Long Island Beauty

Yesterday we sailed from Stella Maris Marina South on Long Island to one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen so far in the Bahamas. Salt Pond in Thompson Bay lies about a 3 hour sail down the Island – which we did in 22 knots of wind with a jib sail so reefed it looked like a handkerchief – and still we made an average of 5 knots!

It was an exciting sail which covered the boat in salt spray and landed us in this gorgeous, still cove just in front of the Long Island Breeze Resort. Three failed attempts to get there for dinner in our dinghy last night resulted in us giving up and cooking aboard L. It seems the fuel line to the dinghy motor was kaput … so we hitched a ride onto the shore with a fellow boater’s dinghy this morning, and bought a new piece of line from the near-by marina – problem solved! Can’t be without the dinghy – it’s the family car. Then we rented an actual car and did a tour of this lovely Island. 

The pictures below tell the story – so I won’t do it in detail. The Island is full of gorgeous churches, spectacular beaches, and Dean’s Blue Hole –  a very deep hole in the ocean where we took the pictures of the divers. The hole opens up to a vast deep underwater cavern – the site of free-diving world championships, and the largest yet discovered blue hole in the world! I’ve never seen water so brilliantly colored – it was almost unreal.

A beer with conch fritters and fried plantain (Island health food J), and an amazing full moon over the water completed a wonderful day – tomorrow we relax on the boat before heading back to the Exumas on Monday. This feels like a vacation!

Stella Maris - Star of the Sea

OK, sailor friends … picture this:

We’re under full sail on a perfect beam reach, making 7 knots, with a 16-18 knot wind. The sky above us is powder blue, with puffy little cumulus clouds along the horizon, and the sea, which is almost flat, ranges from royal blue to clear turquoise in the more shallow stretches. Sailing doesn’t get much better!

That was two hours of a four-hour trip to Long Island yesterday – about 30 miles south of the Exumas (the rest was motoring). We scraped our way in at low tide, with an inch of water under the keel (yikes!), and landed in Stella Maris Marina (“Star of the Sea”) – named after our granddaughter J. It’s a cozy little harbor with a great bar/restaurant, good showers, a laundry right across the street, and a grocery store a hitch-hike away. The owner, Ian, even offered to climb our mast this morning to see if he could reach the light that needs to be changed (though unsuccessfully). This place has everything a boater needs for a few nights – fortunately, because a cold front has come in, and the winds are heavy from the wrong direction – so we may not be moving for a day or two. Not a bad place to be stranded.

So it’s been a day of provisioning, boat washing, laundry, etc., and watching the palm trees blow in the heavy winds – could be worse – we could be shoveling snow in Toronto. Hope you’re all surviving this on-going  $#*%*# Winter!

Still at anchor ...

Both Jeff and I woke up this morning feeling a bit rocky physically - 8 trips to the head (read "bathroom" for non-sailors) later, I'm feeling much better (I'm sure that's more information than you need :). Maybe something we ate last night. So we didn't sail today after all, and we're using the day to catch up with boat and desk work - I might even do a little boat waxing.

Yesterday Jeff scaled the mast again, and was able to reset the Bad Boy (for wireless connection), but he still couldn't reach the mast head to change the anchor light. So we're giving that up until we can hire someone to help.

Then we spent the afternoon having a fabulous snorkel, a short dinghy ride away from the boat. Amazing corals of all kinds and a few fish became the subject of my underwater Kodak camera - though you'll have to wait until I get them developed to see those. The funny thing is, I kept shooting without looking through the view finder (what's that?), and couldn't figure out why I couldn't see my subject!

So no pics today, as you've already seen the mast-climbing photos ... back to recuperating now.

And the cruise begins ....

It's taken a week, but we're finally watered, fuelled, provisioned, connected and somewhat repaired (still no solar or anchor light). We’re currently floating at anchor in a beautiful isolated spot called Elizabeth Island, not far from our beloved Stocking Island.

This afternoon we attended an historical lecture on Stocking about the Bahamas, while eating a great (kosher-not) pig roast lunch - a tradition there on Sundays. We also communed with some local sting rays (see pic below) – attracted by the remains from the fresh conch salads served on the beach.

Then we ended the day with a snorkel off the boat, I painted a watercolour inspired by my surroundings, we had a wonderful dinner that we made of poached mahi mahi (dolphin fish – not Flipper), and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset.

So life is very good right now. In a day or two we may head to Long Island (Bahamas, not New York) - about a 4 hour sail due South. We'll go where the wind takes us for the next couple of weeks - and we'll keep you posted on this site. Enjoy the whole extra hour of daylight – yeah!

The first two pics are from last night, and the rest are from today ...

Still getting ready ...

Well - the good news is that we managed to get the transmission working yesterday morning, and finally made our way out of the hurricane hole and over to the Exuma Yacht Club, where we're comfortably tied up to a dock, surrounded by huge yachts.

The bad news is that it was such a stressful departure and hot day, that by the time I'd finished washing the rust remover off the boat, I was heat-struck without realizing it. I tried to fill the water tanks in that condition - bad idea! As the water filled up the diesel - yes diesel - tank, it was too late to do anything about it - a catastrophe!! After that I realized I was truly in bad shape, and had to sit out the rest of the afternoon, with all the symptoms of heat exhaustion.

So we spent today trying to find someone to help us clean out the diesel tank, and finally succeeded in getting Marco to agree to come first thing tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, we provisioned the boat, got the laundry done, and finally got a local phone to work and the I-pad connected as a hot spot. All in all, it was a much better day, which ended with wonderful pina coladas at the Exuma Yacht Club bar, and the relaxed-looking pictures of us, below, finally having a chance to appreciate this beautiful place!

Tomorrow, after the diesel clean-up, we'll head out to anchor at near-by Elizabeth Island - the start of our cruise. Though we still have the solar panels and mast issues to deal with - ah, boats.

Murphy's Law Prevails

Marilyn here … from now on, it’ll be me writing, unless Jeff specifically identifies himself.

So you’ve heard of the old “Murphy’s Law” – if anything can go wrong, it will – right? Well, today was a perfect example …

I woke up with the cold I’ve been fighting off all Winter, and covered in bug bites from the noseeums here in this windless hurricane hole where Sea Change is moored. (Still better than -25 degrees, or whatever ….).  Despite my ills I did manage to remove the rust that had blossomed all over the stainless steel (not!) fittings during our month away from the boat.

Then Jeff decided that today is the day to go up the mast for the repairs that are needed at the top.  So he worked his way up (a good half-hour of hard labor on our mast climber, with me spotting and managing the safety line) – only to discover that he hadn’t left enough line on the climber to make it all the way to the top. So, a few feet away from his goal, he had to climb down and give it up for now (no way to do that twice in one day!).

Ah, well – we decided to just slip our mooring and head over to the yacht club dock for water, etc. With the mooring lines released, Jeff shifted into forward – but no go! The transmission was still not working properly, despite the hour Jeff had spent on it yesterday. And now we were floating smoothly into the boat next door, with no forward movement to steer us off! As Jeff jumped into our attached dinghy to fend off “Grateful Red”, Bob (our host) appeared and threw me a line to tie us up to another mooring ball – just in the nick of time! Whew – we both needed drinks after all that, and a beautiful sunset and the appearance of a sea turtle swimming by helped us feel that the day had not been a total loss.

Tomorrow we’ll cash in on our “Tow-boat US” insurance to get us over to the Exuma Yacht Club dock so we can hire a mechanic to help with the transmission problem. And we still have not been successful with getting the solar panels working properly. So when all of that gets taken care of, maybe we can go cruising … we’ll see. It’s still better in the Bahamas J.

Another Month in Paradise

Another Month in Paradise!

So we’re here again, in paradise – for another whole month! The trip from Toronto was a smooth 3.5 hours, and we found the boat in perfect condition, except for the colony of mold at the bottom of the fridge which had developed around a leaking beer can – yuck!

It’s taken us two days to get connected, and so far only my computer is on-line. But

we’re now all settled in and completing a few last boat repairs before we start to explore the Exuma Cays. One of the Quebec couples we met in Florida in December contacted us, and they’re in the same area as we are right now – just across from George Town. We met them for lunch at the “Chat ‘n Chill” bar on Volleyball Beach, and ate fresh conch salad to die for!

I can’t up-load pics until Jeff’s computer is on-line – but stay posted, and stay warm. We do hope that Spring is on the way “up north”! More anon ….