The Adventures of S/V Jupiter's Smile: Leaving the Bahamas and on to Jamaica

Friday March 23, we, in company with Sea Star sailed from Salt Pond to the West and rounded a way point before heading South to an anchorage on the western shore. We rolled in the swells at anchor and that convinced us to try to make Little Harbor on the eastern coast the next day. Little Harbor turned out to be a very nice spot and we spent an extra day snorkeling and enjoying the solitude.

A wreck in Little Harbor, Long Island

On Monday, we sailed to Long Cay in the Crooked/Acklins Group and anchored on the banks in the Bight of Acklins. Along the way, Cathy caught a 54” Mahi Mahi! After anchoring, we could see a large flock of very pink flamingos along the shore. The next morning we had a lovely sail to the east side of the bight to gain shelter from the forecast strong northeasterly winds. Our anchorage is called Delectable Bay.

We had Dan and Cathy aboard for dinner and they supplied the fish. The waters were quite calm during the blow. We went to shore to find a restaurant or a “take away”, but found none open for business. Acklins Island has 700 souls living here and the conveniences found in other locations are not available here. People are very friendly, however, and were willing to stop and give us rides to the closed restaurants.

The grave yard near our landfall. The stones are boat shaped.

I had to bend the sign to a vertical position for the photo. A storm had twisted it almost to the ground.

Closed Restaurant #1

We were walking ahead of Dan and Cathy when they got a ride. We hopped in the back to go to closed restaurant #2 at the airport.

This aircraft is retired!

Closed restaurant #2

Headed back to the boats - hungry!

We moved on after the weather cleared and we anchored in Jamaica Bay near where 300 of the 700 souls inhabit the settlement of Salina Point.

The school at Salina Point

Again we went in search of a meal but found none. At Paddy’s, to our delight, we found scoops of chocolate ice cream. On Friday, we moved a little distance to Datum Bay in readiness for a departure for a passage to Hogsty Reef, 45 nm to the southeast.

Arriving with time to cruise within the twelve square mile atoll, we anchored at the far east end and settled in for a slightly rolly night. Soon we were approached by fishermen from the Dominican Republic who sold us a very large lobster and a nice sized grouper. April 1st, we snorkelled several locations within the atoll and found the water very clear, the fish very diverse, fairly plentiful and since lobstering season closed today, the large lobster we saw was protected. The one we ate last night was delicious.

On Monday we sailed to Matthew Town, Great Inagua and anchored among several other boats off the town in time to walk to the customs and immigration offices to conduct our clearing out of the Bahamas. It is somewhat sad to leave this beautiful country, but we are anticipating what Jamaica and beyond holds in store for us.

Downtown Matthew Town

The old opera house

Notice the sailboat washed up into the parking lot

Inagua General Store

Barb, ever on the look out for sea glass and sea beans

The Government Building

Sea Star underway leaving Matthew Town, Great Inagua, Bahamas

Sea Star and Jupiter’s Smile departed the anchorage at about 1:30 PM on Tuesday, expecting to time our arrival in Port Antonio, Jamaica for dawn or later on Thursday. We had spoken with a single hander, Ron on Dawn Trader, on the radio and he asked that we keep in touch as he was headed to Port Antonio as well and wanted help to stay awake. He had left at about 10 AM. The sailing was poor so we ran the motor with the sails up for the first two hours until we picked up some wind. After that it was pretty smooth sailing. Sea Star has an automatic identification system on their boat so while we on Jupiter’s Smile could detect vessels on RADAR and have a rough idea of their speeds, courses and how close they would pass by us, they on Sea Star could detect the vessels and know their names, tonnage, dimensions, destinations, and what the vessels’ instruments readings of speed, headings, speed over the ground and course over the ground were. AIS is on our wish list. During the passage, we did indeed keep in touch with Ron and our regular schedule of calls helped keep him awake. At one point on Tuesday night we heard Tempest and Nighthawk calling each other and it turned out that they were headed to Port Antonio as well, within VHF radio range (20-25 nm) of our position. We had last seen them as we both departed Salt Pond, Long Island, on March 23rd. I called to Tempest and invited them to check in with us, Sea Star and Dawn Trader on our scheduled contact times. As it turned out Dawn Trader was very close to them. After dark on Wednesday, the wind fell off again and we ran the motor, using the opportunity to use the water maker and fill our water tanks while we moved through the night. When we reached about 50 nm from the coast of Jamaica the wind filled in again and we sailed until we were well within sight of the shore lights of the north coast. At dawn, our progress slowed as the wind died again and we motored along, dousing our sails just outside the harbor entrance and proceeded to tie up at the Errol Flynn Marina to clear into Jamaica. The voyage covered 242 nm in 43 hours and while we slept little, the passage was uneventfully successful.