Black Point

We left the area around Staniel Cay after 3 nights and headed south to Black Point.  The anchorage at the town is completely open to the west but with winds forecast to clock from west to north we happily set off.  Well, forecasts aren't exactly a precise science and we ended up spending 2 very rolly nights on the hook as the wind eventually clocked north but the waves didn't catch up.

Since the boat was uncomfortable we spent a lot of time in town.  Black Point is a popular anchorage but the town is by no means a tourist town.  No cheesy gift shops, no companies offering tours - in other words, perfect.  

One whole day was taken up almost entirely by laundry.  There is a lovely clean laundromat in town with a small store attached.  The owner cooks for the customers while they wait for their washers and dryers.  $1 for 4 fresh conch fritters!  The laundromat also offers coin showers - $4 for 8 minutes - what luxury!

Likely the most famous spot in Black Point is Loraine's Cafe.  Cruisers and locals alike gather there for food, drinks, air conditioning, and wifi.  After our laundry we hung out  chatting with a cruiser from Alabama and drinking Sands (a Bahamian beer).  At one point the only staff person had to leave for a moment so she told us to help ourselves.  That is typical of the Bahamas; you can stay at a pub for several hours ordering food and drink and when you pay at the end they ask you what you had since they don't bother keeping track. Stores we've been in have also often been untended. There must be crime here somewhere but we haven't seen evidence of it.

We also didn't see much evidence of women in Black Point except working at the landromat or cafe.  The men and the children were everywhere.  The children bicycling, playing basketball, and playing pretend in abandoned boats.  The men gathering to drink beer and play ruthless games of dominoes. The women are presumably indoors doing all the work.

Black point police station.  I can't imagine they use it much

A Bahamian sloop.  They are hand built and raced all over the Exumas

A completed Bahamian sloop

The view from the laundromat.  Any wonder we spent a whole day there?

These little cuties greeted me with cries of "Hi, Hi, Hiiiii"

Tending bar at Lorraine's

A sign on the men's room door at Lorainnes cafe.
What do you think they are doing in there?

  

Sam found an abandoned anchor when he dove on our anchor to check the set.
We are going to try to sell it in Georgetown since it is too big for our boat.

James Bond and Big Mama Karma

After 2 nights having Compass Cay almost to ourselves, we arrived at the tourist mecca of Staniel Cay.  Since we are having some problems with both the head (toilet) and the refrigerator, we decided to treat ourselves and stay on the dock at the yacht club instead of anchoring out.

The rather intimidating view over the stern of the boat.

Our first stop was Thunderball grotto where some really silly scenes from the James Bond movie by the same name were filmed in 1964.  Seriously, if you haven't watched the film don't bother.  Unless you are in the mood for a slapstick comedy.

Thunderball battle scene

I snorkeled around the cave with the kids (again, no photos because we don't have a decent underwater camera) but I chose to stay at the boat when they went back a second time to do this:

The next day we set off by dingy to see something I've been looking forward to since we first started planning - the wild pigs! On an uninhabited island near Staniel Cay live a drove of wild pigs.  No one really knows how the pigs got there since they are not native to the area - the most popular theory is that they swam there from a wrecked ship.  The pigs spend their days eating food the tourists bring, lying in the sand, and swimming.

I had planned on getting up close to the pigs but it turned out I was a little intimidated by their size. 

  

This woman was much braver than me

I didn't know pigs could smile

The piglets sleeping in piles were my favourite

The rest of our time at Staniel was filled by exploring the town and hanging out at the bar in the yacht club.  We were particularly enchanted with the laundromat that is also a liquor store and bar.

We were very happy to be able to watch the Women's World Curling Championships

Tiny Binary on the end of a dock full of giant yachts

Compass Cay

After we left Darwin and headed south as they headed north, we spent two nights at Compass Cay.  We didn't know much about the Cay which I think in some ways is better as everything comes as a surprise.

We anchored near the red blob on the map above. 

Binary at anchor

It was low tide when we arrived so Sam suggested we give Binary a much needed clean along the waterline.

Even boat chores are fun in the Bahamas

Sam then headed out with another cruiser anchored near us to try and catch some fish on the ocean side of the cay.  Unfortunately they didn't come home with dinner.

The next morning we (well, all of us except Riley because he sleeps until noon!) got up early to check out Rachel's Bubble Bath (yellow on the map).  The reason for the early start is the Bubble Bath needs to be visited at high tide for full effect.  

To the right of Sam in this picture is a cut in the rock open
to the ocean. When the swell approaches the cut...

... waves crash through and create foamy bubbles
in the lagoon on the other side

If we had been here on the day we went into Nassau with the giant swells coming in from Bermuda it would have been an impressive sight indeed.

Later in the day we headed west in the dingy to explore some caves (the orange on the map) at Rocky Dundas.  There are 2 small moorings to tie your dingy to and then the caves are accessed by swimming in.  I don't have any pictures of the caves because we don't have a decent waterproof camera so I stole this from the interwebs (let's face it, this is way better than I would have taken anyway):

Sunset over Rocky Dundas

Big Reunion at the Exuma Land and Sea Park

I'm sitting typing this anchored at Compass Cay after spending an amazing 3 days at Warderick Wells in the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  In order to post an update we have had to haul my cell phone up the mast and use it as a hotspot as the nearest tower is about 10 miles away on Staniel Cay.

The Exumas Land and Sea Park is a 22 mile stretch of cays and the water around them that have been protected from development and all fishing since 1958. It is a very popular place for cruisers to anchor or pick up a mooring ball.

We were looking forward to it in particular because we got to meet up with our cruising buddies on Darwin who we haven't seen since New Year's in Marathon.  They were able to go to the Bahamas 6 weeks ahead of us and are now heading back stateside just as we are getting here.  

Mooring at Warderick Wells gives plenty of opportunity for activity.  Reg and Sam go some snorkeling in, Sam and Riley tried their hand at windsurfing, we went for hikes, and the cruisers all gather at about 5pm for drinks and socializing on the beach.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Our first glimpse of Darwin was their AIS signal on our chartplotter

Here they are!

Look at that pristine mooring field.  We are near the far left on this shot.

The park has lots of hiking trails which had us scrambling over the rocks in the hot sun

My only encounter with wildlife.  A little north at Allen Cay you can see giant iguanas.  We elected not to stop there!

Boys exploring

Monkey see...

....monkey do.  Sam was determined to do at least as many pull-ups as Ed (6)

Coral growing in the neck of an old bottle.  I find it had to wrap my head around the fact that coral is an animal.

The monument on Boo boo hill.  People leave signs made out of driftwood here with their boat names on them.  An offering to King Neptune to secure safe travels.  Right before this picture was taken Sam received word that he had been accepted to the University of Waterloo for Mechanical Engineering. Boo boo hill will always be special to me for that memory.

Our small offering to Neptune.  Some boats come with fancy plaques pre-made but we had to make do with what we could scrounge. 

The view from Boo-boo hill

Norman's Pond

We had a false start traveling from Nassau to the Exumas.  On the first day the winds and waves weren’t quite as forecast and we found ourselves pounding in to both.  After a couple of hours we decided to turn around and head for Palm Cay on the south east corner of New Providence.  Good thing we did as two of the nights we were there saw huge thunderstorms which would not have been fun at anchor. 

The marina at Palm Cay was a nice place to chill out with swimming pools, a private beach, a beach bar, and most importantly for the kids – wifi. It was also the first place we saw a “sea gate” which turns out to be a chain across the marina entrance.  I have never seen anything so unwelcoming!

Wifi at the pool and beach made for a nice place for Reg to get some work done.

After 3 nights at Palm Cay we set off for the Exumas after fretting over the weather.  The crappy weather was still with us but moving north east and since we were heading south east we decided to chance it.  We were rewarded with a fantastic sail topping out at just over 7 knots and ending in an anchorage called Norman’s pond which is a well-known hurricane hole for boats with a shallow draft like ours.

The kids exploring one of the caves lining Norman’s Pond.

Nassau

We arrived in Nassau with about 4 other sailboats on the first day that it was even possible.  The day before saw big swells coming in from a low off Bermuda which closed the harbor.  Even with the reduced swells we were dealing with 8’ rollers but with 16 seconds between them it was fairly comfortable as the boat just rose up and down as opposed to rocking back and forth. Even though it wasn’t too rocky I was still a little nervous approaching the harbor and being able to chat with the other sailboats on the VHF was very reassuring.  One of them wanted us to go first as we likely had more experience than them (yikes).

The swells crashing on the beach just west of the harbour entrance.

Just inside the channel we passed the Nassau lighthouse sitting on a spit of rock which was completely overcome by waves.  Turns out Binary makes for a pretty good surfboard.

The harbor is full of traffic.  Tour boats, fishing boats, cruisers like us, millionaires on their giant boats who are definitely not cruisers like us, and the giant cruise ships like this one.

We spent our first night at a marina which was close to a few grocery stores so we could stock up on fresh food (who knew lettuce was such a treat).  But nights two and three were the main attraction – Atlantis Resort and Marina.  Atlantis is a giant, gaudy, holiday resort catering to mostly Americans.  It wouldn’t normally be a place we would stop but the marina fees of $225 per night include admission to the waterpark and aquarium as well as a pool and hot tub right beside our boat.  I have to admit that it wasn’t just the kids that had a blast.

The marina is full of giant motor yachts.  Our boat is considered so small that they didn’t believe we actually had 4 people on board so we had to argue to get our 4 resort passes

One pleasant surprise for me was that the casino had 4 installations by Dale Chihuly.  I was a little disappointed that they were so poorly lit but they were still impressive.

I was also enthralled by the jellyfish at the aquarium. I think I could have watched them all day.

                                     

 But of all the sea creatures, this ugly dude was my favourite:

After two days at Atlantis, our credit card was groaning from over work so we went back to the cheaper marina and did a little exploring in Nassau.  The signs of British colonialism are everywhere from the driving on the left to the royal names for hospitals and other facilities.  We went to the Queen’s steps which were hewn out of the rock by slaves to provide a route from downtown to Fort Fincastle in case of attack. They took 16 years to build and then were named decades later after Queen Victoria who didn’t even lift a finger in their construction!

The Queen’s steps.  All those tourists got in the way of my photo!

Showing little respect at Fort Fincastle