A Special Delivery Arrives on Schedule in Man-o-War Cay; Guana Cay

Thank goodness Harry is a resourceful individual. When he discovered the problem with the alternator April 24th, he got in touch with the manufacturer who could ship a new replacement alternator to the states, but shipping it to the Bahamas wasn’t in the cards.  So Harry contacted the sailing charter company we had used in Abaco four years prior who suggested he get in touch with a private pilot out of Man-o-War Cay who runs an air freight business on the side.  So this is exactly what Harry did, and for once, things in the Bahamas ran on schedule as after 2 pm today, as planned, the new alternator from the states was waiting for Harry to pick it up on Man-o-War Cay.

While Harry retrieved the part, Sarah looked at some local shops and continued her search for an open post office only to once again be thwarted by not being on the island on the right day.  Afterwards, we sailed Juno on to Guana Cay for the night.

Brownies a la mode; Getting a Lift from Hope Town to White Sound

After a morning on the boat, we packed a small picnic lunch to take with us to Hope Town but as we were getting ready to leave Juno, storm clouds approached and rain came pouring down so we ate our picnic lunch aboard Juno. We then left the dinghy at the town dock in White Sound and set off on foot north to Hope Town, about two miles to the north.  We hadn’t gone about 200 yards when we  encountered the ice cream shop.  Since we had a brownie leftover from our picnic in our back pack, we bought a scoop of coconut ice cream and enjoyed a brownie a la mode en route to Hope Town.

A little sustenance to get us to Hope Town

Plenty of help to know how to get home

You know you are in Hope Town when you see this lighthouse

We checked out the Canvas Shop where Sarah hoped to find some gifts but left empty handed, we tried to mail a letter but the post office was closed, and so we walked the quaint town of narrow streets and cozy cottages. Hope Town is a bit like a scaled down version of Provincetown, MA in appearance.

We saw the cholera cemetery, walked the eastern beach, swam and then feeling a little tired for the walk back, we put out our thumb and got picked up by Steve in his golf cart. We were a bit surprised that he stopped as the cart only seats four and he had three kids with him. Thankfully the kids weren’t very big so we squeezed in and enjoyed the ride all the way back to White Sound while talking with Steve and his kids. We’ve learned that hitch-hiking is the best way to get around many of these islands and it never takes more than three minutes before someone will stop. Once back on Juno, we enjoyed an hour sail to Man-o-War Cay, crossing the shallow bank at high tide.

It is easy getting around on the islands

Tahiti Beach Falls Short of Expectations; Juno’s Got an Aquatic Friend

We remember visiting Tahiti beach with fond memories as we’d visited it about three years ago on a  past charter we did with friends.  It was a gorgeous sand spit back then with shelling and snorkeling in the shallow waters.  This time however, we found the sand spit had eroded, sea weed fouled much of the beach, the snorkeling was non-existent (Sarah thinks this was due to new waterfront development nearby that silted up the shallows), and capitalism has since moved in with the ‘Thirsty ‘Cuda’ - a floating bar and concession barge that seems to now be a staple item here.  Anyway, we made the most of the morning, had lunch aboard then headed over to eastern shore of Elbow Cay for some beach time.

Tahiti beach wasn't as nice as we remembered it, but still beautiful

The Thirsty Cuda at Tahiti Beach

Upon returning to Juno, Sarah decided to swim the anchor to make sure it was set and noticed a three foot long remora that was pretty comfortable underneath Juno. As remoras usually hang out with sharks or rays, Sarah made a point to make the anchor check as quick as possible.  Dinner was tilapia fish tacos and gazpacho.

A remora perhaps thinking Juno was a large fish

A HUGE grouper close to 30 inches

Tons of these - possibly yellow tailed grunts 

Front Arrives; Upwind Sail to Tahiti Beach, Elbow Cay

As predicted, the front came through and winds shifted to the west blowing about 35 knots with a heavy downpour around 5:00 AM. As there was a lot of lightening, we place all portable electronics  (laptop, I-pad, cell phones, satellite phone) in our microwave marking the only time that we ever seem to use the microwave on our boat (it otherwise serves as a storage cabinet for our salad spinner and a mixing bowl). We managed to get a few more hours of sleep and awoke to a beautiful sunny morning with winds out of the northeast. We went ashore seeking out the Government Office only to find out that it is closed on Saturday so we settled for a cinnamon roll from the local bakery and a quick stop at Maxwells to pick up a few groceries, then to the liquor store for grapefruit beer and rum, and finally the gas dock for five gallons of diesel. Afterwards, we retraced our sail northeast (upwind) crossing over shallows marked 5 feet deep on the charts (Juno draws 5.5 feet) with no troubles as it was high tide, until we dropped anchor just north of Tahiti Beach.

Upcoming Weather Modifies Plans; Gazpacho Abounds

With a front approaching and winds forecast to come out of the west, we decided to seek shelter in Marsh Harbor as the anchorages on the eastern side of the sea of Abaco are exposed to the west. But first Sarah explored Tilloo’s sandy bank, covered by only 3 feet of water at low tide in search of sand dollars, while Harry manned the dinghy. Skies were partly cloudy and winds were SW at 10-15 knots making for a nice sail to Marsh Harbour where we encountered about 50 other boats on anchor upon our arrival.  We managed to find room to drop the anchor close to the harbor entrance and enjoyed a stir fry dinner.  Afterwards, Sarah made gazpacho soup for about 12 people as the vegetables were starting to go bad.

Sarah at Tillloo Bank as a rain shower passes nearby

Gazpacho for 12, plus brownies, plus homemade yogurt

Troubleshooting Our Alternator ; A Nurse Shark at Sandy Cay Reef

This morning Harry messed about with the alternator that is heating up and discovered that our  model likely missed the factory QA/QC. After sometime on the phone with the manufacturer Balmar, Harry has a replacement being flown in to Man-o-War Cay that should arrive on Tuesday.  Sarah cleaned the heads and did laundry, then we moved Juno to Sandy Cay to do some snorkeling.

Large surf was blowing in from the east through the Tilloo Cut but that didn’t stop us from snorkeling The reef was large and extensive, initially rather deep at about 20 feet but it shallowed to within two feet from the surface.  Upon entering the water, I spotted a five foot nurse shark almost underneath me. The reef fish were ones we’ve seen and visibility was a little cloudy - perhaps on account of the waves crashing on the reef through Tilloo Cut.  Afterwards, we snaked Juno through the shallow bank and anchored just north of Tilloo bank where the water shoals to about 2-3 feet in depth.  We enjoyed the quiet and barbecue chicken breasts on the grill for dinner.

One local attempt to address a serious problem

Onward to Abaco; Another Mahi Missed; Alternator Woes

Taking advantage of the winds moving more northeasterly, we hauled anchor soon after 7 am, passing through Little Egg Cut and northwards.  It was a gorgeous day and Juno sailed close hauled between 5-7 knots in NNE winds of 10-15 knots all the way north to Little Harbor Cut in Abaco - a total of 55 miles for the day. Two boats ‘Colonel’s Lady’ and ‘Pelican Express’ made the passage with us, overtaking us just before Little Harbor Cut Abaco. We noted much sargasso weed floating and it kept Harry busy during our passage as the weeds kept fouling his fishing lure.  Books were read, lunch was made and just before entering the Little Harbor Cut around 5:00 pm, we both saw a Mahi on the surface of the ocean, chase after the fishing lure.  We both got really excited and were counting our chickens before they were hatched as sadly for us, the Mahi grabbed the lure, but released it before getting hooked.  Upon our entrance to Little Harbor Cut we had some swells opposing the tide which made it quite rolly for a short while entering onto the bank, but once inside the cut, all was calm in the shallow waters of the Sea of Abaco.  In the process of running the engine to anchor off Lynyard Cay, Harry noticed a problem with our alternator. More on that tomorrow.

Eight hours or weed watch

It is hard to miss weed patches like this one.
Though they are supposed to be good places for fishing.

Bridge Jumping and Exploring Spanish Wells

With winds out of the north, the anchorage for Spanish Wells is south of Russell Island and is nicely protected.  We decided to dinghy about a mile from the anchorage to the narrow harbor of Spanish Wells which is an island to the north of Russell Island. The two are separated by a narrow canal of water. As we rounded the entrance to Spanish Wells, we came across the fishing fleet of the Bahamas. There were about 20 commercial vessels in port. The area is known for lobster but the lobster season closed on April 1, which explains why so many were in port.

A fishing boat with its fleet of runabouts that gather lobster or conch

We walked from 1st street at the eastern end of the island to about 13th street, admiring the colorfully painted cottages along the way and stopping briefly at a beach to watch some kite surfers. The island felt a lot like Provincetown, MA with its mix of fishermen and quaint well-kept cottages, though without the LBGT flavor.  

One of many quaint cottages on Spanish Wells

Now we know how to get to Abaco

One of the things we wanted to do was to jump from the one bridge that connects Spanish Wells to Russell Island. We weren’t alone as another four people were jumping from the 12 foot high bridge.  The biggest challenge was getting onto the bridge exterior to make the jump as the bridge was quite narrow and we had to climb through the lattice work of the bridge before plunging to the water below.

Bridge connecting Russell Island to Spanish Wells 

Thrill seekers

We picked up a fuel filter for the diesel gerry cans that have organisms growing in them before heading back to Juno and sailing down to Royal Harbor to stage-out for our early departure tomorrow for Abaco.

Royal, Egg and Russell Island (Spanish Wells)

Island names can be interesting. In the case of Royal, it is a butchering of the Spanish Real - a coin -and Egg was named for all the bird eggs that could be found until the settlers ate all the eggs and now few birds are to be found on Egg Island (nor Easter eggs either). We took the morning easy today then headed out through a cut between Royal and Egg island to a reef in search of a snorkeling spot. We had trouble finding anything other than eel grass until we spotted a tourist boat with snorkelers and decided they probably knew where to look so we dropped anchor close to them.  When snorkeling, we spotted the largest barracuda yet - about 3.5 feet long. Afterwards, we did some shelling on a beach on Egg Island and walked up a mangrove pond as it was too shallow for a dinghy then back to Juno and about an hour sail northeast to the lee of Russell Island along with about 20 other boats on anchor, anticipating spending the day tomorrow in Spanish Wells.

On a trek up a mangrove creek on Egg Island

Good-bye Sally; Easter Grocery Shopping; The Mahi that got away

Thankfully we were only 15 minutes from the airport as we dropped Sally off at 6:15 am for her flight back to NYC then Harry and I carried on to the grocery as we needed supplies and it was scheduled to open at 7 am on Easter. To our surprise, many others also like to shop at 7 am Easter Sunday as the place was busy when we arrived at 7:05 am. Back on Juno around 8:30 am, Harry noted the winds were NW today and would be more northerly the next few days so if we didn’t leave today for Royal Island to the NNE, we’d have to wait several days until the winds shifted to a more favorable direction for our NE sail.  So we decided to leave town but first Harry had to fill our water tanks while I helped decorate the outdoor tents for Carolyn’s 80th birthday party tomorrow. We were  disappointed to leave ahead of the big party, but our hosts understood the weather dictates sailor’s schedules.  We cast off our lines around 11:00 am had a beautiful sunny day and stayed on port tack from West Bay all the way north to Royal Island arriving about 7:45 pm just after sunset.  But just before arriving, Harry caught a Mahi-Mahi!  However, in bringing the fish aboard, it shook itself loose from the hook and back in to the ocean it went. We ate our canned chicken salad sandwiches for dinner - a mediocre substitute for what dinner could have been.

One advantage of being in Nassau is the fully stocked grocery stores

An Early Easter Celebration; a Car Rental; No Luck for Us

We moved our Easter celebrations ahead by a day as Sally had an early morning flight back to NYC. We improvised an Easter basket using a plastic salad container for the basket and Harry’s green towel for the grass, Katie had brought some Jelly Belly jellybeans when she came down in March for this purpose (thanks Katie) which miraculously escaped consumption for the past four weeks, and I picked up some chocolate bunnies. After a big breakfast of eggs and pre-cooked bacon, Harry and Jack picked up a rental car from the airport we’d agree to share use of the next 48 hours. The interesting thing about driving in the Bahamas is they permit both English and American made cars on the road, but everyone drives on the left as is done in England. We’d got an American car from the rental outfit so it made driving on the left challenging as the driver’s wheel was on the left as well.  Anyway, the weather was overcast and very breezy out of the NW as forecast so we headed to Clifton Park for a picnic lunch and a walk along the shore returning to Juno around 3 pm. We passed on rum o’clock today and had an early dinner (Easter pizzas) then went to the Baha Mar casino - a 15 minute drive away on the north side of the island. Baha Mar was lush, green and well landscaped in contrast to the rocky and dry terrain we were used to seeing and it had water fountains going in sync to music. As the sky grew dark, the fountains were illuminated and one fountain even had fire coming out of it. The look was almost like Disneyland.  At the casino, we each had a drink, played the slot machines by waging 8 cents a spin for about 20 minutes until we lost $5, and then drove home.

The Easter Bunny found us in Nassau

A Change of Plans

Sometimes the weather forecast makes us change our desired plans and today was one such day. Needing to head northwest to get Sally back to Nassau by Saturday night, we’d like a day with easterly or southerly winds so we won’t have to tack our way north.  We had such winds today (15-20 knots out of the SE) but the forecast for Saturday called for northwest winds with occasional squalls. So instead of facing lousy conditions on Saturday, we decided it best to take advantage of the favorable winds and reach Nassau (Coral Harbour) today.  Consequently, we left Warderick Wells at 8 am heading north, and sailed across the emerald green banks arriving at Nick and Carolyn’s dock in Coral Harbor, New Providence around 5:30pm in time for rum o’clock.  As tomorrow is Carolyn’s 80th birthday, champagne was uncorked and we met some new friends: Norwegians Per and Alva aboard Hug, and aboard Sandpiper Dave, Linda and Susan.

15- 18 knots, broad reach. It doesn't get much better

Back in time for one more Rum o'Clock and a pre-birthday celebration for Carolyn

Loyalist Ruins; A Change of Moorings; and Relaxing on the Beach

With winds forecast to go more southerly and to increase in velocity, we thought it would be too rolly to remain at Emerald Rock so we opted to seek better protection by moving to the north mooring field at Warderick Wells. But before relocating, we went ashore to the beach 50 yards from us and walked up the hill to the loyalists ruins. En route we encountered some pretty red flowers that resembled a clematis that must have had tasty nectar as it attracted several large pigeon like birds and a hummingbird. It then took us 1.5 hours to move the boat about 0.25 miles to the north mooring field as we had to go west, north, and then south traveling about 5 miles in order to circumvent shallows that would have Juno aground.  Once secure to our new mooring ball #8, just north of the ship wreck we’d snorkeled yesterday, we hiked up to the blow holes but the tide wasn’t high enough for the holes to be blowing.  After lunch we decided to chill out on a beach under our beach umbrella in the lee of a small cay, protected from the wind that was blowing about 15 -18 knots out of the SE. Back on Juno around 5 pm, Sally and I drift snorkeled the ship wreck on the incoming tide and we got our exercise when it came time to turn around and swim against the 3 knots of current back to Juno but we were rewarded as we saw a large sea turtle grazing on the grassy bottom just beside Juno.

Sally atop Boo Boo Hill in Warderick Wells

North mooring  field at Warderick Wells

Relaxing on our private beach.

Magnificent Spotted Eagle Rays; Sarah’s Close Encounter of an Unwanted Kind; Warderick Wells - Emerald Rock Anchorage

We left Shroud Cay with 12 knots of breeze out of the east, unfurled the jib and encountered many boats heading north and south on the recommended travel lines. Around noon, we picked up mooring ball #24 in the Emerald Rock anchorage at Warderick Wells and wasted no time to snorkel the ship wreck in the north mooring field as slack tide (best time to snorkel as much current flows through Warderick Wells) was around 12:30pm. We saw a large lobster hiding in the wreck and then moved to the snorkel spot just off the Sea Park Warden’s office. once in the water we saw a large shark in the distance that swam on by apparently not too interested in us.  We also saw four spotted eagle rays each of which was about 5-6 feet across, flying by in formation. They were spectacular to see as they had the head of a dolphin, remoras on their undersides, and long tails.
We then did a short hike to Butterfly beach where the sand was so fine it was like silt affording us time to dry out and warm up from all the snorkeling. But ashore we’d worked up a sweat, so we snorkeled Emerald Rock on our way back to Juno where we saw some larger fish. Back on Juno, Sarah decided to swim off the boat in the gin clear water before dinnertime when she felt something touch her foot. Instinctively she turned to see what it was and got a scare when she saw a 6 foot long shark swimming underneath her.  Her scream alerted Sally and Harry who were on Juno and watched as Sarah swam as fast as she could back to Juno. The shark continued to make the rounds in the mooring field as the evening came to a close and upon further reflection, we later remembered that the last time we were anchored in the same mooring field in February, Harry had spotted a shark swimming under our boat so we think that Sarah met the resident shark of Warderick Wells.

Resident Rays at Warderick Wells

Nassau to Shroud Cay Exumas

The NE winds blowing 15 knots pushed Juno along over the shallow banks and coral heads at 8 knots per hour. After one five-hour long port tack, we arrived at Shroud Cay just before high tide and wasted no time deploying the dinghy so that we could head up the shallow river through the mangroves to the eastern side of the cay.  Once there, we enjoyed riding the incoming tide into the mouth of the mangrove river catching eddies that carried back out to sea and spun us round again much like being on a merry-go-round.  We saw several turtles in the river on our return to Juno,  It’s great being back in the Exumas with turquoise water and a sandy bottom and so happy to share the beauty of this place with Sally.

Lovin' the Bahamas

Awaiting Favorable Winds; Beach Yoga; Sandy Toes on Rose Island

We’d wanted to sail SE to the Exumas with Sally but winds are still out of the SE today so we stayed put much of the day on Rose Island.  Good news is that a front should come through tonight and afterwards the winds should move to the NE enabling a pleasant sail tomorrow to the Exumas.  So Sally and I went ashore at Rose Island and did 45 minutes of yoga while Harry caught up with blog photos. Later we all explored Rose Island, landing at the Sandy Toes beach bar and adult playground but it was deserted as apparently, they are only open on weekends.  On the southern side of Rose Island, the winds were blowing the waves onto the rocky coastline making it too rough to snorkel so we snorkeled the northern side of the island then hauled anchor just as some threatening storm clouds were building to the SE.  We’d hoped to make it to Athol Island but instead, tucked into the eastern side of Nassau where it was a bit quieter than the western side of Nassau.  The front came through about dinnertime and the wind shifted out of the north as was I forecast.

Rum o'clock on Juno

Coral Harbor to Rose Island - A Guest Blog by Dr. Sally Levinson

Greetings from paradise! I exchanged thesis writing for sunbathing, and ambulance sirens for softly lapping waves.
Sunday morning we left Nassau and had a breezy but beautiful morning sail over to Rose Island. I got introduced to all the beautiful shades of turquoise of the ocean as we approached our anchorage- deep blue when it’s over 300 feet and the depth sounder doesn’t register, and a light aqua in by the soft sandy beach. Did I mention this is paradise? I jumped in as soon as we tied off the anchor and we spent our afternoon coral reef-hopping to go snorkeling. Along with the standard (or so I am told) tropical reef fish, we found a barracuda and four sea turtles, including one baby. Each turtle had one or two long skinny fish (remoras) lounging on top of their shells, almost like pets. I managed to take a selfie with one on the Go-Pro, which I was impressed with considering my lack of selfie skills. We capped off the day with a walk on the beach, a shower on the swim platform while the sun was still out, and dinner on deck. Sally over and out!

Hitching a free ride

Sally Joins Us for a Much Deserved Break

As Sally couldn’t get on the same flight as us from NYC, she had to travel separately and was due to arrive in Nassau around 2 pm so we spent the morning cleaning Juno, filling our water tanks with practically free water, washing sheets, and baking pumpkin bread.  Sally’s connection through Toronto went smoothly and Harry went to retrieve her from the airport with Carolyn. Soon thereafter, it was ‘rum o’clock’ again. We spent two hours swapping cruising/sailing stories with our hosts and fellow travellers on two other boats. We enjoyed meeting Ian and Lynn of sailwindward.com who we learned run a business of taking couples sailing for a week at a time out of Staniel Cay and then summer in the Azores.  A young couple from Belgium said (very casually) that they “lost a boat” in Belize, which upon further clarification we found out meant their boat hit something in the night and sank in four hours! Luckily they were picked up two hours before it finally went under.  Dinner was a delicious rotisserie chicken, quinoa, Trader Joe’s Grecian eggplant and tomatoes and a salad. Bedtime reading didn't last long for either the captain or new crew, but both should be well rested for tomorrow's adventures.

Rum O'Clock

NYC to Nassau and a Welcomed Return to Warmth

No time for Maison Keyser today as we left for the airport around 7:30 am for our 11:15 am flight back to Nassau. Upon arriving in Nassau, we were very happy to jettison our down coats for more tropical attire.  Since a very nice grocery store was close to the airport, we took a cab to Solomon’s Market and stocked up on perishables before calling a cab to take us to Nick and Carolyn Wardle’s home in Coral Harbor.  We arrived to find Juno fine, and another boat was tied alongside us for the night and would be leaving in the morning. We enjoyed ‘rum o’clock’ with Nick and Carolyn, and Jack from ‘Silver Girl’ - the boat alongside us.

We enjoyed NYC, but ...

‘Say Yes to the Dress’ and Being Foodies in NYC

Breakfast again at Maison Keyser, then while Sally spent a few hours debriefing with her advisor Sarah enjoyed a bit of time to peruse Macy’s Herald Square in search of a new bathing suit. We regrouped at Sally’s apt. around 11:00 am then headed down 39th street to Ratatouille - for what else, ratatouille and rotisserie chicken.  Delicious. Then Sally had two bridal gown appointments.  Our first was at Kleinfelds, known to many from the TV show ‘Say Yes to the Dress’.  It was as you might imagine, and Sally tried on her favorite dress and one to please her mother.  Looking beautiful in both, we had to move on to our second appointment - a consignment bridal gown store.  We found a dress that mom liked a lot and Sally was warm to. No commitments were made today on a dress but we did take advantage of some time with Sally to discuss plans for her October 2019 wedding in San Juan.  When her fiancé Luis returned from work, we all went out and  enjoyed burgers and brew at Bareburgers before saying goodbye to Luis and Sally. The beauty of NYC is that it never sleeps. And at 10:00 pm, Sarah found a Target that was open at Herald Square and which had ant traps - the last item on our ‘must buy’ list. So off we went and our eyes did much oogling at all the merchandise Sarah wanted to buy but couldn’t because we couldn’t take much back with us we were happy to have purchased new ant traps and mayonnaise from our list and pretzel rods which were a bonus for Harry.

Do you like this white dress or this white dress?

Haircuts, Sally Defends her PhD in Neuroscience and Celebrations

After starting our morning enjoying a scrumptious croissant, coffee, and fresh OJ at Maison Keyser and before we could show ourselves to acquaintances, we both were in dire need of a haircut so we parted ways for the morning. Later we met up looking much neater for a quick slice of pizza before attending Sally’s thesis defense at New York University’s Medical Center at 2:00 pm.  We met up with Sally’s fiancé Luis and took our seats along with 45 others to listen to Sally tell her story about microglia and astrocytes releasing glutamate in response to injury and how capillaries in the brain expand instantly in response.  I am sure I am not doing justice to her work, so Sally please forgive me if you read this, but this was one of the take home messages of her thesis.  We know Sally had been working hard the past six years often six to seven days a week, and it was nice for us to hear her advisor Wen Biao and other faculty, say how impressed they were by her dissertation. We were then told to occupy ourselves from 3-5 pm while she met with her thesis panel, so Luis took us to Trader Joe’s to buy a few items on our grocery list - like ketchup and mayo. We returned to the Skirball Center just before 5 pm greeting the new Dr. Levinson as she emerged from the closed room, and celebrated with about 20 other friends and associates enjoying champagne and hors d’oeuvres.  Luis had dinner reservations at River Park for the four of us where they’d personalized the menu for Sally.  Dinner was delicious (scallops and Brussel sprouts for me and duck for Harry) then we moved on to a bar up the street where Winchester friends Kim Garlow and Kara Migausky and many other colleagues and friends of Sally’s had gathered to celebrate.  It was a great day and evening, concluding close to midnight.

Sally ready to present

Dr. Sally Levinson (and Narwahl)

A Return to Urban Living

We spent the morning sweating it out on Juno, cleaning and packing wintery clothes for our trip to NYC. A scuba diver came by and replaced the zinc on our propeller - routine maintenance which is needed  periodically as the zinc serves to prevent corrosion of the propeller itself. By noon, our host and taxi driver Nick, was calling to us to transport us to the airport about 5 miles away.  Our flight to NYC left at 3:30 pm and we enjoyed looking out the window at many of the islands of the Abacos that we’ll see up close before much longer.  After landing in JFK we took the subway, changing trains a few times, to our destination near 34th St. and 5th Avenue.  We decided to grab a bite to eat at Moroccan restaurant called Arabesque and called it a night around 11:30 pm.

Off to JFK

We'll be back soon

West Bay to Coral Harbour; Harry Lands a Mahi-Mahi

After a slightly rolly night in West Bay, we caught a good look of the 5 million dollar homes that line West Bay including one property we thought was part of a movie set. Turned out this property is  owned by a Canadian fashion billionaire named Nygard who built up his property to look like an Aztec settlement with a pyramid, a giant 80 foot high parrot, and live peacocks calling to each other.  Not surprisingly he is not popular with his neighbors according to a Vanity Fair article about this property that Harry found on the internet. Sunday morning we went ashore at Clifton - a national park at the south end of the bay, where we ran a short distance through the park along the coast.  En route we saw two old plantation homes in ruins and a recreated Lucayan hut thatched with palm fronds.

Later, we set sail for Coral Harbor, about 5 miles south and east from West Bay, where Harry had arranged to leave Juno for the three days that we’ll be in NYC attending Sally’s thesis defense. With several thousand feet of water under the keel, fishing line deployed we rounded Goulding Cay when Harry looked back and saw a fish jump at his fishing lure. Harry quickly brought in his line and a beautiful Mahi Mahi was on the other end of the line. Harry then brought the 30 inch fish into the cockpit as we were moving along quite fast, and the fish flapped his way back into the ocean, but he was still hooked so Harry brought him back aboard once again while Sarah snapped a photo of this most beautiful fish. Time being of the essence, we poured a few capfuls of gin over his gills to kill the fish, and Harry set right into filleting the fish in the cockpit. Interestingly, the fish loses its bright colors within minutes of dying. Anyway, the stern of the cockpit was a bloody mess -as we had fish blood and Sarah’s hand bleeding. Her hand got poked by the fish hook in all the excitement, but we were rewarded with about 1.5 pounds of fresh fish for our last dinner on-board.

The catch put us a bit behind schedule and our hosts Nick and Carolyn Wardle in Coral Harbour were calling us on the VHF radio asking for our whereabouts so we motored upwind and in to Coral Harbour where we tied alongside ‘Sandpiper’ just in front of the Wardle's home on a canal in Coral Harbour. Nick welcomed us and informed us we were just in time for his daily ‘rum o’clock’ happy hour which we gladly joined along with his wife Carolyn and other sailor guests Jeff and Ellie aboard ‘Boundless’ who take six kids and a teacher for an educational week of sailing. The Mahi-Mahi cooked up nicely on the grill, but admittedly it got a bit overcooked. We need to work on that.

The Mahi-Mahi Before

After

Harbourmaster Nick Wardle