Trying to Make Georgetown

Hitchhiker in the middle of nowhere

3-6    Pulling up anchor this morning we had a few squid that seemed to like our anchor rode and bridal. These are the first I’ve seen all trip. Hopefully I will be able to see them snorkeling. 

Our trip from Morgan’s Bluff to West Bay at the East end of New Providence Island went without issue. The trip was only about 30 miles but with the relentless east winds and swells we were glad it was a short trip. We motored or motor sailed the whole way and thank goodness the swells decreased after the first 5 miles or so. Karen and I talked most of the way across and it was good. We both miss family and friends back home and are looking forward to seeing them this summer. We’ve both felt this way, Karen probably more so. It was good to talk about this and brainstorm on our future plans.

He stayed with us for awhile until I bothered him by
putting a reef in the main,

Another hitchhiker that didn't live.

Entering West Bay was a breeze and the island can be seen from many miles away as there is a power plant and many resorts that seem to stick up out of the water. The other thing we noticed was the many large motor yachts (150 feet and up) that ply these waters. There’s a lot of money around Nassau. The remainder of the day was restful and very warm. Each move south the sun seems to get stronger and stronger, even Karen was doing what she could to stay in the shade. Mary Lynn and Greg invited us over for dinner. Mary Lynn made a great stew with some of the meat her and Karen canned while in Fort Myers Beach. Best stew I’ve ever had and home made muffins. After a short dinghy ride back Karen and I slept the night away with very little boat motion or noise throughout the night.

3-7   6:15 AM came fast as I set the alarm to listen to the weather. Fortunately the wind will not be too strong today as it will be on the nose. Our target is Highborne Cay but we may choose Norman’s Cay depending on wind angle. As it turns out we tried Norman’s but midway through the trip I asked Greg to detour to Highborne just to make the day a bit shorter. We have roughly 90 miles to make Georgetown in the next 7 days, shouldn’t be too much of a problem to make today 7 miles shorter. Fracas motors at least 2 knots faster than us and usually Greg is holding back just so we can stay within eyesight. When Greg put down his anchor today a 4 foot Nurse Shark quickly moved out of the way. We saw nothing when I dropped anchor other than a few Starfish. I did snorkel the anchor and is set well. We’re anchoring in 15 feet of water tonight. That’s the deepest water we have anchored in, in quite sometime.

Tomorrow we’re going on to Staniel Cay home of the swimming pigs. Karen’s very excited to see these little guys swimming out to the dinghy to be fed. We’ll know more tomorrow.

Karen flew the Iowa flag for Hannah, Sam and the Pigs

Beach Shot

Swimming out to visit and eat

Close up. Snot is at just the right height.

Mouthful of carrots

Small pigs now coming for there fill. They don't appear to
swim much.

3-8   Another day with great wind, just slightly from the wrong direction. We sailed / motorsailer the whole way close to the wind. We made it to Staniel Cay by 2 PM to boats everywhere. Fortunately it’s a great big anchorage and there was plenty of room for everyone. The anchoring process on Last Mango consists of these steps: 

Karen takes over the helm. 

I go out on deck and prepare the anchor and chain. 

I direct Karen to take the boat to the area of our choice (unless she sees something I don’t).

Once Karen has positioned the boat I drop the anchor and pay out the chain as needed.

I then attach the anchor bridal and direct Karen to backdown the boat to set the anchor.

I feel the bridal and anchor rode to tell if the anchor sets or not. (The Mantus anchor has been fantastic, We’ve had no issues with setting or dragging.)

I give Karen the thumbs up, she shuts down the motor and we have a beer or Dr. Pepper / Coke

Normally Karen is a bit anal about anchoring, she’s very cautious and doesn’t want to get too close to anyone, moves very slowly and deliberately. Today all she could do was shout out to me on deck that she sees pigs on the beach. I think she was almost as excited as our first dolphins. Anyhow shortly after anchoring and cleaning up we joined the crew of Fracas for a run to the beach and meet the resident pigs with our meager offerings of carrots. Needless to say the pigs loved them, young and old alike. Although the small piglets did seem to have a difficult time picking up the carrots and chewing them. Upon returning to the dinghy we spotted a 5 foot Nurse Shark which later swam under Last Mango while I was cleaning the salt off the dinghy.

Mary Lynn made another great meal and we were slightly delayed getting back to Mango by a slight evening shower. We were both beat tired. Karen fell asleep reading her Kindle and I was not far behind.

Hiking to the cave on Great Guana Cay

Karen and Mary Lynn swimming in the bay off of the Ocean

Entering Big Majors

Waves rolling in the Bay

Mary Lynn has Greg on a barrel

Our directions for the Cave

Mango behind Oven Rock

3-9    6:30 in the morning, rise and shine to listen to the weather. Everything we do on the boat is weather dependent, we need to make it to get Hannah and the winds have not been cooperating as much as they could. We’ll make it. We chose to motor sail to windward today 15 miles to Oven Rock on Great Guana Cay. This progress puts us just 39 miles away from Georgetown. Unfortunately the winds were roughly 20 knots just off the bow, they’re going to pipe up even more tomorrow and Wednesday. Hopefully the wind will die a bit by Friday otherwise Hannah is going to have to spend the night in a Georgetown Hotel and then take a tour boat for us to meet her in Little Farmers Cay. What an adventure for her and us!

Oven Rock anchorage is known for it’s hiking trails and caves for snorkeling and diving. We went hiking through the island heat to the Atlantic side of the island today, we missed the cave but visited a small bay to watch the waves rolling in off the ocean. It was beautiful, we saw turtles but I was unable to get close to them for a picture. The flotsam and jetsam was incredible, it makes one want to outlaw plastic. Hiked back to the dinghy and took a ride to the Farmer Cay Yacht Club where Roosevelt Nixon treated us to information about the area in his fine establishment. It reminded me of how I thinks things were back in the 1950s. A clean and sharp restaurant and bar perched on the tip of Little Farmer Island. Ice cubes for drinks here come out of ice trays Roosevelt freezes himself. We plan to eat dinner tomorrow evening there. Roosevelt offered to have his son pickup Hannah from Georgetown and deliver her to us if we can’t make it. Apparently his son runs a boat taxi service. Julian’s rate would normally be $500.00 for the service but he would do it for $400.00 for us. See told him we’d see what the weather brings first, we still have 6 days to make 36 miles. He then offered to get her a hotel for the night and have a friend bring her to us on a tour boat Sunday morning. We’ll see.

3-10   Well we got the weather news this morning and it’s not good for moving south or picking up Hannah in Georgetown. Winds until next Monday from the ESE at 20 knots gusts into the 30s. The plan today is either to have Hannah fly into Nassau and then have a small plane bring here to Farmers Cay or have her spend a night in Georgetown at a hotel and then have her take a tour boat to our location. The tour boat route is what will probably happen. 

Karen and I just brought the dinghy to the yacht club and got a soaking with the windblown water and waves. 

It’s gorgeous but a bit too windy for my tastes at thins time. Chris Parker the weather guys stated this morning that it’s very unusual for the trade winds to stick around like they are and have been for weeks. Monday there’s a change coming with winds calming and might be out of the North. It will likely happen because soon we’ll want to start heading north. It’s an adventure, right!