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!