Heading north from Georgetown... to Black Point

We left Georgetown on April 7^th after two weeks. It’s a beautiful place and sometimes cruisers spend months here, but its time for us to leave. We want to take a slow trip back to the states and feel its time to start.  

FFF and 180 are not leaving with us. FFF will leave tomorrow so sailing will be more favorable. 180 is not leaving until after the wives head home Tuesday. We pulled up anchor and left about 7:00 am. Emma, from FFF, waved good-bye and Charlie, from 180, called out a farewell. It will be strange traveling without them, especially FFF. They have been with us since we left Marathon. But they will meet us the next day. 

We knew we would have some wind and waves, but unfortunately, we had more than expected. Bumpy and uncomfortable. I laid down in one of the daybeds in the flybridge and stayed there most of the trip. We left the harbor with some sailboats and I bet they wondered what a trawler was doing out in those waters. We traveled faster than we normally do just so the stabilizers would work better. That helped some. You can see how the ride was in the videos below.

We got to Dothan’s Cut a little before 3:00 pm. We wanted to get there when the wind and current were both going into the cut, so it would be calmer. We timed it just right. As you can see from the chartplotter screen, we got a pretty big push going in. We had been traveling about 7.2kts before we got the push and then we were 11.2. It didn’t last long but it was fun while it lasted.

Looking at Dothan Cut

See the waves.

Now you can see the water starting to change color.

This shows how fast we were going. Our speed should have been 7.3kts. We got a push from the current.

Beautiful lagoon.

We could see the change in the water color when we were still on the outside. Leading into the cut, the water was 50 feet deep and we could see the bottom. Then once we were inside, all we saw was that turquoise color that no camera can capture.  

Black Point was beautiful looking again. As soon as we started into the anchorage, Shay said he thought he say Coupe ‘D Amor and maybe Blue Heavens. Coupe is a large black hulled pirate looking boat so we were pretty sure it was them. We figured wherever Coupe was, Blue Heavens was close by. It was them and we blew our horn and got big waves from everyone. 

Heading into Black Point

 

You can see where we came in.


You can see where we anchored.

Escape coming into Black Point. Thanks for the picture Blue Heavens



We got anchored and Gordon and Jeannie from Blue Heavens dinghyed over. They had just gotten into the anchorage so Shay gave them some information about the area. Internet, dinghy dock and Lorraine’s Sunday dinner buffet. We talked about going to the buffet with them, but I wasn’t feeling 100% so we declined. We decided to have a get-to-gather on our boat the next night, after FFF go here. 

The next morning, we got text from FFF saying they were leaving and heading our way. We talked to Coupe and Blue Heavens and decided to have drinks and snackies on our boat at 5:00 pm.  

We had been having potty problems so Shay changed “duck bill” valves in the aft pump. That can be a very messy, stinky, bad job but it worked out pretty good. We had been having problems with the holding tank sensors for a while. As the level in the holding tank goes up, a different colored light comes on letting you know the amount in the tank. For you landlubbers, the holding tank is the place the wastes go into until you can either get pumped out in a marina or dump out in the ocean when you are more than 3 miles from land all around. As you can imagine, you want the sensors to work properly so you know how full your tank is. So I can gladly say that our potty system is working ok at the present time. Shay is a handy man to have around.  

We had a call on the VHF form Salty Turtle, Vic and Gigi. They were coming to Black Point and wanted us to eat pizza with them for lunch. We already had plans so we invited them to come to the boat tonight.


Salty Turtle at anchor.

After Shay got cleaned up, we went to shore. While we were in the dinghy, we took some amazing pictures of the boat. It is surrounded by clouds, water and sky. Then we did a video around the boat showing the beautiful view we had in the anchorage. Wish we had done that before. I’ll try to do it from now on so you can see what we see.  

 

 



I can't believe I am in such a beautiful place! It looks like the boat is in a swimming pool.

On shore, we saw Jeannie and Gordon. Jeannie took some pictures of us with Escape in the background. We went by Lorraine’s to order more of her mother’s wonderful coconut bread. Yummy French toast! We ended meeting Matthew and Julie from Coupe and spent a lot of time swapping stories about our travels. Gordon was a big hit with the kids; he makes stuff out of balloons, like flowers or swords. The kids were just getting out of school and he had a crowd wanting him to make them something. He seems to really enjoy doing that and had bought a lot of balloons just for this reason.

Going ashore.

Looks like he's shedding his skin!

 



In paradise

Gordon entertaining the kids

The girls liked the flowers and the boys liked swords.

Shay on water fill-up duty.

Nice couple, but look at that great boat!

Big boat coming in.

The excitement for the day was the big boat coming in from Nassau. We had been seeing people bring big water jugs like you use on water dispensers. We finally asked someone why the people on the island didn’t us the water we had just filled our jugs up with. We were told that the islanders did us the island water, but young children and people with health issues had been told to use the Nassau water. So the islanders send their jugs to Nassau and get then filled with water there. We also saw lot of rolls of palm fronds that had been woven into a 6 inch wide strip and probably 100 feet long. We asked what they were for and the man said they went to Nassau and someone there used a sewing machine to make baskets out of them. We had notice lots of people doing the weaving. Now we know why. You can see a these stacked up on the dock, waiting to go to Nassau.

Weaving fronds to send to Nassau

This is an area of intense activity.

Shay talked to a man that works at the power plant. He said the average cost of electricity on the island is $300.00 per month. Water is about $30.00 a month. There is an old well in front of Lorraine’s that all the people from the island used to get water from. He said on Saturday, when the women washed clothes, you had to wait for the water level to come back up. We wondered what the people do to make enough money for power and water much less food and other stuff. I guess that’s why so many people weave the palm fronds. 

We had a great time on our boat that night. We had boaters from FFF, Coupe, Blue Heavens, and Salty Turtle. We enjoyed the drinks, snacks, and boating tales. It’s educational to listen to where other boaters have been and their experiences with anchoring, mooring balls and dragging. Sometimes these can be horror stories when things don’t work right. 

We have remora fish living under our boat. They are also called sucker fish. They are the ones you see attached to sharks. They are so ugly, on the top of their head they have suckers that attach to the fish. We were on FFF the other night and Emma was rinsing dishes in the ocean and 2 came out from under their boat and started eating the scrapes. She did not like it at all, especially when David and Shay told her to put her hand in the water, they had the camera ready.

Remora that live under our boat.

We found out that Vic and Gigi take school pictures of the kids on the islands. They are going to Little Farmer's Cay tomorrow to do pictures there. They know a lot of people on the islands.
 





It’s windier today. We are planning on exploring with FFF. There is a small cut through the island that you can dingy to the oceanside. We decided its too windy to go exploring, so we talked about some other islands to travel to and places to see when we get there. Other than getting water, we had a lazy day.

Five Flip Flops and sunset

 Happy 50th Birthday David from Five Flip Flops! 

 

We invited David and Emma over for a late lunch early dinner and to celebrate his birthday. We had pot roast, green peas, carrots, potatoes, gravy and biscuits. It was really good. We had a great time together.

 

We worked on putting music to a video so we can add it to the blog. When we get it fixed, we'll post it.

Hey, Margaret, is this what Rocking B wants to be when it grows up? This is a 50' boat like theirs.

The mail boat coming back in.

We had a lazy morning, then FFF came over for a visit and we decided to go snorkeling. We went to a small cove on the north end of the island. There is a sunken boat there, not a lot but enough to have a gathering place for fish. We saw lots of fish, coral heads, and crawling shells. They told me we'd see better snorkeling at other places, but I thought this was pretty good.

Shipwreck

David and Emma checking out the area.

Beautiful scenery

Looking back toward the deep water.

Shipwreck remains



Beautiful

It looks like we are in an infinity pool.

 On the dinghy ride to snorkel, I told Shay I can't believe we are really doing this. Living on a boat, traveling to these beautiful places and exploring the islands.  It's such a beautiful place and we are so blessed to be able to do it.

 

There's a popular book now, "Fifty Shades of Grey" that reminds me that I am surrounded by "Fifty Shades of Blue". So much better than grey!

 

I picked up my first shell from the bottom of the ocean here. Don't get too excited, I was only in water about 2 feet deep and all I had to do was reach down while I was floating on top of the water. Those of you that know me, know that I do not like to put my head under the water.

A turtle that liked to hang out near our boat.

Near the wreck.

Look what was growing down there!

...And look what is crawling around down there!

...And swimming around down there!

...And swimming

...And swimming

...And just laying around, well sometimes it crawls too!

After snorkeling, us and FFF went to Salty Turtle. Vic and Gigi told us places to visit on the trip north. We have lots of places to visit, we're going to be busy.

 

We have filled up the water tanks so we are ready to head to another destination. We are eating with FFF tonight and plan to leave tomorrow to go to Big Major Spot. That's a strange name. Sounds like something a smart-mouthed teenager would say. "Yeah, so I have to go to this big major spot with you instead of seeing my friends tonight?' Well, anyway.