March 30, 2004 Update

We’ve been squeezing in a bit of adventure between boat problems. From the loss of steering and propulsion, to the dink taking a vacation (see Stories and Tales), we’ve also managed to ride out a few blows in the Jumentos, snorkel a blue hole, hike through a poisonwood forest, and walk on a Salt Pond. Hey, not too bad, except for the smell of the salt pond-whew!

All this fun occurred between the south end of Long Island and the Jumentos. In the blue hole, a sea turtle came right up to me, so close I could touch it, until the turtle and I were chased away by a rather territorial (and large) barracuda. Flamingo Cay in the Jumentos taught me what poisonwood looks like. And now that the itch is fading, what I remember most is the beautiful view from the top of the cay, water splashing through the blow holes in the weathered coral of the windward side while boats swayed softly in the lee on light green water that glittered like diamonds. The aftermath of a rainstorm at Water Cay provided me with my first ever sighting of a full rainbow—that’s right, both sides of the rainbow at once. My wish (I guess you can make a wish when you see both sides of a rainbow) was that the screenplay I’m writing gets picked up by someone—so we can all see the story—although a pot of gold would be nice too!

We headed back to Georgetown again to send the depth sounder off for repairs. One day it worked, the next day we’re guessing whether the water is 3 feet deep or 12—you really can’t tell by the color down here—it’s all clear! It is a bit risky sailing the shallow Bahamian waters without knowing how deep the water is, so, hopefully, we’ll get it fixed and then try again to head back to the shallows. For now, charted waters will have to do.

Thank goodness we made it back to Georgetown when we did as we rode out five days of gales, some sustained above 30 knots in the protected area near one of the “holes” in Stocking Island near Georgetown.

I have also provided some budget info in the “Helpful Hints” section for those considering a cruise of their own. Also, sorry my last set of pictures didn’t download, apparently, they were too high resolution for the ISP here. I’ll try again with lower resolution shots. Near future plans depend on when the depth sounder returns, so stay tuned….