Turf to Surf

  Short run to a small settlement, nice anchorage.  Boats come here to off load garbage, which they will accept for a donation, and to buy homemade coconut bread from a local that sells it for $10 out of her home.  Stayed here 2 nights…..first day was a wash…..it was too rough to go ashore so we had an RnR day.  Day 2 we dinghied to the government dock in much calmer water… it was a bit of a ladder climb. Very small community, a few convenient stores open but at the moment our supplies are still holding up (next week they will be called rations).  We returned to the boat minus 2 garbage bags, plus one loaf of fresh coconut bread (delicious by the way). Tomorrow we head south to Georgetown with a possible bail out at Little Farmers Cay. 

  A short hop today, south 2 hours. Busy anchorage but always room for one more….very little wind in the forecast so it should be a pleasant few days. Boating is not all margaritas and sunsets…problems with our black water pump.  In the Bahamas there are no pump out facilities, all of your 💩 goes overboard…. We don’t like it and wish we could do it in a more eco friendly way, but we can’t.  My clever husband was able to fix the problem and our 💩 problems are resolved. This guy came to visit several times during our 2 day stay here….I’m thinking some boaters feed them. Good night Day 1 here…. Today we met up with fellow Canadian Loopers, Will and Joy who offered to show us around town.  We followed them into town with our dinghy to walk around and visit a few local shops…splurged on a $10 pineapple, US$….we are out of fruit. After lunch, we grouped up again, with the addition of Cam and Heather, Canadian Loopers and headed to Thunderball Grotto for a cave snorkel. ...

 Our track, just over 3 hours. Little Halls Pond Cay to the north west of our location is privately owned by Johnny Depp….no sign of him. We went to 2 snorkel sites;  the first was of a small airplane crash (cool but not many fish). The second is called “Sea aquarium”, it was just off a rock/coral wall.  So many fish….it was like jumping into an aquarium (excellent name). I need a “GoPro”……you could reach out and touch them….they were not afraid of us, didn’t scatter at all when we jumped in among them. 😍  On the move tomorrow, heading further south.

Lazy morning before we depart for Shroud Cay (also uninhabited) on Thursday March 2nd. We follow this chain of Islands heading south. Our track….not a long run. High winds had us pinned down here for 3 nights, down time… Saturday the winds started to calm…..by afternoon we were able to take the dinghy out to explore and to the beach for a swim…water is 80 degrees. Tomorrow we move down to O’Briens Cay.

 We left Nassau by 9am exiting the Harbour to the east. Getting  permission to depart from “Harbour Control”….permission granted, we head south east towards the chain of Exuma Cays.  5 hours of lot’s of blue….crossing the Bahamas banks, 10 to 15 feet of water the whole way across.  We anchored on the west side of this uninhabited island. We have now entered the Bahamas land and sea park. The park stretches 22 miles south from here…..you can not take or leave anything behind.  Great spot to watch the sun set. Wednesday morning we head to the group of islands north of us in the dinghy. The pink boat on the chart is where we beached our dinghy on Leaf Cay.  These iguanas are endangered and protected, you can bring greens or fruit to give them….we brought cabbage, the only fresh greens I have left. You could tell they didn’t love it but they eat it.  They can be aggressive, especially with each other….but they won’t go in the water…that’s where I was 😬 Nu...