Thursday 19 March 2015

Heading back to George Town


Our last day at Rat Cay two days ago marked the end of our real vacation – now we’re making our way back to George Town to clean and close up the boat for the season.

And what a lovely way to end – the weather is still calm and beautiful, so we dinghied around the Bay all the way to the nearest village – Barreterre – which is the last one on Great Exuma Island. Enroute, we saw multitudes of gorgeous bright orange starfish lounging on the bottom of the shallow turquoise water (some, 12 inches in diameter!).

We made our way to a little white beach, surrounded with coral heads, and after firmly tying our dinghy up J - we walked, read, beach-combed and found a beautiful, intact sand dollar and some hermit crabs.

Yesterday, we motored 2 hours to the famous Sandal’s Resort Marina at Emerald Bay for a touch of civilization before we start working on the boat (they had a 50 cent-a-foot special on their unserviced dock - about $20.00 a night). It’s amazing what a pleasure hot showers and free laundry facilities can be! We did our e-mail in their beautiful sailors’ lounge, munching on quacamole and corn chips, and then dashed into our boat for the evening to escape the no-see-ums that hadn’t bothered us since before it became windy here (3 weeks ago).

So this will likely be my last blog for this trip, as the rest of the time we’ll be working to pack up.  It has been a restful if not as adventurous a trip as we had anticipated. Hopefully there will be future years to continue exploring the places we missed this time. For now, we return to Toronto rested and renewed, and very anxious to see all of our friends and family. See you soon!












Monday 16 March 2015

Kicking Back in Rat Cay



Ah, what a beautiful day! The wind was calm, the water so clear you could see down 10 feet to every blade of seaweed at the bottom. The sun shone as we puttered around the boat.

We both worked on our computers in the morning, and I made asparagus soup for lunch with my nifty little blender that runs off the inverter.


Then we hung out in the cockpit – I painted, Jeff read, and we both had a skinny dip off the back of the boat. We enjoyed a lobster tail stir-fry for dinner and had a wonderful skype call with our grandchildren and Mike and Mika. An amazing sunset finished off a perfect day in the Bahamas, as we watched two kayakers set up camp for the night on a near-by beach … it doesn’t get any better than this!










Sunday 15 March 2015

A Cruiser’s Dream Sail



Today the wind finally calmed down, and the seas, too, as a result. So we weighed anchor this morning and are currently on a cruiser’s dream sail – 4.5 hours downwind at about 4.0 knots (read mph), with an average of 9 knots of wind, on the spinnaker – there’s nothing so relaxing!

We’ve just anchored off Rat Cay – right opposite the little beach where we once had a dinghy escape – narrowly losing the “family car”. We won’t do that again J.


Now for a swim before dinner off the back of the boat in the crystalline turquoise water. I just hope the snow’s gone in Toronto when we get back in 10 days – it’ll be hard to adjust! (I know, no sympathy forthcoming …)







Saturday 14 March 2015

Culture Vulturing



An evening and a day well-spent on land, as we bounce around in Elizabeth Harbour. It’s the Cultural Heritage Festival here in George Town this weekend – with constant celebrations. Last night included a “Junkanoo” (musical parade), a great band and delicious Bahamian fare of all kinds.

Today we took a trip with other cruisers to see Great Exuma by bus, and had a fabulous lunch with entertainment at Exuma Point restaurant, part-way. A highlight was a walk to a beach cave which had been inhabited by a hermit from the US for 25 years, before he became ill and had to go back to the States. There are some pics below of his cave home, with cooking pots, etc. still in place.

Tomorrow the wind is settling a bit – so we’re planning to sail up the island and then back to Sandal’s Emerald Bay Marina where we might spend a couple of nights. More anon …