Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Wind to the Exumas

With the toss of the dock lines, NuTrix was off to the Exumas. No more marinas and no more AC for the next four weeks. Of course there would also be no marina bills and AC bills either. Every time we go to a dock, we seem to spend money as if it is water flowing through our fingers! We headed out into the harbor and over to Rose Island for a couple of days.
Rose Island is just east of Nassau and is a beautiful spot for swimming, snorkeling and watching the sunset. Ray anchored us just off of a huge limestone rock but still near to the beach. The surge does tend to rock the boat side to side, but the payoff is a beautiful view of clear water and white sandy beaches. It is also a safe spot with good holding. The next three days were filled with adventures, to far off uninhabited islands… well, far if you had to swim it, I suppose….and snorkeling the reefs, sitting on the beach, listening to reggae music and making many memories!! I love the island even though each afternoon, Nassau businesses charter snorkeling trips and drop off 100 people who Ray refers to as “bobbleheads” because all you can see are their heads above water!
They usually only stay for an hour and then leave us pretty much all alone, anchored in the water to take in the sunset all to ourselves! It is all magical and beautiful, but the Exumas are calling and we finally decide that the weather is perfect for crossing the banks. Sunday morning, we pulled anchor and with Ray at the helm and Robin on the bow, we motored into the wind and towards our destination of Highbourne Cay. The wind wasn’t bad, but it was in our face, so we couldn’t raise the sails. Ray tried to put out the headsail, but we had to bring it back in when the wind shifted more to the east. Robin had never been away from shore before, so she enjoyed sitting on the bow and watching the water turn from a pretty turquoise shade to an amazing color of liquid emeralds. We had reached the “yellow banks” where numerous coral heads lie in wait of yummy fiberglass hulls!! I took watch on the bow and pointed to the large ones that look like dark lines on the horizon. The water was so clear and the corals so beautiful that I couldn’t breathe! Colors, indescribable, danced on and under the water.
NuTrix glided along so happy to be back for yet another journey with us! We finally cleared the corals and Highbourne Cay came into view. We went to the beach on the west side of the marina and anchored for the night. Ray was going to dive the anchor, like he normally does, however, an enormous barracuda decided that he wanted to hang out under our boat. We loaded the tender, “Old Dog”, and headed to the beach for an evening in the water! The sand here feels like powder, it is so soft! Robin could not believe the clarity of the water which looked better than any pool she had ever seen!! We met two couples who were traveling on a large catamaran and enjoyed their company as we all floated around the crescent shaped lagoon. Soon the light was fading and we figured it was time to head back to the boat for some dinner!! Afterwards, we sat on the bow and watched the stars come out one by one until the entire sky looked as if you could reach up and grab a wish! Mesmerizing stars after a long day at sea will put you to sleep very quickly as we all found out! The next day, we took NuTrix into the dock to get some water in our tanks which depletes very quickly out on the hook. We walked around the marina and looked for WiFi but it was only for guests?? Well then!!! The restaurant wasn’t opened for lunch and though the little store had food, it was very expensive. We decided to take some pictures and go watch the sharks at the dock.
Most of them were Nurse sharks, but we did see three very large Lemon sharks too!! Before we left, the sky took on an ominous color and to our amazement, a waterspout formed!! It was very large and very impressive. A warning to all mariners was issued and we decided to wait at the dock for a while before heading into the waves again.  Soon the sky cleared and we continued on our journey to another beautiful destination!! Three hours later we tied up to a mooring ball in Warderick Wells, the Land and Sea Park Headquarters.
The Exuma Land and Sea Park was established in 1958 to protect the land and marine environment in a 176 mile area that covers 26 different parks and the surrounding waters. It begins at Little Wax Cay and goes all the way down to Conch Cut near Staniel Cay. The area is strictly a NO TAKE zone and nothing, either living or dead can be collected. The fish and shells are so amazing but can only be captured on a camera. The motto is “Take only pictures, leave only footprints”. When we went ashore, a huge skeleton of a sperm whale greeted us on the beach. Sadly, the magnificent creature had washed up on the shore in 1985. It was found to have been killed after consuming plastic garbage!
When careless people assume that one little bag won’t hurt, everyone suffers especially the animals. We all make a profound difference in this beautiful world, we just need to make sure it is a positive difference! The whale skeleton is quite impressive, though I would rather see a live one out in the Exuma Sound than the remains here on the beach! After taking a million pictures, we went up to the office to check in and get WiFi….. I laugh while typing that last sentence!! WiFi, in the Bahamas is like Jimmy Buffet says about religion and sex…. you just never know when you’re gonna get it next!! We paid our 20 dollars but the speed and reliability was really not worth the time or money!! Next trip, I must buy a Bahamian phone and pay for a month of internet connection. Currently, it is 20 dollars for 200MB which my phone promptly used in 6 minutes and 15 seconds! I am pretty sure there is a picture of me somewhere in the Bateleco Headquarters with “SUCKER” written below it??? But I digress!!!  Here on the island is also a Loyalist Plantation ruin. We dinghyed over to Rendezvous Beach and took a quick swim to cool off before our hike up up the mountain… well really a hill, but mountain sounds more impressive! Robin decided to float around so Ray and I hiked up the trail and found remains of stone walls where a home used to be. Trees and undergrowth covered the area so that it looked like five or six small homes but instead were rooms to a larger mansion.
I snapped away taking in the amazing sights of a home built 300 hundred years ago by the hands of long gone people. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like and I hope to maybe one day find a drawing or sketch that was made before the building commenced.  I understand that not everyone is a history lover, but I just could not get over the age of the walls and how someone had mixed the mortar and carefully carved out a life right on the spot where I was standing. The ghosts of the past just seemed to drift over me and pull my thoughts back to the 1700s when the men, women and children left all they had known to come to this far away paradise. Their excitement, terror, anguish and hope danced among the ruins and was carried by the hot breeze out to sea. For a moment, I was part of their world. For that, I am forever changed!  We made our way back down and took a dip in the cool clear water. We saw a couple of stingrays on our way  back and Ray tried to chase them with the boat, but they were too agile and fast! I had found a piece of driftwood when we were at Rose Island, and I used fingernail polish to write NuTrix 2015 as well as all of our names. Ray and I hiked up to BooBoo Hill and put it among the other driftwood gifts left for the “sea gods” to ensure safe passage on the sea. The view up at the top was amazing and I took many photos of the surrounding area including the vast expanse of the Exuma Sound. BooBoo Hill is so named because a vessel carrying missionaries ran aground on the reef and all souls were lost to the sea. It is said that during a full moon, up on the hill, you can hear the sound of hymns being sang by the lost souls!! Thus the Bahamian word for ghosts…. Booboo!!

Island hopping is an amazing adventure of new places, new faces and always beauty unimaginable! Ray is an expert captain and able to get NuTrix through reefs, shallows and sand bores. A sand bore is a living thing!! It is sand that actually moves and shifts each day. You can see them if you know what to look for! The water goes from 20 feet up to a couple of inches in a very short distance! The water that is usually a dark indigo quickly becomes an exquisite shade of light blue where the sand reflects the light of the sun. Ray sometimes takes the helm with his foot as he stands on the stern of the boat and watches the water. It is quite impressive, at least to me….. cause I am still quite taken with my salty pirate!!
Our next island stop was Staniel Cay. We anchored NuTrix off of Thunderball Grotto. There we said hello to our cruising friends, Duke and Donna aboard S/V Soon Reach. We try to catch up with them when we get to the Exumas. We first met them in 2010 and have kept up with them ever since. They are a LOT of fun and have a big boat with lots of room for sundowners!! Robin had been getting used to her mask and snorkel and she was getting ready to see what all the fuss was about!! We took her to the Thunderball Grotto and swam under the cave entrance into another world. The cave is massive and the fish swim up waiting for a treat. We saw brain coral, snapper, grouper, parrot fish and all kinds of other little fish of every color imaginable. The cave had a large hole in the top that let light filter in and dance upon the limestone rocks that made up the walls. It also let a couple of crazy 20 year olds jump down into the deep water of the cave. Our son, Keegan, did just that back in 2013 when we first brought the kids here. Im sure if Ray had found the cave back when he sailed here in his 20s, there would have been a blood stain or two from him on the cave walls!!! Like father, like son…….. bless their hearts!!!
We snorkeled around the outside of the cave and saw some impressive coral formations. It is just so beautiful and a must see for Staniel Cay which is why there are always boats moored around the back side of the cave. The next day, Robin and I commandeered a golf cart and explored the island via wheels!! I had to remember to drive on the other side of the road. We laughed hysterically as we bumped along the road looking for a bakery and grocery store and laundry!! We dropped off our laundry and let a nice woman wash, dry and fold it all for us to the tune of 55 bucks!!! WAY worth it!!!! We found the bakery in the kitchen of another Bahamian woman. The US Health Department would have collaboratively fainted had they seen said bakery!! Robin and I threw caution to the wind and bought a loaf of bread, I mean all the other people on the island were still alive soooooo…… We then found the Pink store and the Blue store which were the local grocery stores. Very few choices are available on an out island which is so vastly different from what we are used to in the US!! We got the things we needed though and were on our way. We found the Taste and Sea cafĂ© and ordered some yummy food!! I was going to get the fish, however, I was told that it was the WHOLE fish and I just cannot eat something looking at me, so I opted for a cheeseburger!! It was divine!!!!  Ray finally caught up to us and we all ended up meeting Donna and Duke at the Yacht Club for a frozen drink! I am not much for rum so I had a pina colada sans alcohol and everyone else had the real McCoy. They were all so pretty and tasted so wonderfully!!! Our bartender’s name was Felicia and she was hilarious! A woman came in and complained that her rum drink didn’t have enough rum….sooooo Felicia made her what she called a “Tornado” cause it was gonna knock her to Oz!!! We all just laughed because people can really be very rude when they have more money than manners!! We finally said good-bye to our new friends and headed back to our boat and our bunks!! The next day we island hopped over to Big Majors, home of the swimming pigs. It was a short hop so after we set anchor, we headed over to see the pigs.
There are two very large hogs and a couple of babies piglets. They readily swim out to any boat in hopes of grabbing a tomato or any other veggie that might be on hand….or IN hand!!! The largest pig tried to get up in our dinghy and when it couldn’t, settled for trying to take a chunk out of my backside!!!! A guy came up in a small flat boat and the pigs high tailed it over to him. He seemed to talk to the larger of the two pigs and then reached and petted the hog behind the ears!!! He grabbed two large buckets and a jug of water and gave both to the hungry mass!! We zipped away with our pictures and my body still intact!!  The beach that we found was called “Pirate Beach” and had an assortment of tiki torches, chairs, flags and wooden structures. There were two couples floating along with noodles and so we joined the hodgepodge group. Boating seems to give everyone involved a common ground to stand on and makes for a fun evening and new friendships. They were all out of Fort Lauderdale and kept us laughing with tales of their antics at sea. The one guy tried to interest Ray in a better tender than “Old Dog”…… but at 12 thousand dollars, we decided that we had all the NuTrix our Old Dog could handle!!! Going back to the boat, we cruised on our “outboard” and called it a fantastic day!! The way sleep comes to you on a boat is amazing. The rocking of the bow and the breeze blowing down the hatches, lulls you into a comatose state quite quickly! Soon all that was heard on board were the dreams of what was to come!!
The next day we pulled anchor and sailed for Little Bell Island which is now called Cambridge Cay?? I guess it sounds more impressive?? We picked up a mooring and I sent off a text to our friends Donna and Duke to come and join us! Life is so much more fun with cruising friends who know the area!! We had never been to this island before but knew that the snorkeling was supposed to be impressive. While we waited on “Soon Reach”, we hiked over to the Sound side and the impressive Bell Rock. It is massive and can be hiked but only when the tide is out. The tide was in!!!
We instead went up the hill on the island and took in a wonderful 360 degree view of the cay (pronounced key). Johnny Depp owns a small cay to the north and we could see the house from our vantage point. We snapped picture after picture and found our way around thick brush to follow trails. It was a nice hike but we were happy to be back to our little beach and the cool water! I spotted a couple of turtles but I couldn’t seem to get their picture!! It is incredible how fast those suckers swim!!! Ray spotted a small shark, but it also was not interested in having its picture taken and swam away quickly. After a while of snorkeling the rocks off of the beach, we saw Donna and Duke come in and take a mooring. We got together and decided to go over to the Rocky Dundas and snorkel the caves. Robin and I went with Donna and Ray and Duke followed. When we got over and jumped into the water, we entered a totally different world. I couldn’t believe how massive and impressive the coral and fishes were! We went into the caves and marveled at the stalagmites and stalactites that formed over thousands of years.
The second cave had formations that looked exactly like mermaids hanging from the cavern walls. I wondered what they did to make Poseidon so angry that he cast them there for eternity. We swam in and out of the caves and took in all the beautiful colors of coral and fish and the water!
The word magical just keeps popping into my head as I look around. There was an enormous and rare Elks Horn coral in front of one of the caves and I didn’t want to leave it until I got at least 100 pictures which I was sure, would not do it justice!! Finally, it was time to get back into the dinghy and head over to the beach. That sounds easy, but when you are in the water, wet and tired, it makes for a comical event. I had bruises on my bruises after trying to climb back in and I dared anyone to take a picture of my million attempts!!! Grace is NOT my name!!! We spent some time on the beach and in the blue hole that came right up to the shore until we were waterlogged and exhausted. The boat beckoned and we heeded the call and fell into a deep sleep, reliving the amazing day and dreaming of the next adventure waiting on us!
Hawksbill Cay was our next stop. The Exuma charts said that it too held Loyalist ruins, so I was anxious to get there. We picked up a mooring right off of a spectacular beach with a tall hill that overlooked a crescent lagoon. We went over with our chairs, umbrellas, music, cooler and noodles!! The day was spent floating, drinking, listening to music and enjoying each others company! Ray climbed up the hill to the small cairn to take pictures of NuTrix as well as Robin and I way down below in the crystal clear water.
I held my breath the whole time because instead of his good climbing shoes, he wore his flipflops!!! I just knew at any moment he was going to tumble down the steep rocks and Robin and I would have to figure out how to sail home pulling a body behind the boat!! I am pretty sure the Bahamian Defense Force looks down upon such activities!!! Luckily, we did not have to find out because God really does take care of fools and little children!!! After his near death experience, Ray was ready to go explore the Loyalist ruins at the north end of the island. A group of fellow cruisers had left before us on their journey to see the past, so we looked for their dinghy because we forgot the trail map! We finally found them as they were getting ready to head back to their sailboat. They pointed to the trail and were on their way. Robin, Ray and I made our way through the thick brush and found the remnants of a couple of homes as well as a large wall that ran up the hill. Again, there was no way to tell if the rooms were one home or many because the trees and brush grew throughout. It was still impressive and even unworldly to see the stones and wells that were once a hopeful plantation of a large family, all of their animals and sadly, their slaves. I commented that the back breaking work carrying the stones would have been given to the slaves.
 Plantation life was dependent upon slave labor and thus the atrocities of our past, built the homes that would one day fall into ruin like the mindset of  the plantation owners. Slaves would be freed and begin a new life filling the islands with a diverse population of former slaves, landowners who had lost fortunes, pirates and other ragtag inhabitants that sought the obscurity of island life. Looking around at the land that refused to grow cotton, I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if the cotton had taken hold and grew. The islands were once great with hardwood trees and fresh water, but now are mostly barren because when the cotton failed, the landowners turned to logging in a desperate attempt to hold on to their fortunes. Today, the small cays are home to mangroves and salt marshes. Freshwater is scarce and must be made on most of the settled islands.
Looking back, it is easy to see how our future is so determined on seemingly small, at the time, decisions that are made by people not even thinking about their descendants!! We all marveled at the sights and start our trek back down to the beach. The sun was setting lower as we motored across the colorful waters on our way back to the mooring field. We again decided to spend the evening cooling off in the water and listening to Bob Marley. Back to the boat, we settled in for a good night sleep only to have the wind totally die!! Not a breath of air came down the hatches which made for a rocky, sticky semi-sleep!! We all were more than happy to say goodbye to the beautiful island and set sail for Norman’s Cay!! This would be our final destination in the Exumas. The trip was easy, though with absolutely no wind, we motored! After dropping the anchor, we went to the Norman’s Cay Beach Club and had a 25 dollar hamburger!!! It was truly delicious, but 25 bucks!!! It did come with a salad and fries and was quite beautifully plated!! But again… 25 bucks!!! After eating, we went over to a small island with nothing more than a palm tree with a bench underneath. We swam around and enjoyed the cool water while looking at all the construction being done on a new marina. Our Exumas are changing faster than we can imagine!! Soon the large yachts will dominate the landscape and the small sailboats will have to vie for a spot in the water as do the dwindling coral heads. Major money dictates what goes where and when……. People with so much money bribe the government for deeds to land….they dredge the water and promise to “move” the coral heads and reefs so that their mega yachts can dock to get fuel and electricity.
The manager of the club told me that one man’s poison is another man’s bread. I just wonder if he realizes that the fragile landscape of the Exumas cannot handle the jet skis that speed over the fragile coral or the 25 foot tenders that pull skiers through the mooring fields not caring about the rules because they throw thousands of dollars into the Exuma Trusts as if money can regrow coral or bring back lobster that have been harvested out of season!! Money seems to talk very loudly here in the Bahamas, way louder that common sense! I fear that the day will come, when the coral heads are bleached over and covered with algae. The research students who come from America have already found numerous spots where it is happening. These Cays are where I love to spend my summers and it saddens me that the livelihood of the islands depend so much on tourism that the very rich are allowed to abuse the very thing that brings them here.  It is with an anxious heart that we pull anchor and set sail for Nassau. I hope that my beloved cays will stand the test of time and money.
The beauty is unsurmountable and the magic that the water and islands brings are inexpressible. With the headsail puffed full with air, we point NuTrix through the coral heads and towards Nassau. It will be at least a year before we feel the winds from the Florida straits blow us down to the Exumas again. Our next stop is Nassau with a dock and AC and shops so willing to take whatever money we have to give. We will say good-bye to Robin and after provisioning, head NuTrix home. Our adventure is almost complete, but as any trip, with the ending, comes another beginning!!! Beginnings are my favorite because you just never know what kind of story life is going to write!!!………………

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