Beautiful Highbourne Cay

(written yesterday)

Yesterday, a steady, gentle 15-17 knot wind on our beam (for non-sailors, on the side of the boat – the best point of sail) took us to beautiful Highbourne Cay. It was a long 5-hour trip, going 6.5 knots and taking turns at the helm, but we loved every minute!

And what a place to land … a hidden (though expensive) treasure. This gorgeous, privately-owned island boasts a lovely, full-service marina with gas, water, diesel and docks at $2.75 – $4.00 per foot (not quite our style), mostly inhabited by mega yachts. But on land there is a well-stocked grocery and gift shop, 6 perfect beaches, a great restaurant, a talking parrot, and for a small sum, you can use their bicycles, golf carts, kayaks, and paddleboards for a day of exploring the island. So we provisioned the boat, and then anchored off around the bend with all the other sailboats, and today dinghied in to get acquainted with Highbourne Cay.

After our sojourn in the Land and Sea Park with no ice, food, internet, etc. this was like paradise found! We ate lunch in the restaurant and then spent a great afternoon biking on the Cay before returning to Sea Change to batten down for the predicted 4:00 pm storm. At exactly that time a huge dark cloud rolled in and dumped a ton of rain on us, followed by howling winds gusting to 34 knots ☹. We’re getting pretty tired of these cold fronts, and the rocky ride they provide in a harbour.

But we shored up our spirits with a bar-b-que dinner of roasted veggies and spare ribs, and plan to hide out from the storm here for the next two days, before we make another try to get across the Sound to Eleuthra next week.

Mission Abandoned (but only for now!) - written yesterday, as no internet connection to post

We spent yesterday anchored in Hall’s Pond Bay – at the entry to the Land and Sea Park. We were the only boat for the first night, but then were joined by another Canadian boat, whose captain and crew we met, and a Catamaran. It was a lovely, well-protected spot, and our intention was to leave from there the next morning to make our crossing to Spanish Wells.

While there, we intended to go snorkeling at the site of a downed airplane, not far from our boat. But when we arrived, we realized that the current was so strong that it would be easy to be swept away – so I didn’t go into the water at all, and Jeff went in briefly, holding onto the dinghy the whole time. Luckily, Jeff had made a Plexiglas-bottom bucket for us to look through, so we could see everything below clearly from the dinghy - the whole body of the plane, the propeller buried in the sand and the wings – all intact (pics below). 

Then we went over to a beautiful little bay called “the aquarium” – but again full of tidal rips, making it dangerous to swim. Our “lookee bucket” from the dinghy revealed amazing numbers of fish and lovely coral of all kinds.

Back at the boat, we prepared for the long sail on open ocean the next day – including hoisting the dinghy onto the davits and packing a “ditch bag” containing all manner of safety and personal equipment, should we need to abandon ship (just a precaution 😊).

A 9:30 a.m. departure this morning saw us safely making it through the cut to the ocean side. But what we found there were roiling 4-foot waves, crazy winds with gusts to 25 knots, and generally unpleasant sailing conditions. We worked like demons adjusting the whipping sails and managing the helm (we’re a good team!) – but 5 hours like that? Not.

We sailed for an hour up to the next cut, and with much relief crossed back onto the gentle, shallow bank, and into Wardrick Wells – the heart of the Land and Sea Park. We took a mooring there for the night, and dinghed over to the park office to check in. There we met some friends from George Town who informed us that another cold front was expected in the next couple of days, and things wouldn’t calm down until Tuesday – sheesh! Resigned to relaxing, we walked over to the beach, where Jeff read his book, while I climbed the path to Boo Boo Hill. The story here is that a ship smashed on the rocks just below the hill, and the ghosts of the lost crew inhabit the area. To ward off evil spirits, sailors climb the hill and leave something with their boat name on it – a piece of driftwood, an old boat fender, or in my case, a loop of spliced rope we happened to have aboard. A nice afternoon, in the end, completed by a great dinner of leftovers, a gorgeous sunset, and some amazing phosphorescent fish swimming by the boat in the darkness.

So it looks like our crossing is deferred for now, at least until Tuesday. Tomorrow we’ll head further North to Highbourne Cay, where we can replenish our groceries (still no fridge), fill up with water, do laundry and relax for a while. Well make Spanish Wells eventually, but not just yet. Sailing is a lesson in “going with the flow”, so to speak.

An Exciting Sail Up the Bank

We had an amazing sail today, after a month of being prevented from doing that by either not enough or too much wind.

So this is what it looked like as we made our way three hours North to the famed Exuma Land and Sea Park. As this a protected area, the snorkeling is the best in the Exumas, and we plan to do lots of that!

The wind was blowing 20-25 knots (heavy for our little boat), with rollers on the Bank of at least a metre, and lots of white caps. We howled on a run at about 6.5 knots, with both sails reefed, and seawater splashing into the cockpit.

The sky was blue with puffy cumulus clouds, and we were in heaven. Steering was a challenge, though, because of the wind and waves, and the continuing lack of autopilot – we sure miss our third crew member, Auto. And navigation was also a challenge, because we haven’t installed our new chartplotter yet, and the charts on the Ipad are out of date. But my Captain knows what he’s doing, and he landed us safely in this gorgeous little bay, where we’re all alone at anchor, right next to Johnny Depp’s private Island (really!).

We’re also right near the site of a plane wreck that we plan to snorkel on tomorrow, as well as another great snorkeling site, appropriately named “the aquarium”, because of the multitude of sea life to be found there.

So we’re as happy as the swimming pigs on our first “nude beach” this trip. We’ll probably stay for a few days, or until our fresh food runs out – then the 5 hour trip on open ocean to Spanish Wells for bottom painting (the boat’s, of course) 😊.

Cruising Buddies

Cruising can sometimes be a lonely pursuit – especially if you’re stuck in a harbour for days on end, waiting out high winds. We’ve been in Staniel Cay since last Sunday, when we hid out from the first storm, had 2 days of calm, and have now been hit with a second more powerful blow. This kind of wind even makes it difficult to dinghy anywhere, as the water is rough. So people tend to stay on their boats, watching weather forecasts.

But we’ve had a couple of great days, due to the proximity of the sailors’ beach, and our lovely new German friends on sailing vessel Toodaloo.

Yesterday we took our dinghy to the sailors’ beach nearby – so named because the sailors have furnished it with lawn chairs and picnic tables and decorated it with pieces of driftwood bearing their boat names. It’s used for “sundowners”, where people gather to socialize over shared snacks and drinks they provide. We went there during a beautifully sunny (if windy) day, and spent a quiet couple of hours lazing on the beach, swimming and giving our dinghy a good scrubbing.

Then back to the boat, where the phone was ringing with an invitation from Toodaloo to join Jonas, Jane and Kim (all in their late 30’s) for dinner on their boat at 6:00. And what a dinner! It turns out that the two men are gourmet chefs, and with Jane’s help, filled the cockpit table with overflowing dishes of fresh conch salad, fresh-caught grouper sashimi, torched to perfection in front of us, garden salad, white and sweet potatoes, grouper pieces cooked with butter and lime, fish heads cooked in an amazing Thai curry sauce, and endless glasses of pina colada, made on the spot. The best meal and conversation we’ve had since we arrived!  Unfortunately, these cruising buddies are heading back to Europe soon, but maybe we’ll see them again in Berlin, Toronto or New Brunswick. Meanwhile, it’s great to meet new friends in this beautiful place.

Riding Out the Storm in Staniel Cay

In sailing, paying close attention to the weather is crucial to safety. We have learned to do that pretty skillfully, and it definitely pays off! This weekend, we knew that a cold front with very strong winds was predicted to come in on Sunday. So we planned our trip North to have us arrive in the protected harbor of Big Major Spot (otherwise known as the home of the swimming pigs) by Saturday. Tucked into a corner of the harbor, with many other boats, we were rocking and rolling in the wind and white-capped waves by Sunday morning. Rough but safe, we contemplated the fate of two other boats whose captains and crew have become friends.

One was heading back to George Town because a guest needed to get back to the airport by tomorrow. We’re not sure how they did in the wild ocean on the Sound – waiting to hear. The other has been held up in Black Point, about an hour south of here, with a broken steering cable, no emergency tiller and no autopilot. And that harbor has no protection from a north wind. We haven’t heard from them recently, but I imagine they’ve had a pretty uncomfortable stay, though they’re likely safe in that harbor. We’re waiting to see if there’s any way we can help them get here.

So, we’re just hanging out on the boat, waiting for the storm to pass. Nice to have a few days to do boat repairs, read, e-mail or phone friends and family, whom we’re missing, etc. We did dinghy into Staniel today for lunch at their tiny perfect yacht club, and to commune with the nurse sharks who gather there to dine on the guts of the daily catch thrown back into the water by local fishers. And on the way back to the boat, we motored by the swimming pigs in our bay. As we had nothing to feed them, they didn’t show much interest in us, and just swam around lazily in the late afternoon sun – but they were fun to see.