Category Archives: sailing

Today I will begin organizing what I’ll take home with me, and tomorrow we will head back to Marsh Habor to do laundry, restock the larder for the arrival of our next guest, and get me close to the airport where I will end this journey.  I can’t really believe this is happening.

A few last sights of Hope Town, definitely the prettiest settlement in all the Bahamas!

All the houses are painted wonderful pastel colors down here.

Walking through the north end of town along the “road” better suited to golf carts than to any bigger vehicles.

Farewell to the dramatic skies and thunderstorms we are having every day this month!

I will definitely miss my daily visit to the pool at Hope Town Marina!

Farewell to the lovely gardens, the exotic scent of gardenia and jasmine and things I cannot name…..and colorful hibiscus and bougainvillea!

And seeing Pandora at the end of a lovely street of colorful houses and gardens!

Until next year……

Yep, it’s true.  Hard to believe that I have sailed 2725 miles over the past 9 months.

I cannot deny that this trip has had a steep learning curve for me, and I think the first couple of months down here I was so focused on coping that it was hard to see the larger picture.  We headed south determinedly, and did  the more remote areas first. Now that we’re in the Abacos, everything seems so easy!  Short sailing distances, lots of provisions, more forgiving weather….

Once I got past how hard things were going to be and got a little experience under my belt, I had time to take a look around me.

The community of sailors is about as small as the community of tapestry weavers.  There just aren’t a lot of us. I have tried to find the number of personal sailing craft that have cleared customs in the Bahamas for the winter of 2013, but I can’t find an answer to that yet.  Seasoned sailors who have been coming down here for years tell me that it’s usually between 1500 and 2000 boats.  In the vast world of people taking some leisure time or vacation time, this is a very small number.

I’ve been keeping track of the foreign home flags down here, though, of course all of us are foreigners.  Canadians just might outnumber Americans down here this year, but both nationalities are certainly the majority.  I noticed that many Quebecois do not fly a home flag at all, and I have heard a number of times (but not from the Quebecois themselves) that there are some political reasons for this.  Beyond Canada and the US, we have seen flags from Germany, Switzerland, France, the UK (they are not keen on flying their home flag either!), Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  Oh, I almost forgot South Africa….now that is a journey. It’s a cultural melting pot down here!

It is no surprise that the visitors down here are almost entirely from northern climates.  However, just yesterday we noticed a flag we did not recognize flying on the stern of the boat right next to us in Hope Town.  It is from Suriname.  Where’s that??  It’s on the northern coast of South America, between Guyana and French Guiana (I had to google this!), and it’s the only South American country that has Dutch as its national language.  We hope to meet the Surinamian couple later this morning.

Here is the flag:

Another surprise to me is the list of home ports on the US boats.  I expected to see mostly boats from the East Coast… maybe a few boats from the West Coast, those adventurous sailors who would cross a hemisphere and go through the Panama Canal.  Maybe even a few boats from the Great Lakes. And yes, boats from these places are certainly down here.  The surprise is how many US-flagged boats down here have home ports that are completely land-locked.  There are boats from Iowa (no kidding!), Arkansas, Kentucky! We just met a couple who split their time between their house in Montana and the boat they just bought in Florida.  I’m just naming a few.  I’ve seen lots of boats from Texas, with home ports no where near the Gulf Coast–Ft. Worth, Austin… Right now there is a boat in Hope Town harbor with a home port of Boulder City, Nevada!

In talking to some of these travelers, we’ve learned that the lure of sailing can entice those who’ve never been anywhere near a coast. I can’t imagine buying a boat and immediately heading offshore, but there are a good number of folks down here who don’t know much about sailing and are not yet familiar with their brand new boats.  Now that’s a learning curve.

The experienced cruisers we’ve met are a marvelous group of people. They are out to explore, not to exploit.  They are are impressively self reliant and very generous with their hard earned knowledge. I cringe at the thought of making stereotypes, but there just aren’t that many of them and they seem to have similar goals and values: to leave a clean wake, to be respectful of the cultures they are visiting, and to help others in need by sharing their sailing knowledge… or even their supplies, or by lending a helping hand. Bob and I have been the recipient of tremendous help from these seasoned sailors. It has made a world of difference to me.

As my time here grows short, I have been reflecting on the months I’ve spent in this remote tropical culture, and what I’ll take with me when I leave.  I think one day spent in New Plymouth over the weekend summed it up rather well.

When we dinghied in to New Plymouth on Saturday, we  found the settlement abuzz with activity.  Walking through the town we saw a gathering of women in the public park decorating a tent over the basketball court with purple and white balloons and arranging matching table settings for a large dinner.  It looked like preparations for a wedding!

Moments later, on a different street, a golf cart whizzed by, with purple and white balloons streaming from it.  One white balloon came flying off toward me, and I picked it up and returned it to the young man who was driving the cart.  Surely this was the bride’s chariot!

Passing the cemetery on our walk, we were drawn through the gates by the lovely view of aquamarine waters, a ring of reefs, and distant islands.  The grave markers were all recently whitewashed and many graves had flowers in bloom… bougainvillea, gaillardia, portulaca, lantana. That’s when we noticed a little tent with chairs underneath, placed near a freshly dug hole in the ground.  Looks like funeral preparations were going on right down the street from the wedding preparations.

A short walk from the cemetery we found the local museum, and while were admiring the medicinal garden and the ‘out kitchen’  we heard hymn singing at the church next door…

…and then the distinctive sounds of mourning.  The choir processed out into the street, followed by the pall bearers and the mourners.  Together they all processed on foot the short distance through the streets toward the cemetery.

The town dock was busy with ferries bringing full loads of friends and families from other islands to participate in the wedding and the funeral.  In such a small community, it seemed apparent that everyone would be participating in both events.  What a sad and joyous day….

And these two events that rallied an entire community, and brought in a hoard of folks from outlying communities, clarified my impressions of the time spent here in these small settlements.

There are many conveniences in my life at home that I no longer take for granted.  Water is probably the the most striking example of a precious commodity here.  Many islands in the Bahamas have no fresh water at all.  Hard to imagine, but true! In recent times, some of these islands have opted to put in reverse osmosis systems for making fresh water from salt.  It is an expensive way to get fresh water so water is quite a luxury.

On several islands we visited there was a salt water pond with a shallow lens of fresh water on top, salt water being heavier than fresh.  This lens of water is carefully tapped each day by the residents.  On Rum Cay, someone would deliver a big tank of fresh water to the marina on the back of a flat bed truck several times a week.  It had to be carefully rationed out to the boats in the marina at $.45 a gallon.  I watched the local fisherman clean an entire day’s catch with only a small bucket of fresh water.  Everyone knows how to conserve in these islands.

We heard that the residents of Hope Town recently voted against having a water making system installed on the island.  They have chosen to continue collecting rain water in cisterns as they have done for generations.  It’s a viable option in the Abacos since there is a reasonable amount of rain here.  Still, there is dry season and they all have to be very careful at that time of year.

Having little fresh water certainly puts a different perspective on bathing and laundry and general household cleaning. It has been quite an eye opener for me, even though I have always considered Bob and I fairly frugal with water usage!  I know there are plenty of places in the world where water is much scarcer than here in the Bahamas, and that realization stuns me.

As cruisers we have opted to install a water maker onboard Pandora, and it is powered by our solar panels on top of the canvas work that shades our cockpit (called a bimini).  Many cruisers also have wind generators.  There is plenty of sunlight and wind down here to supply our electrical needs:  electric lights at night, hot water, electronic gizmos such as our navigational system, radio communication system,  chargers for our computers, ipad and smart phones…. it’s pretty amazing that we can have so many toys and be completely off the grid!  When the weather doesn’t cooperate (on the rare days when there is no wind or sunlight) we fall back on running a small gasoline powered generator. Our cooking fuel is propane, and luckily we have found a number places along the way to replenish our two 10 lb. tanks.  We use about 10 lbs. a month.

Electricity in any form is a feat of determination here.  Most settlements are run on generators, and I have given up keeping track of the times when the power goes out on these islands. It’s just a facet of daily life. Surprisingly, in spite of the constant winds down here, we have seen very few wind generators. …or solar panels.  Yet just getting fuel for the generators is another feat of determination.  Supply boats arrive only once a week, and  that is at the mercy of the weather.  I have seen first hand that there are plenty of weeks with no hope of seeing the boat come in! People here are very familiar with doing without.  Remember the old adage, “Make do and mend”?  It’s alive and well down here….

I couldn’t help noticing the fashion sense of the women going to the wedding this weekend.  I think a significant number of women made their own outfits. These outfits were a feast of bright colors in dress styles I’ve never seen anywhere on a rack.  It was such a thrill to see so many women making do, and doing it in their own unique style.  I’m sure they would prefer to have access to an array of inexpensive clothing chain stores, but instead there was such a marvelous array of individual creativity on display….well, what can I say?  I loved it.  I might not want to participate in creating my own wardrobe, but I certainly enjoyed being a spectator of it here.

When you are living off the grid lots of daily chores begin to take on greater significance.  If you are walking a long distance to gather water or go the market, or gather at the dock to see what has come in on the supply boat,  it is a good opportunity for connecting with others who are doing the same.  The camaraderie that comes from spending so much time on the little chores in life, amongst others doing the same, is hard to beat.  No wonder the Bahamians are so friendly.  I have become a bit slower in my quest to accomplish chores….a bit more ready to listen… to slow down… I don’t want to lose that enjoyment of being less frenetic when I return home.

For cruisers and native islanders, both living such ascetic lives, there is the balance of a rich community and a wealth of natural beauties.

Here are a few scenes of the lovely settlement of New Plymouth….

The historic gaol (jail), painted the traditional pink of Bahamian government buildings!

One of the many pretty churches in New Plymouth.

 Lush tropical gardens everywhere!  

And from the shallow waters where we are anchored in a small harbor just north of New Plymouth…

A sea slug in clear water…. when I first saw this I thought it was a lettuce leaf bobbing along the beach! Then I noticed the head and antennae!

This bird was keeping an eye out for tasty treats from his perch in the mangroves at the edge of the harbor.

And the day’s haul of treasures from the nearby beach!

Another day of shelling, at a calm beach at Coco Bay, on Green Turtle Cay. Miles of sand flats at low tide that offered up pretty shells, along with live cushion stars, crabs, and lots of baby conchs!

Such clear water we could photograph right through it!

We ended the day with dinner on the elegant screened porch at Green Turtle Club, with a sunset to accompany our hors d’oeuvre!  We shared the evening with Larry and Susan from Moira.  

This is the terrace just outside the dining room.

And the full moon rose as dinner ended.  Another banner day!

We are anchored just outside the entrance to Hope Town Harbor on Elbow Cay.  It’s a beautiful town, with pristinely maintained cottages and gardens…. a tropical version of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.

The weather has turned hot and noticeably humid, so we have opted to stay outside the harbor where we can enjoy a little breeze when there is one.  A strong blow is predicted for tomorrow, which has us debating the merits of moving into the harbor or staying out here.

Hope Town was settled by British loyalists near the end of the American Revolution, around 1783.  They brought all their farming equipment, slaves, and livestock to establish a similar agricultural lifestyle on the island, but that was not supportable on Elbow Cay.  The land was not nearly as arable as what they’d left behind, and there wasn’t even a drop of fresh water on this island.  Life had to be unspeakably hard.  They survived by fishing and by salvaging the oft-occurring shipwrecks.  They rescued the crews from these wrecks, then commandeered the valuable supplies.  Over time they built their lovely houses and made paved streets (barely wider than sidwalks) that get shared by pedestrians, cyclists, and golf cart drivers!

I enjoy listening to the speech of the descendants of these British settlers, which has a distinct sound.  It has a twang like our American southern accent, yet is is decidedly British…a bit flatter than Australian.  I could listen to the nuances of this accent for hours!  But I am a long way from being able to imitate it!

Bob and I had drinks on this beautiful terrace as the sun set earlier this week.  Then we moved inside to the elegantly appointed dining room of the Hope Town Harbor Lodge for a wonderful dinner.  Another opportunity to eat spiny lobster!

As interesting as Hope Town is, we are enjoying the entertainment at our anchorage just as much! The 48′ catamaran Take Two is right next to us, and we are completely entranced watching the five children play all over the boat, swim in the water, bring up creatures from the deep (like lots and lots of cushion stars), take the dinghy into town with Mom as a passenger.  They are an exuberant bunch, but also incredibly respectful of each other, well behaved in an out of control sort of fashion, and so curious and bright!  I know that Tanya and Jay have their hands full as parents of these active youngsters (ranging in age from 11 down to 2!) over the five years that they have been out cruising, but what an incredible way to raise children. How many people of any age get an experience like this? Since children are so inquisitive, both intellectually and physically, I can only imagine that this is just the preface to a long life of adventures for each of these five children. Their blog is equally compelling to watching the family in action!

No, not fish!  Shells!

We are in the Abacos now which is the northern chain of islands. It is fascinating how each beach has its own variety of shells.  Many shells show up all over the place, but some beaches have more of one thing than another.  The beach on the western side of Lynyard Cay was a haven for sea biscuits, most of them alive!  There were interesting sea stars there too, not the big red cushion stars, but a smaller variety that was not quite as ‘puffy’ and were dark green with blue/black and tan spots.

Our biggest catch occurred because of our decision to attempt the entrance to nearby Little Harbor, famous for Pete’s Pub and home of Randolph Johnston’s bronze foundry.  We made it through the entrance channel with only a few inches of water under our keel at high tide!  And then we learned that there would be a bronze pouring in the foundry in the afternoon!  Our lucky day!

We met Kristin Frasheski who is here for three months with her husband Brett,who is a sculptor, and she answered many of our questions about the process of taking a sculpture and casting it in bronze.  She is working in bronze now herself, although her medium has been charcoal drawings.

It is a long and painful process to take an original sculpture and cast it in bronze.  My oldest and dearest friend is in the midst of making a mold for one of her sculptures right now, so I couldn’t get her off my mind!  After seeing the entire process here in this foundry, I am in awe of what she’s doing.  It is a steep learning curve!

The process is called lost wax, but there is so much more involved in it.  First, a rubber mold is made of the original sculpture, and often enough that precious original is damaged in the process and needs repairs afterward.  From that rubberized mold a casting is made in wax.  The wax piece always needs some delicate re-working to get the details just right.  Then a plaster-type material is used to make a mold around the wax piece.  This mold gets fired in a kiln which hardens the plaster and burns off the wax.  Then this mold  gets set into wet sand for support while the blindingly hot bronze is poured into it.  The plaster molds have an open top for pouring in the bronze, and there are lots of air vents, called sprues, for letting out any air that might get trapped when the bronze is poured.  Because of that there is a great deal of finishing work to be done when the bronze piece is cracked out of its plaster mold.  There is bronze in all the sprue vents, there are sometimes cracks in the piece, and of course there is smoothing the finish of the bronze and making a patina on the surface.

Sculpting the original is such a small part of the journey to a bronze sculpture.  Even the complicated process of making the molds pales when I realized how long the finishing process is to getting the final bronze work ready for display.

Two men did the pouring.  Both were dressed from head to foot in fire retardent, protective clothing.  Even their shoes are covered.  I’m not sure which guy has the harder job!  The man in the foreground is working chains on a pulley that are connected to pinchers (like old fashioned ice tongs) with which he was able to lift the crucible of hot bronze out of its furnace.  The second man, who barely shows in this photo is tipping the crucible and controlling the pour into each of the molds.  The molds were taken from the kiln and set into a stone ‘bathtub’ of wet sand.  The two men quickly shoveled up sand around the molds to support them before they poured the molten bronze.  The entire process has to happen rather quickly while the bronze is within a certain temperature range.

The foundry was a chaos of inspiring creativity.  There were many older pieces laying about in various stages of unfinished-ness, and lots of old molds.  Once you have a rubberized mold you can continue to make pieces for a long time.  Many of Randolph Johnston’s pieces are still in the studio.

This large Pompano intrigued both Bob and me, but it is not yet finished, and I don’t think it will be within our means at any rate!

There is a gallery of finished works and various pieces are on display all over the grounds.

In the afternoon we walked to the beach.  There was a boardwalk over the hill with a bronze sculpture of frigate birds at the end. Yipee!  No navigating through jungle palms and treacherous limestone crags! The beach turned out to have a great cache of fossilized coral pieces.  So interesting!

Walking along the grounds between the gallery and the foundry.

Shortly before sunset we went ashore for dinner at Pete’s Pub.

The boats in the harbor as seen from Pete’s Pub. Pandora is exactly in the center of this shot.

We spent much of the day and the evening with our friends Ann and Dick who are sailing aboard Nati. They have given us great tips on what to see and do in the Abacos!

Oh, yes!  Resort life is the life for me!

…unfortunately, the cost is beyond our means!  Still, I enjoyed our three days at Highbourne Cay probably more than any place down here in the Exumas.  I know that doesn’t say much for my hardiness as a sailor and cruiser!

There are lots of beautiful places in the Exumas.  I just did all the hard bits first, so a bit of luxury at a resort really impressed me.

There were numerous beaches to visit, and all but one had thatched umbrellas with Adirondack chairs underneath.  Two of the beaches were raked everyday… I kid you not... so that there would be no unsightly high tide line of seaweed and other debris.  I wonder how many men it takes to rake a mile of beach, and what time of day do they do this?  We never saw them! I spent a good deal of time each day sitting on the beach under the umbrellas reading…. then walking along the beaches for a bit of shelling.

There were wheeled carts and little shopping baskets for getting one’s provisions onboard easily. You can just leave these on the dock and they would mysteriously return to the market.  The fresh vegetables looked quite tempting, and I got a cucumber as well as a head of cauliflower!  No avocado though…sigh. The restaurant was on a higher elevation with a balcony overlooking the beach and endless miles of the Great Bahamas Bank….beautiful waters that shade from pale aqua through turquoise and on to deep indigo.  Every table in the open air restaurant and bar had a wonderful view, but I liked being on the balcony most!

We passed through the storm with no fear and no discomfort either.  We heard that one of the nearby inlets measured winds at 200 mph!   We saw lots of wind, but hardly felt much in our protected little harbor.  The palm trees were bending dramatically, and there was a non-stop lightning show for hours, including a number of sideways strikes.  Just before sunset we saw a water spout north of Highbourne Cay.  I was very happy to be tucked inside such a small and well protected harbor. The weather router we use had warned that this storm would come from almost all directions, making it almost impossible for boats to find a safe haven.

The day after the storm was stunningly clear and perfect.

During our post-storm visit to the restaurant I mentioned to our waiter that I would not want to experience a hurricane in the Bahamas after seeing the force of that storm!  Yet he said that he’d much rather go through a hurricane in the Bahamas than in the US.  After listening to him, I realized he is right.  The islands are pretty well protected by all the reefs…certainly better than the coastal towns and cities of the US. And these islands are mostly limestone with a bit of sand right at the edges. We lose entire cities in the US, but here even the little houses built of ‘found objects’ manage to only lose a few roof tiles or windows.

Typical of many Bahamians who are devoutly Christian, this man told us it was because God loves them so much, and loves the islands of the Bahamas so much, God would never let them be destroyed.  I know that sounds arrogant, but that’s not the tone I hear when people talk freely about how much God loves them. I have never been anyplace where religious belief is so fervent and so openly displayed. It’s really quite endearing! In spite of their economic problems, political problems, and a lack of so many things (things I struggle to live without while down here), Bahamians seem to feel very blessed.   How refreshing to be among such people who are happy in the face of hardship, thankful for their simple lives with so few amenities….people who count their blessings.

We have now left the Exumas and have traveled for two long days to get to the Abacos.  It was over 40 miles to Royal Island at the top of Eleuthera, through a maze of coral heads that Bob navigated with no help from me…
The black spot in the central background is a coral head where the depth would definitely be too shallow for Pandora.  The shadow in the lower right corner is Pandora’s shadow on the water.

…and then another 50+ miles yesterday to Little Harbor and Lynyard Cay in the Abacos.  That 50-mile ocean crossing was particularly uncomfortable, and I spent eight long hours being more seasick than previously on this trip.  Remembering how pampered I felt at Highbourne… now we are here!

We’re three days into April and there is no sign yet of gentle spring weather down here.  In fact, it’s going to get a lot worse before there is any hope of calm seas and light breezes…

We spent Easter weekend in the Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells.  It is a land and sea life refuge so it is teeming with lots of sea life on beautiful coral reefs, beaches full of beautiful shells, banana twits that are so tame they will land on your hand, just to name a few what constitutes abundant life down here!  There are lots of trails to walk which change from fine sugar sand to the strange, lava-like limestone that looks and feels more like walking on rusted iron.   The limestone islands of the Exuma cays have been created through a build-up of calcium carbonate from the rise and fall of sea levels, along with wind and rain.  Over thousand of years these conditions have eroded the limestone into pits that can be quite large and deep.

The park ranger Andrew and his partner Jennifer hosted a wonderful Easter dinner at midday on Sunday, and one of the visiting boaters held a sunrise service on Booboo Hill, the highest place on the island.  It is not a high summit, but the walk still has its challenges due to the nature of the limestone crags.

About 40 people went to the Easter dinner held in the park ranger’s lovely house that has stunning views of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Bahamas Bank.

There are other islands in the Exuma Park, and on Monday we sailed north to Shroud Cay where I have now seen my first Tropical Long Birds!  They are stunning!  I hurled myself all over a bouncing Pandora to try to capture them on film!  They make a wonderful squeaking call that I have enjoyed hearing!  In fact, I tend to hear them before I can see them!

Shroud Cay is known for its mangrove swamps, and at high tide we took the dink through the maze of mangroves and eventually made it out to the ocean side of the island where we walked along a 2 mile deserted beach.  This is the stuff of daydreams…

But back to the weather… weather is the defining force of our trip down here.  According to more seasoned sailors who have spent many winters down here, this has been the most challenging winter in about a decade.  There are almost no harbors that offer 360-degree protection in quickly changing weather, so each day sailors must gather what information they can and try to pick a destination that offers the most protection.  There is a big storm coming Friday that will give us sustained winds of 50 knots with gusts going to around 70 knots.  Yikes!

We’ve got our plan in place and hopefully we’ll be snug and safe in Highbourne Cay.  The frosting on the cake (for me) is that there is an excellent restaurant there, so at least I’ll be dining in style during the blow.

There is internet at Highborne, so I’m looking forward to catching up on blogs I love to visit and checking on what friends are posting on Facebook, and making phone calls!  And I will make my travel plans for heading home….37 days to go!

You can track our location here.