Today we crossed into the Tropics

Today we crossed into the Tropics. We are currently located at N23.37.805 W 75.54.848. We drove into Georgetown that is located at N 23.30.704 W75.46.567. The Tropic of Cancer is at N 23.26.25 (appr) and we had dinner at N 26. 26.165 W 75.35.929. On March 20 the sun crossed the Equator and is headed for the Tropic of Cancer. On June 20, about 2 months it will be directly overhead here and that will be hurricane season. A view of the beach at the Tropic of Cancer.

With the sun rising earlier now I got up and went for an early morning run. His is the first time I did a run since Key West. It has been difficult to keep up with working out when we spend all the time aboard. I’ve often thought of swimming to shore with my shoes in a dry bag and then running but I need to limit my runs and often times there is no good place to swim in to. But, we have a fitness center here so tomorrow I plan to go there in the morning. Since it’s warming I can do more swimming which is an excellent all around workout.

After working out I took a very nice shower in the marina facilities. This is the first “regular” shower I’ve taken since Daytona Beach. Since we left Nassau we’ve been taking cockpit showers where we get wet with salt water, soap up and then rinse with the cockpit sprayer to save water. Other than that we’ve used the boat shower. But, it was nice to set a water temperature and just let the water run and I’m going to do it again tomorrow.

This morning for breakfast Linda made French Toast with the coconut bread we bought in Black Point. One of the elder ladies there made this excellent coconut bread with cinnamon and raisins. What a delight as French Toast. Before we left we bought a second loaf for the freezer.

Then we picked up our rental car and drove into Georgetown, the principal town in the Exumas. In the Bahamas they drive on the left side of the road and our rental car had the steering on the right. What an experience to have everything in driving a car exactly opposite to what I’ve done most of my life. We’ve driven on other islands where driving is on the left but it is always an experience. The gear shift is with the left hand, the rearview mirror is to the left and of course turns go into the left side of the road. We saw one gas station on the island so this morning we filled up so we wouldn’t have to later.

In Georgetown we went to the Exuma Market that was stocked because the boat just arrived on Thursday and it was very busy as the cruisers from the boats in the Harbor came in to stock up. Friday may have been better but we were able to score some fruits and vegetables that will hold us for another 2 weeks until we get back to Nassau. We did, however, get some frozen conch from a fish market that will go really well for dinner on Sunday. The availability of fresh food is a challenge in these remote locations that count on multiple links on the logistics chain for resupply. Again, shoppers in the US don’t appreciate how well they have it with the abundance of choice.

This evening we drove to Santana's Beach Bar that had been recommended to us by several folks. For some reason we didn’t see the lobster on the menu but I had conch and Linda ordered the grouper but we shared. It came with the usual cole slaw, peas and rice. It was good but everything was fried which is how most places here prepare food. Again, Americans don’t know how well they have food choice options. Santana’s is also south of the Tropic of Cancer.

We have been in the Tropics many times before but this is the first time we made it by sailing our own boat here. After we return north this summer we expect to return south this Fall into the tropics and continue traveling into the real sun belt. But for now, we made it.      

Made it to Georgetown

Well we made it to Georgetown, Exuma in the Bahamas today Friday 10 April. We left Black Point on Great Guana Cay pulling up the anchor about 0800. The anchor was dug in but we were able to use the boat power to break it free and then Linda winched the line I attached to the anchor and I pulled up the chain. The anchor came up fairly easily. With the wind blowing 15-20 we kept the boat under power so we were able to haul the anchor and keep the boat under control.

Once we got the ground tackle secured we went to sail and had a very nice sail down the Banks in the 15 kts of breeze quickly catching and passing several other boats. At one point Linda got on the helm and found the autopilot was on standby. We had been sailing for some time with nobody on the helm, autopilot off and the boat sailed in a straight line not far off the plotted course. That means the boat was perfectly balanced and sailing without any helm. A sailboat can be steered through trimming its sails appropriately for the heading. It’s always nice to get such a confirmation. Of course, the boat also has to be designed to sail true.

Since the weather was a concern we left open the option of stopping at Little Farmer’s Cay or continuing on to Georgetown. Forecast was for winds 15-20 from the E or SE with seas 4-6’ and chance of rain. When sailing down the Banks the winds were as forecasted but more to the SE. Coming down the inside that was fine but crossing over to the ocean would put it just off the nose. When we were approaching the decision point I saw a boat on AIS offshore and radioed him and ask about conditions. He told us pretty much what we already knew but it confirmed for us that we wouldn’t be in for any surprises so we agreed to push on. We figured that we would motor sail with the main and staysail to get lift and power from the wind but none of the sails would flog.

We motored out the Galliot Cut without any surprises. The tide was coming in and the wind was behind it so it was rather docile. In a matter of minutes we were out in the ocean. The ride was not too bad. We were able to average about 7 kts so the 27mile trip took less than 4 hours. The wind and waves were pretty much as advertised and going into the waves at the angle we did the ride was not bad at all. There were a few bigger waves but all in all the ride was pleasant.

Shortly after we began heading south out in the ocean we got a call on the radio from a sailor inquiring about the conditions. I gave him the details and assured him it wasn’t too bad but he opted to go Saturday instead. Our concern with waiting was that even though the wind was forecasted to be a little less it would be more SE and right on the nose. With the wind as it was today I can get power and lift from the sails. Tomorrow would just be a slog into wind and waves and even if the wind was a little less it would not be as good.

Conditions here are actually quite normal for the season. These are normal trade winds that blow from the east. Some days it blows more south than east, some days more northerly. Some days it blows 10-15 and some days it blows 15-20. Boats like ours are made for these conditions so why shy away. Just unfortunate that we couldn’t have sailed more.

Here in Georgetown we opted to stay just north of the Harbor where all the cruisers stay. We are in Emerald Bay Marina which is part of the Sandals resort here because we couldn’t resist the deal. At this marina (which is very nice) they have an option with no services that is $.50 a foot plus they have a 10% discount for active or retired military. They have very nice floating docks, nice heads we can use to take a “real” shower, no traffic, a fitness center, free laundry, free trash  and a pool all for less than the cost of a mooring. Tomorrow we are renting a car to go to drive into Georgetown for shopping and dining. We can bike here, we don’t have to use gas in our dinghy and we are still only minutes from the Tropic of Cancer. We are about 12 minutes as I calculate it.

Speaking of the Tropic of Cancer. There is a note on the charts that the Tropic line is an estimation and that each year it changes. The currently designated tropic line is from 2013 and that it moves south a slight amount each year as the result of shifts in the earth’s axis. What impacts does that have on climate change? Does driving a hybrid have an effect on that?

Here in the Bahamas most places charge for water and trash disposal. Trash disposal is an amount per bag either $2 or $5. In Black Point they have a trailer by the dock and ask for donations. Here the marina charge is $.40 a gallon which is typical. At the marina in Nassau they charged $8 a day for water. In the 9 days we spent there we paid $56 for water but no doubt used more water than if we paid $.40 a gal. We added water to our tank 2x and washed the boat so I’m sure we got our share.

Living on board in the islands requires adoption of new routines. They’re not difficult but less adventuresome folks may find it difficult sacrificing land-based routines developed over a lifetime. For me in all the years of camping and being in the woods these don’t seem so unusual. To sacrifice the familiar conveniences in exchange for the beauties and pleasures of being here seem a bargain well supported by the sunsets, the people we meet and the beauty of the sea.     

Enjoying Black Point

We motored over to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay from the bay in Big Majors Cay on Tuesday in heavy wind and rain squalls. We anchored off the Government Dock and went ashore to explore and make dinner reservations. This island has lots of amenities for cruisers. There are 3 or 4 good eateries, multiple internet access points, free trash, free water and a good laundry. Pickings in the stores is low since the mailboat came last week and not expected back soon.

Today we dumped our water cans into the tank and refilled them ashore. We added a total of 36 gals and the tank is almost full. We filled up before we left Nassau almost 10 days ago so we have been doing well on water. Probably will not need to get any water until we get back to Nassau. Of course we have been using heavy conservation measures to stretch our water. We've been washing our dishes in salt water with a fresh water rinse, getting wet in the sea and then soaping up with a fresh water rinse. Also, any rinse water we save and use for other gray water uses. Of course we've been flushing our head with sea water so in all we have been able to conserve very well.

There are many cruising boats here. Most are sailboats with a few power boats. Totally different than our last anchorage that had many mega-yachts with all their toys. So far most of the places we've been have been very crowded. Many of the cruisers are heading north but since this is spring break apparently lots of folks come to the Bahamas. Hopefully over the next few weeks things will thin out and we can find some secluded beaches to just hang out and enjoy the quiet and do some more time consuming boat chores.

We plan to head to Georgetown on Great Exuma Cay for a few days and that will be our turnaround before heading north.

At Home in the Bahamas

We’ve been here in the Bahamas over 2 weeks and in the Exumas over a week. We are currently anchored by Staniel Cay off Big Majors Cay. Our position is N24.11.12/W76.26.67. We are less than a degree of Latitude from the Tropic of Cancer which we hope to cross next week and more than 14⁰ from our origin in the Chesapeake. Considering the northern hemisphere is 90⁰ we will have covered 25% of the distance between the equator and the North Pole.

Tonight in Staniel Cay is the first night we’ve spent out of the Exumas Land and Sea Park in the past week. We spent 6 nights on 3 different islands. The Bahamas have done a great job preserving a bit of their natural state through the Park.

The sailing has been really great too. Each day we’ve sailed nicely in about 10 kts of easterly breeze. We’ve run the engine 10 hours since refueling upon our arrival in Nassau 2 weeks ago.  We haven’t run the generator so we’ve only used about 15 gals of fuel. The only reason we’ve used so much is to get into and out of our anchorages. Sailing along the islands we have been heading generally southeast and the wind has been easterly. But because of the shallows and coral heads we’ve had to run about 2 miles west of the islands so we need to motor into and out of the anchorage because going in is dead into the wind and coming out is dead down wind. Plus the occasional motor heats the water and ensures our batteries are fully charged. So far we have been able to maintain our batteries from our wind and solar.

Weather has been consistent each day with sunny skies and a comfortable breeze although tonight a squall came through with the first rain in over a week and rinsed off all the salt on the boat and brought in some much higher winds. Today we deployed our CQR anchor instead of our primary Rocna because it seemed like settled weather but with the change we may want to reconsider and deploy the Rocna. The water is only about 10’ deep (less at low tide) so diving on it to tie the retrieval line isn’t that difficult. So we will probably pull up our CQR and reanchor with our Rocna. Although this will be a test of using our CQR but we will be keeping anchor watch.

The anchorage here at Big Majors has about 30 boats this evening. Seems like each anchorage we’ve been in has been busy. Supposedly this is now less busy than say in February. But we keep looking for some solitude. So far the only place we found It was by dinghying up the creeks on Shroud Cay. Each day sailing we pass numerous boats mostly headed north. Much of the traffic has been large motor yachts that come loaded with toys. We saw 2 here in the anchorage that in addition to jet skis, boston whaler’s and paddle boards had portable waterslides! Lots of boats seem to be crowded with kids probably on Spring Break. While snorkeling the airplane wreck reef we tied up next to a skiff with a family from Arlington, VA that was staying on Staniel for the week. No doubt on Spring Break.

It’s now been 4 months since we left Oxford and cold weather. Although we had some chilly weather in Florida there was still nothing as bad as up north. Since about the time we left Marathon the day time temps have been in the 80’s and lows probably in the 70’s. We had the AC on a couple times in Nassau and Key West but generally it had been pretty comfortable.

Most of the people we’ve met spend the winter months on their boats in the warm weather but have a home they go to other times during the year. While we still have some organization issues and some additional repairs and upgrades to accomplish things seem to be falling into place and living on the boat instead of a house just seems natural. The boat is where we sleep, prepare food and get out of the weather but the outside is where we do everything else. The sound of the wind and water is very soothing.

Tonight we enjoyed a very nice dinner that Linda prepared along with our last bottle of 2005 Del Dotto Cabernet while we watched the sun set. One of the beauties of this life is that we get to see the sun set almost every day and often the sunrise. Among all the art galleries in the world there is nothing as beautiful as the sun crossing the horizon as it does each day where it can be seen. A close second is the sky at night with no light pollution to destroy the deepness of the universe and the brilliance of each star no matter how far away it is.

Tomorrow the canvas gets painted again and we have a new port to explore.

We spent the last day of March exploring Shroud Cay. The island is actually very big but it is a few outcroppings of rock with lots of tidal wetlands that are covered with mangroves. In the morning we dinghied up to a creek that went back into the mangrove but since it was nearing low tide we couldn’t get back far. So after some walking about we headed back to the boat.

In the afternoon we went to a creek near the south end of the island where we found a very nice secluded beach and enjoyed the sun, sand and water. After enjoying the beach for a while we were able to dinghy up the creek as the tide was coming in and flooding the low spots.  

Shroud Cay is part of the Exumas Land and Sea Park that is an effort to preserve some piece of the original Bahamian landscape. Wednesday we moved further down the chain to another island piece of the Park, Warderick Wells which is the primary island in the Park. Tuesday afternoon we called to reserve a mooring and got on the list.

Tuesday the weather finally cleared off in the afternoon and it was perfectly clear without a cloud in the sky. As the sun drew to the horizon we could watch it sink into the ocean on its way to coming back up Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday morning we listened to the Park broadcast and learned that we were lucky enough to get a mooring so we worked up the anchor and left. It was a beautiful day for a sail with between 8-10 kts of wind just ahead of the beam so we sailed about 6 kts until we had to turn into Warderick Wells which was right into the wind.

Since getting fuel in Nassau when we arrived there we’ve run the engine 7 hrs which should have burned not more than 11 gals of fuel. So we should have no problem. If we return to the Beaufort, NC from the Abacos we will probably want to top off before we leave.

We motored into the narrow channel and got our mooring. We arrived at just about low tide with a strong following current. The channel is just wide enough for boats of our length to swing 360’ so coming in we stayed close to the boats already on moorings and went past our mooring and turned where there was an empty mooring and came back up into the current and got our mooring ball. Being low tide the channel was easily discernible because much of the shallows were dry or nearly dry. At high tide the channel is less well defined.

After checking in we went for a hike across the island to Boo Boo Hill. The highest spot on the island and so named because supposedly at full moon you can hear ghosts from a ship that wrecked offshore back in the early 19^th century.

Most of the islands we’ve seen so far have been low rock outcroppings covered with mangrove and scrub palm. Lots of old conch shells. On the beaches there are crab holes and a couple different types of lizards. We haven’t been to the Iguana islands yet but we got very close and personal with one little lizard.

We plan to spend a few days here in the Park before heading on. Probably Sunday or Monday we’ll be on Staniel Cay and be able to get full internet and upload pictures. 

Our first day in the Exumas

In other hemispheres I think today was Monday but here in the land of no Mondays we made our traditional Sunday morning breakfast of pancakes and bacon since we didn’t do it yesterday before we left Nassau. All of these new places and things are so exciting that we celebrate everything.

Our first night in the Exumas was enjoyable with a beautiful sunset and a gorgeous sunrise to the new day. We took a leisurely morning before deciding to move on to Shroud Cay. It was a split decision. I was just as happy to stay but Highbourne Cay had little to do so we decided to move on to Shroud Cay.

Last night we started washing our dishes in salt water and I dumped the gray water overboard. This morning after I dumped the water I saw about 6 or 8 Remoras swimming through the dump looking for food morsels. Later when I was swimming I saw them hiding under the boat waiting for a new handout. 

As we were pulling up the anchor we continued to have issues with our windlass. We tried to address them before but this morning while raising the anchor our windlass died. The motor burned out so we were stuck with our anchor now dragging with only 25’ of chain out in 15’ of water. We have a 75# anchor and 25’ of chain in the water that weighs about 3# a foot. Trying to bring that up in 15’ of water by hand would have been impossible.

So I decided to dive on the anchor with my spinnaker sheet which is 3/8” line and I tied it around the roll bar and then led it up through the bow roller to the jib sheet winch in the cockpit. The spinnaker sheet is one of the longest lines we have at 90’ so it provided plenty of length. I was going to use one of our 50’ anchor lines but it probably would not have been long enough or fit into the winch well. Linda winched the sheet and I pulled up the chain and it came right up. With the winch pulling the weight I could easily lift the chain. We pulled it in and secured it and motored off the Shroud Cay.

The wind had dropped down to single digits so we motor sailed and made it to the Exumas Park and Shroud Cay about 1500 and dropped the anchor and got settled in. Dropping the anchor was easy. I simply disengaged the clutch on the windlass and the anchor fell to the bottom. We anchored in about 10’ of water so retrieving it would not be as hard as in 15’ of water. After we had the anchor set I dived down to check it and it was dug in well so we should be good until we’re ready to leave. When we’re ready to leave I will dive on it again and attach the sheet to retrieve it. Add the windlass to our issues to resolve when back in CONUS.

The anchorage here really filled up. We were hoping to get a mooring to avoid the anchor issue but they were all filled. After we anchored several boats with lots of people came in and the noise is still going. We’ve been looking for solitude but it ain’t here. Maybe many will leave tomorrow and we will have a beach to ourselves.

Tonight we watched another movie after dinner since there is no TV or Wi-Fi reception.  There was a beautiful sunset with many shades of red and gray. The pictures really do not fully depict the beauty of the sunsets. Only God could make a sky so beautiful.

Tomorrow we’re off to explore the island. 

Nassau in the rear view mirror

Due to limited band width pix will be uploaded later.

After considerable deliberation about the weather we launched from our slip and made the approximately 30 nm trip from Nassau to Highbourne Cay in the northern Exumas in about 5 hours. Winds were blowing in the upper teens and low twenties for most of the trip. Instead of taking the rhum line we opted to take the route around the Yellow Bank because with the sea state, visibility for coral heads was limited due to the poor water clarity caused by the rough conditions. Leaving Nassau Harbor was slow as we secured all of our docking gear and worked into the flow of traffic until we got clear of the narrow passage and turned south.

Winds were out of almost true north and the first leg of the trip was almost due south so we were almost dead downwind and given the proximity of coral heads we had reefed sails to go slow so that we could pick our way through the Yellow Bank. After we cleared the Bank and turned southeast we went to full sail and increased our speed running between 7.5 and 8.5 knots for that leg. We were being lazy and didn’t use our staysail as we were enjoying the sail and didn’t need the extra speed. There was a lot of chop and some fairly good size waves for the shallow water.

Highbourne Cay is a very popular anchorage and there are probably 20 boats anchored here. There is some protection from the north wind but the wind is supposed to clock around to the east overnight and this should provide good protection. In any event the chop is not too bad here so it is comfortable. We anchored in about 15 feet of water and our anchor caught pretty quickly.

There really isn’t much to do on this Cay so we will head further down the coat to Shroud Cay tomorrow. The trip is less than 10 miles so no need to start early. With an east wind it should be an easy sail. From here it is an island to island hop down to Georgetown, the principal town in the Exumas. No hurry to get there and we’re looking for some islands with privacy so we’ll take our time. We can spend as much or as little time at each place as we want. We’re looking for the deserted secluded beach and hopefully we’ll find it.

After the front passed on Saturday the weather got really chilly. Today the high was only in the 70’s. We expect it to warm up back into the 80’s because we want to get into the water and enjoy some of the beaches. Water temp is near 80 but coming out into cool temps is not fun.  But, it’s warm enough to swim in for some exercise which I will do when we get some sunny days.

This morning when we checked out of the marina I finally got the fuel bill from when we checked in. We used almost 43 gals of fuel for 34 hours of motoring. A rate of 1.26 gals/hr. So far for the entire trip since we fueled up in Herrington Harbour we’ve burned about 1.57 gal/hr which seems relatively good considering we burned about 1.3 gal/hr in our 380 that was a smaller boat with a smaller engine. We average at least 7 kts an hour so with our 160 gal tank we have a range of over 700 miles. 

Hopefully we never need to motor that far but it’s nice to know and given the price in the Bahamas we may be able to make it back to the US before needing to top off. Although 2 months is a long time to let the tank low. We have 5 gals in a jerry can and if we don’t use a lot we might be fine. Today we didn’t motor more than an hour in total. We haven’t run our generator much so that hasn’t been a factor. We did run it the other night for AC when the power was off. But, it only burns about .25 gal/hr so no big deal there. We don’t have that many hours on it yet but maybe we will have more now that we will be on the hook more.

In Nassau we saw lots of mega yachts in our marina and coming and going in the Harbor. Today on the way down we saw several and there are quite a few anchored here with us. One in particular pulled in just before sundown and anchored right where we want to take sundown photos so you will see it in our sundown pix.

Tonight for dinner Linda made her very great pasta dinner complete with one of our remaining bottles of truly great wine that we had from when we had a house. It was a bottle of Del Dotto Clay Pot Zinfandel 2009 that we bought in Napa Valley. It had not lost one iota of flavor in spite of the move from our wine cooler to the boat and then to this boat. We are sorry to see the end of that purchase.  It is difficult to buy good wines for the boat since we don’t have a good storage for them. So we are limited to wines we can keep or wines we can buy and consume fairly quickly. Good wines quickly degrade in warm temps.

We spent about 10 days in Nassau and will be spending more later in April when some friends come to visit. Despite all the bad cruiser press we enjoyed our time there. Lots of good restaurants, good shopping and the people were very friendly. There are a variety of marine supply stores that I found to have needed stock. As I think I discussed earlier it is no different than other tropical cities. If you don’t like Nassau, don’t go to any city on Hispaniola, Central America, South America, the Virgin Islands, most Caribbean islands, New York or Florida. They are as bad or worse. I agree that it is not my idea of Paradise, but any place that’s warm, has palm trees and friendly people can’t be all bad.