Big Major Spot, Exumas

 

Big Major Spot's Island only has inhabitants of the oink oink kind.

January 2nd, 2009, we left the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and anchored just a couple of miles away. This area is called the Big Major Spot. We figured out later it probably got it’s name for being one of the most popular anchorages in the area. There were literally a hundred boats anchored here, or at least it seemed like it. The population of the crew on these boats probably out numbered the residence at Staniel Cay Island which is only about 100. In the evening the water lit up with boat and anchor lights like a city, mean while the land was dark with no inhabitants other then the wild pigs.

Alex tried to chase the pigs like he did with the Iguanas, they weren't as afraid.

The pigs are of the domestic variety, but live wild here on the island. The boaters love to pull up and feed the pigs. We soon found out why they are called pigs. Rude table manners, and not shy at all, very pushy when it comes to food. The night before after the regatta we were hosted to a pig roast by the locals, I think I know now where they got the pig.

We fed the pigs some table scraps and conch cleaning left overs.

Anchored at Big Major Spot, these pigs are not wild boars but are wild pigs of the domestic variety.

You can see Black Diamond anchored amoung the many boats here. Our’s is the Black boat to Thomas’ left shoulder. That night we dinghyed over to the sail boat Priority, and enjoyed some after dinner deserts with them and their boys. The next morning we are heading out, and making our way to Cave Cay, on route to Georgetown.

Preparing Conch for dinner with the buys from the sailboat Priority.

Here the boys prepared and cleaned the conch for dinner. Alexander was very excited about helping out too, Thomas is not into touching what he calls gross things.

Alexander loves wild life, and got right in there helping out.

Dakota is showing Alexander how to clean conch. Alexander is holding the meat that came from the shell. He is holding the claw.

A close up of Black Diamond anchoring at Big Major Spot.

Approaching the stern of the boat with our dinghy.

Allan’s Cay, Exumas + The Iguanas!

 

Black Diamond anchored at Allan's Cay.

Dec 26th and 27th, 2008

When we got up today and checked the weather report, it was calling for 20 to 25 knots of wind from the East. Not what we were hoping for. We are heading for the Exumas, first stop Allan’s Cay. Our course will have us sailing South East, so we will be close hauling all the way, with heavier winds, so it might be a lumpy ride. The first thing we have to do is find a place to fill the water tanks. We headed out the East channel from Nassau, the tidal stream was coming in from this direction with a strong 3-4 knot current, along with the head on 20+ knot winds. We had to navigate under the bridges that lead to Paradise Island. Our mast height is about 62 feet, and the tallest point in the bridge is 70 feet. More comfortable than the bridges in the intercostal, but we still had to be careful. There was a gas station that was open between the two bridges that we tried approach. But as soon as I turned the wheel, the current and wind took the boat at a good force side ways. We decided not to attempt docking at this gas dock. One of the bridges was less than 200 feet behind the dock. If we made any mistakes we could catch our mast under the low part of the bridge. So we decided to move on, and not too far ahead we found another station. Docking at it was very interesting. We spun the boat around, and had to battle the current and wind again. Luckily there were a few guys there to catch our lines, and secure the boat to the dock. Turns out the station was closed, and these guys were just waiting to clear customs. They had just sailed in from the Turks & Caicos. They were delivering a boat they had purchased from a charter fleet, and were taking it up to Montreal, Canada. There was a water tap there, and we were able to fill up our 400 liters of water there and head out to sea.

You can see navigation can be tricky entering Allan's Cay.

The guys wished us luck and warned us it would be lumpy. However, we were fortunate and ride was not too bad at all. We sailed all the way to Allan’s Cay in about 5 hours and made it there an hour before dark. We always try to make it to our destination in the Bahamas before dark. The islands and anchorages are usually littered with rocks, reefs and cays. All of this cruising ground is new to us, and we have never been to these parts before. So better safe than sorry, we have been fortunate and never did go aground or hit anything on this trip so far.

Another beautiful shot, notice our private beach!

Arriving to Allan’s Cay was a little tricky, the little bay where everyone anchors is very shallow on both sides and even in the middle. There is a nice hole that is 15 to 20 feet deep, but when we got there we found that 4-5 other boats had already beat us there. So we anchored just ahead of them in about 8 feet of water. That evening when the tide went out, and the winds shifted a little, we were touching the sandy bottom ever so often. We tried to throw out an second anchor to keep us in the deep side, but that was not successful. Nothing too serious, so we decided to stay where we were for the night. The next morning, most of the boats pulled up anchor and left, so we moved into a nice hole right next to a boat called Onda from Australia. Funny thing was we met up with this boat a few weeks ago in Cape Canaveral.

The boys really got use to this life style. Notice their shark tooth necklaces.

I must say that we felt as if our vacation really started in the Exumas. This is what we dreamed it would be like. The weather was much warmer, less windy from here on, and islands and anchorages are unbelievable. Just check out the pictures that we have taken in the Exumas from here on. We had a wonderful time at Allan’s Cay, loved the beach, snorkeling, swimming and of course the Iguanas.

Posing with the Iguanas of Allan's Cay.

There are dozens all around you at any given time.

The Iguanas are very tame.

Roxane thinks they are ugly.

The boys think they are cool...Alexander's favourite part of the trip.

Thomas gives this island a thumbs up.

The island boasts no human population, true of many of the islands in the Exumas. But more impressive is the population of over a hundred Iguanas. At first we were a little scared of them, we heard they may bite by accident, their eye sight is not very good, and often mistake feet and fingers for food. But soon the children got very comfortable with them. We feed them bread and carrots, it’s all we had to spare, but they loved it. After a couple of days on the island, the kids got very comfortable playing with them, and just building a sand castle and simply ignoring the dozens of Iguanas all around you. They also realized that if you dropped anything they would run and taste it, wondering if it was food. So Thomas would run around and drop his plastic shovel and watch the Iguana run toward it. Then Alexander would chase them away. Alexander even chased them on all fours, soon the Iguana were actually afraid of the kids. When another boat pulled up to feed the Iguanas, they were none to be found, they were too scared to come out. I know this was a little cruel, but I am sure once we left they would go back to their normal habits.

Alexander having fun snorkeling, with Black Diamond in the background.

Alexander finds his own conch.

Ed and Thomas find 5 conch for dinner.

Alex showing off the conch.

Two perfect conch shells.

Thomas and I snorkeled the whole bay and saw many interesting creatures. We also caught 5 large conch, and we decided we were going to eat them for dinner that night. We invited the cruisers from the boat Onda over to our boat for some conch and wine that evening. I cleaned the conch for the first time in my life. I got some instructions from various people on this trip, and took my stab at it literally. Then Roxane fried them up in some batter, and they were pretty tasty. Even the other cruisers from Onda agreed, it was the best Conch they had in the Bahamas.

Hammering a little hole in the conch to cut the muscle loose, then it just slides out.

A little more cleaning, then in the fryer.

Enjoying the conch and some wine with the other cruisers from Onda.

The next day before we left we explored a couple of the other little islands in the same bay. You can see a few of the pictures of Black Diamond anchored in this beautiful paradise like setting.

Dinghy to the beach.

Exploring Allan's Cay. Onda in the background.

A great view on our little hike.

The kids looking for coconuts.

Exploring the windward side of the island.

Another nice view.

Thomas taking a break after a busy day exploring.

Crossing the Gulf Stream to The Abacos, Bahamas!

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Crossing The Gulf Stream – Florida to The Bahamas

Just hanging around with Thomas.

Caught 3 Barracudas.

Ducked tape his life jacket on, since he always takes it off.

Andrew could not wait to get in the water.

Tuesday evening we left the Marina in Fort Lauderdale to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. The winds were coming from the south-east at about 25 knots. These conditions are not exactly the perfect “weather window” that most cruisers sit and wait for. Some cruisers wait weeks for the perfect conditions, but we did not want to waste any time. In addition, our friend Andrew had a flight booked out of Marsh Harbour leaving Saturday, December 13th.

After putting the kids to bed we had a chance to finish preparing the boat for the crossing. At 12:00 am midnight, Wednesday morning we left our slip and headed towards the Atlantic. We purposely planned to leave at this time so we would arrive in the Bahamas while it was still daylight. As we left the channel at Port Everglades the 15+ foot rolling waves with white caps were on the nose of our boat. Immediately I said, (Roxane) “lets turn the boat around!”. I was extremely stressed out as Ed and Andrew set the sails. I know that we needed good wind to sail across, but the waves were more than I could handle. Twenty-five knots of wind on the ocean is definitely not the same as twenty-fives knots on Lake Ontario!

Alexander enjoying a sandwich for lunch.

Once we were on open water the waves were more manageable at 10 feet and the wind was a steady 20 –25 knots. Our boat handled the wind and waves really well. All of us started to feel confident in how well the boat was handling these ocean conditions. Although Ed and Andrew didn’t handle the large rolling waves so well; both guys spent the entire trip with severe sea sickness. I sat and watched the horizon most of the night while the boat was on auto-pilot, the auto pilot took us all the way to the Bahamas without a problem. The guys were wiped out with nausea and vomiting. The skipper was sleeping, and Andrew the sailor who came to help us from PCYC, was also out cold on the cock-pit floor. I suddenly realized, hey these guys are suppose to be doing this, while they are out cold, I am up all night on watch. I noticed that every once in awhile the jib sail would get hammered with a wave, and the water would just run off. I thought about waking the guys, but it did not really effect the boat. I soon noticed a pattern of it every once and awhile, so I just let them sleep off the sea sickness.

We saw several cargo ships throughout the night.  Our AIS system notified us that one of these ships was headed right for us. We actually thought he was a lot further away, seemed like a couple of miles. He actually didn’t see us as well, he was bow on headed right for us, only about half a mile off our port beam. It is very common that these container ships may not be able to see you at all. Our navigation lights are at deck level and is almost impossible to see at night in any kind of sea. Earlier in Jacksonville, Florida a container ship only about a quarter of mile behind us, could not see us at all.

In these situations sailors often try to hail the boat with no luck. They seem to be ignoring you. But actually, our AIS would often show as many as 10 to 15 boats in the area, your eyes may only spot one or two. So when you are generically hailing the boat, he is looking at his screen, and sees 10 to 15 boats, and has no idea you are hailing him. So he does not answer. But with our AIS system, it actually gives you the name of the ship, which allows us to call him by name, and there is no ignoring that. So when Ed hailed him, and told him that we were the sailing vessel about a half a mile on his bow, he responded that he would alter his course immediately to 230 degrees to avoid us.  Don’t want to think about what could have happened had we not had AIS installed. That was a little too close for comfort.

A little snorkeling.

After traveling through the night at an average speed of 7 knots per hour, we arrived in the shallow waters of the Bahamas at 10:00 am, Wednesday. In calmer seas, everyone quickly recovered from the nausea and sea-sickness. Each of us were able to enjoy a large bowl of cereal. We were in 10’ depth of beautiful aqua-blue water, but to our surprise there was no land in sight for another 4 hours. We arrived at Mangrove Cay, a very small island on the north side of Grand Bahamas Island. This is where we anchored for the night, and enjoyed a good nights rest.

Thursday December 11th, 2008

Fox Town, Little Abacos Island

Ed and Andrew woke up at 6 am to raise the anchor and we started heading east. The weather was warm and sunny as we trolled two fishing lines behind the boat. We successfully caught several small Barracudas, which was especially exciting for the kids.

Alex loves all the wildlife of the Bahamas.

Andrew McAllister of PCYC and Ed.

Looking much better with your shirt on Andrew.

We arrived in Fox Town on Little Abacos Island where we anchored for the night. We enjoyed swimming and snorkeling off the back of the boat before dark. The bay in front of Fox Town has a sandy bottom surrounded by rocks and shoals on all sides. We decided to drop two anchors off the bow, one a Danforth and the other a Bruce for extra holding. This is called a Bahamian Mooring. We were in about 10 feet of water, and let out about 30 foot of chain and 50 feet of rode on both anchors. The Danforth holds exceptionally well in a sandy bottom. But the Bruce is less likely to let go in changing current or winds. While we slept a storm passed through. This same storm passed over the Gulf Stream the night before, where we could see up to 60 knot winds and thunderstorms on our Sirius Satellite weather system. As the storm passed over us, there was heavy rain and the wind was at 25 to 30 knots. We got up during the night when our anchor alarm went off. We checked our chart plotter and it seemed that one of our two anchors let go and re-set itself fifty feet away, due to a change in the wind direction and the tidal current. All was good and we went back to sleep, without any problems.

Friday December 12th, 2008

Thomas found this cool beach.

Spanish Cay and Green Turtle Cay

Black Diamond sitting in crystal clear water.

Navigating the shallow waters of the Bahamas, Ed does not rely on the chart plotter alone. He constantly monitors the depth along with the colour of the water, while plotting his position on paper charts. Ed then constantly compares the paper charts to the chart plotter for greater accuracy. There are virtually no red and green buoys in the Bahamas, this is due to the fact that the sand drifts and shifts. One year an area may be deep enough to cross, while other times it might be too shallow. With a draft of 6.5’ closer to 7 feet loaded down, we also have to pay close attention to the tides when making any sort of passage in the Bahamas.

The boys on the beach.

Spanish Cay Docks, a private island.

We cleared customs in Spanish Key, and hoisted the Bahamian flag.

Early 6AM in the morning we headed towards Spanish Cay. In Spanish Cay we cleared customs and stepped foot on Bahamas soil for the first time.  In the guide books they listed all the towns and islands that you can clear customs. Explorer Charts is one of the best charts and guides for the Bahamas, we highly recommend them. A few of the places to clear customs in the Abacos are, West End, Spanish Cay, Green Turtle Cay and Marsh Harbour. Spanish Cay Marina will charge you $50 for the use of their docks for clearing Customs. So you might as well spend the night here. Excellent first stop, good provisioning for a remote island and an amazing beach! Clearing Customs was a very easy process. The customs officials boarded the boat, had a little look around, asked us for the ships documents, and passports. For a boat under 35 feet the fee is $150 and $300 for over 35 feet. So unfortunately we had to pay the $300, but it’s good for a whole year, and if you ask, they’ll include the fishing permit at no extra charge.

Spanish Cay is a small privately owned island three miles long by half a mile wide. We rented a golf cart and loaded it up with all of our beach gear and a picnic lunch. We toured this pretty island and found a beautiful beach where we stopped for the afternoon. Ed and Thomas went snorkeling and found a starfish, and a live conch in it’s shell. It was an extra thrill when we had a good view of a stingray that swam into the shallow waters at the beach. We tried to follow it, but it was frightened and it quickly swam aw

We rented a golf cart for getting around the island.

Found these snorkeling,

Bahamas is for relaxing, not for working as you can see...

The boys in Green Turtle Cay, a beautiful little town on a small island.

Alexander found this conch, which had a little salamander inside of it. This became his pet for a few days.

Thomas Loves the Hammock.

Celebrating Alexander's 5th Birthday in Christmas Style.

Black Diamonds Boat Bread Recipe!

I got pretty use to the galley oven, and was able to bake cakes, muffins, bread and home made pizza on the boat.

I also baked a loaf of bread on the boat for the first time. I used a Hungarian recipe which requires less ingredients than most other recipes. This bread is a bit heavier than some but it bakes well in the boat oven.

I made half of this recipe:

3 cups      warm water
1 tsp        yeast
6 cups      flour   
2 tsp        salt

 

1. Add yeast and 1 tbsp of flour to one cup of water until foamy (30 – 40 minutes)
2. Using dough hooks add remaining water, salt and half of flour.
3. Add rest of flour (should come clean away from bowl).
4. Kneed.
5. Shape into a loaf, let rise (approx. 1 hour)
6. Brush with water and bake for 45 minut

The men of Black Diamond.

Later that afternoon we left Spanish Cay for Green Turtle Cay. We arrived at Black Sound Marina, at 5 p.m., and we walked into town before dark. The houses and businesses were all painted pretty pastel colours with little white picket fences. Most people use golf carts to get around on the small roads. With all the Christmas decorations it felt as though we were walking around Santa’s Village. We found a restaurant on the waterfront where we enjoyed a nice meal of conch, grouper and fried lobster.  One of the best meals we had in the Bahamas. We came back to the boat and decorated our tabletop Christmas tree and we also hung bows and window stickers. When we were done we sat down to celebrate Alexander’s 5th birthday with a cake that I baked on the boat.

Decorated the boat for Christmas, complete with tree.

Saturday December 13th -16th, 2008

Marsh Harbour

Saturday morning we left Green Turtle Cay for Marsh Harbour. We arrived at the Conch Inn and Marina where Andrew caught a taxi to the airport (back to Toronto). We spent the next few days at this cute marina. At 8:15 each morning we listen to the Cruisers Net in Marsh Harbour on channel 68 to receive updates on the weather, news and local events. The cruisers net, is like a live radio show broadcast on VHF channel 68. They have various hosts reporting on various information interesting to cruisers, there are even commercials where local restaurants come on the VHF and promote their establishment. They asked for a report from any boats around Whale Cay, this can be treacherous crossing on the out side of the keys to get to Marsh Harbour. Our boat’s draft is too deep to cross on the inside, so we had to make this crossing on the outside. There is a condition called rage seas, where the tide is going out, while large swells are moving in at the same time. Sometimes the seas can break surf at 20 feet high around this area. We crossed with 6-10 foot seas, they were not breaking, and we made it without trouble. When other cruisers heard our report, they decided not to attempt it. When we arrived in Marsh Harbour we were greeted by the host of the cruisers net congratulating us. After what I have experienced so far, it did not seem to bad, even Roxane and the kids were ok with it. Later we found out that people can listen to the cruisers net on the internet as well. We received e-mails from as far away as New York State, from people we did not even know, who have been following our blog. Unbelievable.

Once we arrived in Marsh Harbour there was a Christmas celebration in town with music, dancing and a jumping castle and photos with Santa. All the kids including, Thomas and Alexander received a wrapped gift. While there we bought Thomas a couple more books because he was getting low on reading material since he has read six novels on this trip so far!

Bahama Santa with the boys.

Marsh Harbour Christmas Party for the kids!

 

Christmas trees brought in and spread throughout the town.

 

All the children in the town received Christmas presents, courtesy of the Rotary Club.

 

The kids love Dolphins.

Sunset in the Abacos.