01/29/2009 Pipe Cay to Georgetown

01/28/2009 We need to start moving towards Georgetown with a little better speed. There is a cold front coming in late Friday and I want to be set up near Georgetown with only a day to get there in case we are stuck in an anchorage for a day while the front blows through.

Our destination today is Little Farmers Cay, but we are going to make a stop at Staniards Cay to check out the cave used in the James Bond movie Thunderball. We made the detour and headed for Club Thunderball. We were not sure where to find the cave and it is recommended to swim it at low tide with a slack current. We checked in with the club and we were given directions to the cave. We headed over to a real little cay to swim it and try for the cave. We were there though at high tide and a fast out-going current. As with the Exuma Park, I let Titus and Cliff go in and I stayed in the dinghy to allow them to swim and find the cave. They never found the cave, but saw a barracuda, turtle and a large array of long coral.

On the way to Little Farmers Cay, Cliff decided he wanted to take a wet ride in the nets. He is the first person to take a "bath". He was having so much fun almost getting thrown out of the nets when the waves crashed through, he caused me to laugh so hard I could not even breathe.

After that I swim we had to take off for Little Farmers Cay. We had the wind on our nose again and it would take a long time for sailing as we had to tack back and forth against the wind. It was a pleasant sail and with the wide open waters to tack in, it gave me some time to catch up on scrubbing the boat. Trying to keep up on the rust is a full time job in the salt water. We wanted to anchor on the north end, inside part of the cay. I had one chart that showed a possible path across the shoals to make it there. The normal passage is to go to the southern end of the cay and work your way north to the anchorage. We slowly worked our way via eyeball navigation, with one slight grounding in two and a half feet of water. We were able to back off of the sand and work our way through. We set the anchor and went for a quick swim. The tide was coming in and had about a 2 knot current. I could practically swim in place and not move due to the current.

After that we went ashore to see what the settlement had to offer. As we were walking along the quay, we met the crew from another catamaran that was anchored just in front of us. The boat is also registered in Colorado. The owner is from Bailey and she bought the boat in Panama and is circumnavigating the Caribbean. Her crew are also from Denver. They have a boat in Australia and crossed the Pacific. It sounded great and they recommend the trip. I need to make a plan. The crew recommend that we stop at the small building at the end of quay and stick our head in the screen door to find out what they have left for food for dinner. We did so. We met Tasha. She is the owner of the grocery store and restaurant. Her brother Ali owns and runs the liquor store/bar. For dinner tonight we had cold beer and fresh fried conch, fries and a salad. The people were so friendly and came over and chatted with us. We were invited to join in a marriage that is happening this weekend and next weekend they a three day festival. It is sort of like a homecoming for the settlement. Family and friends that are from the cay, but live in different areas now all come back and celebrate. The population of the cay is about 100 people now and they expect to have over three hundred next weekend. I hope I get a chance to stop back.

01/29/2009 During these next legs of the trip we will need to go into the Exuma Sound to make our way to Georgetown. We left this morning with the wind on our nose. I decided that there would be no sailing today and we would need to motor to Lee Stocking Island. The seas were 2-3 feet high and we made the 15 mile trip in three hours.

The exciting part of the trip today was making our way back onto the Banks at Adler Cut. I have my electronic charts that are the most up to date charts you are suppose to be able to get. I also have my paper charts that sometimes are over one hundred years old. My paper charts showed that there is a deep water channel in the cut and the electronic charts did not show anything at all. If it weren’t for the paper charts, I would have been blind. For me it was still a crap shoot on want I would encounter coming back on the banks. I had put out a broadcast request on the VHF radio for any information concerning the cut. The only information I was given was to contact the Caribbean Marine Research Center on Lee Stocking Island. When I was within a couple of miles of the cut, I contacted the center. They told me that they could not provide any navigation assistance and that I should refer to my charts. Nothing like a little CYA. We went for it based on the paper charts and found nothing shallower than 15 feet. I plan on hanging out here for a day. We may leave on Friday if the wind clocks to the west earlier than expected.

There is a cold front coming through the area Friday night and I want to be in a protected area for the west and north winds as the front passes through. Lee Stocking Island can provide that for us. The one incredible thing I saw here is the stars at night. There are two other sailboats with their anchor light on and that is the only light in the area. We had an early moon last night and then all was dark. It is amazing when there are so many stars that I cannot pick out the Big Dipper to find the North Star. The Milky Way is like a cloud it is so bright.

01/30/2009 After listening to Chris Parker for the weather forecast, I decided that we needed to leave today and head to Georgetown. Chris Parker provides a weather tracking service via the Marine SSB Radio for the Western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. I listen to him every morning at 6:30. There is a large cold front passing through around 2:00AM Saturday morning that will bring north winds at about 20-25 knots and gusting to 30. If we leave on Saturday, we will have following winds and seas, which are good for sailing, but the wind will be real high and maybe dangerous entering into the harbor at George Town. We started off motoring and then on and off we could sail.

The highlight of the trip was when we caught a Mahi. It is a beautifully colored fish. We will have fresh fish for dinner tonight. The fish was 35” and 8 lbs. We will have two dinners from it. Titus took the honors of bringing it to the boat and Cliff and I landed it. We took our time as we are using light tackle for the ocean with 25lb. test line. After we had it landed, we filleted it up with some good steaks.

We made it to George Town at 1:30 that afternoon with a whole parade of boats also making a run for the safety of the anchorage. George Town is like the mecca of east coast cruisers. At the height of the season, there will be between 200 and 400 boats here. There is a cruisers’ net that announces activities in the area such as volleyball (on volleyball beach), church services, assistance with engines, training for Ham Licenses and many other activities.

01/31/2009 Today we are on the boat due to heavy winds. It was a good day of cleaning the boat and playing plenty of cards, dice and dominoes. We did finally venture to shore to get information for wi-fi access. Oh the priorities.

02/02/2009 Happy birthday Dad. Today we moved the boat across the harbor to Stocking Island. Titus had told us of an island he visited for work over twenty years ago. It turns out that it is Stocking Island. This is where most of the cruisers that spend the winter here anchor and hang out. After anchoring and having breakfast, we went ashore for a beach church service on Volleyball Beach. It is a church service run by cruisers. They had a choir and a preacher that are all cruisers.

After service we jumped in the dinghy and headed into a couple of coves trying to find where Titus stayed on his last visit here. We could not find the exact location and we could not get ashore as it was all privately owned. After that we went back to Volleyball Beach to hang out. It appears that this beach is a gathering place for all vacationers in the area. There were plenty water taxis bringing in people to hang out here. It has a lot of sand, volleyball pits and The Chat-and-Chill Bar and Grill. We had a cheese-burger in paradise while sitting there.

After that we headed back to the boat for the afternoon and readied ourselves for the big game. While we were waiting for the game, Titus and I started to play with my mast climber. It is an ATN Top Climber. This is a device that hooks onto a halyard and with one-way jammers allows you lift yourself up the line safely. The seas had some chop in them and the wind was blowing about 15 knots. I tried it once to make sure it was all working and then Titus headed up the line. As you see in the picture he made it to the second spreader on the mast.

Superbowl Sunday. It is fun to see my Steelers in the big game again. We went to St Francis to watch the game. They had plenty of drinks and one dish. The dish was onion rings, fried macaroni cheese and chicken wings. They also had four TVs set up and pleasant weather to sit on the deck and watch the game. I do not think my stress level has been any higher on this trip than while watching the fourth quarter of the game. Well the Steelers have a ring for the other thumb now.

02/02/2009 We pulled the anchor early in the morning and headed back across the bay. The good news is that we have a more easterly wind that will allow me to take Titus and Cliff to the dinghy dock to catch a cab and keep them relatively dry. We made several runs today before they needed to leave to fill the fuel tanks and water tank. I carry two 5 gallon fuel jugs and two 5 gallon water jugs. We burnt through about 15 gallons of fuel on the trip and 70 gallons of water. When you are hauling fuel and water, you learn how to conserve. It is not like driving up to your local gas station or turning on a faucet in your home and expect to have water flowing.

02/04/2009 Today and yesterday have been maintenance days. It has been a lot of scrubbing and fixing small things here and there on the boat.

Today I planned on joining in a couple of the community activities. I met Bob from Signet at the Steeler game. He is a Ham operator and puts on a clinic Wednesdays at lunch on Hamburger beach and then afterwards I was going to join in some volleyball on Volleyball Beach. Well after doing some cleaning and repair work, I cleaned up, loaded my dry bag with needed items and jumped in the dinghy. I have been having some problems with the dinghy the last few days so I did a test ride. Good thing. The engine was acting up again. I did not make it to any of the activities, and that may have been a good thing. I spent the afternoon working on the motor. I believe I finally found the problem that has been plaguing me. One of the connections on the fuel line from the tank to the motor was loose and I was taking air into the fuel and the engine was being starved. While I was working on the problem, the wind kicked up as we had a front come through last night. The beaches are about two miles away and I would have been in for a real wet ride trying to make it back to my boat. I enjoyed a good nap instead.

If the winds keep up with this direction and speed, we will probably get another chance to play some volleyball on Friday. I will not leave until the wind clocks to the east. That is suppose to happen Friday or maybe Saturday. The weather has been crazy down here this winter. I was told the other day that the cold fronts coming out of the US usually do not affect this area. They may only see 3-4 fronts that cause the wind to clock. We are seeing this at least once a week. I heard on the radio that Lakeland, FL might see a low temp of 18 degrees tonight. We might see the low temps tomorrow or Friday. They won’t be that low, but cold is cold.