Bahamas: Allen’s Cay Anchorage – Endangered Exuma Iguanas

Day 271
April 7, 2016

NM Today: 42

NM Total: 4143

Clark getting up for his 6:30 weather report is becoming a habit, and today amazingly I was up and about before 7:00 as well. Sleeping last night proved interesting. The night before the boat rocked continually, and I compared it to being in a cradle. Last night the boat rocked wildly, and it made me think of what it would be like to be in a washing machine on the heavy duty cycle. The boat rolled from side-to-side like being continuously “waked” by an inconsiderate boater.

I even convinced Clark that we should lower our coffee table like we do when we are underway since it is a bit top-heavy and can topple over. While I was at it, I also tethered the garbage can to prevent it from falling over and spilling its contents all over the floor. Then, back in bed, I held on as I was tossed back and forth. I can’t say it made for a great night’s sleep, although in the middle of the night the waves did take a break. At dawn the waves renewed their efforts to toss us from our bed. No wonder I woke this morning with a splitting headache.

Although it was still a bit windy, today looked like a good day to move to a new anchorage. Clark checked fuel prices last night and found the cheapest fuel to be in Nassau. Going there for fuel took us about 5 NM out of our way, but saved us over $100 in fuel cost. He decided the side trip was worth the savings. As we approached Nassau, I noticed that today four cruise ships were in port - three from Carnival and one other not so recognizable. 

Coming into Nassau to get fuel at Hurricane Hole Marina

We arrived at the Hurricane Hole Marina Fuel Dock at 9:00 to fill up our tanks. By 9:30 we left the fuel dock and pointed Sea Moss towards Porgee’s Rocks and then on to Allen’s Cay – our next anchorage point. Clark’s weather prediction forecast that we would have following seas to Nassau, and by the time we left there the winds would be favorable for the next leg of our trip. His prediction was on the mark. As we left Nassau, we experienced a brief rain shower. Then, suddenly the sky transformed from dark clouds to bright sunshine, and we had fair weather for the remainder of the trip. We had some salt spray but no rough seas or high winds.

We had interesting skies today. Clark snapped some great cloud pictures. The clouds reminded me of giant cotton balls sitting in the sky. 

Cotton Balls in the Sky

 Clark hoped for the sun for a particularly dangerous portion of the trip where coral heads lurk just below the surface waiting to damage an unsuspecting vessel. He stationed me as lookout. As we moved along, I could see many large rocks below water. I kept asking Clark the depth because I could see them so clearly. The answer most often came back as “Twelve feet”. The water is so amazingly clear I feel like I am cruising in pool water instead of the ocean. In New Jersey I cannot see 12 inches below the surface let alone 12 feet.

Clark took us on a path through the coral heads / rocks based on the Explorer Chartbook that he purchased for the Bahamas portion of our trip. Bob on Aftermath told us he used to have to cruise these waters with no navigation guides because they did not exist. He said the Explorer Charts are worth every penny paid for them, and I believe Clark agrees.

Coral Head Lurking in Wait

When we arrived at Allen’s Cay, it looked unreal with crystal clear water, sandy beaches, and iguanas by the score running all over the surrounding islands. The islands of this Cay are the home of the almost extinct Exuma Iguanas.  Since people visit them all the time and do not bother them with anything other than a camera, they come quite close and do not run for shelter when approached.

Allen's Cay Anchorage

Home to the Exuma Iguana

Exuma Iguana

After leaving a beach area heavily populated with iguana, I asked Clark if we could take the dinghy over to the magical-looking island with the sailboat at anchor. Viewing the well-protected, deep cove with passages between the islands that allow only limited access to the cove, my imagination kicked in. Suddenly the sailboat at anchor became a pirate ship, and the island with only iguanas for inhabitants became the perfect place to find buried treasure.  I could almost hear the pirates chanting “Yo—ho-ho”!

Sailboat in Protected Cove at Allen's Cay

 As we approached the island we saw a sign. Clark wondered what it said, and since I was wearing water shoes and he wasn’t, he asked me to get out of the dinghy and go read the sign. 

Clark waiting while I go read the sign

My first thought was that it would say “Private Property. Stay out.” But I had a set of binoculars with me and I could see using them that the sign had a picture of an iguana on top and multiple paragraphs of text underneath. I guessed it was a sign explaining something about the iguanas. When I got there I found I was correct.

Endangered Exuma Iguana
(Most endangered lizard in the world.
Found only in the Exumas.)

As long as I was on the island, I decided to make use of the camera.

Clark waiting in dinghy

Sea Moss in Anchorage - the only power boat here

Pile of rocks on Iguana Island
(Clark insisted it looked like the rocks wore sunglasses.
I couldn't see anything but a pile of rocks.)

Finding no buried treasure, though maybe it was under that pile of rocks, I climbed back into the dinghy, and we headed back to Sea Moss.  Since we had basically seen all that these islands had to offer, we decided to go snorkeling and see if this anchorage had any fish. When we got in the water, Clark warned me that we had a strong current. I decided I did not want to end up well away from the boat and have to struggle to get back. I grabbed onto a line hanging from the stern of the dinghy and used that to hold myself near Sea Moss while I did my snorkeling.

In the last anchorage the only object of interest I found while snorkeling was a beer bottle on the bottom. In this anchorage it was a beer can! We did see a few, very small fish in this anchorage, but they were not plentiful and they were not colorful, so we took no underwater pictures.

My snorkel proved problematic once again. It works well for a short period of time and then water seeps in. No matter how hard I try I can’t clear the water from the snorkel and continue snorkeling. Today Clark played with it and decided that the valve was not sealing properly. He worked with it for a while and our hope is that he may have addressed the problem by ‘working” the valve enough to get it to seal. We shall see next time.

On shore when I stepped in the water, it felt almost hot. Off the back of the boat, only several yards away, the water felt cold while snorkeling. I should have worn my wetsuit vest for warmth. The water temperature read 78 degrees, so I thought that would be good enough, but both Clark and I felt chilled after only a relatively short time in the water. We enjoyed our time in the water, but when goose bumps start to appear, it is definitely time to climb out.

We have limited water on board, and fresh (non-salt) water is not so easy to come by here in the Bahamas, so we conserve like crazy. Both Clark and I agree that the salt water is significantly saltier than the waters we have in New Jersey. Wiping the railing with a sponge yields a handful of salt. It is unbelievable. Of course when we swim all that salt collects on us and in our hair, so we have to use at least some of our precious water supply to clean ourselves off. We are still learning how to be frugal with our water.

As we put away our toys and cleaned ourselves up, I noticed two couples on neighboring sailboats get in the dinghies and tether them together as a “raft up”. They then floated around the anchorage having what I thought of as “dinghy-tails”. Many people have cocktails. Loopers have “dock-tails”. This Floridian sail boaters had “dinghy-tails”.  I noticed that occasionally they had to visit one or the other of their two sailboats to refresh their drinks and then they would float away again. Looked like a lot of fun actually.

Dinghy-tails? Floating Cocktails? Dinghy Dock-tails?

 After an afternoon of puffy clouds photo ops, the skies offered interesting picture opportunities once again at sunset.

Rose Island Anchorage – trip to Gilligan’s Island

Day 270

April 6, 2016

NM Today: 5

NM Total: 4101

The alarm went off at 6:25 again this morning, and Clark got up to listen to his 6:30 weather report on the shortwave radio. Once again I could hear the host of the show, Chris Parker, talking. I got up and shut the door to the master stateroom so I could continue to sleep.

One advantage of Clark being up early is his ability to take sunrise pictures as well as sunset pictures. He took several at 7:00 this morning.

Sunrise as seen from Rose Island Anchorage, Bahamas

Sunrise at Rose Island in the Bahamas

I came out of hiding at 8:30 with no specific plans for the day. Clark greeted me with a request for me to cook pancakes on my electric griddle for breakfast since he wanted to run the generator and needed to “put a load on it”. Also, we had agreed that the next time he ran the generator, I would defrost the fridge and freezer. It doesn’t require a generator to defrost it, but once defrosted, it takes quite a bit of power to get it back down to keep-cold temperatures. Clark did not want the fridge pulling from the battery to bring itself back to temp.

So, here I was, barely awake with one eye on the pancakes and the other on the fridge. The pancakes got the bulk of my attention, however, and at one point I heard a pop and then ice flew out of the fridge in multiple directions. I guess a considerably large piece let go and exploded when it hit bottom. Clark and I chased pieces of ice around the salon to clean it all up.

Clark helped me with the pancakes, i.e. he ate the ones I cooked, and then lent a hand with the defrost job by drying out the insides of the fridge and freezer to be sure we had a fresh start when I put the food back inside. That done, I thought I had completed my spontaneous chores when Clark reminded me that I had some sewing to do on my mini sewing machine. He suggested I do that as long as the generator was going so we wouldn’t have to run the inverter and drain the batteries to feed the sewing machine.

I dug out my sewing paraphernalia and machine out of the second stateroom, and then repaired the sheets I needed to mend. As I did so I congratulated myself on my skill at guessing what to bring on this Great Loop trip and how to reuse items that I have collected along the way. I had everything I needed to patch my sheets just using items I had brought from New Jersey back in June. The sewing machine, small as it is, is a wonderful addition to the boat. I am so glad I purchased it back in December. It has proven itself useful multiple times already.

Before coming to the Bahamas, I bought new sheets because the old ones were in pretty bad shape. Although the new ones feel soft, as advertised, they are not particularly great in humid conditions. I didn’t realize when I ordered them that they were “microfiber”. I don’t know what that means in terms of the material used to make them. I do know that I haven’t slept anywhere near as well since I switched over. I patched the old ones and will give them another try to see if they feel more comfortable than the new ones in the humid climate.

While I did my morning chores, Clark studied the weather every which way he could. Where yesterday the anchorage was mostly calm, today we found ourselves in rocky waters. After I finished my chores and he killed the generator, Clark continued to mull over the decision on whether we should try moving to the other side of Rose Island or stay here.

After much deliberation, he decided we should pull up anchor and move to see if conditions were any better on the other side. Besides the possibility of calmer water he said we could go see Gilligan’s Island. I didn’t truly feel like moving but I did want to see Gilligan’s Island. He knew just the right thing to say to motivate me. Anyway I figured that it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

We left our anchorage just after noon. The trip to the other side of Rose Island would take about an hour. I decided we could eat lunch after we got to our destination. Very quickly we got to the point where we could see Gilligan’s Island, and Clark took some pictures to capture the moment.

Island Used in Opening Scenes
for the TV Series Gilligan’s Island

Bob on Aftermath had told us that Gilligan’s Island had nothing to offer but some palm trees, and we could see he was right about that. What we saw in addition to Gilligan’s Island, however, left us less than enthusiastic about continuing our journey to the other side of Rose Island. Waves breaking! Lots and lots of waves breaking ahead of us where we needed to travel to get to the alternate anchorage.

Waves breaking
right where we needed to go to change anchorages!

 We pretty much simultaneously decided that our original anchorage would be preferable to trying to get to a new one, so Clark turned the boat 180 degrees and we headed back. The round trip took just over one hour though Clark made the remark that it seemed to take a lot less time to get to Gilligan’s Island than it did to come back. We slowed down on the return trip to minimize the salt water bath the boat was taking from the waves hitting the bow.

When we left the anchorage, we left two sailboats at anchor. I told Clark that they would be happy to see us when we returned because then they wouldn’t be so lonely without us. He didn’t believe me. No sooner did we enter the anchorage than we got a call on the VHF from the sailboat Sophie asking us about our outing. They wanted to know if the other side of the island would be preferable. Clark filled them in on our findings, and they decided they should just stay at this location. When selecting a new spot to drop anchor, Clark decided that we should tuck in closer to the shore for more protection. That worked for a long while, but at some point during the afternoon the rocking started back up again and continued to get more and more aggressive as the evening progressed.

As I sit here typing my blog entry Clark is staggering around the cabin like a drunken sailor being thrown to port then starboard. I told him he really needs to give up drinking. (BTW: He only drinks water.) He tried to pour a glass of water at dinner, and the boat rocked at just the right time to force him to pour water all over the table instead of into the glass.

My only regret is that I did not change the sheets on my bed mid-afternoon when the boat was on flat seas. Changing the boat sheets is somewhat comparable to wrestling a bear. That is on a good day. I will now have the pleasure of wrestling the bear on “high seas”. It will be all I can do not to fall flat on my face while I am doing it, but I am determined to switch back to my old sheets for tonight. I hope they turn out to be worth the effort.

Bahamas: Rose Island Anchorage Swimming and Exploring

Day 269

April 5, 2016

No Travel

The alarm went off at 6:25, and Clark got up to listen to his 6:30 weather report on the shortwave radio. This morning’s listen served as a test of the new antenna system Clark pulled together from the parts he purchased in Nassau at “Radio Shack”. Last night while I worked on my blog, he worked on his antenna project.

He put connectors on the ends of two wires – one to allow him to plug his antenna into his radio and the other for ground capability. When completed, the wire ran from his desk in the salon, out the starboard side window, and up the side of the boat ending at the tallest point on our radar mast that he allowed a means to attach the wire to the mast. He added a string that provides a raising and lowering capability so he can lower his antenna without lowering the mast. He hoped that by adding height to the radio’s antenna and grounding it that the reception would be sufficiently better to allow him to hear the weather broadcasts.

Clark was well satisfied with the fruits of his labor. He could actually hear the broadcast sufficiently well to follow along and get useful information. The wire running from the salon added a bonus feature. He could listen to today’s broadcast lying on the couch wearing his pajamas. Success! It is certainly not the most attractive solution, but it meets his needs quite well.

I, of course, woke up since it was my phone that has the alarm clock app on it. I rolled over and mostly went back to sleep. Of and on I could hear talking on the radio in the background, but Clark had the volume low enough that it did not intrude significantly on my ability to sleep. After his report concluded, Clark came back to bed.

Honestly, I tried to wake up and drag myself out of bed several times this morning.  I just could not do it. The boat started significantly rocking side-to-side about 6:00 this morning. It basically turned my bed into a cradle and it was “Rock a Bye Baby” all morning long. Every time I thought about getting up the boat just rocked me back to sleep. No wonder cradles were invented!

Talk about a lazy morning! After finally dragging myself out of bed at 9:30, I ate breakfast (I think Clark ate his during his weather report) and then I sat and read my novel until lunch. While I was doing that, Clark took his iPad up top and read his downloaded copy of today’s Wall Street Journal. At some point he came down and asked me to repair the window in the front panel of the full enclosure – the most important one in front of the pilot seat.

I noticed when I was cleaning the salt off that panel in Nassau that the seam was coming out along a portion of the zipper.  We have trouble with the Eisen glass (plastic) getting caught in the zipper, and it takes some effort on occasion to open the panel. Perhaps it was due to age or perhaps due to “abuse” but some stitches ripped out.

Today Clark said the glass (plastic) got stuck in the zipper, and he didn’t want to cause any more damage to the panel, i.e. he decided to leave it stuck and come get me. He said there was no rush. Eventually I took a break from my reading to do my one assigned chore for the day (sew the seam) and then went back to the arduous task of completing my latest novel.

After lunch Clark offered options of a dinghy ride to explore the area or perhaps a swim off the back of the boat or both. I dressed in my swimsuit and packed miscellaneous things like towels, sunscreen, and water in a backpack to take with us. It turned out to be a wasted effort as we did not get too far in the direction we really wanted to explore. We couldn’t because it was low tide.

View of Sea Moss and anchorage from Dinghy

As we puttered around the area, we used the rigged-up depth finder Clark has on our dinghy to see what depths the waters were around the boat. Oddly enough everywhere we went the water depth read 10 feet. That seemed possible in some places but highly unlikely in some of the areas we passed over. At one point Clark, in total disbelief of the numbers he read, took the boat paddle, stuck it in the water, and hit sand. “That’s no 10 feet!”, he exclaimed as he maneuvered the boat to aim for deeper water.

After a closer look at the depth finder, Clark saw that it was in simulation mode. No wonder everything was 10 feet down. When we left on our trip, Clark handed me the end of a wire and said, “Plug that in for me.” I did. What he didn’t tell me was that the other end of the wire also needed to be plugged in. The end result being that the depth finder had no transducer and consequently could get no depth readings. Once the other end of the wire got connected, we saw we had 1 to 2 feet of water – not even enough for the outboard motor on the dinghy to be in the full down position.

Although it would have been nice to explore the beach we could see from the dinghy, we couldn’t get to the nice part. Clark took off his shoes in preparation to go wading and pull the dinghy up to the part we could reach, but I balked at the idea of getting out of the dinghy to explore what looked like rocks, muddy sand, weeds, and probably a lot of bugs. He put his foot back in the boat and pushed us off to go explore elsewhere.

When we first pushed off from Sea Moss, we had scoped out the depth of one area where Clark saw a coral head. Since we figured out he had bad data from that reading of the depth finder, we went back for a second look and found actual depths of 3, 4, and 5 feet in that area. Good thing we didn’t anchor on top of that area! At least I now know what I’m looking for when he tells me to look for “heads” in the water.

Coral Head
Lying in Wait for an Unsuspecting Propeller

Since we couldn’t get to the beach or the dock where we could go ashore to walk to the far side of Rose Island, we decided we might as well call it quits on the dinghy and go for a swim off the back of Sea Moss. When Clark stood up to remove the outboard from the dinghy to stow it on-board the big boat, he marveled at the fact that he could see the outboard propellers under water. He can’t do that in New Jersey. He insisted I take a picture.

Outboard Motor Props
Visible Through the Clear Blue Waters

Since the rainstorms yesterday, however, we now have cooler temperatures and a northerly wind. I usually only go swimming in the ocean when I am unbearably hot. It took some convincing to get myself into the water.  Ultimately I did go in and took my snorkeling gear in with me. Clark said the bottom was pretty, but it was only sand and weeds down there. 

I saw not one fish or any other living creature for the entire time I snorkeled which was certainly at least an hour. Well, that's not exactly accurate. I could, for the first time ever, see Clark working on cleaning the bottom of the boat. Even though I was well over on the far side of Sea Moss, I could see his legs in the water quite clearly - amazing, really! Later, however, when Clark asked me what I could see, I told him all I saw were the bits of algae floating by that he was scraping off the bottom of the boat.

I am not proficient at snorkeling. It is not a sport that I have had much opportunity to enjoy in the past. I have a lot of trouble clearing water from the snorkel. As long as the water stays out I am fine, but as soon as some gets in, it’s all over. I try to purge the water from the snorkel, but afterwards I still hear the water gurgling in the mast and I have insufficient air left in me to blow it out again. I think I need to watch a YouTube video or something to get some pointers.

When I finally decided I had had enough fun for one afternoon, I climbed onto the back of Sea Moss and a chilly wind hit me.  I couldn’t get a towel wrapped around myself fast enough. I wanted to go get cleaned up and dressed but didn’t like the idea of leaving Clark out in the water alone while I disappeared into the boat. Fortunately, he had had his fill of boat cleaning and climbed out shortly after I did. By the time we had all our “toys” put away including the dinghy, my stomach and the clock said it was time to start dinner.

After dinner Clark remembered to run out and grab the daily sunset picture. No “peeking through the cloud cover” tonight.

Sunset on a Relatively Clear Night
at Rose Island Anchorage in the Bahamas

As I look out the sliding door at the stern of our boat, I can see the lights of Nassau and Atlantis in the distance. Many boats populated the anchorage during the day today. Most of them left. A few remain in the anchorage. Of the ones still here, I can see only their anchor lights. If not for these signs of life, both nearby and slightly further afar, this anchorage would be quite spooky. In the opposite direction to Nassau, after sunset, I see only total darkness and cannot make out even the shoreline of the nearby island. Last night was worse as it was overcast without a star in the sky. Tonight at least when I look up, I see some stars to alleviate the total darkness.

We had calm seas all afternoon. As I sit here typing in my blog entry, the winds have picked up, and we are rocking side-to-side once again. Perhaps Mother Nature is trying to lull me to sleep once more. She may be succeeding.

Bahamas: Nassau to Rose Island Anchorage

Day 268

April 4, 2016

NM Today: 7

NM Total: 4096

Time on route: 1 hour

Clark’s internal clock must be changing as he was up just after 6:30 this morning without using an alarm clock. He threw on some clothes and went “up top” on the fly bridge to see if he could catch any weather reports for the next couple of days. He got up there at 6:45, missed the 6:30 Bahamas report on the shortwave, but managed to listen to the broadcast on a.m. radio at 7:00.

We had a choice due to weather – one night (last night) in Nassau only or potentially four nights or more. At over $100 a night we thought it best to move to an anchorage -- weather permitting. We decided that we should wait out some rain storms and get some chores done this morning before leaving the marina. Both Clark and I had ‘to do’ lists although my list only had two items on it – laundry and shower.

I packed up my shower bag and my bag full of laundry and told Clark I was heading up to take care of my tasks. He looked at me expectantly and said, “I need to go to Radio Shack for parts. I think it would be better if two people went as opposed to one. Don’t you?” That made quite a strong statement about how Clark felt about safety in Nassau.   How could I refuse to go with him? I handed him my two bags to put back on the boat, asked him to retrieve my hat and wallet, and set out with him to walk to Radio Shack.

Fortunately the walk to the shopping plaza was a short one. When we got there, however, we could not find the Radio Shack even though multiple people told us it was there. Clark popped into a store and inquired as to the Radio Shack location and was told, “It’s just after the food market.” Hmm. We must have walked right past it. Earlier, as we wandered around the shopping plaza, I pointed out UTC Electronics to Clark. Well, the store everyone called Radio Shack was now UTC Electronics, so we had seen it and not even known we had.

Clark found the wires and connectors he needed to improve the reception he gets on his shortwave radio. Having been successful there, we decided to cross over to the other side of the plaza and visit the BTC office to see if they could help with some miscellaneous questions and issues Clark was having with his phone such as no hotspot. Instead of waiting in the cashier line with everyone else, I asked a man working there if he could help with some technical support questions. He said yes he could help us straight away, and with his help we proceeded to check off the phone-issue items on Clark’s list one by one. When we walked out of that store, we had all our questions answered.

Another of Clark’s projects for today was to swap the two anchors to put the CQR plow on the winch and the Danforth as the spare. Given our dragging experience in the other anchorage, he decided that conditions might be better in our next anchorage as well for our CQR. Working the anchor by winch is a lot easier than manual labor! When Clark swapped the anchors, he decided he should also address an issue whereby the anchor roller does not roll.

Since we were out walking due to the other errands, we stopped into a couple of different marine parts stores to see what they had for anchor rollers. The one store that sold them had miscellaneous sizes, but we needed to go back to the boat to find out which size might be the closer fit. When we got back to the boat, I once again picked up my shower bag and laundry bag to head up to the office. As I started to leave, Clark said, “I need your help with the roller. You need to hold one side of the bolt while I turn the nut to loosen it.”

I could not believe that I got stopped in my tracks yet again. The idea of hanging over the end of the anchor pulpit holding a wrench on a bolt also did not appeal. However, I either helped him before my shower or after. I figured if I helped him after I would just get all hot and sticky all over again and need to take a second shower. “Okay”, I said. “Let’s get this done so I don’t have to get sweaty again after I shower.”

After helping him loosen the bolt, I hoped I would be free for a while, but I was highly skeptical. With all the delay due to assisting Clark in one way or another with his ‘to do’ list all morning, I felt I was in jeopardy of not getting either item on my list taken care of before we had to leave the marina.  I decided that even if I had to miss the shower, I should at least try to get the laundry done. I told Clark that I would be back, but I at least wanted to get the washer running. Thankfully, he agreed that was a good plan. I left the shower bag on the boat and just took the clothes up to get that part going.

I had to buy tokens for the washer and dryer. For the life of me I can’t remember to add in the V.A.T. (Value-Added Tax) ahead of time. When I was told the cost for a wash or a dry was $2, I multiplied 2 x 2 and came up with $4. Wrong! Even a load of wash has V.A.T., so my cost was $4.30, and of course I did not have the change with me. Instead of the dollar bills I did want for change, I got back a handful of Bahamian coins I truly did not want.

After I got the washer going, I returned to the boat intending to drop off my laundry tote and pick up my shower bag. When I got to the boat, however, it was low tide. I could not manage to get onto the boat without Clark’s help. I decided I would just hand Clark the laundry tote and ask him to hand me my shower bag. Unfortunately, when he heard what I wanted to do, he said, “Oh, you’re leaving? I need to go to the marine store and buy a washer to use as a spacer on the anchor bolt.”  

I could tell quite clearly by the tone of his voice and his facial expression that he wanted me to stay with the boat while he went to the store. I understood it was because he had tools and such out and didn’t want to put it all away and lock the boat or risk theft of his tools. Sigh! “Okay”, I said, “I’ll wait here while you go over and get what you need. You have 20 minutes until I need to move clothes from the washer to the dryer.” Just as he left to go to the store, it started to drizzle.

While he was gone, I decided that I could start prepping the boat for departure. That kept me entertained the whole time he was gone. By the time he returned from his buying-a-washer run to the store, the rain was looking a lot more serious. I figured he would be busy for a while, and I needed to get my clothes in a dryer, so I took my shower bag and I left. As I walked away, Clark said, “Don’t you need your hat?” “No”, I replied, “I’ll get wet in the shower anyway!”

As I walked the labyrinth of docks forming the path to the office, the rain fell harder and harder. By the time I got to the laundry room, the rain was coming down in torrents. “Well”, I thought, “he won’t need my help on the anchor in a downpour!” I decided to stay in the laundry room. At some point I decided I might as well get that shower done. I got plenty wet getting to the shower. At least I was going somewhere that I intended to get even wetter.

As soon as I got in the shower however I heard thunder. I decided I better make the shower a quick one. A couple of minutes later I heard two very loud claps of thunder close together and decided my shower was over. I dried off and headed back to the laundry room to wait it out. A timely but brief clearing in the weather allowed me to get back to the boat where I was very pleased to find that Clark had managed to put the anchor roller back in place without my help. Yay!

I was hungry at 11:30 this morning, but it was a bad time to stop for lunch. By the time I got back to the boat, it was going on for 2:00. I needed food! As I started pulling out the items for lunch, Clark was busy clearing up his tools and such. “You came back too soon”, he said. “Another few minutes and I would have had everything back in place.” Another few minutes and I would have been a drowned rat with wet laundry. No sooner did I get back on the boat with my bags than the heavens let loose another deluge of rain. My timing was perfect!

We waited out the rain and finally paid the marina bill and left Nassau at 3:45 this afternoon. Check out time is normally 12:00. We asked for an extension and they said we could stay until 4:00. We just made it. Before leaving Clark called Nassau Harbour Control and told them we would be passing through. We got their blessing and started out for an anchorage at Rose Island.

It rained the whole way there. The rain fell steadily, but at least it wasn’t a deluge. The trip only took one hour that is why Clark chose this destination. We kept the full enclosure zipped closed which made visibility very limited. As we approached the anchorage, I unzipped my window a bit and peaked out through my small opening. Once again Clark was concerned with possible obstructions in the water – rocks and coral heads.

As we approached, we could see that one 240 foot boat plus a number of sailboats already occupied the anchorage.

Looking closely you can just see the rainbow over the anchorage
Note the 240' boat at anchor called Laurel

Clark moseyed on in and found a spot between two sailboats that appealed to him. We dropped our CQR. It only got a short distance past the chain and started making growling noises. Clark asked me to see what was wrong with it and we found that the line was tangled under the winch. We managed to untangle it which was fortunate because if we had not stopped to investigate, we probably would have tripped the circuit breaker on the winch.

Unfortunately, due to the snag in the line, the CQR had not landed in Clark’s desired spot. We had to pull it up and start over again. Clark asked me if I could tell what was on the bottom – sand or weeds. I said it looked good for sand, and I guess it was because the CQR took hold and held fast. We arrived at Rose Island at 4:45 and by 5:00 I was free to start dinner if I so desired. Nice!

View of anchorage from our selected spot
(Now Laurel is in the background)

View off the back of our boat at Rose Island anchorage
with our two flags flapping in the wind.
(The Bahama courtesy flag is about one fourth the size of our U.S. nautical flag)

Due to the unusual weather, we had an unusual sunset. The sun just managed to peak through the clouds on the way down.

"Funky" sunset at Rose Island 

Bahamas: Nassau and Atlantis

Day 267
April 3, 2016
NM Today: 37
NM Total: 4089
Time traveled: 4 hours 40 mins

The alarm went off at 6:25 today so that Clark could get up to listen to a short-wave radio broadcast of weather. Of the two possible reports, none were given owing to it being Sunday today. Getting up early was not a complete waste of time, however, because Clark got an amazing picture of the morning sky.

Early Morning Sky at Frazers Hog Cay Anchorage

Clark decided that we should "make a break for it" and head for Nassau today. Since the sooner we left, the sooner we got there, we had the anchor up and were exiting the anchorage by 7:30. It took several minutes to raise the anchor. I manned the helm and Clark man-handled the anchor. The raising of the anchor required a lot of muscle, and since he did not want a tangled mess of anchor line, he kept stopping periodically to coil the line neatly. When I saw that he had the anchor up and was just tidying up, I turned the boat towards the channel to exit the anchorage and started us on our way.

As we motored out of the anchorage, we got two calls on the VHF radio. The first was from a fellow boater with no internet access who asked for a weather report for the trip to Nassau. Clark filled her in with what he knew of the weather. The second call we received was from Bob wishing us fair winds and calm seas for our trip.

I had four hours to sit and think (when I didn't have control of the helm). Being here in the Bahamas, I know I should be awestruck at my good fortune, but I found myself feeling depressed today. Yesterday was an electronics nightmare day. First the battery in Clark's watch died, so he had no convenient way to know the time. Then, after we anchored and he tried to set up his hot spot on his cell phone, it refused to work (it worked the day before), and last but certainly not least for me, my laptop decided to rebel against starting up. When I push the on button, it lights up, and then shuts back down with a decided "click". Clark thinks it might be my hard drive going bad.

Since we are in a foreign country, I have no cell phone service, and I am dependent on Clark's hotspot or WiFi for internet. That in conjunction with the laptop going flaky means I lose a huge portion of how I pass my time. So far the laptop does light up if I push the on button enough times. If the laptop fails completely while I am here in the Bahamas, however, my ability to blog will be severely compromised.

Bob from Aftermath called us one more time after we had been on our way for about an hour just to see how the wind and wave action was treating us. His call served to get my mind off my electronics woes and start me thinking about stories he  had told us when he came to visit by dinghy yesterday evening. First he told us a fish story.  It seems he caught a barracuda that he planned to use as bait. He left the fish hanging on the line from his pole off the back of the boat. A shark came right up out of the water and ate the fish. When the shark left, he took both the fish and Bob's lure with him.

The next story he told us related to Frazers Hog Cay itself. A wealthy Brit built a manor house on the Cay. Several houses were then constructed to form a city of sorts. The sole purpose of the smaller houses was to house the people supporting the operation of the manor house. All of the houses in the "city" are now abandoned. Bob called it the "abandoned city".

Since no one has inhabited the large house in at least twelve years, Bob said he walked through it just to see what was there. He said it was very eerie inside as if one day the people went out and just never came back. Canned goods can still be found in the kitchen cupboards, for example. He recommended we dinghy over to explore, but we had no time given our desire to get to Nassau during our good weather window.

Having left so early in the morning, we found ourselves entering Nassau right about 12 o'clock. When entering Nassau Harbour, boaters must call the Harbour Control to request permission to enter. Clark gave them our boat documentation number, which is all they required to allow us entry.

Three cruise ships greeted us as our first site as we came into Nassau. As we passed by them, I saw Carnival Ecstasy, Royal Caribbean - Oasis of the Seas, and Majesty of the Sea. We passed right next to Oasis and people on the very top deck waved to us. I waved back and that got more people to wave. Oasis is one tall ship!

Three Cruise Ships in Port in Nassau Today

Scene as we entered Nassau, Bahamas

We docked our boat at Nassau Yacht Haven. Our first order of business upon securing the boat was walking to the food market to pick up some essentials. Since today is Sunday and the market closed at 3:00, we had to get there first.

Every time I read anything on Nassau, including information contained in the nautical charts book, I received warnings of the high crime here. We locked up Sea Moss right and tight when we left her even though with no windows open we knew it would be stifling hot inside when we returned. As we walked to the store, I noted the high security in the area. When we registered, we were buzzed into the marina office. Then we found the pharmacy across the street from the marina has bars across the entire front. When Clark wanted to enter the pharmacy, he had to push a button and get buzzed into the store.

Further down the street we saw a boatyard with barbed wire fencing all around the property. It was pretty nasty barbed wire as barbed wire goes. It reminded me of movies I have seen of security at German concentration camps or prisons. It certainly did not give me a warm and cozy feeling walking down the street. Everyone we had talked to had emphasized that we be off the streets before dark. I read a local travel recommendation that we could take buses during the day to get to sites, but by no means should we travel by bus at night - only by taxi.

We reached the Fresh Market without being accosted or mugged, and I was much relieved. The other caveat that we received about the Bahamas was the cost of everything including food. That is why we spent a ton of money in the states provisioning the boat. Even with the advanced warning on food prices, I nearly went into shock when I saw the prices.

I thought vegetables would be safe and headed for the tomatoes. At $5.15 per pound ($4.99 + V.A.T.) I was flabbergasted. The scale for weighing produce was not-so-conveniently full of pieces of cardboard, so I could not be sure but I thought the two tomatoes I selected were going to set me back a bit. I passed the grapefruit by at $2.50 each. The ones I bought in Florida were $1.00 a piece.

I needed bread, milk, O.J. and some deli meat. When we left the store, we had eleven items in our cart that had cost us a total of $77.00. Ouch! I think the bill in the states would be about half what we paid here. Thank goodness I did not need more items. I decided the high crime is due to the high prices. How can anyone afford to live here???

The food shopping job done, we stopped by the boat to drop off our provisions and then headed right back out again to go sightseeing. We had heard about Atlantis and headed there. We asked the marina guard at the front how to get there and he said to go over the first bridge and just keep going from there. Sounded simple enough!

The walk to Atlantis took us past some pretty interesting sites. As we crossed the bridge we looked down on numerous "shacks" lined up on either side of the bridge. Each one advertised the availability of a local Bahamian beer and most enticed folks to come eat Conch in one form or another - Conch salad seemed a poplar option.

Conch & Beer Shacks along bridge

Looking to North East from bridge over Nassau

Looking back at "our" marina to see Sea Moss at dock

Atlantis! Our destination.

I had no idea what to expect from Atlantis. Clark mentioned they had an aquarium, but I was not prepared for what we found there.

Real Bahamas Cuisine! 

After our 30 minute walk to get to Atlantis, Clark said he wanted ice cream. I did not expect to find anything very tempting in that department. The last place with home-made ice cream only had guava flavor. I never expected to find Ben & Jerry's ice cream right around the corner shortly after Clark made his wish be known.

Having enjoyed our treats, we headed in the direction of the casino with hopes that we would be able to find the aquarium from there.

Sculpture at entrance to Casino in Atlantis

The aquarium was free of charge and entirely built around the Lost City of Atlantis theme. We walked through tunnels surrounded by tanks with sea life in them.

View of Atlantis Aquarium from Restaurant

Clark took tons of photos today. It would take hours to upload them all. He was 'snap happy' at the aquarium.

"Who you lookin' at?"

Artwork on Walls of Aquarium

This ugly guy reminded me of Flotsam and Jetsam from
The Little Mermaid movie 

After walking through the tunnels, we stepped out into the beach area. Talk about a tropical paradise, Atlantis had something for everyone of all ages.

Lagoon Beach on Paradise Island

Close up of "shell" pagoda at Lagoon Beach in Atlantis

Shark and Sting Rays Display

Closeup of Shark and Stingray laying in wait for unsuspecting prey

After the barbed wire and iron-barred stores near our marina, I felt like I had stepped into an entirely different world by just crossing the bridge. As we walked through the casino and dress shops etc, it reminded me of the time we spent on the cruise ship in Alaska. Everything was right there in one place to entertain.

Given the dire warnings of crime, Clark thought we should head back to the boat at 5:00. We did and we arrived back at the marina at 5:30. On our way back I asked Clark to take a couple of pictures. One to show the height of the bridge we had to climb over to get to and from Atlantis. It was steep!

Tall bridge we crossed to get to and back from Atlantis

The other was a boat covered with Conch Shells by the Conch Shacks we had passed on our way to Atlantis.

Boat with Conch Shells 

I wanted to throw some items in the laundry when I got back, but I found that the washers and dryers required tokens and the office closed at 5:00. That chore will need to wait. The next item on my agenda was a shower due to the heat and humidity. When I told Clark I was leaving to take a shower while he washed down the boat, I got a grumble back. Uh-oh, grumbles are not good.

He had connected the hose, turned it on, and got no water. We had read that the water pressure was poor - not that it was non-existent. Someone had hired a young man to wash the boat next to us. Since he was busy cleaning inside that boat, we asked if we could turn off the water to his hose. With that done we managed to get a dribble out of our hose as long as we held the hose in a position whereby gravity could assist the flow.

We each took a small bucket, which we refilled multiple times, and washed the salt of the boat by hand one small bucket at a time. If I wasn't hot before that activity, I was beyond overheated by the time I was done. Unfortunately by the time we finished, it was already 7:00 and I was starving. The shower would have to wait.

After seeing the prices of food in the market, I decided that I needed to bake Clark a sweet treat. I refused to pay over $25 for a 10" apple pie. After dinner I made him a Wild-blueberry Cake from a recipe I found on line. I had all the ingredients that it required right in my ship's stores, so from my point of view, the cake was "free". We had a piece each for late-night snack. It was very berry and very yummy!

After much debating with himself, Clark finally decided that we should stay here in Nassau one more night. Weather for tomorrow predicts a rainstorm in the morning (5:00 a.m.) and then another in the afternoon. The one in the afternoon is predicted to bring 2 inches of rain. Should be interesting! Clark thought it would be more enjoyable to be in a marina in a hard rainstorm rather than at anchor. Also we have some business to attend to that could not be done on a Sunday, so that gives us additional motivation to wait one more day before leaving here.

Bonus - by staying, I get WiFi as long as my laptop does not give up on me!

Bahamas: Frazers Hog Cay Anchorage

Day 266

April 2, 2016

NM Today: 8

NM Total: 4052

Time on route: 1 hour

 After having retired to bed at midnight last night, I surprised myself by waking up at 1:45. It felt like it should be morning and I just could not believe the time. I rolled over and went back to sleep and woke again at 4:30 and then once more at 6:40 when I decided I should get up and get the day going.

Although the winds howled, Clark said we should move the boat at least to another anchorage if not all the way to Nassau. Since it looked like it would be rough going, we ate breakfast first and then left the Chubb Channel anchorage just after 8:00. Our first waypoint took us to Diamond Cay. From there our next stop would be Nassau. Clark did his best to “take the waves on the forward quarter” to lessen the impact, but still I felt at times like I was riding a bucking bronco. I planted my feet and gripped the rail by my seat to hold myself in place all the while wondering if everything down below was secured.

After one-half hour into our five hour trip, I asked Clark, “Are you sure you want to deal with this for over four more hours?” We started discussing options 1) continue on to Nassau 36 miles away, 2) go to a nearby anchorage for a couple of hours and see if the winds settled down, or 3) go to the nearby anchorage and plan on staying the night. We selected option 2 for flexibility. Looking at the chart I saw that we would only venture a couple of miles out of our way if we headed for the anchorage and then changed our minds yet again to try for Nassau.

Fortunately Clark had thought ahead to the possibility that we might need to divert to an anchorage, and we had setup the waypoints in the chart plotter last night when we put in the waypoints for Nassau. We did not have a route set, so we selected one waypoint at a time to take us to our new destination – from Diamond Cay to Bird Cay and finally to Frazers Hog Cay.

We arrived at the channel entrance to Frazers Hog Cay just before 9:00.  We found the note on the chart to be accurate that said the channel markers are no longer maintained. They do not even exist! Clark could see where the channel should be as he could see it on his chart plotter. We felt our way in to the anchorage with me as the lookout to tell Clark if anything unusual, like shallow water or obstructions should present themselves.

We had no issues coming in.  However, unlike the passage towards Nassau where we were heading into the wind, here we traveled with the wind. It got hot fast without the cooling breeze. The chart showed “moorings” just before the anchorage. We looked and looked and finally saw it – one mooring ball. We passed it by and headed for the anchorage.  To anchor we turned the boat into the wind – ahhhh once again we had a nice breeze albeit a rather strong one!

Back in good ole Faro Blanco we spent a considerable amount of time switching out our CQR plow anchor for the Danforth.  We set the Danforth anchor and sat back to relax and enjoy the day as we decided whether we would be staying for a couple of hours or a couple of days.  The wind continued to howl, and Clark took his hand-held wind meter that was given to him by his late Uncle Trowbridge and measured the wind speeds. He got wind readings of 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 20 mph.

With the anchor set, it was time to assess the situation in the boat cabin. Clark said a few minor things were out of place like the small cooler had wandered over to the port side from starboard. The foldable bikes are tied down during travel, but they always “take a little walk” across the floor, so they had to be shoved over a bit. Everything else looked fine. Only later did I notice that everything I store on the bench seat in the shower stall (shampoo, soaps, etc) had taken a tumble. My only worry there was getting the shower door open (it is hinged to open inwards). Fortunately nothing that had fallen blocked the door so I could open it to clean up the items on the floor.

Even with the strong wind gusts this anchorage proved to have less “roll” than the one where we stayed last night. There the waves hit us on the beam (side) and caused us to roll side-to-side all night long. With the winds and waves hitting our bow in this anchorage, we had up-and-down movement which is much less annoying. Clark had a few miscellaneous tasks he was handling up top. I found ways to entertain myself down below.

Suddenly Clark came pounding down the stairs and stuck his head in the cabin to tell me that he just got a call on the VHF radio from one of the sailboats in the anchorage to tell us we were “dragging our anchor”. Normally Clark sets an anchor alarm immediately after setting his anchor. I guess it just didn’t happen today, and boy had we dragged our anchor. Clearly neither one of us was paying close attention to our surroundings.

The force of the wind pushing on the bow of the boat had slowly moved us closer and closer to shore. Thank goodness the sailboat owner called us to “wake us up”. With Clark at the helm and me at the anchor, we pulled up the anchor and set out to drop it again with hopes of better holding. We had over 100 feet of line plus 25 feet of chain out, so we should have held with that weight and “scope”.

We pulled it all in and then Clark repositioned the boat to drop the anchor a second time. Once again we put out the same amount of chain and line. As soon as Clark pulled on the line to check the holding, he could tell the anchor was not holding at all. He went back to the helm to reel it all back in again to try a third time. As I watched the anchor coming up, I knew we had something on the anchor, and it would need to be cleared before it could be redeployed.

I had Clark let the anchor sit in the water for a while hoping that whatever was on the anchor (hopefully just some caked on sand) would come off with hanging in the water for a while before pulling it the rest of the way up. No such luck!! The anchor had uprooted some giant weed from the bottom of the water, and I could find no way to disengage it from the anchor. Finally I gave up and switched places with Clark so he could give it a try.

He shook the chain up and down and he poked at the anchor with a boat pole. He raised the anchor and lowered the anchor repeatedly. I am not sure how it finally got it dislodged because I did not have a clear view, but finally the anchor was clear of plant life.

Now we had a decision to make. The chart indicated that the entire anchorage has a weedy bottom. Clearly the Danforth could not be counted on for this environment. We decided we needed to try the plow anchor. I remained at the helm and Clark man-handled the anchor. He had asked me to “station keep” to hold the boat in place while he worked up front cleaning the Danforth and then preparing to drop the CQR. With the force of the winds, I had a devil of a time trying to keep the boat anywhere near where I wanted it.

To complicate matters the anchor line for the CQR got itself tangled into one heck of a mess, so while Clark wanted to focus on setting the anchor, he ended up having to tie off the deployed line while he dealt with the rest of the tangled line.  I could tell when the CQR took hold of the bottom because the boat suddenly lurched to a stop even without the full complement of line deployed. Yay!

If Clark were a swearing man, I expect I would have heard a few cuss words as he worked to undo that tangle. Eventually he managed to get it sorted out and let out more line. Since it appeared we now had a solid holding, Clark worked with the anchor line to setup a bridle for the boat to swing on. It looked like a confused mess to me as I watched him from the upper helm. For the longest time I could not begin to guess what he had in mind. 

The excitement over, we went back to our previous activities but this time with an anchor alarm set and one eye each on the scenery to check periodically for dragging. After we completed our anchoring activities, several more sailboats came into the anchorage and joined us. One of the later ones to come in was our friends Bob and Maryann on Aftermath. After he got settled, Bob came over to visit by dinghy to say hello and talk about our travels since we last saw them on Thursday.

We ran the generator tonight since it was our second night in an anchorage. The one-hour run from the old anchorage to this one was insufficient in duration to charge the battery for another night at anchor. Given that, I had electricity to use to cook dinner, so I pulled out my rice maker, my wok, and my electric grill. I had some fresh vegetables that were in jeopardy of becoming not so fresh, so we ate well.

With the cabin heated up from cooking, we took our steak, rice and veggies up top and had a sunset dinner. The winds had settled down to a cool breeze. Perfect way to end an eventful day!

Frazers Hog Cay at Sunset

Bahamas: Chubb Cay Anchorage

Day 265

April 1, 2016

NM Today: 86

NM Total: 4044

Time Traveled Today: 10 hours 49 mins

We said farewell to Bimini at 7:45 this morning and headed on our way to the Berry Islands. Winds caused the waters to churn on the passage out of the marina, but once we rounded the point, we had following seas to move us along without much rocking of the boat. We had a long day ahead of us and the less rocking along the way, the better.

Clear waters and blue sky made travel pleasant. The lack of anything to look at besides clear water and blue sky quickly made the trip rather boring. As components of our navigation equipment we have our new-for-the-loop chart plotter and our old GPS. Clark likes to use both to track where we are, how far we have gone, and how far to the next waypoint. For long trips we find it comforting to see how much progress we have made since the last time we checked the” distance to go” and “time to get there”.

We entered the full route into the new chart plotter before starting on our way. However, for the GPS, we only enter one waypoint at a time so we have the stats on where we are in relation to the next milestone and how long it will take to get there. Clark handed me the chart book and pointed to a waypoint he planned to enter and asked me to read the coordinates out to him when he was ready.

When ready, he turned to me and asked, “79?” “No”, I said, “78.39”. He entered the numbers I gave him for longitude and latitude, but when he told the GPS to “go to waypoint”, the “Bearing to waypoint” did not agree with our course. The GPS showed that we needed to be pointed to 187 degrees whereas our course line to our destination was 110. We checked and double checked the digits multiple times and even rebooted the GPS.

Finally we figured out that we had entered the coordinates in reverse (lat for long and long for lat) I am not sure where we might have been headed. When we figured out what was wrong, Clark of course blamed me for giving him the longitude first instead of the latitude. “Well, if you wanted the latitude, you should have said so instead of saying ‘79?’. Next time ask for the latitude”, I countered, “instead of prompting me for information you don’t want!” With that finally settled, we got the proper “bearing to waypoint” reading and looked at the “time to waypoint”.  I groaned. The time to the next waypoint calculated out as several hours away (like 5), and we had several more waypoints to get to after we reached this one.

We ate breakfast underway. Afterwards Clark gave me the helm and went down below for a pit stop. I could see something off in the distance but I could not figure out what I was looking at. For the life of me it looked like a submarine. I grabbed the binoculars for a better look and then I was convinced I had a submarine (above water of course) in my sights. I excitedly told Clark what I had found and said he needed to take a picture when we got closer.

“Are you sure that’s a submarine and not the North Rock marker?” he asked. How disappointing to discover that my submarine was just a pile of rocks with a marker on top. I told him to take a picture anyway as it would make for an interesting anecdote for my blog.

 

North Rock (Submarine)

When he stood up to take the picture, he gave me the helm and said, “Look for heads!”  Frantic, I exclaimed, “Heads? Huh? What are you talking about? I don’t understand!” I got no answer as he was busy focusing on his picture taking. As I stared out into nothing but blue waves, I wondered what kind of heads might pop up out of the water. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.

After he got his picture, I gladly gave him back the helm and asked him what I was supposed to have been looking for. What I got back in response was, “It’s shallow here and the chart indicates rocks in the area.” “So am I supposed to see rocks sticking out of the water”, I asked, “Potentially”, he answered. Great. Immediately I started thinking about us hitting a rock and taking on water and all sorts of equally ugly scenarios. Although I should have one on hand already, I started writing down a list of items to put in a “ditch bag” should it come to that. Thanks Clark for the scare! I definitely needed that at the beginning of a long day boating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Miles from Bimini the water continued to be shallow – as shallow as 12 to 14 feet. I found that to be amazing. The ocean waters near New Jersey are far deeper than that even in Raritan Bay. By the time we reach New York harbor we see numbers over 100 feet deep. Someone told us before we came here, “There’s plenty of water in the Bahamas. It’s just not very deep.” Later in the day, as we approached our final destination, we saw depths of over 1000 feet deep. That more than made up for the deep-end-of-the-pool numbers we had seen earlier in the day.

Yesterday I had the “groggies”. Today I gave in and took a nap. Waves rocked the boat continuously, so I had to come up with a sleeping arrangement that allowed me to sleep without falling off the bench seat. Even though I wanted a nap, I needed to be nearby should Clark want / need something, so going down below was not an option.  I placed one foot on the floor to stop me falling out of bed should it become rough. That worked well. At first I just laid on the bench seat in la-la land but finally I succumbed and was out cold.

Because we left Bimini so early and therefore had breakfast at an early hour, I decided to make lunch just after 11:00. That was fine but by 3:30, after my nap, it seemed like a good idea to find snacks for the two of us. I made my way down below clutching the railings firmly as I went to see what I could find. It is a very good thing that I had such a strong grip on the railings as the stairs had become slippery from sea spray and my foot slipped on the way down. My grip saved me from a potentially bad fall.

I always use bags to carry items up and down the stairs when under way. With my bag stuffed with treats, I made my way back up top to share my bounty with the Captain. We started with cheese and crackers. Later in the afternoon we broke out the raisins for a second snack.

As we traversed deeper waters, Clark noted that the flying fish started appearing again. He had seen them on the trip from Florida to Bimini. I han't been watching at that time and missed them. After he said the fish were flying again today, I stared out into the ater trying to spot one. Clark saw several but every time he said, "There's one!" I could not find it with my eyes until it was too late and it was back in the water. Finally I got to see one and then another.

The flying fish are small and dark in color thus making them hard to spot. Clark said they look like dragon flies to him. With the wing action they more resembled humming birds to me. They truly are flying fish. They come out of the water, probably scared by the boat passing by, and shoot across the water several yards before dropping down into the water once more. As the fly they only hover a short distance above the water. Pretty cool really!

After over ten hours of our rocky-rolly cruise, we could see islands “Cays” on the horizon. Yay! The end of a very long day was literally in sight. The anchorage we had decided on already contained a number of sailboats. We found a spot and dropped anchor for the night at 6:45 – almost 11 hours after we pulled out of Bimini.

Chubb Cay Anchorage, Bahamas

We did not go ashore or get off the boat. This is just an intermediate stop on our way to Nassau. From a distance Chubb Cay looked like a ritzy place as compared to Bimini. The houses here appeared to be of a much nicer quality. As Clark said, though, you don’t really know until you get on the island and actually have a look around.

Since it was already late when we arrived at the anchorage, my first duty was to get dinner on the table. Clark suggested we eat "up top" but I did not have any interest in carting the food up there. I just wanted to eat and be done with it. After dinner and before washing the dishes, we went up top to sit and enjoy the stars, the view of Chubb Cay, and the cool breeze.

At 9:30 I declared that the dishes needed to get done as well as my blog, so I could go to bed before midnight. I barely managed to make that goal.