Relaxing on Elbow Cay 3-17-09

Our adventure for the day was finding beaches along Elbow Cay and here is Bob with his GPS honing in. We walked all over in the early morning and needed a coffee break and found a great spot overlooking the surf at Sea Spray.

We went back into Hopetown to have lunch at Harbour Lodge and found the perfect snorkel beach. Don’t worry, I didn’t force Bob to walk back this time.

The weather is changing with storm clouds on the horizon but there was time to use the Sea Spray pool before the cool front and rain comes through. Staff here tell us that congregations pray for rain and the prayers will definitely be answered the next few days.

Hopetown 3-16-09

We postponed washing down our salt-encrusted boat for 2 days which is progress for me. We are paying by the gallon for water here at Sea Spray and managed to do a very effective wash with 20 gallons. The islands have very little water and depend on rain water and reverse osmosis water treatment so conservation is very important. Electricity is also metered and we are conserving. Go green.

Our fun plan for today was taking the Sea Spray van with Rodney into Hopetown and then walking back. Bob was not so sure the walking part sounded like loads of fun. Hopetown is a small jewel of a town with colorful houses, small meandering paths and the dramatic backdrop of the lighthouse and ocean. We found the Harbour’s Edge Restaurant that had internet service and seriously blogged away.

It is truly a small world. We were blogging when we noticed a gentleman across the way that looked very familiar in a St. Paul way. I went up to him and asked if he was from St. Paul. Bob and I had taken a Red Cross First Aid course in August in St. Paul, and sure enough, it was Joe Lynch on “Night Star” who along with his wife, Judy, took the course with us. We all are down here escaping the ravages of the MN winter and luckily we have not had to use the skills we learned in the course,

Back to the walk to the marina—it seemed like a good idea to walk the 3+ miles back to the marina. Did I mention that we went to the grocery store and reprovisioned with about 10+ pounds of supplies, had the laptop in a backpack and it was now 83 degrees? Here’s Bob thinking that maybe he would like to be in Italy instead of lugging supplies. Even I was “conked out.” Luckily, Rodney was making a routine run to Hopetown and we were able to “thumb” him down and catch a ride back to the marina.

Sunday in Sea Spray 3-15-09

I awoke this morning to the sound of the wind and ocean as well as a rooster crowing in the distance. We took an early morning walk to the beach which is open to the wild Atlantic. Abacos Inn is a short walk down the road and offers a stunning view as well as hosting an art fair today. Meet two new friends who make the best lemonade. Captain’s Meeting at 5pm was a very photogenic group.

The nightcap for the evening was the successful shuttle launch streaking across the Bahamian sky.

We will be here at Sea Spray until 3/31. We have very limited internet access and will post as able.

The Whale 3-14-09

We listened to the Cruisers Net on Channel 68 and heard that boaters were reporting 2-3 foot swells on the open ocean off Whale Cay. This area is subject to a “rage” which is caused by swift tidal flow from the ocean through narrow island passages compounded by high winds and storms out on the ocean. Rage conditions can create large waves and confused seas and make for very rough and dangerous boating conditions. We wanted to get to Elbow Cay and Marsh Harbor on the other side of the Whale but were prepared not to go at all this trip if we did not have good conditions.

Bob and I took a ½ mile walk out to the ocean and saw the 2-3 foot swell with no roiling or “elephants on the horizon”—this is a good day for the Whale. We talked with Jim on “Damsel” who was planning on doing the crossing with 2 other sailboats this morning. We checked the weather again which did note 15-20 knot east winds which meant that the sailboats would not be able to use sail at all. We decided to go for it and while I battened down everything and readied our safety supplies, Bob did the way points for a course between the reefs and the Whale.

We left at 11am; by 11:30, we were in 2-3 foot swells with chop from all directions. We decided to steer from the flybridge which we thought would give better visibility to navigate through these mix master seas. The swells increased to 3-4 feet with spray up to the flybridge and winds built up to 25 knots. We had good maneuverability with swell mostly on our bow and quarter and experienced no breaking waves.

There are navigational sticks after you pass the eastern part of the Whale and we caught up with our sailboat companions here. They left the dock more than an hour before us but without their sail power, they had a much rougher ride and were jubilant that this challenge was accomplished—so were we.

We proceeded toward Elbow Cay and were welcomed by the Hopetown Lighthouse. We decided to go to Sea Spray Resort and Marina which has a $400 docking special in March. We headed south through a narrow shallow channel and as we approached the marina at low tide, we could see prop marks in the sand but we did fine.

There are a number of Loopers at Sea Spray right now—Charlie and Linda on “Freedom’s Turn”, Lisa and Jim on “Kismet”, Patti and Brad on “Salvage Crew”, and Mary and Andy on “Good News”. It was great to have a potluck dinner with them and swap stories. As darkness fell, the Bahamian band started to play and we all danced under the stars.

Very Breezy Day to Green Turtle Cay 3-13-09

We had a 56 mile day today and it started out as a cloudy morning with east wind of 10 kts with a 1 foot chop. We had hoped to get more accurate weather information for today but were unable to get Chris Parker’s Caribbean Weather on SSB radio or the VHF weather from Marsh Harbor. The Atlantic Ocean is just on the other side of the reefs surrounding the Abacos and the ocean forecast noted a gale about 300 miles away.

We thought that crossing over to the Bahamas would be the only hard part except for transiting the Whale (to be discussed later), but today, we had winds of 15+ knots on the nose with 2-3 foot waves with whitecaps. Even the sailboats traveling east were motoring which was usually the case for us when we were sailboaters doing a long passage with inhospitable wind. Here’s a picture of the trawler, “Escapade” with a riding sail which they could use as they were heading west. They contacted us on the radio and gave us helpful information about the frequency and time for weather information as well as anchorages that they had tried.

After about 40 miles of more open water, the channel narrowed somewhat and we could see Crab Cay, Powell Cay, Spanish Cay etc. to the north and Little Abacos Island to our south but watch out for Center of the World Rock. We started see sailboats anchoring off Powell and by 4:30, we were glad to be heading towards the entrance to Green Turtle Cay.

The boat was encrusted in a thick layer of salt and this needed our immediate attention after docking, then we could take showers. We decided to dock at Green Turtle Club Resort and Marina as you can “eat your dock fees.” That’s right—it is $1.75 per foot and you can eat and drink your bill away at their restaurant. Peggy has a few nights off from cooking.