Old Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas

 With some shifting winds, we pulled anchor and moved over a couple of hours to Old Bight.

We're in a bit of a holding pattern, will move north soon I think....nothing much here.  There are about 8 boats anchored in the entire huge bight.

We did get off the boat - took a dinghy ride into a little "inland creek" called Joe's Sound.  It's a popular name in the Bahamas, I think there are at least 3 named the same thing on different islands.  

 

We went on a rising tide but it ended up being too shallow for us to transit it completely.

 

And we took a long walk along the beach to get some blood flowing...

 

It's been on-and-off rainy....it's that time of the year I suppose!

 

Cat Island, Hawk's Nest, Bahamas

 We decided to stay put for the day....took a nice walk about at the Hawk's Nest Resort.  We were the only boat in sight for miles.....

 Hawk's Nest has not changed much since we were first here via our plane.  

 

 

We stopped in at the restaurant and purchased a beer.  I chatted with the attendant asking if they had been busy.  She said "off and on" but that there was no one in the rooms right now.   

  

There were a couple of planes on the ramp, those folks must be staying in some of the stand-alone houses nearby. 

  

We walked down the runway towards the marina. 

  

Several fishing boats in the marina but not full.  I'm not positive but I believe this is normally "high season" for fishing here. 

  

As we were walking towards the fuel dock, a familiar boat structure came into view!  It was the Manta The Great Catsby!   We had a nice chat with them - we had met them briefly in Vero Beach several years ago.  They had to move on to make room for another boat at the fuel dock.  We will probably cross paths with them over the next few weeks as we both make our way north. 

  

Walking back along the dock there are always sharks waiting for the leftovers at the fish cleaning station.

 

Back to the boat....just lovely here.

 

Cat Island, Bahamas

 We had a pleasant motor/sail from Long Island, fishing the entire trip....only caught one fish - not a keeper!  First time we've caught a "billfish".  Not sure but think its a marlin.   It was 3-4' long and very angry at being caught.  This is the only photo and not a very good one.  After several attempts at the writhing fish, Duane managed to capture the hook with pliers and release the fish back to the sea.

 We trolled with lines out for several hours but caught nothing but copious amounts of sargassum weed which had to be cleared from the fishing lines every 15 minutes or so.

We gave up the hunt and turned towards Hawks Nest on Cat Island.  I love crossing that line in the ocean where the deep blue from the 5000' depths meets the aqua blue of a sandy 12' anchorage. 

 

Anchored in front of Hawks Nest, will go further into the bight tomorrow.

Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

We motor-sailed for about 6 hours from Georgetown to Calabash Bay on the northern tip of Long Island.  Trolling two fishing lines the entire way with nary a bite!

Beautiful here....more fishing in store tomorrow as we approach our favorite fishing grounds south of Cat Island!

  

Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas

We had just a delightful sail...about 37 nautical miles at about 6.5 knots average with full sails and no motors.

 Uneventful sail with winds mostly on our stern.  We sailed wing-on-wing the entire way occasionally hitting 8 knots.  Dropped the sails just tenth of a mile from where we dropped the anchor....busy, busy anchorage.  Not our cup of tea....but of course we knew it would be this way.  There are till over 300 boats in the area according to the Georgetown cruiser Facebook page.

 We made such good time that we had plenty of time to go to the immigration office.  The dinghy dock was not as crowded as I would have assumed it would be. 

 

No photos allowed at the immigration office of course.  It took about an hour for them to process our passports and take our $400.....After that we walked to the Bahamas Customs office to renew our fishing permit.  That went off without a hitch and another $100 exited our wallet for another fishing permit....should last us until we make our way north towards home.

Back to the boat for what looks like it will be a bouncy night at anchor 

  

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 With the east winds slowly abating, it's about time to think about pulling anchor....we have to renew our immigration by March 17th....don't get me started on the crazy inconsistently enforced immigration policies and why we have to pay $200 each to renew our visas when identical sailors received 180 days when they cleared into the Bahamas with $0 required for their stay....anyhoooo.....end of rant.

 We haven't gotten any diesel fuel since before Christmas so time to fill the tanks for further northern travel.  

Off in the dinghy to the Long Island Petroleum station with jerry cans.  Always friendly and super helpful.   And added plus is that diesel fuel was only $5.10 a gallon!!!  I bet it's higher than that at home! 

Easy peasy to load the 20 gallons into the dinghy to take back to the boat and easier than bringing the big boat over to the fuel dock.  (Well maybe not easier but less stress in strong winds.)

 

Back to the boat the anchorage is clearing out a bit.  

 We'll be off to Georgetown tomorrow to go to the dreaded immigration office....

Thompson Bay, Long Islannd, Bahamas

 A chore we've been putting off was replacing the starboard side tramp.  We replaced the port side tramp due to a tear before we left Oriental.  But the starboard side was intact (although ancient) - and it gets much less use since most sail handling and anchoring is done from the port side.  Anyway.....this seemed like a good time to tackle it.

Un-tied the existing Dyneema line and removed the tramp.  Really gives you a weird feeling with that big hole to the sea!!

 

New identical trampoline (made by Sunrise Yacht Products as they have the Manta pattern and ordering is super-easy).  We temporarily tied it in place while we did the crazy repetitious threading of new one piece Dyneema line thru the many, many "bales" that attach the tramp to the boat.

 

Mostly done, Duane adjusted the line to have it tight and centered in the opening.

We were briefly chased off the deck by a passing shower....

 

All done.  Should last another 10+ years.

 

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 Not a lot to report....still waiting on a wind change but that will be several more days.  

Very comfy here, lots of sun plus clouds and brief rain.....

 

 

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 Another routine day....still strong east winds.

We went for another nice long beach walk.  This time anchoring at the regatta park.

The grounds are quite neat....we've never been here when anything was scheduled.

Walking in the blazing sun....glad I brought water along.

 

A different salt pond...still no flamingos...

Over to the ocean side heading south this time.  The sand is a pretty pink shade.

 

It was high tide and several areas had no sandy beach.  We had to climb like goats to continue making headway.

We timed it just right to be time for a lunch break!   A local little bar/restaurant.  This is our first meal in a restaurant since early December!

Neat little place, we've had a beer here before but never a meal.  Just a bar and a couple of tables.

 

The bar is owned by a local family - fun chatting with them and another cruiser who was having lunch at the same time.  We both got grouper sandwiches and they were wonderful!!

 

Back to the dinghy....a quiet night (except the wind howling) on the boat.

 

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 I know, getting pretty boring lately!

We were getting pretty low on fresh veggies from the last mail boat in the Raggeds.  Time to visit one of our favorite grocery stores in the Bahamas - Hillside Grocery.  They pack a lot of groceries in this little store.

 Back to the boat - only $71 for all this.  (The lettuce was $11.99 but worth it!)

 And I made an impulse buy...at the checkout counter they had Chick-O-Stick candy.....I had to be nostalgic and buy a couple - these were my childhood favorites dating back to the early 1970's at Davenport's store! (and they're accidentally vegan as well!)

 

Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 We were in need of a bit of exercise....took the dinghy over to the very damaged dinghy dock.  Most of the planks were missing due to Hurricane Melissa.  I know that hurricane doesn't ring a bell to most folks because it didn't damage the US much.  But it was one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin, severely damaging Jamaica!

Luckily, the ladder was spared but walking on the remains of the dock was really disorienting for me and my height-phobic brain.  Hard to see in the photo but the dock is 5-6 off the water.

Not far from the dock is a road/path that leads over to the ocean side of the island.

Maybe a half mile, past a rather stinky salt pond...I scanned for flamingos but saw none....

 

Beautiful crescent beaches with slightly pink sand.

 

We walked about a mile north bound.

 

We could see a pathway back to the bay side of the island on Google maps.

 

 Turned out to be someones driveway but no one appeared to be home with windows boarded up.

 

Lovely stand of palm trees.

 And back to the other side overlooking Thompson Bay where Sojourn is anchored.

 

Lovely bougainvillea lining someone's driveway. 

 

Nice 3 mile walk in the blazing sun...back to the boat for a quiet evening.