Warderick Wells Cay

Warderick Wells Cay is a beautiful place. The weather has been perfect and life is great.
We dinked in to sign up with the Exumas Land and Sea Park folks and saw this reconstructed whale skeleton. It's real. The sign said that the whale was killed by swallowing man made plastic products.

As we were walking about we saw this guy landing his seaplane in the harbor.

The view from Boo Boo Hill
The Emerald Rock Mooring Field

Later we took to one of the hiking trails and walked up to the peak of Boo Boo Hill. It's said that on a full moon night one can hear the singing of hymns from some ghostly choir. We heard nothing... We we're watching the NCAA basketball tournament. Go Memphis!!

Many boaters who stay here hike this trail and leave something memorable at the peak of Boo Boo Hill. This pic is just a small portion of the monumental pile of Flotsam and jetsam with the names of boats and/or their crew painted or engraved.

Yesterday was a postcard day here at Warderick Wells. When the weather is right this place is paradise and yesterday we were Paradisians. The colors are what one dreams of when imagining the ideal Caribbean isle.

Today we are leaving for Compass Cay Marina. The weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse... but maybe not so bad... we hope. The safety of a marina for the upcoming blow might not be a bad thing.

So for now,

Adios,


Istaboa

Down the chain of the Exumas

There's not much at Norman's Cay... but click on the link and read about it's violent past as the drug smuggling headquarters of Carlos Lehder.
Now there is just the landing strip and McDuff's restaurant; and a beautiful and peaceful island of course.


We wondered how many billions of dollars of contraband passed through this little landing strip.

A quote from Wikipedia about Norman's

With the Bahamian authorities looking the other way and the local inhabitants scared off, the island became a haven of debauchery for Lehder and his associates. Carlos Toro remembers, "Norman's Cay was a playground. I have a vivid picture of being picked up in a Land Rover with the top down and naked women driving to come and welcome me from my airplane...

Click on this link to see more photos of Carlos' operation or rather what's left of it.

Then we dinked around to the other side of the island. This would have been a much better place to have dropped anchor but we were already committed to our spot on the west side.


Remains of an old drug smuggling plane in the shallows. We wondered if their ditch was as successful as the recent one in New York.

Night before last was a very bumpy one anchored out from Norman's Cay. A front of some kind blew past and kicked up 4' swells. But the anchor held and at around 4:00 AM the wind stopped and the sunrise was as beautiful as the sunset the previous day.

We are now at Warderick Wells on a mooring buoy around Emerald Rock. It's beautiful here and the weather is supposed to be good for a couple of days.
More on Exumas Land and Sea Park later.

Adios,

Istaboa

The Spring... Part 3 of 3

If you care to read this in sequence, start down at The Exumas...Finally and work up.
Shark we passed on the way back from Highborne.

So after the Iguanas, we dink back to Highborne and barter with a young fellow there.

You clean two fish and you get one free.

He agreed

The sharks love the fish cleaning area. They always hang around and when someone walks up to the fish cleaning station they swim over to collect any scraps thrown in.

So then the Spring.

All the folks here at the marina have said, "you must see the Spring." So off we go. "Just follow the signs", they said.
The Marina dog, Mr. Wilson, actually led the way.

So down a dusty trail of coral bones and limestone, we see the second sign.

After a 2 mile walk down a dusty trail, we find the spring.
Bahamian Humor.

Even Mr. Wilson seemed to be in on the joke

So back to the boat we went, chuckling to ourselves, this is all part of the experience. Mr. Wilson walked back with us only to return to his original spot.
Job well done, Mr. Wilson.

The weather was perfect and it was a great day. Now for tomorrow.

Adios,

Istaboa

Allens Cay and the Iguanas... Part 2 of 3

After walking to the beach we decided to take the dink and run over to Allens Cay to see the infamous Iguanas.
As we get close to the beach, sure enough, we see twenty or so Iguanas run to the shore in hopes of a handout.


Like in all other social cultures; there must be a pecking order here also. The big lizard always got the bread and shared it if he wanted. The others had to scramble for a few nibbles.

While dinking around, some guys on a sport fish asked if we would take one of their buddies to shore with his video camera to take pics of his children playing with the Iguanas. We said we would for a beer. (we were very thirsty and had no beer with us.)
They did us one better and gave us 2 beers and 2 fish. You can't beat that.

My Catch
Fresh fish tonight.

The Exumas.... Finally... Part 1 of 3

For years we have been cruising to the Bahamas and for years folks have asked; Have you been to the Exumas?
Our intentions were always to travel north to south. Start with the Abacos and work our way down to the Exumas before heading back to the US and the Keys. But it never worked out that way. Either weather or good times and friends kept us in the Abacos. But not this year. The picture above is our first night at anchor just off Highborne Cay

The Sailing Catamaran "Diamond Girl".
They are from Jackson, TN

Yesterday we dicided to go into the Marina at Highborne Cay and this little fellow was our first visitor. He just flew in and sang us a short song and left.
(He just paid us another visit as I am writing this)

There is a short road next to the marina. Take a left and go to the beach... to the right is the famous "Spring". more on that later.

So we went to the beach; and a beautiful beach it is.

I am going to break this day up into a couple more post. Lots of pics.

DIngy day in Nassau

So we decided to stay a couple more days in the big city. We did last minute shopping and later put the dink in the water to explore Nassau and Atlantis. Atlantis made us think of Disney World with boats.

If these folks are worrying about a recession they're not showing it.

We dinked over to the Green Parrot and had Jerk Chicken Wings. When we pulled up to the dingy dock there a fellow shouted out... Radar! He had met Radar in Palm Beach and remembered him.
He didn't remember us.

Tomorrow we're off to the Exumas and Highborne Cay. We probably won't have internet for a while but we will catch up with the blog when we do. We promise lots of pics.

Bamba yay,


Istaboa

Two Sides of Nassau Harbor

As you can see... Nassau has no shortage of Mega Yachts. The above picture is of Hurricane Hole Marina with Atlantis in the background. Both of these marinas are very upscale and pricey.

But across the way is where we are tied up. As I said earlier Nassau Harbour Club Marina is a bit funky but cool. It's kinda a shame that the place is so disheveled because they are in a great location. Just across the street is a shopping center with everything one needs and the prices are reasonable. Even diesel was the same price as Fort Lauderdale. The marina staff are very helpful and kind. Peter the Harbor Master is a good fellow and knows how to get things done.


Craig from Boatronix has flown in to solve my Inverter problem. It was actually cheaper for Craig to fly in and bring the part as it was to have it shipped. Plus, Craig could install it. So our big problem got smaller and Craig got to spend a couple of days in the islands. A win-win for everyone. There is a 45% duty that must be paid. Peter explained to us how to manipulate that system a bit to get the part here quickly, so that helped some too.

This morning I got up before dawn and it was raining. Normally not much rain in the Bahamas this time of year and the locals love it. Our old friend Mort from Marathon called this a "Bahamian Boat Wash."

As you can see from the above picture this is a Red Sky Morn. So should we stay or should we go on down to the Exumas today as planned? Guess it's time to study weather and charts to find out.

Adios... Bamba yay


Istaboa

Nassau

Mel in Downtown Nassau

Yesterday took the bus into downtown Nassau. Again, very busy but fun. We got our Batelco Cell phone reactivated and had lunch. Before lunch we met this fellow who was a barber. So I took advantage of the situation and got a trim. Most interesting hair cut ever. The walls were lined with Junkanoo headdresses and Masks. Tiki was a nice fellow. Everyone there was a native and when we walked in they start talking in a thick Patois accent that we cannot understand. We don't think they were talking about us; they just didn't want us in on their conversations. We respect that.

Mel and Tiki the barber

Bamba Yay, (look it up)


Istaboa

The Bank and Nassau

Following Total Return as the sun rises over the Great Bahama Bank.

The trip across the Gulf Stream was a piece of cake. A little bumpy at first but settled down to almost flat.
We entered the Great Bahama Bank just north of Bimini close to Hen and Chickens. The Bank was even more flat. We plotted a course for Russel Beacon where we were to meet our friends Russ and Molly onboard "Total Return". We got there about 5:30 and were dropping the anchor when everything went black. No AC electrical power at all. To make a long story short; we had lost our Inverter. I want go into what that is, just understand it's important. No AC on a boat like this is a bad thing. But the boat will still run. (I know some will say, just use your generator, but unfortunately it's not that simple.)
Total Return and New Horizons found us and anchored close by. We were all up before the Sun and made way across the Bank for Nassau.

Pulling into Nassau was exciting. We have never been here before. It's very busy, especially now because of Spring Break. The above pic is Atlantis. We are not staying there.

We are staying at Nassau Harbour Club. Funky but cool.

The above pic is the full moon rising above Nassau Harbor.

When we got in I made a few calls and managed to temporarily fix the AC issue. We now have AC electrical power.

More about Nassau soon.

Adios,


Istaboa

The finishing touches

Just before leaving Palm Beach We found Boggy; a master teak varnisher. So we decided to put the 4 finishing coats of AwlBrite over the really beautiful varnish job we got in Panama CIty. It came out great. As you can see in the next shot.

It is so bright it's almost like a mirror.
Boggy did a great job.
Our friend Ben from home will be proud. He always gave me a hard time about our teak.

Adios,


Istaboa