Staniel Cay "Paradise"

Staniel Cay is our new favorite place, this is paradise!! We arrived here Wednesday from Exuma Land and Sea Park. Our sail from the Park to Staniel Cay took us about 3 1/2 hrs. It was the perfect sailing day. The wind was blowing from the ESE about 15-20 knots, with 3 to 4 foot waves. We are anchored right in town, in front of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.




Stephanie our friend from Portland is still here with us. Friday morning she will fly out on a small plane to Nassau, then to Portland. I think she will have a hard time getting used to temperatures in the 20's and 30's back in PDX!


We've done some exploring on the island, snorkeling, and we snorkeled into the famous "Thunderball Grotto" today. It is a cave you swim underwater to get into, then when inside it is like a pool with a roof. It was in the James Bond movie from the 60's "Thunderball" and "Splash" Pretty cool!!! Lots and lots of fish.

So in this town there are 3 grocery stores. One is pink, and one is blue and the other is called Isles General Store. Those first two call themselves supermarkets, and they are about a one room house with a few items in them for sale. A can of pineapple juice is $4.00!!!! We just looked. Tomatoes are $4.50 each.
The other store is called Isles General Store. It is fairly reasonable, and has more stuff. Today the mail boat arrived from Nassau, and restocked the island's stores. We got eggs, lots of vegetables and milk at Isles Store today. $4.75 for a quart of milk! But there is nothing else to spend our money on here, but we don't have a choice if we want to eat, and I like eating.

We were just finishing breakfast this morning on the boat, when we saw lots of dingys heading our direction, but it didn't register they were all heading to the store! We got a call on VHF Radio, that the Isles General had fresh produce from our friends. So we got into the dingy and headed out to the store just in time to get some fresh stuff.

Staniel Cay, has a bar called "Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It is probably the best bar in the Bahamas. They play Jimmy Buffett music most of the time, and really cater to the sailors in town. The food is pretty good and fairly reasonable considering the price of food here. They have free wireless internet, and in fact as I write this, we are in the bar at the late hour of 10:00 PM. That's late for us. Out front, they clean fish for the restaurant in the evening and they throw the guts in the water. It brings in sharks and rays, big ones that are fun to watch. Sort of reminds us of whats living in the waters we are swimming in.




We will miss Stepanie when she goes home on Friday. I will miss her doing my dishes, since Chennie does all the cooking and my job is dishes! On Friday we will most likely anchor behind a big island called Big Major, about a mile from here. The wind is supposed to blow hard on Friday about noon, so we want to be some place more secure than where we are with some shelter from the East winds. It's supposed to blow about 35 knots or so for a day or two. This is the world reminding us it's still winter up north. We have to be careful about where we weather these storms.

There is a beach here inhabited by pigs. Big pigs!! They are sort of agressive if you don't feed them. We didn't feed them but they swim out to your dingy for food. If you toss them a can of beer they crush it in their teeth and suck out the beer. We decided to swim elsewhere.



Today I went hunting for lobster with Bill from a boat called Highlander. We went out into Exuma Sound into huge waves in our little rubber boat. The movie "Castaway" came to mind when I went through the cut into the sound. The scene when Tom Hanks was trying to escape the island. Once out there, we decided the sea was too rough, so we found another spot. When we jumped into the water the first guy we ran into was a 3' Barracuda. We scared him off, but couldn't get any lobsters out of their hiding spots.....tommorrow is another day. The great white hunter will eventually get one!


Enjoy the pictures. Send us emails we love to get them from our friends and family!!!


Chennie and Preston

Exuma Islands

Sailing Nassau to Norman's Cay

We had been in Nassau for almost two weeks! Nassau is a noisy, dirty, but interesting big city. There is a constant traffic jamb everywhere and some very interesting smells.

We were glad to put it astern after so long there.

Our friend Stephanie arrived Monday evening, so on Tuesday January 15 we left Nassau headed for Norman's Cay. It was a perfect day for sailing. The winds from our back at 10-15, Wy'East glided through the crystal blue water into the Yellow Banks. We put up the jib and main sail. She was going about 7 1/2 knots. Unfortunately the whole trip over Chennie was sick, not sea sick
but some sort of flu bug. We arrived in Norman's Cay at dusk, dropped the anchor at a place called Skipjack Point. With Stephanie's help, we cooked dinner. Chennie was even too sick to have steak!

The next morning we headed to shore to meet our friends from Newfoundland to deliver some
bread that we had bought in Nassau (@ 3.50 per loaf), for them and a couple other boats. They had just come from Highbourne Cay and bread was $8/loaf.......
We explored the island some, checked out Mc Duffs Bar and the rental cottages. What a beautiful place. On our way to Eleuthera we will stop here again and stay for a few days.

The weather report was calling for a front to come in, so we decided to call The Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderwick Wells to make a reservation for a mooring ball. Chennie called and we got in, so we made the decision to go. We left at 10:44 a.m, the wind was blowing about 18 knots and picked up in the afternoon to about 25 knots +. Along the way we passed 3 boats like they were standing still! We arrived here at one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen when we pulled into the Land and Sea Park about 2:00 in the afternoon.

The Exuma Land and Sea Park, is a place where we can't fish, hunt for lobster or disturb anything alive or dead. It is a wildlife preserve. They have several moorings here for boats to tie to, which helps to not disturb the seabed as when boats anchor. So we are secure for any weather that may blow through. Here is their website: www.thebahamasnationaltrust.org

The water here is amazing! The snorkeling is great. The water temperature is about 77 degrees and rising, but it is January. I'm sure in a couple of months it will be a nice 85 degrees or so.

Stephanie is enjoying the place as we are. There are about 80 people here or so total, so we pretty much have beaches, hikes and snorkeling all to ourselves. The only way to get here is by boat. There are no hotels, or camping allowed, so if you are not on a boat, and tied to one of their moorings you can't be here.

Last night we had a bonfire on the beach and a potluck happy hour get together to meet our fellow sailors. What a bunch of great people, characters and free spirits. We enjoy them very much. Chennie has learned to make a very good rum punch, with Bahamian coconut rum, OJ, Pineapple juice and cranberry juice. Maybe next time we'll give you all the recipe!

Today we are here at the Exuma Land and Sea Park. There is a big storm blowing. It started last night, but is still howling. We are up on the deck of the park office, watching Wy' East roll in the waves a bit. It's sunny, still pretty, but windy. It will be gone by tommorow afternoon.

Enjoy the pictures (if you click on them they will get bigger) and look for our next post in a week or so from Staniel Cay.

Smooth Sailing!

Chennie and Preston

Aboard Wy' East @ Warderwick Wells (Exuma Land and Sea Park)

Nassau

Paradise Island













Well we are still here in Nassau, for 10 days
now. We are anchored just in front of Paradise Island (Atlantis) until our friend Stephanie arrives on Monday.




We are experiencing the local flavor, eating where the locals eat and taking the buses.


Fresh Conch

Chennie eating Conch Salad

Preston in downtown Nassau







We had dinner with friends
last night on "Whisper". They headed
south to the Exumas (Allen's Cay), with about 4 other boats that were anchored here in
the harbor. We plan on catching up with them in Staniel Cay.

Today it's about 85, sunny and the wind is blowing about 10 mph.... We've been on the
boat all morning, making water and just catching up on chores.

One other reason we've stuck around today, there is boat anchored right in front of us
that has some rope wrapped around his propeller. He has hired a diver to go down
and free it. Yesterday Preston helped them
move their boat because they were dragging
anchor and got very close to us...


We drove our dinghy over to Atlantis and admired the large yachts. It's a whole different
world there...... where the super rich hang out. We walked around the resort and went to the aquarium. Today is Saturday are we are heading to the beach for the day, there is no wind and it's going to be humid and about 86.




Mega Yachts at Atlantis Harbor

Stingray

Shark

Our next post will be from the Exuma
Islands.


Chennie and Preston

In the Bahamas

No Name Harbor




Miami Skyline from Biscayne Bay

Hello All,

We left Miami (No Name Harbour) on December 21, 2007 @ 2:30 a.m with 12 other boats. Destination Bahamas!

After about 1 1/2 hrs we entered the gulf stream with a 4-5 knot current, and the seas where rough 6-7' waves the wind blew 20-25 knots from the ESE, with the forecast winds supposed to switch to the SSW. The winds and seas did not let up all morning as promised by the weather guessers. As the morning progressed the 12 sailboats got further apart going at their own speeds. We had two other boats in sight until morning. With only part of our jib up and the motor basically idling at 1800 RPM,"Wy'East" pulled away from the other boats. As we got closer to Bimini about 5 miles out, we got hit by a dark squall with heavy rain and I mean heavy!! It washed all the salt off "Wy'East, but the wind also increased to about 35+ knots. It lasted for an exciting 15 minutes then passed. As we approached the Bimini harbor entrance, there were about 6 boats circling the harbour, I guessed afraid to enter because of the big waves and the narrow opening and were also concerned with the depth. Since we only draft 4'3" and were tired of being in the big waves, we decided to go in as we had the course in our GPS Plotter. After our sail was down we were the first boat to enter. It was rough but we just took it slow. We docked at the Blue Water Marina and was greeted by "Big C" and his crew who helped us get tied up to the pilings. I was so very happy to have my feet back on land!!!!!!!

Bimini Water at the docks
Bimini Harbor from our stern


Within a few hours, the other boats arrived safe, but tired. The water was so beautiful aqua blue and so clean and clear. It was time a have a drink to celebrate our accomplishment. We had made it to the Bahamas all the way from Long Island, New York. All together about 1700 miles traveled on a boat going 5 to 6 miles per hour on average. "Wy'East proved to us once again that she is a very seaworthy boat and that she's tougher than us!! We only ran aground a few times and we got to Bimini without a scratch on our boat or us.

Our first Kalik. Good stuff!


On a beautiful Bimini Saturday morning we were hearing rumors about a local man that had been shot in a bar just a couple blocks from our marina. About 10:00 a.m we noticed black smoke, like someone was burning tires nearby. Turns out, it was some of the local people burning the police boat and starting the jail on fire. A police officer had indeed shot a man in the head while in handcuffs, and some of the family members and friends were VERY upset. The government flew in the riot police from Nassau. About 30, fully armed men with machine guns ran passed our marina to the Jail which was just 2 blocks from us. About 10 minutes later we heard gun fire from automatic weapons that went on for several minutes. It was scary as we didn't know what was happening just a few blocks down the street!!! Of course we thought the worst, that many people were being killed by the police. About an hour or so after that the Tourist Bureau representative came down to the docks to speak to all the boat crews tied up in the marina. She told us that no one had been hurt and the police just fired in the air with rubber bullets. Just as she finished telling us the "official" line about the incident, all hell broke loose just on the docks 50 yards from us!! Turns out the police were taking the police officer who did the shooting off the island, and the rioters were chasing them, throwing rocks and bottles. The riot police opened up on them again, this time we saw wood splinters flying up from the docks and water erupting near the beach. No one was hurt again, so the Bahamian police really did handle the situation with professionalism and skill. It just sounded and looked really bad! We were pretty shaken up by all of this, and we were ready to leave the island ASAP!

Atlantic Side Beach on Bimini

Whisper from Newfoundland









Shipwreck on the Bahama Banks


Bahamas Banks water 12' deep
We decided to leave the next day, Sunday the 23rd of December in the morning. Together with "Whisper", a 30 foot boat from Newfoundland, Canada we set out across the Bahama Banks. A few miles into it, "Whisper" had some problems with their alternator, so we decided to stop at a place called "Cat Cay" near Bimini to anchor for the afternoon, go to the beach and rest up. The day was beautiful and the water was calm. We snorkeled, had a picnic on the beach and enjoyed the day.

Rough Seas (was worse than it looks)



The next morning we took off across the banks with Whisper, who fixed their alternator. The seas were rough again, and wind against us. We made it to a place called Russell Light, in the middle of no where on Christmas Eve!!! We were kind of depressed to be anchored in the middle of the sea, no land in sight on Christmas in big swells, rolling all over the place. After about an hour I (Chennie) spotted a sail heading our direction. Preston called them on the radio to ask their name and destination. "White Bird" was heading to Chub Cay, where we had intended to go, but we didn't want to travel unfamiliar shallow waters in the dark. Zeke and his wife had done this trip lots of times, and we asked to follow them. It was getting dark, so we got the anchor up and followed them into the night. We had use our spot lights to all stay together as it was so dark. We arrived in Chub Cay at 2:30 a.m. with "White Bird" then "Whisper" arrived an hour later. We were glad to hear the anchor chain rattle over the bow as we were exausted. We still slept in the cockpit, but a few hours later we woke up to clear, blue crystal water and white sand. Preston put on his snorkel gear on and checked out our anchor, just to make sure we had it buried in the sand securely. Christmas Night we had dinner at the Chub Cay Marina @ Harry's Bar with about 20 other fellow cruisers.



Snorkeling at Chub Cay

















December 26th we left Chub Cay for the Berry Island Club, about a 10 mile sail. We docked with 5 other boats. I did laundry and made some phone calls on SKYPE. A local fisherman came into the dock. He was selling fish & lobster (a dozen for $25) we decided to buy some grouper that we grilled with some friends we had met "Channing & Jamie Boswell" from Pine Island, FL. Channing actually once lived in Hood River for a year while windsurfing and helped a friend run the Multnomah Channel Boat Yard in the Portland area, so we had lot's to talk about!

We left the Berry Island Club after a couple days and headed for Cabbage Cay at Little Harbour where we anchored out for 2 nights. On the way to Little Harbor, Preston caught his first fish. Unfortunately, he caught a 3 1/2 foot barracuda! He had big teeth, and fought him all the way to the stern of the boat. Since we were sailing in big waves and strong winds the barracuda didn't get taken off the hook until we got to our destination, and he was a goner by then. That was fine with Preston, as he didn't want to tangle with those teeth!

Barracuda!

Our dingy on the beach at Cabbage Cay



Chennie in the water at Cabbage Cay

We took our dingy to the beach to swim and snorkel. That afternoon another good friend of ours Wolfgang on "Gallatia" arrived. We originally met Wolfgang in Coinjock North Carolina and last saw him in Charleston, SC. He has an offshore sailing charter businsess and had 5 guests on board. We had dinner with them at "Flo's Conch Bar" and we did have conch!!..... Conch Fritters, Conch Salad and Cracked Conch!!!!!!

Mountains of Conch Shells @ Flo's Conch Bar

On December 30th @ 7:30 a.m we left for Nassau and of course the wind was on our nose and 4-5' seas. I was at the helm most of the day to give Preston a break. We had to tack a few times to keep on course and near our rhumb line into the harbor. We entered the Nassau harbour at 4:30 p.m. We came into Nassua Yacht Haven and were greeted by some fellow cruisers that helped up get us tied up in the nasty current.



On December 31 we had dinner with Wolgang and his guests at the "Poop Deck Grill" And of course we were looking forward to the Bahamian Junkanoo Celebration. Junkanoo actually starts New Years Day @ about 2:30 a.m. and goes until 9:00 the next morning. It really was something. A parade with colorful floats, all hand made and human powered! They dance and carry the floats for hours until morning. The energy and sounds are intense. The participants are so into it, it's almost like they are in a trance.
There is nothing like it anywhere.











Now we are here in a storm. The wind is blowing 30 knots tonight, and for the next few days it's supposed to blow. We are staying put here in Nassau until the wind stops.

Until next time...

Chennie and Preston in Nassau, aboard Wy'East

"If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there"
Captain Ron