By Kevin
A Hike on Great Guana
Arrival at Blackpoint Settlement
By Kevin
We spent five nights tied to the dock at Staniel Cay Yacht Club. On January 25th, it was time to move farther south.
We sailed ten miles west, then southwest, then southest, then west,then south, then west again. You get the idea.
Blackpoint Settlement, or just Blackpoint, is a large-ish village situated on the northern end of Great Guana Cay. Large is relative, of course. I estimate there might be 100 or so people living in the area. But, for cruisers, Blackpoint is a bit of a mecca. The local businesses have invited the cruisers into their town and provided top-notch services. For instance, there are several taverns to choose from, each with different happy hours schedules.
Other services abound. There is a clean, coin-operated laundromat, free WIFI service throughout the main downtown area, a bakery with wheat, white, coconut, and cinnamon bread, and several nicely stocked stores. Most importantly for us was a pizzeria!
While hanging out for happy hour at Scorpio’s, Madeline met a little, local girl whose father worked at the restaurant. The girl was quite taken with Madeline’s iPad games. In fact, all the local kids would gravitate to the iPads and Zach learned that he had to assert himself in order for his iPad not to get commandeered.
One of the popular spots in town, Lorraine’s, is a restaurant, internet hotspot, and self-service bar. Yes, you pour your own drinks! Then, you just mark each one down on a card that represents your tab. At the end of the night, the bartender tallies your drinks and you pay up. Let me just say that the first rum punch I poured myself was good. But, the second one was out of this world. By the time we headed back to the boat, I was also out of this world.
Bahama Time
By Kevin
Isles General is the main store in Staniel Cay–for cruisers, at least. As with all the small Out Island villages, most locals buy their goods remotely and have them delivered by a weekly mailboats, which are small freighters that carries goods, mail, and people to and from Nassau.
Cruisers don’t have the time to sit and wait for weekly mailboat deliveries unless the needed part or item is very important. So, they have to rely on the local general stores. Most are simple storefronts at the front of the proprietor’s home. They’ll stock some frozen meats, some canned and boxed goods. And, on good days, a few tomatoes, cabbage heads, bananas, or oranges.
A well-stocked store might also have some boat items, such as bilge pumps, lightbulbs, resins, and rope.
Isles General has all of the above and also will refill propane: they’re one of only a few propane stations in the Exumas.
Isles General clearly runs on Bahama Time. Their hours are limited and inconsistent. Sometimes they are open, sometimes not. We visited several times and eventually had to camp out at the doorstep for hours before we were able to get in and make purchases. But, while waiting for a store to open in paradise, sometimes you find treasures, such as beautiful starfish.
Life is good in The Exumas for the locals. They eat conch. They go to church. They love and laugh. Work and commerce are not so important in this culture. If you make a windfall profit, what will you do, go on vacation? You already live in paradise. So, you might aspire to buy a faster and more reliable Yamaha outboard. You might upgrade your pickup truck. But, really, what is the motivation for more wealth?
That means that when a store like Isles General has success, they seem to reduce their hours. If they make more money per hour, they work fewer hours. Equilibrium is maintained.
Hence, Bahama Time is born. Work the minimum you must to sustain your lifestyle. And who are we to tell them they have it wrong–as we flock to their resorts to sample what they have in plenty, but for only a week or two each year.
S/V Strider
By Kevin
We met Mark and Cheryl while tied to the dock at theStaniel Cay Yacht Club. They sailed their yacht, S/V Strider, down from Warrenville, Illinois to the Virgin Islands and were on their way back north. They saw the Wheaton, Illinois hailing port on the back of Real Life and came over to say hi.
You can follow their travels on their blog.
Arrival in Staniel Cay
By Kevin
After visiting the swimmng pigs on Big Majors Spot and hanging on the anchor for a few nights, we made a quick trip down to Staniel Cay Yacht Club in order to tie up to the dock.
We’ve had some problems with our heads (toilets) and hoped that we could get parts flown in for repairs. It turns out that that wasn’t feasible, so we’ll wait until we get to Georgetown for repairs. In the meantime, we have one fully functioning head available and the aft head could be used in a pinch.
Staniel Cay is a popular cruising destination in the Exumas of about 100 local people and up to 100 cruising boats sitting at anchor. It is a destination second only to Georgetown. Big Majors Spot is a reasonable dinghy ride away. The area has wonderful protection against the prevailing northeast to southeast winds. You can find protection from other rare winds (though you’ll probably have to reposition your boat for the wind change). The town is scenic and the people friendly.
And, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club is the epi-center of the island for cruisers and boaters. It is very well run and you can get just about anything you need from the yacht club, from the Isles General store, or by having hard-to-find items flown in via Watermakers Air.
Staniel Cay was also where we really started to understand the phrase, “Bahama Time.” Hey, this is The Bahamas, Mon! What’s the rush? Drink another Kalik and enjoy the clear, blue water.
Swimming Pigs
By Kevin
Arrival in Big Majors Spot
By Kevin
On January 18th, we departed the beautiful, protected waters of Warderick Wells mooring field and headed southeast, destination PIGS! We were heading out to see the wild pigs that are reported to live on Big Majors Spot, a small island 20 miles away.
As has been our routine, we left Warderick Wells at 8:07 A.M. and this day motorsailed under main and staysail. Our freshwater was running low, so we ran our engine at 1500 RPMs during the sail in order to make 30 to 40 gallons via our reverse osmosis watermaker (a nice modular unit made by VillageMarineTec).
We took the route along the banks, west of the Exuma island chain. This is the shallower and more sheltered water–much nicer sailing. The only drawback is that the fishing is not quite as good as on the Exuma Sound route, which lies east of the island chain, in deep water.
There was a nasty storm front blowing in from the north/northeast that we were trying to beat to Big Majors Spot and we could definitely see some gnarly squalls out in the Exuma Sound, on the other side of the islands. So, we were happy with our choice of route, especially because Jennifer likes to stay dry.
We dropped anchor at 12:05 P.M. averaging about 5 knots on the trip. Good job, Zach! (who learned to drive the boat on this trip).
Happy Hour
By Kevin
Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locations
By Kevin
The title of this post is a well-known cruising witticism. When I would hear it in the past, I would laugh and think that surely this was part of some negative propaganda campaign that was meant to deter flocks of would-be sailors from crowding beautiful tropical anchorages.
Now, a few months into our journey, I see glimpses of truth in the saying. We’ve had broken stuff. And, I spend a lot of time researching, troubleshooting, fixing. Google is my friend, at least when WIFI is available. When not, I lean on more experienced cruisers for tips.
Here are the things that have broken so far, just off the top of my head:
- We had our brand new Garmin GPS unit replaced in Miami.
- We had our GPS unit reinstalled in Bimini and then again in Nassau. Now it works beautifully.
- Our low pressure hose blew off our engine-driven refrigeration compressor, creating a smoky mess in our engine room when we were 20 miles from the nearest land.
- We destroyed the bearings in our refrigeration compressor. It is dead.
- We ordered a Honda 2000i gas powered generator to run our AC refrigeration unit until we get back to Florida. It should arrive on a flight from the U.S. tomorrow.
- Both heads (toilets) clogged badly. (Marine toilets cannot be unclogged with a plunger. You must disassemble them and take out whatever is causing the blockage.) Not fun but I got stuff flowing again.
- We (okay, I) broke the pump handle in the forward head. Well, technically, it was the little bracket that the pump handle fits into.
- We ordered a new pump assembly for the aft head. It will arrive on the flight tomorrow.
- I rebuilt the floorboard hatch in the galley. It needed new plywood supports.
- I re-inforced the plywood divider that separates our anchor chain from our anchor rode in the anchor locker. I screwed in an aluminum bracket to give it strength.
- Our new LED anchor light on the top of the mast stopped working a few weeks ago. I had to go up to the top of the mast twice to try to fix it. Unfortunately it is still kaput so for an anchor light, we are using a lightbulb that we hoist up the mast 15 feet.
- Our saltwater washdown pump stopped working. I need to find where it is located and figure out if it is a pump or electrical issue. That can wait–I need a beer.
Of course, when we aren’t fixing broken things, we can spend quality family time cleaning and polishing stainless steel fixtures, sanding and varnishing teak, and of course, washing and waxing the boat.
Cruising Friends
By Kevin
One of the things we look out for as we enter a new anchorage is other kid boats. So far on the trip we haven’t met many. But at Warderick Wells we were able to connect up with S/V Dulcinea. The crew of Dulcinea hail from Australia, and more importantly, they have a 12 year old boy and an 8 year old girl aboard. The kids spent the afternoon playing every game they could think of, as Dulcinea had to move on the next day in order to pick up a guest who was flying in to Georgetown.
We also ran into S/V Magic and S/V Veritas again at Warderick Wells and enjoyed several late afternoon happy hours with Tim, Diane, Jennings, and Patty and several other boats. In fact, Jennings is a professional musician and was always willing to play some tunes for us as the sun set.
S/V Real Life 