Jan 8, 2000
George Town, Great Exuma
We are in George Town! Yesterday’s sail was nice. We actually got to sail. Not the whole way though because we were
very close hauled. The cut into George
Town, Conch Cut, was one of the easiest to transverse. Of course having computer charting helped
immensely along the fact that there were 8 boats ahead of us. There are just over 200 boats at anchor in the area.
After we dropped anchor we
went to town. The area we are in has a
large island on either side. Great
Exuma is on the west and the smaller Stocking Island is on the east. George Town is on Great Exuma while Stocking
Island is beaches. From north to south
they (the cruisers) have named the beaches.
Hamburger Beach has a monument on it.
Volleyball Beach has a bar on it and they play volleyball every day at
3:30. Finally Sand Dollar Beach doesn’t
really offer anything but a nice quiet beach.
Sand Dollar is Dorothy’s (Blue Star) favorite.
In George Town there is a
lake. The lake is relatively small at 1
or 2 acres – and it’s shallow. You
dinghy under a little bridge to get into the lake where you dock your
dinghy. Exuma Markets, the grocery
store, has a free dinghy dock. After
having gotten used to stores smaller than a garage with as much selection as a ¼
convenience store, Exuma Markets was amazing.
They have a large selection and are comparable with a small grocery in
the States. With the exception of the
prices, that is. The prices are about
the same as Nassau. Something that
costs $1.50 in the States will cost $3.00 in Nassau and $3.50 to $4.00 in the
smaller islands we visited. I’m told
the Dominican Republic is the closest place with States prices. After grocery and email, we went to Two Turtles
to have a cocktail with “The Village”.
The rum punch I had sure did make me tipsy. After that, we went home and celebrated our arrival with BLTs.
Our plans from here are
non-existent. We’ve talked a lot about
other places we want to visit, we’ve just not decided between them. September Song picked up an alternator
regulator for us. The new regulator is
supposed to charge our batteries more efficiently. They are in Venice (Florida) now headed for Charlotte Harbor and
then on to the Dry Tortugas. My bet is,
we won’t see them until February. Brad
wrote to us and told us he’s able to come at the end of January. That might be fun!
Today we’re going to top off
the water tanks and clean the boat. I
also heard of a laundry that charges $1.00 for washing and $1.00 for
drying. Hopefully we can do some
laundry.
January 13, 2000
George Town, Great Exuma
Ah, just another day in
paradise…. Each day we listen to the
weather and radio nets. There’s the
Cruiseheimer’s Net at 8:30am. This net
is on the single side band radio. We’re
able to talk to everyone we know from here to Florida. It’s been really nice talking with Chez Nous
and September Song.
September Song lost their
depth sounder in the ICW between Charlotte Harbor and Ft. Myers Beach. So they are having the boat hauled today to
put in a new one. Mitch ordered a
regulator from West – our current regulator is not charging efficiently. Jerry on Chez Nous picked it up in St.
Petersburg and September Song will UPS it today. We’ve heard so many stories about how expensive or difficult it
is to get shipments that we’re a little apprehensive. After talking with UPS in George Town, to doesn’t sound too
bad. We will see.
At 8:00am there’s a VHF net
for George Town. The local services
talk about their services or specials.
Exuma Markets lists the faxes and packages they have received for boats
and then boats can announce any activities they may have or request help from
the other boaters. Some people request
help with their batteries or refrigeration, etc.
After the net we may clean
the boat and run the engine and watermaker.
Then we can get together with other boaters or go for a walk or
shopping.
Some nights there are get
togethers or sundowners. Other nights
we are yawning by 8:30 and ready for bed.
It’s a nice life.
Today, however, Mitch has
pulled a muscle in his back so he’s not very comfortable. The refrigeration is acting up again
too. I think it knows we have a new
bottle of 134A refrigerant and it wants some.
Amphora is leaving for the
Turks & Caicos today. We will miss
them. Claire make these beautiful
beaded bags. I’m hoping to learn how to
make them.
January 15, 2000
George Town
It’s a “snow day”. We’re in the midst of a very strong cold
front. The front arrived yesterday at
about 5:00pm. We knew it was coming and
we knew it would be strong. So
yesterday afternoon we tied everything down and made sure we had enough snacks
and stuff to last us through the weekend.
It’s been blowing a steady 25 to 30 knots with gusts to 40.
We had a radio schedule with
Amphora but they never came up. There
was a lot of noise on the frequency and with such strong winds, we reckon they
might be too busy to talk to us. Seas
in their area were forecasted to be 12 to 18 feet and I have no doubt they
were. This morning we though we would
certainly hear from them either at 7:00am on “Carolyn’s Weather Net” or at 8:30
during the Cruiseheimer’s Net. We got
no response to our calls. Sea Treat had
a 6:00am schedule with them and heard no word.
It’s not like Roger to miss a scheduled radio call. It’s doubly not like him to miss the
weather. So we’re all a bit
concerned. Mitch and Steve took a
dinghy ride into George Town today – with whitecaps in the harbor! Steve thought to call some folks in Houston
that have other radio schedules set up with Amphora. Unfortunately those people were in Tahiti so that didn’t produce
anything. Mitch called BASRA (Bahamas
Air Sea Rescue) and notified them that although they were not yet overdue, they
had missed three radio schedules and we were concerned – especially because the
weather was so bad. Tonight we will try
again. We keep our fingers crossed and
say prayers to God for their safety.
So whitecaps begin to appear
yesterday evening and the wind begins to howl so much we have to shut down the
wind generator. At 30 knots, the blades
feather and make an incredible noise!
At some point we look at the anemometer and realize it’s not working
anymore. We lost a cup so it won’t read
the wind speed. The highest recorded
was 37 knots.
We decide to sleep in the
salon just in case we need to be up in a hurry. My nearest recollection is that we hear a voice on the VHF saying
“Heads up everyone! Lady Ann is
dragging!”. We leap into the cockpit
and look around. It’s not Lady Ann, it’s
Jibit, a trawler and they seem to have hit our neighbor, Desdamona just 50 feet
away!
Meanwhile it’s 1:00am and
the radio is alive with voices. The
night sky is filled with spotlights.
Everyone is out checking their anchors and checking their neighbors
position.
Jibit is stuck – they can’t
get their anchor up. And from the look
of it, the reason might be that their anchor is caught on our secondary
anchor. So if they do get it up, we
migh go with them unless we cut our anchor rode away. Now Desdamona is calling for help on the radio. Mitch gets inot our dinghy (which in high
winds and whitecaps is no small feat) and goes over there. Sauvignon also heard the call for help and
has come to assist. Funny thing,
Sauvignon, the day we arrived was sailing through the harbor very closed to all
of the anchored boats. When not sailing
dangerously close to other boats, we’ve been told the main entertainment was
having loud parties and generally making everyone in the harbor want him
dead. And here he was, aside from
Mitch, the only one coming to help.
Now it’s almost 3am and it’s
decided that Jibit should just let a bit more rode out and fall back from
Desdamona. This will allow for a small
bit of rest until daylight.
Mitch checks our anchor – it’s
being watched over by a gar. This gar
is 12” long and when you shine a flashlight on him he glows green. Mitch and the gar have been “meeting” at the
bow of Hetty since we first anchored.
He’s watching our anchor chain.
Last night he wondered why we were so long in checking on him and on our
anchor. But he assured us he has been
on watch and our anchor is just fine.
Jibit is now motoring into
the wind to avoid hitting us or Desdamona.
The two boats in front of us are moving so fast I worry they will drag
with the very next gust. In fact one of
the boats is heard on the radio talking of dragging at 11pm and again just
now. They have their running lights on
and we think they are motoring to stay in place as well.
Mitch got the first shift of
our anchor watch. What we do is while
one person sleeps, the other sits in the cockpit watching to ensure that no
boats drag down on us. From the sounds
of folks this morning, no one slept much last night.
The weatherfax says the
winds will continue through Monday – but I think that everyone will stay put
tonight.
If we can’t pick up Amphora
tonight, Mitch and Steve will dinghy into George Town tomorrow and call the
Turks & Caicos Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard. Better safe than sorry.
January 19, 2000
George Town
Amphora left Thursday for
the Turks & Caicos. Mitch talked
with Roger Friday morning. They were
motoring – no wind and had gotten 67 miles – they were just southeast of Rum
Cay. The forecast was for 30 knot
winds. Friday night at 8:30 Amphora did
not make radio contact. We knew they
would get a beating, we just didn’t know how bad it would be. Saturday morning we got on the radio and
called Amphora. No answer. Saturday night we call – no answer. Three missed scheduled calls! What could be happening? Why haven’t they called? So many times we reviewed their situation in
the high winds and waves. We were
getting scared. Sunday morning came –
still no answer. Mitch and Steve went
into GT again. This time to notify
BASRA that they’ve missed more than five scheduled radio calls. BASRA even notified Turks & Caicos
Rescue. Sunday night we felt sure we
would hear from them but alas, no contact.
Mitch went over the chart many times trying to figure out what happened,
where they may be. Our last supposition
was that maybe the Antilles Current and weather slowed them so much they hadn’t
made it to the Turks & Caicos yet.
Surely we would hear from them on Monday. If not, Mitch and Steve would go back into GT and call the U.S.
Coast Guard. So Monday morning we turn
on the radio early and sit in the cockpit to wake up a bit. “Sea Treat, Sea Treat, this is Amphora”
comes through the SSB.
That’s a moment in time I
will never forget. I wished to hear
those words morning and night for 3 days and now we were really hearing them
come over the radio! Thank God! They were safe! They were 8 miles from Provo.
The were beat up and had spent a day and a half hove to. They were exhausted but otherwise safe. We set a schedule to talk again that
night. Everyone within 50 miles of Provo
was contacting Amphora to tell them they were missing. That night we had popcorn and a toast on the
beach in Amphora’s honor. Then we all
went over to Sea Treat for dinner and to talk with Amphora. 8:30 rolls around and wouldn’t you know…
they didn’t call! But based on hearing
them this morning, we weren’t worried.
Tuesday morning we did hear from them again. They didn’t get in until 2pm.
They had to round West Caicos because the Sandbore Channel into Provo
was impassable. A long day after a
bunch of long days.
Yesterday I went for a walk
with Dorothy on Stocking Island. The
vegetation is lush and there are lizards and geckos everywhere. Big ones!
Then after a mile we saw Exuma Sound.
Boy, it’s beautiful! On the
beach there are snails a bit smaller than my fist and sea urchins. Afterwards, Mitch and I had cheeseburgers at
the Chat and Chill and then I played a game of volleyball. Then another relaxing walk before retiring
to Hetty. I made fudge last night, it
turned out pretty good.
Today we’re off to George
Town to do laundry. Boy, our lives are
busy!
January 25, 2000
George Town
Our lives have settled into
a luxurious, easy style. Cleaning,
normal chores, making water are the norm.
Then walking or dinghying or hanging out playing volleyball. On foul weather days, reading, snacking, and
napping. Oh, it is paradise!
The weather, we’re told, is
worse this year than in years past.
Colder, stronger winds, more “snow days”.
Sea Trek and September Song
left Marathon on Saturday and arrived at Chubb on Monday. We talked with Sea Trek just a few miles
from the Northwest Channel Light, it was morning. The forecast called for a front to pass through later on Monday
carrying strong winds. Sea Trek said it
was a bit squally and rainy but not too bad.
So we’re very happy to think that Tom, Cindy, and Dylan had a nice
smooth crossing. We figured they were
just 15 miles from Chubb so they were home free….
Ha! Those last 15 miles! Tom says they got beat up bad. And Susan on Sea Trek said they have never
been so scared. Susan is not new to
cruising. She’s made this trip before,
in fact. Sea Trek had 8” of water in
the cockpit. September Song got 3 large
holes in their dinghy and lost the floorboard from it. Then the gooseneck on the staysail boom gave
way and punched holes in the teak deck.
No serious damage to it, though.
Tom also found transmission fluid that had leaked and freshwater that
had leaked. They saw 18 foot waves
through the Tongue of the Ocean.
Boy, now that’s a sea
story! I can’t imagine that it was much
fun for anyone out there that day.
Later we heard a lot of reports from boats that experienced much the
same conditions.
The good news is, they are
safe and sound and plan to continue.
Hope is still in Miami waiting for the next window to cross the Gulf
Stream. I hope their trip is an
uneventful one.
We’ve been quite social
lately. Last night we were invited over
to Cambia, a 40 foot catamaran. This
boat has two heads, 1 shower, 1 tub, and 2 king size beds. There is also a queen size bed. The boat is beautiful. Janice and Dick are very nice people.
Then tonight we were invited
over to I Wanda, a 40 foot Camper & Nicholson. Mary and Christian were our hosts and George and Betty from
Katherine B. were also there. It was a
very comfortable evening. They
mentioned sponsoring us for Commodore status in the Seven Seas Cruising
Association. We have been Associates
for years. Being a Commodore would be a
hoot!
Mary served Dove chocolates
too. Mitch’s chocolate wrapper read: “you can’t make footprints in the sand if
you’re sitting on the beach.”
February 1, 2000
George Town
The weather has been cold
and windy. Not much fun. We are still in George Town. The lifestyle is easy and casual.
I tried to go fishing
yesterday. I landed the dinghy at the
northern most cut. When I through out
my hook, I felt nibbles right away.
Unfortunately, the tide was rising so if I didn’t want to get stuck
there, I had to wade back to the beach.
I tried fishing by the beach but had no luck. I will try again on the south end of Stocking Island. I just have to find more conch guts…
Today we’re going to walk 3
miles to the hardware store. It should be
a nice walk. The wind has tapered and
the temp is warm.
February 6, 2000
George Town
Yesterday there was a
terrible car accident in George Town.
Two cars collided and 5 women, girls, were hurt. One died, the rest are in serious condition
at a hospital in Nassau. The U.S. Coast
Guard air lifted them from George Town yesterday.
The Peace and Plenty hotel
made a radio call on the VHF for all medical professionals in the harbor to go
to the George Town clinic to help. Then
the Taxi Driver, Les, got on the radio begging everyone to hurry as 2 of his
daughters were among the injured. One
of his daughters died and my heart hurts.
I hear his call and his tears in my head. The girls were 17 to 19 years old. Les and his family are probably experiencing a lot of pain and I
am sad.
We also heard later that one
of the attending doctors didn’t believe that she would’ve died in his hospital
back in the U.S.
There were more than a dozen
cruisers: doctors, EMTs, RNs, anesthesiologists,
pediatricians, and surgeons that responded to the call for help. They decided to get together again today to
see if they couldn’t help the clinic with their emergency procedures. It’s heartening to know that in addition to
money and garbage, the cruisers can give something else back to the residents
of George Town.
On the lighter side, I
volunteered to be net control for the Cruiseheimer’s Net. It was a real hoot! I’ll bet our friends listening thought so
too!
February 13, 2000
George Town
It feels like
Christmas! The excitement and
delight! Hope, September Song, and Sea
Trek came in yesterday. Also, Little
Gidding and Rising Sun are here now too!
Eileen Quinn on Little Gidding put on a concert on Volleyball Beach last
night. Boy, she is very talented! She writes and plays guitar and sings her
own songs. She sings about all the
aspects of cruising. The horrible
nights at sea, life during haul outs, SSB nets, the incredible beauty of it
all. Incredible!
It was Lynn’s (Hope)
birthday yesterday too. Hope’s goal was
to be in George Town for Lynn’s 28th birthday and they made it! After Eileen’s concert we went to Hamburger
Beach for cake and ice cream around a bon fire. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and swap sea stories.
Today, Ken and Dorothy’s
daughter Angela, is flying into GT. We’re
going to Two Turtles for the celebration.
It’s very nice to see everyone in their new “cruising life”. We talked at the dock so long about what
cruising would be like and here we all are!
I got to do the Cruiseheimer’s
Net again today. It was a lot of
fun. Mitch picks up a lot of the names,
it’s pretty neat how in tune he is with it.
He’s also playing his guitar in the evenings. It’s so relaxing and delightful.
Mitchell spent all morning a
couple of days ago scrubbing our hull.
He was tired but I don’t think his ears hurt from diving, which is good.
So now our hull is clean and
we’re tanked up with diesel. Mitch made
an outboard bracket for the additional outboard – we’re ready to sail south!
February 23, 2000
George Town
We’re on day two of a nasty
cold front. Monday, however, was
perfect. Cindy, Dylan, and I went to
the beach in the morning while Tom and Mitch went to town. I didn’t wear my swimsuit so I stripped down
and went swimming anyway. There was no
one around and it was delightful. Later
we saw a reef shark swim by the beach right where we were swimming! He was 4 to 6 feet ling, quite a sight. Then as we dinghied through the harbor we
saw another shark. This one was smaller
but still very impressive.
Then in the afternoon, Tom
and I went snorkeling while Cindy and Dylan napped and Mitch cleaned
Hetty. Do you get the impression that
Mitch got the worst part of the deal?
Tom and I saw a lot of cool fish including a barracuda. We went to the south end of Stocking
Island. It was wonderful to snorkel around
and look at all of the beautiful coral and sea life.
That night I Wanda, Mary and
Christian, came over for sundowners.
Then they invited us over for lobster dinner. Mary and Christian are the nicest people!
A few weeks ago, George
offered to sponsor us as Commodores in the Seven Seas Cruising
Association. You need two sponsors so
we asked Mary and Christian to the other sponsors and they said they would be
delighted! So we got our two sponsors
and now we want to get one thousand miles from home to fulfill the mileage
requirements.
We talked of going to
Jamaica, the Cayman’s, and Mexico to Florida but decided against it because if
we have further problems with our engine mounts, services would be harder to
find for much of that route. So we’re
going to continue south and east. If we
run into trouble it will be easier to sail with the prevailing winds back
north.
We’ve been in George Town
for almost six weeks. We are more than
ready to go. There are 460 boats here
and a lot of them feel the need to enforce their personal rules. Like talking on VHF channel 16. If the Bahamians felt strongly about any of
this, I would respect that because after all, this is their country and we are
merely guests. But it’s not the natives
– it’s the boaters. It’s almost as if
they want to impose any and all rules from home. Maybe so they will feel more comfortable. What ever the reason, it’s disgusting. We’ve heard people on channel 16 (which is
hailing and distress only) talking about a boat that is dragging or a dinghy
that’s gotten loose and the “radio police” (other boaters) will yell “WORKING
CHANNEL, WORKING CHANNEL”) and then click their mike so the people trying to
help can’t communicate. Once Allegria
got on the morning net and wanted to discuss where to clean fish. He was very nice and most appropriate. But someone didn’t like what he had to say
so they blocked him out. Everyone
thought it was terrible.
It’s really nice having
September Song, Hope, and Sea Trek here.
We all went over to Hope last night for sweets. It seems that everyone bakes when the
weather is bad.
Kilifi (our friends back at
the marina) is discouraged. Baby Connor
doesn’t like to sail and Kay and Grant aren’t sure what to do. Tom and Cindy say that sailing with a little
one is just like single handing.
Someone takes care of the baby and the other sails. Tom and Cindy don’t think they’ll be doing
many long passages for a while because it would be tiresome. I hope Kilifi is able to come to a
satisfactory decision.
February 26, 2000
The winds continue to
blow. It’s been 20 knots all week with
the exception of Thursday. Thursday was
balmy and pleasant. Bruce Van Sant,
author of Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South, spoke Thursday about sailing to
points south. It was interesting. Today he’s doing another seminar on Land
Effects. How land masses affect the
weather and weather forecasts.
Mitch wrote and HTML program
called Cruise Info. It’s really
neat. It contains Katherine B.’s
weather info, Lorelei’s first aid pamphlet, and I Wanda’s SSB frequencies. Thursday Mary talked to the Women Aboard
group about weather. She also passed
out Mitch’s program. Everyone loved
it. It’s a very nice program.
Exuma Markets was completely
stripped yesterday. Right before the
mailboat arrived they were out of lamb, flour, lettuce, butter, milk, and
cigarettes – just to name a few items.
So the mailboat came in and no sooner were the items on the shelf then
they were off again. Seems everyone was
awaiting the mailboat. Mitchell got us
provisioned and even score some Diet Pepsi!
Also, Sea Trek turned
September Song on to sourdough bread.
September Song turned us onto sourdough bread. It’s the best bread we’ve made so far. Definitely a boat staple now!
We’re ship shape and ready
to point south.