Back To The Wild Side

Light winds made for a quick trip back to the shores of Great Abaco Island today. We went south further than the last time and ended up in the spot where a sailboat was washed up on the rocks a few years ago. We anchored but didn't see any trace of  the boat.

That was until we launched the kayaks and headed into the shallows. This is all that is left of the hull...

Further away was the remainder of the deckhouse.

It still had its winches and a sandpiper living on it (I think it's a plover).

We continued on and were really surprised to see an osprey up in the Casuarina trees. It is a pretty rare sighting in Abaco.

We thought this was the remains of a dock to nowhere...

Until we looked really hard and found an abandoned house all overgrown with foliage.

The tiny rock out islands gave us some lee from a bit of a northeast breeze and the ocean swell, and I found a bunch of old conch shells high and dry.

This queen conch had the biggest 'bell' I have ever seen. That is a good sign because the younger conch called 'rollers' shouldn't be taken until they are mature and grow that bell.

Neither one of us was sure what this structure once was on the island. Perhaps it was part of a range marker leading into North Bar Channel from the ocean.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but when we got back to Walkabout, it was starting to jump around in the building wind.

 The hitchhiker that we discovered when we launched the kayaks was hanging on for dear life.

We raised anchor and headed across the Sea of Abaco, skirting the northern shore of Tilloo sandbank, and entered Tilloo Pond where it was flat calm with lots of turtles swimming around.

Serenity now...

Dave cleaned the bottom of the boat, scraping off all the hard growth. What a great way to end this season's adventures. Walkabout will be hauled out of the water and stored sometime in the next couple of days. I would say that we definitely "went out on a high note."

Mother Nature's Whims

Thanks to Ted and Claire on Another Life, we now have a couple of photos of us sailing Suja! I think the first photo was taken the day the wind (which was predicted to be 8-10 mph) actually died when we made it out to Porgy Rock past Parrot Cays. It took us four hours to get home in very light winds. We were really glad to get back in the harbor. As a comparison, in the women's Sunfish race, it took them 45 minutes to round all of the Parrot Cays and get back to the beach outside Hope Town.

The second photo was taken on a much nicer sailing day. We were even heeling over with the wind.

Oh well, some days it is perfect, but other days Mother Nature has a different idea.

Situational Un-awareness

Dave is always saying that we need to have situational awareness which, with our lifestyle and in this day and age, is a good idea. However, we were apparently not paying attention for the past few weeks, since we just discovered a nest with baby birds in the trees right next to our porch. In all fairness though, we hardly ever look that way, since the bushes to the north block the view and our main view is out front. How could we have missed the little tobacco doves (also known as common ground doves) flying in and out though? Must be because they, including the two babies, have been silent, unlike the cooing mourning doves that we are all used to. The nest has been there so long that the babies have feathers and look to be ready to take flight. We first noticed all the wing flapping in the trees a couple of days ago, which got our attention.

They are really laying low and hanging on today with gale force winds. At least we can watch them for awhile before they take off for good.

Ladies Turn

Yesterday was the annual Di Hunter Women's Sunfish Race off Nathan's Beach. The ladies have been having lessons for several weeks and you can tell it boosted their confidence and skill. Eleven sailors turned out to compete for this prestigious award and the comradery that goes with it.

Dave helped run the race and then we went out in our skiff to start the race, follow them around the course around Parrot Cays and back, finishing them with a horn back at the beach.

These women are tenacious. One of them flipped their boat, got back up and finished the race. Another one not only flipped, but her sail had problems and couldn't be hoisted all the way up, and yet she finished the race in 8th place. The flipping part is why I stay as chase boat and photographer!

Another fun activity we help with...and as a footnote: wow the water is warm!

Definitely Spring

We certainly can tell that spring is officially here. Many of our friends on boats are heading back across the Gulf Stream and there has been a mass exodus the past couple of days. In their place are the powerboaters from Florida that can race over here quickly with 3 or 4 outboards. The water is warming up nicely, the trees are blooming (as well as my allergies), the woodpecker is driving us crazy 😉 and even the laughing gulls have their summer plumage.

Of course springtime makes us think about our departure date, which is rapidly approaching. In the next few days we will start slowly putting away the 'toys' since the weather prediction is for lots of wind until at least April 1st. I sure hope the snow is starting to melt up home! Time for us to get into summer mode too.

First!

After a one day postponement for the Burton Russell Trophy Race, Sunrise ended up not only being first around the windward mark, but also came in first place after the handicaps were tallied.

This was a point to point race around Sandy and Garden Cays near Man-O-War. Since it was run a day late, two of the usual crew were unable to race. Milton, the boat's owner, had a previous planned engagement and Ron was preparing to depart on his boat for a Gulf Stream crossing back to the States. That left Dave as skipper and Richard Woods, who he races Sunfish with and will be Sunfish Fleet Co-Captain with next season. Richard has tons of sailboat race experience, was in the Olympics, and builds catamarans. The two guys worked perfectly together and with light winds, there was no problem with not having extra crewmembers on board.

One more cruising boat race to go this season and then Boat of the Year will be announced. At this point it looks like Sunrise will come in 2nd overall, but you never know, perhaps they will be first.

The great photos are once again from Will Heyer. The awards photo was taken by Cindy Merrill.

Deluge

Yesterday, Abaco received more rain in a few hours than it has all winter long. The water was badly needed for the cisterns, trees, and plants. We had expected rain, but not these torrential downpours. Our 7,000 gallon cistern, that collects rainwater from our apartment roof, overflowed. There are two huge auxiliary tanks that each hold 44,000 gallons of rainwater that comes from the workshop roof. It feeds with a valve into the central cistern when needed, but both tanks have been dry (when this happens and our cistern gets down to under half, the watermaker is started). After yesterday morning's deluge, one of the tanks was full and flowing out the vent, so they diverted the water to the second tank! Marina managers Linda and Craig's house collected 12,000 gallons of water. With this much rain comes flooded boats though. Dandy almost sank and required our electric pump. Jim R's skiff almost turned turtle at the dock and Dave arrived just in time to pump that out. Our skiff's bilge pump worked fantastic and kept up with the water (one day a couple of years ago I went out and had to bucket bail it with water up to my knees). Boaters in the harbor are thrilled because their boats are rinsed and many collect the rainwater too. However, they have to bail out their dinghies with gallon jugs. One of the ladies said she took 107 bailing buckets of water out of her dinghy. Except for that though, there are a lot of happy (& clean 😉) people around today!

Day 2

Day 2 of the Homer Lowe Regatta had a little more wind than Day 1, but that's not saying much. I still got to kayak, but this time opted to go out to the race course. Dave did not have a good day on Day 1 and came in last during a couple of the races. That's not like him at all. When he was headed out the door he said he couldn't wait until the regatta was over yesterday, but I told him,"Wrong attitude. You need to say today I am going to make up for yesterday." That's exactly what he did. In the first race, he was second until the wind died and another racer found the breeze before he did, so he came in third. That's him in 2nd at the moment,

The course was challenging too, because the kids in Optis and 420 one design boats were racing at the same time as the Sunfish. The photo below shows how Dave had to work around the mark at the same time as the two other classes.

In the second race he came in second, beating several of the really good sailors. I guess that makes HIM one of the really good sailors too!

When the awards were given out, Dave ended up in 5th place overall and he was really happy about that. Some days you're in the groove and others you aren't, so it worked out well.

Long Distance Award

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Homer Lowe Regatta for Sunfish, Optis, and 420 one design boats. Last year, Dave and I stood by as a safety boat in Walkabout during the 2 day event that brings in sailors from other islands including Nassau and Freeport. This year, Dave decided to race Sunfish.

We knew the wind would be light, but it was non-existent in the morning. While Dave was out floating around on the course, I decided to take my kayak out for a cruise. I headed to the north end of Elbow Cay to see if I could get close to the race course, but they were a little offshore in the Sea of Abaco, in order to try and get some breeze. When I got to the end of the island, I had to make the decision as to whether to go out to the course or continue north. Gee, that first little rock island off Johnny's Cay didn't look that far away, so off I paddled. What a strange little rock formation when everything else is so flat...and is that an Oyster Catcher on the end?

Yes, and that was a bit odd because we always see them in pairs. You can see the lazy ocean swell breaking on the reef, it was so calm.

There was a southbound freighter, not too far out. I hope the sailboat skipper was looking behind him.

 

Hmmmm, now the main island of Johnny's Cays looked really close, so how could I resist not making it there, just to say I did it.

 Almost there...

I made it and proud of it. 

I walked around and not much has been done to the rehab since we were here last April. The gazebo is gorgeous though. That's where I would like to married (41 years later 😉).

Meanwhile, it looked like the races finally started.

I didn't realize it until I headed back that the wind had picked up just a little, and right from the direction I was headed. No wonder the races started. Hope Town is about 3 miles away...

Who knows, maybe next time I will make it the distance to Sandy Cay or Garden Cay or even Man-O-War!

NOT! 😉

Naming Game

Dave and I seem to come up with the best names for boats, homes, and now...a deck! We were invited to a 'deck warming' party at friends Marcia & Barry's house. This long awaited deck is huge and gorgeous, including a utility shed and wet bar. Marcia was shocked when EVERYBODY that she invited showed up with delicious appetizers and desserts in hand. That's a lot of food since there were about 60 of us. The builder was also there and he was such a nice, personable, and talented guy. He even signed the deck, making it officially complete. I hope he received tons of business inquiries from others at the party.

As we arrived, there was a jar where we wrote down and submitted our deck name suggestions. We then voted on the possibilities and it was hilarious (how about poop deck? 😉). It all came down to two...After Deck or Aft Deck, since they are also sailors, or the crowd's favorite and my idea...Dexter (Deck-ster)! Funny how it had popped into my head and I was sure it would be an outcast, but majority rules, so Dexter it is.

The ceremony wouldn't have been complete without a christening, and the champagne certainly was flowing, along with a rum punch that Dave said was really potent.

This was definitely the best party of the season here in Hope Town.

No Man's Land

When the west wind blows, it is so much fun to go exploring on the east shore of Great Abaco, where hardly anyone goes. We ended up just south of Snake Creek, in a protected cove, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.

We launched the kayaks and paddled in the shallow backwaters to the old remains of the generator barge that was used many moons ago for the lumber industry at Wilson City. This area is only accessible at high tide, even by kayak.

There isn't much left to it anymore, having gone through many hurricanes.

One of the generators has fallen over, but the other one is still standing in the background.

When we first started coming to the Bahamas, the abandoned building was intact, but everything was really rusting. Dave and our friend Rick, even went inside of it. We certainly wouldn't attempt that now.

On the way back to Walkabout, we took the outside route in the Sea of Abaco to find a bit more protection from the wind that was now northwest.

We continued north and found a few really nice beaches, with the water pretty deep to shore.

We saw a lot of different things washed up on shore, but this was the funniest:

The beach looked so inviting that we decided to move our whole entourage there and anchored in some gorgeous sand.

After lunch the 'kid in us' took over and we couldn't resist jumping in the water and swimming. This is the first I have been in since November, so I was a bit skeptical. 

The temp was about 76 degrees, chilly at first, but really nice once we got used to it. I jumped from the back of the boat.

Then Dave did it from the boat's hardtop!

Some huge eagle rays kept going by the boat too.

Dave went snorkeling and found a sand dollar, which we haven't seen for awhile.

This was our best adventure this season, and I sure hope we get to do it again soon, especially with not a soul in sight. It was all there just for us!