Powell Cay

Fri June 20th Powell Cay

We were headed from Allan-Pensacola Cay to Manjack Cay, when I saw the gorgeous beaches of Powell Cay, and we couldn't resist.  Even though the southerly winds were expected to turn SW, the winds were light, and there's only slightly over a 2-3 mi fetch for winds from the S to SW.

We anchored just off the bluffs on Powell Cay, in a sand patch amidst a grass bottom.  There were beaches to the northwest, and to the south.

To the left of the bluffs, looking from the anchorage, there is a trail that winds through the grass, and then up the elevation, and ends on top of the bluff.  Grab a palm frond to clear the spider webs off the trail in front of you, and you'll have a more enjoyable walk!

From the top of the bluff, we had a great view of the anchorage, and stood watching tropic birds circling between our anchored boat and the bluff we were standing on.  It was an interesting experience to be able to shoot down on the birds, rather than shooting up.  I shot a lot of photos of pretty water, as with my point and shoot camera, very few of my photos had birds.

Doug Rudolph got some great photos of the tropicbirds however.  I thought he'd imported them on my iPad, but, I can't find them!  

Back down at the beach, but further to the northwest, you can see the ruins of an old dock, including a couple of pipes barely sticking up through the water.  I may be wrong, but it appears to me that this was an old seawall, with enough years passed that casuarina pines are growing there now.  I wish I knew the history there, because the seawall is currently way up the beach.

If you follow the natural rock formation up through the casuarina trees, you will find this plaque.   "Cathy Swedenborg Loved This Island April 30, 1956-August 10-1979"  I can understand why, Cathy.  This is a beautiful place.

    

Mon June 16 Bimini to Grand Bahama Grand Lucayan Waterway

We departed Bimini and ran to the east of Great Isaac Light towards the Grand Lucayan Canal on Grand Bahama.  The day was squally, and for what was forecast to be a relatively calm day, turned into a nasty trip across the Northwest Providence Channel.

Once again, we tried to facilitate the current to our advantage.  I don't enter a waypoint and head for it, I steer a compass course across the current.  My most up to date current readings showed that on the south side of the channel, the current generally set to the east.  On the north side of the channel, it generally set to the west.  My calculations were pretty close.

The Grand Lucayan waterway canal is a GREAT shortcut through Grand Bahama.  The waterway is about 7 miles long.  There are two things that limit whether or not your vessel can get through.  The first is air draft, and I'm afraid I don't have accurate numbers on that.  There is one bridge that you cross under.  One publication I have says 16', and the other says 27.'  I saw no marks on the bridge, but I suspect the 27' is about accurate.  In my case, I folded down the SSB antenna, and was good to go.

The other limiting factor is the controlling depth on the bank just outside the north end of the channel.  I was drawing 4' 2" as I came through, and we were expecting to need the tide to get out.  

The trip through the canal was interesting.  Years ago, the government dredged the canal to enable financial development in that area.  I don't know how many different waterfront communities were planned, but hurricanes and economic downturn pretty much halted everything.  Due to the time of day that we came through, we didn't explore the south end, though I believe there are some facilities just inside the entrance, and to the west.  Along the main canal, you can see a high-rise condo/hotel that is abandoned.  You see a couple of houses, but no communities.

The canal narrows as you pass under the aforementioned bridge, resulting in a strengthened current which swirls when the canal widens out again.  It is not difficult to maneuver through, just keep an eye for the eddy swirls.  There is one other spot, "the narrows" where the canal narrows at a turn and has resulting eddy swirls.  Again, nothing major, just keep your eyes opened so that you don't get turned sideways in the back eddy.

On the north end, we went up into fingers dredged to form a waterfront community.  We found a finger with no houses or boats that we would block access to, and ran our anchor chain around a tree, and our stern line to a tree on the other bank.  We had our anchor and a grapnel hook prepared, but didn't use either, though the grapnel would have been a good choice had a tree not been handy.

After a bumpy crossing, the waterway was a nice change of pace.  Our anchorage was slick calm, a great place to enjoy our barbecue and some cold watermelon.

At around 0330 I awoke to a gorgeous bright moon, and extremely high tide.  There wasn't a breath of wind.  I easily recruited my lab, Mercy, to go exploring with me, and Rudy even caught the excitement when he looked around.  I have a good GPS plotter with an accurate fish finder.  I suggested we check out the channel, so we didn't have to wait until Tuesday afternoon to leave on the next high tide.  Nassau tide read high at 2315, which is almost a four hour lag, though I've read elsewhere there is a two hour lag on the north end.  Since I had just awoke, I don't know exactly when the tide turned.  Remember that tide and current do not necessarily change at the same time in many locations.  We crisscrossed the canal, noting that the channel was dredged, and returned to get the MERCY.

Just a note, as you go out the north end of the canal, the channel turns sharply to starboard, paralleling the island.  The channel lies between the pilings and the shore, and when the channel turns to the port, there were daymarkers on both sides of the channel.  

When we came through the channel at 0430 or so, I am guessing we had a 2' tide, and never saw less than 6'  

Accidents and boating

Yesterday, a friend of mind, an excellent long-time sailor, and a careful individual, got his hand caught in the winch while trying to turn the anchor in the chute.  His foot slipped, and accidentally turned the winch on.  They amputated his left pinky finger between the first and second digit.

This took place in the Bahamas, near Marsh Harbour.

In spite of the horrific end result, there were a few positives.  First, his wife, aboard with him, is an RN.  Second, he was very near (couple of hours) decent medical help.  Third, he had friends on another boat who helped with the boat, and the logistics of returning to port while his wife administered first aid.

While all my sympathetic nerves are aching, I thought it was a good time to make a couple of comments.  My friends were well prepared, and I wondered how many cruisers would be.

Have a decent first aid kid aboard, and know what to do with it.  You can do far better making your own than buying a pre-built one.  Get some good first aid training.  Know how to stop bleeding and what to do with an airway obstruction.  Know how to identify the signs of shock, hypothermia, and heat exhaustion.  Everyone on the boat should have some rudimentary first aid training that goes further than "call 911."

Just like everyone aboard should have first aid training, everyone on board should familiarize themselves with the boat's equipment.  For couples traveling together, duties are often shared, with one person always doing the same task.  Make sure everyone knows how to get the vessel underway, to pick up the anchor, to maneuver the vessel, and to navigate.  Make sure everyone knows how to operate the radio, and what frequencies to get help on.  

Everyone should also be able to mark a man-overboard position, and be able to return to that position without running over the individual.  Everyone should be able to heave a floating line, life ring, or life-saving device to that individual, and be able to help them out of the water.  On commercial vessels, we practiced these "Oscar" drills, throwing a dummy in the water, and having the crew work together to spot the dummy and retrieve it.

Try to develop a situational awareness of where the nearest medical help is, and how to access them.  Cruising guides are great resources, and sometimes a local connection is even better.  Develop relationships in local communities, because it helps to know that you can call so and so on the cruiser-net and they can help with local information.

May your hand heal quickly, friend; I'm glad you guys were prepared.

Telephone and internet communications in the Bahamas

Probably one of the most asked questions these days about cruising in the Bahamas is, "How can I communicate with home?"

Let me address this in a few parts:

1) how do I communicate locally

2) how do I avoid astronomical phone bills

3) can I get data inexpensively

Communicating locally: 

For the past couple of years, I have had a Bahamian cell phone.  That phone enabled me to connect with boaters that I met in the Bahamas, and businesses in town, marinas, etc. and allow them to communicate with me.  When my mother died last year, while I was in the Bahamas, BTC was a good communication tool to the States.

A cheap, unlocked GSM phone with a Bahamian (BTC) SIM card activated at a Batelco office will provide you with cell service.  You can buy minutes, prepaid, and they are good for 90 days, unless you add to them (ie. "top off")  You can set up with Batelco to renew it online with a credit card, but, be careful!  "Topping off" your phone does NOT extend the 90 days on a dormant phone.  

Have the idea of keeping your number until you return next year by topping off?  It doesn't work.  The only way you keep your phone number active is to use it every 90 days, voice or text.  BTW, unless you have activated Stateside roaming, you can't make a call in the States to keep it active.  Sigh.  I learn a lesson every year, they are just expensive.  

So, the BTC number keeps me in touch locally, and I can also call the States.  This year I put the SIM card into my iPhone, as told below, giving me voice and data.

How do I avoid astronomical phone bills?

I also keep my Stateside number, since, like a lot of us, we are under a contract.

I have Stateside service with ATT, and don't know how the other companies operate.  The first year I brought a phone, I had the mistaken idea that if I didn't answer the phone I would not be charged.  Wrong!  You are charged for every voicemail, whether you ever listen to it, or not.  If your phone is turned on in the Bahamas, you will be charged for every incoming call.  Only turn on the phone when you want to use it?  Doesn't matter.  Your voice mails have reached the International fees.

The funds I might have contributed to the Republican Convention went to paying my phone bill for the elections calls instead.  I'm talking hundreds of dollars in phone bills, mostly from hang-ups, and politicians!  My friends from the States knew I was cruising.

The ATT international services were very helpful.  Here is what they suggested:  forward your phone to a different number before you leave the States.  Hmmm.  That would have worked very well, forwarding to my house, had I not just disconnected my home phone to save money to cruise.

But, the idea is good!  I forwarded my calls to a number my dad doesn't answer, but goes to a voice mail.  The junk he deletes, and anything important, he tells me about.  I am still able to make outgoing calls with my phone, in the event of an emergency, and still able to send and receive texts on my ATT phone.

Once again, ATT international services has been great for me.  I have an international text plan, and all my outgoing texts are billed to it.  My incoming calls are on my unlimited domestic plan.  

It costs Stateside folks NOTHING to text me, and should I choose to answer, it is billed to my international text plan.  Did I mention, texts do screwy things?  I got texts today from a couple of days ago, some of which I'd already received once...  That's ok, incoming texts are counted against your domestic plan anyhow!

Services do not have the reliability that we've come to expect Stateside, but, the Bahamas has other attributes!  Remember that incoming texts hang "in the cloud" until you pass a tower, so that is nice.

The other thing I do with my Verizon iPad is call Verizon before I leave the States, and ask them to remove my auto renew off my credit card.  If you disconnect through the iPad software, it fries your SIM card.  When I go back into US waters, I enter the cc info on the iPad, and the service is activated again.

Can I get data inexpensively?  (Check email, get weather reports)

Yes, and probably less than you pay in the States.

I had an old ATT iPhone, which I had upgraded after three years, but kept.  Before I left the States, I unlocked it, legally!  

I contacted ATT, and told them I was a long time customer, that this phone was not under contract, and they have a procedure to unlock the phone.  The email you get from them says it can take several days.  It took me less than an hour.  They send you a set of instructions, and a time parameter to follow them (24 hrs I think)  I brought an unlocked iPhone with me this year.

At the BTC office, I bought a micro SIM card, voice minutes, AND, the Bahamas do things differently folks, a data card.  

The BTC employees pop SIM cards in and out all day long, and they will usually try a SIM card from their stash to make sure your phone or tablet will work before they send you to the cashier to buy one.

I spent $15 for the SIM card.  I put $40 in voice minutes, and I bought some data cards.  The data card is good for  2gigs, or 30 days, whichever comes first.  They sell for $30, but are frequently on sale for $15.  I bought several, as they were on sale, and are good as long as I use them before October 2016.  You can put your activated card into whatever device the SIM card will fit (iPad) For some reason, even though BTC is a 4g network, Apple's agreement with BTC (maybe disagreement?) is Apple products are limited to 3g, so said some lady at the BTC office.

Apple has some other weird agreements, evidentally.  If you have a Verizon iPad, it is already unlocked, and has GSM capability.  (so I've read)  I know that when I put the GSM BTC SIM card in mine, it works.  

Oh, but wait!  You can't  initially activate it on the iPad or tablet!  You have to activate it on a phone, and stick it in your iPad after it is activated.  When your month or 2gig is up, back to the phone to activate again.  Did I mention you need to buy a $5 voice cell card to have that ability?

I hope you bring the device needed to pop your SIM cards, since it seems like there is a lot of that.

The Dirty Laundry Little Secret

A couple of weeks before I left on this trip, I googled laundry washboard, or something like that, in search of a scrub board to wash some clothes, should I become really desperate.  I ended up with quite a washing machine!

Imagine a cross between a toilet plunger and a washing machine agitator, and you have this pretty cool product.

I put about a gallon and a half of water in a 5 gallon bucket, added a little laundry soap, and began the up and down.  I had read on amazon where one of the reviewers commented that your up-stroke was as important as the down stroke, so I made sure to use a little elbow grease on both strokes.  I was washing about two t-shirts at a time.

Then I wrung out the soapy water, and dropped them into my gallon and a half of rinse water, and plunged a little more.  When the rinse water became too soapy, I added a third bucket on the rinse end, and eventually replaced my dirty wash water with the second bucket, adding a little more soap.  

As I did the final rinse, I wrung them out the best I could and tossed them in another (dry) 5 gallon bucket until I had a group to hang on an improvised clothesline on the roof.

Then, Mercy-dog and I went in a search for more blue holes in the back of the Bight of Old Robinson. returning to the gorgeous beach at Lynyard Cay to sit in neck deep water to cool off.  

After a salad for lunch, I folded the dry, clean laundry, and saw that the solar panels had already caught up from the usage on the refrigerator, lights, and fans the night before.  I finished a little necessary paperwork, and moved down to anchor off Tahiti Beach, where my friends had moved up to.

When I got up to the anchorage, and surveyed the number of boat wakes, and the lack of wind, I decided I ought to move to a more secluded place where I didn't have to worry about the Whaler banging into the boat, or someone running over it.

Lynyard Cay, Abacos

25 June 2014

Lynyard Cay is one of the barrier cays that keep the Atlantic Ocean out of the Sea of Abaco.  The North Bar channel enters directly north of it, with Little Harbour Cut to the south of it.  Of the two, North Bar is the preferred route in less than ideal conditions, when there is a heavy swell from the Atlantic.

I anchored off Lynyard Cay yesterday, about a quarter of the way up from the south, offshore just far enough to be safe(er) from the flies and bugs that are apt to venture out in this beautiful calm weather.  I'm anchored a little deeper than normal, in about 23' of water.  The grassy bottom here has numerous small sand spots, one of which I dropped the hook in.  Closer to shore is less grass, more sand.  Had the winds been higher, I probably would have tucked in the spot a little further north, where a channel parallels shore, and leads in behind the sandbar.  I have anchored in that spot before, which breaks any swell.

There are several sandy beaches, nice to walk on, and great to sit in chest deep water to cool off in the evenings!

Last night and tonight, with winds calm to 6 or 7 kts out of the southeast, there isn't any swell to be concerned with, and I am in a gorgeous location.  There are eight boats anchored to the SE of me, as there were last night, though all but two of the boats have changed.  There is one boat tucked in the northern pocket, a different boat than was there last night.

It was a gorgeous day here today.  This morning, I saw the trawler, Stormy, headed north from Little Harbour.  I called him on the VHF, and he came over, anchored nearby, and we visited for awhile, looking at each other's vessels, and trading sea stories.  He has a 10' AB inflatable that may be my inflatable replacement when that time comes.

When he departed, and I did a few more boat chores, Mercy and I went and walked the beach, and then sat in the water, cooling off.  Today was a scorcher.  A man came ashore in a small boat, with two vertebrates of a humpback whale, and he said there were another seventeen to go with those.

He also showed me where a path goes through to the Atlantic.

It was so good to see my friends on the S/V Full Deck, John and Barbara; and on the S/V Simpatico, Scott and Heather; pull into the anchorage here.  Last summer I had so much fun with them for about a month while our paths intermingled for awhile.  

We all took our small boats into Little Harbour, and visited for awhile, while drinking ice cold cokes at Pete's Pub.