Arrived at Brown's Marina at 11:30 am, with our yellow Quarantine flag raised. Judy came out to grab a line, Clifton met us on the dock and gave us the necessary check-in papers. Ed walked down the street to immigration and customs while I stayed on the boat. He was only gone about 30 minutes. It was a much easier process than we had imagined. Once he got back to the Marina, the Quarantine flag came down and the Bahamian flag was raised. Yay! We're official cruisers in the Bahamas! We watched and helped several other boaters come into the dock the rest of the afternoon. The outgoing tide was very strong, requiring some expertise on the part of the captains to stay on course and navigate into the slips. One guy didn't do too well and ended up broadside to the slip and wedging a piling into his bowsprit. Dan, one of the boaters already at the Marina hopped into his 20 ft. center console fishing boat and he and Ed pulled the stern of the boat around while the others guided the bow in towards the slip. 6-8 boaters, all sail and one troller came in simultaneously that afternoon. Everyone had come across from Key Biscayne and were glad to have arrived. We, being pretty darn tired but exhilarated ate dinner at Big Johns at the marina. We feasted on cracked conch, lobster quesadilla and conch fritters and tasted our very first Kalik beer! It's a very different tasting beer but very good.
Wednesday 12.16.15
We took a nice walk downtown through Alice Town and returned via the beach, named Radio Beach. We collected lots of pretty shells and tons of sea glass.
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| Brown's Marina |
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| Radio Beach |
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| A walk down a street in Bimini |
Thursday 12.17.15
We walked a little further down, past Alice Town to Bailey Town, and took the beach back, collecting shells and sea glass. We walked Blister Beach and Radio Beach.
Ed got invited to go fishing with Dan. They left around 10:30 am and returned around 4:00 pm with at least 30 medium sized yellow tail snapper and one Margaret fish. I had the sewing machine out and put a patch on the jib bag. Judy on Quest pointed out the food boat that had arrived, and told us fresh produce could be found tomorrow morning at Roberts Grocery. We joined three other couples on Dan and Judy's yacht for a pot luck fish fry. We enjoyed shots of the most delicious Tequila! Only wish we could remember the name of it!
Friday 12.18.15
We went snorkeling off the rocks at the beach. Ed practiced shooting his Hawaiian sling. We went down to Roberts Grocery Store and found some fresh produce, including grapefruit! Hung out the rest of the day. A few of the boat captains doubled up on their lines in expectation of weather coming in. As forecast, the winds started to blow in the late afternoon. At 1:00 am the winds were howling, Ed jumped up to check on the lines and adjust a few of them. Several others were up at the same time, doing the same thing.
Saturday 12.19.15
The wind continued to blow 25-30 kts and gusts even higher all day, actually all day everyday until Monday afternoon. There was a pot luck at the Marina that evening, and we had a chance to visit with more cruisers. Several boats came all the way from Canada!
Sunday 12.20.15
We went to the beach in the morning and caught the second half of Sunday football at the tiki hut the marina uses for the staff.
Monday 12.21.15
The wind started dying down, and I wanted to take the kayaks across the bay to the grass flats and find some conch. We spent a couple of hours scouring the grass flats and came back with 5 conch! Local knowledge states that the larger "King" conch would be good eating but needed to be boiled to get it out of its shell. We did that and Ed tried his hand getting the others out of their shells. We had quite an audience. I made an awesome conch salad and shared it with the others on board Bob and Peggy's boat Knot2Fast.
We had a get -together before walking down the street to the police station where the town was celebrating the lighting of the Christmas tree. Festivities included the Primary School classes singing Christmas carols, and a visit from the skinniest Santa Claus I have ever seen, and Chigger! The classes of the school were small, 6-8 students in each grade!
Tuesday 12.22.15
First day of Winter! We were hot! Yippee! The sun was shining and we enjoyed a nice warm breeze, or rather "wind".
We did more sewing repair work, this time on the awning. (The canvas on the boat is getting so old, it's fraying.) Upon studying the Wind Alert App and the weather1, Ed decided Wednesday would be our weather window to cross the Great Bahama Bank and make our way to Chub Cay. Others liked the idea and before we knew it we had a rally going at first light the following day. The captains all got together and studied the charts and developed their plan. We got Manatee ready for sailing, I borrowed a bike and ran down to Robert's for a little more produce, whatever he had left that still looked good. The boat only comes in once a week.
Wednesday 12.23.15
We set the alarm for 4:30 am. We got up and prepared for departure, along with 4 other boats! By 6:45 am six boats had left the Marina, 5 headed south, 1 headed north. We went around Turtle Rocks and then East towards the Northwest Channel. There was us on Manatee, Ed on Mahnoo (36 ft.S2), Andre and Rose Ange on Vagabond 55, (41 ft. Benateau), Butch and Susan on Dream Catcher (41 ft Hunter), Scott and Mary on Fleur de Lis (34 ft. Catalina).
The wind was howling out of the ESE, 18-22 kts. We were able to raise the main once we rounded into the east some, which really only served to steady the boat. We were last in line, since Manatee, being the only heavy displacement vessel was the slowest of them all. We did however keep up with the group. We motor sailed until 4:00 pm and then each of us anchored about a mile off the channel. The waves crashed on our bow most of the night and there was quite a strong current. We dragged anchor multiple times throughout the night. In between resetting the anchor, we attempted sleep, but the boat was bobbing and literally crashing up and down all night, very little sleep was had. We were really surprised that nothing in the cabin went flying out of its designated places.
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| Heading to Chub Cay |
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| Entering NWChannel |
We all communicated on the radio and left at dawn for another day of beating into the high ESE winds. Mary and Scott headed northeast toward Great Harbor. The rest of us continued east to Chub Cay. When we approached the Northwest Channel we could see 6 ft. waves breaking across the whole channel. The tide was going out and the wind was on our nose, making for a few miles of rough going! As we climbed a few 6 ft. swells, we watched our speed drop to almost 0 kts! We all survived and made our way into Chub Cay Anchorage by 2:30 pm. Ed on Mahnoo was ahead of us, and radioed that he was moving on over to Fraziers Hog Anchorage, because he thought it was too rough at Chub. We were exhausted and needed to stop well before sunset so we chose to ride it out in Chub. It would have been another couple of hours to Fraziers Hog. It was rough in Chub Cay anchorage, with at least a 3 ft surge with swells that made all of the boats bob and roll like toy sailboats in a bathtub. Ed dove the anchor to make sure it set well in the 9 ft. of crystal clear water. Again, no rest to be had that night. The anchor held but we had to hang on all night just to stay in the bunk! We decided that we were moving over to Fraziers Hog first thing in the morning.
Friday 12.25.15
We did just that, following Butch and Susan on Dream Catcher. We found a place to anchor in about 10 ft of water, but the bottom was soft mushy sand with a layer of grass. We got settled and while resting in the cockpit we were hailed by a resident on the island, inviting the 3 sailboats that just arrived to come over to their beach to catch up on the Internet, or to walk around on their land.
After a bit of rest, we hopped into the dinghy and motored over to meet them. Ron and Christine have a beautiful piece of land, overlooking the anchorage and a home that is still under construction. They are working towards becoming self sufficient, with numerous solar panels on a carport roof, several cisterns for catching rain water, and several large propane tanks to have filled when the "ship" comes in. Quite impressive. We spent a couple hours there talking, enjoying their stories and then went back to Manatee. The anchor started dragging again, and before long we were all over the place, drifting. We raised the anchor and had to move further away from the others to a spot we were told had better holding in sand. This time we put out the secondary anchor, the Danforth which held us for the rest of the night. However, Ed slept in the cockpit with one eye on the chart plotter. Ed decided the following morning we would be moving over to an anchorage by Bird Cay. Christine had told us about an unmarked deep water channel that could get us up pretty close to the island.
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| "Our Way", Christine and Ron's place |
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| Christine, who became our "guardian" for anchorages at Fraziers Hog and Bird Cay |
12.26.15 to 12.30.15
We bid "so long" to the others and weighed anchor in time to get over to Bird Cay for the rising tide. Ed did some rearranging of the anchors, so the Danforth would become the primary anchor with the 300 ft. of chain. We found the channel and anchored, but we weren't in as far as we would have liked. We spent the night rolling in the surge, but out of the big wind. We hopped into LilBit and buzzed over to the beach to enjoy the most beautiful waters. The water is so incredibly clear, it was hard to believe we were in 8-10 ft! We decided the following morning we would go back out in LilBit and sound the waters to find the channel allowing us to get in further, out of the wind and the surge. And we did just that! We found a sweet spot in 10-11 ft of water, sheltered from the wind and with less current. Our sailing companions left their mooring balls and followed us over. Ed directed each of them in via the VHF radio. The next few days were spent relaxing and exploring Bird Cay. There is an abandoned settlement on the island, consisting of 6-8 homes and a large mansion on the tip of the island, connected by an old cement road. We spent an entire morning "snooping" around at the old homes and yards. There was still quite a bit of furniture and appliances in the homes, lots of books and old games. Christine told us a little about its history. A gentleman from Chicago had owned the island, and sold it to Mark Anthony. At least that's what they thought. Mark Anthony brought over lots of toys, instruments and party supplies, but then was informed by the Bahamian government that he would not be allowed to purchase the property. As far as she knows, the man from Chicago still owns it, but nothing has been done with the island since then. It sure looked like it was an awesome home in the day, and I bet some pretty cool parties went on there!
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| Manatee at Bird Cay |
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| A house at the Settlement on Bird Cay |
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| Nice screen porch! |
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| The pool |
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| The shoreline |
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| A well house |
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| A game found in the mansion |
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| The only "name card" in the box! |
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| stingray! |
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| cool starfish, attached to a conch |
Another couple of boats came in and anchored. We had a campfire on the beach and roasted hot dogs on sticks, while exchanging stories and experiences. Ed on Manhoo brought to the gathering a corked wine bottle with a note in a baggy inside, which he had found on the oceanside shoreline. What fun that was to watch him open it and read the note inside. It was dated April of 2015, not too long ago, but still 8 months ago. It was written by a guy from New Orleans and he set it adrift in the Exumas. Ed will email or give the guy a call sometime, as it was requested.
On Wednesday morning Manhoo and Dream Catcher moved from the anchorage at high tide to deeper water as they were leaving the following morning for Nassau. We plan on remaining in the Berrys a while longer, it is so beautiful here!
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| Walking and snorkeling the clear calm waters |
Saturday 1.2.16
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We have been so busy having fun! We put the sail rig on LilBit, and sailed around the anchorage.
We've been snorkeling and collecting beautiful treasures from the beach and the floor of the ocean. There are tons of sea glass lining the shore, and this area has lots of sea biscuits, (which are the shell remains of Red Sea Urchins) and sand dollars. We even found a few gorgeous, (and I mean gorgeous!) Conch shells, uninhabited, and without holes knocked into them! One of them will work great for a horn when we return home. We seem to have adopted a Remora for the past few days. As I was approaching the boat from snorkeling, I spotted him alongside the hull of Manatee. I was startled at first, because I thought he had the shape of a shark. Ed assured me he was just attached to the bottom the boat and would not harm me. "Remi" has been with us for three days now, keeping our boat clean and gulping up any table scraps we toss overboard. We witnessed an awesome sunrise and sunset for the new year.
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| "Remi" |
It's finally time to move on. I wonder if this anchorage is typical of what we will find or if we were just lucky enough to find the best one so early in our trip! We are going to move back over to Frazier's Hog, visit with Ron and Christine and use their wifi once more. After that we are heading up the Berry's for more exploration. The weather is settled right now, but a cold front is expected soon. Using wifi will allow us access to weather information so we can decide where to go next. Bye bye for now!!
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| Sunrise New Years Day 2016 |
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| Sunset New Years Day 2016 |
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