Bahamas Trip Week 5 5/20 - 5/24

Bahamas Trip Week 5 – 5/20 to 5/24

 

Wednesday – The main plan for the day was to explore Warderwick Wells.  In preparation for going up BooBoo Hill, Tom took a piece of driftwood and painted “Greeks Folly” on the wood.  We discovered that black magic marker fades and weathers in the sun so Tom used nail polish.  He is hoping the lettering will last.  Because this is a no take, no place, park, the policy is to take nothing and to leave nothing on the natural cays.  This hill is the only place that cruisers are permitted, even encouraged to leave a “piece” of themselves.  We hiked the hill, left our sign, experienced “Blow holes”, and hiked the island. 

Following traditions of those who have gone before us we place our sign on Boo Boo Hill

 

The trails on the island are sparsely marked.  In some places there is a faint yellow line to mark the path; in other places there are rock towers to indicate when we were on the correct path.  The island has dense foliage, steep ridges, volcanic like rocks and poisonwood trees.  It was a hot, sweaty hike but also interesting, adventuresome and challenging. 

Beautiful water from the cliffs of Warderick Wells Cay

Another Bahamian aid to navigation to help you find your way

 

 After a quick dip to cool off, we went back to the boat.  While there we observed that our good friends, Wally and Mary Sue on Beulah Belle had pulled into the anchorage.  (They were our first cruising partner and buddy boat on the rivers)  We dinghied over and enjoyed chatting and catching up with their travels and plans for their Exuma Island visit.  Tom, the fish, snorkeled off the back of the boat and was adopted by a spotted snapper fish which stared at him, followed him around, and even stayed off the back of the boat when Tom got out of the water.  Tom enjoyed swimming with his new friend. 

Thursday – Sea Angel – Peter and Nancy decided they wanted to go home. We will try to make it back during this weather window before the winds change on Monday.  Because of that, the next few days will be long travel days and will be tiring.  We have mixed feeling about heading home; we discuss some options, and decided that we will travel with them and head home too.  We pull out at 0830 and head to Nassau.  This is not our preference because the cruising guide states that this city can be dangerous and the crime rate is high.  Yet, we headed there anyway.  Sea Angel secures slips for us at Nassau Yacht Haven.  To our pleasant surprise, the dock master is helpful, friendly and patient with us.  Upon his suggestion we decide on an early dinner and happy hour at the Poop Deck.  We have a wonderful time meeting some famous locals.  Tom chats with Norm Benemy, a local businessman while Colletta chats with a 90 year old man, Bumpy, who was an officer of the first police force.  He shared his personal history (5 wives and 75 children) and experiences.  He autographed and gave Colletta his published memoirs.  She enjoyed the whole experience.  After some conch bites and cocktails at the bar, we enjoyed a delicious dinner.  We were back on the boat before dark and did enjoy the whole experience. 

Friday – After asking permission from harbor control, we left downtown Nassau and headed into the Tongue of the Ocean and over to Hogs Cay in the Berrie Islands.  The ocean was calm and the water was beautiful – a nice, but again, a long ride.  We decided to moor at the Berrie Island Club for the evening.  This marina is basic, at best – no electricity, but dockage for 4 boats and 2 mooring balls.  The marina was just purchased by new owners and they had not put any money into it.  It was nice to have a dock and by the end of the day there were 2 other boats besides us staying there so the marina was full.  Tom, Nancy and Colletta decided to take a walk and go to the beach on the other side of the island.  The path was a stone road, somewhat overgrown and we did not see any other people.  The beach however was beautiful.  It allowed us to do some shelling and Tom spent most of his time snorkeling among some 2 foot sharks.  After dinner we relaxed on the back of the boat.  Driving without autopilot can be a very tiring experience – and this was just the beginning.

Nassau Harbor Lighthouse

Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island

No one said living in paradise was not hard work

Calm waters crossing the Tongue of the Ocean on our way to the Berrie Islands

 

 

Saturday – Another long travel day to Bimini so we left at first light, this was 0615.  The winds were slowly starting to increase as predicted but most of the time we had a following sea.  We miscalculated and were hoping to get a slip in Bimini for the weekend; however we forgot about the Memorial Day weekend.  The place was packed, no slips available in any of the 6 marinas and boats were already anchored on the leeward side of the island for the evening.  It was 1615, the sun was still shining and a decision had to be made.  We decided to head back to Florida.  It would be a 7 hour ride, we would have 4 more hours of light but we would arrive in the dark.  The seas were 2-4 feet and building after midnight.  The weather forecast was also strong winds for the next 5 days so we would have been stuck in Bimini waiting for another weather window.  This trip was stressful and tiring with having to steer the whole way, but in hindsight it was good we made the crossing.  We headed into Fort Lauderdale port, which was very difficult for us.  We did not know what the port looked like in the daylight, much less at night with all the city lights, oceangoing barges moored at the mouth of the harbor and the activity just inside the channel.  Tom, the captain, did a masterful job of navigating and brought us safely to a small cove, Lake Sylvia, right off the main channel of the ICW.  We were anchored in this cove with 14 other boats, another sign of the holiday weekend.  We were exhausted after navigating on the water for 17 hours.  With the anchor secure, we had a beer to relax our nerves and then fell into bed.

Sunday – In a normal situation, we do not like to boat on the ICW on the weekends because of all the boat traffic and “crazies” out there.  We had no choice and also wanted to get home to Jupiter to our own comfortable slip.  The crazies were definitely out today and we were very careful, both with our own wake and with all the boat traffic.  It was slow going as many of the bridges needed to be lifted for us as well as the other boats.  It was also somewhat entertaining.  There were boats everywhere!! 

Proceeding north from Fort Lauderdale on the Intercoastal waterway

Bridge is up.... and there off!

 There were a lot of people in every single boat and everyone was in the mood to party on the water.  There were wall-to-wall boats both at Boca Raton and Peanut Island:  so much so that you could walk to shore from boat to boat and never get wet. 

North side of Peanut Island in Riviera Beach

More Peanut Island



These guys, just slightly over served , cruised with us north

 It was a wonderful to finally round the bend and see Jupiter Cove.  At that moment however, the skies let loose and it started to downpour and the winds blew.  We were close but still not home.  We drove around in circles for a while, waiting for the rain to stop and the winds to diminish.  Finally, both happened and we headed in.  Jim Ginter was waiting for us on the dock – a nice welcome.  Docked at 1930.

 

This completes not only our Bahamas trip but also our travels for the year.  We will get Greeks Folly repaired, cleaned and any other necessary work done on her.  The boat will then be stored on the hard until our return to her in January of 2016 when our travels will continue and we will once more be on our adventures of The Great Loop.