Somebody has Been Stepping on Fish

Posted by Alexander

We came to Warderick Wells cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park yesterday. It is a beautiful place that also acts as the HQ for the rangers of the park. It’s a hot spot for snorkeling and hiking.   We continue to be one of the only boats around.  According to the chart book, during high season in the winter, you sometimes have to wait a couple of days to pick up a mooring ball here, but right now, we had our pick of the whole field.

Monashee, alone in another mooring field.

We relaxed on the boat for the first day here.

I am reading Game of Thrones on my Kindle right now.  It is so exciting, I can hardly put it down!

We dived and swam and dived some more. In the middle of a battle to shove Dad into the water (which succeeded) it started to rain. This wasn’t the nice kind of drizzly rain which cools you off. This is the kind of rain that makes you think some guy must be sitting on top of a cloud firing a hundred power hoses down to the earth. The rain was actually pretty awesome. We all climbed out of the water to realize we were getting a free shower. We let the rain soak the salt out of us and Dad decided to go get some shampoo. We all stood on the trampolines and covered ourselves with soap and actually took a full shower. The rain lasted long enough that everyone got rinsed off really well. After that we all headed back towards the cockpit when we realized something. The rain wasn’t stopping. Mom didn’t want to bring out the towels only to get them soaked so she wanted us to wait a while for the rain. We sat there and we were freezing. As the rain finally started to die Mom said “Okay I think we can probably go get the tow-“ she was cut off by the sound of the rain getting stronger than when it had started. This carried on before finally we decided to just get the towels. Even dry and in our rooms the rain didn’t let up for another half an hour.  According to information at the ranger station, it rains very little here over the course of a year, so I think the rain we got yesterday was pretty significant.

Later Christopher saw something. A white flash passing under the water. I caught a glimpse and we both had the same thought. There was a shark under our boat. Dad went for a snorkel to discover that they weren’t sharks. He thinks they are Remoras – the same kind of fish that stick themselves to sharks or whales to catch a free ride.

Remoras sucking onto Monashee's hull.

There were four of them. They had a sort of pattern on the top of their heads that looked like the bottom of a boot. It helped them stick to things. Which is what they were doing to the bottom of our boat. We are pretty sure they will leave when we do.

As Remoras go, these guys are pretty big.  Wikipedia says 3 feet is their maximum size, and these ones were at least that long.

Katie saw something cool when she accidentally dropped an orange peel in the water. All the Remoras suddenly dashed out at it and nibbled the bits of orange. We played with this for a while but we stopped because we weren’t really supposed to be feeding the fish. But I think that is probably why they hang out on the bottom of boats – they are scavengers that enjoy a free meal.  That is also why they hang out on bigger fish like sharks.

Today, after school, we’re going snorkeling!

Remembrance Day, Exuma Cays

Posted by Scot

Both yesterday and today, we sailed off the mooring balls we were on for the night.  No engines, no diesel fumes, nothing.  Just cranked up the mainsail, let go of the mooring lines, and then pulled out the jib once we were free, letting the wind push us back and off the shore, and sailing a gentle downwind tack out into the ocean.



As I sail along this morning, and adjust the jib based on it’s luff as I let it out, I can’t help but think about my Uncle Hal.  My dad’s brother was the person who first introduced me and my brother and sisters to sailing.  When I was about 7, we first visited Hal and his family at their summer cabin on Lake Huron, and Hal showed us the joys of dinghy sailing there.  It was in his Force 5 that I first learned how to adjust a sail to the wind, and to enjoy the hum of the water on the hull when you get the boat really moving.  It was Hal who taught me the word “stink pot” when referring to motor boats.  His love and enthusiasm for all things sailing was infectious, and kindled something in me that has been reinforced and amplified from then until now.



When Hal passed away last year, I was unable to make it to his funeral because of work commitments.  I regretted it then, and I still regret it now.  But today, sailing along and thinking about him, I can imagine how much he would have loved to be out here with us, watching the wind and adjusting the sails.  It gives me a moment to remember him, and by thinking about him here, where he would have been joking and happy, I imagine I make up a bit for not being there then.

Iguana’s Like to Nod.

Posted by Katie

Dad’s note: Another in our series of educational posts by the kids.  Here is Katie’s take on the unique iguanas we saw on Allen’s Cay.  Without an internet connection, our access to facts was pretty limited.  Nevertheless, prepare to be educated.



This is the rare Iguana project.  The only time you are going to see one of the Iguana’s I will be talking about is if you take a 50 foot popsicle that is the shape of the rare Iguana that I am talking about and put it exactly five feet from your house. Leave it for the night and in the morning there will be an iguana staring at you and posing for a picture. 



Just kidding.The only way you will see this specific type of Iguana is if you go to the Bahamas, stay in the Allens Cay and go to shore.  You will see big fat Iguanas and little thin ones too. You might see them fight,you might see them walk you might even see them charge up to you and nibble your toe off like a cute little Squirrel.  But watch out they do bite if you get too close. 



Fun fact :after Iguanas win a fight the like to nod there heads in a cute little fashion.

Iguanas are the biggest native land animal in the Bahamas.  Surprisingly they are actually herbivores not insectivores.          

Island Hopping the Exumas

When the weather settled down a bit, we were glad to escape Nassau and head back out to living on the hook.  Before we left Nassau, though, we took one last trip under those bridges to hit the fuel dock.  The view looking up at the top of our mast as we came under the bridge scared me every time.  From the perspective of the deck, it never looks like we have enough room to get under.  The guidebooks all assure me we have at least 6 or 7 feet of space, though.

Bridge ahead!  The fuel dock is at the far left of the picture, right between the bridges, so we only had to go under the first one.  But we had to come back out under it, too.

Filling up our fuel tanks for the first time was another learning experience.  You have to run the diesel sloooowly, otherwise it spills over the top and into the ocean.  Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way, and unintentionally added a bit more pollution to the already polluted Nassau Harbour.  At least now I know, and won’t do that again.

Our sail to the Exumas took us back out into the remains of the north-east front that we had been hiding out from in Nassau, so it was a bit of an upwind slog.

Boat pose.  This is how those glossy mags hook you on sailing.

The waves were not too bad, though, and before long we were pulling into Allen’s Cay, home of a unique breed of iguanas that lives only there, and nowhere else on earth.  We dropped the anchor, had lunch, and dinghied in to see the iguanas.  We have read other accounts of the iguanas swimming out to your boat to greet you, and look for hand outs, but on the day we were there, they seemed a bit shy.  There were lots of them around sitting on rocks and watching us, but for the most part they couldn’t have cared less that we were there.  Maybe that is because we didn’t bring them any snacks, but we were trying to be good ecological citizens, and not upset their natural balance.

An Allen's Cay iguana in all his natural glory.

The current flowing through Allen’s Cay was pretty strong, so we moved the boat over to Highbourne Cay to anchor for the night.  We were glad to see a few other boats around us.  The isolation of the Berries had been great, but this early in our trip, it is a confidence builder to see other boats anchoring where we are anchoring, going where we are going, and generally doing the same things we are doing.  It is easy enough to question ourselves as to what we are doing and how we are doing it, without being the only ones around for miles.

It didn’t take long for the boats to disperse.  After a night at Highbourne Cay, we turned downwind to make  make our way south to Shroud Cay.  It was only a couple of hours, and we had light winds coming from behind, so we took the opportunity to fly our spinnaker for the first time!  It took a little experimenting, and Sara had to call on her sailboat racing experience from Vancouver Island, but we managed to make it work.

Spinnaker!  Cool.

Enjoying the ride.

Shroud Cay is in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, a Bahamian National nature preserve established back in the 50s, which means there had been no fishing or harvesting of natural resources for over 60 years.  The park provided mooring balls for us, in order to keep our anchor from chewing up the bottom, so we grabbed one of those.  It took us a couple of tries and a bit of practice to refresh our mooring ball technique, but eventually we got hooked on.

Again, we found ourselves completely alone in a mooring field which was set up for at least 10 to 15 boats.  Shroud Cay is a beautiful small island made up of mangrove swamps.  It has creeks running in a maze through the mangroves.  Our first night there was spent swimming off the boat and barbecuing, with a brief dinghy to the nearby beach to get our bearings. 

Everyone's dives are getting pretty good.

Exploring the mangroves on the beach next to the boat.

Monashee, moored all alone.  If you look closely, you can see some of the other empty mooring balls.  In high season, apparently there is quite the competition to get one of these.

The next morning, after school, we loaded everybody into the dinghy, and followed one of the creeks, weaving our way up through the swamps and over shallow sand bars until we were nearly all the way across the island on the open Atlantic side of the Cay.

Heading up the creek between the mangroves.

There is a site there called “Driftwood Camp” in the cruising guides.  As we walked over the dunes and out to the open ocean, the view was stunning.  Again, there was no one in sight.  We spent a couple of hours exploring this remarkable beach.  Unfortunately, I can’t say it looked untouched by man, as there was all kinds of plastic washed up on shore.  This kind of garbage is present on most of the world’s beaches.  It really makes you think about our use of plastic.  Makes you want to skip that next disposable water bottle.

Driftwood Camp, with the open ocean waves coming in.

Heading in to check the water.

From Shroud Cay, we had intended to head south to Warderick Wells, which is the headquarters of the Land and Sea Park.  But as we left, we passed along the beautiful, extended beach on Hawksbill Cay, and couldn’t resist pulling in for one more night completely to ourselves.

Watching the sunset to see if we get a green flash.

Nassau. Bahamas Interruptus.

Posted by Scot

En route from the Berries to the Exumas, Nassau (on New Providence Island), is the natural mid way point.  For us, it also gave us an opportunity to duck into a marina for a few days to miss some strong North Westerlies, and to top up our groceries, water and fuel.

Nassau itself is probably not worth more than a day, though.  If it hadn’t been for the weather, we would have gotten out as fast as we could.  Don’t get me wrong; we didn’t do an extensive tour of everything Nassau has to offer, and there may well be some really nice parts.  It’s just that we didn’t see any.

The marina itself was decent enough, although a bit shabby by Canadian or U.S. standards.  The staff that worked there were pleasant and helpful, though, and were about the friendliest Bahamians we have met so far.  The area around the marina left a lot to be desired.  Nassau Harbour is definitely a working harbour, and we were right next to the huge industrial dock.  This meant that all day, we were treated to the sounds of cranes loading and unloading ships, the smell of diesel fumes, and the sound of fishermen yelling at each other.  And one night we got to listen to what we think was a Junkanoo rehearsal. 

Junkanoo is sort of like Carnival in the Bahamas.  It is a big festival that happens on Boxing Day.  Apparently Junkanoo groups practice all year for their one big shot to perform.  So we got to hear a Junakanoo band play full bore for 3 hours solid, from about 9 to midnight, right next to our boat.  And I mean solid.  It wasn’t one song after another – it was one single raucous, full band, full volume rehearsal without a break.  Impressive stamina.

If you look closely, you can see Monashee right in the centre of the picture, with the yellow kayak on the front.

Interesting sidebar about noise in the Bahamas – Sara and I had an interesting discussion about the role of yelling in different cultures.  In Canada, yelling is almost always a sign of aggression, or excitement to some degree.  If you are walking down a street in a Canadian city, and you hear someone yelling at someone else, you tend to look up to see what is going on, and your danger red flags go up.  In the Bahamas, though (as well as in much of Florida, and apparently China according to my sister’s blog), yelling is a common form of daily interaction.  The fisherman yell full volume at each other all day long, and people commonly yell at each other up and down the streets.  It takes some getting used to.  As I remarked to Sara, I wonder how they communicate if they really get excited, or if something dangerous is about to happen.  They don’t really have anywhere to go in terms of additional decibels.

As for the rest of Nassau, we really only saw two areas besides the industrial part our marina was in.  A couple of times, we walked across the bridge to Paradise Island, to check out the big “Disneyland” style resort there, that takes up most of the island.  For me, the most remarkable thing about Atlantis was the stark contrast between the run down, worn out look of the rest of Nassau, and the gaudy opulence of this huge development.  Interestingly, though, even Atlantis is a bit worn at the fringes, with signs of poor upkeep and things getting worn down all over the place.  Much like the marina resort where we stayed in Bimini.

Atlantis.  A bit gaudy, and slightly shabby around the edges, but good Starbucks!

Hanging in Atlantis, pretending we belong there.

Somehow Alexander, Christopher and I managed to get into the "guest only" part of Atlantis by accident, so we got to see some of the tourist attractions (your were supposed to pay).  Here we are in the underwater tunnel in the aquarium.

We decided not to buy this sculpture for Christopher's room.

The other part of Nassau we checked out was the “downtown” core, around where the cruise ships docked.  This was the predictable collection of tourist oriented T-shirt stores, sprinkled with some expensive clothing, wristwatch, and jewellery stores.  There were also the requisite touts selling tourist trinkets from their market stalls.  After about 15 minutes, I had seen enough of that, and was ready to head back to the boat.

For me, this picture sums up Nassau exactly.  Investments have clearly been made to make it a tourist destination, but somehow they fell short on the upkeep.

So, that was Nassau.  If you ever go, I can recommend the Starbucks at Atlantis, where you can get exactly the same coffee and banana bread you can get in Starbucks at home.  You can choose to hang out in the Atlantis casino, on one of the tourist beaches where you can buy a coconut,or check out the tourist stores in town.  If you find anything better to do in Nassau, let me know.

Bahamas Project

By Alexander and Christopher

Dad’s note:  Due to overwhelming demand (OK, one person asked – thanks Jane!) here is another informative post by the kids.  Alexander and Christopher put together this informative post about the Bahamas, so we could all learn a little about where we are.

The Bahamas is a large archipelago of Islands to the east of Florida. They are a parliamentary constitutional monarchy led by queen Elizabeth II, much like the United Kingdom or Canada. The Bahamas is an independent country with a small population of 300,000. The majority of these live in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

Nassau, with Atlantis in the background.  Lots more boats in this picture than when we were there.

The rest of the people are spread out in little towns among the 700 islands, cays and islets. 85% of the population is made up of Afro-Bahamians; freed slaves from West Africa looking for a new life. The rest are mostly descendants of British settlers. Bahamians speak to each other in a slurred and altered version of English, but to tourists they speak just standard English.

The Bahamas are home to crystal white beaches, aqua blue water, beautiful coral reefs and perfectly clear for water for snorkelling.

Looks nice, doesn't it?

Due to this, tourism accounts for over 50% of the businesses in the Bahamas and is, hands down,  the biggest industry in the country. The second biggest is the financial industry such as banking. The currency in the Bahamas is is the Bahamian dollar, which is based off and equal to the American dollar. Stores will accept either one.

The Bahamians use Bahamian money, but nobody even bats an eyelid when we pull out American greenbacks.

The Bahamas have a rich history for a country where the highest point is 63 meters. Many pirates used this place to take shelter. These included the infamous Edward Teach, or Blackbeard.

Blackbeard.  Not a fun guy to party with.

In this dangerous time of piracy, the good people of the Bahamas called upon Britain for aid, and so in reply, Britain sent a small military force led by Woodes Rogers. After the main piracy threat had been dealt with, the American war for independence began and the Bahamas became threatened because of their strategic military positioning. The military leader who gave them the most trouble was named Ezekial Hopkins. He ended up attempting to attack Nassau, the previously mentioned Bahamas capital. The Bahamians, not exactly being the most warlike people, surrendered before the fight could even begin. Fortunately the Spanish attacked Nassau while in possession of America a year later and freed the Bahamas.

More boats than we have seen our entire trip.

Bahamas Fun Fact: The Police in the Bahamas recently caught who they believe to be the leader of a car stealing ring. The ring is still at large.

Celebrities such as Johnny Depp have beach houses in the Bahamas. Some even own islands.

This is probably not how Johnny Depp dresses when he visits his private island.  Although, who knows?

In the more northern island of Bimini, Ernest Hemingway famously wrote Islands in the Stream.

Casino Royale and five other James bond films have used The Bahamas as a backdrop and Sean Connery loved the country so much that he now lives there full time.

Big Weather Coming – Off to Nassau

Posted by Sara

Besides being the next logical stop on our trip and a great place to re-provision, we are planning a 3-4 day stop at a marina in Nassau as the weather is supposed to turn nasty from Sunday night to Wednesday.  Up to 35 knot winds from the North so it seemed like a good time to tuck in somewhere well protected.

Nassau is the Capital city of the Bahamas and is located on an island called New Providence Island, 12 miles X 7 miles, so similar  in size to some of our Gulf Islands.  The majority of the Bahamian population, 300,000 people, live in Nassau.  New Providence is home to Nassau (the main city), Cable Beach (high rise hotels/tourist strip), West Bay (quiet & residential with some very high-end ex-pat neighbourhoods), and Paradise Island (situated just across 2 bridges from Nassau, like where Granville Island is located to Downtown Vancouver) and is home to the huge resort ‘Atlantis’ with 5 hotels, 40 restaurants, lagoon, beaches, worlds biggest water park with rides, Casino, and tons of shopping (with very high end stores.)  
You can either stay at Atlantis, visit for the day or do a day stop from your cruise ship.

Atlantis, as seen from Nassau Harbour

The day after the Blue Hole we moved the boat from our idyllic little anchorage down to Bond Cay as a staging point to head over to Nassau.  The trip to Nassau is about 35 nautical miles (so 7 hours at our conservative speed).  Moving to Bond Cay would cut 1.5 hours off the trip and is a good jumping off point based on where the wind was predicted to come from.  It was a nice protected anchorage but not as beautiful as Hoffman's Cay.  Again, very tricky navigation to get in and out in very shallow waters so we 'played the tide' this time and made sure we went in and out at high tide.  The depth sounder still said 2' under our keel at some spots but hey, it's only soft sand right?  We had a lazy afternoon at Bond Cay with lots of snorkelling and paddle boarding.  Steel head from our deep freeze on the BBQ for dinner with Uncle Bens rice and the last of our lettuce, tomato, and 1 carrot grated to make a salad.  The kids seem to love it as long as there are croutons hidden in .

Snorkelling at Bond Cay.  Not much to see, but still nice to swim.

We left Bond Cay at 6:30am to catch the high tide out of the bay on our way to Nassau.  The  bay navigation was uneventful (except I saw a HUGE manta ray on the bottom and almost gave Scot a heart attach with my jumping and pointing. I was supposed to be looking out for navigational hazards in the water and since we only had only 3' under our keel at the time,  he wasn't too impressed with all my excitement.  Hey - a manta ray deserves a shriek any time!)  Too bad the kids were still in bed.

After leaving Bond Cay, we had a fantastic sail to Nassau.  We had 15 - 20 knots of wind on our beam and the waves, although 1m high, were a bit behind us and didn't rock us too much so we flew across at an average of 7 knots and were into Nassau Harbour before noon. 

Enjoying the early morning sail out of the Berries, aimed for Nassau.

Katie kept her usual lookout atop the coachhouse roof.

And the biggest news is that we caught a fish on the way!  We had purchased a trolling rod in Ft. Lauderdale before we left and at 8am this morning, once we saw the crossing wasn't going to be crazy, we unpeeled the plastic, pulled out the instructions on how to tie on the lure, and stuffed the rod in the rod holder.  I don’t know why it doesn’t fall out of the holder – nothing really keeping it in.  An hour later it started reeling out!  We had caught a fish!  And apparently it was a big fish as Scot fought with it for a good 15 minutes before it managed to spit out the hook.  Boo hoo.  I’m sure it was huge!  Well, hey, at least we caught something!  Baby steps. A bit lucky we lost it though as we weren't sure what we were going to do once he got it reeled in.

Setting out the fishing gear.  We were surprised to actually hook into something, given how fast we were moving.

Nassau Harbour raised our blood pressure.  4 HUGE cruise ships parked right in the middle.  Two fixed bridges to go under (which, if the charts are all correct, we should clear with 5' to spare.  Someone would have sued them by now if they were wrong - right?)  And a wicked current running through the middle of it.  Luckily, it all went like clock-work and we found our marina, Nassau Yacht Haven, & docked without too much trouble.  The marina isn't anything special (like no swimming pools) but it's neat and clean and has laundry, showers and a set cost for water.   Many places charge per the gallon for water as it is all processed from salt water to fresh water using 'reverse osmosis'.  Having a set cost means we can wash all the salt of our boat!

Massive cruise ships mark the entrance to Nassau Harbour

The kids thought the climbing wall on this one looked like fun.

Two bridges to get under.  Hope we fit!

We should be here for 3 days which doesn't seem like much after looking at the ‘to do’ list...clean boat, school,  laundry, showers, provisioning, snorkel gear (we need one more set of flippers - who  knew Christopher's feet grew 5 sizes? and another snorkel), internet (e-mail, finances, Scot's work stuff) and some sight seeing.

Welcome back to the city!