Bahamas Bound

  The Nor Easter’ affecting the US, is    going to bring some wind tonight to the Exuma’s. The anchor is buried in the sand so I feel confident in the holding, and we have made preparations for a long period of windy weather.    Ironically, it was a beautiful day, so we went to the beach and enjoyed the sun and balmy weather. Typically, before a blow, it is cloudy so we were tickled that it was such a beautiful day. For lunch, we made conch salad from the queen conch that we collected yesterday. We also grilled hamburgers at lunchtime for our dinner tonight because it will be too windy to use the grill once the wind kicks in. We plan on snuggling in for the evening!

  Bailing water out of dinghy.  Noelle’s view leaving Staniel Cay. Ron and Shelly from Blackbards.  Got up early to bring Noelle in the dinghy to the airport dock. I said my goodbyes and Jessica walked with Noelle to the “terminal”.    We had an excellent eight days with Jessica‘s sister. Noelle caught onto boat life quickly, she was so fun to talk with, play games, and she got her sea legs very quick, especially with the last couple days being pretty rolly at night.    It was such a pleasure to see the joy in her face just being in the Bahamas.    We took advantage of the sunshine today before the upcoming blow this weekend and took a snorkel trip and gathered six conch. We took them to the beach and Jessica caught up on her journal and I cleaned up the conch in preparation for conch salad.    I was so focused on cleaning the conch, that I had forgotten that I had pulled the drain plug on the dinghy to drain water from a motor boat...

  We all need a clock like this!  Mail boat = fresh veggies in town. Today we celebrated Jessica‘s sister Noelle‘s last full day with us. We went into Staniel Cay and the ladies went to the gift shop and they let me stay on the dinghy. Yahoo. Noelle verified the location of the Metropolitan airport terminal here in Staniel Cay for her flight tomorrow morning. Then Noelle treated us to an excellent lunch: conch fritters, cheeseburger and french fries. We were in heaven! Then we took Noelle to the grocery store and stocked up on a few fresh veggies, etc., to prepare for the Saturday and Sunday’s upcoming blow. She got a real kick out of the quaintness of the stores and now she understands why we don’t make a grocery list, you just go and buy what they have. 

  Today we sailed from Cambridge Cay back to Staniel Cay. This puts us back in civilization to reprovision in the days to come and to show Noelle a Bahamian town. Then sadly the next day to bring Noelle to the airport. And we are in a protected spot to whether the blow that is coming this weekend. No adventures today underwater or on land, so we only have this one picture of walking Alli    on the beach to share. Hope everybody is doing well! 

  Notice Jessica on the right. Today the cold front reached the Bahamas, and temperatures dropped to the low 70s and the wind is BLOWING . We are in a safe anchorage and all is well. Jessica learned how to start the generator for our coffee. It is similar to starting a lawnmower and she was proud of her accomplishment. No snorkeling today with the windy weather, so we decided to do some hiking since we are in the Exuma’s Land and Sea Park. We walked over to Rachel‘s bubble bath and watched the waves at high tide spill over into the tidal pool. Then we hiked across Cambridge Cay, and up the ridge and over to a cave. It felt good to stretch the legs and do some walking on land. Then we played a game of Sequence down below while the loud generator continued to run in the cockpit to charge up our batteries.

  Airplane  Today we snorkeled two spots. Well, the first snorkel was not really a snorkel, it was Jessica leaning over the side of the dinghy with her mask on to see the crashed airplane from the drug smuggler that did not make it to the cay runway. The second snorkel spot was quite a treat. It was called the aquarium. Before we jumped off the dinghy with our snorkel gear, Jessica asked, why is it called the aquarium? I said, “I don’t know, but we are about to find out”. The three of us jumped in, and our eyes lit up through the mask with beautiful coral and fish swarming around us like we were in the eye of a hurricane.    The limestone vertical wall at the back of the coral indeed gave the appearance of an aquarium.    Then we snorkeled over to a sandbar that was 2 feet underwater, and talked for at least two hours. It was so beautifu that we just could not bring ourselves to get out of the water. We ended the day with a trip to the beach and this time t...

  Woke up this morning and did one of my favorite navigation tasks.    I evaluated the wind forecast, cruising app, destination spots, tide forecast, and the morale of the crew (just kidding).    It with all these considerations I picked a new destination for today. Today is at the southern edge of the Exumas land and Sea Park at Cambridge Cay. We picked up a morning ball and launched the dinghy for a snorkel excursion. We found a really nice coral garden just outside the park in hopes of finding some conch. However, we only saw a beautiful fish and bright colored coral heads, coral fans, lots of other species of coral I can’t identify. Then we found a sandbar that had baby conch that had come up on the sandbar. Instead of simply snorkeling around for bigger conch, we covered more territory by towing Jessica and Noelle with an anchor line from the bow of the dinghy while I went in reverse to keep them well away from the motor.    The ladies found our s...

  Noelle, Jessica, and I sailed south today and ended at Wardwick Wells cay. We hiked up to look for the blow holes, but the tide was not quite right. However, we had an excellent view on top of boo-boo Hill. We spent some time under the gazebo and talked to three couples who had rented a bareback boat out of Nassau. They commented that everything was broken on the boat except for the engine. Ha ha. Jessica got her steps in on the Long Beach and Ali had a good time chilling under the Shimbuni.    Noelle found some live conch, however, we are still in the land and sea park so no harvesting today. We watched the sun go down and looked for the green flash, however, not today.    We ended the day with a great hobo pack dinner with sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes, corn.

  Bubbles shadow / prisim  Jessica, Noelle, and I went to the washing machine. We did not do laundry but instead we found a Tidal Creek that emptied into the ocean that would spin the current around with Eddy‘s that was an absolute blast. The wind laid down so with no ripples on the water it was crystal clear and absolutely beautiful. We are in the Exuma’s Land and Sea Park and feel like we are in heaven. After lunch, we went to a sand spit where the warm water was coming out of the mangroves so no wetsuit was needed. We are still contemplating the water temperature, but it was at least in the low 90s.