Tag: beaches

April 8, 2014

Elizabeth Harbor, George Town

Limping along from Black Point, we made it down into Elizabeth Harbor problem-free. The jury-rigged exhaust hose worked well and helped us get to a place that has a few options for marine hardware and parts. It might have been just as easy to leave Black Point and sail back north to Staniel Cay where there is an airline service, Watermakers, that will carry parts from Florida. Instead of backtracking and dancing around Staniel as the winds shift, we opted to continue south to a larger town.

George Town was bustling with cruisers all over the place when we arrived a little over a week ago. Maybe two hundred boats were anchored in the popular areas: Monument, Volleyball Beach, Sand Dollar Beach and Kidd Cove.

We nestled in between Monument and Volleyball Beach where there were only a small handful of boats. We like to be close enough to the places we want to go, but far away enough from everyone else so it’s not a total zoo.

Anchoring on the west side of the harbor would have been closer to Lake Victoria in town, but the winds were coming out of the east so it was better to anchor where we did. We braved the soaking-wet ride across and found the small cut to Lake Victoria where the dinghy dock is. Timing is critical to make sure other boats aren’t trying to exit at the same time. The tides and chop made it feel like a gauntlet as we blasted through. Much easier going in than coming out!

Approaching the entrance to Lake Victoria, home of the George Town Dinghy Dock

Exiting the Lake Victoria gauntlet on a choppy day

While searching for marine stores, refilling our 10lb propane tank for the BBQ was high on the to-do list. Peter is the kind of man that needs meat with every meal. Our marine BBQ may be small but we rely on it daily for grilling up steak, fish, chicken or pork.

The morning cruisers net on VHF 72 announced the propane guy was going to be there Wednesday morning across the parking lot from the dinghy dock, but Wednesday wasn’t good for us. If you want to get propane on a day other than Wednesday, the power plant is a great option. There is a cut in the trees looking west from the harbor, north of Lake Victoria, where you can go by dinghy. There are small buoys marking a mini channel that leads to a restaurant dock and resort. Across the street from there is a hill that leads to the power plant. As soon as we came down the other side of the hill, a nice man came out to greet us and took the propane tanks. We had brought along one of SV Baccalieu’s tanks to fill as well so we both didn’t have to make the trek. A 10lb tank costs $11 to fill, which isn’t bad at all, and it takes less than 5 minutes. Not sure what it costs at the guy who is in town on Wednesdays but I’ll bet it takes longer than this place does!

Road to where you can fill your propane tanks

Office on the left is where you go

The Napa store was a good mile and a half walk north from where the power plant was. It was recommended to see if they have the parts we need but there were far more household and automotive items there than marine supplies. Turns out they had nothing useful to us, and they had no way to order any of the parts we need. Go figure.

Next, we took a LONG dinghy ride to Brown’s Marine, south of George Town. They could order pretty much anything we needed out of a marine catalog but their markup from the catalog price was 25-30%. We would need to find a customs broker (more fees) to handle the paperwork and pay the freight charges on top of that! Even though we can import the parts duty-free with proof of our cruising permit, the customs fee still applies. It was still an option, but getting parts through this shop would surely cost an arm and a leg.

Of course it was the weekend again which makes it harder to find parts or any mechanical help whatsoever. There was one store left that we didn’t check out, Top 2 Bottom. The word on the street is that they didn’t have 2.5″ exhaust hose and we knew we’d have to order the exhaust elbow regardless. Time to do a little more research on the best way to ship parts to Georgetown. Patience is the key to our success… good thing we’re not in a hurry!

Meanwhile, we enjoyed the scenery. Volleyball Beach is where the Chat n Chill bar is. It’s a sandy, barefoot, slow service beach bar with a great vibe. There are posts for tying up your dinghy on the beach and picnic tables in the sand. A cheeseburger, fries and a diet coke has become our staple meal here :)

Gunner’s birthday was March 28th and he got to celebrate in style running on the beaches in the Exumas!! Our sweet boy is 13 now and he’s doing great. Instead of being home alone while I’m at work, he gets to hang out with his mommy and daddy and sister all day everyday and run like crazy up and down the beaches in one of the most beautiful places on earth! What a nice way to enjoy his old age. Lucky dog.

It’s the little things in life that bring us joy. Even though we are having a few issues with the boat, our home is in paradise. There is beauty all around us and we wouldn’t trade this life for anything!

April 7, 2014

Exumas: Black Point

King Mackerel caught trolling a squid jig near Staniel Cay

Two weeks ago we made our way down the Central Exumas to Black Point Settlement. It can be a little tedious to pack up our entire home and stow away all loose belongings when traveling to a new anchorage but we find it more exciting than anything. Travel days are when the trolling lines come out! Peter can hardly resist throwing in a line, despite how rough the seas may be. We’ve done fairly well in the fishing department which makes me and the dogs happy campers! I think Peter has more interest in catching fish than he does eating them :)

Each new place we travel to is an adventure. You could easily spend several years exploring all of the islands of the Bahamas and still not see everything, which is why many cruisers return season after season to their favorite anchorages in the Bahamas, exploring new areas along the way.

Peter and I are traveling through the Bahamas for the first time and there is much that we’ll miss. Knowing this, we make the best of the areas we do get to see and we enjoy seeing all of the blog posts and pictures from our friends that are exploring the rest. Be sure to check out some of the great blogs we’ve listed on our website.

Black Point was recommended as a “must-see” anchorage. Even though we didn’t need to do laundry, we were told this is THE place to get it done! There are a ton of machines. We attempted taking some bedding to the laundry facility during our stay but our Island Time brains didn’t realize it was Sunday until we got to shore. The machines take tokens only and you can only purchase them Monday through Saturday. Most of the local stores all through the Bahamas are closed on Sunday. We still keep forgetting though.

Black Point also has free garbage at the city dock (although a small donation is recommended) and across the main road is a faucet for RO (reverse osmosis) water. It’s the local water supply for the whole island so they prefer if the cruisers don’t use it to fill their water tanks, but it’s perfectly fine to take some jerry jugs there to fill up your drinking water. If you have a wifi booster it’s pretty easy to pick up an open signal from anywhere in the anchorage as well :)

We spent a few days in Black Point until the weather clocked around and another westerly was going to be upon us. It’s the only direction you do not want wind coming from here. The chop and swells become pretty uncomfortable to say the least.

Before continuing south, our leaking engine exhaust problem had become much more critical than before. The leaking hose and elbow for our main engine exhaust was now seeping at an alarming rate, pouring salt water into our engine room on top of the port fuel tank, over the ledge and down beneath the generator. Swapping out sopping-wet towels had worked for a while but we were afraid we wouldn’t make it all the way to Georgetown the way it was.

Amazingly, we met 4 or 5 other Whitby 42s and a Brewer 12.8 while we were anchored at Black Point. They had all just traveled up from Georgetown. Anne and Brad on S/V Anneteak (Whitby 42) were so helpful! We had been in communication with them via Facebook before they arrived and it was so nice to finally meet them. Brad helped Peter disconnect the generator exhaust hose where it discharges overboard on the port side, and then reconnect the main engine exhaust hose in its place. This is by no means a “good” fix, but it was necessary to get us to Georgetown to find a new exhaust elbow and new exhaust hose to fix the job properly.

Black Point was a nice quiet little town but there were no marine parts available and that means it was time to keep moving south.

Next stop… Georgetown!!

March 15, 2014

The Exumas: New adventures, Private Beaches and Bull Sharks

Anchored off of White Cay, Berry Islands

Peter and I have been enjoying our time in the Bahamas immensely. It’s hard for both of us to believe we’ve been cruising for only a little over a month. It feels like an eternity ago that we started gearing up for this adventure but the reality is, only 7 months have passed since we first laid our eager eyes on S/V Mary Christine (previously S/V Hey Jude). It’s even harder for us to grasp the fact that this is only the beginning! There is no end in sight to this dream as we make our way through the Bahamas heading south through the Eastern Caribbean and over to Central America.

After Josh and Leah’s departure we took some time to regroup, reorganize and recharge ourselves while sitting comfortably at the dock in Yacht Haven Marina, Spanish Wells. After the weather gave way, our travels took us southwest to the Fleeming Channel. We spent the night at anchor near the channel and awoke the next morning for a gorgeous sail to the Exumas.

Knowing we would be dodging marked and unmarked coral heads, it was imperative that the sun be directly overhead for the second half of the trip. Some of the cruising guides tell of boats making crazy turns back and forth for seemingly no reason at all. This would be a sure sign of lurking coral heads below the surface. On a sunny day you can see them from a few hundred feet away. I lathered on some sunscreen around my favorite bikini, grabbed my polarized sunglasses, a hat and some water, then made my way up to the bow to stand watch. Peter kept eyes on the Garmin chartplotter and Navionics iPhone app for the known coral heads as I called out the unmarked ones. I was a little more nervous about it than I needed to be. After passing a few, we realized there wasn’t much to it. Most of them had plenty of depth to the waterline although we had heard they can be as shallow as 3′ from the surface. There was more overcast than we would have liked which caused us to miss one of the coral heads until we were already going over it. No damage done thank goodness :)

Gunner loves standing watch from the highest point he can reach

Hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins… It was a gorgeous and mystical day. The stillness around us felt like we were in a time warp, slowing floating along.

Peter is always catching something when our trolling lines are out, pretty much every time we move to a new anchorage :) Another tasty mutton snapper got filleted up on deck while under way.

(**UPDATE** Click ‘HERE‘ for more photos of our journey across Fleeming Channel! The were misplaced at the time of this post)

We arrived at Ship Channel Cay and anchored for the night. This easy pace of life sure is spoiling us. It’s times like these where I tell myself, “I could get used to this,” but wait… I am getting used to this!

The next day we went snorkeling with the Air Line to see what we could see. After the small engine was all set up, hoses uncoiled and the dinghy prepared to tow behind us, Peter and I took a look around underwater. My LifeProof case allowed me to snap a few pics.

Can you see the school of barracuda??

There was a lurking school of smallish barracuda checking us out. A little creepy, but they didn’t bother us.

We were very much alone out here. No other boats were anchored nearby. A guidebook recommended one of the nearby rocks for diving. There was a slight dropoff just beyond where the visibility stopped beyond the rock. Peter likes to go scope out the dropoffs to see what kind of big fish might be hanging out there. The thing about searching for big fish is that there is often BIGGER fish lurking nearby.

I was busy looking around when suddenly Peter grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the dinghy. We had previously agreed on hand gestures for things like BOAT, LOBSTER, SHARK and NURSE SHARK, but he wasn’t giving me anything… just a terrified look in his eyes that I could clearly make out through his goggles, along with a sense of urgency that I don’t get from him often. His air hose appeared to be okay, and so did mine. I didn’t see any boats or anything else around us. Without further hesitation, I grabbed onto his shoulders and swung myself behind him kicking as fast as my flippers would take me.

In moments like this there isn’t much room for imagination. I had one thing on my mind and that was getting out of the water as fast as I could. I still didn’t see anything so I hopped up into the dinghy with a boost from my fins. Once my arms and legs were safely inside the safety of the dinghy I called out to Peter asking him what was going on. He didn’t move as fast as I had, but he was making his way back to where I was and finally got himself out of the water too.

Peter has fish eyes and can see farther than most underwater. The visibility back in San Diego was usually a murky 10-15 inshore on a good day so his eyes have been trained to spot the monster halibut and other creatures of the sea he has been spearing for years.

About 40 feet from where we were swimming here in the Exumas, Peter had just seen a bull shark at least 8′ long and 500-600 pounds. It was just on the edge of the dropoff and just barely within his visibility, lurking into the blue. It was an unmistakably large, dark, stormcloud-gray figure with a smokey-white underbelly. It’s big strong head and stout body glided through the water as if it weren’t even moving a muscle. It knew we were there long before Peter saw the shark. We were in his reef and although it wanted nothing to do with us, it was clearly scoping us out.

Peter was pretty messed up by the experience for a few days. Even I had a bad dream about a shark brushing up against me that night. We probably would have had a great time snorkeling even if we didn’t see the shark but better safe than sorry and we moved on to shallower waters.

Our next destination was outside Allen’s Cay for protection from a small weather system moving through. The current was pretty strong but we made sure to stay away from the larger group of boats anchored in there. Right as we had pulled in we saw a sailboat drift back and nearly hit the catamaran anchored behind him. We wanted no part of that holding so we moved up and around a bit away from everyone else. Allen’s Cay is where most cruisers go to see the wild iguanas of the island. Peter and I weren’t too interested so we tended to boat projects and stayed cozy during the blow.

We moved on the next day to an anchorage on the north side of the rocks at Highbourne Cay. Winds clocked up to 30 knots and we swung around in circles all night. The wind generator was cookin but it didn’t make for a very comfortable sleep. The forecast we had didn’t match the wind and wave direction we got, but we stuck it out til morning. Our delta anchor has been taking good care of us.

We checked out the beach on that side and where the water meets the sand it was a beautiful clear blue. The puppies were happy to go for a ride and do a little exploring. They sure love the dinghy!

Later that day the wind was still a bit chilly when it came time for our solar showers on deck. We were the only boat there so it wasn’t for privacy that we had to rig up some towels, but rather for protection from the wind. Deck showers are fun but I’m really not a fan of being soaking wet with cold wind.

Highbourne Cay Marina was a one-night stay. We knew it would be expensive, but we were also hoping for free wifi since we didn’t have our local Bahamas sim card yet. Not the case… It’s a $15/day charge to access satellite based wifi for connection with only one device, and it was terribly slow!! There were a lot of big boats in there. Definitely not the kind of place we would stay for long, but it was a nice break after the 30 knot winds tossing us around the night before.

The nurse sharks swarmed here too, just as they do at most marinas in the Bahamas, next to the fish cleaning stations as the fishermen throw in their scraps. It’s quite a sight to see. There were three bulls sharks that came in to see what all the commotion was about and we distinctly noticed them as they lurked around the edge where the nurse sharks were. Their shape gave them away along with their constant motion. The crazy part is that there were kids swimming just on the other side of the jetty, just a few hundred yards away!!!! The marina here even has shark netting around their designated swim area. I guess these people didn’t care?

Hawksbill Cay was secluded and pretty. We took the paddle boards over to a quiet beach where the mangroves crept up a stream. This adventurous man of mine decided to follow it up as far as he could looking for a spring. No luck though.

Gunner and Betsy guarded the boat while we were gone exploring. If you saw them roaming free on deck would you come any closer? :) Gunner’s bark can be rather annoying at times but they definitely let us know when someone is even remotely getting close to our boat. Good dogs.

The end to another picture perfect day… we really are living the dream!

So this is paradise…

March 2, 2014

Spanish Wells brings a wish Farewell to our Crew

Monday 2.24 around 4am we pulled up the anchor and headed for Spanish Wells. It was a perfect quiet sail the whole way. The dogs even got to enjoy a nap soaking up the sun. Suddenly, we slowed down to 4 knots with all sails out as we approached a small dark storm cloud.

Just as we passed underneath it on the outside, the winds picked up to 15 knots and began pushing us with incredible speed. The GPS clocked a whopping 8.5 knots!!! That is WAYYYY fast for us! It was pretty cool because we weren’t hardly heeled over at all but still smokin’ fast!!

As we passed under the dark nasty sky we watched the dozens of funnel clouds appear and minutes later, disappear. A few of them turned into water spouts. We were just far enough away to feel safe :)

This system pushed us in all the way to Royal Island where we anchored. There were a few other boats anchored in there already. We took our deck showers, got the BBQ started and settled in for the evening.

While we were looking at an overview of the islands of the Bahamas, we saw this:

Looks like a dolphin to us!

The next day (Tuesday 2.25) we made the short trip over to Spanish Wells and pulled into Yacht Haven Marina. The docks are a bit rickety and there is a bunch of construction going on but they have water (city), power, wifi and showers. I haven’t been spending much time with the wifi here as we’re busy with boat projects and cleaning up. It’s kind of nice to stay unplugged even when the option is there to reconnect via internet. It’s a small town here of around 2000 people. The local accent is predominantly British sounding and almost all the cars are driven from the right side. They drive on the left side of the tiny streets and most of the locals drive golf carts everywhere. There is three or four restaurants here, a grocery store, a couple small markets and some ‘take-away’ snack-shack type places. The birds are chirping and there is green grass in their tiny yards. The streets are clean and everyone is very respectful with their trash. Locals are very kind and welcoming here. Very different from the other Bahamian places we’ve visited so far.

Coconuts in almost every front yard!!!

Here’s the view as you walk just a few blocks to the other side of the island approaching the beach:

They say Eleuthera is where you can find pink sand beaches. They really are pink here! No filters on these photos…

We think this is another deep blue hole of some sort. It’s marked off with buoys.

What a nice way to carry groceries back home!

My new pink sand beach background photo on my phone…

Simply Paradise <3

House on the beach in the Bahamas? Yes please!!!! How cute is this place? Its actually for rent as a vacation home for a couple hundred a night.

There was a cannon ball sitting in the yard of this beach house. Lots of history here…

Can you see the bananas? …

Wednesday night (2.26.14) was Josh and Leah’s last evening with us before heading back home to San Diego. We all went out to dinner at The Shipyard restaurant. Fantastic meal and even better ambiance.

We’re sad to see them go. It was nice having some extra hands on deck as well as great company exploring the Bahamas. We hope they found an appreciation and understanding of the blood, sweat and tears it takes to live the cruising lifestyle that we’ve chosen. Now Josh and Leah have a glimpse of what our new life will be like as we take our floating home with us to some of the most beautiful places on Earth!

This is only the beginning for us. We’ve been cruising since February 2nd, just a short month ago, and there are still so many adventures ahead. Please be sure to follow along and let us know when your travel plans will put you Where The Coconuts Grow!!

Leave a comment with thoughts or questions… we love to hear from you!!

February 23, 2014

Paddleboarding and The Blue Hole anchored off White Cay

It was a 19nm sail down to White Cay where we ducked in to set anchor. Peter almost missed the turn as we surfed the boat through the cut. It was pretty clear that it was too shallow to go forward through the next part so we followed the breadcrumbs on the chartplotter from the previous owner in to a sharp turn to starboard and settled in next to another sailboat.

Peter and I took the dogs to shore with the dinghy. There were many small islands and little tiny beaches but not much sand around the islands. Mostly lava rock and no shells. We watched the sunset from our private beach then went to say hello to another ketch anchored nearby.

We got back and had the rests of the snapper caught the day before. It was a rough and rolly anchorage because there was so much current being pushed through from two different locations. That night we swung all the way around over and over. We kept the mizzen up to hopefully point into the wind but the current kept swinging us in circles.

Tuesday 2.18.14 first thing in the morning Gunner told us he needed to go potty and as soon as we got him to the Astroturf on the aft deck, he went pee right away!! Old dogs can learn new tricks!

Leah wanted to go for an adventure on the paddleboards so Peter helped finish getting them ready. We are missing the screw and nut that holds the fin on so he secured it with a zip-tie instead. I was extremely leery of drifting away from the boat with just the paddles. The current was wicked and the night before the guys had trouble swimming back to the boat while carrying their dive gear. As long as the guys followed us in the dinghy for the first part of the paddling I decided to give it a shot.

I had no idea how calm and beautiful it was about to be once we got around the point where the waves were breaking! Finally we were able to move from our knees to standing up and then we paddled through the crystal blue green waters. This really is the stuff dreams are made of.

There were sting rays and bright blue fish swimming under us in the sandy shallows. We saw a few turtles too.

Peter and Josh went back to get the dogs in the dinghy. When they got back to us, I got Betsy out for her first time on a paddleboard! She is such a good water dog :) We weren’t ready to try it with Gunner yet. He was feeling much better but we figured he just might not have the strength yet for something as crazy as that.

After a bit of doggy paddling we got towed over on the paddleboards to the trail that leads to the Blue Hole of Hoffmans Cay.

The four of us and the dogs hiked up the trail until we could see the big hole in the middle of the island. Its something like 600 feet deep and connects to the ocean so its all salt water. We heard Jacques Cousteau discovered it many moons ago.

Peter jumped off the cliff into the deep blue hole and the rest of us climbed down a little further. It was amazing! The edge just dropped off into a deep abyss.

There was a cave like area that had been worn away and tucked up underneath, completely undisturbed in the sand, was written “Journey.” I knew it must have been left by our friends aboard S/V Journey who arrived there just a couple weeks before us. Sailing Journey, we’re right behind you!!

Betsy and Gunner went swimming with the boys and then we hiked back out.

We headed back to the boat then checked out the beach closest to us. Peter and Josh took their Hawaiian slings over to the outside of the island and tried again for some dinner. Peter got one lobster and one unknown species of fish. When we finally filleted it up later that night we discovered the fish had some sort of parasite inside so we tossed the whole thing overboard :( We BBQ’d chicken instead with a tasty little lobster appetizer. Still a pretty good meal for living on the hook!

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