Bahamas

April 4^th to 12^th 2014

My wife knows far more interesting people than I do. Some of her friends, I guess our friends, invited us to spend a week with them on their brand new 45 foot catamaran in the Bahamas.

They were going to pick us up in Staniel Cay (pronounced key). I discovered it isn’t easy or cheap to get to Staniel Cay. We could fly into Nassau or Freeport and take an island hopper into Staniel. We could also take a ferry from Nassau but it was cheaper and quicker for us to fly into Fort Lauderdale and take an island hopper to Staniel. The flight from Minneapolis to FLL was about $450 on Delta and the short hop to Staniel was over $600. Seems a high price to pay for a short flight but there isn’t much competition.

We had an afternoon flight from Minneapolis to Fort Lauderdale with a layover in Atlanta. We landed at FLL about 11 pm. We had to take a cab from FLL to the Courtyard just outside the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. It was literally the slowest cab ride I’ve ever taken. He never drove faster than 50 mph on the freeway.  If anything I wanted him to speed so we could get a little more sleep.

It was after midnight by the time we checked in and went to bed. We had to get up at 5:30 am to shower, get a cab and check in at 6 am for our 7 am flight.

It should have been an easy five minute ride but the cabbie couldn’t find the Watermakers Airlines building so we drove around for a while before he finally found the small building.

The Watermakers terminal was located in the hangar.

We were told to show up and hour ahead of time but it wasn’t necessary, most people, I imagined they had flow with the airlines before, showed up about half an hour before the flight. We were the first passengers to arrive.

They asked each of us how much we weighed and then weighed our luggage. We had to pay an overage charge for any luggage over 35 pounds per person. We had gifts for Shane and Sara and other goodies so we were over the 35 pound limit. One of the people on the flight paid to bring two cases of Coors and a case of water. As I discovered, beer and bottled water are very expensive on the island.

Our plane was a nine passenger single engine plane. The pilot appeared to be in his thirties. He wore a uniform shirt with shorts and tennis shoes.

Our first stop was Congo Town located on Andros Island. I was a little worried about clearing customs. We were carrying several parts for Shane’s boat, nothing too expensive but I didn’t want to explain why we were carrying boat parts in our luggage.

Several years ago I brought a VHF radio into Mexico for some friends that own a dive shop in Puerto Morelos. Luckily, I made it through customs without getting the infamous “red Light”.

We waited patiently in a small cinder block building that was the terminal and customs and immigration, as the customs official processed the pilot’s paperwork.  Our pilot had accidentally broken the lock on one of the storage areas. The customs official did not seem pleased so the pilot promised to bring a new lock on his afternoon trip.

Eventually we cleared customs. I don’t know why I worried about bringing in the boat parts. They just stamped our passports and didn’t bother looking through any of our luggage. Some people departed for their resorts on Andros and the rest of us boarded the plane for Staniel.

It was a short flight, we landed on the small asphalt runway and taxied to an open sided structure that served as the terminal waiting area.

Shane was waiting on the tarmac with a smile on his face and a coffee cup in his hand. We rolled our bags across the rough landing strip and greeted Shane. We wheeled our luggage across the road to the pier where Shane had the dingy tied up. The tide was out so we had to hand our bags to Shane then climb down five feet into the dingy. I was amazed the dingy held the three of us and our luggage.

We slowly motored to the sailboat. Sara and their dog Lucia greeted us. She appeared happy to see us but she didn’t bark or show any other doggy emotion. I learned that week, Lucia acts more like a human that a dog.

We unpacked our luggage and stowed our belongings in the port cabin. Once we settled in they gave is a tour of the boat. It is a beautiful 45 foot catamaran. There were two cabins on the port side. Shane and Sara’s cabin took the entire starboard side of the catamaran.

In our area of the Bahamas you can only snorkel twice a day. It has to be during slack tide. Since the average water depth in the Bahamas is 20 feet, when the tide goes out or comes back in it creates a lot of current.  If you jump in the water to go snorkeling any time other than slack tide you could end up on a nearby island or be washed out to sea.

We were anchored just off Thunderball Grotto. It is called Thunderball Grotto because the James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed there back in the ‘60s. Not sure what it was called before then.

After we unpacked we immediately went snorkeling. We swam to one of the small islands near the sailboat. We swam through a small entrance to a cave. There was a hole in the top of the cave that let in a shaft of sunlight. The light illuminated the cave and we could see fish swimming just below the surface. It was beautiful. The exit at the back of the cave was submerged, we had to dive down to get out.

We swam almost completely around the island and then noticed the current had picked up so we swam back to the boat.

We motored to Black Point for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Lorraine’s. There was a fair going on when we landed on the island. Most of the locals and tourists were there.

It was a short walk from the pier where we tied up the dingy to Lorraine’s. Lorraine’s was a bright orange building. There were several families in the restaurant but thanks to the fair it wasn’t very busy. Once we were seated Lorraine came out and took our order.

I saw a bar in the corner of the restaurant but no bartender. Shane informed me that we help ourselves. I went and got a Kalik for Karen and myself and Shane made drinks for himself and Sara. Too bad restaurants in the US don’t have this honor system but I can understand why they might not.

At the end of the night Lorraine came over and asked us what we had had for dinner and drinks and totaled up our bill at the table.

We got up the following morning and took the dingy ashore again. We walked to the south end of the island looking for a blow hole that Shane and Sara had seen years before. We found it but the ocean was calm so we only saw a slight mist shooting from the blow hole. It made me think of the movie Fools Gold that I had seen years ago. It wasn’t a great movie but I’ll watch any movie about diving in the Caribbean.

On the way back we waded into the shallow water. The tide was out so there was a large area of the bay that was only half a foot deep. Lucia ran in the water nonstop. She loved chasing the fish.

I don’t think I have ever seen an area of water that shallow, flat, or blue. There wasn’t a wave in the bay. That describes the Bahamas. The islands rise just above sea level and are completely flat with incredibly blue water surrounding them.

On the walk back to the boat I had one of my favorite moments of our vacation. A woman and her two children walked past us. They were dressed for church. Her boy was about six years old and wore dark blue dress pants, a white shirt, and polished dress shoes. His mom and sister wore brightly colored dresses.

The boy was lagging behind his mom and sister and as he walked by us he pointed and said “white people”.  His mom turned around and told him to hurry and catch up with them. We laughed all the way back to the boat.

We went back to the boat and sailed north to Iguana Island. It is home to a species of iguana that is found nowhere else in the world.

As we approached in the dingy we saw the iguanas sunning on the beach. They were fairly large and not too intimidated by humans but if we got too close they would spit and hiss.

The island had a large overhang that appeared to be carved out by waves during storms and hurricanes. I took a picture with Shane, Karen and Sara standing in it.

After we left the iguanas we motored to pig beach and dropped anchor. Pig Beach is inhabited by wild pigs. Many little piglets and two sows were lounging on the beach as we approached.

Karen grew up on a farm. Pigs in Iowa were not nearly as nice as these pigs. If you got too close to domestic pigs they will bite you. That is why she looks so uncomfortable in the picture below.

These pigs are hairy, their bodies are covered with stiff bristles they also are covered with spots.

Unfortunately we didn’t bring food to give to the pigs so they checked us out then left us alone. Shane is braver than I am, he held out his hand and pretended that he had something to feed a large sow. She opened her mouth waiting for food to drop in and when none did she calmly walked away.

We saw a dingy head towards the beach, two large sows saw the dingy too and swam to the boat for a handout.

After Pig Beach we took a short trip in the dingy to Pirate beach. It is on the same island as pig beach and just a short hop by dingy. Pirate beach is a collection of chairs, tables, tiki lamps and whatever else people have brought to the island or has washed up on shore.

Someone had setup chairs in a circle near a picnic table. Sitting on the table was a nice stainless steel tabletop grill.  A sign that said Pirate Beach with a skull and cross bones was nailed to a tree by the picnic table.

We were joined by a family of cruisers. Shane’s definition of a cruiser is someone that sails for the entire season, the non hurricane season that lasts from November to June.

They traded stories about sailing, mostly about bad things that can happen because of inclement weather.

We had dinner on the boat that night. After the sunset Shane turned on the boat’s stern lights. We saw a large nurse shark and several southern rays swim past in the clear blue water. Dinner and a show!

The following day we motored north, there wasn’t enough breeze to sail. We dropped anchor near Johnny Depp’s island. He owns an entire island in the Bahamas. There were many jokes about the women swimming to the island and pretending to be shipped wrecked so they could meet him. Ultimately, they opted not to.

The four of us jumped into the dingy and motored to a small island across from Johnny’s to go snorkeling.  The coral was pristine and we saw a lot of reef fish.

Shane saw on the chart that there was a sunken plane near the island. We noticed a buoy a short distance from where we were snorkeling. We motored out and found the sunken plane at the other end of the rope. It was in fifteen to twenty feet of water. The plane was flipped over on its top and one of the doors was missing. There were several rays and hanging around the wreck.

Later in the day we took the dingy to a deserted island so Lucia could use the doggy facilities. Karen and I got to experience her hatred of crabs. Lucia was bitten by a crab when she was a puppy. The crab attached its pincer to her puppy lip and would not let go. Since then she hunts crabs with a vengeance.

She found a crab hole on the beach and began to dig furiously. From time to time she would stop, bury her nose in the sand to sniff out the crab and continue digging. When she found the crab, she killed it with one bite and dropped it in the sand. Payback for the pain she suffered as a puppy no doubt.

Later we discovered that there were iguanas on the island. We saw a large one sitting under a bush near the beach. Luckily Lucia is well behaved, she saw the iguana and started after it but Shane called her back and I’m sure it took all of her doggy will power but she came back and sat at his feet. I’m not sure if the iguana could have hurt Lucia but I am sure Shane wouldn’t want to find out what the fine would be if she killed it like it was a crab.

During dinner Shane told a story about friends that had to fend off machete wielding thieves while anchored off of Venezuela. We also talked about their trip to Nassau to buy supplies for our visit. They were moored in the marina. At 3 am they were awakened by shouting outside their boat. They came out of their cabin to see the harbor security guard yelling at a man trying to board their boat. The intruder had swam through the marina. Luckily the swim ladder wasn’t down and it’s very hard to climb onto a sailboat without a ladder. The intruder was scared away by the guard and swam into the darkness.

I normally sleep through the night but I woke up several times that week in the middle of the night because I thought I heard something. I would grab my flashlight and go on deck to check out the boat.

I am guessing it was the stories of machete wielding thieves that turned me into a light sleeper. On the other hand there are plenty of noises on a sailboat that can wake you up. There are waves slapping against the side of the boat, rigging hitting the mast and many creeks and snaps.

Waking in the middle of the night wasn’t all bad. The breeze was still warm, the stars blazed in the night and everything was peaceful.

We sailed to Wardreck Wells the following day. It is a circular harbor with mooring balls spaced along the narrow channel that follows the circumference of the round harbor. During low tide you could walk across the center section of the harbor.

This was the first time that Shane had to anchor his brand new catamaran tight quarters. We entered the harbor and motored between the moored boats and the rocky edges of the harbor. We found an empty ball and Shane had to perform a 180 degree turn so Sara could grab the mooring ball with a gaff and tie off.

While turning the boat Shane had to be sure not to run into the rocks on the outer edge of the harbor, not to run aground on the sandy shallow center of the harbor, and not to hit the boat on the next mooring ball.

When they finished Sara stated that there could have been a lot more swearing and Shane immediately grabbed a beer.

Wardrick Wells is a great place to hike. We took the path to the far side of the island and eventually up to the top of the tallest hill on the island.

Located on the peak is a stack of wooden signs left by boat owners. It is good luck to leave a sign with the name of your boat there. Shane and Sara had left a sign when they were there six years ago. We tried to find it but did not have any luck.

On the hike back to the boat we stopped at the whale skeleton on the beach. The whale had washed up several years earlier and the rangers working on the island had preserved and reassembled the skeleton.

Slack tide was later that afternoon. We took a short trip in the dingy and went snorkeling. The sea life was fantastic. We saw a lot of rays, packs of huge lobster and a lot of other fish.  It was obvious the lobsters knew they were in a marine park because they did not move as we swam past them.

The following day we snorkeled an area outside the harbor. I had hopes that it would be as nice as the area that we explored the previous day. It was just okay, beautiful coral but not as much sea life.

We sailed back toward Staniel. I didn’t get the name of the island we anchored at.  After anchoring it was slack tide so we jumped in the dingy and went snorkeling. We saw a couple of rays and a small nurse shark.  The nurse shark left before I had a chance to get close.

Shane and Sara had snorkeled a nearby area years before and discovered that it was a nursery for conch. We motored over to the location. When we hit the water we could see several inch long conchs everywhere. There were mangroves nearby, I snorkel over and found a yellow ray.

The following day we sailed back and dropped anchor close to where we had first boarded the boat. We took the dingy to dinner for dinner that night.

We went to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. The club is a single story green building. Back in the ’60 during the filming of Thunderball the cast would come to the yacht club for dinner and drinks. There were still pictures of the crew and actors hanging behind the bar.

The fishermen clean their fish in the harbor just outside of the yacht club and they throw the fish guts into the water. There were some of the biggest nurse sharks I’ve ever seen hanging around the harbor waiting for snacks. We were careful not to tip the dingy on the ride back to the boat. I doubt the nurse sharks would have bothered us but we didn’t want to take a chance.

The following morning we packed the four of us and our two suitcases into the dingy and took the short ride back to the pier by the air strip. We left Lucia on the boat.

There were about twenty people waiting for flights. There was a group of eight people waiting who were also flying Watermakers so I anticipated a packed flight and that we would have to stop at Congo Town on the way back. I am not sure how it happened but the flight from Watermakers landed and taxied over to us. The large group of people cut in front of us and were asking about boarding when we made our way to the plane. The pilot checked names and told them their plane would be there in twenty minutes, asked us our names, and then told us to board. We were slightly amazed to find out that we were the only two people on the plane. The good news continued, we were going directly to Fort Lauderdale Executive airport.

We had to clear customs at the executive airport. We were the only tourists in the small customs immigration building so we breezed through. We had arranged ahead of time for a limo to bring us back to the FLL airport so we didn’t have to wait for a cab to show up.

That wasn’t the best decision; several cabs came and went before our limo showed up. We waited about half an hour for our limo. When it showed up the driver thought we were a different couple. She vacillated as to whether she should take us or not but she finally did. I’m taking a taxi next time.

In twenty minutes we were at FLL and we had several hours to kill before our flight. We discovered that FLL is one of the more run down airports that we had flow in recent memory. It was also extremely crowded.  Literally hundreds of people were seated on the floor throughout the airport because every seat was taken. Every restaurant had large lines. It wasn’t easy but we grabbed a quick meal before our flight home.

Recap

It was an amazing opportunity to live on a sailboat for a week. It also convinced me that I never want to captain a sailboat again. Back in the 1980’s I and several friends got our captains license. We chartered a sailboat on Lake Superior a couple of times. We would go out and sail around and come back to the harbor at night. It was fun and easy.

Shane’s life is much harder. He plays “sailing chess” from the time he wakes up every day. He starts each morning by listening to the weather forecast on short wave. He pays a yearly fee to the meteorologist the get the most accurate forecast possible. Once he has the weather forecast he can plan where to anchor that night. He needs to find an anchorage that will protect us from the direction the winds will be coming in from.

Shane’s boat has a state of the art electrical charging station. The boat has solar panels, generators and batteries to store power. It also has a hot water heater and desalinization unit. The challenge he deals with every day is the desalinization and heater use electricity so you need to make sure you batteries are charged or you won’t have either water to drink or hot water. If you constantly run the generators you will use all your fuel. It is a chess game every day.

I don’t have the experience and I am too old to gain the experience needed to sail a boat for a week in the Caribbean. I do appreciate that Shane and Sara offer to share their boat with us.

Living on a sailboat is a lot more work than living on land, even if it is a brand new state of the art sailboat. The bed isn’t comfortable, there are a lot of noises that wake you up at night, and you have to pump the toilet twenty five times (at least) every time you use it. Showering is no easy chore. In order to conserve water so you have to turn the water on and get wet. Turn the water off. Wash your hair. Turn the water on and rinse. Turn the water off. Soap up. Turn the water on and rinse. Turn the water off. You get the picture. If you let the water run the entire time you showered the boat would run out of water.

Sailing is nothing like the romanticized idea most people have in their mind. It is a lot more work. I am not sure how Shane and Sara sail six months a year. But the reward outweighs the trials of sailing. You can experience things that most land lubbers won’t. All of the islands we explored except Staniel are only accessible by boat.  Most of the places we snorkeled aren’t marked snorkeling sites. It is an amazing experience to be in the middle of dinner and see an eagle ray break the surface or to see rays and sharks swim under the boat.

It is a lot of work to be on a sailboat but it is worth it.