Nassau to Morgan's Bluff, Andros

Woke to a beautiful sunrise!  Pulled up the anchor and headed west.

Since the winds were behind us, we were able to pull the sails in opposite directions and sail wing-on-wing.

Passed fairly near this tanker.  I'd seen it on the AIS long before I could actually see it with my eyes.  It is strange in that it was hovering - zero speed - and is NOT at anchor.  It's about 15 miles from Andros - in an area that is about 7000 feet deep.  Weird.  

About 5 hours later we were anchored in the Morgan's Bluff bight on the island of Andros.

After much delay, we finally met up with our cruising partners - Now and Zen!!!

After a little dinghy maintenance on the beach we retired to the boats.  We had a fun spaghetti dinner with Ralph and Leslie.  Good times now and to come!  Happy New Year's Eve!!

Eleuthera to Nassau

Lost Shaker called us and said they were moving anchorages to find a calmer spot - we agreed that would be a good idea since we had a good bit of "roll" with some wind-driven chop.

This is Lost Shaker a 50' Gulfstar.

Very nice boat!

Got settled in at our new anchorage.  Much smoother!

Spent the day being lazy and briefly helped John with a dinghy problem.  They invited us over for the evening "sundowners".  John making me a "Painkiller" drink.  

Sheri handing it to me in a bonafide Soggy Dollar cup!  Wonderful replica of the drink we've had so many times in BVI!  Even grated nutmeg on top!

 Then it was time to move back to Andros to pick up "the plan" with Now and Zen.  We got up at 4AM and waved bye to Lost Shaker in the dark for our trip west.  We wanted to top up our fuel supplies so we stopped by Nassau.  We'd never been there before - lots of cruisers avoid it completely.  You have to call Port Control on the radio and ask permission to enter - but that was no big deal compared to talking to Air Traffic Control. 

Really felt weird being around all those buildings though! 

 Easy peasy we got our fuel at Brown's Boat Basin and were on our way.  There were two high rise bridges to cross under.  We'd read conflicting info on their height so we were a bit concerned.  (They're not marked at all like in the States).  But a local at the fuel dock assured us that they were 71' high - and we had not trouble.

The path westbound takes you right past the cruise ship dock. Wow that's a lot of people!!

Back into the ocean for just a bit to our overnight anchorage.

Pulled into Lyford Cay to anchor.  Didn't realize this was "megayacht central"!  Was annoying - what should have been a pleasant anchorage was very choppy because the sea-dos and yacht tenders were all racing around literally with feet of our boat.  Not cool but I guess we unwittingly choose party central on a Saturday.  Not our cup of tea, but for one night it was tolerable.

Things did quieten down as the day ended.  We'll be off at first light tomorrow for the hopefully remote island of Andros!!

Glass Window and Queens Bath Eleuthera

We got in the dinghy and rode about a mile back to the "Glass Window".  This was a natural arch many years ago - where the island is only about 100 feet wide.  Of course, this separates the Atlantic Ocean from the calmer Eleuthera Sound.  A hurricane caused the arch to collapse, so the islanders built a bridge to replace it.  (This is the only "main" road on the island - it runs the length of the island.)

This is the calm "sound" side.

And this is the view looking out into the Atlantic.

We'd hoped that the seas would really be "churned up" because of the strong easterly wind, but apparently not enough to make the big waves that sometimes come thru the "window".

We walked on about a half mile south searching for the "Queen's Bath".

 It's an area that is eroded by the waves - the water gets trapped in the pools at low tide and the "queens can bathe"!!!

Just a lovely peaceful area.

 Then back to the dinghy.

We had some "new friends" over for a little happy hour - John and Sherry from Lost Shaker a Gulfstar 50.  They had rain gear on for the windy dinghy ride. 

We plan to visit their boat tonight.

Assuming all is as planned, we'll depart in the middle of the night tonight to head east to Andros and finally meet up with our buddies on Now and Zen!!!

Glass Window Eleuthera

We decided to move a few hours south and go to an area called Glass Window so we pulled up the anchor.

Passed this little spit called Lobster Cay.  It's for sale.  Buy it and we'll visit you!

To get there, we had to go thru Current Cut.  It's a cut that's notorious for it's huge current - about 5 knots at it's highest.  So you try to time it when the current is flowing "with" your direction. 

Well, I think didn't time it correctly!!  No worries though - it was just an extremely slooooooow passage.  We had the 5 knots against us so we slogged along at 2.9 knots SOG  (speed over ground) even though the boat speed was actually 7.9 knots thru the water.   I'll double check my tide tables next time!

(Of course, if you boat doesn't go more than 5 knots, you'd have to wait for a tide cycle!)

Through the cut - you can see the current in this photo.

Lovely water as we motor along.

A few hours later we were near our anchorage for the night.  This is the "Glass Window" that lets you peep to the Atlantic Ocean side of the island.  We'll explore tomorrow.

Pretty little cove - hopefully we'll have sunshine tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Eleuthera

We motored about 9 hours in lumpy seas down to Eleuthera to escape some 30 knot winds that will be coming the next few days.  That's what it's like in the Northern Bahamas in the winter. Once we get south to the Ragged Islands, we hope to have more settled weather.

Caught another decent sized jack fish.  Yeah, it was fish for dinner again!  

Also caught 3 pretty large barracuda (remember, they are not good to eat because of heavy metal contaminants).

Here's a zoomed-in photo of one of them.....mean looking teeth!!  We use needle-nose pliers to drop them off the hook easily without getting anywhere near the teeth!!

At anchor just at sunset.  The other boat in the photo, Big Frisky came by in their dinghy to wish us a Merry Christmas!  Same to everyone!

Hoffmans Cay, Berry Islands

We've had a couple of busy days. 

I made my first bread of the trip.....it wasn't the best, but by far not the worst!  A little heavy but still quite edible.

We motored about 5 hours south to Hoffmans Cay - still in the Berry Islands.  On the way, we had to go past the cruise ship anchorage north of Great Harbour.  This is apparently where you go in the Bahamas on a cruise ship (here and Nassau).  It's a "private island" so they pack you in these small boats and take you to shore.  It appears to be a completely contrived beachy  area - so not the real Bahamas in my opinion!

Two ships were there - both huge.

On the way, since we'd be in deeper water, we had the fishing poles out!  I caught a good-sized jack - we read about them and they appeared to be edible.  I did some really nice fillets - I'm getting better at it - my first attempts last year were laughable.

 Duane caught a small barracuda which got released, of course.  We decided to hang up the fishing poles because our freezer is full of other stuff so we'd not really have space for anything if we caught it.

 Arrived mid-afternoon to Hoffmans Cay.  A deserted little spot with no one around. 

 There was reported to be a "blue hole" inland so we dinghied to this small landing on the otherwise rocky shore.

Hiked up a well trodden but small trail up the bluff.

And were rewarded with a beautiful blue hole.  There is supposedly fresh water on the top.  We did not test that theory.

Beautiful clear water.

It would have been "bluer" at mid-day, but unfortunately we were there in the late afternoon.  Still pretty though.

Sunset.... no green flash.

I whipped up some Bahamian "Rice and Peas", coleslaw and grilled the fish with Old Bay seasoning.  Excellent!!!

If I don't get a chance to tell you, we hope everyone has a happy holiday!!