Conch for Dinner

Conch for Dinner   …   Thursday 31 Jan 2013

This morning the first of our three propane tanks ran dry, thankfully after we had finished our morning coffee. We last refilled the tanks prior to leaving Vero Beach so we have used one 10lb tank in a month, which seems pretty reasonable to me. We pulled out the tank and headed in to Marsh Harbor in the dinghy to get it refilled and also to see if we could pick up a chart book for Eleuthera which we failed to get before leaving the US. The dinghy ride proved to be very wet as the wind was blowing about 15-20 mph from the south west and there was quite a bit of chop in the harbor. We left the propane tank at a local store with the promise that it would be refilled by 4pm, but couldn't find the charts and so headed back to Cotinga. I went back in to town in the afternoon to pick up the tank, which was ready and waiting as promised, and also to explore a little more. Marsh Harbor is the third biggest town in the Bahamas and has a number of surprisingly good services. Despite this, it doesn't look like a wealthy community and outside of the main business areas the houses seem a pretty run down. However, I'm continually impressed with just how friendly everyone is, not just the people you interact with in shops, but everyone you pass on the street seems to say hello with friendly smile. Whilst wandering around I came across Gregory the "Conch Man" sitting on a small skiff with a load of ~ 400 conch. Chatting with him and a couple of other visitors I was encouraged to buy a few conch. Gregory made the process of removing the conch from their shells look really easy - a few sharp taps with a hammer to break a hole in the apex of the shell, poke in a  knife to release the snail and then trim off various bits to leave the white meet. I was third in line to get my 4 conch and by the time Gregory had prepared my order there was quite a crowd gathered. I made a quick trip to the supermarket to buy additional ingredients and then headed back the boat. Based on the advice of the people I had met in town we prepared conch salad - with tomatoes, onion, peppers and limes - and also pulverized some conch with a hammer and made cracked conch with plantains and fried tomatoes. All in all it turned out be a very pleasant dinner. I feel a little guilty as Dave and Kathy were very keen to eat conch but it was something we never got around to doing. During the afternoon the wind swung round to the north and we are now rocking gently on the anchor.

...  p.s. we would really welcome any comments ... it can feel a bit isolated down here !

Mike

One of the poorer areas near the port of Marsh harbor

Washing Day

Gregory - the Conch Man   ... he looks a little stern in this photo but he was actually very jovial

Conch Salad

Cracked conch, sauted plantains and tomatoes

Farewells

Farewells  ...   30th Jan 2013

We sailed back from Elbow Cay to Marsh Harbour this morning - and it was a lovely sail on flat sees with a good breeze. After a quick lunch, we took Dave and Kathy to the Union Jack dock. Our farewells were rapid as a taxi was waiting to whisk them off to the airport. It was hard to believe that a week had already passed since they arrived.   We got to do some sailing, snorkeling, fishing and exploring of a few islands.  Amazingly, we still managed to find some time to eat and drink.   I hope they had as much fun as we did. We were sad to see them go.

We spent the rest of the day getting organized on the boat, enjoying the sunny afternoon.  Now I’m sitting on the quiet boat listening to the rain and thinking about the Andersons and their long journey back to Colorado.  It’s enough to make me feel a little bit guilty…  

Gloria

26 32 50.6 N, 77 03 29.6 W

Guest Blog

Guest Blog   ...   Tuesday 29th January 2013

Todays blog entry comes straight from the "pen" of our friend Dave Anderson .... hopefully this is the start of a new trend!


0640 Hopetown Harbor, Elbow Cay, Bahamas. Awoken by the smell of coffee brewing and Mike  scurrying around with some boat chores.  Breakfast (muesli and fruit) in the cockpit a  half hour later as the Harbor wakes up, workers arrive on the fast small inter-island ferries, watching other boaters enjoying the morning on their boats.  The harbor is snug and friendly but we let go of the mooring at 0816 to navigate the shallow tricky entrance on the last of the rising tide.  The Bahamas serve up a classic day for visitors Kathy and Dave Anderson's last day and we go after it all.  A short sail south using the Genoa and the diesel brings us outside White Harbor where we drop the hook.  The dumb dog gets some TLC with scrub brushes, soap, and bleach, even some patches to repair slow leaks.  The dog responds, depositing us on Tahiti Beach. We walk the beautiful beach, and then hike across the  razor-sharp surface of the exposed reef around the corner in order to view Tiloo Cut.  The cut is awesome.  North Atlantic swells break outside on the barrier reef, remnants of yesterday's blow, and the bright sunshine lights up the aquamarine/ green shallows in front of us and also the deeper dark blue waters in the cut.  Spray reaches 25' upwards to our perch above the cut as we gaze across the Atlantic. By now the falling tide has exposed the extensive sand flats that project southward from Tahiti Beach. We walk a quarter-mile out on the flats, struck by the shallow and flat topography that is the Bahamas. We search for beach glass, pick up sand dollars and sea biscuits, picking up and then returning the conches gently to the water. Farther south we see that the Ketch that passed us earlier is aground on a sand bank. We feel sorry for her predicament. They keep the mainsail up.  The wind pushes her downwind onto the sand, and we realize that its early on a falling tide. She will probably be there from now (1300) to around 2000 tonight when the tide comes back in.  With a 360 degree view from the end of the sandbar we appreciate the Bahamas- the narrow cut to our east, the boat aground to the south, gentle winds blowing across the sandbar.  Cotinga lies about a half mile to the north, sheltered by Elbow Cay, her maroon hull illuminated by the sun.  With all four of us in the dumb dog we head out into the cut to fish.  Dave catches a small sand tile fish, but the  bigger fish that roam the cut aren't home.  The dumb dog takes us back to Cotinga around four.  Kathy and Dave head to shore for some snorkling around a breakwater.  The breakwater is inhabited by trunkfish, Parrot fish, beautiful but un-welcome lionfish, Angelfish, and schools of nervous fry. Dave finds a grouper-like fish lurking in between the rocks of the breakwater but cannot bring himself to shoot the shy dumb fish.  The new Hawaiian sling will have to wait for another day.  Mike stays on board for the sea urchin photo-shoot capturing the radial symmetry in the fading afternoon light. The sun sets, Mike prepares an incredible dinner (pork with a glaze of dried cherries and port), and the Kerosene lantern illuminates the cockpit. The rising tide floats the ketch, the moon rises over Elbow Cay around 2000, and another day in the Bahamas comes to an end.

26 30 30.5 N, 76 58 57.4 W

Sand Dollar

Sea urchin

Back to Hope Town

Back to Hope Town   …   Monday 28^th January

During the night the wind really started to pipe up and by 5.30 am we were bouncing around a fair bit on the anchorage despite being behind the shelter of Man of War Cay. We got up around 6.30 and prepared for an early departure with the intention of navigating the shallow channel into Hope town on the last hour of the rising tide. We left our anchorage shortly after 7am under motor (to charge batteries and run the refrigeration). We raised the genoa to help us along but soon decided to partly furl it. We estimate the wind was approaching 25 knots as we covered the 5 miles to the entry of Hope Town Harbor, with spray breaking over the boat. Having had the experience of running aground yesterday it was somewhat nerve-wracking to negotiate the shallow approach and channel – particularly as the bumpy waters could mean that trough levels might approach the draft of our boat. In practice we were able to use our previous track to help guide us in and we never saw depths of less than 7ft. It’s worth noting that later in the day we saw another boat aground in the harbor entrance in pretty much the same place we saw a boat aground the last time we were here. This area is not a cruising ground for the faint hearted! Many of the harbor entrances are only passable with the assistance of tide for a boat of our draft. Once we picked up a mooring we retired indoors to eat a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and bagels. We then visited the lighthouse and walked around town, stopping for fine lunch of quiche and coffee at the local coffee house. Later in the afternoon Dave enthusiastically dived under the boat to check the keel  - which seems to be just fine. (I should say at this point that Dave does everything with great enthusiasm and he didn’t bother with a wet suit so that the additional bouyency wouldn’t interfere with getting down to the keel!). Dave and I then headed out in the dinghy to do some fishing and caught a number of small fish – but nothing worth keeping.

26 32 29.4 N, 76 57 33.9 W

Abstract - rusty boat fittings

Gears on the lighthouse mechanism

Gears on the lighthouse mechanism _ 2

Nippers, Mutton Snapper and other things

Nippers, Mutton Snapper and other things   ...   Sunday 27^th Jan 2013

After breakfast, we departed from the anchorage at Treasure Cay. Kathy and Dave took turns at the helm as we sailed beautifully to Great Guana Cay.  As we picked up the mooring we thought the depth was quite shallow. We spent some time convincing ourselves that we would still be floating at low tide.  That settled we went ashore to have lunch at Nippers.  We were all delighted to find that the Sunday Pig Roast dinner was being served when we arrived.  Having eaten (too much), we toddled back to the boat with a view to doing some fishing off Man of War Cay.

We set off sailing once we got out of Settlement Harbor.  As we crossed the area opposite north Man of War passage we threw out the hand line with the planing device, pink squid lure and day old squid bait.  To our surprise within a few minutes we could tell we had a fish on the line.  Mike pulled in the line to reveal a good-sized Mutton Snapper—possibly three pounds.  The dinner menu was determined. 

A short way further along we turned into the bay where we meant to anchor.  This was where the depth sounder abruptly went from 11 ft to < 6ft.  With a distinct set of thumps, we ran aground.  We tried reversing off and going forward to no avail.  Dave got into the water to assess the situation.  Apparently the keel was partially imbedded on a sand / rock bank.  He thought we needed about 8 inches to float off.  Thankfully we were on a rising tide, but in the mean time we tried a number of approaches to get off more quickly. Firstly we tried hanging two large water containers off the boom and swinging that out to one side in order to heel the boat over and raise the keel. We attempted to kedge off by attaching the bow to the secondary anchor and pulling on the anchor line, and when that didn’t wok either we tried attaching the stern to the secondary anchor.  Then with the help of a small powerboat we carried the main anchor forward to try to kedge with that anchor.  Finally, we had both anchors out ahead of the boat with about a 90 degree angle between them.  By this time the tide had come in enough that Dave could see that the leading and trailing edges of the keel were free and we only needed a few inches of water to float off.  Mike put the engine into forward and managed to force the boat forward into deeper water.  We could tell that we had come free because the boat swung round to a position downwind of the anchor.  Everyone was much relieved.  They say there are two kinds of sailors in the Bahamas – those that have run aground and those that have yet to run aground. All in all it took us about an hour to get off. There remained a lot of stuff to clear up but we were happy to do the work.  Once most things were back in place, we tried to find a better way into that particular bay – but even avoiding the bar we were not happy with the depth or bottom so we motored to a different area where we were very happy to set a secure anchor. 

26 35 58.6 N, 77 00 51.5 W

The famous "Nippers" bar - Great Guana Cay

Sting Ray from the dock in Settlement Harbor - Great Guana Cay

Green Turtle Cay and Treasure Cay

Green Turtle Cay and Treasure Cay   …   Friday 25th and Saturday 26th January 2013

On Friday morning we hiked in from White Sound Harbor on Green Turtle Cay into the main town of New Providence. It was a couple of miles each way and we saw a few birds (including a western spindles and group of 4 parrots) and some fabulous views from the Atlantic Beaches. New Providence itself had a friendly atmosphere with colorful buildings, a beautiful location and friendly people. We stopped by the "Crazy Love Cafe" for lunch - coconut grouper sandwiches for Gloria, Dave and me and grouper and chips for Kathy - a very nice meal. We saw a great bumper sticker - "My wife talks 50% faster than I can listen". On the way back we took a brief detour to visit a cove on the Eastern / Atlantic side. This gave us a view over the ocean that was truly awe inspiring. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph from the north east and had been for the past 2 days and spectacular waves rolling in and breaking on the reef or nearby cays. It made us nervous about our return trip through the "Whale passage" the following day. In the evening we barbecued chicken and sat outside in the cockpit with the paraffin lantern providing a cosy glow.

This morning we woke early (7am) and ate a quick breakfast (bagels and coffee) and then motored out of White sound at high tide. We had hoped to pick up information on the sea state in the Whale Passage on the 8.15am cruisers net - but our VHF reception was so poor we weren't able to get much useful information. (Not sure if we were just too far away from the broadcast or if running the engine provides too much interference - it may be a mix of the two as we can communicate well with boast nearby when under way.) The wind had moderated during the night ad was suppose dot be 5-15 mph from the south. In fact we had next to no wind today so we motored the whole way to Treasure Cay. There was fair amount of roll in the outside passage - but nothing breaking and not too uncomfortable. We took the narrow and shallow cut into the harbor and dropped anchor shortly after 11am. We had cheese, salami and bread for lunch and then headed into the dock and across the road to the beach on the northern side of Treasure Cay. the guide book describes this as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and we weren't disappointed. We hiked about a mile to the east enjoying the fine white sand and the turquoise colored seas. Returning to the dock we invested in a spear for spear fishing - stainless steel, about 5 ft long with a sharp point and hinged barb. We also need to buy the rubber sling that goes with this but there none for sale at this shop so we manufactured a system using a bungee cord. We took the dinghy out to wrecked boat just outside the harbor entrance and snorkeled around - seeing a nice turtle and a sting ray. Dave used the spear and amazingly was able to catch a spiny tailed lobster. We had chatted earlier in the afternoon to a Canadian couple we had met before and they had clued us in to lobster hunting on this wreck. Note that a ladyin a local dive shop recommended against spear fishing for fish as sharks tend to appear very quickly after you catch something. This is not true of lobster. The Canadian couple said they thought it was oK to spear fish - although the guy did mention in passing that his friends had been bitten on the foot by a shark - not a great recommendation as far as Im concerned! This evening we ate chicken and lobster risotto - very nice.

26 40 10.9 N, 77 17 04.2 W

photos to follow when we have adequate internet connectivity

New Providence - Green Turtle Cay

Waitress at the Crazy Love Cafe

A dock in New Providence - Green Turtle Cay

Breaking swell on the Atlantic side of Green Turtle Cay

A live crab on Green Turtle Cay

Crab shell

The amazing beach at Treasure Cay

Dave and Kathy at Treasure Cay beach

Big day of sailing

Big day of sailing   ...   Friday 24^th Jan 2013

The great thing about having guests is that they push you to do things that you might not otherwise. In discussing plans for the Andersons’ visit, Mike and I were thinking that we should stay on the east side of the Whale Cay passage so that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck on the wrong side.  Talking the plan over with Dave and Kathy,

Kathy suggested that we should try to go through the Whale Cay passage and visit Green Turtle Cay if the weather looked suitable over the next couple of days.  Once she said it like that, we thought: “yes, lets do that.”

When we woke this morning the wind was very light.  We decided to add a stop at Fowl Cay to our plan, hoping to be able to snorkel on the ocean side of the Cay.  We set off after breakfast and sailed to windward toward Fowl Cay.  On went the wet suits and then the four of us piled into the dinghy with masks and flippers.  The swell became more obvious as we rounded the northwestern side of the island.  After tying up to the mooring ball we all slipped into the water for a brief snorkel.  Sadly, Kathy began to feel unwell so we headed back to the big boat.  Ideally we would have taken her to solid land to aid her recovery.  She made a slow recovery on the rocking boat but was incredibly brave about it.

We set off from Fowl Cay at about 1 pm and tacked our way up the side of Great Guana Cay.  As we approached the Loggerhead Channel we fired up the engine to facilitate our negotiation of the channel.  As we re-entered through the Whale Cay passage the swells were building up quite noticeably.  In the interest of time we continued to motor sail to the entrance to White Sound on Green Turtle Cay.  With high tide only about and hour and a half away, we were hoping to have enough depth to get into the harbor.  While we did see 7.3 feet on the depth sounder, all was well.   Once inside the harbor we dropped the anchor.  Then we enjoyed a beverage while watching the sunset.  We rounded out the day with a dinner of Shrimp Scampi and green beans, followed by apple pie and brownies.

photos to follow when we have adequate connectivity

Dave under water

White Sound at dusk - Green Turtle Cay