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Morning Glory showed up at Big Major last night just after dark, but I was already in bed so I didn’t know it!.  Ted swung by on the dinghy but my lights were out so he didn’t knock.  When I got up this morning I rode over to Mike’s boat, during the trip to Jumanji I took the drain plug out of the dink to drain the water so I was a bit preoccupied getting the plug put back in as I arrived at Jumanji.  I sat down to talk and it took me about 5 minutes to realize Ted and Mili were parked right next door. 

It was a great reunion.  I hadn’t seen Mili in years, and of course Ted came to help me recover from the flood we had at home a month ago.  Morning Glory is sure looking spiffy.  She’s sporting a new hard top extension, new transom extensions, new removable front windows, a bow sprit and screacher.

We did Thunderball cave around noon, did our shopping at Staniel, Ted hauled off our trash, and I filled up with water and gas.  Ted found another Seawind 1000 on the other side of Staniel!  The boat name was De Javu III, he’s and his boat are from Australia.  We went on board to talk, he gave us a mental picture of where all he had been on his 2000 model SW 1000.  He continued to the north before dark, and the rest of the flotilla of 3 SW’s headed South about 5PM.

Our destination was Castle Beach just beyond Black Point.  Ted took the shallow route that is much shorter so he arrived first, but SYL and Jumanji had a sparring match sailing side by side intensely competing to be the first to arrive.  Mike trimmed sails while Laurie handled the helm.  At first Mike only beat me in high wind legs, but he’s learning my trim secrets.. lol.  We traded the lead several times sailing side by side literally 20 feet apart at times; it was intense but super fun.  It was much too intense for a long haul, but this trip took less than 2 hours so we had a blast.  I won’t tell you who won….. but it wasn’t me.  Man… “beat by a dame!!”

We settled our anchors in the softest sand in the Bahamas, played mexican train and enjoyed each other’s company on Morning Glory until “cruiser midnight” 9:00.

SYL !!  Rusty

Dinner on “Forever Young” last night was quite the event.  The food and company were equally excellent.  The first course was lightly seared mahi sushi, lightly crusted and served with soy sauce and fresh ginger.  The finish was a light citrus flavor combined with the olive oil the morsels were seared with.  Accompanying the sushi was a cheese plate, and a combination platter with smoked oyster – greek olives – water chestnuts – and assorted other bits of flavor.

The main course was baked Mahi Mahi served with several sides brought by the guests.  One outstanding side was a rice dish prepared with fresh ginger.  Dessert was pecan pie alamode or Apple crisp cake with ice cream.

The guests seemed to all be sail boat people and most owned catamarans.  One couple was on a Catana 57 cat named “Wasabi” they may not count as a just a catamaran couple because they also have a Oytser 56 back home.  An Oyster is a very high end monohull.  Two couples were on Voyage 440 cats travelling together since the south pacific, they are circumnavigators.  We talked about where they liked it the best.  Number one was Fiji, two was the Bahamas, and I didn’t recognize the name of the third place.  Jumanji and SYL made 5 cats in all.  Another couple was on a trawler and I think two couples were monohull sailors.

Lauire and Richard Young are excellent hosts.  Pirate Beach is a gathering place with a revolving door of friends, some know each other, most don’t.  Last night we met quite a few more “Pirates” from this particular time stamp.  Richard and Laurie are probably the most common residents.  Normally they sit on anchor just off Pirate Beach until they need more generator diesel (they carry 2,000 gallons).  Last night I heard the statement “Laurie is the mayor of Pirate Beach”  her petite little frame can often be seen reading in the shade, on Pirate Beach.

Well… if the front came through last night there wasn’t much of an “event” associated with it.  It’s remarkably the same as yesterday, with a little more breeze.  Hopefully we won’t see the big winds they forecast and can move about the Staniel area without impediment.

Mega Yacht City:  This anchorage has always seen its share of large boats but I think this year takes the cake.  I can see 10 from where I sit.  How do you classify “mega” when it comes to yacht size?  I guess I use the 100’ mark as my qualifier.  So does that make the 78’er we were on last night is only a yacht… not a mega yacht?  Surely I’ve learned by now…  everything is relative.

Lunch time and Jono is making his chili dogs, this time I have onions.. Lauire gave me two yellow onions the other day.  I just hadn’t thought to buy any when we were shopping.  We just got back from a dinghy tour of my secret sea glass beach, but our goal this year was ambergris.  Jono picked up a little glass and I did too, but mainly we picked up chunks of everything but ambergris.  We have pretty well figured out how to distinguish what a tar ball looks like, so we don’t pick up many of them anymore but it seems right to check every object that looks suspicious.

SYL!!

Mike is working on his inflatable kayak, it got hot and blew a seam the other day.  We will probably do thunderball tomorrow at low tide.  Mike told me that Ted and Mili on Morning Glory are only about 60 miles away. They are supposed to be at Shroud Cay waiting out the blow like we are here.  Teds goal is to make it down to Georgetown for Family Island Regatta (that’s about 10 days away) so we will probably head down with him and pick up whatever we missed on the way back North.  We skipped Bell Island and the undersea aquarium, that’s a must see attraction.  It will be better done when the water warms up a little.

Great day today, the Pirate Beach gang gathered at 4 with snacks at the beach.  We anchored SYL up on the beach and walked back to and from the boat at our leisure.  It was good to get together again after the great meal and conversation last night on Forever Young.  We had a hot game of bean bag toss and sat around talking about boating and places we had all been.  Jono and I made a new Sea Yawl Later sign to hang at Pirate Beach.

Tomorrow will be a snorkel day at thunderball cave.  That’s all we have planned so far. I expect Ted and Mili might come up and surprise us tomorrow on Morning Glory.

SYL

The sail today was 20 miles of fun, we had enough wind to sail nicely but almost no waves…. it was typical Exumas sailing with the added bonus of competing with another Seawind.  We traded information (and misinformation) regarding sail settings all day.  Part of the fun was the friendly taunting on the radio during the 20 mile match race.  It was great!

When we arrived I circled by pig beach, then parked in my favorite spot on Pirate Beach.  I’ll back off a little tonight and set the hook in deeper water.  Right now we can walk right off the boat and up to the beach.  I love to beach the boat and swim / walk around and under it.  The decision to sail to Big Major today was a good one.  There is plenty to do, and several places to go out to eat.  Staniel has fuel and water so we have all the services we need for the next few days.

Richard and Laurie on “Forever Young” went fishing today and came back with two nice Mahi, so they invited us and 14 more of their closest friends here in the anchorage to come eat dinner tonight at 6 on their 78 foot Hatteras yacht.  I begged a spot for Mike and Laurie, so we are set for the evening.

Jono took Angie and Gary to the store in Staniel today in our dinghy, it’s about a mile and ours is faster.  Jono brought home a backpack full of food, it was $60 bucks worth.  2 litre cokes were $5 so it didn’t take long to spend the three $20’s Jono took with him.

SYL, Rusty

We are listening to Chris Parker, winds look calm today and tomorrow, we will see a front with stronger winds Sunday and Monday.  I’m looking out of the front window, watching a purple sunrise over the trees of Shroud Cay while Jono is getting SYL ready to go for me to get underway.  He already has waypoints in the hand held GPS and his waterproof case loaded to move over to “Wings” for the 20 mile guest ride.

Noon ~ the 19 mile ride to Warderick was nice, we had to pinch a litte (sail almost directly into the wind) but we had a nice ride.  We didn’t have to use motors until we aimed up straight toward the anchorage.  Jono had a good time riding on Wings, he played the sails quite a bit and made some improvements.  He likes the boat, the sails are old and baggy but useable.  I think the old trimaran might be a descent option for him.  It’s more money than he can afford, but not a lot, he has some options to offer the owners if they decide to sell.

After paying our mooring fees Mike and Laurie hiked up to “boo boo hill”.  I enjoyed the view from the park office overlooking the anchorage until Jono finished his beach walk around the West side of Warderick Wells.  In the afternoon Jono and I went for a cooling swim.  Winds had almost died completely so we jumped in under the boat in the cool water for a couple hours.  We went over to Mike’s boat for a while, then Jono dropped me back off at SYL while he went and discussed our sail plan for tomorrow with Wings.

The two Seawinds plan on sailing to Big Major’s Spot tomorrow, about 20 miles South to explore a fresh place while we wait out the next winter pattern blow.  I expect we will pull out about 7AM and arrive  before noon.  Winds may be too light to sail but we don’t have to rush so it will be a nice peaceful jaunt to Staniel Cay / Thunderball Cave and Pig Beach.

It’s almost 9, Jono is still visitng greg and angie.  I turned on the big aft lights, ever since then we have had a large visitor swing by several times.  A 5’ shark has been checking us out, now that we are lighting up the white sand bottom he seems to be checking out the area.  Here in the park it’s common to have big water fish come in and hang around under the boats knowing they are safe inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park.

SYL… Rusty

Last night we went to sleep on an absolutely flat blanket of blue water.. barely a breeze.   The weather has been comfortable the whole trip so far, yesterday evening was the first time we seemed hot on the boat,.  Our day journey through the mangroves in the open boats provided a lot of sun, so with a light sunburn combined with the lack of wind our feeling of heat is understandable.   We slept fine though, in fact I had to close the hatch a bit this morning when we did get some air.  The forecast for the next couple days is calm so it’s great to be at Shroud right now.  The mangrove cuts allow for lots of kayak time.  This morning we just floated around near the boat in our dink and kayak, found a neat little beach next to some small islands where it seems the tropical birds are nesting so they played in pairs or three birds together just over head.  It was pretty magical.

11:30 – we had jerk pork for lunch.  High tide is at two o’clock so just after lunch is the perfect time to go in the northern mangrove cut to “Camp Driftwood” on the ocean side of the northern tip of the island.  The dinghy ride on the invisible water was awesome, from there we broke out onto the beach side where we found a high precipice lookout.  It gave us a view of uncountable colors of blue water, with the paradise birds circling at eye level and below.. small islands awash with snow white waves…. sailboats drifting south in the background over ink blue water…. Jono said it best when he told Laurie……  there are places that have nice water, places that have high overlooks, places that have wildlife and times when the weather is perfect… but that doesn’t happen often at the same time.  Today it did.

Tonight Laurie is making spaghetti; we are bringing baby carrots and corn to share on Jumanji.  It’s been a wonderfully scenic and peaceful day.  Mike made us a rum drink and Jono freaked out over having ice in our drinks.. so we fired up the ice maker on SYL, it just dumped the first load in the ice bucket.  Life is good.

Jono is very interested in the 36’ Intercontinental brand fiberglass trimaran named “Wings” setting next to us.  The couple will probably be selling it in a few months, they bought it to learn to sail a couple months ago but will probably be reverting to land travel again shortly….  It is above Jono’s price range… but you never know what will happen with a motivated seller.  I suspect Jono will be sailing to Warderick Wells with them on “Wings” tomorrow.  All three of us have reservations at the most beautiful anchorage in the Bahamas.   It’s a great opportunity for Jono to ride on the boat, and for them to have a crew that knows how to trim sails and make the boat work right.  Jonathon is much wiser than they are regarding all things sailboat…..  Imagine that!

7:30 – we just got back from Jumanji, they made a wonderful main course, we brought our Jono flavored up vegetables so we had a scrumptious meal together!  We toasted to a great day and enjoyed the sun as it sunk into the clear blue water for the evening.  Again tonight we probably have 5 knots of breeze… perfect Exumas weather.

SYL… Rusty

This morning SYL pulled out at 8AM for another massive ambergris hunt.  Jono is so pumped he can’t stand it. We thought we would run the eastern side of Highborne Cay today since the wind was down to look for ambergris.  Jumanji pulled out a bit later to find us a nice anchorage at Shroud Cay, we both achieved our objectives.  Jono took the dinghy ashore to hunt the beach while I trolled for Mahi offshore.  Jono did better than me, I caught one barracuda and jono found a small piece of ambergris so while it was not a huge day for discovery jono and I had fun doing man stuff while Mike and Laurie made a great sail on the baby blue water inside the islands to Shroud.

The Shroud Cay anchorage is awesome.. it truly lights up your eyes.  Acres and acres of sweet blue water, as we pulled in there were beautiful long tailed tropical birds circling overhead.  I understand they are only here for a few weeks this time of year.

About 3:30 the tide was right for a dinghy ride across the island through the mangroves so Jumanjji and SYL took their dinks in all the way to the offshore beach.  It was a great ride, lots of rays on the bottom and even a sea turtle hugging the bottom as we idled by.  The beach was in Laurie’s words “truly beautiful”.

So here we are… in the Exumas doing the “Exuma Thing”  sailing in nearly zero waves at good boat speed seeing amazing things along the way.  Jono and I talked to Greg (captain of a small trimaran) next to us.  He’s looking to upgrade to a larger boat so I invited him over. Jono is at his boat now checking it out……  Jono is so ready to own his own boat. He has learned so much, he pays perfect attention to everything we do here on SYL.  Often I don’t instruct him on what to do next, to see if he has it and he does…. He’s on top of his game.  He still makes small mistakes, but so do I… nobody’s perfect.

I’m running the generator, charging up all out computers and battery backups, as well as making fresh water with the water maker.  We should be fine on water until we fill up in Staniel, but it’s free so I thought I’d use the water maker while I’m charging.  We tested our water with Mikes meter and our water maker is putting out some super clean product.  It’s 6PM, the sun is getting lower, there is almost no wind.  Jono and I both took a dip in the water to cool our core.  It’s not hot but the cool clean salt water is a great start to our baths for the day.  We are fresh and clean.. we’ll sleep comfortable tonight.

Jono has been over at the trimaran “Wings” for a while now.  I wonder if he’s finding some interest over there.  The couple on board are from Austin, Jono is more than interested looking at different boat designs so he’s having a ball I’m sure.  I picked up the cabin a little in case they come look at SYL.  Two men on a boat may not earn the Good housekeeping seal of approval.  We told them if they want to see a clean boat go see Jumanji.

There are two major mangrove cuts across Shroud.  We did the North channel today.  Tomorrow I expect we will all explore the Southern mangrove channel.  It is reserved for non-powered transit only.  Today we crossed into the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  It begins at Wax Cay and ends at Bell Island.  The park is a natural preserve, no fishing or shelling, the rules are made to reduce the human footprint in every way.  It is the Bahamas effort to maintain the original ecosystem in at least a part of this beautiful land.  Scenery inside the park is thankfully not that different than the rest of the Exumas at this time.  There is more wildlife here, in the water and on land but the entire ecosystem is pretty well intact except for major hubs like Nassau.

Greg and Angie on “Wings” came over to look at SYL, we talked until after dark.  They are definitely vagabond travellers… life before boating (which they are new to) consisted of touring America in an RV.  They are probably in their upper 30’s.  The trimaran they are on is a late 1960’s fiberglass boat.  That means its solid fiberglass, no weight saving core like modern boats.  The first fiberglass boats had something to prove regarding reliability so they were made three times too strong.  The only negative to reliable and heavy is, that often makes it very slow.  They plan to move today, we will probably stay at Shroud again tonight.  They are travelling our same direction so I’m sure we will see them again.

SYL !!

Jonathon and I moved the boat to the South end of the pond this morning.  We didn’t crank up the motors, we just let the jib pull us off anchor and coasted up into the new location in silence.  Our goal was a change of scenery.. and we wanted to explore southern Normans Cay today by kayak and dinghy, the new anchorage would provide a better platform for the days activity.

Its 12:30 and we just got back from our off boat tour.  We ranged as far as 3 miles from the boat, paddled many shallows and mangrove marshes.  I took the dinghy and floated along while Jono ranged out with the Hobie.  We found perfect shelling beaches and some beautiful shallows between picturesque mini islands inside the protected waters of Normans.  The little half day trek was lots of fun and completely validated the effort required to bringing a kayak along with us.

We brought a kayak before but just didn’t use it much.  This pedal powered Hobie is much more fun and with Jono along I knew it would be put to good use.  Normans is a great place to hang out off the boat, I haven’t taken much time here in past transits, normally we just stop off in the south anchoarage on the way to somewhere else.  If you have to wait on weather I highly recommend spending a few days here, Normans provided us with plenty to look at and explore even with the wind blowing 20-25.

Jono and I are developing a really bad habit here on SYL.  I guess it comes with being in the Bahamas but man, it’s hard to break it.  Today was worse than normal so I thought I’d log it in.  The past few days our after lunch our evening naps are getting longer and longer!  Not a bad habit I guess, but it is habit forming!

Today was exceptionally nice, we both slept over two hours.  Resting comfortably during the day has become a regular thing lately….  We both get up early (6:30 to listen to weather) and sometimes stay up late… you know nearly 9 so we get pretty tired….  With all the kayaking and exploring, a guy can get pretty worn out… lol.

Jono may be thwarting my weight loss program just by being on board, he does 99% of the work so my exercise volume is not what it used to be on SYL.  Mike and Ted (the other seawind owners) have all these nice features they added to their boats but I have something they don’t have…. I have a voice activated winch handle.  I tell Jono to tighten the sail and he does it!!!  Pretty sweet huh?  I can’t wait to brag on it with the guys…

Today’s lunch was Jono’s special – chili dogs.  He does variations on condiments but his main ingredients stays true to form, if we can’t think of something else we want… it’s always a chili dogs as a default.

We went fishing in the dinghy at 5PM, nothing was biting.. so we decided to check out how big the waves are offshore.  Once we cleared the entrance we could see it was not too bad for our 10’ boat.  We drove the dinghy to a small rocky island a quarter mile out to see if we could land on it and search the seldom walked eastern shore.  I let Jono off and backed the dink away hoping he could make it to the big side on foot but there was just no way to cross the island to the offshore side..  It was still a worthy adventure, going out was into the wind, coming back was downwind, it was a comfort to know coming home would be easier than going out.  We both got very wet, I guess that happens when a 5’ wave breaks right when you go by it.  It was a good adventure but alas mate’ no pirate booty collected.  We seem to be unwittingly accomplishing quite a lot of off boat adventure during these “down days” at Normans.

Laurie on “Forever Young” told me about a shelling beach here at Normans, I marked it on my charts during our last trip.  We found that spot today on our morning adventure.  The scenery was better than the shell hunting but we did bring home some Bahamas booty.  The spot was gorgeous, Jono got a picture of our landing site.  Small rocky mini islands dotted the inner coast line like easter eggs laid on a baby blue blanket.

There are caves in the side of the cliffs here at Normans Pond, we are parked between two of them… nice to look when you wake up in the morning and… the craggy rock cliffs provide great wind protection.  Tides in the pond are about 3 feet, moving in and out of the pond requires close attention to tides due to the shallow and intricate passage to sea.  We have traversed it several times by dinghy now, so I don’t expect a problem exiting tomorrow.

Last night Jono and I went on top of the boat to stargaze.  Light pollution is very low in this part of the world so it’s a great venue to watch the night sky.  As expected it was grand… we saw orbiting satellites and shooting stars moving among the blanket of other worldly / apparently stationary stars.  This morning Jono showed me some of his pictures from the previous day’s beach landing.  Yesterday was indeed extraordinary and the night sky gave us a sweet dessert.

This morning’s breakfast was hot coffee, scrambled eggs and cheese on corn tortillas.  Jono cooks much better than I do.  I just grab some ham, or make up a single dish dinner.  While Jono doesn’t rival Linda’s cooking he sure does a better job than I do with the pots and pans!

This morning we are listening to music letting the wind blow.  It’s supposed to be strong for two days then slip back to normal on Tuesday.  Jono brush cleaned a conch shell to a high luster this morning.  Other than that there’s not much happening, our daily plans are pretty fluid.

10:45 we just got back from “walkabout” on the eastern shore of Norman’s pond.  After a short dinghy ride to the boat ramp and dock nearby we walked up the road then took a left and made our way to the ocean side beach.  Collecting rope scraps and shells we walked north for probably a mile where the beach played out at someone’s summer camp by the name of “Breezeway”.  From the beach the wooden respite appeared to be deserted, but after walking up to the house it was evident there had been people there not that long ago.  The architecture was beach rustic… not much fit and finish but some neat areas and a gorgeous view of the ocean.  The driveway was a combination of local stones and cement, quite an impressive undertaking.  It was lined with short walls on both sides and a capstone the entire driveway’s length.  Walking down the driveway we found where all the beach bounty was hiding!

Taking the road back to the dinghy we passed some homes under construction and adjacent properties that are built with current building materials, they seemed well maintained with fresh paint and clean windows.  We did see a Ford truck drive by from a distance and heard a 4 wheeler pass when we got back to SYL so people do live here.  We made a nice trip of it, and will likely repeat the process on the western shore this evening.  The expected blow is keeping us cool, but it did not bring much overcast so the day is very pleasant here inside “the pond”.

3PM – After an early lunch of frito pie, we circumnavigated the inside of “the pond”.  Our first quest was to find an ocean side beach to hunt beach booty, but that didn’t work out.  We walked quite a ways on the NE corner of Normans checking the coast but there were no accessible beaches.  Most of the NE shoreline is steep rock with a 60’ drop off.  Walking back to the dink inside the north pond shallows Jono found another fish net float so that saved the long walk from being a total bust.  From there we dinghied up to the inside beaches on the western side of the pond, not much to explore there…. The entrance on the south end held some interest but not much booty, our way back down the eastern shore was pretty with a couple very small sandy spots and some shallow caves, so the ride back was nice but again not remarkable.

We just took a nap after the nice walk and boat ride, I think we can say we “did” Norman’s Pond today.  Looking at the charts there seems to be some kayak options just south of the pond.  We may bring the Hobie revolution kayak down there tomorrow, we may even change anchorages to facilitate an easier launch for the small boats.  I understand Shroud Cay is the kayak / small boat paradise.  We will have to do that one with Mike and Laurie.

I talked to Mike on the phone earlier, we are talking about meeting back up Tuesday at Allens Cay.  We are both locked in to our anchorages due to high winds today and tomorrow.  Conditions are due to moderate for several days after the current winter like blow.

I love beach combing.. there are always plastic trash and flip flops of every description, but sometimes you get lucky and find something cool.  I love anything with beach “wear” on it.  A common piece of wood can be beautiful if it is mistreated long enough by the sun and waves.

I always heave an eye out for that washed up pirate treasure…. Gold doubloons glistening in the sand… I can dream can’t I?  The float ball Jono found today was from Spain.  Much of what washes up here in the Bahamas comes from Europe, but more often points South.  Part of the allure of beach combing to me is that much of the fodder has traveled long distances.. crossed oceans.  It may have been afloat for years before washing up at my well-tanned feet.  My arm hair is white again, the tops of my feet have a nice base coat to match the rest of my sun dried parts.  I am actually drinking more water this trip and using sun tan lotion.  In the past I have let myself become dehydrated, over-tanned and grumpy… I’m taking better care this trip.

I can tell you one thing.. two guys on a boat use a third the water and when Linda and I sail.  Jono and I often take salt water baths then a quick rinse in the shower.  I probably use 2 quarts of fresh water for the final rinse.  We haven’t put on water since Islamorada and we are still over half full.  I may start running the water maker when we travel to top back off, but more than likely I’ll stop for gas at Staniel Cay and refill our water tank there.

6PM  Jono whooped up a great dinner… he thawed out two servings of Linda’s chicken spaghetti and added a side of corn and carrots infused with wickle juice and topped it off with a line of club crackers.

It is without a doubt the best meal we have had.  The best thing about it is, we only used half the chicken spaghetti Linda made so we can do it again!  On top of that I invented a new drink today…

A fellow I met in Louisiana makes his own muskedine wine…. and I have some on the boat.  It packs a punch but I can’t drink much of it.  It’s very sweet (and I like sweet wine) so I discovered a way to make a collage of flavor using the sweet home made elixir… I invented a new mixed drink I named the “Bellybuster”   Like the actual dive (it’s namesake).. it’s quite impressive but you don’t want to do it a lot.  First think semi sour key lime taste… I rolled a key lime on the table under my palm to juice it up, cut a hole in the side and squeeze a little juice in my mouth.. not much.  I just coat my tongue with it and let it set a while.  Then I introduce the mix of the sweet home made southern wine and Ricardo white rum.  2/3 wine to 1/3 rum.  With that lime flavor tingling your tongue, take a small sip.. not even a sip just enough to coat your tongue of “Bellybuster”…. Wow.. the flavor is like liquid sushi.. it goes all over the place and hits you hard at the same time!  It’s great because you only need small amounts to make the flavor happen!  You laugh….. but I’m pretty proud of not only the complex taste, but for coming up with the perfect name!  Unfortunately it’s hard for the general public to recreate.  To make it you have to first… know my friend, then you need Bahamian white rum, and to top it all off you need small silver dollar sized key limes….  Sorry it’s probably an SLY exclusive.  RCS

What a great sail today.  In short we left Nassau (awesome in itself) and sailed a sweet downwind reach in less than 2’ers.. we outran a big catamaran (horizoned him) we got so far ahead we couldn’t even see him.  Current was with us all day.. and – we didn’t break anything!  We got to Norman’s Pond early so we needed to wait on the tide to rise to enter so we beached SYL in the Southern bay behind the “whales tail”.  We found sand dollars around the boat then got our magic erasers out and cleaned around the water line of the boat…  Finally.. we are doing the SYL thing wading around the boat in shallow sandy waters in the Exumas!!!  We trolled a lot but didn’t catch anything, that was the only missing link in the otherwise perfect day.

Mike and Laurie opted to keep Jumanji in Nassau for the blow.  I know we surprised them this morning when we decided to pull out.  We had discussed us going ahead earlier but our decision to actually leave happened about 7AM and we left at 7:30 so there wasn’t much time to talk about it with Mike.  We topped off with fuel and floated by Jumanji to let them know we were heading out.

It’s less than 50 miles from Nassau to the best hurricane hole in the Bahamas.. Norman’s Pond.  Our track took us direct to Highborn Cay where we passed through the Exuma chain from the West side to the deep ocean East side that allowed us access to Norman’s Pond entry.  Sea Yawl Later did a great job today, I can’t say enough about how much Jono and I enjoyed the sailing and soaking in the beautiful blue beach just outside the entrance to Norman’s Pond.

If you watched “spot” our tracker… today we did some weird things.  Most of the wobbling around was us fishing in and out of the deep water east of the Exuma chain at the prime fishing spots around 120 foot deep.  With winds out of the West I put Jono ashore to hunt the normally unreachable eastern shore of Long Cay.  Prevailing winds are from the SE so these outside beaches almost never see calm water…. but they are today!  He came back with some fine treasures while I worked back offshore and did some fishing.  Jono found a fishing float, some nice netting and line to add to the dinghy brow, a vase sponge and some cool shells. Unfortunately no Ambergris yet…

We worked our way into Norman’s pond just as the flood tide began, we knew it was rising fast so if we got stuck in the sand anywhere.. and we did.  It wouldn’t be hard to back away, so after two or three slow easy groundings we made it in!  Spot should show our new location, we found a great protected hole from the north and east… so we are golden for the next frontal passage.  There are some dinghy-able beaches inside Norman’s.  Even if we hole up here a couple days we have something to go explore.

The sun is low but still up, we are tucked in nicely after the best day of the argosy so far…. Easily our best day.  SYL.. Rusty

We departed just before 7AM from our picturesque anchorage to brave the wild ocean again (hopefully tamer this time) toward Nassau.  It was….. we left in 10 knots of wind on the beam then it went behind us and blew no more than 15 true, so we only saw 8 or 9 knots on the boat.  Wed did see some large ocean swells but they were long and easily traversed being on our stern.  The biggest swells were over 6 feet so waves were not insignificant but certainly mountable… and the best part is they were coming from behind us now.

The trip took just over 5 hours, most of it was sailing but we did have to drop one motor the last few miles.  Entering Nassau is always nerve wracking….. big boats fast boats, little boats all over the place.  Big boats the size of buildings that were tied to the docks seconds ago are now moving across your path blowing their horn to get you to move and there’s no place to go… it’s a zoo.  Jumanji took a slip at Nassau Yacht Haven and we anchored out across the harbor next to the multimillion dollar homes on the Paradise Island side.  Mike is more secure tied to a dock, but we don’t have to listen to sirens and boat traffic in and out all night, I have two anchors out so I feel fairly secure.  Tomorrow I might move out to Rose Island and wait out the weekend blow rather than stay here in the zoo.  North protection is good both places.. we will see.

I got a Bahamas phone today so I am back in touch with the world.  Jono and I walked across to the whole foods market and made off with some goodies during the walkabout.  Catching fish we realized we needed more cooking oil so we got that.  I also picked up some fresh fruit and drinks.  We still don’t have wifi so all my blogging is still just here on my laptop.

The sun is setting now, not much else to report.  We grabbed a plate lunch at the Fresh Market so we didn’t cook much today.  Nassau is getting amazingly quiet at the moment.. such a contrast from the dollar driven madness of the day, dolphin cruises.. booze and cruise… harbor sailboat tours… it’s really a crazy place, but if you’re a vacationer…. you can fly in on a big jet and live it up, they have it all here!

Sea Yawl Later  Rusty and Jono