Wednesday, February 23rd
Joy of joys! We can get showers here at the Long Island Breeze Resort and Wifi. Goodbye sponge baths – at least for the next few days.
Just learned about another earthquake in Christchurch. At least we will be able to e-mail John and Jane and make sure they are O.K.
Thursday, February 24th
Lynton took Buddy for his walk and went to look for the other grocery store that eluded us yesterday. He was successful and they had frozen fish. Tuna fillets were $4.40 each while tilapia (cheaper than cheap in the States) was $12.00. We took the tuna.
The resort restaurant cooked up pizzas to order, which were excellent. The music – not so much.
Friday, February 25th
The wind is up and we are bouncing around like a cork! Decided to stay on the boat all day and avoid the drenching trip to the shore. We have rented a car for 3 days to travel around and see the sights on the island.
Saturday, February 26th
Got on the road just after 10:00 a.m. and proceeded south. At ‘land’s end’ there is a lovely beach (Gordon’s Beach) where we ate our sandwiches and looked at the water.
We visited various attractions on the way back, first being Clarence Town (the capital). All the towns are very small, but very well-kept.
There are some very old and interesting churches there.
The second stop was the blue hole at Deans.
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
This is a sink hole (663 feet deep) in the middle of shallow water. John and Lynton went snorkeling.
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
The white thing in the middle is a floating platform with lines going down to the bottom as part of the international deep diving competitions they have.
The most spectacular visit was to the caves at Hamilton’s. It took about 40 minutes to walk through them and back. (Buddy came too).
These whorls in the roof were caused by the swirling water when the caves were flooded with seawater eons ago.
Some of the cavities are filled with tiny bats.
In fact there are four different species of bats in the caves.
The stalagmite/stalactite formations are dramatic.
Our guide was Leonard Cartwright whose ancestors were the loyalists who opted to stay on the island. The caves were originally occupied by the Lucayan Indians (around 42,000 of them) who were mostly killed off by disease brought in by Christopher Columbus and those that followed.
According to history, a lot of them committed suicide rather than be taken as slaves.
This is a carving thought to be around Chris’s time.
The caves can now be used as shelter in case of a hurricane blowing through.
Sunday, February 27th
The north island is prettier than the south. Walked along a secluded beach and then on to the C.C.’s monument, along 4 km of hellish road. By the time we reached the base of the monument, the front driver’s side headlight lay hanging out of its socket!
The monument itself was quite impressive
but the inscription on it seemed somewhat ironic.
Who came up with that one?
Next stop was for a cold Kalik (Bahamian beer) at beautiful beach bar and restaurant run by the Stella Maris Resort.
Then back to the boat for supper.
Monday, February 28th
Off to another luxurious resort at Cape Santa Maria where we were told there was some good snorkeling. On the way there, stopped off at a new roadside restaurant with another gorgeous view of the water
and had a bite of lunch.
Snorkeling done, it was time to set off for the Thompson Bay Club for a buffet supper prepared by a local Bahamian woman. It was an excellent buffet of conch, lobster, fish etc.
This lady is a sea shell artist. The local fishermen bring back exotic conch shells which she cleans and polishes. Rejeanne bought a beautiful one from ($50 but worth every penny).
The dinghy ride back to our respective boats was not exactly a picnic! It was pitch black and half way across the bay, the wind picked up. It is quite difficult trying to find your boat in the dark.
We set off back to Georgetown tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, March 1st
Started off at 7:30 a.m. along with at least 10 other boats. We left gathering clouds behind us and sailed into blue skies and sunshine.
Arrived back at Georgetown at around 2:30 p.m., just in time to do another load of washing before leaving tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 2nd
It looks as though the high winds are going to arrive earlier than expected, so we will not be leaving after all, but will move back over to Stocking Island where there is better protection (Chris Parker is forecasting 30 knot winds with gusts up to 35 knots.)
In the afternoon there was supposed to be a pet parade followed by fries and hamburgers donated by the owners of the Indiantown Marina. We took a ride over and shortly after we tied up at the beach, this handsome fella appeared.
Apparently, he will feed from your hand. “Not from my hand, he won’t” was John’s comeback. But the pet parade was completely washed out when the heavens opened and it chucked it down for about an hour – 1 ½ inches of rain fell. Everyone got drenched, but the feast went ahead and we slowly dried out.
Later on, the music started – all the oldies but goodies as suited our age group. So Rejeanne and I got the dancing going on the beach.
Note from Lynton: I always new Carol had a gay side.
Eventually dragged the men in onto the act.
Unfortunately, on arriving back at the boat, found that the front hatch over the V-berth wasn’t fully closed and the bedding was soaked. So I had to strip the bed and remake it!!! The joys!!
Thursday, March 3rd
It’s windy all right! Lynton got us anchored pretty close to shore luckily. So it won’t be too bad taking Buddy for his walks. It’s too choppy to leave the boat and go into Georgetown.
Friday, March 4th
Lynton decided to take the bull by the horns and dinghy into town. Even standing up in the dinghy, he got soaking wet. The wind is relentless!
Saturday, March 5th
It is the beginning of regatta week and the sailboat race around the harbor went ahead as planned. Here’s a couple dueling it out as they pass us.
Wednesday, February
The wind is supposed to die down tomorrow and they will be holding the sail race around Stocking Island. Maybe we’ll be able to set off for Warderick Wells on Monday. Unfortunately, every internet is down so we can’t get an up-to-date weather reading.
Sunday, March 6th
The wind suddenly stopped and the water is calm once more. It looks like we’ll have a few days of weather window so that we can start making our way up to Warderick Wells, an undersea (above too) wildlife sanctuary, so it’s off to town to stock up once more and drop off the garbage and recyclables.
Lynton feels he might be coming down with something (cold or ‘flu) so we’ll have to see how he’s doing tomorrow.
Monday, march 7th
Well, he doesn’t feel any worse, so we’ve decided to press on.
After rolling around on the ocean side of Great Exuma Island for several hours, the last part of the trip is on dead calm shallow water producing this bizarre image of the boat’s bow shadow.
Our first stop is White Point on Great Guana Cay. It has a beautiful white beach, just for Buddy and we are anchored very close to it.
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
Up at 6:15 a.m. again. There are mooring cans at Warderick Wells which have to be reserved in advance. We can’t get in today, but are on the list for tomorrow so we have decided to anchor at Staniel Cay. Went into town for lunch and get a couple of grocery items. On the way back, stopped to see the rays and nurse sharks feeding next to the pier.
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
Picture courtesy of Rejeanne
John and Lynton went to snorkel once more at the Thunderball grotto.
Wednesday, March 9th
The wind has been howling all night. Picked up about 7:00 p.m. yesterday. It is supposed to stay like this for the day and then calm down again tomorrow.
The day was not without its nail-biting moments. First of all, John couldn’t haul up his anchor and finally had to dive down to it. It was firmly lodged into a hole under a rock and he managed to get it out with difficulty.
It was a brisk sail up to Warderick Wells. Both boats had a fight with the mooring cans. The wind and the current were both so strong and John and I, at the front of our respective boats both lost our boat hooks. Ours fell in half and floated away. John’s sank! A kind cruiser came and helped us attach the boat to the can. It is absolutely gorgeous here.
Lynton went to help John retrieve his hook from the bottom and were greeted by two large fish. (Too bad it’s a sanctuary here – no fishing!). Sometime later, two dinghiers found and returned our wandering hook.
Thursday, March 10th
The wind has calmed and it is another lovely day. We had little visitors aboard the boat this morning looking for handouts.
When we went ashore to register the birds on the deck of the offices expect to be fed.
Friday, March 11th
We had quite a downpour this morning as the front came through. But once it stopped, it turned into “another bloody lovely day”, to quote a line from the movie ‘White Mischief’. Went for a walk on the island up Boo Boo hill where cruisers leave their boat names on pieces of flotsam and jetsam.
On the way we came across a hermit crab trying to escape from us into the mangroves.
More beautiful views from the top of the hill.
Went to look at the blow holes which scared us out of our wits with each blow. Although no water came out someone had put a coconut down one of them and it popped out.
The water was churning from the effects of the front and we got drenched yet again getting back to the boat.
