Invasion of the Mega Yachts

Invasion of the Mega Yachts   ...   Friday 29 March 2013

Our experience of the Bahamas has generally been very pleasant and low key.  For the most part we met other boaters on either sailboats or power cruisers.  I have come to realize that these folks are the boating equivalent of snowbirds, veritable ‘snow boats’.  The typical thing is to store the boat in Florida over the summer while returning to home in the North.  Then come autumn, the snow boaters either fly or drive back to Florida, get back on the boat and travel to the Bahamas.  Most of these people have a lot in common and are happy to share their insights and learning with us (newbie snow boaters).

This week everything seems to have changed.  Suddenly there are twice as many boats.  The increase in numbers seems to be made up exclusively of very large powerboats and mega yachts.  Now it’s common to see a vessel with multiple tenders, jet-skis, kayaks, paddleboards and assorted inflated toys tied to the stern.  One mega catamaran was seen to have a ‘Hobie cat’ on the foredeck.  The size of these vessels is astonishing.  We saw at least two of these with giant water slides leading down from the top deck.  Clearly the beauty of the waters and beaches of the Bahamas is not enough for these folks.

Meanwhile, we see the crews of these vessels setting up picnic tables, umbrellas, chairs and barbecue grills for the clients to have a beach party.  Later in the day the crew is back, packing everything away and ferrying it back to the “mother ship”.  Even when we were getting our provisions we saw crew-members out getting the groceries for the rich and lazy.   Our hypothesis is that it’s spring break week and these are all chartered vessels.  We aren’t all that certain but this theory allows us to believe that next week will be better.   

Gloria

Moored at Emerald Cay - Exuma Land and Sea Park - fantastic water!

The mooring field at Wardewick Wells - a short dinghy ride to the north, we stayed here a few weeks ago - this area is the most beautiful we have seen anywhere in the Bahamas

A purple sea fan

Shopping Exuma Style

Shopping Exuma Style   …   Thursday 28 March 2013

We heard this morning that the mail boat had indeed arrived at Staniel Cay last night and so we jumped in the dinghy and headed to land. Would the produce have been unloaded yet? Would there be any left by the time we arrived? If we had to fight over the last lettuce would we win? I can tell you it was a "nail biter"! The general store turned out to be a cross between marine store and grocery, and happily on one side there were boxes of fresh produce for sale. We filled a couple of hand baskets with pineapple, melon, apples, oranges, lettuce, cauliflower, onions and spinach, and in contrast to our normal behaviour, we never once checked the price. This was gold and the price no longer seemed important. We managed to get all that we needed, but our impression was that the shop could be sold out by lunchtime and then presumably close up until the next boat arrived in a weeks time. Whilst in the store we heard a VHF radio announcement to all cruisers in Black Point harbor (where we anchored a few days ago) saying that the the mail ship had failed to deliver the supplies for their grocery and they didn't know when the next ship would be in. They wanted to alert the visiting boaters to avoid making an unnecessary trip. I guess we got lucky in Staniel Cay! 

Having stashed away our groceries, we raised anchor and in convoy with "Serendipity", travelled around to Sampson Cay about 5 miles to the north. We were impressed (shocked) by the number and size of mega-powerboats (100ft+) in this area. Some may have owners aboard, but many appear to be charter boats. We've seen crew scuttling around in the their tenders, setting up picnics, cocktail parties and volleyball nets on the beach. Some of the boats even have water-slides from their top decks into the sea. I can't imagine what it would cost to stay on one of these. Several of the islands in the Exumas are privately owned by the rich and famous, with imposing properties in gorgeous surroundings. In contrast, we wonder how many Bahamians get to own or even visit these beautiful areas of their country? It's hard to square away the incredible wealth of the tourists (including ourselves) and property owners with the relative poverty of the local people. 

Our plans are to spend the next few days working our way up the Exumas chain and then cross over the "Yellow Bank" to Nassau where we will meet up with at least one friend and possibly two, who will join us for the passage back to Florida. More on that to follow. It's likely that we will be out of email / internet contact until we reach Nassau sometime early / middle of next week.

p.s the instructions on our current internet site suggested the following to address slow network issues: step 1 - click screen, step 2 - take a swig of Kalik (local beer), step 3 - repeat steps 1 and 2 until internet speed seems really fast.

Mike

24 12.389 N, 76 28.675 W

This is the dock where we tied up for the "General Isles" grocery store - not your average supermarket parking lot

Another fantastic sunset - today at Sampson Cay

When the boat comes in

When the boat comes in   ...   Wednesday 27^th March 2013

We went to Staniel Cay by dinghy this morning.  Our ambitions were to fill the water jerry cans, dump trash and get some provisions, especially fresh veg and fruit.  Landing at the Yacht Club we were quickly able to get rid of our trash and fill our water jerry cans.  Then we went in search of groceries.  We stopped by a small shop where the only fresh items were a few onions and a couple of tomatoes.  When we asked about more fresh produce we were told that they were “waiting for the boat to come in”.  The second shop had a similar story.  The boat was due in the afternoon, fresh produce would be available sometime after the boat arrived.  We hung around the yacht club waiting for the “mail boat”.  We spent the time reading e-mail and having lunch.  We walked back to the shop at about 2 pm.  The shop was closed; the boat hadn’t arrived… We gave up and returned to Cotinga.  This is the reality of life in the Bahamas generally.  All supplies come in by boat.  Boating is weather and tide dependent. We will try the store once more in the morning.    

Gloria

Government Dock Staniel Cay

Priceless Advice

Cape May Warbler - our first ever sighting of this species

Tractor tire _ abstract

Pigs Might Fly

Pigs Might Fly   …   Tuesday 26th March 2013

I'm not expecting to see a flying pig any time soon, but today we did see pigs swimming in the sea. They live on an uninhabited island called Big Major and they have learned to swim out from the shore and beg for scraps of food from passing boats. When we landed on the beach the first pig came right up to us - and I mean close enough to bang it's snout on my camera lens! We fed them some left over vegetable scraps and took our photos like everyone else. 

We started the day up at Cambridge Cay but decided along with our friends Lynn and Lee on "Serendipity" to head south for a couple of days and visit Staniel Cay. The anchorage at Cambridge Cays has many sand bars to the west so we needed to go back out into Exuma Sound and travel a couple of miles south to a deeper cut onto the bank side. A cold front moved through the central Bahamas last night and the forecast is for northerly winds for several days. If we didn't leave this morning there was a fair chance the building waves would make the exit channel impassable and we would be locked in until the weekend. We got up early and together with Serendipity , Lee and Lynn's boat, we headed out. The wind was blowing 20 knots in the cut as we left and it was very bumpy for a while, but things settled down and once we were back on the bank side we had a fabulous sail for the next couple of hours. We anchored off the Island of Big Major, just north of the town of Staniel Cay. There are several highlights in this area including the aforementioned pigs, but also some great in Thunderball grotto. This was the cave that was used in the James Bond film "Thunderball" and you can enter at low tide by swimming under a low arch. Inside shafts of light radiate from holes in the ceiling and the colors and variety of fish are amazing. Many of the fish seemed really large compared to others we have seen previously, which we attribute to the extra food that the visiting swimmers bring to attract the fish. Lynn brought a jar of sweetcorn and when scattered in the water the fish swarm around you just inches away. We were amused to see some people had brought an aerosol can of "Cheese Whiz" which the fish seemed to like. SOunds like the best use of a  can of "Cheese Whiz" to me!

Later in the afternoon we took our dinghies over to the Staniel Cay Yacht club for a drink and some dinner. We also hoped to be able to get wifi but that turned out to be more difficult than we envisaged and we put that off for another day. Unfortunately, as we sat in the bar we could see the sky darkening and a secondary cold front approaching. By the time we had finished eating it was getting dark, blowing strongly and very choppy out on the water. It was a struggle just to get back into the dinghies and off the dock. The ride back from the Yacht club was a bit of a nightmare. It is generally comforting to have two dinghies out there (ours and Lee and Lynn's), but it was difficult in the bouncy seas and failing light to judge distances and stay close to each to other. We made it back OK, albeit very wet, and Gloria and I are now sitting on Cotinga, listening to the wind howl as she rock and rolls in the waves. We've both taken sea sick pills and hope to pass out fairly soon!

Mike

24 11.043 N, 76 27.551 W

Serendipity motoring out of Bell Cut - just before it got really bumpy!

Pig at Bog Major

Man drinking at Staniel Cay Yacht Club bar

Fish List

Fish List   ...   Monday 25^th March 2013

When our friends Lynn and Lee mentioned that they were keeping the ‘fish list’, I thought that’s a great idea.  For years we’ve been keeping birds lists for every trip, even a day out to Plum Island.  Admittedly these scraps of paper wound up in all sorts of unlikely places and were rarely transcribed onto the “official list” kept on the computer.  The concept of lists is firmly entrenched in our bird watching.  Why weren’t we thinking about keeping a list of the fish we see while snorkeling? One obvious difference is that writing the list while snorkeling isn’t quite as easy… Another difference is that we can’t seem to remember what we’ve seen when we get back to the boat.  You might think that the skills you need for identifying birds would be very useful in fish ID.  Perhaps we need to hone our skills further.  In the water it’s harder to confer about the fish, it’s even hard to be sure that you are both looking at the same thing. 

Our recent additions to the bird list have been the Caribbean Coot, Bahama woodstar (a hummingbird) and the white-tailed tropicbird.  To be honest we didn’t even realize that the Coots here could be different from Coots in the US.  An e-mail from Woody, the chap we went birding with in the Abaco, alerted us to this fine distinction.  We had to make a special trip to the golf course water hazard at Emerald Bay to confirm that we had been seeing this different species.  We saw the tropicbird from the cliffs of Cambridge Cay today as we were taking a walk.  It was great to see these birds.  About half the length of the bird is the tail plumes.  Hopefully we will see more birds as we head north into the migration.

Gloria

Cambridge Cay anchorage - looking across the pond

Bell cut to Exuma Sound - on a very calm day

Sunset over the Banks

Beach Party for the cruisers

Lynn, Lee and Maggie

The Aquarium

The Aquarium    …   Sunday 24 March 2013

If you go to the mountains you miss a lot if you don't go hiking or climbing. Similarly if you come to the Bahamas you would miss a lot if you didn't snorkel or dive. The water here has an almost unbelievable clarity. From above this leads to wonderful varied colors depending on the depth and the nature of the seabed - sand, grass, coral. Below the surface there are amazing corals, sponges and a vast array of beautiful fish. We are currently anchored at Cambridge Cay, a couple of miles inside the southern boundary of the Exuma Land and Sea Park and having spent a lazy morning aboard the boat we joined forces with our friends Lynn and Lee and took our dinghies to explore some of the snorkling highlights in this area. We motored in convoy about 3 miles north to a dive site known as the "Aquarium" and tied up to a buoy that the park provides. The journey was a little bumpy but mostly downwind. The mooring was close to a small, unremarkable island, and was decidedly choppy as the waves bounced into the cliffs and were reflected. Lee jumped in first and quickly re-surfaced, quite excited. I believe his exact words were "Holy shit you're not going to believe how many fish there are down here". Well he was right, it was incredible. We ended up snorkeling all the way round the island - twice! The visibility was excellent and we saw lots of beautiful fish, including many we had not seen previously. Most of the fish didn't seem at all bothered by our presence and some were frankly inquisitive. Lynn had brought a small jar of food (perhaps corn) and when she opened it we were immediately surrounded by shoals of fish within inches of our masks - it was unbelievable. Having completed our two laps of the island and been in the water for more than hour (perhaps two) we were all starting to get a little chilly, despite wearing shorty wet suits. In fact today I wore my shorty wet suit over the one Dave left with us and felt the warmest that i've been whilst snorkeling - thanks Dave! Gloria also made use of borrowed gear, using Rod's prescription lens mask, and consequently seeing a lot more. The journey back was a lot wetter. The tide was now flooding at maximum velocity and the wind was blowing solidly in the opposite direction. The result were short, step waves and a bumpy ride. We made it back without incident and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and then got together after sunset to look at the fish identification books and compare our sightings.  great end to an excellent day.

Mike

24 18.125 N, 76 32.433 W

"Serendipity" at anchor Cambridge Cay

Abstract - ship at anchor

Abstract - ship at anchor

The longest 15 miles

The longest 15 miles   ...   23rd March 2013

The boat was doing plenty of dancing at anchor yesterday morning.  There wasn’t that much fetch across the bay at Black Rock but somehow the southerly wind was kicking up a lot of chop.  Our plan was to travel to Cambridge with our friends Lynn and Lee.  This involved going out the cut and then travelling northwest on Exuma sound for about fifiteen miles. While we were waiting for “slack tide” to leave, I had plenty of time to worry about what conditions we would encounter in the cut and the sound.  At about 10:30 am we got underway. 

Clearly there was a large current flowing out of the cut.  We found ourselves pounding through big seas, taking lots of spray over the bow.  Once past the rip current flowing out of the cut, the swells were substantial.  Turning northward, we were sailing down wind and being tossed around by the swell.  Despite the meclizine I had taken at breakfast, I started to feel unwell.  More meclizine was consumed.  I found myself often checking the distance remaining and our boat speed to calculate how many hours remained.  As the wind diminished around noon, it seemed that the result of the calculation was always the same—2 hours.  I started to thing we would never arrive at Bell Cut.

A boat, tacking to windward toward us, provided some distraction.  When it got closer, this vessel appeared to be a large racing yacht with dark sails (made of some high tech material, no doubt).  Our thought was that they were headed down the Exuma chain.  Shortly after they passed by us, they turned down wind and sailed around us for quite a while.  Perhaps it was some kind of tune up sail.  There certainly were enough people on the foredeck staring up into the rigging.  At once stage I counted ten people on the deck. 

The other distraction was the fishing.  After completing a gybe that slowed the boat down substantially, we got a bite on the line.  Mike pulled the fish in enough to see that it was a mahi-mahi.  We got out the gaff hook but somehow in the process, the fish slipped off the gaff and fell back into the sea.  It’s the classic “fish that got away” story.

Happily for us we had been invited to have dinner with Lynn and Lee.  We had a fantastic meal of chicken piccatta, quinoa, sugar snap beans and green bean salad.  It was great to be able to chat with them about sailing, books, music and politics.    

Gloria

Looking out over Exuma Sound from Cambridge Cay

Cambridge Cay anchorage