The 20 mile run down to Staniel Cay ended up being a combo of motor sailing and sailing, mostly because the batteries needed a charge, we needed to run the water make and make hot water.  Without the water maker our lament would be, “water, water everywhere and n’er a drop to drink.”   We get 7 gals/hr and waste 7 gals to flush the system when it finishes, so unless we can run it 3-4 hours minimum, no point in doing so.

Staniel Cay, like many of the inhabited cays, boasts an airstrip and unlike most it has 3 small food markets, propane refilling and, the best part, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Casual and comfortable, everyone welcome. If Jimmy Buffet ranks it in his top 10 places to enjoy a drink you can bet we’ll be visiting. Plus, had the word from several sources that the food was very good.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club

The floundering economy has left its mark very visibly in The Bahamas. Marinas that were meant to be; aren’t. Some are in receivership, others partially built and running on what they’ve got. Worst of all, from a selfish point of view, is that the mail and supply boats (supplies, deliveries- life blood) make their rounds bi-weekly rather than weekly and some three times a month vs four.

Our first stop was Isles General Store for groceries, dump garbage ($5) and fill a propane tank. How’d we do?  Well… dumped the two garbage bags for $5, picked up some lemons, limes, carrots and eggs (yes!), but no propane available now.  It was a start. We also had the pleasure to meet Joan Mann, a 48 year resident of Staniel Cay and a talented painter. Her painted, island-funky white fabric was sold in the YC’s gift shop and adorned the tables in the dining area. She told us of a workshop happening this weekend that would be led by an artist from Chester, CT.  Not small; tiny world.

Next, dinghied to the yacht club docks where we were greeted by several friendly sharks of some type (nurse, maybe) swimming lazily about.  The yacht club has guest cottages and offers fishing and diving trips as well as swim with the sharks so no surprise to see them hangin’ out.

Shark Hang Out

After reserving a table for dinner- one 7pm seating, choice of entrée accompanied by two sides, soup, salad and dessert, we walked the streets in search of the pink or blue store and the yellow house for bread. At the blue store, we scored big: two packages of boneless chicken breasts! Nearby was the yellow house where coconut bread was greedily scooped up for $6. This is yeast bread, with a slightly dense texture and off-white in color. Doesn’t have much coconut aroma; we guess that the recipe’s liquid is coconut water/milk. Giddy with our improved provisioning fortunes and thrilled to have yummy French toast to look forward to, even though we couldn’t locate the pink store, we were happy.

Part of the 007 movie Thunderball was filmed at Thunderball Cave, a very tiny cay near the yacht club and very close to where we anchored. The interior of the cave is like a small grotto with an opening at the top that allows the sun to shine through, creating a dazzling effect in the water. Best to check it out a slack low tide and be prepared to dive under the small rock at the opening.

A stone’s throw north-west of Staniel is Big Major’s Spot; home of Pig Beach. This is where the large and hairy “wild” pigs live and will quickly swim out to greet you as you approach the beach. Not really wild, however, they could easily rip a hole in your dinghy. We zoomed over before leaving Friday morning to snap a few photos. Bunting is enjoying a good workout in The Bahamas. When we speed along on plane, the ride is fun and feels great to speed over the beautiful water; often only a few feet deep.

Welcoming Committee at Pig Beach

Wednesday- ah another beautiful day in paradise. Weather’s been great the entire week; don’t worry another front is on its way.  Winter temps are cooler; very pleasant highs of 79 with nighttime lows around 68 are not hard to take. Cold fronts or “northers” are very predictable. Ahead of the front the wind moderates to less than 5kts, then when the front arrives (we can see the line on the chart plotter) can pick up to 18-25 kts for a solid two days , gusts can be more.

Our morning hike took us about a mile dinghy ride to the mid-south eastern shore. There, we pulled Bunting up to Beryl’s Beach and headed up Beryl’s Trail which leads to the Davis Ruins Trail and crosses over to the rocky eastern shore following along a 3ft high stone wall.

Stone wall crosses the entire cay

The Loyalists ran off in the late 1770s and attempted to establish a plantation of sorts.  The remains of three buildings dating to 1780 consist of rock and conch shell mortar walls. The stone wall which ran across the island from shore to shore was likely constructed to contain livestock; where it came from I can’t imagine. At some point bad blood between the Loyalists and the local pirates either forced their departure or got them killed.

Crumbled wall- conch shell mortar

Mr Bashful Hutia

Our trek along the hutia trail the other day produced not a single sighting of one of these rabbit-sized brown rodents. Today we had better luck as my eagle eyes spied one scurrying into a rocky nook was we approached. Too bashful to come out, he bravely stuck his face out enough for us to see, but the photo doesn’t show him as well as we could see. Hutia have pudgy bodies, stubby necks, short ears and tails and resemble guinea pigs although they are related to the porcupine. Usually when we’d hear the rustling of leaves it meant lizards, but along this trail when the sounds were louder we knew hutia were nearby.

Minutes later we saw a bird we couldn’t identify and a brown racer (snake), our first snake sighting in The Bahamas. Only four species of snakes live in The Bahamas and none are poisonous. The brown racer is the most common and enjoys an easy diet of lizards and insects. None of that worry about when the supply boat is coming.

In the arid climate with mostly limestone rock for soil, plants grow wherever they can.

A tree grows in a natural well

As we stood at the clearing by the ruins I noticed several boats heading in to the Emerald Rock mooring field. One was notable in that it looked like a monohull without a mast or rigging; the graphic near the bow looked familiar. We often joked that some sailing vessels should remove their mast and cut off most of their keel; if they don’t sail,
why have the baggage? A closer look as we dinghied past revealed a puzzler; this was a monohull with no mast and rigging; we knew the boat and last time we saw it (late Oct) it could sail. No one was on board to help satisfy our curiosity. Perhaps a “bad” bridge mishap resulted in chuckin’ it all overboard.

Overlooking Emerald Rock field and the naked boat