Off to the Exumas

Ah, the Christmas rush is really on now here in the Bahamas. Folks here are scurrying around, the grocery stores are packed and cars circle endlessly around the malls to find a place to park....not! Quite the reverse actually. Without a look at the calender, we wouldn't know that it just not another crappy day in paradise. I don't suppose that there is any chance that we'll be having a white Christmas, but I'm sure that no one feels sorry for us. Of course we do miss our families and friends terribly during this time of year.

Let's see, where were we? Oh right; after our arrival in the Bahamas and clearing customs in the Berry Island of Chub Cay, we moved around a few miles to an anchorage at Frazer's Hog Cay at the end of last week. Our second day at Frazer's Hog provided a bit more settled weather, sufficiently so for us to get off the boat and explore the island. For those familiar with Fawcetts in Annapolis, we found one of their employees at our anchorage; Wayne with wife Dana aboard their catamaran Laughter. In case you don't know Wayne by name, he's the only employee with a ponytail. We spent the day with them touring the island and later trying our hand at gathering some conch. Most should be familiar with conch (pronounced konk); big snails really that come in those large colorful shells that often end up as door stops. Despite our best efforts we came up empty handed. Apparently the conch are just a little too fast for us. Plenty of conch shells on the beach, so just where are they?

Tuesday provided ideal weather for the 40 mile crossing over to Nassau. Quite a lovely day such that we sailed albeit somewhat slowly all the way to the harbor. To enter the harbor (or leave for that matter), all vessels must get permission from Nassau Harbor Control. As many cruising boats seemed to be descending on Nassau at about the same time, the authorities appeared to be a bit overwhelmed at the sudden influx. One boat after another was trying to get through to them on the radio. Not sure what they would do if you entered without permission but we along with a whole bunch of others were doing our darndest to play by the rules.

To say that Nassau Harbor is a busy place would significantly understate the amount of activity, day and night. The new cruise ship pier extends out to about mid-channel, severely restricting the open waterway in this rather narrow harbor. (Guess where the money is?) The remainder of the traffic squeezes together creating many close calls and not just a few banged up boats. While we were there, one of the sailboats at anchor was accidentally rammed. No one injured, but a rather messy situation as few of the private craft have insurance.

We anchored off the dock of the Bahamian equivalent of the U.S. Coast Guard called BASRA for Bahama Air Sea Rescue Association. It's run mainly by volunteers with little alternative support. And to say they have a dock is not altogether accurate; really more the remains of a dock that had been wiped out by some hurricane and not rebuilt. But no matter really, BASRA has few boats scattered over the thousands of square miles of water. As we found out, they mainly depend on the support of other boaters for any rescue operation.

So how did we find Nassau? It was a nice stop in that Nassau has everything that we needed as far as continuing with our cruise; well stocked grocery stores (not that we needed that much yet), convenient laundry, marine and hardware stores and cheap public transportation. While the harbor area is busy and congested, the water still had the emerald colored clarity that we did not expect. So when we accidentally dropped the dinghy key at the dock, we were able to easily see where it had landed in about 8 feet of water. But the downtown area is dirty and congested and not altogether safe, particularly at night. One afternoon, we walked over the few blocks to Luden's as this is the place we were told to get cheap liquor. Rather more like a museum, the owner keeps an extensive bug collection displayed around and over the walls and ceiling along with some live birds and bees. As the afternoon faded into evening, the owner insisted on driving us back to the dock as he feared a bit for our safety. Maybe it was the three bottles of rum that we purchased but in any event we gratefully accepted.

We found a striking contrast between the lush tourist areas of the adjacent Paradise Island and the dirty crowded downtown Nassau. At the center of Paradise Island is the luxury resort of Atlantis, its opulence matched only by its size . Covering roughly 7 city blocks, this place has to be one of the most extravagant resorts in the world. In addition to all the normal trimmings, Atlantis has an aquarium to match the finest anywhere. We didn't pay the $25 fee to see the really fancy parts which consisted of a full-sized re-creation of the ruins of Atlantis, but for the money you could walk though tunnels deep inside the aquarium! The beach bar was like none other in the collection of shells that served at the roof tiles.

Even though the weather wasn't cooperating for our next leg to the Exumas, we felt we had pushed our luck far enough in Nassau (we didn't get run over and our dinghy didn't get stolen). So on Thursday, we jumped out to a nearby anchorage at Rose Island. It turned out not a terribly wise decision. While the anchorage appeared to offer ample protection from the stiff east to southeast breeze, the surge worked it's way around the protecting rocks creating a god awful rolling all night long. Both we and the cats felt like we were spending a night at sea rather then at anchor. We did what we could to wedge ourselves in, but sleeping was difficult when your weight is shifting about with such frequency. Nevertheless, the colors of the water was absolutely awesome, the beach covered with soft white sand and the nearby reef filled with tropical fish. Not an altogether bad trade off.

Early the next morning several squalls worked through the area and one boat dragged anchor. We didn't worry so much about ourselves dragging as I've found a new way to get comfortable with the anchoring situation. Our first two attempts to set the hook at Rose Island failed miserably; the anchor refused to penetrate the grassy bottom. So we just dropped the anchor down as normal and then I went in with snorkel gear and jammed the anchor into the sand below the grass. Watching as Joyce backed down on it, I kept telling her to increase power. At first I accused her of not having the boat in gear as the anchor didn't budge and the chain was barely off the bottom. Finally diving down and grabbing hold of the chain convinced me that we were putting on considerable tension. I knew that anchor wasn't going anywhere.

After such a miserable rocky time of it at Rose Island, we were a bit overanxious to get going to the Exumas. We paid for it. The 35 mile trip ended up being an 8 hour wet slog through steep choppy waves. Rain squalls moved though all day in succession with a noticeable increase in the wind and waves each time.

We were quite relieved to gain the lee of Allan's Cay, our first stop in the Exumas. The principal attraction is the large population of rock iguanas. In addition to the iguanas that live on these otherwise uninhabited islets, we were pleasantly surprised to find friends Don and Sue aboard Susannah also at Allan's Cay.

Just a bit about our plans now that we have reached the Exuma Cays. The Exumas are string of more than 350 islands and islets stretching in a southeasterly direction for about 140 miles, beginning with Allan's Cay in the north where we are now. Most of the islands are small, no wider than a mile or so and most of the anchorages and the few settlements are on the lee side. Many of the islands are either private or uninhabited, few have any stores, phones or other evidence of civilization. What they do have is beautiful water, lots of fantastic reefs and plenty of good anchorages. We plan to be here in the Exumas until at least March. So as you can see, we have two to two and a half months to explore an area much smaller than the Chesapeake; we are definitely slowing way down. For us, it's a matter of keeping a close eye on any cold fronts that tend to come though with great intensity. The rest of the time, it will be short days of sailing between islands, snorkeling and beach coming whenever and where ever we can. We are restricted only by how much water we can carry and how long our cooking fuel will last. (And also how long the kitty litter will hold out.)

I must at this point back up a bit and report on our progress to become self sufficient hunter gatherers. Even though we had no luck finding conch thus far, we have made no small progress. First it was the coconuts in Chub Cay. But man can not live by coconuts alone. No, no, no. He needs fish as well. Can you believe that on our way to Nassau, we caught our first fish, and a good one at that. The small dolphin fish, (no not flipper). So stunned were we that we did the Keystone Cops routine trying to land the fish and then subdue him with a shot of vodka to the gills all while we were heeled over sailing. It took over half a bottle of the stuff to kill the poor beast! Our friends said that after all that alcohol, we should eat him just like that instead of marinating him. Even worse, neither of us really knew what to do with the fish now that we had him subdued. We eventually succeeded in collecting two nice sized fillets. Sad as we were to kill such a beautiful fish, we enjoyed him immensely later that night.

The following day, Steve and Rae on La Vie brought us several conch that they had gathered. Not only that, they showed us how to get them out of their shells and then how to skin them. A thoroughly messy job, one in which we watched the locals do in a minute, it took us more than 20 for each. The meat itself would be both tough and rubbery were you not to pound the heck out of it for 15 minutes or more before cooking. I still say that we would starve if we really were forced to resort to our own devices for food, but we are taking some small steps forward.