Tag: bahamas

February 22, 2014

Sunsets and Sand

Saturday 2.15.14 We laid low through the stormy weather and got a little laundry and blog posting done.

Sunday 2.16.14 We woke up and prepared the boat to leave. The fuel dock was an interesting experience. The stern line had to be extra long to reach the dock. There was a small fishing boat that pulled up next to us single handed and his stern swept into us and bumped our hull because he didn’t have control of the boat. No damage was done, thank goodness.

After leaving Great Harbour, we headed North up and around the Cay and back east and south down the other side. We stopped just across from the cove at Lover’s Beach.

All four of us took the dogs to shore at a beautiful white sandy beach and Leah and I were in shell heaven! There were so many unique shells there.

The dogs were happy to run on the beach and get some new smells. Gunner decided he was going to eat a bunch of sand. Crazy dog.

The sunset was spectacular. Our little slice of heaven.

That night Gunner got real sick and threw up several times. His dinner that night was fish and rice so it really smelled bad as it went through the grate in the cockpit. I spent the whole night, literally until 6:30am, cleaning up puke over and over again. It wasn’t exactly calm water either which made it worse. Peter tried to stay awake with me but his gag reflex kept him at a safe distance away.

Monday 2.17.14, totally sleep deprived, I went back to shell city to find a few more treasures and let the dogs go potty on land again. Gunner must have learned his lesson because he didn’t even try to eat anymore sand.

We saw some sort of reef shark checking out the boat. It wouldn’t come quite close enough to figure out what kind it was.

We enjoyed the morning with turquoise all around us.

Pretty Pretty Bahamas…

February 22, 2014

Valentine’s Day at Lover’s Beach, Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas

Thursday 2.13.14 we spent a good portion of the day putting the boat back together and cleaning up. We filled our water tanks, did some laundry and Peter fixed the anti-siphon hose on the generator. Turns out the boat right next to us on our dock used to cruise with the previous owners of our boat, Steve and Judy, all the time! Jon and Arline (SV Kasidah) probably know our boat better than we do :) What a small world! Jon helped Peter with the hose and they talked boats for awhile. Josh and Leah made a trip into town to grab some groceries while I stuck around the boat to finish laundry and write a few blog posts while I had wifi. Dinner that night was grilled steaks we bought at Costco before leaving Florida :)

Friday 2.14.14 Valentine’s Day – We left the dogs to watch the boat from inside the cabin and got a ride from a Bahamian man that runs the water company. He didn’t want us to pay him for the ride but we gave him a little anyway. He drove us to the east side of Great Harbour Cay down a dirt road. There were big houses scattered along the way with beautiful patches of countryside in between.

We finally arrived at a clearing in the trees that opened up to a white sand beach. Our new friend offered to come back to pick us up in a few hours so we entered his phone number into the sat phone so we could call him later. The water was the most gorgeous color of clearish turquoise and just barely covered the sand that extended out to a small island about a half mile away.

We began trekking across the sand bar towards Lover’s Beach. The current had carved out areas that were deeper than others and as we waded through, the water came up to our bellybuttons. We carried our beach bags, backpacks and dive bags up on top of our heads like they were precious baskets of water being brought back to a village.

The sand was soft beneath our toes and there was only a tiny bit of sea grass and urchins in the water to carefully step around. On the other side of the sand bar I found my first whole sand dollar!!

The cove in front of us was what dreams are made of. The many colors of the water here in the Bahamas are so surreal.

We walked a little further around the point where Peter and Josh could go diving for lobster. It was very rocky and sharp on that side of the island where the waves had eroded away the lava rock. As we set down our bags Josh saw a bunch of coconuts growing behind us. He took one of the Hawaiian slings to knock down a couple coconuts. We really are WHERE THE COCONUTS GROW! Leah had no trouble busting one open on a lava rock. The water inside was like a taste of heaven. It was so refreshing on a hot day and definitely helped rehydrate us all. Livin’ the dream :)

The guys went out diving and Leah and I put our masks on and checked out the shallows on the inside of the cove. Eventually Josh came back to bring Leah and I out to where the guys were diving. Leah had on her Nikes and I had my fins. We put on our masks and snorkels and started exploring the underwater world in front of us. We saw pretty bright blue reef fish and colorful coral up and down the valleys of white sand. We wished we had brought our underwater camera! Unfortunately there were no lobster here or anything else to spear but we had a blast snorkeling around anyway.

After awhile a while sand beach appeared on the shoreline as a signal it was time to come in. I was the only one without shoes or booties so I carefully climbed over the lava rock barefoot. Just call me Jody Lundin! (one of our favorite TV shows back on land is Dual Survival with Cody Lundin. Everywhere he goes, he is barefoot. He treks through the most dangerous places to survive like the Amazon, Sahara and Alaska wilderness)

Back where our dive began, we brought out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some fresh tangerines that Jon and Arline gave us. After lunch we trekked back across the sand bar. Along the way we found dozens of sand dollars in a path back to shore, almost like a yellow brick road.

While we waited for our Bahamian friend to pick us up, Peter and I walked up the riverbank a little bit and saw a lionfish in the seagrass. Those suckers really are everywhere now. Crazy how fast they have become an invasive species. They carry a wicked toxin and have killed off much of the existing reef life.

Can you see the lionfish?

We also saw a starfish close by. First one of the trip!

When we got back to the boat we had to break the news to Jon and Arline that we didn’t have any lobster to contribute to the BBQ we had planned for that night. Jon was making his conch fritters. Luckily, the guys from the fishing tournament gave us a huge filet of King Mackerel. Peter served it up sashimi style. Holy crap that was good!!! Nothing like fresh sushi straight out of the ocean. We all crashed hard that night after a long day.

February 22, 2014

Diving the Sapona Wreck and Crossing the Bahama Banks

2.10.14 We left Brown’s and went back to the Sapona wreck at Turtle Rock. This time the anchor dug in good. Peter dove the anchor, then came back to help me get the watermaker fired up. It took a bit of deciphering but we finally figured out how to unpickle it from when the previous owners stored it last. It’s slow but it works! 6 gallons an hour is actually pretty good in terms of watermakers. There is a tiny tinge of saltiness in it but nothing a little ice won’t cover up :) Now we are totally self sufficient!

Peter couldn’t wait to jump in! This man is a fish :)

The guys played around with the Air Line hookah system for a little bit right off the boat. It works pretty well to just leave the engine on the aft deck and run the hoses off the back. That way they don’t have to mess with lifting it up and over the lifelines down into the water. There wasn’t a whole lot to see under the boat but it was fun to play around with it. They did a quick inspection of the bottom of the boat too. One of these days we need to clean the bottom now that we are in clear and warm enough water. Another thing to add to the list…

After awhile, they decided it was time to go look at something really cool and swam over to the wreck with their masks and snorkels. It was a little intimidating for me and Leah so we stayed at the boat for now.

If you haven’t read the page on our website that explains why we chose the name “Where The Coconuts Grow,” be sure to check it out and click the link ‘here‘.

We are finally in a place where we meet all the requirements of what we call the 80/80/80 Rule:

80° Air Temp

80° Water Temp:

80′ Water Visibility:

And we see coconuts floating by all the time ;)

The next day (Tuesday 2.11.14) we all took the dinghy over to the wreck to look for lobster and so Leah and I could look around a little. It was amazing! There was a nurse shark hiding inside the wreck and lots of small fish and coral were fun to look at too. Even though it was just a nurse shark, I wasn’t too interested in getting close to it. Peter and Josh are like fish so diving down to nab those tasty little buggers was no problem for them. Still difficult nonetheless, but we ended up with four lobsters and two conch.

After dinner we pulled up the anchor, began the stowing process and left around 7pm to begin our crossing to the Berry Islands. The Bahama Banks are no joke either. There are some crazy deep areas and it was a good 70nm stretch. To our dismay, the winds were much stronger than we anticipated, giving us an average of 20 knots on the nose. This was yet again another long passage motoring into the wind. This time Peter, Josh and I did fine without taking any seasickness meds. Leah took some just in case. It was a very rolly ride. Trying to use the heads was like being on a roller coaster!!

Half way into the trip we noticed a lot of sea water rolling back behind our port side lockers in the galley. We were heeled over pretty good and dipping the bow into the water a lot so it was really tough to find out where it was coming from. We emptied out all the lockers, sopped up the water and finally determined nothing else was leaking.

We still don’t know what it was, but we have a few ideas. Either it was leftover water that ended up in our anchor locker as we took water over the bow, or it was from one of the seacocks backflowing into the boat as we crashed down from the waves. The aft head had spilled sea water over from the bowl. It hadn’t been locked shut properly and there was just too much pressure to keep the bowl from filling up. The most likely culprit is the leaking anti-siphon hose that is connected to the generator. At least its all clean and dry now!

Wednesday 2.12.14 around 6:30pm we made it into Great Harbour Marina. It was dark but we had storm clouds on our tail and we got there as fast as we could motorsailing and tacking like crazy. The marina is super protected and tucked away. Docking was easy and the still water was incredibly peaceful. It was so nice to just be still. The showers were hot, the wifi reached the boat (although spotty and super slow) and there was a restaurant nearby to fill our bellies after a long crossing.

February 14, 2014

Good Fishing and Pretty Beaches at North Rock, Bimini

Friday 2.7.14 Peter wanted to jet up to North Rock to anchor and do a little diving. It was recommended to us to go there, but it wasn’t a real protected anchorage either. The best part of the whole trip up there was hooking two big snapper!!

Josh reeled in the first one and they let me bring in the second one :) My arms are still like jelly!! It was hysterical for me to be standing on the back of a moving boat trying to fight a fish.

We also hooked a barracuda, but cut those sharp teeth loose right away.

Leah brought in the next one but it was another barracuda.

New fashion statement? :)

We took a quick trip to beach to let the dogs go potty on land and made it back to the boat as it was getting dark.

Josh and Leah made dinner and it was my turn to shower off. I asked Peter if there was enough water left so he opened up the floor board to check the level on the aft water tank. OH CRAP! The bladder bag was more than half way empty and there was a bunch of water outside the bag but inside the aluminum box that the bladder sits in. At some point the original aluminum/fiberglass tank was cut open and replaced with a bladder. We emptied the bladder to save what was left of the fresh water and transferred it into our 5 gallon jerry jugs. We poured those back into the forward water tank. This is getting added to the list of things to do when we get back to the marina.

We slept good knowing the anchor was holding well. The next thing we know it starts raining. Peter and I jump out of bed and race to close all the port lights, hatches and isinglass up top. It dumped for about 10-15 minutes and then stopped. A few hours later in the middle of the night we repeated the process. During the second scramble Peter noticed the dinghy had come untied!!! OH CRAP again! Luckily he had tied a second line on as a safety line. It was much smaller but held it enough to keep it from floating out to sea.

The next day, Saturday 2.8.14, Peter, Leah and I took the dogs over to the beach to swim and look for shells. The color of the water was amazing!!!

Betsy was SOO happy to run free on the beach!

Gunner had to stay on a leash. I tried to let him free but he just wanted to go sniff around in the brush up above the beach. He’s always looking for trouble.

Gunner sure was a happy boy though. He had so much fun.

Betsy and Gunner got to swim for a while with their daddy. Betsy decided she was done swimming and started to climb up on top of Gunner! He is like a small horse, but I’m sure he wasn’t too happy to swim with a little monkey on his back ;)

When we got back to the boat, the guys got our Air Line hookah dive system and put it in the dinghy to head over next to North Rock to check out the sea life. I stayed with the boat and the dogs while Leah went with the guys on picture duty. They ended up having engine trouble with the outboard again and learned a very important lesson: Always bring the ditch bag!! We put a lot of effort into making a complete ditch bag with all the first aid and survival gear we would need in the event of an emergency away from the boat. I’ll be doing a future post on all the items we have in there soon. We put it all in a dry bag and have it sitting in the cockpit, but for some reason, they just didn’t bring it with them this time. We won’t make that mistake again!

Betsy and I looked over at them with the binoculars and noticed they were floating much farther away than I thought they would have gone. (Picture is courtesy of Leah from another day but this is exactly what we were doing this time too). It was a bit too far to tell if they intended to be that far or not. A few minutes later it appeared they were okay.

Luckily they got the outboard working well enough to get back safely, but they gave up on diving this day. To top it all off, they lost one of our blue floating “Dog Leashes for Beaches” from our sponsor, SoftLines (blog post coming soon). I guess it drifted away and with the engine trouble they didn’t want to go chase after it. At least we got to play with them both atleast one time. They also lost the anchor for the dinghy out there. Time for a lesson on knot tying??? I think so!!!

Stay tuned for the next adventure, or should I say… big problem… on the way back from North Rock :(

February 13, 2014

A few pics from our stay at Browns Marina

When we arrived at Brown’s Marina in Bimini Thursday 2.6.14 at dusk, we hooked up to shore power after Bob and Ellen so kindly let us borrow their 50 amp connector. Our power hookup at our slip wasn’t working so we had to wait until the next morning to let the marina know we needed to use power from another slip. No biggie. We didn’t bother filling up water or fuel here but we charged up our batteries and laptops and phones. We had nice hot showers on shore and found a few cockroaches in the bathrooms behind the door. We made sure none caught a ride back to the boat in our shower bags.

The guy in the slip next to us had underwater lights and he would turn them on at night. It was crazy to see how many huge fish were underneath the boat all the time. We saw monster tarpon, tiger sharks, nurse sharks, starfish, needle fish, manta rays, eagle rays… a ton of sea creatures!!

The next day (Friday 2.7.14) we finally got to see how beautiful it was here in Bimini.

There was a nice sandy manmade beach area next to the docks.

The dockmasters told us about the 8′ bull sharks that come feed when the fishermen clean their fish twice a day. Scary! Peter managed to snag a photo. It doesn’t look like it here but it was huge!

I got to meet LeeAnn Toth (another fellow WWS member)! She was just a few slips down at Brown’s. Erica & Jordan from the blog, Seadoodle, were just one dock over at Weech’s. Erica is also a member of WWS. How cool is that?? Four of us (including Ellen and myself) all in one tiny place! And from what I hear, there were several other waves of fellow WWSers that came through just before us.

Conch is all over the place here. The shells litter the whole area. It’s hard to clean but actually tastes pretty good!

Customs was a breeze for Peter. He walked over to Customs and Immigration in the morning and paid our fees for the cruising permit. Since our boat is over 35′ the cost is $300. They did ask about the dogs and it was just as everyone told me it would be. All they wanted to see was the Bahamas Permit we had applied for before leaving Florida. They didn’t ask to see the International Heath Certificates at all. Good thing because we weren’t able to get one of the vaccines that they require. The vaccine for Coronavirus is just not available anymore in most places in the US although it’s a requirement for entry into the Bahamas. Our vet placed a big note on our documentation explaining this so it was even better that they didn’t care to see any other documents except for the ones they issued themselves. When Peter got back to the boat we took down the quarantine flag. We’re official now!!