We have been here in Compass Cay for a few days now.   I guess that not knowing the exact number of days is a sign that I am now getting into the “cruising mode”.    I am also becoming more comfortable with the SSB and am now testing the waters with “traffic” on the Cruiseheimers net in the morning.   This “net” is designed to keep boats in touch with each other and to facilitate help with problems.   I generally check in on a fairly regular basis to let folks know where Pandora is.

Another advantage of the net is that when others check in I can request “traffic” and make contact with a particular boat that is monitoring the net.  Unlike VHF, where most boats monitor channel 16 when they are aboard, SSBs are generally not left on all of the time, at least not aboard Pandora.  Unlike VHF radios, SSBs use a good deal of power, even in the standby mode and there are dozens of channels with no dominant hailing channel unlike 16 with the VHF.

My first experience with requesting traffic with another boat was several days ago when I spoke with Sea Schell, a boat that we spent a good deal of time with in the first month aboard in the Bahamas.  Harry and Melinda, liveaboards, are headed to the western Caribbien and are currently in the Dominican Republic.  It was fun to catch up with Harry on the SSB yesterday and share stories.  In spite of their being so far from us, we were able to hear each other perfectly.

Some folks I spoke to when I was considering whether or not to purchase an SSB suggested that the technology was not “modern” and that with a sat phone you didn’t need a long range radio.  Perhaps that’s true, but being able to easily speak with someone who is very far away is a great thing and I am enjoying using the radio more often.   I’d like to get my HAM license and will likely work on that this summer.  Being a “Ham” offers some additional benefits and is certainly sets you apart from others on the sideband.  An important benefit is that you have greater knowledge about these radios that are certainly pretty complex.  More to come on that.

Yesterday Brenda and I took our dink for a tour into the mangrove swamps nearby here at Compass Cay.  There was a winding channel into the swamp and we were able to navigate quite a way in in spite of it being low tide.  Along the way we spied a good number of bone fish, a highly prized game fish here.   I understand that they give a great fight for their modest size.  We also saw a massive ray, perhaps as much as 6′ across.  While we have seen plenty of rays on this trip, none have come close to being that large.  It was impressive to see such a large fish in a narrow creek that was only a few feet deep.  I understand that rays eat conch which are abundant in these creeks.

We stopped on yet another beautiful deserted beach to look for shells.  It’s interesting that each beach that we have visited has it’s own characteristic and the sorts of shells that we find vary tremendously.  Some beaches have a wide variety and others lots of one or two types.  The slope of the beach along with the sorts of coral heads or reefs that are off of it has a lot to do with what we find.  It’s fun to visit a new beach as you never know what you will find.

This beach was particularly pretty but alas, not a single shell.

We were greeted by this curly tail lizard.  There are lots of lizards in the islands but this particular type is uniquely curious and often run up to greet you.    Most lizards run away but these guys, about a foot long, seem fearless.  It’s pretty funny to see how close you can get.  In this case, it was about four feet away when he finally took off.

We expect to be here for another day while we wait for the fairly strong north winds to shift more to the east which will make heading up the chain easier.  I don’t particularly like motoring into the wind but perhaps that won’t be too bad if the wind is light.  Perhaps that means I am not totally into the cruising thing yet.  Hmm…

Fingers crossed for more easterly winds.   Ever hopeful…

It’s Monday morning and we are anchored in a lovely spot in Compass Cay for the third day.   We arrived from Staniel Cay where we left to avoid the coming west winds that would have made anchorage uncomfortable given the exposure there.  This harbor offers much better protection from nearly all directions than most harbors in the Exumas.

Staniel Cay is a very popular stop and was particularly appealing to the big boy yachting set given a planned James Bond Casino Royal charity event.  Staniel Cay is home of Thunderball Cave, of the James Bond film of the same name.  Attendees of this charity event were encouraged to come dressed the Bond part.  There were plenty that would fit that mold and a number of “bond girls” too.  Unfortunately, we had to leave due to the weather and missed the big event.  There were at least a dozen big yachts in town with the largest at 220′.  That one had an enclosed launch, actually referred to as a “limo launch” to get the guests to the event.  These mega dinks, cost as much as several, no make that a half dozen, Pandora’s. I can’t imagine the cost of keeping these babies on the move. ” If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”, they say.  OK, got it.

Since my last post we have begun our run north through the Exumas with the goal of stopping at some of the spots that we missed on our way south in January.  This time of the year we are supposed to be seeing more easterly trade winds which make travel north and south easy.  Unfortunately, it’s not looking like we will see much other than northerlies for much of the week.   Given the fact that all the islands we want to visit are north of here, we won’t be sailing there any time soon.  Perhaps, if the winds cut down a bit, even if they remain from the north, we will motor somewhere in a day or so, depending on the strength of the wind.  The good news is that the islands are very close together in this area so we wouldn’t have very far to go.

Happily, this spot, Compass Cay,  is very well protected and quite pretty with long sandy beaches and mangrove swamps that you can take a dink into at high tide.  I expect that we will enjoy doing some beach combing and sightseeing for the next few days here.  There’s even a small marina nearby where we will be able to have a lunch out.

Speaking of spending money,  we are running short of cash as there aren’t any banks in this area.  Having said that, there’s not much to spend money on anyway as only a few of the islands have any sort of settlements.  The good news is that most places, where there are inhabited “places”,  take credit cards although they charge an extra  5% for the privilege.   Oh well,  we have to keep our strength up so an extra  5% it will have to be…

The spot where we are anchored is about 20′ deep and is surrounded by flats that nearly dry out at low tide.   The water color ranges from nearly white in the shallow flats to a deep blue in the deeper spots.  It’s quite dramatic.  The tide really rips through the deeper areas so we tend to point toward the current, not the wind.  That can make for Pandora laying at some odd angles to the wind but keeps things interesting.  The views are beautiful and you can walk for several miles, on the flats, in water that is less than 1′ deep at low tide.   It’s still pretty shallow at high tide as the range is only a few feet here.   All over the flats, there are loads of sand dollars and really interesting starfish.    Brenda and I enjoyed posing with some of our new “friends”.  (Editor:  No starfish were harmed taking this photograph.  Traumatized yes, killed, no.)   And yes, the water was very warm.

We are still buddy boating with our friends Loreen and Miles of Ariel and one daily activity for us is to find a shallow spot near the beach to sit and enjoy staying cool in the water.  Me?  I have trouble sitting still for very long so I tend to abandon the “sitters” and walk along in the shallow water with my glass bottomed bucket looking for shells.  I have also been successful in finding palm fronds for Brenda so she can continue to make her baskets which are getting better and better every day.Conch and discarded conch shells are everywhere here in the Bahamas but this is the first, and certainly largest and most colorful, hermit crab that I have found.   Actually, I have never ever found a hermit crab even close to this size.   I guess that if there are big shells, there will be big hermit crabs.

With about six weeks left for our visit to the Bahamas, our thoughts have turned to logistics for our return to Essex.   Brenda will be flying out of Marsh Harbor Abaco on or about the 9th of May.    A good friend of mine, Craig, will be flying down to spend a week sailing with me after Brenda’s departure and after that I’ll have crew coming down for the run back to CT.

My good friend Chris from CT will be joining me for the run north and perhaps one other.   Logistics are always an issue when it comes to moving Pandora but I am used to that after years of practice in getting from points A to B.  I am hopeful that the weather will cooperate for our run north to the Abacos, Brenda’s departure, crew arrival and the run to CT.   Details, details…

Early in our trip to the Bahamas we visited Little Farmer’s Cay to participate in the Bahamas sloop regatta.  I wrote about this in a previous post and really had a blast sailing on one of the sloops.    It’s been several months since we were last here so it’s fun to be back in “town”.

One thing that is very different this time than during our last visit is the state of the wind.  While there is a small cold front coming through this morning, bringing fairly strong NW winds, it’s not expected to last long and to blow through by later this afternoon, bringing moderate winds with it’s departure. Earlier in the season, we had similar weather but the strong winds persisted for several days and it was a lot windier.    As the season progresses (ie: closer to summer weather) the fronts are not as strong.  That’s good.  A number of folks have told us that this season has been the toughest with regards to weather in years.   To us the weather has been challenging but we have nothing to compare it to.

However, while it’s windy right now, yesterday was very different with near perfect weather for hanging around and enjoying the beaches and sights of Little Farmer’s Cay.

It’s hard to describe how clear and blue the waters here are when the winds are settled.  To stand on board Pandora and look down into crystal clear 15′ deep water and see schools of blue tangs swimming by is just amazing.  I have a glass bottom bucket that makes it easy to see everything, but yesterday you hardly needed it as the surface was just so still.

I really tried hard to find a way to photograph the water to give and idea of what this really looks like.  I hope that the following photos provide some context to what we saw.  Amazing.

I climbed up on Pandora’s radar arch and took this shot directly down into the water.  Can you say blue sparkly?This is what it looked like forward.  Up ahead, that’s Ariel, the Aerodyne 47 we have been sailing with for the last few days.   Ariel, home to our friends Miles and Loreen, is a remarkable boat and one that can always beat me, even if she is only a bit faster.  Having said that, she is in different league and is perhaps the only boat I’d trade Pandora for.  Unfortunately, I’d have to have two of Pandora to make the trade about equal.    She’s fast and elegant.  I always look for ways to photograph Pandora looking lovely in her native environment.  This view is a particularly fetching one.    Even Pandora appeared to be a lovely blue. And just off of our starboard beam, the Little Farm’s Cay Yacht Club.   The proprietor has a great name, Roosevelt Nixon.  He’s a very nice guy.   I love the colors that buildings here are painted.  Very bright and fun.  In our little New England town,  the “decorum police” would burn the place down overnight if we painted our home this bright a color.   Here, it works.To get the most out of the day we spent several hours looking for shells on nearby beaches and came back with a spectacular haul.   After that Brenda and I toured the harbor enjoying the sights.  The community fish cleaning station was pretty busy.  These guys had speared a few large groupers and were happy to show off their catch.

Some large rays were happy to pick up the scraps.  Interestingly, unlike Rum Cay, where the cleaning station attracted all manner of sharks,  rays were the only “locals” eager to clean up.  These rays don’t look that big in this shot but they are up to 4′ across.This cute little guy seemed to be enthralled by the action in the water below. 

Everyone turned out it seems to see the catch of the day.  It was fun checking out the action.
When the weather is perfect, there’s no place more enchanting than the Bahamas.  When it’s blowing like stink, which it does with regularity, a little less  but still better than snowy and blowing.    I am liking the whole winter warm thing.  Easy to get used to.

I am  beginning to think about plans for next summer which will probably include a visit to Maine again, our 16th visit.  Pandora’s sheep mascots have been thinking about it too it seems.   Hmm…Oh yea, I should note that Brenda’s doing great with her basket making and has now finished three, each better than the last.  Some photos to come soon.

Speaking of baskets, we have been told that there is some sort of craft show in town today.  Not sure what “town” is here but we’ll probably check it out.

Perhaps I’ll close with a shot, taken 5 minutes ago, of some impressive clouds.  Notice the beached fishing boat on shore.  It’s been there for years and is a solid reminder that we go forth here with the grace of God.    Things can go badly, even in paradise and we shouldn’t forget it.  So far, so good…  And, I remain an optimist and “ever hopeful”.  What a great day!

One of the things that you get in the Bahamas is the ability to avoid civilization.  Even the “resorts” are pretty basic.  However, we are now visiting a little cove with a lovely resort “Fernandez Bay Village“.   Even though it’s pretty much alone on this stretch of island, you can count on being pampered.   There is a lovely open air dining room and cute little cottages along the beach.  The main dining room has a thatched roof and a high peak that goes so well with the surroundings.   Yesterday, after a short sail around the point we anchored just in front of the resort and enjoyed a late lunch.   This is a shot taken of Pandora from inside the dining room.  Pretty nice spot.Here’s what the resort looks like from the deck of Pandora.  Nice from both views.Earlier yesterday, prior to heading over to Fernandez Bay we went for a hike up to the Hermitage, where Father Jerome lived out his retirement.    Father Jerome was responsible for designing and building many of the Catholic churches here in the Bahamas.  As both a priest and architect  he was multi-talented and in spite of all that he found time to be a hermit alone after her retired here. The Hermitage can be seen from the water and looks quite imposing up on the hill. As you approach it you feel like you are headed up to a monastery somewhere in Europe as it is silhouetted against the sky.   It sure looks like a long walk.Along the way, and it’s not a very long way, we passed a few “farms” these were really just patches of rocky land where the scrub has been burned off and some plants are started in holes between the rocks.  This sort of farming, typical of the Bahamas, is called “pot farming” when small holes are cut into the limestone and lined with dirt to hold moisture.  The crops are pretty limited and seem to consist of cabbage, corn, tomatoes and bananas.  While there is very little rain here in the winter, there are pockets where things will grow, usually in small depressions.  These bananas are doing very well in an area that was sunken some ten feet below the surrounding fields. We could see the remains of some tomato plants intermingled with cabbages. This is pretty rough farming as you can see with this guy digging in a recently burned patch.  He was digging holes in the ground with  a pick ax.  Think about this guy the next time you have to go to work.  It is probably not as bad as this. As we continued up the road and got closer to the Hermitage, we came upon a sort of welcome area. This sign proudly proclaims that this is the highest point in the Bahamas.   I w0nder if they use high tide or low for this measurement.  New moon tide perhaps?  Global warming will wipe out much of the islands as many are only 20′ high or less.  Let’s get Al Gore on the case PDQ!!! A nice shot of us with our friends Miles and Loreen from Ariel. Along the rocky path to the summit are the Stations of the Cross.   Just before you reach the summit you come upon the tomb of Christ with the stone rolled aside. Father Jerome’s chapel was very touching with a guest book to sign and a pew for one.   Every detail, in an ascetic way, was worked out, in miniature. Once you arrive at the Hermitage you realize that Father Jerome was talented in another way.  He managed to site and design his home to look far larger than it is.   It’s actually very small and there isn’t a room that’s even 8′ wide.  This guy lived a very simple life, that’s for sure.   Perhaps when he sent the construction bill to the Vatican, they were pleased when it seemed to cost about 1/4 of what they might have expected.  I wonder if they knew that it was only about 1/4 of the size that you’d expect?   Hmm… You get a good feel for just how small the place is when we posed for pictures looking out of the windows.  Perhaps it’s blasphemy to say this but to me but these windows reminded me of the old TV show Laugh In, with the celebrity characters in the opening doors.  Strike me down Father Jerome, but that’s what I thought.  It does look a lot larger than it is.  Here’s Brenda in the arch.  Wow, I didn’t know that she was that tall.  The building is a sweet testimony to a man devoted to the Bahamas and it was very nice to have an opportunity to visit.

We were planning to spend a few days in Fernandez Bay but today, when I listened to Chris Parker, he reported that the weather would have westerly winds on Wednesday evening, not good at all for where we were.  This meant that we beat a hasty retreat some 55 miles over to the Exuma chain and Little Farmer’s Cay today that offers better protection than Cat Island.  That’s where we are now.

Tonight we had a nice dinner with Miles and Lorreenfrom Ariel at the Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club and reconnected with the proprietor Roosevelt Nixon, whom we’d seen some six weeks ago when we last passed this way.

We’ll be here for a few days.  I hope to do a bit of snorkeling and shelling over the next few days.

At 14:00 on Sunday and we were a dozen miles from land in any direction and crossing the ocean between Long Island and Cat Island.  The water was about 6,000 feet deep and a dark rich indigo.  That’s really deep.  What’s most amazing is that the bottom drops off from about 50′ to thousands in just 1/4 mile.  It’s  a cliff, for sure.   We were fishing using a mesh cast net and caught what was probably a Mahi-Mahi, great eating, but lost it.  Perhaps the most impressive is that bringing in a fish that weighs perhaps a dozen pounds while racing along at 7kts is a challenge.  In order to bring the fish in I rounded up the boat into the wind to slow the but that made us really bounce around, which Brenda didn’t appreciate.  I guess that’s enough fishing for one day.   

The wind today is about perfect with the apparent wind in the 10-15kt range directly on the beam.  We are sailing today with Ariel, an Aerodyne 47, a boat that is much larger than we are.  However, Pandora held her own and most of the time we kept up.  We did loose over a mile on her when we rounded up to try and boat the fish.  However, after seeing how Brenda, who had been doing fine up until the “fish episode”, began to feel poorly while I tried to reel in the fish, I decided that having fish for dinner tonight wasn’t as important as keeping Brenda from becoming ill. 

We had a great week at Thompson Bay Long Island and enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.  As luck would have it, a group of some 25 to 30 boats decided to have a rally from George Town to Thompson Bay, something that I am told happens each winter.  As part of the festivities there were parties on the beach and dinners at the local eatery, the Long Island Breeze.  We participated in a number of the activities and enjoyed ourselves a great deal.  This rally was an opportunity for the folks that hang out in Georgetown for months at a time to get out of town for a few days.   The cocktail party on the beach was great fun.  That’s only a part of the dink “fleet” at the beach.  That’s a lot of dinks.   If you are wondering, ours is the grey one with the 15hp outboard.  Yeah, really unique.After two months in the Bahamas we decided that it was high time to begin a leisurely run north beginning with Cat Island.   As Miles and Laureen, aboard Ariel, had done this run before, we decided that we would “buddy boat” with them for a while.  We don’t know how much time we will spend on Cat as we also would like to take in some of the islands in the Exumas chain that we missed on our run down to George Town to meet up with the boys. 

Yesterday we took a hike out to one of the ocean beaches where we hoped to find some nice shells.   Yes, we have tons now but we hoped to find some varieties that we had not seen yet.  We also hoped to find some “sea beans”, small brown nuts that are about 1-3” inches around.  These floating beans come all the way from South America, I am told, and wash up on the ocean facing beaches of the Bahamas.  To date we have only found one but were rewarded by finding two yesterday.  Good thing that we found the beans as the beach didn’t have many shells.  It’s funny how some beaches have loads of shells and others don’t.

Here’s a sample of some that we found on Rum Cay last week.  You never know which beach will be chock full of discoveries.   Yes, you guessed it, Brenda loves little shells. Unfortunately, the beach was littered with plastic trash, everything from soda bottles to discarded fishing floats and nets.  Just about anything that will float and is not bio-degrade seemed to have ended up on the beach.  While most of the trash was high and dry, a remarkable amount of garbage was sloshing around in the waves off of the beach including a large tangle of lines and floats, clearly a discarded or lost fishing net.  It’s unfortunate to see a beautiful beach defiled by massive amounts of trash.  Garbage disposal on the islands is a problem and I can’t imagine what can be done to solve this.  Perhaps piling up the debris and setting fire to it is about the only option.   

In spite of the trash, the beach was quite scenic with craggy outcroppings off shore looking dramatic in the sunlight against the deep blue waters.We sat on a rock at the end of the beach and had a picnic lunch. 

A friend off of another boat taught Brenda how to weave baskets from palm fronds so I was hot on the trail to harvest some materials for her to work her magic on.  Happily, we were successful and harvested a number of compact fronds. You only pick the ones that look like a green spear and have not yet opened up to weave baskets. Brenda’s first basket looks great but to her discerning eye, she feels that it’s a bit rough.  Me, I am really impressed with her first effort and am certain that she will be turning out magnificent pieces very soon.  It’s worth noting that this shot of Brenda weaving her first basket was taken as we sailed up the western coast of Long Island today. Along the way to the beach we came across some “wild” goats.  The mothers and kids were quite cute.  I also spied this little lizard on a palm frond.  These little guys are everywhere.We are looking forward to seeing the sights on Cat Island and are excited about being shown the ropes by Miles and Laureen.

The trip today was over 60 miles.  Let me assure you that that’s a long way to sail in a day.  We did the run with only one hour of motoring in 10 hours.  Not  bad.   Ariel beat us by half an hour. 

Well, after a great day of sailing I was pretty pooped but not so tired that I couldn’t make a few rum punches.  Now, that’s a perfect way to cap off a great day of sailing.

How about closing with tonight’s equally perfect sunset?  Actually, that’s a similar color to a rum punch.  Accidental? I don’t think so.