Mayaguana

We had arranged for fresh produce to arrive on the mailboat servicing Mayaguana. The boat lands in NW Mayaguana, at Betsy Bay, about 12 miles from Abraham’s Bay where we anchor. So we moved from Booby Cay 15 miles west in 5-7 kn E winds, moving very slowly. But that was ok from John’s POV, as it let him rebuild the Raspberry Pi operating system, a needed change. We arrived in late afternoon and took a position near the dock for convenience with about 1.5 ft of water below the keel. Then the next day, we arranged for a ride to Thunder Storm bar for a lunch of cracked conch (deep fried conch) and then up to the government dock to meet the Lady Rosalind. We found our boxes of fresh produce, and were set to go back when, surprise, we found that we were going to delivery a large stack of 4x8 plywood to a construction site. This was revealed in stages; first, we backed up to a loading position. Then, a woman we didn’t know told us we’d be loading a few sheets of plywood. Then, we saw a 2ft high stack of 4x8 sheets, and we understood it was all going. So Tyler (19) and John decided to help this small, older Bahamian man that was going to load the plywood into our truck, apparently by himself. We loaded more than half the stack, plus half a dozen rolls of waterproofing membrane, and our produce and climbed on top to ride to the construction site. We then unloaded the goods, stacked the plywood into a home, and reloaded our produce. We understood from the man that we’d now go back to our dock. Until the truck was driven back to the government dock, and we got to load the rest of the plywood, and reloaded our produce (again). Back to the home, we unloaded, then loaded the produce for a 3rd time, and finally returned to our dock at dusk. The sand fleas were biting fiercely, so we rushed to get off the dock and back to the boats to divvy up the ‘loot’.

After a very windy day spent on the boat, and a morning squall passed by, we finally got out to snorkel Abraham Bay’s reef. We tried inside the reef first - that was pretty shallow, 3-5 feet with scattered coral heads, mostly small and medium. Ralph got one good sized lobster. John spotted a few spider lobsters - pretty with white spots, but they are generally very small, so we let them be. We did find one large, live conch, right under the dinghy, so that was captured. Then we headed further west in the bay (it is really large, 4.8 x 1.4 miles) until we found a break in the reef so we could go outside. We anchored in 14ft of water and looked around. Not many grouper, just one was seen. John saw a 5ft nurse shark that swam slowly underneath him. Then, while diving into some sand-filled holes, he found a large, live triton conch. These are really beautiful shells, in a cream, tan and brown pattern. Ralph speared a simply enormous lobster, that turned out to weigh 10.8 lbs! The tail alone was 2.3 lbs.

We borrowed a car to give Tyler, a first-time visitor, a tour. So we made a visit to then old U.S. Navy base (closed for years), the old airport with the abandoned drug running planes (a 9-passenger twin engine, a De Havilland Dove, and a two-seater), then the 1961 Thor Monument, the old and new radar towers, and finally Betsy Bay. Initially, we had planned to snorkel the bay, but we first visited Vanda Capron’s one-room store, more to talk to her than buy anything. She told us about the nearby goat village and about nearby caves. She directed us to speak to Patrick, a game warden, fisherman, and bar owner. So Leslie went and tapped on a window on a nearby house (that was the instruction from a local) and Patrick answered. After some chat, he asked if we’d like a beer, so we all went over to his bar. Patrick turned out to be an interesting guy, and told us about a sailboat he had recovered at the request of the Royal Bahamian Defense Force. The sailors were evacuated by helicopter after their steering failed in 10 foot seas. He told us that he’d towed the boat back into port and helped the couple get the steering repaired, after which they returned on their boat to the US. Here’s the thing: we had heard the same story before, but with different actors! We were at the Little Ragged Island beach bonfire a few weeks ago when Leslie’s phone rang. It was a woman from Mayaguana she knew. She said her husband had recovered an abandoned sailing vessel, towing it in from 7 miles out in pretty bad weather, and wanted to know what to do about it. After some advice was collectively decided upon and delivered to her regarding salvage rights, we thought that was over. Until we got the better story, with backup texts and photos, from Patrick. The sailors got their vessel back, repaired the steering at a shop, and returned to the U.S. safely.

Another story - on Ragged Island, one of the cruisers recovered a satellite tracking receiver, from the site of a downed airplane. The airplane had crashed into a hillside at 5am last October, near an unlit runway. It caught fire and later two bodies were recovered but never identified. There was no flight plan, the plane had false numbers, and other numbers had been removed. In the end, no one was identified as the owner. So when the tracker was found we thought maybe it could be used to reveal the legal owner of the plane, and maybe even the flight path. But given the nature of the family islands, we decided not to turn it into the local administrators. It was sent to police in Nassau, but was never heard about again. Hmmm.

We’ve done lots more snorkeling, hunting, and shell collecting while we’ve waited for the high wind and waves to abate so we can sail onwards. We also got Patrick to guide us to the POL cave (Patrick Oil Landing). POL was the old U.S. Navy ship resupply dock, along with storage buildings and fuel tanks with filling pipes onto the dock. The dock is barely there any more, but the fuel tanks look like they could be refilled and used right now! The buildings that are left are 100% concrete, so they are also in good shape. The cave was completely hidden and had no visible track to find it. Patrick knew that a certain tree, taller than most, was the path’s head marker. We followed him along as he swung his machete to re-clear the path up to a slightly higher ridge, underneath which were numerous caverns and entry points. He showed us a few and then brought us to the main entrance, where we entered. It’s a dry cave now, but was formed by moving water. There is a very cool petrified bird skeleton embedded into the rock. There’s a few bats, and burrowing land crabs. And us. Mayaguana remains a lightly populated island with a fishing and tourism (bonefishing) economy.Baca lagi