Moving on and staying put!

This is rather long as I haven't updated it for a week or so....feel free to read it in instalments!
We enjoyed our stay at Highborne Cay, although the weather was so cool that one day I even resorted to wearing cut-off jeans instead of shorts! On our last night at the marina we sat on the beach and toasted the sunset with our neighbours, Ken & Daisy on 'Big Blue'. The next morning they were headed back to Nassau without an engine. Sounds easy in a sailboat, but there was only one weather window in the days ahead, and they had the choice of either too little wind, or too much with heavy seas! They chose the calmer day - we hope they made it into Nassau harbour before nightfall!
We had called a day ahead and been lucky enough to be assigned a mooring ball at the coveted northern anchorage at Warderick Wells, the hub of the Exuma Land & Sea Park. The Park is a protected area of 176 square miles and is managed by the Bahamas National Trust. It stretches 22 miles from end to end, and is made up of 15 major cays and many smaller ones. It also has the greatest diversity of marine life in the Exumas. The moooring area at Warderick Wells is entered from the north, and the twenty or so moorings form a semi-circle in the crystal clear and startlingly blue waters along the edge of a shallow sandbar. The rangers headquarters is based here too. The cost of paradise - $15 a night!
As usual, when the weather behaves, anchorages and marinas empty out and everyone is on the move. So we were pleased to see some of the 'usual suspects' we had met along the way, particularly 'Not-a-Gain' with Mariane & Paul. We had two perfect days of weather here (unusual for this winter). Bill devised a ladder to help us to get back into our dinghy after swimming. This procedure can be difficult, and is always inelegant with the hapless snorkeller ending up flopping onto the floor of the dinghy in a tangle of arms, legs and fins like a stranded whale! We snorkelled past brilliantly painted fish, and dinghied around to deserted beaches with sand like icing sugar, disturbed only by the little paw prints of the Hutia, a round rat-like creature native to the islands. Lying on the beach after a swim we were often serenaded by the beautiful song of the Bahamas Mocking Bird. Birds could also present a small problem in paradise as Marianne and Paul, on Knot-A-Gain, found when a mockingbird and some little Bananaquits flew into their cabin!
On Saturday there was a beach party and bonfire where tall tales of the sea were swapped, friendships made and plans hatched...apart from the usual drinking! A lovely evening, and not too far to dinghy back in the dark! We walked on some of the island's trails over the craggy and pockmarked limestone, and made the obligatory pilgrimage up to the top of 'Boo Boo Hill', named because of the ghostly apparitions of lost sailors who show their faces from time to time....so we were told. It's here, at the highest point on the island, that you deposit a piece of driftwood with your boat's name on it, for future generations to see (or until the rangers burn it all and decide to start the pile again!) If you make it up there, dig around to find 'Southern Vectis'- we scrawled our name about twenty times on a very worn and uneven slab of old boat...not ours! It is here, too, that you will get the only cell phone signal on the island, and that was critical news for us as we had to take part in a conference call to Toronto at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning! Monday was also the day when the next cold front was due! Anyway, we made it to the top of the hill by the appropriate time and all went well, except for the occasional comment by other 'conferencees' complaining about wind noise! If they could have seen Bill and I, clinging together as though in a passionate embrace, but actually trying to listen to a conversation which seemed a million miles away (both in reception quality and also in content!), and also attempting to lessen the wailing of the gale that was blowing (or maybe it was the wailing of the ghosts!), they would have laughed! We did after is was all over! As we clambered over the limestone crags to get back to the dinghy the rain started, and lasted through to the next morning - so we were lucky with the timing of our call from the top of the world.
On Tuesday we decided to make a break for it. The weatherman promised that the winds would calm down for one day and one night before the next cold front came rushing in, so we set off for Staniel Cay, about 18 miles to the south. This is an area that was made famous by James Bond: the 'Thunderball Cave' in the movie lies just off Staniel Cay and you can snorkel through it at slack tide. Another reason to go there was to see the swimming pigs that roam a cay called 'Big Major's Spot' directly to the north of Staniel Cay. This is a west facing anchorage and is very popular when a front is not blowing through. It was deserted that afternoon as 'the crowd' had moved on with the promise of a weather window, and we anchored with three other boats only. Suddenly a dinghy that had been breezing around the bay headed our way, and to our surprise and delight we saw Rob and Laurie (the 'Queen of Florida') waving at us. We had first met Rob and Laurie at Saddler's Point Marina in Jacksonville,just after we bought 'Southern Vectis'. Rob, a very experienced sailor and ultra-sociable Aussie, gave us so much good advice, and we were invited to a lovely BBQ at their house. They have sold up all their land bases (as have a lot of people that we meet afloat....not for us though!) and are on their way to Australia via the Bahamas and Antigua. The good thing about having no real time constraints is that you can take your time and backtrack to places that take your fancy when the spirit...and the weather...moves! They are having a wonderful time.
After the excitement of meeting Rob and Laurie, we set off by dinghy to see the famous pigs. We took some bread and other food scraps and threw this into the water as we neared the beach. At this, a half dozen large, pink and brown spotted pigs with extremely prominent ears and long legs adapted for Olympic-style speed swimming, launched themselves from the beach and headed towards us like torpedoes!
Bill was a little slow in getting the boat turned around and we were almost boarded by this frightening barrage of pork! As we sped back to the boat, which,luckily, was anchored some way from the shore, we imagined Stephen King or Alfred Hitchcock weaving these dire creatures into a tale of horror and mayhem!!! Luckily it was a starry and calm night and we slept well .....with a board over the hatch to repel all invaders!
Now we are at beautiful Samson Cay Marina. Our reasons for coming here are two-fold: firstly, after one day of calm, yet another fierce cold front with 30 plus knot winds was coming in, and secondly we had an alarm sounding on our engine! We arrived yesterday and had a mechanic on board today. He thinks that he has diagnosed the problem - a problem with the alarm, and not the engine, caused by corrosion on some wires! Bill is supposed to clean the wires up and all will be well! Mike, the mechanic, lives just across from this beautiful marina and used to jointly own it with his friend, Marcus. Mike now runs a salvage and towing business in this area - a very useful person to know! I will put his details in this blog in case anyone reading it should need his assistance: Mike at Overseas Salvage based at Staniel Cay. Phone: 242-355-2140 or cell 242-359-1464.
Back to the usual subject for sailors this year...the weather! A cold front is still with us with 30-40knot winds. Some damage was done to the docking here last night by the wave surge. Two boats at anchor dragged quite dangerously! We have one day of grace coming up tomorrow, before the next cold front arrives on Saturday and Sunday and then, if that was not enough, a huge cold front will come in next Tuesday and Wednesday. All the marinas are full with even experienced 'anchorers' running for cover. So....we will stay put in this lovely civilized spot until we get a weather window of a few days to allow us to get to Georgetown - the cruising sailors' mecca. There isn't much shelter from the 40 knot blows between here and Georgetown - we may not make it. But...on the other hand....we have found a lovely, sheltered and entirely civilized niche, and we plan to make the most of it. There are free showers, there is a laundry area, and a book swap. The freighter arrived last night to stock up the shop, and there is a restaurant where we will meet Tom & Joyce from 'Whispering Sea' for pizza dinner tonight. When the winds go down tomorrow we'll dinghy over to Staniel Cay and explore this lovely area to the full. It's not so bad to be stranded in paradise!
P.S. Bill has just returned from news gathering - the latest hot tale came from a Canadian boat that arrived here last night. He was tied to a mooring ball at Warderick Wells -the Emerald Rock mooring field - and heard a loud snap in the middle of the wild night. Both his mooring lines had snapped and he was rapidly heading for the rocks! He, also, is happy to be here!