New Providence Island and Highborne Cay

We left Morgan’s Bluff 16 April and traveled 30 NM to New Providence Island – home of Nassau and Atlantis. We anchored in Old Fort Bay for the night and never went ashore. Why? If we stepped foot on the island, we’d have to get a COVID test somewhere in the Exumas, and since we didn’t know who paid for that test, nor wanted to undergo it, just stayed put. It was a comfortable anchorage with beautiful homes along the shoreline. Tony and Michelle had us all over for happy hour on board Patricia Marie.

View of New Providence Island

Saturday we left bright and early (at least the sailboats did) for Highborne Cay – our first island in the Exumas! As we were passing Nassau, Tony called several times to let us know how bad conditions were on the water once we left the East Channel. Derek did the same to report 3-5 waves. We slowed down and shifted the con to the lower helm station to be inside for safety and comfort reasons. It ended up not being too bad and eventually the seas calmed enough to go back up to the fly bridge. Another reason for heading up to the fly bridge was to get a better view of coral heads that were just below the water surface.

Nurse shark

We all arrived at our Highborne anchorage at the same time and once settled in, headed over to Liberty Call for happy hour and sunset. Sunday morning. First the toilet didn’t ‘flush’ but I fixed that pretty quickly. Then the nightmare happened – the generator died. The engine portion works fine but the generator doesn’t generate electricity. First I discovered a water leak at the anti-siphon lock – who knows how long that’s been a problem. And spent hours trying to figure out why the generator wasn’t ‘generating’. I re-routed the water line so there is no more leak – at least one thing is fixed.

While I was working on the generator, swearing and not being a pleasant person to be around, Sharon did laundry in five gallon buckets and hung it out to dry. That was her first bucket laundry experience.

Generator work around

Nothing beats boat problems in exotic places! So we have some choices:

- Derek has a portable Honda generator and since he has solar panels, doesn’t need it. So that’s been our work around for now. That’s fine for charging our house batteries but not enough for ice maker, air conditioning, etc.

- Fire up the engine periodically and let the alternator charge our house batteries.

- Get a slip each night. $$$ And NOT the way we wanted to experience the Bahamas.

The afternoon ended with me laying in a floaty and hearing, “pfffffff” as floaty deflated and I slowly sank into the water. But things definitely improved when we went over to Liberty Call for happy hour and dinner. Dianne made the best lobster mac I have ever had!

Monday Tony, the super technician, showed up and started troubleshooting. Derek soon joined us and the two retired Navy ETs (Electronic Techs) did some serious volt meter troubleshooting to work the CASREP. Basically we’re screwed and can’t be repaired here but at least we know what ‘broke’.

Derek and I were both desperate for ice so we took a mile long dinghy ride to the marina in less than ideal conditions. We had to show proof of our health visas and then were allowed to leave the fuel dock and go to the store. Monday’s happy hour was right along the shoreline of the island since we weren’t officially ON the island.

Derek and I enjoying a cold beer at the store.
I can't begin to tell you how good the air conditioning felt!

This is a beautiful anchorage with crystal clear water and a huge nurse shark or two that like to swim around. After three nights here, we’re ready to head south to discover what awaits and get a little exercise.

Mackie Shoal and Morgan's Bluff

Spoiler alert. We didn't find Captain Morgan's treasure or his rum. We left Bimini around 1000, 13 April, to coincide with slack tide. We headed up the harbor to add some fuel while four sailboats left at the same time. Two of the sailboats, Patricia Marie and Liberty Call, were traveling with us. The other two were tagging along for the first leg to Mackie Shoal where the five of us were going to anchor for the night. Mackie Shoal is located in the Great Bahama Bank and is completely exposed in all directions with NO land in sight for miles. The ride to Mackie Shoal was nice and we anchored in 15 feet of water about three miles south of the 'magenta line' to avoid getting hit by other boats/ships in the night. 

As I was sitting on the back of the boat reading a book and enjoying a beverage, Sharon comes out and says, "I really hate to tell you this but the toilet doesn't flush." 😤 "The toilet doesn't flush" isn't simply a matter of breaking out a plunger to clear a log jam. Our toilets have macerators that grind up and liquify anything 💩 traveling from the bowl to the holding tank. "The toilet doesn't flush" typically means the blade is jammed which involves taking apart the macerator and unjamming it. 🤮 Our toilets flush with seawater. Seawater + urine = cement so I had a little scraping to do. Toilet 'fixed' just in time for sunset. 

At anchor on Mackie Shoal

Later that night Sharon and I went outside to see the stars. Except for our anchor lights, there were no lights around anywhere and the view of the sky was fantastic. That's also about the time the wind picked up. And picked up to about 13 knots and that's when the anchorage sucked! We got very little sleep while the boat rocked and rolled all night long with waves pounding into the hull. We had our anchor alarm set and portable VHF radio on but turned it off after the Coast Guard kept broadcasting a "pon pon" every hour. 

All five boats left right after sunrise and getting the anchor up on a pitching boat is quite a challenge. We decided to stay down below vs driving from the fly bridge for safety reasons -- the sea state was that bad. Another thing we have discovered is the anchor chain locker fills with water when taking waves over the bow. Soooo about every hour, one of us had to shop vac out the water. Poor Sharon spent a long time vacuuming out water in rough conditions. We are totally perplexed on how water is getting in!

Finally, after seven hours we arrived at our anchorage in Morgan's Bluff on Andros Island. It was definitely a welcome relief. We were both exhausted and had plenty of clean-up to do. There is an anchorage that is protected from all directions except out of the north. Fresh water is what attracted pirates here and supposedly Henry Morgan buried his treasure here.

Flybridge was a disaster.

Patricia Marie and Liberty Call pulled in three hours after us and we all stayed on our boats for the night -- except for Derek who had two dogs to walk. We had dinner and went to bed pretty early (for us). The next morning started with, "The toilet doesn't flush". Aaaahhhh! Time to take it apart again and really scrape the 'cement' out. I will spare you the details.

I also spent a good 45 minutes with Mrsims regarding our phone accounts. It is a good service when it works but very frustrating understanding HOW it works to get it to work. 

We all dinghied to the beach around noon to find Henry Morgan's cave. We found it but no buried treasure. Next we walked to Morgan's Bluff for a spectacular view of the ocean. After that, we decided to 'hit the town'. The town consists of a convenience store/gas station that was never open while we were there and Unca Harvey's bar. We had the strangest experience in Unca Harvey's. We never got served or even acknowledged and left after 15 minutes. Apparently the bartender can only do one thing at a time and that one thing was making hamburgers for a couple at the bar. So instead, we sat on the beach, drank pain killers and beers from our boats and had some snacks. The dogs, Chief and Sabian, got plenty of exercise. We even had a sting ray hang out with us the whole time.

The opening to Morgan's Cave. Is the Henry behind the tree?

Group spelunking pic

View from Morgan's Bluff

Inside Unca Harvey;s

This guy hung out with us all afternoon

The girls enjoying painkillers

That's about it for Morgan's Bluff. We all needed a down day after the night and day before. Supposedly we could have hitchhiked into Nichols Town or rented a car for the day but opted to stay in this quiet location. Having a beach all to yourself just doesn't get any better.

Bimini

Bimini. Approximately 50 miles east of Miami. We left Stock Island Tuesday, 6 April, and headed up Hawk Channel to an anchorage just north (actually east) of Marathon. We discovered the Curry Hammock anchorage last year when a pop-up storm forced us to seek shelter. Our trip up the channel was less than pleasant with 13 knot head winds and 3+ foot seas. The next day was a little better to our anchorage at Rodriguez Key for our crossing to Bimini the following day.

We got up bright and early Thursday morning (8 April), pulled up the anchor and started heading northeast to Bimini. We got underway around 0420 in pitch black darkness. The seas were a little rough crossing the reef from Hawk Channel to the Straights of Florida but continuously settled down the more we traveled. 

Sunrise over the Straights of Florida

I don't know how Sharon reads underway.

Our goal was to get to Brown's Marina at a 'rising tide' -- just after slack tide -- which was supposed to be between 1230-1300. The passage over was (fortunately) pretty uneventful although we experienced 3+ foot waves for the first several hours. We arrived just in time, hailed Brown's, and they told us to come in. Our friends on Liberty Call had been standing by outside waiting to get called in since 0800. They had sailed straight from Boca Chica the day before and had an overnight cruise.

Brown's Marina

Docking (thankfully!) was a piece of cake and Liberty Call came in right after us. We got settled in and Derek and I walked to Customs to check-in. Only the captains were allowed to leave the boat and Sharon and Diane had to remain behind. Both Sharon and Diane had used "Click-to-Clear" to do all the Customs paperwork online. Shocker. That was a waste of time and we still had to fill out forms. First we directed to Immigration where we had to show proof of Health Visas and negative COVID tests within the last five days along with passports. Next we went back to Customs to fill out more forms, pay $300, and get officially into the Bahamas.

We lowered the yellow Quebec flag (also known as Yellow Jack) and raised the Bahamian courtesy flag to show that we had cleared customs and were 'official'. It was time to do a little exploring and we headed to Radio Beach. First things first, a rum drink! Next we went next door to Coconut Brian for another rum drink. I don't know how he found room for the mixer but that was the best and strongest rum runner I have ever had. We also got some wings which ended up being our dinner. We were all pretty tired so called it an early night.

Diane and Sharon's coco locos with Coconut Brian

The next day, we went out on Liberty Call's dinghy to do some snorkeling and find the Road to Atlantis. The water is so incredibly blue here! Well... we didn't find the road but had a good time snorkeling. We headed back in time for the third boat in our group's arrival, Patricia Marie. We were hanging out at a beach along the channel and all waved as they passed. We took off to the marina to help them tie up. The wind was not in Tony's favor and Derek used his dinghy to help keep Patricia Marie against the dock. All things considered, Captain Tony, did an excellent job docking.

Derek with the assist

The night before we had met Aaron "Star" who offered to get us freshly caught lobsters and grill them up for us. He is a Biminite and one of the few locals actually born here. Apparently the women give birth in Miami or Nassau (for obvious reasons). The six of us enjoyed a nice feast of lobster, potatoes and salads.

Aaron "Star" our chef

Saturday we rented a six person golf cart and explored the island (which is only 7 x 1/2 miles). It felt so weird driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. The northern end of the island is the 'high-end' side with the Hilton and nice homes. We preferred the towns more and stopped at Joe's Conch Shack for a conch salad. Next we stopped at Ebbie and Pat's for rum drinks and food. Next we found the Dolphin House. Mr. Saunders, 73 years old, has been creating the Dolphin House for 28 years. It is a unique work of art that is covered inside and out with seashells, mosaic tiles and treasures found on the beach and donated by visitors. The building is three stories high with a lighthouse on the top. It is a true labor of love. We were so glad we were able to get a complete tour. After that we headed back to visit our friend, Coconut Brian.

Sunday, the girls did some shopping and the boys (Derek and Tony) took advantage of the golf cart and filled up diesel fuel jerry cans after topping off their fuel tanks. Later, we all spent the day at Radio Beach and were going to have a cookout but a thunderstorm came ripping through and cancelled that. The plus was we got a really good fresh water washdown to get rid of any remaining salt.

This fence totally messed with my OCD!

The wind has been really strong for the last two days and our boats have been bouncing big time! Monday was our 'day five' and we were required to get a second COVID test. We arrived at the clinic bright and early and got tested right away. We spent our last day taking a ferry over to South Bimini to do a little exploring and hiking a nature trail. There wasn't much on South Bimini except for some resorts.

Do not touch the Poison Wood tree!

Pirates Well (rendition)

It is Tuesday and we're off. Topping off the fuel tanks and heading to Mackie Shoal to anchor out on the Grand Bahama Bank in the middle of nowhere -- literally!