Nassau to Staniel Cay

Entrance to Nassau

Greeting committee at the dock at Nassau. 

We spent last Sunday on anchor in Nassau waiting for a weather window.  Bill stayed on the boat and worked on boat projects.  I hitchhiked ashore with Bob and Gail. We walked to the Catholic Church for the 11:00 service.  It was a long walk, but the service was beautiful and the people were very friendly so it was worth it.  The Bahamians dress to the nines to go to church, so I felt a little bad about showing up in my "cruiser best" clothes, but no one seemed to mind.  After church we were walking by an elegant old hotel that had its door open.  We admired the enormous christmas tree in the lobby so much that they let us in to see it at close view.  The ceilings were probably 15 feet tall and the tree was so tall that they had to set it up in the stairwell so the top was only visible from the second floor.  That evening there was a parade of lighted boats.  Where we were anchored we had a front row seat for the fireworks.

Monday we headed out with a group of other boats for the Exumas.  We had a nice sail to Elbow Cay.  We had originally planned on Shroud Cay, but Elbow had better protection, although around sunset Bill had to take the stern anchor out in the dinghy so we could pull the boat around to head into the swells to stop the boat from rolling in the swells wrapping around he bottom of the island.  After that we had a pretty comfortable moonlit night.  Unfortunately we forgot about the eclipse.

Tuesday we had another beautiful sail and sailed down to Wardwick Wells. We anchored next to STAR in the anchorage by Emerald Rock.  In the afternoon we went for a hike that involved as much wading as hiking. 

The goal of our wading walk was to visit the Pirate's Lair.  There is a very protected anchorage that was a popular hiding spots for pirates back in the day.  Besides a sneaky place to hide their boats there was access to fresh(ish) water. The water hole is surrounded by non-native palm trees.  The pirates slept on woven palm mats from the states.  The seeds managed to grow into a little grove of palm trees.

Wednesday Bob and Gail decided to head down to Georgetown to get ahead of some windy weather that is coming our way. We decided to stay in the Exumas for a couple of weeks.  We went for another wading hike in the morning. 

Bill on the trail to Boo Boo Hill

Curly tailed lizard

The tradition for cruisers is to leave a piece of driftwood with their boat name a the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Next to Boo Boo Hill there are some amazing blow holes.  The islands are quite porous and between the erosion from the rain water from the top and the pounding waves from  the bottom holes have formed in the island next to the sea.  When a little wave comes in you can feel the air blowing out with quite a lot of force.  When a big wave comes in the water shoots out of the hole 10 or 15 feet in the air.  After about tweny pictures of rocks I gave up trying to capture the spray with the digital camera.  In the afternoon we went snorkeling around some beautiful little coral heads near our anchorage.  This year we bot have prescription drive masks.  Now that I can see what is going on I was astonished at the number and variety of fish.  There were hundreds of fish of every conceivable color at each reef and giant lobster hiding in the rocks.  Fishing is not allowed in the park so the fish are abundant and big.

The water in the Bahamas is absolutley amazing.  It is crystal clear.  From a distance the color ranges from dark blue in deep water to almost white in shallow water.  This is a view from the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Wednesday night we had a great time on board BLESSED SPIRIT, a boat from Edgecomb, Maine.  Corning and Tita are alot of fun, and they have one of the cutest puppies I have ever seen.

Thursday we headed down to Cambridge Cay to meet up with CHAPTER TWO.  It was great catching up with Mike and Karen who we haven't seen since Maine.  They are on a leisurely circumnavigation so it was a nice treat when we heard them on the radio.

Today, Friday, we are at Staniel Cay.  I am listening to Christmas Carols as I am typing at the Yacht Club.  It is surreal to listen to Frosty the Snowman in the Bahamas.