New buddy boat

We have met some nice people from Colorado that are live aboard's and they were looking for some one to buddy up with as far as Puerto Rico. So now there are three of us sailing south, us MAUNA KEA, LET IT BE AND TEMARITY. We got together on the weekend and planned our route and we were leaving after the cold front moves on. Tuesday was a good day to leave so that was our plan. Change of plans! I have word that the outboard motor I ordered in January has come into Nassau. It will be here in Thompson Bay by Monday. So the three boats will carry on and I will turn back on Thursday and head back to Thompson Bay. I will have to catch up with the other two in Mayaquana Island. This is the jump off Island to head south to the Turks and Caicos. It's going to be a little hard waiting around because in Thompson Bay there's not much going on. So it will be boat jobs for the few days as we sit and wait. Here's a few picture I took on shore.

Grocery Store

 Grocery Store parking lot. Great view of the Bay

Waiting for the front to pass by

Manatee hanging around the dock

There was a guy cleaning his fish on the dock and he would spray the Manatee with the fresh water

 The Manatee loves the fresh water

We are now in the tropics!

We left George Town on Monday and sailed to Thompson Bay in the town of Salt Pond on Long Island. Half the island is in the Tropic Of Cancer so we now are officially in the tropics. Wednesday was a provision day for anything fresh. We will stay here around a week because of another cold front coming through, starting today (Friday) and lasting about three days. Mostly just high winds of 30 to 35 knots. We stop for a beer on the side of the road after shopping.

Laurie, Frank and Mary Grace

 On Wednesday we rented a car with our friends Mary Grace and Frank to see the island. We started by driving south to the other side of the island to Clarence Town. This is where we might come later to head more south and there's not much here.

These two churches were built in the 1700's by Father Jerome.

On our way down we passed a vacant lot where a local was building a race boat. Bahamian people love there boat racing and these are the boats they race and all the boats are hand built. As soon as we stopped to look a couple came over and were very glad to talk to us about anything but boat building. As he talked and we looked at the boat I just shook my head and agreed with anything he said because he was very hard to understand. But they were very friendly like all the people on the islands.



After visiting Clarence Town we went to Deans Blue Hole in of course in the town of Deans. For more information on the Blue hole refer to Laurie's S.H.I.T. at the end of this Blog. But here's a few pictures.

 

Next stop was the Hamilton Caves. The two women like this trip the best. As Lenard our guide took us through the cave he was showing us different species of bats hiding in the ceilings. As we all looked up together one flew down and scared the women. Mary Grace screaming and jumped and Laurie screamed and jumped away and pushed me down into the BAT SHIT on the ground! I fell onto my camera but luckily there was no damage. Lenard had lots of fun on this tour. He said he had never seen that happen before.

 

 

The next day we only had a few hours with the car so one more attraction to see. Christopher Columbus monument. This is when he landed in Oct of 1492.

 

It says

THIS

 MONUMENT

 IS DEDICATED TO

THE GENTLE PEACFUL HAPPY

ABOURIGINAL PEOPLE

OF LONG ISLAND

THE LUCAYANS

AND TO THE ARRIVAL OF

 CHRISTOPHOR COLUMBUS

ON

17TH OCTOBER 1492



 

We will sit here for a few days and let the weather settle down and move on again to Conception Island for the second time.

 



 

So now it's tome again for:

So Here's Interesting Tidbits SHIT for short

 

A Little Bit About Long Island

 

Long Island is 76 miles long and 4 miles wide. It has 40 communities with a total population of 4000

people. The people have a lot of different ethnic backgrounds. The people here have lived here for many centuries. Some have come from pirates and slaves and Greek Sponge fishermen. Much of the island is generational land. Meaning the land is titled and owned by various families through generations. Everyone on the island is related. Long Island is known for being calm, peaceful and tranquil. The island has contrasting coastlines. On the Atlantic side there are rocky cliffs with scattered crescent shaped beaches. The western side is low with shallow, clear waters with creeks and mangroves. These creeks are famous for bone fishing. It has many fishing competitions here. These crafty fish swim in schools and muddies the water which are hard to capture. This makes for a great fishing sport.

 

 

Cape Santa Maria 

 

Cape Santa Maria was named after Christopher Columbus. He sailed his ship here on Oct. 17th 1492. He arrived here on his first voyage to the new world. He sailed his ship here and ran aground on the northern tip of the island. His ship was called "Santa Maria" Thus, that is how the cape got its name.

 

The Columbus monument was constructed by the Long Islanders Ass. as a tribute to his arrival. A beautiful view to the ocean. We climbed the hill to his memorial site. Here is a picture.

 

 



 





  Deans Blue Hole

 

We were fortunate enough to snorkel this stunning calm waters of the Blue Hole. This Blue Hole is the second largest Blue Hole in the World next to China. It is also the 8th largest underwater cavern in the World. A couple of years ago a freestyle diving record was set here. "Gorgeous Place"...





 

 

The hole is circular in shape, over 300 m (984 ft) across and 108 m (354 ft) deep. It was formed during several episodes of quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower. Analysis of stalactites found in the Great Blue Hole shows that formation took place 153,000; 66,000; 60,000; and 15,000 years ago

 

We will be leaving George Town.

We have been here in George Town much to long and now it's time to go. We have extended our visa's and did a little provisioning. The last four days have been cool here as another cold front moves by. Winds were again up to 30 knots and the temperature only reached 70 Fahrenheit.We did a little bit of hiking to get off the boat and into town for shopping. The trails here are very good so we took advantage of them and got our exercise. But we have to be careful not to touch the poison wood tree. It feels just like poison ivy.

 Great trails.

 This is a hurricane hole. It has great protection in a storm. There are 3 hurricane holes here on Stocking Island.

Looking at Mauna Kea at anchor.

Looking at our  anchorage from a hill.

 

So tomorrow we move on and I hope we get out of the Bahamas soon. This place is very expensive.

 

 



 

We have moved south again.

We left our friends in Staniel Cay and sailed over to Black Point Settlement. This place is well known for Lorain's mothers home baked bread. We went into town and picked up 2 loafs of bread and dropped of our trash. The next morning was a short sail back to Little Farmers Cay. We have been here before and had seen every thing but we needed to go for a good walk. So we dinghy into shore at Ty's Restaurant and walked down the runway into town. This island had 40 people living on it and not much happens here.

Here's the main street into town.

 Here's all the information you need to know.

Waiting patiently for a taste.

If you hang around on the dock you will see Stingray's, Turtles, and sharks

After our walk it was back down the runway to Ty's. The real name for the restaurant is Ty's Sunset Bar and Grill. And so we had a beer and watched the sun go down the deck on the beach.

 

 

The next day was another short sail to Lee Stocking Island. This is our first time here and the beaches were very nice. We arrived after lunch and went into the beach. There was a shark hanging around so we just went for a hike to the ocean side.

It was a beautiful calm day on the ocean side.

 



There was a lot of great rock formations from the waves coming a shore.

Laurie thought this was a great view

 

Now we are back in George Town waiting until next week to extend our visa's. That will give us enough time to move south and leave the Bahamas.

 

It's been a long time since we have heard any S.H.I.T. from Laurie 

So Here's Interesting Tidbits  S.H.I.T. for short!

 

Lee Stocking Island





 

This Island looks very jungle like. Its steep rocky hills and jungle like vegetation reminds me of a South Pacific Island. This island once was a hub of activity. It was once the home of the Caribbean Marine Research Center. This was affiliated with Florida State University and the USA Geological Surveys. It studied all living sea life.

 

Children's Bay Cay

 

Children's Bay Cay is one and a quarter miles long. It was once known to be the " Showcase Of The Exumas". Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy once owned this island. In the 1960s they sold it for 1 million dollars to the pickle king H.J Heinz and his socialite wife Drue. Drue had a hard time living on this remote island. She would get her worker to take her to the market in Georgetown. She was shocked that this dilapidated building was the best market known. It took him a while to convince her that "This Was It". This Cay is now developed and is private. You can only visit ashore by invite only.

 

 

Dolphins 4

We swam with some dolphins that were hanging around our boat. Have a look at the short video.

We Are Back At Pig Beach!

We left George Town last Friday to go north to meet up with some people from last years rally that were coming to Staniel Cay. We knew there was a cold front coming and we had to get north before it came. The only way to get into the Exuma Banks is to first go north up the Exuma Sound witch is really the Atlantic Ocean. Friday night we made it to Farmers Cay and stayed on the Exuma Bank side to get out of the wind. The wind came up during the night and the waves in the Exuma Sound (Atlantic Ocean) got to 7 to 9 feet and the wind gusting to 40 knots. So we stayed in this spot for three days and then tried to head to Staniel Cay. We got about five miles and decided to get back in close to shore for protection from the wind. We found this great wall to anchor close to and it was a great spot and stayed there anther two days. We didn't get off the boat for the five days.

 

We finally made it to Staniel Cay to see our rally friends for one day. It was worth the sail and it was so great to see these people again.



 

 

Tomorrow we will start making our way back to George Town. Our first stop will be Black Point Settlement. After being six days on the boat we have run out of a few things and so we have to provision a little. We have to pick up some Rum, Wine, Beer and bread. We have to stop and get some of Lorain's mothers fresh baked bread. Lorain runs the restaurant and her mother makes bread in the house behind the restaurant. We will wait in George Town for out friends on "Let It Be". We will be buddy boating with them to go further south. Both boats have to extend our visa's so we should start to make our way out of the Bahamas the beginning of April. 



Another Third Place

We had a great time doing around Stocking Island race on the 44 foot Catamaran "Let It Be". It was a close race at the beginning and then slowly fell back into third. We all had a great time.

Fun blue water racing.

 

 

The racing is over in George Town and watching the weather it's time to move north. The catamaran "Let It Be" has invited two couples from the rally to join them for a week of sailing and beach fun. So the boats from the rally that are in the area are making the way to Staniel Cay where they will start there vacation. It should be great to see every one together again. Only wish more people from the rally could be there. We moved north from George Town to the west side of Little Famers Cay to get protection from a cold front coming in today. We will sit here for two days and then move on. The winds are gusting to 35 knots so we won't get off the boat today. We have decided to stay with the rally people for a few days and then make our way south back to George Town. We will wait for "Let It Be" there. We are going to buddy boat with "Let It Be" going further south. Hopefully they will travel to the British Virgin Islands with us.