A Sailors Return

Some motor sailing took place between Great Sale and the edge of the banks, but for the rest of the journey, we were blessed with SW winds from 15-20 knots, allowing us to complete the journey from the Bahamas to Dataw, SC, on a broad reach in 50 hours, arriving just after sunrise to enter the St. Helena Sound. No alarming adventures, no mishaps, no coastal thunderstorms, just a fast sail, with perfect winds and minimal waves, sunlit days and moonlit nights. It's good to be in our new home in South Carolina where we can walk 5 minutes between the marina and our home. Every trip to the Bahamas brought unique experiences. This one brought the best sailing, and after all, that's why we bought a sailboat.

Manjack Cay

Our last Bhamian adventure was at a beautiful anchorage at Manjack Cay. Ashore we met caretakers of a lovely home and beach. They welcome all sailors and joined us in a potluck cookout on the beach, where we built a bonfire and toured the property. Nice people in the Bahamas.

 

 

 

 

Weather predictions convinced us to remove to Great Sale for a short window of sailing opportunity home to South Carolina. At Great Sale, we said our goodbyes to Atlantica and Black Pearl. After a drizzly, gloomy day of weather, we set sail for home.

 

Nippers On Great Iguana

Nippers has long since been a famous destination for Bhamas cruisers. So we selected a mooring ball, which is owned by a nearby surfing shop. They come by early in the morning, by boat, to collect.

We dinghied ashore and walked to Nippers. What a beautiful spot.due to medical and dental issues, we chose to backtrack to Marsh Harbor the next day. This was not in the plan, but we have to report that the doctors and dentist recommended by the marina were fantastic. We were able to make appointments for the next morning, replenish groceries at a terrifc supermarket, by noon and leave for our next rendezvous at Manjack Cay

Hopetown 2

 

 

 

Hopetown is always a treat. We spent a couple of days there and had a very unique experience. While investigating the lighthouse at sunset, we met the lighthouse keeper, the  man in charge of fueling and polishing, priming and lighting the ancient kerosene run light from the 19th century. This excellent proponent of the Bahamian tourist industry gave us the history of the place, allowed us to wind the ancient lamp and even to climb up into the light itself. What a fabulous end to our Hopetown stop.

 

Heading to the Abacos

Wonderful Wonderful! We have winds to push us back through Eleuthera toward the Abacos. Lightly reefed we cross to Cape Eleuthera and back to Governors Harbor, where all four boats grab a mooring ball.  We have good times at the pool, the restaurant at French Leave Marina, and biking to the beach.

This trip, we decided to go through the notorious Current Cut to stop at Royal Island on our way to an overnight stop at Royal Island. We thought we had figured out the tides, turns out we were wrong. Current Cut has its own tide, which is connected to nothing else. Instead of motoring through at slack tide, we shot through the cut at 11.5 knots. The outpouring current lifted us and spit us out on the other side. Going north from from the Eleuthera Banks toward Royal Island, this worked quite well. Don't ever try the reverse. If you are entering the Eleuthera Banks from north to south, on a flood tide, your speed will shoot the sailboat along at a velocity which make the hard right turn at the end of the passage impossible to negotiate. Boats would be most likely to slide sideways into the reef while trying to turn.

At Royal Island, we ran into a friend from Dataw, who has taken some time off from working on boats at our marina to cruise with his family. We left early the next morning, Beautiful winds pushed us on a beam reach all the way to Little Harbor in the Abacos. Five boats made the run that day, a beautiful sight on the water.

We spent a night at a rocky anchorage , just outside Little Harbor and visited Pete"s Pub by dinghy, where we ate at the bar and visited the wonderful museum and gift shop which sells beautiful metal artwork.

The neext day, we moved on to Tilloo Cay, a nice sheltered spot,  with 8 feet of water, between Tilloo Cay and Lubbers Quarters, sampling lucheon high on the deck at Cracker P's on Lubbers Quarter. From there you can see the beautiful Tahiti Beach and gorgeous homes on the islands below.

Cambridge Cay Last Stop in the Exumas



At Cambridge Cay, we had a glorious hike to Bell Rock and the view of the anchorage from the hills above it.



 Morning brought the best day of snorkeling, first to the Sea Aquarium, where bringing frozen peas to feed the fish meant attracting dozens of striped sargeant major fish to flutter around, peering into your goggles, inches away. The sea aquarium is full of pretty purple coral. with delicate, lacy fronds;large brain coral, thickly crennulated; shimmering, pale aqua coral too. Every beautiful fish livfes there, greens and blues and neons and rainbows.Afterwards, a quick dive at the site of an airplane crash. The plane had deteriorated since we last visited, less ghostly now. Coral and sea life have grown on the wings and tail, giving a more benign look.

 

The end of the visit to Cambridge Cay hinted of disaster. our engine refused to start. Atlantica waited with us while Sand Castle and Black Pearl went on to the next anchorage. Lots of radio advice, but until a dinghy suddenly appeared, bearing our sailor friend from the fish fry night at Governors Harbor, we made no progress. The solution was simple enough. Our battery connection had corroded, not on the top, where we were measuring, but on the sides of the post. New information for us, always measure voltage on the sides of the post.