A Spotted Ray is Spotted at Ten Bay, Cupid Cay at Governor’s Harbor

Winds calmed down today so we snorkeled around the Pineapple Cays and then at Ten Bay where we saw a huge spotted ray swim right alongside Juno. The spotted ray looks like a leopard with all its spots and it has a really long thin tail - much more interesting than most rays.

A beautiful Spotted Ray, though the picture does not do it justice

After lunch, we motored north to Governor’s Harbor, the capital of Eleuthera and walked around Cupid’s Cay before dinner where we saw many adorable chicks and many chickens and roosters roaming the streets.

Sarah Tastes a Radler and Both Enjoy Conch Pizza

It was pretty windy with winds 15-20 knots out of the east so we sailed north to the Pineapple Cays glad for some new scenery.  As it was a bit cloudy and as Sarah had read that the island’s best pizza could be found at Mate and Jenny’s pizza, we went out to see for ourselves. We were the only ones present, ordered a conch pizza and two beers.  Harry had a Kalik and Sarah discovered the mango infused low alcohol beer called the Radler (also by Kalik). The pizza was ok - neither of us thought it lived up to the hype - and when we got the bill, $42 for two beers and a 12 inch mediocre pizza, we had to explain that we only had $40.50. The cook/waitress let us off and we thanked her and were on our way. 

Hitchhiked a few miles to turtle pond only to find  the gate closed and locked - apparently access was by paid admission only and anyway we had no money so we hitchhiked back and walked to the beach at N. Palmetto.

Chilling on the ocean side of Eleuthera

Windy Rock Harbor Sound

The winds blew out of the NE18-22 knots on Thursday so we couldn’t really get the engine safely onto the dinghy and thus were stranded on the boat all day Thursday. However we re-anchored Juno to the eastern side of the harbor for greater protection from the wind and spent the day reading. The winds were a bit lighter on Friday so we managed to get ashore for some exercise, running to the school where we found about 60 elementary school kids from the nearby towns who’d gathered for two day island track meet.  We saw the girls 8 yrs old and under run in their socks (no shoes) around the track with sand dividing the running lanes on the barren field. We also saw the “ocean hole”, a 600 foot deep inland saltwater that is a couple of hundred feet across. Being that it was Friday, the town was having their weekly“Fish Fry” took the dinghy ashore and joined the other cruisers and a few locals for some DJ music, fried fish, and beers before turning in.  One couple - Emma and Dave on Five Flip Flops have been sailing for 17 years.

Squalls en Route to Rock Sound Harbor, Eleuthera

With strong NW winds forecast, we chose to move on to Rock Sound Harbor Eleurthera as it offers good protection in strong NW winds.  We raised the anchor about 6:45 am just before the sun rose at 7:00 am and motored past Little San Salvador, about 15 miles west of Cat Island where cruise ships stop for the day at their private island. We continued on, now sailing with a nice SW wind along “the bridge” - a shallow that connects Little San Salvador to Eleuthera and which is supposed to be a great fishing spot (no luck here) when we encountered a squall off Powell Point.  Thankfully we’d reduced sail as the winds picked up to about 20 knots and rain fell but 15 minutes later, it was all through and the sun was out again. 

We sailed into Rock Sound Harbor dropping anchor around 4:30 pm having sailed 59.97 miles.  The NW winds finally materialized once we were on anchor and another line of squalls came through around 5:30 pm.

Watching while on anchor, but similar to what we saw while sailing

Sarah produces another fantastic meal on Juno ...

... enjoyed with a beautiful sunset

Sunshine Returns for a Day at Bennett’s Harbor, Cat Island

Glad to see the sun again, we snorkeled some rocks near the shore just after breakfast and decided to walk to the eastern side of the island after lunch.  While it looked to be only about 1.5 miles, our walk took us down an unpaved road so it ended up taking about 60 minutes.  En route we came across an area where cars were left to rust and one fellow was underneath one looking for a spare part.

Used car parts, island style

We had the eastern beach all to ourselves but there was a good easterly breeze and waves were coming in behind the reef so we just relaxed for 45 minutes before heading back.

Walking across the island to ...

... another beautiful beach

A slight diversion on the return walk took us past piles of garbage and a boarded up recycling center with a huge pile of glass bottles. The solid waste management practices on these islands is terrible as we see litter and wastes everywhere spoiling the landscape.  Unfortunately, this is the economics of the situation.

All of the islands have dumps like this.  

An attempt from an earlier time to establish recycling

Exhausted from our long walk, we stayed at Bennett’s Harbor a second night making plans to depart Long Island for Eleuthera first thing in the morning as a strong NW wind is forecast for tomorrow and Cat Island doesn’t afford much protection from NW winds.

Juno Gets a Bath and We Explore The Bat Cave

Woke up to overcast skies so we decided to go for a run on shore.  However, the dinghy had about 3 inches of FRESH water in it from all the rain last night. Normally rain water in a dinghy this is a nuisance but as fresh water isn’t easy to obtain, we seized our first opportunity in 10 weeks of sailing to rinse the salt off the sides of the boat using the fresh water in the dinghy. Our run was uneventful - to a market and back about 2.5 miles total but the $1 avocados made it worthwhile.  We then sailed north 1.5 hours to Ben’s Bluff where just off the side of the Queen’s Highway - the major north south road - about 30 yards from the water’s edge on the side of a hill, we found the Bat Cave. We had to crouch to get into the cave but after about 15 feet, it opened up into a large chamber 60’ x 20’ x 15’ where true to it’s name, there were bats.  We had head lamps and a flashlight to help see as it was very dark and cool in the cave.  As winds were kicking up a swell, we then sailed north dropping anchor at Bennett’s Harbor for the night.

The Bat Cave. No Batman, Robin, or Alfred but a few bats.

Chilled at Fernandez Cay

As strong winds were forecast and overcast skies, we just hung out at Fernandez Cay where there is a small bay and resort.  In the morning, we explored the mangrove creek by dinghy then met one of the four other boaters in the harbor on the beach who offered to give Harry a few extra fishing lures.  Sarah cleaned and polished the starboard chrome and stainless steel after lunch, a labor intense process but Juno’s sparkling for the moment.  Harry made some fresh coconut milk which we later used for Pina Coladas and coconut rice. Yum.

One of about thee days cloudy days so far

Harry mastering fresh coconut milk. All fingers still present.

Climbed the Tallest Peak in the Bahamas and Found a Deal on Ice Cream

Moving at a slower pace, we spent the morning on the boat.  Sarah cleaned and polished dthe stainless steel on the portside of the boat showing signs of rust from all the salt while Harry caught up with life back home.  We then hiked up the tallest peak in the Bahamas  - all 206 feet to a little Hermitage where Father Jerome who built many churches in the Bahamas spent his final years. 

Ready to climb to The Hermitage

The Hermitage

We also stumbled upon a little fair taking place celebrating the 179th year of the Bahama National Defense Force that includes the police.  Families were hanging out, drinking beer, listening to a DJ while the kids got free ice cream and hotdogs and had a piñata. So we joined in, buying a beer from the sailing club which had on it’s wall, a picture of one of their founders -Godfrey Kelly - a Snipe sailor from Nassau we know. We then hit the ice cream hut and indulged in a cone that only set us back $1 a cone, making it perhaps the best bargain in all the Bahamas.

A local policeman running the pinata game

The line for $1 ice cream cones

Landed a Barracuda en Route to New Bight, Cat Island

Great northerly winds propelled us at about 6.5 knots away from the Exumas to New Bight at Cat Island, approximately 50 miles to the east. We left Lee Stocking Cay about 8:00 am and arrived at New Bight about 9 hours later.  When we were on the bank off Cat Island in about 25 feet of water, we caught a fish.  We then discovered we’d caught our first barracuda. Harry’s new, and prized lure, the cedar plug, was worth more than the fish to us (barracuda aren’t great to eat) so he didn’t want to simply cut the line.  The dilemma however became how to retrieve the lure from a 30 inch barracuda with sharp teeth. The hook was pretty far down his throat so Harry decided to douse the fish in gin to subdue him. The gin took effect and actually killed the fish, making him much less threatening and the cedar plug was retrieved and the fish thrown back from whence he came.  At New Bight, we dropped anchor in the presence of one other boat with a vast expanse of the horizon to the west with nothing making for a great sunset.

Arriving at the New Bight settlement on Cat Island

First Day of Spring, A Full Moon, Black Cay and a Ghost Town on Lee Stocking Island

We took advantage of the light air to sail up to Black Cay which hadn’t been possible when the winds were strong, dropping anchor about noon for a brief stop en route to Lee Stocking.  Black Cay was beautiful, with a nice sandy beach with coconut palms. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything but grass for snorkeling so we went to the beach and decided to snorkel the edge of the cay.  This turned out to be the best decision as we found some super coral heads in about 3 feet of water and pieces of a broken up boat including a propeller. At 2:00 pm, we left Black Cay under power for Lee Stocking Island and inched our way across some shallows as it was low tide, finding room to anchor right off an abandoned marine research center. We walked around the many buildings that included marine research labs that had been used by several US universities ten years prior.

The will was there but it is easier to find coconuts on the ground

Black Cay

Anchored off the deserted research center

Hung out in George Town

The front did come through but not until 6:00 am with some light showers. As George Town provides a place to refill our propane tanks (used for cooking) and as winds were to be light and variable, we moved Juno from Crab Cay about 1 mile to George Town (Kidd Cove).  Harry took both propane tanks ashore to be refilled while I stayed behind and washed laundry by hand. After lunch, we both went ashore, walking all the way around the little pond, stopping at the market and Top to Bottom for some fishing lures. Harry opted to pick up supplies to make his own lure given his recent history of loosing them to fish. Anchored tonight off Chat and Chill Beach.

Tropic of Cancer Beach, our First Real Grounding, and Heading North

We slept well as winds were light and on Tuesday morning we enjoyed doing yoga in the shade of the pine trees at the Tropic of Cancer Beach and a brief swim.  Then at dead low tide, we turned Juno north towards Moriah Cay sailing across the shallows and as luck would have it, we ran aground. The southerly wind pushed us further into the sandbar but after a brief hair raising minute or two of revving the engine hard in reverse, Juno was floating once again. In hindsight, our grounding may have been Juno’s subtle way of stating she didn’t want to head north. Swells rolling in from the east caused at the entrance to Moriah Cay caused us to skip Moriah Cay entirely and instead we anchored off Crab Cay off of Great Exuma in anticipation of a strong westerly wind at night.

Little Exuma: Pigeon and Pelican Cay Tropic of Cancer Beach

Two days with light winds out of the south provided us an opportunity to explore Little Exuma which doesn’t offer much anchorage protection from the prevailing easterlies. But with light winds out of the south forecast, we motored about 5 miles south to Pigeon Cay off Little Exuma and felt like we were in another world as we were the only boat to be seen. Anchoring off a beautiful sandy spit, we weren’t terribly successful snorkeling but found a small cay that we could swim under and through and another cay that had a cave that we entered from the water but could crawl out the back end onto a beach. Both cays were worth the morning stop then we motored through the shallows to Pelican Cay.  Pelican Cay is a very small cay just a few hundred yards from the gorgeous Tropic of Cancer beach - so called because it is located very close to the Tropic of Cancer (23° 26.23’North) on Little Exuma with yet another cave waiting for us to discover. As we so enjoyed our spot and as the forecast seemed conducive to a quiet night despite being quite exposed to the ocean, we decided to stay the night at Pelican.

Arriving at Tropic of Cancer Beach

Peaking out at Juno in the distance

A view from Tropic of Cancer Beach

Every night the sunsets are an event to admire

We Bid Adieu to Katie and James and Leave Juno’s Mark at Monument Beach

A brief rain shower marked Katie and James last morning in the Bahamas which soon cleared as we bid Katie and James adieu at the Exuma Market at 10:30 for their pre-arranged taxi to the airport.  It was wonderful having them aboard Juno from which we explored caves, snorkeled, and enjoyed their company and perspective on life. 

Saying good-bye to Katie and James

Their last view of the Bahamas for this trip

So after saying good-bye, we had lunch and, the two of us set off for Monument Beach to climb to the top of the hill marked with a 30 foot stone beacon that  gives the beach it’s name. Many of the keys have these stone markers from the 1600's to help sailors navigate the area.  But before we found the trail to the monument, we followed a dry river channel 50 yards to a large flat sandy area where numerous rocks had been laid in the sand spelling out about 40 different boat names. Finding a spot in the sand to add our own wasn’t easy, but we managed to squeeze “Juno” in. Once atop the hill, we looked down on the sea of boat names, many of which we’d met or had heard of on the morning cruisers’s net.

Getting ready to climb to the monument

It's small but Juno is in there

The Joys of Modern Plumbing and An “Un-Cracked” Lunch at Emerald Bay Resort en route to Stocking Island (George Town)

Cruising on Juno isn’t always glamorous - there aren’t any plush towels, brief fresh water body rinses  happen once or twice a week (showers only happen on land to save water), and going to the bathroom is a much more cerebral operation than on land as there is a choice of which toilet to use on Juno. We have two heads - one of which flushes directly overboard while the other head flushes into a holding tank to later be discharged when outside the harbor.  The flushing of the toilet itself is a manual operation taking a minute to accomplish as you must pump sea water through the system manually moving about 8 oz of water with each pump.

In contrast to that world, we stopped at Emerald Bay Marina that is adjacent to a “Sandals” resort to top off our gas and our fresh water tanks. While Sarah and Harry refueled and filled up our water tanks, Katie and James did some reconnaissance work in the marina reporting back that we could tie the boat up for a few hours for free while we ate a meal at a  restaurant in the development along with other pampered tourists.  The decision was an easy one to make as the prospect of enjoying a meal out that isn’t “cracked” (deep fried) is few and far between in the Bahamas.
We walked 1/4 mile from the marina to the gated resort that stood in stark contrast to the natural vegetation, passing a lush green golf course with coconut palms with beautiful flowering bouganvillias, past their spa to the outdoor restaurant located adjacent to a swimming pool where we enjoyed a delicious lunch - most of which wasn’t fried save for the french fries and fried plantains. Like the other pampered tourists, we enjoyed our lunch overlooking Emerald Bay as the breezes blew through and then afterwards, we all enjoyed the use of modern plumbing. It was our few hours of being pampered before we returned to Juno to continue our journey back to Stocking Island (George Town).

After lunch at Sandals

En route, Katie noticed many small fish disturbing the water’s surface so we headed for the spot and one minute later, there was a bite on the fishing line - but once again, the fish broke the line escaping with another prized lure. We closed the day with a little swim followed by beers and appetizers on “Flip Flop Beach” on Stocking Island as the sun set around 7 pm.

Flip-flop Beach

Friendly Iguana Feeding on Leaf Cay and Blow Holes and Rainbows on Boysie Cay

Glad that the winds finally subsided, we heading down to Leaf Cay for a day stop to do some snorkeling but sadly, we didn’t find it to be productive.  However, the iguanas on Leaf Cay were much more welcoming and calm than those on Bitter Guana Cay so we fed them vegetable scraps without being chased.

Iguanas on Leaf Cay

Moving back out onto the sound, we sailed down to Rat Cay Cut and stopped at Boysie Cay that had a most inviting sandbank and beach.  James, Katie and Sarah swam to the white sandy shore while Harry stayed behind on Juno.  On shore, we found a path that led to the eastern side of the Cay where the wind and waves combined with the high tide creating “blow holes” in the rocky shoreline that spewed a fine saltwater mist with each incoming wave and making a bellowing sound. The sunlight was such that many times, a rainbow could be observed in the blowhole mist. Boysie was a beautiful small cay but as it didn’t offer great protection from the incoming swells, we moved up to Children’s Bay Cay for a calmer night on anchor.

Boysie Cay resident curly tail lizard

Katie and James checking out a blow hole

Strong Winds Force us to Hangout at Rudder Cut Cay

We anticipated strong winds so we chose to ride out the blow under the protection of Rudder Cut Cay. Just as we dropped anchor on Wed .around 11:00 am, the winds picked up to 20 knots out of the east with gusts to 25-30 knots so we “chilled” Wednesday and much of Thursday while the blow continued.  We managed to swim to the cave, snorkel the mermaid and the piano statue, do yoga on the coconut palm beach, and catch up on our book reading. Unlike last time we were at Rudder Cut Cay when there were about 20 boats, this time we were one of about six boats in the anchorage, Coq en Pate being one of the others. We’d met Paul of “Coq en Pate” with his family on Long Island and Paul dinghied over as he wanted to pick our brains about what he might expect further north.  We were happy to oblige and to exchange conversation about L’Orient, France from where his catamaran was built and they started their journey.

Yes, James is underwater

A couple of mermaids

Shark Sightings, Juno’s Barracuda, and a Sandbar Sunset

Not one but two sharks were sighted today.  The first was about 4 feet long and was sighted as we were concluding a wonderful snorkel off Little Farmer’s Cay while we were still in the water.  James tried to steer him away to give Katie more time to exit the water and in doing so, sent the shark into deeper water where Sarah was still snorkeling.  Thankfully he wasn’t too interested in us.  The second shark however, was about a huge hammerhead, about 10 feet long, spotted by Sarah from the bow while Juno was plowing through calm clear waters on the bank. Soon after dropping anchor off Cave Cay, James noticed a 2.5 foot long barracuda hanging out under Juno.  We tried feeding the fish ham and nectarine bits but they weren’t appetizing enough for his liking.  No one wanted to swim off the boat with the barracuda hanging out so we dinghied over to a sandbar with a few beers and watched the sunset surrounded by water, just off Musha Cay (supposedly owned by David Copperfield).

Matthew invited us in to see his school at Farmers Cay.

A hundred fish around coral just off the beach

The barracuda that enjoyed hanging out under juno

Beautiful Queen Anglefish at a nearby reef

Beers at a sandbar

Snorkeling at the Grotto Staniel Cay, Head Woes, and Oven Rock Cave

Returning to the site of the grotto in James Bond’s “Thunderball” with Katie and James we experienced the thrill once again of swimming into a big enclosed room surrounded by rock on all sides with a ceiling 18 feet above with a small hole letting some sunlight through, filled with fish fish and … tourists.  Good news is that the tourists come, they look for 15 minutes, and then leave whereas we lingered, had the grotto all to ourselves and this time saw a lionfish while snaking our way through the rocks. 

Back on Juno, James who seized every opportunity to snorkel, opened our eyes to a huge starfish that was right under our boat and then a huge sting ray swimming by. Katie then noticed a smell emerging from our head, and as luck would have it, we discovered we had exceeded the limits of our holding tank. Never a good symptom to have but Harry got right to work and after a pump overboard the situation was mitigated with no lasting foul smelling effects. Thanks Harry. 

We then stopped about 5 miles south at “Oven Rock” on Great Guana Cay where a short 10 minute hike inland led us to a subterranean cave the size of a house filled with salt water at the bottom with small 3 inch pink shrimp. James and Harry each swam 15 feet or so into the deep waters while the less adventurous Katie and Sarah just waded a few feet in. Back at the ocean beach, we walked around a 20 foot the rock shaped like a beehive oven for which the Cay got it’s name.

Ray passing by Juno's keel

Cave near Oven Rock