On 6 March our friends Dave and Joan Wolf came to visit.
They regaled us with stories of the snow and of the c-o-l-d back in Northern
Virginia; we offered stories of our own cold fronts – at times it got down to
75 degrees!! I actually had to put on a sweater one morning just before they
got here. Brrrrrr!
The plan was for the Wolf’s to arrive in Nassau, stay with
us for eleven days, then to depart by small plane from Staniel Cay, which is
about 80 or so miles down the Exuma chain. On the way from Nassau to Staniel we
hoped to be able to stop at Emerald Rock, the northern mooring field at
Warderick Wells, Cambridge Cay and Big Major Post (yes, that’s the name of an
island) and to end up at Staniel – all places we had enjoyed over the past
couple of months.
They arrived on Thursday and we had planned to set forth on
Friday. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty strong and gusty and it was blowing
in the wrong direction for our trip. So, rather than take off, we went to
downtown Nassau, visited the Straw Market and had lunch at Senor Frog’s. For those of you who don’t know, Senor Frog’s
is a chain of drinking places built wherever kids of the appropriate age might congregate
– in Acapulco, Nassau, St. Thomas, etc. Dave, Joan, Ann and I went last year
and enjoyed a couple of beers, their to-die-for guacamole and watching kids
enjoy themselves. This year – eh, not so much. I am not sure what the
difference was, but I don’t think we’ll be going back to Senor Frog’s any time
soon.
The following day we were off. The weather was good and the
trip to Highbourne Cay relatively uneventful. That evening we ate at Zuma, the
restaurant at Highbourne, and had a great meal. The real story, though, is what
happened just outside the anchorage at Highbourne. Just as we were making the
turn into the anchorage, we saw a boat named “CV-9.” Now I knew that in US Navy nomenclature, “CV’s” are aircraft
carriers, but the boat we saw wasn’t even close to an aircraft carrier. Dave,
much more knowledgeable about military history that I, knew that CV-9 was the aircraft carrier Essex, of WWII fame. We surmised that
the owner had named his boat after the carrier, so I called “Essex” (not “CV-9”) on the radio. The
captain answered and told us the boat was indeed named after the WWII carrier.
The next morning a young crewmember of CV-9
came to the boat and gave us CV-9 T-shirts with the captain’s compliments. She
told us that the first owner of CV-9 had flown off the Essex during WWII and subsequently named his boat CV-9 – but that is just where the story
gets interesting. He had also flown off another carrier, CV-6, the Enterprise – after which he named his
car company. You got it; the first owner of CV-9
was the owner of the car rental company, Enterprise. Cool, huh?
After Highbourne we headed to Emerald Rock in the Land and
Sea Park. From there, we took a walk hike to Boo Boo Hill, and later to
the Loyalist Ruins, both of which I have discussed before. We also saw a the
endangered Bahamian Hutia –the only mammal, I believe, indigenous to the
Bahamas. They are nocturnal, but Dave saw one just sitting on a rock. We also
saw a nurse shark just off the back of the boat. Nurse sharks are commonplace
in the Exumas, are generally about 6 feet long (though they can grow much
bigger) and are not usually aggressive towards humans.
I think it was the next day that we moved into the northern
mooring field at Warderick Wells. From there, we took some more hikes and went
snorkeling. Joan, especially like snorkeling and once, even saw what we believe
was a reef shark in the water with her!
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| The northern mooring field at Warderick Wells |
Just as we were getting ready to leave Warderick Wells, the
weather forecast some significant westerly winds. For those of you who don’t
know, the Exuma Bank doesn’t have much protection from westerlies, so you have
to kind of adjust your itinerary to the direction from which the wind is
blowing and the protection you need. Warderick Wells has some pretty good
protection and we were already there, so we decided to stay in place until the
wind calmed down and/or changed direction.
We ended up staying a total of five days, doing some more
hiking, a little more snorkeling, but mostly just lounging in paradise. When we
did leave we headed to Big Major Spot, an island near Staniel – the airport
from which Dave and Joan would leave. Now I don’t know why most of the islands
in the Bahamas are “cays” and why Big Major is a “spot.” Nor do I know the
particular major for which big major was named. I do know, however, that what
makes Big Major semi-famous is that there are feral pigs on the island that
will happily swim to your boat or dinghy and take bread or other foodstuffs from
visitors.
We stayed at Staniel Cay Yacht Club (read Staniel Cay marina
– I don’t think the docks would qualify as a true “yacht club” the last night
Dave and Joan were with us.
After Dave and Joan left, Ann and I spent one more day at
Staniel, then headed to Black Point Settlement to do laundry. Why do the
laundry at Black Point? Water is a precious commodity in the Bahamas –
depending on where you are it can cost 40 to 50 cents per gallon. Now, we carry
200 gallons of water in our tanks and we make water in our reverse osmosis
water maker almost every night. The water we make plus the water we conserve is
enough to do almost anything we want – except the laundry. For those of you who don’t know, laundry
takes a LOT of water. So, when we need to wash clothes we head to a local laundromat,
the most popular of which is at Black Point Settlement.
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| Our "White Cliffs of Dover (or Bitter Guana Cay)" You can see some of the white, the rest is in the shade, but I assure you is normally as white as the rest of it. |
I mentioned going to Black Point not because I think you
ought to know about our laundry situation, but because Ann and I have
discovered a very cool anchorage at Bitter Guana Cay which is between Staniel
and Blackpoint. The anchorage itself was uncrowded; there was only one other
boat besides us. Besides a nice little beach, the coast line was white
limestone like the White Cliffs of Dover. Ok, they weren’t quite as grand as
Dover’s cliffs, but they were probably fifty feet high. You could (and we did)
walk to the other side of the island to some interesting coves and wave action
on the Exuma Sound side. We also hiked a portion of the island. The next time
we come, we’ll give ourselves more time and do some more exploring. The island
itself is one of two populated with the endangered Bahamian Iguana. These are
big, ugly creatures that grow to somewhere around three feet long. They kind of
look like small dinosaurs.
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| This big, ugly guana tried to hide under our dinghy! |
After Bitter Guana Cay we headed back to Big Major Spot for
a couple of days, then we departed for Cambridge Cay. Cambridge, like Warderick
Wells North, is within the Exuma Land and Sea Park. You have to traverse some
skinny, narrow nerve-wracking waterways to get there, but once you arrive, it
is another of those idyllic mooring fields for which the Park personnel care. It
is also fairly well protected from west winds – and we were going to have some
westerlies within the next few days according to the weather forecast.
We waited at Cambridge for about five days. The first two
days we explored the area by dinghy and on foot. The last three days we waited
for the wind to calm down and/or change direction. The saving grace is that
while we were there we met two other power boaters; Sandy and Valt on Amber Isle (a
53’ Tolleycraft) and Sue and Greg on Fat Bottom Girl , a 47+ foot Endeavor power catamaran.
In fact, the first of the “weather nights” we invited both couples over for
drinks. The six of us got along so well that the second night we all went over
to Fat Bottom Girl for heavy hors d’oeuvres, and the third night we went to Amber Isle for
after dinner, drinks and dessert.
When we finally left Cambridge we moseyed up to Highbourne
Cay. We downloaded the dinghy and went ashore to get some exercise (we had been
pretty much stuck on the boat for the past several days at Cambridge) were
going to have dinner at the local (excellent) restaurant the following night, but
at the last minute decided that we should point the pointy end of the boat
north and head for Nassau.
We are now in Nassau and have been for several days. We are
waiting for Tim, Carrie, Caylin and Gavin to arrive on Friday afternoon.
Depending on the weather (which looks pretty good right now), we’ll head down
island for a couple of days, then return to the Marina at Atlantis. The Marina,
of course, is located at the famous Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. It is
pricey ($4+ per foot), but from what everyone tells it is a lot of fun – for 6o
year olds as well as 6 year olds – and we are looking forward to it.
Immediately after the kids leave (on 17 April) we will start
looking for a weather window to get across the Gulf Stream and back to Florida.
We have been gone over four months and are looking forward to a Big Mac, a real mall and streets wide enough to
both ride a bicycle and a car. We’ll probably write our next entry from
somewhere around Palm Beach unless we get caught in the Bahamas waiting for the
weather.
ANN'S NOTES:
It has been a while
since I have sat down at the computer to write my part of the blog. Michael has
giving you a pretty good idea of what we have been up to.
Most systems seem to be working again, we had a head problem
when Dave and Joan visited but that did not happen until they were almost ready
to depart. We have since had it fixed in Nassau. So we are ready for Tim and
family to arrive with all three heads working…well…sort of…they work well
enough for the visit anyway.
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| The famous bananaquit. I didn't think its antics were quite as cute as did other members of the crew! |
While we were in Wardrick Wells, during Dave and Joan’s
visit we had a very friendly Bananaquit flew into our salon and look around. They
are a small chickadee size bird with beautiful yellow markings on their chest
and crown on their heads. This bird took a liking to our boat and would visit
several times a day, fly around inside the boat to look around, land on the
chairs around our table or anywhere else his little wings would take him. After
a few short conversations with him, he would fly away and return at his whim. You
all know by now that I want to have a pet…this bird would be a fine pet and it
would be free…but I did not want to take him away from his friends and besides I
did not have a cage on hand.
Snorkeling was fun
and we saw some very colorful fish. Michael bought a small ladder for the
dinghy that hangs over the side if the rather large pontoons . We can now get
in and out of the dinghy to go snorkeling. I must say we all did some practice
runs before actually leaving the safety of the big boat and the swim platform. It
is not a pretty sight getting in and out of the dinghy , but it can be done,
not at all gracefully but we are not looking for any extra points on how we
look. I just want to get back into the damn dinghy!!!
I know we need to get this blog sent out today so I will
stop typing.
Thanks for reading…
Traveling Soul…OUT
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