Island Way. At anchor off Black Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas. 30 March 2000
Dear Everyone
When we last wrote just before Christmas, we were surrounded by dozens of other boats, high-rise apartments blocks, luxury shore-side villas, shopping malls and all the trappings of Florida’s Palm Beach coast. Today, we have one other boat for company, and a string of small uninhabited islands with lovely white beaches to the east and more white beaches stretching as far as the eye can see on the larger islands of Barraterre and Great Exuma to the west and south. What a contrast! We both enjoyed Florida, but this is better by far. Supper tonight will be the lobster and sea bream caught during this morning’s fishing expedition, which Barbara has just finished cleaning.
Our plans to leave Florida for Cuba after fitting our wind generator were set back a bit when we found that the blades on the generator were out of balance. That meant a second trip to the factory on the other side of Florida where we were able to watch the new set of blades being balanced - since when winds of 15 knots or more have provided enough power for most of our electrical needs (of course, the wind doesn’t always blow at 15 knots or more, so we still have to run the engine from time to time, to recharge the batteries). While our wind generator problems were being resolved we found we also had problems with our new set of batteries and, after many days and much time on the phone to the manufacturers, we headed for Miami to have them looked at and sorted out. This trip took us via Fort Lauderdale which we really enjoyed - definitely a city to be seen by dinghy from the water, with its complex network of canals, each home to a variety of boats ranging from the small and modest to the multi-million dollar super-yacht. The Palm Beach/Miami stretch , as well as being the most built-up section of the Intracoastal Waterway, also contains the highest density of lifting bridges, most with scheduled opening times, and it was fun trying to time our arrival at each bridge to coincide with the opening - not always successfully!
With January and then February fast disappearing, we decided to rule out plans for Cuba this season, and to remain this side of the Panama Canal for another year so that we can devote enough time to Cuba in 2001 to do it proper justice. We have met lots of people who have been there already, and all recommend spending as much time as possible.
Our crossing to the Bahamas, when it eventually happened in late February, was a very smooth and uneventful affair with light winds hardly ruffling the surface of the Gulf Stream. We took the recommendation of friends to check in at Andros, the largest of the Bahamian islands but probably one of the least visited by cruising boats, and what an excellent recommendation it turned out to be. The total passage time from Miami to Andros was about 21 hours, and we split the journey by anchoring for a night on the Great Bahama Bank, in about 20 feet (6 metres) of water. Out of sight of land or any other boats, and with a brilliant starry sky overhead, it was a fantastic way to spend our first night away from the USA. We made our landfall at Morgan’s Bluff (named after the 17th century pirate, Sir Henry Morgan, who used it as one of his many bases and is reputed to have left much of his looted treasure hidden nearby) and were fortunate enough to meet an English couple living on the island, who pampered us with sightseeing trips, use of their telephone, and their considerable store of local knowledge. By strange coincidence, not only do they come from the Portsmouth area, but Cheryl teaches Maths and we were able to compare notes on various Hampshire schools. Andros has a plentiful supply of fresh water and provides Nassau, 40 miles away, with much of its water. It is said that if the water tankers from Morgan’s Bluff failed to make the journey for more than five days in a row, Nassau would run dry. We were very grateful for the opportunity to top up our own tank, in preparation for the waterless islands to come.
For the past three weeks, we have been slowly working our way down the Exuma Cays which stretch for 140 miles to the south-east of Nassau. The winds have been mostly favourable and it is wonderful to be really sailing again after all the motoring in the ICW. To the east of the Cays are the very deep waters of the Exuma Sound, and to the west the shallow Great Bahama Bank. There are dozens of well-protected anchorages to choose from, all of them stunningly beautiful, though the entrance channels to some are so shallow that we can only just squeeze in, even with our relatively shallow 4ft 8in (1.4 metre) draught - there have been some fairly heart-stopping (though happily not boat-stopping) moments! The clarity of the water and its innumerable shades of blue defy belief, and the underwater scenery and fish life around some of the coral reefs are spectacular. The night sky, usually unobstructed by clouds and undiluted by the lights of nearby towns, is also truly wonderful, and has got us both more interested than ever before in identifying constellations and individual stars and planets. We were fortunate while in Coconut Grove, south Miami, to find a Science Museum with a Planetarium and we’ve been using their excellent charts of the February and March night skies to get us started on what promises to be a consuming pastime.
Other new pastimes include spear fishing - very rewarding in these fish filled waters, trolling - ditto!, and long hours at the computer discovering the world of on line navigation! We now have some incredible software which allows us to plot routes and then monitor our progress as we sail from one point to the next. Not a substitute for paper charts, but a terrific back up and a source of endless amazement as we discover all the things it can do for us! Best of all, however, is the time we spend meeting new people and learning about their lives. We really do meet all types - Mennonite missionaries on Andros who run their immaculate farm in smartly pressed overalls; Shalom - the self appointed harbour master at Morgan’s Bluff who travelled the world as a merchant seaman and now organises the mooring arrangements of visiting yachts with frightening efficiency; Nigel Calder - author of the the Boatowners Electrical and Mechanical Manual, (one of the must-haves in any live-aboards library), and his terrific family with whom we swam and fished and ate for 4 days in a magical anchorage tucked behind a private island; Floyd, owner of a marvellous house on Norman’s Cay who with the island’s other residents was chased off the island at gunpoint when it was taken over by drug runners in the 70s. He is now happily reinstalled, delights in inviting visiting boaters to share his vistas and is about to fly back to the USA to attend his mother’s 100th birthday party. We are learning not to plan too far ahead but we do have a definite target to arrive in the Dominican Republic at the end of April when Barbara’s brother and his wife will be having a fortnight’s holiday there. From there we hope to go on to Puerto Rico to restock with provisions (back to the world of cheap American supermarkets) and then follow the Windward and Leeward Islands south, stopping as often as time allows before we have to be out of the hurricane zone at the end of June. That means south of latitude 12 degrees 40 North - ie in Grenada, Trinidad or Venezuela.
More to follow from somewhere along the way. Meanwhile we hope all is well with all of you.
With love and best wishes John and Barbara