Our depth reader has been hit or miss with whether it's been working or not, so between 2 charts and having people watch on the foredeck, we have been good. Ben swam down to clean off the sensor, but it didn't help, so we have been helping out in questionable locations. This south cut, Black Cay Cut, just above Great Exuma was looking shallow on the map and narrow on our approach, but we made it through without any issues.
Ben found an anchorage for us, approaching the sound, that had a few rocky islands to act as a barrier from the rough waves. When we got there, we didn't realize one of those islands had pigs on them. We used the binoculars to peek at them and saw a bunch of smaller pigs with at least 2 huge pigs. With the iguana incident and knowing how aggressive the pigs can be, we were hesitant to go visit the pigs, so we just watched from afar.
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| The things on the beach are the pigs. |
Our first mission in Great Exuma was to find a way to get my sister and her family from the airport to us. After doing some research, we found Exuma Point Beach Resort, toward the north end of the island in Rolleville. They had a restaurant and a dock, so we went there for lunch to get the scoop on how to pick up our family. Upon our arrival, we found out they were setting up for a wedding, so they were closed early that day. Ben chatted with the event coordinator who gave him the number of someone who would rent him a car on Monday to drive around the island and, more importantly, to the airport and back. We were also pointed in a direction of a restaurant that would be open, so we loaded up in the Chicken and went a bit south to Shoreline Beach Resort.
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| That's the Chicken docked all by itself in the beautiful water. |
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| Between the trees, you can see an archway, which is the backdrop for the wedding. Notice where the seaweed got cleared... right behind the archway. Ha! The blue and white building is the restaurant. |
We got some orders of coconut shrimp, egg rolls, a conch burger, and fish tacos. Moose decided he wanted a conch burger, and with him being our pickiest eater and having never tried it before, he surprised us by devouring 2/3 of it. Roo finished the other 3rd. Bear didn't care for it and ate her egg rolls. Last summer, the only ones who tried conch were me and Ben. Happy to have 4 of the 5 of us like eating it.
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| Our view from Shoreline Beach Resort's dining area. |
While waiting for Ben to pay the bill, the kids and I explored the hammocks and swings for a bit. Moose said he couldn't see the Cartermaran and then Ben couldn't see it. I looked out and saw it, where we left it, hidden in front of the rocky islands, but Ben insisted the anchor slipped and it was going to run into the island behind it. I think he didn't realize how far south we went, so our perspective from when he saw it last had shifted quite a bit. We sped back to the boat, where it was nestled, anchor all snug in the sand, where we left it.
Climbing onto the Cartermaran from the Chicken was quite bouncy and we didn't notice the roughness when we originally arrived. Once we were in the cabin, I couldn't do much without feeling like I'd be sick, so I took Dramamine and called it a night.
No one slept well (except me because I took the Dramamine!) and we knew we had to move. Ben convinced me we would be okay to move further south on the sound side, as it would be less than 2 hours travel time. He didn't think the waves would be as bad as they said. In true Ben fashion, he tricked me into going because he said we could just turn around and come back if it was too bad. The waves were 4-5 ft and 9 seconds apart. Not too bad, but it was uncomfortable and had me quite anxious. Each time we took a big wave and the boat slammed down, I was yelling at Ben in my head telling him we should've stayed because turning around would be even worse.
Inlets are the worst part of passage days. Not only do you have big waves as predicted on the sound, but wave size, mixed with current strength and wind speed, along with the direction of each all work together to create a ton of anxiety in me. Ha! Kidding. Kinda. They work together to create the sea conditions and amplify the conditions in the inlets. (If you wanna see this in action with some daring boaters, search Haulover Inlet on Instagram reels. You'll see what I mean.) Our Thin Red Line flag and wooden pole didn't agree with the conditions of this inlet and, sadly, jumped ship. I ran to grab them as they landed on the tender and davit, but as I reached out, they slid between the tender and the Cartermaran. Casualty #2 for the summer.
Elizabeth Harbor welcomed us with much smoother waters as we cruised to our anchorage just west of Stocking Island. Just across this harbor sits George Town, which is where we needed to pick up our family. Their taxi ride from the airport would be much shorter to the Exuma Markets in George Town than to the resort in Rolleville.
We rode on the tender across the harbor to see if the marina had any transient slips available the next night, to make it easier to get my sister, her family, and their luggage aboard. Ben had been trying to call them on the radio and the phone numbers we found listed in several resources, with no luck. As we pulled up, it was apparent why the lines were disconnected and no one answered on the radio- it was no longer an operational marina.
My boating friends on Instagram have always posted things about George Town and the one way to get onto the island under a cute little bridge, so I was excited to spot that and go under it into Lake Victoria. There were a few docks to tie up to and head into town. We didn't tie up, but scouted out where my sister would need to tell the taxi driver to take them so we could meet them at the dock. On our way back under the bridge, Ben spotted our first sea turtle, which we were all very excited about. We were just talking about how last summer we saw 1 shark and a lot of turtles and this summer, so far, was the opposite. There were a lot of shark sightings and no turtles. Maybe we would be seeing more and tie the count!
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| The bridge is a one way road that circles around Lake Victoria. This part of the road is headed north. Interesting fact: all of the major roads on the islands throughout the Bahamas is called "Queen's Highway". |
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| Check out the rolling waves as we approach the bridge. |
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| Looking up the dinghy dock into the walkway to get to town. The warehouse-looking building is the Exuma Markets building. It is more similar to a convenience store at home than a grocery store. |
In our anchorage, of course, there was a beach with no one on it. The Exumas alone have 365 islands to explore, so it is very easy not to be in the same place as someone else at any given time, unless it is well-known or a well-established tourist attraction. We loaded up on the tender and rode over to play and explore. Ben found an L shaped piece of wood that he modified and turned into our new flag pole. Walking along the beach, I found a swing. This was something I wanted to do while we were here, so I got on it. I was sad that it wasn't over the water, but swang anyway.
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| Our beach site for the day was super close to the Cartermaran! Even though we had a few other boats anchored nearby, we had the beach all to ourselves. |
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| Beach site, looking west into Elizabeth Harbor. |
Clouds started rolling in and we were watching them trying to decide which way they were moving. Ben said he'd go back to the boat, pack up some food for lunch on the beach, and come get us if it started to rain. As he was getting in the Chicken, the first drops fell. I told him to wait so we could all go back. We quickly threw everything into the tender, in what was now a downpour. Ben had a hard time getting the engine to start, but once he finally got it, the rain had stopped. Since we already were packed up, we went back to the Cartermaran anyways. The kids fished for the rest of the afternoon, eyeing an 18" bonefish that kept swimming around our boat and they wanted to snag, but were unsuccessful in catching it or anything else.
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| You can see the bonefish, pictured here swimming just above the post. |
On the 4th of July, I always take pics of my kiddos. It has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. There was decent weather in the early morning, but we were cleaning up and doing laundry inside the cabin and trying to come up with a plan for picking up our family. By the time the kids were dressed, it got cloudy and was raining, so we waited out the storm.
When all was clear, the kids got super excited and told me the swing was now over the water. Guess where we took our 4th of July (and a few other) pics!? On the swing over the water!
Since their flight was landing at 5 and the grocery store closes at 6, we went to pick up a few food requests for my sister and her family. Masks are still required indoors in the Bahamas, but it was interesting to see how many tourists didn't have one and how many Bahamians wore them incorrectly. No one seemed to be concerned about it.
This was our first time inside a non-US grocery store. It was much smaller than your typical grocery store at home, even smaller than a Dollar Tree. There were probably 6-8 aisles of food, paper supplies, and beverages. We snaked up and down the aisles, looking for our items and grabbed a few more impulse purchases. Grand total: $150 for about 20 items. Ben says it's ~30% more expensive than at home and didn't think it was too bad. Before leaving the US, I was drinking Hint waters pretty regularly. You can get a 12 pack for $13.50 at home. I saw one bottle of the same size as I usually buy, for over $5!! Wow. I couldn't help but wonder if it is because it is bottled in plastic. I packed our groceries into our reusable and cooler bags, then took the bags and the kids to the tender while Ben took the trash to the trash truck (paid $2 per bag) and grabbed some beers before meeting us at the Chicken.
The rain was on and off all afternoon, so we spent most of the day in the cabin. We got the text that my sister was in a taxi, so Ben took 6 giant black trash bags to cover their luggage and the tender to the dinghy dock in Lake Victoria to meet them. He walked up to the store and as soon as he took a seat on the porch, he saw our family emerge from a taxi. They got back to the tender, got a bit wet on their ride to the Cartermaran, and were greeted by all kinds of squeals and screams from the 4 of us.
Chat N Chill is a popular spot among Exuma tourists and the boating community. It was on our list of places to check out, so once our family arrived, we loaded up all 9 of us into the tender for a 4th of July dinner. When we got there around 6:30, it looked desolate, but we figured it was because they were wrapping up for the night. Apparently it closed before 7 on the 4th of July. We saw the Snappy Turtle Bar and Grill, just across the bay and decided to go there as backup. Ben took the empty (and much lighter) tender and the other 8 of us started walking. Bear spotted a tiny sea star as the waves were washing ashore. We all examined it and Ben came back before we made it to him reporting that restaurant had an expensive buffet (we won't pay $60/kid who doesn't eat that much), so pasta on the boat, it was!
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