Heading North

UGH!!! The other day we had to turn Gypsies around and point her bow north to make sure we have time to get back into Georgia before July 1st (for hurricane season we either need to be south to Trinidad or north of Florida) - huge bummer!!! It was tough to turn Gypsies around especially since our plans had been to keep heading south, but....as cruisers, we know plans change and we now have more time to explore the Exumas. We spent one more day in Georgetown though and went back to the bomb shelter (I mean internet cafe - check out the pictures and decide for yourself!) to catch up on email, blogs etc.

The WiFi/Bomb Shelter

Doug and Bob blogging away

Whenever you have the chance to get wifi down here, you take advantage of it no matter the surroundings because you never know when you'll get it next - I brightened up the place by making a cross street package store run and importing some cold Kaliks into the scenery - did it matter that it was only 10:00 am??? NO!! Our wifi/bomb shelter was about 120 degrees so the Kaliks tasted really great and made it a little more bearable!!

Doug and I spent the afternoon over on the beach with our feet in the sand at the Chat and Chill - the only really funky bar we found in the Georgetown area. Now granted, we didn't spend a ton of time there exploring, but I have a really hard time imagining spending the whole winter there as some cruisers do...but then again we've never been into organized activities (on the net each morning there is a list of what's going on that day ranging from aerobics on the beach to texas hold'em poker to macrame art (OK I made the last one up, but during the season, I wouldn't put it past them....) Heck there is even a President of the cruising committee....I thought we left the States to leave all that organization behind??? As if we needed more incentive to hit the trail, we heard that there had been a pretty serious bull shark attack at the south end of the harbor the afternoon before...can you say skip the swimming and we're out of here!!! So after one more great dinner on September Song that evening and a beautiful sunset, the next morning we pulled anchor to go fishing out in the Sound!!

The wind and the waves were a little rockier than we had expected but that didn't stop the mahi slayers! Soon enough Bob called "fish on" and boy was there - for the next 45 minutes he proceeded to fight in a huge sailfish!!! This thing was over 6 feet long (10 feet if you count the bill and massive tail) and from the re-enactment that we've heard (several times...but each time it gets better as fish stories tend to do), he put up some fight!! He was so big in fact that September Song couldn't get him up on the swim platform for an official picture - but check out their blog for some of the action shots! Unfortunately Gypsies was skunked that day - some times you get the dog (or I should say fish) and sometimes he gets you!! Oh well....Bob also caught a mahi that day so the fish didn't totally win!

We headed in to Lee Stocking Island that afternoon planning on trying to see the marine research center but September Song's watermaker was acting up (ours we gave up on long ago...at least until we get back to the States and can sort it out!!!) so we headed out again the next morning for Little Farmers or as it turned out Big Majors Spot (did I mention that plans often change when you are cruising??) As soon as we hit the Sound we knew it wasn't going to be a "calm day" - the waves and winds were rocking which made fishing quite an interesting feat - at one point I was sitting on the cockpit minding my own business (and fishing rods) when a huge wave broke on our stern and rushed in through the scupper soaking me!! Seems the fish weren't having a fun day either as both September Song and Gypsies got skunked that day - probably not a bad thing as having to stop to reel in fish with those waves would have been pretty uncomfortable! As it was, our barometers of how rough it is (Cassie on September Song and Bootsie on Gypsies) were telling us that it was time to head in to the calmer waters of the Banks!!! So we proceeded in to Dotham's Cut - talk about interesting!!! We headed in with an East wind opposing an ebbing tide (which every guidebook tells you not to do because the waves and current get so nasty!!!) but we didn't have any really good options so in we went. We watched September Song do 40 degree rolls through the cut reminiscient of the turn into Chub Cay that first day over in the Bahamas - Doug and I looked at each other like "do we really want to go in here"??? but it was too late to turn around and soon enough we were in the washing machine watching our boat churn and roll!!! Bootsie's huge meows from below made it unanimous - we weren't having fun!! Luckily it only lasted for several minutes (but it felt like an eternity) and we were out of the grips of the nasty current and into the calm waters of the Banks!! From there we had a great little steam up to our protected anchorage at Big Majors Spot that we have come to love so much!!!

Bootsie eats fresh mahi to recover from a tough day at seaPuss doesn't like mahi so she gets cat treats

That afternoon, it was a unanimous decision - we needed the beach!!! So we dinghied in to yet another beautiful sandy beach which we had to ourselves until the September Song gang joined us - I think Cassie was the happiest dog I've ever seen to have her paws on terra firma!!! Cassie kind of said it for all of us when after a perfunctory attempt at fishing the shallows, she just came up to our chairs and plopped down in the shade - she was pooped after a tough day on the water!!

Bob and Stephanie sit in the water with Cassie

We did the same in our beach chairs - minus the fishing - with a pitcher of rum punches and suddenly things were looking much, much brighter!! That night, as usual, the sunset was awesome.

Sunset over Gypsies in the Palace

Sunset in Big Majors Spot

Yesterday was an amazing day of exploration (after some boat work in the am - always!!). Doug and I set off in the dinghy with beach chairs, towels and a cooler (what else could you possibly need???) and went off to see the sights!! There are so many little secluded beaches and rocky, uninhabited cays around here that you could be here for months and not see everything (although we gave it the old college try!) We dinghied through a little cut, found ourselves in a 25 foot deep tidal pool with swirling currents which we escaped only to find ourselves washed up on this gorgeous little beach (we certainly weren't complaining!!!) We sat, had a coldie and actually hiked up the little hill where we were treated to an amazing 360 degree view of the Sound, the opposing Banks and lots of little rock cliff cays!! Very kewl!!

Our first "private beach"

Next it was on through another cut to explore several other beaches that looked like they could have been the setting for Pirates of the Caribbean (yes I know it was filmed in the Grenadines but work with me - Johnny Depp does own an island in the Bahamas that we have seen!!) - the water off the beach was a little rocky on one and the current was ripping on the other so we decided to take pictures but keep searching for the perfect beach (sound a little like Goldilocks???) Well we certainly found the "perfect beach" - actually it was a little spit of snow white sand surrounded on 3 sides by crystal clear bathwater temp blue water!!!

Our second "private beach"

The laughing gull

We were the only ones around except for a couple laughing gulls who kept us company - our footprints were the only ones in the sand.

Ours were the only footprints in the sand

We wiled away the rest of the afternoon reading, sunning and occasionally flopping back in the water to cool off - several cold Kaliks helped on that score as well - all in all, a perfect afternoon!!!

Exploring for beachesExploring for beachesExploring for beaches

That evening we had drinks and dinner on September Song - their friends, Jack and Susan, on Freya (a snailbot but we didn't hold that against them - they were really cool anyways - just so long as nobody sees us hanging out too much with ragbaggers!!) had just come in from Little Farmers.

Jack and Susan from Freya

Jack and Susan are also friends of Life's2Short and they had all last seen each other in Islamorada right before we crossed to the Bahamas. We had drinks on the bow as the sun set and were treated to the most amazing green flash - one that you could really see...not one of those ones that you blink and say I think I saw it (yes, for those of you that have never seen it, the green flash really does exist and not just in September Song's blog!!! You just have to have a very clear night with no clouds and a horizon of pure water ie no land). The sun seemed to melt into the ocean and we all held our breath - that was the first green flash of the trip!!! Bob and Stephanie blew the ceremonial conch shells

Bob and Stephanie blowing the conchs at sunset

and the grillmeister of the evening (aka Bob) began to cook up the mahi he had caught the other day!!!!

Bob the "grillmeister and mahi slayer"

We had a great night with new and old friends topped off by a chocolate cheesecake - how can things get any better????

Today we have boat chores this morning but plan on heading in to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for some cracked conch, cold Kaliks and outdoor internet access (yeah no more bomb shelter). The game plan for the afternoon is a little beach time to collect firewood and then a beach bonfire - Susan and Jack have been reading about them in our blogs so we figured we might as well do a re-creation!!! Yet again, there's nothing better!!!

Click here to see a Google map of our current location in Big Majors Spot.

The Southernmost Point

No we're not back in Key West (although that would have been a good guess given how much we love it there), but rather we're in Georgetown on Great Exuma Island, the southernmost of the Exuma chain and often called "chicken harbor" since it is the last real decision point for boats wanting to continue south on the "thorny path" into the Caribbean. Many boats wind up staying in Georgetown all winter and never make it further south even if they had planned to - for some this is the final destination in and of itself! For us (and September Song who we are traveling with) this is as far south as we will go this year and we will start meandering our way back up the Exumas hitting many of the places we missed on the way down and maybe even stopping in some of the funky places we grew to love!!!

We've had a pretty eventful several days since the last blog (internet connection was spotty at best - sorry for the delay!) We finally made it over to pig beach on Big Major Spot where we were anchored in a beautiful harbor for several days protected from the ever present and blowing East wind (those are the trades down here!!) We happened to hook up with Lynnie and Rick from Rickshaw just in time to see Lynnie feeding the pigs who were swimming (yes that's what I said!!!) out to their dinghy.

Lynnie had cleaned out the produce drawer in her refrigerator and the pigs were happily scarfing down old wilted lettuce and various other pig delicacies (uck!). I've got to say that it was really weird to sit in our dinghy watching these pigs swimming around with mouthfuls of lettuce and carrots!! They were so ugly they were actually cute - check out the pictures if you don't believe me!!

The next day we all (Gypsies, September Song, Tide Hiker and Rickshaw) set off for Blackpoint Settlement (that's what it is actually called...I think it's a stretch but at least some people live there and there are a couple little restaurants).

The Anchorage at Black Point Settlement

Life's2Short, Rickshaw and September Song in the anchorage at Black PointGypsies in the Palace in the anchorage at Black Point

We joined up with Life's2Short, who was already hanging out in the anchorage there, in time to explore the island and visit the local "craft fair" which was a couple booths on the pier with shell jewelry and miscellaneous crafts. That night we helped celebrate Todd and Brenda's (Life's2Short) 10th anniversary with drinks and dinner at Lorraine's Cafe - a little hole in the wall hangout with supposed internet connection (although the satellite was down more than it was up from what we saw!)

Lorraines

Doug and Stephanie at Lorraines

I played bartender for the night (wow that brought back memories!!!) and kept track of our drinks on a little piece of paper (everything down here is pretty laid back and the honor system rules). Lorraine made us all a fabulous dinner of ribs and fish and even baked Todd and Brenda a cake!!!

The bartender and two of her happy customers

Happy Anniversary, Todd and Brenda

The next morning we headed in with Life's2Short and September Song to explore one of the beaches on the "rough Sound side" where there was supposed to be lots of beach glass - the view back on our anchorage was spectacular!!

The dinghies on the way to Beach Glass Beach

Beach Glass Beach

We had a great time checking out all the tidal pools and we found a bunch of colored beach glass for our collection so mission accomplished!! We then dinghied in to "town" - and I use that term very loosely - to pick up the "world famous" coconut bread that Lorraine's mom bakes which we had ordered the day before - it certainly lived up to its reputation as Doug and I demolished several slices with lots of butter!!! That afternoon found Doug and I on yet another gorgeous private little beach soaking up rays, tossing back a few coldies and swimming in the warm gin clear water that is ever present throughout the Exumas.

A private, secluded beach

We were soon joined by Life's2Short and September Song and spent the next half hour gathering firewood and building a firepit for the beach bonfire we intended to have that night!!!

After an early dinner we all headed over to the beach for our last night together - Tide Hiker brought the makings for S'mores this time so that was the highlight!!

The Bonfire

You could tell no one really wanted to leave since people kept throwing more and more wood on the fire - poor Lynnie was getting smoked out (there's a strategy involved in where you put your chair around the firepit - hint, check the wind direction!!) But by 11:00 it was time to say good-bye - we aren't sure when we will see most of those guys again, but know that it will be on the water sometime and it will be fun!!!! Life's2Short was headed south but to explore the shallower inside route on the banks which our deeper draft doesn't really allow - we may reconnect with them up north to do the crossing back over to the States. Tide Hiker and Rickshaw were headed down to one more Cay (Farmers) but were then going to head back up north - we likely won't see them again until we're back in the States (but we know where they live so on our trip north, they are bound to get some visitors!!) In cruising there are no real good-byes, just until I see you agains!!!

So then there were two (boats that is) - the next morning September Song and Gypsies set off for Georgetown. We had 50 miles to cover so we wanted to head out into Exuma Sound to fish - we hadn't been able to fish the last couple times we were in the Sound because we were still in the Land and Sea Park which is a no take zone. Unfortunately the wind and waves had kicked up the Sound so it was way too rough for fishing - after about an hour of taking spray up over the flybridge, we cut back in to cruise on the "inside" or banks side for a little while. After going through some really skinny water (can you say 6 inches under our keel), we wound up dropping the hook off Cave Cay where we had lunch and hung out waiting for the tide to rise. We had planned to run on the inside for a couple hours getting as far south as we could but as we looked out the cut, the Sound had died down so we headed out and made it all the way down to Lee Stocking Island. A great run but we both got skunked on the fish - bummer, guess it was hot dogs for dinner. We found a beautiful little anchorage though that we had all to ourselves and had a wonderfully quiet night sitting topsides under the stars!!!

That next day we didn't hear any weather (since we were too far from both the Park and Georgetown for our radios to pick up the signal) but decided to give the Sound another try and boy am I glad we did!!!! It was a beautiful day out there and pretty quickly the lines were out in the water and the mahi slayers (Doug and Bob) were back in the cockpits fishing! Not too long thereafter, Doug and Bob almost simultaneously yelled "fish on" and the games began! Unfortunately Doug's turned out to be a barracuda which is a double bummer - not only can't you eat them but you have to try and get the hook out without those enormous teeth causing bodily damage! Bob pulled in a 36 inch mahi so at least we knew we weren't having hot dogs for dinner that night. But the games were just beginning!!! Doug caught a second barracuda and was starting to get really bummed out - those things are nasty critters!! But just when we were thinking we might get skunked again, came the fish on yell from Doug - this time from the flybridge I could see a gorgeous electric blue fish jumping out of the water at the end of his line - yahoo - it was a mahi!!!! There's just nothing quite like seeing such an amazingly beautiful fish (think unbelievably vivid shades of electric blue and greens!) jumping out of the water!! The adrenaline kicked in and the fight was on - but Doug prevailed and soon was the owner of a gorgeous 36 inch mahi which we got off the hook thanks to some cheap vodka poured into her gills (yes it was a she and we can really tell - the things you learn while out cruising)!!

Doug's first Mahi

But the mahi slayers were not done for the day - about 20 minutes later, Bob had a fish that was so big it broke his 60 pound test line and stole his lure!!! Then the fish on yell reverberated through Gypsies and Doug was at it again. This time it was a big!!!! mahi that I saw jumping out of the water. She fought hard and even tried to go under the boat to cut the line but after spinning the boat to help Doug, he got her up and into the cockpit. No amount of cheap booze was able to tame this one and she put up quite a fight even once she was on board - our cockpit looked like a battle zone with blood everywhere!!!

The second Mahi of the day

The two Mahi's
(curved because the cooler is too small for them to be laid out)

Yuck - but it was worth it - she was 41 inches, 18 pounds of prime mahi filet!!!! Not wanting to be piggy, we kept the lines in on the boat after the second mahi (the rule is you catch what you can eat or freeze) and headed in to Elizabeth Harbor and Georgetown. We dropped our anchor off a beautiful sandy beach (Sand Dollar Beach no less) on Stocking Island and proceeded to toss back a cold beer as the adrenaline rush of the day wound down!!!

But then it was time to clean and filet the mahi - over Bob and Stephanie came to give us a lesson!! We traded rum punch and nachos (after all it was cinco de mayo) for fish filleting instructions. Doug and Bob proceeded to reduce our two beautiful mahi to gorgeous fillets!!!! We had plenty of mahi not only for dinner that night but also to fill our freezer so we will be enjoying those mahi for a long time to come (but there is still plenty of room in our freezer for more so know that we'll be fishing the whole way back from G'town)!!! We even set aside some of the smaller pieces for Bootsie - she has learned that she too loves mahi and can't believe we kept it form her for 20 years!! She is now making up for it - Puss on the other hand couldn't care less (she likes her cat treats!!)

Bootsie's Mahi comaBootsie repositions and takes another napPuss naps after her cat treats

Dinner that night on Gypsies was a festive affair....grilled mahi marinated in pineapple juice and soy, Bahamian mac and cheese, a wonderful salad and chocolate rum cake for desert!! Since Bob broke out his rum cake, it was only fitting that we break out some aged rum....OK maybe we had a little too much, but no one can prove it and we took no pictures!!!

Yesterday we explored Georgetown - after it took us awhile to find the dinghy dock (it was after all through a little canal and in the lake!!).

The entrance to Victoria Lake where the dinghy dock isHalf Note (tender to September Song) coming through the canal to Victoria Lake

Outside of a wonderfully stocked market (which we haven't seen since leaving Nassau), there just wasn't much to it. After walking for miles (we kept getting less than accurate directions from everyone), we finally found a place with wifi - you have to bend over to get through the door and it has a cement floor, but heh $5 for the whole day!! We'll take it!! Since we didn't have computers with us, that's where we plan on heading later today to catch up on our blog and emails, etc!!! Yesterday late afternoon we dinghied over to a really funky beach bar on Stocking Island called the Chat and Chill - now this was my idea of a cool beach bar and what I had expected to find in the Bahamas!!! There were picnic tables and adirondack chairs out in the sand, a wooden deck and bbq pit and a ramshackle bar with old teeshirts and yachtie flags hung from the ceiling and walls!! A couple cold Kaliks made the afternoon perfect!!! but then again, they usually do!!

The Chat and Chill on Stocking Island

Doug on the beach at the Chat and Chill

Directional sign at the Chat and Chill

Sunset that night over September Song

Click here to see our location off Stocking Island across from Georgetown.

And Now There's Just Two....

Yesterday was a sad day on Gypsies - two of the Gypsies, Colleen and John, had to head home to restock the cruising kitty. I hate it when reality intrudes on a perfectly great life and lifestyle!!! Thanks again Jr for an economy from hell!! We took Gypsies into the dock at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club and offloaded all of their stuff - I think our draft miraculously went from 5.3 feet to 4.8! You just have a lot of "stuff" when you are planning on being gone for several years!! After one last cold Kalik at the Yacht Club, they caught a puddle jumper plane (Watermaker Air) over to Fort Lauderdale where I know they plan on hanging out at Colleen's parents house for at least several days to "figure things out". No goodbyes were said because they left with plans to come back and visit Gypsies in August before they start back with "real jobs".

Their change in plans has caused us to change our plans as well, at least for the time being....instead of heading down into the Caribbean for hurricane season, we are going to spend the next couple months in the Bahamas (mostly in the Exumas) which we have absolutely fallen in love with. There are still so many places to see and things to do that we could be over here for years and not see it all - we are going to head down to Georgetown (at the southern end of the Exumas) in the next week or so and then meander our way back up the island chain! After that we will make our way back to the States and probably spend the summer/early fall exploring more of the Chesapeake and all its rivers - when we were there last October we only started to scratch the surface of cool places to see there!!! While we're a little bummed not to be heading further south into the Caribbean, we are pretty excited to have more time to spend over here in paradise!! We'll figure the rest out as we go - whether we have to become respectable again (because we're definitely not that now!!) or we head back out and maybe do the Caribbean next year remains a mystery to us at the moment but as we've come to realize, life happens and we'll deal with it manana mon!!

After dropping the departing gypsies off, we had to make runs to the post office (we had mail sent several weeks ago and the mailboat came in yesterday but no luck), to the Yellow House for fresh bread and to get the key to the library/book exchange which was in the yellow and blue house, to the blue and pink stores to see what produce was available and then on to Isles General Store (run by the wife of the minister/Staniel Yacht Club owner Berkie who helped us get our motor mount fixed) but they were closed as well. Lots of things in the islands close for several hours for lunch and they are definitely on "island time"!!! No worries mon....

Yesterday evening we all (September Song, Tide Hiker, Rickshaw, Silver Boots and the remaining Gypsies) headed in to the beach laden down with coolers (of course) and app's for a beach party!!! We quickly spied the firepit and collected driftwood and assorted firewood for a Class A beach bonfire - even though Norm wouldn't go back to Tide Hiker for the fixings for S'mores, we all had a blast!!

There's just something really cool about hanging out on an island beach watching the sun set as you get a big bonfire going!!! Norm and Bob did grill hotdogs over the fire though!!



This morning rolled around bright and early - too early for some (not to mention names .... Rickshaw) and we headed out in our dinghies to snorkel Thunderball Grotto where several of the James Bond movies were filmed.

[Click here to see a Google map of the location of Thunderball Cave]

You need to hit it close to low slack tide so you can snorkel into the cave and don't get beat up by the current. WOW!!! We entered the cave and immediately were in a world of fish and amazing coral - the sun reflected down into the water of the cave from several skylight openings making the whole cave look like something out of a movie (now I know why they filmed there!!!) It was really spectacular - you could snorkel through the cave and out the other side although the current got pretty rough as you reached the edge of the cave! Outside the cave were more amazing fish and really colorful coral and sea fans - well worth getting out of bed a little early that's for sure!!!

Parrotfish

Sea Coral

an as yet unidentified fish

Queen Angelfish

We are back in at Staniel Cay Yacht Club about to enjoy some conch bits (cracked conch which ever since Nassau we also have fallen in love with - God this stuff is great!! especially with a couple cold Kaliks!)) On the way back to the boat, we plan on heading over to pig beach where the pigs actually swim up to your dinghy (good for pictures although you really don't want to walk on the beach....pig droppings...need I say more??) Tomorrow we are off to Black Point - a settlement further south where we've heard they have the best coconut bread anywhere!! Sounds good to us!!!

Click here to see our location at Big Majors Spot.