Dear Friends and Family,
This last week was
tossed with plenty of adventure; throw a few twists and turns in for taste, and
we have ourselves a full week to blog about.
The Jumentos – what
we’ve been able to see so far – have been absolutely, without a doubt, the most
beautiful of the Bahamas. I’ll write more on the Jumentos, as we are able to
explore and fully take in the beauty. Without any issues, we made it through
the cut at Hog Cay (near Georgetown) at 7am the following morning. We then
sailed twenty five nautical miles to Water Cay where we shared the anchorage
with a commercial fishing vessel for a couple of nights. Three of the
fisherman, who were very friendly, came over to say hello. Jimi was interested
in talking to them, but the high winds
and Bahamian dialect made it difficult for communicating. Knowing that we would
be leaving soon, we opted not to remove the dinghy from the deck. It’s such a struggle in high winds. One would
think it would get easier with time and practice. Jimi and I only feel it’s
getting harder. With thr problem at hand he’s trying to work out a better
system. Jimi spotted quite a lot of
conch and sea life just by diving the anchor. This sparked our taste for
adventure and dinner.
After a couple of days,
we made our way to the beautiful Flamingo Cay – unfortunately no flamingos are living
there. We launched the dinghy right away, ready for morning exploration. Jim
ventured out in the morning and came back with four conch. With our instruction
book by our side and gift of a rock hammer (from our friend, Randy) in hand, we
successfully harvested our first conchs – even if number one was a bit mangled.
Our day was full to the fullest. We were real excited to explore a cave. Not
‘just a cave’, but a cave we could motor the dinghy in from the ocean. And yes,
it was as exciting as it sounds. Full of rocks and conch shells we had to anchor
the dinghy in the middle of the cave and wade to the small landing where we
took pictures. We climbed through a hole out the back side of the cave to
explore, but didn’t find anything that really interested us. Like our previous
cave adventure, this grotto had an opening in the top to let light in along
with a few stalactites.
We snorkeled the reefs. I did not take my camera, but
thought we would go again and I could then capture some photos. The reef was
the most abundant we’ve seen yet. We watched a nursery of twenty plus snapper
fish closely guarded by two adults, who had their fins full. We followed
several fish reminding us of Dory (remember Dory in Finding Nemo). We believe
we have correctly identified them as Queen Trigger fish. They are cool because
their fins are on the top and bottom of their bodies instead of each side. Lots
of colorful corals. The entire area was so full of life, all swimming around
us. Next we ventured out to hike the island in search of ruins, a well, and a
cave. We found the other side of the island by accident and stumbled upon a
small airplane wreck. We’ve seen a lot of ship wrecks, but up to this point, no
airplanes – interesting.
The brush and terrain was rough, but we finally found
the ruins, where we had a nice long conversation with a large curly tailed
lizard. He was very interested in us and enjoyed our encounter as much as we
enjoyed his. We walked off to find the cave and well, but ended up turning
around back to the ruins. Seeing the large curly tailed lizard again, we met
what appeared to be his whee little toddler, possibly a teen and wife.
The toddler and Jimi were within inches of
each other during their entire conversation. It was pretty cool, but soon we
had to head back to Sanibel to recover from the day’s events. We fried up our
freshly caught conch, plantains, and cooked rice for dinner. It was good, but
the cold conch leftovers the next day were better.
Beings we were in such a
remote area we’ve been unable to get
weather from any of our sources. However, luckily early Monday morning Jimi received
a fragment of information on Tropical Storm Chantel. As we understood it, she
was headed directly towards us and we had about three days to find safe cover.
Our choices were to go back to Georgetown or chance going south to Duncan Town.
We opted for Duncan Town. We spent the next two days making our way anchoring
each night.
We arrived at Ragged
Island just outside of Duncan Town on the 9th, hopped in the dinghy
and headed for town. The depth of the channel access to town was questionable.
We took our own equipment (a hand held GPS and an old fashioned string with a
weight) to check the depth of various locations marking the latitude and
longitude coordinates, the time of day and the depth. Then Jimi could compare
the charted depths of the same times and areas and then factor in high tide.
Very clever, if you ask me, but I’m a bit bias. We talked to some fishermen in
the channel and again on shore about bringing Sanibel up the channel and they
felt it would be no problem during high tide. Since we were in town, we decided
to walk around a bit. We came across a heard of wild goats who occupy the
island. Within minutes we were herded to a covered area where a barbeque was in
progress. The locals were celebrating their Independence day, which is
officially on the 10th of July.
We were given our choice of pop or
juice, a hot dog and a hamburger and there was no refusing anything. It’s
really a good thing we hadn’t eaten yet. We talked to a few people – everyone
was so nice. Talking with a well dressed and mannered man for a while, he finally
asked our names. Jimi answered and then just as the gentlemen gave us his name,
Percy…….you would have thought I met a rock star. “Percy, oh my gosh…it’s
Percy” I couldn’t believe it and was ecstatic. Who is Percy, you ask? Percy is a man who lives on the island, but
the reason I was so excited is because several fellow cruisers I’ve talked to
on cruising forums told me to tell Percy hello when we arrived here. In
addition, our guide book from the 90’s mentions Percy in detail. In my eyes, I
had just met a star. Percy became our ‘go to’ guy.
The following morning
about 7am we decided to head down the channel to take cover in the anchorage.
On the way, we lost the channel and got stuck….not once….not twice….but three
times. I’m so proud of Jimi. He handled it well – no excessive cursing. Forward
and reverse…turn the wheel this way and that….forward and reverse….turn the
wheel this way and that……forward and reverse until we were free. Rest of the
trip I stood on the bow to make sure we stayed in the channel and directed
Jimi. Once we made it and anchored we noticed an audience all around the town
watching. Duncan Town sits up on a hill and looks out over the entire area all
the way out to Salt Cay where we were originally anchored. Jimi went to shore
to check with the guys about our anchor spot. He met and talked to Kennedy who
told us they were all watching and ready to jump in their fishing boats to free
us from the sand. That is so cool – really people this caring and amazing
exist? Their generosity is genuine and comes naturally to them; they don’t know
anything different. The rest of our time in Duncan Town people commented and
talked to us about the situation – one man said “I was watching you and I knew you could do it” Another
man said “We will keep an eye on you during the storm.” How sweet. I should
mention that at one time Duncan Town populated 500 hundred people. The town
mined salt from the sea and sold it to Cuba and Haiti. For political reasons
that doesn’t happen anymore and the population is now about 50.
That afternoon we walked
the town taking pictures until once again we were herded to the covered area
for a pile of food: chicken, rice, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, cake, and
cheesecake.
We had to take a doggie bag; there was so much food. That evening
we again joined the festivities with dancing, fireworks and ice cream. What an
honor to be brought in to celebrate the Bahamas’ 40th Independence
Day anniversary. We are blessed.
We befriended a Cuban
man who fled Cuba nearly twenty years ago and has since made his life here as a
Bahamian with a nice home, wife and children. He invited us into his home where
he showed us a beautiful piece of art his daughter painted.
Louie’s story of
life in Cuba and the terms of how he got to the Bahamas would do any book
justice. He has quite an amazing story.
In the harbor, during
low tide Sanibel no longer floats. Her keel rests gently on the soft mud – a
first for us and a bit eerie for the Captain. Well Tropical Storm Chantel broke
up south of Haiti and Cuba, but there were still some remnants in the area of
high winds and precipitation, which we felt the full force of Thursday night.
Our anchor held strong during the thirty mile per hour winds, but as the wind surprised
us and came out of the west hitting us directly on our starboard side and our
keel being planted in the mud we fell sideways (really just a lean) and felt each gust doing so. Some lightning and thunder
made their presence known and we sat still inside hoping we wouldn’t get any
closer to the mangroves already only a few feet away. Jimi had to reposition
the dinghy a few times to keep it from getting caught between us and the
mangroves. All in all it wasn’t a bad evening. Sanibel was grateful for a fresh
water bath.
Once again, blown away
by generosity. When we went to shore on Thursday we ran in to Percy who scooped
us up in his little Toyota Tacoma diesel pick up truck and gave us a first-hand
tour on the entire island from one end where a new dock for the mail boat is
under construction to the other end of the island where he lives. His homestead
is an amazing place in itself. He salvaged a DC3 airplane wreck and built his
restaurant underneath it.
The restaurant is closed for the time being, as he
and his family have been living in it since their home on the beach burned to
the ground. He is rebuilding his house, which should be complete in a few
months. He gifted us with a mango and a bag of salt from his salt mines. On his
beach sits a Haitian boat wreck that once carried 115 Haitians from Haiti to
the Bahamas.
Unfortunately those immigrates were returned back to Haiti by the Bahamian
Government, but the wreck remains and Percy is planning eventually to make a
bar out of it. After our tour we stopped by Louie’s house to invite him and his
wife over to Sanibel. Finally we made our way to the grocery store to order
some bread and purchase a few other supplies.
Since we missed most of
the Jumentos, we’ve decided to head back North to explore some of the areas we
blew past. Then we plan on coming back to this area where we will anchor on
Wilson Point, which is where Percy lives. His property has a lot photo
opportunities and we would like to visit with Percy Wilson more.
Tomorrow we will brave
the channel at high tide again to make our destination of Hog Cay just to the
north.
Love everyone,
Lorie & Jimi
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