Well, we have been in the Exumas for a month, now, and only just now getting a chance to add to my blog!! We have been at anchor ever since we got here, which means no internet for us, unless we go in to a restaurant or bar, which have also been far and few between! Also, we can only get a phone signal when we are anchored off one of the very few and very small settlements, so essentially have been 'off-line' since we arrived!
Enjoyed a nice sail across the Exuma Sound, a distance of approximately 50 miles, from Point Eleuthra to Warderick Wells, the point where we entered the Exuma Islands chain. This is also the headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park which stretches along the chain for a distance of about 22 miles. They have mooring balls which are available by assignment, and luckily, when we called ahead, they had two available for both the Wyvern III and Tina. The water is a beautiful turquoise, with a sand bank that exposes itself at low tide in the middle of the mooring field! The next day was actually quite cool and windy, but sunny, so I spent the day reading and relaxing in the cockpit, while George finessed the workings of our watermaker. Have finally reached water where we can safely turn it on, so will now get in the habit of making water about every other day in order to keep the watermaker clean and fresh. Due to the confines of our boat, we have bought the smallest one we could find, so it only makes about a gallon and a half every two hours, but it also works within our battery bank limitations, so is providing our drinking water, and then our tanks will provide for everything else! We have been very pleased with our solar panel, also. The batteries will, if we are anchored for long enough, eventually get to the point where the solar panel can't get them charged fully,- mostly due to the draw from our fridge, - so we have found that we need to run the engine every couple of days, and we make water at the same time.
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| Whale skeleton at Warderick Wells |
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| Exuma Land and Sea Park Headquarters |
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| Mooring at Warderick Wells |
After spending two nights in Warderick Wells, we headed downwind on the Exuma Bank to Staniel Cay, anchoring off Big Major's Spot, across from Pig Bay. Pig Bay is a stretch of beach where some feral pigs live. Apparently, they were initially put on the island by a local farmer, but it seems they now live there, along with a couple of chickens and goats, being fed and visited regularly by both cruisers and the local restaurant staff! At first blush, I must admit I couldn't see the appeal of 'seeing the pigs'...after all, they're just pigs, for heaven's sake...but there is something unusual about having a pig run across the sand, jump into the ocean, and then swim out to your dingy, looking for some good left-overs!! I personally wouldn't recommend getting in with them, as they are not – to put it bluntly – toilet-trained, and you do run the risk of running in to the 'fall-out' of the aforementioned left-overs!
The anchorage, is, however, delightful!! With the beautiful, sandy bottom, in the shallow areas the water is almost white, at about the 10' mark, the colour turns to a gorgeous turquoise, about 20' it becomes a light green, and finally, over 20' it is a dark blue. That means that as long as the bottom is sandy, wherever we anchor, I feel like I am anchored in a swimming pool! On the occasional day when it is not windy, the calm water is reflected in prisms off the bottom of the ocean floor! The water temperature, while not as warm as we had experienced in the Andaman Sea off Thailand, is warm enough to easily dive in to, and cool enough to be refreshing!! At all our anchorages, because of the sandy bottom where we choose to anchor, for both good holding and we don't wish to harm the coral beds in other parts of the seabed, we don't see very much sea life. The occasional Southern Ray swims by and also Nurse Sharks can be spotted. Rarely, a school or single fish will pass through the anchorage, and finally, if the water is deep enough, we will see large starfish, but that is usually it.
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| anchorage off Big Major's |
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| swimming off the boat! |
To see the fish, we head for coral heads or reefs off the islands we have been anchoring near. It is amazing how we will not see a single fish over the sandy bed leading up to a coral head, but as soon as you reach the coral, there will be hundreds of multi-coloured fish!! My favourite are the beautiful parrot fish! They come in a variety of colour schemes and are easily spotted munching on the coral! Of course, there are always the curious Sargeant Majors, small black and yellow striped fish who will swim right up your mask, look you in the eye, and check to see if you are going to feed them! Along the bottom, and under rocks, Groupers will be hiding. We are always sure to see angelfish and butterflyfish, usually the Spotfin Butterflyfish and Queen Angelfish, also the bright blue Blue Tang. Pat and Fiona spotted a Moray eel, and Cindy and Carlie and I saw a Lionfish, both very shy breeds of fish, so hard to spot! Although, we have read that unfortunately, the Lionfish is not a native of the Caribbean, and has become so numerous, that it is considered an invasive species here, so not a welcome sight for the locals! Also, while snorkeling with Pat and Fiona, a Barracuda swam past me!
When we are not snorkeling, we are beachcombing! Different beaches offer up different types of shells, and we have been somewhat successful in finding various conch shells, not to mention lots of periwinkles, whelks, limpets, barrel bubbles, cowries, tops and turbines, moon shells and nerites. The sand, of course, is soft and white on many beaches, but can be coarse and grainy, also. Where the beach is not sand, it is a jagged, almost lava-like rock, that is, in fact, a type of limestone created by the compression of millions of shells!
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| Bell Rock |
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| windward beach |
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| leeward beach! |
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| path to Honeymoon Beach |
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| Honeymoon Beach |
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| view over Little Bell and Bell Islands, looking toward the Exuma Bank |
Finally, when Cindy and Carlie were here, (unfortunately winds did not co-operate while Pat and Fiona were here) we went to visit a local phenomenon called Rebecca's Bubblebath, or simply, the Jacuzzi. This is a spot where, at high tide, the incoming waves rush up a small wall of rock, between two high cliffs, and spill over and down the other side in to a small, protected pool, where you can wait to get 'washed' over by the incoming wave! Not nearly as dangerous, and much more fun than it sounds!!
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| Rebecca's Bubblebath |
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| Before...... |
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| During....... |
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| and after!!!! (note 'bubbles'!) |
Since arriving in the Exumas, we have thoroughly enjoyed having two sets of company on board! Pat and Fiona arrived shortly after we did, so submitted gamely to all our 'this might be a good place to go' experiments!! After an all too brief visit, we prepared ourselves for our next guests, Cindy and Carlie! Again, wonderful to have visitors on board, and nice to have a few places already 'cased out' that we could take them to! As I write, we are anxiously awaiting our final set of guests; Wil and Didi and our oldest grandson, Ash (who just turned 4!) We can't wait!! We have been so fortunate with our guests!!
I will admit to being caught off guard as far as provisioning goes. I had hoped that we would have lots of fresh fish and local fruit and veggies available once in the islands, but we have been disappointed to find that the Bahamas grows virtually nothing that can be sold to a large market, like tourists, so everything comes by boat from Florida, and nothing in great quantities. Frequently the 'fresh' fruit and veg are tired and not in good shape, and packaged goods such as crackers, cookies, and cereal are usually stale by the time you buy them. I have also been caught more than once purchasing dairy products that are way past their 'sell buy' date! Most serious of all, there is NO CHOCOLATE!!! At least not if you don't want to buy 'Bounty' chocolate bars. George and I (and now, I fear, our guests!!) are going through serious chocolate withdrawl!!!! Generally speaking, the 'mail boat' arrives once a week to the small settlements here in the Exumas, and delivers everything the community needs for that week, from building supplies to groceries. Frequently it is late by a day or two, and, in the event of something happening in a different community, the boat may not come at all, and only go to where the event, (and therefore, the crowds!) will be. We did get lucky, and stumbled upon a fisherman at Black Point cleaning some snapper he just caught while Pat and Fiona were here, so we bought three for dinner that night, but it is the only time we have seen any fishermen, and no fresh fish is offered in the small grocery stores in the towns. So, while I had dreamed of cooking and eating 'local', that has been virtually impossible to do.
In fact, since arriving here, we have discovered that the local fare consists mainly of conch in various forms, popularly as fritters, or breaded and fried in 'bits' or 'burgers'. It can also be a chowder, and our personal favourite, marinated in lime juice as a salad, although unfortunately, the salad is the only form of conch we have not been able to find in the Exumas! All of these conch are available only at restaurants, as conch is not sold raw anywhere, and I am not prepared to catch and clean the things myself!!!....A very messy business! Other than conch, peas 'n' rice, (a form of fried rice with pigeon peas), are a staple with a meal, as well as baked macaroni and cheese. The local women bake, on order, fresh bread which is much sweeter than what we are used to, but delicious, so we have been enjoying that on board also!
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| Staniel Cay Yacht Club |
All in all, we have been enjoying the Bahamas, and I don't want anyone to think we are suffering in any way!! We have been eating well, just not as I had hoped, as far as 'buying local', and we are certainly enjoying the warm breezes and sunny days!
At this point in our travels, we are starting to think about when we will be heading home. We have been gone 9 months and have travelled approximately 3000 miles, with a return journey of about 1500 miles ahead of us. While we have thoroughly enjoyed our experiences and adventures, we are also looking forward to plying the beautiful waters of Lake Ontario again, exploring our other Great Lakes, and, most of all, spending time with our family and friends! We anticipate continuing to explore and enjoy the Exumas until the end of April, at which point we will have to start to plan our return trip across the Gulf Stream to Florida, and then back up the Eastern Coast towards New York, through the Hudson River canal system to Oswego where we will cross Lake Ontario to reach Kingston.
Meanwhile, I will try to keep you all up to date with our plans, but given the lack of wifi here in the Exumas, it may be another month before you hear from me again!
Rest assured, we are content, Wyvern III is continuing to look after us and keep us dry, and we will continue to search for that quiet anchorage where we can skinny dip without frightening the neighbours, and shower on deck without going through Mr. Bean-like gyrations in an effort to get out of our bathing suits and under a towel....all without revealing any of our 'naughty bits'!!!
