Yes, folks, there is life after George Town, Exumas!

Twins has been wonderfully problem free since she got splashed in after the long haul-out this summer. Routine stuff like oil changes we plan for and do when the time is right. Around the time of the Cold Front Party Russ investigated what turned out to be a tiny diesel leak at the injector hose attach point. Once you get the area cleaned up, place pieces of towel paper around, wait awhile then voila! Tighten the naughty hose clamp and good to go: no more clothes smelling like warm diesel- yay! (Note: we have Rudolf Diesel to thank for inventing the diesel engine. Good thing his last name wasn’t Schwarzenegger!)

Our biggest trouble, however; was with the iPhone (mine) we were using as our Bahamas phone. The battery began to swell which pushed on the case, the button freaked out and the phone screen turned blue. Yikes, this isn’t good. We Googled it and sure enough, it’s not uncommon. We sprang into action.

Russ’s iPhone 6 had to be paid off before we could request the unlock code 24 hours later. Fortunately this happened in George Town where the BTC cell service is strong and Russ was able to pay off his phone, get the unlock code, remove the Sim card, replace it with the BTC sim card that had been in my phone and we were back in business.  With one phone to do it all, we had to be careful not to mess up the anchor drag alarm, so the phone often had to stay behind, thus fewer photos.  How did we all (those of a certain age) get by without a cell phone? More than 25 years ago we had our first installed car phones (Russ got them for his locksmith biz so I got one too) and look where we are today!

Ok, enough of that, but I want you to know it’s not all pristine beaches and happy times with friends in scenic anchorages in the Bahamas. When things go awry here you’d better be able and equipped to deal with it yourself; unless it’s really bad- but we won’t go there.

First stop: Black Cay 18nm north of George Town. Lesli on PDQ Soulstice tipped me off that sea glass could be found here. Right she was! Not to mention a plethora of pretty sea fans on the ocean facing beach and a zillion sunrise tellins on the banks side-facing beach.

Someone was building a house on Black Cay, but that stopped and you could see they’d made good progress. Maybe it will happen; the beach is lovely and the house has decent elevation.  We stopped for two hours- to beach comb and eat lunch before heading back out Glass Cay cut then in at Rat Cay cut. The tour boats are far more numerous than six years ago and we see them all over the Exumas. Good for the Bahamians; maybe not so good for the pigs and iguanas.

Rain happens infrequently during winter; you look up, see the dark clouds and there’s your weather report. Pouring rain forced us to make a short stop at Norman’s Pond Cay (not to be confused with Norman’s Cay many miles north) because visibility sucked and we really needed to see. First time we’ve had to do that in Twins.

That night we sought shelter from mild West winds behind teeny Gaulin Cay- I mean- look left, look right and that’s all there is. For the next few days we needed to hide from winds out of the NE. Did a short and sloppy trip to Big Farmers, but the winds had yet to shift from NW so our comfort wasn’t exactly stellar until they came from NE.

When we anchor at Big Farmers we always watch for goats. They are elusive, but this time we saw two different families.

Being on a schedule to have to get somewhere is a no-no, but we’d allowed 7 days to get to Staniel Cay to celebrate Russ’s birthday and the first day of Spring! – minus a surprise visitor, the stop was good but not great.

So to make Staniel in time and stop at Black Point for laundry and coconut bread, a stop at Ty’s on Little Farmers didn’t happen. But we did stop at my favorite ocean beach for treasure hunting.

A few hours spent at Bitter Guana produced a few shells and this view:

Two mega yachts were there anchored too so we got to see their activities, including a sea plane landing and boys with their toys.

These motorized Jet Board things are new to our eyes but have been around at least five years. Very zippy and if you can balance you can ride one.

 

 

After a stop at one of our favorite almost secluded anchorages on the west side of Pipe Cay, our next stop would be a new one.

Reached the point (almost) where we can define cruising as “Russ paddling by sparkling beaches and doing odd chores in exotic locations.”

Little Halls Pond Cay (LHPC), owned by… here’s a clue: “The problem is not the problem. It’s your attitude about the problem that’s the problem.”   For those who haven’t memorized or recently watched Pirates of the Caribe; that was Cap’n Jack Sparrow, whose alter ego, Johnny Depp owns LHPC.  Many of the cays within the Exuma Land and Sea Park boundaries are privately owned. This is one of them, including its extremely close neighbors Ridge Cay and Halls Pond Cay.

Near the southern tip of the cay is a small but amazing snorkel spot called the Aquarium; the Park provides one big boat mooring nearby, as well as two dinghy moorings right at the Aquarium. The spot, which is near O’Briens Cay is a bit out of the way but not too far from the mooring field at Cambridge Cay; a very popular mooring/anchoring field in the Park.

Very soon, winds would be blowing from the NE>E and we wanted to tuck in at Hawksbill Cay further north up the chain and still in the Park. Decisions and choices. Rarely do we have more than a day or two in a row with very calm “can do anything” conditions. I thought, and even suggested- I want to go on record here- that we might jump out into Exuma Sound to fish for Mahi. Snorkeling won out as Russ hadn’t snorkeled at all this trip.

 

Oh look, a cay named Sandy Cay with lots of sandbars off it. And only 1.5 miles away- dinghy ride!

After that it was time for… yes- another paddle in paradise, but first a working swim.

Next stops- Hawksbill and Highbourne and some TS, TS BBB time. 🙂

Believe it or not, the 90 days we’d been given on our cruising permit would expire March 10. AND believe it or not, George Town is the only location in the entire Exumas where cruisers can clear in or try to extend their stay. You can walk a short distance to the Immigration office or take a pricey taxi ride up to the airport.  We have never needed to extend because we’d always received 120 or 150 days. Other cruisers mostly said that we’d have no trouble getting an extension, but we did hear horror stories from people who spend most of their time in the Bahamas, or try to. The generally accepted practice was to present yourselves at the office a couple of days ahead, but under no circumstances let your permit expire.

Last year another cruiser had gone to extend at the George Town office and reported on the Net the preferred hours and that you could request your extension one week ahead. With that in mind we went in two days before strong winds would keep us aboard, on March 2- OMG 8 days early! We had to hit the library, market, Russ hair cut (that I had to repair) and Immigration after dropping off laundry at Lee’s Corner Laundromat.

Official and intimidating. Small waiting room with a dozen decent seats. A full wall with a door into the office area and the window you walk up to keeps “us” separated from “them”. The man at the window was dressed in what we’d describe as military fatigues, complete with a visible sidearm. Ok then.

Russ is called up in turn, states his business, presents our paperwork and passports and after Mr Serious looks it all over, hands it all back with an extension form for each of us to complete. Most was pretty straightforward but then they want to know, “Your source of income”. Uh? Bear in mind when you are visiting another country they don’t want foreigners taking jobs away, so you better have your own darn money. For us, the answer was, “retired”, happily.  We asked for 60 days, figuring we only needed 45 but could manage with 30. Russ returned all paperwork to the window and Mr Serious went into the deep dark official offices in back and we waited. Others, not as clean cut and boring as we, got some flack and not the amount of time they wanted, but at least they weren’t kicked out asap!

Nervous and confident, we continued to wait. Then, Russ got motioned up. I hope he said “thank you sir.”  Whew. 60 days and no hassle even though we’d come in 8 days ahead! So relieved to have that done.  Now we could enjoy the remainder of our days in George Town and go on to roaming aimlessly about the Bahamas (Exumas and hopefully the Berry Islands).

With strong E-ish winds forecast from Saturday through at least Tuesday, we hunkered down in the perfect protection of Red Shanks. This time we got naked, or Twin Sisters did :-).  Not only did we close up the bimini top, we removed the T-top. Less noise, less wear and tear and a chance to lube the zippers with ease.

This was one of those wind events that arrived pretty much on schedule you could see the dark wall and then the wind kicked into gear and the rain poured down.  Besides offering awesome protection, Red Shanks is further south in the harbor and those up by Monument, Chat ‘n Chill and Sand Dollar get slammed first, and you get a warning. Warning of wind, rain, boats dragging. I got nervous just listening, but it was noon time not the dark of night and when we felt the winds I was happy to get on with the event and know we were just fine.

Word that our friends on Traveling Soul would arrive after the wind event, on Saturday got me smiling. Plans for our harbor departure on Monday or Tuesday, brought mixed feelings. Weather conditions had been so bad that the supply ships arrived days late and instead of fresh produce and dairy early in the week, it didn’t happen until late in the week. Let’s not forget we need to stock up on wine too before departing.

Cort came through on his promise to re-schedule our postponed lunch up at Grand Isle, near the Sandals Resort at Emerald Bay, so Friday March 10 we met him at the market dock. Once again I offer proof that the dock and the market are meeting places: we tie up and look back to see Melanie & Paul zooming in (they don’t come in very often, mostly just for fresh foodstuffs). Paul notes that Russ is wearing a (different) Cuttyhunk polo shirt and that gets a good laugh. Cort arrives and we stand around chatting because he hasn’t seen M&P in a while. Ok. We go to leave and Cort’s good friend, who was also his boat partner when they co-owned Celise/Spirit, comes down the dock. Another delay. He and his wife are here on their new power cat. See, power cats are getting popular!

Service, food and libations at Grand Isle were excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed our waiter, chatting with Cort on a wide range of topics (including his wilder younger days) and the pretty pool-side view. Cort needed a good pressure gauge, which we had and he’d get it and return it before we took off. Good, we don’t have to say farewell just yet.

Saturday we made a big coming out move to Sand Dollar beach, first row in. This particular anchorage area has room for at least 5 to 6 rows of boat out from the shore, unlike up at Monument which is constrained by the ship channel to apprx 4 rows. Can you believe we had to go into town one more time for food? This time we got most of the important food items and said good-bye to Fred who was leaving Sunday and stocking up too. Stopped to chat with m/v Barefeet also in the anchorage, and departing the day after us.

Traveling Soul snuck in at lunch time and we spent time catching up with them. Ann & I did a low tide beach walk, collecting small shells and more sunrise tellins for me. Ann prepared lasagna for dinner –if you want to know her amazing repertoire check the link I have to Traveling Soul’s blog and a recent post will make your mouth water. During those windy hide-out days, Ann prepared gourmet meals while I made jewelry. Yes, I cooked dinner too but nothing worth noting.

Our departure day bounced between Monday and Tuesday- darn forecast wouldn’t settle in. Too much SE required we leave Sand Dollar and this time we tucked in behind Rolle Cay where Little Sister usually is but Steve had taken the boat back to Florida shortly after we’d last seen them in town so we moved in until our time to go.

But not before a lovely lunch with “the other TS” at St. Francis.

Jimmy Buffett sings, “come Monday it’ll be alright”, but he’s not the one leaving friends behind, in a rush job to tie up loose ends because Monday’s weather is better for us than the expected Tuesday. We had things to exchange with Traveling Soul- like jewelry, Hudson River charts and food items. And Cort still had that gauge. Accomplishing all that took way more discussion than you even care to know!

Some of you may recall “the egg toss story”.  In this 2017 version, Cort wanted to return our gauge and we wanted to give him two issues of Cruising Outpost which is essentially Latitudes and Attitudes magazine reincarnated by Bob Bitchin’. Cort has lived on the west coast for many years, sailed there and down to Mexico, yet didn’t know of Lats & Atts. We’d been hauling these two issues so why not provide new reading material to someone!

We were actually going to nose up to the end of the Queen’s Dock to make the exchange at high tide, but Cort came out in his boat while we were crossing the harbor. Anyone watching must have wondered what the heck.

After 50-plus days here in George Town, more re-anchorings and variety than ever, more time with new and old friends than usual, great sandbar and beach explorations… we are lucky to have this. Winter was notably benign, although March promises plenty o’wind for the salty sailors.

See you up the chain- the Exuma chain that is.