West Bay to Highbourne Cay

Fri 5/17/13

The day dawned with light winds about 110 and partly cloudy skies. I haven't been rained on yet, all trip.

I exited West Bay on the northern side through the reef, and ran just offshore into Nassau. I was surprised at all the construction along the beach enroute.

Nassau harbor is always an interesting place to pass through, with floating things from ships to paddleboards. I tried to get a few photos to share.

I pulled into the Texaco Star, Harbor View for fuel, to top off my water tanks, and rinse some of the salt off the boat. Niko, the young man who is the fuel attendant there is always very friendly and helpful.

As I left the western end of New Providence, I initially headed towards Elbow Cay, but pretty quickly changed course for a shorter trip on a better run to Highbourne Cay.

I anchored on the west side of the island, where I've frequently seen boats anchored, and was surprised how many kept piling in. There was a swell rolling through, and I checked my favorite cove around the corner to the north, and found it much better. With the Whaler, I found that there was enough water to get MERCY between the reef and the beach, so moved the boats around.

The northern cove has a gorgeous sand beach on its southern end, and is surrounded by high bluffs to the east, and lower rocks to the west. The sand there is good holding, and Mercy-dog and I love to walk the beach.  A vhf call to the marina with a request to visit their beach is usually answered with a pleasant reminder to not leave any trash.  It is a sad state that so many cruisers are so thoughtless.

The SKIPJACK was anchored in the cove, with Jack and Marla. They had been anchored well below me in the Berry's.


Four Bahamian sportfishing boats, each towing 20ft skiffs, came in and anchored directly upwind of me, three rafted together. They looked like they were having a good vacation with their boats full of families. Initially, their anchoring was pretty disconcerting, but, after they put out three bow anchors, and two stern anchors, keeping their bow into the swell rather than the wind..... I decided they would be so tangled together if they drug, that I would only have to dodge one large mass, rather than three drifting missiles. Sometime late, tranquility returned to the bay when the fleet went to bed.

Anchored N24 43.492' W 076 49.440' 8' in sand.

Morgan's Bluff, Andros to West Bay, New Providence

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The mailboat came into Morgan's Bluff this morning, and the pier was a bustle of activity. I went in with the Whaler, anchoring the stern out, and tying the bow off ashore, and wandered over to see the biggest event in town.

The almost non-event in the community is the smoky fire that has been burning to the south, visible to me yesterday and today. The brush fire is substantial enough that it would be making the news if were in the States. I've been in Andros before when fires were burning, and nobody seems to pay them much attention.




I asked directions to Nichols Town, and more specifically, the Batelco office. The man told me, "Its too far to walk." I had walked less than half of the 2-3 miles when the second vehicle passing by offered me a ride. I did even better coming back. 

If you are walking, the road makes a loop to the port, and you can choose which ever side you are closest to. From the mailboat, walk against the one way traffic until the road merges back into two-way traffic, and bear right. Go to the 4-way stop, and look to your left. You will see the Batelco tower, and the sales building is right there as well.

I got a new SIM card for my Bahamian phone, along with a new phone number. This enables me to communicate with my friends in the Bahamas, as well as receive emergency calls from the States. My ATT phone has all its calls forwarded to a dead-end number, so they never hit my voicemail, to avoid the $200/month I was charged last year from calls that had gone to my voicemail, even though I'd not answered the phone. ATT told me this way, I can still use my domestic text plan for incoming texts, and outgoing texts are charged against the international plan. I can still make outgoing calls with the ATT phone.

This useless info to my friends at home is for the benefit of the boaters following the blog. They don't care about a lot of the other stuff I do, so, maybe I can alienate all my readers. By the way, if you are a boater reading this, be sure and post a comment sometime. It won't be posted if you don't want it to be, but at least I can read it, and I'd like a better idea of who is reading the blog.

I crossed over to West Bay, New Providence, and entered from the south. I couldn't believe all the changes since I was here last. There is a hotel (I guess) clearly visible, though inshore, from the bay. There has been some new building along the edge of the bay, and a lot of the Australian pine trees in the southern side are gone. I don't know if they were removed as exotics, or if a storm took them out.

I used to anchor here a lot with the other boat, since the diving is spectacular on the walls to the SE and to the NE, pick which ever is in the lee. Stuart Cove has sunk a lot of different wrecks in the vicinity, the water is clear, the fish are abundant, and I LOVE diving walls!

I have a lot of fond memories of West Bay, and reacquainted myself with the cut to the north with the Whaler. Since I've never been in here with this boat, I wanted to confirm the depths.

One big change since I was here last is wi-fi! With my wi-fi amplifier, there are several unlocked signals, allowing me to check my email, and post this blog.

The only thing that could make tonight any better is if it rained hard enough to wash the salt off the boat! 

Distance travelled today: 30nm.