Ragged Island 1

The trip down the Jumentos was similar every day: starting to sail at 15-20kn, then rising to 20-25kn, and sometimes to 30kn. It was all easterly winds, so on the beam and fast. We were hitting 8-10 kn even double-reefed. The seas were the worst between islands when there was no protection, and then we had 3-4 foot seas on the quarter or the beam. It got bouncy! Beside the islands, the seas would calm down to 1 foot and we’d go faster.

We got to Racoon Cay and stayed for lunch and the tide to rise. Then went on down to the Raggeds and a reunion with friends from last year’s trip, Leslie & Ralph on sv Now and Zen.

They had planned a hike to an airplane that crashed last October with 2 fatalities. The identifiers on the plane were either fake or filed off. You can draw you own conclusions about that! A video on the Nassau Guardian site showed a smoking plane and a completely burned body. Ugh.

Now and Zen threw together a lobster salad dinner which, after all contributions were counted, also had coleslaw, home-made gnocchi, and baked green beans. The party was on, with sv Mimi, whom we hadn’t seen in a few years (last time was at Chubb Cay), and a couple of new (to us) boats. Wonderful! We broke up the party when a brief rain shower started and we all realized we had left hatches open. But upon leaving, we saw one of the dinghies had gone walkabout! So with a powerful flashlight, we roared off downwind, searching. Fortunately, it hadn’t gone far and was recovered easily. Every year, dinghies go missing in the Bahamas and usually it is due to poorly secured painters. The rule is (or should be) always use two dock lines! If you lose your dinghy or your motor stops working, it’s quite similar to not having any car on land. You can get about, but slowly and with effort, and only when the weather is good enough. I know - one year our engine would not run so I spent 6 weeks rowing until we could get a new one in Nassau.

The next night was a beach cookout, so we had the sausage with corn/tomato/feta salad on the beach around the fire pit. It was a lovely, low wind night with a sky full of stars.

The activity never stops! Jason of sv Onward is a wing foiler, and he volunteered to take willing victims, I mean interested parties out and teach us. So we suited up and he towed us with his dinghy while we practiced gaining our feet and our balance as the board rose up out of the water. This board is longer, wider and has more flotation than the one I tried to learn on two years ago, so we all succeeded in foiling for shorter or longer times. Next up: using the wing.

For dinner, we dinked over to a small cave, mostly hidden, about 25 feet from the shore. Dan had made it Cave 2.0 by adding a sand floor, leveling jagged karst points, making some rock seats, a palm branch couch, and a fire cove. Everyone brought something (including one restaurant-size can of corn that never got opened) and we had a good dinner of many flavors (lobster mac-n-cheese, curried chickpeas and rice, tortilla chips and salsa verde). The night had fallen with the tide so we carefully motored back to our boats with engines up-tilted. Only one casualty - we didn't see Alex for another two days due to her many bug bites, with itching.

Many days here we go hunting for lobsters and fish. It's quite a sport and you get to bring home your dinner. Tonight: breaded fish. Tomorrow: one of - lobster scampi, lobster newburg, lobster stew, lobster salad, curried lobster....Läs mer