BAHAMAS - EXUMAS FROM BLACK POINT TO GEORGETOWN

Circled in red is the middle portion of the Exuma Island chain, which is what this blog covers. The red dots are where we have anchored so far and the red "X" is where we are now, at the southern end of the Ragged Islands and only 65 miles from Cuba.

The Exuma Island chain is 130 miles long, has 365 cays and a population of around 8,000. The Tropic of Cancer runs through the southern end. The Tropic of Cancer is the most northerly circle of latitude that the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted most towards the Sun.

After leaving Staniel Cay and its swimming pigs we spent a few days at Black point, which in the cruisers' world is known for having a great laundromat and happy hours that rotate between the three bars.

 

This cute kid soon had Delana involved in a domino "stacking" game. However, the wobbly table made it pretty frustrating for both. 

In a walk around town we saw the government center,

the post office

and the clinic.

I took this photo to again show how incredibly rocky these islands are. It's amazing.

You often see newer homes next to what's left of ones from the 1800's. Sometimes the modern homes really don't look that much newer. Here you can see a few stalks from corn that had been planted in the little holes in the rock (yard). These holes collect debris which develops into pretty much the only growing medium around.

This is one of the boats that race in the regattas. Because of Covid there's only been a few races in the entire Bahamas, and none where we've been.

Another casualty of Covid are the Junkanoos. Junkanoos are Bahamian festivals, though some Caribbean countries as well as Miami and Key West have their own versions. Junkanoos include street parades with dancers and musicians in colorful fringed costumes, often with masks; elaborate floats; and strong rhythmic music created by cowbells, goat skin drums, whistles and assortment of brass instruments. They take place in the early morning hours from 1:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), New Year’s Morning, Independence Day (July 10th) and for other excuses to party. There are sometimes competitions between the bands and we've heard Junkanoo music played on the only radio station we've been able to pick up. The true origin of Junkanoo is unknown, however its roots can be traced back to West Africa. The most popular legend is that the name originated from John Canoe, an African tribal chief who demanded the right to celebrate with his people even after being brought to the West Indies in slavery in the early 1700's. This photo was copied from a Bahamas' website. 

Any island with a settlement on it has to produce it's own electricity. That's accomplished with generators powered by diesel fuel or compressed natural gas.

As if you could ask for anything more than a great laundromat and alternating happy hours, Black Point also has a "blow hole". This is it. It's about 2' in diameter. Unfortunately when we were there, it wasn't high tide and there weren't any big swells coming from the east, so there wasn't any blowing.

Here it looks like some cruisers collected a bunch of beach trash. Who knows what happens to it next. 

We do see trash on the beaches, but not as much as you might expect. It's mostly fishing related gear (i.e., nets, crates, etc.) and, of course, many flip-flops. There's also some trash along the roads but not nearly as much as in Central America.

We ran across this guy weaving rolls of palm leaf matting in his front yard. He sells them to a company in Nassau that makes bags, purses, etc. We also saw a couple women doing the same thing. There's no shortage of silver palm trees on these islands but this gentleman said there are far fewer boats coming from Nassau these days to buy his product. 

All the public schools are yellow with green trim and all have basket ball courts.

A few people have asked how we're able to get internet. It all starts with one of the Bahamas' MANY cell phone towers. which we access by buying a sim card from one of the two Bahamian phone companies, purchasing a monthly data plan and inserting the card into an old phone that we use as a hot spot for the rest of our devices. 

Then to increase range and improve reception we have a cell phone booster antenna 

connected to a little router, connected to a flat antenna, connected to the hip bone and the hip bone connected to the leg bone... oh sorry.... (that was Delana's two cents worth). Anyway the old phone sits on the flat antennae. That's a lot of wires but we've really had pretty good coverage except when we were in the Exumas Land and Sea National Park, the Jumento Islands and portions of the Raggeds. So now when selecting anchorages, besides wind, depth and how well the bottom will hold an anchor, we also consider which one has the best cell coverage. We have a wifi extender too, but that really hasn't worked very well. And when all else fails, we also have a device that we can use for texting, getting weather forecasts and sending distress calls via satellite.

Not only does the laundromat have a bunch of nice clean machines, but it also has a small convenience store and an owner that gives $20 haircuts. Delana says if she walks with her head tilted to the left, her new cut looks almost even.

This is the view from the barbers chair.

And of course an ever present nurse shark waiting below our dinghy.

Are next anchorage was a place called Oven Rock.

We checked out the cave there.

The cave had it all, stalagmites, stalactites, a pool of water and bats.

On the other side of the island was a pretty little cove with baby turtles,

crabs,

and crashing waves.

Across the channel from our anchorage was Little Farmer's Cay, and like many Cays, it has it's own airport. Here's the terminal, right next to a bar/restaurant.

The end of the runway is shared with the bar/restaurant's driveway and is only 30' from the water.

The other end of the runway is even closer to the water. Plus, it's less than 2,500' long. The charts warn not to anchor too close to the ends. 

Obviously security isn't a priority.

This pretty much describes how the Bahamas work. At least that's often the perception. However, that really not fair. Though definitely laid back, we've found the Bahamian people to be hard working, helpful and considerate.

Just a cool view from a little restaurant owned and operated by an engaging/interesting Bahamian who worked for Muammar Gaddafi when he was running Libya.

Because of all the rock, you often see very small PVC water lines just laying on top of the ground. This one was mostly covered, but only by a few inches of sand.

The Little Farmer's Cay Yacht Club.

Just one more reason I'm not a real of fan of tides. While we were walking around the island, the tide went out leaving our dinghy high and dry.

Our next anchorage was off Rudder Cut Cay. It was another pretty one with a white sand beach, palm trees and a cave.

Nearby in 15' of water is this full-sized, stainless steel sculpture of a grand piano, bench and mermaid. David Copperfield, who owns an island nearby, had this commissioned. The current was too strong for either of us to get our photo taken while sitting on the bench, which would have been cool.

And the next bay north were these very friendly turtles. I guess there use to be a turtle rehab center there.

Ever since we've been in the Bahamas, about once every 7 -10 days a cold front with strong northwest to northeast winds comes for a couple days. The islands are arranged so it's easy to find protection from the usual NE to SE winds but finding places to hide from south to west to north winds is much more difficult. Here we found a spot in a small cove just north of where we were anchored. It had a narrow entrance and protection from every direction. 

The only problem was that other boaters has the same idea and the cove is pretty small. So to take up less room, we tied up along side a friend's boat.

This prehistoric looking creature is a type of Chiton. We see them quite often.

Our nest stop was Prime Cay with crystal clear water and our private beach.

While there, we dinghied to the end of this tidal creek.

When we take the dinghy out and if there's any chance of snorkeling, here's what we bring: 2 masks with snorkels, 2 sets of fins, 2 spears, 2 underwater cameras, 2 pairs of gloves, a bag made out of netting, a towel and a "lookie" bucket (5 gallon plastic bucket with a clear plastic bottom, which makes it easy to see what's below the water surface from the dinghy). Plus, we always carry an anchor with chain/rope, extra rope, flashlight, VHF radio, gas tank with hose, air pump with hose, patch kit, spark plugs, prop, some tools and Covid masks. That's a lot of stuff.

We did see some cool things snorkeling, 

and while dinghying around we saw some cool houses

as well as this island owned by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. It's for sale. The asking price is $35,000,000. The Bahamas has more celebrities who reside permanently or have legal resident status in a country not of their native birth, than almost any other country in the world. This is primarily because income, capital gains, inheritance and some other revenues are not taxed. Plus, those who invest $500,000 in property can be eligible for permanent residential status. The Bahamas is also is one of the top three worldwide centers in offshore banking. Some celebrities who have or had owned property, many being private islands, include Nicolas Cage, Mariah Carey, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sean Connery, David Copperfield, Johnny Depp, Bill Gates, Faith Hill, Michael Jordan, Lenny Kravitz, John McAfee, Tim McGraw, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Poitier, Anna Nicole Smith (this is Wikipedia's list), John Travolta and Tiger Woods.

While hiking around we often see these termite nests. They're 2-3' tall.

Before leaving we took this photo of our Prime Cay anchorage.

With the forecast for another front with strong north to northeast winds we sailed to Lee Stocking Island where we were able to hide behind Perry Peak. At 128', Perry Peak is the third tallest point in the Bahamas and only 3' from being number two.

Everyone deals with being stuck on a boat because of weather differently. Delana for instance, has this need to be productive. She cooked,

sewed,

and began reupholstering the cushions in the salon.

I on the other hand have no compelling need to be productive. I'm good with reading, 

watching movies

and/or catching up on my sleep.

Once the wind died down we hiked to check out the abandoned marine research center on the north end of the island. On the way we got a look at the east side, which was still plenty rough.

We walked down the deserted runway, which was gradually being taken over by vegetation.

There were probably a dozen or so buildings with half of them being living quarters.

It looked like it would have been an interesting place to work.

They had an assortment of pools to study marine life. Some were just big tanks, others were lined inground ponds and this one looks like it was designed to simulate tidal pools.

One building was full of good size aquariums.

This is one of the cottages. They really are in pretty good shape except all the wiring and plumbing has been removed.

The offices were left with full file cabinets,

desks, shelves and an old computer.

All of the offices and cottages have great views.

Along with the curly tailed lizards we also see these with the long blue tails.

The first night after the wind let up, almost everyone in the anchorage got together for a beach fire. About half of them were French speakers, so Delana enjoyed exercising the memory, muscles and expressions that language requires. You might notice how young most of these people are. I don't know how they do it financially, but good for them.

We were introduced to "Shotskis". Who else but French Canadians would haul snow skis to the Bahamas.

This is the same couple that played and sang for us a couple months earlier at Morgan's Bluff. It's amazing how we run into the same people over and over.

The following day we dinghied up a man made channel that brought water into some old salt flats.

There wasn't really much to see and as the tide went out it got a little shallow.

On our way back to Starship, we stopped by this little island that was absolutely full of iguanas, 

including some that were over 4' long.

This is Starship anchored behind Perry Peak.

The other side of the island.

This is from the summit.

. Before you think, how nice a sunset fire on a beach, this is actually how we get rid of our trash. Our burnable trash that is. We can dispose of the non-burnable stuff in garbage bins at select settlements.

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We stopped at another island with swimming pigs. Evidently this is a way of raising livestock in the Bahamas. You don't have to own the property or put up fences. Just maroon your pigs, goats, chickens, etc. on a small deserted island; let them forage for food; and when that runs out bring them food and water or maybe move them to another deserted island. I imagine rounding them up and convincing them to get on a boat may be a different story.

These were much less aggressive, but the only thing we had to feed them were potatoes which we cut up into chunks sand tossed to them. Unfortunately the pigs were lousy at catching and potatoes don't float,

so the rays cleaned-up.

The next blog will be about Georgetown, the cruising mecca of the Bahamas.