West Side!

Saturday Jan 2
Today was our last morning in Bimini. We learned that the BTC (phone) store was not open and decided to head out across the ocean to the next large chunk of land, Great Harbour Cay. It would be about an 85-mile crossing and one we HOPED to sail. We motored out of the Bimini channel just after 10AM and raised sails. We managed to go about half a nautical mile in almost an hour (we had only 3 knots of wind) and decided that if we EVER wanted to get to the next destination, we should probably just motor until conditions pick up. I mean, we were trying to outrun a weather trough that would bring with it some nasty weather.

But you would never know from our day of travel – the water was so crystal blue that we could see the bottom. This is a very weird section of ocean, because its actually considered a bank, where the depths only go as deep as maybe 20-25 feet the entire way. We could see huge barrel corals (like giant red cactus), starfish, lots of sea grass and flying fish (they would either skip on the water or fly across the water like birds). Day grew to night seamlessly.

Sailing at night always feels adventurous – slightly scary but really cool too. Tonight was the first time we sailed in the dark without the assistance of the moon to light the horizon. So the stars were really allowed to shine – I’m not kidding there were billions up there – more than these eyes have ever witnessed! I actually sat at the bow of the boat for a little bit to soak it all in. The only light out here besides the dim sky were huge cruise boats out in the distance (which look like mini-towns full of light). But even they were so far away from us that it felt like we were all alone.

We were making great progress and pulled into Bullock Harbour (just outside the channel to Great Harbour Cay Marina) where we dropped anchor. This would be our very first night-arrival anchoring experience. With the calm weather and huge open space, we weren’t too concerned. We arrived at about 1:30AM and actually could start to feel the winds pick up. But having motor sailed 16 hours we were both too tired to care much, and easily dropped the hook and passed out.

Sunday Jan 3
We woke up early this morning, around 7AM. Though we were still both pretty tired from the long day of travel, we were anxious to get settled in the marina. The plan was to go to Great Harbour Cay marina for 4 days to wait out the bad weather and square away the phone sitch. As we motored into the narrow channel, it felt like we were entering a jungle paradise – VERY different from Bimini. This place feels deserted in comparison, leaving only nature left to flourish. The narrow passage slit between two huge rock-formations was our “doorway” and though it felt REALLY tight, we had plenty of room. Once inside the channel, all the wind and weather were shut off – completely. It was dead calm (which is just what we want!)

We hailed the marina only to learn that they were full for at least the next 2 days. Go figure! This is so typical of our luck. All hope was not lost as there is ONE small anchorage just outside the marina, called Bay of 5 Pirates, but it is very shallow. We managed to drop hook in maybe 5.5 feet of water and were hopeful that we wouldn’t run aground. It seemed that we would be okay for the time being, as depths only got deeper as we pulled back the anchor.

But we wasted no time and got right down to business. Jake pumped up the dinghy to go to shore while I prepped all of our gear. We almost forgot our paddles (which is our backup if the outboard doesn’t work) so it took us all of maybe 2 hours to finally get our butts from the boat to shore. We found a random place to tie the dinghy near the marina. One marina employee gave us a map of the area, which proved to be SUPER HELPFUL! She gave us directions for the Beach Club (about 1 mile) where we could get free wifi – so that was our next stop.

The walk was pleasant. It feels so good to be on land after traveling by boat for even just a few days. This island is far more peaceful than Bimini – more of a jungle. We passed by a deserted ruin (we were told it was the old harbor club) that was very reminiscent of Jurassic Park (Cue theme song). It was hot, humid, buggy and quiet – honestly we were loving it. We didn’t walk more than about 3 minutes before a local woman offered to give us a ride to the club – HOW SWEET – love the kindness of strangers – and everyone in the Bahamas has been this way – just so kind.

The beach club was a pretty cool place…its an all outside restaurant / bar. Jake and I felt all haggard compared to the other patrons (who were obviously here on vacation). We enjoyed ice cold Kalik (local Bohemian beer) and the spectacular view of the beach (which is where we planned to move Bosco once the bad weather clears). Now we’re on vacation! 🙂

The hike back to the marina was easy and very pleasant. We took our dinghy around to find the fuel dock and the BTC store (for reference when we make our attempt to get phone tomorrow). Then we went back to Bosco to clean up, eat food and relax (FINALLY).

Monday, Jan 4
Today’s mission was pretty clear: GET PHONE / INTERNET. The weather was also supposed to be sub-par today – rainy, cloudy, windy. No big deal back in our super protected anchorage, but still something to contend with while we’re out and about.

The BTC store was actually SUPER close to our anchorage – but there was nowhere to actually land the dinghy onshore without trespassing. And with the bad weather looming, we didn’t really want to fuss with bikes and what not. So we kept it simple and used the kayak.

Looking back, it seems almost ridiculous how much effort went into the acquisition of SIM cards for our phone/ipad. Taking the kayak was quite fun – it was an easy paddle (probably about 10 minutes) over to the fuel dock (just next to the BTC store) but there was nowhere to land the kayak. We ended up pulling it up on a bank and hiding it in the thick undergrowth of trees – then we trekked through the untouched jungle (literally bushwhacking) up to the road – and walaa there is the store – (we felt so silly traveling this way but whatever works right!)

SOOOOOOO of course we get into the store (thankfully it was open) only to learn they don’t have any SIM cards there – they ran out. And who knows when or if they will get a new shipment. haha. okay. Well the lady (Raz) who worked there did help us with the card we already had – she cut it and put it in the phone. We decided to add some more money to this so at the very least we had something. Before leaving, Raz told us that there is a little shop on the other side of the harbor that sells data cards.

It was early in the day, so we decided to walk over to the store, Unique Treasures, after paddling slightly up the river. Again we had to bushwhack a bit and then hike through most of the town – good thing we had the map from the marina or else we would have been completely lost (Even on this small island). It was really fun to pass through the town – we saw locals doing their thing – kids in school (there is only 1 school on the island and it is all-ages – which was totally unique and cool to see. We passed a bunch of local shops and stores and some other tourists who were out for the same thing – SIM cards. We all arrived to Unique Treasures at the same time to learn they would have a new stock of cards in by tonight – and we could come back in the morning.

OK so that’s progress at least. We hoofed it back to the kayak and then paddled back to Bosco (which took us probably about 30 minutes total). Quite the adventure just for internet! Sheesh.

At the boat we spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, Jake attempted to catch rain (which was NOT working out too well), and cooking. I attempted to set up the phone with our new SIM card only to find that it would not work. I got everything in, but the phone wouldn’t connect to internet or let me make a call. So that’s not good. I guess we will have another adventure tomorrow when we go back to BTC to (hopefully) square this all away.

Tuesday Jan 5
I woke up way too early today…for no apparent reason. Well the wind was howling now (As it was forecasted 30-40 knot winds and 10-15 foot waves – glad to be in here!) and we are covered in mosquito bites – those little buggers weaseled their way in here…and kept me up scratching most of the night. So I worked on editing video and eventually the sky brightened – though it was clearly going to be a cloudy / rainy day.

We decided that we would ride our bikes to and fro the stores today, to hopefully expedite this whole BTC thing. We took the dinghy / bikes / ourselves in tow and managed to get on shore without any issue…and pretty quickly too. The bikes made it much faster, but the island is SUPER hilly – and our bikes just don’t perform that great on hills…so it was a tough pedal to Unique Treasures. The owner of the shop was sweet and made a joke that she didn’t have SIM cards – just kidding! hahaha. How cute is that?!?

After looking at the card, we weren’t sure what we actually needed – we had a phone card for the phone, but the iPad just needed data – and these cards looked like phone cards. We were never told if they were different, though the first BTC store made it seem like they were different – plus we still don’t have the current SIM card working – so we realized that we should wait to buy this new SIM card until we know what we actually need…so basically just wasted the bike ride out this way – since now we have to ride ALL THE WAY AROUND the island to go to the BTC store (which is actually quite close but there is the channel entrance in the way forcing us to go around on land). Its never easy I tell ya!

So we rode all the way back to BTC and Raz was there and smiling – she was so nice and helpful we ended up sitting there for probably an hour to take advantage of the free wifi and chat with the locals. She also said that our data card / phone card wasn’t activated (which is why it wasn’t working) and set it all up for us – seriously we are hopeless with technology! Then she explained to us exactly what we needed for the iPad (and yes the card from UT would have worked fine).

I won’t go into details but basically we rode back to UT and then back to BTC again all in the wind and rain (though it didn’t rain too much on us). All-in-all we rode maybe 12 miles up and down hills to these stores – poor planning on our part – but FINALLY we have our internet / phone squared away. Though it was kind of a pain in the butt, we can move on from this task and start enjoying ourselves. Now we just need the weather to cooperate.

2 days later…

Great Harbour Cay East

Thursday, January 7
We finally awoke to some decent weather! Yay – we were very ready to leave the west side of Great Harbour, which was totally fine but not all that fun. It provided shelter from the storms and did a great job at that – we only ran aground for maybe a few hours in the entire time at anchor – but our anchor never dragged and the ground was very soft so we didn’t have to worry too much about it. We managed to recover quite a bit so we were happy to depart on Thursday.

Today we only ended up moving the boat 20 miles around the island – in a straight line not even 2 miles to the next anchorage. We also planned to SAIL today no matter what. The winds were still blowing around 10-15 knots (which is perfect for our big slow boat) and waves were slightly larger but decreasing throughout the day. We motored out of the narrow channel and raised sail – though we kept a reef in the main just to be cautious. We actually almost always sail with one or two reefs in the main – mostly because conditions are always so strong.

Our winds were coming from NE – gusting to 20. It was an interesting day of sailing because we had to sail on every single point to go around the island – close hauled, close reach, beam reach, broad reach and run. We have only really sailed Bosco a handful of times and aren’t all that keen to how she sails at all points. In fact, we really don’t have much experience at all with her on a run or even broad reach.

The first few miles were close to wind / into wind and those proved to slow and rocky / uncomfortable in the waves (which were around 3-4 feet). We struggled tacking Bosco because we could never get the jib to backwind enough to bring us around, so we did motor-sail for maybe 2 miles to avoid the back-and-forth tack, tack, tack situation. But then we found the beam reach was great (which we’ve already discovered). She picked up speed nicely and we were making great time (5.5 knots). The broad-reach sailing was the best by far. You barely feel the boat moving and the waves hit behind the boat which is much nicer…and still we were flying (6 knots by this point). The bulk of the sailing though, was on a run – something we haven’t ever done in Bosco with much success. Since we had decent wind, we actually decided to lower the main and sail by jib alone. This way we don’t have to deal with accidental jibes or really anything other than the jib sheet – which I manned completely by myself. It is so fun to have complete control of the boat – I steered and trimmed sails – and holy crap we were actually moving fast on a run (Which is our slowest point of sail)…going a steady 5 knots.

Meanwhile, Jake decided to try trawling today (ie – fishing off the back of the boat). We have had little luck with this so far – our best catch a large patch of seaweed! We actually managed to catch not one, but TWO jack fish (we didn’t know what they were at the time)…probably both about 1-2 foot in size. Jake found that our lure wasn’t working great – and at some points we had much larger fish but they got away during the “reel-in” process – we are not skilled fisherman in the least bit – so we were just happy to get something. Jake also learned that he would not filet fish while underway anymore, because it just makes him seasick (and its really dangerous to do things with sharp knife while rocking back and forth). Perhaps if we were offshore multi-day sailing this would be a different story, but for now, he will wait to filet until we are stopped at an anchorage (or in calmer conditions).

I manned the helm the entire trip – which I LOVE. We pulled into the east side of Great Harbour Cay – which is just outside that awesome Beach Club (with wifi / beer / food / awesome beach). The anchorage is HUGE – I mean hundreds of boats could fit here – and there was NO ONE ELSE but us. The water was spectacular blue. We dropped hook in about 13 feet of water – and tried to pull in as close to shore as possible (for ultimate protection from wind / swell / current). There was definitely swell coming into this anchorage – mostly from the seas that were not totally settled from the big weather that passed through, so the boat was rocking back and forth a bit more than we would have liked.

That night Jake whipped up the Jack fish – grilled pineapple and jack fish with spanish rice. It was AWESOME!!! way better than leftovers would have been. And despite the rolling, the view was spectacular.

Friday, Jan 8
We didn’t sleep so well last night – I maybe got 2 hours, Jake maybe got 4. Definitely not enough. We attempted to rig a swell bridle, which helped for a tiny bit, but then the current shifted and the boat shifted and we found it was more of a pain than a help.

We definitely had a slower start today. Though we were really tired – we were DETERMINED to have a fun day and go snorkeling. I have been aching to do this ever since we entered the crystal blue waters of the Bahamas, but we just haven’t had the right situation (ie – time, place, etc). Well here we are – we’re going today darnit! haha

The plan was to dinghy over to Petite Cay, which is a tiny little outcropping of land with a little beach and a bunch of coral shores – maybe some of them worthy of snorkeling?! We weren’t sure if our outboard could make the haul (it would be about a 1-mile dinghy ride) but we had our fingers crossed. Before we could go anywhere though, we had to get the outboard mounted to the dinghy – but it was locked to the boat…and the lock corroded shut – oh boy.

So after about an hour – and a torn apart boat to find tools – we still were not in luck – the lock would not come off nor could Jake cut it off with a saw zawl (I guess the lock has proven its toughness!). I had an idea to use anti-corrosive in the little lock – which magically made it open in just 5 minutes – too bad we didn’t start off trying this first – better late than never.

NOW we’re ready to go – and with all of our snorkel gear in tow we motored to the tiny little beach of Petite Cay – it took about 20 minutes to get over there – and holy crap was the water pretty. I swear we saw every color blue imagineable – deep dark rich violet-blue to the bright aqua – turqoise – to everything inbetween.

Jake dragged the dinghy up the shore and then we hiked around for about an hour looking for a good spot to jump in. This is our first attempt at snorkeling round here, so there was a lot to take in – Eventually we found a good spot that was slightly protected from waves and geared ourselves up (flippers, snorkel gear, cameras) and jumped in. Brrrrr the water was way too cold for my liking – but as soon as my head went under I was HOOKED. I didn’t care if it was an ice bath the sights were magic. I am obsessed with underwater life so this was my heaven for sure.

We spent a good hour swimming around taking pics and trying to spot cool stuff. The best sights were the giant starfish, the shy nurse shark (he was hiding under a rock) and the vastly colorful fish of all shapes and sizes – not as varied as some snorkel spots but for our first go – lots of blue tangs and yellow striped snapper – and then lots of spotted or striped fish I do not have names for yet – soon!

Both Jake and I were really cold and ready to head back to the boat. We managed to lug all of our wet gear back to the dinghy and make the 20 min. ride back to Bosco – thank god our outboard didn’t putter out on us – or it would have been a LONG row back. haha. It was a chilly and wet ride (the waves were splashing us) but still gorgeous and so much fun. I sprayed down and hung the gear and then we laid out in the sun to warm ourselves. man did THAT feel good!

It was early afternoon by now and we had barely eaten, so Jake made us some fun rum drink concoctions and chips / salsa to snack. We cleaned up slightly and prepped our water bags to go to the Beach Club – where I hoped to load a video / blog and for us to get real food. Again we were nervous about the dinghy ride, so we opted to move the boat over there and drop anchor (hoping it would be more settled too). Again we were the only boat out here so we had plenty of places / room to choose from.

Once the boat was re-anchored we hopped in the dinghy and made the quick 5 minute hop to shore – again we pulled the dinghy on the beach. The Beach Club restaurant was empty (and thankfully still open) – we indulged in burgers and fries and cokes OMG I know this sounds boring but after weeks of eating boat food this was such a treat – and quite tasty! We sat out for a good 2 hours and didn’t make our way back to Bosco until sunset.

On our dingy ride back, a pod of dolphins came to say hello (literally within arms distance of the dinghy). They were jumping out of the water (probably fishing) and circled Bosco a few times before going back out to sea – what a sight that was! Definitely our best dolphin sighting to date (though I could never get it on camera – always just missing it).

Night came fast after that, bringing rain and wind. The swell kept moving so we had to re-rig the bridle a few times – though once it was set properly it made the boat much more comfortable. We didn’t sleep great again but better than the night before – looking forward to leaving here in the morning and heading down to White Cay, where we hope to find a bit more protection (and maybe some more awesome snorkeling!)