Jessica's Vacation

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May 21, 2016 – Saturday – Jessica Arrives!

It was a long morning of waiting for Jessica to arrive at the Staniel Cay Airport.  We killed some time by working on the cockpit seat that Bill had installed earlier for fishing.  The seat worked but not well and some additional parts needed to be installed so the seat would close easier.  What was thought (by Bill) to be a short job ended up being a very long and complicated job (as usual).  In order for the seat to slide in and open easier some plastic slides needed to be installed.  This meant moving the seat about a ½ inch toward the wall of the boat.  When we did that, the seat now hits on the outside of the side step.  This is definitely a problem and not acceptable.  Thus it took Bill about an hour or more to figure out how to fix the problem, move the cabinet slightly and then reattach the seat.  Meanwhile I had to keep holding up the seat, which was very heavy so he could keep checking the measurements.  After all of that, we ran out of time so we went to Staniel Cay to meet Jessica without finishing the seat.  The seat is re-hung but the slides to make it open easier which was the original project is still incomplete.

Jessica finally arrived right on time.  It was great to see her!  Jessica said that they did not go into Black Point as the schedule indicated, but came directly from Nassau.  She got a kick out of taking the golf cart to the marina and then our tender to Compass Cay Marina which is about 7 miles away.  She immediately loved the water colors and the adventure.  Upon arriving back at the boat we all took a swim behind the boat and enjoyed the “aquarium-like” adventure and the nurse sharks. 

Staniel Cay Airport - Flamingo Air

 

Sunday, May 22 – Day 26

Today we took Stewart over to a sandy island on the southern end of the Land & Sea Exuma National Park and let him run.  To our surprise, Stew found the sun quite hot and decided that he was not interested in a flat out run today, walking was just fine.  He even decided to cool his feet in the water.  For those readers who are not aware, Stew hates water and never thrilled with getting wet so this was quite a surprise. 

After a few minutes at Stew beach we headed over to Rachael’s Bubble Bath on the northern end of Compass Cay.   We walked the creek to Rachael’s and enjoyed a cool swim. 

 

Rachael's Bubble Bath, Compass Cay

Monday, May 23 – Day 27

What a great day of fishing.  The seas were calm and in about an hour and a half we had 2 Blackfin Tuna and 2 large Dolphin (Mahi).

Black Tuna



Dolphin (Mahi Mahi)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 24 – Day 28

Morning we headed to Staniel to get fuel for both the Marlin Striker and the tender.  After that we headed out of Staniel to do a little more fishing.  This was not a very fishy day for dolphin or tuna.  We could not find a bird in sight and the seas were beginning to get rougher.  So after a couple of hours we headed in closer to shore to go after some Barracuda.  The barracuda make great bait for deep drop fishing which we hope to do in Abaco with our friends Glenn and Laurie.  We had great success.  Jessica caught her first barracuda. 

Wednesday, May 25 – Day 29

Today was off in the morning to the Sea Aquarium.  After the sea aquarium we went over to check out the caves.  These caves you have to swim underwater to get into them.  The wind and waves were pushing directing into the opening of the caves so Bill decided he would check it out before we all got in.  To his surprise it was not the waves that sent him back to the boat, but an about seven (7) foot barracuda that was guarding the entrance.  Given the circumstances we decide to try the caves another day and returned to Rachael’s once again.  Today the ocean waves were rolling right into Rachael’s so we thought it would be a little more interesting for Jessica.  She enjoyed the “bubbles” and crashing waves. 

After some threatening afternoon thunderstorms we headed back over to the caves for another try.  This time the tide was very low and there were many rocks showing along with the easterly wind and waves rolling into the entrance.  Tomorrow is another day and that may prove a better and safer experience. 

Thursday, May 26 – Day 30



Sea Aquarium between Soldier Cay and O'Brien Cay

The wind is still quite strong out of the east so we gave up on going to the caves again this morning.  We had a restful, quiet morning which bored Jessica but there was not much else we could do as we planned on leaving Compass Cay late morning and moving to Staniel Cay Yacht Club (Marina) for her last couple of nights.  Although we called to see if our slip was vacant before we left Compass, we ended up waiting over an hour idling once we arrived at Staniel.  While waiting for some people who had decided to pull in and go to the bar for the afternoon, we topped off our fuel and unloaded our tender.  Once we finally got our slip, we immediately headed over to Big Major with the tender to “feed the pigs”.  Jessica loved the swimming pigs. 

 

 

Big Major - Swimming Pigs

 

Friday, May 27 – Day 31

This was a full day of going back to Rocky Dundas caves.  The weather and seas were perfect today for this adventure.  We then cruised back to   Bitter Guana Cay where we got a lot of laughs watching the iguanas.  These are the endangered Cayman iguanas which now only exist in the Bahamas. 

Bitter Ghana Cay - Iguana Beach

 

 

Saturday, May 28 – Day 32

Jessica leaves to go back to New Hampshire at 8:50 AM and we are head to Hurricane Hole Marina in Nassau. 

A Restful Week at Compass Cay

May 16 -20, 2016 (Days 20-24)

The past few days have been very restful with very little planned each day.  On Monday, May 16^th we took a tender ride to Staniel Cay to pick up the Johnny Cake Bread that we had ordered from Rhonda a couple of days ago.  The “bread” turned out to be very different from what we had received last year in Spanish Wells.  It turned out to be good, just not what we were expecting.  On Tuesday, May 17^th we once again traveled to Spaniel.  Our friends, Randy and Laurie (Wastin’ Away) needed to get fuel in their dingy and were not sure if they would make it that far so we offered to travel with them and that would give us the opportunity to top off our fuel in the tender as well.  They ran out of gas about 200 yards from the fuel dock so we towed them in with our tender.  It was a cute site, a tender towing a tender.  No big deal, we all got fuel, had some lunch, visited the local General Store (bought nothing) and then returned to the Compass Cay Marina.  It was a very nice ride.  Back at Compass I decided to take a little swim.  Compass Cay Marina is the only place that I know of that you can swim with the sharks and at the same time see all kinds of reef fish.  There is live coral right under the docks in the marina.  I got to see Queen Angel fish, Parrot fish, Squirrel fish, Nassau Groupers, Barracuda, and lots of other reef fish.  After my swim, it was time to prepare for another Compass Cay Pot Luck dinner.  This is the last night for our friends, Bart and Nat (Dusty Seas). 
On Wednesday, May 18^th saw off Nat and Bart and then we headed out with Jamal, Randy, and Laurie to do some fishing.  With 5-6 foot seas we quickly decided that this would not be a pleasure fishing trip, but something that could become dangerous for the crew on the deck.  It was not worth someone getting hurt so we turned around and returned back to the marina.  After cleaning up and turning the boat back into our “camper” we took another swim and an afternoon snooze. 
On Thursday, May 19^th we saw off our friends Randy and Laurie who headed to Nassau to meet their family and visit Atlantis for a few days.  Bill and I took our tender over to Rachael’s Bubble bath.  It was interesting to see it at low tide.  It looks quite different at low tide.  Because the tide was low we were able to climb up on the ridge and see the Exuma Sound side.  It is hard to explain but it was very cool to see how deep the trench is that overflows into Rachael’s.  At high tide the bubble bath is much more interesting and fun, but it is not possible to climb up the ridge at high tide.  The view was fabulous as it is 360 degrees of beautiful scenery, colors, islands and flats.  After Rachael’s we cruised over to the “caves” but did not go in because it was beginning to rain and looked very threatening.  We did not want to be out in a storm so we headed back to the marina.  We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out our guest room and preparing the boat for Jessica (our daughter) to arrive on Saturday.  We put together the fighting chair and packed away all of the fishing gear so our guest room is now available.  It seems nice to be able to pack everything away and neaten up but I am not thrilled with having the fighting chair filling the cockpit.  I loose most of my space for an outside dinner table, the hammock, and just plain chairs for sitting around.

Friday, May 20^th is a day of finishing up the laundry, making beds, and fixing the spreader lights in the morning.  In the afternoon we took the tender on an excursion of checking out some nearby islands and a trip up toward Warderick Well to “the aquarium”.  The aquarium is an island structure that has live coral heads on the inside that houses just about any kind of reef fish imaginable.  I will have more about this location next week as we intend to take Jessica up there. 

Tonight we had after dinner cocktails and Bahamian salad on Cronulla, Portsmouth, NH  with Heather and Richard.  It was a fun night of Portsmouth stories, boating adventures stories and lots of laughs.  Heather and Richard spend their time between Badgers Island Marina, Portsmouth (Bow Lake), Atlanta where Richard has a business and the Bahamas in the springtime.  The M/V Cronulla is a custom built Selene.   It had cherry interior and was absolutely gorgeous.  The name Cronulla came from Cronulla Beach in Sydney, Australia. 

This week has been fairly quiet with many of our friends heading back north or onto other locations and resting for what we expect to be a very busy adventure next week while Jessica is here with us.  We have a very busy and adventure packed week planned for her so it was good for us to have some down time. 

 

Compass Cay

May 13 – 15 (Friday – Sunday) – Compass Cay

Compass Cay is an island that is privately owned by Tucker Rollo.  The marina is currently managed by his son, Jamal but Tucker can be seen helping out at the marina office every day. 

Friday was a day of clean-up the boat and laundry after spending 4 days on a mooring in the marine park.  It was fun to catch up with our friends and get all of the latest happenings in their lives.  We discovered that Peter’s wife, Pam did not make the trip with him because she just had rotator cuff surgery thus Peter is going to return to Naples early next week instead of staying to until the end of May.  And Bart and Nat are planning to take their boat north this summer to Block Island for Bart’s daughter’s wedding.  Then they will travel to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and a few other stops before heading back south. 

Bill joined Bart, Peter and Andrew for some afternoon fishing and they returned with a couple of dolphin (mahi).  Not bad for a short trip.  Just enough for the marina wide Pot Luck dinner that was planned for that evening.  Nat does a great job of rounding up all of the boats and getting everyone to bring something different so we have a wide variety of appetizers, vegetables, and desserts to go with the fish the guys caught.  The Pot Luck dinners are always a good time of food and stories.  

Saturday, Bill and I ventured down to Staniel Cay in our tender to get fuel (for the tender) and at the same time we had lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club restaurant.   Now this is not a fancy place or the kind of restaurant that one would expect at a US Yacht Club.  This is the local hangout with a bar, restaurant, and quite the mixture of clientele from the locals to the mega yachts.  You just never know who you are going to see (celebrities) or hear.  On this day it was fairly quiet for lunch although we still saw very unusual stuff that is not fit for my blog.  After lunch we headed back to Compass Cay to be back in time for the afternoon high tide fishing again.  This time Bill caught a very nice Black Tuna.  Black tuna is excellent eating. 

On Sunday, after seeing Peter off to first Nassau to pick up his Captain and Mate and then on Tuesday he will travel from Nassau to Naples (302 NM), we fished all day.  First from our tender and then as the seas started to kick up a little and it was coming up on the high tide we went back into Compass and immediately Bart came over and wanted to go back out on his tender.  Bart’s tender is a 28’ Rampage that he tows over to the Bahamas with his 55’ Viking Sportfish, so that is not quite the same as fishing from a 12’ Rigid Boat.  Jamal, the son of the Compass Cay owner, also joined the group on this trip and they slaughtered the fish.  They got 1 Black Tuna and 11 very nice Dolphin.  The excitement was bountiful as in the first pass over the fish, 4 rods went off all at the same time and with the experience on board they were able to land all 4 fish.  The Bill and Jamal fought the same fish to the boat.  Now you ask how that could happen.  Well, the fish took one bait and before the line came tight, went over and took a second bait.  Thus they both fought the same fish to the boat and landed it.  Then Jamal lost a fish part way to the boat when a big shark came along and “stole” the fish from him.    Upon returning to the docks at about 7:30, Jamal began cleaning the fish and Greg from The Ring Leader (54 Nordic Tug) used the electric fry pan to cook up some fresh Mahi for everyone.  It was well after dark before Jamal finished cleaning the fish and everyone got a taste. 

Bill, Bart, Andy, Jamal

 

 

11 Large Dolphin and 1 Small Black Tuna



Other Compass Fun

Warderick Well Exuma Land & Sea Park

May 9-11, 2016 – Days 12-14   Warderick Wells – Exuma Land & Sea National Park

Marlin Striker, I’m Doin Alright, and Caliente spent 3 days on mooring #19 at the Exuma Land & Sea National Park.  Each of the days we toured the islands by both land and sea.  On the first day we traveled by tender up to the Hog Cay mooring field.  My brother, Bruce and sister-in-law, Lori also went along with their tender.  Along the way we saw beautiful scenery, water colors that are just indescribable, and explored Johnny Depp’s home from a distance.  Johnny Depp has done an incredibly great job of building out an entire island that is in keeping with the Bahamian architectures and very fitting. 

 

Johnny Depp Island Home

Each night we all joined together for dinner with each boat taking their turn at cooking.  It was great to get a night off from preparing a meal and all lots us had lots of fun and friendship.  On the night that it was Marlin Strikers turn to cook we finished dinner and then as in Marlin Striker fashion we enjoyed a night time fish/shark frenzy.  Even the non-fish people among the group seemed to have a good time watching the numerous sharks, big-eye jacks, and other fish in the underwater lights. 

 

 During our first night while taking Stewart to shore to do his business we discovered the Bahamian Hutia.  This was quite an experience in that there were many, many of them and they are not afraid of people or dogs.  In fact they were overly friendly from my perspective.   On our last night we decided to take a late night excursion ashore with the tender and my camera to get some pictures of the very rare (except on Warderick Wells) Bahama Hutia (Hoo-tea-ah).  The Hutia is a plump, brown, and rabbit-sized member of the rodent family.  Hutias are unique to the West Indies. The average Hutia weights just over one and a half pounds.  Hutias are nocturnal and are the only land mammal native to The Bahamas.  The Hutia is on the endangered species list and currently only exist on East Plana Cay, Little Wax Cay, and Warderick Wells.  These three locations now host the only known populations of this particular species in the whole world. 

 

Bahamian Hutia

Warderick Wells has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  The water colors are fabulous and the environment is pristine!

Highbourne Cay Marina

Friday, May 6, 2016 -  Highbourne Cay Marina

Today we came straight down the Tongue of the Ocean! The seas were 2-3 feet down the tongue and settled down to about 1 foot as we crossed the shallows into Highbourne Marina.  The trip was very enjoyable.  To our surprise when we pulled into Highbourne, my brother and sister-in-law were there.  And we ended up in the slip right beside them.  What are the chances of that???  We were aware that we were both in the Bahamas (on boats) but we had no idea of each others float plans.  As it turns out, we will be travelling very close to one another for the next couple of weeks, until Bruce heads back to the US and we head to Abaco and Grande Bahama.  Well this should be fun!  As it stands now, Bruce will be here for 2 nights and we will be here 3 nights then we are both moving on to Warderick Wells. 


Marlin Striker, I'm Doin Alright, Caliante

Tonight we unloaded the tender and took a little ride out through the entrance and back.  We checked out the Nurse Sharks that guard the entire entrance.  We also saw an Eagle Ray behind our boat.  The water is very clear here and lots of fish in the underwater lights.  

Depart:  Chub Cay - 10:45 AM
Arrived:  Highbourne Cay - 3:27 PM
Travel Time: 3 hours and 27 minutes
Average Speed:  23.8 kts
Maximum Speed: 26.9 kts
Distance traveled:  82.1 NM

Saturday, May 7, 2016

We loaded the tender with lunch, umbrella, fish pole, and snorkeling gear and headed out to the little lagoon at the end of the island.  We tried a fishing, but only a little as it was too rough to go to the deep side of the island with the tender so we stayed on the shallow side.  That worked great for getting to the lagoon, but not so well for fishing.  We were the only ones in the lagoon so we had the beach and the cabaña all to ourselves.  We did some shelling and swimming then had our picnic lunch.  About mid afternoon we headed back to the boat as we did not take Stew with us so it was time to go back. 

Dolphin Striker

We had a wonderful dinner at the Xuma Café with Bruce and Lori and their friends, Chris and Sean.  The Xuma Café is one of the few restaurants in the Xuma's so we figured we would take advantage of not having to cook and call it a Mother's Day dinner a night early. 

Sunday, May 8, 2016 - Mother's Day

It is time for us to start up the watermaker.  So the morning was filled with housekeeping while Bill started the watermaker.

After lunch we all took a dingy ride over to a nearby island, Allen's Cay to see the iguanas. 

Bruce (my brother) & Lori (sister-in-law) at Allen's Cay

Iguana Island - Allen's Cay



Many Changes at Chub Cay

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The trip from Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon to Chub Cay, Bahamas was very enjoyable.  The seas were mostly 2-3 feet and easy traveling.  We watched the thunderstorms on radar come across from Ft. Lauderdale area and chase us most of the way across Mackie Shoal. Luckily the storm stalled out some when it hit the Bahama bank.  We also watched the storms hang just east of Chub all afternoon. We made it into Chub and got fuel long before the storms finally arrived at about 9:30PM.  Once the thunderstorms arrived it rained heavily all night.  This worked well for us as the boat got a good washing and we did not have to do it and we did not have to use our water.  Mother Nature was good to us.  For those of you who may be unaware, water in the Bahamas is 40 cents a gallon or we need to use our water maker and make it.  Thus we consider water at a premium either way.

Depart - 6:30 AM

Arrive - 3:20 PM

Trip - 194.1 NM

Wind - E-SE 5-10

Seas - 2-3 feet

Average Speed - 25.6 kts,  Max. Speed - 28.4 kts.

Thursday, May 5th  A day of rest and relaxation

Chub Cay is really thriving since the last time we were here.  Mr. George Bishop recently completed the purchase of the whole island.   Mr. Bishop is a Texas billionaire who is the founder and chief executive of GeoSouthern Energy Corporation.  Mr. Bishop sold his interest in Devon Energy for $6 billion in cash when he started looking for a place to invest.  George purchased most of the private houses on the island along with all of the other facilities including the 110 slip marina. The large building by the beach is rapidly being finished as the Clubhouse with a new bar, restaurant and lodging upstairs.  There are several new one room bungalows in a the open are between the beautiful Marina and the beach.  It is estimated that Mr. Bishop will invest $38.6 million dollars into Chub Cay.




The Clubhouse





New Bungalows' on the beach



Walkway to Rental Units


Mr. Bishops boat is the C'mon Man.  There are many more boats here than our last visit.  The boats include Wheels and Reel Wheels, in which pizza Toni's former employee Aly is now employed.  Wheels is Hendricks Marine (Sports), it is a 2009, 139 foot vessel.  Reel Wheels is the 75 foot sport fish tender. 

Wheels and Reel Wheels

C'mon Man

Chub Cay is about 800 acres located at the southernmost tip of the Berry Islands of the Bahamas.  It is located about 35 miles west of Nassau and 125 miles from South Florida.   

We really enjoyed Wendy, head of customer relations and her husband,  who is the General Manager. They are very excited about the growth of Chub and I must say we have never seen a more beautiful and well done Marina.  For our boating friends, the smallest slip is 60 feet, the main walkways are 15' and the fingers are 8'.  All concrete Bellingham concrete docks.  The Harbour is also quite protected from storm surge.

2016 Off to the Bahamas

Sunday, May 1, 2016 - Day 1

After a very hectic week of last minute surprises we are finally setting course for the Bahamas again this spring.  Our first leg has taken us from Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral, FL to Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon, FL.  We are staying in Marathon on Monday, May 2nd waiting for calmer seas to cross the Gulf Stream and Mackie Shoal.  We are hoping to get across tomorrow.  For those of you who are joining us for the first time, I want to let you know that Internet access in all of the Bahamas is limited at best, and the Exuma's is the worst.  Our plan is to cross from Marathon to Chubb Cay and then on to the Exuma's, probably Highbourne first but we will see how the seas and weather look as we go.

 Well our travels on the first day to Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon were not quite as eventful as our previous week, but came close.  The seas changed from 1-2 feet when we left to a solid 5 feet off Cape Romano.  About 3 hours into our trip we both smelt smoke!  The worse thing possible is a fire on a boat!  I jumped into the Captains seat and Bill began a frantic search.  Luckily Bill could not find anything and the smell quickly went away.  The next step was to wait and see what we would discover that was not working.  It did not take long when we stopped in Marathon to find that the bait freeze took in salt water

 

Depart - 6:57 AM

Arrive - 2:05 PM Faro Blanco, Slip B 107 (Excellent)

Trip - 124.8 NM

Wind - E-SE 10-15

Seas - departing to Marco Island - 2-3 feet, Cape Romano solid 5', Cape Sable back to 2' or less

Average Speed - 16.7 kts,  Max. Speed - 26.4 kts.

Tarpon Point Marina, Cape Coral, FL

Faro Blanco Marina, Marathon, FL

Faro Blanco Marina

Monday and  Tuesday, May 2-3, 2016 - Days 2 & 3

We found a Home Depot and replaced the bait freezer with a new one which we will now keep in the Salon.  We moved the "people" food from the bridge freezer to the inside salon freezer and put the bait on the bridge.  If I have to have a freezer in the salon, I would rather it be the food I need to get at for meals. 

Bill worked on finishing up some new connections between our electronics, not without a trip to West Marine of course.  Luckily West Marine is right across the street.   We also enjoyed some down time and watching the fish and tarpon around our boat. 

We meet up with Brad, the Captain from the boat "3" whom we had met when we were here in March with the St. Charles group.  This boat is not going to the Bahamas this year because the owner Bob Bull prefers to stay at Faro Blanco.  Bob is the owner/driver of the CMS Offshore Racing Boats, "3" and "03" 2015 National and World Championships.  We hope to meet up with Brad (and the race team) again at the Key West races in the fall or maybe even at the races in Marathon on our way back from the Bahamas in the end of June.

http://www.cmsoffshoreracing.com/offshoreracing/raceboats

"3"



If the weather and seas hold we will be off to Chubb Cay in the early morning.