Long Island, Conception Redux

After our wonderful time in Conception we sailed back to Thompson Bay, Long Island. Once again we rented a car for a day to visit Dean's Blue Hole and a few other spots again. We explored the island with the crews from Sheila and Jaru - new friends we met in Conception. After a couple days in Thompson Bay, we sailed back to the north end of Long Island and spent a night at Hog Cay before jumping back across to Conception again. We continued our string of good luck catching fish, this time pulling in a 60" mahi that weighed 40 lbs! Having already eaten mahi for the previous 7 nights we gladly shared this fish with other boats at Conception.
Our second trip to Conception proved to be just as good as our first, cementing this place as our favorite thus far. We spent lots of time swimming in the crystal clear water, exploring the surrounding reefs, and even surfing a bit when a nice swell wrapped around into the bay one afternoon. On our last full day there we were invited by some scientists to help catch sea turtles for measurement and tagging. There is a mangrove lagoon on the island that attracts tons of turtles. The catching process consisted of us chasing a turtle around the lagoon in the dinghy for about 5 minutes until it became exhausted, and then leaping out of the dinghy and literally grabbing it. It was a lot of fun - all in the name of science! Afterward we assisted with the tagging and measurements.
Our departure from Conception a few days ago marked the turn-around point in our trip. Our bow is now pointed to the north as we begin to slowly make our way home. We will wind our way back through the Exumas, with visits from Jenny, Brian and Cassie, and then eventually make our way up to the Abacos for a month of exploration up there.

That little dark spot in the middle is a sea turtle as we are in hot pursuit.

Conception Island

We got the gang back together - Sheila and Momo sailed out of Georgetown together to Conception Island, a small remote uninhabited island 15 miles north/east of Long Island.  It was remote, stunningly beautiful and hard to leave.  It offered pristine clear waters that begged you to drop anchor and jump in immediately, and long crescent beaches with abutting cliffs to hike along. It was with very little protection from any unsettled weather so we had to high-tail it out of there for yet another blow but we loved it so much we are already planning our return in a few days.

Unfortunately, the weather this season has been such that one cold front follows another and we keep getting blown out of these beautiful places in search of protected harbors.  Therefore, we find ourselves faced with having to give up on the Raggeds and Jamentos.  However, we are happily settling on a plan to island hop around Conception, Cat and maybe Rum Cays.  We shall see...

51 Inch Mahi-Mahi!!!

Conception - The gang is perched on the cliff in the middle!

Sail to Thompson Bay.  Clearly, I just discovered this pano feature on the phone and love it!

Scout's 3rd Bday

Happy Third Birthday Scout!!!

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

March 2nd, 2015

Scout, sporting a bruise on her cheek and her new can of play-doh. 

Birthday party on the beach with fellow cruiser families - not too shabby for impromptu!

Love seeing all these kids out here!

Visitors

We are having an amazing time with Marmie and Di-dad (Ted's parents)!!!  We sailed again to Lee Stocking Island the day after they arrived and spent a few days exploring. Then, yesterday we tucked into Rat Cay with the intention of exploring the blow hole and tidal pools but when the surge was more than expected and the forcasted winds increased for the evening we decided to push on - back to Georgetown. We had a beautiful sail but unfortunately no fish. Tomorrow we will join some other cruisers for some beach trash pick-up and more island exploration. We are so glad they made the last minute decision to join us. 

Long Island back to Georgetown.

We had a great sail downwind in 20knots of wind and beautiful skies.  We traveled with 14 other boats, all escaping the upcoming weather.  We picked a protected and therefore popular spot to drop the hook. Lucy counted the number of boats in our anchorage throughout today.  We started with 21 boats at 7am and ended with 53 this evening - I suspect more will come tomorrow morning. 

Below, Scout (with Lucy) is belting out the lyrics to Rod Stewart and laughing, "where the ocean meets the sky I'll be sailing...whoohoo"

Southern Exumas and Long Island

It is hard to believe it has been 5 weeks since our last blog post! I am not even sure where to begin, there have been far too many highlights to capture...we are currently in Long Island (Thompson Bay) where we have been for most of the past week. The previous month or so has been spent in the southern Exumas. We reunited with sv Sheila and other friends and have spent time mostly in the Lee Stocking Cay area, or in Georgetown. Georgetown is great from a provisions standpoint (excellent groceries, supplies, etc), has very nice beaches and an incredible surfing wave, but is crowded with cruisers (usually 200+ boats!). While this creates a nice community, it also feels overwhelming after a few days. We have managed to find some great places to travel to from Georgetown where we can find the peace and tranquility (and awesome fishing) we have come to enjoy in so many other parts of the Exumas. On two occasions we have spent a week at Lee Stocking where an abandoned marine research facility makes for a slightly eery, but mostly fun backdrop for inland exploration, hiking, countless beautiful and empty beaches and phenomenal underwater life. When there we eat lobster until we no longer desire it, and laugh about how easy it would be to film a zombie movie in the falling-down buildings, dusty hyperbaric chamber, and countless sheds of dirty and rusty old parts. Like our other favorite Exuma stop, Normans Cay, Lee Stocking is in the process of a planned facelift with the end result being a major marina complex. We feel lucky to be able to explore this place before shovels meet dirt, and plan on returning there at least one more time before we leave the area. It pains us to think about what this paradise might become in a few years.
This past week in Long Island has been a lot of fun as well. After spending a night near the northern cape Santa Maria, we have been based in Thompson bay. Two days ago we rented a car and drove almost the entire length of the island which is 81 miles long. We stopped at some neat spots, our favorite being Dean's Blue Hole. This is the deepest blue hole in the world, dropping 663 feet down and the location of the world records for free-diving. We had a lot of fun swimming in and around it.
Tomorrow we head back to Georgetown once again to restock and pick up Marmie and Di-dad who are flying in for a week. The girls could not be more excited and the current plan is to head back up to Lee Stocking on Thursday, weather dependent. We hope it won't be another 5 weeks before we write another post!

Summit of Perry's Peak on Lee Stocking 

This pretty much sums up Scouty. Tutu and her Apple Shirt sticking out of her wetsuit. 

All she wanted for Christmas was strawberry ice cream. We finally fulfilled the wish when we arrived in Georgetown.

Dean's Blue Hole

Catching Up

The past couple of weeks have been wonderful. We hosted Amie’s parents, Marmar and Farfar for 10 days over the holidays, and we had a blast. The girls were so happy to have their grandparents, and Marmar and Farfar were such great guests. We picked them up from Norman’s Cay on the 22^nd, and they brought over 50 lbs of food! They also managed to pack a ton of Santa’s presents into their bags and spoiled us rotten. We stayed in Norman’s through Christmas with a bunch of our friends on other boats. In the afternoon of the 25^th we all gathered at a beautiful beach for a potluck. It was definitely a different Christmas, but an incredible one as well.

On the 26^th we headed down to Hawksbill Cay with s/v Sheila. After setting the hook before lunch, we spent the afternoon exploring the reefs on the south side. Hawksbill is inside the Land and Sea Park, so no fishing. On the 27^th we continued on down to Staniel Cay for some provisioning.  We explored Thunderball Grotto with Marmar and Farfar on the 28^th, and then sailed about 10 miles south to another settlement, Black Point. Black Point is the second largest settlement in the Exumas, but that is not saying much – its year round inhabitants probably do not count more than 300. We found its reputation as a great place for cruisers to be absolutely true. The Islanders are incredibly friendly, and supplies are reasonably priced. The infamous breads baked by Lorraine’s mother were superb!

On the 29^th we sailed a bit further south to Jack’s Bay and spent the 30^th even further south at Oven Rock. Both offered us solitude and beautiful beaches to explore. Oven Rock also boasts a cool cave that we hiked to, and we managed to spear one lobster and a bunch of lionfish. On the 31^st we sailed north again back to Staniel to prepare for Marmar and Farfar’s departure the next morning. Staniel was crowded with megayachts and we chose to stay on the boat for a quiet night to ring in the New Year. Everyone on board was asleep well before midnight.

The girls both wailed (literally…passersby were concerned) for half an hour after Marmar and Farfar’s plane disappeared into the clouds. We had such fun with them. We returned to Momo and did some organizing before pulling anchor to head south again to Black Point. We knew there was a cruising regatta going on that day at Staniel but neither Amie nor I was too excited to race as we were still wrapped up in the sadness of saying goodbye to Marmar and Farfar. However, our course to Black Point took us right by the committee boat, and at the last moment we veered course to ask when the start was. “The sequence starts in 10 minutes….please join us!” they shouted back.  If this trip has taught us anything, it has shown us that sometimes incredible experiences happen when you least expect them. “Ok, we are in!” we replied. Our dinghy was still towing behind Momo so we frantically stowed in on deck and made preparations below for the race. The race committee was gracious enough to delay the starting sequence a few minutes and we just barely had our act together when the gun went off. We managed a decent start and by the second buoy had worked our way into the lead, but as the race went on we were gradually passed by faster boats. We crossed the line 6^th out of 17, which felt pretty good considering we entered at the last minute, were the only boat with kids, and one of 2 that was crewed by just a couple.. It turned out this was the 40^th Anniversary Regatta, which is a big deal on Staniel. The locals put on a big sit-down dinner, and because we raced, we were invited for free. The food was delicious but nothing compared to the charm and graciousness of the local people and the community. The entire day was one of our highlights of the trip so far, and we are so glad we changed our plans and decided to participate.

This morning we fulfilled our plans to make it to Black Point, and it turns out everyone else did as well. When we arrived at 0930 there were 20 boats here. The sun is now setting and we just counted over 50.  

Momo crossing the finish line

Santa brought the girls wetsuits.

Scouty showing off her muscles.

Marmar in glassy conditions on the bank.