Author: BobS

A very calm night at the dock, not a single wave slapping against the boat during the night. There are a lot of really big yachts here, we’re probably the smallest boat in the marina. We’ve looked up a few of the yachts, the least expensive one charters charters for 145,000 euro (approx $215,000 CDN) a week. It accommodates up to 10 passengers and that cost is just the basic charter fee, food, drinks extra. There is a lot of money around !

After a leisurely morning and lunch we `went for a walk to the southern most point of the island. It’s a windy day today so lots of whitecaps on the water. We saw two boats anchored close to a lee shore, the wind was blowing from the west. We figured they had great faith in their anchors. There were thunderstorms forecast for the evening but nothing before we went to bed or after.

The heavens opened up around 3am along with lots of lightning, although not really close as there was minimal thunder.  It did not give up and at times the thunder was more audible. We had a reservation for three nights at Highbourne and they have a 24 hour cancellation policy so we were paying for the first night whether we got there or not. We of course still had no cell or data connection. It was still raining quite heavily when the 9am VHF session started. We and another boat said we had planned to leave but wanted to wait to see if the weather was going to clear at all. Bob realized that radar on the boat provides weather for a 28 mile swath, he was able to get some weather data which seemed to indicate it was an eight mile band. Finally closer to 11 it looked like things were starting to clear a bit so we were leaning toward leaving around 11:45. Shortly after 11 we saw two boats slowly moving out so that was it, we left at 11:20, feeling more comfortable that we weren’t the only ones leaving.

The weather cleared more and more and by half way through to Highcroft it was sunny. Bob commented, we would have been really pissed off at ourselves if we had chickened out on leaving and were sitting at Wardrick, as wonderful as it is, in the afternoon sunshine ?

Of course the winds we were now very light. We put up the jib for a while and motor sailed but the jib didn’t do much except flop around now and then. We were surprised at how long it took to get a cell connection considering there is a huge cell tower on Highbourne. Our main aim was to reach Zuma, the fabulous restaurant on the island, in time to make a dinner reservation for tonight, especially as they are closed on Mondays. Their tables were all booked but we got a reservation at the bar. The food was as wonderful as we remembered from last year. A good end to a cloudy start.

After yesterday’s excitement today was a nice calm day. We went for a longish walk. First to Boo Boo Hill to leave our boat name and date on the pile with many many others.  Boo Boo Hill got its name from a ship that ran aground at the island, there were no survivors. The spirits of the drowned are said to haunt the hill. There were wonderful views from the top of the hill. We found a pice of wood, a small oar,  where the name was totally faded, used it to leave our marker. It won’t take long for it to fade. Looking north from Boo Boo Hill the island narrows and ends at a cut which provides access to and from the Atlantic side.

Our walk took us around a large pond with very unappetizing looking brown water. Some of the rock on the island is a dark gray and appears porous but so far I’ve had no luck googling to find out what it is. We don’t think it’s coral. Bob ran the engine for about an hour this afternoon to charge the battery, all appears well with the engine.

 

 

Yikes, what a day. It started well, we dialed into the 9am Wardrick broadcast. Since the winds really really died down as of this morning, lots of boats left and yea, we got a mooring ball in the north field. For those of you reading this who are following Bob & Tarja’s travels on FB, you will have read some of the following, copy and paste is my friend for long posts.

We left Cambridge Bay in very light winds and were motor sailing. It was only about 10 miles to Warderick Wells. After about 5 miles Bob thought he heard the sound of a plane flying overhead or a fast motor boat behind us. Then he realized it was us! The noise sounded like the muffler was gone until Bob looked at the heat gauge which was rising.

Being a Diesel engine school graduate Bob sprang into diagnosis mode and checked the raw water intake but it was fine. He then took the engine cover off to check the impeller but immediate saw small bits of rubber randomly beside and below the engine – it was the sea water pump fan belt. The good news, we had a spare belt on board. The bad news is that installing it required removal of the main drive belt. Between lack a of the right tool, strength and knowledge, Bob was within an eighth of an inch of getting the belt off. He cried uncle and we then tried to get help over the radio. Bob “pleaded” for help from any boaters in the area and even did a PAN PAN – next down from Mayday , in some trouble but no danger to life – to no avail.

Meanwhile, Tarja the big time sailor kept the boat heading towards Warderick (ok, it was autopilot), our speed was between 1.4 and 3.4 with the occasional leap to over 4. Once we were within about 3 miles of Warderick we had to turn east to make the approach to Warderick. This was directly into the wind, for a sailboat that basically means you’re stalled. We did manage to get it into shallower water and then threw out the anchor. We radioed the Warderick office and they said we had to contact Staniel Cay for a mechanic. We are now close to the park and there is no cell or data service and Staniel are not responding to our VHF call – not a surprise.

We were starting to think, now what, when there was a call on the VHF from the park rangers. We think they heard our call to the office and offered to come and tow us. They said the usual charge is $250 but they’d be fine with us making a donation to the park. There was a huge sigh of relief from both of us. We waited about 40 minutes for them to arrive and the tow itself took about 30 minutes.

So now we’re on the mooring ball but still have not resolved the problem.  This is where friendships on the water really kick in. When we were temporarily anchored at Staniel Cay waiting for our slip, a boat called Mariposa, who we figured had to be Canadian, contacted us on VHF.  They had met Jeff and Trish who on finding out Phil & Michelle were Canadians, told them about meeting us, so we’re now at least VHF friends. When they called us, they were at Warderick and had planned to stay there for a few more days.

Once we were all tied up on the ball we started for the office to register. Partway there we passed a cat called Archipelago who we had heard in conversation on VHF with Mariposa. We stopped to ask if Mariposa was at Warderick and of course they were the next boat over. Phil on Mariposa said he’d called us on VHF when we were still “out there” but we hadn’t hear the call. Phil and Steve from Archipelago volunteered to help us. Steve’s cat has the same engines as ours and he had a small pry bar which Bob thought would come in handy. Also, Steve had changed that same belt on his boat. Both guys were engine savvy and with Steve providing guidance and Phil doing the work they got the replacement belt installed and didn’t even have to use the pry bar.

They said they were happy to help as they had often been helped so felt they were paying it forward. We were very thankful and relieved !

 

It was not the best sleep of the trip last night. Due to winds and currents, the mooring ball was pushed to the side of the boat and around 3am we were awakened by the mooring ball playing the boat like a bass drum. This went on for about two hours until the currents changed.

We had planned to leave this morning but there are dark clouds all around us and the winds are forecast to be high today so we’ll stay for one more night.

 

Our next stop is Warderick Wells Cay which is the park headquarters. If you want to be in the north mooring field, where no anchoring is allowed to minimize damage to coral, you contact the park via VHF and request that you be put on the list for a ball. There is a daily 9am broadcast via VHF where the park staff first ask if any boats are leaving/have left and then they assign balls to boats on the waiting list. We were on the list for today but we’re going to call in to ask them to move our request to tomorrow. Good thing as we’re sure due to the high winds no boats left Warderick this morning. I’m hoping that quite a few will leave tomorrow as the winds die down meaning we’ll have a good chance of getting a ball.

We had planned to do a bit of snorkeling today but the winds are way too high for doing that comfortable. This is a very protected anchorage and there were whitecaps on the water by early afternoon. Sigh.

 

 

Two boats on mooring balls left early this morning and we were able to take one of them. First mooring ball of the trip, I got it on the first try, the wind conditions were kind this morning.

‘We dinghied over to the island closest to our anchorage. We saw that several dinghies were anchored vs being pulled ashore. As we were heading for shore we saw why, there was a line of rocks just before we hit the sand – oops. Our dinghy has a soft bottom so avoiding rocks is desirable. No damage done, we moved to dinghy to another part of the beach without rocks. It was a short walk across the island to the Atlantic side and luckily for us we were there at high tide. There is a large rock called Bell Rock that has a blow hole. There were large rollers coming in from the east, the views were spectacular. I went picture crazy hoping to catch waves at their max coming through the blow hole and generally around Bell Rock.  We climbed the high point of land to the north of Bell Rock, more pictures.

I had no luck getting a good shot of water coming through the blow hole ☹️.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The winds and waves had picked up when we headed back so it was a bit of a challenge getting the dinghy to deep enough water to put the motor in the water. We ended up throwing the dinghy anchor as far out as we could to stop the boat from being pushed back to shore by the waves. That worked.

Jeff and Trish joined us on Finnish Line for late afternoon snacks and drinks. They are leaving tomorrow morning for a nearby Cay & Marina.

 

We had no luck getting fresh vegetables yesterday so I went to the other grocery store near the marina while Bob hosed off the boat and filled the water tanks. I hit pandora, got veggies, oranges and yoghurt. We still have one bag of the granola I made & brought from home but were down to dregs in the yoghurt container so I was very happy.

We got to  Cambridge Cay around 1pm and all the mooring balls were taken so we anchored at the south end, the furthest point from where our friends Jeff &. Trish were. They arrived yesterday and managed to get the last available mooring ball. They have inflatable kayaks which they said are very stable and of course easy to store. They dropped in for an afternoon drink and we decided to cook dinner together on their boat. Worked out really well, we each provided our own meat and shared veggies. It was fun to get caught up and we survived the dinghy ride  back to the boat in the dark.

It was a short trip to Staniel Cay, about two hours. Lots of boats on the move and the closer we got to Staniel the bigger the boats. We saw many large yachts including this one which charters for over a million a week, accommodates 12 guests and has 22 crew.

We got to Staniel shortly after one but our slip wasn’t available yet, official check in is 2pm so we had to anchor and bob about for a while. After waiting until  well after two we called and it was, oh yeah you can come in now, they were supposed to contact us. Our spot was on the outside face dock which was fine as we didn’t have to navigate the crazy currents, we remembered from being here last February on the catamaran. They are not floating docks and it was low tide so tying up to the pylons was going to be a bit tricky as the dock was high up from the water line. Bob asked if someone would be there to help, he was told yes. Of course there was no staff to help which was unlike almost every Marina we’ve been to. Luckily there was sailboat on the other side of the dock and its captain came to help us.

We hit the grocery and liquor stores, should be ok till the next good provisioning place, Highbourne Cay.  The yacht club has a new dining room so we reserved for dinner, two sittings, 6:30 or 8:30, big surprise we chose 6:30. Like many restaurants in the Bahamas, you had to select your meal when you made the reservation. They had duck confit on the menu, very surprising, so I though what the heck, I’ll take a chance. Each meal included soup, salad, the main and dessert, good value and my duck was delicious.

Not much to say about the last two days. We stayed on the boat, read, ate, drank, did some internet surfing and I believe Bob actually did some KDH work. The winds that were suppososed to be mostly north were enough NNW that the waves from the west never really abated. Saturday night was really bad. The waves were both rolling and pitching the boat,  very irritating. It was impossible to sleep in the front cabin, I didn’t want to sleep in the back with the waves really slapping against the back of the boat so Bob slept back there and I slept in the salon. Things did calm down enough around 2am so that Bob could go back to the front cabin, but I stayed in the salon.

The winds did start to decrease on Sunday so Sunday night was much better for sleeping. An island freighter pulled into the government dock Sunday afternoon, maybe bringing some vegetables to the stores ! There were also two large freighters anchored a bit further out, we never did see them move.

Another sunny day. We were surprised to see many boats leave the harbour today. We figured a lot of people would be staying here until Monday when the winds are supposed to decrease. Maybe they know something we don’t, we hope not.

The winds have already started to build along with waves from the west, not the best harbour to be in with waves from that direction. Getting off the dinghy was even more of a challenge but we persevered – I was the main roadblock while Bob valiantly tried to hold on to a rung of the ladder until I got off. We had lunch at Lorraine’s Cafe, same place our gang of eight had a memorable dinner last February. It was eventless this time, the bill was correct and the food plentiful. We had no luck finding vegetables or fruit so it will be back to canned veg on the boat. We did find digestive cookies in a small shop, something I was not able to find in a single grocery store, small or large, on the ICW. Maybe it’s a British thing. There are several small grocery stores in the general area around the government dock but all have pretty limited inventory.

Here’s a view of our dinghy at the government dock.

Getting back on the dinghy went better than I expected ?.