Abacos Oct 10 - 14 Moores/Big Cave

Thursday, October 10   Port Lucaya to Lucayan Waterway (5 NM)

We were going to leave Monday and it's Thursday but we've become quite Bahamian in certain ways and aren't in any great hurry so it doesn't really matter when we reach (Bahamian for get there).

Leaving the dock.

Leaving Port Lucaya

Left at noon got as far as Lucayan Waterway where we dropped anchor and scraped the bottom of boat for next hour or so. Have to admit Gerry did more than I but I needed to conserve my strength for heating up leftovers for dinner.

Gungy propeller really needed cleaning

One side of boat

Sunset

I thought the view to the east was better

Temperature still hot but with the wind blowing it's quite comfortable, especially when clouds hide the sun. Such a difference from the canal where there's often no breeze at all.



Woke up at midnight feeling seasick and claustrophobic how ridiculous.

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Friday, October 11,  Lucayan Waterway to Moore's Island (53 NM)

'Hello Mudda, hello Fadda, here I am at Camp Granada.'  That song has been running through my head the last 2 days. Maybe by the end of the trip I'll have a song.

Woke up to sore arms and scraped hands, guess I did more scraping yesterday than I thought. Fine morning no wind inside reef but plenty outside.

Nothing but waves, sky, waves, distant clouds, waves, sun, waves, no birds, no boats, no planes, no land. Did I mention waves? No shade from the relentless sun except on deck but price is high - being doused with salty spray. 
 

Hiding from the sun

I find it difficult to sit all day, not being able to do anything like read or I get seasick. This makes for a long day. Managed to make sandwiches for lunch which is hard to do with one hand as the other hand is hanging on so you don't fall over. Feeling queasy most of the day eagerly scanning the horizon for a five star hotel. Just after 4 saw land, no 5 star hotel and it's not Moore's Island. Finally see it and the waves are dying. It's all getting better, just want a quiet anchorage, who needs a 5 star hotel? Hope trouble doesn't really come in threes, when we rolled the jib in on our approach the patched furling line started to disintegrate but we managed to get it furled; when we started the engine it made a squeaking noise, bad alternator was diagnosed. Managed to sail in with just the main and dropped anchor just before dark. If trouble comes in 3's when and what is the 3rd?

Approaching Moore's Island

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Saturday, October 12  Moore's Island

Moore's Island is not in any cruising books, probably because there's not much there. Day started with  swapping out the broken alternator for the salvaged one from the old engine.

Late in the afternoon we dinghy'd over to the island, met an old man who wandered the streets with us expelling local knowledge such as why the village is called Hard Bargain. There are 2 villages and this one was found to have no water so I guess that was a hard bargain. His Bahamian English was so hard to understand I'm not sure what they do, but suspect they gather rain water. It's a very poor place and when we ended up at his brother's "bar" we bought him a beer, watched 4 men playing backgammon and then dominoes (that's all the patrons) then wandered back to the dock. No fishermen about cleaning their catch but after a few minutes a boat came in with lobster on board. We asked if we could buy some, he said sure how many, I said just enough for dinner. He poured out 8 of them plus 2 conch, Gerry said no that's too much but the fisherman said no it's ok, they're free and then walked away before we could pay him. Last time we were here we got a ridiculous amount of conch, lobster and fish for $10. Perhaps Moore's island should be in the books.

Dock

Ingenious outboard cover, a Tshirt

Grounded boat

View of Ramblynn out in the harbour.

Not so nice house

Nice house

Sunday, October 13  Moore's Island to Mastic Point (14 NM)

After a terrible night of bouncing we Left Moore's Island late morning and arrived at Mastic Point around 4. Dropped anchor in shallow water, threw chicken into the oven and then threw ourselves into the ocean for a bath. To conserve water we often wash in the ocean then rinse off with fresh water. Gerry dove in to disentangle the dinghy's painter from the rudder (got there while we were anchoring, might have been my job to watch for that, maybe) and to remove a big chunk of seaweed from the propeller (definitely not my doing). He also noticed we were barely a foot above the bottom, despite being way off shore, so we moved the boat to deeper depths in case low tide was particularly low. Middle of nowhere, no cell phone reception, so no internet for Gerry. He bought a data card for the Ipad through the phone company so he can keep in touch for business purposes. I have decided to be off the grid for the whole trip. 

Just in sight of Mastic Point

Ipad chart of Mastic Point

Mastic Point sunset

There are no garbage containers out in the ocean so I decided to sort the garbage and what did I discover but my Columbia hiking sandals in there. Gerry had mistaken them for his destroyed ones! I would have searched the boat for weeks and never found them.

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Monday, October 14  Mastic Point to Spence Rock to Big Cave Cay (46 NM)

They say sailing is 99% boredom, 1% terror. After a very bouncy night we hoisted anchor at 8 and headed north. Want to know why we went east to Mastic Point first? So we could sail well today and we did, getting up to well over 6 knots and none of those jerky bouncy waves till noon and then the wind died. We started the engine and left the sails up. At exactly one o'clock the wind came back, guess it went for lunch. We turned off the engine. All day long nothing to see except 4 flying fish and 2 birds.

A whole lot of nothing but water.

Then we got to the tricky spot, Spence rock where the water gets skinny (means shallow not narrow), and sailboats don't usually go through here. I checked the depth before going below (9 ft) to look at the chart with Gerry when we touched bottom, oops! I was put in charge of navigating since he can't read the Ipad charts outside (sun too bright). Positioned myself in the shade of the companionway and told him when to make course changes while holding the rail tight with one hand and Ipad tighter with the other. Didn't want to fall down the steps if we came to a sudden halt. Got through then realized we weren't done, more skinny water, this time I sat on the cockpit floor so I couldn't fall anywhere. Made it through safely with only a few frayed nerves. So it wasn't sheer terror. Anchored in Big Cave Cay near John's Cove. No cave and no sign of anyone, much less anyone named John.

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