Author: Chris McLean

Between the Majors to Warderick Wells to Shroud Cay to Nassau (via Highbourne Cay)

May 10, 11, and 12, 2022

Lailia is our home. When our alternator is not working, the motor will not charge our batteries to provide power for our refrigerator, lights and water pump. If we are motoring, we also need battery power for our navigation instruments like our Garmin and our autopilot. We also need power to run the windlass, which pulls up our anchor.

At anchor we can usually generate enough power using solar and wind, but that’s not guaranteed (we have had some cloudy and windless days). We have our gas-powered generator, too.

While John is very handy there is only so much he can do on Lailia with the tools that we have. We decided to go to Nassau; we can get the alternator bench tested and either repaired or replaced there. This is a very big change of plans for us as we had hoped to go east to Eleuthera.

Much of this trip was through the Land and Sea Park which has no wifi.

May 10: Warderick Wells

We stopped in Warderick Wells on our way south but were not able to get the dinghy and motor in the water because it was so rolly. This time the weather was great and we were able to walk on some trails through the park.

The trails here are fairly well-marked but because we got here after the park office closed, we had no maps. The terrain is pretty rough with lots of uneven ground. We turned back on several trails because we did not have the right shoes.

John made it to the top of the Davis Ruins trail – I chose to protect my knee and stop at the halfway point.

I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of a hutia – this rodent only lives in the Bahamas and is considered vulnerable to extinction. They are about as large as a muskrat or groundhog.

May 11: Shroud Cay (anchored)

It’s a short hop from Warderick to Shroud. Both of the these cays are in the Land and Sea Park, so no wifi. While I love the idea of no wifi, it leaves us a bit vulnerable because we can’t get updated weather reports. We checked the weather before we left the Majors to get a sense of what was forecasted but we had no up-to-date information.

We wanted to spend more time on the dinghy trail here. Although we did not see as many turtles this time, it’s just such a lovely place with calm water that’s incredibly clear.

We tied the dinghy to some mangroves and John jumped in to snorkel for a bit. He was able to swim with a few turtles.

We were way back on that trail, looking down at the beautiful water and trying to spot more turtles when I looked up and saw lots of clouds rolling in. All of the big sky with no reference points makes determining distance difficult but it definitely was coming our way.

The water outside the mangroves was very choppy but we were able to get our dinghy hauled up and secured. That giant cloud bank never dropped any rain on us although we did get some rain as the evening progressed.

When we originally arrived at this anchorage there were a large handful of boats. It felt a bit disconcerting to see many of the boats leave as squalls were coming in, especially when we could not get any weather info. Those boats that left may have had plans to travel that had nothing to do with the weather but it certainly felt eerie.

Our night in Shroud Cay was pretty rolly due to those squalls coming from the north – we did not have great protection from that direction. Dramamine helps me sleep in these conditions.

May 12: Shroud to Highbourne Cay to Nassau (docked)

We got lucky. The wind and the water calmed – no rolls, no chops, no waves. We could see the bottom through 20 feet of water.

We couldn’t sail with no wind but motoring was very pleasant. We went north to Highbourne Cay. When we were last here it was rolly and a bit unpleasant. Not so this time – the water was gorgeous and calm.

Since we were out of the Land and Sea Park we were able to get a weather forecast. We could see that Friday would be rainy so we decided to go directly to Nassau. We followed the tracks we made in April.

The Exumas Banks are shallow – most of the time the depth is 20 feet or less. The calm water allowed us to see the bottom and it was pretty barren. There were some rocks and few spots with sea grass but there’s a lot of sand. We spotted a few starfish and maybe five fish the entire way. This was not what I thought was happening under the surface.

Close to Nassau we saw what we think is a bunch of smoke. We have no idea what this was – it disappeared about 15 minutes later. There was nothing on the VHF about it and we did not see any rescue-type boats there.

We have returned to the marina where we stayed in early April. We were lucky enough to meet up with boat friends who are leaving to head back to Florida tomorrow, so we had one last Bahamas dinner with them.

There’s a list of tasks we hope to accomplish here in Nassau – getting the alternator tested and fixed is the highest priority. My phone has died and I hope I can get an unlocked phone here – right now I am using an old, cracked-screen phone that also functions as a hotspot so I can’t text or use Signal/WhatsApp (which is how we talk to our friends and family). We’ll get laundry done (one washer in the marina is currently working!), provision, and I am going to run the dehumidifier. In between, we get some Starbucks and some ice cream, too (*since we’re here).

Between the Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 9, 2022

Frustration was the word of the day.

We had a deluge this morning. I know that we rarely get an entire day of rain but the clouds seemed to last forever. Buttoning up the boat also makes it really, really warm and humid. Ugh.

Another frustration is that my phone is having issues charging. While this would be a pain anywhere, there are no T-Mobile or Best Buys here. It’s probably the transmission fluid but who knows. I can’t even order a new phone online. I just have to plug it in to my laptop as I can – it overheats when I use other power sources.

Probably the biggest and most challenging frustration is that the new alternator does not work. We really hoped that we would be able to install it and then work our way north and west to Eleuthera this week. This is the third alternator that John has installed – and we waited for about a week for this one to arrive – so to have it not charge the batteries is exasperating.

John has to work on his knees and extend into the engine room. It’s not a fast or easy process, so when it doesn’t work it’s even worse – all of that time and effort invested for a bad outcome.

Adding to that frustration: when John was trying to check the leads, the battery in the voltmeter died. To get to the store to get new batteries required us bailing the dinghy out (that earlier deluge left its mark) and a choppy ride to the general store. At least the rain had moved out and the view is outstanding.

Whenever we leave Lailia in the dinghy we have to think about what we need to take with us. We are getting more streamlined with this: we always take our handheld VHF radio in case we need assistance while we we are on the water; as well as our phones in a drybag. If we are planning to get supplies we carry reusable shopping bags (stores in the Bahamas don’t have single-use bags) as well as a cooler bag since we usually have to travel a mile or so in the sunlight. If we are going some place, like Cruisers Beach, in the evening we also carry a large handheld spotlight, mostly to draw attention to us in case there are other moving boats.

Our cooler bag was a prize from Charleston County Public Library. I love that I borrow e-books from them and haul my groceries in ChasCoLibrary bag, even in the Bahamas.

As we prepared to cruise the Bahamas we tried to read everything we could and talk to other folks who had lived aboard. Somewhere we heard that the worst thing to have onboard is a calendar because it’s nearly impossible to plan destinations due to weather windows and boat maintenance. I also kept hearing “embrace the suck” which is a Zen level that I have not quite reached. It’s really difficult to appreciate how often things just don’t work out to our plans.

There are definitely worse places to be. I get that! This is a lifestyle that we chose, for sure. Some days, though, it’s challenging. Maybe this is why the liveaboard community is so supportive. Until you actually have been stuck waiting for a weather window, it’s hard to grasp the frustration. Those shitty days in paradise are real.

Staniel Cay does have a few mechanics but none that can troubleshoot the alternator. Our best bet is to return to Nassau where there are several options. We can use our generator to give us enough battery power to run the windlass and our navigation systems. We’ll leave at high tide tomorrow (we learned our lesson on that sandbar) and head to the Land and Sea Park. We want to explore the hiking trails at Warderick Wells. We may also return to Shroud Cay to snorkel the mangrove trail with all of the sea turtles. We’ll head to east Nassau after that.

This is a change in plans for us as we had hoped to go west to Eleuthera. Boat friends are posting amazing photos of the funky town of Spanish Wells and we really wanted to join them (that’s just another instance of a calendar being a terrible thing).

Between the Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 8, 2022

We had been really lucky with weather here. Most nights the temps are in the 70s and the wind keeps us cool. Lately it has been different – sometimes very little winds and nighttime temps around 80. It’s cooler in the salon (the ‘living room’) so I will often lie on the settee and read until I fall asleep. Every night I have been awakened by rain drops coming in through the overhead hatches – I close everything and get into bed at that point.

Early this morning lightning was all around us (although we did not have much thunder) so we put all of our electronic devices into our oven. We have read that this will protect our stuff from electromagnetic shock if Lailia got struck by lightning. We’re not 100% sure if this will work, but it’s worth our energy to try to keep our phones, chargers, and laptop safe. Microwave ovens are actually Faraday cages (and definitely would work) but we don’t have one onboard. It’s pretty amazing how much stuff we could fit in my “princess oven” (that is the brand name and I laugh every time I see it).

Although it seemed like it was going to be a rainy day, in typical Bahamas weather took over and the sun came out. Our solar power is pretty decent for keeping our fridge and water pump running but without the wind generator we don’t have a lot of extra power so we have to run the generator to charge our phones, my Kindle, and our bluetooth speakers.

This was a day that John worked to tighten our shrouds. These cables help support our mast and over time can stretch. I did some basic cleaning (our entire bathroom can be cleaned with two Lysol wipes) and took apart some of the burners on our stove to deep clean them. I also baked some shortbread.

In order to import freight into the Bahamas, individuals have to create an online account through a system called Click2Clear. This system is supposed to expedite the process but we had been struggling to make it work (it’s a newish system). It was frustrating that we were going to have to wait to talk to someone with the customs office on Monday since our package was at the freight forwarders on Friday. We made several phone calls to the forwarders and it seemed as if they were not going to be able to send us our alternator until we got the Click2Clear account straight.

But…somehow they were able to make it happen and get our package on a plane today. We have the alternator. I am not really sure what magic happened but I am really thankful. Hopefully John will be able to get it installed tomorrow.

While we were in Staniel Cay we ran into new boat neighbors and we all decided to stay for drinks and snacks. Conversations between cruisers always seem to follow a predictable threads: we always have to share where we have been; we discuss where good services (like showers, laundromats, and stores) are; we talk about lifestyle changes (like using tortillas instead of hotdog rolls); and the men talk about the stuff they fixed (because stuff always has to be fixed). We usually all share social media links. Sometimes we share book recommendations because there’s a lot of time to read when you have to wait for the weather windows. There’s a strong sense of community among liveaboards that transcends age and politics.

The waves calmed down a lot this evening which made our ride back to Lailia really relaxing. We took a little ride out to watch the sunset before heading back to have some cheese and crackers for dinner.

Between the Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 7, 2022

Prevailing winds here are from the east. We have been anchored in a great spot that’s protected by land from those winds. We knew that the winds would be clocking around to blowing from the west (wide open at our anchorage) but weren’t sure how rolly we would get. Comfort depends on how Lailia is moving: rocking side to side can be kind of nice but lots of rolling is not fun.

This morning those west winds picked up. Our dinghy started banging up against Lailia and we were rolling a bit. I woke up to see the dinghy out of the stern portlights and thought we had a runaway dinghy; it was actually John who had moved the dinghy to a better spot. That stopped the banging but we were pretty sure the rolling was going to get worse.

We had discussed moving Lailia to a spot behind Big Majors known as “Between the Majors” because Little Major is on the other side of the channel. This anchorage provides protection from both the east and the west but it does have some go-fast boat traffic through its channel. Those boats in this channel can cause some temporary rolling due to wakes.

John made the call to pull anchor and move to Between the Majors. I am glad he did.

One somewhat harrowing part of moving to the new anchorage is heading through a very narrow cut. We have ridden the little dinghy through there and it can have some strong currents. Captain John was confident and steady so we had no problems (but it’s only 50′ wide there and we have a beam of 13′).

Narrow, swift-moving water can cause a lot of shoaling because sand gets pushed through and then sinks. We got stuck on the sandy bottom for a few minutes and then the current pushed us off. Now we know why we saw another sailboat sitting there for about an hour yesterday! Getting stuck on the sand here isn’t awful especially when we’re going slow. It’s just a soft bump (and lots of cursing).

Once we dropped anchor in the new spot John put on his snorkel gear and followed the chain to make sure our anchor had set deeply.

We have wind scoops over a few deck hatches. These help funnel wind down into our boat. They make a huge difference especially when we’re dealing with the current pushing us in a different direction than the wind. Normally the wind blows from our bow and back to our stern – our hatches open to the bow so we capture a lot of wind. Today the current was pushing harder than the wind so we’re turned about 90° from the wind. Our scoops are facing the port side to catch those westerly winds.

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The rocky Islands here intrigue me (and John indulges me when I want to get nerdy). They’re perforated with holes, caves, and caverns. Sandy beaches are not the norm – most of the time it’s rocks straight down to the water line.

Brown noddies live on a few of the really small islets we pass on our way to Staniel. They seem to hang out in some of the larger holes but I can’t tell if they’re nesting or just chilling. We were able to get pretty close to them on our dinghy.

We’re waiting for some assistance to get our alternator shipped. The Bahamas government has created a website that allows importers and exporters to create accounts. We’ve filled everything out and submitted all of the documents but we haven’t gotten the email confirmation we need. We’ll try calling the helpline tomorrow morning to see if we can get this moving (so we can get moving!)

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We have loved reading all of your comments and well wishes. Do you have any questions?

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 5 & 6, 2022

We have had a couple of days of very calm water and very low wind. The water is so clear we can see our anchor and chain. Low wind means it’s kinda warm at night but we have been able to run our fan which helps.

We woke up determined to get a lot done today. Unfortunately I managed to pull a muscle in my side (how does this even happen??). We went to shore to provision and get ice before the mega yacht folks grabbed everything.

We had hoped to drop off our laundry but the laundry lady was out today. John wound up dropping the groceries, ice, and me off at Lailia and going back to the liquormat to get stuff in the dryer. The liquormat concept is a really good one and might could be franchised!

We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary with dinner at Staniel Cay. It’s odd how time moves both quickly and slowly: we’ve been together forever and not long enough simultaneously. I can’t imagine loving living on Lailia with anyone else, for sure.

Our alternator arrived at the freight forwarder in Ft. Lauderdale today. We are hoping we’ll have it on Sunday. Depending on the wind we will be able to move to a different anchorage in the Land and Sea Park early next week.

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 4, 2022

We haven’t had many rainy days in the Bahamas. We might get a quick shower or two. Sometimes we see rain on the horizon without it getting to where we are.

Today was different: lots of low grey clouds and thunder. Distance can be really difficult to determine when we’re looking over open water, but these clouds were pretty much over top of us for hours.

As it got darker, the water seemed to get calmer. We did notice that Lailia’s orientation changed a lot. We normally face fairly east but throughout the day we actually clocked around. One thing I check is that we are facing the same direction as others around us.

When the rain came we were lucky – it wasn’t accompanied by any strong winds. There have been reports of strong squalls with high winds on some other island chains.

It’s been a nice, lazy day. Neither of us has had shoes on today. Once the rain passed, we spent time giving stink-eye to folks who are speeding through the anchorage leaving wakes behind. We’ve considered shaking our boat hook at them and telling them to get out of our yard! (We’re old like that.)

John also made a conch horn today. It’s a tradition to blow the conch horn when the sun sets.

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas

May 3, 2022

We have gone through almost 15GB of data since we have anchored here, primarily because we have downloaded the last half of Ozark. We headed into Staniel Cay to buy more data at the BTC store. Unfortunately the system was down. I will call them tomorrow to find out if they’re up and running. Infrastructure is different here.

Staniel Cay has some very pretty views out into the Exuma Banks. Even after being in the Bahamas for months we still take time to appreciate all the shades of blue around us

There’s an abundance of nurse sharks and rays here. We still notice them and take time to watch them gliding through the water.

On the way back to Lailia we watched another seaplane land by Pig Beach. This seaplane seemed to be picking up folks who had dinghied over. The pigs don’t seem to mind the sound – most of the folks on boats came out to watch.

Since we were near Pig Beach, we rode closer folks who were feeding them from their dinghy. I like to see the pigs but don’t want them to get too close to me…I take the warnings about them biting seriously.

John changed the oil in the generator and in the high pressure pump for our water maker. I am glad he knows how to do this but even more glad that he knows it has to be done!

John also changed the water maker filter. Seeing the difference between the old one (which he rinsed a few times before I took the photo) and a new one really drives home how important these filters are (not that we couldn’t tell the difference between salty seawater and the freshwater on our boat).

Our new alternator has been shipped to the freight forwarder. With any luck, we’ll get it this weekend and John will be able to install it. Once we get that, we’ll provision Lailia and head north back into the Land and Sea Park.

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 2, 2022

There are three beaches visible from our anchorage: Pig Beach, Cruisers Beach and Dog Beach. In between the beaches are rocks, caves, and vegetation, so each beach is very separate from one another.

We are furthest from Pig Beach – we can see it but we are not near enough to be disturbed by the myriad boats that land there.

Today a sea plane landed there. It seems as if the pigs are used to it, as they got close to the plane. Of course they know that people generally bring food.

Seaplanes take off into the wind so this one had to taxi through a very busy anchorage to get far enough out to get the wind. We are used to seeing dinghies, paddle boards, and occasional jet skies wend their way through anchored boats. Today we got to watch this plane do it.

Once it got out far enough it turned back and seemed to line up with Lailia. It flew directly over us.

Cruisers Beach is the closest beach to Lailia. It’s tradition to leave a token for Neptune. Tonight we added our whale to the collection. Our friends Chris and Sarah gave us this whale when they sold their boat. We made sure we added their boat name to honor them.

Apparently the pigs don’t read maps well because one showed up at Cruisers Beach tonight. She came out of the woods and did a circuit around the tables and the beach itself, no doubt hoping for dropped food.

Pigs need to stay on their own beach and not come out of the woods at night.

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

May 1, 2022

We have been in the Bahamas since February 27 and haven’t had a rainy day. Rain showers come and go but we haven’t had days just wash out.

Of course, when it does rain, we hurry through Lailia to close hatches and portlights. The rain always seems to stop just when we get everything buttoned up!

The light at sunrise was really beautiful this morning. Lailia’s bow faces east over Big Majors so we don’t see the sun come up over the horizon.

We actually had showers come from both the southeast and the northeast today, but they were brief. I enjoy watching them edge toward us – the way the view blurs and the water turns from turquoise to aquamarine.

Continuing the tradition of John repairing stuff, our alternator is not charging Lailia’s batteries when we run her engine. We had the alternator repaired in Nassau but it’s not working now. A boat buddy had a spare alternator that came with his boat and offered it to us. John had to do some adjustments to make it fit. It’s frustrating to spend hours on a repair that didn’t work! Turns out the spare alternator was also bad,

We have ordered a new alternator to be delivered to a freight handler in Florida. Once it arrives there, they will add it to their daily freight flight to Staniel Cay which is a quick dinghy ride away for us. Some boat buddies have had to use this service and have told us it’s an easy process.

While the best-case scenario is not needing an alternator repair at all, we’re in a beautiful, protected anchorage with easy access to fairly well-stocked (for the Exumas) stores. We can charge our batteries (and electronic devices) with our solar panels, wind and gas generators – and we have easy access to more gasoline, if we need it. We’ve also been able to get a sim card for the other internet provider and can download episodes of Ozark and Better Call Saul, so we have entertainment options – and I have a few pounds of butter plus flour, sugar, and yeast so we can have fresh-baked goodies.

We’re hopeful we’ll be on our way by next weekend. We need to start heading towards making the crossing back to the United States in early June to avoid being here during hurricane season.

Big Majors, Exumas, Bahamas (anchored)

April 30, 2022

The general store had propane today so we took our two empty tanks to Staniel. We knew we could get more gasoline for our dinghy and generator at the yacht club, so we decided to fill up our gas container while we were there. Since we were heading to town, we also took a bag of trash with us.

The wind shifted to a more southernly direction which meant our ride was pretty bumpy. We are in for some higher winds – it’s a blessing and a curse, since more wind gives us more consistent power via our wind generator but it also means the water can get more choppy. Our anchorage is pretty protected from really strong easterly winds but there’s some open water between us and Staniel that can make a dinghy ride over kind of uncomfortable

The dump is about a twelve minute walk, but when you’re not sure where you’re going, it can seem longer. I stopped to see if I could find the dump on one of our navigation apps just as a police car was coming our way.

Sgt. Stewart gave us a ride to the dump and then back to the dinghy dock. We learned that the police rotate duty through many of the islands here. This was Sgt. Stewart’s first week and he was orienting himself to the island

At the yacht club dinghy beach we ran into boat buddies from Great Harbour. A conch boat came in as we were eating our lunch outside. They had already removed the meat from the shells; they were chopping and cleaning the meat. Lots of locals were there – some with bags to get meat and a few grabbing conch “pistols” and eating them right then and there.

Soooo…there’s a lot of innuendo regarding the magic properties of the conch pistols but Google says different. They’re pretty salty and had a texture like shrimp. I googled it when I got back to the table and found out that they’re probably not all that magical. I loved that folks offered me some of what they were enjoying.

We had our dinghy anchor so we headed to snorkel the Grotto. I didn’t feel confident enough to swim against the current through the rocky passage to get inside. When John came out we snorkeled a bit around the outside and saw lots of really beautiful fish.

Our afternoon has been full of simple pleasures: showers before a steak dinner as we watched the sun set.

Some days feel really challenging: the weather makes travel difficult or supplies are sparse. We have had to deal with a variety of mechanical problems made even more challenging by a lack of replacement parts. Days like today remind us that there’s a lot of fun, too.