February 8, 2014

We continued to partake in the 5Fs. However before that, we went for a walk with Diana and Gilbert to the next island to explore the cave and walk the beach. We packed a picnic lunch and then set out. The walk was not too long, good thing because again it was a hot day. The cave was amazing, some 90 feet long. Some people actually snorkel in the water but that wasn't for us.

Rock markers indicating the way to the cave.

Gilbert and Jorge inside the cave.

Stalactites.

Jorge "posing" inside the cave.

More stalactites.

The opening to the cave behind us (l - r: Diana, Kim, Gilbert).

 

Bats on the ceiling of the cave.

Jorge and Kim.

"Mother and child" stalagmite.

Still inside the cave.

Ditto.

 

After exploring the cave, Jorge found a shady spot with some breeze so we sat and had lunch. We then walked to the beach and walked the beach! Unfortunately on the bank side of the Exumas a lot of garbage from boats washes up on the shores, definitely taking away the natural beauty!

Part of the walking path to the beach.

The beach.

Osprey's eggs.

Gilbert beside the osprey's nest.

Mom back protecting her eggs.

 

Jorge and I then explored a wrecked fishing boat on the shore across from Little Farmer's Cay Yacht Club.

The fishing boat wreck.

Yes there is a turtle in there somewhere!

By this time it was 1500 and time for the hermit crab races! 9 crabs have numbers painted on them, they are placed in the center of a large circle and whichever crab walks outside the circle first wins. Jorge bet $6 and won $16! He then bet more conservatively, $1 and lost it. Oh well, afternoon drinks were paid for.

Approaching Little Harbour by dinghy.

The hermit crabs.

The race.

Wanna be stowaways!

There were ladies selling crafts, food and music throughout the island. Because we were on the opposite side of the island to the sailboat races, we missed them today. Glad we caught them the day before.

We stopped by Serenada and said good-bye to Vita (from Trenton). They are turning around here and starting their trek back to Canada.

We had invited another cruiser from Canada for supper. He is sailing single-handed and is also starting to make his way home although he keeps his boat in Florida when in Canada. Hard to believe it is already turn-around time for some cruisers!

February 9, 2014

We spent a lazy morning onboard CS'ta Time. However most of the some 100 boats in the anchorage left. The bay certainly looks empty with only a handful of boats still here. Jorge and I had decided to stay another day and head for George Town tomorrow. We are not sure if we will go the whole distance (some 40 nm) or do it in two days. We are leaning towards doing it in one shot.

Another gorgeous day in paradise.

Today was 5F for Farmer's Cay. We were up shortly after 0800 but did not take part in the island breakfast. Just couldn't get our heads around stewed fish for breakfast! It had rained during the night but as the pictures show, it was a gorgeous day.

We headed into town just before noon. Boats and people were arriving all morning from various islands to partake in the festivities. Something like 10 boats were scheduled to race today.

Landing the dinghy at Farmer's Cay.

 

I wanted to hit the grocery store for some fresh apples and carrots, both of which I got. $14.00 for 10 apples and 3 lbs of carrots. As one cruiser said regarding the prices in the islands "it is what it is".

 

The walk back from the grocery store.

 

We had lunch at Ty's Bar and Grill, bbq'ed ribs, rice and peas and mac and cheese.

We sat in the shade most of the afternoon and watched the preliminary sailboat races. Another bar had competitions of Best Male Legs, Best Male Buns, Ladies Wet T-shirt, The Plunger and an Egg Toss. We missed those in lieu of the races. Boy it was hot today!

Racing between the anchored boats.

The ice boat has arrived!

C-Class boat racing (Smashie from Black Point won the preliminaries).

The beach at Farmer's Cay.

Kim with the Exuma Island Police Commander with two of his officers attending the festivities.

Sunset races.

 

We left the beach just after sundown and returned to CS'ta Time for dinner. Tomorrow will be more races in the morning and afternoon (providing there is wind, there is supposed to be only 5 kt of wind.)

How do you know when someone is retired? They can't get the days of the week to jive with the dates! This Friday is not the 5th. Heck, maybe I better double check and make sure we are in the correct month! lol.

February 5, 2014.

Lorraine's Cafe - our internet hangout.

Jorge and I decided to leave Black Point today and head to Little Farmer's Cay for the Friday festivities. Before leaving we went to the grocery store to pick up a few items I wanted (not needed) but the supply/mail boat hadn't arrived yet. Next we walked to gramma's and picked up a fresh loaf of bread. The highlight of the morning was to treat ourselves to real showers. $4.00 for an 8 minute shower. A fresh, hot water wash and rinse! For those of you not familiar with showering on a boat . . . fresh water is more precious than gold when sailing in salt water so . . . we either jump into the ocean (25C) to get wet, sit on the swim ladder at the stern of the boat or sit on the cockpit floor and pour salt water over us, lather up, and then jump back into the ocean or pour buckets of salt water over ourselves for a rinse. The final rinse comes from the solar shower which is a plastic bag filled with fresh water that has sat on the deck for a few hours to get warm by the sun. And that is used sparingly! Needless to say a "real" shower is such a treat.

$4.00 for 8 minutes.

Scorpio's Bar complete with pool table.

Back on CS'ta Time we took the motor off the dinghy, secured it and then put the dinghy on the davits. We have decided it is good policy to not tow the dinghy even going short distances because one has to always figure Murphy into the equation! We then had lunch and weighed anchor by 1230.

We had a wonderful sail to Little Farmer's Cay. The winds were mostly 12 - 13 kts and SE. Of course that direction meant sailing, tacking, sailing, and more tacking but it was a gorgeous day, we had lots of time and that's what we are here for.

Sailing into Little Farmer's Cay.

  

We sailed into the anchorage and set anchor at 1600. We were in really shallow water and it got more shallow as the tide went out. At low tide (1830) the keel was caressing the bottom in some of the waves, good thing for a sandy bottom. We decided with the tide turning shortly we would be okay and would reanchor in the morning, besides with low tide we could have made matters worse trying to reanchor. Captain Jorge got on the bike during the night and decided at 0400 it was time to reanchor. The waves were a bit more often and he thought if we had any lower tide than last night, we could be in trouble. The good thing about reanchoring at 0400 was the stars were amazing! Okay, so we reanchored safely and in deeper water and went back to bed.

February 6, 2014

We struggled to get out of bed this morning because last night was sooo disrupted. We got our act together by noon and headed into town. I had packed a picnic lunch so off we went.

Ty's Restaurant at dinghy beach aka Sunset Bar.

One of the racing boats competing this weekend.

Jorge.

Me on the walk into town.

We had to cross the airstrip to get into town.

Jorge and Kim with Little Harbour in the background.

Park bench at Little Harbour.

Rays awaiting food at fish cleaning hut.

Local street signs.

Abbey Road on Little Farmer's Cay. (L - R: Susan, Rose, Jorge and Tom).

 

We had our lunch, explored the town and met at Ocean Cabins at 1530 to get the low down on the festivities this weekend.

 

Locals playing dominos.

 

We then headed to Ty's Bar for sundowners and await the sunset. We enjoyed complimentary conch fritters with our drinks.

Awaiting the sunset at Ty's Bar (L - R: Tom, Diana and Gilbert).

The sunset at Little Farmer's Cay. (CS'ta Time is the mast to the left of the sunset behind a motor yacht).

Wow! Blogging two days in a row from the Bahamas. I'm sitting in Lorraine's Cafe where the internet is quite good.

What can I say? We spent another lazy morning on the boat. It's about time. We only travelled some 1500 miles to get here so we are now enjoying ourselves. Soon it will be time enough to seriously start thinking of moving further south.

It's another hot day although we did have overcast skies first thing this morning. Temp is probably high 20s. The cruisers are all in shorts while the locals are all in long pants! There is a good breeze blowing some 15 to 20 kts. so that is making the temperature bearable although we are always sitting in the shade!

Bahamian Defence Force (US Coast Guard equivalent.)

Boat grown sprouts - no soil required!

Potable water source on main street for cruisers.

Jorge with Francine outside her house weaving straw items.

 

The supply/mail boat comes in tomorrow for reprovisioning however we don't need much, the last reprovisioning is still holding up.

 

We are planning on leaving Black Point either tomorrow or Thursday and making our way to Little Farmer's Cay. This Friday is the year's biggest celebration, the 5 F's. Farmer's Cay Festival First Friday in February (and it is happening on the fifth - 6 F's this year). Apparently there are boat races, food, music/dancing, games, etc. Sounds like a good time. Hopefully there will be room in the anchorages for all the boats planning on attending!

 

Not much happening this afternoon - we're on island time now. Maybe I'll get a chance to blog again tomorrow.

Let's see if I can remember where I left off!

January 30, 2014

Last Thursday evening was eventful. After returning from town in the afternoon we tied the dinghy up beside the the boat, had supper and then were enjoying a glass of wine in the cockpit. The dinghy was dancing gently in the waves beside the boat. Ok, so I made reference to the dinghy twice in the last two sentences, you know where this is going! The next time I looked over the side of the boat, there it was . . . gone. Jorge jumped out of the cockpit, onto the deck and checked the line. Sure enough the line was tied securely to the cleat but the line attached to the dinghy had chafed and the dinghy had slipped away quietly in the dark (it was 2030). A call on the VHF radio brought a response from two fellow Canadians friends who quickly got in their dinghies, one picked Jorge up and off they went in search of the runaway. A powerboater behind us (the direction in which the dinghy had headed) also heard the radio call and turned his searchlight on and located it bobbing towards the cut. Had the dinghy made it to the cut, well, we would never have found it. Jorge was back with the dinghy within half an hour. Lady Luck was definitely on our side! Jorge always puts two lines and a cable on the dinghty before we go to bed but I guess we'll be at least putting two lines on it at all times.

January 31, 2014

The supply/mail had crane problems yesterday and didn't come into Staniel Cay until this morning. The grocery stores were busy!

Supply/mail boat unloading in Staniel Cay.

 

We left Staniel Cay after reprovisioning and headed for Black Point, only about 9 nm away but it took us 3 hours to get there. We had great winds, small waves and decided to sail the entire way, right into the anchorage. Although the winds were great they were not from a favourable direction but we didn't care. We sailed, tacked, sailed some more, etc. We set anchor at 1715. The anchorage was busy, some 80+ boats but it was a large bay and easily accommodated us all.

Black Point bulletin board. Visiting boaters put their cards here. A member of HYC visiting a few years earlier!

 

February 1, 2014

Saturday was laundry day. Black Point had the best laundromat we had seen in a long time. It even put some to shame in the states! It was like happy hour without the appetizers and drinks - everyone was there.

The happening place Saturday morning - the laundromat.

 

The real happy hour was at 1700 at Regatta Point where cruisers and locals met and mingled. Afterwards Diana and Gilbert, Serena and Rob and Jorge and I went to Scorpios for grouper fingers. They were excellent!

 

Our waitress' birthday. Cake for everyone.

Early morning rainbow in Black Point.

 

February 2, 2014

We spent Sunday morning cleaning CS'ta Time. A couple we had met in Florida (the lady from Argentina) were coming over for a visit. Afterwards Jorge and I went into town, had a stroll around the town and then went to DeShamon's Restaurant to partake in Super Bowl festivities. We met Diana and Gilbert there along with another Canadian couple. Too bad the game was so one-sided, we didn't even stay for end, it was too painful for Denver!

Super Bowl festivities here.

 

Black Point anchorage at low tide.

Cliffs at Black Point on the Exuma Sound side.

Jorge on one of the many cliffs.

Black Point anchorage just before dusk.

Gecko joining our table for Super Bowl.

 

February 3, 2014

This morning was a lazy one. I packed a picnic lunch and off to town we went. It was advertised over the VHF radio that there was fresh lobster and fish for sale at the laundromat dinghy dock so we headed out and bought a fillet of red snapper for supper. Not cheap but definitely fresh! We also bought fresh bread from gramma's house, right out of the oven. Jorge is off, (the pool table is busy) so he's trying to get into trouble somewhere else while I am blogging.

Jorge's morning catch - NOT!

School children on lunch break.

 

Their toughest job is keeping the cruisers in line!

After lunch at Regatta Point.

Medical Centre.

Gramma's kitchen (the bakery, try doing this back home!)

Government offices.

Local church.

 

I just love all the different colours of the buildings.

 

We're here in Black Point for another couple of days, slowly making our way to George Town.