Provo, Turks and Caicos

We just dropped the hook in front of a beautiful beach in Provo. The day is icky and we plan to continue on to the DR tomorrow at the crack of dawn. The passage here was excellent.
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At 29/01/2015 17:12 (utc) our position was 21°44.35'N 072°17.20'W

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And we're off!

We're sailing away from George Town, hoping to get to the Turks and Caicos on Thursday. Our friend Paul is sailing with us!

George Town 2015

Before heading out to the Caribbean, we wanted to go the Exumas again. We wanted to check a few places where we've been last year and a few other Cays where we haven't been.

Our first stop was Pasture Cay, one of our favorite places in the Exumas. We snorkeled around a wrecked plane and swam in the natural sea aquarium with lots of fish.

Then we moved to Big Majors, as the kids wanted to see the pigs on the beach again. We swam in the Thunderbolt grotto where the 007 movie with Sean Connery was filmed in the 70s. We also got reunited with the crew of Hold Fast and Julianna II.

The following morning we picked up anchor and sailed, with Julianna II, to Rudder Cut Cay. This island is owned by David Copperfield and he commissioned a mermaid and piano underwater sculpture that is now quite famous among the cruising community. After a few minutes of dhinghing around the area where we new the sculpture was, we dropped the anchor and jumped to the water. The sculpture is about 10-12 feet at low tide, so it's not easy for the kids to dive and touch it. However, Matias and Camila tried a lot of times, until they managed to finally touch it. Way to go guys!

He did it! Way to go Matias

The next morning we sailed to Lee stocking, a place that seems out of a Stephen Spielberg film. Apparently the island was home to a Research Institute but a few years ago it got shut down and it looks like the people living there took whatever they could and left everything else: the houses are not locked, there's furniture, movies and books, a diving compression tank and even a truck sitting on the street.

Here we also saw April, Cain and Quinn, a lovely couple and their dog whom we met back in the summer in Jacksonville aboard Spirit of Argo. The kids immediately fell in love with Quinn and used to accompany April in her afternoon dog walk. This time, April and Cain, show us the art of getting coconut from the tree and then drinking the coconut milk. We had it first out of the coconut, with nothing else and it was quite tasty. Later, on their boat, we had it with Rum and it was even better.

Picking up coconuts to drink and eat

Drinking coconut milk for the first time.

After that we got to GeorgeTown. There's about 200 boats in the Elizabeth Harbour, and because of that, it's not one of our favorite anchorages. The good thing about GT is that there's lots of families with kids. We met Paisley and got re-united with Hold Fast, Skylark and Almost there. So there's been lots of play dates, sleepover and even a birthday party. It's been fun!

The funny thing about GT is that half the boats here are Canadian and most of those are French Canadian.

The young crew of Taia and Skylark on VolleyBall beach

The kids spent hours playing here

The adult crew of Skylark, Julianna II and Taia

The kids waiting to play a game for a birthday party.

Tomorrow, our friend Paul is coming to stay with us for 3 weeks. Paul is going to help us get to the Virgin Islands.  

The Good with the Bad

The year 2014 closed its coffin loudly for Taia, setting up its successor, 2015, for an even louder and rather uncomfortable start. On the last evening of the year, Taia was anchored in front of Lynyard Cay, a common staging anchorage for boats aiming to cross south to Royal Harbour, Spanish Wells, or Nassau. Unbeknownst to Taia's crew, the outgoing year had arranged for wind speeds considerably higher than had been forecast. The crew dropped the hook on the last afternoon of the year and, as they prepared the boat for the 55-mile crossing, wondered why the wind was picking up to 15 knots and then to 20 knots, when it should have stayed at 10 to 15. “Oh well,” they said naively, “it'll quiet down through the night.” Not!

January 1^st, 2015, was a rough day at sea. As Taia plowed through confused seas that seemed to come from everywhere, including the sky and the bottom of the sea, her crew fell in a less-than-festive mood. While Taia romped happily in 20 to 25 knots of wind, the crew held on, white knuckled, and failed miserably at keeping down their New Year's Eve dinner. Chucking into a bucket quickly deteriorated into a feeble poking of the head out of the cockpit and barfing all over the side deck. No matter, though, as there was enough spray to wipe it all off within seconds.

In reality, the picture wasn't one of complete and utter lack of control. On the contrary, although the crew were uncomfortable, they made sure the boat kept moving safely and quickly towards their destination. There was quite a bit of wave surfing and lurching and suddenly stopping. Taia moved fast and arrived in Royal Harbour without incident.

Bad days are a necessity. How would we appreciate the good ones without the contrast that the bad ones provide? Fortunately, though, it's easy to coerce life into giving us more of the good ones than the bad. And so it is that, after a quick day of recovery in Royal Harbour, Taia and her crew kept moving and enjoying a string of good days.

There was the afternoon at the beach on Meeks Patch, which included a quick spear-fishing outing that produced a tasty lionfish. There was a beautiful night at anchor in front of Current Settlement and the subsequent crossing of Current Cut to get to the west side of Eleuthera. It was then that we started learning that the landscape of the island of Eleuthera is different than everything else we've seen of the Bahamas.

Cleaning lionfish while at anchor in Meeks Patch. The spines can be lethal, so I cut them off wearing thick gloves

Eleuthera has cliffs on both the bank and the ocean side. This island is long and narrow. At Glass Window, the narrowest spot, it is possible to see the Atlantic Ocean from the banks and vice versa. Without the highway bridge that was built there, Eleuthera would be close to becoming 2 different islands.

The Glass Window, Eleuthera, viewed from the bank side. The Atlantic Ocean lives on the other side of the bridge 

Ocean side cliffs at Glass Window

The Queen's Baths, on the ocean side, are a collection of natural pools on the rock formation that have water coming in from the ocean. We were there at low tide and waded in a couple of the pools, which were receiving a gentle stream of sea water from the waves breaking against the rocks. I'm told that at high tide, and especially when the easterly wind is blowing hard, the pools are swamped by the waves and wading in them is not a safe option.

The day we visited Glass Window and the Queen's Baths, we dinghied over to what we thought was a hotel or restaurant on the beach. We thought we'd go in, have a couple of drinks and use their infinity pool overlooking the bank. As we approached, a couple got in the water and came to say hi. It turns out the place is a private house and they were renting it for a week. Chris and Angel, along with 12 other members of the Munson (Mundson?) family, invited us for an evening of drinks and conversation by the pool. What a treat! These guys are extremely nice and we had a lot of fun with them. It was a great ending to a great day.

The next day we had planned on sailing to Hatchet Bay and join Hold Fast. But there was a blow coming a couple of days later and Hold Fast was sailing to Governors' Harbour and then on to Rock Sound for good protection. We decided to sail directly to Rock Sound, a 45-mile run from Glass Window. The wind was perfect that day and we flew the spinnaker most of the time. A pod of 6 dolphins swam in our bow wave and gave us a wonderful nature show. All 4 of us spent a few minutes on deck watching the dolphins while the auto pilot and the sails kept Taia moving at over 5 knots. Another good day.

Dolphins spent some time with us while we sailed from Glass Window to Rock Sound

Camila had her birthday in Rock Sound. That day we met Juliana II and Almost There, two kid-boats that had been sailing together for a few days. We all gathered in the gazebo by the ocean hole and had some cake. The kids took advantage of the school playground when the conversation turned to fixing boats, weather, and cruising in general. Good for them!

Camila's birthday with the kid crews of Juliana II and Almost There

A good weather window presented itself to cross Exuma Sound and most of the boats in Rock Sound took advantage of it. It was another excellent sailing day, calm in the morning and more challenging in the afternoon. My laziness that morning payed off. I was feeling guilty for not hoisting our spinnaker in the mellow conditions, but I knew the wind was going to be too much for that sail later in the day, and I didn't want to get caught in over 12 or 13 knots of wind with the chute up. As I procrastinated, I found the perfect excuse to not use the spinnaker: I was going to troll a fishing line for the first time. Out came my spanking new fishing pole and lure.

Just to make a good day even better, a mahi mahi decided to eat the lure at the end of the line. Ten minutes after I deployed it! Camila started jumping and pointing at the pole in the stern, which was obviously under load. I jumped on deck and started reeling in. And so I caught my first mahi mahi. Everything worked out in our favour: the seas were calm, the fish was relatively small and easy to land, and it wasn't a shark or a barracuda or any other type of fish I wouldn't want to bring on deck. I cleaned the mahi underway and we ate half of it that night. Delicious bounty from the sea! By the time I was done cleaning the fish (and the deck!), the wind had picked up and it was too much for the spinnaker. Procrastination for the win!

First time using my new rod and reel. Smug smile after catching my first mahi mahi

There you have it. One bad day with a silver lining that landed us a good string of good days.

We're now anchored in the southern edge of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Our plan is to take a cursory look at the rest of the Exumas as we make a bee line to George Town. Auto Paul is flying there in a fortnight and he'll spend a few weeks with us as we sail south to the Caribbean. Hopefully there'll be few bad days and many good ones on our longest passage to date.

The plane wreck used as dinghy mooring between O'Brien's Cay and Little Halls Pond Cay

(Note: I wrote this about a week ago and only just posted it. We're now in George Town)

First Mahi!

We just caught our first mahi-mahi!! Photos and story to come soon...
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At 10/01/2015 13:18 (utc) our position was 24°52.23'N 076°15.02'W

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Back in Royal Harbour

We just dropped the hook in Royal Harbour. The Atlantic Ocean slapped us around today with 6-to-8-foot seas and 15-to-25 knots of wind. It was a romp that Taia enjoyed much more than her crew. The forecast was 5-to-10 knots of wind a couple of days ago. Yesterday afternoon it was 10-to-15, and an unexpected 15-to-20 picked up in the evening right after we staged in Lynyard Cay.

Of course, we considered staying in the Abacos, but it didn't look like there'd be a weather window to come south any time soon. Also, we could use the experience. And an experience we got! The first one of 2015.

Here we all are, happy to be back in Royal and looking forward to moving on to Eleuthera as soon as the weather allows.
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At 01/01/2015 21:52 (utc) our position was 25°30.95'N 076°50.49'W

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