Baker’s Bay
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.41.390N
77.09.611W



What a rude awakening we had this morning. The wind picked up about 5 am this morning and by 5:30, Dale was up collecting our various handheld electronic instruments and laptops to put into the oven with the first clap of thunder. (The thought is that by placing the instruments into the oven, they’ll somehow be protected from being fried should we be hit by lightening. The black cloud was enormous and the boats were swinging through complete 360s by the time the storm passed through.

Our big excitement came when a large steel power yacht guesstimated to be about 85’ long started dragging down on a catamaran about 35’ long. Dale tried hailing them on the VHF on a couple of different channels but with no response. Finally the catamaran owner awoke to the problem and somehow got the attention of the power yacht’s captain. The family of 5 came up and lifted their anchor and moved upwind of Toucan Dream. Bob was delighted that the 3 teenaged daughters in their bikinis were going to be closer but not so thrilled to be downwind of Daddy’s big metal boat with an incredible amount of windage. Luckily no collision ensued. This couldn’t be said of the boats anchored in Marsh Harbor. Via the radio, we heard that several boats had dragged anchor there and that a few had ended up making contact. Toucan Dream Bob likes to call it Smash Harbor.

I sat in the cockpit with Dale through the boat shuffle and listened to the “cruiser’s net” which was comprised of not only the weather but the effort made to reconnect those who had lost items with those who had found items. My favorite was the red SeaRay cockpit cushions found making an escape from Marsh Harbor that had found their way out into the Abaco Sea. Obviously it was going to be a dark and nasty day so I went back to bed.

About noon, Toucan Dream and Aye Doc decided to make the run through “the Whale” while they still could and head to Green Turtle. Dale had just finished reading the weather report we get over the satellite phone when they radioed their plans. The next nasty storm wasn’t supposed to arrive until Sunday, so we figure we have a day or two yet.

Once the storm passed, it was actually a pretty nice day. I spent some time floating around in my inner tube which is securely attached to the Palace with a rope. We watched another large power boat spend a couple of hours detangling their 2 anchors; the captain was not a happy camper. With the 360's we all were doing this morning, their anchors twisted together. We were really surprised when after they had separated the anchors, they turned around and set the two of them again.

We called Bob & Karen on Annabelle II to see if they wanted to learn how to play Mexican Train Dominos. About 5pm we settled into an evening of counting spots. Now we’ll all be ready when we run into Toucan Dream again.

Baker’s Bay
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.41.390N
77.09.611W


Toucan Dream and Aye Doc pulled out first thing this morning to make a run back into Marsh Harbor to see if their mail had finally arrived. Having the anchorage to ourselves, Dale and I dropped the dink and headed back at Spoil Cay, this time we took a couple of coffee cans to put our shells in. We timed it so that we were almost at low tide on a new moon (meaning that the low tide was lower than usual). We were lucky in our scavenger hunt; I found 5 good sized shells and Dale half filled his can with the tiny shells that are prominent on the island. I found 3 conch shells on the beach but since their inhabitants were still alive, I threw them back out into the water as far as I could.

Back at the Palace, a DeFever powerboat group had found our bay and 7 of them had rafted up for party time. A huge steel power boat named Belezia had anchored uncomfortably close to us but then ended up moving further out. We suspect because they had anchored right over the block of concrete we had seen when we were circling around looking for a good place to drop the anchor yesterday.

Dale inflated the clear inner tube we found on our trip south and I floated in it until it felt like the sun was searing my brain. Probably a good indication that it was time to come back in.

About the time that Annabelle II came in to anchor, the DeFever raft up, broke up and powered off toward Marsh Harbor. Toucan Dream & Aye Doc finally made it back in before dark but not before the threatening clouds opened up and started raining.

We finished the day eating the fish that Bob had given to us yesterday and watching one of our DVDs.

Baker’s Bay
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.41.390N
77.09.611W

3.1NM
4.5 Kt Avg.
5.5 Kt Max
.40 Hrs.

Current Odom: 7935.8


While Annabelle II elected to check out Man-o-War Cay, we moved up the island to Baker’s Bay. It wasn’t far enough to even warrant taking down the sun awning. Things have certainly changed since the last time we were here. Back then, this end of the island was an overgrown ruin of a defunct cruise ship destination. Now there is construction (and a nicely groomed beach) the length of the bay. The new owners appear to be making a golf course for their new housing development and digging a marina to pay for it all. Gossip has it that the locals aren’t too keen on the idea of all of that fertilizer running off into their waters.

The crews from Toucan Dream and Aye Doc were already heading out to go fishing, by the time we had finished anchoring. We had come here due in large part to the cruising guides showing a snorkel destination located around one of the small off lying islands. We lowered the dink and headed out in that direction. We circled a couple of the little islands at the end of Great Guana but couldn’t find a reef or anything that looked worth jumping in for. We ended up scooting over to Spoil Cay and wandering the beaches in that head down, stooped over position that denoted serious shelling taking place. We found a few interesting shells but then decided that we needed a bag or something to carry our treasures in before taking on the entire island.

In the afternoon, Bob from Toucan Dream and Stacy from Aye Doc dropped off a couple of snapper fillets from their fishing trip. Bob loves to fish and has offered to take us fishing with him to teach us some of the finer points. He often catches more than he & Caron can eat or freeze, so they give the rest away. I’d call that a win-win situation. He gets to fish and we don’t have to sit in the sun all day.

Fishers Bay,
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.40.182N
77.07.293W


Bob & Karen from Annabelle II showed us a really nice snorkeling spot at the southern end of Great Guana today. It was good to get back into the water after being cooped up on the boat for so long. The visibility was good too. They figure that one of the reasons for it being so nice is because its location half way down a long island. The spot where we cut over to it is too shallow for fishing boats or other types of power boats to get to it. As it was, we had to lift our dinghy engines to transit the area ourselves. We got a couple of good photos of a queen angelfish.

We heard from Gerry & Nicky on Orpailleur today, they’ve made the Galapagos.

I stayed up late this evening to see if I could get a good signal to the internet to upload some posts. Regrettably, it still was not strong enough to upload any photos. At some point, I’d like to go back and add the photos to all of the text.

Fishers Bay,
Great Guana Cay
Bahamas
26.40.182N
77.07.293W

9.1NM
5.6 Avg
6.5 Max
1.37 Hrs.

Current Odom: 7932.7 NM

What is that big star shining so brightly? Could it be the sun? We haven’t seen it in so long, we may be mistaken. Whatever it was, it did stay out the rest of the day.

As you may know, the Bahamas had been our annual vacation spot for several years leading up to our sabbatical. However, as a vacation spot, we had no need to search out the necessities of cruising, ie. Grocery stores, Laundromats, hardware, etc. So Bob & Karen on Annabelle II volunteered to show us around the cruising side of Marsh Harbor.

Dale was in search of a 2 cup coffee pot and I needed to stock up on a few fresh vegetables. We searched the various stores on our way to the supermarket but when we found a coffee pot that might have fit the bill, it cost more than twice the amount we thought it should, so we kept walking. The supermarket we found was well stocked and I was able to find everything I needed and a few things that I didn’t need but got anyway. Bob and I split the fare of a cab to take the bags of groceries back to the dinghy dock while Dale checked out one more store for a coffee pot and Karen went to another grocery store for the few items left on her list. Then it was back to our respective boats to quickly put away the groceries before lifting our anchors and making our way over to Fisher’s Bay on Great Guana Cay.

In years past, we have taken a mooring inside Orchid Bay on Great Guana but this year, we were surprised to see that they have added a new dock where the deeper moorings once sat. This new dock is for the very, very large power boats. Even though we have been relegated to the anchorage to the north of Orchid Bay, Bob assured us that the people-watching is just as amusing at Nippers when you dinghy in. So we made plans to meet at the dock closer to the dinner hour to get good seats for the free entertainment and weren’t disappointed when we climbed the hill to the colorful establishment at the top.

The view overlooking the beach and outlying reef is still just as breathtaking as it ever was and there were a good number of people enjoying the snorkeling and sunbathing that they offered. The two pools were packed with vacationers and the bar stereo was blaring Jimmy Buffet songs for the whole island to hear. We took a table on one of the upper decks with a roof and ordered some conch fingers and French fries to help in moderating the effects of the Nipper Trippers that found their way to our table. One thing about anchoring around the corner from here is that we had to leave before the “party” really took off, so that we could make our way back to our boats with plenty of light. Not a problem really as no one in our group is into the “mosh pit” type of gatherings.

We made our way back to the Palace in time to watch the sunset and Dale blew his conch horn to mark the time. Tomorrow we might actually get to go snorkeling.


Photos: Bob & Karen from Annabelle II
Dale & his conch horn