Super Bowl 2011

About all of the cays had a cruiser gathering place for the Super Bowl. At Staniel Cay it was the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

We joined some cruiser friends for a pre-game party on the dock.

Yes, that’s a big ray behind me

SCYC had a great buffet dinner and several large screen TVs setup for the party.

Retrieving your dinghy after the game was a thrill.

Sharks!

Little Farmer’s Cay

Finding Great Guana Cay, Black Point Settlement rather lacking in amenities and protection from the wind and waves clocking around to the west, we moved on after only one night to Little Farmer’s Cay (apx. 23 57.25N/076 20.90W). The major attraction on Little Farmer’s is the Ocean Cabin Restaurant and Bar and its proprietor, philosopher, poet and story teller, Terry Bain. The hours of operation for Ocean Cabin are:

Most days about 9 or 10

Occasionally as early as 7

But some days as late as 12 or 1

We close around 5 or 6

Or maybe about 4 or 5

Some days or afternoons

we aren’t here at all

And lately we’ve been here

about all the time,

except when we’re

someplace else…

But we might be here then, too

We had just missed the annual Farmer’s Cay First Friday in February Festival (5F Festival) put on by Terry and Ocean Cabin since 1986. This year there were a record 117 boats in attendance swelling the island’s population of 60 considerably.

Cleaning Conch

Hope the Mail Boat came

On our first night at Little Farmer’s Cay we had a lobster dinner with three other cruising couples at Ocean Cabin.

Arriving for Dinner

No shoes, no shirt, no service

Our guidebooks refer to the private islands with the notation, “…cay is private and visits ashore must be by invitation only.”  Such is the case with nearby Big Farmer’s Cay.  We had noticed a strange structure on Big Farmers Cay, so we asked Terry about it. 

He explained that an eccentric foreign buyer (is there any other kind) was attempting to build his dream house, a geodesic dome.  Terry had provided the land and labor.  He gave us permission to visit. 

  

Rather strange, but it had a great view.

While there, we had to save the mommy goat from this rain barrel. After we pulled her out, and released her, she ran a few feet then turned around and looked at us as to say thank you.

Thunderball

With clean laundry and a full water tank, we moved south to Staniel Cay and took a Club Thunderball mooring (see chart).



Contrary to what our guidebooks indicated, Club Thunderball does not seem to be a going concern.  We tried raising the club on VHF to no avail, and their dock looked a little iffy for a dinghy landing.  So it was bike time.

On the way to Club Thunderball, you get to see most of the island (see chart).

But, we did find Club Thunderball, and no one was home.



So, we rode back to “main street” for lunch (see chart).

Finding the experience a little below even our standards, we moved down the street to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (see chart).

David (new BFFL)

The next day we hiked a trail on the northern end of the Cay (see chart).

Did some beachcombing at Pirate Trap Beach.

Then, we snorkeled Thunderball Grotto (see chart), where a very small portion of the James Bond movie, Thunderball was filmed in 1964, and the locals have not forgotten.

Dinghies tied to a mooring while their owners dive the cave.

Serenity behind Thunderball Grotto

Thunderball Grotto is a great cave dive with assorted coral and fish.

On Sunday we are joining friends on Knott Home at SCYC for a Super Bowl Party (see David BFFL). Monday we will south to Black Point, and then on to Little Farmer’s Cay where we will be watching the weather closely.

Sampson Cay

After 16 days in the Exuma Land and Sea Park we were ready for a hot shower and a cheeseburger, so Serenity pulled into Sampson Cay Club and Marina and took a slip ($2.75 per foot per night; turn down service and pillow mints not included).

Our two biggest issues were water and trash.  Many cruisers have water makers onboard, but we decided against one due to the cost and space requirements.  At Sampson we took on 98 gallons at a cost of $49.  So far we have spent $67 on water so I figure we have $4933 to go before justifying the expense of a water maker.  If you are a guest of the marina, Sampson accepts your trash for free.  Other places charge $2.50 per small bag and $5.00 per large.  However, at Sampson they want it divided into burnable, metal, and glass.  Pollie says that it was not fun going back through two weeks of garbage.

We were still good on diesel fuel, but needed gas for the dinghy engine (1 gallon = $5.19).  At their small convenience store we were able to restock the galley, but were careful with our selections because most items were not marked, just charged to the boat (with 5% service charge on credit cards).

At the restaurant/bar we had lunch (cheeseburgers) with our friends from Cambridge Cay who had interrupted their hosting duties to do laundry.  We also did “date night” and dined on Conch Salad ($10 each) and had drinks ($4.00 per beer, $8.00 per rum punch).  It was very fresh, because we were advised there would be a delay while the chef ran out the back door with a flashlight to pull the conch from a holding pen. 

They had a great place to wait for your laundry ($4.00 per load per washer, and $4.00 per load drier).  And the showers were quite nice ($4.00 for 8 minutes).  Our batteries were fully charged and we watched a “date night” movie at a rate of $1.10 per kwHr (used 5kw).  And, we were able to access the Internet ($10 for 24 hours or 200mb whichever comes first).

All in all, a very nice marina, but they may want to rethink their business plan.  Most "regular" cruisers give the place a pass due to the $2.75 per foot slip fee.  While we were there the only other boat that pulled in was a mega-yacht that did not use the marina electrical or water, and had their meals served onboard by white gloved crew.  So, we pretty much had all of the facilities and staff to ourselves.  Next time we will anchor nearby and use the facilities that we need, if they are still in business.  

Cambridge Cay

After Warderick Cay, we moved south to Cambridge Cay at the south end of The Exuma Land and Sea Park.  The mooring field at Cambridge Cay is a little harder to access, so many of the cruisers give it a pass.  Too bad, the snorkeling there is world class.  We also had the advantage of meeting Roger and Connie the Cambridge Cay Hosts prior to arriving.  On our own, we took our dinghy north to O’Briens Cay the first day and dove on The Sea Aquarium and Airplane Reef.  The Sea Aquarium is aptly named because it contains a large quantity and variety of reef fish and coral formations.  It was like swimming in a stew of fish that were not intimidated by their visitors.  If you held still too long they would bonk into your face mask as if they were checking on you.  The nearby Airplane Reef is just that, a Cessna 207 lying upside down with coral growth and fish swimming in and out of it.  Evidently, the aircraft went down in the 80’s on an ill fated drug hauling flight and ended up in about 25’ of water.  The park service has placed small mooring buoys at both sites for tying up your dinghy.

On day two at Cambridge Cay, our hosts, Roger and Connie, took us in their high speed dinghy south to Rocky Dundas, Rachel’s Bubble Bath, and Tom’s Elkhorn Reef.  The Rocky Dundas has a dinghy mooring marking the entrance to two unique caves that legend has it were sacred sites for the Lucayans.

Pollie made it in:

The caves feature both stalactite and stalagmite formations.

Unfortunately, Rachel’s Bubble Bath was a little of a fizzle.  Actually located on the northern end of Compass Cay (outside of the Exuma Park), Rachel’s is approached from the west, to a point where the cay narrows to only about 10’ wide.  Waves hitting the eastern side crash over the rocks into a pool that drains back to the ocean side creating a bubble bath.  During our visit the ocean was too tame to produce the desired effect.

We then moved on to Tom’s Elkhorn Reef.  The pictures speak for themselves:

A big thanks to our hosts, Roger and Connie:

Photographs compliments of Connie (her Olympus still works).

Boo Boo Hill & Snorkeling

Warderick Wells Cay in The Exuma Land and Sea Park is noted for its hiking trails and snorkeling sites.  Also, Warderick Wells is said to be haunted and it is reported that on moonlit nights the sound of a congregation singing hymns can be heard.  When the singing ceases a number of voices can be heard calling to one another.  There are three shipwrecks off the coast of Warderick Wells.  The one in the vicinity of Boo Boo Hill reportedly was a ship laden with missionaries.  Legend has it that the Loyalists that once populated the cay did not leave on their own accord, but were massacred by pirates.  To add to the lore, a human skeleton was found in 1978  under a bush on the west side.  Through a series of unfortunate events, the skeleton was buried sans head.  To calm the spirits, cruisers climb Boo Boo Hill to a cairn, enjoying the self-guided nature hike on the way, and leave a driftwood plaque with the name of their boat.

Good snorkeling reefs are scattered around Warderick Wells Cay.  Most have dinghy mooring balls marking their location that you are allowed to tie off on. Because of the strong currents around the cay, snorkeling is only recommended during slack tides.

Unfortunately, Pollie’s Olympus Stylus Tough, shockproof/waterproof camera is giving her trouble.  The self retracting lens cover is failing to retract.  When we get where we can use Skype again, we will give their tech support line a call.  If that does not resolve the problem, we will probably investigate picking up another underwater camera in George Town.  Sans camera, yesterday she missed a shot of a ray with at least a four foot (Pollie says 5’) wing span swimming with us.

SOURCE: The Exuma Guide, by Stephen J. Pavlidis

Talk like a Pirate Day

The prevailing winds in the Bahamas are from the east or south east, so anchoring to the west side of a cay is usually a good bet, but in the winter months the weather follows a very predictable pattern.  The cycle starts with the passage of a front.  When the front passes your location (usually moving east) the winds shift to the northwest at 20-25 knots and the temperature drops (into the 60’s, yikes!).  Over the next few days the winds “clock around” first north then northeast and east.  The winds generally begin to diminish then to 10-15 knots and continue “clocking” to the southeast, south, and then southwest.  When the winds reach the southwest another cold front is on the horizon.  Normally the bad weather comes with the passage of the front and the cycle begins again.

Getting weather information in the Bahamas is a little bit of a challenge.  ZNS I at 1540 KHZ (AM) from Nassau gives a summary at 0755 each day.  When you are in range, a few marinas provide a synopsis on VHF.  A lot of the cruisers have single side band (SSB) and rely on Chris Parker for weather forecasts.  Serenity has XM weather, and I try to be a junior forecaster with the information provided with about as good a results as the professionals.  Chris Parker was predicting squalls (frontal passage) for Wednesday, the 26^th with winds in the upper 40s.  That got everyone’s attention.   Serenity needed to move.

“A pirate could take a draft of 12’ into this anchorage day or night.  The ridges of Warderick Wells at the mouth of the anchorage camouflaged his rigging while Hog Cay would conceal his hull from any ships sailing offshore…. Pirates lying at the south end of Warderick Wells could make easy prey of any vessel passing them headed for The Wide Opening.”

If it was good enough for the likes of Edward Teach (a.k.a. Blackbeard), Mary Read and Anne Bonney, the “Lady Pirates” of the early 1700’s, it was good enough for Serenity.  Serenity moved to the south mooring field behind Hog Cay.

Well, Chris Parker was a little off.  While not a picture perfect day, it was not too bad.  Capture Beach is adjacent to the anchorage.  A short hike from the beach is The Pirate’s Lair.  However, hiking in this area is not like U.S. parks, and can be rather precarious.

We did find some friends along the way.

“The Pirate’s Lair itself was used as a meeting place for the pirates when ashore.  They would bring their mats and loungings ashore and set them up in this area to sit, drink, talk, and do whatever it was that pirates did for recreation between boardings.”

Arragh!

Today was so calm, we took the dinghy out and went looking for stromatolites.   Unsuccessful in our search, we did find a nice reef to snorkel on.

SOURCES: Bahamas Bound, by Skipper Bob Publications

The Exuma Guide, by Stephen J. Pavlidis

This posting dedicated to pirate lover Chris N.