Sailing Exumas with Friends and Family

On Tuesday, March 12 Jeff and Kimberly on Pegu Club sailed into Georgetown harbor and anchored nearby us at Sand Dollar beach. They brought some groceries for us from Florida, such good friends! Yes, they’ve been carrying our stuff for 2 months! Who does that? They didn’t even succumb to eating the dark chocolate bars. Such will power! We are always happy to see them and spend time together. Dinner, ice cream, card games, route planning, and rainy hikes across the island; making memories and having a blast!

Boats anchored at Sand Dollar beach.The east side of Stocking Island at Sand Dollar.

Found a good view of our boat hiding under a tree while waiting for the light rain to stop.

Three days later Dad and Ilse were due to arrive from New Hampshire. We motored Lone Star from Sand Dollar beach to Georgetown’s Kidd’s Cove in the early morning hours to get water, do some hand laundry on board, grocery shop in town, and then pick up our guests at the airport. After the first wet water run in the dinghy, Tom agreed we should move again to a more secure harbor; Goat Cay. A wet dinghy ride is not the way to welcome our respected elders aboard our humble floating home for a 12 day vacation.

Tom hitched a ride to the airport and arranged the return taxi. Before our guests knew it, Lloyd the friendly Bahamian taxi driver was loading their luggage into the taxi for them. Here they are arriving on Lone Star via dinghy:

They arrived on the boat around 2 PM on Friday, March 15. We provided big drinks and lunch right away.  They had a rest, then we toured the boat and they unpacked. After a good nights rest, Tom & Anita left them alone on board to enjoy the gorgeous view at Goat Cay. We completed the last of the provisioning by hitch hiking to Island Meats, a small grocery about 4 miles away. The locals are so friendly and happy to share their ride, we learn a bit more about the area each time too! Our last ride this day was from a man at the Exuma Foundation. They provide guided tours of the Exuma’s and organize volunteers for a variety of projects to help those in need, like rebuild a house.

This is what we came home to, Dad and Ilse lounging on the stern soaking up the view and the sun:

We offered options: a swim/snorkel in this beautiful bay or a sail to another harbor. Dad really wanted to go for a short sail. After lunch we hoisted the anchor and sailed north until the channel narrows then tacked back and forth south to anchor at Chat ‘n Chill beach a couple hours later.

On Sunday, we all dinghied ashore for Beach Church and even joined the choir. The gathering afterward with coffee and baked goods was fun too. we did a small boat project: adding markers to our main anchor line that Dad just delivered to us.  Seeing the anchor was most of the way up we motored around the corner from the very busy anchorage to quieter Sand Dollar beach. Dad worked really hard lowering, raising, and once again lowering the anchor with his big toe! We didn’t like the first spot we’d chosen; too far from the beach.We anchored near Pegu Club and were all soon in the water snorkeling to the nearby reefs and beach.Dad, the chemist, commented about the extra fine sand in the Bahamas. Tom’s answer: here soft limestone is pounded by the sea to make fine sand. In New England, hard granite is pulverized by the ocean waves to make gravel and courser sand.

Jeff & Kimberly came over for a visit at sundown and we played a game of hearts with them. Lots of laughs! After another leisurely day at Sand Dollar we moved Lone Star across to Kidd’s Cove to top up the water tanks that we had abandoned on windy Friday. Dad, Ilse and I took a short walk around a small part of town. Then picked up a few groceries at Exuma Market.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed a five hour, 35 mile, down wind sail north to Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas. Pegu Club led the way. We enjoyed a Hearts rematch that evening.

The next day we all hiked ashore to stretch our legs. We found a good view of our boat and had extra people around to take our picture.The island is now deserted, but was home to a marine research center until 2015. We saw an abandoned air strip and a ghost town. A short trail led to a beautiful view of the beaches on the east side of the island.We returned to Lone Star and discovered a nearby sail boat aground on the shallow sands. Tom motored over to lend a hand to this unknown cruiser by first attempting to heel the boat over with a halyard; that didn’t work. Then he relocated their anchor into deeper water. As the tide rose they were able to winch themselves free. We watched from the deck.Swimming here was a definite challenge as there was a current to contend with. Streaming a life jacket on a rope behind the boat was a necessary precaution. Dad still enjoyed his daily swim.

Kimberly joined us in the evening for a card game – Oh Heck this time, quite fun!Dad and Ilse enjoying a beautiful sunset!

On Friday morning a guy on a neighboring boat stopped by asking for our email address. He took the following picture of Lone Star this morning and told us the pot of gold must be on board. We’re still looking, ha!On Friday, March 22, we waved farewell to our friends on Pegu Club as they continued sailing north and we returned to Georgetown. We timed the weather well. We enjoyed another easy downwind run, this one taking six hours to go the 35 miles. We anchored at Honeymoon beach for protection in the upcoming southeasterly blow. Seeing there was no possibility of card games with our friends on Pegu Club we turned to movie watching for evening entertainment. Watching Red October in stereo while the boat is rocking was a highlight. The last three nights we laughed watching Odd Couple first season episodes before bed time.

Swimming in Honeymoon beach was easy and fun. Although once the tide was too low and our guests complained of a stinging sensation in the grass near shore. Thankfully, the sting washed away when they swam back to the boat. A favorite pass time for our guests was playing games: cribbage, barricade, hearts, and UNO.We couldn’t pry them away from the Barricade board this evening to see this pretty sunset, so I showed them the pictures.Sunday was too windy for a dinghy ride and it threatened to rain all day, but held off until over night.On Monday, we moved the boat to a reef near Honeymoon beach in hopes of spotting more fish on their last full day in the Bahamas. Guess we didn’t anchor close enough. There was a current running, making it a challenge to swim. Then it turned cloudy making it very hard to direct them to the reef. They gave up without finding it. They saw only sand!

We motored over to Kidd’s Cove that evening so we would be a short dinghy ride to shore the next morning for their taxi to the airport. We had a real nice visit and believe they had a nice vacation too!Spring has begun and cruisers are beginning to head north now that weather patterns are settling a bit. Time for us to head north as well to see more of the Bahamas.