February 19-23

Along with Joe and Margie on Aquavit, we headed for George Town early Tuesday morning. We passed through Dotham Cut to Exuma Sound and motored the fifty miles to George Town. A cut is the narrow passage from the ‘banks’ side of the island chain through to the ‘Sound’ or ocean side. There is always a current through the cut based on the ebb or flow of the tide. When the wind is blowing the opposite direction from the current, it creates a large set of standing waves. We thought we had timed our transit well, and so were quite surprised by the short rough passage through the cut. Joe and Margie, veteran cruisers, assured us that this had been one of the roughest they had encountered.

George Town is the final destination of many cruisers and will be for us as well. We have travelled 3 254.3 miles and marvel consistently at what a wonderful experience it has been.

There are approximately 225 cruising boats anchored here. The cruisers have developed a vibrant community, facetiously called ‘day camp for seniors’, which is busy from morning to night. At 8:00 am there is a ‘net’ on the VHF radio that announces all of the activities for the day. Today there is yoga in the morning, volleyball in the afternoon, with opportunities to play bridge, bocci and dominoes. Last week we could have written the ham radio test, and this week Chris Parker, the Caribbean weather guru, will be doing a seminar in town.

On the other side of the island, a very short walk from ‘Hamburger Beach’, are miles of sand beach looking out on the sound.

We were anxious to get to George Town so that Corinne could get her cast removed. She has had it for six weeks and is anxious to be done with it. We went in to visit Dr. Fox who confirmed that the cast could be removed and said, ‘I’m sorry I don’t have the cast-cutter here, but you can easily cut it off with a hack saw blade.’

Corinne obviously had a look in her eye which said there was no way in #$% that I was going to be sawing her arm, because Dr. Fox slipped in a minute later and said he had just sent someone out to buy a blade.

We had an interesting conversation as he patiently sawed through the stubborn cast. In the end, there was the doctor, the chiropractor, myself and a nurse all pulling on the cast to get it to come loose. Finally the cast split apart and Corinne’s arm emerged. It is still pretty tender and a little swollen, but is feeling better each day.

When we returned to the boat we called our friends on Mary T to share the news. Corinne was very excited, but I think I was even more so as she was determined to start doing the dishes. Amy retorted, ‘Great, we’ll bring ours over too.’

February 15-18

Black Point is one of the most talked about destinations in The Exumas - we have heard cruisers singing its praises over the VHS radio for the past couple of weeks. What is it that could generate so much excitement?

Black Point has a new laundromat, and believe us, it is past time to check it out. On Friday morning we weighed anchor and sailed the nine miles down to Black Point. This is one of the larger communities in The Exumas, with a population of approximately 300 people, and a very nice anchorage.

The laundromat was everything that was promised, and very busy. There were 30 to 40 boats in the anchorage each day, and many of those would visit the laundromat, making it the hub of social activity. People share stories and places to visit, as well as catch up on news and gossip.

Speaking of gossip, Corinne is the focus of much of it. Everywhere we have been, she is inevitably greeted by the question, ‘What did you do to your arm?’

This is always followed by, ‘Oh, you’re the one! We heard about you. How are you doing?’

Another highlight of Black Point was the visit to Lorraine’s restaurant. It is popular and one must make reservations for dinner. We stopped by in the afternoon (between loads of laundry) to confirm our reservation and choice of entrée. People also make reservations by radio and we were curious to meet the always bubbly voice from the restaurant.

Our meal of cracked conch and red snapper was fabulous. Most interesting, though, was how the restaurant worked. Lorraine was the only person there, so she was cook, hostess, and bartender. How does she handle this and serve dinner for twenty? With grace and seeming ease. She greets people as they arrive and asks them to help themselves from the cooler or bar, and to mark down at the bar on a piece of paper what they have taken. As the meals were prepared, two or three of the women from cruising sailboats volunteered as servers. Finally, as her eleven-year-old son cleared the tables at the end of the meal Lorraine circulated to chat with her guests and present the bills.

Corinne responded to the call for cruisers who would like to volunteer to tutor for an hour at the end of the school day, and returned with the biggest smile on her face. She spent an hour with Rodnika, a six-year-old sweetheart who was working on phonics and addition facts. As always, the tutor seems to get the most out of this opportunity.

February 9-14

There is a scene in the movie The Pink Panther in which Inspector Clouseau asks a hotel clerk, ‘Does your dog bite?’

The clerk replies ‘No’ and so Clouseau bends down to pet the dog. The dog barks and bites him on the hand.

Clouseau says, ‘I thought you said your dog did not bite.”

The clerk replies, ‘That is not my dog.’

Corinne had a similar experience catching her flight back from Nassau on Friday afternoon. She was waiting in the departure lounge, and becoming concerned that there was not much activity. She checked twice with the airline clerk to make sure the plane was on schedule and everything was as it should be. The clerk assured her that the pilot had filed his flight plan and that she was on the passenger list. Not to worry.

Becoming increasingly concerned that something was not right, Corinne again approached the clerk to see if everything was in order. The clerk once more phoned to confirm the flight, only to be told that it had just departed from the other gate. And the only thing Corinne could say was, ‘But that was my plane.’

After one more night in Nassau, Corinne arrived safely back to Staniel Cay with a new and smaller cast and the assurance that everything was healing well.

We spent almost three days on the boat due to strong winds. When a cold front comes through, and they do so with some frequency, there can be quite strong winds for a period of time. With winds of 20 gusting to 30 knots, it is very difficult to get into the dinghy with one arm and also a wet ride to get anywhere. However, it was a great time to finish the Tom Clancy novel I started back in November.

The rest of the week has been filled with exploring new beaches in the dinghy and snorkeling. There are gorgeous spots everywhere and it is great fun checking these out.

The mailboat arrived on Wednesday and so the shelves in the grocery stores are stocked again. The captains of these boats are quite remarkable. I have been careful about taking the dinghy up this channel to the store, and here is the mailboat reversing 180 degrees in the channel that is no more than 50 feet wider than its length.

February 6-8

We sometimes wonder when we are going to just sit back and ‘chill’. There are a lot of things to do in this cruising life, and they all take time.

Thursday is shopping day in Staniel Cay. There are three stores to choose from. You can go to the Blue Store, the Pink Store or Isles General. The Mailboat comes in either Wednesday evening or Thursday morning with supplies. The advice is to be at the store by 11:00 am, just enough time to get things unpacked but not long enough for everything to be sold out.

Our timing was pretty good at Isles General, which was our choice because we could dinghy right up to its dock. We were a little apprehensive, though, as there were at least 20 dinghies already tied up at the dock. When we got up to the entrance we had to wait a bit as people shifted around so that we were able to open the door. Friends from another boat informed us we were actually quite lucky as the crowd was beginning to thin out.

Isles General is about the size of three good-sized bedrooms, and provides produce and frozen goods, a hardware section and dry goods, and the check-out counter. Produce is set out on two or three good-sized bookcases. Amazingly, we were able to get most everything we needed and never had to take more than ten steps from one place to another around the store.

With our basket full, it was one step backwards to the checkout line, where we waited and visited for the next hour. It was fun, though, as we met two other cruising couples with connections to Winnipeg – one even worked for MTS and knew Pops.

On Friday Corinne flew to Nassau to have her cast changed. This too has been an experience. It took essentially two days, five phone calls and two trips to the airport to confirm the ticket. Each of these involved either a quarter-mile walk to the phone booth (the ones outside the yacht club are not currently working), or a half-mile walk to the airport. We finally got everything settled and saw Corinne off this morning. I think the pilot will remember to close that window before taking off, won’t he?


This is the view from the cockpit at Big Major in the evening. Things are good, mon.

February 3-5

It's Superbowl Sunday, and the Staniel Cay Yacht Club is hosting a buffet and party. They have been making regular announcements on the VHF radio, and we are thinking it might be fun to attend. It means sailing the 30 nautical miles from Warderick Wells, but it is a beautiful morning.

We had another fabulous sail with Mary T down to Big Major Spot, a comfortable anchorage just a mile away from Staniel Cay. There was just enough time for a quick snorkel when we got there before calling the water taxi to get a ride to the yacht club. Dinner was terrific and it was a fun place to watch the game. Unfortunately, thinking we had a longer ride back to the boat, we left at half time and missed the exciting end.

Two ‘must-dos’ in Staniel Cay are feeding the wild pigs on Pig Beach and snorkeling Thunderball Grotto, the cave featured in the James Bond movie of the same name. One of these we would probably not do again, while snorkeling in Thunderball was a highlight.
















The other highlight is checking one's email at the Yacht Club. There are between 40 and 60 boats within a two-mile radius, and so there is a lot of activity at the bar. They are wonderfully open about permitting computer usage, and there are frequently 10 to 20 laptops with people ordering drinks and working away. We are only becoming aware that this is a shrewd marketing opportunity, because the more people trying to access the Internet, the slower the connection becomes, and what else is there to do in the bar when waiting for an email to open.

January 30 – February 2

We woke up this morning and had to pinch ourselves. The view from the cockpit was fabulous – exactly what we had imagined being anchored in The Bahamas would be like. We have thoroughly enjoyed every part of the trip, but this really is something else.

Warderick Wells has a number of hiking trails providing many options to explore the cay. On Wednesday we went for a hike up Boo Boo Hill. The cays are comprised essentially of limestone, formed during the last Ice Age, which has been dramatically eroded and mottled over time. The shores are very rocky with rather tall cliffs interspersed with beautiful beaches.

Boo Boo Hill is the highest point of land on Warderick Wells with a cairn and markers on top of it. The lore is that the boatload of missionaries that wrecked off Warderick Wells are buried there and the cairn was erected years ago in their honour. Boaters have been leaving mementos with the names of their boats on this site for years.

I also have been snorkeling a number of times. There is an amazing variety of fish. Some are bright and vivid while others are so well camouflaged that you don’t notice them unless you look very carefully. It has been fun using my camera with its underwater housing, a great Christmas present from last year.

While snorkeling one afternoon, Corinne and I thought we saw a small reef just off one of the beaches. As we got closer to shore, Corinne said, ‘It’s moving.’ Could that be possible? Sure enough, the black form was moving back and forth along the beach. As we got closer, it began to move towards us. When we stopped the dinghy a black ray, over three feet across, swam up to us and stopped under the dinghy. Corinne said this was much too close for comfort (not in exactly those words) and we slowly motored away. We asked the park attendant about this afterwards, and she said it was likely just happy to find a place in the shade.

On Friday we went on a guided walk with Bill, a volunteer for the park. Many cruisers volunteer for a day or two to support the programs within the park. In this picture he is explaining that the fifty plus foot Sperm whale skeleton behind him was from a whale that had washed up on shore a number of years ago. It had apparently died from ingesting plastic bags that it had swallowed thinking they were squid, a staple of their diet.

On both the micro and macro level, refuse is a major concern. As thoughtful as we have been, we have a full garbage bag accumulated after a week in the Exumas, and there are few options to dispose of it. More disconcerting, though, is the distressing amount of litter, mostly plastic and glass, which washes up on the beaches. Corinne and I are trying to be thoughtful about our impact on the environment.

January 28-29

Monday was a gorgeous day as we eased out of the marina just after 9:00 am.

Kenny and Amy, aboard Mary T, another Morgan 384, joined us and we were finally off to the Exumas, bound for Allens Cay. Kenny and Amy are great fun and very competent sailors, so it is reassuring to be sailing in their company. Also, since they have the same boat as us, it is great fun sailing side by side, or better yet, slightly ahead of them!

It was 33 nautical miles over the Exuma Bank to Allens Cay. The bank is only 10 to 20 feet deep so is great sailing in that while it may be quite breezy the waves are not large. Midway we passed over the Yellow Bank, approximately a five-mile stretch of coral heads. We were a little apprehensive about this, but the coral heads are clearly visible ominous black heads and we were able to easily negotiate around them.

The anchorage at Allens Cay was somewhat crowded and we did not get settled until later in the afternoon.

On Tuesday we were off to Warderick Wells, headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. It was another fabulous sailing day, perhaps one of the best of our entire trip. After thirty nautical miles we turned eastward to find the entrance to the mooring field at Warderick Wells. As we closed on the cay, the spectacular blues of the water come into view. I have tried repeatedly to capture this, but pictures do not do it justice.

The view of the mooring field and cays beyond from the deck of park headquarters is spectacular. We feel like we have finally made it and are very excited to explore the trails and snorkeling within the park.

January 22-27

Just as he promised, Albert arrived early Tuesday morning and had the new transmission installed before lunch. Although we had been hoping that a new transmission would not be required, as they are not inexpensive, we are feeling much more at ease now that it has been replaced.

We have managed to keep quite busy in Nassau. We are up early in the morning, but some days it can be 11:00 am before we have finished breakfast and made the long walk along the dock to the showers and back again. We have met a number of wonderful people in the marina and so visiting along the way is part of the fun.

On Wednesday we walked over to Atlantis, a magnificent resort and casino complex on Paradise Island. It is extremely lavish and a little ‘over-the-top’, but fun to walk through. In one of the main foyers there is a huge aquarium around the perimeter that is perhaps one hundred yards long and houses an amazing array of fish.

We were back to the hospital on Friday and Corinne had a new cast put on, actually a fiberglass cast put over the shell of the original cast. I wish I could do glass work on the boat as quickly and easily as Dr. Iferenta put that cast on. He is a bit of a ‘character’ and Corinne is very happy to be in his care. While he was putting the cast on, we asked what the pain of such a break would be like if we had not been able to get to the hospital for a day or so. His response was ‘Astronomical’. With that sobering reply we asked if there was any medication that would be helpful easing the pain in such a situation. Without missing a beat he said, ‘Rum’.

Corinne has an appointment to have a smaller cast put on in two weeks time, so as the weather improves, we are going to head down to The Exumas.

On the weekend we walked down to Montagu Park to watch the Bahamian sailboat races. These are part of a regular schedule of races throughout the islands, and are a popular event, with lots of music, cold beer and great food. And yes, there’s some racing as well.



Corinne and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but had the most fun with Gabriel, who we were thrilled to adopt for the afternoon. Gabriel and his mom were staying in the same marina as us while his father was in Miami on business for the week. We would stop and chat with them most mornings on the way to the shower.