Since leaving New Providence, we’ve had some great sailing days. The wind has been strong and the sailing has been salty (lots of water on the deck) but we’ve made it all the way to Staniel Cay and are now waiting for the south wind to turn west so we can jump down to Lee Stocking Island and then George Town.
Our first stop after leaving the dock was Hawksbill Cay (Feb. 8). This island is inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We arrived in the afternoon and had no trouble finding a good spot to anchor amongst the mooring balls. There were 4 other boats already in the anchorage and we were joined by a few more later in the afternoon. It was a calm, quiet stop. It was nice to be back at anchor!
We took our time leaving Hawksbill in the morning because we only had about 28nm to travel south to Staniel Cay. It was another salty sailing day with the wind blowing 15 – 20 knots from the east. Unfortunately, we were heading south east and the wind direction made it very difficult for us to sail. After trying for over an hour, we ended up motor sailing with just the main sail still up. This was the first time we’ve been able to sail on that tack (boat heeled over so the port side is out of the water)!! Mark’s new engine thru hull worked like a charm and the engine stayed nice and cool because it had loads of water! We got into the anchorage at Big Major around 2pm and found a good spot to anchor.
Saturday morning (Feb. 10) we launched the dinghy and headed to Staniel Cay. It was laundry day!! It took most of the morning to do our laundry but while the clothes were in the dryer, we managed to get to the little grocery stores and to pick up our bread order!! My friend Jane told me about this bakery on Staniel that you can email in your order. I did just that on Friday afternoon. We ordered so much bread: 2 plain loaves, 2 coconut loaves, 1 cinnamon raisin loaf plus 2 chocolate chip banana breads and 2 coconut banana breads! All these loaves are now in our freezer to be shared with our guests when we are in Turks & Caicos!!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday (those of you who follow football are probably very aware of this) – we had no idea until we saw all the booze moving around Staniel Cay on Saturday. Everywhere we looked, someone was carrying a case of beer and other bottles. I forgot to mention that the laundry mat is also a liquor store (strange I know) so there was lots of action there. There will be several parties on the island tonight! Time to light the boat up like a Christmas tree so all those drunken fools in powerboats don’t hit us on their way home tonight!!😁 We’ll celebrate by not going to a party and relaxing on our boat instead.
Our plans for getting to Turks & Caicos are starting to take shape. On Tuesday, Feb. 13, we’ll jump down to Lee Stocking Island. The next day we’ll get to George Town and then wait for favourable wind to either jump to Conception Cay or maybe go the south route to Long Island and then Crooked Island. It all depends on the wind!!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 