Two things to start off this post. The first is that while Caleb and Amy were here, I pulled a 40-lb SUP out of a locker (whilst holding the locker lid up with my head). It was dumb. I should have let Kyle do it. The on-board doctor (WebMD) diagnosed me with a ruptured disk in my back, which sounds really bad, but it should heal up on its own in a week. The bottom line is that I have to take it really easy because I need this to heal ASAP.

The other thing also happened during Caleb and Amy’s visit. After a few too many rum drinks, and way too late at night, Kyle was getting ready for bed and he thought the bedroom smelled like diesel. He started poking around and found that the engine compartment had started filling up with diesel (underneath the bed) and the next bilge compartment was also almost full.

So we had to spend the next hour cleaning that up. The culprit was a leaking fuel filter, it must have started leaking after our last trip. Fortunately we found it before it reached the bilge pump and started pumping diesel overboard. Kyle siphoned out about ten gallons that went right back into the tank. (Also, the glow is these photos is caused by some crazy high humidity, which also kicked off some mold growth inside so we’ve been dealing with that too!)

2.11

That brings us back to where we left off last time. Kyle had just dropped off Caleb and Amy, and as soon as he was back we decided to get underway. Except the starboard engine wasn’t having any of that nonsense – no fuel! Kyle had to bleed the injectors, it only took half an hour before we were back in business but it feels tense because there’s always a chance we can’t solve it on our own.

We got underway and found the wind to be dead on the nose. Naturally. But, being the hardcore sailors we are, we decided to try something new: tacking! Previously we haven’t had enough daylight to potentially double the length of our trip, so we’ve had to motor against the wind, but today’s trip was short enough that tacking was an option. So, we tacked out under sail.

When we tried to tack back towards land, every time I would get close to the wind, it would catch us and put us in irons. It got to the point where I had to choose: either tack straight back towards land (making no forward progress) or motorsail close to the wind. Obviously I opted to motorsail.

At that point we were both extremely irritated. We’re doing the right things, trying to sail, and we still end up motoring. If we’d known it was going to be like this we’d have just motored the whole way. But now we’re way out in the middle of the sound and we have no option but to continue our extra long trip. Sails. Why do we even bother?

I started doing the math. Had we known ahead of time how things would go, our options would have been:

1) Sail the whole thing, tacking. 45 miles, 8.2 hours.
2) Sail out, motor sail in. 34 miles, 6.75 hours.
3) Motor into the wind. 24 miles, 5.3 hours.

I suppose our route was a good compromise, it’s slow to motor into the wind, but it always sucks when you think you’ll have a good sailing day and you end up motoring. It happens more than I want to admit.

We anchored around 2pm, back at our original spot in Governor’s Harbour. We didn’t go ashore, and we just stayed one night because we’re trying to get to Rock Sound where we plan on hanging out for a while. We couldn’t do the whole trip in one day because it would be about 9 hours with the wind against us the whole time, now that we’re in Governor’s Harbour we should have an easy sail tomorrow, probably around 5 hours.

2.12 – Wednesday

We lounged for a bit this morning, but knowing that today was a passage day meant we really just wanted to get going. We raised the main before raising the anchor, then pulled out of the harbor and found our nice beam winds…way too close to the nose. Fortunately, we could sail close-hauled without aiming too far away from our destination, so we were able to sail for a few hours.

Rock Sound is a huge bay, so we ended up motoring for about two hours to enter the bay and get to the anchorage. The wind was much stronger than forecast, we anchored in 20-25 kt winds amongst several other boats. We didn’t go ashore, we’ll have plenty of time for that. The thing we really need right now is to rest and recover from our big week with Caleb and Amy. We need to catch up on chores and sleep, then explore the area and prep for the Exumas.

2.14 – Friday

We ate an early lunch and then headed ashore. Right off the bat, we could sense something had changed. It was now oppressively hot on shore. Is this spring?

Our first mission was to wander to the cave. We saw a sign that says “boiling hole” and following the trail through the woods. The boiling hole is another blue hole, it supposedly bubbles from gas building up underground. It didn’t have anything going on today so we continued on to Spider Cave.

The Spider Cave has sort of been rebranded as Cathedral Cave, there still were big webs on some of the rock walls. It’s one of those places where you can hardly take a bad photo because it’s all so beautiful!

The roots of trees grow vertically through the rock structure and keep going, straight as an arrow, until they reach the ground.

This leaves plenty of holes in the cavern to allow light through, but Kyle still had the foresight to bring a flashlight along so he peeped into the darker crawlspaces of the cathedral. It was amazing.

After we took in all we could, we started walking back towards the Ocean Hole, one of numerous blue holes in the Bahamas. The really fantastic aspect of these sites is that they’re very close to town, it was less than a mile to the cave and that was our furthest destination. The Ocean Hole is right in town, we followed a sign and it led us to a dirt road. I’d seen on a map that there was a trail all the way around the Ocean Hole, but when we got near it the whole thing looked kind of sketchy. Fortunately there was a woman out in her yard right next to the trail and she told us “Go ahead, lovvies, take that path right through there!”

The “path” was comical, I’m only sharing this photo so you can understand that the guardrail exists only to keep people from accessing the surrounding land, there is nothing to keep people from falling in. Also, it’s really washed out, but right in the middle of the path in front of me is a large tube with a plant growing out of it, we frequently had to dodge things like that.

Really, there’s not much to see on the path, the hole itself is more academically interesting than visually pleasing. We don’t know how deep it is, but it rises and falls with the tide so it connects to the ocean somehow. The real draw is where all the fish hang out. We were told to bring bread, but we didn’t have any on board. When we got there, we met another boat friend and she asked if we had bread. Dang it! No bread! We still tried to get some pics of the fish.

Eventually we parted ways, she needed groceries and I needed ice cream. Grandma’s Treats wasn’t open, so we decided to try the grocery store. On the walk over, we found a perfect dinner roll by the side of the road! THE ISLANDS PROVIDE! You bet we marched right back to that Ocean Hole with our street bread.

I started tossing bits of roll to the fish and they went nuts.

I fed them and Kyle took photos, then we switched roles (GET IT?) and I took some pics. There were 2 or 3 bright blue tangs, and 2 gray angelfish.

It wasn’t until I went through the photos later that I realized the monotone gray was accented by a shot of color under the side fin!

The main group of fish was comprised of gray snappers, hogfish and a few sergeant majors.

After our bread was gone, we walked back to the grocery store because I still needed ice cream. We found some Klondike bars that didn’t seem too rock-hard, and they were so good I almost cried. Again, it’s crazy hot on land today, and we’ve been walking around all afternoon!

When we got back to the boat I was exhausted. “Taking it easy” includes walking, but I’m not sure miles in the hot sun is the same as a walk.

2.15 – Saturday

We’ve been waking up to a massacre on the transoms every morning here. This morning we finally got smart about it and tossed these fishies back one by one, watching the needlefish snatch them up. Then we realized that the needlefish weren’t the only ones eating them – there were some good sized fish deeper in the water that were snagging a few. Hmmm, we might do some fishing tomorrow morning!

Predators and prey!

After yesterday’s heat wave, we thought it might be better to run our errands in the morning when it’s still cool. We walked to Market Place, the grocery store with the good produce, and bought stuff. Then we headed over to 700 to get some rum, because we know it’s a good price there and we’re not sure what prices will be like in the Exumas. We didn’t see the hardware store, and by then the backpack was pretty loaded, so we went back to the boat. We had to get a beer at Frigate’s, of course, because we were using their dinghy dock, so 11am Kaliks it is!

Back at the boat we got stuff unloaded and then made a tough decision. We always run all our errands together, but my back hurts and I can’t help Kyle carry anything, so we parted ways. I stayed at the boat to sort and edit yesterday’s photos, and Kyle took the dock cart and empty propane tank in to shore. I felt terrible about sending him out to solve problems by himself, but of course he’s very capable and knows better than to have a big adventure without me.

When he returned, he told me he had a present! We try to buy local goods whenever we can, which is how we ended up with homemade hot sauce, coconut bread, and local Johnny cakes. While he was at the hardware store he found some chocolate chip cookies! We haven’t had cookies in ages, they were so tasty. What a fantastic treat!

He also got the propane filled, and grabbed a couple cases of Kalik. The propane cost $35, which seems pretty reasonable for the Bahamas, although I don’t have anything to compare it to. Gasoline cost us about $5/gal in Spanish Wells. We expect to pay about $5/gal for diesel as well, but we found it for $3.91/gal in Spanish Wells at the St. George power plant. We’ve heard a case of Kalik cost $70 in the Exumas (24-pk), it cost $46 at 700 liquors here in Rock Sound. That’s about the best price we’ve seen. While we’re talking about the cost of things, a bag of chocolate chips is about $8 so we won’t be making our own chocolate chip cookies anytime soon.

Then we made our evening plans. We were going to stop at Hall’s grocery to fill in the rest of the items we needed, then stop and get burgers after. The bugs were BAD so we got our burgers to go. Louis Delights has hamburgers for $6.50 and Kaliks for $3, which are easily the cheapest prices we’ve seen in the Bahamas! They were the perfect cap to the end of our day.

We’re ready for the Exumas!