The Buehrle Girls in the Bahamas!

After a bit of drama last week, Cathy arrived Friday evening.  Snow had her flight ready to land in Baltimore, only to get turned around and headed back to Manchester.  They left again, and she made the delayed connection and landed in Nassau.  Unfortunately, Pamela was not so fortunate.  The snow, a jackknifed tractor trailer, and a very nasty Southwest Airlines staff person caused her to miss the flight.  Re-scheduled for Sunday, we made the best of a couple extra days at Palm Cay Marina.  Not much of a hardship for us, but a bummer for Pamela.

Once everyone made it, we took off for the Exuma Cays on Monday.  A wind in our face, and bumpy seas crossing for six hours had us all trying to enjoy the sail.  Dropped the hook inside Allan's Cay and had a great little snorkel.  During our lovely dinner, we noticed we were getting closer to the rocky coral shore, so a very long fire drill later, we moved over to Highborne Cay and anchored off the beach with two anchors.  (Oh, did I mention our windlass motor burned out?  Pamela brought one with her from the states).  So - the only real muscle on board (Greg) had to haul anchor by hand.  We decided to use two anchors. Our secondary Bruce anchor has only 20 feet of chain and then rope rode.  It seems to hold better on the sand bottom.  The main anchor is a CQR and has 200 feet of chain and is larger, so the weight to let it out and get it up is not easy to do manually.  Anyway - once again, it was a light night of sleeping while Sharon was up every hour or so, checking out our position.

In the morning, it took two hours to get both anchors up - Sharon and Cathy stayed on board, Pamela and Greg went off on the dingy to try to get the Bruce to come up - Greg was in the water with fins and mask, for almost two hours, trying to get the anchor to release, so that we could then haul the other one up, too.  Lesson learned - a trip line with a float next time (which of course we had on board, but never thought to use it).  Why is it that we need to learn from our own bad experiences, rather than taking advice from those who have already learned it?

With light wind, we motored south, outside the Cays and down through Wax Cay Cut to head around to Shroud Cay - inside the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  We were fortunate to get a mooring ball and immediately set off with our snorkels and fins donned to see what there was to see.  Cathy and Pamela saw tons of fish, a very large ray (we think a manta ray) and some lovely coral.  Sharon went to get them with the dingy and continued up into the mangrove creeks.  So cool - you can dingy way up into the creeks in 4-5 feet of water.

It is a beautiful spot and everyone enjoyed their time - except for poor Greg who spent the first of three days crammed inside the anchor locker working on the installing the new windlass motor.  He got very cranky at times.  Understandable as he was working in lousy conditions while the rest of us played.

Greg climbing out of the anchor locker

Next day was another short motor to Hawksbill Cay and a mooring right near the beach.  Beautiful!  Great snorkeling, lovely beaches, good sights!

On our way back from our snorkeling, Sharon spotted two funnel clouds stretching down toward the horizon.  In another 30 minutes, there was a water spout on the horizon.  Wild!  Never saw one and we were all glad it was far away!

The next day was as beautiful as the last few and everyone was sad to have to head back.  We motored Northwest for awhile and then decided to hoist the spinnaker.  With the wind directly behind us, we flew back to Palm Cay at 7-8 knots.  It was a beautiful sail!  Once back in the marina, we enjoyed the last 24 hours by the beach, the pool and having a lot of laughs.  It was so great to have Cathy and Pamela on board.  They said they want to come back, so our mission is accomplished!  

Happy Sailors!

The next day, a half day rental car got the laundry dropped off, two women to the airport, a grocery run and laundry pick-up.  We cleaned and turned the boat around for our new guest's arrival - our friend Andra is in town for a week.  More fun to be had!  

SPECIAL NOTE: Remember, you can click on each photo to make it larger!