Return to the Exumas

 Thu 1st Feb 2024 - Gorgeous day on anchor! Surrounded by shimmering turquoise ocean we are reminded how tranquil it is to be on anchor.  We dinghy’ed to the beach with Mike and Doralyn and took a long walk into town for some lunch. And rum punches! And then, bummer, we had to walk back, lost our way resulting in an all afternoon excursion.🍹🤷‍♀️ Another super pretty dusk reminded us how fortunate we are, Mike snapped a picture of our boat with our anchor light on to reinforce the memory. Did we mention how nice it is to be on anchor again? 😁

Fri 2nd Feb 2024 - Happy Groundhog Day! A peaceful morning, a little more cloudy than yesterday but flat water. Said adios to Mike and Doralyn and headed back to Staniel Cay to pick up our long awaited water maker. Dropped the anchor and received a friendly welcome from a local shark, I guess they are fed by the tourists? Strolled through the town after collecting our package, followed by a reunion with boating friends, Nancy and Jason, over lunch at the yacht club. Headed back to the Settlement at Black Point to anchor for the night. 

Sat 3rd Feb 2024 - Left early and took the cut north of Black Point to the Atlantic ocean heading south to  Emerald Bay marina. We were greeted with very little wind and flat water. Probably not the best sailing weather. 🤷‍♀️ We motored all the way. Rob saw some pilot whales in the distance. We anchored for the night in Rat Cay, beautiful pristine spot.  Mike, Doralyn and Rob spun off to check out the blow holes close to where we were anchored. 

Sun 4th Feb 2024 - Another beautiful morning, although the wind and current worked against each other resulting in an anchor behind Muti. It’s Gerda’s job as the helmsman to navigate this conundrum when it happens, Rob just stands around and pulls up the anchor when everything is lined up. (Lucky me! - Rob) 🤦‍♀️ Finally spotted a barracuda swimming under Muti through our glass escape hatch. After a lumpy sail we arrived in Emerald Bay marina mid morning; prepped Muti to await the bad weather expected this coming week. Walked over to the Grand Isle Golf resort with Mike and Doralyn for lunch. If you are a golfer this would be a challenging links course to play, but so beautifully situated. The Mahi-mahi sandwich at the pool restaurant on the bay did not disappoint! Went for a lovely walk along the golf course. There are new high dollar beachfront houses butting the golf course and ocean that look amazing. We always wonder why the homeowners aren’t afraid of future hurricanes cause we would be!

Mon 5th Feb to Fri 9th Feb 2024 - Stayed in Emerald Bay Marina to wait out the loco front that brought consistent wind and rain. 💨💦 We are definitely glad we are here in the marina, even though the boat was rocking back and forth all the time with a lot of fender noise coming from all boats tied up along the docks. The mornings were nice and crisp, Gerda knows because she went and did laundry at 4:30 in the morning to beat the daily traffic in the laundry room. 🤷‍♀️ These boat people are crazy! 🙄 We went for some lovely walks along the golf course, went for lunch a few more times with Mike and Doralyn and also took a taxi to Georgetown for some provisioning. When restlessness kicked in causing a desire to leave we walked to the cut to witness the storm surge coming into the marina. It cured the desire super fast. 😳 We waited, wondering if it would ever end. After 10 days a few sailboats left the marina, tomorrow is our turn to head out. 👏 We are looking forward to more “on anchor” days! 

Sat 10th Feb 2024 - Leaving today! Headed up north for a few hours and anchored just north of Rat Cay. Beautiful anchorage, but very bumpy!

Sun 11th Feb - Bounced around most of the night, still bumpy this morning. Nice view though! Thank goodness Gerda has her sea legs. We pulled up anchor and took a short motor up to Williams Bay to anchor in quieter water with multiple other boats who were obviously doing the same thing. 🙀 Still beautiful. Shark came to say hello. 🦈

Mon 12th Feb 2024 - Lovely day, though a little cloudy. Landed the dinghy on the beach of Lee Stocking Island just north of our anchorage and took a walk over to the ocean side along a narrow path amongst the shrubs. The path markings to show the way were  items of junk, anything from a flip flop to a plastic water bottle that must have been picked up from the beach. Then we walked along the ocean further north, the water on this side is definitely more active than where we are anchored, reminds us more of home. 🌊 The plastic strewn along the beach is a disheartening sight, though at least some was put to good use as path markings! When we cut across again we passed an abandoned airstrip (it probably serviced the abandoned research center nearby) before finding another path marked with junk back to the beach where our dinghy is. 

Tue 13th Feb 2024 - Another quiet calm day. Sin viento, which are just the best days! We took an early morning dinghy ride so that Rob could scout out the rocky shoreline to see where he and Chris can go catch some lobsters during their visit. 🦞 Enjoyed the rest of the day on the boat doing some chores and making water.

Wed 14th Feb 2024 - On our way again! Cloudy day, left early in the morning and arrived in Calabash Bay on Long Island late afternoon. We were here last year as well, lovely anchorage and resort. 

Thu 15th Feb 2024 - Warm cloudy morning, little breeze and flat waters. Went for lunch at our favorite restaurant at the Cape Santa Maria Beach Resort on Long Island with Mike and Doralyn, turned into an afternoon of getting to know some of the locals working at the resort while hanging out at the bar (where else, right?) Will probably be moving south tomorrow to shelter from predicted bad wind coming soon, but hope to come back here at some point this season.

Fri 16th Feb 2024 - Headed down to Thomson Bay on Long Island to get some more protection from the wind that is expected early next week, arrived in the afternoon and found a spot with quite a few other boats that are also probably trying to stay safe for the next few days.

Sat 17th Feb 2024 - Another nice day. Went for a walk in the  local settlement, visited their farmers market and had some fish and lobster tacos at a small restaurant. Rob joined Mike and Doralyn at a small bar called Tiny’s Hurricane Hole for some beers in the late afternoon, Gerda stayed behind on the boat for some peace and quiet. 😮😁

Sun 18th Feb 2024 - Another beautiful day in the Bahamas! So little wind overnight that every step one takes on the boat in the morning is muggy as a result of the dew settling overnight. We are early risers and therefore notice this, but once the sun comes up everything dries out. 🌞Another quiet peaceful day on the boat. 

Mon 19th Feb 2024 - The crazy weather has arrived again! Wind coming from all  sorts of different directions this morning, with very bumpy waters. 💨 Hard to walk around the boat without holding on to something, try doing resistance exercises with this motion going on. 😳 At least Gerda can skip the balance poses today! 🧘‍♂️🤣 Started raining in the late afternoon. Another “stay on the boat” kind of day! 🙄

Tue 20th Feb 2024 - Quiet after the storm today, so nice! ⛅️ Another lazy day on the boat. A little cloudy during the day with a beautiful sunset over the anchorage. 🌅

Wed 21st Feb 2024 - A perfect morning! Sunny, no wind. 🌞Everything on the boat is dry, that’s a win in boat life! After 3 days on the boat we were ready to go to shore to drop garbage and go for a walk. We dinghy’ed up to Tiny’s and went for a long walk and landed on a beach where we had a great view of our anchorage. Another thing that struck us was that there was NO PLASTIC on the beach. When we got back to Tiny’s there were some folks doing a yoga class on the jetty, Gerda was a little envious! 🧘 Unfortunately the restaurant at Tiny’s was closed for the day.

Thu 22nd Feb 2024 - Windy throughout the night but calmer in the morning. We headed to Tiny’s for a pizza lunch as we will be heading out tomorrow.

Fri 23rd Feb 2024 - Feliz compleanos Gerda! We left before sunrise this morning and headed back to the big Exuma island to be closer to Georgetown for Magda and Chris’ arrival next week. Beautiful calm morning, no wind so we motored all the way. Once again, we anchored off of Rat Cay for the night.

Sat 24th Feb thru Sun 25th Feb 2024 - Moved around between islands to stay protected from the ever changing wind, without venturing too far away from the marina where we will pick Magda and Chris this coming week. Still beautiful anchorages though, quiet and peaceful. Just before we were about to go to bed, Rob was reeling in his fishing line and realized he had caught a big fish on his smallest rod (named Rodney). It was dark already and the fish gave us the run around on the boat a few times while Rob was trying to reel it in. After an epic battle the fish got away, it was too big for poor little Rodney. We were both hyped on adrenaline so sleep only came a while later. 🐟

Mon 26th Feb 2024 - Headed back to Emerald Bay Marina, pretty bumpy 2 hours. Met up with Mike and Doralyn again over Mahi Mahi sandwiches and rum punches; it never disappoints. 🍹

Tue 27th Feb 2024 - Rented a car to drive to Georgetown to provision, Doralyn came with us. Another new fun excursion, renting a car. No frills, car was dropped off at the marina, keys under the mat, no paperwork, no license showed, no credit card number. Easy peasy. 🚗🤷‍♀️ 

Peace out