Monday 24th February 2020

Conception Island 

The land is sandstone which produces such interesting landscapes 

Our plans keep changing, not the big stuff we are still heading towards Puerto Rico but the stops along the way chop and change as we arrive at one destination and prepare to move on.  

We sailed out of Thompson Bay early this morning along with Yellowbird, Seamlessly and Breakaway heading back to Calabash Bay to spend the night ready for an early start heading towards Conception island then it looks like there is a 3 day weather window that will allow us a smooth passage to Dominican Republic. 

Once we arrived back in Thompson Bay we literally just dropped the anchor ate a meal and relaxed, all the boats had their dinghies raised ready for the rougher outside passage in the morning so there was no socialising or visiting shore.

Up early we had a lovely sail, its easy once we reach the deeper waters there are no Coral Heads and all the reefs are marked on the charts.

Conception Island what can I say, I run out of adjectives to describe the color of the sand and the clear blue waters and this Island is pristine, the approach was one of the most beautiful we have experienced.

We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day as we manoeuvred our way as close to shore as feels safe, dodging the coral heads was easy as the water was so clear.  It always feels that the beach is right there and you can swim ashore from the boat but in reality it’s actually a lot further than it looks and quite often we laugh at how far out we actually are once we have dropped the anchor.

We are so glad we made the decision to stop here, it’s beautiful, with one other boat in the small bay when we arrived we felt guilty disturbing their solitude. 

One of the most beautiful places we have visited so far !!

Craig dropped the dingy as soon as we were happy the anchor was secure and we headed to shore for a swim, we literally swam in our underwear not wanting to waste a minute of the opportunity to have the  pristine empty beach to ourselves before the others arrived.  

Luckily we didn't jump off the back of the boat as we have done in other locations, there are sharks and barracudas in these waters and sure enough a large lemon shark was hovering around the whole time we were there.  We also had stingrays and a larger unidentified black shark, clearly visible swimming under Adriana. 

A  huge lemon shark hung around all the boats at anchor its not a very clear photo but he is there !!

We met Catherine and Steve on the beach and apologized for disturbing their tranquility but I think they were happy to find someone new to talk to and they invited us all into their boat for sundowners. 

Leanne and Kevin on Seamlessly were originally going to visit Conception with us but that morning as they were pulling up their anchor the windlass, or anchor winch, had a malfunction and broke a part so they had to leave us and head back to Georgetown, Conception was going to be their last stop with us as they are heading back to Florida to do doggy paperwork, provision and then they are off to Panama for hurricane season.  You never know we may cross paths again, I do hope so. 

Once the others arrived we took a walk through the scrub to the more ocean side and beachcombed along the rugged beach finding these great cliffs, then back to the more sheltered beach for a swim.  

The rugged side of the island 

Rugged and stunning 

Crystal Clear waters a natural swimming pool

I didn't take any photographs but there was a lot of plastic rubbish in the sand dunes

Catherine and Steve are on a 2019, 63ft Nordhavn - its a beautiful big motor boat, they are from the UK, they have previously circumnavigated the world on a yacht and are now enjoying the luxury of their motor boat on their way to Nova Scotia then Greenland. It was interesting having a peek through the larger boat and wow it was very modern and spacious inside and it was lovely chatting to them and listening to their stories.

Conception is a National Park 

We planned to leave conception around 4pm so there was enough time to visit  the mangroves, the documented "must see"  Kyra joined us for the adventure.  The only problem was we had to dingy around the corner and into open water to find the entrance, the waves were big and tbh I was way out of my comfort zone... But it was worth the long trip, once we were over the bumpy shallow entrance the waters were smooth, and crystal clear surrounded by mangroves and full of green turtles, it was quite magical, the turtles would pop their little heads up now and then, and swim off in a great hurry as if they knew they had been seen, we were amazed at how fast they can swim when they are disturbed, unfortunately we didn’t take any photos we were too traumatized by the wet dingy ride to unwrap the camera from its sopping wet, protective wet weather bag. 

The trip back was easier, surfing the waves instead of punching into them, until Kyra moved forward to look over the front and nearly burrowed the dingy nose in the water almost flipping us forward, we righted ourselves just in time, too many sharks in these waters to go for a swim, apparently the sharks here are nothing like great whites but I’m not convinced.

it was a beautiful bay and we are happy with what we have seen and experienced in The Bahamas.

4pm and Adriana, Yellowbird and Breakaway all headed out through the surrounding reefs and coral heads ready for our ocean crossing to Dominican Republic.

We will not be stopping at Turks and Caicos or Mayguana as originally planned the weather window we are looking at will allow us a nonstop smooth ride all the way to Dominican Republic, if we stop along the way, there is a good chance we could be stuck on an outer island for a week or two, the weather is rather unsettled this year.  Also Turks are Caicos Island are super expensive $50pp to land then $50pp to leave for one night, if you stay longer whether you want to or you have to it’s $300 for a week, more for longer stays.  

Theses 2 islands are British Owned and run, not very cruiser friendly, they must cater more to the Mega yachts. 

It was funny we heard chatting on the vhf radio from 12 other boats leaving from Georgetown, planning to do the crossing on the same night, then as the night progressed, one by one we could hear them admit defeat and turn around and head back to chicken harbour.  From either equipment failure, seasickness, or it was just too uncomfortable.

I must admit it was uncomfortable to start with, the waves were huge, breaking over the bow as we plowed through them, the momentum was nauseating and a bit scary, the boat slapped down into the water with a huge thuds, downstairs things were being thrown around nothing that will do any damage, that’s all secure but when it’s big my clothes start falling off the shelves in the bedroom. Tacking back and forth it seemed we had gone nowhere, in 4 hours we were still off the coast of Long Island not much beyond where we had been 2 days before. 

But tacking allowed us to get over to our rum line that then allowed us to sail all through the night in the right direction with the wind pulling us along.  I don’t mind night passages the wind seems to come from one direction for hours so there’s no hoisting or pulling down sails, only the occasional adjustment to bring them closer to the wind plus any other boats will show on AIS or radar or both, an added bonus is that their navigation lights are so distinguishable in the dark for a long distance away.  
Around 2am the wind changed direction and dropped dramatically so did the sea state which allowed for a smoother more comfortable sail.  We managed to keep sailing through the night, but  by 7am it was so still we had to bring down our sails and motor, the diesel engine went on and off a few times through the day, as the winds shifted, increased and dropped in strength, I think we managed to sail most of the day, but by the second day we it was so calm we had to run the engine we did try big red but there was not even enough wind to fly the kite, but the upside to this is the seas are much calmer, at one stage we did encounter a squall quickly bringing down the main sail, the only sail we had up, in case it was a big one, but luckily we only experience a good rain shower with no wind or lightning whew... the center of the front passed by without incident.

There is always a sunset or sunrise to look forward to

We travelled 660nm, It took us 62 hours we caught a deep sea tuna that we kept Craig decided to let go the large barracuda that we caught, there is a disease the larger reef fish carry that is poisonous to humans  it’s called sacaterra,      apparently the smaller barracuda are ok to eat but the bigger reef fish can carry the disease that is poisonous to humans.
What we really want to catch are dolphin fish, wahu, grouper or even snapper but we keep snagging tunas and barracudas.  

I still cannot watch when we reel in a fish

In the middle of the second night while Craig was asleep I witnessed a flash in the sky it was incredibly bright like when you burn magnesium but green in color, it came into sight above the horizon then disappeared into the water in the blink of an eye then it was back to being enveloped by stars.

I find the stars really hard to look at when we are on passage the sky is so big and so black and there are trillions of stars, big bright ones and large constellations that are so thick with light,  I think it’s the concept of infinity that weirds me out. But I can sit for hours watching the bio luminescence crackle in our wake below us.

Dominican Republic

Our first sight of land are red flashing lights way way off in the distance they turn out to be wind generators all along the Dominican coastline. 

Approaching a totally new country as the sunrises is worth the stress of an overnight passage

As daylight emerges we start to be able to see the green mountains, The Bahama Island were all so flat and windswept bare its exciting to see the lush green of the mountains.  We are aware of the smell of land it smells like chocolate and coffee and fertile soils.

The Dominican is such a welcome change from the barren landscapes of the Bahamas 

The Dominican Republic is tropical Island,we are still in the North Atlantic though but that will change as we head to the Southern coas. We have heard avocados and mango, coconuts and papaya grow wild on the side of the road and they supply bananas and sweet potato to the rest of the world.

Once we were close to land we had to stop, bopping around in the waves waiting on the free guide service to lead us through a narrow lopsided Chanel that once traversed opens up into the large Lupron harbour

Following our guide boat through the sketchy channel

The channel opened up into a huge protected harbour

All through the night Whyrow a motor sailor with Laura Colin and their 2 children both under 6, had been like a buddy boat to us, checking in with us every few hours to compare notes and have a chat we saw only 2 large tankers and only one catamaran passed us going in the opposite direction we marvel at the size of the oceans and how little traffic we see out there.

There are families and couples living on all kinds of vessels, this is Whyrow

Long Island - Calabash Bay

Another beautiful day and another stunning beach greeted us we were up early and ready to explore by 9am.

This has been the most perfect beach so far

We sat under the Casuarina trees 

When I say stunning beach I mean one of the most beautiful pristine beaches I think we will ever see, in fact I did read in the touristy info that this beach was voted in the top ten must visit beaches in the world !!!.  We didn't know this until later when I was googling to see what else there was to do on the Island.

We dinged over and had a swim then sat in the shade under the casuarina trees marveling at the view.

Where we had stopped was just down from the resort, the fine white sand was silky soft, the water crystal clear and a hundred shades of blue, the water temperature is just right, refreshing in the warmth of the sun, all our way down from Canada we have been running away from the cold heading south to get warm now as we get further south it's just going to get even warmer, soon we will probably be complaining that it's too hot, but right now the air temperature and the water temperatures are just perfect.  

Gotta get that toe shot in

Looking back towards the resort

Before we landed on the perfect beach we had taken a ride to the north edge of the bay from Adriana we could see there was a boarded up house, so we popped over to have a look, not much to see just another abandoned building, there are so many of them, so many buildings just left to be destroyed by the elements.  I'm not sure if they have all been damaged by hurricanes or just abandoned maybe their up keep is too expensive or difficult in this climate, it's nearly always windy, this is wintertime and the sun is harsh plus the lack of access to building supplies, everything, everything has to be either brought in by boat or flown into the islands.  We have noticed so many buildings have been started but don't get further than the foundations or one or two exterior walls then left to decay, the timbers rot which means that what is left will have to be knocked down and completely restarted

The beaches are starting to get rockier with less places to land the dingy

Quite different landscapes than the previous Islands

After our walk and swim we headed back to Adriana for some lunch and a rest, our friends on Seamlessly and Yellowbird are arriving later today.

Tuesday 19th February 2020

The gang were back together again and to celebrate we decided to make the most of happy hour at the resort. 

Together we had an exploration walk and a lovely swim,  when we had enquired earlier in the day about the bar and restaurant the receptionist had said, “feel free to use our facilities” so after our swim we all had lovely freshwater showers (we would have taken soap if we had known) 

The little Gazebos with freshwater showers

A second swim later in the day 

The happy hour included $5 Kaliks and $7.50 rum cocktails - I’ll just add the price we had been paying in George Town for the local Kalik beer was $5 so much more expensive at the resort.  The rum punch was delicious and quite strong... Bahamian rum with coconut rum mixed with pineapple & orange juice, plus free conch fritters (balls of battered deep fried conch) served with a spicy mayonnaise sauce.  The paying guests at the table next to us received about four platefuls to our one, we then treated ourselves to pizza and had to dingy home in the dark which is always an adventure, way out of my comfort zone.

With another calm day forecast and the wind shifting in our favor, slightly westerly, the three boats exited Santa Maria harbour Yellowbird at first light, then seamlessly motoring and on Adriana we managed to sail the whole way. 

Under sail

We did pass Yelowbird but it makes for great photos 

How do I describe this trip of 11 nautical miles, sailing along the coast of Long Island we plotted our route as near to shore as was practical, off shore but not so far that we lost sight of land, the trip was stunningly beautiful - again!!   With the crystal clear water and all the shades of blue, the bottom was visible the whole way, the water we were in was sooo shallow, 2mt on average but shallowing out to 0.8mt a good part of the way with a few scary spots showing as low as 0.4mt. 

The orange dots are coral heads

I was on coral head watch but the thing was, we were sailing and what exactly would we do if we had to stop to avoid a coral head you can’t just throw the boat into reverse when the sails are up.

It was quite a stressful passage but exhilarating and beautiful.  This must be a popular route as the only coral heads we saw were well charted, thank goodness. 

Salt Pond, Thompson Bay -  Long Island

Our new home for a few days, there is another strong wind front coming through.

We have been throwing out the fishing line,  still with no luck and on our visit to land we stopped in at the marine store and picked up a cedar plug.  We had been told to buy one of these fishing lures early on but decided to wait until we had tried the lures (or lost the lures) we already had before spending more money, hopefully now we have the recommended gear our luck will change.

Salt pond is very cruiser friendly the diesel, petrol and propane are so much cheaper than anywhere else we have seen in The Bahamas. There is a large  well stocked reasonably priced supermarket and the tiki bar sells its Kaliks for $4 each...

As recommended on active captain the six of us decided to hire a car and have a drive around the island, what a fun day Craig was nominated to drive, they drive on the left, same as Australia so an obvious choice.  We were able to hire a six seater van for $100 we had a couple of things on our to see list but no set plan, just a road trip, we were hoping to do one end of the island to the other but starting in the middle we didn’t quite make it back up to Stella Maris, the North end of the island, but we did get to the very southern end where we stopped and had a swim at Gordon’s beach .

What can I say 

Again we were passing so many run down and broken houses, lots of goats and sheep, glimpses of the beautiful blue waters on the bay side. The vegetation is scrubby and not very pretty.  We passed a huge number of churches so many for such a small island, on this island they grow bananas and other vegetables that they sell to other islands they use holes built up with stones then filled with compost to create fertile soil. 

This was funny Craig stopped the car to go and collect what he thought was salt but it was a foamy substance not salt 

By midday everyone was starving so we called into the Lighthouse Restaurant at the Flying Fish Marina, it looked rather upmarket for us cruisers but for once Craig was not disappointed with his meal, he declared the fish tacos delicious, the fish they used was Wahu one of the species we are hoping to catch with our new lure. The views were beautiful out to the sound.

Our next stop was Dean's Blue Hole, a natural deep hole  located on the Sound side it is the world's second deepest, after the Dragon Hole in the South China Sea, with a depth of 202m

It is surrounded by a beautiful powder white beach and a gentle slope before the hole plummets downwards.

This is also where the Vertical Blue Free Diving Competition is held every year. Competitors, film crews, and spectators travel from all around the world just to witness the male or female free diver that can dive the deepest into the blue hole. 

Just as we arrived the heavens opened up and the rain pelted down, Kevin and I made a dash for the van as we were not braving the unknown creatures that could be lurking in the deep dark water hole. Apparently it was warmer in the sea water than out.

Other stops we made included a craft stall selling handmade, straw bags, hats placemats, polished conch shells and sea sponges, a great hardware store, the marine store, supermarket and of course a $4 beer to end the day. 

The day before we left Georgetown our water maker had blown a pressure gauge a phone call to the manufacturer (in Trinidad) and Craig was reassured that the water maker would be ok if he bypassed the gauge by plugging it with a cap and they would post a replacement one out to us.... easier said than done.

Another cruiser let Craig look through his box of spares and yay he had a cap we could use.

So we are now trying to organise how to get the replacement part that was sent by the manufacturer (still under warranty) to Fort Lauderdale where it was going to be flown out to us in George Town.  We actually left knowing the part was on its way but had someone organised to pick it up, that was until the aeroplane developed engine problems and the weekly delivery was cancelled. Nothing is ever easy..... Ill let you know how we go.

There was another cold front coming through with high winds, rain and slightly cooler temperatures. I went for a walk on one of the days before it hit, while Craig stayed on board Adriana setting up our Iridium Go -  this is what we will use for receiving weather reports when we are offshore or not able to access internet. 

As Craig had missed out on going ashore before the front hit he ended up not getting off the boat for 4 days !! so on the fifth we braved the wet dingy ride and did a huge long walk to a pretty beach where we all had a swim.

After a hot treck through the scrub we were rewarded 

The view without the scrub

What it really looked like 

This is typical of the surrounding environment

The beaches surrounding Thompson Bay are rocky and there was no where else to tie up the dingy other than at Tiny's Hurricane Hole so we were able to have a cold beer and some wings as a treat on the way back.

Beers on the deck at Tiny's Hurricane Hole

The view from the deck looking to the dingy dock at Tiny's

Spending time with Yellowbird and Seamlessly we were also joined by Dan and Nawal with their silky terrier Zeuss aboard Breakaway. On our last night we were treated to a huge feed of Grouper (a local fish) that seamlessly had on board that they brought over to us and Craig whipped up a feast.

The girls getting a cooking lesson from Craig

Zeuss modelling his Bodyglove rashie

We are now planning one more island stop before leaving the Bahamas and heading on to Dominican Republic.