|
Rae's Visit to the Exuma
Islands, Bahamas
9th - 30th March 2006 |
|
Chris and Vivian kindly volunteered to borrow
their friends' vehicle to take us to Georgetown International Airport to
meet Phil's sister, Rae, who was coming to stay for three weeks aboard
Anju. Rae's luxury cruise began in style when the only vehicle
available was a pick up truck with only two seats. Our new cabin
girl rode in comfort up front with Chris, while Vivian, Christine, Phil and
another cruiser needing a lift piled into the back of the truck, with its
luxury seating of water jerries, tool boxes and assorted luggage.
For the next leg of her trip to reach Anju,
anchored as close to the town as possible but due to the lack of depth still
about a mile out, Rae definitely did not ride in comfort.
Fortunately we'd had the foresight to bring along a huge black plastic bag
to protect her belongings, as her introduction to our cruising lifestyle
began with a baptism in seawater, during our wettest dinghy ride ever,
all three of us ending up soaked to the skin in seawater.
|
|
Rae aboard Anju's dinghy,
hoping to stay dry this time!
|
All that remained before she passed out from jet
lag was to show Rae her luxury stateroom aboard, the port side top bunk in
the forepeak, where we'd tried to make room for her amongst all our assorted
clutter!
After a quiet day provisioning around
Georgetown, it was time to party and our Irish friends, Dan and Carmel, came
aboard for one of Phil's famous curries.
We spent one more day in Georgetown waiting
for the wind to decrease before we set sail, which gave us time to take in
the Cruiser Regatta's last night variety show and also sample some traditional
Bahamian fare.
|
|
Sailing to Rat Cay
|
Debating what to do about
the jammed furler
|
|
Next morning we were off on our Exuma sailing
adventure, heading to Rat Cay at the north of Great Exuma
Island. Rae's first day of sailing was a typical day of sailing,
the sea was still uncomfortable after all the high wind we'd been
having. As we approached the Rat Cay Cut, worrying about the
effect of the sea state on the narrow channel between the rocks, our roller
furler jammed, leaving us unable to reef in the foresail. So, we
found ourselves screaming through the cut with the genoa filled with the 20
knot wind from astern. Fortunately Rat Cay Cut is one of the
best in the area, so our worries about waves were unnecessary but even in
the lee of the island, the stubborn roller furler refused to budge, so off
we went to anchor with the sail flogging around the anchorman.
|
|
Children's Bay Cay
|
Once anchored, we attended to
the roller furler, where the jammed reefing line, which had locked over
itself, was freed with some ingenuity, teamwork and pliers! We
realised the anchoring spot we'd selected was pretty uncomfortable with the
ocean swell coming around the island but Chris and Vivian called by on their
way back from a conching trip and directed us to a more comfortable
spot. Having visited the Barraterre area of the island for
many years, they were very familiar with its shallow waters.
|
|
The following day the wind changed direction
again and after we'd had tea aboard Second Chance with their
guest Barbara, Chris sounded out a far prettier anchorage off the private
island of Children's Bay Cay. From the chart the anchorage
seemed far too shallow for Anju but after exploring in his shallower draft
power boat, Chris directed us to a sheltered spot with plenty of
water. This was an ideal spot for Rae's first snorkeling
lesson. We were keen for her to enjoy the snorkeling at
Thunderball Cave later in the week and wanted her to learn the basics before
we arrived there. After the first part of the lesson,
snorkeling from the sandy shallows off the beach, we quickly moved to a
beautiful nearby coral patch where Rae was able to put her new skills to
use, enjoying the brightly coloured reef fishes. We were very
impressed how quickly she got the hang of it and as Christine had found when
learning how to snorkel, having something interesting to look at certainly
is a good incentive.
|
|
Our next trip was to see the 'big city
lights' of Black Point on Great Guana Island. We were glad to
find that the sea had finally calmed down but now the lack of wind left us
motor-sailing. Black Point was a great stop, giving Rae a
taste of life in a typical quiet Bahamian town. The brand shiny
new laundry in the town was also a welcome stop and we managed to buy some
delicious fresh home-made coconut bread from Lorraine's cafe. By the
time we returned to Anju, Second Chance were on their way in after an
unsuccessful fishing trip and we all got together for dinner and a card
game.
|
|
|
Next day the two boats re-anchored at Big
Major's (Piggy Beach) and we set off to snorkel the Thunderball Cave at
slack low water. Low water was always the best time to visit as
you didn't need to duck your head under the water to enter the
cave. So, on her second snorkeling trip, Rae found herself
challenged by snorkeling into a cave! Luckily on this occasion
the grouper didn't seem to be biting!
Once we'd spent a while snorkeling amongst
the assorted friendly fish in the cave, which is lit by sunlight through a
hole in its roof, Phil and Christine snorkeled around the outside of the
island to take a look at the beautiful coral formations growing around the
rocks. Unbeknownst to Christine, whilst snorkeling Phil
happened upon a seemingly unoccupied flame helmet shell, which was truly
stunning. The shell was stowed inside his wetsuit for
safety and proudly presented back aboard Anju. It really was a
lovely shell. A short time later it began to walk
away! It seemed the shell was not as unoccupied as it first
appeared and was in fact the abode of a fairly large hermit
crab. Luckily it appeared that the hermit crabs weren't biting
either!
Thus began a dilemma, the shell was really
beautiful and we were keen to add it to our ever growing shell collection
but didn't want the poor squatter living inside to perish. It
was decided to place the shell in a container of sea water with a couple of
other large shells for company, add a small snack for the hermit crab, to
sustain it overnight and then return it to the spot where we'd found it the
following day. So, Hermione, as the crab had been
christened, was tucked up for the night aboard Anju.
The following morning we went to check on
Hermione and discovered to our surprise, that during the night she'd decided
a larger shell we'd added to decorate the container would make her a
better home. She'd moved out of the flame helmet and into a
Carolina Whelk shell! We were delighted as now Hermione
could be safely returned in a new improved and larger home to the spot where
we'd found her and we got to keep the flame helmet shell with clear
consciences! We dropped her back home when we were on our way to
the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where Barbara treated us to lunch.
However, the saga of Hermione the Hermit Crab was not yet over....
|
|
The next day, softies that they were, Phil and
Christine decided to snorkel again, to check if they could spot their old
friend Hermione and see how her new Carolina shell was going down in the
neighbourhood. The large shell was quickly spotted and
Phil dived down to take a closer look. There was no sign
of life from inside, it seemed that Hermione may have upgraded
again. That being the case, Phil saw no reason not to
retrieve the Carolina Lightning Whelk shell for our collection and slipped
it back inside his wet suit. Of course it was only we
arrived back aboard Anju, that Hermione decided to show
herself! So, after four trips in the dinghy, two inside
Phil's wet suit, Hermione, the well-travelled crab was finally returned to
her home in her stylish new shell from North Carolina, probably telling
tales of alien abduction!
|
Hermione's Residences Old
and New
|
|
Chris, Rae, Phil and
Barbara take in the sights of Staniel Cay whilst walking off lunch
|
Chris, Vivian, Shelley, Zappa and Barbara
dressed in style for St. Patrick's Day
|
|
Our visit to Staniel Cay was extended by a day
when we realised that it was St. Patrick's Day. Chris being
Irish needed to celebrate and the rest of us will party for any team, so we
tucked into more Bahamian fare at the fund-raiser barbecue on the
beach. Unfortunately sleeping off lunch caused us to miss
the green beer happy hour at the yacht club, which was probably for the
best.
|
|
Anju and Second Chance at
Warderick Wells
|
Next stop on our Exuma tour was the Warderick
Wells Land and Sea Park. Moorings were available on a
first-come-first-served basis and on calling up that morning we found we
were out of luck, so headed to the west side of the island to the anchorage
at Emerald Rock. However on dinghying ashore to the
office, it turned out that two moorings had become available at the south
anchorage, so we agreed to meet Second Chance, who were off on another
fishing expedition, there later. In fact by the time we'd
motored all the way back around the island from the north west corner to the
south east corner to our mooring, they were right behind us but bearing no
fish for supper. Of course we then found out about the happy
hour being held at the north west corner of the island and had to head all
the way back, which was much quicker in Chris' jet boat!
|
|
On our return to Second Chance later that
evening, there was great excitement. Zappa, Vivian's spatially
challenged Portuguese Water Dog (aptly named as it turned out) leapt up in
glee on hearing the jet boat return, promptly falling off Second Chance and
being swept out to sea on the tidal current. A hurried rescue
mission was required to retrieve the haplass hound! It was only
his second unexpected dip in two days! Zappa was lucky not to have a
close encounter with Anju's new pet, Barrie the 4 foot barracuda, who hung
around at her stern waiting for tasty snacks.
|
Anyone fancy a snorkel with
Barrie?
|
|
We spent four wonderful days exploring Warderick
Wells by foot and snorkeling (not too close to Barrie though!).
We chose to snorkel the coral reefs on the west of the island, unlike team
Second Chance who ventured to the south of the island and cut their
snorkeling adventure short after attracting interest from a passing
shark! We hiked the mangrove swamps and climbed up to Booboo
hill to view the offerings left by previous visitors and enjoyed the tranquility
of the secluded southern anchorage.
Second Chance headed further north to Shroud
Cay with Barbara but the wind was quite strong and the only protected
anchorage was too shallow for Anju, so we stayed put until the wind dropped
off before starting on our way southwards towards Georgetown
again. However, Second Chance kindly made some water for us with
their new water maker before they left, so the three of us wouldn't have to
all wash in the same bowl of water any more!
|
Phil and Rae on the way to
Booboo Hill
|
|
As we headed south we debated whether to make a
stop near Lee Stocking Island, home of the Caribbean Research Centre.
Suddenly there was an announcement on the VHF radio that a tour of the
facility would be given the next morning and our decision was
made. We crept into the shallow anchorage and found a spot
deep enough for Anju. The tour was well attended and
informative and our guide explained the projects he was working on to
investigate diseases in coral reefs, we certainly learnt a lot interesting
information about corals.
After our tour we headed back to Georgetown,
still having no luck with fishing on the way. Rae was
disappointed not to enjoy any freshly caught fish during her visit but
luckily we'd had an earlier catch stowed away in our
freezer. Back in Georgetown we attended to our chores, Rae
was assigned laundry watch, making sure our newly laundered clothes didn't
blow off the boat. Meanwhile Phil and Christine ferried water
back to Anju from town, so we could all finally enjoy a much needed
shower.
|
|
Once things smelled sweeter aboard Anju we
anchored at Sand Dollar beach and took Rae hunting for the sand dollars from
which it gets it's name. We had some luck, finding several
washed up on the beach. We also did a spot of conch
spotting. Phil spotted a huge one in the grassy shallows and we
did our best to hide it further from the shore but it was unlikely to escape
the fate of becoming conch salad or cracked conch for very long it if didn't
get smarter. The poor conch didn't really stand a chance,
they tasted good, had beautiful shells, lived in very shallow water and
moved very slowly - not exactly tricky to hunt!
|
A conch off for a stroll -
not too hard to spot!
|
|
Crabzilla's lair.
|
As we explored the southern end of Sand Dollar
beach and the scrub land in the centre of Stocking Island, we began to come
across warning signs. 'Caution, you are approaching the lair of
Crabzilla'. Finally we tracked him down, it turned out he was a very
large and somewhat deceased land crab but he was still pretty scary.
Of course no visit to the Bahamas would be
complete without a spot of beach-combing and so we moved Anju up to our
favourite shelling spot at Monument beach and spent the last few days of
Rae's visit walking the Atlantic beaches and walking the nature trails
around the monument.
|
|
|
Heading up to the Monument and enjoying
the view from the top.
|
|
Rae resting after an
arduous beach-combing trip
|
We managed to fit in a spot more partying before
Rae had to head home. We found ourselves anchored in front of a
large catamaran and on checking with the Captain that we weren't too close
for his comfort, we discovered that the Captain was Bill and the first mate
Vivian, friends we'd met in Grenada several years earlier, when they were
cruising aboard their boat Aloysius. Needless to say there
was much to catch up on at happy hour when we were given the tour of the
impressive boat on which they were crewing.
Rae's visit was rounded off nicely with
dinner and card games aboard Sequel, with our Ocean Cruising Club friends
Julie and George.
The three weeks just flew by and we were
impressed how well Rae adjusted to life aboard Anju. It was a
shame we weren't able to catch up with Second Chance again before Rae had to
fly back to the UK but strong winds and big seas left them stuck in
Barraterre.
|