Heading south in 2022 and early 2023, we missed a lot. Yes, we stopped here and there to smell the roses but the journey to Grenada was long and it was just impossible to see everything we wanted to see. Plus, we had distractions. Not only were we new to being liveaboards, to managing new countries and to sailing in big oceans, well, stuff on the boat kept on breaking. ☹ But we learned from all of that. Besides getting our liveaboard sea legs, we learned that we prefer to linger. Hanging out in a great location for weeks at a time, absorbing all the little nuances offered to us from nature, the culture and, of course, the people is our happy place. Oh, and our boat has behaved of late and not given us any extra worry or jobs. Knock on wood that this blissful streak continues until we haul her out in Green Cove Springs, Florida. With our pace wonderfully slowed down, we are getting to just a few cays in the Exumas but we are enjoying them at depth. We are breathing in our freedom to go snorkeling one day, hiking the next and maybe just chilling on the boat after that. And when the weather looks good for moving on, well, we do just that. At Black Point Settlement, we strolled around the town every day and checked out the nearby blowhole. That is a definite “must do” if you happen to be there during high tide and the wind is raging from the east! On one of our town walkabouts, we stopped and chatted with the gentleman looking after the Reverse Osmosis (R.O.) system for the island. Just like anywhere else, access to clean water is critical. Here they desalinate the ocean water using a reverse osmosis system just like we do on the boat (ours is a Rainman), only their version is huge! Click the button to check out Ocean enjoying some free R.O. water from the town tap. Most of our past week has been at Staniel Cay. This has been a great snorkeling stop for us. First, we went to Thunderball Grotto which was the location of the James Bond movie “Thunderball”. We enjoyed this last year and to do it again this year was just as fun. Still wanting more snorkeling, we decided to do something a little different and checked out a few dive spots south of Staniel. The current was strong and the waves sporty but the snorkeling was great. Thankfully no sharks were spotted during our snorkeling adventures but we did see plenty at the dock! One of the best things about the Bahamas is its diversity of experiences. At Black Point, there is a town with groceries and restaurants. Same thing at Staniel Cay but here it is also littered with super yachts and resort dwelling tourists. Today we moved just three hours north in the Exumas to O’Brien’s Cay and we are back in total remoteness. There are no stores or locals, just clear blue water, pure white sand, snorkeling and, oh yes, more superyachts. It is an odd feeling to be sharing space with these big boats! An 80 foot yacht decked out with every toy known to man sitting adjacent to little old Wild Horses. My, my, my. A ”must do” at O’Brien’s Cay is snorkeling the “Aquarium”. This is an incredible dive spot that gives you the sensation as though you are inside a tropical fish tank. Fish are everywhere, especially if you bring along some bread or oatmeal to entice them a bit closer. Even a turtle got in on the action. The whole scene was mesmerizing! How do you top that? Well, you add a beautiful sunset enjoyed from the cockpit of your boat as you quietly say goodbye to another incredible day. We are grateful for every minute of it. Enjoying the blog and want to see exactly where we are right now? Click the button below!
Although Ocean is always suited up for a swim, some of her activities require some extra gear to get the most fun out of everything she does. Here is her Top Five list of “Must Have” Activity Gear for the Cruising Dog #1 Sunglasses These great sunglasses protect Ocean’s eyes from the saltwater spray when we take her around in the dinghy. Oh, and they look pretty cool too! #2 Dog Ramps Ocean has two! She has a sturdy one that she uses for swimming off the stern of Wild Horses. That plank won’t work for snorkeling off the dinghy so for that we purchased a Solstice PupPlank. Hot Tip – It also helps us get back in the dinghy too 😉. #3 Hiking Boots Trails are not always sandy and smooth! Our hike to the Pool Cave at Farmer’s Cay was full of sharp coral rocks. We needed our running shoes and Ocean needed her hiking boots. Problem solved!
#4 Fitted Lifejacket Ocean wears her lifejacket whenever she swims off the boat or off the dinghy. Styling as always! #5 Paddleboard This is one piece of gear that we haven’t yet purchased. Thankfully our buddy boat Caretta let Ocean borrow one of theirs. Ocean isn’t quite in love with this piece of gear yet but give her time! What else? Our time in the Exumas hasn’t just been about Ocean. Her staff (aka Me, Mike and our sailing buddies on Caretta) have also enjoyed lots of activities in the Exumas. At Rudder Cay, we got in some great snorkeling. One of the highlights there is “The Musician”, a full-scale sculpture of a mermaid and a baby grand piano. This was an incredible gift to snorkelers by the illusionist David Copperfield, who owns the nearby island Musha Cay. In 2011, he commissioned the sculpture and then had it sunk in 15 feet of water as a surprise for anyone who happened upon it. These days, its location is well-known and snorkelers, like us, make sure to dive down and get a good look. We also took our dinghies over to the nearby Guana Cay to search for conch and see some of the underwater beauty of the area. It was a gorgeous place to snorkel and we were rewarded with several conchs for a feed later that night with our boat buddy Caretta. At Farmer’s Cay, we got a chance to hike to “Pool Cave”. This is a well-formed cave with dripping stalactites and mounds of stalagmites (both are formed calcium salt deposits) as well as a natural swimming pool. We have done a bit more hiking at Black Point Settlement, getting to see the Atlantic side of the island. And, yes, a few cool aquatic and land animals have crossed our path. Oh and we may have enjoyed a few good meals and a couple of drinks in between it all! Check out where we are today and where we are headed next!
Getting Through a Weekend of Severe SquallsWe had a doozy of a storm this past weekend in Georgetown. It was big. It was scary. But it was also a great reminder of the fortitude and generosity of our sailing community. All forecasters were calling for a bad storm hitting the Bahamas from Friday through to Sunday. We personally use Windy and Chris Parker for our weather checks but we also pay close attention to any other info we may receive from friends and other cruisers. PredictWind, Mr. Weatherman, The Weather Network, Windfinder. You name it, our eyes and ears are open. And all of them were in agreement that we would get slammed with strong winds, which would be even stronger in squalls. But Georgetown is a great protected anchorage for most weather conditions so we weren’t overly worried. We were ready for 40+ knot winds. Oh, wait. What about lightning during the squalls? Well, yeah. Lightning is a serious thing. A boat struck by lightning is immediately disabled. Everything electrical gets fried. All electronics, the engine, the lights, everything. Yeah, its bad. So obviously those of us who cruise full-time have strategies to avoid lightning, right? Umm, no. Not only can we do little to avoid being in an area that might have lightning but we can’t do anything to avoid actually being struck. Especially us sailboats with a big old lightning rod attached to our boats (aka the mast). People talk about lightning avoidance gear but it has two significant disadvantages. First, most of the gear available is expensive. Second, it doesn’t work. So, the working equation goes like this…masted sailboat + electrical storm = sitting duck. Yikes! The storm this past weekend was predicted to start overnight on Friday and continue through to Sunday morning, with the worst of the storm activity occurring overnight on Saturday. On the Friday morning, Wild Horses and Caretta (our buddy boat) went into Georgetown, a 10-minute dinghy ride across the Sound from our anchorage in front of Honeymoon beach. Barry from Caretta had a physio appointment in the morning and we had booked a rental car to get him and Andrea to the appointment, and me and Mike to an amazing wholesale food store near his appointment. Returning back to the dinghy dock, we knew that the wind had started to amplify and we could see that the waves in the Sound were huge. We arrived back at Wild Horses soaking wet from the dinghy ride. No worries, we were safely back on our boat and ready to hunker down for the night’s wind event. Everything not tied down was removed from our decks. The dinghy was lifted and secured. Our full enclosure was zipped up tight. Everything was secured inside the boat (the same as we do for passages) and we had our foul weather gear at the ready. The winds only got to 33 knots that night so we considered ourselves lucky. All in all, it was comfortable, and only marginally scary 😉. The next day, Saturday, the wind stayed strong with gusts to about 25 knots, with the expectation that conditions would deteriorate throughout the evening and overnight. Forecasters were wildly in disagreement over wind strength (anywhere from 20 knots to 55 knots) and the amount of rainfall (from 5mm to 70mm). The possibility of lightning was also in the mix by a few forecasters. It is never good when there is such wide variability in the forecasts. We just have no confidence in what lies before us. It was, however, the forecasted strong west wind that had us on high alert, as it meant that we would be pushed towards our lee shore. Not ideal, but we chose to not re-locate our boat to an eastern shore in Georgetown where many boats were anchored. We were confident in our anchor set and we didn’t want to be in amongst a whole bunch of other boats that could drag into us. With over 300 boats in the Georgetown anchorages, we were happy to be in one that contained only 3 boats. The winds started to pick up just before dusk. Then the growl of thunder in the distance. The sky began to darken and flashes of lightening could be seen in the distance. Within 20 minutes, the worst of the storm was raging all around us. The wind was strong (but never over 35 knots). Sheet lightning and ground strikes were abundant. Heavy rain blinded us from seeing more than 20 feet from our boat. And, then, as strong as the wind was from the southwest, we had a 180-degree wind shift to the northeast. Our anchor dislodged as our boat and all its chain sailed over top of it. Thankfully the anchor reset itself after dragging about 20 feet. Our neighbouring boats reported the same anchor dislodgment/resetting event. Then all the weather stopped. No more rain, no more lightning, no more wind. It was dead calm for 5 hours. When the wind did pick up again, in the overnight hours, it was short lived and it came without any drama. No rain, no lightning. The next morning, we listened intently to the regular Georgetown cruising community network on the VHF. Six boats in the surrounding anchorages had been struck by lightning. Offers of gear, mechanical and electrical expertise, and just “get your hands dirty” help poured in from the cruising community. Within a few days, all six disabled boats had some power brought back to their boats, thanks to the help of their fellow boaters. We were happy that Wild Horses and Caretta had fared well through the storm. Getting through strong weather events is never fun and coming out the other side safely and with no boat issues is always the goal. One more storm in our sailing portfolio. We gain confidence and knowledge with each one of them. And when all else fails, we know that the sailing community will be there to assist in any way they can. Thank goodness. Enjoying the blog? Please share with your friends!
On Monday March 4th, Wild Horses and Caretta left our cozy spots in the south Raggeds after two glorious weeks. We had to time our exit from the anchorage with high tide as the channel leading out of the anchorage can drop below 1 metre in depth. Our keel has a depth of 1.7 metres so working with a flooding tide is critical. In fact, even with high tide, our keel momentarily touched the sandy bottom. No damage was done but it did make our hearts skip a beat! Our first two stops up the Ragged island chain were anchorages just a few hours from each other. The first was Double Breasted Cay (I have no idea who names these anchorages!!) and the second was Buena Vista Cay. Both anchorages were quite beautiful with lots of little sandbars, islands and reefs ready for exploring. We have made notes to make sure to stop at both of these anchorages when we return next winter and have lots of time to explore all their beauty. On Wednesday we were ready to make the longer jump to the island of Water Cay, at the top of the island chain. The day started well, with Wild Horses as lead boat and Caretta falling just slightly behind us, both motor sailing along in light winds. It was an easy day. That is, until it wasn’t. About 10 nautical miles from the anchorage, Caretta hailed us on the VHF. Their engine had stopped. Yikes! They knew it was likely a clogged engine filter but they wouldn’t be able to fix it underway. The wind was too light to sail so they dropped their dinghy and used it to push their boat along at 3 knots. They got to the Water Cay anchorage just as the sun was setting. We had arrived over an hour earlier and scoped out a spot for them to anchor. Once their anchor was well set in the sand, we chatted and both boats decided to stay an extra day at Water Cay so we could fix Barry’s engine. What we didn’t realize at the time was that we would also need the extra day to fix a problem of our own. During our passage to Water Cay, we kept catching a whiff of an electrical burning smell in one of our aft cabins. We checked the engine wiring, solar wiring, regulator wiring, anything and everything. Then the smell went away later that evening. Hmmm, weird. The next day, the sun was shining bright and the smell was back. Mike removed everything from our back cabin and there it was. Our three solar fuses were in full-on fondue mode. One quick visit with Barry (our solar and electrical mastermind) and fifteen minutes later we had the fuses bypassed. It isn’t a permanent solution but it will get us to Florida with all our solar energy intact. Yes! With boat issues fixed, we got to enjoy the rugged, wild beauty of Water Cay. The next day, we weighed anchor and headed away from the Ragged islands. We had decided to take a short cut to Georgetown via the Comer Channel. When arriving in the Raggeds, the only route we ever considered was the “long way”, via the Eastern shore of Long Island, which takes four long daytime jumps or a day and a half of constant around-the-clock travelling. It also exposes you to lots of ocean swell. But a few fellow sailors recommended that we take the shortcut route (the Comer Channel) which shaves two days off the journey but goes over some pretty shallow spots (below 2 metres) that we were a little nervous about. And, our timing for the tides wasn’t ideal. We would be going through the Comer Channel at dead low tide, which on this particular day was 0.1 metres below mean low water. Most of the channel was about 2 metres depth but a few spots were 1.9 metres so at dead low tide we would see 1.8 metres. That is very tight for our 1.7 metre clearance but water under the keel is water under the keel. We went for it. The result? A few “hold-the-breath” moments but we didn’t touch bottom. Not once. What we did get was delightful. A wonderful pod of four dolphins playing at our bow. In just two metres of water, the display was spectacular. I think those dolphins could feel our vibe and were there to tell us all would be okay and to chill out! We spent that evening and the whole of the next day on the western side of Long Island, at an anchorage called Thompson Bay. Here we had access to a great grocery store, a liquor store and a marine store, as well as several restaurants. As luck would have it, we were there on a Saturday and the local Farmers Market was open. Lots of fresh veggies! The next day, we headed for Georgetown. We were excited to be returning. It has been just over a year since we left this bustling anchorage, headed for Grenada. That day, so long ago, was full of emotion for us. We were saying goodbye to our buddy boats Sensai and Lola, and heading off into the crazy unknown-to-us ocean with our new buddy boats Kemana and Kesh. We were leaving safe, easy sailing waters and headed for bigger waters, challenges and new experiences. And we have returned as different sailors. We are more knowledgeable, confident, chill and happy. It has been a fabulous year and we are excited to keep doing this sailing gig and seeing where life and the wind takes us. These are pretty special days indeed. Click the buttons below to find out where we are and where we are going next!
Our days here in the Raggeds have been very relaxing. We wake up late and then slowly sip our coffees while checking out the beautiful scenery from our cockpit. Next on the agenda is heading to shore for Ocean’s first shore puppy play date with Josie, the 10-month old pot cake (mixed breed Bahamian dog) owned by Dale, one of our anchorage mates. The two dogs have become fast friends and exhaust themselves with running, tug-of-war, chewing on sticks and swimming. It is puppy nirvana. The rest of our day depends on our needs. We may do a load of laundry or make water or go to Duncan Town to drop off garbage and see if the store is open. Or we may clean the boat. Scratch that. We almost always clean the boat. We are mostly trying to stay on top of “sand intrusion” these days. Having a dog that loves the beach means that we are constantly trying to keep “the beach” out of our boat. Ocean gets a full fresh water rinse down on the swim platform of Wild Horses every time we return to the boat but it really isn’t enough. The sand is deep in her fur and only works its way out throughout the evening. We vacuum a lot! Besides puppy play dates, we have also made it a habit to head to shore during low tide. The depths in the anchorage are very “skinny”, just 3 to 4 metres at high tide and the adjacent shoreline is even more shallow than that. At low tide we can beach our dinghy on shore and walk half a kilometre into the sea, with the ocean being no higher than our shins. And the water is so clear, you can see everything. An incredible sea life ecosystem is revealed for us to enjoy. With the warm water moving against our legs, we stroll through the clean, silky sand and marvel at starfish, sand dollars, sea slugs, the occasional nurse shark, sting ray or turtle, and lots of shells. Including conchs (pronounced “konks”). Low tide makes hunting for conchs very easy. They are just sitting on the sand, slightly exposed above the water. These sea snails can be found throughout the Bahamas and although they look ghastly when extracted from their shell, they are actually quite delicious once they are cleaned and prepared. Most conchs that we come across are juveniles. Their shell is small and they haven’t yet developed the large smooth and glossy pink lip of a mature conch. Those conchs are left alone to keep growing (it can take up to five years). But we have been lucky here! Our wanderings at low tide have yielded us three mature conchs. What do we do with these creatures? We take them to the boat where Mike delicately extracts the meat. I then clean off all the nasty bits and tenderize the meat with a mallet. So far, we have only been courageous enough to make cracked conch, which is really just breaded and fried conch. It is such a tasty treat that we really don’t mind all the work that goes into getting it from sea to table. In fact, when our fellow cruiser Pierre snagged five beautiful mature conchs while snorkelling near our boat a few days ago, it was an easy “yes” from us to get the conch ready for a cracked conch feed on their beautiful catamaran “Umbono”. It was a fun time made even more amazing knowing we had harvested our own dinner 😊. Today we start travelling north again. We will head towards Georgetown, but it will likely take us a good week to get there as we plan to stop at several anchorages in the Raggeds/Jumentos along the way. We just aren’t ready to say farewell to this beautiful and inspiring part of the Bahamas. Enjoying the blog? Please share! And if you want more info on where we are today and where we are going next, click the buttons below.
Our time in Matthew Town, Great Inaugua was short. Just two days after we arrived, a good window to make the 24-hour sail to the Ragged Islands had opened up. It is the exhausting part of this lifestyle for me. Having not yet fully rested from our last overnight sail (from Luperon), we had to immediately start preparing for the next overnight sail. We kept our eyes on the prize though. The Ragged Islands are renowned for their beaches and active coral as well as their remoteness from the hustle and bustle of cruising life. We were excited to go there. The first thing on the agenda was getting diesel. Having just completed 28 hours of mostly motoring during our wind-less trip from Luperon, we knew our 55-gallon diesel tank would need topping up. We carry six 5-gallon diesel jugs on the deck of Wild Horses and, sure enough, it took four of them to fill up the tank. The Matthew Town marina doesn’t carry diesel but they will order a tanker to come in if you give them a few hours notice. That is, as long as the tanker itself has diesel. This was the issue we ran into last spring when we were in Matthew Town headed south. The tanker was empty and wouldn’t be filled for at least 3 or 4 days. Our only option for diesel then was to buy what ended up being sub-standard diesel from a guy in town. That diesel burned fast and made for a very interesting ending to our journey across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. This time, however, the diesel truck was full and ready to deliver clean, good diesel to Wild Horses and our buddy boats Caretta and Rode Trip. With our diesel tank and jugs full, next on our to-do list was to buy some “walking around” data for the Bahamas. We have Starlink on Wild Horses so we have unlimited data while we are on the boat. We have found, though, that we like to use maps on our phones while we are off exploring a town or trail. For this, we need a local SIM card and some data. Usually, this cost anywhere from $5 to $20. This is the Bahamas so our BTC SIM card was on the higher end. All three buddy boats then took a walk through town. There is just one grocery store on the main street of Matthew Town, and although there are many, many little shops along the way, most were boarded up or just closed. It was eerily quiet. Thankfully the grocery store had exactly what we needed – affordable cheese and eggs. We also picked up a dozen of the most tasty Gala apples we have eaten since Canada. Yum! On Friday morning, we weighed anchor and headed towards the Ragged Islands, a cluster of remote islands that are part of the Outer Bahamas. It was a rough and rolly trip, with a bigger swell than foecasted along with strong winds, mostly on our stern, making it difficult to maintain our point of sail. By the time we could see the Ragged Islands, we were exhausted. We put our anchor down in Southside Bay, a wide open and sandy anchorage near the southwest corner of Ragged Island. We quickly dropped our dinghy and took Ocean into shore for some relief and a walk to Duncan Town, a small village about 30 minutes from the anchorage. But this was no ordinary walk! After beaching the dinghy, we walked through brush to get to a dirt road that led us to the airport runway, which we had to cross to get to another dirt road that finally led to the main paved road into town. We have never before had to cross an active runway as part of a trail! Duncan Town was quieter than we expected for a Saturday. There was one restaurant, a defunct police station and several houses, some brand new and others just shacks. And there was Maxine’s Grocery Store. Although tiny, it was stocked with a variety of pantry goods and fresh vegetables. You couldn’t do a full shopping trip here but they certainly had enough goods to fill in a few missing gaps in one’s food stores. The next day, the swell was up a bit in our anchorage. This doesn’t usually bother us much when we are on the boat but getting in and out of the dinghy can be a bit of an adventure with the boat bucking up and down. We decided to check out the adjacent anchorage “Between Raggeds” which looked like a calm alternative to Southside Bay. We jumped in the dinghy and rode to the anchorage, which sits between Little Ragged Island and Ragged Island. All 15 or so boats here looked very comfortable. No swell and just minutes from beautiful white, sandy beaches. Yes! The only caveat was depth. Wild Horses has a 5’9” keel so we are not comfortable if we see a depth of less than 6 feet. Our charts had the anchorage depth at just over 6 feet but the channel into the anchorage was as low at 5 feet. We would have to wait a few hours for high tide where we would gain another 1.5 feet. Mike, along with Steve from Rode Trip, took a depth sounder and, from the dinghy, checked out the channel right as we were approaching high tide. There was enough depth! All three boats made the move in through the channel and into the anchorage. So far, we have mostly rested but we have found the time to do a few beach walks, make water, do some laundry and hang out at the evening beach get together where the dogs can play and the people can chat, all over a few sundowners. Over the next couple of days, we hope to get in some snorkelling to check out the active coral and sea life out here in the Raggeds. These are glorious days! Click the buttons below to know where we are today and where we plan to sail next.
Clarence Town, at the southeast end of Long Island, Bahamas, is a quiet and almost empty little town. It has a small general store where we could get bread and a few shelf-stable groceries but no fresh produce or dairy. There are also a few restaurants on the island and a fairly large marina/resort. Besides the marina, the most active area in town was the government dock. Every Monday, the mail boat arrives at the dock but by Wednesday all of the fresh items not snapped up by locals and cruisers are shipped off to other parts of Long Island. We arrived on Wednesday, sigh. Our time in Clarence Town was mostly preoccupied with passage planning. The wind, waves and ocean swell were too lively for us to travel before the weekend but the forecast showed that on Sunday or Monday a possible window was opening up to go from Clarence Town to the northwest side of Crooked Island, south to the tip of Acklins (both 7 hour day hops) and then to make the big jump over to Great Inagua. This last bit is about 85 nautical miles so it would mean doing our first overnight sail. We wanted to get our weather window right to make it as safe and comfortable as possible. We spent many hours studying the weather and discussing options with our boat buddies, Kemana and Kesh. Our weather window for the last two legs of our journey looked great but the wind direction for travelling to Crooked Island, our first leg, wasn’t good at all. Our solution? We decided to cut out those first two legs. The wind was perfect for going straight from Clarence Town to Great Inagua in one big 27-hour sail. This option looked so good, we even picked up a fourth boat for our pod. “That’s It!” a 47-foot Catalina from Canada (also going to Grenada) would be travelling with us. Monday morning, we weighed anchor at 0700 and set sail. We were excited. Our first passage that included an overnight sail was underway. We had a beautiful sail from Clarence Town and up to the southwest tip of Acklins. It was one tack and we hit speeds of 8.7 knots. So far, the trip was fun and easy 😊. But, once we cleared past Acklins Island, we were in the open Atlantic. The wind speed kept its steady 18 to 20 knots but the waves and swell increased significantly. We were rocked and rolled over and over. It was now 1900 hours. Nighttime had arrived. Thankfully, we had an almost full moon illuminating the ocean. Both Mike and I stayed in the cockpit all night, trading off shifts at the helm. Every two hours, one of us would monitor the dashboard and the other would sleep. Our automatic pilot did all the steering. Our pup Ocean stayed in the cockpit with us all night, sleeping the whole time. What a great sailing pup! During the night, the rocking from the swells was uncomfortable, for sure, but we got used to the motion. Well, except for the really big swells that would hit the boat broadside every minute or so. Yeesh. Movement during those times was impossible without getting launched sideways. We were safely tethered though so no midnight swims! When the sun peaked out at 0600, we could see Matthew Town and all was right with the world. We had done it! Our first overnight sail in the open ocean. We were anchored at Matthew Town at 0700 on Tuesday morning, a full three hours earlier than planned. A sweet treat was a solo dolphin that greeted our arrival and hung around while we finished anchoring. Ocean loved the little guy! Our three other buddy boats arrived at the anchorage shortly thereafter. Matthew Town was wonderful. Ocean was a hit, once again, with the locals. People love her sunglasses! Besides exploring, we picked up a few necessary grocery items for the next overnight leg. We learned that you have to have food at the ready (cooking and moving around the boat is extremely difficult on a passage) so we grabbed more granola bars, muffins and easy to make instant soups. The most interesting errand of the day, however, was getting fuel. Matthew Town doesn’t have a proper fuel dock. Instead, you call a guy and he brings fuel to the dock. So, we called “the guy” and he said he was out of fuel until at least the weekend. “No, no” we were told, “You called the wrong guy. Call this guy.” Called the “other guy” but same answer. No fuel until at least the weekend. George the Harbourmaster then came up with a third guy to call. Well, three times is the charm! This guy arrived at the dock in his car and took all of us to his place of business in town to get the pre-ordered fuel needs for all four boats. While he topped up our jerry cans, we learned that his place of business doesn’t just do fuel top ups. No, he also runs a bar, restaurant, liquor store, hair salon, ice cream parlor, contracting work and a radio station in the same building. Now that is multi-tasking!! Although Matthew Town is an inviting little Bahamian town, our main focus was to rest, get a few necessary groceries, fuel-up and get going to the Dominican Republic. We have a beautiful weather window opening up for Friday and want to make sure we are ready to go. Wednesday was busy with preparations and also moving the boat to the south shore of Great Inagua to shorten the distance to Luperon. By staging the boats at Lantern Head, our trip becomes 147 nautical miles, almost three hours shorter. We can’t wait!!
Click the link below to see where we are right now! George Town has been a wonderful place to relax, stock up on a few things but also to prepare for the next leg of our journey. We have had very easy days of sleeping in and very full days of hanging out at the beach, hiking the many trails on Stocking Island and exploring George Town and a good portion of Great Exuma Island. And all of this has been with our pup Ocean alongside. She has truly made this trip so much more colourful and fun. When we were planning this journey, so many years ago, we knew we would have our dog with us. We have always sailed with our dog, first Brecken and now Ocean, and they have been nice companions to have along. But easy? Well, having a dog on board means extra gear, extra cleaning (the dog hair is no joke!), extra trips to shore and extra worry about safety and comfort. With this bigger journey, there is also the extra expense and work to meet the requirements for entering a new country. So far, we have only had to enter the USA and the Bahamas (both were easy) but in the next three months we will be entering and exiting several countries as we make our way south to Grenada. Many of these countries require a vet check before arriving and another once we have landed, plus a check on her vaccinations and identification. Plus, a pet permit and, of course, import fees. Yeesh. So, is it worth it? YES!!! The biggest surprise for us with this journey is how much better it is with Ocean on board. It is incredible to us how many more people, locals and cruisers alike, that we get to meet because of Ocean. She always gets attention. Her size is the biggest draw with locals. They can’t believe such a big dog is so sweet. Add to this her beautiful dark fur and a frisbee, well, it is the rare person that walks by without wanting to meet her. All of this is making her a bit famous. Our first day in George Town, we were strolling down the street and we heard a shout out to “Ocean!” as a local car passed us. Wow, we hadn’t even met anyone on shore yet! Does Ocean enjoy all this attention? She loves it! Meeting people is definitely her jam. She has even started to join in with a good old howl during the evening sundown conch blowing. A few people have asked some logistical questions about our Ocean girl. So here is the low down on the top five questions: How does Ocean get her daily exercise? Oh my gosh, this is rarely a problem. She swims, she hikes, she strolls around town. Long sailing days actually end up being necessary rest days for her. Time to catch up on some much-needed sleep! Where does Ocean do her business when we are on a passage? She has a pee pad at the bow. She uses this for her nightly business and also when we are on a long passage. How did we get Ocean to pee on the boat? Ocean is stubborn so this took a long time and lots of tricks. We started with collecting Ocean’s pee and pre-scenting a piece of carpet at the bow. No go. We then got a fake grass pee pad. No go. We even tried waiting her out but, after 41 hours, she peed but on one of our boat cushions. Geez. In Miami, we bought two pieces of sod and put them on her pee pad. Surely, she would go on actual grass? Nope. But she did figure out that we wanted her to pee and that she would get a treat if she “looked” like she was peeing. This started a round of “fake peeing” that we had to correct. Finally, we took the advice from another sailing couple to “super saturate” her. Every fifteen minutes we gave her a cup of water with tuna flakes in it and then took her to her pee pad. It took three hours but she finally did it. The celebration was huge! She now consistently goes on her pad, which has made all of us rest much easier. What about the salt water? Yes, salt water is terrible for dogs. They can’t drink it of course but having it on their skin, fur and paws isn’t good either. It dries out their paw pads and makes their skin red and itchy. We always make sure we have lots of fresh water for Ocean to drink, whether we are on shore or on the boat. She also gets a fresh water rinse off EVERY TIME we return to the boat. This gets both the salt and sand out of her fur and off her paw pads. How does Ocean stay safe when we are underway? She wears her harness or lifejacket and is tethered to the boat. She also stays only in the cockpit unless the conditions are calm or we are at anchor. Luckily, Ocean is a very chill sailor. No matter the conditions, she doesn’t get anxious. No, she just sleeps. 😊 In amongst all of this Ocean fun, we are planning and preparing to head further south. We are watching the weather carefully and have connected with some buddy boats who are also making the same journey. We hope to find the right weather window to head to Long Island early next week. After Long Island, we will continue through the southern Bahamas to Great Iguana. Then we have a 160 nautical mile (30+ hours) to the Dominican Republic. The journey continues!
We have been blessed with good weather so far in the Bahamas. Truly, it has only rained two days in the last six weeks and we have only had to deal with two wind storms. The first, we rode out at a private dock in Coral Harbour on the South-west tip of New Providence. The second occurred just this week and it was a doozy. We decided to anchor at Black Point Settlement for the start of the wind storm because it offered us the most protection from the forecasted strong east winds and high waves. Also in the forecast was a quick (6 hour) clocking of the winds where they would swing from east to south-east then to the west before settling in from the north for a day. Finally, the wind clock was expected to go back to the prevailing east wind, albeit much lighter with the storm having dissipated. Our anchorage offered great protection for all of this…except that small window of west wind. We considered moving anchorages for the west wind but, unfortunately, the Exumas doesn’t have many anchorages where we would find the wind protection that we needed. And, really, why move? To protect ourselves from a little uncomfortable rolli-ness for a few hours? We, and 50 other boats that stayed, felt that we could deal with a small slice of discomfort. Yeah, no. Mother Nature decided that we needed to learn a lesson. That west wind did come but she didn’t make it a quick visit and she brought a pretty sizable sea state along with her. From late evening on Sunday until mid-afternoon on Monday, Wild Horses was rolled and pitched, slapped around and banged abruptly. To say it was uncomfortable is a massive understatement. The movement, I imagine, was akin to being inside an unbalanced washing machine. The winds were the worst over night, which made sleeping impossible. I tried to sleep in our cabin in the V berth (bow of the boat) but the abrupt slamming from side to side and then front to back and then kitty corner to kitty corner (I am not exaggerating) was just too much for me. I mostly camped out in the salon, close to the keel. This is the least rolly part of the boat but it still didn’t afford me enough comfort to sleep. Looking out into the darkness, I could see that every boat was being thrown around violently. Everyone in the anchorage was having a very sleepless night. Well, except Mike and Ocean. Ocean didn’t wake up at all and Mike woke up just to do a deck check every few hours (checking that our anchor was still well set and that the boat and dinghy were properly handling the motion). Yeesh! My crew are definitely the saltiest of salty sailors! Morning light didn’t bring much relief. The westerly battering had switched to a northwesterly battering and we could see the angry sea state better but that was all. We continued to endure the washing machine until early evening, when the wind started to abate. Then we heard the stories. Steve from Lola had spent a sleepless night managing his anchor snubber (shock absorber for the anchor chain) which unexpectedly broke and needed a quick repair. Except his second snubber then broke. And his steel bow roller for his anchor bent from the force of the battering. Yeesh. Another boat that had anchored in shallower water had their keel slam violently into the sea bed. There was no apparent damage but the experience was unsettling. The good news was that not a single boat dragged and no one reported injuries beyond scrapes and bruises. Whew! The following day was February 14th. The winds were back to the east and had dropped to a favourable 15 knots. The sea state had calmed considerably and the sun was shining. Ah, the joy. Our perfect Bahamian weather had returned and we were going to make the best of it with an eight hour sail to Georgetown. The trauma of the last 24 hours was quickly forgotten as we made our way through Dotham Cut at the north end of Great Guana Cay and put out our sails. The open ocean with following seas and a gorgeous northeast wind pushing us along seemed like a great Valentines Day gift. We arrived in Georgetown just before dark and anchored off Stocking Island. This busy harbour is a real eye opener after the quaint little anchorages and towns of the northern and central Exumas. To our west lies the town of Georgetown. It has lots of great shopping including easy access to groceries, restaurants, and liquor stores 😊. To our east, south and north, well, there are about a gazillion anchored boats. The Georgetown anchorages look and feel like a busy little metropolis. Dinghys zoom between boats, the beaches are a collection of get-togethers, there is chatter, music and lights on many of the boats. The vibe here is welcoming, alive, active and social! This is fun! As much as we like our quiet anchorages and sweet little towns, having a lively home base for a while isn’t a bad thing. We will be in Georgetown for the next week exploring, provisioning and resting up for the next leg of our journey. We will soon be headed to the southern Bahamas and then onto the Dominican Republic.
We started last weekend exactly how weekends should start…with a great boater’s get-together! The annual 5F “Cruisers Dinner” at Farmer’s Cay was put on by the Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club (FCYC) and was a fun event with free food and drinks. Yes, you read that correctly! Instead of charging a fee, donations were collected for the Farmer’s Cay All Age School. Wonderful! Certainly, that donation box got a lot of action, which made the event even more special. The dinner was a very casual affair with grilled chicken, beans and rice and, of course, Bahamian mac & cheese. So much goodness on our plates! There was some room inside FCYC for people to sit and dine but most people hung out outside, sitting on rocks or along the sea wall to eat. And accompanying the delicious food? Lots of great conversation! Both Lola (Steve) and Sensai (Ted and Evelyn) were there but we also got to catch up with On Y Va (Elise and Ghislaine), a boat from our home dock at Trident Yacht Club in Kingston. On Y Va had started their adventures in the Bahamas six years ago, returning home every summer but enjoying their winters in the warm Bahamian waters. We also got to chat a lot with new friends we had met along the ICW and a few others that we met in the Bahamas. Conversation is very easy with our fellow boaters – we have so much in common, so much to discuss and everyone always has big smiles. Kindred spirits for sure! Truly though, the highlight of the 5F festival was the sailing. There were two days of dinghy races held on Friday and Saturday, with many expert local racers from all over the Bahamas in attendance. Their boats are traditional Bahamian wooden boats, about 5 metres in length, powered by a single large sail; however, the most interesting bit is how the race starts. We are used to boat races starting with boats already under sail, jockeying for position near the start line until the start gun is sounded. Not here! These boats start out at anchor. When the start gun goes, the crew weighs anchor and the sail goes up. This adds so much more excitement to the race. What a treat to get to watch it all unfold! With the Regatta finishing up on Saturday, many of our fellow boaters (there were close to 200 attending the festival) began to leave Farmer’s Cay. We were all well-aware of a strong winter wind storm that was forecasted to hit the Exumas in the coming week so getting to a protected anchorage was top of mind for everyone. Many boaters used the good weather on the weekend to relocate, either further south towards George Town or northward to one of the many protected anchorages in the Exumas. For us, we were delighted to have a perfect wind on Sunday to sail to Black Point Settlement, about 2 hours north of Farmer’s Cay. It was a beautiful one tack sail with a 21-knot wind pushing us along. As the anchorage came into sight, our buddy boat “Lola” hailed us on the VHF saying “Here we are, along with 100 of our friends”. Yup! It was a busy anchorage! Many of us from Farmer’s Cay had the same idea, including Sensai and On Y Va. Right away we knew that riding out this wind storm was going to be fun 😊. Black Point Settlement is a lovely little village. We had skipped this anchorage on our way south but loved that we now had the opportunity to check it out. One of the things we have come to enjoy about the Exumas is that each town has their own character and you only come to appreciate that uniqueness when you stroll around, meeting the friendly locals and checking out the buildings and terrain. Black Point Settlement has lots of children around, very curious and excited about our pup Ocean. It was great fun to chat with them about their island, school and, of course, Ocean! We also got to meet a few ladies weaving baskets outside their home. Both are retired teachers and now they enjoy spending time on their craft, while chatting with passersby and keeping a pulse on the goings-on in their town. There is so much beauty to be discovered on these islands, beginning with the incredible waters, terrain and food but mostly with the residents, young and old, who share it all with us. The strong winds are forecasted to hold through the weekend, so we will be staying put. Black Point Settlement is the perfect protected anchorage for the weather, while also giving us easy access to groceries and long walks. Oh, and they just happen to be having a Superbowl party at the local yacht club on Sunday and, well, we can’t miss that! 😉
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AuthorVictoria is a hiker, dog-lover, blog writer and planner extraordinaire. Oh, yeah and she is kind of fond of living on a boat. Categories
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April 2024
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