MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

April 19, 2000 Day 1 of the trek north.
We left Georgetown about 9:00am and were anchored by about 6:00pm in Lee Stocking Island. It was only a 20-mile sail but the wind was right on our nose and we had to tack way out and tack back in. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful sail. The skies turned a little threatening mid morning, the wind picked up to about 17 knots and veered around to more out of the west. We got our rain gear out and were ready to reef in the mainsail and take down the headsail, but it turned out to be a false alarm and the skies cleared up and we were happy as clams. I made us a big throw-everything-in-the-pot dinner, topped it off with pineapple slices and we are tucked in for the night. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will head to Black Point, about 30 miles north of here, a place we didn't get to on the way south.
April 20, 2000
Leaving Lee Stocking about 8:30am with light winds out of the northeast, we knew the wind was in our favor. Once out into the Sound, we didn't have enough wind with both the main and full headsail up to do more than 3 ½ knots, so we motorsailed. It was another gorgeous day out there, sunny and hot but the winds were mostly in the high single digits so not much of a breeze. We made Black Point by about 2:00pm and noticed as we were coming into the cut, from the Sound into Black Point, that there was this rumbling of waves up ahead. We thought it looked like a line of rocks, you know how water coming upon rocks looks, but we checked the chart again and there were no shallows showing. Turned out to be just a strong current rushing from the Bank through the cut, out into the Sound. The wave action threw the boat around a little but captain Bob was in full control. Crossing the beautiful turquoise water to the anchorage, in about 7 feet of perfectly clear water, I noticed a large black form coming our way. I used the walkie-talkie to tell Bob to take a look. Upon seeing it closer, I noticed about 7 feet of long, dark fish. It didn't quite look like a barracuda and it didn't quite look like a dolphin and then I noticed the FIN. Shark!! It was so exciting as I've never seen one in the wild before. On the other hand, I was really looking forward to jumping overboard as soon as we were anchored. Well, after anchoring and before putting the dinghy back together, I eased the swim ladder over and then eased myself over. The water is so clear and you can see so far that I trusted that I would see him before he could eat me. I'll say this though, I sure didn't dilly dally in there very long. After we both had naps, we decided just to have scrambled eggs and toast and check out the town tomorrow. Black Point is the second most populated area in the Exumas, next to Georgetown. I don't think there's anything fancy here but sitting in the cockpit, we heard motorcycles and children playing and so far, my first impression is that this is a very healthy town.
April 25, 2000
All is well anchored between Big and Little Majors in the Exumas. The weather has been a bit blowy but still beautiful. Between the wind and the very strong current, we have made 2 failed attempts at snorkeling at Thunderball Cave and another reef we learned about last time we were here. Yesterday we went out with a diving expert friend of ours and he said we should scrap it because the current was too strong. We planned the whole excursion around slack tide but to no avail. Today I think we are going to stay put as a bunch of cold fronts are heading our way. I think we'll dinghy over to a neighboring island called Sampson Cay and look for lunch. Most cruisers' idea of looking for lunch is spear fishing. Our idea of looking for lunch is a restaurant.
P.S. Saw shark #2 today when I went in wading near the grocery store. It was a small (maybe 2 ½ ft.) nurse shark. They are so pretty and I have always been enamored by them.
April 26, 2000
Last night, or rather, this morning, we awakened to thundershowers at about 3:00am. A quick run around the boat to close all hatches and portholes and Bob was back snoring within minutes. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky and it took me a couple of hours to fall back asleep. Back up again at 7:00am to listen to weather. It has been an interesting day here, sometimes sunny and hot, sometimes dark clouds bring lightening and thunder but no more rain. I was really hoping to fill a couple of buckets with fresh water for laundry but not to be. I just had a wonderful jump off the side of the boat with a container of Joy soap. Bob lathered my hair for me, along with being on shark watch and then I jumped back in and rinsed. Before I even surfaced, I was 6 feet away from the boat taken by the current. After my wonderful bath, I feel all clean and ready for "happy hour" which will be on the beach with a few other boats.
For some reason we are not receiving any messages on our brand new GSC 100 unit. I think this time it's an Orbcomm problem with the satellites. In any case, we are out of touch and I hope no one is worried.
April 27, 2000
Awakened once again to thunder, lightening and rain. This time at 1:00am. We scurried to close hatches and ports and back to sleep we went. The 7:00am weather report was such that we thought we would head out today for a small island about 10 miles north, but we just didn't get around to it. First, we wanted to stop around the corner of the island that we are anchored near, called Big Majors, and see if we could see the swimming pig that everyone talks about. Lena and Charlie from "Lilje" went with us. Lena is Swedish and Charlie is American. He is an expert diver. No luck, no pig. Charlie went ashore and banged on the pig's feeding pot. I yelled "here little piggie", and Bob whistled, to no avail. Charlie found footprints but no pig. We did spot a nice-sized nurse shark near the beach. I was wading in the water and pointed him out. Bob kept looking at me as the shark was headed toward me and finally said, "don't you want to get back in the dinghy?" Nurse sharks are not man-eaters and I wasn't afraid at all but I did hop in the dinghy so we could get closer for a picture. We all decided to go to the "yacht club" for lunch and it was yummy. Bob and I stopped back with a small doggie (piggy) bag of leftovers and Mr. Pig came right out to greet us. We had heard that he would actually put his hoofs over the side of your dinghy so Bob kept the motor going and stayed well in front of him. I threw out some food and found out he likes bread but not celery. It's very hot here today. I am quite happy with that. We may go snorkeling in Thunderball Cave later or go to the beach for a bath, if I can rouse the napping captain.
After dinner, we were enjoying the evening out in the cockpit when we looked over at a hill on land and saw 7 goats. What a day for nature. Sharks, a pig and goats!
April 28, 2000
Big Majors to Warderick Wells, home of Exuma Park. The place where Barry the barracuda hangs out. About a 4-hour sail with beautiful skies, winds and seas. All's well in this sailing life.
April 29, 2000
OK, so today isn't one of those bright, warm days with turquoise water sparkling in the sunlight. It happened like this: 8:00am, boat battened down and ready to sail, Warderick Wells, Exumas to Powell Point, Eleuthera. 8:10am engine running, instruments on, first mate on bow with walkie-talkie, captain at helm with walkie-talkie. 8:15am line from mooring ball let loose, partly cloudy skies, scattered thunderstorms forecast. 8:17am, aground. Hard aground. Two depth finders on board, the stern one showing 18 feet, the bow one showing 3.4 feet of water. 3.4 feet of water wins out. 8:30am captain still trying to get us off by forward and reverse motions. Lots of oil spewing in the water, all over the dinghy and on the boat. 8:45am, still hard aground. Exuma Park opens in 15 minutes and after thinking of and discarding our few options, we decide to call them at 9:00am to ask permission to use a mooring ball to tie the boat off on and pull us off. 9:10am, permission granted and a few dinghies zip over to try to help. We tie off the mooring ball but decide we are way too heavy and we will rip the mooring ball out of the ground. Tides, you are wondering? LOW tide is 10:51am. We're sunk. We're not going anywhere for hours. Powell Point, 30 miles away, is scrapped for the day. Plus, it starts raining. Myself, I think it's kind of funny and I try to get the captain to see the humor, or at least the possibility that we may have had a run-in with some lightening out there, or, it may be a payback for laughing at the 2 boats that came in last evening and went aground. I warn our captain, never laugh at someone else's bad fortune. There but for the grace….. Couldn't even get the captain into my old stand-by "going aground" suggestion of pancakes. It is now 12:03pm. We are sitting at an awkward angle, listing to port, but the rain has just let up. I may even have gathered enough rainwater to launder ½ of a bathing suit. We are tied to mooring ball number 5, just next to that nasty number 6 where we were tied last night. We have 3 lines tied together from the boat to the ball so we don't go any deeper into this beautiful sand that I am always raving about. Another 3 hours or so and we should be able to get off this tilt and back onto a mooring ball for the rest of the day.
Guess we won't go anywhere today. There are sea Gods out here, you know. One may have just saved our lives. Never hurts to look at the bright side. I heard something said about a potluck on the beach tonight…...