Every Picture Tells a Story. Part I

Well not really. I have to add some commentary to these nice photographs. It's about time I posted some photos eh? They might be in chronological order. Might not.
We really have no pictures of the crossing because we no one wanted to let go of their ass to grab a camera so we will start with Vero Beach and then the Banks.

 Vero Beach is an OK place to hang out for a while but after a month it's like, "Get me the hell out of here!" Especially if the old regulars at the marina start getting loopy and yelling at you to slow down your dinghy. One day they were yelling at us all to slow down and none of us were going fast at the time so when we drove by in the rental car I yelled out the window at them to "slow it down!" They laughed and I think they were just messing with us but they pretty much hate the influx of cruisers invading their territory. I have talked to each one of the regulars from time to time and they are all nice folks. Not sure what was going on this season but everyone was miserable, including some of the cruisers. Maybe it was the weather. We did meet some lovely folks at the happy hours and we managed to get our act together enough to leave.

 I will not even mention the crossing as I did a post on that already, so off we go to the Bahamas Banks.

 The banks were quite a relief after crossing the stream. We ghosted along on flat quiet water, passing folks at anchor who were taking a break from the crossing. I wanted to hit them with an air horn to wake them up but Deb said no. S/V Odin was over there sleeping and I thought it would be a stitch to get them jumping. Maybe hit them with the spotlight when they came up. Just evil things that go through my head after being up all day and night.

Before long we were confronted with The Whale. It's a cut we have to go through and out into the Atlantic to get further south in the Abacos. It's notorious for being a bitch in the wrong weather but it was pretty tame when we went through. We needed that little break. Before long we were in Marsh harbor right behind SV Magnolia. We waved hello and dropped anchor nearby. We checked in at one of the marinas and had to dock for a few hours as required by Customs. All went well and we were back at anchor. The others were off to Hopetown.

I don't seem to have any photos from Marsh Harbor. I think Debra took the pics. I pretty much just had a beer in my hand. SV Odin came into town and we racked up a horrific tab at Snappa's. I was too stupid to notice the 15% added to the tab, so I added another 15%. Idiot. Next time Deb handles the transaction.

Marsh Harbor is a busy place. You can pretty much find what you need here and if they don't have it you can run over to Man O War and probably find it there.

While we were anchored in Marsh, this trawler pulls in behind us and when it got dark our whole boat had blue light invading all ports. The smurfs in the trawler lit up their boat pretty good I would say. Kind of an LED overload. Put my little blue lamp to shame.

 We hopped over to Man O War to anchor and inquire about a possible sail repair. We found a dude that is an excellent sail repair specialist. He gave us all the materials and a new slug with instructions for repairing it ourselves and offered to do it if we wanted him to. We took to the task and had it done in no time. By the way this guy has one hell of a place. It was completely amazing and sits in a garden of greenery. He has a cute little dog too. We also needed an impeller for our boost pump which we found at the marina there. I might have to change my opinion of Man O War Cay. They may still be a little spooky but now they allow the restaurant there to serve beer!

 Debra and I took care of the sail repair and it came out all nice nice. The boost pump came out OK too. So Man O War came through for us. I take back all the stuff I said about the place. Most of it. People are sill a tiny bit Stephen King material.

A nice anchorage off MOW.

Weather heading to Hopetown. Suckers.

We left for Tiloo Cay on a blustery day of upwind sailing. We did good for a while but then the wind was right on the nose so Mister Yanmar helped out a little. Tiloo is a favorite of ours. There is a nice quiet beach there and we made use of it. Hardly anyone around.

The next day we jumped over to Lanyard Cay. Not sure if I spelled that correctly but I'm too lazy to look it up. We had a nice quiet night listening to the surf pound the other side. We were going out the cut in the morning and when we woke up everyone who was crossing over to Eleuthera was gone already. What the hell! I know we are slow risers, well, Debra is. Once I get some go juice in me I'm good to go. Debra is pretty much in dim awareness until about 10 am. All these other knobs must just fall out of bed and hit the start button. Funny thing is we caught them right at Little Egg. Slackers.

We pulled into Royal Harbor because we had a blow coming. We weren't sure if it might come early and we didn't want to be caught so we dropped the hook. Friends moved on to Hatchet Bay and we were to follow if the blow didn't happen. Something else happened instead.

Catching Charisma

Royal Harbor. Charisma anchored.

 I have a post about us sinking. Not really sinking but it was scary as hell to find a seawater filled compartment in your bow. These pictures show the V-berth after I got done ripping everything out of it to get at the water. I got her pumped out pretty quick without having a heart attack.

Apparently the water was in there since the crossing. Surprised there weren't barnacles growing on the water tank.

We left Eleuthera early this time and hit Current Cut in a rage. So much for timing it at slack water. Geez it was a sphincter tightening moment there for a bit. There is a reason they call it Current Cut. We have to do better at timing these cuts else one day we will be in some shitty situation we will regret.

We sailed/motor sailed through the Exuma bank to Highborne Cay. Hate Highborne Cay. Do not like the marina and the anchorage sucks. Good holding but rough waters. We were bounced pretty good in there. Megayacht central as well. One Mega dude dropped anchor in front of us in the dark. By morning he was next to us. The wind didn't shift. Anchor alarms. Hello!

At anchor at Current Cut

Got nice and tight to shore

We are running out of internet soon so I'll end it here for now. I'm a wee bit behind in my posts and it's not going to get any easier from here on out. We are currently in Georgetown and about to head to Long Island. It's time to move fast and get to the DR.

More photos to come.

Cheers!
P