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Sailing Bahamas 2024

Februari - Juni 2024
We plan to sail the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos until mid' June! Fun ahead 😁 Baca selengkapnya
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  • 22footprint
  • 3negara
  • 85hari
  • 132foto
  • 10video
  • 3,0kmil
  • 1,5kmil laut
  • 1,2kmil
  • 5mil
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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 53–58

    Turks & Caicos - Pine Cay

    18 April, Kepulauan Turks dan Caicos ⋅ 🌬 79 °F

    Pine Cay is between Provo (Providenciales) and North Caicos Islands. To get there, we headed N out the Leeward Channel, the turned NE inside the barrier reef and continued until just before Ft George Cut and Ft George Cay. N of the cut, the water rapidly becomes shallower, too little for Ashling. We tried.

    The bay gives good protection from the E tradewinds, but gets rolly with any N component. It is a favorite destination for day charter boats with tourists eager to see the beaches, which are beautiful! So we saw a variety of center consoles, two deck power cats, wooden one-off beachable gaff-riggers, jet skis, etc during the days, all of which disappeared at night. Typically we had no other overnight boats, sometimes one or two.

    The beach properties were private or small resorts, but by law the beaches are public. Al's fun to visit are Sand Dollar Bars that appear twice daily with the tides. We did find sand dollars!

    Usually, we could find Dreamer, or JoJo, or both nearby. They are wild dolphins that enjoy swimming with people. To the local tour operator's credit, we never saw them feeding the dolphins. There was no need to attract them. It was a trip being in touching distance with an unafraid wild dolphin. Sometimes one of the tour boat operators would call me and ask if I'd seen them that day.

    The visit at Pine Cay had a different, slower tempo that we much enjoyed. If the weather was good, I'd head out about a mile to snorkel the reef. One day, I really wanted to go and it kept raining on-and-off. Finally I said "let's just go" and we set off to the outer side of the reef. Too bad it wasn't sunny, it was a good spot. But by the time I resurfaced, it was raining hard, the wind had come up, and I couldn't see Ashling or the reef entrance. I knew a few faintly visible landmarks, so we proceeded with caution, passed through the reef and eventually saw our boat exactly where we expected.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 64–66

    Turks & Caicos, South Side Marina

    29 April, Kepulauan Turks dan Caicos ⋅ 🌬 81 °F

    Turks and Caicos pretty much requires you to clear out from a marina, so we moved to the nearest one, South Side Marina. I was going to skip it, because it is a shoal-draft entrance, but we're glad we went.

    We got to meet Bob Pratt, who single-handedly created the marina, starting with swimming the entry to find the deepest route. Then adding moorings, docks, a gantry crane to haul boats out, and carving out the cliffs to accommodate buildings. Today, the men's and women's showers have alcoves into the rock!

    Above the marina is Bob's Bar, a fabulous venue that Bob claims is sized so that anyone can talk across the bar to anyone else. It was packed in the evening and we got to meet fellow cruisers including Mitchell & Mome of sv Shingitai and Tom & Mary on sv Soulmates.

    We also found sv 2 Canoes, whom we last saw a few years ago at Cape Charles, VA. Captain Richard said "We've been around the world since then!"

    While we were there, we decided to hire AquaTCI to "re-activate" our PADI diving certificates. This is pretty much a scam by PADI, as the original certificate is lifetime. But a few years ago, they stopped allowing PADI dive masters from taking people out without having recent dives (within 18 months, I think). So we got two dives in, with a personal instructor after completing an online course and exam.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 68–73

    Stocking Island BS

    3 Mei, Bahama ⋅ 🌬 77 °F

    We left the South Side Marina on Provo at 7am with Lazy Cat, followed about an hour later by Shingitai and Soulmates, All bound for George Town, Great Exuma Island. At 275 miles, it was about 38 hours two days, and one overnight). It was suppo6to be all sailing, but when the wind dropped to 7kn, we motor sailed for a few hours until it picked up again. Shingitai elected to stop at Stella Maris, the N tip of Long Island, but we continued to Stocking Island, arriving at Conch Cut at 9pm. There are no navigation lights, and no moon yet, so it was an instruments approach th Starfish Beach, where we nestled in between the only two boats already there.

    Since we arrived past working hours on a weekend, we'd have to wait until Monday to clear immigration. So we were officially quarantined. However, the beach needed inspection and trash cleanup, so I did that while Alexis caught up work after the passage dry spell.

    On Monday, we moved closer to town for clearing in, to Sand Dollar Beach. This had another benefit - we got to go to a beach dance party, hosted by Electric Mermaid (Pauline Salotti). It was at the beach, with a bonfire and went on far past our staying power!

    Clearing in with a pre-paid, one year cruising permit was pretty easy in Georgetown, with one exception: contrary to the "only captain goes ashore" rule, I had to bring all parties into immigration. That meant another 3 mile round trip, with a work interruption for Alexis. Well, that meant lunch as Sandpiper Cafe, where we met up again with sv Shingitai (Mitchel & Mome) who came over with us from Turks & Caicos.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 75–77

    Prime Cay

    10 Mei, Bahama ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    We decided to try a really nicely protected anchorage that has a shoal entrance requiring high tide. So we left Lee Stocking early to arrive at high tide, and made an easy entrance with about 1.5ft below the keel. To our surprise, mv Happy Place had already arrived, but we never saw them pass us. Later when I asked, Ricardo said he’d taken the Exuma Sound route as we had, but never saw us either. Mystery!

    I did a kayak tour of the shallows, with a tidal creek leading to a large pond. On the way, I saw 3 turtles, 1 gray stingray, a live juvenile conch, and two huge, red, 5-armed starfish. I beached and walked to the ocean, and then S to the very large bay and beach, a really fine and undeveloped spot.

    The next day, I invited Ricardo & Marcieu to go spear fishing. We managed to find what seemed to be the sole good spot. We managed to get a snapper and Ricardo disappeared into a cave, eventually emerging with another grouper. After moving on, Ricardo selected a nice spot, but it was about 35 ft deep. I could get down there, but would have to return immediately while Ricardo leisurely swam around for another minute!

    After that, we took the dinghy on a shallow water tour between Little Darby and Darby Islands before returning to our anchorage. Twice we had to walk the dinghy, it was so shallow at low tide.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 77–78

    Fowl Cay

    12 Mei, Bahama ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    We wanted to see Rachel’s Bubble Bath and the caves at Rocky Dundas, so we took the opportunity to stay at nearby Fowl Cay, another private island that offers S-SW-W-NW protection which matched the wind prediction pretty closely. After we, and sv Godspeed, anchored, we immediately headed for R’sBB since it only ‘works’ At high tide, which was then. It’s a natural swimming hole, with a saddle cut to the Exuma Sound where the easterly waves crash through, foaming the water - as long as you have high tide and easterly waves which we lacked completely. So no bubble bath! We enjoyed it anyway.

    Next stop was a tiny coral garden on the S end of Cambridge Cay, on the opposite side of side of the cut from Exuma Sound. It was pretty, with purple, yellow and brown corals, but only smaller fish.

    Back across the waters to Rocky Dundas, I was able to snorkel under the overhung cliff and into the two caves that have v3y large interiors, and small overhead openings like skylights that provide all the light you need. No bats!

    Back to Fowl Cay, with a short hop to the beach to see the wrecked twin engine plane that overshot the runway and was drug ashore later.    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 78–80

    Shroud Cay

    13 Mei, Bahama ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Shroud Cay is uninhabited and a national park. It is a very popular place, and has a wonderful, winding dinghy ride through mangroves and hills before reaching the "Washing Machine", where the tidal current flows into the ocean and surf. We swam with the turtles and aquarium fish (juvenile reef fish) in the mangroves and floated out to the surf in the current, after jumping in from an overhanging rock.

    John also took the dinghy out to various spots to snorkel, and knows where to get a giant lobster, next time! The Wax Cay snorkeling spot was too rough that day, with 3-4 ft waves, so he retreated to more protected coral gardens. Then a short trip over to the Normans Cay Marina, just to look at what $7/ft per day gets you. Nice, but not that nice. They're still building it, after 7 years? But it has high quality docks, with cleats and power pedestals that work. The paths are made 10 feet wide with flagstones in concrete. The guest houses are modern and nicely appointed. You get access to the only restaurant on the island, McDuffs, and to the Yacht Club.

    Back to our reality!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 80–83

    Rock Sound, Eleuthera

    15 Mei, Bahama ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We returned to RockSound, for the first time since our COVID lockdown here. We have such great memories of hanging out with SOBAD and Sweet Tea, and 30 other boats here. This time, there were only 4-6 boats, mostly on there way N after the usual cruising season has ended.

    What is different is the new Disney resort being constructed near the S point of Eleuthera. Rock Sound is the nearest freight dock, so instead of the usual weekly mailboat, there are daily boats and as we left, three in one day!

    Disney is constructiong a 1/2 mile long dock to accommodate cruise ships, and lodgings for 26 managers, 110 workers, and who knows how many guests. It is changing the economy, at least in the short term. I found men buying construction materials at The Lumber Shed, and ran into a couple having dinner at Frigates (Luke & Katz) from New York who work for a company sub-contracted by Disney to create “experience”. Longer-term, I certainly hope that Disney will recruit and train local employees.

    We only stayed long enough to re-taste Rock Sound, We got groceries at The Market (on par with George Town’s market), gas at Dingle’s, parts at The Lumber Shed, lunch at Louis Delight, and dinner at Frigates. Unusually, we did not make any new cruising friends!    Baca selengkapnya

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  • Sailing Bahamas 2024
    Hari 83–84

    Tarpum Bay Eleuthera

    18 Mei, Bahama ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We took the opportunity of a low-wind week to stop here, a totally unprotected seaside settlement of Eleuthera only 10 miles N of Rock Sound. The town is a typical beach-side town, with a beach, a seawall, and a beach highway with guest houses, bars and restaurants fronting. The water is spectacularly clear, with a clean sandy bottom and the occasional coral bommie. Two docks, one for large boats and another for fish cleaning jut out.

    We waited until after the mid-afternoon heat was past to go ashore. Others had survived by being in the shade, not moving. Around 4:30p we finally made it ashore and found locals and guests keeping cool in the water, where they have hammocks and swings. Others were at the fish dock, cleaning today's catch, or at the bars having a beer. We decided to walk (slowly) around the block to catch some sense of the town. Behind the sea front, the houses got smaller and sometimes more decrepit, but there were also ones that were being kept up. Bert's grocery store was pretty well stocked, but not for fresh food, which was minimal. The mailboats don't stop here, so they go to Rock Sound or Governors Harbor and pickup food at those docks (Tue and Fri).

    What we didn't expect is that ALL the restaurants are closed. The explanation is that things here are very seasonal and things open and close unexpectedly. No doubt this isn't quite the destination that Rock Sound is. But unlike Rock Sound's murky blue water, this beautiful water is clear as day.    Baca selengkapnya

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