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. 

George Town and Crab Cay

Pulled the anchor a little before 7 to get to the fuel dock at George Town- Exuma Yacht Club. Couldn't get ahold of anyone there so we just pulled in. Ryan greeted us and told us we have to book a slip on Dockwa before he could top off our fuel. Ben asked if he could do a landing fee and he said yes. Turns out he couldn't... so we paid $200 on top of fuel and are staying here tonight. It was something like $7.?? per gallon- he didn't really know how much he was charging, but really... where else can we fill up with diesel here?! Not much of a choice.

Moved over to our slip. The Grasshoppers got the rest of their stuff together and still had time before they had to leave, so we chatted and played some Uno- Encanto.

Found out that JJ's has some good breakfast, so when the Grasshoppers were ready to go, we walked with them and waited until they got their taxi. Of course, Lori and I both cried. We had so much fun together and with our families. It is so sad that they had to say goodbye to the Cartermaran forever. Over the past 6 years, they've joined us 3 times, for probably close to a month and a half total. Twice in the Bahamas and once in Canada.

Ben and I went to JJ's and had some fun reminders of friends back home along the way. We got a breakfast sandwich. It was basically a grilled cheese with an egg and some turkey- yum.

Checked at Ambree's (DHL), which was just upstairs from JJ's, for a micro SD card update. She said she would ask the people in Nassau to put it on a plane instead of a boat to get here sooner. The boat delivers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays- sometimes Fridays. Fingers crossed it gets here sooner than later. Although, there are worse places we could be "stuck" waiting for this. I'm imagining that after tonight's stay at the marina we will just anchor out and enjoy the beaches and sandbars here until we hear back from this office.

Went to Top II Bottom to look for some boat parts. Wound up with that and then some. Then set off to the grocery store. They had everything on our list except for bread, bagels, buns, and Goombay Punch. They told us it all might be on the truck today so to come back this afternoon. 

Brought everything back to the boat, put it all away, and cleaned the cabin. The kids watched a bunch of movies. 

Around 2, we set out to check on the DHL update (she was able to tell them to put it on a plane and expedite it for us, so now it is with a 3rd party delivery service) and check on the breads/Goombay delivery. We heard from a tourist in the checkout line that another grocery store had breads. The tourist said it wasn't walkable, but the grocery clerk said it was. We looked it up and it was just a short walk around the south side of the lake loop, so we did it! 

Wound up getting some coconut bread that the grocer here said is like normal bread for sandwiches and isn't super sweet, so we got 4 loaves. 🤣 We got some buns, bagels, and Goombay and were on our way. There was an ice cream shack that we walked by, so we told the kids we could come back after dinner. Ben found knock-off Crocs at a store on our way back, but we had to confirm sizes with Moose before purchasing. Got him to pick a pair, then checked on the hours of the ice cream shack we walked by earlier to ensure we would be back to get some in time.

Put away the groceries, round 2, with just enough space cleared in the freezer, made dinner, and then scurried out to get ice cream. She closes at 7 and it was 6:20. 

Dominique owns the little shack and makes a few flavors of ice cream every night. Some are your typical flavors, but others were creative and different. She let us try as many as we wanted before we ordered. Ben and Roo got coconut, I got Caramel Nut (with homemade caramel!), and Bear and Moose got Cookies and Cream. We all were impressed. 

There were some boat cards up on the Ice Cream Shack's window frame and Moose saw an Endeavour 44. He was excited and said, "That's our boat, but not our boat!" It was Papillon, who we know from our Endeavour group. Ben asked Dominique why she had boat cards up, she said that all kinds of people come to see her and if they have problems or need to contact anyone, she has those people's contact info who can help. How thoughful and kind! Ben gave her our boat card and sticker to add to her window frame. She grew up in Nassau and moved here when she was 19 and never went back because she liked that it is less busy and has less traffic. Dominique has been the most genuinely nicest person we have met in the Bahamas this year.

Got back right at 6:58- after ice cream- with 2 minutes to spare before the shop even closed! (Thanks to all of these little walks, I hit my step goal for the first time since we left Atlantis!)

From about lunchtime on, the bar and restaurant at the dock was a happening little place. As we headed to bed, we could hear the band through our hull, even with everything closed up. Roo was texting a friend and said that a concert was happening right outside her window and she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. I guess she isn't wrong about that...

In the morning, Ben left to check DHL one more time before we had to leave the marina. He left at 10:58. We needed to be off at 11. No luck at DHL and he was back on the boat, engines warming up, planning our route when Ryan, the dockmaster knocked on our hull to help us push off.

We traveled only a few minutes outside of the EYC and anchored. Hung out most of the day.

Around 4 pm, Ben decided he wanted to get away from the 3-4 footers that were forecasted for the evening so we pulled in to Crab Cay. We came here a few years ago with the Grasshoppers on their last night. It has an old industrial building on the land and isn't much to enjoy visually, but is mostly protected from all angles- wind and waves. We had the anchorage all to ourselves.

Moose took out the casting net and threw it enough times to wear himself out. He came inside when the sun went down and the mosquitoes got bad. Being protected from the wind isn't always a good thing!

Stocking Island and Man-o-War Cay

Anchor was up a little after 7 am. Making our way to George Town tonight, but going further south first to enjoy Moriah National Park for the Grasshoppers' last day underway on the Cartermaran. 

Lost an oar from the Chicken once we were on the east side of Great Exuma. Ben was ready to say goodbye to it, but I saw it floating behind us. He said he couldn't help get it because someone had to drive the boat amd he was dealing with paying customs for a micro SD card of maps for anything further aouth of George Town. (It was supposed to be delivered June 11th and was still causing issues... being stuck in Nassau.) I said someone would help me get it in! Turned around to go get it. I had the boat hook, it slipped off the hook before anyone could grab it. I hooked it again and this time Keith grabbed it when I pulled it up. I was so happy to save this Canadian Tire gem. (Our oars got stolen off our tender in New Jersey in 2023. We managed without them the rest of that trip, then bought new ones in Parry Sound at Canadian Tire-not just a tire store!- in 2024.)

Anchored and rode the Chicken to Chat N Chill. Upon arrival around 2 pm, we found out they only had chicken dinner left for today. So, we walked along the beach to the south, to another restaurant. On the way, we got the pet the stingrays, which is what Lori wanted to do more than eat at Chat N Chill anyway. Roo found a swing she wanted a mini-photoshoot on. Ben walked back to bring the Chicken to the shore at the new restaurant. 

Wound up at Baymahni- a restaurant at a resort that is only 8 months old. I asked because I didn't remember it being there when we visited in 2022. While we were there, we decided this location was less chat, more chill, which is more our vibe. We had conch fritters for an appetizer for the table. Luke, being silly, said he remembered this conch in the water, looking at us with his eyes, earlier this week. All of the guys, and Lori got Mahi Tacos. I got shrimp tacos. Bear got a cheeseburger (her go-to... she doesn't like seafood). Roo got chicken wings. Sasha got a poke bowl. 

Got back to the Cartermaran and set off for Moriah National Park and agreed on Man-o-War Cay instead. It was a little closer for our morning trip to the marina.

The sandbar here stretches for a few miles and we came just after low tide, so we got to enjoy it for a while before it completely disappeared. The sand was so silky smooth and had hardly any coral in it, so we didn't even need our water shoes. 🤩 We found sand dollars and sea stars, as well as a white crab that Roo spied and some sort of jumping fish lizard thing that stung Roo. (She is okay!) 

Ben brought us back to the Cartermaran and then dropped everyone but Roo off to snorkel at the rocks by the boat. The current was too strong to get us there just by swimming from the boat. 

There was an underwater cave that tunneled under the rocks to the other side and it was full of fish. There were also giant sea urchins in there, so we didn't attempt to go through.

When Sasha jumped in, Lori spied a little fish (the size of a quarter) who was swimming around Sasha. At some point, this little fish friend swapped and started swimming with Luke. He was with Luke the whole time we swam. Bear and I would see it every now and then and giggle at it. Maybe it thought Luke was its dad?! When Luke got out, the fish went back to Sasha, then to Lori, and when Lori got into the tender, the fish jumped into the water. Not sure if it was on her or just was jumping to say bye. It made us sad to leave our fish friend all alone and so far from its house and family where he started swimming with us. 😢 

Got back to the Cartermaran, Keith flew the drone and got some footage of the 5 of us in the Bahamas on the Cartermaran. Took some Final-Grasshoppers'-Bahamian-Sunset-on-the-Cartermaran pics before going in so they could ensure everything got hung up to dry and pack. 

Roo lost her tooth just in time for Lori to bring it back home for us. Then the tooth fairy can visit when we get back!