you know, the second, third and fifth from the top center.  No wait, perhaps they were the 17th, 31st and 38th from the right?  Not certain.  Which ever they were…they were excellent. With all the changes I have had to make,  the staff here at the Great Harbor Cay Marina have been very understanding.  They happily do everything that they can to help out.   Last night they even called the “liquor store” for me to check and be sure that they had coconut rum before I rode a bike over there.   I put “liquor store” in quotes because it’s a relative term.  In reality, it’s a bar, grocery store, pool hall and liquor store all rolled up in one with the “liquor store” selling what they have stored under the bar itself.  I expect that the locals get a better price than I did.  However, I did get the rum.

I will see Brenda in a few days and I am excited.  Bill has been great company but I have missed Brenda and it’s been tough having her away.  I expect that she will need some time to decompress from her trying week but hopefully being in the sunny Bahamas and enjoying the friendly smiles of the locals will help her get into the “Island spirit”.  Perhaps an “adult beverage” will help too.  Yes, I expect that it will.

This is very friendly place indeed.  Perhaps this sign at the entrance to the airport says it best.   “Please Come Back Again. (OK?)”.  And yes, “OK” it is.   No, make that “Plenty OK Mon!”

Brenda… See you soon.  🙂