3/26/2011 - Black Point to Big Majors Spot (Staniel Area) - 9.3 Miles
We ended our last posting with the promise of a lobster dinner in Black Point. We keep our promises. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Deshamon's restaurant Friday night - huge tails fresh caught by restaurant owner Simon earlier that day.
Saturday brought a very light-wind motor-sail back to Big Majors for Cynthia's flight home Sunday morning. Just before leaving Black Point we were able to connect with our friends Alfredo and Nicoletta on JanCris. Those who've been reading our blog for a while might remember that in 2008 we buddy boated with Alfredo and Nicoletta from Rimouski, Quebec, around the Gaspe', down to New Brunswick, PEI, and around Nova Scotia to Shelbourne. Alfredo and Nicoletta had left JanCris in the Chesapeake while returning home to Italy for two years, and have again resumed winter cruising out this way. Anchored near JanCris in Big Majors was Mei Wente, British friends of Alfredo and Nicoletta who we had also met in Shelbourne. It was good to see our Down East Circle friends again.
During the day Saturday we took the dingy in to Staniel for lunch at the Yacht Club and a few groceries at Isles General, returning to the boat for a swim, followed by one last Bahamian sunset for Cynthia.
Sunday morning Wayne transported Cynthia to Staniel Cay International Departure Concourse (a.k.a. the Yacht Club bar) for her trip home. It had been about as good a weather window for her visit to the Bahamas as one could expect. We'll miss her (and her expertise in mixing Goombay Smashes).
3/27/2011 - Big Majors Spot to Sampson Cay Marina - 5.4 Miles
Sunday morning after breakfast we stayed aboard organizing and cleaning while Wayne saw Cynthia off. On his way back he stopped at Thunderball Grotto for a short snorkel, reporting a little current but not too much to easily get in and out ... plus, of course, gazillions of fish.
Shortly after Wayne's return, Alfredo and Nicoletta from JanCris stopped by to chat on their way to the beach. Later that day we would be meeting at Sampson Cay Marina, where we hoped to fill fuel and water.
Unfortunately we learned later that day that the Sampson fuel dock and office close Sunday afternoons, so we decided to chill out there, anchor west of the Cay, come in for a late lunch, take a hike up and down the island (Wayne), and kibitz with Alfredo, Nicoletta, and the Wei Wente crew on one of Sampson's Patios.
3/28/2011 - Sampson Cay to Galliot Cut - 25.7 Miles
Monday morning we brought Jubilee to the fuel dock for water and diesel, plus a few fresh provisions from the Marina store. We had hoped for a favorable tack for our trip to Galliot, but that wasn't in the cards. Instead we motored directly up-wind in a 3' chop for virtually every inch of our 25 miles to Galliot. Perhaps as payment for our upwind persistence, the winds laid down shortly after we anchored off Big Galliot and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset with another Tayana '42, Passages, composing a great sunset picture for us as they lay at anchor just off Little Galliot Cay to our west. Positioned for a good night on the hook, we were now ready to head out the cut first thing Tuesday morning for our run down to Georgetown.
3/29/2011 – Galliot Cut to Georgetown – 40.9 Miles
Monday's winds had ease significantly overnight, making for an easy and uneventful motorsail in light (~7-knot) SE to ESE conditions for our run down to Georgetown. The reported 400 boats in Georgetown for the Cruiser's Regatta a couple of weeks prior had thinned out to only about 200 boats spread across Elizabeth Harbor's several good anchoring spots. For this visit we dropped the hook off Volleyball Beach and the Chat 'n Chill – the spot with most of the action on Stocking Island, the long, narrow, barrier island that protects Georgetown's Elizabeth Harbor from conditions on southern Exuma Sound. We were set for the next several days.
3/30/2011-3/6/2011 – Lay Days in Georgetown
With Judy's flight to Mpls set for about a week from our arrival we considered moving her flight up, however the weather outlook was calling for a front and higher southeasterly winds Sunday night through Tuesday of the following week. That plus the things Judy needed to wrap up before leaving effectively negated any value of an early departure. We stayed with our original schedule.
Non-cruiser's often ask just what in the world we do all day, day after day. Cruising songstress Eileen Quinn even has a song about that question, with a chorus that goes “What do you do you do you do you do you do? What do you do all day?”.
Some days are pure pleasure, as on Sunday when we took the dingy to Stocking Island, hiked across to the Exuma Sound side, and then walked part of the miles-long beach until we reached Monument hill. At monument we scaled the hill to enjoy a near-perfect view of the harbors and Georgetown at our feet below.
While at the top Wayne also tried straightening the leaning monument, but to little avail. After our hike we stopped at the St. Francis, a small resort and restaurant on the island near Volleyball beach, for late afternoon appetizers before returning to the boat for dinner that evening.
Other days are work days. Shortly after breakfast on Saturday we loaded up the dingy with two large laundry bags plus water bottles for a trip to town. Judy and Wayne went to the laundromat to start laundry while Bill filled two 5 gallon water jugs from the free R.O. water spigot at Exuma Market, plus two 5-gallon jerry cans of diesel (which had just been emptied into our tanks that morning), and then dingied them back out to the boat. At the boat the water went into the tanks, the diesel jugs were lashed to the starboard stanchions for later use, and Bill returned to the Exuma Market dingy dock just in time for the laundry team to be bringing the clean clothes back. After that we had a light lunch in town and then visited the town's pet store to purchase a card for a week's worth of internet access (internet store/pet store/carwash - all somewhat questionable, before hitting the Top II Bottom store (the most fantastically packed small hardware store you could imagine), and then did grocery shopping for Wayne and Bill's upcoming run to Puerto Rico. The dingy was literally packed to capacity with groceries, laundry and people for our lumpy ride back across two miles of harbor to Jubilee. With that the day was about done.
Whether a work day or play day, most boaters mark the sunset by blowing their conch horns – a fitting way to end the day.
Along with most of the other cruisers in Georgetown, we were pretty much confined to our boats on Monday and Tuesday. Stiff SE winds had whipped up a nasty chop in the harbor that would have made for a very wet dingy ride had we gone to town. Judy and Bill arranged a room at the Peace and Plenty hotel in Georgetown to avoid a possible nasty wet dingy ride to town before sun-up Wednesday morning to catch a cab to the Airport for her plane, and Tuesday afternoon we called the water taxi to pick up Judy and her luggage, along with Bill at our boat for a dry ride across the bay. Once there, Bill pre-cleared Jubilee and crew out of the Bahamas at customs and Bill and Judy checked in for dinner and the night at the Peace and Plenty, while Wayne stayed aboard Jubilee. After a 5:00am wake up Wednesday morning, Bill & Judy caught a cab to the airport and then Bill returned to town to meet Wayne with the dingy. After taking another 20 gallons of water in our jugs, plus another 10 of diesel, we were off across the bay in the now almost calm conditions to prepare to head toward the Turks an Caicos. But more on that in our next posting. Hopefully we'll get that next posting out in a more timely manner than this one, but so it goes with cruising and access to internet and phone service.
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