1/14/2012- 1/26/2012 LEE STOCKING ISLAND TO GEORGE TOWN AND SURROUNDING ANCHORAGE

1/14/2013 TO 1/26/2013

With the winds dying down enough to release Quest from being pinned to the Little Farmer’s Cay dock, we found ourselves more than ready to be back out cruising the sheltered Bahamas Bank and spending a few night moored.  Today’s travels brought us past Cave Cay with its relatively new marina that we must check out in the near future, Musha Cay that is owned by David Copperfield, Rudder Cut Cay, Darby Island, way in the distance we glimpsed Goat Cay owned by Tim McGraw, Block Cay, Leaf Cay with it population of pink iguanas and Normans Pond Cay before completing our 23 NM journey and arriving at Lee Stocking Island. 

After calling out several times to the Perry Institute of Marine Science (on Lee Stocking) for permission to use their mooring balls, we were alerted by another boater that there was no one at the institute.  This has been the site for the Caribbean Marine Research Center and we toured the little facility two years ago when one of the projects they were working on was the Lionfish.  I am not sure what is going on but the facilities is being rapped and pillaged, quickly becoming a useless mess.  The first day we walked through Dan spotted a pile of copper cable in an inconspicuous area that had been burned to remove the coating and the next day it had been removed, most likely headed for a huge payoff in scrap metal.  The pallet of computer gear setting outside seemed to sum up the sad state of affairs.

LEE STOCKING ISLAND AND THE PERRY INSTITUTE

After a little research I found that the institute was started by John H. Perry Jr. (1917-2006 ) of newspaper publication prominence.  Cute story I read about his first personal sized submersibles in the 1950s.   In a garage workshop on Lake Worth in Florida, he cobbled together his first project.  Good idea but not quite seaworthy.  The Perry Submersible Number 2, made with welded materials and more research, responded to his commands and was declared a success.  While still gloating he felt a sudden thump of contact.  He surfaced, threw open the hatch and found that they had collided with a small passing fishing boat.  Of course the poor guy couldn’t see the submerged vessel so Mr. Perry gushed with apologizes, both men checked out their respective crafts and then went their own ways.  Back on shore and a few hours later he received a phone call from the U.S. Coast Guard wondering if he was possibly a threat to navigation because they had just spent several hours rescuing a fisherman and raising his sunken boat.  Not only was his experimental voyage a success in that it floated and submerged on command but he sank a boat too!!!  His insurance company saw no humor in the situation and cancelled every casualty policy they had with Mr. Perry.

In 1957 Mr. Perry and fellow investors purchased Lee Stocking Island after investigating an unusual advertisement in the Wall Street Journal.  The island proved to be the perfect setting for research that would range from the propagation of shellfish, to the advanced forms of developing food fish, to studying ways of controlling the voracious Lionfish.  The institute also promoted conservation and a self-sufficient environment by desalination of sea water for drinking, using solar energy as well as wind to power the island as much as possible.

On 1/17 we ventured from Lee Stocking Island, cruised by some kind of happening at Children’s Bay then shot out Rat Cay Cut to make our travels south out in the Bahama Sound. While the wind was definitely down, it was an exciting ride when the outgoing tide met the incoming waves in the cut.  Hang on!!

ALGONQUIN IN THE CUT WITH THE CALM BANK BEHIND
AND THE TURBULENT  SOUND AHEAD

Traveling down the eastern side of Great Exuma Island brought us to George Town, population of about 1,000, and the newly reopened Great Exuma Yacht Club.   Eddie Irvine, former Formula 1 race car participant has bought the old place and is struggling to bring new life to it.  The docks are being repaired or replaced, the fuel services has been resumed, the bar and restaurant are hopping and folks are showing up. 

George Town is the place to provision up at the wonderful Exuma Market, grab some cash at the Scotia or RBC banks, visit the laundry mat, restock your liquor cabinet, shop the Bahamian Tel facility,  hear some fun music and eat some good Bahamian food.  We did all of the above then headed out on the1/20 to anchor for a few days at Red Shank Anchorage between Crab Cay, Moss Cay and George Devine Cay.  One of our afternoons was spent at the Stocking Island’s Volleyball Beach where we chowed down on some fresh made conch salad, watched volleyball and spent much of our time gawking at the large number of boaters coming and going.

Back at the EYC docks on 1/24 to provision for our visit from Steven, both Dan and I got haircuts and dined at the EYC‘s lovely dining room.  Who knew??  Neither of us had ventured up to the dining room but it was tastefully decorated and the food was way above par.  I had the best Caesar Salad. 

We are all provisioned, laundry done, and cleaning complete.  The Quest is ready to make a run for it tomorrow, weather permitting.

GEORGE TOWN

LITTLE FARMER'S CAY 1/7/2013

        

1/07/2013 THROUGH 1/13/2013











And the wind did come!!!! Since Algonquin docked into the wind at Little Farmer's Cay Yacht Club they fared a little better than Quest.  Dan had pulled around the dock and berthed with the bow to Algonquin, putting our flat stern to the wind.  Oh, and there appears to be a new post to tie your port side to, the idea being to help keep your starboard side from banging against the dock.  Our 15’10” wide boat left little room for movement and the wind was blasting us into the lone pole.  Granted, we did put fenders there but the boat’s movement kept pushing the fenders out and allowing the rub-rail to, well, to-‘to rub’ up against the post.  The first night we were up around 2:00 trying to pry Quest off the post and re-position the fenders.  The second night the wake-up call was a little later, around 2:30.  By the third night Dan had found the perfect tie-up for Quest to maintain a buffer while the bloody wind kept hammering.  It is not the ideal place for us to ride out this blow due to the nearby cut but we are now pinned to the dock until things ease up.  We could be in worse situations.  The groan of the ropes, the slapping water and the constant movement are annoying at times but we are safe and secure her.

QUEST ALL NICE AND TIDY AT THE DOCK AND THE
BAHAMIAN DEFENCE FORCE BOAT THAT JUST HAPPENS
TO BRING ROOSEVELT'S COUSIN

The Farmer's Cay Yacht Club is run by Roosevelt Nixon and his lovely wife Cheryl along with the help of son Julian and his wife Daryl.  They, along with everyone else on the island, do their best to make our stay here most enjoyable.

The walk to town can include a stroll on the airstrip and past the school and the church for the approximately 60 full time residences.  The post office is located in Hallan Rolle’s bright green house and all outgoing and incoming mail is dependent on the weekly mailboat.   We also spotted Little Farmer’s Cay’s lone police car that still sported the Staniel Cay identification.  You see, Staniel Cay has recently gotten a newer, 4WD police car and Little Farmer’s evidently reaped the benefit of their gain.  One afternoon we had lunch at Brenda’s Kitchen, the snack bar adjacent to the little store.  We could choose either fried shrimp or hamburger that day.  Not too bad!  The little store was filled with canned goods but no fresh food at this time.  I am sure she will have it well stocked when we return for the Five F Festival (Little Farmer’s Cay First Friday in February Festival). 

GARTH AND KATHY  CHECK OUT THE POST OFFICE

THE FARMER'S CAY NEIGHBORHOOD SAYS
STANIEL CAY ON IT REAR BUMPER

BRENDA'S KITCHEN FOR LUNCH

KATHY TALKS TO THE LUNCH CROWD

On one of our town visits we watched Carzel and Denzel preparing the conch for sale for cracked conch or fritters.  After the conch meat is removed from the shell it is pounded and pounded to soften it.  For cracked conch it will be dipped into a beaten egg then dredged in flour and fried.  For fritters it will be cut up and mixed into a batter then dropped by the spoonful into fat for frying.  Yes, frying is kind of a theme here.

AFTER CARZEL HANDS IT OVER,
DENZEL POUNDS THE
DEVIL OUT OF THE CONCH

Another way to town will take us along the beach and much time has been spent in that back breaking, bent over beach combing position.  We have found beautiful Stiff pen shells, Zebra ark, Sunrise tellin, colorful little coquina clams, a Bleeding tooth, cowrie, a helmet cowrie and scads of harvested conch.  Along with the natural beauties of the sea we have also found various rubble treasures. 

CONCH ON THE BEACH

BLUE SPINY LOBSTER TAIL SHELL

A LITTLE TRASH WASHED UP IN THE FORM OF
A DEAD OUTBOARD ENGINE 

TREASURE OR TRASH?
DAN AND GARTH ARE HAVING A FIELD DAY
 SCROUNGING THE WASHED UP NETS

The mailboat arrived on Thursday instead of its usual Wednesday but the wind was just too fierce for it to dock here to offload its cargo and two vehicles.  It hovered just out from us while local boats ferried fish, lobster, conch, mail and other things to be shipped off the island then returned with precious supplies and mail to the residents.    On Saturday, with the wind slightly down, they returned to dock at FCYG and offload the nurse’s truck and the principal’s car.  Now, in order for them to accomplish their goal Quest had to loosen her lines and be moved back about 10 feet.  Just when we had her all nice and tight!  Now the vehicles could be driven of the dock after being set down by the on board crane.  Luckily, it all went smoothly but there sure was a lot of excitement going there for a while.

SMALL BOATS SCURRYING TO THE MAILBOAT ON THURSDAY
TO PICK UP SUPPLIES OR DEPOSIT THINGS TO BE DELIVERED TO NASSAU

MAILBOAT DOCKING AT FCYC WITH ALGONQUIN AND  QUEST
"CATCH THAT LINE, JULIAN!"

NOW WE HAVE TO GET THE CAR OFF AND ONTO THE DOCK

TRUCK FIRST! AND HERE WE GO.

NOW THE PRINCIPAL'S CAR IS OFF TOO

MAILBOAT WORKER

Sunday afternoon found Garth and Dan kicking back and watching football while Kathy and I did some walking, beach-combing and blogging on our last full day here on Farmer’s Cay.  We were lucky to catch sight of a ray cruising the bay in town.

ALL NICE AND COMFORTABLE FOR THE FOOTBALL GAME

AH YES, BUT WE SAW THE RAY!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013

1/1/2013 through 1/7/2013

COMPASS CAY, BIG MAJORS TO LITTLE FARMERS CAY

With the stormy weather gone the day was filled with brilliantly sunny skies, hampering the recovery for some of those young partiers from the night before.  The rest of us spent the first day of 2013 soaking up the rays, swimming, exploring neighboring islands in the tender and chatting with neighbors.

COMPASS CAY

I spent a bit of my day being entertained and educated by the charming 87 years young gentleman on the M/Y Mascotte.  His family hales from the top of the Chesapeake Bay and has had boats with the moniker of Mascotte since their 1885 sailing vessel of that name.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning about his youth years; much of it spent sailing the waters.  His stories about growing up and working hard in his chosen fields only go to prove my theory on lucky people.  Usually lucky people work their butts off to attain that luck.

MASCOTTE

January 2ed found us ready to move on from Compass Cay, us and about half of the unusually large crowd along with us.  There was a large sucking sound as Compass Cay returned to its normally peaceful self. 

I have to tell you about one of my new ‘favorite’ boat names.  Traveling with M/Y My Reward (we have encountered them many times over the last two years) is the Hatteras M/Y Seriously.   But the real catch is the dingy tagged with No, Seriously.  The radio conversations between the two are just too funny!  When you are hailing another boat you call their name out three times then identify your boat.  “Seriously, Seriously, Seriously,……..No Seriously.”    We really have heard this called out on the radio, several times, seriously.

After traveling 10 NM in the glass smooth waters of the bank we dropped anchor at Big Majors, our home for the next few days.  Dan dove on both anchors (Quest and Algonquin) making sure they were snug in the sand then we checked out our neighbors.  Both Pirate and No Agenda are already hooked up here so the winter crowd is arriving.  The massive Ohana and Terrible definitely caught our eye anchored way out in the deep waters.  While in Staniel Cay we discovered that Michael Jordan was on Terrible and had made an appearance at the yacht club the day before. 

TERRIBLE

OHANA
(MEANS FAMILY IN HAWAIIAN)

We are doing our best to adjust to the slow, laid back cruising life.  With no strict schedule to follow you can wake up when the mood strikes you, however, the rising morning sun generally beckons to you through the open windows that stand welcoming the night’s cooling breezes.  Shall we snorkel?  Take the tender for a ‘look-see’ around the cays peppered all over these waters?  Perhaps a little swim at the beach?  Oh wait; let’s go visit the swimming pigs!!  These feral porkers live by scouring the shrubs for roots but will happily swim out to the numerous tenders that bring tourist and tasty bits of food.  They most certainly don’t appear to be going hungry and just the sound of an approaching dingy engine will bring them scurrying onto the white sandy beach and into the surf in search of a hand out.

SWIMMING SWINE

Big Majors is the perfect spot to watch the sun settle down for the night.  Before 5:30 everyone is armed with cocktails and eyes glued to the western sky in anticipation of the imminent show.  We love the evenings when there are a few clouds on the horizon to fracture the sun’s intense rays as the ball of fire slips out of our view. 

THE CON TRAILS IN THE UPPER SKY, THE SETTING SUN AND THE
 PASSING BOAT JUST CAME TOGETHER AT THE PERFECT TIME

Along with the spectacular sunset shows we have also been lucky enough to be audience to two nights of unexpected fireworks.  Evidently, some of the “Big Boys” bring fire shows from the mainland and treat their charter guests to this awesome event.  Luck us reap the benefit of their generous display.

Un-inhabited Big Majors (except, of course for the pigs) is just short dingy ride south to Staniel Cay where you can find the yacht club, fuel, three general stores, Ida’s kitchen for fresh baked bread,  a restaurant or two, cottages for rent and the Staniel Cay Airport.  Watermaker Air flies direct from Executive Airport in Fort Lauderdale.   Flamingo Air, charter planes as well as private crafts fly in and out of these picturesque cays several times a day.  Yes, Paradise is accessible.

WELCOME TO STANIEL CAY

THE STANIEL CAY YACHT CLUB COTTAGES

STANIEL CAY YACHT CLUB

Monday morning found us preparing to move on.  Dan and I made a quick trip to Staniel Cay to pick up previously ordered bread, a couple of things from the store and ice from the dock.  By noon we were pulling up anchor and heading for Little Farmers Cay.

After passing Staniel Cay, Harvey Cay and Black Point at the north end of Great Guana Cay we had soon made the 19 NM trek to Little Farmers Cay Yacht Club where we tied to their bitsy dock and made preparations for the blow that was already making its intentions obvious.  The quiet isolation here is welcomed after the hustle-an-bustle of the holidays at Compass, Big Majors and Staniel Cays.

THE LITTLE FARMER'S CAY AIR STRIP
BOOM, RIGHT AT THE WATER'S EDGE

 LITTLE FARMER'S CAY YACHT CLUB DOCK

ROOSEVELT NIXON WELCOMES TO HIS YACHT CLUB DOCK

GARTH SLOWLY APPROACHES THE DOCK