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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
