Location: Staniel Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
Position: N24 10.540 W076 26.926
We left Black Point on Saturday and spent the night anchored out near Sampson Cay (N24 12.593 W076 27.969) The resort there has a fuel dock and a store, so we filled our tank and stocked up on a few things. They also have free Internet access, so we sent out the last couple of Khronicles, caught up on our email, and called our families.
While we had Internet access, we checked up on our friend Natalia Avseenko (remember the free diving competition on Long Island?). We were pleased to learn that on day 8 of the competition she broke the women’s unassisted world record with a dive to 57 meters. Congratulations Natalia!
We just paid $5.53 / gallon for diesel fuel. Ouch. Good job we are getting to do a lot of sailing!! On the other hand, Julie contracted a case of swimmers ear back at Lee Stocking Island. While we were in Black Point she went to the clinic and was charged $47 for an exam, some ear drops, and some antibiotics. We thought that was quite reasonable, and we’re glad to report that she’s on the mend.
Remember Von, the fellow in Black Point who builds Bahamian sloops in his yard? He has started planking the boat that was under construction last time we were there and it looks like he’s making good, albeit slow progress. He wasn’t around while we were there, so we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to chat with him again.
A cold front was scheduled to transit the area last Sunday, followed by some fairly high northwest wind predicted to last for a couple of days. There aren’t too many places to hide around here when the wind’s from the northwest and a couple of days of it can make most anchorages pretty uncomfortable. So we made a long day of it and traveled all of 10 miles back up to Cambridge Cay (N24 17.329 W076 31.406) We were planning to continue up to the south anchorage at Warderick Wells, but when we noticed our old mooring was free (the best one in the mooring field) we grabbed it. We stayed at Cambridge until the wind shifted around to the northeast on Friday. We then headed back down to Staniel Cay, a good place to pick up a few groceries and visit with our friends on Diva.
We’d still like to head over to Eleuthera and work our way north from there through the Abacos, but with the wind expected to stay in the northeast for the next week or so, it looks like we won’t have a good weather window to do so until next weekend or later. But that’s fine – we’re not in any rush. Our current thinking is that we’ll head north back up the Exuma chain, stopping in at some of the places we missed on our way down. Then, if the wind is favorable, we’ll head across to Eleuthera. If it isn’t we’ll just go ahead and head up to the Abacos, beginning our slow trek back to the States.
We finally got our marine SSB working correctly, so we can now broadcast as well as listen. We’ve started checking in to the Cruiseheimer’s net at 8:30 am on 6227 USB at 8:30 am Eastern every few days. So, if you’ve got access to an SSB radio and are in the mood, give Cruiseheimers a listen and see if you can catch us.
Fair winds,
Position: N24 10.540 W076 26.926
We left Black Point on Saturday and spent the night anchored out near Sampson Cay (N24 12.593 W076 27.969) The resort there has a fuel dock and a store, so we filled our tank and stocked up on a few things. They also have free Internet access, so we sent out the last couple of Khronicles, caught up on our email, and called our families.
While we had Internet access, we checked up on our friend Natalia Avseenko (remember the free diving competition on Long Island?). We were pleased to learn that on day 8 of the competition she broke the women’s unassisted world record with a dive to 57 meters. Congratulations Natalia!We just paid $5.53 / gallon for diesel fuel. Ouch. Good job we are getting to do a lot of sailing!! On the other hand, Julie contracted a case of swimmers ear back at Lee Stocking Island. While we were in Black Point she went to the clinic and was charged $47 for an exam, some ear drops, and some antibiotics. We thought that was quite reasonable, and we’re glad to report that she’s on the mend.
Remember Von, the fellow in Black Point who builds Bahamian sloops in his yard? He has started planking the boat that was under construction last time we were there and it looks like he’s making good, albeit slow progress. He wasn’t around while we were there, so we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to chat with him again.A cold front was scheduled to transit the area last Sunday, followed by some fairly high northwest wind predicted to last for a couple of days. There aren’t too many places to hide around here when the wind’s from the northwest and a couple of days of it can make most anchorages pretty uncomfortable. So we made a long day of it and traveled all of 10 miles back up to Cambridge Cay (N24 17.329 W076 31.406) We were planning to continue up to the south anchorage at Warderick Wells, but when we noticed our old mooring was free (the best one in the mooring field) we grabbed it. We stayed at Cambridge until the wind shifted around to the northeast on Friday. We then headed back down to Staniel Cay, a good place to pick up a few groceries and visit with our friends on Diva.
We’d still like to head over to Eleuthera and work our way north from there through the Abacos, but with the wind expected to stay in the northeast for the next week or so, it looks like we won’t have a good weather window to do so until next weekend or later. But that’s fine – we’re not in any rush. Our current thinking is that we’ll head north back up the Exuma chain, stopping in at some of the places we missed on our way down. Then, if the wind is favorable, we’ll head across to Eleuthera. If it isn’t we’ll just go ahead and head up to the Abacos, beginning our slow trek back to the States.
We finally got our marine SSB working correctly, so we can now broadcast as well as listen. We’ve started checking in to the Cruiseheimer’s net at 8:30 am on 6227 USB at 8:30 am Eastern every few days. So, if you’ve got access to an SSB radio and are in the mood, give Cruiseheimers a listen and see if you can catch us.
Fair winds,
