Nassau to Allen’s Cay

We had a 35 mile run to Allen’s Cay that needed to be completed before 4pm. Prior to that we had to leave the dock and refuel. The winds were higher than we would have liked with 2 large pilings on either side but with 4 adults and some useful kids, getting out was a relative breeze. We did have one of those “duh” moments: we were warping the boat to be as central as possible to the 4 pilings and realised that Phil might have some difficulty making it back on the boat...

The refuelling dock was the other side of the bridges under which we theoretically had mast clearance but we still breathed in hard as we went under. Refuelling took a lot longer than we expected: we couldn’t get petrol for the dinghy at the first dock and had to send Phil and Jamie off in the dinghy to another with the fuel cans. This involved heroic and simian climbing skills on Phil’s behalf but meant extra delay.

The sailing was pleasant and uneventful: on the way we practised “eyeball piloting” with Phil and Debbie so we would have 5 pairs of eyes to help avoid collisions. Even though we crossed the infamous Yellow Bank on the recommended and therefore surveyed route, you still need to look out for coral heads. But it’s not a chore! On the way in, I’d been able to see starfish on the bottom through the crystal clear water.

Unfortunately the early delays meant that we couldn’t easily navigate visually once we arrived at Allen’s Cay and someone had to go up the mast to see far enough ahead. Our volunteer was Jamie. She sat in a bosun’s chair near the top of our 65’ mast and spotted for us. Allen's Cay is in fact a group of three very small islands with an anchorage in the middle. We didn’t hit anything and managed to enter the anchorage and find a nice spot to anchor in front of the iguana beach. The water was so incredibly clear it was hard to believe that we were in just 2-3 metres of water.

Pics: Simian refuelling, The Battricks, Jamie up the mast

Hurricane Hole, Nassau

An unexpected day in Nassau saw us taking a walk from our marina on Paradise Island across the bridge to New Providence Island. It wasn’t a brilliant day but we took some photos from the top and they show two faces of Nassau.

Our guests, Debbie, Phil, Callum (12) and Adam (9) finally arrived in the evening. Their journey had been horrendous and they were really ready to have a holiday!

In fact Phil had a great joke ready:

Question: "Why are pirates pirates?"

Answer: "Because they arrghhhh!!!"

Atlantis, Paradise Island

Chris had promised Alex that he would take him to Atlantis if he could when we were in Nassau and our guests weren’t due to arrive till 8pm at the earliest so we cleaned and provisioned like whirling dervishes in order that we could spend the afternoon there.

Atlantis is a huge resort on Paradise Island with its own hotel, marina, beach and village but what attracted us was the huge water park and marine life exhibits. We started our visit by walking past a lagoon full of very active rays swimming in “flocks”. Even though we had swum and dived with these creatures and seen them swimming around the boat many times, we still stood transfixed and oohed and aahed. I am so pleased that we never seem to lose our sense of wonder and delight. The predator tunnel beckoned and here were shark and barracuda and some really big tarpon along with a mass of reef fish. We knew that Jamie was able to name just about any reef fish in the known universe, but it was our first opportunity to hear Alex saying, “oh look, a queen trigger!” or “no mummy, that’s not a rocky beauty, it’s a creole wrasse (duh)”.

But our real business here was water slides, so that’s what we did next. They picked a nice easy tube ride for me: Jamie went on a single tube as point man and Alex and I followed behind on a double. After a series of luge like swoops and banks we plunged into a shark infested lagoon. Fortunately we were enclosed in a clear plastic tunnel to give us the illusion of being surrounded by shark while flat on our backs in an airfilled tube. A nurse shark had draped itself over the top of the tunnel and was taking a nap – quite a view.

Jamie decided to do a slide called The Abyss or Leap of Faith or something similar – and here she is!

The watery fun continued till 7 when the park shut and we had to get back for our guests. On the way out we walked past the Manta Rays and watched them moving majestically through the water – it was really hard to leave.

Once back at the boat, we again whirled around dervishly and only began to get concerned when our guests hadn’t arrived by about 9pm. Our mobile phones didn’t work in the Bahamas so we couldn’t make or receive the usual voice or text messages or even make a call. Our internet access was miserable and intermittent but we decided to check email and try to Skype. It turned out that our guests had an awful journey from the UK and missed their connection – they wouldn’t be in till the next day. We felt very deflated and disappointed – but very upset for them too.

Hurricane Hole, Nassau

The wind was non-existent when we left Highbourne, the sea was millpond calm and a low level mist meant you could barely see an horizon. (see pic) In these conditions, we can only bank on 5kts – sometimes less if we’re going into a strong current or against the tide. So with 40 miles to go and a preferred ETA within VPR limits, we had to plan for 8 hours cruising, so we left at around 7am.

It was our first experience of sailing on the shallow banks and was quite surreal – we could see the bottom but no land on any horizon. We practised spotting and avoiding coral heads and even hove to near one so we could see if it represented a snorkelling opportunity. It did – even from the boat we could see coral, fans and even a lionfish so Chris and Alex leapt off an unanchored boat in open ocean -- nutters. We did manage to reunite boat and snorkelers even though my manoeuvring skills are a little bit basic.

Hurricane Hole was also a first experience. This time of docking using 4 pilings, 2 front and 2 rear, to tie off to. The idea is that the ropes are balanced to keep the boat from hitting the dockside regardless of wind or tide. The tide produces about a metre of rise and fall. The greatest difficulty was Chris’s: he had to reverse the boat between the pilings – of course, from the flat calm of the morning we now had a brisk breeze to make life interesting.

Our mission for the rest of the day and the next day was to clean, clean, clean and provision for 8 people for a 10 day cruise with only 2 possible eating out opportunities...

It would have been my Dad's birthday today. He would have loved following this adventure. We still miss him.

Back on Passage to Highbourne Cay

We were all sad to leave San Salvador but we had to get to Nassau to meet some friends who were spending Easter with us in the Exumas. The Exumas is a group of small islands, called Cays, that start about 35 miles south of Nassau on New Providence Island and run more or less north to south. On one side is deep water sailing: on the other, the Bahama Bank which probably averages about 3 metres deep. Getting from ocean to bank and vice versa involves navigating the cuts which are narrow to really narrow gaps between the cays. These gaps funnel the tide and can be fraught with coral heads, rocks and sand bars and are usually subject to VPR – visual piloting rules. This means you need to go through when wind and wave conditions allow and when the light is right so you can judge depths by the colour of the sea and spot rocks. The light is right when there’s little cloud, the sun is behind you and/or high enough in the sky so you can see the bottom – generally between about 8am and 4pm. We planned the 130 mile passage from San Salvador so that we would arrive at our first deep ocean to shallow bank navigation at around 9 or 10 in the morning. We picked a not-so-narrow cut with few obstructions so we could get the hang of it (before picking up our guests!)

It was, in the event, uneventful. The weather conditions were just right and, with not much discussion, we could reconcile the plotter, the charts and what we could actually see in front of us. We were rewarded with a perfect Bahamian anchorage – coral sand beach, crystal clear water, and graceful rays clearly visible under and around the boat.

We did make a foray onto land: Highbourne Marina has a shop which was fun to browse, but mostly we swam in the sea and rested. Because we needed to start early in the morning and cross 40 miles of shallow bank, we moved anchorage so we could make an easy exit with little light.

Pic: Clear waters at Highbourne Cay Marina

Last Diving Day

Our last dive started with a swim though from the sandy floor and the top of the coral reef to around 27m down the wall. From there we worked our way along and up the wall to meet the divers who needed to stay around 12m -- including Jamie. I like wall diving although it can be quite daunting and a bit disorientating to look off into the far blue yonder. On this dive we saw another shark – a rather large reef shark – who instead of just making contact and leaving, decided to cruise back and forth. I felt like I was being sized up, but I’m sure it was just an impression...

At the end of the dive, we went in search of the underwater Columbus memorial. It wasn’t hard to find and here it is.

Snorkelling

There’s a dive site not far from Riding Rock called Snapshot which is just about deep enough to dive and shallow enough to snorkel. So as Jamie and I dived round some exceptionally pretty coral heads, Chris and Alex snorkelled above us. It was quite neat to be able to wave to each other and to occasionally see them free diving down to us.