Bahamas Take 2

It has been a while since I updated and a lot has happened. A series of events have thrown everything into a bit of a chaotic mess of half plans and not a lot of spare time for updating blog posts! I’m currently hiding from the heat in the Rio Dulce and figured now was a perfect time to get into writing, starting with our second time sailing the Bahamas.

Crossing the gulfstream to the Bahamas started off pretty bumpy. There was a lot of traffic in the stream too, sometimes forcing us into less comfortable headings. We had a good rhythm between the three of us though, having had Alex on board for a number of overnights by this point, and we were able to set up shifts so that we each only had one night shift and then we were there. Check into Freeport was fairly uncomplicated but very expensive. The Bahamas had increased their permit fees almost threefold since our last visit and we could see the effects by the lack of boats at the marina. I recently read that they have since decreased the fees again which must be a bit of a relief for local businesses!

Freeport is still one of our favourite parts of the Bahamas, primarily for the people. It was made even better this time by having friends from Florida visiting with us. After a night of settling in and getting some rest there was a little more work to be done as we waited for Dallas and Christa to arrive so that the festivities could begin. Our friends, Marsha and Brendan, very kindly lent us their car so we had a good explore of the island and then spent New Year’s Eve huddled around a fire at Fish Fry (it was unseasonably cold for the Bahamas).

New Year’s Eve was also the day of the longest wait for food I think any of us had ever experienced. Island time was back with a vengeance! We kept being told our food was almost ready and for some reason kept believing that to be true for 3 hours, at which point our food was taken to a different table (who, of course, also had been waiting a long time for their food and just accepted the wrong food that they were given). After a total of 4 hours, during which some of our party had peeled off to find some McDonalds instead, we were finally served our lunch. I’m unsure if this was a lesson in patience or a lesson in knowing when to give up! In true “only in the Bahamas” fashion, a customer ended up leaving her table and helping behind the bar in an effort to take some of the load off the only person working.

After our friends flew back to Florida, I had a brief work trip back in Georgia but arrived back just in time for Junkanoo. This was a treat! Junkanoo is celebrated a little differently in various parts of the Bahamas and the Caribbean. In Grand Bahama, it is a once a year event that participants prepare for all year. They create incredible costumes full of vibrant colours, some so big and elaborate that they must be a challenge to walk in. The festival itself has its roots in slavery. The enslaved Africans would use small holidays to recreate the festivals from home to retain their culture, and the tradition continues to this day.

Soon it was time to head south, but unfortunately the weather didn’t want to support that! We were in a bit of a hurry because Kevin’s mum was flying into Nassau soon. Our initial plan had been to sail down the east side of the Berry Islands and drop anchor in one of the anchorages on the way down but weather wasn’t looking very favourable for that option so we decided we would overnight down the west side and cut through between the bottom of the chain of islands and the top of Andros. We were hoping to make it all the way to New Providence in one shot but by the time we got level with Andros we were seeing several forecasted squalls with lightning between Andros and New Providence and so we decided to drop anchor at the top of Andros.

Andros still takes the title of the place with the clearest water we have ever seen. We had dropped our anchor on a shelf and then fallen back so that our hull was in much deeper water. It was really cool to clearly see our anchor in the distance on the shelf. It was a very peaceful anchorage and we slept well but the next morning we were still in a hurry so it was time to pick up and leave. First we had a salp come by to see us off. Having never seen one before, it was quite hard to spot. It was just a tiny clear tube with a red dot at the end. Kevin magically spotted it and pointed it out. Salps are a type of zooplankton that are normally found in chains. Their fecal matter carries carbon from the sea to the sea floor and they are so abundant that changes in their numbers can affect the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Salp poo can play a significant role in climate change!

Our ride over to New Providence ended up being fairly smooth although we had some regrets not putting the dinghy up on the aft deck like we usually do. We had following seas and our towed dinghy kept trying to overtake us! We were cognizant of the fact that we were racing squalls to get in and we almost won the race. We just took a teeeny bit too long to choose our spot to drop anchor and a down draft hit at that exact moment. Being blasted by 30 plus knot winds while trying to drop anchor was a bit exciting. I’m not sure who it was more exciting for though: Kevin, nicely sheltered in the cockpit but working very hard to keep the boat straight as we dropped anchor, or me, getting battered by wind and rain at the bow of the boat as I dropped the anchor and tried to yell instructions over the wind. Teamwork prevailed though and our anchor set well.

After a very bumpy and wet dinghy ride to our boat and a couple of days of riding out bad weather with us in New Providence (welcome to boat life!) Molly was finally able to go for a sail with us towards the Exumas…well, mostly a motor through the glass seas that followed the week of squally weather.

We arrived at Highbourne Cay first, known for the local nurse sharks that like to come and hang around at the dock. Finding a good spot to drop anchor was a little bit of a challenge with lots of big rocks scattered about so after we set the anchor Kevin went for a swim to check out how deep the rocks were in our area before we decided it was safe to stay at that spot. No sharks decided to befriend him during this swim. We then all piled into the dinghy to go to shore and explore. The island is a bit of a resort style island. It has a nice restaurant (although somehow they managed to take a reservation for us but not actually hold a table, which landed us eating at the bar there instead), lots of holiday accommodations and a pristine beach that we were able to take Kata to for a run around. The nurse sharks were very happy to greet anybody who went to the dock to see them (I think these were quite well fed sharks). We stayed for one night and then it was time to keep moving because the extra nights in New Providence had delayed our timeline. Never sail to a schedule they say!

Black Point Settlement was our next stop. This seemed like a fun little settlement. We went in to dinner again here at a more casual style restaurant with very friendly staff. We went for a small explore and the town seemed to be bustling and much less resorty. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much more as we were still in a hurry to get to Georgetown. We got some great entertainment as we ate our dinner and watched 6 people crowd into what was perhaps the world smallest dinghy to go out to one of the boats after visiting town. The dinghy was barely staying afloat as they puttered away. The water was to their butts!

We clearly chose the same day as everybody else to sail between Georgetown and the other islands of the Exumas. The seas were calm and the winds were filling up our sails nicely. Everybody was sailing by with all their sails out so I started making a game of taking photos of them sailing and finding them on the Noforeignland app to send the photos to them. They were all very happy to get the photos. Sadly nobody took a photo of us though!

And with that, we were in the sailing mecca of the Bahamas. Even with the high fees implemented by the Bahamas, Georgetown had hundreds of boats at anchor. We had also finally caught up to our friends on Serendipity and Cathay Oz, after parting ways at Cape Lookout when our autopilot failed. We anchored right beside “Da Sandbar” and went over to the beach there to take Kata to shore before settling down to a movie night. We watched Captain Ron, a sailing movie classic, which was surprisingly a first for me. The next day was a chill beach day for Molly’s last day on board, before heading over to Cathay Oz for a catch up and drinks and snacks, which of course devolved into an impromptu group boat maintenance session. What else do boaters do when they get together over drinks?

The next morning Molly flew home and then it was time for us to start prepping for a storm….