By Kevin

After a few nights enjoying the several restaurants, bars, bakery, laundromat, and free WIFI at Blackpoint Settlement, it was time to get down to Little Farmers Cay for the legendary 5F festival.

The 5F festival is the First Friday in February Festival at Little Farmers Cay and has been held annually for over 20 years, originally organized by Terry Bain who runs a bar and restaurant called Ocean Cabin. This was a not-to-be-missed event and we expected to see lots of other cruisers, participate in events, and watch a sailing regatta of Bahamian sloops.

The sail down from Blackpoint to Little Farmers was uneventful and only took 3 hours. Since this was the Tuesday before the festival, we figured we would get a prime anchoring spot or mooring ball. But, come to find out, our friends on Magic and Veritas beat us there and grabbed the last few good mooring balls.

No problem, though. We grabbed one of the balls on the southeastern shore of Little Farmers for $25/night. It took us 6 tries to grab the mooring ball because there wasn’t any pennant to grab with the boathook! Finally, a boat on the mooring next to us dinghied out and inserted our mooring line into the mooring ball’s eye for us. Without them (thanks, S/V Voyageur), we wouldn’t have gotten onto the ball at all.

We only lasted on that mooring one night. It was just too rolly for us, with the boat rocking from side to side as the swells came in during flood tide (when the tide is rising). The “cut” or opening between the islands leading out to the deep ocean water was only a quarter mile away and directly facing us, so ocean swells came directly at us.

The next morning we motored a half mile north and dropped the anchor just off the beach on the southwestern tip of Great Guana. This little anchorage is shaped like a tongue and is only 50 feet wide and 300 feet long. It is very protected from wind and swells. It runs right along the beach, so you have to keep a good lookout. But if you run aground it is only sand. And, we briefly ran aground. But we were able to quickly pop into reverse and power back out of the shallows with our 75 HP engine.

Here is picture of the anchorage. Notice how the boats at anchor curve around with the beach.

A few hours after we anchored with our 60# Manson Supreme, our friends on S/V Lutra can along next to us and dropped two anchors in a “Bahamian moor.” This is where one anchor is upstream and the other is downstream. This is the preferred technique when there is strong current that changes direction twice a day because of the tides. We hadn’t yet used this technique but when Lutra dropped two anchors it forced us to follow suit. Otherwise, we would be swinging on the full radius of our single anchor and they would not be swinging at all–which is a sure recipe for a collision if the boats are close.

Since we had one anchor down in deep water, we had to drop the other anchor in 5 feet of water, which is too shallow for Real Life. So we loaded up our Fortress FX-37 (only 21 pounds!) and 50 feet of anchor chain into the dinghy and motored out 50 feet to drop the second anchor by hand. This worked well and the Fortress really dug into the sand bottom. We didn’t move at all during our stay at Farmer’s Cay even when we had 30+ MPH winds later that week.

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.

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.

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).

By Kevin

We had a smooth passage to Warderick Wells, which is the island that houses the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters. This large park of protected waters and islands is a gem in the heart of the Exumas. It is one of the few places left in the Bahamas where the lobster will practically walk out of their holes to greet you. The conch and grouper are plentiful.

But the catch: You can only take pictures…and you can only leave footprints.

We stayed in Warderick Wells, attached to a nice mooring ball, for 4-5 nights. We wandered trails, snorkeled coral heads, and enjoyed late afternoon sundowners with a few of the boats that we’ve met on the trip.

The kids even met up with a 12 and 9 year old aboard S/V Dulcinea, an Austrailian sailing yacht that was stopped over in Warderick Wells while en route to Singapore.

By Kevin

Highbourn Cay Marina was beautiful…but expensive. It was time to head back to an anchorage, so we pointed the boat south toward Normans Cay.

The sail was brisk, alternating between a beam reach and close reach in 20 knot winds out of the east. Real Life did well, averaging 6.5 knots with bursts to nearly 8, powered by the staysail and main.

Normans has several anchorages, the most popular being in the “cut” between the deep water of the Exuma Sound and the shallow water of the Bank. But, the wind was blowing hard and the surge was strong, making that anchorage uncomfortable.

Instead, we anchored with 15 other boats on the southwestern anchorage, just off a beautiful sandy beach that runs in a north to south direction. Well, we arrived at the right time because an hour after securing the anchor, we heard Tim on S/V Magic inviting all the cruisers to meet for sundowner drinks on the beach.

Hey! Our first beach sundowners. Even though we were pretty tired, we headed over and met some great people, including Tim and Diane (S/V Magic) and Jennings and Patty (S/V Veritas). Tim and Jennings have a tradition of blowing their conch horns each evening at sundown (though not strictly enforced).

By Kevin

The several nights we spent anchored at Allens Cay were our first experience with the beauty of The Exumas island chain. We wanted more.

On January 5th, we set sail for Highbourn Cay locaed only a few miles south. After verifying the weather forecast, we raised the anchor and headed southwest for 4 miles and then southeast for 3 miles. Yes, that comes to about 7 miles. Sailboats rarely travel in a straight line.

Highbourn Cay is a private island with over 20 private cottages spread out along its coast. They also have a very nice and well-protected marina. Since the forecast was calling for 25+ knot winds over the coming days, we decided to pull into a slip and have some down time until the weather settled.

The first night in Highbourn we went to the cliffside restaurant for dinner. It would be our first restaurant meal since leaving Atlantis over a week prior. Xuma Restaurant is what you would expect in a high-end resort in The Bahamas. Cozy, with sturdy wicker furniture, a view looking out over a rock cliff to the clear blue water below. Satellite TV at the bar. Wonderful seafood dishes on the menu.

It was a delicious meal. Unfortunately, several hours later Zach’s chicken nuggest and french fries didn’t agree with him and he had a very rough night. That was our last visit to the restaurant for dinner but we did head back up to the bar to watch some NFL playoffs over island cocktails (and shirley temples for the kids).

By Kevin

After spending several weeks tied to a dock in Nassau, with its noises, chaos and strong currents, we were eager to head back out to more remote and tranquil islands.

On New Year’s Eve we set sail for Rose Island. This is a smail cay just a few hours sail east of Nassau.

Sitting at our anchorage at Rose Island later that night, we were still so close to Nassau that we were able to enjoy all the fireworks from Atlantis, downtown Nassau, and the other surrounding communities on New Providence Island. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the New Year!

During our couple of days stay at Rose Island, within a well-protected cove, we found a secluded little beach. It was what you would expect from a Bahamian beach. Clear water, white sands, and many hews of aqua.

Route: Fort Lauderdale — Miami — North Bimini — Cat Cay — Chub Cay — Frazer’s Hog Cay — Nassau.

By Jennifer

We were so excited to leave Frazer’s Hog because we knew that Nassau was within a six-hour sail. We woke up at 5:30 a.m. and we were off within the half hour along with every other boat that was in the harbor. We, like the rest of the boaters, listen to the popular “Chris Parker” weather forecasts broadcasted over the SSB. Parker will go into great detail about the wind and swells throughout the Bahamas. All the boaters listen and wait for Parker’s ideal sailing conditions. This day was what I have come to call the “perfect Chris Parker day.” Light winds, 2-3 foot swells. We all left like a fleet out of the harbor and followed one right after the other into Nassau.

Notice in the photos that this crossing marked Zach’s first catching of the elusive mahi-mahi. Upon entering the harbor, Zach reeled in a 4-5 pound mahi-mahi. We ate it for dinner on our first night here in Nassau. (Gerry, note that this fish was caught with a rather mundane looking wooden lure sold to us by a West Marine young gun.)

Also notice as we enter Nassau, the immense and posh Atlantis resort. It’s the first structure you see upon land sighting.