Update10

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

We left Manjack Cay on Friday, May 16th, one day later than planned. This was not because we were having so much fun that we couldn't tear ourselves away (although we do love Manjack), but because of weather. Although the winds were moderate and we were staying inside the Sea of Abaco (inside the reef and on the leeward side of the islands), the Atlantic Ocean was in such a rage from the past few days of NE winds that breaking waves were coming in through the cut between Manjack and Powell Cays, crossing the Sea of Abaco, reflecting off Great Abaco Island on the western side of the Sea of Abaco and coming back eastward to break on the incoming waves. The churning seas were not a good place to be in our sailboat. In fact, a large trawler left the anchorage headed north and returned shortly thereafter. We decided that if he couldn't make it comfortably, we wouldn't even try. Besides, who could argue with one more day at Manjack? We did some school, we played at the beach, we fed the birds and we attended an all-anchorage happy hour on the beach at 4:30. Much better than fighting foul seas.

Things had settled down by Friday and we had a wonderful 9nm sail to Powell Cay. The White-tailed Tropic Birds come to Powell to breed and to teach their babies to fly off the cliff. The rest of the year they stay at sea, resting on the waves. They were flying off the cliff and fishing in the surrounding waters. We hiked a trail to the top of the cliff for a better view. It was special treat to see them.

After exploring a bit on Powell's beaches, we raised anchor and sailed across the Sea of Abaco planning to anchor in the lee of Great Abaco Island for the night, as the winds were now out of the SW. As we got close, we realized that there were at least 3 wild fires on Great Abaco Island and Little Abaco Island that were enveloping the area with smoke, and charred leafy debris was flying around us. So we switched to plan B and kept sailing about an hour further northwest to Allans-Pensacola Cay. We had a great sail. In fact, our biggest problem was slowing the boat down from the 7+ knots we were making. We were towing our inflatable

dinghy and the bow was so far out of the water that we were a bit worried about flipping it. Our friends on s/v Toucan Dream were already there and Bob met us in his dinghy and led us to a sandy patch to drop our anchor. (The bottom is mostly grass, which is hard to anchor in.) It was a rolly night, as Allans-Pensacola doesn't really offer protection from the SW winds, but it was a whole lot better than a smokey night!

In the morning we hiked the trail across Allans-Pensacola to the Atlantic Ocean side to leave our mark at the "Signing Tree." The Signing Tree is a tree (actually, there are now multiple signing trees all along the beach, as the tradition has become so popular) covered with mementos left by cruisers, typically with the names of the vessel and crew, and dates, sometimes with multiple years. Some people just sign a piece of wood or leave an old fender, but some people get very creative, leaving old paddles, carving or painting intricate symbols, or leaving other unique signs. We left the antlers from the deer Dave shot last November at the family ranch in West Texas. We attached them to a board we found, signed s/v Liberty and our names, and screwed it to the original Signing Tree at the base of the trail. It is unique and noticeable! And as we have shared the venison with many or our cruiser friends, it is very fitting.

We decided that one rolly night was enough for us, so after lunch, we left Allans-Pensacola and sailed 5nm northwest to Moraine Cay for the night. Moraine is a private island with two or three houses on it. We weren't there very long, but long enough for Dave and the boys to snorkel on the reef and spearfish. The trip was quickly halted when they spotted not one, but two big reef sharks! One was as long as Josh, and the other even bigger! Reef sharks are common in the Bahamas. As a general rule, sharks don't bother divers unless they are spearfishing and the sharks sense injured fish in vicinity. To that end, we follow some rules of caution: we only spearfish before 2pm, as sharks tend to feed later in the day; after spearing a couple of fish in one area, we move on to another area; and we are always on the lookout for "greycoats." Fortunately, Dave had not speared anything yet to attract their attention, and they (Dave and the boys, not the sharks) decided to get back in the dinghy and come home.

The next morning we raised the anchor at 7:00am and had a very nice 35nm sail to the Double Breasted Cays, where we have spent the last 9 days, doing some school and some boat projects, but mostly hanging out and enjoying this beautiful set of islands. We are anchored between Sand Cay and the Double Breasted Rocks. It is a narrow channel where the tidal currents rip through and change our direction 180 degrees every 6 hours. We have 2 anchors set in a Bahamian Moor deep into white sand 8-11 feet below the boat, depending on whether the tide is in or out. Swinging to the current vs. the wind is something new to us.

The route into this anchorage is tricky: A long run close to an island with sharp rocky shores, then passing within 20 feet of a jagged rock where the current rips through, pushing the boat toward a wide sand bar before pulling the boat hard back in towards the rock. Then a long sweeping turn past a shallow sand bank, watching the water color to ensure we are in the deeper water.

On our first try, however, we decided to clean the very bottom of the keel by running up on a coral head. The sound was ugly, but the only real damage was to our confidence. We backed off the coral, turned around and dropped the anchor in deeper water, then scouted the channel in to the anchorage by dinghy (with the aid of another boater here who has come in and out the channel several times and gave us pointers). The second time we missed the coral, the rock and the sand bar, to our relief. Our confidence is back too.

Once anchored in the channel, we found plenty of water and the views are worth it. The water is every shade of blue and green, right down to clear with a light green tint over white sand. We have seen large barracuda, nurse sharks and a ray swim past our boat. In fact, one evening, Dave threw fish scraps overboard and 3 nurse sharks came to feed. They made many passes around the area until they had found and eaten every piece. It was neat to watch them. One appeared to be a baby and the mother kept it very close, nudging it to keep it farther away from the boat. Out of the water, we can watch (and listen to) a breeding colony of Bridled Terns, and the ever present gulls, plovers and smaller terns.

There is a lot of current and tide here. When the tide is out, the huge white sand beach is only 20 feet from the stern of the boat. What isn't exposed is only 6-12 inches deep and you can walk forever. When the tide is in, however, there is almost no beach at all; it is all covered in 2 or 3 feet of water. We spend time at the beach almost every day. Chris and Josh have built sand castles and forts, played baseball, found creature friends (one day they found a Flame Box Crab), and played with Spirit, our friends' Weimaraner. Spirit entertains them with his "ball," a husked coconut that he is constantly chewing when he isn't fetching it. Nancy and Dave play with the boys, visit with friends, and look for sand dollars (Nancy, more than Dave).

We have snorkeled a lot here. One morning, we dinghied 3 miles to the barrier reef. The water was clear and the coral and beautiful fish were plentiful. We saw Queen Angelfish, various butterfly fish, a large trumpetfish and more. Christopher keeps a dive log of every fish, coral and plant he sees. It is quite impressive. We snorkeled right to the edge of the reef where it drops off into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a pretty clean cut from the coral and reef fish to the flat, clean sandy bottom.

Dave has spearfished quite a few times while we have been here. In the Bahamas, you cannot use a spear gun, only a pole spear. It has taken him some time to get used to fishing with it, as he must get much closer to the fish (within a couple of feet) in order to get a shot. Most fish are not stupid and are wary of a large guy with a long stick, especially the large, tasty grouper that make quick darts for holes in the coral. Nonetheless, we have not starved. On the contrary, we have had several meals of very fresh grouper, hogfish and snapper. We gathered our first harvest of conch here in the Double-Breasted Cays. There is no real sport to this, as conch generally sit in the grassy areas and move very slowly. The real trick is in the conching of the conch. You break a hole in the top of the conch shell with a hatchet or hammer in just the right spot, where you slide a knife blade in to detach the conch from the shell. If you are off just a bit, you can't get him out cleanly, or at all. On our last trip, Dave got very discouraged with this difficult process and gave it up. However, at Manjack Cay, Bob taught Dave just how to do it. He is now a pro and we have enjoyed Conch salad, Conch fritters and Cracked Conch. As a bonus, we cleaned up the prettiest of the conch shells to keep. The downside is that snorkeling to find them, then cleaning the conch and pounding them to tenderize them can take nearly a whole day. Considering that we can buy conch for $2.25 a pound, Dave's hourly wage on conch day is just under a buck an hour.

One of the most wonderful aspects of cruising is meeting other cruisers. There are so many wonderful, interesting people who have taken up the cruising lifestyle, some permanently; some, like us, on extended sabbaticals; some part time, like our Swiss friends on s/v Tuau; and some on occasional/extended vacation, like our friends Greg & Betsy on Kokopelli Too (from Florida and out for 10 weeks) and our friends Sonja and Charlie on Un Sea Sing (who cruise the Abacos for a few months each Spring), or our new friends we met here at the Double-Breasted Cays, Susan & Richard on Horsefeathers, a 30-ish foot express sportfisher set up for living aboard for extended periods. Susan & Richard bring their boat over to the Abacos from their home in Tequesta, Florida, each winter, and leave it at Man-o-war Cay until May when they return to Florida. The fly over several times during the season to cruise the Abacos, as they have for 20-some odd years. Their children, now grown, had significant periods of short-term live aboard/cruising in the Abacos. Richard gave Dave quite a few spearfishing tricks, and showed us where to snorkel and spearfish on the coral heads and reef off Double-Breasted Cay. We have spent quite a bit of time playing with their dog Spirit on the beach, and have enjoyed getting to know them over drinks and a couple of

meals, sometimes while the boys watched a movie and sometimes all together. A highlight was watching Richard and Susan's video of their son, Ryan, winning a gold medal in swimming at the 1996 Olympics as the anchor on the 800 meter freestyle team. Another highlight for Chris and Josh was joining the Horsefeathers crew for a quick run, at over 20 knots, three miles over to Grand Cay (while Dave & Nancy stayed on board Liberty to get ready for our passage back to the USA). Of course, the reason for the run to Grand Cay illustrated the difference between a sailboat and a power boat - they needed to take on nearly $500 of diesel fuel to get back to Florida. However, as they would point out, the time at sea illustrates another difference - while we plan to be underway for over 24 hours, they will leave a couple of hours after we do and be home in time for a late lunch - just over 4 hours to run from the Bahamas to Florida! We also got to know Jeff & Cindy & their 6 month old son Reef on board Jonny Wasabi, on and off again cruisers out of Stuart, Florida. Dave spent quite a bit of time discussing boat improvements with Jeff, and he took the boys (and Dave) out spearfishing one day.

An interesting aspect of getting to know other cruisers is not knowing when you will run into them again. You may sail into an anchorage, drop and set the hook, and then notice 3 boats over is a boat you've become friends with 4 weeks and 6 anchorages ago, or maybe a boat you just spoke with briefly but with whom you can now become friends. Another interesting aspect is to get to know people by the names of their boats - we are the Libertys, and we will forever associate Susan & Richard with Horsefeathers, Jeff and Cindy with Jonny Wasabi, and so on. Often we will recognize the boat, and even remember exactly where we know them from, but forget the names of the crew on board. Sometimes when that happens we check our notebook of "boat cards", business cards with the names of the boat and crew (and sometimes other information, such as cell phones, home addresses or HAM radio call signs) that are commonly exchanged among boaters. While anchored at Manjack we even heard a boat name on the radio that Dave recognized - from our 2005 trip to Belize! We had not met the boat there (we just remembered the name, Lady Galadriol, from the daily morning net), but we did meet them at Manjack when they decided to anchor there at the same time we were there. In conversations we often realize we have common friends. When talking with Jeff on Jonny Wasabi, we realized he had been in the NW Caribbean a year after we were, and knew our good friends Damon & David on Bruadair as well as several other boats we cruised with during our time there in 2005. Many of the boats we're getting to know here in the Abacos are planning to cruise back to the USA for hurricane season, so it is likely we will continue to run into them from Florida north to the Chesapeake and New England.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Abacos and look forward to coming back to explore the rest of the Bahamas. Our immediate plans are to cross back to Florida tomorrow, May 28, in time to set our anchor in Titusville and watch the shuttle launch on Saturday, May 31st. We are very excited about this special opportunity.

From there we will start heading north up the East Coast. We hope to make a few offshore, overnight jumps to get us up to New York by early July. We'll spend a couple of months in New York, New England and Maine, before heading back to the Chesapeake in the fall.

We also plan to get the website updated (and fixed) when back in the USA, and if you're reading this now we must have been successful!