Syd Arrives, Phil Leaves

Wednesday 26th - We wait in HarborView marina for Syd to arrive from the UK. He arrives on time but frazzled by the journey. His first words were "Gimme your phone I have to ring Jeannie". Turned out the flight from Heathrow was delayed when a passenger was taken ill after boarding the plane and they and their luggage has to be removed. This left him with a 30 minute connection but BahamasAir said they didn't have him on the flight so he had to buy a ticket again. The final twist of the screw was no phone working at Marsh Harbor airport, nor the marina pay phone. He eventually got through on Phil's phone and we went and had dinner in Snappas. The next day was rainy so we stayed at the marina as we had to be there on Friday as Phil was flying back to the snow in MD, then Saturday to the floods in the UK.

Friday 28th - We head for Hope Town and run aground. There are Spring tides with 4 foot range and we expected to have to anchor off and wait for the tide but we hit bottom some half a mile out. Managed to motor off and anchored for a while. Syd loved Hope Town as we all do. Visited Vernon's grocery store and in the line for the checkout got talking to a woman holding two coconut breads. She said they were good, especially as french toast. So we bought a loaf.

Saturday 1st - After a breakfast of french toast with honey we row across to the lighthouse. The lighthouse marina has a Bahamas courtesy flag so now we aren't being discourteous any more. Climbed to the top of the lighthouse and managed to get outside this time. The secret being to push on the door so hard that you are afraid you're going to fly through and over the balcony if it opens. We leave on the last of the flood tide and head down to Tiloo anchoring just south of Tavern Cay.

Sunday 2nd - Sail down to Sandy Cay but it was too rough so we sailed on to Lynyard Cay and went ashore and walked over to the Atlantic side. Syd had a first attempt at snorkeling and finally got the hang of it.

Monday 3rd - Motored into Little Harbor just before high tide. Went over to the caves then went out of the harbor to snorkel on the reef at the entrance. There was a fair swell but Syd snorkeled enough to see a southern stingray. Even though I've had stingrays wrap themselves around my feet in the Cayman islands I can't help but remember Steve Irwin so I don't get too close. We managed to get back into the dinghy a feat that I wasn't sure we would achieve and then motored back into the harbor and went ashore. We walked out to the abandoned lighthouse which the guide book claimed would be a "photo op". It turned out to be a one room building where the roof had long gone and the floor was about to join it. Outside a mast was lying on the floor, presumably it used to house the light. We walked down a narrow path to the foreshore where the waves had scalloped out a little bay about 30 feet wide and and the same distance in through the rock. Walked along the foreshore to Pete's Pub for a late lunch. We thought we were early for dinner but apparently Monday the kitchen stays open to five pm and then shuts for the night. As we head back to the boat the sun has gone down and there is a crowd on the beach. We motor over and ask if it's general admission or a private party. They welcome us in. It turns out to be residents who always get together on Monday night. We meet Gordy of Siccatoo (I have no idea how to spell that). He gives the report from Little Harbor every morning on Cruisernet. Apparently he is some VIP in the US tennis fraternity. He asked if we had taken the tour of the harbor, the disused lighthouse and the fjord. Oh yes we said.

We meet another resident who lives in Connecticut for part of the year but he likes to ski so he comes down to the Bahamas in November and flies back for January and February then returns to the Bahamas until May. He said we're more "mud birds that snow birds".

Tuesday 4th - We rode the tide out of Little Harbor and head for Sandy Cay. We anchor off the reefs rather than go around the island. We snorkel onto the reef and there's a great barracuda about 3 feet long. The book says there are no reports of unprovoked attacks but what constitutes provocation in the eyes of a barracuda? I think of barracudas as being the teddy boys/hell's angels of the sea. You keep your distance from them and avoid any confrontation. Again I had swum with barracudas in the Caymans although the instructor did keep us away from them, but a guy at the Marriott marina in Stuart , FL had made a point of saying don't wear any gold rings or the like when swimming around barracuda and he told the story of a woman who had her fingers bitten off when the light glinted off the ring. Here I am waving the gopro around which is kind of silvery in its case. That's silvery as in fish scales. This accounts for the lack of close up shots of the barracuda. I had also just read a passage from the Johnston's (of Little Harbour fame) book where they talked of being afraid of being attacked by barracuda.

The conditions were about as ideal as they get at Sandy Cay and by the time we left there were about four sail boats and half a dozen small boats there.

We decided not to go to Marsh Harbour but to put into Tiloo. We anchored just above Tavern Cay a short distance from a big rock. I snorkeled to check the anchor and carried on to the rock. It turned out there were quite a few fish there. Someone had dropped building blocks, the sort with two hollow centers and it seemed to be great for the small fish that could quickly disappear into them.