Young Adventures: The Mothers Day Sail To New Providence.. Detour

We woke up around 6:30 Mothers Day. I made coffee and we discussed what to eat for breakfast. Jessica decided she would rather have dinner than breakfast and I went up to the office to check out. We normally don't spend much time in marinas but it was a long crossing, it was Mothers Day, and best of all it was only 57 extra dollars to stay because they waive 100.00 check in convenience. I checked out, emptied 2 Jerry cans of fuel into the tank and walked with the kids to the ships store and to the fuel dock with my empty cans. Chub Cay is a strange place, there is absolutely nothing there, but the people are overly friendly. Believe me I'm not complaining, especially after our first experience in Bimini with Alicetown. The entire island is privately owned, beaches are no public access, and most of the people you see around work at the resort, which caters primarily to sport fisherman. As a matter of fact, we were the only sailboat in the entire marina, which consisted of mostly boats 75' or more.

We got ready to leave and set out for New Providence, which is the island Nassau is located on. My intention was to make it and then it would only be a short jaunt to the Exumas. We left out of the protected basin and out into the anchorage where just the night before about 8 boats had been. It was now a blustery rolling mess, and we were headed through it. We made it out of the channel and instantly thought we should turn around. The bow was dipping into the waves, water was washing over the deck and it was a pretty rough ride. About 2 minutes into this and after seeing my speed over ground drop to 1.5kts I set the course for Morgans Bluff on the island of Andros. This was about 14 miles, but it was in a direction I could sail, not directly on the nose. Even at this point of sail we encountered some very large, very unpredictable waves. Some would wash the deck, some would roll us rail to rail and a few just picked us up like a rag doll. Jessica was not having a good day and this wasn't exactly how I had intended to spend Mothers Day. As we were sailing along a breaking wave crashed over the deck and I watched it rip a sail tie off the staysail. We were in a body of water called the Tongue of the Ocean. It's not a big body of water really, but it goes from 30 ft to 30,000 ft with sharp drop offs. I remember reading a Bernard Moitessier book once and he mentioned "Do not sail near mountains" He didn't mean the kind you find on land, he was speaking of the very violent action that occurs when that much energy gets forced to ramp from great depths to shallow.

As soon as we made the corner around the breakers to Morgans Bluff, we entered a calm harbor, protected from the strong easterly that was blowing out there. There was one boat anchored in the harbor and I wanted to anchor a fair distance away to give them some space. You see, cruisers appear to be like the last couple Cheerios in a bowl. You'll see a boat in a remote anchorage all alone and then you'll see another boat come in and anchor right next to them, I didn't want to be "that" guy. We attempted several times to set the hook and this is the first time my 55lb Rocna didn't set instantly. The problem is the ground is scoured, just an inch or two of sand with hard ground underneath. Finally on our third attempt I found a nice patch of sand and she sank right down to the roll bar. I paid out about 100ft of chain, tied my rolling hitch with my 3 strand nylon snubber and we were set. We hoisted the motor, placed it on the back of the dinghy and after picking up the mess left in the boat, headed to shore.

There is no dinghy dock at Morgans Bluff, as a matter of fact there really isn't much at all. There is an inner small harbor with local fishing boats, a really nice beach and a small Bahamian bar people call Willies, even though Willy hasn't owned the bar in a while. We tied up our dinghy to a tree, made our way to the bar and enjoyed a drink and a game or two of pool. Ok maybe we played a game of pool and had a drink or two, who's counting? The selection and prices were very reasonable and we chatted up the bartender to get the lay of the land. We got the password for the internet and found out about free water, free trash disposal and free showers. The showers/bathrooms were very spartan, but they were free. They seemed genuinely happy to see us, everyone was kind and we knew pretty quick this would be a great place to wait out the weather.

We spent the next couple days exploring the local area, caves, hills, and local residents. We dove around the boat, around the harbor, checked our anchor and dove a few sunken barges right within swimming distance of the boat.

Henry Morgans cave was a great experience, full of bats and history.

We met a couple cruisers here on the boat Namaste' named Jeff and Trisha. They had limped in here about a week prior with an engine full of sea water and a local named Chris let them tie up to his fishing boat while they sorted out the problem. Chris is the type of guy you want to know, genuinely helpful, can get anything you need, and really appreciates being taken care of for his efforts. From parts to farm fresh eggs or a ride to the grocery store, Chris is your guy. Jeff and Trisha have gotten to know him extremely well and are partners in a new business here called "Discover Andros" After we had been here a few days, they offered to let us be the guinea pigs with a tour of the island, promising to teach us a little history with some ecology tossed in. We agreed to meet them and Chris on shore at 8am.

A night or two before and pretty late, a small boat sailed into the harbor and we met Tree and Andy. They were on a small Bristol 27 and just a month earlier Tree had answered an ad for a crew position on Andy's boat. They began their journey, coming all the way down the east coast before getting to the Bahamas. They joined us for our "Discover Andros" tour and we have been hanging out just about everyday since.

During our tour of Andros we learned quite a bit about the islands unique history, including the settlement of a group of the Seminole tribe of Indians that settled in the town of Red Bay (READ HERE). There was a festival that day, but we ended up visiting several other towns, Lowe Sound, Conch Sound as well as two different blue holes, one freshwater called Uncle Charlie's and one salt in Conch Sound. There was also a trip to the local grocery store, liquor store and "take away" which is what they call a take out restaurant. The grocery was interesting and we did a little bit of reprovisioning, managing to only spend about 32 dollars and getting some good fresh produce. Some of the prices were very reasonable and then some were jaw dropping. 8 bucks for a small can of SPAM? I don't think so!

It was a full day and we learned a lot about this island, things most people would never see on a visit and got a different perspective on an island that isn't as well known or visited as many of the others. Here are a few pictures of our day.