This depicts one of the many spectacular Sunsets that we're often priviledged to witness
Seaman Staines at the helm!
The next two are a bit out of order, saw this lovely schooner leaving Nevis, and Big Sand Cay.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Photos
This shows the huge difference in depth of water as you approach the Caicos Bank - known as the Wall on any reef.
This depicts one of the many spectacular Sunsets that we're often priviledged to witness
Seaman Staines at the helm!
The next two are a bit out of order, saw this lovely schooner leaving Nevis, and Big Sand Cay.
This depicts one of the many spectacular Sunsets that we're often priviledged to witness
Seaman Staines at the helm!
The next two are a bit out of order, saw this lovely schooner leaving Nevis, and Big Sand Cay.
Bahamas - at long last!
Hi guys, sorry for the long break between this and the last blog but that's mainly due to lack of signal and not, as you might think, to too many rum punches...
Antigua we left on March 15th heading in the direction of the island Nevis (pronounced Neevis) which is close to St Kitts. On route we spotted a Whale spout at about 2 miles from us, pretty close enough all things considered. Another friendly island but smaller. Whilst there we did the tour thing and were shown a couple of defunct sugar plantations and a lifesize model of a typical Carribean village. The average house was restricted by the plantation owners so they weren't much bigger than a Gipsy caravan - a whole family living in a single room. They were restricted in size so the landowner could demand that they literally moved house taking it off his land.
18th March saw us heading to Virgin Gorda which involved an overnight sail including the elusive 'green flash' at sunset - yes it really does happen sometimes. Second day at Virgin Gorda we took a slip in the marina and the unbridled luxury of being able to push the supermarket trolley to the boat, unashamed luxury!
Mothers Day found us on top of a cliff after a fitful nights sleep. The reason being the bleating baby goats that were stuck on ledge just below the top. Believe me, they managed to bleat all night. Sam lowered Tim down on a rope where we were able to grab the offending articles i.e. baby goats and reunite them with there Mother.....just what you should be doing on Mothers Day.
After our exertions we treated ourselves to a mega fried breakfast mmmmmm. We then set off on the next leg of our voyage where the destination changed en route, and we arrived 24th March off the Dominican Republic where a bit of sail stitching was required before setting off for Grand Turk. On the way we dropped anchor for an overnight rest at Big Sand Cay. We found ourselves on a completely deserted beach of brilliant white sand so we got our kit off and ran around butt naked safe in the knowledge that the reflection from white bums wouldn't dazzle anyone ;-)
Grand Turk turned out to be the friendliest island we have been to so far, they were flattened by hurricane Ike in September 2008, losing 80% of the houses, it doesn't seem to have flattened their spirits. Apart from doing the tourist thing and visiting the museum we went for a snorkel. The sea bottom between Grand Turk and Caicos is not unlike the Grand Canyon except a bit wetter. In the twenty miles between the two islands the depth gets down to 7,000 feet. We snorkelled where the drop justs starts and it was akin to skydiving - one minute you're looking at the seabed and the next it's gone - it feels like you are suspended and it's quite eery.
South Caicos was our next stop and it was the clearest water we've ever seen, but we were on the caicos bank which was shallow, ranging between 3 - 5 metres deep and this stretched for 300 square miles or more. We saw a picture taken from space highlighting the topography and it was fascinating.
Left Turks and Caicos from Provo and headed for a couple of nights at Acklins Island. Found a superb natural harbour at Attwood Bay where we had a regular visitor in the form of a 4ft Nurse Shark, apparently not dangerous except at feeding time - he didn't tell us when feeding time was so we didn't risk a swim. Walking on another of those deserted beaches we were paddling only to come within 3ft of a big, black Ray. We don't believe he was interested in our toes but again didn't enquire too closely!.
Had a reasonable overnight sail, arriving at our current location of Great Exuma. Had a spot of bother dropping the anchor because of mother and bay dolphin who were playing under our boat as we tried to take up position. We've now rendevous with friends who are going to help us with our wind generator.
Antigua we left on March 15th heading in the direction of the island Nevis (pronounced Neevis) which is close to St Kitts. On route we spotted a Whale spout at about 2 miles from us, pretty close enough all things considered. Another friendly island but smaller. Whilst there we did the tour thing and were shown a couple of defunct sugar plantations and a lifesize model of a typical Carribean village. The average house was restricted by the plantation owners so they weren't much bigger than a Gipsy caravan - a whole family living in a single room. They were restricted in size so the landowner could demand that they literally moved house taking it off his land.
18th March saw us heading to Virgin Gorda which involved an overnight sail including the elusive 'green flash' at sunset - yes it really does happen sometimes. Second day at Virgin Gorda we took a slip in the marina and the unbridled luxury of being able to push the supermarket trolley to the boat, unashamed luxury!
Mothers Day found us on top of a cliff after a fitful nights sleep. The reason being the bleating baby goats that were stuck on ledge just below the top. Believe me, they managed to bleat all night. Sam lowered Tim down on a rope where we were able to grab the offending articles i.e. baby goats and reunite them with there Mother.....just what you should be doing on Mothers Day.
After our exertions we treated ourselves to a mega fried breakfast mmmmmm. We then set off on the next leg of our voyage where the destination changed en route, and we arrived 24th March off the Dominican Republic where a bit of sail stitching was required before setting off for Grand Turk. On the way we dropped anchor for an overnight rest at Big Sand Cay. We found ourselves on a completely deserted beach of brilliant white sand so we got our kit off and ran around butt naked safe in the knowledge that the reflection from white bums wouldn't dazzle anyone ;-)
Grand Turk turned out to be the friendliest island we have been to so far, they were flattened by hurricane Ike in September 2008, losing 80% of the houses, it doesn't seem to have flattened their spirits. Apart from doing the tourist thing and visiting the museum we went for a snorkel. The sea bottom between Grand Turk and Caicos is not unlike the Grand Canyon except a bit wetter. In the twenty miles between the two islands the depth gets down to 7,000 feet. We snorkelled where the drop justs starts and it was akin to skydiving - one minute you're looking at the seabed and the next it's gone - it feels like you are suspended and it's quite eery.
South Caicos was our next stop and it was the clearest water we've ever seen, but we were on the caicos bank which was shallow, ranging between 3 - 5 metres deep and this stretched for 300 square miles or more. We saw a picture taken from space highlighting the topography and it was fascinating.
Left Turks and Caicos from Provo and headed for a couple of nights at Acklins Island. Found a superb natural harbour at Attwood Bay where we had a regular visitor in the form of a 4ft Nurse Shark, apparently not dangerous except at feeding time - he didn't tell us when feeding time was so we didn't risk a swim. Walking on another of those deserted beaches we were paddling only to come within 3ft of a big, black Ray. We don't believe he was interested in our toes but again didn't enquire too closely!.
Had a reasonable overnight sail, arriving at our current location of Great Exuma. Had a spot of bother dropping the anchor because of mother and bay dolphin who were playing under our boat as we tried to take up position. We've now rendevous with friends who are going to help us with our wind generator.
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