Final Sail?

It appears that the boat had a peaceful (if salty) stay in Georgetown while we were in CA for the past two months. Mañana had a good coating of salt on her decks and hulls and the little wind spinner on the masthead had seized because there had been no rain at all while we were gone. With the high cost of water in the Bahamas there was little likelihood that we would be washing the boat in the near future so we were condemned to “pray for rain” for our salvation. We must not have prayed hard enough because this was to be a bone dry trip for the next six weeks.

We had seen plenty of Georgetown in January and were anxious to travel so we took just two days to prep the boat, carry jugs of reverse osmosis water from shore, buy a few groceries, and try a BBQ dinner at the Peace and Plenty before setting out for Turks and Caicos, the Dominican, and points south hoping to reach Puerto Rico by early June. Our first day out was a mixed bag.  At the top of list were calm seas, light winds, and a long downwind spinnaker sail under cloudless skies.  This, after all, is why we are out here. But we also had a major equipment issue. Our autopilot stopped behaving, and without the autopilot we were not about to tackle any overnight sailing. We decided to keep sailing for now and worry about the autopilot later. Long Island in the southern Exumas was our first stop.  Long Island was one of the Bahamas Cays that was devastated by hurricane Joaquin which made a direct hit on the Exumas in 2015. This long, thin piece of real estate provides protection from the prevailing winds and has several comfortable anchorages for slow moving sailboats. Thompson’s Bay in the middle of the island has become a winter long stop for some of the cruisers who are less than comfortable with the crowds of Georgetown, and Calabash Bay on the north end of the island has beautiful beaches and a pretty resort that welcomes cruisers to use their facilities. We enjoyed both of these picturesque bays.

From Long Island it was an easy day sail over to Conception Island which may be the prettiest spot in all of the Bahamas.  After nine years of visiting beautiful beaches in idyllic settings we were still impressed with the spectacular beauty of this remote Cay.  Neither pictures nor a few words can adequately convey the feeling of sailing into the small bay at Conception. We anchored off the long sand beach for several days which we spent exploring, snorkeling, enjoying beach walks, marveling at the clarity of the water, sipping cocktails while watching brilliant sunsets, dining on fresh caught Mahi (no, I didn’t catch it, but I ate plenty) and debating our next move with a balky autopilot, the autopilot getting much of our attention.  Our decision, finally, was to sail back the way we came because we believed we could get all the way to Florida without any overnight sailing while Puerto Rico involved several nights in the open ocean. And we were right, we did get to Florida easily, and we were wrong, because Florida is not Puerto Rico. This turned out to be a major detour as you will see later.

 

Our trip south in December had been a windward sail in somewhat cooler conditions.  In heading back towards Florida we were now traveling with the prevailing winds, and the trip was markedly different and much more fun.  We sailed the entire way from Conception Island, Exumas to southern Florida (about 500 miles) with almost no motoring. We moved slowly, we stopped often. We snorkeled on David Copperfield’s famed Mermaid at the Piano sculpture at Rudder Cut Cay. We swam in the Thunderball Grotto featured in the 007 movie. We gorged ourselves on the best grouper we have ever tasted as Scorpio’s in Black Point (coincidentally Scorpio’s also served the best and strongest rum punch we have found anywhere in our travels). At Norman’s Cay we snorkeled on the wreck of a sunken, drug running plane that was still remarkably intact.

 

We thought we would sail northeast into the Abacos, but the winds shifted slightly and we found ourselves returning to FL through the almost deserted Berry Islands.  This wind shift was a stroke of good fortune because the Berry’s were both remote and beautiful, and this turned out to be another pleasant, leisurely detour. Once again we were struck by how many islands in the Bahamas have so few people (or no one) living on them. At Little Harbor the only residents of the island were off island for a few days so the only bar (only building) was closed, but fisherman from Nassau were “resting” on the docks preparing for another day in the Northwest Channel, and we had a fun chat with them about life in the islands. 

The cruise ships have an island all their own in the Berrys called Little Stirrup Cay. Little Stirrup was to be our jumping off point as we headed to Grand Bahama Island so we stopped for the night at just one more picturesque island.  Fortunately we were there on a non cruise ship day. Imagine pulling into a pretty little anchorage and seeing a beach lined with thousands of beach chairs. This is apparently the “remote island” that you can visit by yourself and just 3000 other passengers to get away from it all. Bah humbug!

Although we had had several weeks of perfect weather at this point we were getting some high wind warnings so we set off for the protection of Port Lucaya where we could sit safely while a weather front passed through the area.  Port Lucaya was our first marina in a very long time and while the winds blew hard outside the breakwater we got to wash the boat thoroughly in a well protected marina.  This was our first wash down in over five months (since early November in St Augustine), and the boat was smiling the whole time. Port Lucaya is a pretty place with shops, restaurants, bars, and people, just right after 4 weeks of remote anchorages. If you ever visit there don’t miss dinner at Sabor.

Two nights in Port Lucaya was plenty, and we paused only briefly at West End on Grand Bahama before making our Gulf Stream crossing.  We had a vigorous sail in good wind and again our small catamaran handled the seas well.  We dropped anchor in Lake Worth, FL just 10 hours after leaving West End. We had accomplished our goal of making the long trip without any overnight passages that would have been difficult without an autopilot.  After a couple of days of rest (hey, sailing is tough work!) we motored north to Stuart, FL and took a mooring at Sunset Bay.  The bay is aptly named and the marina here is possibly our favorite marina anywhere.  The moorings are close to historic downtown Stuart, multiple restaurants, and convenient supermarkets. The staff is super friendly and they host a variety of events each week. Only Mario’s (in the Rio Dulce) with their $1 gin and tonics can compete.

We are selling the boat (we think), and we have listed it for sale here in Stuart, FL. That's a major step for us, and we debated long and hard before making this decision. We just began our tenth year aboard Mañana and some of these beautiful beaches are beginning to run together, to look the same, and there are fewer new countries to explore, but having to reverse course on our trip to Puerto Rico was also a factor.  With the two mono-hulls covering another ten years we have now been sailing over five months each year for a full twenty years. We have now sailed in twenty-two different countries at last count, and we think it’s time to do something else, but we do not know what that will be.

We have spent the past week polishing, cleaning, moving "junk" off the boat and making Mañana as pretty as possible.  We fixed the wind spinner and the nefarious autopilot and a few other items. The boat looks great, runs great, sails great. Who knows when, or if the boat will sell, but if we do find a buyer we hope to travel “off the water” for a while.  No buyer?  Well then I’d like to go sailing again. Easy sailing, easy living!

Tom  and Andrea