Posted as we crossed the Northwest Channel between Nassau and the Great Bahama Bank.
We raised the anchor around
8:30 and headed out between Little Pigeon and Elbow Cays to the Hawksbill Bore Waypoint.
We have explorer charts, both
printed and electronic. The charts have
many named way points like Hawksbill Bore, which provide safe navigation points
between the various islands.
It was a bit bouncy as we
made our way the 30 miles south. The
biggest headache was the darn chart plotter not updating. I made a few unnecessary detours simply
because the chart plotter was showing us in a place that we weren't so I was
trying to avoid the numerous shallows around here thinking we were near them
when in fact we were miles away. We just
ended up using one of our tablets with Bahamas
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| Google map image of where we are anchored off of Pig Beach. Staniel Cay is on the right |
We came into Big Majors
around 2:30 and the somewhat rough swells we had encountered early on pretty
much disappeared. We found a nice spot
off Pig Beach
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| One of our neighbors with a nice sun shade on the sundeck. |
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| Coming into Big Major. Pig Beach is in the distance |
The water here is so clear
and clean it’s simply amazing. We are
anchored in around 10 feet and it looks as tough we could easily walk on the
bottom.
Of course we had to get the
big dinghy down and see if I could get it started. It took 8 pulls until it finally fired up.
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| Dream Maker, TJ and Diana's boat |
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| Pig Beach and the pigs getting fed |
The pigs aren't petite and
although gentle and almost tame, are bulky and can shove you aside easily. They have been known to climb into dinghies
if the handout isn't of sufficient quantity or quality.
All we had were carrots and
some old celery and parsnips. They ate
everything but the parsnips, snorting disapproval when we repeatedly begged
them to eat the darn things since we really didn't want them back.
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| Feeding them celery |
 |
| More food |
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| Annoyed because all I had left were parsnips |
We talked with another couple
who were in the Staniel Cay Yacht Club on a boat, Piggy Bank.
They had come over to feed the pigs as well but they had fruit. The pigs, noting the better food offerings, immediately
abandoned us and swam/walked over to them.
Here I thought parsnips would be a delightful change from all the fruit they eat. Guess not.
I talked with the owner of
Piggy Bank while Mary strolled the beach.
After a time we decided to leave so once again I yanked and pulled on
the manual start cord and got the outboard running again. We took off around Big Majors over to Staniel
Cay for a look around. It’s less than a
2 mile dinghy ride.
There is only one marina here
now, Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It is
another one of those must see places.
They don’t have many docks available for transients but we saw three,
100’ yachts tied to the piers. They also
have fuel which can be hard to come by down here.
After a short spin around
there we headed over to the famous Thunderball Grotto where the James Bond Thunderball movie was filmed. Well, only a very small portion of it but still, its a famous place. There were several dinghies and small
runabouts anchored at the entrance presumably there to explore the grotto. That’s what we’ll be doing in a day or two.
We returned to wallow in a
usable internet connection through our Bahamas
I took some time to hang
outside and star gaze. They are spectacular.
The only issue was the mega yachts.
They, just like at Shroud Cay, were all lit up like a city. Pretty, multi-colored lights along the decks. And the underwater lights were also colorful. Some would even slowly change colors.
It was almost like a light show. Not wanting to feel left out I turned on our two tiny and muted blue deck lights. Mary cringed in embarrassment.
We started the dinghy up this
morning so we could get to the Staniel Cay yacht club. It took me 9 pulls this morning. It’s like lifting weights.
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| Dinghy parking at the Yacht Club |
We brought our garbage in and
left it by the place where you leave garbage.
Since we were here anyway and it was noon, we decided to just eat lunch
there.
We sat at a table up in a
little gazebo overlooking the water and the fish cleaning station. And as luck would have it, 2 fishing charter
boats had just docked and the charterees were all standing around holding their
catches up for pictures. Dorado,
barracuda and it looked like some smallish tuna all caught just trolling out on
the Exuma Sound.
Once pictures were complete
the yacht club guys began cleaning the fish and tossing the scraps out in the
water. I had always read about the
friendly nurse sharks that hang around this marina near the fish cleaning
station. Well, they weren't kidding. 20 or so nurse sharks with a
scattering of rays were all circling around waiting for a scrap or two. And when a scrap was tossed, there was swift
and uncompromising dash to snatch it. It
was quite the sight.
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| Some kids on the steps petting the nurse sharks. Cleaning station is right above them |
I should also mention these
were smaller than the nurse shark I had an encounter with a few days ago. Well, at least my opinion.
We lingered over a beer and
club sandwich watching all the activity on the dock.
It started to get crowded
after a while so we paid up and walked into town to check out the stores.
There isn't a town in the classic sense. Really just a collection of buildings.
There are two grocery stores and a
yellow house where you can buy bread. The
blue grocery, Burkes, was the nicer of the two and they had just received a
shipment from the island ferry which had docked a few hours ago. The two stores are almost right next to each
other.
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| The road to Burkes Grocery |
On the way back to the marina
(it was maybe a ½ mile one way) I stopped at the laundry/liquor store to buy
rum. A lady just opened this last
November and its pretty nice but doesn't have a large inventory. None the less, most people go here to help
her out.
Our dinghy was in the enclosure
with a bunch of others so we had to jockey around so I could get the motor down
in the water and then take a few minutes to yank the manual starter rope while
making sure the dinghy didn't float into shallow water or run into another
boat.
But it started right up again
(3 pulls) however it started making that odd noise again. Only this time the starter was removed so its
something else I fear. I’d guess it’s
probably the impeller which I don’t have a spare for and I’d have a hard time
yanking the lower unit off up anyway.
Mary thought that it made that noise because the engine was titled
slightly up out of the water. Who
knows. That could be it.
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| Small dinghy and the big honker. We barely fit in the small one |
It was only mid afternoon so
we took the small dinghy over to Pirate Beach
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| Randy and Vickie on Barefoot'n |
So tomorrow we go see
Thunderball cave, and have lunch with the Randy and Vicki. Hopefully the dinghy will work ok.
It was an early night for
us. And a hot one so I kept a fan
running most of the night to provide some relief. I could run the generator all night to keep
the A/C units running but its not that bad yet and I hate to add the hours on
the generator.
I started the dinghy (9 pulls)
this morning and it was fine. Before
Mary got on board I zipped across the anchorage to see if Randy and Vickie were
ready to go for lunch at the yacht club. Yup, we are going to the Yacht Club
for lunch and conversation.
I headed back to our boat and
they followed a short time later. We headed
over to Staniel Cay which is maybe 2
mile jaunt.
We had lunch at the Staniel
Cay Yacht Club. Great conversation. It was wonderful to see them again..
We returned to out bat and
before starting the dinghy outboard again and heading first to see Diana and
TJ. They decided to join us at the
Thunderball.
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| Entrance to the grotto. Its really just a slit in the rock wall. There is an over head rope to help get in against the current |
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| Dinghy raft-up. That's TJ's with the bimini |
But the bottom here is all
scoured out with very little sand so I ended up diving on both anchors and
securing them behind some old rocks.
Grotto was cool. There was some current so it necessitated
some exertion to overcome, but with flippers its pretty easy.
You essentially swim under a
slit in the rock wall of a little island.
Once through the slit which, at low tide, clears the rock by a few feet,
the place opens up into a cavern. Pictures below are mine but there are far better ones of the same thing out on the web.
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| One of the smaller underwater entrances |
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| Another side entrance |
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| In the grotto |
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| Grotto ceiling has several large holes |
It’s not dark but
surprisingly well lit. There are holes
in the roof which let in light and there are also a few other entrances which
are close to the surface supplying reflected light off the sandbars.
The sides are all rock, some
with little ledges you can sit on. The
middle is deep and all sand. And the water was in the mid 80's and so, so clear.
And there are many small
colorful fish swimming around all expecting a little treat which most visitors
are happy to provide. The fish will come
right up and nudge your mask when the food isn't flowing fast enough.
While we were there a few
kids had climbed up to the roof of the grotto and jumped in through the
holes. Quite a surprise when that happens. Its about a 15 foot jump.
After exploring the grotto I
swam out the other end and then circled the island which is like a reef with
all the standard reef creatures swimming around.
We all finally made it back
to our respective dinghies and then drove back to the anchorage where, after
showering and putting dry clothes on, we went over to Randy and Vickie’s boat
for cocktails.
Annoying Mary I didn't want
to have to yank the starter rope on the big dinghy again so we took the little
dinghy over.
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| (Sorry for the poor Quality) TJ, Diana, Vickie, Heidi the wonder dog and Randy |
It was a wonderful time as
usual. But we had to drive the little
dinghy back in the dark. We don’t have
lights for the little one. And I’d
forgotten to turn on the big boat anchor light so all we had to look for were
the 2 dim fore and aft solar powered garden lights.
These little lights are quite
visible to me. Not to Mary, but I was
driving. I get them at Wal-Mart for
$0.97 each and they last about 10 months before needing replacement. Great things to have since they are photo sensing
and turn on after the sun goes down and then turn off and recharge in the
sunlight.
But we still ran the
generator until 11 PM to top off the batteries.
I was abruptly woken up at
1 AM by this damn sport fishing boat blasting its stereo flooding the anchorage
with Latin music. But thankfully the
idiots in the sport fisher turned down the volume after a few minutes.
Another morning! Later, after we
loitered around the boat for a few hours, we took a dinghy ride to Staniel cay
around the back side of Big Major. You
have to go between Big Major and Fowl Cay.
I was having trouble getting my bearings but we ended up right where we
were supposed to be and continued on past Thunderball towards Staniel Yacht
club.
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| Between the Major(s) looking towards Staniel Cay |
On our return trip we swung around the anchorage and gawked at all the mega yachts. Oh my, some people do live well..
As we were sitting on the sundeck another obnoxious boat blaring Latin
music came in to the anchorage and thankfully passed by us.
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| Sta-Cation (Rush and Beth) |
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| Our very own bad karaoke singers |
Thankfully they karaoke barrage ceased sometime after sunset and they disappeared before we we up the next morning.
But we woke up rather early rocking to some increased
winds.
Randy stopped over to say
they were heading south to Blackburn Point, about 5 miles from here. Later when they were hauling
up their anchor I had just finished
filling the gas tank with oil/gas for the 2-cycle engine on the small
dinghy. We ran out to meet them as they motored out of the anchorage … a sort
of a send off.
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| Air tank, hoe and mask/regulator |
Mary tried but hurt her side
so discontinued any further effort.
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| Always swimming with critter it seems |
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| It all works including the underwater camera |
Only went down about 10 feet
this first time.
Later we had a succession of
showers and the air became less humid.
We didn't get off the boat.
Cocktails on the bow and
burgers for dinner
I was up early again, the beneficiary of brilliant sun on my face. I usually sit out n the sundeck and just relax but this morning I was distracted by the nude couple next to us on a catamaran. They were taking an early
morning swim and then bathing on their swim platform.
My. The French are striking individuals. Its was initially a little unnerving to
suddenly be the recipient of friendly waves from our naked next door
neighbors.
Later I got all the hookah gear out on the swim platform. I went in
and cleaned out the rest of the starboard side until our resident nurse shark
starting getting inquisitive so I reluctantly got out.
 |
| Mary hooked up to the hookah |
Later, Mary took a turn
paddling around and using the regulator for breathing so she could get used to it. The shark returned as she was in the water
but didn't pay her as much attention as it did to me so she just kept paddling around.
Once she was done I went in
and finished up the port side bottom and then washed out all the dive gear and
lugged it back up on the sundeck.
After a while lounging around
the boat we gathered all our garbage and I took 12 yanks on the starter to
get the big outboard running. We loaded
up the dinghy and took a wet ride into Staniel Cay Yacht club. Deposited he garbage, had lunch (chef salad
for me, onion rings for Mary). We had a
nice chat with an older couple off a Sea Ray all the way from Indiana
I hadn't been able to take a
decent walk for a while so head out towards the Staniel airport while Mary
stayed behind and scrutinized the Staniel Cay Yacht Club gift shop for anything
she may have missed.
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| A colossus of a private residence over looking the landing strip |
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| The airport such as it is |
I did pass the bridge to
south Staniel though which is where we may walk tomorrow.
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| The bread store |
The young lady who was running the store when we were first there 2 days ago, was replaced by her
grandmother if I heard all that correctly.
There is no cash register or
adding machine. She just jotted down what we bought and did some mental
calculations arriving at a total. They
only take cash too.
We came back to the dingy
dock at the yacht club where I had a nice chat with a guy off a Hatteress 58 LRC
. He was tinkering with his dinghy
outboard, 50hp Yamaha. He told me it had
flipped over and almost sunk when both lifting straps broke sending the dinghy spiraling
down 7 feet into the water form his upper deck. I flashed back to our little dinghy hoisting malfunction in the Chesapeake last summer.
He found a shop manual on line somewhere and cleaned out everything and
had just tweaked the ignition system. He had it running and it sounded fine to me. I just wonder
where he found a shop manual on line. I
forgot to ask him.
We went through our usual
starting routine and headed back to the anchorage. I noticed Thunderball Grotto wasn't crowded at all. Only one dinghy was anchored there.
Ever since I drank that Chilean red wine I've had a hankering for red wine. We have a few bottles on board so we tried one. It was less than good. In fact I couldn't drink more than a swallow. Mary did better with one glass
but we ended up just feeding it to our personal shark loitering under
the dinghy.
We ran the generator and I
ran the water maker and then we went to bed.
Exciting times here in the Exumas. But tonight there's a cool breeze blowing through and all the loud boats have fled. Going to be a nice night!
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