On the move north….all day long. 2/26/19 Tuesday

Emma, while up several times in the night, woke with little fever and mood much improved.   Thanks for all the well wishes for her!

Would have been so nice to stay in Old Bight off that gorgeous beach a few more days, however weather has a lot to do with our schedule and the winds say it’s time to move on.  We have to get back to the Exumas by Sunday but wind is dying out Thurs – Sat….so looks like Wednesday is our last day to cross the Exuma Sound.  Our stay in Cat comes to a quick end.

We had a very full day with anchors up under sail alone – underway before breakfast. Winds were lighter then forecasted and often had to go wing on wing to hold our Rhumb line.  

After 2hrs of sailing, we stopped at Fernandez Bay, Cat Island for a brief look around and nice snorkel right in the bay.  Only there 1.5hr – would put it on the return to list!

Continued another 6hrs sailing downwind, no ocean swell since we were in the lee of Cat island all day but was rolly with waves off the aft quarter.   It was slow going but we eventually made it to Half Moon Bay on Little San Salvador (just north/West of Cat Island).  This is Carnival Cruise Line’s private island.  We got to see the 3000 passenger cruise ship leave the anchorage (our first sighting of a cruise ship) and then we pulled in to have the bay and beach all to ourselves!   Arrived just in time for an exploration on land as the sun was setting. It was a nice place….for just the 4 of us!  Can’t imagine sharing it with 2996 other people!  J

Time for rest before another big sailing day tomorrow.

PS.

All that sailing and still no fish!  We are in a drought.  Caught a barracuda….but you don’t eat those!

Somehow 2 pictures from our Hermitage visit didn’t attach a few days ago. Here they are.

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Kids up at 5:45am – paddling boarding by 6:30am and jumping off the boat with dad by 7am.  Suffice it to say the day started quickly!  We woke to the most amazing calm, windless morning.  It was so incredibly quiet without the wind.  You could see the bottom of the ocean as if there was no water.  Amazing.

We took advantage of the flat water to dinghy out a mile into the bay to find a few coral reefs that surprised us with lots of fish. It was such a treat to be snorkeling again – has been over 3 weeks since we found live reef and lots of fish.  This seemed like a Queen angelfish breeding ground – there was every size from tiny to large – such fun to see (in the past we’ve only seen 1 or if lucky 2 during a snorkel).  We found a sleeping nurse shark hanging out right in the middle of the coral head. Lots of fish of every variety including the illusive queen trigger fish.

Now it was 10am, back at Amel, ready for the next chapter…..only to realize Emma had developed a fever of 101.4 and melted into the couch crying. 

So rest of the day was a mix of Tina working on laptop, taking care of Emma, Henry amusing himself (creating a new swing on the boat). Later in the day Tina got a precious 30mins paddling board and beach time to explore the Rollezz Resort while Mike stayed with Emma.  She responded well to Tylenol which made her feel better for a bit but it was obvious when that dose wore off and she would go downhill quickly.

Here’s hoping that a good night sleep and Emma will be healthy in the morning (and that no one else gets sick!).  

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Sunday started early for us in New Bight today.  Why, on a day when kids and adults can all sleep in, do the kids not sleep in?!  Nights and mornings near larger islands are often cooler, which inspired us to get off the boat and hike up Mount Alvernia before the afternoon heat.  We reached the highest point in the Bahamas at 206 feet above sea level, only half a mile from where we anchored. At the top is the Hermitage, a tiny one-man monastery built by Father Jerome in 1939.  He was an architect in England before becoming a priest and continued to use his architecture skills by building churches all over the Bahamas.  We also found a cave at the top, complete with natural skylights!

https://www.bahamas.com/vendor/hermitage-mt-alvernia

For the first time in a while we found ourselves anchored near a church on Sunday and went to the 11am worship service on foot after our hike.   The church, also built by Father Jerome, was very welcoming and all the kids came to greet Henry and Emma. One advantage of walking from place to place is that it leads to encounters that would never happen in a car. On the way to and from we enjoyed learning more about the island from a police officer outside his office and from Duke the famous Duke’s Conch Shack in New Bight (who happened to have his 9 year old son with him – Henry hit it off with him right away).  If not for the choppy anchorage in southeast winds, we would have stayed longer!   After lunch we motored an hour down to Old Bight with a gorgeous endless white sandy beach.  It is very quiet here (10 boats), with the possible exception of 2 energetic kids that paddled all 4 of us to shore for an afternoon of beach fun and swimming.

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Yesterday we enjoyed checking out the Cape Santa Maria resort in Calabash Bay on the northern tip of Long island.  Check it out for your next vacation – the beach and water colour are wonderful.  Every room is beachfront, and maximum occupancy is only 130 people.

Today was of our best sailing days so far.  44 miles in about 7 hours at a steady 6.5 knots.  The wind was 14-18 knots just behind the beam with seas 3-4 feet, occasionally 5 feet. Today was more comfortable offshore than the nearly 8ft waves we had coming from Conception to Long Island a few days ago.  Also, today’s downwind sailing meant the wind gusts conveniently sped us up, instead of other situations where they tend to cause the boat to heel over more. Once we made it inside the “Bight” on the south end of Cat there were 1.5 hrs of sailing left, now upwind with reefed sails. Tina was steering and Amel was making a steady 6 knots against 18 knots winds gusting 25, just 45 degrees off the nose. Not bad! (Though the gusts did get us leaning over a bit more than usual!)  We watched another boat not doing as well upwind that had to finish their day motoring the last leg into the anchorage. We were able to arrive under sail, setting the anchor with a minimum of engine run – success! 

Perhaps a bigger success were two smiling kids.  We had no seasickness today and enjoyed some Roald Dahl books on tape while underway.  Tina crowned the day with fresh baked bread as a dessert which she began kneading before the other three even had the anchor down.

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Somewhat rainy, squally morning gave us chance to get caught up on work, emails and internet todos today. Kids did great on their school work – I think we finally have a good routine now that trip is almost over! Ha. Had a chance to get caught up on a few more photos tonite from Conception and a few other places.  One cool opportunity the kids got was trying out some dive gear.  Henry was soooo stoked.  He’s been asking me over and over when can he get scuba dive certified (has to wait till he’s 10).  A very nice boat let us borrow their gear on the beach.  Kids both loved trying it out (with Mike at their side and only in a few feet of water).  Neat experience for them.

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Wow.  How to sum up last 6 days?  Magical.  Anchored off an isolated, uninhabited National Park island with nothing but crystal clear water, endless beaches on every coastline and dramatic white cliffs.  Dolphins visiting in the anchorage to snorkel with, long hot sunny days to swim, paddle board, walk the beach.  Mangrove creeks to explore with turtles, conch, stingrays, juvenile sharks.  Enjoyed some really good family time in the quietness of Conception and also made some new good friends – one boat at a time. We had a few mornings of school, one rainy afternoon with lots of family game time.  We tried out 3 different anchorages for variety – we loved West Bay the most with it’s incredibly long white sandy beach.  We saw at least 3 “Green flashes” at sunset and so enjoyed the full moon rising and lighting up the ocean floor. I could have stayed forever!  Now we’re back in “civilization” at Calabash Bay on the isolated north end of Long island, including cell service and all that goes along with being “connected” again.  It was wonderful taking a break  – I don’t think I even picked up my cell phone once in Conception – there was no need to use it for anything!  Amazing the peace that brings to the body and mind.

So many photos to edit.  Here’s a few.  Maybe we’ll get time to edit some more in coming days.

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Wow. Day 75. Really? In many ways it feels like we just got out here, and in others we feel so comfortable like we’ve been doing this forever.  Time yields odd perspectives sometimes.

Nonetheless – Happy Valentine’s Day!  We did manage to save a little chocolate so we could celebrate in style today.  Even saved the last package of bacon to have a tasty breakfast cookup. 

Today was about friendships more than a Bahamas vacation.  After yoga on the beach to start the day (for Emma at least. Henry played and Tina worked), we spent time reminiscing with old friends Laurie and Francis from 2004 that are still sailing the 49ft catamaran they built.  So much to catch up on!  We also got more time on Mojo (another owner-built catamaran) before our pending departure.  Nice to have met some new good friends on this trip.  Then this afternoon some of the kid boats from up north finally made it down and pulled into the harbor.  Bliss, Mohini and Sunshine all appeared and we spent a fun evening catching up on the beach and letting kids run free.  A few were dancing to Bahamian tunes on a small stage, others were on the rope swing, and good times were had by all.

Sad to leave with so many friends here, but 9 days among the nearly 300 boats in George Town’s “country club” atmosphere is apparently our limit.  We are refilled on water, food, fuel and ready to return to the outlying Bahamian islands. Looking forward to swimming and snorkeling again soon!

If the weather holds, the anchor’s up in the morning and off we go!

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It’s been 3 days since an update but somehow doesn’t seem like much to add.  I guess this time in G-Town has been more like “real world”.  Lots of errands and time consuming items like hand laundry, water collection.  A trip to town in Amel on super windy day that still had a soaking wet dinghy ride with waves splashing over the bow  – onto us, our food – nothing like wet bread, eh?!  So many days I wonder where the time goes by – but it essentially took 6hrs to accomplish a 30mins shopping trip.  Painful for a person who is a process efficiency expert – this is not it!

One morning, we did get a nice Stretch class on the beach, under the casuarina’s trees with blue sky above.  Not sure how one goes back to classes in a gym after these experiences.  Kids volunteered for a beach cleanup day which was great until the squall hit and we all got soaking wet (gorgeous wild beach though with huge sand cliffs – very dramatic).

This morning we woke to crazy squalls and torrential rains.  Mike spent the morning wet, collecting rain, doing hand laundry in all the fresh water and keeping anchor watch.  Lots of other boats dragging but not us (or boats near us thank goodness). We would have zero wind – then go to 35knot squalls in seconds.  At some points the rain was so hard we could not see the boats next to us.

So we’ve had some trials, errands, chores.  Just a few ho-hum kind of days. Trying to fit in school work as we can. Highlights were spending time with Mojo – a boat friend we have been getting to know better and better and we really like (1 boy 1 girl similar ages) and today meeting up with Glory Days who we met as “Mandolin” 15yrs ago on our first sailing journey. A quick but fun reunion.

Big rain squalls tonite and all tomorrow – wish us luck (one hitting now as I write this – not often we are up till midnight!).  It may not be snow – but we are getting our precipitation in a different form!

A few comments about some photos:

– Mike up the mizzen mast attempting to get Amel’s radar functioning again. (because hey, why would you sit for an hour and relax when you could be FIXING something right? )

– Anglican church in town had beautiful stainglass

– Kids playing in the sand playground at the local school

 – When you loose something at the bottom of the fridge that you can’t reach it – what to do?  Send your child in upside down to retrieve it of course! (those are Emma’s legs that Mike is holding)

Facebook post to go with the 2 ice cream photos:

$10. Yes we paid $10 for one tub of ice cream. That is $10 of pure happiness you are looking at!!!!! 4 spoons and we went at it. Container said 12 servings…..we finished the tub just the 4 of us. Licked clean. You should have seen the smiles….

The hardships we must endure without a freezer on board! 

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George Town. Or rather, Stocking Island where all the 200 cruisers are anchored, across the harbor from the town. It’s a place unlike any other around here.  The community of boats includes self-run events by long time cruisers that have come here year after year.  An organized radio “net” each morning making announcements about the day’s activities.  Yoga at 9, golf at 10, volleyball at 2pm.  It’s like a summer camp for adults.  It also links boaters who may be in need of help/repairs with others who can provide assistance, almost exclusively based on mutual aid and goodwill.  It’s also one of the larger towns around, augmented by nearby resorts such as Sandals, and therefore has notably more grocery, shopping, and service options than most of the out islands.  

On the flip side, there’s not much snorkeling or swimming going on for us right now.  The harbor water is still blue but is cloudy with low visibility.  The ocean side is often too rough for swimming, especially as we wait out strong winds.  Even on calm days the ocean only attracts intrepid spearfishermen in search of a lobster tail or their next filet of fish. And it doesn’t help that Mike has a bit of swimmers ear right now…  he won’t be getting wet for a few days anyway!

So…. We’ve been running in place for few days, either joining in these scheduled activities, or hiking trails to hills or beaches on Stocking Island, as well as just getting caught up on work, schoolwork, boat chores, hand laundry, etc.   We’re trying to make the most of this different flavor of Bahamian island while we are here, though we’re quite looking forward to getting back to the less inhabited and completely uninhabited islands.

We are a little overwhelmed at all the people – several boats have commented how you meet more people here, but it’s hard to get to know them better due to the sheer numbers.  Nevertheless, we have slowly over last 4 days are getting to know a few new boats (having left most of all the other boats we know further north).  We’ve explored beaches, done kid yoga on the beach, helped organize a “Valentine’s making party” for the kids on the beach, collected shells, spent more time in large gatherings just “chatting” as kids would say.  One night we did a fun “kids cookout” that had over 36 kids and parents there. Henry has found some active kids to play volleyball, throw a football and just plain run around with. Emma happily jumps in the water to swim at the beach and has come out of her shy bubble to befriend Lily.  They’re now following each other around inseparably.  This afternoon some boat parents and kids (17 people including Mike and Henry) played a fun round of volleyball against a local Bahamian team (7 people) and everyone had a blast.

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We have recovered from yesterday’s very long day.  After a great 6 hour sail with favorable winds we arrived in George Town and saw that the supply boat had arrived.  We bypassed the usual anchorage and shopped in town for 3 hours for an overdue major reprovisioning.  Then another hour to move the big boat back across the harbor and squeeze into a somewhat crowded anchorage at sunset (never mind getting all that food and supplies stowed away).  We were all knackered.  Early to bed for all last night!

Rejuvenated today, we headed out to explore Stocking Island after a little school work.  Some dolphins surprised us right in the anchorage!  We hiked up to the Monument (one of those must do tourist things). Great view of Exuma sound and the anchorage.  It was fun to do the hike with lots of other kid boats too.  Then we dinghied down to Chat n Chill beach which has dozens of picnic tables in the shade right off a gorgeous beach. Chat n Chill is a little grill shack on land that hosts several volleyball courts, hammocks and an awesome tree swing for the kids.  Another kid boat commented that the recent wave of arriving boats has roughly doubled the kid population in the anchorage.  Line ups at the swing today!

One amusing thing about being near a large number of boats is that blowing the conch horn at sunset triggers responses from at least ten nearby boats with their own conch horns.  It’s a bit like alpenhorns echoing in the mountains of Europe, but perhaps not quite as well tuned! 

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