{"id":2896,"date":"2014-04-01T13:36:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T13:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2896"},"modified":"2014-04-01T13:36:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T13:36:42","slug":"thompson-bay-and-on-to-the-jumentos-probably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=2896","title":{"rendered":"Thompson Bay and on to the Jumentos, probably."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Tuesday morning and we are in Thompson Bay LI.\u00a0 Note that I actually know where I am and nobody even told me.\u00a0 Actually, I called into Cruiseheimers and told them today. \u00a0 At the very least, my saying it helps me remember.\u00a0 Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Pretty good for a guy who\u2019s spent the last few months aboard dodging cold fronts.\u00a0 And, I even know that it\u2019s April Fools day.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a joke though.\u00a0 Sorry\u2026<\/p>\n

Anyway, today is a lay day (not going anywhere today) and we plan on having lunch ashore with some friends at the only dining establishment that is near here.\u00a0 Two couples that we are very fond of Dick and Ann on Nati and Miles and Loreen on Ariel came over for dinner last night.\u00a0 We had loads of fun and Brenda put on quite a spread.\u00a0 And, I did a ton of dishes.<\/p>\n

Speaking of water (did you follow that segue?), we can\u2019t run our watermaker here in Thompson Bay as the water is a milky color with a very fine sediment that will clog the filters.\u00a0 Actually, it looks like Bahmas blue skim milk.\u00a0 Well, skim milk has always looked a little blue to me. \u00a0Why is that?<\/p>\n

Perhaps if there was a pool of milk 6-10\u2019 deep it would look like the water here.\u00a0 Perhaps not\u2026\u00a0 Not sure where I am going with this. \u00a0 The water is made milky by \u00a0a very fine sand dust that floats in the water.\u00a0 The anchor holds well here but the top layer of the bottom is very, very soft sand that is easily stirred up.<\/p>\n

Stirred up?\u00a0 Did I hear stirred up?\u00a0 I am all about that as I am STILL having trouble calling my mother. My phone just won\u2019t go through to her land line.\u00a0 I guess that I should just accept that I won\u2019t be able to connect with her.\u00a0 MOM!!! I have really tried. \u00a0 Quite frustrating.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps I should just admit defeat for now.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tough one for me.\u00a0 However, I am retired so perhaps I should try to be less persistent.\u00a0\u00a0 Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n

It seems that her phone, a land line (Yes, some folks still have those if you can believe it) won\u2019t accept phone calls that don\u2019t have caller ID.\u00a0 Yes, I get that and changed my Bahamas line so that the number would show up.\u00a0 However, it only works occasionally and without a pattern that I have been able to detect.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n

After perhaps ten, count em, ten visits to the BATELCO stores on various islands, they just don\u2019t know what to do to solve the problem.\u00a0 Sometimes the calls go though, sometimes they don\u2019t.\u00a0 And, I hate being charged for the \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d ones.\u00a0 Perhaps it\u2019s a Yankee thing or my Scottish heritage showing through.<\/p>\n

So now that we have situated ourselves here in Thompson Bay, we are a day sail from the Jumentos, a place that we have wanted to check out since we first sarted talking about visiting the Bahamas.\u00a0\u00a0 With all of the difficult weather of late, and the \u201cwind from all directions\u201d that we have experienced this winter, we have to decide if we are ready to head into the \u201cwilderness\u201d.\u00a0 And to say \u201cwilderness\u201d is saying a lot given the fact that just about EVERYWHERE here in the Bahamas is pretty rural.<\/p>\n

The weather for this week looks quite good but there is yet another front expected in about a week and it\u2019s too early to tell if there will be clocking winds this far south.\u00a0 This matters as the Jumentos have very few harbors that are protected from any winds with a westerly component.\u00a0 You can move around as the wind clocks but the options are quite limited.\u00a0 Perhaps I would feel a bit better if we had a “buddy boat” to go with us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to see.\u00a0 Our friends on Ariel and Nati are both headed north so that\u2019s not an option.<\/p>\n

Nati, in particular talked to us about visiting the Jumentos as they spent much of the month of March there.\u00a0 They said that these remote islands are a \u201cmust see\u201d and couldn\u2019t recommend it more highly.\u00a0\u00a0 They say that the two best reasons to visit here are for the diving and for the beach combing.\u00a0 As Brenda\u2019s not too keen on snorkeling (it\u2019s a \u201cgirl eating\u201d shark thing) the next best thing for us to do is beach combing.\u00a0 That sounds perfect.<\/p>\n

Another thing that was recommended to me today is fishing for bonefish.\u00a0 Bonefish are great fighters and such fun to catch.\u00a0 Perhaps I should try catching some. \u00a0Bonefish love the shallows and do much of their feeding in water that is only a few feet deep.\u00a0 You can catch them with bait on a light rod.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t great eating (that\u2019s why they call them BONE fish, I guess) but are perhaps the ultimate game fish as they really fight.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any new photos of note to share so I\u2019ll reach back a few weeks to when we visited Compass Cay up in the Exumas.\u00a0 This is a private island with a small marina and some really nice homes.\u00a0 If you recall, this is the place where they feed nurse sharks at the dock and encourage folks to swim with them.\u00a0 So far,\u00a0 Brenda hasn\u2019t \u201ctaken the bait\u201d and gone into the water at feeding time. Perhaps on our next visit.<\/p>\n

Anyway, at the most northern tip of the island there is a spot called the \u201cbubble bath\u201d.\u00a0 I wrote about it at the time we visited it but didn\u2019t have an opportunity to share any photos due to difficulties with cell service and uploading photos.\u00a0 However, now that we have good coverage for posting, I thought that I would share a sequence with you that\u2019s pretty neat.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbubble bath\u201d is small salt water pool that is not attached to the ocean on the north end of the island.\u00a0 Ocean swells coming from the north are funneled into a narrow area cut in the rock.\u00a0 As the cut narrows, the waves build up much higher than you\u2019d expect.\u00a0 At the head of the cut there is an area that is above the tide but low enough so that the water just sloshes up and over the reef.\u00a0 Then the \u201cfoam\u201d pours over into a protected pool on the other side in a fountain of white.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the sequence\u2026<\/p>\n

This is how the cut looks toward the ocean.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that big, actually.\"\"<\/a>You can see that the water on the left, the ocean side, is low and rock is exposed.\"\"<\/a>As the waves rush in the water rises 5-8\u2019 very quickly and tons of foam develops.\"\"<\/a><\/span>Then, the foam spills dramatically over the rocks and into the pool.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty fascinating to watch.\u00a0 It looks quite violent but isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Folks come here to swim in the pool.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>We plan on bringing our son Rob and his girlfriend Kandice here in late April when they visit us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is where you beach your dink to make the trek across through the Mangrove flats.\u00a0 It\u2019s very beautiful.\u00a0 As you walk through here you can easily imagine being thousands of miles from anywhere. \u00a0And, how’s that for clear water? \u00a0 Amazing actually.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>I guess it\u2019s time to make coffee.\u00a0 Enough of this posting stuff for now.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Tuesday morning and we are in Thompson Bay LI.\u00a0 Note that I actually know where I am and nobody even told me.\u00a0 Actually, I called into Cruiseheimers and told them today. \u00a0 At the very least, my saying it helps me remember.\u00a0 Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay, Thompson Bay\u2026 Pretty good for a guy who\u2019s […]<\/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-2896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896","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=2896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}