Black Point Settlement, Exumas

We ended our stay at Staniel Cay with a nice sail on Sea Yawl Later and then a quick trip over to an island called Big Majors Spot to see the swimming pigs that we had heard about. Sure enough, the pigs get handouts from cruisers so as soon as they see a boat or dinghy approach the beach they swim out to greet you and eat whatever you throw their way. Shane was the only one brave enough to get in the water with the pigs. They seemed friendly enough but they wanted food and I bet their hooves were sharp!

Rusty (on s/v Sea Yawl Later) has dubbed our group the "Texas Navy" since we are all from Texas. There are five boats in the navy so far – Storyville, Anchor Management, Kaleo, Sea Yawl Later and Guiding Light. We are looking forward to hooking up with Pipe muh Bligh this week so that they can be inducted into the Texas navy as well!

The Texas Navy decided to head down to Black Point Settlement since we were soon to be seeing strong north winds. There was no north wind on the way down though so we motored our way to the island of Great Guana Cay where Black Point Settlement is located. We found a very nice anchorage there and spent the first afternoon exploring the town. There is a great little café with internet and a book exchange. The café is called Lorraine's and let me tell you, Lorraine makes the best cracked conch in the world and her mom makes the best coconut bread in the world. If you think I'm exaggerating, then you will just have to come and try it for yourself! Lorraine's son Josh took a liking to me for some reason and sat in my lap and gave me lots of hugs. I think he recognized a lady that missed her grandkids and need a big hug from a little kid! He sure is a sweetie.

Josh and Me

Cracked Conch at Lorraine's



Diving for Lobster



Meeting on Storyville

Early the next morning we moved around to the other side of the peninsula where Black Point is located to an anchorage that is better protected for the north winds that were coming our way. The first thing that I did was dive into the beautiful clear water and check to make sure our anchor was set. Once I saw that the anchor was buried deeply into the sandy bottom, I grabbed my spear (Hawaiian Sling) for what I was hoping would be my first chance to spear a fish. I swam over to the rocky shore and within just a couple of minutes I had spotted a lion fish and a great big lobster. I was excited to have a chance to fulfill my biggest goal on this trip – to spear a fish and cook it for dinner. By the way, I have decided that a lobster would do just as good as a fish! Anyway, I started my hunt by trying to spear the lion fish. They are an invasive species here and in Florida and divers and fishermen as asked to kill them whenever they come across any. They do look really intimidating because they have lots of venomous spines. I have heard that they are good to eat and will attempt to clean and eat one if I can ever manage to spear it! I missed the lion fish and the lobster but I was still determined. After all, this was my first attempt to even use the spear gun. I managed to scare both targets back into the reef to I moved on to another area. By that time Steve had joined me and we were on the hunt while Troy managed the dinghies and provided support from above. We found several more lobsters and another lion fish. I hit one of the lobsters, but they sure do have a tough shell! It just bounced right off and moved all of the lobsters back further into the reef. Steve pointed out the lion fish and I made another attempt, but missed once again. Then, just as I was starting to get discouraged and decided that I needed a little more practice with the spear, we spotted a lobster on the move and out in the open. I headed over for and got a shot on him. The spear glanced off and I thought I had missed out again. I took another breath and dove again, I couldn't believe that he was still there. Maybe I stunned him the first time! Anyway, I got another shot and speared him straight through! I was so excited and couldn't wait to show Troy that I had speared a lobster! I surfaced with the lobster on my spear and looked all around me for Troy. He was over a little way and speaking to a woman on the shore. The woman lived in the house overlooking the anchorage and she had come out to tell Troy that it is illegal for non Bahamians to spear fish within 200 yards of the shore of the island. And here I was, waving a lobster around on my spear yelling "I got one!". The lady was very nice and we apologized and explained that we were not aware of the law. She told us to go ahead and keep the lobster and of course, we could spear as many lion fish as we wanted since they are considered an nuisance. I felt bad that I had speared my first lobster illegally, but it was unintentional and se we celebrated the victory anyway! Troy, Steve and I had lobster pizza for lunch. Yummy!

Matt, Christie, Shane, Deana, Rusty, Linda, Pastor Kevin Rolle and Troy

Shane had made arrangements for us to get a ride back into Black Point on Sunday so that we could attend the local church service. I think it may have been my fir st time to ride to church in the back of a pickup truck and to sit in church with sandy feet. We were all welcomed very warmly and we were in for a surprise. Shane had been to a service at this church a few weeks before and met the pastor and visiting missionary. The pastor asked whether Shane would like to give the sermon on Sunday. Shane is not a preacher and according to him, he would normally have said "no way" but since he had just finished a book called The Five Love Languages, he felt like the Lord had laid in on his hear to share what he learned. He didn't tell us that he was the guest speaker, but he did a great job and, since it was the Sunday before Valentine's Day, it was the perfect subject! We were all very proud of Shane!

All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
~James Thurber

Pictures

I finally got a chance to get caught up on some picture posting!  Check out the links and don't forget to leave comments!

Warderick Wells

Shroud Cay

Staniel Cay

Black Point

Staniel Cay

Welcome to Staniel Cay

We finally pried ourselves away from Wardrick Wells. It was my favorite place so far. There was so much to see and do and it was our first chance to get to do some snorkeling. The water is getting warmer every day.

We anchored out at Bell Island where we snorkeled at a place called Coral Reef Sea Aquarium. It was as beautiful as the name sounds and it did seem like you were swimming in a big salt water aquarium. The fish were obviously used to being fed and were not shy at all! We were the only people there so it was nice to get to spend a little time in a really secluded spot. We also snorkeled a submerged plane – it was creepy to see an upside down airplane in the water, but the surrounding reef was beautiful. Matt and Christie treated us to Chicken Vindaloo for dinner and we decided to move on to Staniel Cay where we would wait for Steve to get back from his visit to Florida.

We motored our way up to Staniel Cay since the wind was right on our nose. It didn’t take us long to get there though and we hooked up to a mooring ball right behind Thunderball Grotto, an underwater cave where several movies have been filmed. We were excited because we heard s/v Sea Yawl Later on the radio. Matt and Christie had been on the lookout for their friends Rusty and Linda on Sea Yawl Later since we made it to the Exumas. We were also looking forward to meeting them because they are from Beaumont and kept their boat at Waterford Harbor in Kemah. We had been following their blog for some time.

We did a little exploring of the town in Staniel Cay while we waited for Rusty and Linda to get to the anchorage. The town is small and we were hoping for a little more selection in groceries because we had not seen a grocery store or market since we left Nassau. You can find what you need here, but nothing near what you are used to back home. Everyone is really friendly though and you can buy freshly baked bread right out of the bakers kitchen.

One other reason that we wanted to make it to Staniel Cay was so that we could watch the Superbowl. We watched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and we finally got to meet Rusty and Linda. We hit it off with them right away. They are truly wonderful and special people, we made friends really quickly. Linda invited us over to their boat for dinner the next day, along with Matt, Christie and another cruiser, Shane on s/v Guiding Light. We had the best time, sharing a wonderful meal of spaghetti complete with Linda’s home made bread. We played a game called Catch Phrase (tons of fun) and then watched a movie on their big screen TV. Life is good!

The next morning we got a call from Linda and Rusty inviting us to spend the day on their boat to take a ride through Pipe Creek. We had one of the best days ever! Troy, myself, Matt, Christie, Shane, Linda and Rusty spent the day exploring in places where catamarans with a shallow draft can get to lots easier than a monohull sail boat. We even got to park Sea Yawl Later right up almost on the beach so that we could go for a swim. We saw starfish by the hundreds and even got to feed some sharks!

We got back to our anchorage in the early evening and since it was slack tide we knew it was time to explore Thunderball Grotto. What an amazingly beautiful place. It’s an underwater cave that’s full of fish. There are several ways into the cave, some of the only accessible by swimming underwater. Later that evening Shane cooked us all steaks and fish on his boat, Guiding Light. Did I mention lately that life it good????

We are still just loving life and the adventures that it brings every day. I am amazed at how busy we stay. There is just so much to see and do and so many wonderful people have entered our lives. We sure do feel blessed.

Please take a look at Kaleo and Sea Yawl Later’s blogs. I know that they have done a much better job than I have in describing the wonderful days that we have spent here at Staniel Cay.

Sea Yawl Later

Kaleo

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ~C.S. Lewis

Allen's Cay, Shroud Cay and Warwick Wells Cay

It feels like the cruising has finally begun! The cays of the Exumas are breathtaking. Each new one is even more beautiful than the last. Small little white sand beaches and clear blue water with mangroves and other short but green vegetation along the shore. This is what we’ve been dreaming about.



Allen's Cay Iguana



We left Nassau early in the morning and had a perfect six hour sail over the Bahama Banks to Allen’s Cay. We set our anchor and dropped the dinghy to head over to Leaf Cay to see the iguanas that we had heard about. Tourists in “go fast” boats (think Boardwalk Beast) are brought over from Nassau each day and the iguanas are used to handouts. They come out on the beach and will run right up to you if they think you have food. We stayed at Allen’s Cay for two nights and spent the days exploring the surrounding cays by dinghy. The water was still a little too cold for swimming and snorkeling. The second night brought a tightly packed anchorage. Both Kaleo and Anchor Management had to move their boats. Between the strong wind and an opposing current no one got much sleep and we were all ready to move on the next morning.



Next on the chart was Shroud Cay. Shroud is part of the Exumas Land and Sea Park. The motto is take only photographs and leave only footprints. We had another great sail and were happy to see that the park had installed mooring balls. We were all glad to pick up a ball so that we could get a decent nights sleep. We were amazed at the beautiful clear water with a deep sandy bottom.

On the way to Shroud we heard our friends Rene and Stacy on s/v Pipe muh Bligh on the radio. They were our dock neighbors at Watergate in Kemah and we were planning to find them since we knew they were cruising in the Exumas. Luckily they were just over at the neighboring cay and they came over to join us at Shroud.

 We had a great reunion with them and then we all took an awesome dinghy ride through the mangroves of the park and all the way to the other side of the cay where we hiked a small hill and got some great shots of the water. That evening we enjoyed happy hour on Pipe muh Bligh with Rene and Stacy, Steve from Anchor Management, Matt and Christie from Kaleo and L.A. and Susan from Genesis. Good thing Rene and Stacy have such a big boat! We spent the next day at Shroud exploring by kayak and hanging out on the beach. This is the life!



Storyville from the top of Boo Boo Hill

We were on a waiting list to get a mooring ball at Warwick Wells Cay where the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarter is located. Our sail over was picture perfect and once we arrived we just could not believe that a place could be so beautiful. We are planning to stay here for several days because there is so much to see and do. All of our buddy boats are here right now, Anchor Management, Kaleo, Pipe muh Bligh and Genesis.



Troy with a bananaquit



We made a hike up Boo Boo Hill where the views are absolutely breathtaking and we got some great shots of our boats out on the mooring field. Boo Boo Hill is a hilltop where cruisers make signs out of driftwood with their boat names on them and leave them on a cairn there. We made our signs and hiked back up to leave them this morning. It sort of feels like a right of passage as a cruiser to leave our sign up there.

Adding our Sign on Boo Boo Hill

We found some tiny little birds here called bananaquits. The love to eat sugar and will sit right on your hand to eat it or to drink water. We had fun feeding the bananaquits on Boo Boo Hill!

This afternoon we finally got to do some snorkeling. We snorkeled a small reef and saw many beautiful fish and coral. I even saw a school of squid that changed color as they moved from the coral to the sand. After the snorkel trip we all went back to Storyville to swim and play on the little sand beach that appears each day behind our boat at low tide. While we were there a sting ray and a nurse shark both swam right under our boat.

I still cannot be believe how beautiful it is here. We are loving every minute of this so far. I apologize if I am overusing words like amazing, breathtaking, awesome, but I really don’t know how else to describe the things that I am seeing!

We have very limited bandwith here so I will not be able to post all of my pictures. I will get them posted with a link on the blog as soon as possible.

The ocean looks like a blue rainbow! ~Stacy Foree

The World Famous Straw Market and Other Adventures in Nassau



Storyville - crossing the Great Bahama Banks



We are still in Nassau and have been here longer than we expected. One reason for the delay is the weather, it’s beautiful and sunny here but windy and we are expecting a front to come in on Wednesday. We got a good price on a dock in a marina here and decided that we would rather be here than anchored out during the front. It has also worked out well because we figured out that we need to replace our batteries and it will definitely be easier to do here in the city.

The other day we (Troy, myself, Matt, Christi and Steve) were looking for something to do and decided that we would walk down to Potter’s Cay which is a market where fruits and vegetables are sold and there are rows of tiny little restaurants selling conch salad, conch fritters, fried fish and other Bahamian specialties. We had a hard time choosing which place to order from, but we finally made our decision and ordered conch salad, conch fritters, peas and rice and some fried plantains. Of course we had a couple of cold Kaliks (Bahamian beer) to wash it all down. The conch salad is a lot like ceviche, which I love, but Troy is not so fond of. The fritters are much better here than the ones we had in Key West. The Key West ones were more like hush puppies with a conch flavoring thrown in. The ones we had here definitely have more conch in them. It was a great lunch and we moved on to shopping for some fruits and vegetables. We bought goat peppers (habanero), some dried thyme and pigeon peas. The pigeon peas are the peas used in the Bahamian side dish peas and rice.

I wanted to keep walking down to the World Famous Straw Market. I read about it in some of the literature that we had and it was described as a market place where local Bahamians sold their handmade straw products (purses, hats, etc.). It turned out to be quite a long walk but eventually we found ourselves right in the tourist area where the cruise ship terminal deposits visitors so that they can spend their money in Nassau. We saw Coach stores and jewelry stores and liquor stores and T-shirt stores. Finally, at long last, we made it to the straw market.

We knew we were at the straw market when a man came up to us and said “Welcome to the Straw Market. I have a free necklace for you.” He then proceeded to pick out a beaded necklace and put it around my neck. As he did so, he said “All I ask is a small donation for the island kids”. Not knowing exactly who the “island kids” were, I offered him all the change in my pocket which turned out to be a total of 26 cents. Apparently he was offended by that and I learned that 26 cents is not enough for a free necklace! That free necklace was whipped off my neck with lightening speed and he was on to the next tourist.

The straw market was a huge disappointment. I am willing to bet that there was not one locally made straw product in the whole place. In fact, I bet most of the products came from China. It was like a great big flea market with stuff piled as high as the ceiling and the rows so close together that you could only walk single file down them. It was stuffy and didn’t smell all that great, like a maze of flea market T-shirts and trinkets and junk. All of the vendors are calling out to you at once trying to get your attention. It is impossible to tell where one booth stops and another one starts. At one point I looked behind me at Steve and I thought I saw a look of panic on his face. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

We’ve been here for several days now and are more than ready to move on to the Exumas where we will find beautiful beaches and clear water for swimming and snorkeling. As soon as the batteries get replaced and the weather cooperates we will be moving on.

Click here for Pictures from Nassau

The Bahamas



Bahamas Greeting Committee



At long last, we made it to The Bahamas. Our crossing from Florida took two days. We crossed the Gulf Stream and the Great Bahama Banks without any problems. This was the first multiple day crossing with just Troy and I and Storyville. We had a perfect crossing. We took three hour shifts at night and shared the day shifts while taking turns napping. The sail across the Great Bahama Banks was just absolutely amazing. This is what we’ve been waiting for. Beautiful water that is so clear and blue it looks like a swimming pool. We were even greeted by dolphins. They escorted us for quite a ways, playing in our bow wake.



We made the crossing with several other boats and we were able to stay in touch with all of the boats, checking in with each other on the radio every three hours. Steve, on Anchor Management was single handing so we wanted to make sure to keep him in sight if we could, just in case he was trying to get a little sleep. The moon was full and moon rises and sets were stunning, so were the sun rises and sets. On both days I was on watch for the sun rise. It was awesome to see the full moon setting behind me and the sun greeting the day in front of me, both at the same time. Just beautiful, and absolutely incredible.



Sunset



I wish I had the words to describe the colors of the ocean. We were in water that was around seven thousand feet deep and it was dark, dark blue, almost black, but still clear, reminding me of an obsidian blade, then we would cross over into water that was twenty feet deep and turquoise blue with patches of green, with white sand on the bottom. Such a change from the brown waters of Galveston Bay and Clear Lake.



 We’ve been here in Nassau on New Providence Island for a couple of days. It is a busy city and we are anxious to move on to the Exumas, a chain of islands (or Cays – pronounced Keys) with beautiful beaches and great anchorages. We plan on spending the next month or so exploring all of them. We’re looking forward to swimming, snorkeling and exploring.

s/v Kaleo

We plan on buddy boating with Steve on Anchor Management and Matt and Christie on Kaleo for a while. We also hope to meet up with some other friends that are already in the Exumas, Rene and Stacy on Pipe Muh Bligh and Steve and Alice on Ocean Star.

I can’t wait to get out there and try to spear a fish. We feel like the cruising has finally begun!

Unbeing dead isn't being alive. ~e.e. cumming

Marathon and Beyond

 We've been here for almost a week now and really still haven't seen much of the town. It's a long stretch of Highway 1 and we're back to foot power. Plus, I hate to complain since most of our blog followers have been in freezing cold weather, but I guess I'll whine a little anyway, it's been windy and a little chilly here. Not much fun for dinghy exploring and way to cold for swimming. Fortunately taxi service is cheap here and we have been able to complete our shopping and provisioning for the extended Bahamas cruise (more on that later).

The first thing we noticed when we made our way into Boot Key Harbor here in Marathon was how organized the City Marina is compared to Key West. We called the marina on the radio as we entered the harbor and were assigned mooring ball number Sierra 7 and Steve was assigned Sierra 6, right next to us. We dinghied into the office where we were checked in, given magnetic card keys to the showers and laundry room and received a nice welcome package from the local cruisers net which meets on VHF channel 68 at 9 AM every morning. They have wireless internet service and even a couple of TV viewing areas.

We tuned in to the cruisers net the next morning. This was our first experience with a cruisers net. Each day of the week there is a different moderator running that days net. They are very organized and they welcome new boats to the marina, have a "buy, sell and give away" time and also local announcements. Here are some of the fun things we did that we learned about on the cruisers net:

• Every Wednesday there is a pot luck at the marina. We attended the dinner and on the way in to the marina we met Matt and Christie on s/v Kaleo. They are from Kemah and kept their boat at Legend Point Marina, right around the corner from our home marina. They are also headed to the Bahamas and will be crossing with them tomorrow. We have had lots of fun getting to know them and have done some provisioning together. We look forward to spending some time with them exploring in the Bahamas and hunting lobster and fish.

Troy - It's a Good Day for the Blues!

• Every Saturday there is a gathering at the marina and everyone brings their instruments and plays music. Troy took his new guitar up and played a couple of songs. Of course he played Good Day for the Blues. We had a great time listening to everyone sing and play. We are looking forward to lots more times like this in the weeks and months to come.

• The day after our arrival the net announced a meeting for anyone interested in crossing to the Bahamas on the next weather window. We went to the meeting and found 11 other boats that are interested in crossing together. We have met a couple of times since then and I think we will have around 6 or 7 boats crossing together. Some of the boats have the same general itinerary as us so I have a feeling that we will get to know the people well as our paths cross along the way. Just one more great thing about cruising!

It looks like tomorrow is our big day. Everything is falling into place to make for a good crossing. There is not much wind predicted but and Gulf Stream should be calm and that is a good thing. We plan on leaving Boot Key at around 2:00 PM tomorrow, we will spend the night crossing the Gulf Stream and our plan is to arrive at South Riding Rock (apparently that's all that is there - a rock). It's important to arrive there during the day because the water depth will go from around 2500 feet to around 8 feet (or less) very abruptly. Then, suddenly - you are on the Great Bahama Bank! In clear, beautiful water!

We will take our time crossing the banks because our next arrival is at the Northwest Channel. It's about another 12 hours and we also need to arrive there in day light because it is a narrow channel from the Banks into the Tongue of the Ocean (I love that name, don't you?). Anyway, It's just the opposite of getting onto the banks, you go from really shallow to really deep through a narrow channel. We figure Steve will need to get some rest since he is single handing now so we will take most of the rest of that day and night to rest and cross the Banks to the Northwest Channel.

From there we have a few options but we are hoping to make it to Nassau on New Providence Island. The capital of the Bahamas, where we will check into the county and plan on where to go next. Watch the SPOT updates!



Fuzzy Stanley and Steve

Oh, yeah, I did mention provisioning.  We started provisioning back in Kemah and continued in Key West and in Marathon.  I believe that everything that we need will be available in the Bahamas - for a price.  We figured that the more that we can buy here, the less we will need to spend later.  Makes sense, right?  So we have purchased everything from shampoo to rice and anything in between that we could think of.  I hate to think of all the money we've spent, but hopefully it will save us in the long run.  One thing we learned was that, while rum is cheap, beer can cost as much as $40.00 a case.  We just can't seem to get our minds around that, and since we have been known to drink a beer or two, we started planning to see how much we can put on the boat.  The last count was that we have over 272 beers on Storvyille.  It will be interesting to see how long that will last.  I have also bought as many 2 liter diet cokes as I could.  I think I have about 15 of them. 

I feel like the adventure is finally beginning.  Getting across the Gulf was great and we have had lots of fun in Florida, but somehow getting to the Bahamas feels like the beginning of real cruising!

Click here to see more photos from our time in Marathon

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself. ~Alan Alda