Turks and Caicos to George Town, Bahamas

More Humpback Whales and lonely anchorages.

23:30.4380N 75:45.620W

7th March 2015

6734 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            We’ve been rather busy of late island hopping up the southern Bahaman chain of islands and a very remote area of the world they are. After trying to stock up, and failing to find anything to buy in Grand Turk, we borrowed a couple of pints of milk from Right Turn and headed out at 9:30 on the 2^nd March for an overnight passage to Muyaguana Island which was to be our first island in the Bahamas. The highlight of the trip was the sight of a humpback whale breaching as we passed the Southern corner of Grand Caicos. I sighted it first about a mile away on our port side which instigated the usual rush for cameras and phones and then nothing for ten minutes or so. Just as we were about to give up he shot out of the water again straight up into the air until he was almost vertical leaving just his tail still in the water, he then crashed down with a huge splash. That was it, all about a mile away but it is a sight that I will never forget, absolutely stunning and a real privilege to witness.

Not a great picture but the splash is the whale going back in

            The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, the seas were quite lumpy and the winds in the high sixes so it was a bit of a rock and roll affair. We were clocking 8 knots over the ground at times which is all very well but our next stop off was an anchorage behind a reef on a not very well charted island and so we needed daylight to get in. I put a reef in the mainsail to slow her down and then another, away went the staysail and eventually half of the foresail had to be rolled in before we got the average speed down to below 6 knots and put ourselves back on target to arrive just after dawn. During the night we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn into Northern waters again and so we are officially no longer in the Tropics, the woolly jumpers have been put on standby for instant use, but perhaps not just yet. For some reason neither Norma nor myself could sleep and so it was a very tired couple that eventually arrived at the break in the reef at the southern side of Mayaguana Island just as the sun came up. For a change we were the first to arrive, as we had passed Right Turn hove too waiting for the sun to come up about an earlier. As it turned out the entrance was pretty easy and while I stared at the chart plotter like a myopic owl Norma kept a sharp lookout from the bows for any coral heads. By 7am we were safely into the bay behind the reef and had dropped the anchor in 3 meters of water having clocked up just over 100 miles overnight. Right Turn followed us in and dropped their hook 20 meters or so away from ours and so after a quick good morning shouted across it was straight to bed for a catch up.

Mayaguana Island and a peaceful anchorage, it was not to last.

            At 10 am I was awakened by a call on the VHF from Right Turn and immediately noticed that things had changed. The wind had shifted into the South slightly which allowed the swell to work its’ way into our peaceful little anchorage, we were now bouncing up and down as if we were on a fairground ride and it was time to make a decision. After a quick conflab with Mike and Kate we decided to up anchor and move over to Plana Cays some 35 miles to the North West and see what the conditions were like there. With a last look around at the miles of empty golden beaches and shoreline devoid of any sign of human contact we pulled in the anchor, pointed our nose at the gap in the reef and set of again.

Top end of a force 6 and Spectra is loving it romping along at 7 Knots

Once more the journey over was pretty uneventful and so with some relief we finally dropped our anchor in the lee of Plana Cays at 1700 and were in bed fast asleep before 1900.

Our new stop over in Plana Cays

            Once more we were awakened by the boat tugging on her anchor chain as the dreaded swell had found its’ way into this bay as well, making any chance of launching the dinghy if not impossible, then certainly improbable. At some point over the previous 24 hours I had managed to aggravate an old shoulder injury which left me largely one armed and so another night passage did not sit very well with me. We had another conflab with Mike and Kate on the VHF and decided to move over to Crooked island which was again some 45 miles to the North West but at least only a day sail away.      By 1600 that afternoon we were passing the huge lighthouse on Bird Island which marked our turning point for the run in to anchor at Crooked Island. Considering that the largest navigation aid we have seen in months has been the equivalent of a lamp on a stick the sight of a light house the size of Eddystone Rock, sitting on and nearly overlapping tiny little bird island was a bit incongruous to say the least.

Light house on bird island from Crooked Island anchorage

Normas picture of the same

We assumed our normal position and followed Right Turn into a lovely anchorage along a golden tree fringed beach with water so crystal clear that it allowed us to clearly see the anchor hit the sand and dig in 7 meters below. As we put the boat to bed I noticed that I had forgotten to wind the fishing gear in as we came in and so now we had a mess of line and lure caught around our propeller and rudder, oh well another problem for another day.

Putting the boat to bed at Crooked Island, note Norma in a fleece as we are out of the Tropics now.

Norma had definitely been the skipper on this trip as I had been so dosed up with pain killers for my shoulder that I spent most of my time day dreaming in my happy place.  The fishing line had been just one in a catalogue of simple errors that I had made during the day which was very frustrating, or would have been had I not been in my happy place (see above). Now onto important matters, Norma was running out of cigarettes, this could be a calamity akin to hitting an iceberg and so drastic measures needed to be taken. With another golden sanded beach in front of us and not a shop in sight, things did not look good for domestic harmony aboard Spectra, Right Turn came to the rescue again when Kate said they had two packets that had been left aboard about 8 years before. No sooner had this information been shared than Norma had organised a drugged up Paul, launched the dinghy and bad shoulder or not got me to row across to Right Turn, lifting the outboard down from the rail was just not going to happen. After a very pleasant evening aboard Right Turn we, or should I say I, rowed back to Spectra in a very happy state of mind, I had added several beers to top up my own personal narcotic nirvana and Norma once again had nicotine flowing through her veins so all was well with the world. As an aside it was a beautiful moonlit night and almost as bright as daytime which made the row back down wind to Spectra an easy affair, the moon light was a good thing as the huge lighthouse on Bird Island wasn’t working, oh well it did look very pretty backlit by all of those stars. 

            We had decided the previous night to spend most of the following day at anchor in Crooked Island and then in the late afternoon head out for an overnight passage to George Town on Great Exuma which is the nearest you will get to a town in these here parts. I awoke and got on with the usual boat business, turn off the anchor lights, make a cup of tea, turn on the generator (which has been behaving itself of late), go on deck to make sure the dinghy is still there etc, etc, etc. Halfway through this process I realised that my shoulder had stopped hurting, happy days, it must have clicked back in during the night so although still a bit tender, I could at least use my right arm again without drug assistance which is a definite bonus when you are on a sailing boat. With this in mind I decided to make the most of the day and so I sat down at the table on the aft deck, had another cup of tea while watching the day come to life. My first task of the day was to get the snorkelling gear out and cut away all of that fishing line from the rudder and prop. As I was working away under the boat cutting lumps of fishing line away from the propeller shaft I noticed two things, One, the anti fouling that Peter and myself had so laboriously painted on in Tennerife must have had fertiliser in it as the bottom of the boat is covered in muck and Two, a pair of large Rays were swimming about below me. At first sight the rays made me jump and bang my head on the bottom of the boat but they were fascinating to watch. Each one had two largish fish in attendance and they were completely unconcerned by me floating 7 meters above them. I called Norma and encouraged her to come in and see the rays, typically, by the time Norma had got herself into the water there was not a fish in sight and so she had missed out. On the bright side though, she did get to see the large coral fronds growing out of the sand over on our port side and while we were looking at them I spotted our, or should I say Steve’s, fishing lure laying on the bottom. I took a big breath and dived down for it, now I have mentioned that the water was 7 meters deep, or 20ft in old money, which is quite a way down by anyone who doesn’t dive for pearls for a livings standards. Going down was easy apart from a bit of pain in my ears, you just point your nose at the bottom and keep on swimming. When I reached out and grabbed the lure I turned up and realised, One, I was quite short of breath, and Two, the surface was an awful long way away. I kicked off and swam for the top which just couldn’t arrive quickly enough for my liking, as I neared the surface I felt a shove on my head which was Norma, who had noticed that I was about to come up under the boat, and had luckily reached down to push me into clear water. Anyway all’s well that ends well, Steve’s lure is safely back on the end of the fishing line and I now know the limits of my snorkelling depth.

            That afternoon we pulled in the anchor yet again and pointed our nose North for George Town. We arrived at the entrance to the reef at 9 am the following morning which allowed us plenty of light to find our way through and up to the anchorage.

Stocking Island opposite George Town

As a special greeting to Great Exuma as our anchor bit into the sand a party of three bottle nose, (flipper type), dolphins came leisurely by passing right between Right Turn and ourselves which is always great to see.

Flipper x 3 come over to investigate the new arrivals

Passing the stern on Right Turn

Having checked us out they slowly meander of on their way..

We arrived on Friday morning and the intention is to stay until Monday at least so I will hopefully get this blog out and update on the pictures that I haven’t been able to send.

            That’s it for now I noticed in the Temple News that our enquiry for anyone interested in crewing on the trip back over in June has been pushed out by Sue Foster, so don’t be shy and drop us a line, it’s a great adventure, I am not grumpy all of the time, and the cooking ain’t half bad either.   

PS: we are still looking for some extra crew to come back across the Atlantic at the beginning of June. Three legs of about 2 weeks each, Norfolk Virginia to Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores, Azores to Cork….anyone interested in all or part? Please drop us a line.

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