Author: Cookies

Part of the fun of being a full time live aboard cruiser is to hear from older sailors who sailed the world or area without gps and internet based weather apps and many of the conveniences of today sailing vessels. Today we have adjustable rolling furling mains and jibs and equipment to auto steer our course and very accurate charts that show our exact position. Just 20 years ago would have to “hank” on different sized jibs or manually reef the main sail. Navigation was often compass and celestial navigation and paper charts. Weather was a barometer. Lighting was pressured kerosene.

To remind us of the old school sailing methods and times we have gotten a few books onboard where we read about solo world passages in smaller boats with very low tech compared to todays highly complicated boats of systems with plumbing, navigation electronics and electrical solar etc.

We returned back to Marsh Harbour so our guest could fly back to California while we re provision for our next set of guests in 3 days.

We were able to dinghy and then walk to the mermaid reef for snorkeling just a short distance from the boat.

We sailed from archer cay this morning to Scotland cay to do some snorkeling outside the bank on the reef.

We discovered another nice beach and quiet swim cove between Scotland cay and Guana cay.

We later sailed down Guana cay for an area with better south east winds protection.

We sailed from man o war to Hope Town during higher 20-30 knot winds and anchored below the light house. We did a longer bike to the end island and walked out at tahiti beach.

We sailed from Marsh Harbour to Man O war cay. We spent two nights there since the wind was blowing so hard from the east making it difficult to move to a new anchorage.

We sailed to Egg cay near Spanish wells to position ourselves for a 3 am crossing to the Abacos – about 50 miles.

We got up early and headed north for the little harbour cut into the Abacos.

We spent one night at lynyard cay before we headed up toward Hope Town.

On route to Hope town we snorkeled at one of the best snorkeling spots in the Bahamas called Sandy cay.

A very stormy night near Hope Town but the next day was sunny as we explored Hope Town and sailed over to Marsh Harbour.

We had a pleasant sail from Looking glass windows to Spanish Well yesterday to first anchor during a west wind blow at Meeks before anchoring infront of Spanish well area.

We hiked all around this big town and beach and had dinner with other cruisers at a restaurant.

We learned a bit more about the history of this island and its inhabitants. It appears that this island was populated during the loyalist period during 1776 when some left the United States and wish to remain loyal to the British.

Some of those colonist who left and sailed here was the 4 Pinder brothers. One landed here and this island and to this day is filled with many Pinder descendants. We visited the cemetery and almost half or more were pinder family stones.

We sailed about 10 miles north to get to the famous looking glass tiny piece of land that separates the Atlantic and the Bahamas Eleutheras calm bays. When seas are high on the Atlantic the swells sends water thru a small elevated cut in the rock.

We anchored in hatchet bay for the two day wind event. The wind started at the predicted time and has been blowing for over 24 hours. It will continue to blow 25-30 until tomorrow when we will start sailing again.

This really a great safe harbor for 360 protection!

We did two longer hikes to the Atlantic and other walks around the town. In the late afternoon we got together with other cruisers for a short social event on our boat.

After doing another beach walk on the Atlantic we sailed about 15 miles to hatchet bay that offers 360 degree wind protection for the anticipated wind event starting tomorrow afternoon.

It was blowing15-20 behind us so we sailed at a nice 5-6 knots with just the jib.

Three dolphins would jump up and followed our boat for a bit and then disappeared and come back 15 minutes later and do it again.

We stopped back in governors for some wind protection before we will seek real protection from another northerly front in a place with 360 degree protection which we move again soon.

This night the harbor was busy with 40 boats on route to destinations north.

On Friday night we did the world famous governors fish fry with locals and visitors cruisers.

This time we did our long hike to the Atlantic and explored the abandoned club med site.

The old club med site is filled with coconut trees where we found one that brought back to the boat for extracting milk and pulp.

We were lucky to stop at this nearly empty anchorage at Palmetto point for the Eleutheras farm which was open on Friday.

We hiked over to the farm and had amazing cinnamon rolls and picked up fresh bread and several vegetables from this local garden and nursery at this location.

Later we snorkeled the pineapple cays here and motored to governors harbor.

Today we sailed 56 miles from the Exumas to the Eleutheras chain of islands across a wide 50 mile 5300 foot deep ocean part of the Atlantic.

Winds were mostly lighter as predicted 10-20 knots and seas were minimal. We got up early to sail distance in daylight. It took over 11 hours as planned and we arrived in time for a sunset kayak in Tin bay.

We sailed about 15 miles north to Cambridge cay where we snorkeled various spots and hiked two of the beaches.

During one snorkel at the cut as we doing a drift dive where we are tethered to the dinghy with a rope as we fly under the incoming current at a 1-2 knots. I was busy taking photos of all of the fish when I see Alicia quickly getting back into the dinghy which seemed odd as we still had more area to drift.

Once she was in the dinghy and I was still in the water she asks if I saw the shark? What shark ? The 6 foot shark swimming toward me she replied. I never saw it but it was a funny moment.

We sailed from black settlement to Staniel cay to seek protection from another westerly and northerly wind event. This anchorage offers some protection and over 100 boats have moved into this anchorage area for the 2 day 30 plus knot blow.

We were able to do a hike on staniel one afternoon and the first afternoon we took two trips to the fuel dock to get more diesel and fuel for the outboard. Getting to town via the dinghy thru a raging current cut and high waves created from wind against current.

Everyone has mentioned that we have experienced a wind event every week now that last 1-3 days for the past three weeks. Maybe 4 events now that require moving to a protected spot and hiding out for a few days and even getting off the boat can be challenging.

We sailed about 12 miles north into Black settlement. First we anchored and explored a huge beach called White point and did some hiking, snorkeling and rock stacking. We were the only boat and persons on this huge mile long beach and island section anchorage. With the boat we can fairly easily “drop the hook” and get ashore by dinghy or kayak and explore the beach and island.

At black settlement we did a longer hike on the Atlantic where we got stuck behind some thick vegetation that required a long back reroute.

After some hiking at cave cay and snorkeling, we moved north a few islands.

We sailed 7.5 miles up to great Guana cay and anchored in-front of oven rock.

We were able to hike to this unique cave on the island with a very deep 60 foot water hole in fresh water cave dripping water and mud and filled with small bats hanging from the ceiling.

We are anchored right infront of David Copperfield’s island of Rudder cut. We spent the morning hiking more on Lee stocking island and sailed 11 miles up to rudder cut later in the afternoon. We moved up the chain of islands for a change and weather clocking that will occur in the next few days.

The wind has clocked to a north west direction and the only anchorages available offer poor protection from west or north winds so we have been bouncing and rolling on our anchor for about a day now along with a few other boats here. Finding west and north wind protection is hard in the Exumas in this area. Tomorrow the winds should decrease and clock more north and then easterly. As a sailor in the Bahamas you spend much of your time sailing to destinations based on protections and often have to hang at a location for 1-3 days while winds clock around.

Once the 2 day wind event ended, we were able to do a lot of snorkeling at rudder and snorkel the famous piano mermaid underwater statue. We sailed in the afternoon up to cave cay.

The weather and wind is back up and we have seek easterly wind protection off of Lee Stocking Island. This island offers some wonderful hikes on the island on the Atlantic side with amazing steep rocky cliffs.

Another famous place to go is the bubble bath pond where splashing swells from the Atlantic splash up and over into the pond. We visited this on a very and stormy day with huge waves crashing over the rocks. Our second day and night was extremely windy at 20-30 knots.

We did a short 3 mile sail to Ray cay and stayed here for two nights. We did several snorkels inside and outside on the Atlantic since the conditions were very calm for a few days. One night we had dinner and played music with another cruiser cat nearby. This island is mostly unexplored except for a few tiny beaches but no one ventures into the island.