{"id":2790,"date":"2014-02-27T15:09:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2014-02-27T15:09:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:09:06","slug":"memories-of-the-bounty-and-the-beauty-of-staniel-cay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2790","title":{"rendered":"Memories of The Bounty and the beauty of Staniel Cay"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and we are still anchored off of Staniel Cay in the Exumas and are \u201cenjoying\u201d a fairly rare westerly wind.\u00a0 Actually, to say that we are enjoying this is not actually accurate.\u00a0 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. \u00a0Brenda doesn’t like bumpy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As cold fronts run down the coast of the US, they bring with them \u201cclocking winds\u201d 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s quite amazing how quickly the seas build from the west as the winds clock.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Even though we are fairly well protected behind a small cay (island), there is still some \u201cwrap around\u201d waves making us a bit uncomfortable.\u00a0\u00a0 However, it could be worse.\u00a0 There is a small boat near us that it really taking it on the chin as they buck up and down.\u00a0\u00a0 A while ago they were bucking enough to bury their bow in a particularly steep wave.\u00a0 Better them than me, or Brenda.\u00a0 She\u2019d love that.\u00a0 NOT!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Happily, in this area there are a number of options to get out of the exposed waves when things come from the west.\u00a0 As an added bonus, we will be meeting up with our friends Ann and Sandy, old buddies from Norwalk Yacht Club in CT.\u00a0 Our days at Norwalk Yacht Club seem like another lifetime.\u00a0 They will be joining us in a few days when other friends join them for a week run back to Ft Lauderdale.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It will be fun to catch up and talk about old times.<\/p>\n

One of the nicest parts of the day here in the Bahamas is as we watch the sun set.\u00a0 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. \u00a0\u00a0Brenda and I really enjoy this time together.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s very serene. \u00a0A few days ago, when Christopher was with us, we enjoyed a particularly nice sunset. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>We even were treated to a “green flash”. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0I caught it on camera but it doesn’t look nearly as green it appears. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>I guess it’s just another example of “you had to be there” and we were.\u00a0Last evening was a bit more exciting than usual highlighted by a visit from a US Coastguard helicopter.\u00a0 The distinctive orange and white craft approached our anchorage and proceeded to hover and slowly cruise in a lazy circle for about 45 minutes.\u00a0 It\u2019s very unusual to see the US Coastguard here in Bahamas waters and to see one so close to Pandora was a real treat.\u00a0 To say they were close is an understatement.\u00a0 They were so close that we could see one of the crew standing in the open door on the side of the aircraft.\u00a0 They hovered so low that the down-wash from their rotors kicked up loads of salt spray.\u00a0 They couldn’t have been more than a 150 yards from us and less than 200\u2019 off of the water.\u00a0 Brenda and I waved frantically to get their attention and if they saw us, they didn’t give any indication.\u00a0 I was hoping that perhaps they would wiggle their rotors or something to say HI!\u00a0 Oh well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The light was fading but we were still able to get a great shot of them passing by.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, this wasn’t the only helicopter sighting yesterday with this guy circling over Staniel Cay for over an hour.\u00a0 The sighting was pretty neat but not nearly as impressive a sight as the USCG helicopter but very interesting never-the-less.\"\"<\/a>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.\u00a0 Perhaps the most famous is the James Bond movie \u201cThunderball\u201d, that was filmed here way back in the mid 60s.\u00a0\u00a0 A particularly memorable scene was filmed in an underwater cave, or grotto, nearby.\u00a0 This site is still a very popular snorkeling spot.\u00a0 Actually, we are anchored just east of what is now known as \u201cThunderball grotto\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty neat.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another really interesting feature here and elsewhere in the Bahamas is an occasional breadfruit tree.\u00a0 These stately trees are prized for their starchy fruit. \u00a0This particular breadfruit tree is a descendant of those brought to the new world by Captain Blye himself aboard the HMS Bounty.\u00a0 Blye was made famous by the mutiny aboard his ship.\u00a0 That story itself has been made into many movies over the years.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Here is a photo of one of the larger breadfruit trees on Staniel.\"\"<\/a><\/span>This is a shot of a not quite mature breadfruit.\u00a0 I understand that the fruit tastes a bit like a potato when cooked.\u00a0 The Breadfruit was envisioned as an inexpensive source of food for the slave population in the Caribbean.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t know if Breadfruit is eaten by the Bahamians these days.\"\"<\/a><\/span>There\u00a0aren’t\u00a0many buildings of note on these islands but the local church, most often\u00a0Baptist, generally are well supported by the locals.\u00a0 With only about 50 full time residents living on Staniel, clearly a lot of attention is paid to keeping the building in perfect condition.\u00a0 This church on Staniel is one of the nicer we have seen.\"\"<\/a>Yesterday I went for a walk on the eastern side of Staniel on one of the many beautiful beaches.\u00a0 This beach was about a mile long and I had it all to myself.\u00a0\u00a0 I was very impressed with the sandstone outcroppings that ran to the sea.\"\"<\/a><\/span>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.\u00a0 As the banks here were exposed to the wind, huge sand dunes were built up.\u00a0\u00a0 As rain fell, minerals in the sand leached down through the sand and hardened the dunes into sandstone.\u00a0\u00a0 As the glaciers receded and the sea levels rose, the ocean carved the stone into fanciful shapes.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a good examplesof the evolving landscape.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty dramatic.\"\"<\/a><\/span>As I finish this post the westerly winds are subsiding a bit so I expect we will head north a short distance as planned.\u00a0 Happily, it\u2019s another sunny and beautiful day here in paradise.\u00a0 It sure beats snow, in my book.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s been nice visiting Staniel and it’s not hard to understand how this spot has been popular for so many years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning and we are still anchored off of Staniel Cay in the Exumas and are \u201cenjoying\u201d a fairly rare westerly wind.\u00a0 Actually, to say that we are enjoying this is not actually accurate.\u00a0 This area of the Bahamas is well protected from the prevailing easterlies but are very exposed to the west and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2802,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}