Sunny Exumas

Well the last time I left you all, we were enjoying our travels along the exuma chain. We left you while we were in Compass Cay, one of the most beautiful cays in the Exumas. Even though this anchorage had a wicked current running through, the protection for the N - NE wind was relatively good and we were expecting a brutal cold front to come through with winds forecasted to be in the 30 knot range. We decided to hunker down and wait out the front. The winds started to pipe up in the early afternoon which meant the pre frontal winds had arrived, so we took everything off the deck, lashed everything down and got another anchor ready on deck just in case. Before we knew it a black line appeared on the horizon followed by an ugly sky. The winds proceeded to pick up and before we knew it the winds were blowing 30 knots steady. We sat in the cockpit and just waited and hoped our trusty anchor would hold. All of a sudden we saw a white line about 5 feet above the water moving towards us and all I heard was Mike say “Hold on…this isn’t going to be good. If the rode breaks I want you to take the tiller and I’ll drop the emergency anchor”. Holy crap…The white line hit us and we were in 42 knots of wind. For those of you who can’t relate 42 knots is almost 70 km winds. The 42 knots didn’t last very long but it was scary. At one point Mike asked me to pass him his snorkel goggles cause the rain was driving so bad into his face. Here we are dealing with gale force winds and I’m killing myself laughing at Mike who looked like an absolute dork with these goggles on. Yes people I got a picture! Our anchor did the job and held us through. Not too long after, we saw the other side of the front moving quickly south above us…a sigh of relief. The winds died down to about 20-25 knots through the night and everything was fine.
While we were in Compass waiting for the front to move through we did a ton of hiking and snorkelling and fishing. Mike was determined to spear something so we would make our way out in the dinghy for the afternoon in search for coral heads. We found a great head filled with snappers and school masters….Mike didn’t want to settle for the smaller fish, he wanted the biggest school master there. The school master toyed with Mike for about 45 minutes jetting in and out of holes in the coral. If the school master could talk he would be saying “Catch me if you can….come on…I dare ya”. What we didn’t know was that Mike wasn’t the only one who wanted the big school master. Out of the corner of his eye, Mike saw a silver flash. As he turned to see what it was he stared at a big black tip shark. I was in the dinghy and saw Mike quickly look up to see where I had parked the dinghy, then I saw flippers flipping as fast as I’ve ever seen flippers flip and before I knew it Mike shot out of the water and into the dinghy similar to a seal jolting out of the water. I thought maybe he had seen a barracuda (as these aren’t the most friendly creatures), but then he said “shark”. Normally I wouldn’t have believed him, but the way he swam to the boat, I knew he wasn’t kidding. Since then he has encountered another black tip and this time he didn’t bolt, he just slowly made his way back to the dinghy and the shark went the other way. Needless to say we weren’t the ones that ate the school master that night.
We were anxious to get a move on after waiting so long in Compass for the front to come through so the next day we weighed anchor and made our way to Staniel Cay Here we met up with Caretta again and we had made our way down with Hasten Slowly, so all of us went into Staniel and enjoyed a fundraiser bbq for the all ages school..
Staniel Cay was the first real civilization we had come across since we had left Nassau. We had just run out of toilet paper and were in desperate need of fruit and vegetables so Staniel was a welcome stop. We anchored in a great anchorage with many other boats and visited the beaches along the anchorage, one of which hosts wild pigs. Well…they’re not really wild as they’ve been somewhat tamed by the cruisers who feed them.
You think they’re kinda cute but man…they’re aggressive suckers. We took our little friend Steve from Hasten Slowly and had to abort the mission once we were out of food as we thought they were going to feast on Steveo.
Staniel was also the place that we were expecting a visit from Paul and Karen from Thornbury. We spent a couple of days getting used to the area and awaited the arrival of our friends.
We had a wonderful 9 days with Paul and Karen. The weather was superb and we were able to anchor in front of their cottage the whole time. We spent our days biking the island, snorkelling the grotto (from the James Bond movies “Never say Never” and “Thunderball”), eating great dinners, drinking lots of rum and luckily Mike and Paul were successful at fishing. The 2 boys went out in the 8 foot dinghy to try their hand at fishing (as they weren’t having much luck with finding lobster). After a brief engine problem in the middle of the inlet with the current ripping they finally were off fishing about 2 miles offshore (in an 8 foot dinghy!). The minutes ticked by as I waited patiently at the boat (as Mike had our only vehicle) and finally I saw the dinghy coming in. The first thing I saw was a huge grin on Paul’s face, so I knew it had to be good.
They pulled up to Meggie and held up a 10 pound Mahi. Mmmm dinner! On our way back to the cottage we ran into a German couple that were staying at the main house for the night. Luck would have it that Dominique was a pilot and he had a cesna on the island and offered us a flight.
So Paul, Mike and I went up in the cesna for about 40 minutes and had a beautiful flight over Staniel Cay and the surrounding area. We flew at only 250 feet over the islands and were able to see Meggie suspended in the most amazing water. During the flight I noticed something felt a little different and when I looked up front Mike had the wheel (or whatever it is). Yup, Mike was flying the plane. Dominique turns around and asks Paul and I if we want to fly. So there we are in this little tiny tiny plane and Mike and Paul are switching positions so Paul can fly. Finally we got repositioned and Paul was flying the plane. It was interesting! We invited Dominique and Brozenic (sp?) to dinner and had the best mahi dinner I’ve had yet.
What a day. Sadly the 9 days came to and end and we had to say goodbye to Paul and Karen. The time went so fast it doesn’t even seem real that they were here. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and we thoroughly enjoyed Staniel. We hung out there for a couple of more days and said our goodbyes to the lovely people of Staniel and made our way to Georgetown, making a few stops along the way. We stopped in Cave Cay and waited out some NE winds until we could get out the cut and head to Georgetown. We had a great sail down the exuma sound, even though it was a bit rolly. We put our lines out asap in the hopes of catching another mahi and having dinner with Hasten Slowly once we arrived in Georgetown. Around 8 am the line went taught and Mike pulled in a huge mahi…however, once we got the fish to the side of the boat the wire holding the hook, snapped and we lost him. We couldn’t believe it…he was within our grasp and we lost him. We immediately put another line in but with no luck. The miles ticked down as we closed in on Georgetown but still no fish. Then with 5 miles left the line went taught again. This time we weren’t going to lose him.
We pulled in a beautiful huge mahi. This one had to have been 15-18 pounds. We hailed Hasten Slowly and enjoyed a great dinner once again.
Now we sit in the Georgetown harbour as the winds blow 20-25 knots yet again. This place is unbelievable. It is basically a summer camp for retirees. It’s a great place to meet people, reprovision, and source anything you need before making the jump to the DR, but a week is plenty for us. Some people arrive in November and stay all the way until April and May…it’s crazy. Once the winds subside we’ll make our way to Conception island , Mayaguana, possibly Turks and Caicos and then to the Dominican Republic. We have sourced the charts that we needed and we’re almost ready to go. The next leg of our trip will be more difficult than the last couple of months and the leg after that (the mona passage) will be even more difficult. Weather windows are key for a successful trip, but we want to keep going, so we’ll give it a go. We considered making our way north again but have both come to the conclusion that if we don’t do it now, then we probably won’t get the chance to do it again. So for now we’re preparing and waiting.
So until next (and I’m not sure when that will be, but please be patient).
Later mon
Kylie and Mike