Be Careful What You Wish For

We stayed anchored in Bullock’s Harbor on the west side of Great Harbour Cay for 12 days.  Our original plan was to stop there for a few days then head south and start hopping down the islands of the Exuma chain, but this was a good place for us to wait out the rapidly evolving Coronavirus developments.  

While at Great Harbour Cay we had the chance to visit an awesome cave located on the northeast side of the island...very cool!

We also spent an afternoon social distancing on a beautiful beach located on the southeast trip of Great Harbour Cay!

On March 23 the Prime Minister issued a 24/7 curfew with no inter-island travel effective on the morning of March 24.  We had a weather window that day and decided that it would be best for us to move to an island chain that was uninhabited, to wait out the curfews and restrictions.  This is our new home for the foreseeable future. As a child I was enamored with the idea of being stranded on an island.  Swiss Family Robinson and Gilligan’s Island were the inspirations for my dreams...oh how a I wished that could be me!  I am viewing this adventure as the sequel to Swiss Family Robinson.

There are usually 12-15 boats anchored along the 3 mile stretch of this island chain.  Our closest neighbors have the the same plan to stay here and wait it out.  It is nice to have another couple to plan with, and depend on, if we should need any support from each other.  I have a feeling we will become great friends with Aren & Vicki on ‘No Fixed Address’.  Vickie told us that she is viewing this adventure as the new season of Survivor, well, it’s all in how you frame it😁

My major project for the past week was to get our hydroponic garden assembled.  I have been germinating seeds in egg cartons for the past two weeks, and my babies were getting big enough for their new home.

Thank goodness my ‘personal’ electrician lives onboard!!  He did an amazing job of installing the solar panel that will run the pumps, and designing and constructing the pump systems.  You can see the system installed behind him on the deck railing.  I was so excited when I flipped the switch and water started trickling through the pipes!  My next concern is how to protect the plants from high winds...I’m sure the success of this garden will require constant vigilance.

Wanting to check out the local flora and fauna, we decided to snorkel the grass beds close to our boat.  We were hoping to find a few conch.  One of our first sighting was this large skate (I believe this is a skate and not a ray, because of the body shape and the tail...but I could be wrong) gliding past.

There were numerous starfish.

Several types of urchins....and then...this...

I always turn around and look behind us while we are snorkeling.  Keith was swimming in front of me, and this time when I turned around this shark was swimming directly toward me.  I was trying to get his attention to tell him a shark was coming up behind us, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off the shark.  I quickly put my head above water and said, “there’s a shark coming straight at me!!!”.  He turned around and said, “get a picture!!”.  Are you kidding me!  My only movement was to make sure the big blue plastic flipper on the end of my foot stayed between the sharks mouth and my body!  She came within a foot of me, then made a slight right and glided past...as if she suddenly realized I was in her way.  I did get this picture once the mouth was no longer pointing at me.  I know people are going to say...”it’s only a nurse shark...they are harmless”. I say, tell that to the thousands of people being bitten in YouTube videos.  A few minutes later I looked back and there was another shark in the background...be brave.  There was also a very large barracuda that didn’t seem as friendly as the Dry Tortugas barracudas...be brave.  Within a few more minutes of forward motion we came upon a nurse shark laying in the grass...enough...I’m done!  We were surrounded by things that could inflict a bite that would drastically change our ‘hide out in paradise’ plan.  I think it is time to warm up in the sun...I’ll be brave again in a few days!

Keith did go for a swim in a different location and did come up with a conch.  Unfortunately, this one is immature so Keith returned him to the bottom.

This ‘social distancing’ lifestyle is right up our alley.  I realize that Keith and I have been in ‘training’ for this for the past 9 months.  We know how to get along with each other in close quarters, for extended periods of time.  We have a lot of practice living in a self-sustaining way, without the ‘services’ of society.  I do things like cut our hair and make our bread from scratch.  Keith can fix anything, and we are both very good at solving problems with the materials we have on hand.  And finally, we know how to entertain ourselves with books, puzzles, and nature.  We do not watch television, which is the biggest bonus of this lifestyle.  I can easily imagine anyone sitting in front of a TV now should certainly be suffering from depression.

We know this past week has been trying for everyone, and even though we know our situation is good we are still concerned about our family and friends.  Please stay safe, complete a cool project, get some exercise, bake some bread, and be brave!

Conch Salad Lesson

We left Biscayne Bay at 5:00 am on the morning of Friday, March 13.  Our first few minutes in the channel told us that this trip might be a little rougher than expected.  The forecast was for 2 foot waves, but I think someone forgot to include the exponent!  We told ourselves that things would probably calm down once we got into deeper water...these large waves were probably just getting piled up in the shallow water on the shelf.  Nope...we watched the depth drop from 12 feet to 60 ft...is it getting better...no, to 150 ft to 700 ft to 1000+ and still the waves were sending us into the air one moment and crashing back down the next.  I was the unlucky person with first helm duty on this morning, and I quickly realized that my strong constitution against seasickness did not hold true in the dark!  I had a glimpse of this fact in September when we ran in rough seas for 100 miles from Long Island to Barnegat.  I was doing fine all day, but when it got dark I was not feeling well.  If I can see the waves coming I am alright, but when they are hitting in the dark I’m not so good. Anyway, I was determined to complete my 3.5 hour shift without waking Keith so I was SUPER happy when the sun arrived around 7:00 am

Sunrise in the ocean...thank goodness!  Once the sun was up I felt much better, and at shift change at 8:30 I was happy to go back to bed.  I think we have discovered the secret to making a 7 hour rough crossing much more bearable, sleep for 3.5 of those hours👍

When we arrived in Bimini, around 12:30, we were required to fly a yellow quarantine flag until we cleared customs and immigration.  Once we were cleared we replaced the yellow flag with the courtesy flag for the Bahamas. The check in process was not quite what I expected, particularly with the health situation currently unfolding.  A few weeks ago while researching the documentation needed to enter the Bahamas I downloaded the paperwork from their website.  If I had seen some of these questions 6 months ago I would have thought their entry application to be slightly outdated (it still seems a little outdated), but now I see how this line of questioning makes perfect sense.

This is an actual screenshot of the questions.  What is really interesting is that when we checked in we were told this page wasn’t needed, and in fact we were not asked any questions about health concerns.  The only question she asked was if we brought enough food with us to sustain ourselves through the whole 7 week visit, which we actually did! All along I was concerned that they might confiscate and destroy my supply of fruits and veggies, but no they didn’t even ask if we had fresh fruits and vegetables onboard.

We passed these gentlemen while walking through town to get a Bahamas SIM card for our phone.

We took a day off to explore and have a little fun. The water is so beautiful and clear.

On Sunday we left Bimini for a 75 mile trip to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands.  I am not sure if this is a normal occurrence, or if this sighting has something to do with the virus, but we passed this cruise ship anchored 20 miles from the nearest land.  We didn’t see very many people on board, but we have no idea why they were anchored there.

We anchored on the west side of the island to have protection from strong easterly winds forecasted for the next few days.  We took the Whaler to explore and were very surprised by the channel leading to the harbor.  From a distance you can’t see this channel at all, it was blasted through the rock making this straight, clean cut.

The western side of the island has walls of rock that have been weathered and eroded into a shelf that hangs out over the water in many places.  The rock looks volcanic in origin and the erosion process has left very sharp edges.

We did find a small strip of beach to visit.  The eastern side of the island has miles of beautiful beaches that we will visit.

We hiked to an abandoned golf course/club house, which was built with big plans to create a hideaway for the privileged few back in the 1960’s.  A guy named Lou Chesler got screwed over by some gangsters who he was supposed to partner with to build casinos in Grand Bahama, so he bought this island in 1966 to build his own retreat.  They built a golf course, club house, airport, channel to open harbor, marina, 49 homes, and marina condos (with infrastructure water, power...etc.).  Their business plan was to sell the homes, condos, and building lots to the ‘rich and famous’.  The golf course hosted a tournament in 1969 as a grand opening to showcase the amenities. Sales were low and the venture was faltering, then on July 10, 1973 the Bahamian people won independence from British control and immediately discouraged foreign investment, which put the ‘final nail in the coffin’.  Developers tried to sell the property, but were unsuccessful.  (If you are interested in reading more of the history (from sponge fishermen in the 1920s to drug runners in the 1970s) go to 

https://www.greatharbourcaymarina.com/  click on the hamburger and select the history link.

The village hosted a Halloween party here, and it appears that someone might use this as a party spot.

While walking around the village we discovered Brown’s Garden. I have never really tried conch, and was curious to taste this creature.  Conch salad is probably the most ‘extreme’ recipe for a novice like me, because it is prepared by pulling the animal out of it’s shell, cleaning it off, chopping it up, adding onions, peppers, and tomatoes, and drenching the whole concoction in lime juice. No flame required!  I was worried, but willing to try.

Ronnie Brown was the perfect person to give me my first conch salad lesson! We walked down to the water where he pulled up a string of conch (tied together so they can’t escape).  He picked one and used a rock hammer to knock a hole in the shell then slid a knife in the whole to cut the muscle.  That is the only way you can get the conch out of the shell.

While Ronnie was cleaning the conch, one of his conch suppliers pulled up and offloaded 28 conch.

Back at the prep table Ronnie is ready to assemble the conch salad. That white blob next to the cleaver is the conch.

After a lot of chopping the final touch is plenty of fresh squeezed lime juice.  It was wonderful!  There was actually such a strong onion taste that I couldn’t tell if the conch had any flavor at all.  It just tasted like a salty salsa.

I ended my last blog post by saying “ Life is great...we are soooo lucky”.  At that time I didn’t realize just how lucky.  Things have happened quickly (for everyone) over the  past few days, and we just learned that the Bahamas will be going on lockdown as of tonight Thursday, March 19.  This means that no businesses (on our island we were told this included the grocery store, but the ‘official’ statement excludes grocery and pharmacy) will be open, people should not walk around town or congregate.  Grocery stores carry very little stock on these small islands, and everyone is concerned about the ability to resupply.  We have decided to find an unpopulated island to anchor behind and stay put for now.  We are soooo lucky because we have enough food onboard to last us for 3+ months (or 6-9 months if we dig into the emergency rations and dehydrated foods).  I am assembling my hydroponic garden tomorrow, and Keith and I will now add fishing and diving for conch and lobster to our weekly routine.  If we get proficient at those endeavors, and since our water maker does not need fossil fuel to run, we 

could conceivable be self sustaining indefinitely.  I know that we are luckier than most, and I hope that everyone has made adequate preparations to ensure comfort and health through this crazy time.  

Mermaid Sighting

After our adventures in Dry Tortugas National Park, we returned to Key West for more than a week. Key West offered a good base for us to make some preparations needed before heading to the Bahamas.  We visited Home Depot, KMart, and Marshall’s to purchase a few items, and had some things shipped to the UPS Store and the US Post Office for ‘general pickup’.  As always, we completed a few boat projects, but we also had plenty of time for fun!  Luckily, we were able to spend a wonderful afternoon, exploring the streets of Key West, with our friends Ken and Barbara on ‘Northwind’.  This is the fourth time we have crossed paths with them, since leaving Annapolis in July, and it is always nice to share ideas, interests, and  cruising stories with such wonderful (and like minded) people!

Being anchored off the Navy base provides interesting and unusual sites.  One evening we witnessed many parachutes descending from the sky.

The next morning they were at it again, but this time they were using the high altitude parachutes.

Check out this amazing Banyan tree.  I believe this is the first one I have ever seen, and as it turns out it is a pretty popular one.  If you google ‘Banyan tree Florida’ you will see many pictures of this exact tree (that was a huge surprise to me).  The first Banyan tree in Florida was planted in1925, in Ft. Myers, by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone.  The tree was 4 feet high and brought from India in a butter container.  They thought the tree might one day produce rubber for tires...it didn’t, but today that tree is the largest Banyan in the U.S. encompassing about an acre of land.

Banyan trees are also known as strangler figs.  They grow when a seed germinates in a crevice of another tree.  The roots they send down smother the host tree, and grow into stout - branch supporting structures that resemble trunks.

Finally the wind calmed down enough for us to leave Key West.  There appeared to be a two day weather window that still had fairly strong wind out of the south with 3-5 ft waves in the ocean.  That sounded like a hard 50 mile trip to Marathon until we decided to take the route on the north side of the islands.  It added 10 miles to our trip, but it was well worth it!  We had a beautiful cruise to Marathon.

We decided to go into Marathon to top off our fuel tanks.  Once we passes under the Seven Mile Bridge, we got a taste of the rough conditions on the Atlantic side of the islands.  After refueling, we quickly returned to the north east side of Marathon to anchor for the night, and continued to Key Largo the following day.  We are once again anchored in Tarpon Basin - home of the Upside-down Jellyfish.  We plan to spend 1-2 weeks in Key Largo provisioning for our Bahamas trip, and waiting for a weather window.

One of the challenges I have been planning for is how to expand our access to vegetables.  I have been experimenting with sprouts, and so far we are very impressed!  I think sprouts get a bad rap because they are easily contaminated from mishandling, but following basic sanitary practices when germinating sprouts ensures safe and delicious veggie in 5 days.  I can’t believe 2 tablespoons of seeds turned into this!  This will be our ‘go to’ veggie for sandwiches and tacos.

Many people have requested more information about some of the boat projects we complete while at anchor.  As I have previously explained, Keith works on major structural projects while I complete ‘cosmetic’ types of projects.  I recently replaced the bathroom sink, refinished the counter, and painted the cabinet interior.

It looks so much better!

I am also on a mission to rehab all of the hanging lockers (closets) down below.  There are a total of five lockers, and three of the five needed major work.  This picture was taken of locker #4, which only required a good cleaning and new paint.

Adding shelving helps tremendously in my grand organization plan.

There is still room to hang our foul weather gear.  I am currently working on the fifth locker that needed to be gutted due to moisture penetration behind the wall.  The entire back right half of the locker had serious rot issues.  I’ll share pictures of that project in my next post (when it is finished).  While I’m working on beautification and organization projects, Keith spends countless hours in the engine room working on engine maintenance, systems engineering (water maker system, solar system...etc) and structural rebuilds where rot has compromised bulkhead areas.  I will also include pictures of some of his projects in future posts.

Of course life on the boat is not all work.  We find plenty of time to explore. This boat clearly belongs to the mangroves now.

This is the smallest starfish I have ever seen...measuring only 1.5 inches across.

Sponges grow on mangrove roots. This sponge was about a foot across.  The sponge gets carbon from the mangrove root and the mangrove get nitrogen from the sponge.  Both organisms grow faster when they grow together.

The tentacles of this anemone were approximately 4 inches long.

WE FINALLY SAW A MANATEE!!  We have been exploring the basin all week in search of a Manatee.  We have seen numerous skates, a small shark, and a wide variety of other organisms, but the manatee was illusive.  Today was our lucky day!

Love this picture!  She’s heading right for the boat.  She was about 8 feet long, but looks bigger from this angle.

Life is great...we are soooo lucky!