cruising on the Mary T

We moved north from Black Point on Sunday, March 13, and headed to Bitter Guana Cay which is only a few miles up the Exuma chain. There are quite a few cays in the Bahamas with “Guana” in their name. We’ve heard that it’s local slang for iguana. Anyway, Bitter Guana Cay is a great, uncrowded anchorage, but we don’t understand why the iguanas are so bitter. Maybe it’s because of the signs declaring, “Don’t feed the iguanas,” which half of the visitors ignore anyway. There was only one other boat there with us one night and we had the place to ourselves the next night.

The endangered Exuma Island iguanas (Cyclura cychlura figginsi) are black and pink and pretty scary looking.  We approached them slowly in our kayak not knowing whether or not they were aggressive. When we walked up on the beach they emerged en masse from the thick vegetation. We are not the kind that like to get up close and personal with wild creatures, so we kept our distance as they kept coming closer. Were they looking for a handout or defending their turf? Since we had no food for them and didn’t care to invade their territory, we backed up slowly and got back into the kayak.

The next day,  a family pulled up to the beach in a small skiff to greet the iguanas without any of the trepidation we had. One kid even got down right in front of one of the small dinosaurs and started filming–perhaps, a future Amy Flannery in the making?

The scenery at Bitter Guana, iguanas aside, is pretty neat. The area is dominated by a crumbling hillside that has exposed white sandstone. It’s very dramatic at sunset. While the iguanas romped on the beach beautiful white-tailed tropic birds performed mating acrobatics overhead.

After two peaceful nights at Bitter Guana, we headed for Big Majors Spot/Staniel Cay just a couple miles to the north. It was crowded with mega-yachts and sailboats. We were enjoying a lovely little sail to Big Majors as we approached a turning point at Harvey’s Cay. We saw a 43-foot catamaran heading south under engine power that turned into our path to raise their sail. We figured they would alter course as they were under power while we were under sail and also had right-of-way due to our starboard tack. They didn’t change course so when we were within shouting distance I waved my arms and yelled “We have right of way,” to which Mr. Catamaran responded “Get out of the way you son of a B____.” Not wishing to have an accident, we did just that. May he be well, happy and peaceful.

Big Majors is well known for the swimming pigs that come off the beach several yards into the water as small boats approach. The sound of the outboard motors get them salivating, because it is usually followed by a handout. These pigs are huge and aggressive and will try to climb into your dinghy, so we throw our slop into the water at a safe distance. They are very cute swimming though and quite agile in the water. There’s also a major snorkeling spot there which is featured in a James Bond film called Thunderball.

After sitting at anchor for a short time at Big Majors we were delighted to see cruising friends Steve and Kim aboard Fine Lion pull in and anchor next to us. We hadn’t seen them since North Palm Beach, FL. We celebrated St. Patty’s Day together at the Staniel Cay Yacht club and were joined by our new British friends John and Ann from Moonlight. All the drinks were served with green food coloring and we feasted on corn beef and cabbage which was really good. Live music followed, but they didn’t play a single Irish tune.

A couple of nights later all four friends came over to Mary T for sundowners. As is often the case, enough hors d’oeuvres were consumed to call it dinner.

Our dear friends Corning and Tita, on Blessed Spirit, also caught up to us at Big Majors and we enjoyed a delicious Mahi dinner aboard their luxurious bateau.  Corning caught the fish and Tita did a fabulous job filleting and cooking it. We enjoyed a few more meals and games of dominoes with them before saying goodbye. They have zoomed ahead and are already back in the USA.

We also lunched at a local restaurant at Staniel Cay with our friends on Spartina, between their numerous social engagements. A TV crew from the Nassau station, ZNS, was  dining at the same spot, so they interviewed each of us about Staniel Cay and how we liked ZNS. Of course we only said positive things, though there are many aspects to ZNS radio that drive us crazy. For example, they always cut off the BBC news at 6:30 p.m. right in the middle of a story.  We listen to ZNS radio nearly everyday in the morning and again at 6 p.m. if we’re aboard Mary T. We are not familiar with the TV station, but maybe we appeared on the news.

We left Big Majors for a night off the shores of the Sampson Cay Marina. We needed to fuel up and fill our water tanks in preparation for our upcoming visit to Cambridge Cay, part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We had gone there before in our previous trip to the Bahamas and found the snorkeling to be superb. On this occasion, we investigated a different part of the park and were delighted with the beautiful underwater topography as well as the fish and coral formations. All was going great until we saw a very large shark–8-10 feet or so. It was not paying any attention to us but it got us back up on the dinghy lickety split just the same.

After two days of hiking and snorkeling in the park, we headed across Exuma Sound to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. Rock Sound has a great anchorage where, no matter what direction the wind is blowing, you can find a comfy spot. And we did just that–not that the weather was all that blowy but just because we could. We wanted to see all sides of the sound.

Our land adventures in the town of Rock Sound were rather mundane except for one day when we contemplated a visit across the island to see Rose at the “Nort’ Side” restaurant–about two and a half miles away. We had met her in our 2008 trip and wanted to drop in  to say, “Hi.” As we started walking through town, I stuck my thumb out just to see if anyone would pick us up. And, as often happens in the Family Islands, the first car stopped and took us all the way to the Nort’ Side even though it was out of her way.

Unfortunately, Rose was not there. Not a soul was there except her dog. After a short walk around, we figured we should head on back to town. It was a terribly hot day and not one car drove by on the long walk back. Amy did not have on sensible shoes for this event and was limping after about a mile. We finally made it back to civilization and refreshed ourselves at “Sammy’s Place,” the most reasonably priced restaurant we’ve found in all the Bahamas.

The most significant change we found in this visit to Rock Sound was that the waterfront restaurant and bar, “Four Points,” was back in business.  It’s a great place that allows boaters to use their dinghy dock even if they are not visiting the establishment. This courtesy may not sound like much to those who don’t travel around in a boat, but to cruisers, it’s a wonderful convenience for getting groceries or other necessities.

All told, we spent about a week in various parts of the Rock Sound anchorage. Our plan had been to work our way lazily up the western coast of Eleuthera, but the dire weather forecast of upcoming squalls made us reconsider. Thus we scurried up through the northern gap of Eleuthera called, Current Cut. Appropriately named as the water, at maximum speed, rushes through at up to 6-10 knots. We anchored on the other side and visited the settlement there called, The Current. This town had been thoroughly flattened in the early 1990s by Hurricane Andrew but has made a great comeback.

From Current we moved on to Royal Island and then Spanish Wells. While the dire squalls that we were sheltering from hit the Abacos hard, they never really affected us. Nonetheless, it was an important stopover as we had to renew our visas. We had thought we could do that in Spanish Wells, the most bustling burg we’d visited since George Town. However, they only do customs there–not immigration. The customs officer said we had to go to Lower Bogue on the “mainland” (meaning Eleuthera) and renew our visas there.

So, the next day, we took a small ferry from Spanish Wells (aka St. George Cay) to Jean’s Bay on Eleuthera’s western shore. The ferry captain had called ahead for a cab to take us on to Lower Bogue. It was a relatively short distance in miles that was made quite long by the incessant, non-stop, repetitive chatter of our driver who wanted to show us everything Lower Bogue had to offer. After he finally freed us from the car, he assured us he’d be back to pick us up. We politely declined saying, “No thanks, we’ll hitch hike.”

With the formalities of visa renewal taking less time than our cab ride, we were free to head on over to Dunmore Town on Harbour Island. We hitched and, as usual, were picked up quickly and taken all the way to the next ferry on the east side of Eleuthera. Our driver just happened to work in Dunmore Town. For readers unfamiliar with Harbour Island, it is one of the prettiest and lushest islands in the Bahamas. We had a very pleasant day traipsing about enjoying all that Dunmore Town had to offer.  Although we had originally thought we’d take the high speed ferry that goes direct from Harbour Island to Spanish Wells, we opted for the two small ferrys with the overland hitch hike in between. It was cheaper and also allowed us more flexibility in timing.

Our voyage from Spanish Wells to the Abacos was a spectacular passage. We were able to sail the entire way even sailing through the North Bar Channel cut.  The wind and waves were all in our favor–a very unusual occurrence. We anchored nearby in a spot called Spencer’s Bight and had the place to ourselves. Nearby was a great snorkeling site that we enjoyed the next two days.

Eventually, we made our way to Marsh Harbour where we met up with the jolly crew of Moonlight. We re-provisioned at the most fabulous grocery store we’ve ever seen in the Bahamas–Maxwell’s. Maxwell’s is very much like the supermarkets you’d expect to find in the USA and so, we loaded up the cart and made a couple of return trips as well.

A couple of days later, we departed Marsh Harbour in company with Moonlight, headed for a nearby reef for snorkeling. Although the reef did not compare to previous snorkeling sites, there were a great many conchs sitting on the bottom, free for the taking. John and Ann were able to dive the 20 or so feet to retrieve them and, lucky for us, knew how to extract the creatures from their shells. That night, Ann and John treated us to a delicious dinner of cracked conch and conch salad.We provided the drinks and veggies.

The next morning we went separate ways–Moonlight down to the coral gardens near Spencer’s Bight and Mary T to Hope Town which is where we are now. Hope Town is as cute as a Bahamian town gets, with its brightly colored clapboard houses, candy-striped lighthouse and abundance of flowers. There is a well protected harbor and a gorgeous beach. Yesterday our friends Raffi and Lisa on Windfall caught up to us. We were married on their boat last September in Gloucester, MA, and we hadn’t seen them since, so it was a joyous reunion. They charter their boat out of Gloucester in the summer and out of the Abacos in the winter. Kenny maintains their website: www.defiancesailcharters.com

We plan to bounce around the Abacos for a few more weeks then head back to the good ole USA arriving in the Chesapeake Bay sometime in June. Can’t wait to see you all!