North to the islands again!

SYNOPSIS: Jan suggests we add a quick synopsis for those of you who just want to know we’re doing well. Saturday – GT was a wild scene as the regatta came to a successful close. Sunday we sailed 2 hours north in very rough conditions to a quiet anchorage behind Lee Stocking Island. Monday, the Marine Research Center located here seems to be closed so Jan and I decide to stay put in calm waters hoping the Center will open, while Bob and new crew Warren Alpern head out into the Sound for an wild hour ride north so they can make for the central cays and be at Staniel Cay by Friday for Warren’s flight home. See details below. Also, we've been able to upload more pics to our Flickr photo album - click link at left.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25

The Family Islands Regatta in George Town is certainly an Event not to be missed. The 50+ beautiful and colorful sailboats with their huge mainsails are magnificent to watch, and we were able to get up close thanks to our ride with Wendle on his large outboard motorboat the first three days of the regatta. The town was hopping and crowded with people who came in from all over the islands. We ate dinner next to a gal from Jamaica!

The temporary shacks (booths) constructed of plywood set up along the Government Pier just for this week each had their own mega sound system with huge speakers trying to outdo the next booth with island tunes. The booths all had numbers, but the numbers weren’t in any kind of logical order! Many booths sold liquor. Many sold great island food like conch (stewed, cracked, in salad, any kind you want), fish, chicken, mac and cheese, peas and rice, and guava duff for dessert. There were so many people Saturday night that moving about was a very slow process, but so much fun to see all the island residents out whooping it up. The ladies were all quaffed to the utmost, with fancy dresses, elaborate hairdos and a few high heels, island style.

Cell phones are widely used and cost about the same for a monthly plan as we pay in the states. But it would be very expensive for us to set up a cell account just while we’re here so we use Skype when we’re able. There is quite limited internet bandwidth coming into the islands, which severely limits our use of Skype or uploading photos to our Flickr album.

We remained anchored on the east side of Elizabeth Harbor on the west side of Stocking Island, which is where up to 350 cruisers anchored this year. The count now at the end of cruising season down here is more like 60 boats. The tidal range is about 2 ½ feet, so beaches are frequent and wonderful.

We have been mostly eating aboard as a meal out is $15-25. We have been trading dinners aboard ROLESTRA then Mystique with Jan and Bob cooking and I doing the BBQ. The well-stocked Exuma Market is the small grocery store which is just by the dinghy dock and very convenient. Groceries are at least 50% more expensive here than in the states because EVERYTHING is brought in by boat.

Unfortunately the northeast trade winds have been blowing strong for most of the week which has either caused us to make very wet dinghy trips the ¾ mile over to George Town or hire Elvis and his water taxi to keep us dry, but he charges $12 round trip each. We used him Saturday night as the wind was blowing about 25kts and we were coming back from GT after dark. Warren Alpern, an old friend who Bob and I worked with at Holubar Mountaineering in the ‘70s in Boulder, arrived amidst the mayhem Saturday night to crew with Bob this week up to Staniel Cay where he’ll fly out Saturday morning and Bob’s next crew will fly in. Bob will then depart for his trip back to Jupiter, FL.

SUNDAY, APRIL 26

Bob and Warren were anxious to head north out of George Town to explore the cays, so we both weighed anchor at 6:30 and headed out into Exuma Sound in 20kt ENE winds which built back to 25kts during our 2-hour “sail” under staysail on a broad reach in 8’ seas up to Rat Cay Cut, just off the northern tip of Great Exuma Island. The ride was a wild one with both boats often rocking over 45 degrees and many of our stored items down below falling to the cabin sole – and we thought we were prepared!

We were greatly relieved to glide in to the smooth waters behind Rat Cay and motor north over the shallow banks at high tide to a protected anchorage behind Lee Stocking Island. We were anchored by 10:30 and had the rest of the day to relax and dinghy ashore. There is a short rise between us and the Sound which we hiked over for a breathtaking view of the rough seas breaking on the tall rocky cliffs that form the northeastern shore of most of these islands. And looking back to the west you could see that amazing turquoise colored water of the Great Bahama Bank.

MONDAY, APRIL 27

The winds stayed up greater than 25 all night and we closed many ports and hatches to quiet the boat.

Today is Warren’s birthday and we gave him a happy birthday call on the VHF. We had hoped to tour the Caribbean Marine Research Center here today. It is one of NOAA’s National Undersea Research Centers. The center is affiliated with Florida State, the U. of South Carolina, Oregon State, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and the USGS. It offers scientists a complete marine field laboratory with easy access to pristine marine environments including coral reefs shoals, mangrove swamps, sea grass beds, and much native sea life. They have a 2-man submarine which can cruise up to seven hours at 1,000’ depth. The Center does some amazing research and I would guess you could Google them for more info.

We have not been able to raise anyone at the Research Center for permission to come aboard and take a tour this morning which we very much wanted. Since Bob and Warren are on a time schedule and we’re not, they decided to head north in the rough waters of the Sound (the Banks are too shallow here to stay behind) to another cut where they can travel farther north on the calm waters of the Banks. We decided we didn’t need another trip out into the Sound today and decided to stay put, hoping the Research Center would open this afternoon.

This is a great day for reading, writing and “mechanical opportunities”. Aside from installing the new diesel engine raw water cooling pump when I first arrived aboard Mystique, this trip has been refreshingly free of mechanical breakdowns (knock wood). I was able to connect the ‘drain to nowhere’ in the forward head to the shower sump pump via a new ½” drain fitting and T connection so now our guests can take showers in the forward head next to the “V” berth.