The "Truth" About Cruising

So far, this blog is a travelogue about our cruise south.  We are at a temporary stopping spot in George Town, Exumas, and at a point to examine what the realities of the trip have been.  Sorry, there will be no pictures this time and the following may be of more interest to those contemplating a similar journey.

First of all, I can emphatically say we are not on a vacation.  Rather, we live on a boat which is generally on the go to some amazing places.  We still have all the issues that one would have when living ashore, albeit the issues are more challenging when you are on board.  For anyone who thinks our days are like those you might spend at a resort or on a cruise ship, you are quite mistaken. I am not complaining as our cruising has been a conscious decision, one made with input from other cruisers prior to leaving, and we know we have been able to have experiences that would not be available to most travelers. So, here’s an examination of the realities, category by category.

Weather

Your life is controlled by weather, and you get pretty good at obtaining accurate weather information from a variety of sources.  We listen daily to Chris Parker’s Marine Weather Center broadcast on SSB radio. In addition, we plan to take several courses from Chris Parker this week in George Town.  We are not subscribers to his services but would definitely consider it in the future.  We also get forecasts from BASRA (Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Ass.) and from internet sources when available.  At some locations, there is a morning weather net over VHF. Our WX weather system was very useful in the States but less so here in the Bahamas.  One concern in the Bahamas is the approach of a cold front that allows winds to clock through 360 degrees with ever increasing velocity.  Very few anchorages provide all around protection, so you must search for a safe location to weather the strong winds. With our deep draft, that isn’t always easy. We have been fortunate this season as, so far, we have only had a few strong cold fronts pass through; in prior years fronts came through once a week or more. Weather also controls the direction you can travel under sail and wave and swell height in exposed waters. Thus, staying flexible in your plans is a must.

Also, it is winter here.  In the Bahamas winter results in temperatures in the 70’s to low 80’s and little humidity – a delightful climate, but sometimes a little chilly for swimming if the breeze is blowing.  It also means that days are shorter.  This was a real problem coming down the ICW as our traveling time was limited. Here it means that your daytime activities end sooner than expected.  We look forward to the lengthening days. Finally, we wonder if spring time will bring more blooming vegetation on shore and more birds.

Choice of Boats

We are happy with Exuberant; she is a safe and sturdy boat for our purposes, and a good size for two of us to handle.  We chose her with a variety of sailing venues in mind.  But, if your only plans were to sail the Intercoastal and Bahamas, a shallower draft boat or perhaps a multihull would be a better choice.  We can confidently sail in off shore open waters and sail to windward, something the shallower draft boats are less comfortable doing. It is all a trade off, but we struggle with depth as we look for anchorages and have to pass by some interesting territory that is too shallow to explore.  This will not be a problem if we venture further south in the Caribbean.

Provisions and Supplies

We have spent the last two months in areas with very little infrastructure. Knowing this, we provisioned extensively prior to leaving Florida and have had no mechanical breakdowns that required parts not carried on board.  We are fortunate in this respect.  Nevertheless, supplies are depleted and restocking is difficult.  The grocery stores, other than in George Town, get restocked every week or two on a schedule that seems to confound just about everyone.  If you don’t arrive in a store the minute it is restocked, everything is gone and you are back to empty shelves with only a few canned goods. In many places you must travel by dinghy several miles to these small stores.  At any given time, we have been on desperate quests for eggs (only one egg available that given day in all of Staniel Cay), orange juice, long life milk (forget finding any milk by the half gallon), or any sort of meat other than pork. One time we purchased what we thought were very frosty frozen hamburger patties to find once they were on the grill, they were slabs of bologna – we improvised and found grilled bologna with barbeque sauce to be edible. Now that we are in George Town, the grocery store is much larger with carts and many American made products, although it still does not measure up to stores in the US – all meat is frozen and selections are still limited.  Yet, I did buy a half gallon of real milk for a mere $6.

Parts are another challenge.  Tomorrow we will cart bicycles over a mile on the dinghy to ride several miles on pot holed roads to a NAPA store where we can purchase a 6mm nut that is missing on our alternator.  This will be a half day adventure to buy something readily available in any US hardware store.  You take it in stride; we will certainly see or find something of interest along the way.  Things get more difficult if you have to import parts from the US.  There is great expense involved for air freight and import duties that will easily double the cost of any part. Plus, you have to position yourself near a place where the freight can be received – not many such places are available along this over 100 miles of the Exuma chain.

We carry 100 gallons of diesel and 15 gallons of dinghy gasoline and sail whenever possible, so our fuel needs are not a daily concern.  Yet, the wise person keeps fuel levels up as clean gas and diesel are not always available. The fuel tankers run on a random schedule so sometimes docks are out of fuel.   There are marinas along the chain, although some lost their fuel docks during Hurricane Irene this fall, so availability isn’t as easy as in previous years. One popular fuel stop received a batch of bad fuel with unfortunate consequences for those who unknowingly purchased it.  A fellow cruiser had to return to Nassau to have his fuel removed and engines serviced due to the bad fuel.  We have the capacity to polish our fuel, and we test all new fuel before it goes through the engines.

Communication

Everyone is on a quest for good internet, and so far no one has found a simple, affordable, ideal solution. We have an unlockable cell phone that now has a Bahama’s SIM card installed.  We can tether our phone to the computer to get internet where ever there is a cell phone tower.  It is painfully slow although BATELCO is going 4G throughout the islands in the near future.  Meanwhile, the installation of the 4G system is making things slower than usual.  Other people take their computers to shore via dinghy to get higher speed access at internet cafes or stores.  Charges are generally $10 per day or more. 

Using our phone is possible here with the installed SIM card.  It is reasonably priced for calls within the Bahamas, although we use it infrequently as most communication is done by radio. Calls to the US are much more expensive; we spent over $100 for some brief calls home at Christmas.  Skype is another alternative, but our internet access does not have the bandwidth for Skype.

We use a mail forwarding service out of Florida.  All our mail is sent there, and we are notified of its arrival by email.  Logging in to their site allows us to look at the envelope and, if important, have the contents scanned and emailed to us. Otherwise, mail is held until we ask to have it packaged up and sent to a location.  We hope to avoid having mail sent to the Bahamas as the logistics are difficult.

Marinas

There are some marinas in the Exumas but they are generally quite expensive, running between $2 - $4 per foot with water and electricity metered and billed separately.  Very few cruisers go to marinas; rather the docks are occupied primarily by super-yachts and charter boats. The one exception was the marina associated with Sandal’s Emerald Bay Resort. Non-service docks (no electricity or TV) ran $1 per foot.  It is a lovely facility with huge, clean showers, a free laundromat, a large air conditioned boaters’ lounge building, and free high speed WIFI.  We stayed for two nights and plan to return for another taste of luxury.

Money Matters

One of our biggest surprises was the lack of banks and ATM machines until approaching George Town. We were down to our last few dollars, thus necessitating the trip south.  More and more places accept credit cards but there is between a 5 – 10% charge for their use, plus the concern that not all transactions have a high level of security.  We have chosen to use cash almost exclusively.  The ATM machines, when available, charge fees similar to those in the US.

The Bahamian People

One of our biggest joys has been our interaction with the Bahamian people.  Once we left Nassau where crime and bad attitudes were evident, we have sought out interaction with the locals.  The Bahamians are consistently cheerful and friendly.  Honesty and religious devotion are central to the culture. Many of the churches sport signs saying, “Enter to worship, leave to serve”, and such attitudes are routinely practiced. We definitely enjoy their sense of humor although the local dialects sometimes make that difficult to understand. While the standard of living is below that of the States, their means provide for decent housing and suitable transportation.  They are hardworking and entrepreneurial as they seek a living in these barren islands. Stores, restaurants, and homes are immaculately clean, and we have no worry about sanitary food preparation. 

The US recession has hit the Bahamas very hard.  We are forever stumbling upon half built tourist facilities such as resorts and marinas.  Restaurants and gift shops are closed. All construction seems to have been halted in the mid 2000’s. Additionally, Hurricane Irene destroyed some of the infrastructure and without the tourist dollars, there is little incentive to rebuild. These shells are a reminder that the economy of the Bahamas is inextricably linked to the United States, and that here, the people suffer perhaps even more from our economic woes. 

Social Life

For the most part, the cruising population is open and friendly. When several boats gather in an anchorage, it is not unusual to find a happy hour on the beach or on one of the boats.  You make friends easily, stopping to chat or share information, and cruising with one or more boats for a while, until everyone goes their own way due to commitments elsewhere.  The “leavings” are always a bit sad.  It was recommended, and we agree, that cruising with a “buddy boat” exclusively is not a good idea.  It requires you to move at the speed of the slowest boat, stop in places you may not wish or need to visit, and keeps you from meeting other boats or locals as easily. While we enjoy anchoring alone in out of the way places, we find we need to return to a more sociable environment after a few days. 

So, now we are in the big city of George Town, population a couple of thousand. There are between 250 to 400 cruising boats here at any given time during the season, along with a sizable expatriate population of Canadians and Americans living ashore.  We have amenities we haven’t seen for over two months and are enjoying the change.  Pictures and details of this regions will be forth coming.

The 5 F's (First Friday in February at Farmers Festival)

It’s a regatta unlike any other.  We arrive at Little Farmer’s Cay (resident population of 55) on Wednesday to insure we have a good anchorage spot.  At this point there aren’t that many boats around so we claim the deepest hole (9 ft.) on the west side of the Cay.  Off we go to Ocean Cabin, the traditional headquarters for the many festivities, to volunteer our assistance.  Terry Bain, the proprietor and descendent of the Cay’s original settlers, is looking for volunteers to head some of the activities.  We show up the next day for the volunteer meeting which begins with copious amount of rum punch.  Burt is assigned as a judge for the wet tee-shirt and dinghy race contests, while I find myself a judge for the best men’s legs and conch blowing contest.  It sounds a little contrived but we’ll give it a shot. We had actually hoped to be helping with the Bahamian sloop races, but that is managed by another entity.

Friday dawns as the first day of the festival.  Just after sunrise the Captain C, the mailboat/freighter out of Nassau that services the northern Exumas, arrives with sloops lining the freight deck and the entire expatriate population of Little Farmers on the upper deck with music blaring.   

Captain C arrives with the boats on deck

They have spent the night in transit from Nassau to attend this “Homecoming” festival on their family island, now swelling the island population to over a thousand. Food stands are erected and music is everywhere.  Start time for the race is listed as 9am but we’re on island time.  By noon all the boats have been off loaded from the freighter and rigged.  They bob off the west side beach in front of Ty’s Beach Bar which is celebrating its opening day.  It’s a cute place, painted in bright Bahamian colors and definitely a happening spot.   

Ty's is the place to be!

That doesn’t bode well for Terry’s big plans as everyone has deserted the central town.  We struggle to recruit enough individuals for the “legs” contest and all of the other plans, except for betting on crab racing, die for lack of interest.

Now, crab racing is an interesting concept.  It starts with eight land hermit crabs, shells numbered, in a bucket.  You scope out the crabs and choose your favorite for win, place, or show.  Of course, there’s a bit of low dollar wagering involved. 

Terry explains the snail racing concept

At the appointed time, the bucket is inverted into the center of a target drawn on the concrete, the bucket is lifted and the crabs take off, hopefully with yours headed for the outer perimeter of the target.  Hopefully, because racing crabs is akin to herding cats; they just don’t go where you intend them to go.   

And they're off, sort of

We all get a good laugh, and Burt wins first place in the first race, netting us a huge $7 payout.  It is a shame, though, that Ocean Cabin’s activities have bombed as Terry puts a portion of the proceeds towards STEP, an organization he founded that is trying to stop private development in the Exuma National Park.

Friday night we join in with other cruisers and locals at Roosevelt Nixon’s Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club for dinner and a jam session.  We enjoy chatting with Mr. Nixon, a very dignified descendent of another founding family of the Cay. Four cruisers show up with guitars, a mandolin, and a harmonica.  As usual, it’s an international crowd with representatives from the US, Canada, and New Zealand. The singing and clapping go well into the night.

Saturday we are free to spend the entire day watching the races.  Bahamian sloop races are run a bit different than anything we have seen.  

The sloops anchored off the beach prior to racing

It’s a windy day with gusts in the mid 20’s and the sloops, around 15 in the first race,  sail out to the starting line where they drop sails and anchor, assisted generally by the team tender.   

Smashie, one of the Black Point boats we helped launch, sails out to the starting line

At the sound of the starting gun sails are raised, anchors hoisted, and off they go to the windward mark.  The sloops themselves are fairly light weight with ballast added for the anticipated wind.  They choose a sail size (large, medium, or small) and crew size (4 -6) again based on anticipated wind speed. The crew rides hiking boards that extend over the gunnels of the boats.  What you see are billowing white sails with flailing arms and legs of the crew.   

The sloops under sail during a race

Tacking is choreographed chaos that can result in pinched fingers and toes at worst and bruises everywhere at best. There is also carnage among the boats with a few capsizing or breaking essential equipment. The courses are windward/leeward just off the beach with the finish line placed in the middle of all the anchored boats off the beach bar.  And, there are many anchored boats. A number of cruisers have anchored just off shore and brought their dinghies on to the beach while locals from Cays as far as 50 miles away have driven their skiffs and power boats to Farmer’s for the festivities.  There is constant commentary and cheering from the onlookers.  I claim a small patch of shade and am joined by various others looking for some relief from the sun.  One girl asks to join me.  She is the TV anchor person for a Nassau based show on sailing, and she asks if she can interview me for the show they are taping.  So, now I have made it on to Bahamian TV, answering questions about our experiences and perceptions of the Bahamas. 

Everyone is on their feet for the exciting finish of the last race

After the final race the trophies are brought out, many donated by various governmental agencies along with some of the wealthier land owners. The trophy presentation begins with the National Anthem and a prayer.  Then various government representatives give short speeches, concluding with a speech by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas who stresses the importance of keeping the culture of sailing alive in the Bahamas – after all, this is a seafaring nation.  Finally, the contestants are introduced and the trophies distributed.  Along with the trophies the winner is given $2000 in cash. All this is being aired live on a Nassau radio station, albeit by the fairly low tech method of holding a telephone up to the loud speaker.

The revelers all adjourn to the various music venues, and we leave for the relative quiet of our boat – you can only take so much of the 5 F’s.  The next morning the locals attend church, load the boats on to the Captain C, and leave for the return voyage to Nassau.  Little Farmer’s goes back to its quiet existence, and we leave for Black Point – our anchorage has become rocky, and we want to watch the Super Bowl at Scorpio’s Bar.

It’s been a wonderful weekend, but now we begin the trip down to Georgetown and relative civilization.  We will get a dock for two days at a Sandal’s resort that has bargain rates on dockage at the nicest marina we’ve ever seen, and then head to Georgetown proper where we can find real grocery stores, banks, and hardware stores, all of which we desperately need.    

Settlement Life

In the States you call them villages, but here in the Bahamas they are settlements.  We are currently in Black Point, mid-way down the Exuma chain, and the second largest settlement in the Exumas.  Five miles to our north is Staniel Cay, the only other settlement in the northern 45 miles of the Exuma chain. To put it all in perspective, Black Point claims somewhere around 200 full time residents.  We are talking very small here.   All the Bahamian islands except for Nassau and Grand Bahama are considered the Out Island or Family Islands – “Out” because they are far away from the population centers and “Family” because each settlement is the generational home to a few specific families, and perhaps because family values are central to the culture.  While the full time population in Black Point is tiny, many residents of Nassau claim connections to these settlements and at Homecoming Week in August the population of Black Point will swell to several thousand.  We find grandparents raising grandchildren while the middle generation is off to Nassau to pursue their careers.   

One of the delights of visiting the settlements is the friendliness of the locals.  Yes, our activity brings in needed income to the settlements, but we are welcomed with genuine interest and courtesies. Everyone smiles and greets you along the streets, and, given the opportunity, engages in pleasant conversations.  We are curious about life here, and they are interested in our plans and impressions of the Bahamas.  Honesty, cheerfulness, humor, religion, and social manners are central to the out island culture, and we witness the young children being taught this.

Over the past weeks we come and go, so we temporarily become a part of the Black Point community, anchoring out in the large bay, open to the west, with a crescent beach to the east that bares large sand flats at low tide.  We have seen between 7 and 30 cruising boats anchored here at any given time. The main part of the settlement is on the south side of the bay.  Transportation for locals and cruisers alike is by boat with a sizable government dock, being reconstructed following Hurricane Irene, servicing both groups.  We come in to town for activities, and the residents leave town for employment on other nearby islands, primarily in construction, fishing, and service at the few close resorts. Most evenings you find skiffs at the dock and the men cleaning their catch of fish and conch. A high point every week or so is the arrival of the mail boat/supply freighter at the dock.  The entire community appears, looking to claim their possessions, be they anything from furniture or building supplies to even a new pick up truck or golf cart. Meanwhile, the cruisers become energized at the thought of fresh vegetables and fruit. 

The Captain C makes an appearance

The settlement has one main road with a few others heading off into the rocky interior.   

Black Point's main street

We find an airport, one small grocery, a school for children through grade 9, the nicest laundromat in the Bahamas, three small restaurants/bars, a government/post office, a Batelco office, a clinic staffed by a nurse and, once a month, by a doctor, and three churches.  The settlement has a diesel powered electric plant, a RO water factory, and a town dump. What we don’t find are banks, ATM machines, or gas stations.  The homes are small but with comfortable interiors featuring standard furniture and conveniences.  The exteriors aren’t as well maintained as it is not too unusual to find old appliances rusting in the yards or construction materials left in heaps. Landscaping is unheard of, but with an almost complete lack of soil and only scrub, rocks, and sand in the yards, that is quite understandable. Only a few homes have any sort of garden, and they utilize the pot hole gardening method.  Hollows in the rock are filled with soil found who knows where and one or two corn, pepper, tomato, or squash plants are cultivated there. The output is quite meager, so almost all food is imported from the States at a very high cost.

So we get to meet many of the Black Pointers.  Lorraine runs a café/bar that features free internet WIFI and a book exchange and is assisted by several of her daughters when they are home from school or work.   

Lorainne tends bar at the Cafe

On weekends she hosts a barbeque buffet featuring traditional Bahamian dishes such as peas and rice and macaroni and cheese (much better than the US variety) along with meats and seafood.  She is the “go to” source for all information on the settlement.  Next door is Lorraine’s mother who bakes wonderful bread.  She is known throughout the Bahamas for her coconut bread.  When you knock on her door to purchase bread you are invited inside.  She says she like to get to know her customers and give them an opportunity to visit a conventional Bahamian home.  

Lorainne's mother in her kitchen

Just down the way is Ida’s Laundromat, and much more.  Ida is a real entrepreneur.  The laundromat rivals anything you would find in the States and is spotlessly clean.   

Burt in this great laundromat  - it's amazing what gets you REALLY excited around here

She also has a small hardware and gift shop attached and several rental units upstairs.  There are meat or veggie patties (something like Hot Pockets) for sale along with coffee and home made carrot cake. And just recently she and her husband built four coin operated showers for the cruisers.  While Ida is off baking more cake her nephew, who is working to save up money to go to college in the States, runs the cash register and visits with the customers. No one complains about doing laundry in this environment.

The Adderlys own the Friendly Grocery Store.  Its shelves are full compared to other stores we have seen, but the coolers and freezers are painfully empty as it will be a while until the freighter appears.   

Where you learn to love Corn Flakes at $6 per small box

The mode of operation here is that if you see something you might need, buy it now as it might not be available again in the foreseeable future. If there is no one in the store when you enter, you check around back.  Likely Mr. and Mrs. Adderly are sitting outside in the shade working on some project or doing traditional straw work which is also available in the store.

The local school is next door to Lorrain’s. 

The kids outside for recess - yes they wear ties to class

As mentioned, children through grade 9 attend here.  Upon passing their leaving exams, they will finish high school in Nassau, usually boarding with relatives.  Most seem to pass the exam and many continue after high school to attend university.  It appears the population is well educated.  For instance, one of Lorrain’s daughters is attending medical school. Besides the classroom buildings which seem similarly equipped to an American school minus high tech items, the school provides housing for the principal and teachers in surrounding cottages. One of our cruising friends, a biology teacher on sabbatical from his position in Canada, taught science classes in the school for a week as it was short one science teacher.  He commented on how polite and well behaved the students were.

Across the street from Lorrain’s several men are building a C-class Bahamian sloop on the weekends.  We watch with interest as the work progresses, as it is all done by hand, a tradition passed down from generation to generation.  

Burt observes a partially constructed Seahorse

Woodworking is a valued skill in this culture and, besides the boats, is evident in the home building.  The boat builder’s goal is to have the sloop usable by early February when there is a regatta at Little Farmer’s Cay, about 10 miles south.  A week before the regatta we get a call on the VHF that the men need help getting the new boat and one other launched.  We quickly head down to Black Point thinking this could get quite interesting.  The boats need to be hauled across the street to a rocky patch that slopes down to the water – there are no ramps, trailers, or tow vehicles involved.  A sufficient number of locals and cruisers show up and slide the boats on their keels across the pavement and rocks and down the slippery shore into the water.  A few 4x4’s and sheets of plywood provide the only barrier to the rough surface.  

A low tech boat launching for Smashie

Seahorse get dunked and christened

The new boat is christened Sea Horse by the builder’s wife and one of the cruisers, lead weights are added for ballast, and several hours later it is sparring with Smashie, the other sloop, through the anchorage.  

The slopes under way on a light wind afternoon

 Even the small ones like these are magnificent under sail. We will definitely head down to the regatta to cheer on Sea Horse before she is pulled for further refinements, final fairing, and an Awlgrip paint job. 

While Black Point is more of a working town than a tourist destination, there are a few things to do.  We hike up to a supersized blow-hole on the sound side.  Even with relatively small waves we see mist and a few gushers come out of it.  Further around the bay is a building site.  The owner has built himself an attractive bright pink Bahamian home with wrap around porch overlooking the bay.  On adjacent land he is constructing some rental properties consisting of small cottages and one double house. Now he is working on several more cottages which are going up with amazing speed.  A few others from the settlement are in the work force and everything is done with hand power tools and a large concrete hand run mixer. They are a very industrious group.  We dinghy to the next bay south to find two expatriates’ homes, a spectacular beach, and the remains of a partially completed resort and marina – the effects of the economic downturn in the US are also obvious here.  Lorraine tells us that the developers destroyed some particularly nice marine habitat when excavating for the marina, a sad situation as far as the locals are concerned – the landscape has been scarred and there is no economic return on the project.  With so many cruisers about, there is much visiting among boats, along with three Happy Hours per week sponsored by Scorpio’s Bar.  We have met people from all around the world in this little anchorage, with Canadians perhaps the largest contingent.

Our time here is winding down. We leave tomorrow for Little Farmer’s Cay,  an even smaller settlement of 55 residents, and the 5F’s (First Friday in February at Farmer’s Festival). Afterwards, we will most likely continue heading south and not return to this portion of the Exumas.  It’s difficult to leave an area you have called home for almost two months.