Ragged Islands - Part 3

Thanks to Bobo we think we have an easier, more efficient way to get pictures onto our blog so right now we will try to get an update done with pictures.  Here we go…….

At this time we are back to S. Side Harbor since the last front came through.  Our plan is to move towards Hog Cay today after using the Internet (the tower is on the hill in front of us) and making a dump run.

The last time we were here we met Dave & Karen on sv Carisa.  Now this double masted trimaran is one large boat.  She still is a cylinder inside (a la Grey Hound) but very impressive.  The boat is a Chris White Juniper design.  This boat is 55' long!

sv Carisa

We hadn't taken many pictures of Duncan Town the last time so we would like to show you some more of the settlement.

The best runway in the Bahamas & we walk across it to town!

Duncan Town time capsule 

The settlement school - 1 teacher

walls murals at the school

our internet pavilion in the settlement

Maya & her sister keeping us entertained

Not clothes hanging but dried conch going to Japan

another view from the hill

Island power plant and telephone/cell tower

Percy Wilson and family are the only folks living down here on S. Side Harbor.  We have heard a a restaurant/pub here owned by Percy but doesn't exist anymore.  What Percy has is quite a collection of wrecked and almost wrecked boats.

This boat had 55 Haitians on board when it landed not far from here.

South Side Harbor

Ragged Islands - Part 2

We are still here!  The weather has been great and right now we are back in Double Breasted Cay to wait out the next front that is coming through tonight (why always at night?).  Then the wind will back to the north by tomorrow.  That is when we can go back to "hunting".  Yesterday I saw my first two hogfish while we and the Windward crew were snorkeling by the nearby cut.  The dinghies were too far away to swim a speared fish (and perhaps a little bloody) so hopefully they will still be around today.  Lynn saw two sharks nearby and we saw a huge barracuda so getting a dinner into a bucket in the dinghy quickly is imperative.

Social activities?????!!!!m- - - well, the other day there was a birthday party for Dave.  We haven't a clue who Dave is since he wasn't around but the other cruisers decided to hold it anyway.  Pot-luck on the beach with dogs and cocktails still made it fun.

We have met "George" on fishing vessel "Lady Marie" and they are from Spanish Wells.  He is quite a character and a wealth of information.  Bob on sv First Look speared a big ocean triggerfish yesterday and he took it over for George to clean and "whack, bang, slice & whack again…..presto, one cleaned fish…..the islanders know how to fish!

No pictures can download from here but we will try to get back to Duncan Town one more time before heading north.  Timetable???  Who knows!!

The Ragged Islands - part 1

We are going to try a couple of pictures………

Sunset

fishing is a way of life down here….

pretty nice I'd say!

I think we are less than 65nm to Cuba

Right now we are in Duncan Town and there is an open WIFI site in the local gazebo.  We are able to slowly download pictures and then its off to Maxine's Market since the mail boat arrived this morning and by evening most of the supplies will be bought and they have a mostly empty store.  The people that live on the island (right now about 80 people) have a very quiet life but we have seen one flat screen and they do have Internet.

Our very 1st rum cake!

On our way to look for sea glass and sea beans

The eastern shore of Double Breasted Cay

Looking south to our anchorage with Carina & Carissa

Looking north into downtown Duncan Town

We have made it!

It has taken years but we have finally made it to the Ragged Islands.  Yesterday we dropped anchor in a small bay next to Double Breasted Cay.  There are perhaps a dozen other boats in the neighborhood.  Three sailboats are in this anchorage, one of which is Carina, a Manta 42 with Mark & Kathy on board.  I am not sure we could find a more remote location anywhere in this hemisphere……check it out on a map!

We have a little Internet service here at the anchorage, not enough for pictures but we will try to download some when we go a few miles further south towards Duncan town, the only settlement in the entire Jumentos/Ragged chain of islands and cays.  Population is perhaps 55 people.  We are less than 65 miles from Cuba, a mere day sail if we could only go…..  There are no McDonald's or Burger Kings here and one has to be 100% self sufficient to stay around.  Without our watermaker there is no way we could even come down here, let alone stay here for a couple of weeks.

It is absolutely beautiful here, desolate and crystal clear water.

Lat/lon…….

N 22.18.80
W 75.45.95

We are south of the Tropic of Cancer!!

Stand by for some more highlights when we can upload pictures!!

Sorry for the delay but we have been away from internet!

Internet service is much better than ever in the Bahamas but having bandwidth big enough to download pictures continues to be a challenge.  Right now we are in Georgetown doing laundry and are able to visit J&K to use their router.  With that we will do a bunch of pictures for everyone…..


From Warderick Wells we continued down the Exuma chain and have been able to visit many new anchorages.  They have all be beautiful so we'll start with Pipe Cay, real close to Compass Cay marina where we all had sharks (nurse only) right at the tip of our hands!  While there I have finally broke my bad luck and picked up two lion fish and a lobster!  Yep, right between the eyes as Randy told me to do!  Anne found a huge conch and we are working away at making that our big horn.

I mangled this lion fish

fresh water rinse

Nice shark!

dinner!

Next….some views of Little Farmers Cay…….real nice place to watch to Super Bowl and we will go back!

One must cross the runway to get to town

JR & Anne

This is the jeep by Ty's Sunset Grill

Yep, chain doesn't float!

Next up is Rudder Cut Cay…..A nice anchorage and the water was crystal clear.  How about the man playing with the mermaid?  Yep, Vinny is keeping abreast of the situation!  Reportedly David Copperfield paid to have the piece of art placed in 15 feet of water.

Swimming with a nurse shark

Who said mermaids don't exist!?

Another date for Vinny!

Cruze is now fully bloomed and has six flowers this year!

The next stop is Barraterre.  It is located at the far north end of Great Exuma and is a very remote but  a super friendly settlement.  Again, we will be going back to that anchorage.  Just lovely!  Germain (from Big D's last year happened to see us and took Vinny, Ralph and I down to the local beer store and also stopped by Rev. Williams farm.  We have the freshest, most tasty veggies we have had is a long time.  No refrigeration needed!

Better than Wegmans…..all fresh for $10 bucks!

1 season car wash

Same Old Place Restaurant

the main drag in town

After picking up Jim and Joanne we went back to Lee Stocking Island and did some fishing and swimming.  M/V Scooter dropped off a nice Mahi for us (they had two other huge ones, 54+ inches long) so we made sushi, fried mahi and mahi ceviche.  A real feast was had by all!

We really like our underwater camera….Teagan's ray!

A Doctor at rest!

Dick's first sushi rolls

The huter and his wife with a mega shrimp!

From there we eventually made it down to Georgetwon in order to be here for Jim & Jo's departure.  We still had a good time, there weather was perfect and we still had the time to go to Chat & Chill for a rum punch.

Team Perkins getting ready to freeze again!

We hope you enjoy the photos…….I know it took a long time but we will keep trying to get better.

Oh no..?.Dr & Dr Perkins are in the air!

In another hour we will be going to the airport to pickup the Perkins.  Now the trouble will begin. First Jo will want to dissect a lion fish.  Jim will be looking for a perch hole in the ice.  Won't he be surprised to find we only have ice with the medicine! (That's rum for you preachers)

We aren't sure of the agenda but we will figure out something. Right now we are at Barraterre and will head over to Lee Stocking Cay this afternoon.  It is very pretty there with good swimming, hiking and fishing.

We still haven't been able to get pictures to the blog via the iPad.  We will keep trying.

It was a blowout but we had a blast!

We have had some Internet coverage but only with the iPad so no pictures for now. We would like to at least keep folks a little updated as to what is going on......

This morning we will keep heading south (all be it at a very slow pace sine we continue to have SE winds) after a delightful stop at Little Farmer Cay. We were able to watch the Super Bowl at Ty's Sunset Bar & Grill and had a lot of fun.  By the second half we had already named the rum special as "Farmers Cay Face Plant"!  Anne & I were just about the only ones cheering for Denver and we took a lot of ribbing from Julian, Daryl, Ty, Coach, Ernestine, Terry and others.

News update.......a proposal for the 49th Super Bowl at the Farmers Cay runway may be in the works. We will have to start right away with bleacher construction but the folks on the cay are up for all sorts of adventure!  Their annual 5 F (Farmers Cay first Friday in February festival) may have to change to 7F ......Farmers Cay first Friday in February festival & Super Bowl for 2015 (another F) and include the Falcons!

We will be hard pressed to meet a group of finer people anywhere......we will be back!

Oh, by the way.....they are having a street hockey game on the runway next week against some of the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team. We have been invited to suit up and play!?  Ouch!!