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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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Exumas - The Exhumas - Part 1, February 24 - March 1, 1999 Having finally sent off our self-steering system to California, and making like tourists in Nassau for a while, we set sail, going under the two bridges past Potter's Cay towards Porgee Rock and across Yellow Bank Shoals. It was good weather and we could see the coral heads in plenty of time to alter course to avoid them. Getting into Ship's Channel Cay anchorage was a bit of a challenge, as it was in a narrow channel between two long cays. Identifying the southern point of the outer cay was difficult enough, but then we had to thread our way just off it by about 35 feet and avoid coral heads on both sides of the entrance, then skirt up the east side of the narrow channel around two boats anchored near the entrance, making our approach that much more difficult. After getting around the first boat at anchor, I decided to anchor before reaching the second boat. We had restricted space in which to do a two anchor Bahamian mooring, but we managed. Then the second boat hailed us and said it would have been O.K. to use the mooring buoy that was in the middle of the channel, but we did not feel like pulling up two anchors to secure to an unknown mooring buoy. We were here in the Exumas again. ( Highborne Cay and the Allan's Cays we visited the week previous are also in the Exumas chain.) As it turned out the buoy would have been a safe mooring, as it is used as a hurricane hole mooring for an absentee owner. In addition, the narrow channel we were in had some strange winds and currents, and the first night we were blown over to the edge of the channel and sat on the bottom for about six hours at low tide that night. We just tightened up on the windward chain and were fine in the same spot for the next two nights. It felt strange going to sleep at a ten degree heel most of the first night, though. This was a lovely spot. There was a dock on the "private island", but "Slow and Easy", an American sloop, told us there was no problem in our going ashore, as the owner has not been down for over two years and there was no home or privacy to invade. The dock was also used by a couple of Bahamian fishermen. A cistern was located on the hill above the dock for "fresh" water. The people on "Slow and Easy" drank it, but we just used it to fill our sun shower At the north end of the channel there was another cay and openings into both the sound side and the bank side These openings were shallow and coral heads dominated the area. It proved an interesting drift snorkelling experience. Judy and I took Sprite up to the entrance above the coral heads, and with mask and snorkel, staying connected to Sprite by its painter, we drifted with the current across the coral heads. This lasted for about a half hour until we were into the anchorage, and we then went ashore for a picnic on the beach opposite Veleda. Judy spent a fair amount of time feeling sorry for the small conchs that were stranded at low tide on the beach. They were too small to take, so she dutifully carried them into deeper water. I hope they appreciated her gesture! On the cay at the north end is a patio/bar belonging to Powerboat Adventures, a Nassau outfit that brings tourists from the cruise ships down to  Norman's Cay, Allan's Cays, and here to their island bar, in big powerful cigarette-type power boats with four 200 hp outboard motors. To impress their
clientele, we heard they put chum into the water to attract local sharks. Judy and I went over when they had brought a group to the cay. We were interested in the stingrays which were lazily swimming in the shallows, right around our feet and between our legs. They even let us stroke them as they swam around us. They must be accustomed to people in that area. Later that evening, I went over after the boats had left and walked around the area and up to an observation point at the top of a hill. It was a gorgeous view along the channel with our boats at anchor and the soft light sandy greens of the shallow waters mingling with the darker coral heads and merging into the darker emerald greens of the deeper (20 feet) water on the bank side and the royal blues of the deep ocean waters on the sound side. When I wandered down to the deserted bar area, I saw a couple of small (5 to 8 foot) nurse sharks lazily swimming around. On my way back to Veleda a couple of sting rays were still to be seen.This is a very well sheltered anchorage. A couple of the other boaters we met said this was their favourite and that they would spend one or two months at a time here. That is quite understandable. All the cays in the area would permit a vast array of snorkelling, diving, fishing, and dinghy exploring to be done. We only spent three days in the area, and enjoyed them immensely. We had several of the other boaters over to Veleda one evening for sunset happy hour. One of the boats, from Quebec, left in the late afternoon, but just dropped anchor outside the entrance channel. He did so as he wanted to leave early next morning, but because of the time of low tide would not have had sufficient depth to get out the opening. It was calm weather and there was no difficulty in anchoring off the opening for the night.  We left Ship's Channel anchorage on the 27th to go down to the fabled Norman's Cay of the wrecked drug smuggling C-47 fame. We anchored about 200 yards from this wreck, and snorkelled around it at low tide. It was possible to swim inside the body of the aircraft and up into the pilot's cabin. Beneath the port wing a resident barracuda kept vigil. There were all kinds of colourful tropical fish enjoying the shade and the coral which was growing on the derelict craft, including some long-spined sea urchins nesting in the engine compartments.This is a very popular anchorage, with over 30 boats present when we were there. We dropped over to a British boat, "New Dawn", from Falmouth, our intended port of entry to the U.K. Peter and Angela were very helpful in giving us additional information about Falmouth and the south coast of England. There is still an operational airstrip at Norman's Cay, a bar, MacDuff's, and a couple of rental accommodations beside the airstrip. That weekend there was a fly-in at which we met a Canadian couple from Nova Scotia. We took them out in our dinghy to snorkel on the wrecked aircraft and back to Veleda for a drink before giving them a ride back ashore. The next day when they took off, they overflew us and saluted us with a waggle of their wings. A Haitian supply boat was badly grounded on the shallows on the bank side of Norman's Cay. Apparently the crew could not afford to refloat it and just wanted to get back home. So Ray Darville, the park ranger at The Exumas Land Sea Park, took them off, put them up for a night, got them a flight out, and claimed salvage rights to the boat and contents. He asked the crew what they wanted to take with them before they left, and claimed everything else. He then brought much of the supplies to Norman's Cay dock and had a salvage sale. We went down to see what was available and bought a few things. The money raised was going to the Land Sea Park. There was an 8 person life raft that would have been sold economically, but it was too big for Veleda. We met Ray a few days later in the park, and found out he was from a white Bahamian family which had a history of "wrecking". I add here that "wrecking" in the Bahamas was an honourable form of rescue and salvage of wrecked ships, not the horrible concept that some have that wreckers lured ships to their destruction by removing or placing false lights to cause a ship to run aground. This particular boat could not be refloated even at high tide, it was so firmly grounded. A few days later, after everything possible had been removed from it, the boat was set aflame and a general announcement was made on the VHF accordingly so that it would not be reported as an emergency by other boaters. As we needed to make a phone call to California to confirm the arrival and repair status of our self-steering system, we sailed up to Highborne Cay Marina. Murphy's Law, when we phoned the company they hadn't looked at it yet, could we call back later? We stressed that to do so would be difficult, as there were no other telephones in this part of the Exumas, and the technician promised he would be able to tell us the situation if we called at the same time tomorrow. After being taken to the local grocery store and returned by the very co-operative owner, we went up the southwest shore to anchor for the night, with the intention of dinghying back to the marina the next day to phone again. We anchored about 75 yards off another Canadian boat, "Mallard". We went over and were invited aboard by Guy and Anita Comeau from Ottawa. Guy is also a retired Canadian Navy officer, and we had a good conversation about our sailing plans. As we were heading over to their boat, a large megayacht, about 120 feet long, motored up between our two anchored boats. I couldn't believe it, but the idiot actually anchored between our two sailboats, even though the whole shoreline was available. They launched a 150 hp rib-boat and took five or six people over to the shore with lawn chairs, sun umbrellas, and picnic cooler, for an afternoon on the beach. This tender had to make two or three trips, creating a heavy wake on each journey. We hoped the yacht would leave at the end of the afternoon, but no, it actually stayed in that dangerous proximity to us all night. At about 0330 Mallard had to sound their air horn, as this yacht was swinging to within 10 feet of Mallard's bow. Of course it also had music blasting most of the night as well as all its lights on and a generator running all night. A fantastically inconsiderate vessel. It left after their breakfast about 0830 the next day. I could not believe a professional skipper could be so inconsiderate and exhibit such poor seamanship in the anchoring of his vessel. Had we been in Canada or the U.S., I would have called the Coast Guard, stating that he was endangering our vessels. The next morning, the wind had increased to 20 to 25 plus knots, and swung around, so that we were now on a lee shore with 6 foot swells, too much for our dinghy to handle going into the marina for a phone call. So we weighed anchor and took Veleda in to the marina, and after making the phone call stayed there for the night. There was a front passing through, and we were glad we made the decision to stay in rather than go back out to anchor. While there, we met "Tranquility", the lead boat in our guided sail from Spanish Wells across the Devil's Backbone to Dunmore Town. The news on the self steering was good, in that it was a gear that was defective and could economically be repaired, for less than the shipping costs one way. It would be returned to BASRA in Nassau within ten days. We did not have to pay any customs duty shipping it out or having it returned, by the use of that terminology of "Used parts for repair, Value $1.00". It would be waiting for us when we got back to Nassau at the end of March. So we were now free to head down the Exumas, our favourite part of the Bahamas so far. Our furthest destination is Georgetown, but there are several beautiful cays to visit enroute. Next Log |
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Links:
Bahamas Net
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