March 2017

We had planned to stay a night or two at Emerald Bay Marina, plugged in to fully charge our batteries before continuing south to Georgetown where our friend Sandra was due to arrive a week later.

Well the east winds howled and the standing waves at the entrance to the harbour just grew and grew. In spite of the constant wind, we did some beach walking and snorkeling around Poor Betty Cay. The sand is like white talcum powder and most times we were alone on this gorgeous crescent.

Poor Betty’s small reef is in sad condition, something we have unfortunately come to expect. The other environmental concern is the presence of thousands of golf balls sent unintentionally or intentionally into the bay by golfers at the Sandal’s golf course. I wonder what their impact might be over the longer term.

Back in Florida, I had found a wonderful product at Home Depot that ended up serving many purposes.

I originally bought it to give us shade in the fly bridge when we were relaxing with sundowners at the end of the day. In the past we had used various towels and blankets to keep the blazing sun out of our eyes. This year, on a tip from a fellow cruiser, I found the perfect solution – a roll of gardening fabric designed to cut UV. I was able to cut it into different sizes and shapes for all of our sun challenges. It also proved to be ideal for protecting the basil from wind and hot sun.

Sun Screen cloth

A week went by with no reprieve from the relentless winds. Sandra arrived on March 5^th and it was another 5 days before it was calm enough to “escape” from Emerald Bay. In the meantime, we made new friends and David “consulted” with fellow cruisers on their problems, primarily electrical. Having been through every possible system failure on Peapod, he’s become quite the know-it-all!

Remember that vow about not coming in on low tide? We changed it to not coming back to Emerald Bay EVER again! In this era of climate change we seem to be spending less and less time in the open ocean and more time snuggled into the lee of the islands. Being stranded by wind both this year and last, we decided that it makes more sense for guests to fly into Staniel Cay.

For the first time in 2 weeks we had the peace and tranquil beauty we go to the Exumas for. We anchored at William’s Bay on Lee Stocking Island, near the highest point of land on this island chain. We climbed to the top for a spectacular 360° view. There were only a few other boats around but of course we met Canadians! 

This little one hailed from Toronto and was enjoying paddling (like a duck) in the warm turquoise water. See the little feet?

L23° 45.69’N; Lo 076 05.33’ W

After 2 lovely nights, we set out to Little Darby Island, travelling to the outside through Adderly Cut on a falling tide. We maybe it was the tide or maybe it was the wind against the big rollers. In any case it was a wild ride until we got into the deeper water.

It was a challenge to anchor here because there were individual coral heads scattered throughout the harbour. We eventually found a patch of sand and held well. There was great snorkeling and David speared his first yellow tailed snapper for dinner. We had a fun beach reunion with old buddies from the Emerald Bay stranded crowd.

L 23° 51.27 N; Lo 076 13.43 W

David and Jim, captain of the Ocean Dreamer, hiked up to the top of a ruined house that provided a spectacular view of our vessels. Apparently this home was occupied during the war by a German sympathizer who built a dock for U-boat refuge!

The winds were clocking around and forecast to come from the north, so we tagged along with “Ocean Dreamer” and tucked in close to Jimmy’s Cay in very shallow water. Our keel was only 6 inches from the sand at low tide, which was a bit scary.  We had scoped it out first from the dinghy with our handy-dandy portable electronic depth sounder. Probably our shallowest anchorage to date, it gave us a chance to fine-tune our depth sounder, the most critical instrument (in my opinion) on Peapod.

L 23° 52.96’ N; Lo 076° 15.09’ W

As always, when the weather is unsettled, we get the best sunsets.

After 2 nights we followed the changing winds and moved up to Little Farmer’s. For the first time in many stops here, the conditions were finally good enough to anchor off the west side at the end of a tiny airstrip. We traveled around the corner by dinghy to Ty’s Sunset Bar and Grill, which sits on a gorgeous deserted beach, for another memorable rib dinner with Sandra and our Ocean Dreamer friends.

We noodled along Great Guana Cay, grateful for its long expanse with no ocean cuts and their inevitable surging tidal currents that make sleeping and swimming more difficult.

Then, just over two weeks into her month-long holiday, Sandra received a heart-breaking message. Her younger sister had died suddenly and unexpectedly following a minor surgical procedure. Thankfully we were only an hour away from Staniel Cay, where we managed to get her on a flight to Nassau that afternoon. From there it would take her until the next morning to make her way to Moncton via Toronto, a long and painful journey.

We joined many others in the anchorage at Big Major’s hiding out from more north winds. Sandra’s new cruising friends from Summer of 42 and Ocean Dreamer gathered in the shelter of Pirate beach and raised a glass to toast the memory of her dear sister, Denise.

Meanwhile, Jim was flying his drone and taking pictures of our spectacular location.

L 24 11.424’ N; Lo 076 27.429’ W

Nearly a week later when the winds and waves died down enough for us to move again (are you sensing a pattern yet?) we set off for Little Hall’s Pond, home of Johnny Depp and friends. Here we see the most beautiful colours of turquoise in the Exumas. Jim put up his drone and captured quite a vista with Ocean Dreamer and Peapod to two nearest specks on the crystal clear sea.

The snorkeling is wonderful around the corner at the Sea Aquarium where there is one lively and relatively healthy reef. I say relatively because the reefs everywhere are looking more or less bleached and colourless. The fish are smaller and less diverse than we saw in years gone by (early 2000’s) when sailing on Mole End with Sandra and Michael. However, a soda bottle filled with seawater and homemade multigrain bread crusts do the trick to attract the fish for a photo op.