7:45am- Leaving Staniel Cay at high tides. The issue is how Dr. Jim leaves without hitting the Wide Catamaran and huge boat on the other dock. There was a lot of discussion before take off. Not only is there winds but there is also strong currents.
WHAT A MESS! First of all, the dock master who was suppose to help disappeared and we needed to leave before the current got stronger.. To help Dr Jim leave, Steve hung on to the bow line and a guy from a Catamaran held the stern line. They slowly let go and as Dr Jim was backing out, the wind and the current caught him and he couldn't get up enough reverse speed. His bow hit the huge G3 boat (150 ft Mega Yacht),, however with John trying to get him away from it with his legs and someone else pushing him off the big boat there was no damage. As he proceeded to go forward, his stern was coming toward the stern of our boat. Good thing the current was keeping our dinghy on our port stern since it acted as a fender between Airiel and our boat.
The drama proceeds. I can laugh now but not at the time. To try to get off our boat, Dr Jim gave it forward power and was going so fast (current) that the bow of his boat ran right into the dock. It crushed one of the dock boards. By then people had his bow. Steve used the pole to push the stern away from GaYa and as he was pushing as hard as he can, he ended up falling in the water along with the pole in between the boats. Everyone now in the port woke up and ran to help. Steve was trying to figure out how to get out of the water. Good thing the Nurse sharks weren't interested in him. A guy from another big boat told him to swim to his boat as he put down his ladder. It took poor Steve awhile to get out as he was catching his breathe.
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| Steve is soaked after falling in |
People helped Airiel to back out of the Marina safely. Somehow his dinghy got detached but another boater tow it to him once he was safely out of the Marina.
We had many hands helping us out by that time and having a bow thruster sure helped.
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| Aerial getting out of the marina |
As we were motoring out and calming down, Steve changed out of his wet salty clothes and washed and peroxide the cuts from the barnacles from a dock pole he tried to climb. So thankful that he didn't get hurt. It is nice to see boater's helping one another in times like this.
Now we are heading to Farmers Cay. Of course the wind is right on the nose.
12:00pm- Going by Oven Rock on Great Guana Cay. Very interesting how there is a huge rock near the beach.
It was very shallow going thru the cut to Little Farmers Cay. We ran aground in once spot but manage to get out quickly. Had to keep an eye out for rocks.
For some reason our chart plotter told us the water was deeper than what it really was. We just proceeded very slowly.
1:00pm- Arrived at Little Farmers Cay. We reserved a mooring for the night. Good thing because they were all taken. As if we didn't have any excitement today, the current was so strong and Steve reached down to grab the mooring with the pole and the hook on the pole broke. Oh no, how do we grab onto this mooring. We tried to back into it and grab it by the stern however the current was too strong. Then Steve came up with a brilliant plan. He used the fishing gaff and it worked. Poor Steve is exhausted. The worse part was he didn't even have any cold beer on ice afterwards.
Point of interest: There are approximately 70'residents on this 3.5 mile Long Island..it is largely undeveloped so far. Little Farmers Cay has an interesting history. A freed slave from neighboring Barraterre, settled on the island with his two sons who later purchased the island from the British Crown. One son had 13 children and the other 5. They willed the island to their descendants who, to this day, can build on the island but not sell to outsiders. Little Farmers Cay even has its own flag. |
| Old Cemetery |
1:30- After we had lunch, we all went to the small Marina and bar and had a couple of beers there. We walked thru an old cemetery. There was even a phone booth. Not sure if it worked. We then walk to what they call downtown and could see stingrays, turtles and fish swimming.
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| Little Farmers Cay Marina/Bar/Restaurant |
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| There were turtles |
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| We saw stingrays |
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| Crab walking across the street |
We plan on staying in Little Farmers Cay for a couple of days due to the weather and then head for Georgetown. That plan can change!
January 29, 2018
The moon was sure bright last night. I just love being either anchored or on a mooring when the moon shines across the water. Tomorrow night is the full moon. Hopefully the clouds won't interfere.
6:30am-Woke up to a calm beautiful morning and the it started pouring around 7:30am.
After having our breakfast, Steve decided to fish off the boat when the sun peeped through.
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| First catch is Nassau Grouper |
Then he caught three Grunts with cooked ham we had in the fridge. He tried turkey pepperoni but no fish wanted that. Then we cut up a small raw chicken breast and caught 3 Sand fish but one slipped out of his hand. He went to the Yacht Club to talk to Roosevelt Nixon (Marina owner) about how to clean the fish. The Grunt were scaled and gutted and cooked whole. The Sand were scaled, gutted and cut in 2 inch steaks. This was enough to feed 6 people.
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| Grunt fish |
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| Sand fish |
While Steve was at the Yatch club cleaning the fish, I decided it was a great time to hand wash clothes and dry the. I had to make sure the clothes had triple clothes pins since it was so windy. The good thing is the clothes dried so fast.
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| When we went to the Yacht Club, it was funny to watch Roosevelt Nixon watching " The Price Is Right" |
We brought the fish along with Rice, black beans and peas to Ariel where John prepared the fish baked in tin foil with old bay spice and butter. What a feast. Dinner and wine was wonderful. Nothing better than the catch of the day.
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| John preparing the fish |
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| Nancy, Steve & Dr. Jim |
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| John and Susan |
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| Can't believe we ate the whole thing |
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| Nancy enjoying the fish |
8:00pm- Came back to our boat under the light of the silvery full moon. We sat out in the cock pit with a glass of wine listening to the wind howling. It was so beautiful. Today has been blowing between 25 and 30 knots with rain squalls passing by. One more day of heavy wind and we should be on our way. Nice to be sitting on a mooring. Only $20 a night for restful night knowing you are not going to drag an anchor.
9:30pm- Watched a movie and then went to bed.
January 31, 2018
5:30am- I opened my eyes in bed this morning and looked out of the port hole from the stern and behold the full moon was staring right at me. Good thing I laid there and admired it because when I got up to take photos around 6:15, she was partially hiding behind clouds. So I never got to see it full or the eclipse.
The wind has been howling all night. Sometimes the boat felt like she was on a heel. I love the fact that I can take the time to appreciate different types of sunrise and sunset every day. Some are better than others but that is what makes it so intriguing.
We laid around a bit and then Steve and I decided to go exploring. We went to an island across from Little Farmers and found an old wreck along with some treasures.
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| Found this bottle cap on the beach which read 1458 _Liquor bottle Ireland |
We found fan coral along with at least a dozen beautiful empty unbroken conch shells. Man did they stink. We brought them back to the boat and soaked them in a pail of detergent, bleach and vinegar. Figure one of those will get rid of the smell.
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| Fan corals |
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| Beautiful conchs |
John, Susan and Nancy came by in their dinghy so we decided to follow them to the Yacht Club. We got rid of our garbage and then we went to explore another part of the island. We came up to a beach where several sailboats were anchored.
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| Beach on the other side where we were |
We then went by their dump and the place were they make hydro. Huge generators were on along with a big satellite. It was funny to see the locals watch Dr. Phil in the afternoon.
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| The dump was well organized |
We noticed a sign saying: JR Woodworking so we followed it to a house were JR was carving a fish. He had some beautiful carvings and we bought one. He was showing us how he had all kinds of different vegetation such as almond trees, pomegranate trees, thyme, and medicinal herbs. It would be nice to have spendt more time with him and learn more.
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| JR carving wood |
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| Add caption |
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| Steve is opening an almond from the tree |
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| Making conch salad |
Seeing that we were all thirsty, we went to the Yatch club bar for Kalik, their local wine. After about an hour, Steve and I went back to the boat with a block of ice which cost us $10.
Steve decided to do some fishing while I heated up leftover spaghetti. He caught 1 Grunt and 1 Sand tile fish however he decide to release it since he didn't feel like going back to shore to clean it. I caught a Grunt.
We enjoyed the sun setting while eating our pasta meal. Tomorrow will be a long day so we better rest up. |
| Steve blowing on the conch at sunset |
Great full moon tonight
Woah....90% boredom and 10% sheer terror...isn't that what they say? Glad everyone is ok!
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