Life on Lailia

Hope Town to Great Guana, Abacos, Bahamas (anchored)

May 23, 2022

The Elbow Reef lighthouse is the only remaining manned lighhouse in the world that has not been electrified. The lighthouse keeper hand-winds the mechanism that rotates lens and the light is fueled by kerosene. I can’t imagine what this lighthouse has seen since it was built in 1863.

I was really happy to spend some time with a curly-tail lizard who was posing for my camera. These lizards are around 7 inches long and meatier than the green anoles that are so common in South Carolina. Their tails curl when they run.

Since we are very aware how shallow the water can be around here, we knew we had to wait until the tide was nearly high before we left this harbor. We decided to do a short jump of about 14 miles to meet up with some of our boat friends at Great Guana Cay. Since high tide was a bit after 3:00 PM, we had time to spend in Hope Town.

We found the trail to the beach on the east side of the island. The views look like something from a postcard.

Hope Town has an almost New England feel with the lighthouse guarding the harbor.

There are a lot of boats in this very busy harbor. There are water taxis crossing pretty frequently. There are also a surprising number of sea turtles swimming around. I was trying to photograph a turtle from our stern and it kept diving and surfacing out of the frame of the camera and the I noticed that there were actually three turtles, taking turns popping us and looking around.

After motoring out of the harbor, we raised the headsail and turned off the motor. We were averaging about 4 knots in the light wind but it’s really peaceful without the engine sound. The mainsail didn’t want to unfurl all the way but we had it out for a while, too.

The Garmin and the boat apps give us a lot of information when we are traveling but we also use some visual cues. Turquoise blue water generally means depths of at least 10 feet with a sand bottom. Dark black shapes under the surface can mean rocks. Some dark blue can mean really deep water (like the blue velvet we saw on deep crossings) while other dark blue usually means at least 15 feet of depth and a grassy bottom. It’s pretty cool to see the contrast between sand and grass!

Tonight us an early-ish night for us so we have energy for tomorrow (and especially since we were socializing really late last night).

Tomorrow Nicki and Eric from SV Wild will join us here in this anchorage with Casey and Andy (and their greyhound Frank) from SV Luna. We are hoping to do some snorkeling and exploring Great Guana. If all goes as planned (and we know how plans go), the three boats will do a few more short hops together in the next few days.

Tillaloo Cay to Hope Town, Abaco, Bahamas (mooring buoy)

May 21, 2022

Sigh…our windlass stopped working again. John can haul the anchor and chain, but the last bit is really difficult – it’s a 55 lb anchor and the chain is about a pound a foot.

We actually know what has needs to be replaced but we don’t have the parts – not just because we are in the Bahamas but because the company that makes the windlass is out of business. The springs on the brushes that we have right now are just a bit too big and they impinge the movement of brushes.

Today John tried to use springs from ballpoint pens but that did not work, either.

To keep us from running aground in shallow water, our boat friends, Nicki and Eric motored in front us and let us know the depths. Their catamaran draws 3 feet of water, so they can go where we can’t.

We motored into Hope Town on a rising tide and grabbed a mooring ball. Mooring balls are attached to some sort of anchor. Boats are tied to loops (called pennants) that are attached to the pennants. Sometimes these mooring balls are placed in fragile areas, such as coral reefs, to keep anchors from causing damage. There is a huge mooring field in Hope Town harbor. Apparently multiple people own the rights to rent the balls out.

After looping two lines through the pennant and cleating them off, we explored Hope Town for a bit with Nicki and Eric. It’s a really pretty area with lots of New England style homes.

We decided to dinghy across the harbor to eat in the marina but we couldn’t see Lailia where we had moored her next to S/V Wild. Some other boaters told us that she had become unmoored and drifted into another boat. The water taxi folks had moved her to another mooring and secured her.

This is still a really scary feeling. We did not know if Lailia or the other boat had any damage and we did not know how she could have been unmoored. We dinghied as quickly as we could back to our boat.

We had no damage. The lines were still securely tied and cleated. The pennant line on the mooring ball had actually become untied – it was still connected to the lines on Lailia. There is some relief knowing that we did not do anything wrong.

The boat that Lailia touched is owned by someone we knew in St. Johns Yacht Harbor. He let us know that his boat did not sustain any damage at all, which is another relief.

We are reminded that the outcomes could have been very different. We are fortunate that Lailia drifted slowly and that she was stopped by the mooring lines of another boat without sustaining or causing any damage. We are really fortunate that the folks around us took action and that she was re-moored (on better moorings) as we were walking around town.

Our friends have been very supportive and the time we spent with them tonight at dinner and then back on Lailia has kept us from dwelling on what did not happen.

Tonight we are going to focus on the stuff that worked and the way the boating community went into action. Tomorrow we will explore the lighthouse and then head to another cay.

Tom Curry’s Point (outside Little Harbour) to Tilloo Cay, Abaco, Bahamas (anchored)

May 20, 2022

A long-standing “joke” is that cruising is “fixing your boat in exotic places.” A real difficulty in doing repairs is the lack of resources: there are very few marine stores here, John is working on a rolling or rocking boat, and we can’t just get parts delivered via Amazon.

Our new alternator needed a new shim because it was loose on its mount which can cause excess vibration. That vibration can damage the bearings in the alternator or the belt. John had to create a new shim by slicing a piece of threaded pipe to make its diameter just slightly larger. Once he cut this slit, he was able to widen it just enough to make it fit on the bolt.

He did this at our salon table while Lailia was rolling in the waves. And he installed it in a very hard to maneuver engine room.

Some boat friends were in an anchorage not far from us. They are hardcore cruisers who sailed for about 24 hours straight to get there (they have my admiration for that!). Once we heard that they were on their last few gallons of water we offered to make water for them. Their anchorage was pretty calm so we motored over to them. I am so glad we did.

The trio of dolphins just calmly cruised around the anchorage for a bit.

We left Lynyard Cay anchorage with a plan to be in Hope Town (about 15 miles) by about 6:00 PM. It was a great plan, but like so many of our plans, it changed enroute.

Shoaling is pretty frequent in channels between islands, especially near cuts out to the ocean. John was using our navigation instruments and proceeding very slowly just in case we grounded…and ground we did.

We were in a place that was charted as 7 feet in low tide and all of a sudden, it was less than 5 feet deep. Sometimes it is possible to back off when you bump but we could not.

Our friends came back to see if they could spin us around to pull us off but we were stuck and the tide was falling. This never seems to happen when it’s early in the day, by the way. We settled in knowing that we would have to wait for the tide to go all of the way out and then rise.

One nice-ish thing about being stuck is that the boat is really secure -it’s not going to float away. I cooked dinner with the stove gimboled (it was unlocked so it was always competely horizontal) so when we tilted a bit as the tide went out our food didn’t slosh over the side of the pot.

This section of the Bahamas was hit really hard by Hurricane Dorian. The devastation is really apparent here – that storm’s 20 foot surge pushed boats up in the trees. Ruined houses, boats, and piers are all over.

We floated off at around 10:00 PM and anchored close to our friends for the night.

We still plan to visit Hope Town which is incredibly close.

This was our theme song as we were waiting for the rising tide. It’s difficult to be too anxious if you’re singing.

Spanish Wells to outside Little Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas

May 20, 2022

We violated a rule of our own – we made plans and we were talking about how great it would be to be in a marina and get showers…

Mike, who owned the docks we used in Spanish Wells shared some local knowledge about getting out of the channel that saved us a good hour or more. We did not have to go south to go north after all.

John had emailed the Schooner Bay Marina last night asking about a slip. Since it was after their business hours we were not too worried when we did not hear from them. They had not emailed back by the time we left this morning, but we understand that people get busy. We tried calling them by phone and VHF when we were a few miles out and they did not answer. Apparently we celebrated the idea of showering too soon!

This was a long day on the water made longer by needing to change direction to get to a different anchorage.There was litttle wind today so we once again motor sailed. Although we had had some rolls when we were heading on our original route most of the time we had a following sea (waves going the same way we were), turning Lailia meant we had more waves that rolled across our beam (basically perpendicular to us so we felt the rolls).

Just as I went down below to plug in my laptop, we heard a strange noise. The alternator (of course) and water pump belt had broken. John turned off the motor and replaced the belt. My job during this time was to try to keep Lailia on course.

The first time I ever steered Lailia was in the Stono when the belt broke (that was actually the last time it happened). It’s easier to steer when you don’t have to worry about depth (we were in water about 4000 feet deep) and when you don’t have to worry about any other boats.

Less than 15 minutes later Lailia was moving ahead and we had the autopilot back on. Fortunately, John brought spare belts.

The best part of the day was seeing the dolphins who swam alongside us for a while today. We haven’t seen many of these buddies since we crossed the Gulf Stream.

Little Harbour has a sculptor who does metal work in a foundry, which is what our son Kevin did in college. Unfortunately, we got here at low tide and the water in the channel to that harbor is not deep enough for us. The foundry doesn’t open until late afternoon so we will miss seeing it.

We are hoping to catch up with a few boat buddies while we are here. One boat is just behind us and will be sailing through the night. The other is in front of us but not too far.

We are in a very quiet and very deserted anchorage tonight. The wind is coming from one direction and the swell is coming from a different direction so John rigged a bridle to keep Lailia pointing into the swell. This will keep us comfortable by reducing side to side roll.

If the sky was clear we would be able to see so many stars. but it’s really cloudy. Now that we are here, we will be able to stay in the Sea of Abaco (protected from the east winds and waves) for a long time. We plan to get to Hope Town tomorrow to check out one of the last manual lighthouses in the world.

Papa Docks, Spanish Wells, St. George Cay (docked)

May 19, 2022

Provisioning is so much easier when we have a golf cart and a well-stocked market. The Food Fair in Spanish Wells is known for allowing locals to sell their products. Amongst the offerings of baked goods and pepper jelly, there were also some intiguing items likes pigeons and miracle leaves.

Spanish Wells filled with cool plants and flowers. Almost every yard has an abundance of bushes, shrubs, and flowers growing. Many homes also have containers with succulents and other plants. I have seen a lot of hanging plants,

The sky seems really big here – we can see weather coming for miles. The water is still such pretty colors, though.

Right as we were taking the golf cart back it began to drizzle. The last few weeks have been really rainy., which means that we have to keep Lailia closed up. It gets really, really warm inside when we don’t have airflow.

We have also had an ongoing war with black flies here, perhaps because there is so little wind. I like to spray them with Lysol or Windex to slow them down to make swatting them easier. John is more assertive-he used the “a-salt” gun which uses salt like buckshot to kill them.

Tomorrow we hope to make the 53 nautical mile run to Abaco, specifically Schooner Bay which is on the east coast, right above the fishtail. Since the water around Spanish Wells and Eleuthera is shallow, we have to go a bit south before we turn north. This part of the trip will be more open to the Atlantic than we have been, which gives me some anxiety. I will take some Dramamine tonight so it has time to work and so I can get some sleep. John has the way mapped out and will sleep well tonight, as always.

Spanish Wells Yacht Haven to Papa Key Dockage, Spanish Wells, St. George’s Cay (docked)

May 18, 2022

That revving sound you heard today? That was John and me on a golf cart as we toured Spanish Wells and Russell Island. Spanish Wells is less than 2 miles long, so circumnavigation is pretty easy. This island is just so pretty!

The pirate lady mannequin was…amusing. I don’t know if the dirt was part of the original sculpture or if it has been added by vehicle exhaust. I am guessing she can’t button her shirt with her hook?

Ever since seventh grade (when I heard it in Brian Conway’s basement) I have loved Radar Love. I may have made passengers in my car sing the chorus a few times. Today I got my cable coming in from above – a message from Poseidon! (And we did sing the chorus every time we passed it.)

Today was the first day I saw the video. It’s almost as amusing as the pirate lady. It actually might be more amusing than the pirate lady…

Russell Island is connected to Spanish Wells via a bridge. It’s a larger island but there’s fewer people and it seems almost rural. They do have the Sand Bar which is right on the beach.

Sometimes cruising is not fun. Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes it’s frustrating. But sometimes it’s pretty wonderful: sipping tropical drinks (pineapple express and mermaid mai tai) while looking out at all the blues on a Wednesday afternoon was sublime.

We waded a sandbar when we got back to Spanish Wells. While a lot of the sand in the Bahamas is large grained and really soft (so soft that our feet sink while we are walking), this sand was fine and hard. The water was only a few inches deep.

Having a golf cart today meant we could go all over easily so we went to a restaurant a Johns Island friend recommended (it was on the opposite end of Spanish Wells). It was probably one of the best meals we have had in the Bahamas.

We moved Lailia to a different dock today. It’s much smaller and does not have showers or a laundry room. It does have electricity, which makes life easier. We’re able to run our fans at night which makes sleeping comfortable.

As of now, we plan to leave here on Friday and go north to Abaco, a long trip on the east side (the Atlantic side) of that island.

Nassau Harbor Club Marina to Spanish Wells Yacht Haven, Spanish Wells, Eleuthera (docked)

May 16 and 17, 2022

May 16

Gray, cloudy days are good days to complete tasks especially when it’s either raining or about to rain.

John changed Lailia’s oil since we’d motored about 100 hours since he changed it in Fort Lauderdale. I bought groceries and completed a lot of work on my laptop.

May 17

Spanish Wells is one of the funkier places in the Bahamas and it has been on our itinerary for quite awhile. It’s actually an easier route to get there from Nassau than from the Exumas.

We haven’t been in really deep water since we approached Nassau from Hoffman’s Cay back at the end of March (which seems like forever ago). I had forgotten the sapphire blue of these depths.

We had rain near us much of the way (or at least I think so – slept a lot). Boating in squally weather with wind and lightning can be stressful but we were lucky: we had some light rain but no strong winds or lightning. We even had some menacing clouds when we were getting close to Spanish Wells – somehow they didn’t impact us at all.

We have no shore power at the dock today; the pedestal does not work. There are showers here, so there’s something good. If we can get the depth in this narrow channel that has mangroves on the opposite shore we may move to a different dock tomorrow at high tide.

Tonight we walked through the town. All of the islands we have visited have had their own flavor. The flavor here is really different – lots of flowers, nice roads, and pretty cottages.

Budda’s Bar is well-known. Everyone we met who has been to Spanish Wells told us to visit. We’re really glad we did: delicious drinks including the Dizzy Budda that doesn’t taste like it has 8 different liquors in it. Since it’s green it has to be healthy, no matter how much liquor is in it.

Somehow this little place on a small island in the eastern Bahamas has really good Philly cheesesteaks, too. It’s not quite Philadelphia/Delaware/New Jersey quality – mostly because the rolls are difficult to replicate -but it was pretty close.

It’s narrow enough here that we could easily walk to the ocean side of the island to enjoy the view.

The docks are in a mangrove channel so tonight the water is flat calm. There’s some breeze and very little light pollution. After the chaos of Nassau’s hustle and bustle, this is a perfect place to soak up some Bahamas flavor.

Nassau Harbor Club Marina, Providence Island, Bahamas (docked)

May 14 and 15, 2022

Mercury in retrograde can cause lots of inconveniences like power disruptions and travel issues. I’m not saying that I believe in this, but the time I dropped the rental car keys down the hotel elevator shaft, Mercury was in retrograde.

Mercury went into retrograde on May 10 and since then I have had two phones die. One was only a few months old and the other I had for several years. I also needed to reinstall some drivers on my laptop to make it work. Friends also lost their wind instrument when lightning hit another boat in the marina.

These are inconveniences – we were already going to Nassau so I was was able to get a new phone. For now, my laptop works well. Our friends were able to sail back to the United States without their wind instrument.

It would just be nice if we didn’t have to deal with these things.

There’s so many flowers here. Although we have walked past the entrance to an adjacent hotel a few times, I only just noticed the orchid plants that were attached some of the trees.

Providence Island, where Nassau is located, received huge amounts of rain on Saturday night. There were reports of up to 8 inches in some parts, accompanied by flooding. A waterspout briefly came ashore, too.

Our dinghy captured the deluge. All of the water weighs the dinghy down so John used a bucket to bail it out (we normally bail it out with an old Lysol wipe container). Normally when a dinghy is raised on a davit it can be emptied by opening the drain plug. When we’re traveling we secure our dinghy with a strap that pulls the far side up towards Lailia’s stern so the drain is no longer effective. We realize that we will have to think about how to secure the dinghy when we are sailing or motoring so we don’t add any additional stress to the lines or the davit if it should rain.

All of the rain interfered with getting a mechanic to Lailia on Saturday. Again, this is an inconvenience since we are at a marina. We really didn’t plan to be in Nassau, but it’s not the worst place to be. John and I stopped at a marine store yesterday and bought more fuel line see if we can address that issue, too.

The mechanic actually came today, Sunday, and fixed the problem in less than 30 minutes. Once again, things worked out for us in Nassau.

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If you know John at all, you know of his love of craft beer. There aren’t many breweries in the Bahamas – in fact, we think there are only two craft beer taprooms (both of them in the Nassau). There are two widely distributed Bahamian beers – Kalik and Sands – but it seems that most Bahamians drink Bud Light or Guiness Foreign Extra Stout.

Today we went to one of the microbreweries – Rip Ty’d. The bartender there was really friendly, the beer was good (watermelon pilsner was my favorite and John liked the porter). The owner has a good eye for design, too – this was a really nice looking place.

We haven’t been in an urban environment for a really long time. Even the last time we were in Nassau, we stayed in a pretty small area. We walked a few miles back to the marina seeing more cars than we have seen in months.

Paradise Island and the Atlantis Resort are right across the Sidney Poitier Bridge from where we walked. The cruise ship terminal is just west of this. We saw a different part of Nassau this evening, though. We passed were the working boats were anchored (along with some that are clearly abandoned).

We have some tasks to complete tomorrow: provisioning, changing the oil, and investigating the fuel lines. We also may try to squeeze in some exploration if weather and time allow.

Our hope is to leave on Tuesday to go east and north about 45 miles to Spanish Wells in Eleuthera.

Nassau Harbor Club Marina, Nassau, Bahamas (docked)

May 13, 2022

Unlimited electricity. Showers. Laundry room. Starbucks and groceries across the street. We haven’t had these luxuries since we were last in a marina (this one) in early April.

Of course some of those luxuries are a bit less luxurious: the shower scrubbies that were handing on the hooks are still in the ladies’ room and only one washer (of the four) is working. We’re wedged in right next to another boat, so when I sneeze there’s someone to bless me! Oh, and watermelons in the grocery store here are $15. Some things don’t change.

The kindness of people, though – that’s a gift. Boat buddies heading back to the United States gave us their leftover laundry tokens. The wonderful woman who cleans the hotel rooms took my token and told me she would put my laundry in the washer so I could shower and then moved it to the dryer for us. The folks on the boat next to us do bless us when we sneeze. The dockmaster opened the office after hours to get us an electric hookup last night.

The folks who are working on our alternator came to the marina to pick up and drop off the alternator. They sent a video of the bench test so we could see the results. The alternator tests well but it’s not working up to its potential on our boat when it’s installed. We will have a mechanic come to the boat tomorrow (yes, on a Saturday) to see if they can diagnose the issue. Their kindness – the pickup and delivery as well as the frequent communication with us – is another gift.

We’ve been alternating between rain and sun. Our friends left this morning for a 36 hour journey back to Florida. They have had rain squalls and were plotting a course around them. We move back and forth opening and closing hatches and portlights. My favorite thing when the shower ends just as I get the last hatch closed…

After weeks of having dinner from cans it was really pleasant to have grilled sandwiches for dinner tonight – at anchor we don’t have enough power to heat the electric griddle and the only other place that would slice deli meat was in Bimini. We also haven’t found sourdough bread in any other store except this one in Nassau. Bahamian bread tends to be on the sweet and heavy side and often has a ribbon of cinnamon and/or coconut in it. It’s great as a sweet treat at breakfast but it’s not sandwich material for us.

The mechanic will be on Lailia tomorrow – here’s hoping it’s an easy fix that somehow John overlooked. I have some work to do on my laptop, too. The showery weather pattern is supposed to persist throughout the weekend, so we may not explore much.

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).