Black Point Settlement—a perfect mix of quiet and activity

The reviews are in—we love Black Point!  This small, friendly settlement has a great anchorage with protection from all but west winds, crystal clear waters, happy hour and events, reasonably-priced restaurant options, and the BEST laundromat I’ve seen in a long time!  Oh, and delicious bread baked by Lorraine’s mom!  They also share their town water (via jerry can) and make trash drop-off easy for a small donation. 

We spent almost a week here between two different anchorages.  We were able to take long walks ashore, meet other cruisers, and even have games/happy hour/a bonfire on the beach!  The kids loved the fact that we could get pizza and ice cream, and I don’t think they totally minded that we had popcorn for dinner one night.  There weren’t a ton of snorkel spots, but we did find some reefs (and our first lobster of the trip!) while we were anchored south of the settlement. And the wind was finally calm enough for us to bust out the paddle boards.  

Who knew that cleaning bedding could be so relaxing and beautiful?

Scorpio’s Cruisers Happy Hour was so good that we went three times!

Cruisers play-day included bocce, SUP races, happy hour, a bonfire, and good times with great folks.

We hiked to the blowhole, found bananas in a sink hole, and scored a delicious lobster dinner!

I could go back there in a heartbeat!  But it’s high time we continued south.  We are somehow sailing and making 2-3 knots good in only 5 knots of wind on our way to Little Farmers Cay!

Between the Majors—fun and pain

We ended up spending three nights anchored between Big and Little Major Cays.  In hindsight, we should have only stayed for two!  But...we dropped the hook Monday, well ahead of Tuesday night’s west wind, to ensure we had a safe spot.  With fairly calm weather Tuesday during the day, we revisited Thunderball Grotto and hit a few snorkeling spots with our friends on S/V No Limits.  It was a great day!

When we returned to the boat, it was clear that the dreaded wind vs. current was in play at this anchorage as the chain was grinding against the bow and the boat wouldn’t point into the wind.  Grrrr.  We ported the helm and that seemed to help.  

Wednesday saw the worst of the west wind, with it clocking to the north as evening set in.  This is when we should have moved.  But with our anchor holding well we stayed put.  Around 0300 I heard and felt waves slapping on the side of the boat thought I could hear the chain along the hull way farther back than it should be.  On deck with a flashlight, I was certain we had again gotten the chain wrapped around the hull.  The Captain disagreed at first, but a thud around midship confirmed it.  So he dropped the dinghy and I put the helm over again.  At some point the wheel had centered—I’m pretty sure this was the start of our problem.  With the wheel to port and a nudge of the dinghy we were able to free the chain from the keel and get back to riding the same direction as the other boats.

At some point, one of the little plastic guards covering a drain hole in the anchor locker got broken, but that seems to be the only casualty.  I still hate anchoring in these conditions.  Maybe I had the snubbers out too far, but then I fear the chain would have scraped up more of the bow.  Or maybe our new lightweight chain is too light and we need a kellet when anchoring in current.  Whatever the “perfect” combo is, we haven’t found it yet.  

After all of that fun, we are out of here!  Time to go check out Black Point and get some rest!

A sweet visit to Bitter Guana

After another stop at Staniel Cay for some brisk wind, we decided to head south to Bitter Guana Cay for a night.  This is another prime spot for rock iguanas so a few tour boats and cruisers were around throughout the day, but by sunset the place was all ours!  We visited with the iguanas and got hissed at by them, and also hiked to the Atlantic side.  The rugged beauty was amazing.  

As we settled in to watch the sunset, the kids treated us to cocktails and breakfast-for-dinner!  It was a very relaxing evening!

After that glorious, peaceful night, we are on our way north to hide from some west wind “between the Majors.”  We are out in the sound, trying to catch a fish as we head to shelter!

ECLSP—Cambridge Cay

My, oh my, we may have a new “top 5” spot in the Bahamas!  We spent two nights on a mooring ball at Cambridge Cay within the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and we absolutely loved it!  It had everything—peace, tranquility, great snorkeling, AND internet!  The teen was pleased.  But seriously, this little spot has access to some of the best snorkeling we’ve enjoyed yet and some little hiking trails—we would happily go back.  The challenge—the sites are spread out, so you can either make some long hauls in the dinghy or shift anchorages to get closer; currents and tides need to be respected; and given the tides/currents, you really can’t rush this experience!  We were very fortunate to be traveling with our friends on “No Limits” for this one. Since we have a small engine on our dinghy, we can’t go on plane with the whole family so they routinely took one of the kids with them so we could all run fast!  They are also pro-socializers and organized happy hours to meet the other boaters.  It was just such an overall great experience!  I even had a cooking triumph with my first (successful!) attempt at making naan!

Highlights:

- Snorkeling Tom’s Elkhorn Reef, Coral Garden, Rocky Dundas, The Sea Aquarium, and Airplane Reef.

- Exploring the caves at Rocky Dundas, the Bell Rock Trail, Rachel’s Bubblebath, and the cairn garden.

- Sea life in the reefs and the moorings!  We saw turtles, barracuda, a black tip reef shark, stingrays, and an eagle ray all from the mooring.

- People.  Isn’t that what makes every experience better?  We got to share it all with great people.

I took LOTS of photos and videos over our two days at this location.  Here are some of my favorites!

Staniel Cay

After a week in Sampson Cay we pulled the hook to head south!  We had visited Big Major to see the pigs and hang out a bit on Cruiser’s Beach, so we decided to head there.

When we pulled the hook there was some chafe on our snubber lines—may have to craft something for that—and a little wear on the Dyneema shackles we use to attach the snubbers to the chain, but otherwise all was well.  We dropped the hook off Pig Beach and headed to town for an unsuccessful provisioning run, but a highly successful lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club!

But the real treat was yet to come!  We grabbed the kids for a wet and wild dinghy ride to Thunderball Grotto!  Wow, it was amazing!  I loved the pockets of light and life within the cave, and the reef along its outer edges.  The kids loved going in and out through little holes, and we got to explore with our friends from S/V No Limits.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

Tomorrow we sail back north to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park for a few days while the weather holds!

What does “prepared” look like?

We nestled into Sampson Cay three nights ago to be ready for this—days of wind over 20 knots, gusts in the 30’s, and tonight’s expected gusts just under the 40 knot mark.  We chose this spot as it has great protection from winds from all directions except west, making it ideal for this blow.

So how does one prepare for this?  We got here EARLY, days ahead of the weather so we could have good depth and swing room for our boat and so we could ensure the anchor was well set.  We have our 45 pound Manson Supreme out on 100 feet of 5/16” G4 chain, with dual snubbers to dampen the tug.  This is really the most important prep in my opinion!  

We did have to contend with boats anchoring in front of (to windward) us yesterday.  This isn’t usually good boat courtesy, but as long as you don’t create a dangerous situation it can work.  The closest boat in front of us is a charter with an older style anchor, so we were a little concerned.  With a charter you don’t know if it’s their first or 15th charter and if they have experience with the conditions.  Our Captain went and let his concern be known.  We had another boat end up almost alongside us.  With our different “sailing” behaviors at anchor and the fact that a forecast wind shift would put their stern close to our bow, we chatted with them as well.  A few hours later, they actually chose to move and even sent us a nice email.  We meet some great folks out here!  So as we get rolling into this event we have two boats off our bow, and three astern of us.  We are all diligently watching one another!

Ok, so what else do we do to prepare?  We ran to Staniel Cay to get milk, bread, rum, and veggies! 😂  We also topped up the water tanks and batteries (though solar performance has been GREAT!).  Also...

The snubbers are doing their job and the Genoa is furled tightly.  A Luci solar light is clipped to the bow so at night our neighbors have a good view of where our bow is.

Genoa sheets (the black lines) are double secured in their stops and around the winch drums. We don’t want that baby coming unfurled and flapping around!

T-shirts are dampening the halyards from slapping the mast.  When we can rest, some peace is nice!

A knife is at the ready just in case an emergency calls for a line to be cut.

The dinghy is secured in the davits so there is one less thing creating drag and at risk of blowing away, but it’s also ready to drop at a moment’s notice.

HEY!  That air horn will get everyone up on deck and looking should we or anyone else start to drag anchor in this little cove.

The anchor alarm! Here we are using the Anchor Pro app.

That’s about it!  We may stand some anchor watch this evening as that’s when the worst is expected.  Everything on deck is secured and we are busy with school, reading, games, movies, and blogging!  

ECLSP—Waderick Wells Cay

We secured a mooring at Waderick Wells Cay for three nights so we could really enjoy the park and enjoy a mooring for a blustery spell.  We LOVED it!  While at first the channel and moorings looked a little daunting, we easily tied up to our assigned mooring and were greeted by a nurse shark and a fellow boater looking for some tools.  We dinghied ashore to pay our fees and get maps of the park, and took a quick hike to stretch our legs.

I could turn this whole blog into underwater photos, but I’ll try to keep it under control!  We decided to use the least-breezy day to hit some of the snorkeling sites around the cay.  I really love that they have dinghy moorings at the sites so you don’t have to anchor near the corals.  We saw so much variety!  The kids saw their first up-close barracuda and I loved getting close to the corals, fan worms, and stingrays.  The kiddos have gotten pretty good at diving down to look at stuff!

On our “land” day, we started off at Boo Boo Hill to drop off a piece of driftwood with our names on it and to get some cell phone service so we could pull down some weather forecasts (still looking horrible this coming week).  When Frank held the router overhead we had four bars of 4G! 😂  We continued our hike along the Causeway Trail and down to Butterfly Beach, learning about native plants and identifying LOTS of poison wood along the way.  It was a good, active day.

What else did we do?  Met fellow cruisers at a beach happy-hour, found a family that could use the wetsuit the kids had grown out of, played games, did laundry (with a new set-up for the wringer), and I got a trim from my daughter (which turned into a whole new short style 🤣).  And we did it all without internet!

It was a great few days, and I could easily see us returning.  For now, it’s time to head to shelter!  We were going to go to Cambridge Cay for more snorkeling, but we’ve decided to head for our desired anchorage for a major wind event instead and will just come back to Cambridge Cay after it’s settled.

 

We enter Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park! Shroud Cay

We are so very excited about this part of our cruise—the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park!  We dropped the hook off Shroud Cay and enjoyed cruising the creeks (turtles everywhere!), swimming on a pristine beach, and relaxing as the sunset.  There isn’t cell service here and we failed to locate the pay station on the beach, but luckily the park warden stopped by our boat so we could pay the nominal anchoring fee.  I had a little water intrusion in the GoPro, so not a ton of photos, but it was a lovely stop!

As the “Christmas Winds” still seem to be lingering, we are off to seek a mooring and shelter at Waderick Wells for a few days!

Norman’s Cay

Next stop in the Exumas—Norman’s Cay.  Some other cruisers had highly recommended stopping here to snorkel the plane wreck and it was a hit!  We saw a huge stingray and had a great time exploring around the wreckage.

We decided to stay anchored here for the night and got the full Norman’s experience with a trip in to MacDuff’s Beach Bar and Grill.  Our dinghy landing on the beach was pretty rough and Trent got soaked, but we had a nice mid-afternoon snack at the only place on the island.  It’s pricey, but all of our food was good!  Getting off the beach was another wet adventure, as was the bouncy ride back!  We all got double showers that day!

The Exumas—Allen’s Cay

We ended 2019 in the Exumas!  What a treat!  We finally got to anchor in fluffy sand and gin-clear water.  First stop—Allen’s (or Allan’s depending on your source) Cay and the famous Iguana Beach on Leaf Cay.  We spent two nights here so we could take time to enjoy it around when all the tourist boats from Nassau came and that worked out well. 

After our morning on land, we spent the afternoon below the surface.  There were some good snorkeling spots!  We saw some healthy coral and several fish including our first sighting of the invasive lion fish.  And the kids took the opportunity to practice diving down a bit.

After snorkeling we goofed off around the boat a bit.  Trent was swimming and I was scrubbing the hull when something caught my eye—SHARK!  Once we realized it was a nurse shark we calmed down a bit, but as it kept doing circles of the boat I decided the hull was clean enough for now!

Only one of us managed to stay awake until midnight, but I think we were all pretty happy with how we rang in the new year. 🦎 🦈