Crooked Island Lodge and Marina, Pittstown Point

Off the hook at 8. Traveling to Crooked Island. Hoping for a beach day! Lots of these beaches say they're great for finding shells and sea glass since many people don't come out this way. Excited to see what we can find!

Following seas! 🌊 Our favorite 😍 3 feet 6 seconds apart, so just like the other day, BUT the direction makes it so much better and tolerable.

As we got closer to the north end of the island, the winds picked up. We decided against both anchorage options due to the chop we'd be sleeping in. Opted for the marina... the same one we'd talked ourselves out of just last night in favor of anchoring for free. Turns out there were other plans for us.

Really tricky approach to get into Crooked Island Lodge and Marina. The channel is in between coral, which was made trickier with the wind and the waves. The dockmaster, Tino, was fantastic with communicating through VHF to get us through safely. Ben did a great job managing the VHF, throttle, steering, looking and charts, making decisions, and turning the boat on a dime. I just sat there and held my breath the whole time, knowing he could do it, but wanting it to be over.

We got tied up, spotted a marina shark, and suited up for the little beach on property that was close to the little cottage rentals. Tino told us there were a lot of boats that were out fishing for the day. This is the last week of blue marlin season. There were a ton of signs in the marina forbidding the boaters from feeding the sharks, so it was surprising that we saw that one!

On our way, we got the lay of the land and got to walk up a little lookout tower to see where the beach actually was. We found the restaurant (had reservations for 7 pm) and the gift shop (promised to return after our showers or after dinner so we wouldn't get sunscreen all over their apparel when trying things on to check sizing).

Once we made it to the beach, Ben sat in one of the chairs under the palm trees. Bear sat in the water. Moose was looking underwater with his mask on. Roo and I searched the sand for shells and sea glass. I even found the tiniest crab! 🦀 This beach had so many great finds!

Back on shore, Moose was looking at the coconuts and wanted to get one open. 🥥 He didn't have a machete like Honesty did, but he did become rather resourceful using pieces of concrete he found and set up as a hammer and chisel situation. That kid could Hatchet himself anywhere and survive. Once he got as far as he could into his coconut without needing actual tools, the girls decided they wanted one too. They each found one and started digging into them. At one point, I looked up and asked, "Where's Moose?!" only to find him up a palm tree. 🌴

We walked back to the boat, rinsed off, and opened the inner coconuts. Bear liked none of it. Moose liked the meat, but not the water. Roo liked all of it- the water and the meat.

Off to dinner in the Bahamas' first post office! It is now the kitchen of the restaurant. We were early for our 7 pm reservation, so we chatted with Tino and the staff for a bit. Roo asked if they would add our boat sticker to their collection and they did. They acted as though they've known us forever. 

When our table was ready Ms. Sue, the chef, came out to verbally offer her menu and take our orders. She gave us a few options, but we all chose either chicken wings or cracked conch, with fries (I opted for peas-and-rice). Ben also got a fish wrap. Dessert was a berry cheesecake. All of the food was very tasty!

As promised, we had one of the staff take us back to the gift shop to make our purchases of Crooked Island Marina hats and shirts. Moose and Roo got new hats, Bear, Ben, and I got UPF shirts.

We ended the night with a walk back to the Cartermaran, reading all the sportfisher names and locations of our neighbors for the night. We were the only non-sportfisher boat in the marina. 

Knowing that the weather predictions can change often, we checked the forecast for tomorrow before deciding to get up and leave by 8 am so that we would have following seas on our journey to Long Island.

A list poem for today...

Tapping into my inner poet. ✏️  A list poem for today:

Recovery day,

Sleep in.

Repair beanbag and water maker- crack sealed.

Wash boat, goodbye salt.

Dishes,

Swept,

Laundry, twice.

Movies,

Fishing,

Lunch and underway after 3 pm for

A 20 mile jump north, protected by an island the whole time. Just very windy.

3 hours.

Anchored.

Hot dogs.

Reading.

Blogging.

Bed.

Passage from Ragged Islands to Acklins & Crooked Islands

We've had long, long travel days and we've had pockets of crappy conditions, but never have we had long, long travel days with crappy conditions the whole time. Until today.

When people hear about our boat summers, they often ask if we've ever been stuck in a bad storm. A few particular days come to mind, but honestly not that many, considering how many days we've been on the boat. (Chesapeake Bay headed north, ended at the wall in Chesapeake City, MD and mostly worried about the 80 year old pastor who was a solo traveler in 2023, the hurricane that was downgraded to Tropical Storm Elsa in Key West in 2021, the trip back from Block Island in 2023, and a travel day from Nassau to Eleuthera after we just picked up Ben's mom, sister, and niece in 2022 top my list). All of these were storms. Today, there were no storms! It was forecasted to be 3 footers at 6 seconds apart, on the bow. 

In preparation for our trip, after giving us our preventative motion sickness meds, Ben reminded me and Moose (the girls were still asleep) that the inlet is always the worst, so we would keep going and it would improve. When the girls woke up, Ben medicated them as well. I wasn't concerned that anyone would throw up since no one had since 2021 when we first started this journey, but every now and then we get a day when we take the meds preemptively, which is how it works best anyway.

81 miles to get from the Raggeds to Acklins & Crooked Islands. We usually go 7 knots, so we were picturing an eleven-twelve hour day.

The Cartermaran started slamming, not with every wave, but it became more frequent as the day went on. Some waves gave us little splashes, while others splashed water all the way up the deck, to the cockpit and through the window. Only one window was open because the other one slammed shut at some point. Everyone was miserable- even the dogs- and there was nothing to do to pass the time. We just sat and stared.

Roo threw up. In Moose's words, "One down."

We were about 1/3 of the way and Ben asked if we should turn around and go back to Exumas instead. The girls and I said no, things were getting better/smoother and waves were further apart, so we kept on.

Moose was down below in the cabin with Hattie. I saw Hattie try to go outside and I grabbed her, quickly because I didn't want her out on the boat deck in these conditions. Meanwhile,  Ben grabbed the bucket for Moose who followed her up and he immediately threw up into it. Two down. I asked Bear if she was next and she said no. I knew Ben was fine. I felt fine, too.

With the landing of one wave, something started spraying white bursts at us from the bow. Ben asked what it was and I thought it must've been salt, but was confused by that possibility. We were covered in salt and gritty, but that was because the water that splashed onto us evaporated and left the salt behind. How could pure salt be spraying at us in that quantity? Then Ben realized and shouted, "THE BEAN BAGS!" He ran up to the bow, untied them, and came back with them. He said that he had to pull one out from under the bow. Somehow it had gotten stuck under the bow, while still being tied to the front cleat, and the tension pulled it open causing the beans to fly out and toward us in the cockpit. What a mess. We feel awful about how many flew off the boat before we realized what happened. Now, instead of just being covered in salt, we were also covered in white beans. The mariners' version of being tarred and feathered?!

No sooner had Ben sat back down at the helm when the bilge alarm started going off. Luckily it wasn't a ton of water, so he just drained it and we continued on with the torture of the waves.

Each passing mile felt like hours. Average speed was just below 6 knots, making our journey even longer. 

Anchored in the dark and had to try a few spots because the anchor didn’t grab right away. There was a lot of rock. Our travel journey from hook up to hook down lasted 14 hours.

Started at Duncan Town, ended at blue dot.

Ben wanted to fix the air lock in the AC line and make water before bed. Found out there was a crack in the top of the water maker and he announced that we have 1/4 tank of water that has to last until repairs can be made, so to be conservative with water usage. Ben used JB weld to fix the crack because his spare also was cracked. He is going to let it sit overnight and will finish tomorrow when it dries.

We all had a bowl of cereal, called it dinner, and went to bed.

They say you can't appreciate the good days without the bad ones. Well, after today, we are ready for the rest of our time to be incredible. 😂

Duncan Town and Hog Cay Yacht Club

I was bracing for another rough trip, but was pleasantly surprised to find the seas were 2-3 footers today. Everyone was able to hang out in the cockpit!

We anchored close to Duncan Town, by the island with the cross, and took the Chicken in the channel leading thru mangroves to their dock. It must have been low tide because the bottom of the mangroves were way out of the water. I hate to say it, but this was the ugliest color of water we have seen in the Bahamas! It was not dirty, just was shallow, sandy, and grassy, making it look brownish-tan- not even any shade of blue.

Tied up on one of two docks after debating where we should go. There were lots of half-sunken boats that were tied to the dock in the way, as well as fishing cages. We landed between two smaller tenders.

Went to Maxine's to buy some groceries. Didn't need anything and it's a good thing we didn't cuz she didn't have a ton! Like most people on the Bahamian Islands, they use their house as their store or restaurant. She had 2 rooms with shelves on the walls (kinda setup like a bookshelf, but with larger spacing) and a few things- mostly canned goods- on the shelves. We got some cracker dessert things, similar to Oreos (1×4 flavors), and some guava jelly. We spent $19.50 on those 5 things.

We smelled some bread. Ben asked if there was a bakery. Maxine said no. She makes bread orders for people who call ahead, when she is on the island. She sometimes has to go to Nassau for her husband's doctor appointments (they fly to Nassau from here). Then, she snuck 6 of her freshly baked rolls for us and wrapped them in foil. She wouldn't let us pay her for them, so we put them in our insulated bag. 

She told us how to walk to a restaurant on the island for lunch.

We left her shop and were walking down the street when she called us back to see if we liked mangos. She gave us 8 of those, too!

We walked to the restaurant and found out it was closed until the next [delivery] boat comes... which is still 10 days out! Yikes. Guess we won't be eating at a restaurant in the Ragged Islands. We got to see the salt ponds that are still used to harvest salt.

Walked back to tender, took a different route back as the tide was coming in and was deep enough. Ben didn't want to splash through the bigger waves on the tender's bow soaking all of us, so this was a much better and dryer plan. Moose thought he spotted a lemon shark in the mangroves.

Boarded Cartermaran and set off for Hog Cay which was just a short trip from where we were. Anchored and went inside to cool off and enjoy our rolls from Maxine, which were still warm! Put a little butter on them and they were delish!

There was another sailboat who was already anchored and we felt bad taking away their private island. He (Larry) wound up coming over shortly after we were anchored and chatted with Ben for a bit. He said he saw our boat had Broomfield on the back and he had to come say hi. He has family in Westminster and Broomfield. Always a small world. Larry is from Tampa and comes to the Bahamas every March-August.

While they were out there talking, we saw Daryl and Bandit coming in. It is fun to see people we know.

Hung out for a bit and then put sunscreen on to head to the beach. There is a hut and a whole cruisers' paradise here! It is lovingly named Hog Cay Yacht Club and the hut has signs from boats who have been there. Many boats have several years listed, the earliest I noticed was 2001! We added our sticker to the rafters. Maxine hosts a bonfire for cruisers here every Valentine's Day. It used to be on Valentine's Day, but the school ministry was getting mad at her for having a big party on a school night, so now it is the Saturday after Valentine's Day!

Hung out in the water with Daryl and after a while Larry came over to hang and chat too. Our own little Yacht Club gathering! It was good to be there and socialize with these 2 guys who are on their boats alone. 

Moose brought his mask and enjoyed swimming back and forth along the coast. Bandit liked to run back and forth on the shore, jumping in to get something he saw swimming by evey now and then. We saw a few stingrays (maybe the same one a few times), a shark, and a teeny tiny Sargeant Major. It was the size of a hole punch! Moose was able to look underwater at a lot of the critters!

Went back to the boat for dinner. The sun went down behind some clouds, so there wasn't much to see. Have to secure everything for our 6 am crossing tomorrow. Supposed to be 3 foot waves on the bow, 5 seconds apart. That seems much more doable than yesterday. Here's to hoping it is accurate. 

Northern Ragged Islands

Summer solstice, today, June 21, is the longest day of the year. At noon, the sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer. I found this pretty ironic since we were there at noon yesterday, not even knowing that second fact. Thinking about places in the Arctic Circle getting nearly 24 hours of daylight, I was curious what that meant for here, so I looked at the sunrise and sunset time for today at Topic of Cancer Beach, since the sun was right above it on the longest day of the year- the day lasted 13 hours and 33 minutes. It's just about 10 hours less than what the Arctic Circle gets!

Ben and Moose did some repairs and changed the generator oil.

Nearby, there were two fishing boats. One of the tenders, with two guys, came by our boat to chat, then asked if we would trade them fish for beer. Shucks. This was one time we were bummed that neither of us drink beer and we don't have any on board. We offered what we had- water, ginger beer, and Goombay- but they said they had all that on their boat, and that they really wanted cold beer. They were out here from Long Island (Bahamas) for about another week and have been here for 10 days already.

Ben and I both realized we missed out on stocking up on beer for these important swaps! Down here in the Ragged Islands, there isn’t much, so the next time we come across a liquor store, we will buy a few cases to keep on hand.

We played a lot of card games today. I taught the girls Spit/Speed and Slide from my summer camp days. Looked up a few other games and tried those out too. Some were better liked than others.

Originally planned to play at the beach but when I was reading reviews- due to the fishing boats (fish scraps being thrown into the water) here, there are some resident bull sharks. We will not be swimming here. 

Tomorrow we start moving further south a few days at a time, with plans to head to Acklins & Crooked Islands on Wednesday. 

HUGE waves to take on the beam in the morning on our first journey south, behind the Crooked Islands. Taking waves on the beam means they're rolling under us, one hull at a time, creating a sideways rocking feeling that also feels like you're going to tip all the way to the side before the wave starts to roll the other side. If it were following or head-on, it wouldn't have been as bad. Ben thought they were a max of 6 feet. I thought a max of 8-12. It was only bad when we weren't behind an island, for about 30 min to an hour at a time yours truly donned the ever-fashionable (but life-saving) life vest and had the phone in a dry bag. I was literally ready for anything, except for sharks. 😂 The kids and Hattie were hunkered down on my bed with their own cuddle buddies. Moose came up to the cockpit every now and then with a damage report for us. Mostly this consists of things jumping or sliding around and falling off of shelves or countertops. When we are expecting big waves, we usually put things away, but we weren't expecting these to be that bad for that long.

Anchored at Buenavista Cay and another catamaran was there. Daryl was very welcoming, waving to us as we pulled in to anchor. We later found out he had seen us coming in on AIS and tried hailing us on the VHF, but we didn’t ever hear him.

We went to the beach to play in the sand and get off the boat. With the way the tide was, there was a steep drop just past where the waves were rolling onto the shore, which kept everyone close and easy to keep an eye out for sharks as we weren't that far from more fishing boats.

Daryl and his dog, Bandit, came to the beach and we met them and chatted with Daryl for a bit. Bandit 🐕 was a cute doodle mix dog that reminded us a little of the Grasshoppers' dog and a little of the Baldners' dog. They started in Fort Lauderdale end of December and are headed to Panama Canal to get to the South Pacific, no timeline. He is just waiting on the winds to take him on his sailing catamaran. 

Daryl needed help seeing if his AIS and VHF were working accurately, so Ben was able to help with that once we were back on our own boats. He has the same plan as us for tomorrow, so maybe we will run into them again. 

Tropic of Cancer Beach 23° 26' 22''N

Ben got a notification indicating that his SD card had landed at George Town Airport via Bahamas Air. He took the tender in to the dinghy dock and got a taxi to the airport and back. He got that all set up and then changed the filter on the water maker and added automatic freshwater flushing so he doesn't have to do it manually every 3 days anymore. That's a win! He updated the charts, but somehow it made the autopilot not work again. He finally got it to work at the start of last summer and now this update with the new SD card messed it all up again! So frustrating. He emailed Raymarine to get some technical help.

The Baymahni charter SV pulled into our anchorage. Whoever chartered it went snorkeling at one of the shipwrecks in the cove. We figured if they came in, the winds must've died down a bit to make it a tolerable trip just a little bit south.

Picked up our anchor and headed south to the Tropic of Cancer Beach for the evening. Looks like it will be a great place to stage before crossing over to Long Island in the morning.

Giant cave on the island we anchored behind. It is called Turtle Island, I assume it got that name because it kinda looks like a turtle from the side (head to the left, tail to the right, shell in between). We came at low(er) tide and there was a little ridge of rocks to the west of us, so Ben put out the sea anchor, which is the orange bag-looking thing with a white buoy that he explains best in an Instagram story I've posted.

Took the Chicken out to look around after dinner. Looked like the cave went all the way through to the other side and when we went around to check it out, the waves were too big for the tender, so we turned back. 

Got up on plane on our way to the Tropic of Cancer Beach- no one was there. Walked up to the hut that has a worn out paint marking of the actual line and took some photos. Actual line is 23° 26' 22''N (or 23.4394°) and runs West to east, which is most of this coast, as it sits on a WSW slant. Decided to come back to the beach to play tomorrow morning.

Got back into the Chicken and returned to the Cartermaran for the sunset.

Slept in a bit this morning. Got sunscreened. Ben took us back to the Tropic of Cancer Beach so we could beach all morning while he replaced the blower in one of the engine rooms.

Last summer during our Ryan Trahan YouTube series, we found out his wife, Haley Pham, was writing a book. It was released in March of this year and I bought it. Bear really wanted to read it, but I wanted to preview it first to make sure it was appropriate for her. So, the kids encouraged me to bring the book (that I started reading the other night) with me to the beach. Earlier this week, Bear finished reading the last physical book she brought with her, so she is hounding me to read, finish, and give her Just Friends.

Moose and Roo dug and built in the sand, while Bear floated in the water, and I read. Moose built a multi-level/room fort. Roo built a hockey rink with players, nets, and of course, a moat.

Roo likes placing our stickers, so she and I ventured back to the hut from yesterday to find a good place to stick it here, on the Tropic of Cancer. I wanted to find a place that wouldn't be worn by wind and had better chances of sticking. The main post looked like it had been painted a few times, so I also avoided that. Found a flat part of the roof, just above the words Tropic of Cancer, and told Roo to put it there. She climbed onto my shoulders and had to reach way up to do it, but she was successful! While she was up there, she asked, "Here?" and I laughed and told her she was covering my eyes and just to do her best. I tried to get our "in process" of stickering picture, which somewhat worked out.

Ben came back to get us around 1 and we prepped to pull the anchor and get underway. We didn't want to leave right away this morning because the waves looked better starting at 2 pm. So, we are en route to the Ragged Islands- a very remote island group with a population of 40 people. (This is a change of plans from yesterday. We decided that with the way the wind was trending, it would be easier to get to more islands by going counterclockwise than clockwise.) Ben was messing with the charts and computer stuff and magically got the autopilot to work! Hooray! No Raymarine intervention necessary. 

Cruised around the southern tip of the Exumas and even further south to the Ragged Islands. Anchored after dark, but we all got to watch the sun as it set over the ocean while we were underway.