SAILING ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN IN 2014

INTRODUCTION

This is the blog of a sailing trip across the Caribbean in 2014.  John Truscott and Jeremy Broad joined owner/skipper, Geoff Cluett, in the US Virgin Islands on 14 January for a two and a half month sail through the Caribbean to Florida.  

Geoff has already sailed across the Atlantic from Europe and is currently berthed in the British Virgin Islands awaiting our arrival.  Our voyage will include the British Virgin Islands, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the chain of islands running up to the Bahamas before we reach Miami in early March.  See details on the map below.

  

The 48 foot yacht we are sailing is called "Concerto".  She was built in America in 1988 as a blue water cruising boat. See the pictures below.  

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DIARY

THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

Brief History   The Virgin Islands were discovered by Columbus in 1493 but they were not colonised until the 17^th century when the Dutch, English, Spanish, Danes and French arrived and began planting coffee, ginger, tobacco and sugar, using African slave labour.  Piracy and privateering were also a profitable pastime. Whilst the Danes settled in what is now the US Virgin Islands, the English in 1666 took a firm hold on what is today’s British Virgin Islands.

In 1917 the Danish territorial possessions in the Virgin Islands were sold to the USA who wanted to establish a naval base in the region to prevent German occupation and to guard the approaches to the newly opened Panama Canal.  The US Virgin Islands (as they are called today) is now an integral part of the Unites States and comprises of 4 main islands and some 64 lesser islands.  All the citizens were given full US citizenship in 1932.  Its main source of income is tourism.

The British Virgin Islands became an independent colony of Britain in 1967 and currently has a population of about 20,000 people.  They are less developed than the US Virgin Islands and number some 60 islands of which only 16 are inhabited.  The two main islands contain most of the population.

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14 January  After two long two days of travel with an overnight stop in Miami (whose airport is much larger than Heathrow) we land by air on small runway by the edge of the sea on St Thomas Island in the US Virgin Islands.  It is hot and humid. A taxi ride across the island gets us to Red Hook Harbour, a short ferry ride from our destination; Cruz Bay on St Johns - an adjacent island -where Geoff Cluett is waiting with a dinghy to take us to his yacht, Concerto. The evening descends on us very quickly and we are plied with rum to stave off the tiredness of the journey, before sups and bed.

The next day is spent familiarising ourselves with the yacht, buying provisions and trying to find a shop which sells SIM cards with broadband – no luck, so regrettably no access to internet to update the blog today!

16 January  We set sail for the southern reaches of St Johns Island.  It is a breezy day with one to two metre swells and Force 5 winds but the boat rides it well and after some tacking against a squally wind we arrive mid afternoon in Great Lameshur Bay bordering the island’s National Park.

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17 January  Another beautiful dawn with clear blue skies.  It is time for some exercise.  After breakfast of papaya (the fruit here is delicious), boiled egg, toast and coffee we set off in the dinghy to go ashore and take a walk in the Park. 

In 1950 the island was populated by only about a thousand people and 85% of the land had reverted back to bush and second-growth tropical forest, having originally been intensively farmed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Danes, using slave labour, for sugar cane production.  In 1956 two thirds of this predominantly mountainous island was turned into a National Park.

We walk for two hours along a coastal path inside the tropical forest.  There is little wildlife on these islands, apart from the odd tree snake, rats (which came in with European settlers), mongooses (brought in by Europeans to kill the rats – an unsuccessful experiment) some European deer brought in by the Dutch for sport hunting and bird life.  There are also many

small lizards and some iguanas which grow up to 4 feet long.  Whilst we see no wildlife on our walk apart from a centipede, but we heard birdsong (impossible to see anything in the thick tangle of vegetation) and found several interesting tree looking trees.

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18 January   We set sail from Great Lameshur Bay after breakfast, bound for Francis Bay on the northern side of St John’s Island.  Our aim is to position ourselves in readiness to cross from the USVI to the BVI (about two miles across the St Francis Drake Channel from our mooring) so we can cross first thing on Monday morning and clear in with Customs and Immigration before going alongside in Road Town, the capital of BVI.  Once tied up we need to go ashore and stock up with provisions and also get a mechanic to look at the generator and cooling system which are not functioning properly.

See photo below - lights on an American catamaran moored near us in Francis Bay!

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19 January  We sail from Francis Bay on the USVI to Road Town marina (capital of the British Virgin Islands on Tortola Island) and moor up for the night. We now have another problem to sort out tomorrow - the controls for the shore power line have stopped working so we will need to get an electrician on board tomorrow to sort this out.  In the meantime, we minimise on the use of electrics and have supper ashore in Pusser's Outpost, a cafe near the marina.

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20 January   An electrician arrives on board and checks the complex electric circuitry of the yacht.  No obvious reason for yesterday’s electrical failure is found but one or two loose connections are tightened up and the shore charging system leaps back into life - one problem out of the way but still more to investigate! 

Geoff the skipper then disappears into the engine room armed with tools and stripped to the waist in the intense heat below.  An hour later he emerges with the alternator from the diesel generator (another possible problem area) which is taken to a nearby technician for testing.  It is given a good clean, we go shopping for food and collect the alternator at the same time.  Geoff refits it.  Hoorah!  We now have generator powered re-charging for the batteries too.  Life is looking good!  It is now 9pm.  We celebrate with a cold beer from the yacht fridge and head off to eat a late pizza ashore before going to bed.

 21 January   Before we sail, the skipper decides to have a quick trip ashore to visit the local dentist to fix a tooth he broke several days earlier, in case we are not near civilisation again for a while.  The quick visit turns out to be a 4 hour marathon waiting in the dental surgery queue.  He returns with tooth repaired but frustrated by the time wasted and we set sail for Norman Island 10 mile across Sir Francis Drake Channel where we moor for the night in a bay called The Blight.  On the way out we pass two cruise ships that have just arrived in port.

Norman Island (often referred to as Treasure Island by the locals) is famous for stories of buried pirate treasure.  A letter of 1750 refers to ‘the recovery of treasure from the island comprising of $450,000, plate, cochineal, indigo and tobacco dug up by the local Tortolians’ and legend has it there is still more buried somewhere on the island!

22 January   After a good night’s sleep we decide it is time to explore the island on foot.  We set off mid morning in the blazing sun to climb its highest peak, Spy Glass Hill.  Once in the tropical forest surrounding the hill the wind drops and we perspire heavily but plod on. An hour later after a two mile trek we reach the summit to be rewarded with beautiful views.

During our walk we see turtles swimming in the shallows below, a dead snake, a frigate bird soaring high overhead and some interesting trees and flowers.  

Spy Glass Hill

 The bird below is a Greater Antillean Grackle

Views from the top of Spy Glass Hill

  

Flowers seen on the walk

 Hot and sweaty, we return to the beach to drink a cold beer before returning to the yacht for lunch and a siesta 

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and find a brown pelican swimming near the beach

 In the evening we go take the dinghy across to the Willie T, a floating restaurant nearby for a drink.

Willie T floating restaurant

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23/24 January    On 23 January we sail back to Tortola and tie up in Nanny Cay Marina to allow the engineers to get back on board to continue their work on the diesel generator cooling system and the faulty electrics on the master switch control board.  They work all afternoon and return the next day to complete the job.  Both are British engineers who live out here.  They are efficient and knowledgeable.  A fault is found in a master switch and this is replaced.  The generator cooling system is rebuilt with new parts and initial tests suggest all is now well.  We will have to try it out over the next few days. 

Given the above problems the skipper’s plan is to stay in BVI waters for another few days so he can be sure all repairs were successful before we set sail on longer passages to more remote areas.  To this end we continue to island hopping around the BVIs and set sail in the afternoon for Marina Cay, a small island to the east of Tortola.  

Marina Cay is only 8 acres in size and was uninhabited until 1937, when author Robb White and his newly married wife settled on the island.  It still has a red British phone box on the end of the pier – see below.   

As we leave Tortola for Marina Cay we see a squall approaching in the distance and within minutes the wind starts gusting to Force 7.  

We quickly reef the sails to reduce the chance of damage and then have a choppy two hour sail to our destination.  It is good fun but the temperature drops and the rain soaks us as the newly overcast sky makes the day suddenly cold.  We are shivering by the time we reach Marina Cay and change into dry clothing before having a cup of hot soup.  The forecast warns us of overcast skies and rain for the next three days – most unusual for this part of the world it seems.

John at the wheel 

Skipper looking out for reefs as we approach Marina Cay. 

Last night we met an American the skipper knows, who has just sailed single-handed direct from North America to the BVIs – about 2000 miles.  He tells us he had a really bad time with storms for the whole two week sail and felt at times he would never survive the trip. At one stage his yacht hit either a semi submerged whale or a floating container in the dark, throwing him against the bulkhead.  It then started leaking and he was pumping like mad to keep it afloat.  It was an interesting story!  I hope we do not have the same experience as we sail for Florida!

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25 January   We sail in the morning for Virgin Gorda, the third-largest island and the second most populated one in the British Virgin Islands.  It covers an area of about 8 square miles. Christopher Columbus is said to have named the island "The Fat Virgin", because the island's profile on the horizon looks like a fat woman lying on her side. 

An unusual geologic formation known as 'The Baths' lies on the southern end of the island showing evidence of the island's volcanic origins where huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open to the sea.

On the way we sail past Necker Island, just north of Virgin Gorda, which is owned by Sir Richard Branson who bought it in 1978 for £180,000. It is Branson's official residency and we hear his tax status is reliant on his declaration that he lives on this island which operates like a resort and can accommodate up to 28 guests.  The island is rented out for £36,000 a day! The cost includes two private beaches, private pools, tennis courts, breathtaking views, a personal chef, a team of about 60 staff and a wide array of water sports equipment. It is available for weddings, holidays and sports vacations.

 Necker Island

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26 January   We awake from a deep sleep in our bunks on the yacht which is lying peacefully at anchor in the North Gorda Sound.  The skipper is still not happy with the charging system and spends time checking the wiring before starting the generator for another trial run.  The instruments on the binnacle spring to life: he has found a loose connection and we hope that all is now well at last.  We will test it again when we start our trip east tomorrow.  

The skipper then turns his attention to the forward heads which appear to be partially blocked and triumphantly emerges a short while later to say he has cleared the blockage.  We breath a sigh of relief as the thought of hanging over the side to complete our ablutions is too terrifying to contemplate!

To celebrate we take the dinghy ashore and spend an hour walking and snorkeling in the shallows before downing a cold beer and returning to the yacht. 

Geoff and John walk along the beach

Until it gets too overgrown with mangrove swamp

Which abounds the coast in this area

                                  John snorkels in the shallows whilst we have a beer

Tomorrow we plan to start our long journey west, first to overnight in Marina Cay then to head on west to book out of the BVIs at its western most island, Jost Van Dyke.  Next stop after that will be Puerto Rico! I will let you know how all that goes in subsequent blogs.

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27/28 January   We overnight in Marina Cay on 27 January.  The wind speeds are high and the boat rocks at anchor all night, keeping us awake.  In the morning we motor the yacht into Trellis Bay to find a shop in order to do a final stock-up before we leave the Virgin Islands. We then sail for Jost Van Dyke Island.

Repairs to the minor problems encountered by the previous crew whilst crossing the Atlantic have now been completed and we have finished our shake-down cruise around the Virgin Islands to make sure all is working properly and we two new crew members are fully trained before we set off on our long 1000 mile sail to Florida in the next 24 hours.

Tonight (28 January) we are moored up in Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke Island (‘great’ being a relative word as the bay and facilities are tiny!).  We have to stop here to get our passports stamped by immigration before we leave for Puerto Rico.

Once we leave the Virgin Islands tomorrow we will lose our internet connection and I will not be able to keep the blog updated until we can buy a SIM card in Puerto Rico.  This may be for some days as we plan to sail via the islands of Culebra and Vieques off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico.  So, until then………………………. 

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31 January  We reach Culebra Island off Puerto Rico on 30 January.  The voyage went well despite repeated squalls with strong winds which created three metre high waves during the closing stages of the trip.  The yacht handled it all well.  

The final few miles required us to navigate around some treacherous reefs which guard the entrance to Culebra Island harbour.  We anchor in the harbour, some two hundred metres off shore, and eat a hearty supper of Green Thai curry cooked by John.

Culebra is situated 20 miles off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico and remains under US control.  When World War II erupted, the US Navy turned the island and 23 others in the archipelago into a primary site for gunnery and bombing practice. The islands remained a target area until recently, which meant the reefs and surrounding waters remain untouched by boaters and divers and the beaches are unspoiled by large-scale tourism development.

Today the island is appealing for what it lacks. There are no luxury resorts, restaurants or discos. There's also little or no crime, hardly any traffic and relatively few people.  There is plenty of wildlife however and the island is populated by terns, gulls, pelicans, boobies and several species of endangered turtle.

It is now 31 January and we decide to explore.  The town is quaintly Spanish, which is the main language of the area.  The first restaurant we find has a quaint sign on it  but is closed 

So we lunch in a waterside restaurant nearby before setting off inland.

For this purpose we hire a golf buggy for USD 20 

and set off to the northern side of the island on small twisty roads until we find an enormous beach at Flamenco Bay.  Weekend trippers who come over from the mainland of Puerto Rico by ferry lounge on the beach and at one end, a couple of old Sherman tanks rust quietly at the high water mark, probably old gunnery targets from the days when the island was used for target practice and to rehearse beach landing techniques.  We hear the original US plan to invade Cuba was practiced in this area but the actual invasion never took place.

We curse for not bringing our towels and bathing costumes but John can stand it no more and rushes into the surf in his shorts.

Tomorrow we will sail for mainland Puerto Rico.

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1 February   We leave the island of Culebra in the morning for Farjardo.  Culebra was enjoyable but the harbour is open to the easterly trade winds blowing at the moment and we had strong winds and a choppy sea to contend with whilst at anchor, so were not too sorry to leave.

 GOODBYE TO CULEBRA

As we go out of the harbour we are reminded of the reefs that guard its entrance

The sail to the mainland of Puerto Rico is uncomfortable with a quartering and confused sea over the stern which makes the yacht corkscrew.  The wind is poor too so we eventually have to motor sail to reach our destination within the day. 

PUERTO RICO

The history of Puerto Rico   Christopher Columbus discovered the island, populated by peaceful Taíno/Arawak Indians during his second voyage to the New World in 1493.  The Spanish colonized the area in 1508, looking for gold. They made slaves of the Indians gradually killing them from overwork.  they were replaced by African slaves who were brought to the island as labour.

The island remained economically undeveloped until 1830, when sugarcane and other plantations were developed. Many families from Spain and Europe moved to the island, slowly marrying Taíno Indians, forming a new ethnic group called Criollos.

Spain granted self-government to the island in 1897.  During the Spanish-American War of 1898 American troops invaded the island and Spain surrendered ownership to the USA. Since then, Puerto Rico has remained a US territory and its people are US citizens. 

Farjardo, where we land, is a small city on the eastern coast of Puerto Rico which acts as a hub for recreational boating in Puerto Rico.  It is also the nearest port to the islands of Culebra and Vieques, as well as the Virgin Islands.

FARJARDO PORT

There are several reefs around the harbour entrance which we have to navigate through carefully.  The navigation marks are poor so we use bearings to enter the harbour safely.  As we anchor off shore we notice at least ten wrecks lying forgotten on the harbour edges – a timely reminder of the problems encountered when navigating through the reefs of the Caribbean!

A REEF GUARDING THE ENTRANCE TO FARJARDO

AND TWO OF THE MANY WRECKS IN THE HARBOUR

Tomorrow we plan to sail a short distance off shore to the uninhabited island of Icacos where we hear there are some interesting reefs to explore and snorkel around.  If the winds are kind we might stay anchored there overnight, but if they are strong we may well have to come back to the safety of Farjardo for the night.

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3 February   We leave Farjado at dawn.  

As we pass the Farjado lighthouse we turn west for San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

The wind is dead astern so the skipper decides to split the trip into two legs so as to achieve a faster point of sail.  The first leg takes us some fourteen miles off shore before we turn south west for the second eleven mile leg to San Juan harbour entrance.  The waves increase in size as we get further out into the Atlantic, making the yacht surf the crests impressively in quartering seas.  

As we approach the harbour entrance we see a tug further out at sea towing a large barge. Geoff, our skipper, hails him on channel 16 and we learn it has come all the way from Alabama!

  

The seas are heavy as we approach the harbour entrance 

but abate as we round the old Spanish fort which is enormous and dates back to 1500.

Several large luxury yachts are tied up in the harbour.  We hear later that this one (with a permanent crew of 40) belongs to the Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich.

We tie up in San Juan Yacht Club marina where we meet the NZ skipper of a biggish motor cruiser and invite him back for a drink on our yacht.  He is a mine of information.  Then we had a steak in a nearby cafe and  go to bed.

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4 February   We decide to spend the day exploring inland. We hire a guide with a vehicle and set off for the El Yunque National Forest which is located some 30 miles away in north eastern Puerto Rico. It is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System and is located on the slopes of the Sierra de Luquillo mountains and covers an area of 28,000 acres. The highest peak is 3,494 feet above sea level. It has over 200 inches of rainfall a year, creating a jungle-like setting of lush foliage, crags, waterfalls and rivers.

The forest is home to over 200 species of trees and plants, 23 of which are found nowhere else in the world. Because Puerto Rico is south of the Tropic of Cancer, the forest has a tropical climate with no distinct wet or dry system and a fairly constant temperature and daylight hours throughout the year, producing a year-round growing season.  

The guide takes us deep into the forest and drops us at the start of a nature trail.  We walk for an hour and a half, past rich vegetation and waterfalls until we reach the pre-arranged pick-up point. 

The tree below is reported to be 3000 years old!

The locals, seeing the clear signs of a natural leader in John, make him a Taíno/Arawak Indian headdress which he wears with pride.

On the way back to the yacht in the afternoon we stop at a simple café to sample some of the local food for lunch. In the evening Geoff and John go ashore to buy 14 days rations for the next leg of the trip. 

Future Plans   Looking ahead, we plan to leave San Juan on Thursday or Friday, bound for the Dominican Republic. The voyage of some 300 miles will take us about two days and nights.  We plan to spend two days there and will then sail north for a further two days until we reach the Turks and Caicos islands and later, the south eastern tip of the Bahamas chain of islands. 

Once we leave Puerto Rico we will lose our internet connection so it is unlikely (unless we stop in a port with WiFi) that I will be able to update the blog for the next couple of weeks.

Until then...............

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TURKS AND CAICOS

7 – 10 February    We leave San Juan on the morning of 7 February.  

Geoff, the skipper, decides to bypass the Dominican Republic (our original destination) as the winds are better placed for us to sail northwest, direct to the Turks and Caicos Islands.  This is a three day sail covering some 360 miles across the open ocean, out of sight of land. 

During the voyage we cross the Navidad, Silver and Mouchoir Banks. These are areas of shallow water with depths varying between 12 and 100 metres, made up of coral and sand below the surface, but normally wholly submerged.  It is here that humpback whales gather between January and March to calve and mate. 

Whilst over the Navidad Bank, we have two sightings of whales breaching and a dozen or more sightings of them ‘blowing’ but regrettably all are over a mile away and we only have fleeting glimpses of them over the windblown waves which at times reach nearly 5 metres in height thus reducing our vision.  Although our sightings of whales are disappointing, we find dolphins playing around the bows of the yacht as we sail.

Between the banks we cross the Puerto Rican Trench.  This is the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, with water depths exceeding 8,400 meters (nearly 28,000 feet). Its depth is comparable to the deep trenches in the Pacific Ocean.

At midday on 9 February we see land ahead - our first sighting after three days of sailing. 

 

It is the uninhabited island of Big Cay Sand, the most easterly island in the Turks and Caicos chain.  As the light is failing, we decide to stop there for a night or two and anchor on the leeward side of the island.  

Big Cay Sand is uninhabited, only about 2 miles long and in places less than one hundred metres wide.

After a good night’s sleep (making up for two previous nights of watch duty on deck) we launch the dinghy and make for the sandy beach so we can explore the island on foot.

It has little wildlife, apart from a lot of lizards, a few seabirds and a single osprey that flies past us as we walk along the beach.

12 February   We set sail at 5 am, bound for Providenciales, the western most island in the Turks and Caicos.  The sky before dawn is pitch black and the skipper navigates his way out of the bay and past dangerous reefs using a GPS prepared course.  I admire his skills – to me it is as complicated as an aircraft pilot flying 'blind' on instruments!  

To reach Providenciales we have to cross the Caicos Bank, an area of particularly shallow water.  Again Geoff prepares an electronic course designed to avoid outcrops of coral and we sail with particular care.  The surface of the water seems benign but our instruments tell us the depth under our keel is at times less than a metre and we spend a nerve wracking day hoping we do not hit a submerged object.  At times we post a look out on the bows to try to spot obstacles.  This is no area for sailing novices to play around in but luckily Geoff has over 12 years of experience negotiating such obstacles!

By late afternoon, after sailing some 70 miles, we see Providenciales in the distance.  

The weather forecast tells us that a front is moving in our direction, increasing the chance of strong winds and high waves, so the skipper decides to stop here until the front passes.  We find a delightful and very small marina and moor up just before dusk.  It is called South Side Marina.  It is owned by Bob Pratt, an Englishman who has lived in Providenciales for 40 years and was one of the first expats to settle here.  We have a beer with him and find he has an enormous amount of knowledge of the area and its people.  

The marina also has WiFi so I am able to update the blog again.

13 February   We hire an old car for the day and set off to explore the island. The car seems to have a mind of its own.  As we drive over the badly made, potholed roads the odd electric window opens and closes by itself and the interior lights go on and off.  When I try to lock the doors, the horn sounds and I find the driver’s window will only shut when the road is rocky and uneven.  One of the tyres is so bald it is impossible to see the tread. 

We drive every small road we can find.  There is little or no wild life on the island, apart for lizards and birds.  A pygmy boa constrictor apparently lives on the island but we do not see it.  We do see however endless bays, inlets and small beaches, all surrounded by low lying vegetation - no trees of any significance grow on the island.

We stop at a restaurant for lunch.  The main item on the menu is conch.  The Turks and Caicos Islands are famous for conch, a large-sized sea snail which is on the endangered species list but is readily available here and a delicacy in the local restaurants. Its meat is eaten raw in salads, or cooked in fritters or burgers.

Conch fishermen at work in the shallows

Before we leave the Turks and Caicos I must tell you a little bit about its history.  It has eight islands and numerous uninhabited cays.  The first recorded sighting of the islands was in 1512.  In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the Britain eventually gaining control. After the islands' settlement, the 18th century African slave trade brought many Africans to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Their descendants now form a large part of the population. The islands were governed directly by the British until 1973 when they became an autonomous British Overseas Territory with a locally elected Governor.

Looking Ahead   The weather front should be past us by Saturday or Sunday, at which time we shall sail on westwards to the Bahamas.  Our first stop in the Bahamas is likely to be the island of Mayaguana where we hear there is a customs and immigration post.  

Once we leave Providenciales I will not be able to update the blog again for several days until we can access WiFi once more.

Until then............................................

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15 February   We leave Providenciales on 15 February.  Geoff, the skipper has decided, as the wind speeds are low, we will sail to Mayaguana, the first island in the Bahamas, in two stages.  Firstly we sail for 5 hours to West Caicos, an uninhabited island and the most westerly one in the Turks and Caicos where we overnight.  There is a sad story to West Caicos.  In or around 2005 it was decided to turn this island into a luxury resort.  Lehmans Bros Bank in New York agreed to fund the development but then went bust in 2007 (I think we all remember its crash as the starting point for the recession in the West) and all work stopped.  The half finished harbour and resort buildings now sit forlornly awaiting a new sponsor. 

Half finished holiday apartments on West Caicos Island

With a reef just offshore

And a half built harbour

Sunset over the harbour

During the evening I accidentally go into John’s cabin to find him sitting with a new form of head dress on, dreaming of the day two weeks ago when he was first appointed to be an Lucayan Indian chief during our walk in the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico.

 THE BAHAMAS

The Bahamas takes its name from the Spanish expression 'baja mar', which translates as 'shallow sea'.  The Bahamas is an archipelago consisting of some 700 islands and cays, situated east of Florida and north of Cuba. Only 12 islands are significantly developed and populated.  The capital is Nassau on New Providence Island.

The islands’ first settlers were the Arawak and Lucayan Indians from South America in the 9th century AD.  When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492, there were about 40,000 Lucayans living on the islands. Columbus initially befriended the tribes who were relatively advanced from social, political and religious perspectives; he later however took advantage of their amicable and generous nature and took them as slaves to work in his mines. Within 25 years of Columbus’s arrival, the tribe was completely wiped out through slavery and disease.

Following the decimation of the Lucayan population, the islands remained virtually unoccupied until the arrival of English travellers from Bermuda in 1650. These settlers established a successful farming industry that still thrives there today.  The next 70 years of the islands’ history saw what is commonly known as ‘The Golden Age of Piracy’ with famous characters such as Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Anne Bonney, using the region as a place from which to lure bounty laden ships so they could plunder their treasures.

Despite British control of the islands from 1670 onwards, the pirates’ domination remained unchallenged until 1718 when Woodes Rogers, the first governor, started a successful campaign to drive them out.  In the same year, the Bahamas officially became a British crown colony, a development which encouraged around 8,000 loyalists (and their slaves) from New York, Florida and the Carolinas, to emigrate to the islands.

In 1964, the British granted the Bahamians a degree of autonomy by allowing internal self government, a status that was held until 1973 when complete independence was granted.  Since then, tourism had become a flourishing industry, with large numbers of US and British citizens flocking to the islands and is now a popular visitor destination with a solid tourist infrastructure.

 

16 February   We sail at 5 am (before dawn) for Mayaguana, the first island in the Bahamas.  It is 56 miles away and has a complex reef system around the only protected anchorage so we must reach it before dark.  The weather forecast warns of an approaching cold front with associated high seas and winds so we spend only one night there and then sail on to Georgetown. 

Yacht beached in a recent storm on Mayaguana Island

Two sting rays swim past us in the early evening

17 February    It is a 30 hour sail of 191 miles to Georgetown, a key town at the bottom of the Exuma Islands in Central Bahamas.  As we leave the shelter of Mayaguana we hit the full force of the seas with 15 foot waves and winds gusting to over 30 mph.  

The first few hours are spent sailing close hauled into the teeth of the wind and sea water finds it way into every nook and cranny on the yacht.  At one stage a solid green wave engulfs the bow- something the skipper says he has not seen before.  Eventually we turn onto a reach and have some respite, although the yacht yaws from side to side as it fights the opposing forces of the wind and the waves. 

A seabird circles over us curiously for 10 minutes and then flies away.

Eventually we arrive somewhat exhausted (and in my case feeling rather seasick) at the entrance to Georgetown Harbour.  Again, this is protected by a complex reef system and we spend the last hour with me as lookout on the bow and John below reading the electronic chart whilst Geoff steers carefully past the jagged teeth of the reef.  As I peer into the depths, a six foot nurse shark nonchalantly swims away from under the bow of the yacht.

18 – 21 February   With the cold front continuing to produce high winds and rough seas, we decide to stay anchored in Georgetown harbour for three nights. There are over 500 yachts moored in the harbour waiting to take part in the annual Georgetown Sailing Regatta. Too many people so time to move on. 

Georgetown harbour

Yachts in Georgetown Harbour awaiting Regatta Weekend

Goodbye to Georgetown

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 21 FEBRUARY – 3 MARCH. 

WE LOSE INTERNET SIGNAL OVER THIS PERIOD SO PUBLICATION OF MY BLOG IS SUSPENDED. 

I HAVE CONTINUED TO UPDATE IT ON MY LAPTOP HOWEVER AND NOW PUBLISH IT BELOW, BUT PICTURES ARE PROVING TO BE A PROBLEM TO LOAD AS THE SIGNAL IS VERY WEAK.

THE EXUMAS

21 February   We leave Georgetown after breakfast for a 42 mile, 7 hour sail to Little Farmers Cay in the Exumas.  We find a suitable anchorage just off Little Farmers Cay shoreline during the late afternoon.  The anchor does not hold so we raise it. As it comes up a two foot long reef shark darts out from under the shadow of the yacht to investigate, hoping the anchor might be a meal, but turns away at the last moment, swimming back under the yacht again.  This is the second shark we have seen in the last week. 

The Exumas -See map below showing Exuma Sound and Great Exuma

The Exumas are an almost unbroken chain of islands curving for 90 miles through the central Bahamas, forming a superb cruising ground for yachts.  There are some 365 cays (islands) all with unique and unusual names and sheltered anchorages. Many are uninhabited and others have only small settlements of people.  Some are low and barren, others have rolling hills covered in dense vegetation and small trees. Beneath the surface are coral formations alive with fish.

Several underwater caves have stalactites and stalagmite formations seen nowhere else in the area.  These were formed some 15,000 years ago in caves on dry land when the water level was some 300 feet lower than it is today.  At that time the Exumas and the Great Bahama bank was one huge island with a channel only a few miles wide that separated it from Cuba to the south.  In comparison, if the water level today rose only 10 feet, fifty per cent of the present Bahama islands would be under water.

Almost all the Exuma cays have beautiful beaches and crystal clear water but the approaches to them are often difficult to navigate through with submerged reefs and isolated rocks.  For this reason our skipper decides he needs a lookout up the mast as we approach the anchorages to look for obstacles and shallow water – a job for which I am selected, being the only one with Polaroid glasses to see obstacles through the glare of the sun.

We will spend the next week slowly going up through the Exumas, with the aim of anchoring each night in a new cay.

22 February    We go ashore to stretch our legs.  The island of Little Farmers Cay is only one and a quarter miles long and under a mile wide - see photos below.   It has 70 residents.  

Harbour in Little Farmer's Cay

The high street in Little Farmer's Cay

The café owner, Terry Bain (below), is one of the descendants.  

He tells us all the islanders are descended from a freed woman slave who settled on the island with her three children 170 years ago. Everyone is related and most have the word Bain somewhere in their surname. 

I talk to Eugenia, the store owner.  There are no customers and she is sitting alone, reading the Book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament. She asks me my name and I tell her it is Jeremy.  She is delighted. She tells me she is to preach about Jeremiah in church this coming Sunday and the name Jeremy comes from Jeremiah.. 

I find that Jeremiah wrote about:

‘Israel's unfaithfulness to God.  He said the Israeli people were sinners: their infidelity and rebelliousness making judgement inevitable……’

I guess it is going to be quite a sermon!

Eugenia looks me over carefully then tells me she has decided that, unlike the Israelis, I am not a sinner.  But she looks askance at John, before deciding that perhaps he is not a sinner either.  The skipper is outside making a phone call on his mobile so misses judgement.  

We return to the yacht and sail on a further ten miles to Black Point, another cay with one of the larger towns (population 300) in the Exumas. 

23 February   We walk through the town at Black Point the following morning.  The Baptist church is in full swing, the service sounding like an African tribal dance.  It had started before we arrive and is still going strong as we leave two hours later.  There are several shanty bars along the street where men sit and drink beer in the shade (it is Sunday).  They tell us it is mainly the women who go to the church services. 

We return to the yacht sitting in a sea of blue



and sail a further six miles to a bay off Big Major’s Spot to anchor for the night. We will spend a couple of days here doing some maintenance on the yacht.

23 – 25 February   The island of Big Major’s Spot has a herd of feral pigs living on it.  

some have learnt to swim out to boats to look for food

Tourists are told they are descended from pigs brought to the area by pirates but we hear they belong to a farmer on an adjacent island who got fed up with their smell so transported them to this unpopulated island where they breed and live unmolested, the farmer occasionally going to the island to kill one for his dinner.  

We go ashore in Staniel Cay, a small town a mile away, by dinghy to get more supplies.  Fishermen are gutting fish and selling lobsters on the jetty. 

The smell of offal attracts sharks and rays to the area and they swim around expectantly nearby waiting for entrails and fish heads to be thrown overboard.

26 -  27 February   On 26 February we sail on to Cambridge Cay. There are several other yachts anchored at the cay. We spend two nights anchored here waiting clearance to go to Warderick Wells – like many other islands with ‘wells’ in their name, this was an area once used by sailors as a source of fresh water. 

On the first night a message goes out over the cruiser radio – Happy Hour on the beach at 5pm.  We dinghy over to a classic desert island beach nearby and have a couple of beers with the other yachties. I meet an American who looks 50 (well preserved so probably over 70!). He has been cruising with his wife in the Bahamas during the winter months in North America for over seven years.  I ask him how it has worked out.  He says “before you go for the first time, lock yourself in the bathroom with your wife for seven weeks and if you still get on, then you will be fine cruising together”.  What an American way of looking at life, but he is right.  Living together on a boat for weeks or months at a time is no easy task.

28 February   We plan to sail to Warderick Wells some 10 miles to the north but bad weather comes our way which forces us to stay in the shelter of Cambridge Cay another day as winds of over 37 mph (Force 8) sweep across the Exumas.  This is a pity as Warderick Wells contains the Headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea National Park and also houses a search centre for visiting scientists and students. Poaching (amongst other things such as drug running) has been a major problem in this part of the world over the last three decades and we hear the local Park Warden has received so many death threats over the years from local poachers that there is now a detachment of Bahamas Defence force personnel permanently based at the HQ to protect him. 

The island is said to be haunted and, on some moonlit nights, the sound of a congregation can be heard singing hymns and calling to one another.  There are three ship wrecks off Warderick Wells.  One reportedly was laden with missionaries.  A human skeleton of a six foot male was also found in 1978 in mysterious circumstances on the southern end of the island which helps to embroider the tale on which the ghost stories are built.  Many scoff these tales but on those nights when the moon is right and you hear faint moans on the wind and the hair stands up on the back of your neck, who is really knows!

1 March    Welshmen celebrate St David, their patron saint, on this day but sadly we have no leeks and daffodils on board so cannot take part. 

Instead, with the storm force winds having abated, we sail north east for some 35 miles to a small isolated island called Little San Salvador to overnight at anchor before sailing on north for a further 24 hours to the Abaco Islands - the last area to explore before we cross the Straits of Florida to mainland America in two weeks time.

The Abaco Islands  

Abaco is a group of large and small islands at the northern end of the Bahamas, originally occupied by Lucayan Indians when discovered by Columbus.  The Spanish had no interest in the islands however so there were no permanent settlements there until the 1770s when the British North American colonies declared their independence from England.

Not all colonialists supported the American Revolution in mainland America and some twenty percent remained in favour of British rule.  These loyalists were treated badly following American independence and a number moved to the Abaco Islands (owned by Britain) to escape persecution, in the hope of starting a new “British Empire” in the Americas.

Whilst 85% of the population of the Bahamas are black descendants of slaves, 50% of the Abaco remain white. When the Bahamas became independent in 1973, the residents of the Abaco petitioned the Queen to allow them to remain a British Colony. Their petition was not granted but Abaco remained a centre of opposition activity in the politics of the Bahamas for many years afterwards.

2 - 3 March   We leave Little San Salvador Island on the morning of 2 March for the 180 mile sail to Marsh Harbour in the Abaco Islands.  The trip takes 25 hours.  Initially we sail close hauled into the teeth of a strong northerly wind gusting up to 27 miles an hour.  It is unpleasant and bumpy with large waves hitting the boat and breaking over the bows.  After 7 hours the wind eases slightly and moves further to the east, and we turn on to a new course allowing us to sail on a more comfortable reach.  Day turns to night and we cross a busy shipping lane with one cargo ship coming uncomfortably close.  Dawn finds us ten miles off shore and the wind drops so we start the engine to finish the sail through the reef into Marsh Harbour where we drop anchor at 10 am and clean the boat up to remove the salt from the waves of the previous night.

4 - 7 March   I am unable to put many photos into this blog entry as the upload speed here in the Abaco is so poor. I will remedy this later if signal strengths improve.

We spend the first two days in Marsh Harbour carrying out essential maintenance.  

The rich side of Marsh Harbour

We go ashore to do much needed laundry and re-stock the larder with food stuffs to last us for the next ten days.  The boat is encrusted with salt crystals from our voyage up here so it is cleaned down and the metalwork on the deck is washed and polished to reduce the chance of corrosion.  We also visit Immigration to book out in preparation for our eventual departure.  The Immigration officials were very purposeful when we arrived in the Bahamas two weeks ago, stamping our passports and demanding 300 US dollars from us for the privilege of entering Bahamian territorial waters.  On departure they pay no attention to us at all.  They do not even want to look at our passports!  We are told by a bored official that all we need to do is to send our immigration papers back to them in the post when we reach America.  One cannot help but wonder whether it was the thought of the 300 dollars that inspired them to be so diligent on our arrival !

Doing laundry ashore is a boring business.  Our clothes and towels are put in a giant industrial machine for a wash and then tumble dried in another machine afterwards – a process that takes an hour.  This time we help a dowdy little white, middle-aged lady who cannot reach into the bottom of the washing tub to get the last of her clothes out and then fall into conversation with her.  Our boredom ends as it turns out that her family have a most interesting history.  Her ancestors were one of the first families to settle in the Abaco in the late 1700s, having been English loyalists who were thrown out of the new American Republic and sort refuge firstly in New York and then New Orleans (both then still in English hands) before being offered land in the Abaco.  They have lived here ever since.  She also tells us a new hospital is being built in Marsh Harbour and this will mean medical operations will be performed here for the first time – until now patients have had to be shipped to Nassau or Florida, even for births with impending complications.  It would be like us in Salisbury being sent to Paris to have an operation!

It was our intention to leave Marsh Harbour after a couple of days for a slow cruise up the north Abaco islands towards the Gulf Stream crossing but the weather forecast changes our plans.  We hear a strong cold front is moving down the Eastern seaboard of America towards us and is due to hit the Bahamas in two days time.  The skipper decides it is best therefore that we remain at our secure anchorage in Marsh Harbour until it passes.

We regularly get cold fronts in England and think little of them as we sit securely in our homes or offices, but boating in the ocean whilst a cold front passes through is not always a good idea.  To use its technical definition, a cold front is “the forward edge of an advancing mass of cold air that pushes under a mass of warm air”.  Cold fronts often result in heavy rain, high winds, a drop in temperature and thunderstorms so a sensible yacht skipper would prefer to be tucked up in harbour when one comes his way.

The area forecast warns us of strong winds gusting up to 50 mph for two days from Thursday 6 March. We therefore take precautions beforehand.  The dinghy, which normally sits tied up astern when in harbour, is winched on board and the outboard engine is stowed on the stern rail.  Any loose items on deck are brought below or tied down. 

Thursday comes and we sit expectantly on board with little to do but wait.  Nothing happens, the sun shines, there is the odd rain shower and the wind picks up a bit but not seriously.  
We half listen to the yacht’s VHF radio on channel 16 (the hailing channel) which tells us a tug with barge in tow somewhere nearby on the high seas is in trouble.  Either the tug or the barge has caught fire but we can only hear transmissions from the US Coastguard aircraft sent up to investigate so never learn the full story.  Later a Mayday call is heard from a boat outside Marsh harbour “…..help I am going on the rocks….”  Other boats wanting to help respond, asking for a location but nothing more is heard.  The local commercial radio station informs us the next day that this was one of two hoax calls and warns the perpetrator (if listening) that hoaxes of this nature are a serious matter which could lead to 7 years in prison.

As Thursday evening arrives we begin to see a significant change in the weather.  

Sunset before the storm

By 9 pm it is raining very heavily, the temperature drops dramatically and the wind speeds pick up to the mid twenties mph.  Lightening repeatedly fills the horizon with great ferocity – I have never seen anything like it before, even during my travels in Africa.  The storm has arrived at last.  We watch with fascination.  

A yacht anchored two hundred metres away starts drifting downwind but we are unable to help.  Its anchor must be dragging in the high winds.  



Just before it reaches some pilings near the shore and certain disaster the anchor thankfully takes a hold again and the boat is held fast once more. By daylight it has gone.  We can only assume the owner was able to move it to safety during the night as no mast can be seen sticking out of the water so it cannot have sunk.

Geoff, our skipper, spends this downtime planning our next week.  He feels the storm should pass tomorrow (Saturday 8 March) so we should be able to get under way again by then.  His intention is to sail firstly to Hope Town Harbour for a night and then on to Green Turtle Cay for a second night before starting our 90 mile sail across the Little Bahama Bank - a large shallow water sea in the north Abaco which is best tackled by day.  He intends to overnight half way across at a small island called Great Sale Cay before moving on the next day to the edge of Little Bahama Bank, where it meets the Straits of Florida.  We will anchor there in shallow water miles from land with the intention of crossing the Gulf Stream in daylight on Wednesday 12 March.  Our destination on the other side is Old Port Marina in Lake Worth, near West Point Beach.

Before I stop this blog entry let me tell you a bit about the Gulf Stream and the Straits of Florida.

“There is a river in the ocean” wrote oceanographer Mathew Maury in 1855 when writing about the Gulf Stream.  He was referring to the constant current that runs north between the deep, narrow strait between Florida and the Bahamas at an average speed of three knots, and at times up to eight knots. 

The Gulf Stream is the fastest and largest current in the Atlantic with over a billion cubic feet of seawater rushing past Miami every second.  Boaters travelling between the Bahamas and Florida must pass through the Gulf Stream.  In local boating circles this is known as “the crossing”.  Much is written about it and many sailors make the trip daily without incident, but careful planning and proper safety precautions are essential.

The Gulf Stream flowing north past Florida - see red and white coloured strip below

Our window of opportunity for crossing this potentially difficult stretch of water is small.  Another cold front is now predicted to hit the Bahamas the day following our intended crossing and a further one is forecast for the following week. I will let you know how we get on with this final adventure in subsequent blogs!

8 March     We leave Marsh Harbour at 9 am.  A wrecked yacht lies near the harbour entrance.  We are not sure if it was a casualty of the storm yesterday or not - see picture below.



The wind was forecast to have abated by now but a stiff breeze comes out of the North West, right on the nose.  We cannot sail straight into the wind as we must stick closely to a course to clear the underwater obstacles in this shallow water.  Two hours later we reach the inner edge of the reef and open sea.  In order to go west, we have to leave the sheltered waters inside the reef and go out into the ocean for a few miles before returning again through another entrance in the reef called Whale Cay Passage.  The wind has now increased to 20 mph and the notes on the chart say this passage “can be hazardous with breaking seas when moderate to strong northerly winds or offshore swells are present”.  We have this situation but the skipper decides we can make it so we plough on.  For an hour we encounter uncomfortable seas and the boat rolls and pitches noticeably but she safely carries us through back into calmer waters again.

Heavy seas around the Reef

A wreck on the reef

By early afternoon we reach Green Turtle Cay and anchor a mile from the small town of New Plymouth in Settlement Harbour - I have found the names throughout the Bahamas have been so interesting!  

New Plymouth town in Settlement Harbour 

As we have been stuck on the boat for two days we go ashore in the dinghy and spend an hour walking around the town.  The buildings are all made of plywood and are painted in delightful pastel colours.  The narrow streets are made of concrete paving slabs and the transport seems to be mainly golf buggies adapted for road work.  As we missed lunch we eat a light meal in the only café we can find open during the afternoon and then make our way back to the boat for the night.

9 March   We get up early and set off at dawn for the long 60 mile passage across Little Bahama Bank to the uninhabited island of Great Sale Cay which is half way across the Bank to the edge of the Florida Strait.  There is no wind today so we motor the whole way.  Initially it is cold (for us anyway!) and we wear jerseys to take the cutting edge out of the wind but as the day progresses the sun warms the air.  The temperatures are now about 10 degrees C lower than those in the southern Bahamas, probably as the northerly winds have brought colder air down from North America.  They are still in the low twenties centigrade though so we cannot complain! 

Several boats are moored in sheltered waters of Great Sale Cay when we arrive at 5pm, clearly bound like us for Florida.

Sunset at Great Sale Cay

......and dawn the next morning as we leave

10 March   We leave Great Sale Cay Island in the early morning for the 45 mile voyage to West End Harbour which sits at the edge of the Great Bahama Bank and the Florida Strait and is the last harbour in the Bahamas.  There is no wind again so we have to motor the whole way. 

See how calm the sea is this - it is difficult to tell the difference between the sea and the sky on the horizon!

The Bahama Bank (like all the other banks we have crossed) are enormous but very shallow.  If you look carefully at the photo below you can see the sea bed only two metres below our keel.



In the late afternoon we reach the Harbour and tie up ready for an early supper and bed.  We shall sail at dawn tomorrow to cross the Strait to Florida.  This will be our last voyage on this epic trip.

11 March    We leave West End Harbour in the Bahamas at dawn for the final leg of our long trip to Florida.  

The Straits can be a tricky crossing but today we find virtually no wind and the seas are calm as we head west.  To prevent the Gulf Stream current from taking us too far north the skipper sets a south westerly course to compensate for drift.  The crossing takes us 11 hours.  Towards the end the wind picks up and allows us to sail the last ten miles in style.  

In the distance we see the coast of Florida which slowly gets closer

and two hours later we are moored up in Old Port Cove Marina, West Palm Beach - shown on the map below, to the right of Lake Okeechobee.

This is definitely America!  All around us are skyscrapers and luxury yachts.  

The Marina in which we are moored

Tiger Wood's yacht

...........  and other motor yachts moored near us

Our yacht Concerto might be a large ocean sailing yacht but it is dwarfed by the skyscrapers and the enormous plastic “gin palaces” moored around us.  There is plenty of money in this part of the world!

The Final Days   The next few days are spent relaxing ashore and cleaning up the boat in preparation for our departure for the UK.  We meet the owners of some of the enormous motor yachts around us, many worth millions of dollars. 

One tells us he keeps one motor yacht on the west Coast of America and another on the East Coast so he can go, at a whim to either for a break.

Another says his wife does not like sailing into the wind.  He jokes and says “my wife tells me the best way to go to windward is in a Boeing 747”

A third tells us that most of the flats around here are owned by "snow birds" that is the name given to wealthier people who spend the summer in their homes in N America and the winter down here in their apartments to escape the snow and cold of the north.

As I write this final blog entry it is interesting to think that we have now lived on board Concerto for 64 days during which time we have sailed 1380 miles and visited many different islands on our voyage through the Caribbean and the Bahamas. It has been a memorable trip with many happy memories and experiences to ponder over in the years to come.

We have all got on well together and have spun many yarns over a glass or two of rum in the evening.  It has been a good voyage!

Geoff the skipper

John the first mate (who is also an excellent cook!)

And me - the crew – that is all one of us!