Leaving Allans Cay

We woke up early in the morning and decided to head out a few hours earlier than we had planned around 8:15am. We motored and then put up the sails after 30 minutes. We enjoyed just having the sails up for about 2 hours when the wind died and so we turned our motor back on for the rest of the trip. Wind was variable ranging from 5-8.5 knots and we traveled at 2.7 knots with only the sails and when we turned on the motor we were traveling 5.5 knots. I stayed in the cabin for a little while reading to stay cooler in the shade. We had to look out for coral heads and rocks while arriving to our anchorage site on the southwest side of Norman's Cay. We arrived around 12:30pm and only put down one anchor due to the good holding and lack of wind. We felt more wakes here due to no protection from the boat traffic. We made a hot dog lunch really quick because Dan invited us to go spearfishing again around the harbor. We motored to the southern area near the channel in our dinghy and found some rocks with coral growing on them to test their luck at spearfishing. We were skeptical at first, but then they saw some grouper and squirrel fish swimming around and decided that some were big enough to catch. So they began their search and capture mode for dinner while I stayed in the dinghy to see if they would be successful. After a few minutes JR came swimming up to the boat with a small Nassau grouper and so my task was to take care of the fish and make sure they don't spoil in the hot sun. Luckily, we had a compartment in the center seat and we put the fish in there with some salt water and kept them cool and fresh. Then Dan came back with another Nassau grouper and later they turned up with a squirrel fish. The last thing they caught was a medium sized spider (?) crab!! Holy cow, we had collected some varied sea bounty for dinner! :) Then they decided the few rocks in the area wouldn't provide any more fish and so we returned to the rocks near our boats and searched for more. I was last to leave the dinghy with my snorkel gear and by the time I swam to the guys they had caught a good sized Lane Snapper. So I swam back to the dinghy really quick and got the net to put the fish in so they could continue fishing. I promptly put the fish in the net and swam back to the dinghy because JR said there was a barracuda stalking us for the fish we had just caught. I proceeded to swim to the dinghy with the fish in the net trying to keep our catch above water to reduce our chances of attack and losing our fish. I crawled into the dinghy while JR held the other side to keep the crab from sliding out and I quickly put the fish into the compartment with the others. Then when I look up I saw Dan swimming back to the dinghy with a good sized Nassau grouper. After he caught this fish we decided we were done for the day because we had enough food for dinner. While I pulled up the anchor for the dinghy we could see the pesky barracuda stalking us. Dan decided to swim back to his boat because we were close enough and we watch as the barracuda followed him the entire way. We tried to scare the barracuda away with our engine, but it only moved to the other side of Dan still following closely. We returned to our boats and picked up at few things including my camera to clean and prepare the fish for dinner. I had never seen anything killed like this before and so I learned from Dan when he killed the largest grouper by severing the spine right behind his head through his gills. I helped out be scaling the squirrel fish, which I have to say was really scaly. Then I proceeded to learn something new by gutting my first fish. I wore my dive gloves to prevent any harm to myself from the sharp fins, spines and teeth of the fish. I have to say it wasn't too difficult to complete the task, but it was quite messy and slippery feeling. I suspect the gloves will never lose that fishy smell. The guys filleted the fish except for the squirrel fish as we decided we were going to steam it whole. We ended up with a snapper and grouper filet, the squirrel fish, the crab, and all the fish heads. When we returned to the boat we began cooking immediately. First we boiled the crab legs in hot pepper flakes, sweet paprika, and orange peel. Then we cooked the snapper and grouper with blackened seasoning in a fry pan. We ate the fish promptly and both filets were delicious. You really can't get fish any fresher than this. Then we boiled the fish heads to get fish stock for some soup. Meanwhile, we steamed the squirrel fish in saltwater for 5 minutes with no seasoning except a little soy sauce before serving and it was out of this world! I had never eaten squirrel fish before and I have to say it was really good. :) JR said he wasn't hungry anymore, but the squirrel fish was devoured in minutes. We tasted a small piece of the crab and found it was delicious similar to the stone crab meat we have eaten before, but different as we know how a stone crab looks. We decided to save the crab for the next day since they are better cold or at least room temperature. Then we went to shore to check out McDuff's bar & grill. We heard they had good burgers, but we wanted to see what the cost was before we went there hungry the next day. We ordered a Kalik ($6) and a Goombay Smash ($8) and saw that their burgers were a whopping $18! We were glad that we checked first, but it was a nice bar and place to see with Houston's-like décor with an island twist. I liked the cute dogs, a golden Labrador & a chihuahua that greeted people when you entered. :) We rushed back through the wooded trail to evade the ever hungry mosquitoes and got to shore in time to catch the end of the sunset and stopped to take a couple photos, but as I was standing still I got bitten twice. I quickly jogged back to our dinghy and got in with JR behind me. We were chased off shore with mosquitoes and immediately missed Allan's Cay because we never had this problem there and we really liked it. We then went back to talk to Dan & family about McDuff's (we were not going back) and they told us about the cool houses and how far away the submerged plane wreck was from shore. They said they would probably leave the next day because they couldn't dinghy to the plane wreck and the restaurant was too expensive to try. We were on the fence about leaving because I wanted to see the submerged plane and the other side of the island, but JR was going to look at the weather and decide when we would leave because we didn't want to be stuck in an unprotected area with a big storm coming this weekend. I agreed that we should be in a anchorage with good holding and protection from severe weather (strong wind and waves). We will have to wait and see what our next day will entail.

Leaf Cay/Allans Cay

We took a lazy morning and read under the shade on deck while enjoying the comfortable temperatures and beautiful scenery. We watched as tourists came in and out to visit the iguanas on Leaf Cay and blasting their music when they go on shore and we knew they were coming from the loud engines and big wake to shake our boat and they left as quickly as they came and after feeling their wake again we knew they were gone. Then JR took me to a coral garden to snorkel where they had gone to spearfish the previous day. It was north of Leaf Cay and I was able to see tons of coral, fish, a sting ray, sponges, sea fans, huge sea urchins, and later I learned there was a sea turtle too, but I didn't see it. :( Then we returned to the boat and made some tasty chorizo soup. We lounged around and as Dan swam to our boat he exclaimed he saw a 7 ft nurse shark swim by! Of course I missed it, but I was on deck reading so I don't know how I would have seen it unless I was in the water swimming. Dan came by to ask me for the helmet conch to show his wife and take some pics, but I told him I released it this morning because they weren't doing so well and JR swam up and told him the location of the conch because he was swimming around and found them. JR was then inspired to replace the zincs on our bilge keels and he was only able to do one side before he went out with Dan to spearfish again. Unfortunately, they came back without any fish after a few hours. I was dutifully cleaning and organizing in the cabin to prepare for our departure the next day. Then when JR returned we went to Leaf Cay to take pics of the iguanas living on the island and then we motored to the postcard perfect beach on a sister island to take some pics from the dinghy, but just my luck there was another dinghy that came out of nowhere and landed on the beach so they ended up in my photos. We returned to the boat and enjoyed a nice bowl of soup left over from lunch and watched the sunset. Dan came by to return our Bahamas cruising guide and we looked at some charts to determine where we would go next. We drank some wine and enjoyed the rest of our evening under the beautiful stars with the strange song of the nocturnal birds. We star gazed for a while and after seeing some shooting stars and fast moving airplanes we decided to retire in the cabin. It is so nice to be outside and not have to worry about bugs biting us. We noticed a huge bat flying around and we suspect that bats have a major impact on the insect population in and around the island. We really enjoy our time outside and the less mosquitoes or no-see-ums present the better! :) This has been our favorite place so far.

Allan's Cay

We headed out around 10am to go to the Atlantic side of Leaf Cay to snorkel and spearfish. I found 5 beautiful helmet conchs and saw many different types of coral, sea fans, fish including a 4 ft. barracuda , while JR, Dan, & Amosh went to spearfish nearby. This snorkel location reminded me of San Salvador. I really enjoyed myself in the water and kept the sun at bay with my wetsuit even though the waters were warm. After the current picked up and they had no luck catching any fish, we just sat on the beach and chatted with Dan. When we walked to our dinghies we saw the usual iguanas running around looking for food and we hung out there for a while. I snorkeled around to check out the area and found lots of young conch along with many empty conch shells. I did however, find one very large queen conch right on the beach and I only took the biggest helmet conch from the other side of the island to take some pics back on the boat. It is too bad JR doesn't want to eat conch after seeing what they really look like, because we could have eaten it. I don't have the heart to kill them and I stated this from the beginning of the trip, but once they don't look like their original selves and I can't see their faces then I can eat them. At least I like to think I can eat them, but we haven't killed anything so far to eat so I have not been put to the test. We returned to the boat and made some PB sandwiches for lunch with some oranges. Then we sat on deck with a tarp cover to give us nice shade from the sun and we chatted, enjoying the scenery and gentle breeze. Later, I read while JR and Dan attempted to spearfish at a different location. After several hours, they returned with 6 small groupers! :) They went to shore to clean the fish and we had some very nice filets for dinner together on their boat. We cooked the fish on our boat with a lemon butter dill sauce and it was delicious. :) After enjoying our evening we returned to our boat and laid on deck to gaze at the millions of stars in the sky. We saw the crescent moon set and a few shooting stars and fell asleep listening to the nocturnal birds singing with the cool breeze blowing. What a wonder way to end the day under the stars. :) Around midnight I woke up and decided to return to the cabin and remove my contacts that were firmly stuck to my eyes and sleep inside because it became too cool on deck, but I wouldn't change a thing about today.

Leaving Nassau

He decided the next morning that we were going to leave and so I quickly strapped the boat down in the cabin while he pulled up all three anchors. We left Nassau about 9:20am and motored with an attempt to sail with the winds, but in the end we had to put down our sails because we were beating into the wind and the waves with the current against us until we got on the bank. It was quite rough due to the short period waves for most of our trip down and only when we got close to the Exumas did we get calmer seas. We had to watch out for coral heads on our way into Allan's Cay, which was quite demanding because the boat could get a hole if we ran into one and that would not bode well for us. We made it through just fine and could see the white cliffs of Allan's Cay and the other islands of northern Exumas. We didn't trust our GPS charts as we approached the channel for Allan's Cay because it looked deceiving with strategically placed rocks that appeared to block the entrance to the anchorage site. Luckily, we were able to see the channel when we went far enough south and we quickly turned around to enter the channel for the anchorage at Allan's Cay. We saw this was very good holding because the bottom was all sand in the anchorage and we threw out our anchors at about 6pm. We saw our Hungarian friends in the anchorage as well and we went to chat with them for a little while after we set our anchors and jumped in the clear, cool, blue-green waters to refresh ourselves from the hot day. They had gotten there the previous evening and Dan told us about some small grouper they caught with their sling spear gun on a beach located on the Atlantic side of the island and we got excited for fish as we didn't trawl due to the rough waters today and being on the bank. They had gotten here the previous day and invited us over for dinner the next evening. We made plans to go fishing the next morning as Dan told us the fish are just waiting to be caught in their caves. They also told us about the iguanas on the island and feeding them lettuce resulting in a horde of iguanas approaching them for food. We enjoyed a nice sunset with a small crescent moon and Jupiter (or some other planet due to its brightness). It was so pretty I decided to pull out my nice big camera to capture as much as I could. Unfortunately, after I turned it on I found the lens was out of focus and I couldn't tell if I was taking a good picture. JR looked at it and decided it was just the view finder lens that was out of place and he could fix it. We figured it was the rough passage that jostled the lens out of focus because I had the camera in is carrying case, but it was set on the kitchen table instead of its regular storage area on the couch. I assume the couch would have absorbed most of the shock and not transferred it to the camera case as the hard table did, but I learned the hard way and I will never put the camera on a table even it is in it's protective carrying case. I just hope that JR can fix it because I want to take so many more pictures and the camera on the cell phone is working on and off especially with the video option. There was no wind after we got in the anchorage so we had a pretty warm night. On the upside, we are in the Exumas finally and going to see some iguanas and hopefully eat some freshly caught fish. Dan said he saw grouper and squirrel fish where he was fishing today so we are excited to try and catch some with him tomorrow morning. He informed us that tourists come by the hundreds to go to the beach and see the iguanas in the day time so we should expect to see them while we are here. This is the first island we have visited without internet access because the islands here aren't really inhabited or developed. I will enjoy my time being disconnected from the rest of the world. :) I woke up in the middle of the night to lash the tiller down and went outside to hear the hundreds of nocturnal birds on Leaf Cay singing and millions of stars in the dark sky. It was beautiful and I really felt I was in paradise. But I went back to bed and enjoyed knowing that we finally made it this far and we have so much more to see and do. :)

More Nassau

On our last two days in Nassau we went to Triple A's Take-aways bar & restaurant, which is located on Armstrong off East Bay St. towards downtown/straw market. Paul & Malinda from Daydream discovered this hole in the wall and invited us to try it for lunch on Friday afternoon. We took the short walk over to the restaurant and found we were the only customers in the whole place. But we ordered the curry mutton & steam chicken with peas & rice and the food was really good and cost $7 each because they were the daily special. We also ordered Kalik & Sands beer for $3 each, which was much more reasonable than the Green Parrot charging us $4.50 for Sands. We attempted to eat at a different hole in the wall on Saturday, but two places we tried were closed (blue building next to the Rum Cake Factory & Rachel's on E. Bay St.) and so we just went back to the same place as the day before. We ordered the Stew Fish (snapper) for $7 & Fried Grouper for $14. I was mislead into thinking it was going to cost $10 for the meal, but it wasn't the case when we got the bill. :( The food was too salty today and I couldn't really eat the grouper because of the salt overdose. The Fish stew was tasty, but also too much salt as I was really thirsty for the rest of the day and evening. We got fuel from the StarPort (Texaco station), which was close to our anchorage and so we just took the jerry cans in the dinghy. We didn't have to wait too long before someone served us, but problems slowly arose. First, he asked if we wanted gasoline or diesel. We said both and luckily the guy was willing to give us diesel while the other boats around were getting gas. So we got the fuel hose handed down to us because the dock was so high up and the dinghy was quite low. I held on to a wooden plank off set from the dock as JR filled up our fuel jugs as best he could with all the wakes around and the dinghy that bumped into us from behind. Finally we finished getting our 21 gallons of diesel and wanted to get the gasoline, but the guy said we would have to get it from up front. Also he asked if we were paying cash or credit card and since we were paying with a credit card we would have to go to the front because he was too busy. I decided to just walk up front and kill two birds with one stone by getting the needed gasoline and paying with the credit card. So after getting some really long directions from the service guy, I ended up walking to E. Bay St. and going in the Texaco. When I tried to explain to the people there they were all confused and told me I couldn't pay with a credit card there as the sign stated. After explaining a few times the situation and the guy who told me to come up front with the bill and an empty jerry can, one of the guys said that he should have accompanied me up front. I just relayed the information that he was busy and couldn't come himself. Well, this didn't matter as no one up front knew how to use the credit card machine, which I found out later was the reason why they weren't accepted up front. So we walk all the way back to the docks and find the owner of the marina and he clears up the situation quickly. He tells the original service guy to go up front to run the credit card and to get me some gasoline as I never was able to get any up front because of the non- acceptance of credit cards resulting in no fuel. The guy then becomes really helpful and doesn't even let me open the fuel container by telling me he would take care of it all. So he fills up the jug in a few minutes as it was only 2 gallons and then he modifies my hand written bill. Using his trusty four function calculator, he sums up the diesel ($3.88/gal), gasoline ($4.61/gal), and a 3% service charge for using a credit card. He offered to walk up front to run my card, but I decide to walk it up with him just in case. It was a good thing I did make the additional trip up front because he was teaching the lady behind the counter how to run the credit card and she messed it up charging me the wrong amount. I acted quickly when the guy tore up the receipt and told her to run it again. I told him that he will have to refund my money for the charge that just took place or he could just subtract the value that was already charged from the total and make a second charge to the card, which would add up to the proper amount. He tried to tell me to just call the credit card company and tell them to fix it and not charge me, but I refused this option as I would not have phone access and didn't want the problem of having to deal with the credit card company. So I insisted on my second option as I deduced he didn't know how to refund money on the credit card machine. He looked at me dumbfounded and I told him I would do the math on paper so he could see it would all add up to the correct amount. I borrowed a pen and wrote on the torn receipt from the first charge on the card and showed him how much to charge me the second time he ran the card. He had the lady use the computer to do the math and we came up with the same value so he was satisfied and agreed to my request. It turns out this place had reasonable prices for their fuel and even water was cheap at 15 cents per gallon. For the Bahamas at least, we heard the Hungarian people paid 40-60 cents per gallon for potable water in Bimini. We were on the fence about going back to shore for more of the tasty French red wine and groceries, but in the end we were too hot and didn't want to go back to land where it was worse. We didn't know if we were going to leave the next day because JR wasn't in a hurry to leave and didn't want to make any plans, which I fail to understand because preparations need to be made when you leave a place. But I let him decide as he was captain of the boat and deemed he would know better by looking at the weather. I passed my time reading another book and sketching Atlantis from our anchorage site. :)

Traveling To Nassau, New Providence

We traveled from Chub Cay to Nassau leaving Chub Cay at 9:15am and only later did I realize that I forgot to take a picture of our anchorage site. :( We had enough wind to put out both the mail and head sail, but there wasn't enough wind for us to turn off the engine. So we motor-sailed all the way down to Nassau. We had calm waters on the way down, which was nice. The wind was around 10 knots and we traveled on average 5 knots, with our fasted speed at 6 knots. The sails were nice to give us shade on the deck from the sun and to help propel us along with the engine. We didn't see any marine life during our trip down even though we trawled a line with the same skirt as when we caught the barracuda. When we got close enough to Nassau we pulled out our line and notice our bait and hook were gone! The line was severed clean and through that the bait was attached to previously, but we didn't hear or feel a thing. Granted the engine was on the whole time and is super loud, we were able to get the barracuda last time. We were disappointed that we could have caught a good sized fish, but we didn't even know we didn't have a hook or bait on the line for who knows how long. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be I suppose. We could see a storm going through New Providence as we were approaching, but luckily by the time we arrived the storm was not on that side of the island. After visiting Chub Cay, we could see how big the New Providence island was comparatively. We were going to the Nassau Yacht Haven Marina, but as we were approaching the two bridges we noticed a group of boats anchored out. Then I noticed a familiar boat and realized it was our friends Paul and Malinda from Daydream and then we also saw the Hungarian people we met from Bimini (who had a Golden Hind 31' as well) anchored nearby as well. So we just decided to anchor in between them instead of going to the marina. We chatted with both families/ couples until pretty late and got some really tasty burgers from the Green Parrot Bar & Grill, which was were the free dinghy dock was located. We found another Bahamian beer called Sands ($4.50), which is brewed in Freeport. JR liked this beer better than the Kalik's we got in Bimini. We stuffed ourselves with the delicious big burgers and fries (eh, soggy) for $11 (Naked Burger) and $13.75 (The Works Burger). It was pretty late after we ate so we turned in for the night and hoped our anchor holding was good enough as we were told that this anchorage was really bad due to the flat stone bottom with thin patches of sand and sea grass scattered about along with trash at the water bottom. Dan, the Hungarian, decided to tie lines to large objects like a engine or transmission to keep him from drifting or dragging anchor. Paul was able to find a couple of sandy patches to dig into.

Revisiting Nassau

We walked all around downtown in the tourist district and straw market and then walked all the way back and explored the other side of our anchorage to do a price comparison on different kinds of alcohol. We were informed of $3 bottles of rum here in Nassau and we looked all over for it, but we were unsuccessful. :( The cheapest bottle of rum we could find was just under $7. After we did our research on the liquor stores, we decided to get some lunch and ended up eating chicken nuggets from Wendy's!? We were sweating up a storm and needed some air conditioning along with standard fare to re-energize us for the long walk back to the boat. We were surprised to see it along with KFC across the street, but we welcomed it and got a Frosty to help cool us completely before heading back out into the stifling heat. We walked to the nearest grocery store called Super Value and picked up a few fresh veggies as we had run out while crossing the Great Bahama Bank. They had some vegetables that were reasonably priced and others were super expensive. We quickly walked through several isles to do some price checks and then checked out. We noticed they had some good deals on their meats (pork, chicken, steak) and the pork look really fresh so we couldn't resist and bought a package for dinner. We hurried back to the boat to make sure the food was kept a cool as possible and JR went to the fuel dock to get a bag of ice (small size was more than 7 or 8 lbs for $4) to make sure the food didn't spoil before we cooked it. When we returned to the boat we could see a big storm that had been brewing all morning was about to hit us. We got the boat ready for the rain and then decided impromptu to catch rain water to refill our water tanks. We ended up catching approximately 12 gallons of water, which is awesome because they charge (40-60 cents we hear) for potable water in Nassau and we haven't refilled our tanks since we left Miami. We both felt so much cleaner with the fresh water shower instead of the salt water showers we have been taking. Next time, we are going to have a water maker and shower aboard our boat to help us be self sufficient and not so reliant upon the marinas, which I suppose we haven't been to one since Miami either so that is good and helps with our budget allowing us to spend on different things like going out to eat or buying groceries and other stuff. Dan and his son, Yamesh (?), came by our boat to chat and take pics of our boat to help with improving theirs. I cooked the center cut pork loin chops and they were delicious! :) We savored each bite and enjoyed watching the movie, The Italian Job while we ate. Ahhh, this is the life. Good food, good company, good scenery, and good entertainment. :)

The next day in Nassau, we hung out on the boat for the morning due to the heat and then headed out in search for cheap alcohol, new zincs for our bilge keels, and some fresh foods for dinner. We walked a while down East Bay St. and picked up the zincs from a big marine store called Harbourside Marine, then we walked much further down until we found the shopping plaza with a grocery store called City Market. We also found a liquor store, which had some cheap wine ($5-6) and Old Nassau Rum ($9) so we picked up 4 bottles of wine and one of rum to try. Then we went to the City Market and found they had better prices for their fresh fruits and veggies than Super Value so I picked up a variety of fresh fruits and veggies (romaine lettuce, celery, limes, bananas, and mint). We also picked up some chicken to barbecue on the grill for dinner. We attempted to catch water again with another passing rain storm, but today the rain wasn't as long or as strong and so we only got a gallon of water total. We even pulled out our water catcher this time and installed in at the bow to help increase our collection, but it didn't work because the rain wasn't heavy enough. We enjoyed cooling off with the rain so that was nice after such a hot day. Too bad there was no wind really today to help give us power and to help keep us cool. Hopefully, we will be comfortable enough to sleep well.

Chub Cay

We stayed an extra night in Chub Cay due to weather predictions of the wind direction and speed for the day. We decided to take it easy and relax in the clear, cool waters of our anchorage. We enjoyed spending our day swimming around and collecting starfish and searching for conch that we could eat. Unfortunately, there were tons of starfish which meant that most of the conch shells we found were empty. By the afternoon, we had found only four young conchs and tons of starfish. I enjoyed diving down to collect them for a pic and liked all the various patterns and colors that each starfish had to make them an individual. However, they didn't have as brilliant colors and patterns outside of the water. I recalled the fact that starfish are very difficult to eradicate and found that when they are left out of water for a little while they lose their water and replace their cavities with air. Then when they are returned to the water, they actually float on the surface until the starfish decides to release the gas that has built up inside their bodies via pores in their arms to allow water to return into their body cavities, which results in them sinking to the bottom of the ocean or water. When we had the conch inside of a water bucket, we noticed some that would extend their eye stalks out of their shells and look out at us. It was really interesting to see them shrink quickly back inside their shell having the entire shell shake after the organism retracted or retreated into the safety of its shell. We even got to see almost the entire organism slink out of their shell and I was reminded of an alien face. I saw long eye stalks with a long nose-like protrusion from the center of their face, and a long scythe-like toe nail at the end of their foot. I never saw what conch looked like before and I was completely fascinated by them even with their thick, slimy, mucus excretions. I was able to see how long they actually are inside their shell and was amazed at how fast they move in and out of their shells. I was able to catch a little bit of this on video and even take some still shots, which I totally felt like it was a National Geographic moment. It was so cool! Later that day we saw two sting rays and a barracuda hanging out under our bow with a couple of fish following them for scraps. I was surprised to see them all together for such a long period of time, but then again I shouldn't have been too surprised as we had canned chicken for lunch and I poured the water in the can down the sink, hence chumming the waters for marine life to come thinking there was food around. We enjoyed our time being the only boat in the area, but when twilight comes we know that we have to retreat ourselves back into the cabin no matter how hot it is inside because of the bugs that come out to feed at that time. We had a very nice and relaxing day at the Chub Cay anchorage. We got the boat ready to leave the next day. It turns out that the prediction was incorrect and we would have been fine making our passage down to Nassau, but the next day was better due to a little wind to allow us to put out our sails and help us travel faster. On a different note, the mint plant that we bought back in Miami was out in the sun during our passage and doesn't look like it is going to make it after all. :(