SV-Baila: Nassau and the Exumas

February 3, 2017

Staniel Cay

Hi all! We are in the Exumas now (a long north/south chain of islands in the central Bahamas). We have had (at best) thready internet access, and haven’t been able to upload anything. We finally have a sufficiently strong signal so here goes. It's a few posts wrapped up into one.

Where we left off:

Gun Cay, New Providence Island, Highbourne Cay and Norman's Cay

Stingrays surrounding us at Gun Cay!

After our first week in the Bahamas skipping around in the lee of the scattered islands surrounding Bimini, we had a few days of settled weather to push east to New Providence Island. What a neat experience. “The Banks” (The Great Bahama Bank) is a massive expanse of shallow water extending from Bimini (to the west) to Northwest Channel/Andros Island (to the east). In the crystal-clear water despite being well out of site of land one can still look down into the shallow fifteen foot depths and see starfish and sponge dotting the vast sandy submarine canvas. With the calm night ahead we elected to stop with our friends on Mariposa to anchor on the banks (rather than push through the night). Surreal. No landmarks, no nothing. Just complete darkness studded with some of the brightest stars we’ve ever seen. Quite odd to just drop an anchor in the middle of an ocean and go to sleep. We awoke at 3am to finish the leg and get tucked in before the next round of weather whacked us.

Anna's "hicky" from a stingray in Gun Cay... I wasn't ready for my daughter's first hicky. Still not.

Middle of the banks

Cute little remora attaching itself to my leg back at North Cat Cay

Remora getting less-cute when it tried to actually swim into my buttocks

In New Providence (the island with Nassau) we stayed at a marina to duck the unseasonably powerful cold front. Recommended by our knowledgable friends (Sanderson family) who have loads of local knowledge after their two years aboard with their kids here, we were glad to be on the southeast side of the island as opposed to the northern Nassau Harbor (reputation for crime, more exposed to weather, etc).

Lynn here

All sorts of produce cleaning going on here

We made friends with the folks in neighboring slips as Brad tied on more and more lines to prepare for the incoming strong cold front. Lynn and Ian on S/V Windward had some crazy ideas for how to provision for the Exumas, where fresh food - fruits, veggies, eggs, etc. is scarce and only available on islands large enough to have the mailboat arrive (once every week or two). I embraced Lynn's suggestions and promptly removed all condiments (except the mayo, parmesan cheese and ranch salad dressing) and eggs from the fridge to free up space for veggies, meat and dairy. This meant re-organizing the cupboards above the galley sink and tossing a few items that we rarely use and were taking up valuable space. Then I walked to the nearest Super Value and did it again! I filled a grocery cart with 6 dozen eggs ($2.50 per dozen as opposed to $10 for a carton of Egg Beaters), 3 bags of oranges, 3 bags of apples, a clump of bananas, 8 zucchinis, 2 stalks of celery, 6 cucumbers, a 5 pound bag of carrots and 8 packages of tortillas, sausages, hotdogs, vacuumed packed ham, a block of cheddar cheese and several pounds of butter. The eggs are stored in our oven and I flip the cartons every morning. All veggies were washed in vinegar and water, dried and stored in ziplocks. All the girls helped with this process. Fruit was also washed - even the oranges - dried, and then wrapped individually in thin aluminum foil, bagged and then stowed in the lowest, darkest and coolest space that I could think of - storage area under our head (bathroom) sink and cushioned by rolls of toilet paper. This was quite a project that took me all day and most of the evening before we left Palm Cay for the Exumas. I have not had another food nightmare since doing this and so far no food poisoning from bad eggs or ketchup. This should hold us several more weeks until we arrive in George Town where there is a well-stocked grocery. Now back to Brad.

Brad

Front hitting in New Providence

The front rolled through fast and furious after which we continued on southeast for the Exumas! A nice steady wind gave us a beautiful reach to Highbourne Cay. Imagine Chevy Chase and the Griswalds arriving at Wally-World and you have an accurate image of us rolling into that first anchorage in Highbourne Cay. After a long trip from Annapolis, we had finally arrived! We left after lunch the next day for the quick sail down to Norman’s Cay. Fun history: this was a Columbian Cartel island back in the 1980’s. Owned by Carlos Lehder, this island served as a hub for cocaine trafficking and hardcore partying. They had their own airport and legend has it that guests were greeted by cars full of naked women. Imagine those women now- tucking their grandkids in at night whispering sleepy bedtime stories about standing up naked in a jeep full of cocaine with Pablo Escobar at the wheel. However unlike the 1980’s era narcos, we arrived to the anchorage late afternoon eating chex-mix and finishing social studies. It’s a super tight anchorage with a swift current (reminiscent of Georgia). With just enough time after anchoring we took the dinghy over to the sunken airplane wreck and snorkeled. Beautiful array of fish (Queen Angelfish, butterflies, Chromis/Sergeant Majors, colorful corals and anemones). What a treat.

Beautiful sail to the Exumas

Snorkeling the sunken drug-plane at Normans Cay

Drug plane

Found this curiously water-tight wrapped bag of crazy-scented white stuff in that sunken plane

Warderick Wells

After Normans Cay we made the quick hop south to Exumas Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells Cay. It was what we had imagined: untainted natural beauty with a protected small bay for mooring surrounded by dry craggy palm tree (and poison wood!) freckled hills. We were excited to run into some familiar faces at the cruisers potluck on our first evening. The hikes are so beautiful and interesting: ill-defined winding trails around the island with great vistas from which to view the lighter opal-sapphire waters of the shallow Banks to the west as well as the deeper and darker cerulean Exuma Sound waters to the east. The park is a strictly protected area and any fishing or meddling with wildlife is forbidden. Unaware that they were chatting with a young park warden, the girls decided a fun story to tell him was how, back in New Providence, despite the no fishing/swimming/diving sign, I jumped off the dock at the marina to spear two lionfish. They failed to mention that the approving marina staff was standing by watching and cheering. Avoiding looking directly into his sharply aimed stinkiest of all stink-eyes, I reassured the warden that the widely publicized penalty of one’s boat being confiscated and having forty-eight hours to leave the Bahamas would keep me well heeled there in Exumas Park. He laughed, sort of. I’m probably on some watch list now. Had a little talk that night with the girls about not 'diming' daddy out. Goes back to the Narcos code in Norman’s Cay. What happens at Palm Cay Marina stays at Palm Cay Marina. Geez.

Warderick Wells

Izzy's shot at Waderick Wells

Lynn

(More on Warderick Wells/Exumas Land and Sea Park)

Anna's shot at Warderick Wells

Warderick Wells was a favorite of mine because of the gorgeous hiking and scenery. The terrain was so different from any other surface I have seen: a crater-pocked surface of limestone eroded by salt and wind that blended into a sand flat pierced with mangrove roots leading up to the dwarf palm lined incline of Boo Boo Hill. We hiked this part at low tide and still walked through refreshing cool water of the sand flat. The short, but steep, trek up the hill rewarded us with incredible views of the sound and banks. Unfortunately, Baila was situated on mooring ball #13 and thus blocked from view. We continued down past Boo Boo Hill and poked around on Boo Boo Beach. This reminded me of the Oregon Coast on a smaller scale. On our second day of hiking we returned with offerings to Neptune for a safe passage on the sea and Anna, Izzy and Avery each left a large colorful painted shell - collected before entering the nature preserve - as an offering and mark of Baila's 2017 visit. Together with the Citarella family, we continued past Boo Boo Beach to the Hutia Highway (did you google Hutia?). The kids were grossed out to learn that all the little droppings that resembled roasted coffee beans were Hutia poops. We made our way carefully past the Posionwood trees and craters - some deep enough that rickety escape ladders were constructed in case you fell in. We connected with the Causeway Trail that led us toward Butterfly Beach - a pristine sandy beach accessible by a hike through knee-deep water. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and finding sink holes while Brad and I relaxed with the Citarellas. This was a beautiful place and I hope we have time to stop here again on our return trip north.

Atop Boo Boo Hill

Avery's shell at Boo Boo

Anna's shell at Boo Boo

Anna

Staniel Cay

We are currently in Staniel Cay, near the 'pig island' (Big Major's Spot) to many friends back at home (including Ms. Laster, my school’s guidance counselor). Because we have been looking forward to seeing the pigs for, oh, only about a year; the first order of business was to collect food scraps and feed the pigs, no matter how little we knew about how to best deal with the devils (formally known as pigs). As soon as we arrived to the beach we realized what a huge mistake we had made by bringing food because these pigs were hungry! Like the nice, kind people everyone knows us to be, we let our buddy boat Mariposa go first. As they one by one filed out and headed towards the shore, the pigs charged, as they were excited to see what goodies were in store for them this time. Mrs. and Mr. Citarella (aboard s/v Mariposa) seemed to be playing keep away with the pigs. What a sight! Pigs on one side eating scraps from last night’s dinner with one parent in the middle, protecting their children (on the other side) from the pigs who may or may not —trust me I'm not entirely sure— eat the kids whole. In one swift moment the pig bit Mrs. Citarella! I’m not sure human was on the menu, but this pig seemed to enjoy it. The Citarellas made the choice to run to the safety of their dinghy, and together we got our butts away from that island! We are going back tomorrow, this time with no food. Wish us luck!

Pork, anyone?

Izzy's shell at Boo Boo

Izzy’s random post

Hi! we are here at Staniel Cay. We went to Thunderball Grotto yesterday. Its a really cool underwater cave that has lion fish, coral, sea cucumbers, and LOTS of pretty little fish! As we pulled up in our dinghy, we saw a boat full of naked people! There were 3 men and 1 woman (don’t ask me how I know). It was kind of like that Seinfeld episode “Bad Naked”. On our first day here we went to the pig island. We didn’t know that the pigs would be so aggressive. We were kind of scared because the Citarella’s had gotten there before us and Mrs. Citarella was already on shore and she was being chased by a pig! She was trying to push Katie out of the pigs way and she got bit really bad by a pig! Mom had the bag of food and the big pig was trying to get out to our dinghy, so I pushed mom in. I didn’t mean to sacrifice her! The next day we returned without any food at all. That was better. The pigs came to sniff us and then left us alone. The baby piglets were adorable and hung around with us. We could pet them! Dad kept on chanting “Bacon! Bacon! BACON!!!!” I love bacon.

At Boo Boo Hill we didn’t have any wood to leave so we decorated with sea shells instead.

Don't be fooled- looks cute but it'll tear you up

Scary. Scary beasts

Anna, Wilbur and his other brother Wilbur

Avery

“My first tooth fell out when we entered ‘warchin well’ (Waderick Wells Cay)! It was loose for the whole time we’ve been in the Bahamas and when I bit into Izzy’s towel it finally came out! I don’t know why I bit into that towel! I wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy and she wrote me back on the letter! I can’t believe she found me all the way here! I liked decorating my shell to leave at Boo Boo Hill (see pics below). Ok, that’s all I want to say. Bye Bye and I miss you all.”

Brad

Ok folks- that's it for now, potentially for a while given the internet access around here. From here we continue south. Always south!