Month: February 2012

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A Jack and Benj Day – 2/18

Oh my, another lovely day with light winds, sun and a high temp of 79. Not too hard to take; sorry all you folk bravely dealing with a “real” winter up north! Today’s sail required jib and main to eke out a tolerable 3 ½ to 4 kts and the 7nm trip lasted over 2 hours. But hey that’s the idea; travel slowly up the Exuma chain, sailing as much as possible and exploring as many places along the way as we can cram in.

Our selected spot today was Jack’s Bay on the west coast of Great Guana Cay. The cay is very long and offers many places to anchor with good protection from all but west winds. Jack’s Bay offered a small sandy beach and a couple easy snorkel spots- small coral head clusters. Our daring move today was to drop the anchor with the main still raised. Easy enough to manage in a light wind; let out the main sheet, drop the hook, drop the sail and then power set the anchor by backing down on it. An inspection later on showed the Rocna well dug in- the sand got a “medium” rating. Actually “medium” is a good rating, as the sand is not “hard” (Rocna has difficulty digging in enough) nor “soft” which means the anchor could more easily drag.

Clear water, a viewer and hoping the anchor is set

 

The best event of the day was talking to Benj. He leaves soon for Italy so went to check our mailbox one last time.

The beach was loaded with small shells, I mean loaded. Russ scraped barnacles off the second hull and checked out a nearby coral head.

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Sand Bars, Not Travelin’ Far & A Whole Lotta Love

Feb 16: Before leaving Cave Cay for our lengthy journey up to Little Farmers Cay- all of 4nm – we spent a couple hours at low tide out on the long sand bars that have formed about  one mile west of  where we’d anchored.  Few shells, but plenty of sand dollars, conch and broken coral were scattered about. A beautiful slice of private sand island heaven with a million dollar view of the Exuma banks stretching for a far as the eye can see- in my case, not very far! We set our short, bendy tripod on the dinghy seat and raced against the 10 second timer to get a rare picture of the two of us.

Not fast enough!

Becoming Bahamian

These easy short hops are perfect for sailing using one or more sails, just quietly gliding along at whatever speed the wind takes us. The only sound is Bunting splashing behind us; we tow her on these short hops. Today was a one hour jib sail at 4kts to a small cove near the tip of Big Farmers Cay, just opposite Little Famers Cay. Little Farmers, well known for its 5F Festival on the first Friday in February, also boasts the FCYC, Ocean Cabin, a post office, airstrip, market and best of all a small fisherman’s dock where you can purchase the catch of the day; lobster, conch and today they also had a brilliantly colored red hogfish. With no fresh seafood in OUR fridge, we happily parted with $21 for 2 large conch (meat only) and 2 large lobster tails. Love it.

Friday’s excitement – are you ready?  – was lunch at the YC and free wifi- yes! A real treat on both counts and now we could get a weather forecast. The morning found us as busy bakers; Russ the bread man and me the muffin lady- what a team and we haven’t killed each other yet in that small galley!  Baking several things in one session saves propane since the oven only has to heat up once.

Farmers Cay Yacht Club

Our 3 ½ weeks in George Town invited a contingent of barnacles to grow on the hulls below the waterline.  Russ tackled the port hull today sans wet suit as the water is surprisingly “warm”.  I say surprisingly because we are only ¼ mile from a cut and you’d think that would mean colder water nearby.