As February comes to a close...

...we are again finding ourselves hunkered down on a rocky boat in high winds. Other cruisers are saying this has been an especially windy season, and we'd agree!

We made the tough choice this week to turn north. It just didn't look like we'd have a chance to make it to Rum, Conception, and San Salvador Cays and as we need to be at an immigration office next week to renew our visas, we went all the way north to Eleuthera. We have quite a few anchoring options here and easy access to an immigration office. Can't wait to get ashore to explore (after this bout of strong wind passes!).

Today is also noteworthy as we are buying next year's school curriculum! We have mostly liked Oak Meadow and they are having a sale, so...it just made sense. We have decided to shift to a combo of digital and print books next year, but otherwise are sticking to the recommended curriculum. Our high schooler even seemed to enjoy getting to pick out her courses and electives!

And yes, that means we plan to continue cruising. The teen isn't totally stoked, but she is understanding. Look to see some input to the blog from her in the future!

A short stay on Long Island

After a brief stop back in Georgetown to visit with friends and grab a few supplies, we had a fantastic sail to Long Island! "Light west wind" turned into a perfectly steady 10 knots of breeze that pushed us right to Thompson Bay on Long Island. And that was a perfect spot for us to endure a few days of strong northerlies!

Once the wind chilled out a bit we headed ashore for a date night at Tiny's Hurricane Hole. This place was HOPPING with cruisers and ex-pat residents on a Sunday night, and I can see why! Great views, a clean, tidy bar, fun beach seats and games, and fantastic food. I would absolutely visit here again. And try Tiny's Tonic--it's a nice departure from the typical rum punch offering.

The next day the whole crew headed into Salt Pond with a list of "must-do" sites. We managed to secure a car from Seaside Car Rental (after exploring the cave right next to it!) and set off to explore the southern reaches. It was a full day! Max's Conch Shack, Clarence Town, Hamilton's Cave, the pristine Gordon's Beach, Dean's Blue Hole, the old Spanish church, and perhaps our favorite stop, the Shrimp Hole! So much natural beauty and kind, welcoming locals. By the end of the day, we were chilled, damp, and smiling!

Cave near Salt Pond

Max’s Conch Bar

Hamilton’s Cave

Gordon’s Beach

Dean’s Blue Hole—we ended up collecting plastic.

The Shrimp Hole (behind the old Spanish church)

The following day we headed north after checking out the very well-stocked and reasonably-priced Seafarer Marine Store--good to know that's there if we need something. We went all the way to the northern tip of the island to see the Columbus Monument. That trek took us down the nicest, graded gravel road I've ever been on! The path to the monument is being redone with new concrete steps and ipe wood railings. The views were stunning as we tried to imagine the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria approaching in October of 1492. Next stop was the ruins of the Adderley Plantation. The road to get here was not nearly as nice! There are many ruins along with tree identification signs throughout the grounds--it was nice. From there we headed toward Stella Maris thinking we could grab some lunch and explore. Well...the paved roads near the resort are horrible and the food at the Moonshine Beach Bar seemed pretty basic and overpriced so we made the decision to wait on lunch. Instead we visited Erna's Natural Pool and the Stella Maris Cave (or bar?)--both were interesting stops, but we were hungry! 

Columbus Monument

Adderley’s Plantation

Stella Maris—Erna’s Natural Pool and the cave/bar

We decided to head back to Salt Pond and the Sou'side Bar and Grill for a late lunch and libations. With a review of the weather, it might be time to head north to Cat Island or Eleuthera. We need to be at an immigration office the first week of March, so we have to plan around that and the weather. After a stop at the fantastic Hillside Market for provisions, we returned the car and are prepping to depart in the morning.  

Long Island has everything you need without big crowds. Definitely a nice place to stop.

Lee Stocking Island—a flashback!

This was a special stop for one crew member—me (Jo)! Over twenty years ago I took a tropical marine science class on Lee Stocking Island and it was a treat to get to come back, even if the research center is now closed. Just seeing the facilities from the water brought back a flood of memories and led to me waxing poetic about stromatolites (the kids loved it). We walked the grounds and rediscovered labs, offices, the dining hall, old research papers, the water and power plants, and the real treat, my room in a lovely house on the beach! It was fun telling my family and some cruising friends about my brief time on the island, and especially fun sharing photos with my old classmates.

We also did a bit of snorkeling while there. We sadly didn’t get to hit the reefs on the east side of the island, but we had a few good trips and managed to score three conch over our stay.

The real treat may have been getting to hang out with other cruisers and a cruising family on Sherlock II. Finding cruising teens isn’t always easy and our kids got along great! We hope to reconnect back in the U.S. later this year.

George Town—a cruiser mecca

As we headed south with our fishing lines in the water, we were full of anticipation. George Town was on the horizon! We had heard so much about this place from our cruising friends—supplies, produce, social events, hiking, KIDS! As we entered Elizabeth Harbour, all I could utter was, “Oh. My. God.” Masts...as far as the eye could see along Stocking Island. My initial reaction—turn around! 😂 

We dropped the hook off the famous Chat ‘N Chill and headed ashore to begin our George Town experience.  After a day or two, the mass of boats seemed normal, we got into a routine with the morning net, ran into some folks we’d met previously, and met lots of new cruising families!

We spent just under two weeks anchored off of Stocking Island (I’m starting to think two weeks is our limit in any one spot!). We anchored off C ‘N C and also in deep water between Honeymoon and Monument Beach and had great holding in both spots. Rather than chronicle everything we did, our thoughts...

“+”

• Tons of options for anchoring. Even though it looked crowded, I never felt like there wasn’t room for another boat. (Though maybe that changes during regatta!) Folks kept good spacing for the most part and neighbors chatted.

• Supplies! Fresh produce was readily available and the farmers market was great. Propane, fuel, trash, and even water (via jerry can) were easy to get to in Victoria Harbour. A big dinghy dock and a wall to tie up to made access easy. Getting in and out of the harbour could be tricky in some wind/current combos, but we managed to make it each time!

• People! With this many boats, there are plenty of folks to meet/hang out with. We were in town for a party hosted by the tourism board and met a bunch of folks! (The food was awesome, too!) The kids managed to meet other teenagers, too, and that really made the stop worth it.

• Social events. It is way too easy to get overwhelmed if you try to do everything in the cruiser community of George Town! Yoga, water aerobics, ukulele lessons, rake & scrape, tours, Texas hold ‘em, kids meet-ups, bonfires, volleyball, church, daily Chat ‘n Chill gathering...when do we relax?!?! 😂 Seriously, you can't be bored.

• Friendly locals. Everyone we chatted with in town was nice and helpful. Special shout-out to Doe Boi who sent us on our way with an iPad cover to test its fit with nothing more than a hand-shake to bring it back or come back and pay for it.

• Outdoor fun. While you can’t hunt or fish in the harbor, there is plenty to do. There are some snorkeling spots close by (we didn’t get to try them due to conditions) and Stocking Island has a bunch of hiking trails that are easily accessed via dinghy.

• Community. I mean this in the “here to help” way. Every day folks would be reaching out for a part, expertise, or suggestions and they rarely had to ask twice. We were able to offer some water maker help/parts and were thanked with friendship and a bottle of wine! Long-time GT cruisers were a wealth of information and really helped out the newcomers, and ran a fantastic morning cruisers net!

• With an airport and frequent supply ships, you really don’t ever have to leave.

“-“

• The robust schedule can lead to FOMO or just guilt if you ignore it all to relax.

• People! Haha, I (Jo) am an introvert, but there are so many cruisers here that you can get wrapped into that community instead of experiencing the local one if you’re not careful. And with so many people comes plenty of opinions (including a mom who thought my kid needed to hear her opinion of their cell phone use directly instead of coming through me). The morning net and FB page featured plenty of “mother-hen” comments and it started to sound like a bunch of people yelling, “get off my lawn!” It was decent entertainment, but...

• With an airport and frequent supply ships, you really don’t ever have to leave. With all of its conveniences, GT can suck you in and scrap all of your cruising plans!

The pros far outweigh the cons! We really did enjoy our time here, and may come back for a brief stop as we try to head for islands to the south and east. But for our first year of cruising, this stop was long enough!

Chat ‘n Chill fun—swings, volleyball, drinks, CATS!

Monument Hike. We took the steep “Intrepid Trail” up the back to get there, and the easier front path on the way down.

Town life! Shopping, dining, fuel, and parties!

Our 6-hour, 3-hour tour of Little Exuma. 😂

Slay Ride! Enjoying the bounty of the sea 🎣 🦞 🐚

I couldn’t resist!  While heading south in the sound we saw “Sleigh Ride” on AIS and I couldn’t help but think that “Slay Ride” would be a great name for a fishing boat.  And while we’re not about to change our boat name anytime soon, we did slay some ocean critters over the past few days!

First, while up at Rudder Cut Cay we found two legal conch!  We only harvested one to meet our needs.  We also managed to spear two lobsters!  Lobstering turned out to be a family affair as we each have our own strengths—Trent is the spotter, Jo can linger at depth, Frank is the best-aimed shot, and Katreina mans the dinghy/stays away from the killing.  We saw many lion fish as well, but as we didn’t have gloves with us, we couldn’t safely harvest them.  Lesson learned—if we have the spear, we have gloves so we can help thin this invasive species.  That night we enjoyed a conch salad appetizer followed by a dinner of cracked conch and grilled lobster—yum!

Couldn’t even pick up the other lobster for the pic!

Lobster prep is easy!  Twist, poke, pull!

Conch prep is a little more challenging as you have to get the bugger out of the shell before essentially skinning it.  Oh, and ours was a boy!  Frank did not eat the “Bahamian Viagra.”  😳

Then as we were making our way to George Town (pounding into wind/waves on the nose!), we hooked two mahi mahi!  One got away just as we were about to get it aboard, but we successfully landed the second.    Grilled mahi tonight!

Our first mahi mahi!

We could get used to this, but as we are now in Elizabeth Harbour there will be no hunting for a bit.  Good thing we have some mahi mahi in the freezer!  We honestly strive to not take more than we need or can consume in short order so this restriction is just fine.  It just seems like the right thing to do.

Boatschool: Art Appreciation at Rudder Cut

After five nights at Farmers Cay, we headed out into Exuma Sound for a lovely sail down to Rudder Cut Cay.  Our objective—the piano!  David Copperfield placed this stainless steel sculpture of a mermaid and a piano in shallow water, and I decided it would be a fun physical education/music appreciation/art appreciation lesson for homeschooling! We anchored off the nearby cave and explored the piano and nearby reefs.  What did we find, other than a piano?  More on that later!

The forecast, wind/current regime, and folks that anchored really close to us made this a one-night stop.  Kids have voted—we are bound for George Town!

Little Farmers Cay

A combination of getting antsy and needing to find some protection from westerlies brought us to Little Farmers Cay.  We anchored on the SE side of the island off of White Land Beach after a few tries.  The bottom is a combo of reefs (we don’t come close to those as we don’t want to damage them), grass, hard scour, and just a few spots of deep sand.  We were lucky and nailed one on the forth try!

Upon tying up our dinghy we met Dino, who was quick to tell us to make ourselves at home, that everyone there is family, and to wander at will because we couldn’t get lost.  We wandered and found lots of birds, chatted with the folks cleaning fish on the docks, and even got to cheer for the school’s all-sports day!  There are four restaurants and a few shops.  You can buy liquor from the Ocean Cabin and while there are dry stores available, we didn’t see fresh produce during our stay.  Brenda at the white deli/market with blue trim in Little Harbor made us two delicious loaves of bread!  We had great conch salad at Katey’s on the dock, enjoyed dinner at the Yacht Club, and watched the Super Bowl with other cruisers at Ocean Cabin.  We didn’t get out to Ty’s, but maybe we will be back!  This is another welcoming, lovely settlement in the Exuma Cays, and it worked well for the west wind!

Hooked ⚓️

We’ve been “on the hook” for over a month now. December 30th was the last time we had lines ashore. Is this super remarkable? Nah. Plenty of cruisers do that ten-fold. But as I watched the sun rise this morning I reflected on that month of (sometimes wet) dinghy rides ashore, the boat moving to the wind and current, and the meetings where we pour over charts and forecasts to find a safe and comfortable spot for our home. It isn’t always easy (took four tries to nail the sandy spot at our current “home”), and the focus of my anxiety has shifted from work stuff to anchor/bottom/current/wind stuff, but I am content. Slowing down and experiencing these places and people with my little crew has me hooked.

“Home is where the anchor drops.”