Island Hopping Part 2

After Black Point on Great Guana we continued north to Bitter Guana Cay.  (I really need to do a little research on the naming of the Cays.  I want to learn about the numerous references to “guana.”  Why is some guana great and some bitter?)

Bitter Guana is an uninhabited cay that is between Great Guana and Staniel.  We found a quiet little bay to put down the anchor.  Although there were a couple of other boats there when we arrived, we were happy to see them move on and we had the bay and island to ourselves for the night.  Although the Cay is very pretty, it is also loaded with iguanas so Mary did not want to walk around. 

That night was a full moon night.  The water was still and clear so we could see the shadow of the boat clearly outlined on the seabed 15 feet below us.  It was like the boat was floating in air.  I wish I could show you a photo of this, but you just can’t capture the vision.

Next stop was the Staniel Cay area.  We had stopped here on the way down and it felt good to return to a familiar place.  On this visit we were expecting some bad weather so we found a very nice protected anchorage just north of Fowl Cay.  Our friend David from Morningstar was around with his friend Oliver.  Once again we enjoyed an excellent dinner and company on Morningstar.   David, Oliver, and I are all pilots so there were lots of fun stories to swap.  Mary has always said that every Podunk airport I dragged her to would invariably have the same few guys (wearing seed caps) hanging around and talking about the same few subjects (airplanes.)  I was happy that Dave, Oliver, and I could bring back happy memories for her.

Mary and I did some dinghy recon in an area just to the north called Pipe Creek .  This area is formed by Compass Cay on the south, Sampson Cay on the north, and lots of little cays providing protection to the west and the east.  There was one island called Over Yonder Cay that we wanted to explore.  It is a super expensive cay that is available for rental, but only if you rent the whole island.  They also have a 115’ mega yacht sailing vessel in their harbor for charter.  We puttered into the harbor in our little dinghy to have a look around.  Although no one ran us off, we were not invited ashore either.  It would be interesting to know what guests they host there

After a couple of days in the Staniel area we again pointed north.  Next stop was Cambridge Cay.  This area is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  We had visited islands in the northern part of the park on our way south, but the Cambridge area was new to us.  Since the weather was kind of unsettled and the area was well protected, we spent several days here exploring.    The high points for us here were several great snorkel trips.  There is a cave on Rocky Dundas that you swim into at low tide with an open roof.  Once inside the light streams in from the roof and it is very beautiful, lots of cave formations to see.  Two other outstanding snorkel areas are the Coral Garden and the Aquarium.   The Coral Garden is a wall of coral structures built up against the south side of Cambridge Cay.   Here you can swim along the side of the coral and look at the coral and sea life.  The Aquarium is a small reef by a small island with thousands of fish.  Since people feed them here they like to get right up in your face and demand some dinner.

We  did a circumnavigation of Johnny Depp’s island, but I don’t think he was home.

After 5 days in Cambridge (and some pretty heavy weather) we pulled up the anchor and began our trek back to Georgetown in preparation for our trip to the States.  Two nice days of sailing with an overnight at Farmers Cay brought us back to our stomping grounds at Elizabeth Harbor where we took care of some chores.

Part of the charm of the Bahamas is that things just don’t quite go as smoothly as they might in the States.  In fact, it can be pretty easy to spend an entire day to accomplish a task worthy of 10 minutes in the States.

One day’s task involved picking up a part that we ordered to fix something on the boat.  Ordering the part and getting it to George Town is pretty straight forward.  Getting it from the airport to the boat…not so much.

Awake at dawn and take dinghy from boat across harbor to town.

Hitch hike from town to the airport to get the box.

Learn that your entry paperwork has been transferred to the customs broker back in town.

Hitch hike back to town to pick up paperwork at customs broker

Watch broker prepare 6 copies of all documents and provide to me for $30

Take paperwork to downtown Customs office.  Discuss for 2 hours whether or not items should be subject to 50% duty or are duty free as a boat part.

Pay $10 stamp fee (if duty negotiations are successful), obtain stamped paperwork, hitch hike back to airport

Present paperwork to airport customs, help agent sort through a room full of boxes to find yours, open the box for inspection, and hitch back to town

Lastly, dinghy ride back to Echo and it is time for sunset cocktails.

And then it turned out the vendor put the wrong part in the box.

So you have to have the right attitude.  Yes, in one sense I accomplished nothing with my day.  On the other hand, I met a bunch of Bahamians in my 4 hitch hiking excursions,  learned lots of lessons, and experienced the island and culture in ways that most visitors never do.  Pretty successful day in my opinion.

There has been an ongoing crisis regarding trash disposal in Georgetown.   The merchants and the town had contracted with a waste disposal firm to provide a dumpster for cruiser’s to use for trash.   The waste disposal guy agreed that for a certain weekly fee he would provide a dumpster and dispose of the cruiser’s trash as needed.  Seemed like a good idea to him thinking “how much trash could a few boats generate?  All went well for a couple weeks until island contractors discovered that there was “free” dumpster down on the dock where they could get rid of their construction debris.  Suddenly the dumpster came to be full daily where previously once per week was the rule.  Needless to say, the dumpster guy was not too happy about having to empty 5 dumpsters for the price of one.  Adding insult to injury, the contractor trash he was dumping for free was the same trash he used to get paid to dump before the contractors discovered the “free” dumpster.   Consequently, the dumpster guy removed the dumpster for several days while negotiations ensued.

A few boats may not generate much trash, but after a period of time there is definitely pent up demand.  We listened to the news each day hoping for progress in negotiations.  After various fits, starts and false alarms, finally the day arrived when the dumpster was returned.  We watched from the safety of a nearby bar.

For our trip back to the States we had arranged to have Echo moored in what is called a “hurricane hole” on Stocking Island.  Hurricane holes are very well protected areas where, presumably, it would be pretty safe to ride out a big storm.  Normally, there is small lake like bit of water that you can access from the sea via a narrow inlet.  We chose to keep Echo tied up at Kavalli House in just such a place.  Although the water is deep in the hole, it was quite shallow in two places in the inlet.  A technique we use when we are worried about water depth is to wait until the tide is at least ½ way between low and high, and rising.  That way if you do ground, the rising tide should float you off eventually.    Sometimes plans work.  We ran aground twice on the way in, bided our time while the water rose, and continued on the high tide.  We got Echo all tied down, closed up, and caught our plane back to Detroit.

As I write this we have finished up our week in Detroit and are flying towards Flagstaff AZ.  It was a whirlwind of activity for our short time in town, but we did manage to get the business done that we needed too, and, hang out with friends and family.  Always great to see everyone.

Next stop….Grand Canyon.  We meet the kids on Sunday to get ready to launch the boats first thing Monday March 18.  From there, we are out of contact and off the  grid until we emerge on the opposite end in 3 weeks.

See you when we get back online!