Acklins Island and the Exumas

Aquamarine waters of Atwood Harbour, Acklins Island, Bahamas.
 But what lurks below?

06.16.13

Our trip from the Turks and Caicos began rather rolly but the seas calmed a bit through the night.  We were able to sail almost half way.  The wind has had a southerly component quite often which is different from the usual easterly trade winds.  This means that we’ve had a lot of downwind sailing rather than having the wind blow across our beam (side), which would be make for better sailing.  Thus we have had to run the motor more than we expected, but still we’re getting a lot of sailing in.   Even with our disabled main sail with the third reef tied in (less sail surface area), if the winds are over 16 or 17 knots and the seas are not too sloppy, we sail well at five or six knots.  One plus is that it puts us at an even par with our buddy boat, Manatee, which is smaller so is generally slower than Wayward Wind. 

CONQUEST arrives


As far as overnights go, we had a good trip and anchored in Atwood Harbour on Acklins Island.  We were the only two boats in this lovely, isolated harbour where not another soul was to be seen on water or land.  After settling in, Dave rested below, so I donned fins and snorkel to dive on the anchor to make sure it was set.  Only one shank was dug in, so when Dave arose later on, he jumped in to check.  Fortunately he found that the anchor had snugly settled into the sand.  When he popped up, he said, “A shark swam past me.”  Turns out a few lemon sharks and nurse sharks reside here.  The fact that they love to lurk around the hulls of boats anchored in the harbor may have to do with boats such as this sport fishing boat (gotta love the name…“CONQUEST”) feed them.  The fishing dudes on CONQUEST had a virtual shark feeding frenzy off of the stern of their boat as they tossed big fish heads attached to thick lines into the water attempting to gaff the excited sharks who were fighting over the fish heads.  I did not go swimming after that.  Actually lemon sharks and nurse sharks normally do not bother people.  Someone said to think of nurse sharks as big catfish.  Uh...No can do.

Dave scraping the hull and prop between shark visits

The next morning the weather was a bit too windy, and as Atwood Harbour is a beautiful place, we decided to wait a day before heading on.  CONQUEST left early, and guess where the sharks went – they spent the day circling beneath Manatee waiting for a food handout.  Rod and Evelyne decided not to go swimming that day.  The sharks then swam over to Wayward Wind for their evening supper, but we did not appease them.  Dave did, however, stick his hand in the water to snap some cool photos of the hungry critters.  I could not watch fearing that they would rush at the shiny camera and snap his hand off.  Luckily they did not and Dave still has two hands.

Is that a...



...shark!?! 

The crew of Manatee not swimming in Atwood Harbour

The following day, we set out on an overnight trip to George Town.  Except for the beginning and end of the trip and an hour in the middle to run the fridge and charge the batteries, we sailed the entire way!  It was glorious!  We anchored near George Town where Rod and Dave took a taxi out to the airport to officially check in to the Bahamas.  The next day we rested, and the next, we moved our boats over to Chat and Chill Beach.  This is the George Town that during the winter months is known as the “Cruisers’ Mecca.”  I wrote about this place when we were here 15 months before where there were over 250 boats in the anchorages and cruisers organized activities such as volleyball, Scrabble (speaking of which, I played Scrabble with a senior citizen, Nancy, who briefly dated Teddy Kennedy in high school and, man, she beat the socks off me), yoga, concerts and a regatta.  It’s all very busy and organized.  Now that it is late spring, the cruiser masses were gone and only about a dozen boats were anchored.  It was so much more peaceful and beautiful.  Evelyne and I took a long walk on the Exuma Sound side of the beach and, except for one snorkeler, we were the only ones.  We found a perfect little cove that was protected by a reef and soaked in the clear turquoise water for at least an hour.  Evelyne grabbed my camera and snapped photos of some woman hamming it up.  Ah, well, she must be happy.

Who IS that woman?

The four of us enjoyed a lovely fresh grilled tuna lunch at the St. Francis Marina.  More happiness.  Afterwards we dinghied into the hurricane holes where many boats are moored for the hurricane season.  This time I snapped a photo of Evelyne and Rod.

 

Evelyne showing some thigh while Rod looks on approvingly

Rod and Evelyne swim behind Manatee in front of Chat and Chill Beach with few other boats around

Paradise

Manatee motoring past the lone sailboat anchored at the normally crowded Monument Beach anchorage

On June 12, we left George Town and motor-sailed in the Exuma Sound with a smooth entry through Dotham Cut into the Exuma Banks.  We anchored for the night at Black Point but stayed on board.  We were delighted to find our friends, Marie Ann and Frederic on Madukera anchored there.  We were able to catch up when they stopped by for a visit.  The next morning, actually as I was writing the blog, we were interrupted by a loud knock on the hull.  The wind had really picked up and shifted direction and our anchor was dragging us precariously close to the French boat that was previously quite a ways off.  The man in his dinghy shouted that he was worried that our anchor would drag over his anchor chain, in which case, we could have two boats dragging and a real mess.  We jumped into action, while the nice French man used his dinghy as a fender (I believe he groaned) while we started up the motor, pulled up the anchor, and moved the boat.  Fortunately our anchor did not foul their chain and no harm was done.  We reanchored and, once our pulses slowed, we had breakfast.  No need for coffee! 

Heading through Dotham Cut with a slight current, toward Black Point

We left the next morning for Warderick Wells where we took a mooring.  We love this place as it is part of the Bahamian Marine Park and is spectacularly beautiful.  The J-shaped mooring field provided excellent protection from choppy seas during the squalls throughout the night.  We were very glad to be there.  Unfortunately we needed to take advantage of the next day’s weather so off we went to Shroud Cay, also part of the Marine Park, also gorgeous.  We had a swim off of the bow, but the sea was pretty bouncy from the turbulent weather not far away.  The cloud formations made for a dramatic sunset to bid us adieu on our last night in the Exumas.

On the mooring ball at Warderick Wells. 
Two French family boats whom we'd met in Samana are moored in front of Manatee

Neighbors moored before Park Headquarters at Warderick Wells



Good night, Shroud Cay, Exumas