It’s funny how fixated you become when you NEED something.   Well, I decided a month ago that I really NEEDED a haircut.  However, I decided early on that I wasn’t going to have my hair cut just anywhere.   I was waiting to connect with Ida.

Ida?  Who’s that?  Well, I am talking about Ida, Ida of Black Point.  She’d do it. Yes, I know that I am sounding like someone who’s trying to get a date in one of those “fancy-schmancy” (is schmancy a word?) sort of Hollywood Blvd shops where you pay $1,000 for a haircut.  Perhaps with one of those hairstylists that did Bill Clinton’s hair aboard Airforce One.

NO, NO, NO, that’s not it at all.  I am talking about getting my hair done by Ida. THAT’s Blackpoint Ida, the one that everyone who’s anyone goes to in the Exumas.  You know the one, right?  Ida!!!

But Ida is so much more.  She also has the BEST laundromat in the Bahamas, at least according to many who cruise these parts.  And believe me there are some pretty nasty places to “clean” your clothes in the Bahamas.  Ida’s spot is good even when compared to the best.

So, what exactly does Ida do here on Black Point.  Yes, she cuts hair at her shop, which is on a rise overlooking the water.  But Ida is so much more.

Ida is many things to many people.  Let me count the ways.   Yes, Ida cuts hair but she also has a very clean laundromat, serves baked goods and fried conch fritters.  She also has cold drinks as well as key necessities such as outboard engine spark plugs and motor oil.  She even has, and don’t miss this one, PVC plastic pipe fittings.  Go figure.  Ida has EVERYTHING!

Anyway, back to the hair-cutting.  For $10, $15 for women, Ida will cut your hair while you gaze out at the most amazing view you will ever have from a chair while having your hair “done”.  And, the hair cuttings just blow away.  How cool is that?

Me, I had my “experience” yesterday and feel so much better for it.  I have to say that I was beginning to feel like I had a family of small mammals camped on my head, and they were restless.  My hair was WAY overdue.

And, it gets better.  While you get your hair “done” there are even sharks cruising back and forth right out in front of you.  And, I mean the real kind, not the Upper-East-Side sort of sharks you might fear in one of those “tony” salons in NYC.  You know, the women who inhabit the high priced salons that cruise back and forth just waiting to take a bite out of you if your “do” isn’t done just right. No, I mean REAL sharks.

Although perhaps not as scary as the NYC types, they can bite just the same.   This shot of a ray, while not a shark per-se, will give you an idea of what I am talking about.  This baby was over 4′ wide.  An impressive fish.  While Ida was cutting my hair yesterday my laundry was getting done too.  However, I was only doing the “Brenda approved” portion as I was banned years ago from doing the “important” items due to my tendency to dump whites and darks into the same washer.  Yes, yes, I know it’s just not done but I can’t help myself.  It’s just so EASY…

Well, today we are back again for two more loads and Brenda’s in charge this time.   The one I did yesterday was only the sheets and towels, a mix that Brenda felt was “Bob proof”.  The more delicate items and my “better” clothing needs female oversight, according to Brenda.  Oh well, there are worse things for me to be banned from.  Banned from laundry?  YES!!! Works for me.

So, what about the haircut?   Just to prove just what an amazing experience having your hair cut by Ida really is, here’s a shot of a nice lady getting the “Ida treatment” this morning. Here’s what you see if you’re the one getting the cut.

Yes, indeed, it’s a nice spot and as if that’s not enough, you can even use Ida’s free WIFI and that’s a “HOT ITEM” believe me, in the Bahamas.  Wherever there’s free WIFI there are cruisers.  And, when you add great haircuts, conch fritters, laundry, sparkplugs, PVC pipe fittings… Well, you get the picture.

Thanks Ida.

Oops, the laundry needs folding.  I’d better sign off.  Besides, it’s nearly 1:00 and time for lunch.  Conch fritters anyone?  Hmm….

It’s Sunday evening and we are anchored off of an amazingly picturesque island Bitter Guana.  Set directly between two very popular spots, Staniel Cay and Black Point Settlement, this spot features a population of endangered Bahamas Iguanas, not unlike those at Allen Cay, in the northern Exumas.   While the location is only a few miles from these very popular spots, most boats avoid stopping here and just head from Staniel the five miles south to Black Point,  the typical stomping grounds of most cruisers.  

Today we decided to stop here as we were looking forward to some time alone and that’s exactly what we got.  While, just a few miles away in Staniel Cay, there are dozens of boats, here we are totally alone.   It’s very peaceful.  As an added bonus, now that we have discovered it, is that this will be a great spot to bring our son Rob and his girlfriend Kandice when they visit us in the spring.  This spot will be a keeper for sure. This afternoon, a 4’ long stingray took a nap in the shadow of Pandora.   The water is so clear I could easily see the big black shape of the ray.  Really neat.

There is a beautiful beach that was totally empty, with the exception of an enthusiastic community of iguanas.  As an added bonus, there were white limestone cliffs to block the strong wind from the east.  Quite an amazing view from the cockpit.   It’s hard to beat this sort of view.  As an added bonus, this view of “white” comes with a temperature in the 80s instead of 8 degrees like home.   Good to know.In the afternoon I want ashore and stood at the bottom of the white cliffs.  The temperature had to be over 100 degrees as the sun was just baking into the white cliffs and they were acting like a solar oven.  It was amazing how different the temperature was just a few hundred feet away near the water where it was more like 80.  Talk about “microclimates”.I understand that this particular species of iguana is among the most endangered of any lizard in the world.  While they used to be abundant on many islands here, they now number in the hundreds or perhaps dozens.   That’s it.  Not very widespread.   I have been told that the population is doing pretty well and growing, I understand.

This guy was very happy to see me.   Brenda wasn’t so sure she wanted to walk on the beach as the iguanas followed us along as we walked, looking for a handout.   She was very brave and walked anyway.I climbed up to the top of the white cliffs and took a shot of Pandora all alone.  Pretty dramatic.Speaking of dramatic, how about this amazing sunset to cap off the day?  There are plenty of these here in the Bahamas.  We even saw a green flash, again.  Last year we saw only one;  here something like 4 so far. What a perfect end to the day.Oh yea, the shelling is great in the Bahamas.  Yesterday Brenda and I went out near Staniel Cay and had a ball picking up shells.  Here’s our haul from only a few hours of searching.  Tomorrow we will head to Black Point Settlement, a few miles south of here.  We need to do laundry and what is arguably the best laundry in the Bahamas is there.  And, the lady who runs it also cuts hair and I really need a haircut, believe me as it’s been several months.  We also need food as the larder is getting a bit bare.

It’s Friday morning and I couldn’t resist an alliteration title for this post.   So, forgive me. 

Anyway, more to the point, our plan, as noted in yesterday’s post, was to move up to Compass or Cambridge Cays into a spot that would be a bit better protected from these persistantly annoying westerly winds.

So, late morning yesterday we cleaned up Pandora and got everything in the proper place for getting under way.

Brenda and I have a very well worked out procedure for pulling up the anchor that involves hand signals for going forward, backwards, port, starboard, stopping and various combinations of same.   So, yesterday, as we have done thousands of times, we began that process of retrieving the anchor.

As we brought Pandora over the anchor and began to pull it up the final 20 or so feet to the deck, the anchor chain pulled up sharply and stopped dead.   Generally, it takes a bit of pulling to get the anchor free of the bottom, especially after strong winds have caused the anchor to dig in deeply.

As we had a particularly strong squall the prior night, I wasn’t surprised that getting the anchor up was more difficult than normal.  So, I secured the anchor chain and signaled Brenda to power ahead to break out the anchor.   However, instead of Pandora slowing slightly as we rode over the anchor, she stopped dead and the bow dipped down sharply.

The anchor would not budge.  We tried pulling from various directions and nothing, nothing, would break the anchor free.  After a while, a couple from another boat anchored nearby came to offer assistance.  My first thought was to use our “look bucket”, a 5 gallon pail with a clear plastic bottom, to take a look at the anchor to see what it was caught on.  Oddly, the anchor was mostly exposed on the bottom.  It didn’t seem that the anchor could be so stuck.

After a bit more pulling to no avail, I decided to put on my wetsuit and go take a look at the anchor up close.  However, the water was over 20’ deep and deeper than I normally like to go with free diving.    Unfortunately, I didn’t have any choice in the matter and dove on the anchor.

What I found is that the anchor was wedged under a limestone shelf and wasn’t going to come out by pulling on it from the chain alone.

First I tied a line to the back of the anchor so that my helpers could try and pull it out.  Well, that didn’t work very well as the line got tangled in the anchor chain.

I was running out of ideas and finally decided to have Brenda put Pandora in forward to take the tension off of the anchor chain.  Then I dove down on the anchor and was able to brace my feet on the bottom and pull the anchor out from under the ledge by hand.  It worked, anchor free.

I scrambled back aboard Pandora and pulled the anchor up into the secure position on the bow.  However, I immediately saw that the shaft was solidly bent.   Not good.  The anchor wasn’t really usable any longer.

Fortunately, I have a large spare anchor that we use when the winds are going to be really strong and put that on in place of the damaged anchor.

I should note that the damaged anchor weighs 65 lbs and the shank that bent is nearly 1” thick and made from forged steel.  I can’t imagine how much pressure it takes to bend something like this.  And bend it we did.  All the pulling and yanking we did on that anchor pulled the shaft from side to side while the flukes stayed wedged in the bottom, unmoving.

Here’s what it looked like when I got it aboard. I plan on tossing it overboard as soon as I find a new anchor from someone in Georgetown where lots of cruisers congregate.   We should be there sometime in the next week or two.   For now, I figure this one is better than nothing as a spare.

This is yet another reason that we have spares for nearly everything aboard Pandora.  You never know what sort of surprises await.

Wrecked anchor or not, I am really glad that nothing but the anchor was damaged by all the yanking and am happy that Pandora is so solidly built.   The process was more of an ordeal than I would have liked but at least it ended well.   I have also been pretty unhappy with the now damaged anchor, a Bruce, as this type of anchor only works well in sand and mud.  Yes, there’s plenty of sand in the Bahamas but a Bruce doesn’t work well in grass or hard sand, where it just skips along and won’t dig in.  There have been many instances, and several on this trip, where I have had to re-anchor time after time and ultimately wasn’t able to get it to set properly.  All and all, I am not unhappy to be getting a new anchor.

Here’s hoping that there are boats around with anchors to spare.

Today?  Now that we are unstuck, perhaps we’ll head up to Compass after all.

 

It’s Thursday morning and we are still anchored off of Staniel Cay in the Exumas and are “enjoying” a fairly rare westerly wind.  Actually, to say that we are enjoying this is not actually accurate.  This area of the Bahamas is well protected from the prevailing easterlies but are very exposed to the west and when the wind shifts to the west, it gets pretty bumpy, which it is as I write this post.  Brenda doesn’t like bumpy.  

As cold fronts run down the coast of the US, they bring with them “clocking winds” where the normal easterly trade winds give way to winds that clock from the normal east through to the SW, West, NW and then back to the east where they belong.    It’s quite amazing how quickly the seas build from the west as the winds clock.  Just yesterday we were enjoying very calm conditions and following a pretty strong squall last night, the wind has settled into the west and the seas are now causing all the boats in the anchorage to bump up and down.  Even though we are fairly well protected behind a small cay (island), there is still some “wrap around” waves making us a bit uncomfortable.   However, it could be worse.  There is a small boat near us that it really taking it on the chin as they buck up and down.   A while ago they were bucking enough to bury their bow in a particularly steep wave.  Better them than me, or Brenda.  She’d love that.  NOT!

Anyway, our plan for today is to jump out into the Exuma Sound and make a short run up north to a very nice area about 6 miles north of here, Cambridge Cay or Compass Cay, whichever seems more protected.  Happily, in this area there are a number of options to get out of the exposed waves when things come from the west.  As an added bonus, we will be meeting up with our friends Ann and Sandy, old buddies from Norwalk Yacht Club in CT.  Our days at Norwalk Yacht Club seem like another lifetime.  They will be joining us in a few days when other friends join them for a week run back to Ft Lauderdale.    It will be fun to catch up and talk about old times.

One of the nicest parts of the day here in the Bahamas is as we watch the sun set.  This time of day finds many cruisers sitting on the bows of their boats, adult beverage in hand watching the western sky turn all sorts of yellows, reds and blues as the sun sets.   Brenda and I really enjoy this time together.   It’s very serene.  A few days ago, when Christopher was with us, we enjoyed a particularly nice sunset.  We even were treated to a “green flash”.  The green flash is when the last of the sun peaks below the horizon, if you stare at the last point of light it blinks a brilliant green.  I caught it on camera but it doesn’t look nearly as green it appears.  I guess it’s just another example of “you had to be there” and we were. Last evening was a bit more exciting than usual highlighted by a visit from a US Coastguard helicopter.  The distinctive orange and white craft approached our anchorage and proceeded to hover and slowly cruise in a lazy circle for about 45 minutes.  It’s very unusual to see the US Coastguard here in Bahamas waters and to see one so close to Pandora was a real treat.  To say they were close is an understatement.  They were so close that we could see one of the crew standing in the open door on the side of the aircraft.  They hovered so low that the down-wash from their rotors kicked up loads of salt spray.  They couldn’t have been more than a 150 yards from us and less than 200’ off of the water.  Brenda and I waved frantically to get their attention and if they saw us, they didn’t give any indication.  I was hoping that perhaps they would wiggle their rotors or something to say HI!  Oh well.

The light was fading but we were still able to get a great shot of them passing by.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the only helicopter sighting yesterday with this guy circling over Staniel Cay for over an hour.  The sighting was pretty neat but not nearly as impressive a sight as the USCG helicopter but very interesting never-the-less.Staniel Cay is one of the more popular islands in the Exumas and has been the location for the filming of a number of movies over the years.  Perhaps the most famous is the James Bond movie “Thunderball”, that was filmed here way back in the mid 60s.   A particularly memorable scene was filmed in an underwater cave, or grotto, nearby.  This site is still a very popular snorkeling spot.  Actually, we are anchored just east of what is now known as “Thunderball grotto”.  It’s pretty neat.  At low tide you can swim into the grotto and there, lit by sun streaming in from a hole above, is an amazing cave full of colorful fish.

Another really interesting feature here and elsewhere in the Bahamas is an occasional breadfruit tree.  These stately trees are prized for their starchy fruit.  This particular breadfruit tree is a descendant of those brought to the new world by Captain Blye himself aboard the HMS Bounty.  Blye was made famous by the mutiny aboard his ship.  That story itself has been made into many movies over the years.

In spite of the trials of Blye and his shipmates, descendants of the breadfruit tree seedlings he was carrying from the Pacific islands made their way to the Bahamas.    Here is a photo of one of the larger breadfruit trees on Staniel.This is a shot of a not quite mature breadfruit.  I understand that the fruit tastes a bit like a potato when cooked.  The Breadfruit was envisioned as an inexpensive source of food for the slave population in the Caribbean.    I don’t know if Breadfruit is eaten by the Bahamians these days.There aren’t many buildings of note on these islands but the local church, most often Baptist, generally are well supported by the locals.  With only about 50 full time residents living on Staniel, clearly a lot of attention is paid to keeping the building in perfect condition.  This church on Staniel is one of the nicer we have seen.Yesterday I went for a walk on the eastern side of Staniel on one of the many beautiful beaches.  This beach was about a mile long and I had it all to myself.   I was very impressed with the sandstone outcroppings that ran to the sea.Over the centuries the Bahamas Banks were alternately flooded and exposed as subsequent ice ages tied up large amounts of water in glaciers up in the higher latitudes.  As the banks here were exposed to the wind, huge sand dunes were built up.   As rain fell, minerals in the sand leached down through the sand and hardened the dunes into sandstone.   As the glaciers receded and the sea levels rose, the ocean carved the stone into fanciful shapes.  Here’s a good examplesof the evolving landscape.  It’s pretty dramatic.As I finish this post the westerly winds are subsiding a bit so I expect we will head north a short distance as planned.  Happily, it’s another sunny and beautiful day here in paradise.  It sure beats snow, in my book.

It’s been nice visiting Staniel and it’s not hard to understand how this spot has been popular for so many years.

It’s Tuesday afternoon and Brenda and I are taking it easy aboard Pandora after ten days with Christopher aboard.  It was great having him with us and hearing all about his trip to Thailand but having three aboard a vessel the size of Pandora and moving the boat nearly every day to a new spot tired us out.    I guess we are getting old or perhaps soft from winters in the tropics.  Whatever the cause, I’m tired.

So what’s on the agenda?  Here’s Brenda winding a ball of yarn for a tapestry she’s working on.  Not too strenuous.  That’l do for today.  Not a bad backdrop.It was great having Christopher with us.  For the first two days of his visit he slept about half the time.  That’s what 80 hours of traveling will do to you, even if you’re in your 20s.  Actually, for those two days, I think he slept more than he was awake.  Now that he’s gone, perhaps I’ll do the same.  Did I say that I was feeling a bit tired?  Thought so.

Today Christopher flew out of Staniel Cay on a small plane that left around 8:45.  I had booked the flight online last week and was a bit apprehensive that something might go wrong with the reservation.   Alas, all went just fine.    Here’s the “waiting room” at the Staniel Cay airport.  Chris’s flight was just to Nassau but this is also an international airport as some charters come in from Miami.   I wonder who the architect was?  Never mind.

After a bit the “gate agent” arrived to check in the passengers.  Not to fancy.   No security checkpoint here, it would seem.Finally, the airplane arrived.  My brother Bill hates to fly. I’ll bet he’d take one look at this “toy plane” and would opt to swim to Nassau.

Not a big plane, that’s for sure.  Chris mugging at “his” plane.  I wonder if someday he will actually have one of his own?   Hmm…Of course, no departure is complete without a going away shot of the “traveler” from his Mother.   It was a bittersweet good by as we probably won’t see him till June.      So, where’s Christopher going now?  Today he flies to Houston for a visit.  Then on to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a visit with some college buds.   After that, to Baltimore to see his brother Rob and then on to Providence RI.   He may cap this off with a visit to San Francisco for a month of work and networking with the computer set out there.

Whew… I am getting tired just thinking about all that travel. Me?  Perhaps it’s time for a nap.