Back to Highborne Cay

This morning we pulled out of Norman's Cay headed to Highborne Cay, slowly making our return trip North.    Do you remember in my earlier post when I mentioned David and Ryan bringing down our spare prop to store in the event of an emergency?  Well thank goodness they did; we accidentally hit a lone unmarked rock with the prop pulling out of Norman's Cay.  After we recovered from our panic attack, we slowed and David dove in to see how bad the damage was.  It was a tiny nick, however it was causing mild vibration.   We continued on to Highborne to explore the island and had a wonderful night on anchor.

Beautiful shot on Highborne Cay

The main road in Highborne Cay

Look at the limestone walls that line either side of the road, can you imagine the amount of work that went into making the roads.  Between the limestone and mangroves it seems like a tremendous amount of work.  I read a story that the mangroves; a couple had arrived by dingy and decided to find a more intimate spot for some afternoon delight and got caught in the mangroves and could not get out.   Fortunately, they were close enough to the marina that someone heard their pleas for help and came to their rescue, they had to be cut out by machete.

Tomorrow we are off to Nassau to get the prop properly checked out and do some much needed boat clean-up.



Norman's Cay

Today we ventured to Norman's Cay, this little island was formerly under the control of drug lord Carlos Lehder and in fact you'll find an almost totally submerged aircraft from his drug running days.  Norman's is a quaint little island with a few private homes and one restaurant / bar called Norman's Cay Beach Club.  The island also has an airstrip for private and chartered planes.

 

Airstrip at Norman's Cay

We had the pleasure of meeting Stephan, the proprietor of Norman's Cay Beach Club.  He filled us in on the island history and served us up some scrumptious food.  We had their twist on a Bahamian staple Conch Chowder with a Thai Twist.  This served alongside one of the best burgers we've ever had.   Perhaps food just tastes better in paradise!





Stephan at Norman's Cay Beach Club





Beautiful shot in Norman's Cay Lagoon

We took Little Girl for a cruise around the island and saw the sunken airplane, some caves and other breathtaking views.   We departed Norman's and headed back to Highborne Cay.





Warderick Wells - OOOPS, Shroud Cay

We headed to Warderick Wells this morning, I was so excited because this is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands and a "must do" in the crusing guides.    Due to our draft, we had to select our mooring ball carefully as the approach is so shallow.  The Exuma Land and Sea Park gives out the mooring ball assignments and placed us in Hog Cay on mooring ball S-3.   Since we are pretty green at trying to moor Fat Bottom Girl, it had been recommended that we have one of us in the dingy and one on Fat Bottom Girl.   I took Little Girl around the south side of the island to survey the area and confirm that David would be able to come in from the north.    All APPEARED to be fine from a dingy's perspective, however when he rounded the corner and came into sight I could see what an affect the current (now in a rising tide) was having on the boat.    I knew in a quickness we were about to be in a world of shit!    We made one attempt at hooking the line and decided the best course of action was to haul ass and get to hell out of there.  Thrusters or not, there are just situations you don't want to be in.

David went north, and I went south.  I circled the island and met him on the top side, we stopped long enough for me to jump on Fat Bottom Girl and and tie off Little Girl and get out of the rough currents.   We attempted an approach to the other two mooring locations at Warderick Wells and decided it would be better to just go north and find a calm / safe anchorage elsewhere.

We traveled to Shroud Cay, our friends Scott and Sue from Staniel Cay highly recommended Shroud Cay and I'm glad they did.    

Black Point Settlement - Great Guana Cay Exuma

Today we traveled to Black Point Settlement - what a gorgeous island.  We were immediately greeted and welcomed by another Krogen, Dream Weaver upon entering the harbour.   We took the dingy in and explored the small island.   Within a matter of a quarter mile you pass the grocery stores, police station, all age school, clinic and the three restaurants.    While passing the school, the playground (AKA basketball court) which is in front of the school had several boys playing, while the girls were all across the street in what looked like a large lemonade stand doing crafts.

Our Anchorage @ Black Point Settlement

All Age School

Local Boat Project

Sylken Sea @ Anchorage in Black Point Settlement

While walking back up the island, low and behold we heard our names being called from Scorpio, one of the restaurant / bars.  It was the group of GA rednecks who had came down for the day to see the island and stopped in for a cold beverage.  We visited for a little while and got on our way; we walked across the street to Loraine's for some lunch.   I have to say, we've eaten a lot of fish sandwiches in our lives, but this was absolutely the best!

We returned to Fat Bottom Girl and noticed a new 48' Krogen North Sea in the harbour.  It was Sylken Sea, she and her crew had been out for a days fishing.  We spoke the following morning and hope to catch up again in the Abacos. 

Thunderball Cave

This morning we took the dingy to Thunderball Cave, filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball,  for a snorkel trip.  Its recommended to come at low slack tide so you can simply swim in.  It certainly is a lot smaller than what Hollywood portrayed in the movie.  It was a beautiful little cave with multiple entrances from water as well as from the land above.  



Thunderball Cave



If you notice the 8 people in the picture, this is a group of GA rednecks from Marietta.  What a small world we live in, we come to the Exumas and run into people who live only a few miles from us.   One of the ladies in the group surprised her husband for his 50th Birthday with a trip to Staniel Cay with 6 of their closest friends and arrived on a private jet.  It seemed as though everywhere we went for the next two days we ran into them.  Great people who we shared contact information with and hope to meet up again when we return home. 

When we returned to the Marina we decide to give Fat Bottom Girl another necessary wash down, and later treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the Marina along with the customary bloody Mary & beer combo.   While enjoying our lunch I was approached by a local gentlemen who sat beside us at the bar.  The conversation began discussing the weather, as we were in the midst of a light shower and he commented on the need for rain on the island.   He was a rough looking character and made the comment that most people shun him and won't give him the time of day, he attributed this to his good looks (ha ha).  We ended up talking for hours while David played pool and shot the shit with the self proclaimed "Island Concierge".   As the evening ended the gentleman thanked me for being so nice to him and taking the time to share a few beers and good conversation with him.  At that, he informed me who he was.  He goes by Captain Tony and he owns Staniel Cay as well as two other surrounding islands.  He usually never tells people that because they are so put off by his looks that they won't talk to him and if they know who he is then they are nice just because they think he has something.  He said I had a good heart and good soul and was a very nice lady (oh how sweet) and he could see kindness in my eyes.   The next morning he came to the boat with a gift, two beautiful cleaned and polished conch shells wrapped up.  One is so large that it is considered a Queen conch.   What a thoughtful gesture!

Now I don't know if Tony truly owns the islands, but everyone working at the bar concurred.   It doesn't matter to me one way or another, I was just proud to have met him.  He was a true gentleman! 

Ahhh, swimming pigs in paradise

We went to the neighboring island of Big Major, home to many wild pigs and local attraction for cruisers.   When we arrived there were several other boats waiting at the shore for the pigs to show;  the waiting boats lost patience and moved on and as soon as they did, here came the pigs.   Big one's, little one's, short one's and fat one's.  We had met a gentlemen that warned us to be careful and not hand feed them.  They had been known to charge boats, and in fact, deflated one of the inflatable types with their hooves trying to get in the boat.   There is another local named John who lost part of his middle finger in the pigs mouth.  SO, when mamma piggy tried climbing on the bow of little girl, I jumped, screamed and ran to the back of the boat.   David was cracking up "attack of the killer pigs".....  Ha Ha

Here Piggy Piggy

We later returned to find a few boat loads of people, including small children maybe 2-3 years old frolicking on the beach, hand feeding and hugging the pigs.   Now I feel silly for being scared!

David and I had packed a picnic lunch in hopes of discovering our own little private island with sun, sand and shade.  We found the most beautiful little spot with a large shade tree, we pitched our blanket and spent the afternoon snorkeling, taking pictures and just relaxing. 

We returned to the marina to discover they were having "happy hour" at the Yacht Club.  The band was set up, we sang and danced into the night.  The base guitarist is a local named Yellowman;  island rumor is that he died and when placed in a body bag he came back to life.   

   

Dingy Debacle on the way to Staniel Cay

Today headed to Staniel Cay, it was a short day of about 6 hours.  15 minutes after our departure we got swamped by a mega yacht; we checked "Little Girl" to make sure she hadn't been swamped too and she was GONE!   Panic mode immediately set in, we thought that possibly she had sunk.    Without a dingy our trip would be a mess with no way to get off the boat or go exploring.   I radioed all vessels anchored on the west side of Highborne Cay to be on the lookout; which I guess in hindsight wasn't the smartest thing to do.   We had no reply from any cruisers, but heard a little chatter from what appeared to be locals about a missing dingy.  We turned around and headed back to our anchorage and there she was just bobbing away.  I can assure you, we will never leave again without making absolutely certain she is tied off properly!  We were ecstatic to have her back and the debacle only cost us about 30 minutes of time round trip (a small price to pay).

We arrived at Staniel Cay Yacht Club to find that the marina had no power, which was not good news for us since the only reason we went to the marina was to spend a little time on shore power to help charge our inverter.  Running the generator works to recharge it, but it doesn't get fully charged.   Power or no power what a wonderful place!  

Staniel Cay is home to Thunderball Cave, the dive scene location for the James Bond movie Thunderball.  We hope to dive / snorkel this spot tomorrow.   It's so small and shallow it really can't be considered a dive.

Highborne Cay

We arrived in Highborne Cay today and what a beautiful island.  We made a special trip here to see the island because we just finished a book called “Life on a Rock” by Kate Albury.  Kate and her husband Peter left their life in Nassau in 1990 to move to Highborne Cay after accepting a position as the island managers for the next seven years..  The book entails the trials and tribulations of living on and managing a relatively desolate island.    We found this island to posess all of the beauty described in the book and more. 

We secured our anchorage and got ready for a fun filled day exploring the island by dingy – but our crane had other plans for us.   We raised the boom and BAM it stopped dead in it’s tracks.  No crane, means no dingy in the water and David and Jackie are boat locked.   We dug through the volumes of books and owners manuals to find the Steelhead Marine Owners Manual. We tried every troubleshooting technique offered and nothing worked.   We were able to get a repair tech on the phone and he said it was a bad solenoid.   By this time I had made a few phone calls in the event we had to have a part flown in.  I was directed to a very helpful man named Bill with Watermakers Air.  They have two flights daily from Ft. Lauderdale to Staniel Cay Yacht Club and would only cost $35.00 (plus 45% of the cost of the part for the duty fee) to get the part.   While we waited several hours to hear back from Steelhead Marine to determine if it was in fact the solenoid, David took the remote controller apart.  It basically looks like an Xbox controller, however the Xbox controller is probably built with much better quality than this Mickey Mouse contraption we have.   Once open, he discovered a tiny piece of metal not much bigger than a pencil lead.  Since it had a defined shape he assumed it went somewhere.  He found a tiny hole and went to move the piece of metal and realized it was magnetized.  He placed it in its home with his pocket knife and BAM the controller worked again.  Halleluiah, we could get off the boat.   Finally the following day, Steelhead called back convinced it was the solenoid and we had to inform them that it was not and that the Captain had saved the day and fixed it.

Our Anchorage at Highborne Cay

Dingy freed and in the water, we took off to the marine to fill up Little Girl and find David some cigars.  While there, we discovered the local nurse sharks in a feeding frenzy at the fish cleaning station.  They were beautiful and all the children staying at the marina were having a great time! 

Sharks at the fish cleaning station

Later, we ventured  north to Allen’s Cay.  This is a deserted island home to thousands of rare iguanas.  These iguanas are the rarest and most endangered iguanas on earth.  They can grow upto 24/lbs and live to 80 years of age. 

As we approached the island we could see probably 30-40 iguana running on the beach.  When we beached the dingy another 30-40 came out of the woods and ran right up to us.  It was amazing, they just followed us around, never getting too close but close enough for me.  There was one big guy who wanted to take our shoes,  he just stood over them like he was guarding them.

Allen's Cay Iguanas

Walking Allen's Cay

This guy wanted our shoes!

We snorkeled for a little while and the area appeared to be a nursery for baby conch, baby coral and such.  We returned to the boat for some good music / icy cold cocktails and fabulous sunset on the cockpit.  This was a good day!

      

Travel Day 2

Today was another great day with exception of the winds picking up.   They were so strong that my ears began to ache and I decided if I was going to stay on the fly bridge I should put cotton balls in my ears to alleviate the discomfort.   We found a great anchorage spot in Rock Sound Harbour;  however the winds continued strong into the night.   There was an annoying sail boater who appointed himself the king of local knowledge.  This would have been fine if anyone had been looking for it; however, this guy would go out of his way to interrupt and step on every radio conversation in the harbor.   There were a pair of boats traveling together and when one would call the other, he would jump in and offer his comments to their conversation.   It became humorous after a while because when he would call a vessel, the vessel wouldn’t answer back.   Early night again to depart to Highborne Cay in the AM.

Travel Day 1

We departed Little Harbour Monday 04/18 and traveled to Egg Island Eleuthura – it was a beautiful but windy day.  We arrived around 4 pm to Royal Harbour to find the best anchorage’s already taken.  We had one attempt that didn’t want to hold so we relocated to what appeared (on the chart and plotter) to be deeper water.  It was actually much shallower than indicated and we had a near miss at getting stuck in the sand.   However, the captain quickly used his assets and thrusted out of harm’s way.   We secured a good spot, had an early dinner and were off to bed.

Marsh Harbour to Little Harbour

Today we traveled from Marsh Harbour to Little Harbour (one of our favorite spots in the Abacos).  Upon arrival we discovered there was another Fat Bottom Girl in the harbour; a 48' Endeavor Cat.  We had the pleasure of meeting the owners Sue and Greg from Raleigh, NC.  A wonderful couple who made our trip more enjoyable and memorable.   Due to our draft, we anchored just outside the harbour since the charts say we cannot get in.  However, Greg had a handy dandy handheld depth sounder and convinced David there was plenty of water in the channel to make it in.  After some coaxing, he jumped in Greg's dingy to go check. Greg was right, there was plenty of water to get in.  Due to the fact that the next night was a full moon which indicates high-high and low-low tides we made it in.  It was our intent to pull out the following morning to head to Eleuthera, however we were having such a good time we decided to stay another day.

We woke to a beautiful sunrise and decided to take "Little Girl" out to do some exploring.  The water was crystal clear and the weather was fantastic.   Our kids bought me the perfect Christmas gift this year, an Olympus shockproof/waterproof camera that can be submerged to 16'.    I laid on my stomach on the bow of the dingy with my hands hanging over and underwater while we drove up to some beautiful red starfish and got a few really good pictures. 

Picture taken while hanging off the bow of the dingy

We saw stingrays, sea turtles, conch and several fish.    What appeared to be a large storm on the horizon sent us back to "Fat Bottom Girl" however the rain never showed.  

We decided to go to Pete's Pub for an afternoon cocktail and couldn't resist stopping in Pete's Gallery.    David wanted a new Pete's Pub shirt and I wanted to browse the artwork.   I purchased my first piece of bronze artwork last year on our trip to the Abacos.  This was before we owned "Fat Bottom Girl", however I knew when I purchased a boat I didn't want to decorate it with just anything, it had to be special and represent our travels.   This time a beautiful piece caught my eye; a native Bahamian Parrot sitting on a piece of driftwood.   It was a little more than I wanted to pay so the lady in the gallery said "Pete's at the Pub and I think he's in a negotiating mood today, go ask him what he'll take for it".  I strolled to the pup and eyed Pete sitting amongst a group of locals.  I didn't want to be rude an interrupt so I patiently waited until he realized I wanted to speak with him.  I explained my situation and he said to make and offer.  Now I certainly didn't want to insult an artist by offering him something less than what he priced the piece for, and he could see I was a little uncomfortable asking for a discount anyway.  He made it easy and let me have the piece for a steal; under two conditions. (1) I had to buy the lady Jan working in the gallery a glass of white wine and (2) I had to come back to the pub so he could buy me a drink.    I was thrilled!   I found the perfect little piece of art and met a new friend to boot.   When I went back to the gallery puffed up like a rooster, I saw that they also were selling a book called "An artist and his island"  This book was written by Randolph Johnston, Pete's dad.  The last time we were in Little Harbour we were given a tour of the bronze foundry and given the condensed version of the story as to how the family came to Little Harbour and why.  This book was especially appealing to me because I'm always interested in the history and culture of the places we travel. .   When I returned to the Pub to claim my beverage, I showed Pete the book and he was gracious enough to autograph it for me.  Not with his signature, but he drew a caricature of himself, holding up a mug that said "Pete's Pub" and a quote that said "Have you seen any Parrot's lately"   I purchased his only parrot.......

My new Parrot

Book signed by Pete

After I gave my thanks, we headed back to "Fat Bottom Girl" and met a great couple Susan and Wellington on the dock at the fish cleaning station.  Wellington is a Bahamian and has spent many years catching and cleaning conch.  Wellington seemed to know just about everything about conch.  He taught us just where to hit the shell to be able to get a blade in the crack to cut the conch loose.  We learned how to clean and skin the conch and what is edible and what becomes fish food.    Susan reached into the pile of "fish food" and pulled out a clear tube that looked kind of like a glass noodle.  She said it was the "pistol" which is the conch's spinal cord.  She popped it in her mouth and insisted it was good, slightly sweet and salty at the same time and very tender.  Well I could not be rude and refuse the pistol that was offered and anyone who knows me knows I will try just about anything, so in went the pistol, and it was exactly as she described.  Wellington sent us home with a freshly caught and cleaned conch.   I have found that most all Bahamian's are VERY kind and gracious people.

Eating a conch pistol or "style" - yummy!

We were running late for hordevours at 6:00PM aboard the other Fat Bottom Girl so we had to say our goodbyes to Wellington and Susan.  Greg on FBG - 2 said that Sue was a gourmet cook and she proved him right.   We had a great night with good food and made new friends that I hope we have the pleasure to see again someday.

  

Springtime in the Abacos

This trip began a little differently than most; while I was on a "girls cruise" with friends and family, David and our friend Ryan brought "Fat Bottom Girl" to the Abacos and had a "guys trip". The cool thing was they did all the provisioning for our journey which is planned to last for about a month.   When I arrived, I did a quick pantry/freezer/fridge/bar survey and discovered that we are comfortably equipped to feed and intoxicate a small Haitian village for the next month.  We can't thank Ryan enough for all his help in getting prepared.   They had a few boat chores to do before they were ready to leave.  They re-wired "Little Girl's" lights and installed the spare prop in the lazzarette.   This may not sound like much, but our spare prop is 36" in diameter and weighs about 400/lbs.   The former Owner had the foresight to install a threaded rod along the starboard wall in the lazzarette to mount the spare (what good is a spare if it's not on the boat)?   The only problem here is that the hatch measures about 2.5' x 4' which doesn't leave much room to climb down the ladder, put the prop and a person in the hole without loosing a limb.  With one minor scuff to the cockpit teak and a small gash in David's leg and the prop is now in it's new home.



Their trip took them from West End to Great Sale Cay to Rat Cay to Marsh Harbor.  It was the usual with those two; good company, tall tales and cold beverages.   This trip was geared for fishing and fishing they did, however the best catch was a nice Mahi Mahi and a litany of pesky barracuda.   I guess one big blue marlin a year will have to do....