December 1, 2011

I can't believe it is December, we have been talking to Chris's Dad almost daily on the high frequency radio that he got us, and his reports are that it is getting cold up in New England. While we were walking around in New Plymouth (the main town here at Green Turtle Cay) they had all of their Christmas decorations up, and it seemed so odd. I have never really been anywhere for the holidays that weren't cold, it doesn't seem natural.
We like it here, but we are all feeling semi disappointed that we haven't met up with any other cruising families with kids. I guess most families stay state side until after the holidays, but we thought we would have at least seen some others, but not a one. Hopefully, we will get to hang with some people soon. Deason has had his fill of his dear old Mom and Dad. I can't say as I blame him.
Dahlia on the other hand seems to be really be enjoying herself. She is so comfortable with this lifestyle, that while driving back from New Plymouth in the dinghy today she fell fast asleep while sitting up by herself. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride either, her little head was bouncing all over the place. I guess that is why they have the head rest on the infant life jackets. It is not for safety, it is for sleepability.

Post by Deason

We went from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas. The crossing was good. We trolled on the way there we did not catch anything. We still had fun. We went to West End. We swam at the pool. We were there for three days. Then we went to Mangrove Cay. We went kayaking. Then we went to Little Grand Cay. We went to shore. We walked around. Me and Dad went snorkeling. Then we went to Green Turtle Cay.

November 30, 2011-Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

Well, we have had better and worse anchorages. The wind picked up at around 10pm last night and we were only partially protected from the NW winds. We ended up getting rolled around by the westerly swells, which made for terrible sleeping conditions. Fortunately, it was only one night.
We left Spanish Cay and sailed down to Green Turtle Cay. The winds were a little lighter today than they were yesterday, so we only averaged about 4 knots, but since we only had to travel 14 miles, no one minded the lack of speed. We anchored in White Sound on Green Turtle Cay, the anchorage is a natural harbor with wind protection from all sides. It will be nice to spend a couple of nights laying low here.
The winds are suppose to pick up tonight and we heard that the anchoring here can be tricky, so I had the pleasure of swimming and checking out our anchor. It was completely buried, as well as half of the chain we have out. Amazingly, that was my first swim in the ocean since being in the Bahamas, and the water was actually warmer than Cape Cod (vineyard sound side) water in the summer. I will sleep so much better now knowing what our anchor looks like down there. If I could only come up with some tricky underwater camera that could show us our anchor from the cockpit, it would prevent a lot of wondering and worrying when my head hits the pillow at night.
We went to shore briefly, the town is at the other end of the island, and we will visit it tomorrow by dinghy. Today we just wanted to stretch our legs, so we went ashore to the Green Turtle Club Resort. We just walked around and hit the small store that they have there at the marina. The only thing we bought was candy. I was so excited to have a snickers bar, you would have thought that I had never had one before, it was great to have some junk food.
This is something that I would like to remember in the future, which is why I am putting it in the blog. I am embarrassed to admit, that today I butchered my first chicken. We are so use to going to the grocery stores back home and buying any cut of meat that we want. I am not a big fan of handling raw meats, so I usually buy the boneless cuts so I can just marinate and cook. Here, you get what they have. While we were at Little Grand Cay they had two kinds of frozen meats for purchase...whole chickens, and ribs. We bought the whole chickens, hence me having to butcher them today. I can honestly say it wasn't that hard, but also not my favorite thing to do. At the same time, I like that I am forced to do things that I would never have chosen to do back home, even if it is hacking up a dead animal.

November 29, 2011-Spanish Cay, Bahamas

We weren't planning on leaving Little Grand Cay until tomorrow, but while we were eating breakfast the wind shifted to the West. We decided we couldn't let those winds go to waste so we hauled anchor and made our way. We figured we would be on the edge of the front the whole day, which meant that we could have been caught in the rain for the better part of the day, but we didn't get one drop. There were a few dark clouds off in the distance ahead of us, but we were fortunate that they were moving faster than us.
As for the trip, it couldn't have been better. We sailed all day with 10-15 knot trailing winds and following seas, no loud generator motor running, no diesel use, and we even made a tankful of water. We ate really well today too, we had lobster salad for lunch, and I made a lobster and corn chowder for dinner. Mom....I think the chowder would have been up to your standards!
To make things even better, we saw a sea turtle, and Chris caught a fish while trolling. It appeared to be a cero mackerel (by comparing pictures in our fish book), it was a pretty good size too, but we decided to let it go. The next fish that lands on our hook most likely won't have the same fate.
We made it to Spanish Cay by 4:30, not bad for sailing in 10 knot winds. We averaged over 5 knots and traveled over 40 miles. This Cay happens to be a privately owned island and you can not go to shore unless you are staying at the marina or resort. We will be heading over to Green Turtle Cay tomorrow where we are welcome ashore.

November 28, 2011

Amazing what a new day will bring! We went to shore today and got to walk around a bit, which was refreshing to see happy faces. We stopped by the small grocery store. When I say small I mean that they only had one freezer the same size that one American household would have in their basement, and a standing shelf that you would find in a 7-11 with one side partially stocked with dried goods. They had a small fridge with grapes and a few sodas...that's it! We decided to wait until the afternoon, when everyone had received their goods from the supply ship that had come in the middle of the night. We actually got to watch the supply ship (who had run aground when he came in last night) unload and leave this morning.
We walked the whole island, the roads were all cement and big enough for one golf cart to drive on. All the golf carts and the one truck that we saw were loaded down with goods from the supply ship. We decided to head back to the boat for lunch, after which Dahlia napped and Deason and Chris went off to snorkel. They came back with what we had hoped would have been part of our dinner. We had read in our cook book that to get conch out from their shell easily that you boil them for 5 mins and they will come out with a fork. Well, Joy of Cooking failed us! That sucker would not come out of the shell.
We decided to go to shore and have dinner there, which was the original plan anyway, but a conch appetizer would have been nice. When we got to shore we did our grocery shopping, and they had a few more items than this morning, but not much, mostly bags of chips. We bought two whole chickens, grapes, and a few dried goods. We didn't need much else. I also found a local guy named Danny who sold us 10 lobster tails for $10, and he agreed to give me conch opening and cleaning lessons tomorrow when we get some more conch! I was psyched for both.
Dinner was excellent, and amusing. We were apparently too early and they had to unlock the door for us. When I asked what they had on the menu the woman said "I don't know, I will have to check and see what she has". She came back and said "chicken, conch, fish, and lobster", I actually felt rude asking what those dishes might come with, so I didn't bother asking. Deason had the lobster, Chris had the fish, and I had the conch. Dahlia shared with all of us, and it was excellent...including the sides. I now have my Bahamas ideal restored, and we are all going to bed with a happy heart and full bellies.

November 27, 2011-Little Grand Cay-Bahamas

We had a slightly better day today. Winds were still ENE 15-25knots, but with our heading we were able to motor sail at a respectable 5+ knots. We even got over 6 knots a few times. We decided to head for Little Grand Cay where the anchorage would provide pretty good all around protection. The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is for E-SE 15-20 knot winds, and in this little place we are well tucked in. Our trip took less than 5 hours, and the conditions were similar to yesterday, but mentally I felt a little better knowing that we were actually moving.
We didn't go to shore today, but plan on staying through tomorrow so we can check things out. There is a little village here on the island, and amazingly we have Internet on the boat through the small marina that is here.

November 26, 2011-Mangrove Cay, Bahamas

The kids made a towel fort under the cockpit table to hide from the sea spray!
Amazing how unassuming a turquoise sea can look!
Mangrove Cay about a mile out.


Today was one of those "remind me why we are doing this" kind of days. We decided to leave the dock, for a couple of reasons. The first, because it is expensive to stay at the dock and spending $70/night isn't exactly in our budget. Secondly, we really want to be able to be at anchor, and swim/snorkel and kayak off of the boat. Finally, because of both of these reasons we were getting restless. For the past few days the winds have been out of the N-NE 15-25knots, and today it was suppose to be ENE-E 15-20knots. Everyday we inspected from the shore the surf conditions and each day we said to ourselves that it didn't appear to be that bad out there. With all of these factors we decided that we would shove off today.
We got off of the dock and left the inlet without a hitch, and we entered Goodwill Channel and headed into the wind and outgoing tide. The channel is a narrow 2 mile stretch between shoals. Supposedly, it use to have channel markers, but that was before the hurricane took them away. We left at high tide, just to be on the safe side, because we also heard that the shoals had shifted as well since the hurricane. It turned out to be the easiest part of our trip in hind sight. The rest of the trip we were heading into a 18-25 knot wind, and outgoing tide. We were essentially going backwards. At max speed we hit 4 knots a few times, but we were averaging in the low to mid 3 knot range. We were hobby horsing over the waves and taking a fair amount over the bows. We frequently got spray from these waves that came all the way back into the cockpit. Our planned "easy" 40 mile trip to Great Sale Cay, turned into an agonizingly long 20 mile trip to Mangrove Cay. We tried to sail off a little bit, but it didn't really help all that much. Our boat doesn't sail into the wind very well, and we would have had to sail off considerably, and to tack back and forth to get to Mangrove Cay would have been just as long of a day as it was. We never should have used the beach surf as an assessment tool, of course the waves weren't big from the shore, because the water depth is less than 5 ft for at least a mile off shore. In the channel to Mangrove Cay the waves could build a little more because of the deeper water.
Mangrove Cay is basically just that, a small island of mangrove that provided enough protection from the wind for the night. And I got what I asked for, we were at anchor, Chris went swimming off of the boat, he and Deason went kayaking, and after I vented my childish frustrations to Chris I felt better. I have high expectations of the Bahamas, we have been dreaming of coming here since we bought and moved aboard the boat, and I wanted ideal. Ideal being...calm seas, light breeze, easy sailing, and bright sunshine. The bottom line is that there are going to be great days, or a variation of that, and there are going to be bad days. Hopefully, we will use our brains to prevent as many bad days. I do realize that in the grand scheme of things, it could be much worse.