Parker Seminars and George Town Regatta

On Monday, February, 20, Chris Parker began his seminars on weather topics and I signed up for all, but the most basic one so my commitments began on Tuesday (all day) and each morning through Friday.  I took away some gems from the sessions that explained the reasons for some of the not so nice weather we have experienced in the past.  For example, if the synoptic forecast is for winds from the west along the east coast of the US (south of perpendicular to the coastline) the local wind, during the day, near the coast will be from the southwest, parallel to the coastline, right on the nose if you are traveling southbound.  Winds tend to blow parallel to coasts.  Chris discussed several cruising tips for exploring the Bahamas, ways to obtain weather data and how to interpret the data.  I think the best message I took from the seminars is to be aware that weather forecasts tell what forecasters know, and are great for pilots of airplanes, but for the small areas that sailboats cover it is easy to overlook a small, but significant squall that can ruin your day.  Ultimately, the more you know the better.  It is your responsibility to make your own observations and see if they compare with “the models”  (or, even if the models agree with each other.)  If they do, great.  If they don’t, try to figure out why, what might be going on in the atmosphere and make decisions based on your own reasoning.  It was a good experience to spend time with the fellow who has helped us many times as a voice over the radio as we sailed from place to place over the years.

On Wednesday, after class, Barb and I went to a beach party at Volleyball Beach and met up with Bob and Annette from S/V Tempest, friends from 2008, when we first met in Rio Dulce, Guatemala.  We sailed with them in 2009, from Guanaja, Honduras to Bocas del Toro, Panama and again from the San Blas Islands of Panama to Cartagena, Colombia.

On Friday, after class, we had Liam and Annie (S/V Gone With the Wind) aboard for dinner.  We discussed the upcoming 32nd annual George Town Regatta and Barb pretty much convinced Liam that if he would enter the races, we would very happy to crew aboard Gone With the Wind.  Saturday was the day for registration for the various events.  Liam entered his boat in both the in-harbor race and the around-the-island race.  Barb and I joined two men we didn’t know (and who didn’t know each other) for the Coconut Harvest Challenge and we joined the opening day dinghy parade through the anchorage on Sunday.  Other events included a Pet Parade,Trivia, Bocce, Bridge (cards), Fun Volleyball and Regulation Volleyball, Scavenger Hunt, Sand Sculpture, Arts & Crafts, Desserts, “Golf”, Texas Hold’em (cards) and various small boat races along with the big boat races.  

On Monday evening, the Pet Parade and the Opening Show took place followed by a dance on the beach.  On Tuesday, Barb and I met with Ed from M/V Margret Lee and Phillip from S/V Kathleen Ann to prepare for the coconut challenge. 

Ed, Jay, Barb and Phillip - The Hardheads!

Liam, Barb, Jay & Annie.  Liam and Annie's team beat us by one point and they took 15th place.

 It was decided that we would use our light, maneuverable dinghy and our 3 gallon bucket while each of us would bring a personal flotation device (life jacket) and a swim fin for propulsion in accordance with the rules.  Then we practiced the coconut catch and then the coconut toss.  On Wednesday, we and 25 other teams, lined up our dinghies on the beach.

We watched as 22 bags of 50 coconuts each were emptied into the water in various locations.  At the whistle, everyone pushed their dinghies from the shore and paddled, each with his own swim fin, to collect all the coconuts.  

We were sort of fast, but it turned out that some of the coconuts had not been released initially and several of the slower boats were given a gift of several bags tossed later.  The event was over in a record breaking 11 minutes!  We collected only 16 coconuts (not the least amount) while a few boats collected over 100!  

We took our points and went to the coconut catch event.  Just beyond one centerline of a regulation beach volleyball court stand two team members, the catchers, with one large garbage bag between them.  On the other sideline, across the court, are the other two team members, the loader next to a pile of 25 coconuts, and the tosser, with his back to the catchers.  The loader feeds the tosser a coconut and the tosser, without looking, throws the coconut in the direction of the catchers who catch it.  Feed, toss and catch as many coconuts in the bag as possible in thirty seconds.  Barb fed me and I tossed to Ed and Phil, who directed and corrected my tosses verbally.  The best team caught 21, 20 for second place and we caught 19, for third place.  We had three coconuts left untossed at the end of thirty seconds, three on the ground, uncaught, and eighteen in the bag.  Are you counting???  It is important!  The missing coconut was still in the air and it was caught as well. That made us feel better after our poor showing in the first event.  The catchers from one team stopped catching at the whistle and one of them was hit on the head by their last coconut.  He was alright, but it may inspire a rule change. The catchers may need to wear pots on their heads next year.

For the last event a target was put in the center of one side of the volleyball court and 8 coconuts, two for each team member were placed along the center on the other side.  Without crossing the line both coconuts were thrown over the net and toward the target.  Sometimes coconuts roll and sometimes they don’t.  All four of us did poorly.  We finished 16th over all and had a good time.  George Town is known by some as Day Camp for Adults.

Big Majors Spot, Black Point and on to George Town

Saturday, February 11th, a cold front approaches.  In the Bahamas, as a cold front approaches, the wind is very light for about a day or so, often from the southeast, and it then begins to “clock” or “veer” during the course of another day to the south, the southwest, the west, the northwest, sometimes with squalls and then from the north for a while as the front passes with north or northeast winds for a day or so after that.  The westerly winds present a challenge in much of the Bahamas because protection from those winds is not readily found.  The upside is that the winds from the west usually are of short duration as they clock from southerly to northerly in as little as a few hours….except sometimes they don’t.  Saturday, the wind blew at between 15 to 18 knots all day out of the west and we (and about 25 other boats) had elected to stay in the northern end of Big Majors Spot where we would have protection from the northern quadrant winds that blow strongest and longest with the passing of a cold front.  During Saturday, the waves caused us to hobby-horse to and fro at anchor and it was very uncomfortable until the wind went to the northwest at about sunset.  We heard of two boats dragging their anchors, but the absent crews both returned to their vessels in time to prevent damage.  One was within a few feet of the rocks, however, so it was a close call for them.  Since we were at the north end of the anchorage, we were spared from the waves once the wind veered from northwest, but one fellow, about a quarter mile farther to the south, left his boat, dinghyed ashore and slept on the “pig beach” Saturday night because of the waves he was experiencing.

On Sunday, the wind blew hard, but we had protection and there was no downside to this.  In fact, our little wind generator was whipping its little vanes to a frenzy, pumping a mighty charge into our battery bank better than it had for a long time.  That evening, in the lee of a hill on Pirate Beach, we had a cruisers’ bonfire.  The cold front had passed through Florida with 49 degree temperatures reported and we experienced 65 degree temperatures on Monday morning.  The sun came out and warmed us back up to the high 70s during the day as the wind shifted to the east.  Liam and Annie came over in the afternoon so that Liam and Barb could have a musical jam session - Barb on her piano and Liam with his guitar.  It was fun even though the musicians were somewhat frustrated at this first session, having few pieces of music in common familiar enough to both of them to play together.  Alternating solos are nice too.

On Tuesday, we set sail for Black Point, a long eight miles away to the south.  I say ‘long’ because we probably sailed fifteen miles to reach our destination that required us to go south and then to tack back to the northeast.  We anchored and were approached by a couple that told us a fellow - George?- on a boat whose name began with a “Z”?- was inquiring about us.  All we could think of was Bruce on Zingara, but as I scanned the harbor I didn’t see the boat.  We went ashore to buy laundry tokens for the best laundry in the Exumas, Rockside Laundry, and to visit Lorraines Cafe to confirm our reservations for Valentine’s Day dinner that night.  As we left the laundry, tokens in hand for the big wash tomorrow, I spotted Bruce.  We hadn’t seen him since four years ago.  He had been well and had been back and forth to the Bahamas each year from Maine since then.  He had a new, larger Zingara and that is why I didn’t spot it in the harbor.  That evening, Lorraines served cruisers and locals together at long tables.  We all started with a conch salad, I had Surf ‘n Turf with peas ’n rice, corn on the cob and cole slaw.  For desert we all had cake - chocolate or carrot cake.  The meal was good, but we enjoyed the company just as much.  We sat with two young women who are sisters who work at the resort at Staniel Cay, a bother who works at the resort at Fowl Cay and his wife and his sister, who is the postmaster (postmistress?) of the Black Point Post Office.  Bruce and his friend, John from another boat joined us to fill out the jolly group at our table.  The next day, after laundry, we explored the beaches on the east side of the island and returned to entertain Bruce for sundowners on our boat.  John had left to head to Staniel Cay that morning.  We discussed strategies for heading south, towards George Town. I shared my plan that was different from the normal route, but it would allow us to move sooner and avoid the rough seas in Exuma Sound.  I planned to sail almost straight south from Black Point, across the Galliot Banks, turn and motor sail toward Barracouta Rocks and run east before passing through the cut to the north between Jimmy Cay and False Cay at just before high tide, and employing visual piloting rules in shallow water along the west side of Pigeon Cay.  Then the plan was to anchor just off the beach on the west side of Rat Cay to stage a morning departure through the cut into Exuma Sound, but there was a small surge (ocean swell wrapping around the island) so I decided to go back to the northwest, a few miles, to anchor at Lee Stocking Island’s southern anchorage.  There is a shallow section along this route and based on the next morning’s falling tide, I determined that it would be best to depart as soon after dawn as possible to retrace our course along Lee Stocking Island and Windsock Cay.

Early Friday morning, we did just that (uneventfully) and we dropped the anchor at Rat Cay to allow the ebbing tide to slacken some and eat our breakfast before we ran the cut to head to George Town.  A sailboat motored by toward the cut a little while later while we ate and after a while, we contacted him on the radio inquiring about the conditions through the cut and in Exuma Sound.  He reported benign conditions so we pulled the anchor and got underway soon after breakfast.  There was about a two foot ocean swell and wind was on our nose, but it was also only about eight knots with about two foot seas on top of the swell, as expected, so we motored the fifteen miles to Conch Cut and into George Town’s Elizabeth Harbor.  Along the way we capitalized on our motor power and the deep, crystal clear water in the Sound to run our water maker for a few hours.  As we got toward the cut the ocean swell all but disappeared so the going got very smooth.  The anchorages at Hamburger Beach, Monument Beach and Honeymoon Beach were pretty populated so we proceeded to Volleyball Beach and found a “hole” among the anchored boats into which we eased with about fifteen feet of water below us above a good sandy bottom.  Another cold front was expected, but not as strong as the one last weekend, so while we had no close protection from the south west and west once again, the fetch (the distance over which the wind could blow and produce waves - more distance = bigger waves) was only about one to three miles here and if the westerly component of the wind was short lived we would be fine.  As it turned out, the front pretty much fizzled out before it reached as far south as George Town so it  was a “non event.”  

It should be apparent that weather is an important concern for cruisers and that is why we went to George Town at all.  Our weather guru, Chris Parker, is coming to George Town to hold seminars next week about weather topics.  I want to meet him and learn from him.  

Meanwhile, George Town itself has some attractions of its own.  We have to dinghy about a mile and a half across the harbor to get there, but there is a pretty good grocery store that stocks many items that appeal to the cruisers from mainland North America.  There are several “take aways”, cafes and restaurants.  There are some marine parts stores and hardware stores and goods not in stock can flown in or carried by ship from Nassau and the U.S. regularly.  There is a laundry, two banks, liquor stores and several churches. There is Internet for a fee or at cafes for free.  Places that provide electricity generally charge for plugging in.  If you just use battery power there usually is no fee, but it would be good if one bought a soft drink or a beer or better yet, a snack or a meal in return for the WiFi service provided.

The George Town Horticultural Society was having a fair north of town and they provided a bus ($5 round trip) to the site where we bought fresh vegetables, admired the decorative plants and talked with the local growers.  It was too early for lunch,but by the time we returned to Town we were ready for a bite and got some pretty tasty grilled chicken and curly fries (save me statin drugs!) at the Bikini Bottom take away.

As we dinghyed across the harbor we both noticed a sudden increase in motor speed with a sudden decrease in dinghy speed.  The used prop I had bought in Marathon as a back-up was not as good a deal as I thought.  It was “spun”- that is, the rubber bushing between the prop and the prop shaft was now slipping, just like the original prop I had replaced in the Berry Islands.  We could move, but not very fast.  Our mighty 5 HP, 2 stroke Tohatsu was not so mighty.  Now we had a new mission: find a good replacement propellor, preferably a new one. I couldn’t get a new one in Marathon before we left so I thought my chances were slim here, but it was worth a try.  Inquiries in Town yielded no good news.  One could be shipped here but it would cost almost double the cost of one bought in the States.  

On Sunday, I announced my needs on the air during the daily “Cruisers’ Net” and one fellow radioed back that he would loan me his prop from his back-up motor until I could secure a replacement.  How nice!  Cruisers are “cheap” when acquiring things, but generous with what they have.  Later in the day, a call came over the radio that an 8 HP, 2 stoke engine was available and while I had my hands full with a project, I asked Barb to respond to the call and find out more about it.  We now have that engine.  The need for a replacement prop is not so dire, but the need remains should we want to use the mighty Tohatsu in the future.  Now, however, we have an even more mighty Nissan!  Long live the Nissan!  Later in the day with the crisis behind us, we were visited by the crew of Rachel E, Gary and Bunny, a couple we had met in Big Majors Spot.

On Monday, we went across the harbor, faster then ever before, propelled by our repowered dinghy to dispose of trash, inquire further about a replacement prop (to no avail), get some gasoline, groceries, lunch and get on the internet to check e-mail and take care financial concerns.  Lunch and Internet at Pets Place Cafe.

Tomorrow, for me, the Chris Parker Seminars begin.

Rock Sound, Eleuthera then Cat Island

All the boats: Moira, Gone With the Wind, Rogue Brit, New Attitude, Mellow Moon, Savage Sun, Bobbyland and Sea Biscuit accepted my invitation and Sammy’s place was happy to accommodate the nineteen diners celebrating the first of February.  Later that evening, crews from Rogue Brit and Gone With the Wind came aboard for sundowners and good byes to Gone With the Wind, bound the next day for the Exumas.  This was a successful day doing social things.

It was good to see Michael and Robin from Sea Biscuit again.  They had been on Roatan when we were there in the winter of 2008/2009 and we had attended Robin’s birthday party at a beautiful house on the top of a hill on the island.  Yet another “small world” incident - Bob on Savage Sun is the uncle of one of my former students in Colorado Springs, Lisa, who is a good friend of another student, Jamie who is a foster sister to Christina whom we consider to be our God-daughter.  Bob’s wife, Bev, e-mailed Lisa to tell her of this chance meeting and was informed that Jamie was having her baby at any moment.  I got onto Facebook the next morning and learned that Quinn Patrick Walker was born to Craig and Jamie Walker on February 2nd.  The internet connection was too slow to use for Skype, unfortunately and even e-mails that were sent were slow. I found that some never went through at all.  That is internet in the Bahamas.  It is slow, rationed and expensive, even for the residents on Eleuthera and Cat Islands.

On the morning of February 3rd, Rogue Brit departed toward Cat Island, which I considered a bold move considering what the weather forecast had been the previous day.  I called Chris Parker for a recommendation for us for the 56 mile passage to Cat Island or for a stop along the way at Little San Salvador Island.  He said that today would be the best for the next several days, if we could get underway immediately.  In hindsight, he never said “good.”  Possibly, he remembered some of our previous passages and what we had “survived” and figured - ‘What the heck. They can take it!’  

We got the dinghy hoisted and the boat ready for sea in record time and hoisted the anchor.  As we rounded the Sound Point leaving Rock Sound we saw a dot on the horizon that was Rogue Brit.  Calling them on the radio informed us that the current out Davis Channel and the cut at Powell Point was mild and favorable.  I elected to save some miles and use the narrower, Poison Channel to Powell Point.  That worked brilliantly and as we rounded the point we were coasting (sailing close to the shore) to be sheltered from the seas, but still getting wind.  A little farther along, we were disappointed that we had to be very close-hauled transiting southeast along the “tail” of Eleuthera Island.  We could not keep our head sail from luffing without heading away from the shelter of the land so, with the mainsail and staysail only, we ran the engine to keep our speed up and used the energy to make more fresh water along the way.  We knew that we would need the engine to turn toward Cat Island anyway, just not this soon.   We rounded East End Point into big seas from the Atlantic.  The seas were off our port bow and the wind was almost on our nose, but it was “only” about 25 miles to Cat Island so we passed Little San Salvador Island and pressed on.  We had visited Little San Salvador Island before and I thought that while the anchorage could be a refuge, it would be a rolly one and Barb said keep going.  Then she got sea sick.  We still had 15 miles to go and as we got closer to Cat the seas moderated, thank goodness.  By the time we were near our planned anchorage, the seas were down, Barb had recovered and we called to Rogue Brit to learn that they were anchored in about 13 feet of water just off the beach at Bennett’s Harbour.  It was important to know the depth, because our depth sounder was acting strangely.  Even though we had been close to shore along the “tail” of Eleuthera we were in nearly 1000 feet of water and at that depth the sounder does not register.  As we “returned to land” off Little San Salvador Island we should have gotten a hit from the bottom at only 65 feet, but we didn’t.  On the sounder, an image appeared, but it was fuzzy and it did not agree with the charted depths for our location.  The charted depths were still safe, but this apparent instrument failure was a concern.  And it was now sundown with three miles to go - another half hour.  There were no obstructions to our path on the chart so we just kept coming and anchored behind Rogue Brit it what we assumed was deeper water and pulled back against the anchor to assure it was set and it held.  We turned off instruments and running lights, turned on the anchor light and while Barb prepared our supper, I compared notes with Trevor assuring him that the kinds of conditions we had experienced are not, by any means, the norm and should be avoided in the future.  Christy was glad to hear that and agreed about avoidance.

The next morning, I turned on the instruments and everything was working properly again.  I accessed the sounder and checked wires and it still worked.  So I decided to stop fixing it before I broke it.  Trevor, Christy, Barb and I went to shore and spoke to a young Canadian fellow at his boat tied at the government dock.  He had been there six weeks already and since he had lost his dinghy, he had to be at the dock.  He and his crew were on a good will mission helping the Cat Islanders rebuild after hurricane Irene had smacked them last fall.  He advised us how to get to the settlement and what there was to see.  It is a very small settlement!  We came upon the Halvorson House Villa Resort and Restaurant.  Matt Halvorson came out to greet us and told us that they are from Grand Junction, Colorado.  He and his wife, Sooner, and their two young daughters took over the management of the resort in November and are making a go of it, living in paradise.  The property is mostly recovered from the hurricane and all but one of the cottages are ready.  The dining is family style and the beach is beautiful.  I mean really perfect.  They seem to be very nice folk in a very nice place (www.halvorsonhouse.com  970-234-8830.)  That evening we had a farewell sundowner on Rogue Brit as they were moving on a fast track to Puerto Rico with company expected.

When we arose on Monday, Rogue Brit had already departed South and East toward Conception Island.  We said good bye on the radio and decided to follow Sooner’s advice the previous day to visit Arthur’s Town, a settlement that had hundreds of residents in its day.  So we went North (with the wind) to anchor off the reef just south of town.  We set the anchor in the substantial chop and then dinghyed through the reef to the beach along the sea wall.  It was obvious that Arthur’s Town had received much more damage than Bennett’s Harbor, but it had been cleaned up and the rebuilding had begun.  Even though it was Sunday, the Anglican Church was not holding services.  The Baptist Church was, however, even though the roof over the altar was gone.  We stopped along the waterfront at Etta Stubbs’ place and, over soft drinks talked at some length with 79 year old, “Granny”.  Her charming little house across the street was not harmed and the little restaurant was only a little damaged in the hurricane.  Her neighbors help her a great deal.  She has four children, all grown and successful, but living in Nassau - a world away.  They don’t see her much, but they call.  Arthur’s Town has a population of about 100 now, and declining.  As a resident passes away, there is no one who needs to buy the house and it is slowly, but surely reclaimed by the elements.  The lot next to Granny’s has what used to be a “grand house”, but the gentleman died - end of story.

We knew we could not stay the night exposed to the sea conditions, so we headed south again, into the wind to an anchorage just south of Bennett’s Harbor protected by Alligator Point.  We dinghyed back to Bennett’s Harbor and came across the Halvorson’s in their kayaks, out for the day.  I asked if they were going to have the Super Bowl on their TV, but they didn’t know if they were going to be home or at a friend’s house so I figured I would miss this Super Bowl.  I don’t remember them anyway, except that we have seen these spectacles in Roatan, Honduras and Isla Providencia, Colombia in the past and it would have been fun to add Cat Island, Bahamas to the list.  We explored Bennett’s Creek as far as we could, enjoying the young, fast growing mangroves and the old, fast swimming turtles and we returned to the boat.  While making dinner, Barb said that I should try setting up our digital TV and pointing our antenna toward the BATLCO (Bahamas Telephone Company) tower only six miles away and just see if we could get a station.  Doubting that we would experience success I did my best and asked the TV to search for channels.  It found six!  Four of them were from Florida and relayed by BATELCO and yes, one was going to have the Super Bowl in about 90 minutes.  Barb was dazzled by the width of my smile.  What a great idea she had!  So we watched the Giants on our 21” LCD TV with a crystal clear picture until, with about three minutes left.  The picture scrambled and was lost….NO!  NOT NOW!….for about 15 seconds….and then returned. That just added to the suspense of the game.  We found out the next day that the outage was mostly Bahama’s-wide, not just our TV.  So we can add the Bahamas to the country list of Super Bowl viewing.

On Monday, we moved 20 miles to Fernandez Bay, a private resort that welcomes cruisers to visit land and use their restaurant/bar.  It is another pretty spot on pretty Cat Island.  Barb went snorkeling while I chased her in the dinghy and we walked the beach together.

Tuesday, we moved on to New Bight, anchoring close to shore and the government dock.  We dinghyed ashore to climb Mt. Como and explore the Hermitage, the retirement retreat of Father Jerome.

Photos to come

We had lunch at the Blue Bird Cafe, a nicely seasoned and baked chicken, rice and cole slaw.  We shared with our hostess that we were going to walk to the grocery store and she just looked at her companion.  Turning back to us she said, you get in your dinghy and motor down the beach to the big house, go ashore on the beach and take the causeway, turn left and you’ll soon be there.  It is too far to walk.  We did that, but there were three possible “big” houses.  Then I said, do you think she said “pink house,” because there was only one of those.  We went in to the beach by the pink house and sure enough, there was the concrete “causeway” across the mangrove creek to the mainland.  We got almost all we needed and returning to the boat, decided to seek a better anchorage for the night, about 8 miles away at Hawks Nest at the southern tip of the island.  From here we could have a good run the next day to the Exuma island chain.  Our depth sounder had worked so far.  The only down side was that there was very light wind forecast and there was a good possibility of squalls throughout the day.

THE EXUMAS

In order to arrive with the possibility of good light to see the bottom as we went through our proposed approach at Big Rock Cut north of Staniel Cay I wanted to be there before 3 PM, but at a slack tide after 2 PM.  That meant that we would need to depart about at least 10 hours before that to cover the 56 miles at 5.6 mph, faster than our usual plan (and earlier too.)

We did get up at 4 AM and raised the anchor in the light of the full moon.  Once we were beyond the shelter of Hawk’s Nest Point and we passed into the waters of Exuma Sound the wind was sufficient to sail and with a favorable current we were doing 5.8 - 6 knots in wonderful conditions, but with “lines of soldiers,” the beginnings of squall lines forming in three directions.  We sailed that way until just after noon, when the wind dropped, which often happens before a squall.  I turned on the motor and we motored toward the cut.  As we approached, a dark cloud blocked the sun and I slowed the boat to wait for the cloud to clear before entering the cut.  Until just a few miles before the cut the water is over a thousand feet deep and I was wondering (worrying) if our depth sounder would pick up the bottom accurately.  This is important, especially if the cloud does not clear.  I took in the sails and Barb went up on the bow to watch the water.  We have headsets that allow us to speak in normal tones and volume while she is at the bow and I am at the helm.  It took all I could do to maintain normal tone and volume as our depth sounder returned a fuzzy image of what might be the bottom along with other colored objects.  Since the color was from the surface and down and not from the bottom and up, I knew that what I was seeing might not be accurate.  This cut is well used and well charted and we had used it ourselves before, so it was not time to panic.  But while it was a slack tide, it was a slack low tide.  As Barb told me of the things she was seeing I reported what I thought (guessed/hoped) the depths were.  I didn’t tell her until we approached the anchorage and asked our old friends on Sea Star, “how deep was the water where they were?” and that the sounder was not working properly, again.  Today, we made it just fine, in fact, but it is a major worry.  

We anchored near Sea Star at Big Majors Spot with Liam and Annie in sight on Gone With the Wind.  Dan and Cathy invited us all aboard Sea Star for sundowners and we had a very satisfying end to the day.  We had sailed in Panama with Sea Star in 2009 and we parted from them in Cartagena in January 2010.  It is heartwarming to reunite this way with old cruising friends and to make more along the way.

Big Majors Spot is known for the swimming pigs that live here.  They are the only inhabitants of this good sized island and they find a constant source of questionable nutrition from the cruisers and tourists that come to the beach with food.  As one approaches the beach in the boats, any number of the five adult pigs enter the water and if you come no closer they swim to you. The piglets are still wary and I have not seen them swim, but they will learn, no doubt. The adults tolerate being handled on the beach as well.  From time to time, population control  is practiced with the eventual pig roast that follows.  So we added some stale crackers, carrots and lettuce to their diet on Thursday.  Later that day we feasted aboard GoneWith the Wind with their friends Frank and Christa from S/V Hun Bun lll who were passing through on their way north.

On Friday, February 10th, we dinghyed to Staniel Cay and walked to the Isles Grocery Store.  We picked up some items and as we passed the school where Barb and I volunteered in 2006 I said I wanted to visit again.  Barb waited at the foot of the hill while I watched a video science lesson just before the 16 students of all ages left for lunch.  The principal and teacher are new since 2006, but it was nice to meet them and the children.  So it was our lunch time too and I found Liam and Annie talking to Barb with the recommendation to go to Chamberlain’s Cafe and that they had split a chicken lunch with good results.  We headed to Chamberlain’s but just as we were getting there a truck load of construction workers piled into the cafe.  A few of the students were already there.  They have a porch looking out on the water so we won’t mind the wait so we went in anyway.  They were out of chicken so Barb had a hamburger (huge and yummy) and I had mutton curry (interesting).  The service was fast despite the crowd inside.  Most of the men were getting “take away.”  We decided to go to the second of three groceries to find sour cream before going back to the boat and were successful.  We went for a snorkel in the afternoon and ended up on “Pirate’s Beach”.  Liam and Annie swam ashore from their boat to meet us.  Soon several others assembled on the beach and we were now in the midst of a sundowner gathering, in our swim suits.  Liam was so kind as he went to their boat and got the four of us drinks and we met several sets of cruisers.  The crew of M/V Windermere and M/V Exodus anchor here for months and they along with the M/V Pirate, assembled picnic tables, benches, serving tables and all that added to the natural beauty of the nice sandy beach, was founded “Pirate’s Beach.”

The weather changes on Saturday.