As of our last post, we had 2 days in Miami
Beach to wait for our window of good weather to cross the Gulf Stream. We
decided to treat ourselves and tie up at the Sunset Harbour Yacht Club. This
made provisioning and water top-up easy while offering a luxury mini- vacation
after our hurried slog down the waterway. Amenities included air-conditioned laundry
facilities and a beautiful pool. The pool was a special treat after running
errands on foot and bicycle in the Florida heat.
We visited the local dive shops to update
our equipment and pick up some gifts, specified in advance by Sandra. We got
diver-down flags, weight belts and a fabulous fish book. This was a travel
version of one Sandra and I used in past years. It features a physical and
behavioural classification of reef fish that simplifies identification of a
single fish from hundreds of species. I had been looking for this book all the
way down the coast and was thrilled to finally find it in Miami Beach!
We also enjoyed a wonderful al fresco
dinner at Baires Grill, an Argentinian restaurant on Lincoln Road, the famous
South Beach pedestrian mall. The food, service and ambiance were fabulous!
Lincoln Road is a vibrant spot for people
watching, dining and shopping. For those of you who know Ottawa, we fantasized
about how much better Sparks Street could be with some creative investment!
On April 4th we slipped away
early, past some spectacular mega-yachts, to embark on our Gulf Stream
crossing.
As we said farewell to Miami we encountered
a US navy hospital ship, apparently returning from overseas service to a
delightful salute from a Miami-Dade firefighting boat.
We had heard and read so much about the
perils of the Gulf Stream, this fast-flowing “river” of ocean that can be
treacherous, particularly for small boats under certain conditions. We had
chosen our day carefully but were dismayed as we were tossed about by
unexpected wind and waves. We decided to press on, believing in the brave
Peapod and the wisdom of our departure decision.
After 3 hours of bouncing and crashing the
wind and seas finally settled down. Along the way we picked up a little
hitchhiking bird and David spotted a Portuguese Man o’ War along the way. In a
mere 8 hours we arrived in Bimini, very pleased with ourselves that our
navigation strategy had brought us right to this tiny island despite the impact
of the Stream pulling us north.
The only casualty of the rough crossing was
our newly installed stainless steel frame for the solar panels. Some of the
setscrews gave way and the whole thing collapsed onto the frame of our bimini (the
canvas sun shade for the fly bridge). Eeeek! Needless to say this was very
disconcerting and we had visions of our panels slipping into the sea or, even
worse, coming down on top of us! However, there was nothing we could do while
underway so we simply carried on.
The first night, based on our mistaken
belief that we could clear Customs and Immigration at the dock, we tied up at
Resorts World Marina, part of a giant new gambling resort in North Bimini.
Turns out only cruise ship passengers get that kind of service but the cruising
guide was quite misleading….grrr.
So poor David had to schlepp into Alice
Town by himself as only the captain can leave the boat until the paperwork is
done. I busied myself with boat “housework” until he returned. We took a
refreshing dip in the pool and then tried to access the “free” WiFi, another
disappointment. The mega-yacht clientele were a noisy bunch and we beetled out
of there as soon as we finished breakfast the following morning.
We redeemed ourselves the next day by
finding the little anchorage that our friends Michael and Sandra always used
while in Bimini. It was a jewel of a spot adjacent to the Bimini Big Game Club.
Wrapping our chain around a large submerged iron bar provided guaranteed
holding. Thanks to our mentors for the tip!
There was a dinghy landing a short rowing
distance away that brought us to the heart of Alice Town. Two sunken boats and
a semi-submerged trawler were our neighbours, reminding us of the hazards of
boating!
There was also excellent free WiFi from the
club next door. We would soon come to realize what a rare find this would be in
the Bahamas!
Our first expedition was to the beautiful
ocean side beach, by way of the local grocery store to pick up a couple of cold
Kaliks, the beer of the Bahamas. What a thrill to finally be swimming in the
warm turquoise water!
On April 5th we watched the blood
moon rise over Alice Town Harbour.
Our herb garden was flourishing in the heat
and sun as illustrated by these photos taken only 2 weeks apart!
We had a week before Sandra was to join us
by way of the Bimini Fast Ferry, a 3- hour crossing from Miami. David tightened
up the setscrews on the frame for the solar panels. We spent the rest of our time
swimming, walking around the town and stopping by the beautiful patio at the
Big Game Club, where we saw our first nurse sharks up close and personal. The
sunsets were beautiful, as they always seem to be when you’re on a boat.
On April 12th we decided to
re-anchor for a quick getaway after picking up Sandra at the ferry. We had a
boat neighbor who was using two anchors to reduce movement with wind and tides
so we had done the same (Bahamian style anchoring) to ensure that we didn’t
swing into him.
We needed to disengage our chain from the
beam, which was a diving job for David, and release our stern anchor, both time
consuming procedures compromising an early departure. Given the change in wind
direction the previous day, David had to dive almost under our neighbour’s boat
to access the chain and we didn’t want to be doing this at the crack o’ dawn.
I was at the helm as David released the
chain. I held the boat steady as he climbed aboard for the move to our planned
new location off the other boat’s bow. I guided to boat to the new position. Unfortunately
our plan caused this fellow great concern. When we saw him putting out his
fenders and dragging his rubber dinghy to his bow as if to fend off our
inevitable crash into him we decided to cut bait and go back to the marina
where Sandra was arriving.
As she was coming in rather late in the
evening, this strategy saved us from a long rough dinghy ride in the dark, as
the winds had kicked up, and allowed us to have a relaxing dinner at the
casino. The staff there bustled around preparing for the arrival of Mariah
Carey and her children (as well as our own celeb Sandra!).
Early the next morning we set off across
the beautiful Bahama Banks, a huge shallow (6-8 feet) stretch of turquoise
water. Sandra had been so kind as to pick up 2 super-light air mattresses for
lounging on the deck that I had ordered from Canadian Tire (no US equivalent!).
Who knew they would come in Bahamian turquoise!
We crossed the banks in a relentless east
wind and chop. No rest for the wicked. Movement on the boat was restricted to
hanging on for dear life and negotiating steps on our bums. Given the wind in
our teeth it took 12 hours to cross and we approached Chub Cay in full darkness.
All instruments needed to be in the right
mode to allow for night vision, which we hadn’t anticipated. The depth sounder
was particularly stubborn so I was working with a small flashlight and the
paper charts as we searched for the landmarks leading to the anchorage. Lesson
learned. Always be prepared for the unexpected with your technology!
Thankfully I had homemade chili in the
freezer so we had an easy dinner after a hairy anchoring job in
pitch-blackness. Whew!
Next morning we set off for Nassau. It was
a relatively easy run but we still had the east winds in our teeth making for a
rough crossing of the Tongue of the Ocean, a 4-mile deep stretch of ocean that
is an inky blue contrast to the shallow Bahama Banks. On arrival we decided to
tie up at a marina for a little stress relief. Harbour Central Marina was a friendly
low-budget option with easy walking access to downtown Nassau.
The solar panel frame had collapsed again
under the stress of the pounding waves and David again tightened all the
screws. He attempted to get help from a local company to make braces for the
system but they were on Bahamian time. We were anxious to get to the Exumas so
decided to go without a major fix and he tightened the setscrews yet again.
Meanwhile we had lunch in the treetops at
the Greek Islands Café and enjoyed a great meal and the gorgeous colours of Nassau.
On April 16th we headed for the
Exumas. First stop was Allen’s Cay, uninhabited except for a protected
population of iguanas who meet you on the beach looking for food. It is an
idyllic first stop after the bustle of Nassau and there were only a few boats
in the anchorage. We arrived in time for a lovely swim and delicious on-board meal.
The next morning we set off for the
headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells. This park, which encompasses several cays in
the chain, protects the environment from development and the harvesting of
diverse species of fish and shellfish as well as land animals.
On the way we spied a gorgeous schooner
under full sail.
Our first visitors at Warderick were a pair
of large rays and a nurse shark. Sandra found a spectacular conch, which she carefully replaced
on the sea bottom after the photo shoot.
The crystal clear waters here are beyond
compare.
Next stop was Staniel Cay. We had decided
to make this our turnaround point and destination for serous R and R. This
would allow us to spend time without the pressure of further southward movement
and still get back in time for Sandra’s flight home. Also, we could revisit
some of the favourite places that she and I had discovered many years ago.
The anchorage at Staniel is a stunning
place with gin clear water. It is famous for the Thunderball cave, filmed in two
James Bond movies. If you time it right you can swim with a million fish and no
people, but most of the time it is crowded with tourists. We preferred to do
our snorkeling around the neighbouring islets with just as many fish and no
people!
A particular fish we spotted from the boat
mystified us. It was fairly large (close to 2 feet long) and unlike any that we
had seen before. Using our detective skills and our wonderful fish book, we
determined that it was an Ocean Triggerfish, only occasionally found in the
Bahamas. He is related to the much more common and colourful Queen Triggerfish.
This species is one of our favourites because she looks as though she wearing
lipstick and mascara!
The sunsets were spectacular.
The Staniel Cay Yacht Club is a popular
destination for cruisers and mega yacht passengers alike. The local fishermen
clean their fish at the waterside dock and attract nurse sharks and seagulls to
compete for the goodies.
There is a lively bar and restaurant at the
yacht club. We celebrated one evening with a delicious dinner and dinghied back
to the boat at sunset.
On our last day we rented a golf cart and
travelled to the ocean side beach. Sandra and I were devastated to find our
favourite beach access had been blocked by new residential development.
However, we found an alternate route along a sandy path. We snorkeled and
picnicked, spending the afternoon as the only human intruders on a gorgeous
white sand beach.
On our last night in Staniel we were
treated to a spectacular moon.
The next morning, after a relaxing 4 days,
we began our journey northward with a plan to move at a leisurely pace and stop
at several cays that Sandra and I had not seen on previous trips.
The first was Cambridge Cay, just inside
the southern boundary of the Land and Sea Park. It was a spectacular anchorage
with a nearby coral garden and an interesting cave with stalagmites and
stalactites. The water was typically clear and turquoise, and the sunset was amazing.
It was so gorgeous we decided to stay 3
nights and enjoyed some of the best swims of the trip. David took the
opportunity to change the oil and the fuel filters, as this would be our last
planned “long” stay before heading back to Miami.
The morning of April 25th we had
a leisurely breakfast and prepared for departure. Then, the experience every
boater dreads. The engine failed to start! David opened up the engine room,
stripped off his shirt and went through the step-by-step process to bleed the
fuel system of air. Sandra and I retreated to our bunks, hoping against hope
that David could find the problem.
Each of the three times he completed the
procedure, he would turn the key and we would hold our collective breaths. Each
time was the same. Lots of battery power but the engine wouldn’t start. After
bleeding everything that could be bled and checking everything that could be
checked he emerged shaking his head.
At this point we started to talk about
options, including calling back to Staniel Cay to see whether a mechanic might
be available. David spied another trawler anchored nearby and decided to see
whether her skipper might be familiar with diesel engines. He dinghied over and
found them getting ready for departure. However, being a kindhearted boater,
Fred from Texas took the time to hear about our problem. He set aside his
departure plans, jumped in the dinghy and climbed aboard Peapod to help.
Not only was he familiar with diesel engines.
Miracle of miracles, his last boat had the identical engine to ours! Even more
amazing, he had grown up on a ranch working with Perkins diesel tractor
engines! So the two of them worked together going through all of the same steps
as David had done and eliminated, one by one, all of the potential causes for
the problem. However, he had one trick up his sleeve that David didn’t have. It
was a device that allowed them to bypass the starter, which demonstrated that
the engine itself was fine.
As they used this tool to start and stop
the engine, David, out of the corner of his eye, spotted something. It was a
small spring-loaded part that stops the fuel supply to the engine when it is
turned off. It was sticking in place preventing fuel from reaching the engine
at start-up. All it took was the flick of a finger to unstick it and we were
ready to go.
Needless to say, happiness and relief were
abundant, as disaster had been averted. David drove Fred back to his boat
(Santa Clara) with a nice bottle of wine and many thanks. If any of you
mariners ever see them, please thank them again for their kindness. Had we
waited another 15 minutes, they would have been gone and we would have been in
deep doo-doo.
Nearly 3 hours after our scheduled
departure time we set out for Highbourne Cay. This Cay was not on our original
itinerary. However, we were having problems staying in touch with family while
in Cambridge Cay as we had been too far from a cell tower for a reliable
signal. This was important to both Sandra and me given the health issues of our
loved ones.
Taking advantage of great weather
conditions, we took the shorter “outside” route in the deeper waters east of
the Exumas. This provided a stunning visual contrast between the ocean blue and
the coastal turquoise, always a treat to the eye!
As we worked our way north I was reading
about our planned anchorage and became increasingly concerned that it would
seem like a zoo after so many days of tranquility. It is the most popular first
stop for boats travelling from Nassau to the Exumas and tends to be crowded
with partiers and mega yachts with SeaDoos coming out of their bums.
I went back to our cruising guide and
proposed an alternative anchorage, still close to the cell tower, but in an
out-of-the-way spot just south of Highbourne. I almost hate to mention its name
in case its popularity skyrockets as a result of our blog. However, I would not
begrudge this little beauty to any of the friends in our network. Just don’t
tell anyone else!!
We anchored just south of Lobster Cay. There
was not a single boat in sight. As it turned out, this was the most perfect
evening of the trip to date. The water was glassy calm and clear. We snorkeled
around the cay followed by a parade of at least a dozen curious barracudas. The
water was so warm it felt like silk.
All of the regulars were in attendance in
colours of the rainbow – Sergeant Majors, Groupers, Fairy Basslets, Wrasses and
many others – a snorkeler’s paradise. As the light was fading we reluctantly
returned to the boat to leave the ‘cudas and other predators to their dinner
hour.
There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the
sunset held the potential for a green flash, a rare optical phenomenon seen on
an unobstructed horizon. We watched in awe as the golden orb plummeted toward
the horizon and quickly disappeared. No green flash for us but we were
nevertheless grateful to have been there at that moment.
I think it was here that our captain David
finally gave in to the ecstasy of the Exumas and let go of all the stress of
the journey to date.
Meanwhile, Sandra had received some
messages from home that suggested she might need to cut her vacation short and
possibly fly out of Nassau rather than Miami. This would involve abandoning
plans for other destinations and a short hop (44 miles) to New Providence
Island.
As our Peapod luck would have it, the
weather changed dramatically overnight with winds clocking from east to
southwest around midnight. Suddenly we were bobbing like a cork with angry
waves slapping our hull. David got up first to check the anchor and when I
realized he wasn’t coming back to bed I joined him on the deck for an all-night
anchor watch.
He figured we would have only seconds to
get the engine started should any part of our anchor gear give way before we
would be dashed against the wonderful reef we had celebrated the night before.
The sky was perfectly clear and the stars were spectacular. This wasn’t a
storm, just high winds. Thankfully, our trusty Rocna anchor held fast through
the night. A very good test I would say.
As morning approached, we reviewed the
weather forecasts. There was no relief in sight from the winds and precious
few, if any anchorages that would protect us from westerlies. So we decided to
make a run for Nassau at daybreak.
There are no pictures from this day as it
was all we could do to hang onto our proverbial hats. The seas were coming from
all directions – “cornfused” as my Dad would say. In the end we had to tack
like a sailboat, back and forth between pitching and rolling. Pitching meant
heading into the waves with the bow crashing and spray coming over the fly
bridge (3 levels up!). Rolling happened on the other tack when the waves were
at our stern and beam (side) and we were leaning from side to side. It was on
this tack that I decided to break out the life jackets for the first time, as
there is nothing scarier than thinking we’re going to tip sideways.
The 44 miles turned into 80 given our zigzagging
route toward Nassau. As we got closer, it became apparent that Sandra would
indeed need to fly home the next day. We began to make plans as soon as we came
within range of Internet services and finalized her flight change when we tied
up with our old friends at Harbour Central Marina.
We agreed that the most appropriate venue for
Sandra’s farewell dinner would be the Green Parrot, a casual dockside
restaurant a short dinghy ride away. This, in an earlier life, had been known
as Crocodile’s. It was one of the places that Sandra and Michael had met me
years ago when I flew into Nassau to join their Mole End journeys to the
Exumas. It was a bittersweet evening but we enjoyed it immensely nevertheless.
The next day we walked her to her taxi
rendezvous and continued on with grocery and laundry chores. David also walked to a marine store to buy
parts to secure our wobbly solar frame, which had collapsed again during our
rough crossing from Highbourne. The weather was hot and sunny so we jumped off
the stern into the harbour for a cool-down after a long day.
On April 28th we tackled the
intermediate fix for the solar frame. Tightening the setscrews wasn’t doing the
trick and what the structure really needed was more longitudinal bracing. Given
the challenges of getting custom-cut materials for this job in Nassau, David
decided to use stainless steel nuts and bolts to reinforce the existing
brackets until we got back to the mainland.
This involved drilling through several layers
of stainless while holding the frame in the correct position. Easier said than
done while on a boat that is rocking on the wake of every passing vessel. With
both us on step stools with arms over our heads, he did the drilling while I
did the holding. Great teamwork. And that was just the morning activity!
Ever hopeful that the weather would allow a next
day departure for our journey toward Miami, we set out to do our “final”
departure errands. These involved walking back to downtown Nassau to visit the
bank and the Internet café for secure transactions not possible from the boat.
We revisited our favourite lunch spot (Greek Islands Café) and were reunited
with its glamourous street promoter. We then hopped on a bus to the other end
of town for marine supplies and fabulous fresh fish.
We love the bus system here. All you need
to do is hail them and they will stop. Any trip is $1.25 per person. While on
the bus you are treated to shabby seats and loud cheerful music. When you are
ready to get off, you yell “bus stop” and the driver will pull over and hold
out his hand for the fare, which he dumps into an open bucket. Quite a
wonderful system!
Since that night (April 28th) we
have been under the influence of a stalled system of wind and thundershowers
that are keeping us in our place, literally and figuratively. We don’t dare
leave Nassau without a window of calm weather that allows the waves to die
down. We need three days to get back to the Florida coast, and the Gulf Stream
crossing can’t be made with any element of north wind. Unfortunately, no such
conditions are predicted for the next week.
We thought we might get 2 good days (May 1
and 2) to get us as far as Bimini but we bailed on that plan last night based
on the violent storms that came through yesterday. It takes the seas a while to
settle and we didn’t want to take the chance.
Good decision. Two 46-foot trawlers limped
into our marina this morning after sticking their noses out. They got bounced
around badly and their occupants were pretty pale and shaky as we helped them
tie up.
We are getting perilously close to our
flight from Miami to Toronto on May 14th, scheduled to more or less
coincide with the arrival of a new grandbaby. So, like all good cruisers, we
watch and wait.
In the meantime we are entertained by the
never-ending dance of comings and goings in this busy harbour. The most fun is
watching the mega-yachts squeeze their giant bodies (100 feet and more!) in and
out of seemingly impossible parking spots, with all the attendant rushing around
and arm-waving of their crews.
Never a dull moment on Peapod!
