Wildcat-April 20, 2005

April 20, 2005

We spent 4 nights at Warderick Wells. On the last night there the park had a get together for the cruisers. We all made an hors d'oeuvre to bring and brought our own drinks. They supplied the paper plates, forks, and ice. Henry, the warden, made delicious conch fritters. The variety of dishes brought by the other cruisers was wonderful. Someone even made vegetarian sushi. It was a nice party.

Just a word to fellow cruisers. The Warderick Wells anchorage is not comfortable in all wind directions. We did a lot of rolling and spinning here with the very strong current and strong winds. It's tough anywhere from NW to N. The moorings are quite good and very well maintained. I mentioned to Chris that at least we did not have to worry about boats dragging down on us. Not less than an hour later we watched a boat trying to pick up a mooring drag down on another moored boat. They damaged their boat as well as the boat they dragged down on. The skipper did not anticipate the strength of the current and was not coming in under enough power. Oh well.

We decided to go south again and went back to an anchorage between Cambridge Cay and Bell Island. The winds were strong out of the north. We had quite a rolly night there as the surge came in through O'Brien's Cut. It is very good holding there though and a very picturesque anchorage. Several boats weathered a front in there and did well. We were able to visit a place called the Aquarium. It is a diving spot that is so reminiscent of looking through an aquarium of carribbean fish. When we hopped in the water we were immediately surrounded by sargeant majors. We surmised that they are often fed by divers. Even though we had no food they followed us everywhere. We also attempted to visit some caves off of rocks named Rocky Dundas. The swell was too strong to attempt it, so we left it for some other time.

With strong NNE winds we decided to sail up to Norman's Cay. What a sail. We reefed the mainsail and had a beam reach (winds coming at 90 degrees to the boat) for most of the trip. We saw the remains of a sunken Haitian sailboat. We anchored off the west side of Norman's Cay and had to deal with a huge surge. Several of us boaters put out breast anchors to face the boat into the surge as opposed to into the wind. There is a wonderful anchorage on the east side of the island called Norman 's Pond. We knew we would head off to Nassau the next day though so we just made ourselves comfortable on the west side. We dinghied around to the other side and saw the little bit of remaining parts of a DC 3 that missed the landing strip many, many years ago. When we visited it 12 years ago with Justin, the plane was mostly intact. After several hurricanes though there's not much left. This island was the famed drug island of Carlos Lehder, the Columbian drug lord. Now it's privately owned and not extremely friendly to cruisers. Things are always changing.

The next day we had 15-20 knots of wind out of the ENE. We had a fabulous sail to Nassau and averaged 7 knots, although we were often sailing over 8. Nassau is such a busy place. Being 22 feet wide caused a problem for dockage, so we were able to procure a mooring. A mooring in Nassau? It is a privately maintained mooring and close to the marina called Harbour Central. The mooring cost $15 per day and a $2 per day fee for bringing in the dinghy. In Nassau this was quite a bargain. We were able to visit Atlantis and it was an amazing place. The various aquariums over the complex are spectacular. My favorite was the pool with the sharks. There were 2 gigantic hammerhead sharks that I could have watched swimming around all day. We could see why it was such a popular vacation spot. We also visited the Queen's Staircase in the heart of Nassau and the ever popular straw market. I wanted to buy a straw basket just like the one I had bought there 25 years ago. I had used it as a sewing basket for many years until it finally fell apart. I couldn't find anything close to that design, so I spoke to one of the ladies weaving. She laughed and said that the old timers used to make them but no one made them anymore. They were too much work. Now I wish I had treated it more gently.

The hustle and bustle of the city is exciting. It's the central control for all of the Bahamas and the people here have a very confident air about them. We'll spend one more day here and then head off to the Berry Islands. We have never been there and we are excited about what we'll find. We need to catch a few more fish before we get back to the states. Thanks for your email back to us. It's hard to explain how wonderful it is to get email from friends when you're out of the country. Till the next journal we wish you fair winds and smooth seas.

Pam and Chris