2007.02.11

Just a quick note while we still "on"(on line with wifi)...

Last night I could not get "on" with my laptop so I had to transfer my word document and pictures to a stick and plug it into D's laptop to blog..

We are soon going to dinghy ashore for a walk on this marvellous beach and partake in "Nipper's" famous Sunday pig roast...

We were there for Kaliks and conch fritters (still don't like them!) last evening and promised ourselves that walk for today....

We were treated to another gorgeous Bahamian sunset and drove home after a delicious supper (all the more so since we did not have to prepare it nor do the dishes!!!) under the most magical star studded sky... I thought Westend Grand Bahama Island (our first landing) was gorgeous but it keeps getting better and better !

2007.02.10

We have wifi again so we have just done some catching up with emails and while David is cleaning up the office I will jot down a few lines…

We left Treasure Cay and sailed to Marsh Harbour which is a fairly well established community on Wednesday ….the shopping is great there but you may remember I was not allowed to buy another morsel of food so we just got milk!!! 

We swung from a mooring buoy ( a free one yeahh) for a couple of days and then set off for Baker’s bay (named for Jacqueline and I no doubt!) on Great Guana Island…..another magnificent beach where we could clearly see our anchor in 10 feet of the most pristine water.

We had a nice cold supper of smoked salmon (purchased God knows where….supplies are going down!!!), ceasar salad and brownies with ice cream for pud….I felt I had to bake something given our location… I think I have handled more flour on this trip than I have in my whole life!!! Another joint effort from our galleys!!!!

This morning we moved a little down the same island and picked up a mooring buoy at Settlement Bay on Great Guana…. We have not dinghied ashore yet but it looks promising and there is supposed to be a great place to eat called Nippers where the skippers are taking the galley slaves for supper tonight!!!!

A custom on several of these anchorages is conch blowing…. I have not yet established the pattern !!!! will have to get one for David… conch fritters are a specialite of this area and although I have given them a couple of tries I cannot seem to acquire a taste for them… a little too doughy for my taste.

David just called me so I grabbed my camera and ran up top…. There had been a loud splash as a pretty big (about 3 feet across) sting ray had jumped out of the water… I took a couple of pictures of it as it majestically swam under Soli…. I cannot establish if they are dangerous or not…. The crocodile hunter died of a sting from one of those yet we see pictures in guide books of people actually petting them when they snorkel….

I remember years ago in the British Virgin Islands with Alec, when I was still young and foolish, snorkeling around the boat and seeing what looked like a marble on the sandy bottom…. I went to investigate and just as I was about to touch it, the sandy bottom under me started to move as a huge sting ray, whose eye I had just tried to pick up, came out the sand where it had buried itself….. let me tell you, I surfaced like a cork and was up that ladder and on the boat in less than 10 seconds!!!

Swim anyone??????

We just saw a J40 come into the harbour under full sails as only a J would do... but it was not Jem, we saw them yesterday in the distance leaving Great Guana headed for an ocean sail by the looks of things.

2007.02.06

It is Christmas on board Soli again…. Through the good auspices of Fil, who braved blistering minus 30, went to our flat, sorted through our mail and handed Karina a bundle of Christmas cards and Cruising guide magazines to be delivered to us on Treasure Cay, Little Abaco Island.

Karina arrived today and along with our mail brought us a care package of wonderful goodies from Montreal that she put together with a lot of thought and care… it truly is Christmas all over again!!!

We have been here a week already… I cannot believe how time fly… we will be leaving Treasure Cay and its magical sandy beach tomorrow, we have a good weather window to move, the wind has somewhat retuned to a more civilized velocity.

Today was laundry day so we are leaving with a fresh bunk, clean clothes and a well stocked larder…. I am under strict orders not to buy another morcel of food !!!

Heinz had rented a car to pick up Karina at the airport today so we took the opportunity of visiting, or should I say driving through the other side of Little Abaco island this morning and it unfortunately is, like so many of these islands desperately poor… a lot of the homes were destroyed by several hurricanes over the past few years and no money was found to rebuild…there just does not seem to be many job opportunities, unlike New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay where construction seemed to be underway and a certain amount of relative prosperity was apparent….

We drove for miles and saw nothing but garbage which littered the side of the road to Jacqueline’s chagrin and some terribly run down shacks…on the other hand people, especially children, are waving and smiling… it never ceases to amaze us how apparently content people seem to be with so little. The thing we noticed though was that however desolate the villages were they always had at least one church and often several which were in remarkably good shape… food for thought!!!!

It is 2300, well past our bedtime…. David is reading the Gazette and the Globe and Mail on line which is a great when we have wifi and I will try and post this before we leave… but I have to wait until D is finished with the internet because although we each have our own laptop, only one of us can get on line at one time…after what we saw this morning I would not dream of complaining… we are so blessed!

We hear it is horribly cold back home and in most parts of the east coast…. we really feel for you and hope that the ground hog , who did or did not see his shadow (I can never get this right!!!) but apparently predicted a short winter, was right!!!

Good night.

2007.02.01 Treasure Cay

Goodness !!! February already….where has the time gone? We started this blog on September 29th when we left Lake Champlain for a positioning cruise to Baltimore then back to Montreal for 3 weeks or so and then back to Soli…..we have been living on board since November 9th almost 3 months…When I used to tell people we were going away for 6 months, they thought we were insane … 6 months on a sailboat, no TV, no washer/dryer, no dishwasher, no car…. The one thing I was so insistent on when shopping for a boat was air conditioning …. We have not used it at all!!!!! I should like to take it out and replace it by a water maker… now, daily showers on board even at anchor, that’s real luxury!!! I cannot even picture myself in our flat…..it feels like another world… what would I do…. Sit at the computer all day and gaze out the window…I don’t think so!!!

We left Green Turtle Cay yesterday with a heavy heart… I do hope we come back one day… New Plymouth was a very endearing little place with more roosters than people… they have a contest at 0530 every morning and the last one to go hoarse wins… no wonder we go to bed at 2030, it’s been a long day!
New Plymouth, where everybody knows everybody, and they were starting to know us!!! Our daily visits to Sid’s (local grocery store) where we chatted to a nice elderly lady who just sat in there all the time it seems.
My last visit to the liquor store where I bought 10 bottles of wine and they gave me 2 “to try!!!” ...I carried the whole thing plus some groceries (actually Carlos carried 6) to the “Wrecking Tree Café” where David was “in the office” and the nice couple who offered us a lift in their golf cart (even though they were going in the opposite direction) back to the dinghy dock.
Where you can sit a a caf for hours sipping on a Kalik (local brew) or nothing at all while you are on your laptop working or talking to family on Skype ….and when we left the mooring yesterday, we told the guy at the marina office "we owe you for 8 nights and 4 showers so here is $92" and we hope to be back some day soon" …."that’s cool man" !!!!
Where other boats in the anchorage would come over on their dinghy and chat, exchanging experiences, tips and boat cards…quite a few have blogs…

I actually took very few pictures on Green Turtle Cay … it felt like we were home, not visiting.

Anyhow after a short hop, we left at 0730 at high tide to make sure we had enough water under our keel not to go aground in the channel to Black sound, we arrived in Treasure Cay and are now at a marina with water and power…. We only took power for today…$21 per day!!!!

This Cay is actually not an island at all but part of Little Abaco Island which we plan to explore, perhaps rent a car for a day or two.

The marina is very nice, the harbour is surrounded by condo units which are part of the resort and are rented on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, some are owned mostly by retired people who play golf at a course close by…..tonight was pizza night at the local bar and we felt like the “kids” just to give you an idea of the average age!!!

The beach is magnificent …about 3 miles of the silkiest, softest sand I have ever felt under my toes…. no seashells like in Sanibel though! Also a very nice pool overlooking the sea… not a bad place to spend winter when it gets cold in Montreal!

It’s 2230…way past my bedtime… the wind is howling outside….another “front” coming in which is why we are safely tucked away for a few days.

2007.01.28

Well, the weather guru was spot on again !!

We awoke this morning to a freshening south wind and ever darkening clouds and then the heavens opened and it poured as it only can in the tropics. We were completely astounded to discover that we had filled our aft water tank….. that’s 30 gallons in about 30 minutes or so. Catherine will post some of the pictures of the rain and our water catchment system which clearly works very well.




Much to Catherine’s disgust but to my relief my one week of not shaving has now come to an end and I once more have a smooth shaven chin. It really was annoying – I did not care for the feeling of bristles and therefore despite impassioned entreaties to do leave it for a few more days an executive decision was taken and I now have blessed relief!!




Not much else is going on today….Catherine has cooked a big pot of chili… It has now stopped raining and I have bailed out the dinghy, so we are thinking that we may go for a walk and see if we have any e mails, post this with the new pictures and generally spend a little time ashore. It was wonderful to speak to Mother yesterday on her 93rd birthday – I was a little nervous that she would not be able to hear but the Skype connection worked like a charm and we were able to have a nice conversation with her, my son and brother Christopher. It seemed strange to imagine them all in my Mother’s sitting room, whilst I was sitting alongside the pool and gazing out over the bay to New Plymouth.

That’s all for now – we are off for a walk.

2007.01.26

I ended the last blog with talk about an “idyllic” place well the 25th was not so idyllic !
The cold front that had been promised by the weather guru for so many days finally made its appearance with 25 knot winds and heavy rain and real tropical squalls with torrential rain and likely 35/40 knots of wind. We were glad to be safely on a mooring ball and out of the worst of the weather.

During the worst of the deluge we became creative and decided not to allow all this free, fresh, clean drinking water that we were being given go to waste. Step one was for me to scrub the deck of all the accumulated salt deposit so that it was clean. Step two block the scupper on the starboard side, build a dam at the stern where the water would normally run off, and finally block the fairlead for the aft mooring rope. Step three, open the filling cap for the aft water tank and then wait for a good deluge of rain. This came, and voila, our aft water tank was filling with clean fresh water for free as the aft corner of the deck flooded and drained itself into the tank!!

Why go to all this trouble you may ask….? Well down here water must be paid for at anything from $0.20 to $0.40 per gallon - “Solitaire 1” when empty has three tanks for a total of 96 gallons so obviously for every gallon of rain water that we can collect we have more cash to buy rum punches with …..!!!

The wind blew and the rain fell all day, we were thankful that we had not chosen yesterday to tour the island in our open golf cart ! Catherine baked yet another wonderful two sourdough loaves of bread and believe me they are excellent and delicious, Jacqueline was obviously a very good teacher and Catherine clearly a very receptive student. I cleaned the chart table up – amazing how many odd bits of paper and old business cards etc one can accumulate over the course of a cruise – the table now shuts properly and everything is where it should be – I even found our guide of fishes to be found in these waters, which I knew was on board somewhere but couldn’t find it so now we shall know what sort of fish we have caught when we go fishing.

Otherwise we read – snoozed and ate – a very relaxing although windy and wet day, today whilst still windy it is bright, sunny and warm, so we shall probably go into town to post the reports done to date and for Catherine to insert the pictures.

A bientot !

I finished Sarum…finally…what a wonderful book… just started “The Alchemist” which I should finish in a day or two…
GTG we need to bail all the rain out of the dinghy before we go to shore today.

We heard from Andre and Louise of “Jem” yesterday, they were on their way from Spanish Cay to White Sound on Green Turtle Cay and were caught in the front that came through with gale force wind and rain… given the weather conditions and having missed the high tide water levels to get into the sound they anchored in a neighbouring cay and spent the night there before going into one of the marinas in White Sound.

Took this picture of David this morning just before he shaved off 7 days of facial hair growth....that man has no patience, he was growing a gorgeous beard but I guess he did not wish to look like the old man and the sea!!!

As I post this sitting at the "Wrecking Tree Caf" we just saw Jem negociating their entrance into the channel to White Sound which is on the other side of the island.. hope they had a good landing.

2007.01.24

We left Spanish Cay Marina at around 09.00 hrs in order to make the rather shallow entrance to Black Sound at high tide or very shortly thereafter. Having made our way under power over the shallow part away from Spanish Cay the wind was set fair and all sails went up…….. !!

More superlative sailing with the wind at a steady 13/15 knots abaft the beam. L’Equipe and “Solitaire 1’ lapped this up and were reasonably evenly matched at a steady 6.5/7.00 knots. We were able to take some nice shots of “L’Equipe” as she did her best to outrun us. Two hours later with great regret it was time to bring in the sails and start our approach to the Black Sound entrance at Green Turtle Cay. I say regret because on this day as also on the previous day’s sail I have been extremely tempted to just say “let’s keep going and to hell with where we end up…!!!!” Discretion however has always been the better part of valour.

Our approach to Black Sound was straight forward although cautious and we passed through the shallow spots with no problem – once into the sound you are in plenty of water but the channel in (or out) must be negotiated at high water or very close thereto even for our two boats which draw a maximum of five and a half feet .

Luck was on our side and we found two mooring balls close to each other and were quickly secured. After that it was lunch and then dropping the engine into the dinghy (our version of the motor car), we were ready to explore the town of New Plymouth.

What a charming town we found…..! This is an absolutely lovely place – everybody that we have met has been so friendly, good stores if we needed supplies at not unreasonable prices – just a gorgeous place! We will likely be on our mooring ball for a few days and at $10.00 per diem it is hard to beat for value. When we asked how we pay we were told to just come by the marina and tell them how many days we were on the mooring and pay whatever was due…. Now that’s trust, unlike some of the places who want credit cards and addresses etc immediately upon arrival!

After exploring the town on foot and investing in a fishing rod etc so that we can really try and be totally self sufficient (some hope!), we made a reservation for a golf cart for the next day. These are , by the way, the preferred mode of transportation here even for locals. Supper, again, was had aboard “L’Equipe”, pork tenderloin, potato salad, and a delicious curry salad with fruit, veggies and pasta along with the requisite amount of vin

Today (24th) has been a grand day……. Meeting on the dinghy dock at 08.30 hrs for breakfast in a small restaurant – a good old fashioned English breakfast of ham, eggs and toast and then we picked up our golf cart and set off to explore the island.

We found the island to be beautiful – if you pass anyone it is mandatory to wave and wish them “good morning or afternoon” as the case may be – lunch was taken at a very upscale resort type hotel, quite English colonial, although they might not thank us for saying that, with a picture of the Queen on her 60th birthday presiding over the main dining room.

Following having a huge lunch, it was on with the touring and visiting various beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean and watching the surf on the barrier reef about a mile from the beach. Many photo opportunities and I am sure that the head blogger will post lots! 

A word by the way about the internet here…… we find that the Bahamian Government has given free wifi all over the islands, but you basically have to be in town to obtain this, so you may see pictures of us on the computer in various odd places – today it was on the deck of a closed restaurant where we checked our e mails, I visited the office and Catherine checked the bank and visa accounts.

Seems odd but that’s the way it is here, unfortunately for the boating community the wifi here in Black Sound is very spotty – sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t, which is frustrating when one wishes to send or receive e mail or use our Skype capabilities.

We expect to be here a few days more so you can expect more on this idyillic place in the coming days when we go into town and post this and Catherine’s snaps.

TTFN

2007.01.22 Spanish Cay

We are really in island hopping mode now...

We have been on Spanish Cay for 2 days and it is just beautiful.... balmy breezes keep us warm but not too much... it is just about as paradise as the brochure claims... except for the fish patrolling the harbour, I took so many pix but with the sun reflecting on the water you cannot quite make them out.... but believe me they were there nice sand sharks .....

We had a lovely breakfast on a lookout this morning overlooking the Sea of Abaco and distant islands on the horizon...home baked scones and coffee from the galley of L'Equipe...

We wanted to try our hand at catching some fish so H dangled a line and bait but the sharks kept eating the bait...he did eventually catch a nice yellow tail snapper. This was caught with a bit of line that D had bought for Stephen when he was ten and which has been transferred from boat to boat for over 20 years..."never know when it might come in handy" well it finally did!!!

We went for a walk yesterday and you can just about go around the whole island in about an hour... we found an isolated beach with a couple of gorgeous starfish that had been left behind when the tide went out... so we put them in deeper water and they slowly, gracefully and gratefully I think moved away. I had left my camera behind!!!

We were also treated to the most amazing concert by one single bird that was on a low branch on the side of the path and he must have sang beautifully for 5 to 10 minutes without repeating any series of sounds.... I had my camera at that point and tried to record him... but the stupid thing did not tape !!

We finished off the day sitting on a swing like a bunch of old farts on another lookout watching another sunset while sipping rum punches... ok ok enough ...this sounds totally obnoxious!

We are headed for Green Turtle Cay tomorrow and are hoping for another good sail!

2007.01.21

We are now anchored in a bay at Allan- Pensacola Island having had a wonderful day on the sea! We left Great Sale at 10.00 hrs and motored for an hour or so before the wind came up and we were able to put up all sails. Yes, “Solitaire 1” really does have sails and goes like the wind!! We couldn’t remember the last time we have had both sails up I am afraid.

We had a glorious beam reach for about two and a half hours in about 13/14 knots of wind – “Solitaire 1” rarely went below 7.25 knots and with great whooping and hollering we spent some time recording 8.25 knots !! Both the boat and we were having a grand time !!!

Our destination was Fox Town on Great Abaco Island however once we got there I got very nervous as the water depth was extremely shallow and I didn’t like the anchorage at all so I chickened out and we came over to this bay on Allan- Pensacola Island where we entertained the crew of L’Equipe for a change . The island is called as it is by the way because at one time it was two islands (Allan and Pensacola Cay) however a hurricane built up the sand between the islands to such an extent that it is now permanent and all one island . Amazing the forces of nature !!

Not sure where we are off to today (21st) possibly somewhere with internet connections so that all this scribble can be posted to the blog or edited by the chief blogger.

Au revoir !

2007.01.19

Yesterday, the 18th, we left West End to continue our journey of exploration of the Northern Bahamas.
We moved to the fuel dock at 07.00 hrs and topped up our diesel before leaving at 08.00 hrs following L’Equipe who took the responsibility to lead us through the narrow Indian Cut. A couple of 7’06” spots, no buoys or other type of markers at all, but a very clear picture of the bottom when standing in the bow.

After about four miles of quite shallow motoring we reached “deep” water, - I say “deep” because it is still only about ten or twelve feet . It is a fascinating experience to be unable to see any land on the horizon at all, but to look down and see the bottom as clearly as if you were looking in an aquarium. Now we understand the cruiser stories of reaching the Bahamian banks and anchoring for the night in the middle of nowhere!! It is entirely possible. For those of you in Montreal and who sail on Lake St. Louis imagine sailing on the lake but being able to see every single boulder, weed, fish or whatever quite clearly. I am not so sure that you would wish to see the bottom of Lake St. Louis quite this clearly but the idea gives you an idea of the sea that we are sailing in

Our first landfall was Mangrove Cay, a very small uninhabited island where we made a course alteration to the East and headed for Great Sale Cay and specifically Northwest Harbour. At this time we were motor sailing but the wind started to freshen and some rather dark and ominous looking clouds, with quite possibly heavy squalls in them, appeared across the bow, so discretion became the better part of valour and the main came down and we continued motoring. Luck was on our side however since although it became overcast all the rain and there did seem to be a lot of rain went around us and barely a drop on us.

The island and our anchorage appeared exactly where it was supposed to appear ( all these islands are very low with small trees so we do not see them much before eight miles out) and by 15.00 hrs we were safely anchored in eight and half feet of water. You can stand on the bow and see the chain and anchor so it is easy to tell whether the anchor is dug in or not!!

Heinz and Jacqueline were soon in their dinghy and came aboard to be introduced to that old favourite of mine, rum and ginger ale with a squeeze of fresh lime juice – very refreshing. The clouds were leaving and the sun was shining once again. After sunset we dinghied over to L’Equipe for a delicious supper – a different type of Shepherd’s Pie, to be called Great Sale Pie and so to bed after a long but very stress free day.

2007.01.20

A quiet but busy day today spent at anchor in Great Sale Island. Catherine spent the entire day baking four loaves of delicious whole wheat, sourdough bread with walnut pieces in it. Her first solo effort and a huge success !!! She really does seem to have this bread making down so we can look forward to more home baked bread although a moratorium has been called for a while since the fridge/freezer will not hold any more.

I spent the day getting the dinghy organized with the motor on and we filled up the gas tank from our store of spare petrol aboard. Having worked fine when we put the engine onto the dinghy the engine then quit and refused all attempts to coax it back to life.. I will have to spend a day soon taking that apart – hopefully it is nothing too serious.

Supper was, once again, aboard L’Equipe where we were treated to a hot, spicy and totally delicious stew and so the day ended! We shall leave tomorrow the 20th.