waiting out the wind

What do you do when the wind is blowing a consistent 25-30 knots all day, all night, for a predicted mWhat do you do when the wind is blowing a consistent 25-30 knots all day, all night, for a predicted minimum of 7 days?  

1.     You hope for a very protected anchorage where you will not be rocking badly. We got it.

2.     You look for nearby beaches that will allow you dinghy access. Got that too.

3.     You’re thankful for boat buddies anchored nearby that you can do things with. Definitely.

4.     And you look for projects on the boat you wouldn’t be doing if the weather were perfect. Plenty of those!

We arrived at Big Majors and Staniel Cays on Wednesday, Jan. 24^th after three lovely sunny and calm days. On the way we spent some time at Highbourne Cay where there are typically huge yachts, one of which was a wedding party that entertained the entire area with fireworks one night!

Here we made the season’s first attempt at sand sculptures  (really more like sand reliefs the way we have to do it). Jane’s swordfish and Tom’s sailboat.

                                                              A nice sunset.

                                              And finally some full sun, good sailing days.

At Big Majors we hooked up with Poerava, Tookish, Endangered Species, Ondine Blue and about 30 other boats in a very large and protected anchorage. With a forecast of 25-30 knot winds for a week or more starting in two days, we took advantage of every minute of calm time.

Arrival day and the next was for dinghy exploration and snorkeling, then happy hour on Ondine Blue, new friends from England who have a catamaran large enough to entertain all ten of us and leave room for more!

Typical thick vegetation on small islands and very sharp rock with royal terns.

There was a good variety of tropical fish to see as well as some good sponges and coral.

Every morning we can, we all gather off the beach for water aerobics which is more exercise than I ever imagined and also fun.

Robin (Endangered Species) is a long-time cruiser and has friends on Staniel Cay who invited the girls over to go food shopping. These part-time residents live in a house they renovated back in 1992, and with it came the original deed for the land from Queen Elizabeth!

Staniel has three markets: one yellow, one pink, one blue. You shop them all as prices differ. For example, eggs in the yellow store were $6 a dozen, but in Pink Pearl, the same carton was $4 and she didn’t charge the VAT tax (Value Added Tax)). Here I also found overly ripe bananas for the bread.

This is also the place that has sharks you can swim with. Passed on that again, but they are fun to see.

And Big Majors is best known for Pig Beach where pigs congregate when tour boats come in from Nassau or George Town. How did they get here? One story has it that they swam in when a ship wrecked; another version has sailors leaving them on the beach with the failed intention to come back and eat them; or maybe part of a business scheme to attract tourists. Whatever the beginning, the last theory is working well!

Mary (Tookish) did a class on making palm frond baskets. What a great way to pass time!

After four full days though we are happy to see lighter winds and will head south five miles to Black Point Settlement.