Overnight to Highborne Cay, Exumas

We continued traveling through the night, passing through Northwest Channel around 11:30pm and were south of New Providence Island, the home of Nassau, at daybreak.

We arrived as the second boat at the large Highborne Cay anchorage at 12:30pm, dropping anchor in 10 feet of crystal clear water, just west of a high cell phone tower.  We tried our new ipad with its new BTC chip, expecting to have full connectivity however it was not to happen.  The only thing we could get was a No Service message.  We spent the next few hours playing with the ipad, but with no success.  Later in the afternoon we accidentally caught some radio traffic on Channel 16 about the cell tower being inoperative.  No wonder we couldn’t get anything to work.

Bob radioed to the marina to request permission to go ashore at the nearby beach as this is a privately owned island.  We found white sand beaches, few shells, but lots of very jagged lava north and south of a few sandy beaches. 

 A short trail led into the vegetation and over the lava flows and where we found several collapsed lava tubes, one with water below and rocks built up around the edge of the hole in the top, seemingly used as a cistern at one time.  Soon tiring of that activity we took the dinghy around to a bay to the north which had a small resort area with cabanas, beach lounges, a pile of plastic kayaks, grill, etc.  On the way out Bob went snorkeling where we found an area of small conchs and one large conch-like shell (round with no horns).  We left them all there to grow larger though I really wanted the large shell.

Bob is part water dog.

All afternoon our quiet anchorage was filling up with boats and by evening we had 10-12 neighbors, among them two sailboats that Bob had met at Browns Marina, the monohull Dreamcatcher and the catamaran Too Much Fun.  On the return from the bay, we stopped at the two sailboats who confirmed our last weather report of increased winds from the north and a front from the west coming in next week.  Sure enough, the wind picked up making for a bumpy night.

Sunrise on the Bahama Banks

North Bimini to Overnight across Bahama Banks

    

This is the morning to leave North Bimini.  We were up early and watched a sailboat leave, headed for Miami.  We checked the weather and the next few days are still expected to be good with the exception of some thunderstorms so we set about preparing to cast off.  Since we’ve been at Brown’s Marina for a while, cleaning up is a major undertaking, as everything is out of place and has to be properly stowed so it cannot fall or slide while we are underway.  We know the waves outside will be rough as from our slip we can see the breakers outside the channel.

Slack tide is at 9am which is a good time to push off but Dan, from Quest, looked on his satellite weather radio and noticed a band of severe thunderstorms moving east, towards us, off Florida.   Mirador, (George and Sarah) who was also preparing to leave, and we decided to hold off until after the front passed by. Waiting gave us time to make a final lunch stop at Ellie’s and pick up some last minute groceries at Robert’s Grocery  as we are leaning towards skipping Nassau and traveling through the night to Highborne Cay.  We got caught in the rain on the way back from our errands but after getting soaked during the first minute of a torrential downpour, decided that there was no more reason to rush back other than to minimize the water damage to the toilet paper which, come to think of it, was pretty important.

A not so funny thing happened as we were preparing lines to leave the slip. Peggy didn’t want to forget her conch shells which were sitting on the swim platform so she opened the stern door, but did not latch it, to retrieve the conchs.   Due to high winds during the last month, nearly every line on board had been used so multiple lines were criss-crossed for springs and across the stern.  We did not see it happen but apparently a line slipped under the door, the boat moved away from the dock, and the tightening line lifted the door off its hinges and dropped it into the bay.  Someone from Weeches Marina next door noticed it floating, retrieved it, and returned it to Charles at Brown’s who brought it to us.  What a fluke and another lesson learned.

12:15 was the magic time.  We uneventfully backed out of the slip while waving goodbye to our friends from Quest and Sunday Service who were also our exceptional line handlers.  Through the channel we turned north, passing Bob’s Beach (officially Radio Beach) with more than a little homesickness, to round the northern end of North Bimini and catch the rhumb line towards Northwest Channel.  A few sailboats were our only company and we spent the day watching turquoise water and ended with a red sky at night.  We adopted our previous watch schedule with Bob on from 6-9, Peggy from 9-12, and so on.  Dinner was apples and Almond Butter and the left-overs from Ellie’s will be lunch for tomorrow.  The nearest sailboat to us anchored at Makie Shoal and we continued on alone.

Everything is wide open out here . . . and 10 to 20 feet deep with a forever sandy bottom.  The seas were peaceful, calm and very clear turquoise.  It was a little disconcerting at first to see the sand and occasional dark splashes of coral heads passing by under the hull.  Basically you can anchor anywhere but if you don’t wish to run overnight it is wise to move a mile or so off the standard course to minimize getting run over by boats who may not have an attentive watch at the helm. 

Last day in Bimini

Another busy day in paradise!  We slept in and then took a nap before we got up.

Today was the day to get Bahamian WiFi in some manner.  We walked up to the BTC (Bahamas Telephone Company) Store and dropped our laundry off at the laundry mat on the way.  There are about 10 washing machines and maybe 6 dryers in the only laundry mat we have seen on North Bimini.  With a variety of sizes we easily fit our laundry into one machine and continued on to the BTC Store where everything was much more confusing.  

Last Finally leaving with a Bahamanian chip in the ipad we hoped it would all work as planned.  We only need two things, weather and a telephone for reserving slips or mooring balls and of those we only really need, in a pinch, weather, as most people can be contacted on the radio.  Since there were lines at the BTC Store, just like in the States, the laundromat hostess changed our wet clothes to the dryer for us when we did not return in time. 

The rest of the day was spent picking up and folding laundry, filling up the dinghy gas tank, making sure banking was in order, mailing at the post office, writing a few necessary emails, putting the boat in order, being on-hand while Winsome Wind left the dock against the wind, and getting lunch at CJ’s followed by playing on the beach and shell collecting.

This evening Bob conducted a trial start of the engine and generator which we hadn’t started since December and guess what? There was no charge on the generator battery!  We have been plugged into shore power but thought that the generator battery should have been included in the charging system.  Luckily, Bob knows about that stuff and soon had everything up and running.

Now to check the ever important weather which governs our lives.  The wind has settled down this evening as predicted and the next two days look good for traveling.  We are anxious to be moving on but it is so easy to just stay at Brown’s Marina indefinitely.

North Bimini, Bahamas, Valentines Day!

Valentines Day!  Since we have been lazy for the last few days, today was the day to get paperwork in order, copy additional tax information, make new boat cards, write a letter to my dad and ready everything for mailing. Somehow that took all day, a good bit of it taken up with trying to get the printer to work.  We thought we had the system figured out back in December but Peggy’s laptop needed rebooting, the printer need passwords reentered, and we still had to print through Bob’s tablet.  I was more than a little jealous when Becky and Jeff next door were reading in their cockpit and we were fighting with technology and taxes!

Valentines Day dinner by Chef Bob

Everything was set aside for dinner, and what a dinner it was!  Lobster, broccoli, and iceberg lettuce wedges prepared by Chef Bob!  And then the lights went out!  On the islands of course.  It made no difference to the boats other than we went to battery power.  After a few hours of coming on intermittently, lights were restored but for a while it was nice to be in the dark with the only lights coming from boats and solar powered dock lights.