Long Stretch

Hi all,

It has been a long time since our last post. Sorry about that. In this part of the world internet access isn’t the best. But here’s an update on what’s been going on since Georgetown.

On Monday, 4 March we left Georgetown as part of the “Long Island Rally”. There was supposed to be a race over to Long Island but there was no wind so we all motored over. There were about 30 boats in all. Miss Adventure got there the previous day so we had a reunion with them.

On Tuesday we took a bus tour around the island. We heard about and saw some of the damage from hurricane Joaquin.  He did some serious damage. 85% of the people in the Bahamas live in Nassau so Nassau gets at least that much of the money and attention from the government. Long Island didn’t get much help. Cruisers have volunteered and provided money and materials to the people on Long Island to help them rebuild. Our guide on the bus tour told us during the storm he had 100 mph winds for twelve hours, 120 mph winds for eight hours and 140 mph winds for 6 hours. That had to be a day they thought would never end. But it did and no lives were lost. Amazing.

On the tour we also visited a Dean’s Blue Hole which is 663 feet deep. This is where the international free diving championship is held. Hold your breath and dive as deep as you can go. It is really something to see. I have some pictures I’ll post when I have more wifi. Google it to read more about it and check out the world record for free diving.

Tuesday night the group had dinner in a cave, with live music at Stella Maris resort. It’s a beautiful spot and really neat.

Wednesday morning we left Thompson Bay with Miss Adventure and moved to the north end of Long Island to stage for our trip to Lee Stocking Island the next morning. We arrived early enough to partake in some of the good fishing that is supposedly in the deep water north of Long Island. It proved to be a lot of fun and fruitful. We caught two tuna. Best we could tell one was a Big Eye Tuna and the other was a Skipjack Tuna. Not large but we had some excellent sushi that evening thanks to Kent and Heather’s expertise. 

The next day we circled back through the fishing grounds on the 40 mile trip to Lee Stocking. We caught two mahi mahi (only one got on the boat and in the refrigerator) and one unknown fish. The unknown fish was probably a very big mahi mahi as it hit one line at the same time as the mahi we landed. The big one stripped line off the reel faster than anything I’ve seen before and it kept going until the line finally broke. Miss Adventure also had some luck as they caught some sort of bill fish. Nose to tail it was every bit of 6 feet long. That really filled our freezers! Thursday afternoon was filled with fish cleaning and then boat cleaning.

Friday morning we intended to up anchor at 7:00 in order to get back through Adderly Cut at slack tide. Only one problem, our engine wouldn’t start. I messed with it a little bit and then got in the dinghy to fetch Kent from Miss Adventure to help troubleshoot the problem. As I pulled up to the stern of Miss A the motor on the dinghy died. Fortunately I was close enough to throw Kent a line so he could pull me in. He put the motor on his dinghy and towed me back to Good Morning Vietnam. Now I had two engines that wouldn’t start. Kent figured out the problem with the big boat (starter relay) and we got it going so he headed back to Miss A and we made a hasty departure through Adderly Cut. We were an hour and a half later than we wanted to be but it wasn’t too rough. We made it to Staniel Cay Friday afternoon. We did get our dinghy motor running again- not that that’s important now- as we shall see.

Saturday night was the James Bond / Casino Royale costume party at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. I went as Jaws. The aluminum foil was only in my mouth for pictures (to come).

Sunday, with high wind coming, we went looking for a more protected anchorage.  We had one of our very few experiences with some cruisers that were jerks (putting it nicely) but I’m not going to dwell on that. We finally ended up on a mooring ball inside the Land and Sea Park thanks to some new friends, Jay and Tonya, on Minx. We talked with Minx for a while and also visited with Sargo, some people we met back last year in Marsh Harbour. It was good to see them again.

Tuesday morning we woke up to find our dinghy was gone. It had broken free during the night. With the wind speed and direction, it has a good chance of being in Cuba now. Once the sun was up we scanned the horizon with our binoculars and didn’t find it. About every hour I put out a call on the radio so people would be on the lookout for it. We had quite a few boats that were moving around and reported to us they hadn’t seen our dinghy. We decided the best thing was to move back to Staniel Cay where we night be able to find a dinghy or get one shipped to us and to have a cell signal. We anchored just off Big Majors and began the task of trying to find a replacement dinghy. Being on a boat without a dinghy makes things real tough. If you’re not in a slip at a marina, the only way to shore is to swim. Ever try to swim 100 yards or so while carrying your groceries?

We were saved by Cori and Dale on Hi Flite. We hadn’t met them before but had heard them on the radio many times. They heard our plight and were anchored here off Big Majors as well. Cori came over in their dinghy, knocked on our hull and asked if we’d like to buy their dinghy and motor. We almost cried. They have been having mechanical problems on the big boat and had decided to go back to the US to get them fixed. They were not going to need a dinghy for a while and thought they’d buy a new one in the US when they needed it. I know we’ve thanked them at least a dozen times. It’s not enough. Thank you Hi Flite!!!!

My mom used to say “trouble travels in threes”. Two engines stopped running in one day and then the dinghy runs away from home. That’s our three. And it’s all ended up fine, thanks to old (two months) and new friends. Cruisers are some of the best people on the planet.

Now we’re waiting for the arrival of our friends Jay and Carol here in Staniel Cay on Saturday. While we’re thanking everyone, thanks to them for being willing to change their plans and make the extra flight form Nassau to Staniel. 

Sorry the post is so long but as you can see a lot has happened since our last post.

Brian