It’s Monday and we are enjoying our 6^th day at the marina at Rum Cay.  Perhaps the most puzzling fact of all is that we haven’t really done much since arriving except enjoy the marina, sit aboard Pandora and go for a few walks.  Perhaps I am finally getting into the “cruising ting” where there’s always tomorrow to do what you don’t want to tackle today.  One thing that I need to tackle is the persistent water leak in the pressure water system. I have torn the boat all apart and can’t find it.  Very frustrating. Ugh…

This is a view of the marina from one of the surrounding “hills”. You can see that this harbor was carved out of the coral rock.  Pandora is the one with the double head stay. That large sand dune is a result of the ongoing attempt to keep the channel open which fills in after each major storm.Friday was an action packed day here in Rum Cay when the weekly mail boat came to the island.  The boat, perhaps better described as a small tramp freighter, visits the island about once a week from Nassau.  Pretty much anything that comes to the island comes on that boat.  That includes groceries which are sold at one of the two “grocery” stores including my favorite The Last Chance Grocery.   This “grocery” is really more of a small cute shack and the selection is limited, at best. Based on the selection we saw when we visited prior to the mail boat’s arrival, we had clearly missed our last chance for fresh produce.  

There isn’t a very protected harbor that can accommodate the mail boat so the government maintains a pier that juts out from the “town”.  It’s pretty heavily built and in spite of that is often destroyed during hurricanes.  I understand that the pier was heavily damaged by Sandy and was recently rebuilt. 

The arrival of the mail boat is a major social event with just about everyone on the island coming down to greet it.  As you can see, “boat” may be a better a better description than ship.  Having said that, it’s pretty heavy and when they came up alongside the pier, they gave it a pretty hefty nudge that made the pier shift several inches under my feet.   I just had to be in the thick of it and walked out onto the pier for its arrival along with everyone else.The mail boat includes a freezer and refrigerated section as well as a cargo hold down below in the bow.  There is a crane on deck that lifts out pallets of goods all wrapped up with the name of the recipient stamped on a label.  The boat also takes passengers who boarded the boat on Wednesday night for the 36 hour passage. Things move slowly here in the Bahamas and the cost of passage on the ship is a lot less than a flight by plane, if you could get one to come here at all.It’s amazing to see all of the goods that come ashore including major appliances.  I doubt that freight costs he can compete with trucking in the US however, where else would you have the opportunity to take delivery of a washer or dryer with a salt film all over it?   Rum Cay, that’s one place, for sure.  We were particularly amused by the package of dry cleaning picked up by the local police officer.   His vehicle is one of the nicest on the island.    We had been wondering about his perfectly pressed uniform. 

Here’s the goods that were destined for Last Chance Grocery unloading.  So, what’s with the coconut palm babies on the truck?  Sort of seems like selling ice to Eskimos.  We learned that the owner, a women, takes the goods into her store and gets everything into place only to open for business the following day at noon.  I expect that the delay is more about crowd control and less about taking inventory.  I expect that there will be quite a mob waiting when she opened up on Saturday at the magic hour.  And, the famous Last Chance Grocery being stocked with the latest “imports”. When Brenda and I walked the mile into town we spied this osprey who gave us a great show as he flew off.  I wonder if they commute from Essex to here?  Hmm…Another highlight of perhaps better described as a “grand finale” of the day was the party celebrating the marina owner Bobby’s birthday.  Bobby has lived here off and on much of his life and has been here full time since the mid 80s.  As such a central figure here, Bobby’s birthday was cause for quite a celebration.  Bobby ordered in a mess of ribs and cooked them on the grill for everyone in attendance.

Some of the visiting fisherman had a good day of spear fishing and brought in two terrific lobsters, a 20lb Nassau Grouper, some smaller fish and a good size octopus.  We were going to contribute a pork tenderloin but there was so much food that it was politely declined.  However, Brenda’s onion foccacia bread was much appreciated and didn’t even last until dinner was served.

The birthday boy, Bobby thinking about how to prepare the octopus for the grill.   And, a really fresh octopus isn’t something that shows up in our Essex kitchen often.Bobby and others in the kitchen preparing the feast.

How about those lobster tails?  Just a few hours earlier they were in the deep blue.

We enjoyed meeting some of the locals. Anyone who’s anyone in Rum Cay, it seemed, was there.  What fun.One of Brenda’s new friends.  We weren’t the only ones hanging around the kitchen looking for handouts, and getting them.

The dining room is in what was once a restaurant that closed after one of the hurricanes a few years back.  Pretty eclectic decorating.  Works for me and looks totally in sync with the feel of this place.Everyone contributed something including this load of drift wood for the after dinner bonfire collected by one of the visiting boaters. Prior to cocktails and dinner in the dining room, we were treated to a fabulous sunset, one of the best so far.  All and all, a banner day. So, what next?   We have a rental golf cart, a sort of mini off-road cart, for two days and I hope to do a bit of deep sea fishing on one of the local boats in the next day or so.  We were going to head to Long Island on Tuesday as it’s the only weather window for much of the next week.  However…

We feel that we haven’t yet done enough here so we have decided to stay another week.  As someone probably once said,  “relax, don’t worry. Tomorrow is another day in paradise”.    So, what’s the rush, indeed.

 

As I sit here working on this post, I am in the offices of a BATELCO “store” here on Rum Cay.  To say that this is a remote outpost doesn’t begin to make the point.   We hitched a ride on a golf cart to get here as the marina we are visiting is over a mile from this spot.   We paid our $5 to use the service and are rushing to be done prior to the time running out.  Hopefully, a Bahamas half hour is longer than a New York half hour.  I expect that it is.   One good thing is that their offices, and there are spots on all the major islands, are well air conditioned, something that you see little of here in the islands.    Yes, it’s been a while since my last post but getting time on the Internet here is tough.

After several weeks in George Town Brenda and I were ready for a fix of “real” Bahamas life.  After leaving George Town we headed over to Calabash Bay, on the northern tip of Long Island.  The spot was very pretty with a great beach.   It was fun to actually sail again after weeks of sitting around and to do so over water that was a deep indigo blue with shallow reefs everywhere.   Piloting around all of this is a challenge.  Thank goodness for great charts. 

After Calabash Bay we headed out to Conception Island, a National Trust Park and as unspoiled as most any spot in the Bahamas.   The water was so clear that I believe the visibility was about 100′.  

This is our dink when viewed from a less common angle.  That’s clear.  As soon as we dropped anchor in nearly 20′ of water I looked over the side to see a school of fish swimming by followed by a ray and then a large puffer fish that was looking for a handout.  It was like Wild Kingdom.  What a spot.   Speaking of less common views.  How about this one of Pandora.  While it doesn’t show here, I could see the anchor chain and anchor from here.The crescent beach was nearly two miles long and was an unbroken snow white sort that you dream about.The snorkeling was great too and I was thrilled to swim with my first nurse shark, I guess about 4′ long.There are loads of fish on the reefs.  It’s great fun taking photos although they never look as good as the real thing.  The colors are more vivid than the photos show.The scenery was quite dramatic with great white cliffs around much of the island.

I scaled up onto one and had my picture taken by a friend.Brenda opted to stay on board that morning as it was pretty rough getting onto the beach from the dink.  With a moderate surf running onto the beach you had to time your arrival so that a wave swept you onto the beach and left the dink dry while you scramble out and move it higher before the next wave rolled in. Getting back out was a bit of a trick as you pushed out between waves with the hope of avoiding one filling the dink with water.

There was the remains of an old ship wreck and all that was in evidence was a massive anchor windlass and loads of iron fittings piled into great rusting heaps on the shore.I’d guess that it was a wooden steamer based on the shape of some of the iron and one that looked like a great drive shaft.   I can only imagine what it must have been like to be wrecked on this island.  The harbor is only protected from east winds.  Any other direction and it could be downright dangerous. 

When we arrived the weather was about perfect allowing us to sail from Long Island.  There were about 20 boats anchored in the bay and someone went from boat to boat and arranged a BYOB cocktail party on the beach.  It was fun to bring the dink onto the beach with nearly 20 others to meet and compare stories.   Two days later every boat left and we were nearly the last to leave as the forecast wasn’t a good one for such an exposed anchorage.  

One evening we were invited aboard a massive cat, nearly 80′ long for cocktails.  The owners were very gracious and told us all about Rum Cay, a place that I had wanted to visit for a while.  This is a really big boat.  Just one of the hulls could swallow up Pandora and one of her sister ships. Since we have arrived in the Bahamas we have been able to time our trips with the winds and avoid long motor passages.   With pretty nasty weather in the forecast for later this week we had to find a harbor with protection from north west winds, something that is not common in these waters where most harbors are wide open from that direction. 

We decided that our best option was Rum Cay, another remote outpost and although it was a nearly 20 mile motor into the wind it was our best option to ride out the coming strong winds.  There is only one harbor on the island of several hundred residents.   It is really remote and the grocery, such as it is, is  a one room shanty with a very limited supply of provisions.  When I visited they had zero fresh food and only a handful of canned goods.   The mail boat with provisions only visits once a week and that day had come and gone with all fresh food selling out in a single day. 

The only marina on the island was badly damaged hurricane by Sandy and has not officially reopened.  However, the docks are in good enough shape to use if you can wind your way through the coral heads and get into the channel.  If you make it that far you had better be there near high tide as the hurricane silted in the channel so that there is only enough water to get into the harbor at near high water.  When we arrived the place was packed and the only slip left didn’t have enough water for us to float at low tide.  We went in anyway and when it was low tide about 18′ of our bottom was showing above the water and we were standing on our keel which supported the entire boat.Yesterday a bunch of boat left and we moved to a better spot with adequate water to float us all the time.  That’s better. 

As the marina is not up to snuff you can stay there for free as long as you like and the local “owner” Bobby, will sell you water, ice or a place to take a shower.  He’s also an artist and carves sculptures out of coral and other natural items.There is also a kitchen from the old, now closed, restaurant that is available for cruisers to stage their own potluck meals.  It’s a pretty building with a great view.Someone that we met prior to coming here described this marina as a “jungle marina”, not far from true. There is no staff to speak of and any time you enter the marina the other cruisers help out with lines.  There is usually some wind at the entrance so it’s a bit tricky on the way in.  It’s good to have a few extra sets of helping hands at the ready.  And, along with the hands are plenty of docking “advice”.  Happily, the group is good natured as nearly everyone has a tough time at one point or the other with the docking. As this place is so off of the beaten path, a fishing charter is very good with a seemingly endless supply of lobster and fish to spear on the nearby reefs.   And with fish come sharks who show up each evening in the marina for handouts from the fish cleaning station. 

This is a small harbor and certainly not one where you would want to dip in your feet.  Not 50′ from Pandora this scene took place the other evening.There were 7 sharks including a number of nurse sharks and lemon sharks, some in the 8′ range looking for a handout. 

I was also told that bull sharks are common here.  While nurse sharks are harmless, the lemon and bull sharks bite plenty so you want to be sure to stay away from them. The cruisers who were feeding them made quite a sport out of it by tying a fish head to a rope and teasing the sharks.  It’s sobering to watch one of these lemon sharks take a swipe at the fish bait.   It happens so fast that your eye can’t even follow it when the strike occurs.One of the local kids enjoyed putting a piece of fish just out of reach of the nurse sharks in really shallow water so that they had to practically swim out of the water to reach it.Swimming anyone?  Note moi, that’s for sure.

Some of the guys go out spear fishing every day and always come in with something to show for their efforts.   This lobster looked really big to me but I am told that they find some that are even bigger on a regular basis.  I think that I’ll have to give that a try.How about this strawberry grouper?  One of the guys told me yesterday that he had been chasing a really big grouper, perhaps 20-30 lbs but couldn’t get close.  I wonder how you would even get a fish back to the boat before one of the reef sharks showed up to claim the prize.  Perhaps I don’t actually have the guts to try.  Probably not.There is an interesting mix of folks here from all walks of life.  A young couple arrived yesterday on a small 32’sailboat.  They are married and both crew on a salmon fishing boat in Prince William Sound in Alaska in the summer.  For the winter they are sailing the Bahamas   At 22 and 26 they are really youngsters.  The women, more of a girl actually, Tonya, the younger one, is very petite and it’s hard for me to imagine her working on a fishing boat.  It seems that she grew up aboard their parent’s boat while they sailed around the world.  She “joined” the crew in Cypress when she was two months old and was aboard as they completed the rest of their journey. 

Tonia is going to visit her family in Norway prior to heading back to Alaska and a summer of fishing.  I can’t even imagine how that sort of experience would shape your life and to have all of that experience by the time you are in your early 20s.

We are expecting some nasty windy weather over the weekend and the wind is supposed to run up to 30 knots for several days. Here in this little harbor we should be well protected.  After that and a return of favorable winds we will decide where to go next.   For now, we are enjoying the local color.   We expect to rent a gas powered golf cart today or tomorrow and go for a tour of the island.

Tonight we hope that there will be a cruiser pot luck. I understand that it’s the owner,Bobby’s birthday and perhaps a cookout is in our future.  Perhaps we will have an opportunity to sample some of that lobster that has been arriving daily at the docks.

I don’t think that there is much point in putting up yet another beautiful sunset shot.  However, a moment after the sun set we saw the elusive “green flash”, a fleeting green light that peaks over the horizon just as the sun drops below the horizon.   Pretty amazing to see and harder to photograph, I would think. 

It has been nearly three weeks since we arrived in George Town.  Yes, it’s a great spot to visit and the folks there are very nice, but…

To paraphrase a friend, “there’s George Town and there’s the Bahamas”.   I agree.  To visit George Town is like visiting some sort of retirement community and when you get 600 retirees in the same place for months at a time.  Each morning there are announcements on channel  72 and by the time they are all done an hour has come and gone.  That’s a lot of announcements, and activities.

Activities include, dinghy parades, pet dress up (no I didn’t make that up), dinghy poker runs, volleyball, softball and a blur of other activities.   And, the highlight of the season is the Cruiser’s Regatta, beginning this week that is a series of events that takes place over a period of nearly two weeks with some 300-400 boat participating.

Someone described the George Town scene in this way.  “Imagine getting some 500 successful A type retirees together for 5 months and have them organize activites.”  Yes, it’s a lot of activities.  Fun,  yes, but not for 5 months.

Well, on Saturday, yesterday, we got a weather update from Chris Parker and headed out of Dodge.  The winds were a bit heavier than predicted with 20-25kts on a close reach, and some “meaningful” seas.  After an hour we decided to head back in and wait for better weather.  We didn’t know how long it would take to get better weather but, Eureka!!!  Today, when we woke up the weather looked perfect, and it was.

So, we headed out to Long Island and had a great, relaxing sail over to the northern tip of Long Island and are now anchored along side a beach that I understand is ranked as one of the top ten in the world.  Yep, it looks pretty good.

While Brenda enjoyed a short nap, I headed ashore for a visit with some friends that are here too and shared their rum punch.  Pretty good to anchor the dink in knee deep water, wade ashore and be handed a glass of punch.

The water is really clear and on our way in we saw coral heads all over the place.  However, these reefs were nearly 20 feet down but because the water was so clear, they looked like they were going to rip the bottom out of the boat.  Alas, the charts said otherwise and we coasted easily over them.

I am told that the snorkeling is great here so hopefully, we will have our first lobster dinner.  Wish me luck.

This is the view from Pandora’s cockpit to the nearby beach.  Yes, looks like a “top ten” sort of place to me too.

Indeed, this is the “real Bahamas”.  Miles of soft sandy beaches and palm trees.  Hmm… I could get used to this.  No wait, I AM USED TO IT!!!

Hopefully, we will be on our way to Long Island on Saturday and from there on to the Jumento’s  which is very remote with no services but lots of good shelling and fishing.   A friend of ours who’s visiting from Canada stopped by today to talk about his recent visit there.  It sounds like great fun and we are hopeful that the weather will cooperate for a run to Long Island although it may be a motor boat ride.  Getting good winds to get there are few and far between so perhaps the “iron jenny”, will have to suffice.

In town for some fuel today and other essentials, including more rum.

Yesterday we had a short squall  come by and it left this most amazing double rainbow.   Now, this isn’t something that you see every day.   The mast looks a bit odd as the photo was taken with a wide angle lens on my GoPro.

Sunsets and sunrises here in the Bahamas are quite something to behold and the sunset two nights ago was particularly beautiful .  It’s hard to say which moment was the best but this shot should give you an idea of what we saw.  To share an “adult beverage” in Pandora’s cockpit with Brenda while enjoying a view like this is a remarkable experience.

Last evening we also visited “Hamburger Beach” to listen to a jam session of cruiser musicians.   The musicians included the usual guitars a fiddle and some great vocals.  Of course, the repertoire tended toward the 60s and 70s, which tells you something about the age of the group that hangs out here in George Town.  For better or worse, Brenda and I fit in just fine but I am happy to say that we skew to the youngish side.  Yes, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  It was fun to meet some new folks as well as see old friends again.  For me, one of the highlights was a massive bonfire on the beach.  It was fueled by a lot of driftwood and was a sight to behold.  I doubt that such a conflagration would be possible in the States with the constant fear of litigation there.  Not so in the Bahamas where “don’t worry, be happy” is the way they like it.

It looks like we will be here for a few more days as we are waiting for a good sailing day to head out to  Long Island.   However, the forecast isn’t clear with some complex weather patterns in the area.   Hopefully, the weather will be favorable for a run by the weekend.  The problem is the island is nearly due east from here which is directly into the prevailing winds so getting a fair wind is against the odds.

Today we went for a hike on Stocking Island, a picnic lunch on the top of Monument Hill, and a walk on the beach.  Brenda was a happy girl as we found lots of tiny shells. As this is such a popular area, there aren’t many big shells to be found but we found some great little ones that I expect she will make into jewelry.

The water colors were breathtaking today.  What a beautiful day to be on the beach.
We are going to talk to another couple who has a lot of cruising experience this evening about heading to the Jumentos, a remote chain of islands that we’d like to visit.