It’s Friday morning here in Little Farmer’s Cay and the sun is rising along with the wind.   The forecast (Have I said that we LIVE for the weather?) is for a cold front to come through today which will bring with it NE winds in the 20-25 range with higher gusts.  Yesterday the winds were just about nil with only a light breeze from the south.  Light winds are not very common here and we enjoyed the respite. Having said that, it was a bit too hot with no breeze to cool things off.  On top of that, horrors of horrors, the no-se-ums were out in force during the Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club happy hour.  Can you imagine the inconvenience drinking rum punch all the while slapping at bugs that are so small you can’t even see the little buggers?  Yes, I am sure that you feel our pain.

In the interest of fair disclosure, I should come clean on the “yacht club” thing.  Here, in the Bahamas, a local opens a restaurant and calls it a yacht club and the name is about the only thing that’s like what we know as a yacht club. Having said that, today the LFCYC will really be a yacht club in every sense of the word as they are hosts to class racing for Bahamas Sloops.  As I write this, at 08:00, the mail boat from Nassau, with island music blasting just pulled up to the yacht club dock with a deck load of sloops to be unloaded for the competition.  Today is the kickoff for a weekend of festivities here at LFC and the biggest event of the year in these parts.  I understand that there will be racing, music and plenty of fun for all.  I can’t wait.

The owner and self styled commodore of the LFYC, Roosevelt Nixon (is that a great name or what?) said to me at dinner last night, that if I came to the dock this morning perhaps I can get on board one of the boats for the racing today.  That would be fun.  I’ll have to see what Brenda wants to do.

Perhaps I should sign off for now so I can stick my nose into the thick of things to see what I can do to participate.

Ta Ta and Tally Ho for now!  Off to the races.

It’s Wednesday morning  and we are in Black Point, Exuma, home to what is widely believed to be the best laundry in the Bahamas.  We plan to test it out.   There are plenty of boats here and the crowds at the laundry are testimony to the popularity of this spot as a good place to get clean sheets.  While there are plenty of machines, there are even more cruisers so it’s mobbed.  The island is also known for Loraine’s coconut bread.  I ordered two loaves for pickup in the morning.  Yumm…

Yesterday we were treated to a snorkeling and shelling trip by our friends John and Wendy who live aboard their 65’ Canadian built aluminum trawler, Windermer.   I have to say that this boat clearly qualifies as a yacht, complete with granite counter tops, a Sub-Zero fridge that’s larger than our fridge at home in Essex along with two case freezers that hold hundreds of pounds of food.   On a practical note, he uses about as much electricity in two hours as I use in 24 hours.  There is a price to pay for everything.  Nice boat though.

Their dink, no let’s call it a launch,  has a 50hp engine  so a trip to various spots was quite a treat for us.  Tooling about in a center console launch at 30kts is a lot different than our little inflatable, that’s  for certain.

The goal of our outing was to visit some of their favorite snorking spots so we could collect shells and sand dollars.  And, we found plenty.   Brenda  also snorkeled for the first time yesterday under the gentle guidance of Wendy.   We were on a quest for sand dollars and they were particularly fun to collect as they are just laying on the bottom.  The white ones, which we now have plenty of, are actually dead and bleached .  Some were 3-4” inches across.   What fun.
We also found lots of fun shells.  We had looked before but with their help, we went to the right spots.  It’s a lot easier that way. 

We snorkeled over a great reef that had loads of fish and wonderful purple sea fans.   Unfortunately, the photos underwater don’t really do justice to how beautiful it really is.

I enjoyed using the go-pro video camera and took some footage of us underway blasting along in the launch.  These videos aren’t that great but I can’t edit them right now. I hope that a video is better than 1000 well chosen words.

Here is one that I took at Thunderball Cave the other day that’s fun.I have to say that being able to snorkle each day is so amazing.  However, in spite of my wetsuit, water in the 78 degree range begins to feel cold after a while.

And yes, it’s still really windy.  At least it’s not hot as the breeze keeps things cool.

Wendy and John are just so nice and generous.  We love spending time with them.  Happily, their home port is in RI so we will see them next summer.  They expect to come to our Gam in Essex on June 22^nd. 

Remember the pigs on Big Major I wrote about the other day?   These porkers will happily take the food out of your hand.  Happily, not chunks of skin taken along with the snack.After feeding them we headed over to a great spot where some cruisers had set up a tent and chairs.  What a great view to enjoy a sandwich with.   Catch those James Bond shades.  Appropriate given the proximity to Thunderball Cave.  Looking cool in the shade?So far, we are toughing out life in the Bahamas.  Hope we can stand another 4 months.  Perhaps…

It’s Monday and we are still enjoying our time here in Big Major Spot.  Yesterday Brenda and I had an easy day of walking on the beach and wading in shallow water looking for shells.  While it’s still windy at 20-25 most days,(did someone say that the Bahamas are windy in January?)we enjoyed doing our beach combing on a windward shore, out of the wind.  Given the great popularity of this anchorage(there are over 50 boats in here and room for another 25-50, I expect)the beaches are pretty well picked over.  In spite of that we still found some nice little shells.  We also came upon a great starfish that was compliant and agreed to pose for a photo as long as we returned him to the water after the shoot.  Yes, this color is true, he/she was a brilliant red.  Amazing.

We also visited with some of the local residents who were wading out into the water hoping for a treat.  These pigs are a local attraction and are always happy to visit with anyone offering handouts.  These guys are really big, weighing several hundred pounds at least, and certainly couldn’t be convincing stand-ins for the three little pigs that we all know and love.

The white one had a particularly cute face, actually the other two were down right ugly, perhaps even pigish, and oinked in a pathetic way when we didn’t come through with the requested offering.  I shudder at the thought of what might happen if one of these porkers tried to climb into the dink in their quest for handouts.  I felt badly that I didn’t come through yesterday so I’ll head back today with some veggies today.

When we returned from the beach to Pandora yesterday I spied a ray swimming slowly along the bottom under the boat.  I quickly donned my fins and mask and jumped in with my video camera in hand.  I was able to follow him for several hundred feet and got some great shots.  Unfortunately, the videos will have to wait till we have big bandwidth so I can load them up.  The videos are really fun.

Today we plan to visit Thunderball Cave for some snorkeling with some friends.  I can’t wait.

On Tuesday we plan to head south a short distance, about 5 miles, to Black Point Settlement, one of the larger settlements, a relative term, I am told, in the Exuma chain.  After that we hope to visit Little Farmer’s Cay, a bit further south, for the weekend festival that begins on Friday.  This is one of the best events of the winter season and features racing on Bahamas sloops, the local traditional sailing craft as well as special events ashore.  We also hope to get our hands on a simcard for the i-pad so that we can use BATELCO, the local phone company,(Bahamas Telephone Company, Get it?)for getting e-mail and posting to our blogs. That will be a lot easier than using the SSB and running the posts through our son Christopher who has been happily handling this for us when we are out of range of wifi.

Interestingly, this morning I contacted the Little Farmer’s Yacht Club to reserve a mooring for the festival.  I was successful in securing one of only four left.  Lucky me!!!  My call on the radio set off an avalanche of mooring requests and within ten minutes they were all booked.  I guess that “the early bird catches the worm”.  Between that and the three little pigs thing, I guess I have tortured the nursery rhyme thing enough for one post.

Perhaps I will quit while I am ahead before I lapse into another rhyme.  So for now, all I can say is that this little piggy has no interest in running all the way home as I am just having too much fun.

It’s Sunday morning and yet another sunny day in the Bahamas.  Yesterday we motored about 20 miles into a brisk wind, unfortunately as I would have much preferred to sail.  The forecast for the next few days calls for strong winds from the east which is too close to our course to allow for sailing.  That’s fine as we had planned to spend a few days at Big Major Spot and Staniel Cay, where we are now. Staniel Cay is known for Thunderball Cave, a very popular snorkeling spot which we hope to visit while we are here.  This may be a familiar name to you as the cave was used as a filming spot in the James Bond movie of the same name.  The entrance to the cave is only accessible at low tide when the current is slack and you can get into the cave without diving, something that a snorkeler wouldn’t want to do.  I am told that there is a hole in the ceiling where sun streams in.

Also, another “attraction” is that Big Major Spot is known for their wild pig population.  I understand that these guys are very used to cruisers and will swim out to your boat to get any treats that you might have for them.  I expect that we will visit them today and I’ll be reporting back on our “encounter” soon.  I wonder if they are they are the bacon sort of pigs?  I’ll call them “turf”.

We are anchored about a mile from Staniel Cay so getting there by dink is a bit of an adventure with wind and waves on the bow.  Our run into town yesterday was a bit rough and took quite a long time.  Once there, however, we enjoyed walking around the settlement, visiting the local grocery and yacht club.  Everything in the Bahamas is brought in by ship and between the extra freight and duty, prices are high.  Believe it or not, we paid $7.50 a pound for red peppers.  The lady in the store said that the were like gold, no kidding.

We also had a great lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club a fun place that seems to be the social hub of the island.  They have a signature rum drink that’s just terrific.  It’s made with coconut rum, cranberry and pineapple juice. Yumm… As you can see, the club is a casual spot.  I didn’t see a New York Yacht Club burgee hung from the ceiling.  I wonder if the NYYC offers reciprocity with “members” of this club.  Perhaps not.

Speaking of “surf”.  This morning was the arrival of two nurse sharks off of our stern.  I just stuck my hand into the water off of the swim platform and got this shot.  They look little but aren’t.  I expect that they were about 4-5 feet long.  They were having a nice nap it seems and were there for about a half hour.  I wonder if Brenda will be swimming today?  Perhaps her “encounter” with the ray the other day has made her more brave.  Anyone want to place some bets on a swim today by Brenda?

We have been working our way south through the Exumas and are now only a short distance from George Town and are looking forward to meeting up with our boys there on the 9th.

I’ll close with a great sunset.  Not bad…

It’s Friday morning and we have been in the Bahamas for a week now.  We are now in the Exumas and visiting one of the largest islands in the chain, Warderick Wells, part of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park managed by the Bahamas National Trust www.bnt.bs, a  25 mile stretch of islands running south from Warderick that are protected .  Interestingly, studies have shown that protecting patches of habit benefit other areas nearby as protected species do better in the parks and migrate into other non-protected areas.

A few days ago I tried out my underwater case for my i-phone and took a number of photos and videos.  It was great fun, I have to say.  With the clear water, which these photos don’t really do justice to just how clear it is.Our friend Bill looking graceful.Some pretty little tube worms.To see your shadow on the bottom is a remarkable sight.  Even at night the shadows of the moon are distinct. One major issue that we have faced, and were warned about prior to coming here, is that the weather is something that you have to really pay attention to.   Today’s forecast is a good example of how quickly things change.   Today’s wind is from the ENE at 20kts dropping to 15kts.  Saturday will be more mild with winds in the 10-15kt range.   This quickly will change with freshening winds from the E-NE in the 20s and higher for the next 4-5 days.  What this means is that one day’s great sail can quickly turn into a need to seek shelter for a number of days while waiting for the next weather system to come through.

This also means that you have to choose your anchoring spot very well.  While it’s windy today the seas are quite calm as we are in an area that’s protected from any seas.  However, for several days we were in a very different position when we anchored in areas with fiends where there was quite a long fetch from a windward shore, allowing for a nasty chop to build.  This meant that any excursions in the dink were a bit harrowing with lots of water splashing over the side.

Perhaps the best example, or worst depending on how you look at it, was when we returned to Pandora the other night after dinner and a game of dominos with friends on another boat.   The winds were blowing  about 25kts which meant that we had to step into a dink that was bucking around in the chop running alongside their boat.   After scrambling into the dink we motored off into the dark.  In the short distance to Pandora we caught a good deal of spray including a bucket load of water into our faces.  Imagine how much fun that was for Brenda when her next planned stop was to be bed.    Well, we both stripped off our wet clothes in the cockpit and headed down for showers.     The lesson for us is that anchoring in the right spot depending on what’s coming weather-wise is the key.  Had we been tucked up against a shore with an island buffering the seas and wind we would have been in a very different position.  Well, perhaps that’s more than you really want to know about wind and chop but it’s what life in the Bahamas is all about.   All of this has also reinforced the value of our water maker which is doing well in keeping us in plenty of fresh water.   Remember, a salt free boat, and crew, is a happy boat.   As the saying goes, sort of, “when Momma is unhappy (or salty), ain’t nobody happy”.

By contrast, we are moored in similarly windy conditions right now and yet are very comfortable, thanks to having picked a good location, with good protection, to spend a few days.

Yesterday we had a great sail, around 25 miles in brisk winds.   It was fun to romp along for a few hours doing 7-8 kts all the way in clear blue waters.  It’s so different from anything we have ever experienced in our past lives.

The view from the ranger station here is spectacular.  Look at the contrast from the deep blue channel and the sand flats.How about this whale skeleton they have reconstructed on the beach?  It’s really big.Lastly, with the really really clear waters here we often see wildlife that we missed in the past.  Yesterday a rather large, perhaps in the 5’ long range, sand shark swam past our anchored boat a few times.   What an impressive creature.  I wish I had gotten a photo.

Well, off to explore the island.  Oh yeah, did I mention that today is in the low 80s and sunny?