Greetings from Between the Majors.

With the winds, we decided to stay at Lee Stocking through Wednesday night. After calling the Caribbean Marine Research Center on the radio without a response, we took the dinghy over to their dock to see about a tour. Unfortunately we learned that the center didn’t get funded (they were part of NOAA) in 2006, so only have a couple of staff their trying to keep the facility repaired in case they can find a new source of funding or congress allocates funds in 2007. More info can be found at www.PerryInstitute.org.
Although boaters are still welcome to use the free moorings, the owners of the island are not allowing visitors now that the center isn’t functioning.

Of the five cruising boats at Lee Stocking, three had kids. Although it was too rough to do much exploring in the dinghy, the kids took turns going from boat to boat and had a good time.

The crew of Iceni hails from Great Britain and has been across the Atlantic in their 40 foot Warrior. They are headed to the US next and have to go to Nassau to be interviewed for Visas. I took and printed “head” shots of them all so they wouldn’t have to find a place to have passport style photos made. The US govt specifies a white background, so we utilized the head on Iceni as the walls had the appropriate coloring.

By Thursday morning, the winds were down to 18 kts so the crews of Intuition, Iceni, and Emotional Rescue (a Westsail 32) all decided to make a go of Exuma Sound. In order to go north we needed to go out into the sound since the inside route is a little too shallow.

We led the way as we had been through this cut before. Going out Adderly Cut into eight foot waves was bouncy, but not as bad as coming out of Emerald Bay earlier in the week. Once the depths dropped off over two hundred feet, the waves were much further apart, and with a wind from the stern quarter, we were sailing at about six knots.

After 12 miles in Exuma Sound, we entered Galliot Cut at slack water and slid into the lee of the islands. Letting out the 130 Jib, we were running close to 7 kts on smooth seas in 18 kts of wind. The clear water was only 8-12 feet deep, so we could see the bottom streaking by during one of our best sails ever. All good things must end, so we set out to roll up the Jib as we approached Black Point. Arghhh – a riding turn on the furling drum. This meant that we couldn’t roll up the sail. We continued
on using the autopilot remote to steer as Beth and I took the sail down onto the foredeck.

We headed in to Black Point and dropped the hook in a great spot. Checking with Iceni and Emotional Rescue, we found they hadn’t escaped problems either. Iceni ripped their mainsail coming out the cut. This explains why we were able to sail faster than a larger boat. Emotional Rescue’s staysail boom cracked as it swung and hit their anchor in one of the bigger waves on the sound. Nobody was hurt and repairs are underway.

We needed to get rid of garbage, so I volunteered to go into town with Noah and take care of it. We picked up eleven year old Elias from Emotional Rescue, along with their trash and headed in. Boneheaded me had my wallet in my shorts pocket and I felt it slip out overboard. I’d brought it to give the boys a treat at Lorraine’s Cafe, but failed to secure it in the dinghy locker. Quickly turning the dinghy around, I grabbed the still floating wallet and breathed a sigh of relief until we noticed plastic cards reflecting the setting sun as they settled down towards the bottom. We criss-crossed the area all looking down through the window in the bottom of the dink, but didn’t see the credit cards. Noah had the good idea to drop a buoy on the spot attached to the dinghy anchor. I called Beth on the radio and she got the mask and fins ready. I picked her up and dropped the boys at Emotional Rescue. Running as close to the same course as we could remember, we actually saw credit cards through the look down window. I jumped in and recovered my drivers license and a couple of other cards. By this time the sun had just disappeared beyond the horizon. Now I was just looking for an American Express card. Found an old metal plate, a frying pan and, believe it or not, the AMEX Green credit card. With much relief, we motored over to the town dock and disposed of our trash, completing the original mission. Changed into warm, dry clothes and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate back on the boat.

Another cold front is predicted to pass through on Saturday with winds clocking around through the west. As much as we wanted to stay in Black Point, there is no protection from west winds in that harbor. Today we raised the anchor and motored up past Staniel Cay to anchor in between Big and Little Majors Spot islands. Iceni joined us while Emotional Rescue elected to ride out the front in Black Point.

After an uneventful trip up, we anchored near a Nonsuch 36 who turned out to be owned by Jeff and Nancy Letts out of Punta Gorda, FL whom we had corresponded with back in the nineties when we were enjoying our Nonsuch 26.

After lunch the crew from Iceni joined us for a dinghy ride over to Thunderball Cave. It was their first visit, so it was fun to show them the area. Noah and Hannah were exploring all the nooks and crannies, finding a grotto where three big (15-24″) puffer fish and a Nassau Grouper lived. We were there a bit after low tide, so the current was running stronger than on our first visit. The kids did a real good job keeping up with it. That should have burned off a little energy.

We should be here until Sunday morning and will then decide where to go for Noah’s birthday on Tuesday. Winds are predicted to be 25-30 out of the NE for most of next week, so we will probably go back to Black Point where there are things to do ashore.

My right shoulder has been aching since Palm Beach. The shoulder gets better and then I pull a little too hard on something and it gets bad again. Beth has been taking on more and more of the heavy lifting. Wanted to acknowledge what a great job she has been doing.