Wednesday 27th December

At Sea

Again we were up early as the weather forecast for the area is at 06.30hrs. Chris Parker, the weather Guru, was giving us a fair day today with a front to follow early the next day and winds clocking around to the North – just where we didn’t want them to be coming from. Having heard the forecast we agreed to set out and keep going to try and stay ahead of the front and make it as far as the Turks & Caicos Islands if possible. As we set out the winds were very light and the sea was calm. We managed to sail (main and jib) for a while then the winds got lighter so we had to motor sail and eventually the sea became like glass – not a ripple in sight as the wind dropped to nothing. The sails went away and we had to motor for a bit, as we had nothing better to do we threw out THE fishing line and christened it, we trolled with it behind us for a total of 7 hours and didn’t get a single thing – Lyn & Peter, I though you said it was foolproof! I had the filleting knife and the fry pan all ready for the fresh fish dinner so it was a great disappointment to have to eat the sandwiches I’d made “just in case”. We made it to Mayaguana (one of our options) before sunset and decided to keep going through the night to try to beat the front. During the night the wind came up enough for us to be able motor sail again with just the jib. We took it in turn keeping watch and cat napping in the cockpit – we like the company! The auto pilot did most of the steering – he needs a pay rise.

Tuesday 26th December

Attwood Harbour
Lady Slipper Cay

22 44.20 N
73 53.20W

Up before the sun and hauled the anchor, we motored out of the anchorage sniggering as we went at the luxury cruiser rolling around in the swell, yes I know that it’s petty but you would have done the same if you had seen it! As seems to be the norm for us the wind was on the bow making it difficult to sail however as we turned towards our heading we were able to fly the jib and motor sail most of the way to Attwood Harbour. We only saw one other boat all day and it wasn’t going our way. We were a little surprised on arriving at Attwood harbour to find it totally empty. It’s not a “real” commercial type harbour, just a natural horseshoe shaped bay which is supposed to be a good anchorage in all but Northerly winds. We slowed right down going through the entrance as it is reef and rocks – where isn’t around here?, passed a landmark rock named umbrella that lived up to it’s namesake only when the tide went out and approached a totally empty tropical paradise. A couple of dolphins appeared alongside our boat and acted as guides into the harbour, they played ducking and diving under our boat, leapt across the bow wave and then followed behind surfing in the small amount of wake we made until we dropped anchor, they then did a couple of rounds of the boat and swam off back out of the harbour. They were a very entertaining welcoming committee, I managed to take a couple of pictures which don’t do them justice but it set the right mood for a lovely overnight stay. The one down side was the appearance of flies and mosquitoes as the sun set - plenty of bug repellent was needed oh and rum! We spent the evening discussing options for the next day’s travel, we had a couple of alternatives but it would all depend on the weather forecast in the morning.

Monday 25th December

Bird Rock
Crooked Island

22 50.7 N
74 21.6 W

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Despite our conversation the night before, Gerry was up at 0700hrs and tearing apart the nav. station, he’d decided to do the belt right here and now! So here we were on Christmas morning, not a present to be seen but the whole of the salon looked like a million children had unwrapped presents and discarded them, we had every tool imaginable out and spread around the salon, bits kept coming out of the nav. station and being handed off to me to find a temporary home for them. Then the wind kicked in – it started to gust and then settled into a steady 23knot blow which caused a swell which rocked our boat. We now had both pitching and rolling – what fun! Gerry put out a swell bridle and winched us around to face the swell which helped however we were still trying to get the gen set out of the nav. station – BAD TIMING GERRY! I must add that to get the gen set into the nav. station originally we had to remove the door and it’s frame, something we had only just remembered. So off came the door and frame which was handed to me to find somewhere to put it! I made chocolate mousse and brownies in between stashing bits as Christmas day was turning into a BAH HUMBUG situation and we needed something to make it festive. OK so we had the door and frame off, the chart table taken to pieces (it was very easy thanks to Steve’s handiwork), the block and tackle suspended from the hatch and dangling into the nav. station, Gerry on the floor hooking it up and guiding it whilst I had to haul the wretched thing up (did I mention that I hurt my back just over a week ago hauling a docking line in?). No matter, with Gerry yelling instructions I just hauled away and managed to suspend the engine whilst he guided it onto my floor rug – to make it easier to slide out of the nav. station of course! We slid it out into the last remaining square of space in the salon and then Gerry muttered a few obscene words – it wasn’t going to be as simple as he had hoped (doh – what was he thinking? Anyone could have told him it wouldn’t be simple). Once the back of the gen set was visible it became very quickly apparent that the frame to which the engine is bolted had fractured through at a weld spot. This may have been caused by the belt being loose and vibrating the engine or it may have just been a weak weld which gave out and caused the belt to become loose. Either way it was not going to be a job that Gerry could fix as we do not have welding equipment on the boat (I’m not sure why we don’t as we seem to have just about everything else that Home Depot & Lowe’s sell!). An agonizing discussion followed - we needed to get to a marina where there was at least a welder available, the nearest one to us was probably going to be over 100nm away at the Turks and Caicos Islands – at best a long sail and at the rate we have been bashing into the weather an extremely long and painful trip. It couldn’t be avoided, we had to get the gen set fixed so we decided to set out at dawn the next day and head towards a marina. It was a memorable Christmas day to say the least – no tree, no lights, no cards, no presents, no phone line, no internet, no family or friends around and back to limiting the use of all power as the gen set was out of operation (at least we had rum!). We salvaged what we could of the day by Bar-b-queing a couple of Bahamian lobsters that we had bought especially for Christmas. Just as we were about to sit down and eat Abigail managed to call us on the satellite phone which was a lovely surprise. We didn’t talk for long as we know how expensive it is but is was good just to hear from her. Just as the sun set a very large luxury cruiser (stink boat) came into the anchorage and dropped anchor, we were still winched into the swell with the bridle and riding quite well so it took them a while to realize that they were going to be pitching and rolling around all night – and you should have seen the roll they had, I know for a fact that they can’t have been happy! After rearranging the gen set “bits” for safe traveling we went to bed planning on an early start the next day to try and make some headway whilst the night lee still existed.

Sunday 24th December

Bird Rock
Crooked Island

22 50.7 N
74 21.6 W

Surprisingly we woke before 0700hrs, in time to see the other boat leave the anchorage – was it something we said? We had thought that we would move a short distance to what was supposed to be a better sheltered anchorage, less than a mile away so we hauled the anchor and set off, avoiding the coral heads and arrived at the designated spot only to find that the swell was horrible and the anchorage shallower – fine at high tide but what about at low? Gerry decided that he didn’t like it there so we turned around without dropping the anchor and head back to where we had just left, I suspect that we were great entertainment for the family that was on the beach! So we re anchored at the same place as before and Gerry decided to go into the settlement about 2 miles away to fill the jerry cans with fuel whilst I stayed on the boat (he went alone as it had started to rain on and off). A decent interval passed and he returned with his story of being a good Samaritan for the day. Apparently a fishing boat left the dock just as he was going in to get the fuel, then on his way back to our boat he found the same boat had engine failure about a mile from the dock and was floundering around. He stopped and threw them a tow line and dragged them back to the dock – our little 8hp outboard had to tow a boat with a dead 75hp engine – it managed fabulously and the owner was very grateful. Gerry was offered dinner and then a drink both of which he refused, saying it wasn’t necessary and he would hope that anyone would have done the same given the same circumstances - just think we could have had Christmas dinner on some one else’s money! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the surroundings – a beautiful beach with no one else around and not another boat in sight. One hiccough though - the generator made a horrid noise when we turned it on in the evening, Gerry thought the belt was slipping and needed changing. This was a job for when we got to a marina as to get to the belt the whole gen. set has to be removed from the casing which involves a block and tackle suspended over the nav. station – it couldn’t be harder to get at if it tried. So we switched it off and went to bed thinking we need to get to a marina as quickly as possible, allowing for the public holidays over Christmas and new year.

Saturday 23rd December

Bird Rock
Crooked Island

22 50.7 N
74 21.6 W

Happy 40th birthday David, hope it’s a good one! We love you.

As the winds and seas are conspiring against us we decided to set off at 06.30 hrs and head as far south as we could get, aiming for Bird Cay to try and get a bit of a jump on the weather fronts. We knew that the going would probably be a bit uncomfortable but what’s new? At the start of the day as we headed north to the tip of Cape Santa Maria the wind was just right for flying the jib, and the sea was beautifully calm - it didn’t last. As soon as we hit the point the wind came out of the south – straight on the bow and the sea became mightily confused with a double swell – hitting us on the beam and also head on, there was no way we could sail it so the jib got furled and the motor turned on. It was extremely uncomfortable and we were bashing into that for the next 11hrs. The sun set was a bit disappointing but as the moon rose we were captivated by the colours of the sky surrounding the moon – a painting could not do it justice and our camera couldn’t capture it on film adequately. The sky was awash with pastel colours – yellow, orange, pink, mauve, green and blue, and just when we thought it couldn’t get any better the stars began to appear – it was a sight to behold. We altered our course as much as we could to try and reduce some of the effect of the swell but it really didn’t have the desired effect. What we’d hoped was going to be a 13hr trip ended up being 20.5hrs. I have to say though that we did finally have a bit of luck after 11 hrs, the wind clocked around just enough for us to be able to put up a reefed jib which helped us enormously, we picked up almost 2knots of speed and as night fell the seas dropped and the last 9hrs of the trip were relatively comfortable. Of course with all the delay we arrived at Bird Rock at 03.00hrs, the lighthouse was one of the few in the Bahamas that actually worked and as we were to find in daylight is quite spectacular. The cruising guru’s all say not to attempt to go into the anchorage here at night because of the rocks and reef that surround the place but what do you do once you arrive at 03.00hrs – sit and wait? Of course not! We are foolhardy and we were very tired, nothing was going to stop us anchoring. We went VERY slowly into the anchorage, the sea gods were on our side for once, there was only one boat anchored there and we managed to miss him. Once we had the anchor down we fell into bed.

Friday 22nd December

Hog Cay

23 39.00 N
75 21.60 W

We decided on an early start to see if the wind would let us get as far as Santa Maria Cay or hopefully further. We raised the anchor and headed out of the Elizabeth (that’s the Georgetown harbour’s name) at 0700hrs.The harbour took us about an hour to exit as it has many twists and turns to avoid the rocks and reefs. Once we cleared the harbour the wind was directly on the bow of the boat at a speed of 15 – 20 knots, the seas were about 5 foot and we would be heading almost directly into them for the whole trip – what fun. Anyway we’d had enough of Georgetown and decided to proceed. So for the next 9 hours we bashed into the waves making the 27 nautical miles to Cape Santa Maria by 15.00hrs. The trip leaves nothing exciting to report, we watched the white horses dancing on top of the waves and the mini rainbows caused by the wake coming off of our bow, we saw no other boats heading our way and not a sign of sea life anywhere.
Once we got to Santa Maria Cay we headed to the northern most anchorage which according to the cruising guide we are using, can get a bit “rolly” – it certainly was, so we then headed to the next anchorage down and threaded our way through the coral heads to the anchoring point only to find that this anchorage was no better than the first. The last resort was to head a little further south to Hog Cay and try there. Hog Cay is a privately owned Cay and you can only go ashore there by invitation, it is also apparently home to the largest flock of West Indian Whistling Ducks – we looked and listened but didn’t spot a single one! We did spy a very large osprey nest on the top of an old windmill tower and it was occupied by a nesting couple, we weren’t close enough even with the binoculars to see if there were any babies. Dodging more coral heads, running momentarily aground and backing off twice as quickly, we finally found a spot that wasn’t affected by the swell, was deep enough and set our anchor in plenty of time for sundowner drinks and an early night.

Thursday 21st December

Volley ball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

Hopefully our last day of waiting. The winds are beginning to clock around in the direction we want them so we decided to make a run to town today and do the re provisioning and a load of laundry. We loaded up the dink, fully expecting a bit of a wet ride as the waves were 3feet high and we had to go about a mile across the harbour. We arrived slightly damp, unloaded our laundry into the machines, threw our rubbish in the dumpster and headed into the supermarket. We stocked up on the important things, and there wasn’t a piece of chocolate or a bottle of rum amongst it! Mind you there was some Darrell Lea licorice – in the Bahamas no less! When I thought we were just getting started on the shopping Gerry (Bah Humbug) said that it was too much to carry so don’t get anything else – I had to comply as he was doing the carrying. Anyway we had a plan – Gerry was taking the shopping and a container of water back to the boat whilst I checked on the laundry and loaded it into the driers, he would then come back with the empty dink to collect me and the clean laundry. When he returned he was a bit wet and he had changed his clothes, the story of the trip back to the boat then followed. On the way over to the town the waves were just on the beam and not too ferocious but on the way back to the boat they were slightly more on the beam, more ferocious and kept swamping the boat. Gerry and the shopping were drenched to the core and to top it off one of our oars managed to make its’ escape!! In fact Gerry said that he stopped about a third of the way back to pick up one oar which had come loose and was trying to get away and at the same time he checked the other oar to make sure it was still there, which it was. Unfortunately by the time he arrived back on the boat it had escaped – never to be seen again. Someone around this harbour must do a roaring trade in spare oars. He also seemed to be missing the plastic bag which he kept in his pocket with about $80 in cash. As we neared the dinghy dock and caught sight of our dink amongst all that were docked there we were shocked to see the plastic bag, intact, cash clearly visible, sitting on the seat of the dink where it had obviously fallen out of Gerry’s pocket. Considering how many people use the dinghy dock and the amount of people just hanging around the place we were amazed, it restored some of my faith in the human race (not much and not for long!) Anyway armed with the knowledge that the trip back to the boat was going to be wet going we loaded the shopping, protected by 2 plastic laundry bags and I donned a wet weather poncho that we keep in the dink for just such occasions. Gerry was already wet so he didn’t bother with his. We set off and within seconds we were being swamped by the waves and had to stop and bail out the dink. At times the waves hitting us were so hard and constant that we couldn’t see where we were going scary stuff!. Eventually we arrived back at our boat, unloaded, divested ourselves of wet clothing (I was reasonably dry, Gerry was soaked), dried off and then spent the rest of the day putting stuff away in preparation for an early departure tomorrow.

Wednesday 20th December

Volley ball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

More waiting, more rain and even higher winds today. So what do you do? we sat on the boat and contemplated our navels alternating this with examining our bruise collection ( I win that one!). Oh we did manage to put in the waypoints for our next destination. We had a fairly good connection to the internet at lunch time and managed to have an online chat with Lorie and then Kay which was nice. Later on in the evening Gerry’s mobile rang (he has been trying to have it disconnected since we left the USA – obviously without much success), it surprised us and we then wondered if we could make calls still – we did get through to Abigail who then called us back and we had a good catch up chat. If anyone has Gerry’s mobile number and wants to try calling – feel free!

Tuesday 19th December

Volley ball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

Another day of waiting. More rain squalls passing through so the game of open and close the hatches continues – well it does make a change from the hunt the gecko game Bob! We had no plans for today so Gerry decided to do “dirty “jobs. He cleaned out the hose from the kitchen sink – it was very smelly, full of greasy kitchen type debris though you couldn’t recognize anything that came out of it, he also attacked the shower drain filter which was full of hair and soap scum. You know how it goes though, you start on a job that could have been left for a while longer and as you progress you manage to break part of the thing you are fixing so the job gets more complicated. Yes it happened, Gerry managed to break 2 hose clamps on the sink hose – we had more of those so it wasn’t a major drama, he then broke (or he says he found it broken) a fitting on the shower discharge pump – we didn’t have the right size to replace the broken one so he had to rig a smaller sized one with loads of tape to make it fit. The job took longer than it should have but at least we have clean pipe work! It rained on and off all day and at one point we collected run – off water into a bucket and carefully poured it into our water tank – saves having to make some! I have to say that we did let quite a lot of the rain wash the boat down first before we collected the run off otherwise we would have had some very salty water. I managed to get online and load the last few blogs, though the signal strength isn’t strong enough to allow me to load photos so sorry, if I could I would! I’m getting very bored with my own cooking – I think I need a decent meal ashore somewhere, the only question is where? I think I’d even settle for a starbucks coffee and piece of expresso brownie, someone have one for me.

Monday 18th December

Volleyball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown.

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

What about the cricket then? Good to see that Tricky Ricky’s team did the job! Commiserations to the Barmy Army fans but at least the Ashes are where they belong.

Today was a total wipe out. We had rain squalls on and off all day so we played open and shut the hatches – trying to keep it cool without letting the rain in. Gerry fiddled about with the Generator whilst I read a book – what else could you do? We did try the internet again ad joy – we got a brief connection

Sunday 17th December

Volleyball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown.

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

We began today with a late cooked breakfast and then decide that we would head over to the Chill & Chat at lunchtime where there was supposed to be an internet café (according to the adverts) and also a pig roast from 13.00hrs to 19.00hrs. Our first disappointment was the bar – it was a run down old wooden shack set up as a bar. We ordered drinks and then asked about the internet café – our second disappointment it didn’t exist! So we took our drinks and meal tickets out to the cooking spot – disappointment #3 – it wasn’t a pig roast as we know them, it was a load of previously cooked pork and rice in bain marie dishes! Armed with our drinks and platefuls of food we found a table on the beach and had our lunch watching ever more dinghies arrive for the Sunday afternoon session. Our entertainment was watching a local boy hand feeding a very large ray which was loitering around the shoreline – so close in fact that it almost beached its self. We only stayed long enough to have one more drink then headed back to the boat for an afternoon of doing nothing except examining my bruise collection – it is growing daily! As dusk fell and the anchor lights began to appear we noticed that a few boats around us have Christmas lights up – we assume that they are planning on being here for Christmas as it is a lot of trouble to keep putting them up and then taking them down again to move somewhere else. Our lights are still safely stored away somewhere on the boat – maybe we will find them before next Christmas!

Saturday 16th December

Volleyball beach
Stocking Island, Georgetown.

23 31.212 N
75 45.437 W

Having spent a reasonable night at the Exuma docking services slip we listened to the weather forecast and were dismayed to hear that the winds were increasing to 25 knots and coming out of E.NE until Friday. This meant that our proposed 2 night stay in Georgetown would have to be extended until then as we would otherwise be bashing into the wind and seas all the way to our next stop and once were got there the anchorage would expose us to some uncomfortable rocking and rolling around. The wind direction also meant that we would be blown onto the dock if we stayed where we were so the decision was made to move the boat across the harbour to Stocking Island. Before moving we headed up the dock into “town” – more like a small shopping area where we first tried to go to the internet café – it was closed, and then headed to the grocery store. We picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables along with cold cuts and a few other essential supplies, loaded up the backpack, sold our share of Microsoft to pay the bill and headed back to the boat. We filled the water tanks, treated the water, paid the dock fee and then Gerry went to see a local man about a WIFI connection that we had been told about. On his return he told me that he had obviously interrupted the man as he poked his head out of the door, answered yes to Gerry’s request for an internet user name and password then vanished inside. He reappeared with a bag of what we assume was dope in one hand and a card with internet details in the other. For the fee of $15 for the week he gave Gerry the card (Not the dope!) and assured Gerry that if we had a range extender we would be able to pick up the connection across the harbour at Stocking Island. We tried it out in the dock prior to leaving and got a connection so we then set ourselves adrift from the dock and motored over to Stocking Island – about 10 minutes later we were dropping the anchor at Volley ball beach. The beach is what most people imagine a tropical island to be like – beautiful white sand with chairs and umbrellas surrounded by sparkling clear azure water and trees. There is a volleyball court and a locally famous bar – the “Chill & Chat”. It sounds good doesn’t it? The biggest problem with the harbor here, according to the tourism minister, is that the harbour has a “sanitation problem”. There is not a good current flow through the harbour so it doesn’t get flushed out regularly –YUK. As hundreds of boats use this harbour all year round the water contents don’t bear thinking about – it’s little better than a very large sewerage pond, even though it looks pristine clean and crystal clear. Anyway once we set our anchor we tried the internet again – not a blip! $15 down the drain. It was a pleasant enough day so we took the dink off the davits and did a tour of the area – looking at all the boats and various beaches, we knew no one! The remainder of the day was spent lounging around the cockpit reading our books. The wind began increasing during the night but we were well anchored and didn’t move anywhere.

Friday 15th December

Exuma docking services,Georgetown.

23 30.232 N
75 46.019 W

We decide to pull in alongside today in order to do laundry, replenish our dwindling supplies, fill up with water and hose down the boat which has become covered in salt from the pounding it took getting here, oh and put the air conditioner on to dry the boat out a bit.
After a leisurely breakfast we pulled up the anchor and headed towards the dock. You wouldn’t call it a marina – it’s just a few badly weather beaten docks some of which have power and water. When we radioed in for directions to a slip we were told to help ourselves to any of them, the dock master had just gone out! There was no one to help us tie up and just enough current to push us off the dock. With Gerry steering that left me with my painful back to try and catch a pole to tie up to. It must have looked like a circus as we changed our minds after tying up to the first slip – we were being pushed against the dock so we decided to try for the other side, by throwing lines across the dock and pulling the boat across rather than trying to catch the poles that we were being blown away from! It worked and we managed to tie the boat alongside without any help from anyone – for the privilege of being here it costs 80 cents a foot. The water is Town water – apparently it is sometimes drinkable and sometimes not, it is cheap at 10 cents a gallon. Taking note of Karen and Bob’s problems with the water they bought at Spanish Cay we first tested it – it came out OK at 300 PPM (that is parts per million – ideally it should be as low as possible but as long as it is less than 600 it should be OK), we then taste tested it – it has a sort of rubber hose taste which is bearable but as we treat all of our water and then charcoal filter all the drinking water anyway we don’t think it will be a problem so our tanks will be full again. I took off to the nearby laundry to do 3 loads of essential washing – clean sheets and towels become almost a luxury! Meanwhile Gerry hosed down the decks to rid us of some of the salt. We found the local baker – “Mom’s Bakery” which operates out of a van just near to the dock and I bought a couple of loaves of bread. We are about to head off into town to see if we can find an internet connection and to do some shopping at the Exuma Markets and the shop rite grocery store – both a short walk away.

Thursday 14th December

Monument, Stocking Island, Georgetown.

23 31.96 N
75 46.54 W

We had planned on an 07.00hrs start to the day to make sure we arrived at Georgetown before dark – everyone had told us that the channel into the harbour at Georgetown was a bit tricky to navigate. Unfortunately the wind was still howling at 07.00hrs. We prepared everything for leaving, Gerry received a weather fax via the satellite phone which said that the winds would be 15 knots and the seas 2- feet out through the other side of the cut, so armed with this information we decided to bite the bullet and set off. The trip for today involved going through a break in the Exuma island chain which would take us from the Exuma Banks to the Exuma Sound body of water – this was The Galliot Cut. We hauled our anchor up and began motoring towards the cut and almost immediately received a call on the radio from one of the other yachts that anchored with us overnight asking if we could give them a weather update. We told them what we had and said that we would let them know what it looked like once we were the other side of the cut. When we called them back we told them that the wind was 18 – 20 knots, the seas about 7 feet and that we thought the trip to Georgetown would probably be an uncomfortable one. We continued to monitor the radio and were amused to hear our information being relayed to several other boats in or approaching the area – we had become the weather Guru’s for the day! It also amused us to hear comments about ourselves – one boat said that he thought we must be “the Australian couple that we met in Nassau (?) –who were heading home to Australia” Another comment was made that we didn’t seem to be too worried by the 7 foot waves! (well we have been in worse), to which a reply came “ well if they are Australians they probably cut their teeth sailing in Tasmanian waters” (if only they knew we are die hard Queenslanders who prefer to sail the Whitsundays!). Anyway at the end of it all no one else followed us out of the cut, they all elected to stay until the weather was calmer. We ended up having to motor all the way to Georgetown as the wind was on our nose and we were bouncing through the waves, so much so that at one point I was thrown across the cockpit and ended up on the floor – it didn’t help my already painful back. The waves stayed pretty big for all but the last hour of our trip, I’m telling you Disneyland, Wet and wild, Seaworld etc. have nothing on a trip on our boat – maybe we could market it to appeal to the thrill seekers and make our fortune. Just for your amusement picture trying to sit on the toilet which is bouncing up 7 feet in the air and then dropping away beneath you 7 feet, it’s bad enough to leave you constipated for ever! Men have it so easy at times – not having to negotiate going below in the first place and also not having to sit on the toilet to use it must make life so very much more comfortable, no wonder most sailors are men!!
The highlight of the trip was seeing a dolphin fish (not a dolphin) leap out of the water chasing a flying fish, it was a beautiful iridescent blue on top and silver underneath which reflected the sun, unfortunately it was just too far away for us to catch! I don’t know if it caught the flying fish or not, we only saw it the once. As we were only making an average of 3.5knots we didn’t even both with a fishing line – we were unlikely to catch anything at that speed, but I will get Gerry to throw out a line eventually.
We reached the entrance to Georgetown Harbour just as the sun was setting and I took a couple of pictures of the sunset sky over Goat Cay as it was very pretty. We managed to negotiate the channel without any problems and elected to anchor at the first anchoring spot which was off of Monument Cay. It was an easy spot to anchor and we spent a peaceful, if breezeless night there.
Update: Gerry’s burns have split the skin now but are looking OK. – He’ll live!

Wednesday 13th December

Galliot Cay Cut

23 55.55 N
76 17.80 W

We paid the bill and checked out of the Marina at 10.00hrs, intending to take a slow leisurely sail to our next destination – a staging point where we would anchor for the night before setting off for Georgetown. Once we cleared the shoals which surround Staniel Cay we found that the wind was on our beam – perfect we could turn the noisy engine off and shake out the sails! We put up the main – with the first reefing point in, followed by the jib – also reefed, turned off the engine and we were flying along at 6.5knots. This lasted for a couple of hours then we hit a dead spot, the wind died and it began to spit with rain. A beautiful rainbow appeared over one of the Cays that we were passing – guess the pots of gold could well be hidden there! We furled the sails away, started the engine and motored the rest of the way to Galliot. Arriving there we found ourselves the only ones there – we had the choice of best places to anchor. Once we’d dropped our anchor we watched for a while to make sure we weren’t dragging and whilst we did this 2 more sail boats joined us. The first was no fun, he dropped his anchor and it set immediately, the second one had 3 attempts before setting his anchor and even then we wondered about it as his boat pointed in an entirely different direction to the two of us that were his audience! He must have been OK as he was still in the same spot in the morning. It howled with wind all night – must have been the stuff we were missing all the way down.

Tuesday 12th December

Staniel Cay.

24 10.33 N
76 26.75 W

Still a bit blustery today with the winds at about the same speed as yesterday. We decided to stay for a second night to give ourselves chance to see the famous “Thunderball Cave”. This cave / grotto is a large cave accessible only from the water but which has a sky opening allowing the cave to be lit by the sun, it is home to hundreds of tropical fish and has been used in several films the most famous of them being the 1964 James Bond movie Thunderball from where the cave gets it’s name. At 09.00hrs we set off in our dink, with snorkeling gear, to the small island that is home to the thunderball cave, it was about ½ mile away and we were soon there, in fact we were the only ones there. The sea was a bit “lumpy” and there was quite a tidal current going past on each side of the island, we did a very quick trip around it in the dink and decided to come back a bit later in the day when it was slack tide. We did a dink tour of the nearby islands and when we got back to the yacht club we found that there were several sharks hanging around the marina along with 3 or 4 stingrays, they obviously knew that people cleaned their fishing catch at the table on the dock and threw the yucky bits into the water – these sharks and rays were just waiting to be fed, the sharks were about 4 foot long and the rays were about 3 feet across – big enough to keep me out of the water anyway!
Back on the boat we waited impatiently (imagine that!) had a bit of lunch and then jumped back in the dink to head back out to the island again. When we arrived we were again the only ones there, we tied the dink up to one of the two mooring buoys there and were immediately surrounded by a heap of fish. All the literature about the cave / grotto say to take food to feed the fish, we had decided not to as I wasn’t too sure I wanted to be part of a feeding frenzy. We donned our snorkeling gear and jumped in over the side of the dink – Gerry going first to occupy any sharks that might be there! We swam around the island first accompanied by loads of fish – they were everywhere. Then we headed into the gaps between the rocks searching for the entrance to the cave, after a couple of misses we found the entrance but the tide was high and there was hardly any sun as the day was a bit overcast. Entry to the cave was difficult, we decided after venturing half way in that we didn’t want to continue so we backed out, thinking to return still later when the tide was lower. The entrance alone boasted more fish than imaginable – I think they are on to a good hiding place as there is no fishing allowed in the area and they are all obviously used to tourists arriving with food for them. Back at our boat we showered and changed and then discovered that low tide wasn’t until 20.00hrs. – there was no way we were going back there in the dark, a pity but at least we got to see some of it. I then did something a bit off balance and pulled something in my back, it hurts like mad and I’m having to be careful how I stand, sit, turn walk etc. I don’t think there is enough rum on Staniel Cay to kill the pain. We booked into the yacht club for dinner and again had a wonderful meal – the soup there was outstanding! Then it was back to the boat for a relatively early night in preparation for tomorrow’s passage further south.
Update on Gerry’s hand – the pain has gone apart from when I press hard on the burn marks, which remain white and blistered looking even though they haven’t blistered and the skin remains intact. Feelings are normal in his finger tips – or so he says and there is no contraction of the joints – I think he got away lightly!

Monday 11th December

Staniel Cay.

24 10.33 N
76 26.75 W

The time had come, the winds were supposed to drop to 20 – 25 knots so we made the decision to leave for our next destination. We apparently weren’t the only ones leaving today we watched 2 other boats leave and then we untied ourselves from the mooring buoy –not an easy task in the prevailing wind, and motored out of the shelter of the park’s mooring field towards our first waypoint. Once we had cleared the numerous little islands that made up the land mass of the park we found the wind was blowing 15 – 20 knots on the beam. This meant we could put up a sail, we were a bit cautious though as there were some gusts up to 25 knots. We pulled our jib out to about ¾ of the way to see how we would go, our speed increased from the 5.5 knots we were motoring at to 7.5 knots. We were flying along but also heeling over quite a bit at this point. Gerry cut back the motor until we were back to 6 knots and once we were settled again he turned it off completely, we were now still flying along but only under wind power. We quickly reached our next 2 waypoints where we had to change direction slightly and this brought the wind further round towards the bow and slowed us down enough that we decided to start the engine again to help is along to our final waypoint. On arriving at the final waypoint Gerry said we would put away the jib – get ready. So I did my usual job of holding on to and gradually letting out the jib sheet whilst he hauled the furling line in, except that this time it didn’t go exactly as planned. I was fine but as soon as Gerry got the furling line off the cleat the wind gusted and began to rip the line out of his hands, how he managed to hold on to it I don’t know, I heard this awful blood curdling scream of pain accompanied by a yell of “Just let it go” . I did just that and hurtled across the cockpit to try and help him pull the jib in which we managed and then it was time to assess the damage. Prudently we both religiously wear sailing gloves for handling the lines, I’d like to say they did a good job but the fact remains that Gerry had rope burns across the pads of 2 fingers on his right hand – good job he’s left handed! Anyway I dashed below and grabbed some ice blocks and pain relieving gel whilst Gerry continued to steer us towards our destination – Staniel Cay. Glove off, first aid administered and Gerry then asked if I wanted to anchor or go into the marina. We had thought we were going to anchor up until this point but he was obviously having second thoughts, I left the decision to him and he radioed the Staniel Cay Yacht club for a marina berth and within 10 minutes we were alongside and tied up. Time to review the damage – the ice and gel had done their thing and the pain was now gone, the skin was still intact, very white and looked like it might blister, feeling was normal (?) in all fingers. We had a post mortem about how we could have done it better but really haven’t come up with solution apart from trying to use the winch for the furling line which isn’t ideal. Our next problem was to unravel the jib sheets which had wound around each other when I had let go of them to help Gerry haul in the furling line, it didn’t take too long but was another job that need not have been. We had another “casualty” as we tied up to the dock, as I undid the spring loaded safety line the spring flew out of the catch followed by the pin which holds it closed – straight into the water – well where else would it have gone? Of course it isn’t an item that we carry spares of so we had to cable tie it together. There was a chance of swimming down to get it but the circling sharks kind of put us off that idea! After our eventful arrival at the yacht club marina there was only one thing to do – go to the bar and sink a few beers / rums which we duly did. A quick walk around the immediate area followed as we sought out the “Blue Store “ and the “Pink Store” - apparently grocery stores, we found both, along with the church and an art studio – everyone of them was closed so we saved a heap of tourist dollars there! We booked ourselves in for dinner at the yacht club and had a “snore o’clock” before cleaning up and returning to the yacht club for a delicious meal. A few more drinks and we just about fell into bed.

Sunday 10th December

Warderick Wells Cay.

24 24.10 N

76 38.30 W

Another day of the "hurry up and wait stuff". The winds have dropped marginally but are still a bit too gusty for us to want to take off as yet - maybe tomorrow.

We dinked into the ranger and paid our fees for yet another night and then headed back to the boat. Gerry had big plans for the day - attending to the generator. We had been having a few strange noises from it and had discovered that the casing which covers the electrical wiring vibrates and has begun to crack near one of the bolts which holds it on. Gerry had done a "quick fix" by cable tying around it - the time had come to do something more permenant. The outer casing came off the generator the all the tools that we possess were yanked from thier various storage spots and distributed to every surface in the salon. At this point if we had been tied up at a marina I would have headed off to the shops or laundry or movies or ANYWHERE! Bits began to come off the generator and eventually the electrical casing emerged from the hole, it was worse than we though (isn't it always?). it was infact broken around the bolt holes -not one but two. Gerry assured me that we didn't actually need the casing but that to do away with it he would have to relocate the oil and water pressure gauges to the outside casing. This called for a drill and the right hole bits - after a breath holding minute or so I managed to come up with the right size one - a miracle to be sure ,as we never have the right one and it usually requires a trip to the hardware store to acquire the right one. So 2 holes later, vacuum cleaner out to clean up the mess and we are then in business. I think I held my breath all afternoon as one thing progressed to another and I had to keep locating tools etc. for the master at work. In his defense he only swore a dozen times! The relocating of the gauges meant having to drain and then refill the water and the oil - that was fun! bowls, very narrow hose pipe (the size of oxygen hose), a very small funnel, the turkey baster (!!) a couple of containers, a heap of kitchen roll, pastic bags and a flashlight later and we had managed to do the task. It was then time to run the thing to see if it still worked, luckily it did though Gerry is still not completely happy with it. I think it will be the thing that has to be nursed all the way - that's something to look forward to. By the time we had finished messing about with the generator, packed every thing away again the day was just about over. It was tme for a very large rum and some dinner. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to leave here.

Saturday 9th December

Warderick Wells Cay.

24 24.10 N
76 38.30 W

The wind howled all night long, we saw 32knots on the wind indicator (which thankfully seems to be working properly again!) and as it was still howling when we finally decided to get out of bed the decision to stay put on the mooring here was a very simple one – neither of us wanted to go anywhere in this sort of weather. It was a very relaxed morning we did nothing except read our books and watch the other boaties peer out of their cockpits. As we had only paid for 2 nights one of us was going to have to go by dink to the ranger station and pay for a further night. It doesn’t take much deciding really – it IS the captain’s job!!!!! So we got the dink off the davits, uncovered and hoisted the outboard back onto the dink, Gerry donned his life jacket and then it began to pour with rain – glad I’m not the captain!!!! He did wait for a brief dry period before setting out for the station – it’s only half a nautical mile away but in the gusty winds it can seem like a million miles. Once he’d paid for another night Gerry headed back to the boat bringing with him the news that “happy hour is at 16.30hrs, bring your own booze and nibblies, they supply the ice”. This was met with much mirth – did they really think we were going to be sociable in this raging wind? But we did leave it open to debate when the hour came closer. We had lunch and then spent the afternoon in the cockpit reading and people watching whilst the winds continued to howl around us. We decided that it wasn’t worth the certain soaking we would get to go to happy hour so we turned on the computer instead and tried ringing a couple of people on skype – it wasn’t a very successful attempt as the connection was still minimal. We picked up the forecast for the next couple of days – it looks like the winds are with us for a bit longer so we may be here a while yet. I tried again to publish the blogs for the last few days and to my joy finally had success, however I couldn’t get the photos to load, that will have to be done later when there is a better connection. Finally after dinner and showers we are about to watch a movie – one I haven’t seen before I hope.

Friday 8th December

Warderick Wells Cay

24 24.10 N
76 38.30W

This morning we spent some time doing “housework” stuff and trying to upload the blog. Whilst we have a “very weak” internet access which allows us to read and answer our emails it just wouldn’t let me upload the blog. The ranger had told us that if we had any problems we could take the computer ashore and use it at the office so we packed everything into a water tight bag, launched the dingy and set off for the office.
Isn’t it amazing the difference a day can make? Yesterday I told you that there wasn’t enough wind to cause a ripple on the water, today the wind was already starting to pick up as we made our way to the ranger’s office. I digress – once we arrived at the office we plugged the computer in and found the blog site but it wouldn’t let us log in – it took so long that it kept timing out. I tried, Gerry tried and after so many attempts we decided to go for a long walk and try again when we returned. By now it was 11.00hrs.the ranger said she would look after our computer etc. but warned us that she had lunch from 12.00 – 13.00hrs, not a problem we would probably be back by then.
Off we took to walk to a place called Boo Boo hill, along a track called Shaggy dog trail. The hill is meant to be the highest point on the Cay, with an excellent view of the mooring basin. There are also a couple of blow holes nearby which are worth visiting. The track wasn’t a difficult track but you were walking on weathered limestone rocks which had to be climbed and balanced on, and you definitely needed to wear a good pair of trainers, which luckily we were. After trudging behind Gerry for a fair distance we arrived at the creek which we had to cross to continue on the trail, to our dismay it was high tide and we couldn’t get across it so we then had to retrace our steps back to the starting point on the beach. A second track – Julie’s trail, promised to take us to the Sunshine causeway from where we could make our way via Ian’s & Mark’s trails to Boo Boo Hill – there is more than one way to skin a cat! So off we set on Julie’s trail – it was supposed to be about a 12 minute walk and whilst I know we didn’t hurry it took us more like 20 minutes of scrambling over the rocks until we reached the causeway. Once we crossed it we reconsidered the rest of the walk – if it was all like the trail we had just come down then I really didn’t want to continue, Gerry wasn’t keen either so we turned around and headed back to the start once again, we were destined not to get to Boo Boo Hill. We arrived back at the ranger’s station at – you guessed – 12.05hrs! We had a quick “sit down and recover from the heat” and then took the dink back to our boat so we could have some lunch, with a plan to return later in the afternoon and try the internet again. Over last night there were just 3 other boats and us in the mooring field, by the time we returned to the ranger’s office at 14.00 hrs there were 8 and there was a slow procession of still more boats heading in to the park. We tried again to up load the blog and eventually gave up – you’ll have to wait until we get somewhere else for this thrilling installment – sorry! We swapped out 5 books at the office – there was a fair choice there so we have some new reading matter, then we packed our stuff back into the waterproof bag and headed back to our boat. At last count there were18 boats in the mooring field – everyone hiding out here until the weather front blows through. As the day progressed the winds increased – it put paid to any plans we had to snorkel on the reefs around here, this was a bit of a disappointment as they are supposed to be good snorkeling spots. We were getting gusts of up to 30 knots whilst we were eating our dinner, I’m glad we are safely tucked away on a mooring and not out on the anchor someplace. If the weather is no better tomorrow I think we will be staying another day.