Moving South

We left Staniel Cay on Tuesday Jan. 24 and made our way to Great Guana Cay witch is an island about 10 miles long with lots of great beaches. The mail boat didn't come to Staniel Cay so that means no groceries so we thought we would go to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay and get groceries there. We arrived on Wednesday to find that the mail boat still hasn't arrived. So we bought a few things and went out for lunch to Lorrain's Restaurant. We had a great lunch and I had the best burger I have had in a long time. And Lorain came out and talked with us for a while. Every one is so friendly on these islands.

Lorrain's Resturant

Looking down the main street.

This is the school

This guy wants to go for ride

The locals take there racing very seriously.

 Building a new sailboat

So with a little bit of groceries off we went to find some beaches. We stopped at Jacks Cove.





 It wasn't what we wanted so we move down the island about 2 miles to Jacks Bay.

 

We thought this was a good beach so we did some exploring. We walked up a hill and on the other side we found a better beach. This day we had a lot of difficult decisions to make. We picked the last beach. Whites Bay beach and then we decided to collect some fire wood for a fire that night. 



 

 

 

On Saturday we moved on to Musha Cay then Rudder Cay then Cave Cay, 3 stops in 1 day very busy. Musha Cay is where David Copperfield has a home and a resort. Laurie will tell all soon. We anchored overnight in front of Cave Cay after a busy day. Sunday we were on our way to Little Farmers Cay to spend a few days on a mooring ball while a small cold front passes by. We also hoped that the mail boat had made it here so we can buy some groceries. After 2 hours of sailing we arrived and tied to a mooring ball and headed to town. The mail boat came but of course it's Sunday, not open today. We decided to go out for lunch because every one said TJ's was good. We got directions and off we went. The directions were to follow the road to the end and turn right onto the air port landing strip and turn left at TJ's. I have never heard of getting any where walking down an air strip!

 

And here is TJ's

Right between the runway and the beach.

 We had a drink and decided to stay for lunch.

 What a great spot!

We liked it here so much we stayed until sundown.

 

Tomorrow we will head to the grocery store and see what we can find.

 

And now it's that time again for:

 

So Here's Interesting Tidbits  SHIT for short.

 

 

The Musical Mermaid

 

Here's a little info on an interesting find under the waters of Ruder Cay. It is at N23o 52.160'/W076o

14.156'. You will find this on the floor of the Ocean in the clear shallow water. A mermaid at the piano. This was placed here in 2011 by David Copperfield and was sculpted by Jason DeCairns  Taylor. It is in 13 feet of water. It is a replica of a Steinway Concert piano and was built with spaces that encourage life for sea creatures. Sitting at the piano is a sculpted mermaid by Jason. David's home is a short distance from the statue. It is said he has created an illusion to distract tourists away from his home and private island. If you want to read more about this fascinating under water sculpture go to sculpture.com/projects/copperfield. David Copperfield owns a private island at Musha Cay. This private island is rented out for $300,000 per week. Go to mushacay.com.

Now that's an illusion!!

Notice on the charts they show the PIANO is marked

David Copperfields Resort on Musha Cay

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 





 

 

 

 



 

 

 



We Are Still In Staniel Cay

 

This is a great spot to relax and look around. We arrived here around 1pm and dropped anchored and dinghy into Pig Beach! Yup this is where the pigs come out to greet you. Before we could get on the beach they had there heads in the dinghy looking for food. We pushed them away and brought the dinghy up and they chased us around for something to eat. Laurie brought some lettuce with her and they eat that up very quick. These pigs are a great tourist attraction for the island so the nearby yacht club feed and water them everyday. People come all the way from Nassau on tours just to see the pigs and then they go to the yacht club for lunch. People say they are wild. But actually they were brought here many years ago by a couple from Staniel Cay. They are very well fed and judging by their size. Some were huge. A good laugh for sure to see them in action.....

 Laurie had a great time here.

After Pig Beach it was off to Pirate Beach. This is a great beach where every one leaves stuff here to be used by others. There's a BBQ, chairs, sun shade, bean bag toss game and all kinds of memorabilia.

 

 

 

That was a full day of fun in the sun. Friday we all took our dinghy's into town for provisioning and to drop off trash. Like most islands they charge you $2.50  for dumping off a small bag of trash and $5.00 for a big bag. It's like that every where and it's sad because you will find trash dumped off on island beaches some times. We went shopping and found that the mail boat that brings food comes on Wednesday and so there was nothing fresh to buy. No bread, no fruit, and no veggies.  What little we did buy cost $160.00. Normally what we bought here would cost around $40 to $50 back home. We all went back to our boats and decided we will wait until Wednesday or Thursday to leave here so we can get some fresh food. Saturday morning we all went snorkeling at the Thunderball Grotto. Laurie will explain later. Saturday afternoon we started to look for a place to hide from the cold front coming on Monday afternoon. We found a great little anchorage between two islands where we were protected on three sides and that's what we wanted and with a little beach to relax on while we waited for the front to come.

 Protected by high hills

 Nice little beach. We spent 2 days on this beach. Great spot!

 The other boats with us Valentine and Blue Lady.

Valentine and Mauna Kea during the rain

 

 

So we weathered the storm without any problems. The rain came down hard for about an hour and the wind gusts where up to 40 knots. Today (Tuesday) we will wait for the wind and waves to die down. Another work day on the boat!

 

And now it's time for:

So Here's Interesting Tidbits SHIT for short!

 

The Lionfish

 

The Lionfish is the largest invader and are destroying the coral and fish in the Bahamas. The Lionfish have very venomous spines and pose a lot of danger to divers and fishermen. Lionfish were first reported in 1985 in Florida. They have spread very quickly. By 2013 this fish has completely covered the Bahamas and the Gulf Of Mexico and the Caribbean. The Lionfish take 1 year to mature. The eggs evolve and grow on stalks. Females release 2 eggs and the eggs have a hollow mucous that trap sperm. It takes 26 days in duration and they spawn year round. Every 4 days there are over 25,000 eggs per patch. This totals 2 million eggs per female per year. This fish eat over 40 species of fish and their stomach can expand 30 times its size. The National Lionfish Control Project have been on a 4 year project to study the Lionfish. Scientists say that direct removal by humans are the best way to reduce the Lionfish invasion. However, they are dangerous to catch. The dorsal, ventral and anal spines are so venomous. but once they are removed safely the fish are a great eat. So do you really want to do this? That's some good SHIT!

Lion Fish

 

Thunderball Grotto

 

We went exploring in the dingy and found what we were looking for. "Thunderball Grotto"...We put on our snorkeling gear and swam to the cave. We had to go at slack tide to swim through the opening of the Grotto. A really magical place. It had dramatic shafts of sunlight slicing into the water. When snorkeling, there was a lot to see. A lot of coral fish, sponges and also cool sponges on the Grotto walls. This cave is where they filmed the James Bond movie "Thunderball." with Sean Connery. And also the movie "Blue Lagoon". What a cool place. Here are some pics.... 

 

The Entrance

Looking down when you enter

Looking back at the entrance

Looking up inside the cave

 Laurie on the other side of the cave

That was some fun SHIT!

Boo Boo Hill

 

Boo Boo Hill has the most amazing panoramic views in the Exumas that we have seen so far. This lopsided monument at the top of this hill is made from bits of carved and painted driftwood left by cruisers when they visit here. Legend has it that it is haunted by souls that have gone aground and sank and died here. Some say that you can hear them sing. ( or the wind is howling LOL) The tradition is for cruisers to leave an offering atop of this hill to keep King Neptune happy. It is also supposed to bless you with good wind and smooth seas. Why not? It cant hurt....

 

 This is what we left

That was some interesting SHIT!

 

 

 



 





 

 

 



We Are Back On Line

We have been away from a cell signal for almost 2 weeks. We are in the Exumas chain islands and there are only 4 cell towers within a 150 miles. There are not to many people out here so they don't need much service. When I took a cab in Nassau the driver told me there are 350 thousand people in the Bahamas and 3/4 of them live on New Providence Island. So there are not to many people on the Islands. So far we have been to 8 islands and Highbourne Cay and Wardwick Wells Cay were the only islands with people on them. These people work there so there are no people living on these islands permanently. Two weeks ago we left Highbourne Cay Marina to meet up with another rally boat at Normans Cay where they were anchored. We started out in high winds 20 knots but light seas. The waves became a lot larger 4 to 5 feet as we got further out so it was time to head back to Highborne Cay. We found the marina a little expensive so we anchored off the west side of the island where we were protected from the wind and waves. The next day we tried again and it was not as bad. We contacted our friends at Norman Cay and then we all carried on to Wardwick Wells National Park. Woops! that was a mistake. Just as our friend joined us we were hit with a squall. It rained hard and the winds gusted to 40 knots. After it left we thought that wasn't to bad, then another squall then another then another. They carried on all day. Now there was no turning back so we carried on to Wardwick Wells. Squalls are very hard to deal with, the waves are coming from one direction and the squalls from another. So the waves get all mixed up and there's waves coming from all directions. The last squall was a bad one. The rain came at us sideways and then our GPS got very wet. That's not supposed to matter, but it went dead. So the squall was so strong I could not see where I was going. It lasted about 5 minutes then it stopped. I could now see the other boats and could get my direction headed for Wardwick wells. I radioed Blue Lady and asked him if I could follow him in and we made it in safely. We finally made it in to the mooring ball wet and cold and wouldn't you know it as soon as we made in the sun came out. Here's a few pictures of our anchorage.

 

The next day after drying everything out we went to explore the trails around the island. Our first trip was to Boo Boo Hill. This is where all the boaters leave a sign with there boat names on a piece of wood or anything they can find.

 

 Here's a piece of wood with Laho on it. I follow this Blog page for a year and here is the piece of wood with there name on it!

So we put our stuff here.

 

We put the hat and the sticker from the ICW rally with our boat names on the sticker. We hope other rallyer's  will see our stuff that was left here. So on to the rest of the trails on the island.

These trails are very rough terrain and you don't want to fall. We stayed on the mooring ball for 3 days then we sailed to the west side of the island to go to some different beaches and different trails.

 

 This is the trail we had to walk on. Don't fall on this stuff!

And poisonous trees! 

Then we checked out the beach. I called this "Haircut Beach"

Next Island stop is Shroud Cay.

 

This island had beautiful beaches but we wanted to follow the canals through the mangroves to the other side. Jack and Diane (just like the song) had been here a week ago and found this great spot. So up the canals we went.

And here's the spot!

Here's a better picture

We called this spot the Bahama hot tub!

After a little relaxing in the hot tub we went to the beach and the climbed up the hill for the view.

 Laurie loved this beach more than ice cream and lobster!

Then it was a hike up the hill for the view.

 We had to hike up this hill to get a cell signal so we called this telephone hill!

 

We left Shroud Cay this morning to Pipe Cay where there is and US Navy Base from the 40's. Then off to Staniel Cay to provision. We have another front moving in after the weekend so we are looking for a place to hunker down. We will be with in cell signal for a while now so with in the next few days it will be time for:

So Here's Interesting Tidbits SHIT for short!