Glamping in Norman's Pond

By Kathy
Actual Date: February 28th - March 5th 2018

After a few days in the Exumas we had to get ready for a winter front. We had just left our little iguana friends and anchored for the night near Normans Cay. Normans Cay was known in the past as a drug smuggling island in the late 1970's and early 1980's. So before we went to our anchorage for the front we snorkeled a very cool sunken plane (C-46). It was a quick snorkel in the late afternoon and unfortunately I forgot my camera. 

The next day it was time to find our hidey hole. Remember a few posts ago when I mentioned that a front will bring winds that clock in all directions? If you look at the map of the very narrow Exuma islands you will see that it was a challenge to figure out a nice anchorage with 360 degree protection. We did read about a cool anchorage actually on Normans Cay called Normans Pond. The only problem was the entrance. When you entered you had a couple of very shallow spots. Luckily for us we only draft 4.7 ft. and we also had a full moon tide working for us too. So with timing the high tide we entered Normans Pond. It was the first time I had to stand on the front of the boat and really “read” the water to help Dan navigate the cut into the pond. It was nerve wracking but we made it into the pond. After we entered we were amazed to find a huge pond with nobody in it! We had it all to ourselves. After we anchored we got ready to have about 4 days of relaxing in the pond. So what did we do while we waited out the weather….

• Lots of good boat school with swim breaks off the back of the boat.
• Paddle boarding around the pond and swimming.
• Cooking and eating.

Lots of room to paddle!

Starting the day with a pancake breakfast. 

• Reading lots of books. I was in the middle of a 1000 page book so I was able to make it through a nice chunk of the book.
• Movies and games.
• Weather and route planning.
• Watched a sea plane practice take offs and landings in the pond for a few hours.
• Blog Writing
• Boat Projects - installing digital water tank sensors

Look closely and you will see the sea plan that was practicing.

Sam helping Daddy with the boat projects.

 It got a little chilly with the front so some days we may have stayed in our warm jammies for the day. 

Sunset conch blowing by a Pikachu!

This is definitely a slower pace of life.  Once you get into the slow groove it is very enjoyable. Our exit out of Normans Pond was a little more stressful since the big full moon tide was not as big five days later. But we made it out with just a small tap on the bottom of the boat. Next stop: Exuma Land and Sea Park – Shroud Cay! This is a place we have been looking forward to for a long time.

The Exumas and Weather

By Kathy

On February 27^th we had a beautiful weather window to make the crossing to the Exumas. The Exumas is the next set of islands in the Bahamas that consists of 90 miles of small islands. It is hard to believe that we are still in the same country since our arrival in December. I didn’t realize that the Bahamas had this many islands. Take a look at a map of this area. It is so narrow you might  have to zoom in to see it. Nassau will be west of the Exumas and Cat Island and Long Island will be to the east. The Exumas are known to have some of prettiest islands full of natural beauty so we were very excited to explore them. The natural beauty is due to the fact that a lot of the islands are not developed so we knew it was going to be our longest stretch of time before we reached resources such as grocery stores, gas, internet, and restaurants. We are now entering the “glamping” part of our trip. Luckily, our provisioning skills have improved over the last few months so we knew we had  plenty for the next few weeks.

The crossing over was enjoyable and easy. The only unfortunate thing that happened was that we did not catch any fish!

We arrived at Highborne Cay and we were immediately amazed at the beautiful scenery. We anchored in north Highborne Cay and had lunch and a cool swim. There was also a very cool snorkeling spot called Octopus Garden that was amazing. One of the big things around these small islands is the current or surge. It can be pretty swift with the tides and can make it hard to swim in a snorkel spot.  Dan had to tow us behind the dinghy to make it around the garden! 

Here are a few pictures from our lunch swim: 

A little rope and buoy behind the boat to help with the current. 

Sam is ready to go!

Jack taking a break. 

They had some fun with the current. They would jump off the front and float down the side of the boat. 

Or they would float between the hulls of the boat. 

We spent the night anchored on the west side of Highborne since the wind would be out of the N/NE. Well this was our first lesson of the wrap around waves that happen around the islands. We woke up to some rocky waves around the boat. The Exuma islands are so narrow that we realized we would have to pay close attention to the weather and we would need to find a few hidey holes when the winter fronts come through. The small islands are pretty exposed from the west and they do not have  a lot harbors like the Abacos and Eleuthera. When the fronts come through we get wind that clocks around over the course of the front so you will need protection 360 degrees. This year has been particularly heavy with fronts. The fronts have been occurring back to back with about 1-2 days in between.  They do not necessarily bring a lot of rain but they do bring a lot of wind. Enough that you do not want to be out in it.  We had a few days before the next front so we made the most of it before heading to our hole. The next post we will fill you in on a very cool island that we found on our 2^nd day in the Exumas.

Exploring Eleuthera

By Kathy

We were getting pretty anxious to continue down the island of Eleuthera so we left Spanish Wells on February 22^nd. We almost didn’t make it out of the Spanish Wells channel when a big cargo ship decided to dock across the whole channel. Luckily, it was high tide and we were able to take an alternate way out. 

The cargo ship blocking our exit out of Spanish Wells. 

We did a lot of route planning while we were in Spanish Wells and knew that we had a tricky cut to make it through to get to the main island of Eleuthera. It was called Current Cut. If you hit the tide at a certain time people say it feels like you are getting sucked through a straw. To avoid this we had to time the arrival at the cut right at slack tide. It ended up being a beautiful cut and no problems at all. Right before we arrived at the cut we were greeted by a few dolphin. No matter how many times we see dolphin they still seem so  amazing. A group of six of them swam around the boat and one kept swimming in circles to look at the kids. He would turn his head every time he passed them.  Once we started going again they played in the wake of the boat for a few minutes before saying farewell.

The friendly dolphin that swam back and forth looking at the kids.

Dolphin sightings never get old. Always amazing!

The infamous Current Cut. It was timed just right and was very pretty when we went through.

After Current Cut,  we experienced the roughest ride we have had so far on the trip. It was choppy waves and their timing was very close together. We were beating into the waves so it was a uncomfortable for a few hours. We arrived at Hatchet Bay after Dan masterfully navigated the narrow rocky entrance into the harbor.

The narrow entrance to Hatchet Bay.

We had a few things on the list to do while we were in Hatchet Bay waiting for a good weather window. We wanted to rent a car to see the whole island of Eleuthera. We ended up doing this on Saturday and Emma just posted a blog entry about what we found when we went exploring by car. But I will tell you one thing that happened while we were out and about that the kids were not really aware of when it happened. When we think about the things we will see on this adventure we are hoping to see beautiful islands, cool fish, and great people but there have been a few surprises. We had to make a new category called “I was never expecting to see that”.  We had learned from another cruiser that Lenny Kravitz has a house just south of the Glass Window Bridge. We just said ok and didn’t really think much about it. On our way back to Hatchet Bay at the end of our day we saw two guys riding bikes down a road with no shoulder and barely a 2-lane road. The guy in the front had the traditional Lenny hair and Dan said “Hey I bet that is Lenny Kravitz .” I said that there was little chance he would be riding down a narrow road like this basically in the middle of nowhere. The bikes were not anything special, their clothes were not anything special and the road was pretty dangerous for biking.  I chalked it up to the fact we had Lenny on our brain after hearing he had a house on the island. We stopped at a little bar near the Glass Window Bridge and low and behold the people there said they had seen Lenny riding his bike down the road. By this time he was on his way back towards the restaurant and when he passed by he turned and waved. It really was Lenny!

Our "I was never expecting to see that" list:
1. A performance from the Princeton University a cappella group.
2. Concerts from various Nashville songwriters and Mike Mills from R.E.M.
3. Lenny Kravitz on a bike. 

While we were in Hatchet Bay we had a day of boat chores that needed to be done before heading over to the Exumas. Dan worked on fixing hatch screens and sealing Emma’s emergency hatch and I worked on that little sail bag issue that we decided to fix ourselves so we could go to the Songwriters In Paradise instead of getting it fixed in the Abacos.

Sail bag repair. My sewing projects have definitely taken on a new spin!

We could see a great weather window for making the passage to the Exumas so after 4 days in Hatchet Bay we took off to Rock Harbor at the south end of Eleuthera. This would be our last stop at a grocery store for a couple of weeks so we headed into the settlement and arrived at the store with one minute to spare before closing and did the fastest grocery shopping ever! We had a good dinner at a local restaurant before heading back for an early departure for the Exumas!!! 

Beautiful sunset at Frigate's Bar and Grill.

This is our last dinner out for a while. It will be 2 weeks until we see another restaurant.