Finally getting what looked to be a stretch of settled weather, we made our escape from George Town. But not before one last party. You see, our friends Loren and Nancy on Feng Shui had been preoccupied with getting their fiberglass work done away from town and we hadn't seen them in some time. Don and Sue on Suzannah had also been equally occupied with guests from the states. Well, Feng Shui finally made it back to George Town the evening before we were set to depart and Suzannah's guests had departed for the chilly Midwest. And so, we all got together for perhaps one last evening - Watermark, Starlight, Suzannah & Feng Shui. No one talks about it very much, but these reunions and disunions are perhaps the most agonizing aspect of cruising. Both Feng Shui and Suzannah have both made their decision to continue heading south, proceeding down the thorny path to the Caribbean. Clearly and sadly, our paths now take us in different directions.
In any respect, in company with Brian and Susan on Starlight, we did finally leave George Town under fair skies and light winds, heading a bit east to the less traveled paths and islands of Long, Conception and Rum Cay. We motor-sailed the first 30 mile leg almost due east to the northern end of Long Island. Uneventfully, we pulled close into the lee of Calabash Bay and dropped anchor. But here's where it got interesting. As we dropped anchor and settled back with the wind, we found that our stern was facing the beach with miles of ocean on our bow. A peak at the wind indicator confirmed that the wind, blowing a light easterly all day was now blowing out of the west. At this point we had two options. Stay put and hope the wind doesn't pipe up any harder out of the west or pick up anchor and move into the nearby well protected strip of water known as Joe's Sound. An easy choice you might think. Well, you haven't seen how hard it is to get into Joe's Sound. The cut for one is not that easy to find. And second, it's both shallow and narrow. How narrow? Well, our beam is just a bit over 11 feet and I can tell you that a catamaran with a beam of 16 feet would have a weary time negotiating this passage. And to add even more interest, the bottom is not at all soft, but rock strewn and craggy on both sides with some current running besides.
But all else seemed in our favor for negotiating our way in. We had relatively calm conditions and good sunlight behind us making the path in as clear as can be. Truth be told, we would not have believed that this was actually the cut into Joe's Sound had there not been boats already inside. And once through, we were rewarded with serene conditions, protected from all weather; quite rare for almost all other anchorages. Despite the hassle of having to set two anchors, the boat barely budged all night. For the first time in many nights, we would have sworn that we were sleeping on land.
The next morning was once again calm, good conditions for a trek out to Conception Island. We carefully made our way out of Joe's Sound and headed around the northern tip of Long Island called Cape Santa Maria after Columbus' Flagship that had come to grief on the surrounding reefs. Once in deeper water, we stuck out our fishing gear and we quickly had a hit in what turned out to be a 8 pound Cero Mackerel. Joyce drove on while I hauled in and then cleaned this tasty fish.
At only 4 miles long and 2 miles wide, Conception Island provides scant protection from the full force of the North Atlantic Ocean. The anchorage is merely a concave strip of beach on the normally lee side of the island in between coral heads. To your stern is nothing but water. Because of the island's diminutive size, the ocean swell normally wraps completely around the island, creating an uncomfortable roll in the anchorage despite the direction of the wind. That this could and indeed does occur was made evident to us the next day when we took our dinghies into the interior of the island to explore. As we headed south from our anchorage, we had the swell behind us, the swell that caused our discomfort the previous night. Rounding a small headland point, about mid-distant around the island, we now had the swell on our bow! Thus the swell was completely wrapping itself around the island, this on a calm day!
What makes Conception Island worth a bad nights sleep is the crystalline waters, lively reefs and unspoiled beaches. Designated as a National Park, Conception is protected from development. Thus only by boat can you come to experience this treasure. Unfortunately, our time at Conception was cut short by the threat of a change in the weather and the next day we headed out to Rum Cay. In a 15-20 knot easterly, we sailed close hauled all the way to the Rum, a really nice vigorous day of sailing. We of course were much happier then the cats who were just now missing those long boring days at anchor in George Town instead of bouncing around the Atlantic.
Rum Cay is said to be the second island that Columbus visited on October 15, 1492. The current name of this 30 square mile island allegedly came from a ship with a cargo of rum which ran aground here. Despite its name, there is really very little rum or anything else on the island. And very few people as well. At one time, Rum had counted over 600 as the number of residents in several settlements. But as the lone industry of salt panning left, so to did most of the residents, now numbering only 60. As an interesting side note, we did learn how salt was mined and still is today on several other Bahamian Islands. Simply done, it seems that large shallow ponds are artificially flooded with sea water via man made canals. The canals were then closed off and what remained to be done was merely to wait. As the tropical sun evaporated the water, what remained was basically salt, which was then bulldozed into heaps, loaded onto ships whereby transported to processing plants. The remains of the abandoned canals were much in evidence along the main road in the only settlement left on the island.
The anchorage off the settlement of Port Nelson is quite poor indeed, protected only from the north through northeast and is quite rolly in almost any weather. A long shallow reef extends just south of the anchorage with Elkhorn coral that in some places extends above the low water line, seemingly reaching out to snare your boat or dinghy. Water is so precious that the marina charges 30 cents per gallon for water that you can not even drink. And along the interior of the island, the mosquitos hover in swarms thick enough to carry away small dogs and children. Sounds like a terrible place, huh? But in truth, we loved it there. The allure of Rum Cay for us lay in the quiet but rugged state of affairs, clear water, unspoiled beaches and handsome reefs.
We sought refuge from the rolly exposed anchorage within a small harbor and marina on the south side of the island. Once through the shallow outer channel just inside of the reef, all was calm albeit not particularly scenic. We were directed to a mooring of sorts by the helpful folks at the marina, but the moor was like none other we had ever seen or done. We had to pull bow first in towards the far side land where we passed the fellow an 80 ft line. One end he tied to shore while the other we passed all the way around the boat to the stern. As the wind blew the bow off, we were now stern to the same shore being held off by the wind. Our guide then came around in his boat, took our anchor off the bow onto his boat whereby he took the anchor and 80 feet of rode straight out to its end and dropped it. All that was left was for us to haul in on the anchor rode to secure us between our stern line on shore and our anchor forward. In this fashion, we spent four peaceful nights rafted together with Starlight. After rolling around in the anchorage all night, the 5 boats that had made the trek down to Rum along with us joined us in this small harbor.
Not wanting to look anymore like a the destitute bum that I have become, I really needed a haircut, not having had one since before we left Florida in early December. Knowing that the nearest Hair Cuttery was probably 500 miles away, I finally acquiesced to Joyce's insistence that she could cut my hair, even though she had never done it before. But not without some guidance however. Susan, we learned, had cut Brian's hair for many years while they were in college. (I fervently hoped it was like riding a bike.) So with beer and scissors in hand, the four of us went to the nearest beach a little while before sunset. While the sun dipped towards the horizon and with the waves lapping on the shore nearby, Joyce and Susan chopped away. And after a few sips of beer, I wasn't even concerned when Joyce giggled at each chop. But in the end, they did a great job and we saw a nice sunset.
Oh, I must tell about our night out while at Rum. We checked out Kay's Bar and Restaurant one day while we were in town. With a tin roof, bright purple sides and a sand floor inside, it didn't look like much good could come out of the place. But our adventurous nature took over and we called one afternoon to make reservations for dinner. (Just a word or two on this. We called on the VHF radio because here as just about every where else in the Bahamas, radios are more common then telephones. And you really must call ahead so they will cook some food. On many days, with so few people about, there is no one to cook for so nothing gets prepared. And there is no fixed menu as they only cook what they have recently got from the fisherman or the mailboat. So we asked what she had today. Her reply was fish and conch. Joyce probed for a little more detail to which Kay simply replied, "don't worry, you'll like it.")
And Kay was right. Our meal started with conch salad which is raw conch cut into small pieces, sprinkled with lime juice, mixed with chopped onion, tomato, and green pepper. Having cleaned our share of conch, we recognized some of the conch parts that we throw out but which the Bahamians keep. This aside, it is very good. Next was the main course, served family style of red beans and rice, potato and broccoli casserole, yams, with our order of two fish and two conch. The fish was grouper and man was it good. This followed by homemade coconut pie. All the while, Kay was playing some funky American honky- tonk country western tunes.
Kitty Update: The kitties have been behaving for the most part. They sleep as much as possible, that is when they're not thinking about their next meal.
