We decided to finally leave Long Island and go to Black Point in the southern Exuma's. Rather than taking the traditional route up thru Georgetown and up the sound we opted to go west and north around the southern end or Great Exuma island. The distance was only 10 miles further but the entire trip would be on the Banks so there are not any island cuts or tide/current times to worry about. Also our friends Jerry and Barb on Kumbaya did the route the week before and reported back that depth was not problem.
We did the trip in two days. The first was from Thompson Bay to Rocky Point which was 63 miles and took just over nine hours. Rocky Point is just a small rock outcropping that we anchored on the west side of to have protection from the easterly winds. The second day we went 47 miles to Big Majors Spot which was six miles past Black Point. We opted to go there because a cold front was coming thru and would bring west winds. Big Majors Spot would give us much better protection. I would rather be in 35 knots of wind from the east than 10 knots of wind from the west when down here. There are not a lot of places to hide from westerly winds and seas.
After a couple of days at Big Majors Spot and a dinghy ride to Staniel Island we backtracked south to Black Point where we are now. Black Point has the best laundry facilities in the Exuma's and we really needed to do laundry. Clean sheets and clothing is such a luxury when you are out cruising.
We will stay at Black Point another night and then head north to several islands and stage for a crossing back to Florida. It looks like we may have a good weather window in about 10 days. We are going to travel in company with Kumbaya, Jerry and Barb at least back to Florida. They are from the same marina that we are going back to this summer in North Carolina.
Probably no internet connection until we get back to Florida so until then there will be no updates.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Long Island , Bahamas
We stayed at Thompson Bay, Long Island much longer this year than last. There was a magnet holding us there in the friendship and love we received from a couple we met who are from Ohio but are winter residents of Long Island.
John and Penny who have the beautiful home, Fairhaven, overlooking Thompson Bay were introduced to us thru our friends Bill and Margaret on the sailboat Margarita. What a great time we had at long Island. It was a much different experience this year compared to last year.
We also met Penny's sister Cathie and her husband Gary who live in Missouri and were visiting for two months. We all had a great time getting together and going to several different beaches, the Long Island museum, out dining and dancing at the Beach Bungalow Bar in Deals and the Stella Marris resort at Stella Marris. John was great at carting our butts all over the island in there van. I just cannot say enough about how good they were to us and we will miss them but will surely meet up again either back on Long Island or somewhere down the road.
Photos taken at Forests restaurant - Greatest burgers in the Bahamas.
Top: Margaret, Penny
Bottom: Cathie, Sandy
Left-Right: John, Gary
Taken at the Long Island Museum - us with the museum Curator.
On the way over to the Bahamas our autopilot was having problems. At Long Island I met Mark from "Wind in the Morning" who was a radar technician in the navy and had worked on electronics. He is known as Mr. Fixit. He was nice enough to come out to our boat and check out the autopilot and discovered a connector that he didn't think was connecting properly. He couldn't find that type of connector to replace it on the island so I took small strips of copper foil from my SSB ground and slid them into the female end of the connector and that made the connection tight. The autopilot has worked since then so many thanks to Mark.
We rented a car for a day and went to Stella Marris to recheck in to the Bahamas since our 90 days was up on our cruising permit. We also went south to Dean's Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world where free divers train and compete. A young lady was on the island to train and was going for the woman's world record dive of 200 feet. We thought she would be at the Hole that day but we missed seeing her train. We did get a chance to meet and talk to her at one of the beach parties however.
So much for Long Island, back to the Exuma's soon.
John and Penny who have the beautiful home, Fairhaven, overlooking Thompson Bay were introduced to us thru our friends Bill and Margaret on the sailboat Margarita. What a great time we had at long Island. It was a much different experience this year compared to last year.
We also met Penny's sister Cathie and her husband Gary who live in Missouri and were visiting for two months. We all had a great time getting together and going to several different beaches, the Long Island museum, out dining and dancing at the Beach Bungalow Bar in Deals and the Stella Marris resort at Stella Marris. John was great at carting our butts all over the island in there van. I just cannot say enough about how good they were to us and we will miss them but will surely meet up again either back on Long Island or somewhere down the road.
Photos taken at Forests restaurant - Greatest burgers in the Bahamas.
Bottom: Cathie, Sandy
Taken at the Long Island Museum - us with the museum Curator.
On the way over to the Bahamas our autopilot was having problems. At Long Island I met Mark from "Wind in the Morning" who was a radar technician in the navy and had worked on electronics. He is known as Mr. Fixit. He was nice enough to come out to our boat and check out the autopilot and discovered a connector that he didn't think was connecting properly. He couldn't find that type of connector to replace it on the island so I took small strips of copper foil from my SSB ground and slid them into the female end of the connector and that made the connection tight. The autopilot has worked since then so many thanks to Mark.
We rented a car for a day and went to Stella Marris to recheck in to the Bahamas since our 90 days was up on our cruising permit. We also went south to Dean's Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world where free divers train and compete. A young lady was on the island to train and was going for the woman's world record dive of 200 feet. We thought she would be at the Hole that day but we missed seeing her train. We did get a chance to meet and talk to her at one of the beach parties however.
So much for Long Island, back to the Exuma's soon.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
At Long Island, Bahamas
We left Warderick Wells after staying there one night. We went south to Cambridge Cay. We sat out a cold front there with winds in the 20-30 knot range. Once that past we explored some of the islands in the area and walked the beaches.
After six says at Cambridge we departed and headed down to Blackpoint to do laundry. Blackpoint has the best laundry facilities in the Exumas. On the way we made a quick pit stop at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to fill our diesel tank. Filling with diesel took us about 30 minutes to get in, fill and get out. It took us another couple hours to then get down to Blackpoint where we anchored off the government dock. We loaded up the dinghy and headed over to the dinghy dock at the laundry. Sandy got that started and I headed over to Lorraine's cafe to check email. When I walked into Lorraine's it was like old home week. I knew about six couples that were there and had arrived at Blackpoint the day before. Once the emails were checked and the laundry was done we went over to happy hour at Scorpio's bar with Jerry and Barb from Kumbaya and had drinks and snacks.
We stayed a few more days at Blackpoint and went beach combing to find sea glass. Sea glass is broken glass that is washed and smoothed in the surf. When it looks frosty and is smooth it is ready to collect.
The next day we met with Jim and Bess on Destiny. They had been delayed coming across to the Bahamas from Florida do to engine problems but finally caught up to us. We left and had a great sail down to Rudder Cut Cay for an overnight anchorage before heading down to Georgetown.
The next morning we went out Rudder Cut Cay inlet at high tide for the 35 mile sail down to Georgetown. We pulled into Elizabeth Harbor and set anchor off Monument Beach on Stocking Island which is across the harbor from Georgetown.
I was hoping to find some facilities to get hydraulic parts for my auto pilot. No such luck on that one. While working on the auto pilot I discovered that the hydraulic ram arm is sucking in air so it needs to be rebuilt and have new seals put in. That won't happen until we get back to Florida.
We stayed at Georgetown for a week and then sailed the 38 miles down to Thompson Bay, Long Island. We are anchored out in the bay which has good wind protection from all but the southwest. We pln to stay here a while and if the weather is right go out to Conception Island for a few days and then return here.
After six says at Cambridge we departed and headed down to Blackpoint to do laundry. Blackpoint has the best laundry facilities in the Exumas. On the way we made a quick pit stop at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to fill our diesel tank. Filling with diesel took us about 30 minutes to get in, fill and get out. It took us another couple hours to then get down to Blackpoint where we anchored off the government dock. We loaded up the dinghy and headed over to the dinghy dock at the laundry. Sandy got that started and I headed over to Lorraine's cafe to check email. When I walked into Lorraine's it was like old home week. I knew about six couples that were there and had arrived at Blackpoint the day before. Once the emails were checked and the laundry was done we went over to happy hour at Scorpio's bar with Jerry and Barb from Kumbaya and had drinks and snacks.
We stayed a few more days at Blackpoint and went beach combing to find sea glass. Sea glass is broken glass that is washed and smoothed in the surf. When it looks frosty and is smooth it is ready to collect.
The next day we met with Jim and Bess on Destiny. They had been delayed coming across to the Bahamas from Florida do to engine problems but finally caught up to us. We left and had a great sail down to Rudder Cut Cay for an overnight anchorage before heading down to Georgetown.
The next morning we went out Rudder Cut Cay inlet at high tide for the 35 mile sail down to Georgetown. We pulled into Elizabeth Harbor and set anchor off Monument Beach on Stocking Island which is across the harbor from Georgetown.
I was hoping to find some facilities to get hydraulic parts for my auto pilot. No such luck on that one. While working on the auto pilot I discovered that the hydraulic ram arm is sucking in air so it needs to be rebuilt and have new seals put in. That won't happen until we get back to Florida.
We stayed at Georgetown for a week and then sailed the 38 miles down to Thompson Bay, Long Island. We are anchored out in the bay which has good wind protection from all but the southwest. We pln to stay here a while and if the weather is right go out to Conception Island for a few days and then return here.
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