Rum Cay and beyond…..

David diving

We went from Clarence town to Rum Cay. Rum Cay was spectacular. The southern anchorage, not so much, in fact, it kind of sucked. The day trip to town was nice. We had a lovely walkabout. But then the suckage happened, as it usually does, when we went to bed. We had SE swell from the depths of hell. Our boat rocked so hard, I thought we were going to capsize or break something. I got no sleep what so ever. It was miserable. We moved the next day to Flamingo bay at the northwest side of the island. It was a treacherous anchorage, but well worth it, not much swell at all. The coral heads/reefs were 6-8 ft high, above the waterline at low tide and they were numerous. Numerous, hell, they were everywhere. We were surrounded! This made for a cool anchorage since we didn’t need our dinghy to explore, we just jumped off the back and went to the nearest head. This is where we saw our first real shark (not a nurse or lemon). The fish and lobster were huge. David was ready to kill something when I pointed out the shark. He decided to call it a day. He did shoot at a lobster (the size of Sam) right between the eyes but didn’t even scratch the surface. We overheard a conversation on the SSB that Sports Illustrated was doing a photo shoot at Rum Cay the next day, but decided to head out to Conception Island instead of sticking around. David and Sam were a little disappointed.

On our way to Conception we discussed which side of the island we wanted to anchor on west or east. There was a front coming in soon and the wind was going to shift from SE to NE. We wanted to make sure we weren’t on the west side, when it shifted, inevitably, in the middle of the night. So we anchored on the East side and unfortunately the front didn’t come until the following day, once again, suckage. After it finally came the anchorage was quite pleasant. We met the family from Socia (never figured out the meaning). David and I had a big day, dinghy trolling for the first time, saw dolphins and osprey. David caught one and a half fish (one half was eaten by a barracuda). Even after sharing with the barracuda, we had enough fish to share with Socia.

Sweet

We raced Socia (fast Catamaran) all the way back to Georgetown. Ok maybe only for an hour or two, until they kicked our butts. Our motor gave out (clogged fuel filter) when we got into the harbour and we sailed onto the anchor (loads of fun tacking thru 180 degrees close to 100 boats). There were over 300 boats in Georgetown, way more than when we left a month prior. We hooked up with old friends and made new ones. Charlie and Lizz were finally there! We had a fabulous time hanging with them.

Mike McGagh came in to visit for a couple of days. David and Mike had to get their liver enzymes checked due to major abuse. Mike earned his keep by cleaning out the head intake while snorkeling in the clear water around our boat. Mike and David attempted to hunt and fish with Dick, Brian and Scott, but got skunked.

Sam shares a birthday with one of the kids from Rio Dulce (AnnMarie), same exact date. So MaryAnn and I planned the day for both kids. Sam woke up with the kids singing happy birthday to him while serving him green eggs and ham/turkey (Ham was unavailable). We retaliated with our special birthday song to AnnMarie and nearly drove her to tears (probably our singing). We had a day of games and cake and ending with a bonfire to end all bonfires. It was fun and I’m sure Sam will remember it always.

We also participated in some of the “regatta” events. Kid’s day was a very big deal. We helped set up a “field day” kind of thing for the 4th and 5th grade of the local school. My friend Gayle (s/v Priority) and I co-led a team of 5 kids. We had to come up with a cheer. Our color was red, so naturally the kids came up with Red Hots. The kids had fun. We weren’t supposed to stress the competition, but our kids won every event (how do you like them apples?). We watched the boat parade with the kids. I was very impressed with the manners of these kids.

There was a Texas Hold ‘em competition that David and I signed up for. The buy in was $8, which was a little steep, but with 88 players, the pot was nice and big. David, unfortunately, went out early. I got to the final table of ten. I got 8th place and a bottle of wine. It was nerve racking, but exhilarating. I think I have found my calling.

We left Georgetown at the beginning of Regatta week on March 9th. We said our tearful good-byes to the cruising families we have been hanging with for 3 months. It was pretty sad, but hopefully we will have a reunion soon. We departed Georgetown headed for Cat Island (NE). It was an easy day with plenty of breeze and moderate seas, i.e. nobody got sick. We stayed at a marina (Hawk’s Nest Marina), in the south tip of Cat Island. It was so nice to have hot showers (I even had two in one day!). We were able to use the bikes laying around to tour the area, which was good exercise. Sam and I used the marina’s kayaks to voyage the creek and collect more treasures. After two days of spoiled marina life, we headed up north to find food and tour the hermitage (see picture). After running out of money and being unable to find good food, we headed out for Little San Salvador. LSS is a tiny island owned by the cruise line Holland America. It is set up nicely for the thousands of people to descend. It is almost theme-parkesque. Sam and I checked everything out after the cruise ship left. They had horse trail rides, roped off swimming areas with trampolines, lawn chairs for days, art shops, massage tables overlooking the bay, etc. We only spent the afternoon there and left the following morning at 0700 when two cruise ships pulled up. And now we are in the Eleuthras, Rock Sound to be precise.

It is almost over. Our cruise of the Bahamas is nearing it’s end. We will keep going up the Eleuthras to the Abacos to the States. We are hoping to be in the States by the end of the month. South Carolina will be the furthest up the East coast we will get. Then where? We will figure that all out by the end of April, hopefully. Our house will be still rented until October, so we have some options to consider.