May 4-5, 2019 Old Bight to New Bight and back, Cat Island

Saturday
We wanted to spend the weekend here because there is a Catholic Church in New Bight and a grocery store.  We had a lazy day staying in Old Bight.  I was able to use the wifi from the resort to update the blog.  Dave updated and backed up our phones.

We started listening to “Coffee Break French” podcasts.  Dave has listened to them in the past, but I need to start.  We are planning a trip to France this summer with our friends from Denmark.  Au revoir!


Sunday
We moved the boat about 4 miles this morning to New Bight.  Old Bight and New Bight are in the same bight, or bay.  New Bight is further north and and more exposed to the south and west.  Old Bight is on the southern shore and more protected, so usually calmer. 

It takes about an hour to lift the anchor, move and reset.  Then Dave took me to shore to go to church.  Landing a dinghy on this shore is difficult because the waves pound the shore.  I hopped out quickly.  But then Dave got pretty wet turning the dinghy around and getting it deep enough to start the outboard motor.  There isn’t a dock to use.

I have been to this church before.  They have a deacon rather than a priest.  His vestments had a strip of material with sea life printed on it.  I had to ask for a picture.  This church was built by Father Jerome, the architect/priest that built many hurricane proof churches in the early 1900’s.

Can you imagine going to school right on the beach?

 Dave picked me up after church, and of course, we both got wet.  We went back to the boat and made a new plan for the next couple days.  The original plan was to hike at New Bight today, spend the night, then go to shore for groceries tomorrow, which included walked about a mile and carrying our groceries.  All of this with the rough beach landings.

Our new plan changed to moving back to Old Bight and renting a car on Monday.  Didn’t take much to convince me of that plan.  So we moved the boat back to Old Bight. 

I spent the day as a travel agent.  First, I booked our flights to Minneapolis in June, and reserved a rental car.  We contacted a few family members to inform them of our plans.

We arranged a few more plans for our trip this summer to Europe. We were able to talk to our Denmark friends though Facebook Messenger.  We are trying to coordinate a visit to friends in Germany, so wanted to check a couple dates with the Danes first.  Then we e-mailed our German exchange student from 2005-2006 and his parents about the dates we would like to visit them. 

This evening, we talked to friends in South Dakota to make arrangements for their daughter to join us in the Bahamas right before we return to the states, Devyn Killion.  We’ve been tying to make this happen for a few years.  After that plan was decided, we had to come up with a new plan for us to be able to meet her in time in Spanish Wells. 

We really had to wrap our heads around all these travel plans.  This summer is going to be busy, but fun.  In my next life, I want to be a travel agent or tour guide.

May 3, 2019 Rollezz Resort, Old Bight, Cat Island

Today, we had a break in the weather, as predicted, as moved to Old Bight in the souther part of Cat Island.  Our plan was to anchor at New Bight, but we could see the masts of the boats rocking side to side and kept moving to have better protection.  We left about 10:00am and were anchored by 3:00pm. 

After settling in, we went to shore for dinner.  Rollezz Resort has cottages to rent.  But we have heard wonderful things about the owner wanting to make cruisers feel welcome.  We heard about this place 3 years ago when we were last here, but didn’t go to shore. 

About 5:30, we went to shore and beached our dinghy by 2 other dinghies.  Those couples were just leaving, but I think we talked to them for a bout a half hour.  They were headed to Eleuthera, so we gave them all kinds of info to enjoy their time. 

At the resort restaurant, there was outdoor seating, but no one around.  We went inside the building and found a person to talk to about dinner.  They serve everyone at 7:30 and wondered what we would like.  There wasn’t a menu, so we asked what they had.  They had grouper, snapper, cracked conk and lobster served with salad and sides.  We chose the grouper and snapper, not knowing any prices.  But it was eat here or go back to the boat. 

The room had a cooler with beer, sodas, and waters.  There were liquor bottles and wine on a side table.  In the center there was a table with a tablet.  You signed in, helped yourself, and kept a tally of what you had to drink, an honor system. 

these sculptures were done locally using dead coral

We enjoyed the sunset on their deck.  Other people showed up about 7:30.  There were 4 young men from Italy that were here on a Cessna airplane.  They were crew for an airline, but  were pilots themselves.  So with their time off, they chartered a plane to see the islands.  I guess it would be similar to us chartering a boat. 

these guys kept Dave occupied while I visited with a friend on the phone

 
 

our boat is to the left of the sunset

There were 2 other couples having dinner that were here by sailboat.  We all sat at one table together and were able to share some great information with each other.  It was a really nice evening.

On the way back to the boat, about 9:30, we noticed the anchor light wasn’t working.  We were both sure we had turned it on.  Maybe it was damaged by lightning this past week.  We have a spare bulb, so Dave will climb the mast to change it when we have good weather. 

May 1-2, 2019 Exploring Bennett's Harbour, Cat Island

5- 1/2 Wed and thurs
We had to wait out the squalls before we could move any further.  But at least the boat was calm and we could get some sleep.  We had a couple of lazy days, but did make bread and water.

Thursday afternoon, we finally got in the dinghy to explore the area.  There was a creek/river with mangroves that we followed inland until it got too shallow.  It was about 2 hours before high tide, but we didn’t want to wait around.  We saw several turtles.  Boy do they move fast in the water.  We also saw one large southern stingray.  We had heard there were usually about 7 of them together, but not today.  Then we went along the shoreline and back just to get some fresh air.  There isn’t much of a town here, so we didn’t plan to go to shore. 

turtle in the center of stream

lucky catch by sticking my camera in the water off the side of the dinghy

always sad to see

government dock at Bennett's Harbour

April 29-30, 2019 Bennett's Harbour, Cat Island

Monday
Today was windy with side to side rolling motion of the boat.  I was able to spend some time on the computer without getting sea sick.  Dave did some radar adjustments from the things he learned listening to the online class this week.

About 9:00pm, our bilge alarm went off.  Dave found more water under the engine compartment.  He ran the engine for awhile to help charge the batteries while he was running the bilge pump (no more sunlight to charge the solar panels for the night).  He also ran the shop vac to remove the water from under the engine.  We haven’t moved the boat in 4 days, but the boat has been rocking side to side A LOT.  So besides the shaft issue, we may be getting rain water in somewhere, or there is a leak that is affected with the rolling motion.  There will be a lot of investigating in the near future.

 
 
 Tuesday
We were up to listen to the weather on the SSB radio at 6:30am.  This weather was supposed to continue through Friday.  So we decided to not wait for good weather to snorkel at Little San Salvador.  Maybe we will stop here as we head north in a few weeks.  We decided to head to Cat Island for better protection and better sleep. 

We left about 7:00 am to get settled before more squalls showed up in the afternoon.  The wind was averaging 25 knots.  We usually travel in about 15 knots of wind and travel about 6-7 knots speed.  With the wind right on our nose, we only went about 3 knots.

About 10:30 we ran into the only squall we could see on the horizon, right in the path of our destination.  We had pretty heavy rain and gusts to 38 knots, but no water spouts.  We handled it just fine.  I guess we can call ourselves “salty sailors”.  

We made it to Bennett’s Harbor, Cat Island and anchored by noon.  It is about 1/4 of the way down the length of the island.  We could feel salt on our arms and legs from the sea spray.  We had showers and took naps then watched another movie. 
 

April 28, 2019 Dinghy washing, Faraday Bags

We finally had a nice day to leave the boat.  We loaded up the dinghy with snorkeling gear and went for a ride.  There was a barge with a couple cranes working in the area where the cruise ships usually anchor.  One of the cranes was in the water.  We could see divers working in the water, too.  We weren’t sure if the crane in the water was there on purpose or by accident.  Didn’t look right to us. 

We checked out some of the facilities on shore for the cruise ship patrons.  There is a large pirate ship that I’m sure has several bars in it.  There is an area for horseback riding.  There are all kinds of water sports.  Pretty crazy. 

cruise ship's beach with restaurants and water sports

It was still a little windy to go snorkeling, so we decided to head to a beach at the west end.  We approached slowly, looking for the best way to avoid coral heads.  When we got to the beach, there was a strange brown color churning in the water.  All of a sudden, we realized it was oil, maybe from the barge and cranes.  Dave had to get in the water to turn the boat around and get it off shore far enough to start the motor.  Water was splashing over the transom.  What a mess!  We went straight back to the boat to clean things up.  The floor was even slick as we were trying to get out. 

beautiful water

headed to this pretty beach, but didn't see the dark brown in the water until we were in it

I grabbed some shampoo that I keep in the cockpit to wash my feet.  Then I went below to get the Dawn detergent.  Dave hung the dinghy on the davits.  Then he got out a brush to clean the dingy.  I used a wash rag with Dawn to clean anything that we removed from the dingy.  They Dave soaked the shirt and swimsuit he was wearing.  That turned into quite a job that we didn’t expect.  

We ended up having a lightning storm off to the west.  Actually, the storms were all around us.   So we put all of our electronic devices in Faraday bags.  They protect them from the lightning.  We used to put everything in the microwave, which did the same thing.  But we took out the microwave a couple years ago.  We have 3 of these bags.  We put in our 2 laptops, 2 iPads, 2 phones, Kindle, 2 hand held VHF radios, a GPS, and the external hard drives.  Then we have to actually talk to each other, like the good old days.

 
We didn’t sleep well that night.  Lots of rolling side to side.  We knew this area wouldn’t have the best protection, but we wanted to snorkel and spearfish once the weather cleared.  Plus we can nap when we want to.

April 26-27, 2019 Waiting out squalls at Little San Salvador

4-26 Friday
We had a few squalls passing through the area.  So we spent time on the boat.  I spent some time on the computer.  But the rocking and rolling caused me to have a little sea sickness.  So I had to just sit outside and enjoy the view instead.

Dave cleaned the sliding hatch in our companionway.  It had been harder to slide and leaked onto the steps when it rained.  Worked much better now.  A tread on one of our steps had come loose.  So Dave re-glued that today.  Always some little thing to do. 

4-27 Saturday
Dave and I both worked on giving Dave a haircut today.  He had been wanting one for a couple weeks.  He sat in the cockpit and used the electric raiser plugged into the Honda generator.  After removing most of the hair, I helped trim things up.  Then he used the hose from the stern shower to hose himself off and the hair in the cockpit.  We don’t do this inside because the hair will clog the pumps that take the water overboard. 

We renew our data plan tomorrow, so I spent some time posting this blog.  We also downloaded a couple movies.  After 2 weeks we “use it or lose it”.

We've also been watching movies on our laptop.  We are going through all the Marvel movies about the Avengers.  I had seen a couple here and there, but didn't get the connection between them.  I am actually enjoying them now that I see how they are connected.  And Dave is great at making popcorn on the stove top (no more microwave). 

April 25, 2019 Little San Salvador and cruise ships

We moved to Little San Salvador today.  Dave was able to utilize the things he learned in the radar class last night.  This is a small island that is a cruise ship stop.  We’re allowed to anchor at the west end of the bay.  But we can’t go on shore past a certain point.  There was a cruise ship anchored there when we arrived.  We watched their ferry boats shuttle people back to the big ship.  We met someone who worked doing that and he called it "moving human cargo".  We knew they would leave for the night.  After they raised their anchor, I told Dave that I expected them to blast their horn as they left.  I said “do I have to give them the signal like we used to for semis and trains to blast their horns?”  Just as I did the hand gesture of pulling on a lever, the ship blasted three times.  We burst out laughing because I couldn’t have timed that better.  

the red boat with the circle is how a cruise ship shows up on our chart

shuttle bringing people to the ship

moving alongside to the small door open on the side of the ship

people moving from shuttle to ship

We were able to listen to the second night of the radar class on the laptop.   When we were in the fog in New England, we felt we needed to know more.  Dave did pick up several things that he was looking for.  But it was presented in an “old school” manor.  We have the radar integrated with our electronic navigation systems.  Some of the things the instructor was showing us to calculate by hand is done automatically for you now.  But we have more full use of our radar now.  At least Dave does, he’ll show me things as we go along.