Follow Our Track
We live day to day with watching the weather and getting good weather forecasts, even though our boat most likely would handle most anything we have seen (hunkered down somewhere) we would rather not get caught in a bad storm. Every morning at 6:30 a professional Weather God named Chris Parker gives the weather forecast tailored for his paying customers via a Ham radio. The non-paying customers (us and 90% of the cruising community) can also listen in, our friends forward the summary to us via email we do not have a SSB (Ham radio). We had plans to go to a remote island called Cat Island, but Chris advised against that for several days, so we continued needing north to Staniel Cay. Finally we snorkeled in Thunderball Grotto, really cool. We got there on low tide otherwise the current that rips through here is too strong to swim against. Inside this cave you swim through has a high rock ceiling with several openings that let some light in, the tropical fish would swim right up to you (looking for food), we spend about an hour there and thought it was magical.
We left Staniel and headed for Cambridge Cay also called Little Bell Cay. Beautiful island with white sandy beaches, we hiked down a trail that lead to the Sound (windward) side of the island. The view from the top of Bell Rock was really incredible. The next day we took a long dinghy ride to the Sea Aquarium and once again great snorkeling with lots of tropical fish and lush underwater plants. I know where are the pictures, long story but our lovely new camera didn’t like salt water and it’s now dead.
From Cambridge we continued north to Warderick Wells, we meet a lot of new friends here. The Park Ranger invited everyone for Easter Dinner, we brought something to share. Also we had sunrise service on Boo Boo Hill, the gentleman who did the “service” was not a clergyman but a cruiser like the rest of us. He pulled it off as if he was, there were several folks that did a reading. We all introduced ourselves, it was an amazing time. Several weeks before a lady fell close to where we had this service and died, tragic, we included Pat in our prayers.
Dinner Warderick Wells
Our last stop in the Exumas was Shroud Cay, just a short sail from Wardrick Wells, but totally different scenery. Much like Conception the interior of the island is a mangrove, very lush and green. We dinghied through the mangroves to the sound side, which is so different from the calm leeward side of the island where we anchored. Later we had cocktails on the a bigger boat moored close by us.
Yesterday, April 3 we left early for Nassau, it took about 7 hours to get here. We didn’t really want to stop in this huge port city with it’s noise, cruise ships, and thousands of people, but with bad weather coming we needed some place safe. Three different friends gave us 3 different marinas so Dan and Melissa (our sailing buddies) called on their sat phone and got slips at Nassau Harbor Club, it’s a good thing they did because it was full after we tied up. Right away we needed to get some things done before we get back to Florida. One thing that needed immediate attention was our Bahamian Cruising permits were for 90 days and they were 2 days from expiring. I’m not sure it
would matter, no one other than Emerald Bay Marina ever asked to see them, but you never know. So off we go, took a cab ride to Immigration, the driver was not sure that was where we needed to go! So we are in a pretty crappy part of Nassau at this government building, went to the 3rd floor (Extensions) the official said that we needed customs at another building. So I pleaded with him and showed the form we needed extending and he said he could do it. No problem mon, so that pretty much shot the day, we got back just in time for cocktails and dinner at the Poop Deck Restaurant. Today has been boat clean up, laundry and catching up with the blog. We’ll stay for a couple more days then head over the Bimini, wait for a good time to cross the Gulf Stream and back to Florida.