Southward Bound

We returned to the “lobster reef”, this time to look around with SCUBA.  Although it is shallow (15-25feet deep), it still is so relaxing to just go down and take time.  The lobsters were still plentiful (but they were safe since we have no more room in the freezer and it’s illegal to hunt lobster with SCUBA).  Without the camera, I do a lot more looking under rocks and just observing—which is kind of nice.  The fish come around and are less nervous without the lens in their faces.  Queen Angels, in particular, are frustratingly friendly when they are not being photographed.   I sank to the bottom and soon saw a couple of yellow-headed jawfish.  These curious looking fish have big goo- goo eyes and a froggy mouth.  They hover above holes in the sand into which they disappear tail-first as you approach them.  As I laid on the bottom watching them, a large school of jacks approached and swam around me as if I was just another rock.  After the jacks passed I lifted up my head and saw hundreds of jawfish hovering as far as I could see in the clear water.  I have never seen this many.  Bill motioned me over to see that he was being pestered by a 2.5 foot remora. 

After spending a week in Highborn, we had still not met up with our friends Jane and Jim.  They had gone to Nassau to pick up her sister, Judy, and we had last seen their SPOT track going to Rose Island just east of Providence Island but had no internet since Morgan’s Bluff.  Every day we turned on the radio and did several position requests—always got “no reply”.  So we decided to proceed to Shroud Cay hoping to meet up with them as some point.  About half-way to Shoud Bill yells out “I got a reply!!” and sure enough, there they were just ahead of us.  They had left Rose Island and headed south past Highborn, planning to visit the iguanas at nearby Allen’s Cay before taking Judy back to Nassau to the airport.  We turned around and spent the evening with them at Allen’s.  The second largest lobster tail made enough pasta sauce to feed all five of us. 

We did finally get to Shroud Cay and spent a couple days snorkeling little patch reefs.  There were beautiful mangrove creeks, just right for kayaking.  The wind was picking up and shifting to the north and dark clouds appeared.  Obviously the front that was not supposed to get that far did.  The anchorage got pretty choppy and we had no idea how long it would last so we decided to pick up and leave for Wardrick Wells Cay.  The wind held promise of a real sail (we had not had one yet in the Bahamas) but we started late and needed the engines to get us to anchorage before dark and just as the sun hit the horizon we anchored just east of Emerald Rock. 

Wardrick Wells is the headquarters of the Exumas Land and Sea Park, a national park and marine protected area.  There is no fishing or lobstering allowed and many of the reefs have convenient moorings.  There is also internet available, although it is poor quality and $15/24 hrs.  The wind kept up from the NE but we were tucked in behind a hill and pretty quiet.  We spent a day walking the trails and overlooking the spectacular pounding surf on the eastern side of the island. 

Having internet was dipping into Pandora’s Box.  Oh ignorance is such bliss!  Our real estate agent had just received information that we needed to act on so now it was necessary to get to somewhere that had decent, preferably free, internet.  So we were on our way to George Town prematurely.  Darn internet!!

The wind was still blowing 15-20 from the NE when we left Wardrick Wells, the sails filled and the engines went OFF—for the first time!!!  We averaged 8kts to our first destination, Black Point.   Wow!! That’s what its all about!! 

Black Point is a small settlement on Great Guana Island.  There are many islands in the Bahamas named “Guana” something or other.  I looked it up on Google and it is a contraction of Iguana—the lizards found on some of the islands.  Black Point has the cleanest, nicest Laundromat in the world and since we had not done laundry in a month, we were in dire need of it.  What better way to do laundry than to load up then sit out on the porch and look over a beautiful harbor.  We have found internet to be very good here so we may be able to get our business done without going right away to George Town. 

The wind has been blowing almost a week now and it appears it will continue to blow.  I know Jane and Jim were hoping to meet us at Shroud.  We’ll find them sooner or later.