Bellatrix: March 2016

30 March 2016

Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas

Many Cruisers have departed the harbor, some heading back to the US. Many of the Canadian and Northern US cruisers leave their boats in Florida for the summer, they head back early so they can put their boats up for the summer.

Some are cruising around the Examas, out to Cat, Rum, Long Island and the Jumentos. We will too, then back to Georgetown for the Family Regatta, which are the Bahamian sloop races. The Family regatta is the last week of April after which we will start heading home. We will take about 4 - 5 weeks to get to Baltimore.

There is a lagoon here I mentioned earlier where the Coconut Challenge was held. In the lagoon are moorings and it is called the “Fruit Bowl”, there are a number of houseboats moored there and each is named after a fruit, Cantaloupe, Papaya, Tangelo, Pineapple, etc. Most are owned by French Canadians and it is fun to hear them hail each other on VHF. They hail Conta loop with the accent on loop, popa ya accent on ya, pine appel.

We’ve been enjoying the beach and checking out resorts for a late winter vacation next year.

A statue of a slave who lead a rebellion

A handsome couple I think

Joachim storm damage

A hermit's cave home

A photo of a photo of the hermit now deceased

Boats in the "Fruit Bowl"

My Barber

Nice Barber, nice haircut, nice barbershop

23 March 2016

Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas

Following up from the 3 March 2016 posting…

The Cruisers Regatta finished with the Fun Volleyball Tournament and Beach Golf. We did not participate in beach Golf but I’m told they had a ball! We did play volleyball and Robin’s team came in first, my team didn’t do as well and we’ll leave it at that.

There was a wrap-up party at “Peace & Plenty” Hotel, bar, restaurant, with music and additional awards, good fun.

After Regatta we did chores, laundry, filling water tanks, groceries and fuel. the weather settled and we decided to cross over to Cat Island with the intention of also visiting Rum and Conception. We had a great sail over, we caught 2 Mahi and lost one. 2 Mahi is enough to feed us many meals.

As we approached Cat Island the wind died and we motored the last few miles, the engine overheated. With the help of our dear friend Roger Shafer we decided the problem was a hole in the heat exchanger. Roger ordered one for us and it is being shipped to Georgetown. We made the best of it, we can run the engine as long as we keep an eye on the coolant level. We stayed 5 days around Cat Island.

Every place we visit, I find myself saying “this is prettier than the last place”, Cat Island is beautiful. It reminded us of Long Island, we visited last year when John and Nancy were with us. It is about 50 miles long and very lush. The people are extremely friendly and enjoy good conversation. We anchored off of a couple of small resorts. We went to their beach and asked if it was alright and we were assured they enjoyed cruisers and invited us to their facility. We ask if we could get a cocktail and were shown to the bar and told of the honor system, mix your own drinks, write it on a piece of paper and pay when you like. I put some ice in a glass poured fair amount of rum and added what I thought was the Rum Punch mixer. I enjoyed two of these as we talked with a couple of cruisers at the bar. We later paid our bill and I was feeling really good as we left. The next day I watched Tameron make the “mixer”, it was 1 bottle of dark rum, 1/2 bottle of white rum, 1/2 bottle of vodka, 1/2 bottle of gin, 1/4 bottle of grenadine and a can of grapefruit juice and I added rum when I made mine, no wonder I could barely get to the dink…

I spent a few hours on 2 days flyfishing the mangroves. I’m not a great fisherman but I caught my share of Bonefish. Some of you may remember I caught a couple of Bonefish last year in the Abacos. Bonefish are silver and reflect their surroundings, very difficult to see, you actually see their shadow on the bottom. You fish for “Bones” in very shallow water, 1 to 2 feet. They are very easily spooked. Last year I was lucky to see a few, in the mangroves of Cat Island I saw schools of 10 - 20 at a time. If your good or lucky enough to get one to take a fly they take off like a train running 100’ or more, you can reel back 25’ or so and they take off again. They are extremely fun to catch, not good to eat but the most exiting fish I’ve ever caught.

The water around Cat is so clear you can see a quarter on the bottom in 15’ of water on a starlit night, seriously.

We rented a car for a day and drove the length of the island. We visited the “Hermitage” I described in the previous post. It was a very moving experience. I noticed an interesting sailboat on the hard behind a little store. There were a couple of mature gentlemen sitting under a tree and we stopped to look at the boat and talk. The elderly 6’ 6’’ gentleman who owned the boat introduced himself as “Boy”, we later learned his given name was Rudolf, I elected to call him sir. Very friendly, we learned it was a Nonsuch, cat rigged boat (it was full of rain water) and he had dreams of acquiring a new motor for it and cleaning it up to sail again.

As we drove the north side of the island we noticed a sign for a resort, “Ocean Dream Beach Resort” which had a restaurant that featured

Greek/Bahamian food. We like Greek food and drove about 2 miles on a dirt and rocky road. We got to the resort of 6 cottages high on a bluff overlooking a beautiful beach. It didn’t look open but as we approached the cafe a car drove up and a Bahamian lady, Olga and a Bahamian man, Gilligan welcomed us, told us they were waiting for us to open the cafe, and invited us in. We had a lovely conversation with them and enjoyed Greek salad, lamb gyros, and beer. They showed us the cottages and told us not to be concerned about the quoted cottage prices, “they owned the place”, and would welcome us to come vacation next year.

We moved the boat to another anchorage of off a small resort “Rollezz Resort”. Again we were welcomed and told of the honor system bar. We later went to dinner there, there were a family of guests and a couple of cruisers. The family had two sons, one an infant and one celebrating his 7th birthday. We were all invited to participate in the festivities and wore dunce type birthday hats and sang Happy Birthday while enjoying cake and ice cream.

We sailed back to Georgetown, Exuma a few days ago. As we approached the cut thought the reef Robin called me up from the cabin where I was keeping a eye on the coolant (we had begun motoring through the cut). She noticed spray in the air and said it was to much to be dolphin. There were 3-4 whales within 50 yards of us leisurely moving about. Dusk was approaching and they weren’t too active so we could only see parts of them at a time. They appeared to be about 40 - 50 feet long with very blunt, large heads. At one point we got within 20 yards and Robin at the helm said “we’re outta here”. She was afraid they might damage the boat or rudder.

We are anchored in the harbor, tomorrow the heat exchanger will be in and I can do the repair. We hope to sail to some other islands before returning the end of April for the “Georgetown Family Regatta”. After the regatta we will begin heading north back to the Chesapeake. MedStar called Robin about a job managing the Radiology departments at both Union Memorial and Good Samaritan. She was flattered by the offer and they are willing to wait till June for her to begin. It is certainly with mixed emotions she accepted the offer, we’ll be “dirt dwellers” once more.

Sorry the photos are not in order...