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Part 5
Wardwick Wells to Staniel Cay:
About a 2 hour motor sail took us from Wardwick
Wells to Staniel Cay. We got in just after lunch.
It was rough in the anchorage with strong North
Winds which made it very difficult to launch the
dingy. Lowering the motor in heavy seas was a hard,
bouncy task for Captain Jim. As a result, Nilaya is
getting her fair share of scratches. It "hurts"
each time she receives one. In spite of the seas,
we dingied into Staniel with our laundry and our
garbage. Vivian from "Isles General Store" said the
laundry would be ready tomorrow. We'll see whether
this was worth the $15 cost for 2 loads of laundry
done for you. We walked to town, a town very much
like the little towns of Abaco--colorful houses, 3
grocery stores (the Pink Store, the Blue Store and
Isles) plus a local ship building yard. Actually
there was quite of bit on construction going on.
Jim & Mary at the "blue" grocery store on Staniel
Cay
We woke the next day to another rather cold
morning. The temperature actually hit a record low
last night of 68 degrees. Today we snorkeled "Thunderball
Grotto."(This was the site for the James Bond
film). Captain Jim, being a real fan of James Bond,
spent the day fantasizing about being 007. Later in
the day we picked up the laundry (yes it was worth
$15) and some fresh bread, vegetables, and fresh
chicken. A gourmet meal was provided that evening
by my 007.
Staniel Cay to Blackpoint Cay:
We woke again to the howling wind, gusts up to 34
knots. We left anyway and headed to Blackpoint. We
sailed with only our staysail up (our speed per the
GPS averaged 6.1 knots) and it was a comfortable
trip. We got anchored and went into town. The
place was like a ghost town. "Mama Rolle" had died
and everyone had traveled to Staniel Cay for the
funeral. We later discovered that there are many
Rolles on the islands. It seems like everyone is
related either through marriage or blood.
In retrospect, Blackpoint Cay turned out to be one
of our favorite islands, probably because of
Lorraine's. After setting a second anchor this
morning, we headed into town and did quite a bit of
hiking on the north end of the island looking for
shells, but not finding anything worthwhile. We
made reservations for dinner at Lorraine's . Jim
loved his cracked Conch while I tried the grouper.
The whole meal--conch fritter appetizer, fish with
rice, corn, coleslaw, dessert of homemade cake and
ice cream, all for $12 each. Plus you got the added
benefit of Lorraine sitting down and conversing with
us for a good hour. Her mother makes homemade
coconut bread (it was still warm and turned out to
be my favorite bread in all the islands). The next
morning, we got up, listened to the weather. Again
the forecast was for NE winds howling at 25+ knots.
Jim is anxious to move, but I've put him off until
tomorrow. Captain Jim's anchoring here has me
feeling so secure; I hate to give up that feeling.
We go back on the island this afternoon. Lorraine
takes us to a small cottage her husband has built
that they rent out. She knows by now that I am a
travel agent, so she hopes I can help her fill the
place. After our "site inspection" we walk around
the south end of the island. We walk to the school
and talk with the teachers and the principal of the
school and then head out to the "Garden of Eden" a
driftwood display by a local resident (Lorraine's
uncle). By late afternoon it is time for Captain
Jim to do with manual labor--making several trips
into town with our 7 gallon water jugs to fill
them. This is quite a physical task. Walk from
where the spigot is in town with two 7 gallon jugs
of water, hoist them down to the dingy, hoist them
back up on the boat and then fill the tanks.
Blackpoint to Cave Cay:
We heard the weather might give us a window to
Georgetown on Wednesday with light winds out of the
east, so when we got up on Tuesday, and found light
east winds we decided to go to Cave Cay, 15 miles
further south, which would leave only about 28 miles
to Georgetown. The cut into the Sound was deep, but
not real wide. The winds were about 10-15 out of
the east and we had a beautiful sail down. It was
really the best sail so far. After anchoring in
Cave Cay, we took the dingy and explored the new
marina being built in the hurricane hole there. What
a complex. Even the Harbor House holding the office
is on a large floating dock. The place is being
built by a wealthy Texan and the people there were
very friendly and cordial even though it wasn't even
open yet. Jim tried to purchase a fuel filter; they
check their stock to see if they had one that would
fit our engine, but the only ones they had were too
big for our little Yamaha. The marina should open
by the end of the year. It will be quite the place
to visit on our next trip.
Jim checked the fuel filter and once again it was
pretty dirty. The difference this time is that it
was only dirty about 2/3 of the way up.
Interesting. If this continues to happen, Jim
thinks he knows the problem. Mary sure hopes he
does because this is not only bothering her, but
bothering Jim also. No engine says take whatever
the weather has to dish out and also makes
everything from putting up sails to anchoring a lot
more difficult.
Cave Cay to Georgetown:
On this our 37th. day out, the winds are
forecasted for 10-15 out of the east with seas
running 3-5 feet. Off for Georgetown we went. The
cut to get to Exuma Sound was deep but narrow and
the current, fortunately, was rather light. The
engine ran fine and we got thru the cut ok but with
winds out of the East-Southeast, NILAYA had to beat
a little bit. We decided  once
again to motor-sail and try to make as direct a sail
as possible. Winds continued to increase to over 20
knots and the seas built to 6+ feet. We had to tack
no less than 5 times to make Georgetown, nothing
like sailing 48 miles to go 28 miles. But late in
the day the Georgetown entrance was spotted and down
came the sails. Now Mary really got nervous because
all the way down the engine would only run about
1500 rpm and we were going to need every bit of that
to make Georgetown and motor thru the anchorage
looking for our spot. All went well, however, and
we anchored off monument beach. This was to be our
only anchorage in Georgetown during our entire
stay. Tomorrow the Georgetown National Family
Island Regatta starts and we plan to be at the
starting line in our dinghy ready to watch all the
action.  |
