Cat Island stuff

One of the nine boats anchored at Cat was the very first boat we docked next to when we arrived in Bimini, so we stopped by to compare trip notes.   The boat is a 30+/- year old Allied someting - a ketch with an aft facing steering wheel.  Help us out here, Mark, I'm sure you know what it is.  The crew are a middle age couple and their 8 to 10 year old daughter from Maine.

We were anchored right by the settlement of New Bight.  Not really a whole lot there, at least within walking distance.  A police station, a house where the owner sells home baked bread, and a Batelco office and cell tower.  Neither of the pay phones we found worked, but when we went to the phone office to inquire we noticed a phone in a closet.  Eventually the Batelco lady said we could use the closet phone.  It turns out the closet was actually a phone booth - just not sure why Ms Batelco didn't suggest it in the first place.  We also didn't have any cell phone or Kindle signal, but I'm thinking we might have been TOO close to the tower - about 3/8th of a mile.

Probably the most interesting thing at New Bight, and on the trip so far, is the home of Father Jerome.  Father Jerome was first an architect who designed churches all through the Bahamas.  Later he became a Catholic priest.  His house is on top of Como Hill (Mt Alvernia), the highest point in the Bahamas (206 feet).  The small house is a steep climb up a rocky path and  had four rooms plus a bell tower.  There were two other small buildings, a cooking area and a pump house/cool storage building - we think.  The buildings were all local stone and concrete.  Very small rooms at slightly different levels, and facing west over the water.  On the path up he had carved stations of the cross and just before the house there is a small replica of Jesus's tomb, complete with the stone rolled away.

Half way to the hill top we met a farmer.  He was clearing brush and branches from the field with a machete.  Later he would burn off the brush to create more "field."   There were more rocks than field or plants, and it took us a while to realize there were tomatoes, corn, cabbage and okra growing there.  We bought a couple pounds of fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes for two bucks.  We only wanted a dollar's worth, but he gave us so many...

This morning we were going to sail to Conception Island.  It is a national park and is reported to have beautiful reefs to dive and snorkel on and is also home to nesting  and growing turtles.  We picked up an escort of three dolphins first thing.  They were a slightly different variety than we've been seeing, with mottled side markings.  Once we got to open water the wind was right on the nose.  Depending on which tack, and the wind speed, our ETA was either sundown or 8 PM, so we had a nice sail back to a different spot on Cat Island.  For perhaps the first time here in the Bahamas we have an anchorage all to ourselves!

Our cats pick the destination

This morning we left George Town for the fourth (& last?) time.  Zim and Fluff saw what looked like an interesting sounding place on the chart so we headed to Cat Island.  We were having a pretty nice sail until the wind started to go really light.  Just before lunch we had to start the diesel, and by mid afternoon we ended up taking the mainsail down.  This is the first time we haven't been able to sail to our destination since crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida.  That also means it's the first time we have fully charged batteries since arriving in the Bahamas.

What a change from George Town.  I had mentioned the 300 plus boats there - we're the 9th boat here.  Tomorrow we'll explore the settlement here.  We will also try to find and climb Mt Alvernius, the highest hill in the Bahamas.

A day in the life...

Well, not the whole day...

Friday the weather guru predicted 15 to 18 knots of wind out of the NE.  That was a good wind direction for us to sail back to George Town to fill our water tanks and do laundry.  We ended up having winds up to 28 knots but it was behind or beside us so we had a nice fast sail.  Actually we ended up shortening sail to slow down a bit to time our arrival with a slack tide.  And for a short time the waves were from the side and big enough to cause the boat to roll so much that Zimmie got seasick.

Saturday morning we moved the boat closer to George Town proper so we wouldn't have as long a dinghy ride, as we were going to have to make several trips to bring back enough water to fill both tanks on the boat.  We anchored around 9:00 AM and made our first trip ashore.  Sue headed to the laundromat while I started filling our water containers.  We have three 5 gallon containers to carry water and two 40gallon tanks on the boat.  With the dinghy ride ashore, waiting to fill the 3 containers, going back to the boat to empty the containers, and then goihg back ashore, each trip took over half an hour.  Sue finished our two loads of laundry about the time I was coming back for our last water.  We tried to make phone calls but once again the pay phone didn't work.  A quick trip through Exuma Market for a few groceries and a stop at the gas station to fill up the outboard tank and we were ready to head back to the boat.  Just in time it turns out as the tide was almost out and we were going to be aground soon.  We were re-anchored around 2:00 and were ready for lunch.  (Just think how lucky we all are to just turn a tap for unlimited water.)

After lunch we visited a couple of boats and then went swimming.  We weren't too keen on being in the water here with so many boats (over 325 at last count) anchored here and who knows how many flushing their toilets into the harbor.  However, it looks like Kiwi is going to replace the propeller we lost since it was less than a year old, and they wanted us to confirm a measurement.

This afternoon we went ashore and walked 3 or 4 miles along the beach.  I mentioned the number of boats here.  More are arriving every day and in the next week or so there could be 500 or more.  They are all coming for the annual Cruisers' Regatta, so we're thinking it's time to get out of here.  Our hope is that some of the other islands will be less crowded as all the boats head here.

Sue made a peach crisp for dessert tonight and it turned out yummy.

Long Island Road Trip

Tuesday we went ashore to arrange a rental car.  Then we decided we would go to the ocean beach.  A strange thing to do you say, since we've been on or near the ocean since October.  Most of the time we've spent in the Bahamas we've been in Exuma Sound or on the Bahama Banks - shallow waters protected by the islands from the wind and waves of the Atlantic.  At any rate...  Long Island is about 80 miles long but only about 1 to 4 miles wide.  (BTW, that's not why it's named "Long Island".)  Salt Pond, where we are, is at a narrow point so we decided to hike across to see the ocean proper.  I won't bore you with how deep blue the water color is, or how the waves just keep rolling in, or how pretty the sand is, or how much cooler it is on the sea breeze side.  Nope, just like Mrs. Robinson in the movie The Graduate, I want to talk about plastic.  Plastic floats, and has a half-life longer than our national debt.  As a result virtually all the ocean side beaches we've been on have been covered with plastic - crates, shoes, rope, building materials, and BOTTLES!  I'm convinced if a product has ever been put in a bottle you can eventually find one of those bottles on some beach.  (I first noticed this on beaches in Greece in 1972, so it's nothing new.  We didn't see paper, so maybe paper bags ARE a better choice at the grocery store.)

For dinner Tuesday Sue fried one of the plantains that we bought Saturday.  She cut it into inch slices and then fried them until golden.  Then she drained them and smashed them and put them back in the frying pan briefly.  They turned out crispy and brown but rather tasteless.  Salt helped a bit.  Hopefully the second one will taste better and sweeter after it ripens a bit more.

Wednesday morning we picked up our rental car, a small left hand drive Suzuki.  They drive on the "wrong" side of the road here but traffic was light so no problems there.  They have no lane markings or passing markings and very few speed limit signs.  We drove the entire length of the island on The Queen's Highway.  It is the only north-south road.  We saw the very top of Dean's Blue Hole.  A blue hole is some sort of well-like hole in the ocean, and this one is supposedly the deepest one.  I wish I had had Christian's hookah breathing device...  There seemed to be a lot of churches on the island so when we got to the southern end we started counting.   We came up with over 40 in the 80 mile drive to the north end.  We also did a cave tour of the biggest cave (so the tour guide/owner said) in the Bahamas.  We were going to drive out to see a monument to Christopher Columbus but the road was SO bad I wouldn't even drive someone else's car there!  We walked a couple of lovely deserted beaches.  Sue found several beautiful shells to add to her collection.  She also found a sea bean, which is a seed from a tree in Africa about the size of a flattened golf ball.  She has been looking for them on the beaches since we got here.

For various reasons this is about as far south as we plan to go.  Since Sunday the winds have been blowing quite strong out of the NE.  The forecast is for strong NE winds until Tuesday or Wednesday.  It looks like lots of people have the same idea about not going further south as the achorage is gradually filling up.  This weekend there were about 25 boats anchored around us.  This morning there are almost 40.  I think we might try to sail back to George Town tomorrow to get water and then start working our way north.

Thanks for commenting, Eileen.  There is a book exchange here so we have new reading material. I can't check blog stats with the Kindle - probably readership is way down.

Letter from Long Island...

Saturday morning we found the Farmers' Market.  It was pretty low key with only three people bringing items to sell.  We bought a couple stalks of sugar cane - not overly sweet, and not as juicy as we thought.  We also bought a couple of plantains.  Sue doesn't think they are ripe yet so I'm not sure what we'll do with them.  The most interesting thing we found was a stalk of bananas.  The whole stalk the lady brought was maybe 2 feet long.  The bananas are about 3 inches long so they remind me of baby carrots as opposed to real, full sized carrots. About a third of the bananas were ripe, and 2 or 3 people ahead of bought them.  The seller said that the green ones would ripen in a day or so, and indeed they have.  We have to eat 3 or 4 to make one "normal" one, so the 20 or so we bought only amount to  4 or 5  bananas back home. It was pretty neat watching them go from grass green and bitter to golden yellow and sweet.

We had heard that Monty and Sara Lewis were in Long Island, and Saturday we saw their boat.  They publish the Explorer Charts for the Bahamas. These are the gold standard charts for the area and I'm guessing 85 to 90% of the boats have 2 or 3 of their chartbooks on board.  At $60 a piece (current edition price) and 3 chartbooks needed to cover the Bahamas, I thought their boat was quite modest.

Sunday and today it has been quite windy.  Not wanting to get a salt water soaking going ashore we've stayed on the boat.  Sue spent most of the day ordering a couple more balls of yarn so she can finish the sweater she's been workking on since July.  Doing on-line things with the Kindle can take forever and try the patience of a saint -that's why I love it so...

I'm reading a book a day the last few days, so we need to get to a book exchange pretty soon.  We also would like to rent a car for a day to see a bit more of the island.  We're hoping to find another couple to split the cost, but that might not happen.

Just another work day in paradise...

First, Bill, we are not anchored at Calabash.  We were thinking of going there, but maybe we should reconsider.  Have you been to the Jumentos or Ragged Islands?  So far we haven't found what looks like deep enough water to feel comfortable trying to get there.  We'll look for the two boats you mentioned and give them your regards if we see them.

One of the features of a popular anchorage is the cruisers' nets.  Every morning people listen to a VHF  (boaters'CB) channel to hear what's going on in their part of the world.  There might be news, weather, local business ads, activities, things that boaters have for sale or want to buy, and questions or problems that boaters might have.  I called in asking if anyone could hold their breath for a really long time, or had SCUBA gear, and explained about loosing our propeller.  Within a few minutes Christian, on Iwanda, called saying they had a Hooka unit.  This is a small air compressor that forces air through a regulator with a mouth piece.   It's like SCUBA diving using an air hose instead of a back tank.

Christian brought his apparatus, including diving weights, to our boat.  He didn't offer to install our prop - he didn't want to be the one to drop one of our four vital parts.  Fair enough , I guess, which meant I was going in the water!  I'm not much of a swimmer, more of a thrasher.  And taking a shower is about as far under water as I like my head to be.  After a couple of tentative submersions I realized I could actually breath underwater and the lead weights (can we all say "Mafia"?) helped me stay down by the prop shaft.  With Christian handing me the parts as I needed them we eventually had our old prop back on the shaft.  There were no major problems but it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible for me to have done without the air, the weights, and the assistance.

After Christian left, we started the engine and tried both forward and reverse.  Then I jumped back in the water just to make sure every thing was still OK.  Later we moved the boat closer to shore, mostly just to make sure we could motor all right.  (Earlier in the morning a couple of boaters on the radio were talking about how they had had to motor-sail and then motor over from George Town because of the wind angles.  I'm glad we hadn't had to motor.)

As with most jobs you start at the bottom, and work your way to the top.  As soon as we had tested the prop I cranked Sue to the top of the mast to fix our broken head sail halyard.  We were able to drop a messenger line down the mast, attach it to the good end of the broken halyard, and eventually pull the end-for-ended halyard back up the mast.  It didn't go quite that smoothly and Sue was up the mast for over an hour.  But it was easier than doing the same maneuver in the middle of a Mackinac Race - right, Rick P2?

After lunch we lowered the sail on the spinnaker halyard and hoisted it back up on the repaired halard.  By 2:30 we were finished with everything put away.  We should have  gone ashore as the mailboat had just finished delivering supplies to the stores...  We will tomorrow and maybe try to get a rental car to tour the island.

Red letter day (Well, maybe not quite so red after all!)

Today we finally got away from George Town and sailed to Long Island.  As has happened the last couple of sails the wind continued to shift so we were always sailing a perfect weather leg.  We ended up sailing just over 50 miles to go less than 35 miles straight line.

Around noon Sue noticed that we were south of 23 degrees, 30 minutes latitude, so we are now officially in the tropics!

Mid-afternoon, as we were tacking our way through some shallow coral areas, the genoa halyard broke.  The headsail started flogging , came down on deck, and started going overboard.  I got it back on board and we were able to raise it using our spinnaker halyard.  Tomorrow we have to see if we can drop a messenger line down the mast and pull the broken halyard back up inside the mast to the top.  (Are you happy, Jack?)

Just before dark we arrived near where we were going to anchor by Long Island.  When I put the engine in gear as Sue was flaking the mainsail, the boat didn't go forward.  I checked to make sure the shift lever was moving the transmission shift arm -it was.  We quickly rolled out some headsail so we could sail to a spot to drop the anchor.  As soon as we were anchored Sue went in the water to find that we no longer have a propellor!!  Some how, after all the motoring we have done, and after being on the shaft for 10 months, the prop worked loose and came off!  (How 'bout now, Jack?)

 Jack was kind enough to send us a report from another Tartan 37 owner describing all his adventures and mis-adventures taking his boat south.  Jack thought our trip sounded too uneventful.  I guess you have to be here.

Fortunately we have an old, spare prop on the boat.  The trick will be getting it and its key onto the shaft without dropping anything in the water.  So, goody, goody...  two interesting, challenging boat projects for tomorrow.  Of course that probably means we won't have time to do any cat-licking tests.  Sorry.

Salty cat update...

Since Sue has a much better sense of taste and smell (she checks every morning to see if the milk has gone bad) I'm sure she won't mind doing the cat taste test.

And for those of you who are familiar with Lake Erie in August, when there's no wind, and it's just too hot to do anything - that's the kind of day we had today.

Third time in George Town - maybe we'll be charmed

Sunday morning we left Farmer's Cay.  We had a 15 mile beat to Normans Pond Cay, which seemed to take forever.  Yesterday we had a 20 mile beat back to G-Town.  It had to be one of our slowest sails - ever!!  Even though we averaged over 5 knots it took over 8 hours, and we ended up sailing almost 45 miles.  The wind was right on the nose - a race committee couldn't have set a more perfect weather leg.  In spite of being in over 300 feet of water the waves, which were 3 to 5 feet, were only 20 to 50 feet from crest to crest.  The boat was constantly slamming into wave after wave after wave, which kept the speed down.  We had wind speeds from 10 to 20 knots so we had to reef or add more sail area as the wind speed changed.  On a positive note it was hot, bright and sunny.  Normally back on Lake Erie when it's windy it's cloudy or stormy - and no body goes sailing then.

We wanted to be in George Town Tuesday to take advantage of a forecast north wnd to let us sail over to Long Island.  This morning the wind is very light and variable, with mostly east winds forecast.  We might just have to motor if we ever want to make it to Long Island.

Right now, at 8:00 AM, it is already 78 degrees and sunny.   Salt is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture from the air.  Since the humidity is over 90% anything that has been in contact with salt (and with the salt in the air that means almost everything) feels damp and clammy.  It is surprising that there isn't mildew everywhere!  Even after a shower and clean clothes we soon feel sticky again.  The cushion covers anf floors feel damp.  I often wonder when the cats clean themselves if their fur tastes salty?

February festivities

First, to answer comments.

 What are you saying, Brenda?  Do you think I need religion?  Didn't you know I'm  an agnostic?

I didn't see Mom selling bread from her car but Sue thought she saw her bread for sale in Exuma Market.  The computer/grocery store is still there, as is the hot dog stand.  We ate at the little bar-b-que place by the little park.  And yes, we hiked to the monument and to the ocean side beach (as well as to NAPA and the lumber yard).

Now, for new business.  The festival was a little smaller than we thought it would be but then the population is less than 75.  When we were here two weeks ago, there 3 boats anchored on the outside.  This weekend there are more than 25 where we are, another 20 or so further north, and another 25 or more boats anchored or moored on the inside of the cay.  One of the speakers said that this was the largest number of boats that have been here in 10 years.  The school we visited two weeks ago was selling craft items they had made. There were a couple of ladies selling baskets and a lady selling guava duff (sort of like rhubarb shortcake).  A couple of men were selling conch salad, which we haven't yet mustered the courage to try.  It starts with live, raw conch, diced with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and lemon juice...  Well, I guess they're not still live after they're diced - but they had been 10 minutes before...

One of the highlights of the festival is Bahamian C-Class racing.  These are island built boats that look to be about 20 feet long.  The booms look to be about 30 feet long.  They have a crew of four or five; most of the crew ride out on two planks, which stick out from either side of the hull.  The crew move in or out on the planks as needed to keep the boat upright against the force of the huge sail.  The boats start the race anchored on the starting line and finish the race sailing through all the cruising and spectator boats anchored by shore.  Just a tad different than we're used to.

The other interesting thing at the festival was the Exuma Youth Band.   This band had 30 to 40 members.  They all arrived this morning from George Town on two police boats - and not particularly big boats at that.  They played in town first and then later at the airport, which is about half a mile from town.  To get to the airport and then later back to town, 12 to 15 students jumped in the back of a pick up truck.  I couldn't help but think of you, Rick P2.  They were surprisingly good for a small, young, group, with questionable instruments - one of the Sousaphone bells looked like it fell off the truck.  The band did some interesting marching formations and played a couple of songs the crowd really liked - "Louie-Louie" and "Satisfaction" to name a couple.

Sue and I were also interviewed by the local TV station.  I know it was the "Local Station" because that's what the microphone said.  And I clearly saw the microphone because the attractive, young reporter was holding it right in front of her bikini top.

Gone, and back again...

We had been planning to sail over to Long Island on Sunday until Sue heard about a local church service that sounded interesting.  The Baptist Church (that would be a WAY SOUTHERN Baptist!) was having a musical program with gospel singing and insruments.  By the time we found the right church there were nine other cruisers there, all French- Canadian.  As luck would have it we all ended up sitting in the back pews by the door.

The church was about 40 feet wide by 60 feet long, with a tile floor and plaster or block walls - not acoustically friendly by any means.  But they had six huge speakers that would have done a rock band proud!  The children's choir sang a couple of songs.  Then there were a couple of announcements.  Then a couple of duets by young girls.  Then a prayer or two.  Then the collction.  Then a song with the congregation.  Then the pastor made a couple of annoucements.  Another duet by two more young ladies.  Then three adult women started to sing, and sing, and sing...  (And I thought Bob Dylan did long songs!)  As the women were singing the church-goers were waving their hands in the air, chanting "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!", and in general being moved by the hymns.  This went on for 10 or 15 minutes, and was only uncomfortably loud.

At this point we were about an hour and a half into the service.  Now the pastor introduced a special guest evangelist,  who proceded to start preaching/screaching.  If I had worn my ear plugs I might have been OK, but with the six speakers he was painfully loud.  I told Sue I had to leave, but before we could get up the French-Canadians behind us had already started to file out of the church.  Within 10 minutes all 11 of us had left the church.  We felt a little bad, but at least none of the regular parishoners followed us out.

Monday we tried to sail to Long Island, but the wind was right on the nose.  We didn't
feel like beating for 45 miles so instead we sailed offshore for about 20 miles, and then sailed back to George Town.  We had a nice 40+ mile sail to end up about a quarter mile from where we started.

The wind direction is not supposed to change for the next few days so tomorrow we plan to sail back to Little Farmers Cay.  There is a big festival there this weekend with dancing, music, games, and local sailboat racing.  We'll have to see if we actually make it there.