Stopping to smell the roses

 

                                                        Stopping to smell the rose!

It's a long sail from Toronto, to Georgetown Bahamas.  It has its ups and its downs, moments of serenity, and times when sheer hell breaks loose.  But today, the 4th day of our journey home, its just a beautiful day to sail and take it all in.  The winds are a steady 17-20 knots, the seas are relatively flat and the boat's doing 6.5 knots, with only a gentle heel.

    It's a relatively quiet day out on the water, we're flying along at 7+ knots, and have managed to pass all the boats we've seen.  They were all headed the opposite direction, but that doesn't matter.  We totally walked away from Mark and Min-ju on Blue Bird the other day. Reefing early allowed us to maintain a good course throughout the day.  Blue Bird, on the other hand, had all her canvas up, leaving the boat hard to manage in the stiff breeze coming off the sound.

  It's always a good time sailing/racing a buddy boat to your next destination.  A healthy dose of competition helps keep you engaged on what might be an otherwise boring passage.  When Shannon and Zack were aboard we raced a ketch from Allen Cay down to Shroud cay. They asked if the other boat knew we were racing them, "of course" I said, if there are two sailboats on the water they're always racing.  

  Today however isn't one of those days.  We'd pulled the anchor promptly at 8am  knowing we had a long day ahead, but we were only about 3 hours into our day when Henry fell asleep in the cockpit,  

  Since we named the engines Fred and Barney it seemed only fitting to name the autopilot the Great Gazoo.  With Henry asleep, I left the Great Gazoo at the wheel while I enjoyed the sun on deck and took in the view, without a camera in hand for a change.

  Our stop at Black Point Settlement was the fist time during our visit that the locals made us feel welcome, as opposed to just tolerated.  The staff at BPYC was incredibly friendly, the food was prepared quickly and they even provided us with complimentary appetizers.  between lackadaisical service at most restaurants or the highspeed tour boats that go out of their way to wake your boat, I got the feeling the locals would rather not have tourists around at all. 

  After two cruisers were killed and another seriously injured by highspeed boats nothing changed, they still buzz by the boat close enough to to read their name tags, even in a wide open, empty harbour they still make a point of waking the boat even if it takes them out of their way.  I figure they're marking their territory or something to that affect.  Either way it's enough to turn you off coming back.

  We were heading back to Staniel Cay from Black Point to dive the Grotto one last time as it was the highlight of our trip.  Being the site of the recent accident that killed and injured some cruisers we were much more diligent with our safety.

We anchored as close to the Grotto as we could, and made sure to be back aboard well before dusk, even though the accident happened at 11am on a sunny day.

  Our dive was fantastic, although a bit more difficult on account of the tide ebbing while we dove.  The water was warm enough that we could stay in long enough to empty our tanks and the fish were as abundant as they were last time.  Inside the Grotto is, of course, fantastic, but a lot of the fish roam the coral outside the Grotto.  Henry and I made our way from one end to the other, seeing a wide variety of fish, and even a ray hiding in the sand, it ended up being an almost two hour dive.  Staniel Cay has a tank filling station, so we filled up before heading to our next dive spot, the "Aquarium" in Soldiers Cay. 

.   We made the aquarium in short time the following day as the wind was blowing a steady 22 knots from the east.  With the protection of the Exumas between us and the deep waters of the Sound, there was barely a ripple on the water.  We still had one reef in from our brisk sail up from Blackpoint, I'm sure we could have managed without one, but after seeing Blue Bird  fighting to sail their course with full sails again, we surmised it was a good decision. 

  I'd like to say that we continued the tradition of racing our friends that day, but that would be an exaggeration.  As the wind built, Mark and June-Li fell further and further behind.  By the time we reached our final way point before dropping sails, Mark and June-Li were but a blip in the rearview!  Fortunately for them, Marks Catalina 42 draws significantly less than Island Eclipse, so they were able to cut a corner we couldn't.  In the end we arrived at the Soldier Cay, and the Aquarium only minutes before they did.  Proving once again that the shortest distance between two point is definitely a strait line!!

  The Aquarium proved to be well worth the trip, with a wide variety of fish, and lots of them.  It proved to be an immersive experience, the fish, accustomed to people, had no reservation about getting up close, in fact, there were moments when Henry's figure would disappear in a cloud of yellow, green and blue.  We also managed to spot our first lobster hiding at the threshold of his coral cave.  

  We celebrated our last night in the exumas with Mark and June-Li on Blue Bird, trading stories and reminiscing about our time in the Bahamas, and how it had come and gone so quickly.  We didn't stay too late as tomorrow was going to be a long day crossing back to Nassau.  Mark and June-Li wouldn't be joining us this time, they were heading further up the Exumas to visit islands we'd already explored.  We planned on catching up later in the month, but we weren't sure were or when.

   We headed out early the next morning, quietly sneaking out of the anchorage, as not to wake our sleeping friends. It's a 65 mile run from Soldiers Cay across Great Bahama Bank to Nassau.  The waters turned from sky blue, to a vivid shade of emerald green in less than a boat length as we made our way west.  It was nice to be able to sail our last crossing of the bank, our last real opportunity to take it all in before crossing back to reality!