So Much To Do!

The morning we left Chat and Chill to head to Thompson Bay Long Island we had an issue getting the main sail out, we had no idea what the issue was. It was like the wind was swirling around and we couldn’t get our nose into the wind to get the sail up properly. It was bizarre and in the end, we just motored out. It was probably better that we did not have the main up as once outside the protection of land it was crazy winds and seas. We unfurled the Genoa and just motor sailed to Long Island. Thompson Bay is a huge bay and a great place for cruisers.

We anchored just off Cruiser's beach and close to Tiny’s Restaurant. This was a beautiful anchorage but not much in the way of beaches to play Zorro on so we took him on a long walk to get some groceries and to check out the marine store. If you go here best to take your dinghy to the fuel dock as the walk will be minutes instead of hours in the heat! 

After a few days, we headed up Long Island to Calabash Bay. This bay is one of our favorites in the Bahamas. It has a beautiful easy-to-access beach to walk and play Zorro, it is a great spot for kiting and winging, and at the resort, you can get happy hour drinks to watch the sun go down. We also got in a dinghy exploration, a hike to the Columbus Monument and a Lobster lunch to celebrate Barry's birthday!

We met Dave on Happy Place who was out windsurfing and learning to wing. Nikki was able to pass on some tips and tricks over happy hour at the resort to help him. Happy Place was cruising with another boat called Turnerbout both of them are Leopard 46 catamarans. We ended up spending time with Turnerbout back in Ft Lauderdale and then cruising with them for almost a month in the Abacos later in the year. It’s funny how you can meet people and then end up staying connected with them as you both go in different directions. 

We loved Calabash Bay so much we ended up staying here 10 days, but it was time to move South and a weather window was opening to head to the Jumentos which we did in a 2 day sail.

The Jumentos Cays and Ragged Island chain are some of the Bahamas' most remote and unpopulated islands. Except for Duncan Town at the far end of the chain, you will have nothing but remote anchorages and unpopulated beaches. It was fantastic. We only hit two islands, Water Cay and Flamingo Cay. Both were great but at Water Cay we met some local fishermen and they shared Lobster, fresh conch, and hogfish with us and we gave them freshly made bread. We got the better end of the trade but it was pretty special to chat with them and learn about what they do and how they sell their fish to the restaurants back in Georgetown.

We also met a couple that was planning to go out snorkeling pretty far out so we decided to join them in our dinghy in case either of us had an issue with our boats we’d have a backup since there was no one around for miles and miles. We did a lobster hunt with them and that turned out to be very productive. We managed to snag six good-sized lobsters between the four of us. By we I mean Nikki, I mostly watched, as the area we were in was 15+ feet deep and Nikki was the only one who could hold her breath long enough to get that deep for any length of time. Our sling broke so one of our fellow hunters would dive down and spear the lobster and Nikki did the harder job of retrieval. It was good teamwork and good eating.

We started to have problems with our watermaker, never good in remote areas, so we headed back to Long Island to arrange repairs. It was going to take a couple of days for parts to arrive so we sailed back to Calabash Bay and hooked up with Lumeah, who we hadn’t seen for months.

We spent a couple of days enjoying this magical bay. We went winging, efoiling, kiting, as well as snorkeling.

Then it was time to go back to Thompson Bay to fix the watermaker, turns out it did not get fixed but that is another story. 

The crew of Lumeah and Momentum 42 decided to take in some of the sites on Long Island, Hamilton’s Caves and Dean’s Blue Hole, with a car rental. Hamilton's Cave is the largest cave system in The Islands of The Bahamas. The Lucayan Indians were thought to have lived here about 500 A.D. and many Lucayan artifacts were discovered in 1936. The cave is named after the small settlement called Hamiton's, located south of Salt Pond. It is owned and operated by Mr. Leonard Cartwright, a Long Island native.Inside the caves were 5 different types of bats, as well as, lots of other creepy crawlies but the bats were the highlight. We saw the smallest bats we have ever seen before, interestingly bats and the Ingraham's Hutia are the only 2 mammals that are native to the Bahamas. 

 Dean’s Blue Hole is the second deepest blue hole in the world with a depth of 202 meters. They have free diving competitions here and in the center of the Blue Hole they have set up a platform and lines for the freedivers to practice going deep!

The Blue Hole is connected to the Ocean and the day we went there was considerable surge so the water wasn’t very clear. We explored all the nooks and crannies and pretended we could dive deep and then it was time to move on! 

The day after our land tour it was time to say goodbye to Lumeah, they were heading up to Cat and Eleuthera Islands and we needed to start working our way back through the Exumas to make it to Fort Lauderdale to get warranty work done. So it was goodbye to Lumeah and hello to Grey Ghost and AndiamoNudo again at Chat and Chill by Great Exuma Island. This is part of sailing life, hellos, and goodbyes, you don’t always know when or where you will see people again so you just enjoy your time together and try to stay connected electronically until next time. 

Our next blog follows us as we work our way back to Florida for warranty work. We have some crazy storms, a cool surprise rally, solo passages and a US customs and immigration surprise.