Category: Sailing 2022 – 2023

Evelyn and Caroline caught their WestJet flight home on Monday, March 13 at 2 pm. We had the best visit and I know they had a fantastic time exploring the Exumas with us. The boat is way too empty now and we will definitely miss having them onboard. Mark and I spent Monday afternoon getting the boat ready to leave the marina on Tuesday morning. We did more laundry; washed the decks; filled our water tanks and did a bit more grocery shopping.

Early Tuesday morning, we left the Nassau Harbour Club marina and were headed out of the east end of the harbour before 8am. The winds were predicted to be from the west at around 15 knots so we were hoping for a good sail to Spanish Wells. We put all sails up just after we passed Rose Island and had a great sail most of the way to Spanish Wells. We also had the tide with us so we saw some pretty good speeds!! Just after lunch, the rain caught up with us but it only lasted about 30 minutes. This was the first rain we’ve had in a very long time!!

We arrived at the Spanish Wells south anchorage around 3pm and we anchored close to shore. We were expecting strong north east winds on Wednesday and Thursday so we wanted to be tucked in for better protection. Wednesday was a cool, windy day so we just stayed onboard and relaxed. That night we had a fairly good rainstorm and it was a great temperature for sleeping.

Today (Thursday) we decided to head into Spanish Wells. We’ve been here several times in previous seasons and it is one of my favourite towns. There are lots of colourful homes and the community has many little shops and restaurants. We had a great walk around the town and ended our visit with lunch at Budda’s Snack Shack.

In the morning we’ll be pulling up anchor and heading about 7 nm southwest to Egg Island. We’ll anchor there for the night and then cross over to the Abacos on Saturday. Our plan is to hangout in the Abacos, visit with our friends Julia and Brad and then make our way back to West End by the first or second week of April. We’ll jump off from there and sail all the way up to St. Augustine (avoiding the ICW!!).

Our final weekend with the girls has arrived – way too quickly. We’ve had the best time and managed to explore all the areas we thought the girls would enjoy. We did travel back up to Cambridge Cay and we had a perfect day for our visit to Rachael’s bubble bath. We also walked a few beaches on Compass Cay and spent some quality relax time on Cambridge.

On Thursday (March 9) we had a great sail up to Shroud Cay. All 3 sails were deployed and we saw speeds in the mid 7 knots. We anchored around lunchtime at Shroud and did a little exploring in the mangroves. Unfortunately it was low tide when we arrived and we could only go into the creeks a very short distance before they became too shallow.

Friday we made our way north to Nassau. We anchored for the night on the north east side of New Providence and came into the marina this morning (Saturday, March 11). The girls and I did a bit of souvenir shopping in downtown Nassau and tonight we’re going out for dinner. We’ll have one more full day together before Evelyn and Caroline fly out on Monday!!

It’s hard to believe the first week of Evelyn and Caroline’s visit is almost at an end. We’ve been having the best time and have explored Cambridge Cay, O’Brien Cay, Black Point and Staniel Cay. The weather has been perfect but the wind has been quite low so we’ve only managed one sail. Our days have been filled with swimming, snorkeling and walking. And at night we’ve played many games of scattegories!!

Our original plan was to stay at Cambridge Cay for 5 nights (leaving today – Sunday, March 5) and then to head south to Black Point. Well our batteries had a different plan. We woke Thursday morning to some very low batteries so we decided to motor to Black Point to charge them up. We replaced our old batteries with new lithium ones back in November. Lithium batteries charge at a higher rate so the charger on the solar panel needed to be adjusted to match these settings. We were not getting great charging from the panel so Mark changed some of the setting on the solar panel charger and now we are doing great!!

Before we left Cambridge, we did manage to spend some time snorkeling the sea aquarium. We also explored the little bay at O’Brien Cay. We spent a good deal of time in the sun and all of us had a bit of a sunburn by the end of the day.

On our way to Black Point, we made a short stop at Bitter Guana Cay. Here the girls had a chance to see the iguanas that live on the island. They also walked the beach! The anchorage here was a bit too bouncy and rolly so we moved over to the anchorage at Black Point. We did a bit of grocery shopping on Friday, plus walked out to the blow hole just north of the Black Point Settlement. It was another hot, sunny day! We decided to have dinner at the Black Point Yacht Club’s Friday night happy hour. This is a new restaurant that has a great view of the harbour and the sunset. We had delicious food, some really strong rum punch and a great view of the sunset!! The next morning (Saturday) I did some laundry and we decided to head back to Staniel Cay – we really needed milk, bread and veggies. Black Point was very low on everything- they didn’t have a mailboat this week!!

We were fortunate to be able to sail back to Staniel Cay on Saturday and arrived just after lunch. We went ashore to find the Staniel Cay grocery stores also very low on everything. We did get milk but no bread and very few veggies!! Oh well!

Today we snorkeled an area called the cookie jar (which Mark and I had snorkeled just before the girls arrived). We went very close to slack tide and had a great time. We saw lots of healthy coral and many fish – including a big barracuda. We also saw a sea turtle cruising around the coral.

On Monday we’ll try to get some bread from Staniel Cay and then we’re heading back up to Cambridge Cay to explore the island itself and maybe go to Rachael’s bubble bath on Compass Cay!

For the first time, both Evelyn and Caroline have joined us in the Bahamas. Caroline has been down 3 other times but this is Evelyn’s first trip!! They left Toronto on Monday Feb. 27th early morning and took a WestJet flight to Nassau. After a 3 hour layover, they boarded a small inter-island flight on Flamingo Air and headed to Staniel Cay. Evelyn and Caroline loved this little flight – small plane (only 15 seats) with a great view of the Exumas.

We had arrived at Staniel Cay well in advance of Feb. 27th and were all ready for the girls’ arrival. We headed to the airport (okay it is an airport but it’s basically a fence and a couple of buildings!!) and waited for their plane to arrive! It was a bit late but they got in around 5 pm. We had an awesome rib dinner that night and sat out on the bow looking at the stars.

Early Tuesday morning we pulled up anchor, filled our water tanks at Staniel Cay Yacht Club and then headed north to Cambridge Cay. We’ve had the most unusually calm weather this season – many days of low to no wind and Tuesday was one of those days. We motored the short 15 nm and arrived at Cambridge Cay at lunchtime. After lunch we did our first exploring. We took the dinghy over to Rocky Dundas – an island near Compass Cay that has amazing caverns. The weather was perfect for exploring and we saw tons of fish, coral and of course, the caves! We also dinghied over to the south east side of Cambridge Cay and swam the coral reef out there – lots of fish and the coral was definitely better looking then last year.

Evelyn and Caroline have 2 weeks with us and we plan to see as much as we can in that time! Today we’ll be exploring the sea aquarium and doing a reef drift (you float above the reef with the dinghy in tow) in the afternoon. We have another amazingly calm day!!

We’ve had a very relaxing stay at Great Guana Cay, spending most of our time in the north anchorage at Black Point Settlement. This large anchorage was perfect for the wind direction we’ve had all week but we did do an overnight stay at Little Bay (which is the anchorage on the south side of Black Point).

One of the great aspects of cruising is meeting fellow cruisers. Back when we were at Cambridge Cay, we met 2 couples – one from North Carolina and the other from Ottawa. The couple from North Carolina were on a boat named Moon Pie. The Ottawa folks were on Bagatelle. Both had the same boat – a Beneteau 361. It was fun to chat with these cruisers and we also gave the Bagatelle couple a tour of our boat (they want to upgrade to a larger sailboat with a centre cockpit.)

Another cool thing about sailing in the Bahamas is that it’s easy to see the same boats – over and over again. We moved over to Little Bay on Monday and as we got close to the shore, we see Bagatelle anchored!! It turned out that this sailboat is actually owned by 3 couples so we ended up meeting the second owners. We spent a bit of time with this couple (who are also from Ottawa) on Monday, exploring a bit of coral and then walking to the beach on the ocean side where you can find lots of sea glass. The winds changed overnight and we decided to head back to the north anchorage at Black Point on Tuesday. Bagatelle also made the move back to the north anchorage.

On Wednesday morning we took the dinghy to the beach to do some maintenance and repair on the dinghy outboard. As we were getting ready to head for the beach, I noticed Moon Pie was right beside us!!! So that afternoon we had happy hour on our boat with the couples from Bagatelle and Moon Pie. It was great fun to chat and learn more about everyone!!

Today (Thursday) we sailed back to Big Major! We had a great sail (even if it was short – only 9nm) and got into the anchorage a little after 11am. We’ll be hanging out here until Evelyn and Caroline arrive on Monday!! Very excited for their visit!

We left Big Major on Feb. 15, heading south a grand total of 9nm to Black Point. The wind was blowing from the east / south east – in the 20 knots range. It was great leaving Big Major – we had the jib and mizzen deployed and working well. We were moving along nicely with the wind behind us. When we turned the corner to head south east to Black Point, the wind was more upwind (which we don’t sail well). We had a great sail but not quite in the right direction. We ended up taking our sails down and motoring into the anchorage at Black Point.

Black Point is definitely one of our favourite places in the Exumas. It’s a small settlement that has managed to keep a true Bahamian flavour while providing good facilities for cruisers. They have one of the best laundries in the Bahamas where you can wash your clothes; buy supplies at the little store; have a shower; get your hair cut; have a wonderful Bahamian bbq and if you walk over to Lorraine’s Cafe, you can get a beer!! We spent our day today doing laundry and Mark got a haircut. We also bought the BBQ lunch that we took back to the boat – it was very good!!

The anchorage is quite large and by the end of today, there’s probably 50 boats here. It’s really cool being part of a community of cruisers all anchored in this lovely bay. As night falls, all the masthead lights come on. The harbour is full of lights both on the water and on shore. It’s very hard to explain how peaceful it is to be here with all these boats. We are so fortunate to be here!!

We’ll be hanging around Black Point for another week. Evelyn and Caroline arrive at Staniel Cay on Feb. 27th. We’ll head back up there the end of next week. Until then, we’ll enjoy this wonderful spot!!

I recently read an article that highlighted 50 tourist destinations around the world that are not worth visiting and the Swimming Pigs at Staniel Cay made the list. Many tourist come to Big Major Spot to see pigs – they’re just pigs! As we sit here anchored in the late afternoon, it’s finally quiet – no tour boats or planes (yes float planes bring tourist to swim with pigs – I kid you not!) are visiting the pigs.

We rode out the weekend north blow at Cambridge and that was a great decision. I need to talk about our anchor right now. At the end of last season, we were both unhappy with the performance of the 80lb Manson anchor we bought from a couple at Reynolds. We thought it would be an excellent anchor (it’s huge!!) but instead the anchor was difficult to set and it dragged a few times. We’ve already had chats about replacing this anchor for next season. Well I think the anchor has been listening to us (and Mark has figured out some tricks to make it work well). So far it has been rock solid!! It’s been setting well and holding in strong clocking wind and also in strong current areas where the boat rotates directions with the current. It is definitely redeeming itself. Will it be enough – the jury is still out on that one!!

We decided to leave Cambridge on Monday (Feb. 13) to head to Staniel Cay. We really needed more fresh veggies, milk and bread and Staniel is the closet settlement with little grocery stores. We had a great downwind sail on Monday and made the 12 nm trip in about 1.5 hours. When we arrived at Big Major (this is the closest large anchorage to Staniel Cay) the north wind had created a bouncy, rolling mess!! We decided not to anchor there and instead continued to the east side of Big Major which is called between the Majors. This is a channel that runs between Big Major and Little Major. It was a great decision and we had a fairly calm night.

This morning we made the move over to Big Major. The wind had died down and all was calm! As we came into the anchorage we slowed and started looking for a good spot – keeping an eye out for the crazy tourist speedboats as well as other cruisers coming in. What we weren’t looking for was a float plane that landed about 30 ft off our bow!!!! I can’t even begin to explain how surprised we were – a plane landed in front of us – so now you have to check the sky too!!!!

We did get into town for a few groceries and we took the dinghy out for a spin around the islands here. We’ll only stay tonight – tomorrow we’ll head down to Black Point for awhile!

We left Rock Sound on Tuesday, Feb. 7 with excellent north east wind. We were hoping to be underway around 7am but the starter motor for the engine had another plan. We were all ready to start the engine and pull up the anchor – I turned the key and nothing happened – not even the “dead battery” sound. Mark went into his home away from home – the engine room – and tried several different things to get the engine to start. After 20 minutes of trying various things, Mark just bypassed the starter switch and started the engine. Not the best way to begin a 48 nm trip but at least we could leave the anchorage.

Our first stop was at Cape Eleuthera Marina to fill up our water tanks. Last year when we got rid of our diesel generator, we also got rid of our old water maker and we haven’t replaced it yet. We are very fortunate that our water tanks are large – we can carry over 250 gallons of water in our 3 tanks. Last time we filled up was in Vero Beach on Jan. 17th and we only took on 140 gallons at Cape Eleuthera Marina!! That works out to about 6.5 gallons of water a day!!

Our sail across the Exuma Sound was amazing. The wind was on our aft port quarter (left side at the back) and we had all 3 sails up with a reef in the main sail (reefing makes your sail slightly smaller – we had a lot of wind!). We had wind in the low 20knots for the whole trip and we were cruising along nicely with boat speeds in the low 7 knots. We did see one 9.3knot speed but that was only for a brief time. With strong wind you also get larger waves! The waves were mostly in the same direction as the wind so we were being pushed around a bit from the stern. It was a spirited ride – or some would call it a bit “salty”. We arrived at Cambridge Cay by 4pm and ended up anchoring close to the shore. Lots of boats were in this anchored when we arrived but it’s fairly large and there was space.

It’s Thursday, Feb. 9th and the wind is still blowing but from the east now. Mark spent yesterday fixing the starter switch – it turned out that the bracket holding the solenoid that starts the engine had rusted, causing the solenoid to disconnect. Mark made a new bracket for the solenoid and replaced some of the cables and the engine started like it was brand new!! We relaxed for the rest of the day and just watched boats come and go from the anchorage. Today we walked across Cambridge Cay to the ocean side and watched the waves roll in! With all this wind, the Exuma Sound is very rough! Glad we’re not out there today!

We’ll probably hang around Cambridge for a few more days – we’re expecting strong wind that will be clocking around from east to north over the next few days.

On Friday morning we went for a walk around Tarpum Bay. It was a very pretty little town that has been nicely kept up. Local fishermen were bringing in their catch for the day and many other locals were walking around. Everyone was super friendly and wished us a pleasant day. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed back to the boat.

Our plan for the day was to get into Rock Sound (a short 14 nm trip south of Tarpum Bay) early Friday afternoon and dig our anchor in for the predicted blow on the weekend. Mark fixed the water pump pulley the night before but Friday morning was the first time we started the engine after the repair. It started perfectly but within a few minutes, the tachometer stopped working and there was a terrible smell coming from inside the boat. I stopped the engine and Mark went to work (again). We were fortunate that the wind was coming from the south so I pulled out the jib and we managed a slow 3kts sail. After several attempts to fix the problem, Mark determined it was better to disconnect the alternator all together and just motor into Rock Sound as quickly as we could. Without the alternator, we can’t charge our batteries (leaving wind and solar to charge the batteries). Our batteries were slightly depleted from the night before and with the low winds we’ve been having, our wind generator hasn’t kept up with our energy consumption.

We arrived at Rock Sound by 1pm Friday and took the day off to relax and regroup. The predicted winds showed up on Saturday along with a little bit of rain. Mark spent the afternoon on Saturday diagnosing our alternator problem. It turned out not to be the alternator that melted but the external regulator (it’s regulates the output of the alternator helping it charge our batteries more efficiently). The smell was coming from it!!! When the water pump pulley fell off, it also disconnected part of the charging system. This disconnection led to the end of the regulator. Good news – the alternator was fine and it had a built in regulator. We’ll be running on this for awhile to see if our batteries can be charged well enough. Luckily it’s been very windy here so with the combination of wind and solar, we’ve managed to break even with charging our batteries and our consumption.

It sure has been a rough few days for Crimson Kathryn and Mark! Lots of problem solving going on and repairs on the fly! Not really want you want but at least Mark is excellent at this stuff. It’s also a bit disappointing that the things that are breaking now are not old – they don’t make things like they used to!!

We’ll be in Rock Sound until Tuesday morning when we’ll sail across to Cambridge Cay in the Exumas. The weather prediction for that day shows some good sailing wind so we’re hoping for an excellent sail to the Exumas.

The time came for us to say goodbye to Hope Town and continue our journey south. We left after lunch on Jan. 30th and sailed south to Lynyard Cay. Just as we were leave Hope Town harbour, we noticed a small sailboat named T for two leaving ahead of us. We helped this solo sailor (Mark from Ottawa) pick up a mooring in Hope Town and we’ve chatted with him a few times onshore. We radioed him and he decided to tag along with us down to Lynyard. That night we had a little happy hour on our boat with Mark and we came up with a plan to buddy together across to Eleuthera on Wednesday.

At 7am Wednesday morning we jumped off from the Abacos heading to Egg Island, Eleuthera. We had a super calm day which meant a very long motor! Lots of tankers were out and also a few sailboats. Mark on T for Two followed behind us and we were occasionally in contact via the radio. His little 28ft boat was powered by an outboard motor so he had a hard time hearing our radio hails.

During long passages like this one, Mark likes to get the fishing rod out. We had been underway for a few hours when Mark hooked something really big! I have never heard the reel feed out so quickly!! I thought we would run out of line! Mark quickly grabbed the rod and started to haul the fish in. I saw it jump out of the water once and it was a big one! Moments later the darn thing broke the wire leader and took off with our lucky lure! It’s actually kind of fortunate that this fish got away – not sure how we would have got it onboard!!

About halfway through our 52nm trip, Mark and I decided to not stop at Egg Island but to continue on to Current Cut. This would set us up nicely to get across the bight of Eleuthera and into Rock Sound before a big blow that is predicted for Saturday-Sunday. Our friend on T for Two decided to stay with the original plan so we left him at Egg Island. We continued to Current Cut and anchored there on Wednesday night.

Today (Feb. 2) started off with an easy pass through Current Cut (this cut can have a strong current if you don’t time your passage well). It was another bad wind day so we had to motor again. We decided to head for Tarpum Bay – an area of southern Eleuthera we haven’t seen. All was going well until we were about 2 nm from our anchorage. Mark was down below and I was at the helm when the engine started making an unusual sound (never a good thing)! Within minutes that sound abruptly stopped and the engine temperature soared upwards!! Quickly I turned off the engine and Mark scoped out the damage (in the incredibly warm engine room). It turned out the pulley fell off the water pump. This is very fixable but not when the engine is hot. So you might be thinking well it’s a sailboat – just start sailing!! If only we could have but unfortunately the wind was on our nose and useless for us! So Mark did the best he could to reconnect the pulley (basically hammered it back on) so we could limp into the anchorage. What should have been a 2:30pm arrival, turned into a 3:20pm arrival and a big challenge to set our anchor without our engine. It took some ingenuity on Mark’s part to set our anchor (he used the dinghy to pull the boat backwards to dig in the anchor) and here we are! It’s a lovely little settlement and we will do some exploring tomorrow morning!