{"id":2882,"date":"2014-03-27T02:07:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T02:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2014-03-27T02:07:53","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T02:07:53","slug":"yes-its-windy-but-hey-i-saw-a-turtle-and-a-big-one-at-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2882","title":{"rendered":"Yes, it\u2019s windy but hey… I saw a turtle and a big one at that…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday evening and I thought it would be good to do a short post prior to hitting the rack.\u00a0 In the interest of truth, I had to look at the date on the computer to recall what day of the week it is.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s good as I am not working these days. \u00a0Yes, it\u2019s acceptable when you are in crusing mode not to know what day of the week it is. \u00a0However, if you are in a \u201cland home\u201d you are assumed\u00a0 to be \u201cconfused\u201d. \u00a0 I prefer relaxed, personally. \u00a0Not quite ready to be “confused”.<\/span><\/p>\n

As usual, I digress.<\/p>\n

Today was the first day of the passing of the most recent cold front, a weekly occurence. \u00a0 As we are further south, the effect was a lot less severe with the west winds only lasting for a few hours.\u00a0 In the northern portions of the Bahamas the winds are a lot more nasty, stronger and from the west for longer.\u00a0 I am happy to be in Georgetown as the passage of the front is a much less of an issue than up north.\u00a0 That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

Now that the front has passed the winds are back to the east which means that most all of the anchorages are protected but the winds are still very strong.\u00a0 The forecast calls for winds gusting to near 30kts on Thursday and the strength of the winds are not expected to diminish until Sunday.\u00a0 By that point we will be totally ready to \u201cget out of Dodge\u201d as Georgetown is a bit too organized for our taste.\u00a0 They actually have announcements on the radio each morning here as there is so much to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like adult camp, or day care.\u00a0 At least day care for retired \u201cA\u201d types, not always a nice combination.<\/p>\n

Our next destination, once the weather improves and the wind strength becomes more reasonable, is likely to be the Jumentos as we have not yet visited that part of the Bahamas.\u00a0 They are south and west of where we are now and quite close to Cuba.<\/p>\n

The Jumentos are very remote with the smallest fishing settlements and only a hand full of people on any given island if there is anyone at all.\u00a0 One key requirement, if you are going to visit this area, is to be fully self-sufficient.\u00a0 This means that you have to bring all the food you will need along with all your own water.\u00a0 Happily, we have a watermaker which will keep us going for a long time without a visit to any sort of water source. \u00a0Fresh food, that\u2019s another issue as it only keeps so long.<\/p>\n

So, when will we leave to visit there?\u00a0 Probably not till the weekend or early next week. That\u2019s when the winds are supposed to subside and turn to favorable direction.\u00a0 Due to the fact that much of the area in the Jumentos is very shallow, we will have to go quite a bit out of our way to get there as the more direct routes are just to shallow.\u00a0 If we play the tides, making a point to move at high tide, we might make it through the closer route.\u00a0 However, we might not and to run aground in shallow water would definitely ruin our day.\u00a0\u00a0 With that in mind, we will have to take the safer \u201clong route\u201d.<\/p>\n

We have been told that the Jumentos are very beautiful but wild and quite remote.\u00a0 If you are into spear fishing for lobster and fish, you have to be prepared to deal with sharks.\u00a0 It\u2019s not prudent to spear any fish if you are not close to your dink so you can get out of the water pronto when you catch something.\u00a0 Spear a fish and you are sure to attract sharks within minutes.\u00a0 Not my first choice as I\u2019d prefer not to be fish food any time soon. \u00a0And, these sharks are the “real ones” with the pointy sharp shark teeth. \u00a0A friend told me he was fishing and when he got his “catch” to the boat all that was left was the head. \u00a0 The rest of the fish was “shark bait”. \u00a0Better them than me.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the lobster season closes March 31st<\/sup>, just a few days from now, so fishing for lobster won\u2019t be on the agenda.\u00a0 I am told that there are many in the area so it is unfortunate that we will miss the season.\u00a0 Perhaps next year we will go there earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

I hope that the weather will support a run down to there as it\u2019s a place that I really want to visit.\u00a0 Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n

On a more local note, today the wind in Georgetown was really strong and Pandora pulled hard on her anchor all day.\u00a0\u00a0 I spent a good deal of time reading in the cockpit, enjoying the view.\u00a0\u00a0 Several times a really big turtle, some 3\u2019 across swam buy.\u00a0 Getting a photo of these guys is notoriously difficult as they tend to stick their heads up and duck from sight in a blink of an eye.\u00a0 However, I was able to get my first \u201cturtle sighting\u201d photo.\u00a0 Here it is.\u00a0 Not terribly exciting for you perhaps but it was for me, so there.\"\"<\/a>Thursday we plan on doing a bit of beach combing and some shelling.\u00a0 Perhaps lunch out at one of the local resorts.\u00a0 Wind\u00a0or not, I am looking forward to getting off of the boat for a few hours.\u00a0 One thing for sure, it will be plenty windy with sustained winds in the mid 20s and gusts to 30.\u00a0 That\u2019s too much wind, actually.\u00a0 However, at least these winds are in the 80 degree range.\u00a0 It sure beats a winter storm with sub zero temps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, warm is good.\u00a0 And did I say that it\u2019s sunny?\u00a0 If not, I am saying it now. It\u2019s sunny, really sunny.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget your sunscreen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday evening and I thought it would be good to do a short post prior to hitting the rack.\u00a0 In the interest of truth, I had to look at the date on the computer to recall what day of the week it is.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s good as I am not working these days. […]<\/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-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882","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=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}