Off to a Beautiful Start!

We arrived in Nassau just in time to get Starry Night ship-shape and ready for our first guests, and for a final shopping run to augment our galley inventory with a few fresh foods. 

Nassau is by far the most populated city we've been to, and it was really nice to see locals enjoying their weekend at the beautiful beaches. 

Montague Beach

Weekend Family Time at the Beach

On Sunday afternoon, after receiving a text from Darlyn that she and Brad were en route from the airport, Steve and I dinghied to the nearby public dock to pick them up.  The dock wasn't suitable for tying up to for a long time, so we waited in the dinghy nearby and watched a couple of men fishing.  One of them started hollering and pointing, but neither of us could understand what he was saying from the distance.  We moved a bit closer and could finally make out the words:  "Cow! Cow! Don't hit it!"

We looked around and eventually saw a mother and baby manatee right behind the dinghy. While we often see manatees in Florida, this was our first sighting in the Bahamas.

Sea Cow and Calf in Montague Bay, Nassau

Brad and Darlyn arrived shortly thereafter, and we finagled their luggage and their persons into the tender. This was a bit of a stretch for Miss Darlyn, since the public dock is not a floating dock, and her legs aren't quite as long as Brad's as it was a 4 foot drop from the dock to the dinghy. She managed it like a champ though and we made it back to the boat in short order.

We enjoyed the beautiful moonrise in Nassau and then retired early in preparation for our morning departure to Highbourne Cay the next day.

The path from Nassau to Highbourne Cay crosses the Great Bahama Bank, which is roughly 20 feet deep all the way across. There is an area called Middle Ground with numerous coral heads, and since the trip to Highbourne is relatively short, we decided to stop and snorkel one of them along the way.

There were a fair number of shy fish on the reef, which were too fast for me to catch on film, and although the color of the coral itself wasn't spectacular, it was still nice to see a bit of ocean life and get into the water again.

Coral at Middle Ground

Highbourne Cay was only an overnight stop-over point on our way further south to Hawksbill Cay, but Steve had spotted legal-size conch at neighboring Allen's Cay during previous exploration so as soon as we anchored, Steve, Brad and I dinghied over to Allen's to grab a couple of conch. We had all enjoyed homemade conch salad last year made with conch purchased at the local grocery store. This year, Brad caught and extracted the conch with his own hands.  While catching the conch isn't a challenge, removal from its shell is a different story!

Fresh Caught Conch Salad

Besties at Highbourne Beach

After dinner we adjourned to the Starry Night Lounge and were treated to a gorgeous display in the heavens before the moon rose later in the evening.  The Milky Way was visible, and we watched as the  Big Dipper made its ascent from its starting point on the horizon. 

The next morning, the wind was favorable for sailing to Hawksbill Cay and we averaged 6-8 knots the whole way. Brad and Steve also took the opportunity to troll for wahoo while we were underway.  Unfortunately, the catch of the day was barracuda. 🙁

Fishing Between Highbourne and Hawksbill

Hawksbill Cay, which is part of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, was a new location for Steve and I but we decided to stop there based on the description on a flyer that had been given to us previously. 

As in most of the park locations, mooring balls were available - in this case, at two locations along the island. The information also told of a hike to the ruins of a family plantation, plenty of coral heads and a coral garden. 

One of the upgrades to our equipment this year is a removable ladder which makes it much easier to get back into the dinghy after snorkeling. We had tried to install the mount for the ladder before Brad and Darlyn arrived but needed longer bolts than anticipated.  They brought the longer bolts with them so, the next morning while they went for a hike, Steve and I stayed behind to install the mount so we could use the ladder later that day. We didn't mind missing the hike since we're sure that we'll be back at Hawksbill again.

View from Hill on Hawksbill Cay

Darlyn and Brad at Hawksbill Cay

The new bolts allowed the ladder to slide into place perfectly, but as is often the case, the entire operation didn't go exactly as planned. After checking the clearance for the ladder, Steve proceeded to remove the bolts so that he could apply "5200", a sealant. The first of the two bolts was easily removed. The second had galled within the few minutes it took for the check fit and had to be cut off. Eventually, the bolt was removed, and another installed with the sealant and the dinghy was ready for the afternoon's adventure.

After lunch the four of us piled into the dinghy with all of our snorkeling gear and headed to the cut at the south side of the cay, where coral was reported to be. We did find some pretty coral, which we snorkeled while we drifted with the current to a beautiful beach landing.

Darlyn Snorkeling at Hawksbill Cay

 

Coral at Hawksbill Cay

Cut at Hawksbill Cay

It was a bit chilly, so after a few passes, I took over dinghy operation and Steve and Brad checked out some other areas.

Cut at South End of Hawksbill Cay

Before we knew it, it was Thursday. We started our return trip to Nassau, and once out of the national park we took another run at catching some fish. We fished back to the cut north of Highbourne Cay and stopped again at Highbourne overnight.

On Friday, we had a peaceful downwind sail to Nassau, getting up to 9 knots at one point! It was a beautiful end to a lovely week with our dear friends.💕 Or so we thought....

Brad & Darlyn Relax on the Sail Back to Nassau

We had decided to anchor in a new location near Junkanoo Beach, which would be more protected from the wind, which had shifted direction during our absence and would be strengthening the next day. When we arrived, there were quite a few boats at the anchorage but plenty of room for one more. We then went about the business of setting the anchor. Unfortunately, this was one of those rare occasions when we could not get the anchor to hold.  Many of the areas which were far enough from other boats to anchor safely had scattered rock on the bottom, and we later found out that even some of the areas that looked like sandy bottom were really rock with a couple of inches of sand over top.  After several tries, I lowered the anchor and Steve put the engines in reverse to pull back and ensure that the anchor was holding well. All of sudden the anchor chain whiplashed up out of the water and I thought maybe the anchor had been caught on a rock and then popped free, although it was hard to imagine that the anchor would actually leave the ground. I started bringing in the anchor chain using the windlass, and SURPRISE! There was no anchor.... only chain. Now I was wondering how it could be that the anchor chain had corroded to the point of failing without me noticing.  All the while, Steve and I were communicating via headset, and once we realized we had lost our anchor, he asked me to have Brad assist me in getting the spare anchor out of the hold and ready to deploy. 

Brad and I retrieved the anchor and attached the rode (chain and rope) but I did not know how we we were going to attach the new anchor to the boat. Steve and I traded places, with me at the helm ensuring that we remained stationary, and Steve devising a new bridle to attach our spare anchor to Starry Night. Once the new anchor was attached, it was my job to slowly back up while Steve played out the rode and tried to set the anchor by hand. 

Somewhere in the midst of this activity, the boat behind us contacted us on the radio asking if we needed assistance.  I thanked him, explained what had happened, what we were doing, and assured him that we would contact him on channel 16 if we needed him. 

Once Steve had the spare anchor set, he and Brad quickly dropped the dinghy to check that our spare anchor was well set and search for our primary anchor while it was still daylight. Brad was the diver, while Steve piloted the dinghy. I was still at the helm, with Darlyn as my lookout. 

Darlyn and I watched as Brad snorkeled the spare anchor and then dove several more times, finally coming up triumphantly with the primary anchor. Steve and Brad returned to Starry Night and hoisted the untethered anchor aboard, the point of failure identified. The attachment between the anchor and the chain is a small piece, called a swivel. It allows the anchor to rotate as the chain twists as it winds around the windlass. Upon inspection, it appears that the bolt mid-way up the cylinder loosened which allowed the pin at the top to slip free of its hole; thus losing its support, the pin bent under the load of the boat being pulled against the anchor, and released the chain.

Anchor Swivel

The next order of business was to find a suitable piece of hardware to attach the anchor to the chain until we are able to replace the swivel. [One of the benefits to hosting a lot of guests is that they can bring boat parts that would be otherwise hard to get while in the Bahamas 😂] 

Within a matter of minutes, we were able to reattach the primary anchor to its chain. Unfortunately, when Brad had snorkeled the secondary anchor, he discovered that it was not well set. We were in one of the areas where the bottom was mixed sand and rock. At this point dusk was approaching quickly and we needed to decide whether to continue trying to anchor at this location or to go to another nearby anchorage which was supposed to have good holding in sand. We chose option 2 and went to the Crystal Cay Marine Park anchorage. I had checked the tides on the way to the anchorage and found that we were approaching high tide. As we made our way through the anchorage though, we found that the water was much shallower than the charts said, and even shallower than they should have been at low tide. The chart on our GPS at the nav station also showed coral heads dotting the anchorage (which did not show up on the chart I had looked at and were not mentioned in the review of the anchorage). We could see many dark areas and were concerned these might be coral, so we continued looking for a place to anchor which would be deep enough for us at low tide. As Steve continued to navigate the anchorage and take in the available visual clues, he began to suspect that it wasn't high tide after all, so I went to a different website and found that it was actually very close to low tide. With this information, we were able to anchor quickly - three hours after our first attempt at anchoring at Junkanoo Beach.  

Darlyn marveled at how calmly and well we had handled the situation, and with so little drama. Brad thought it was really cool how quickly we were able to problem-solve and devise a solution, and he was thrilled to have been a critical member of our team.  It would have been extremely difficult to have managed this event without a capable set of extra hands. I was merely exhausted. I was happy, of course, that we were safely anchored and that no harm had come to any of us, our boat, or the boats of anyone else in the anchorage but it took a few minutes for me to feel like my brain could function again after it was all over, and as I told Darlyn, "This was not my favorite day." Steve's take was, simply, that it was much more difficult than expected. 

And just like that, normal activity commenced: dinner, cleanup and packing for the Kuhns return trip to Florida. 

We truly had a fabulous week with Brad and Darlyn, filled with laughter, beauty, some stressful times, and a bit of unexpected excitement. Such is boat life! 

Stay tuned as Steve and Laura's Excellent Adventure continues!