Camofest or the Bahamian Island Invasion Force

October 18 - 24, 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007 - Childrens Bay, Childrens Bay Cay, Exumas
By Tom

And we're off!

Actually, before we left I ran back into town to drop off trash and to get 10 more gallons of gas, but who's counting?

And we're off! Again!

We upped anchor,raised the main, unfurled the genoa and turned our nose northward. The wind fell almost dead behind us, so we swapped the genoa for the spinnaker and off we went. We managed a stately 4 to 5 knots in 8 to 10 knots true. It took us 6 hours to sail up to Children's Bay, but we didn't mind, at least we were sailing.

The trip up was quiet. We ran three fish whackers, but all we caught was one small, two foot barracuda which was released unharmed. We had the anchor down by 4 pm, just a head of a light rain shower that moved through the area.

For dinner we had baked potatoes and fillet mignon on the grill. Needless to say, there were no leftovers. We were both tired from a long day in the sun and bedtime came at 8pm. Tomorrow we'll head back outside and move the boat up to Farmers

Friday, October 19, 2007 - Big Harbour, Little Farmers Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We had a leisurely start this morning and didn't pick up the anchor until almost 9:30 am after Amy made us bacon, lettuce, and tomato wraps for breakfast. We raised the main sail up the mast and used it to sail off the anchor. What a shame no one was around to see us, because we looked mega professional.

Today's destination was Big Harbour at Little Farmers Cay, some 18 miles to the north west as the crow flies, but thanks to the vagaries of sailing, it took us almost 30 miles to get there. We choose to use the inside passage around the Pimlico Cays as we had good wind to sail and a mega high tide.

We ended up making a whopping 3.3 knots average for the day, mostly due to the fact that we were dead down wind and used only our main sail as the genoa kept falling into the shadow of the main. We could have used our spinnaker, but rain squalls kept passing us by and I do not like to get caught in a sudden wind shift with the big kite flying.

We ran three fish whackers the whole way, but only managed to catch a monster barracuda and a smallish Yellowtail Snapper, both of which were returned to the wild. We tacked up into Big Harbour and over the rock bar with more than a foot and a half to spare as the Bahamas experience really high tides this time of year.

We dropped the hook in four feet of water, backed down on the anchor and then put the boat to bed. It was definitely a relaxing sail up here today; slow, but relaxing.

Once the boat was safely put to bed, I launched my newly repaired wind surfer and spent two hours tooling around the harbour. Oddly enough the area between Big Farmers and Little Farmers and Great Guana is not a good place to surf as there are lots of scattered coral heads in less than 4 feet of water just waiting to get you if you fall off. Surfers beware!

Around 5:30 we launched the dinghy and headed in to Ali's Shack. I have mentioned it before, but Ali's is basically the place to hang out on Little Farmers. Ali's place is a little tool shed that has been converted to a bar and if you stand there for an hour on Thursday or Friday night, pretty much all of the island's 100 inhabitants will come by.

Amy and I purchased a fifth of rum and a can of orange juice for four bucks and then made our own drinks while we sat in the shed and caught up on what's been going on since we last visited. Several of the islands inhabitants remembered us (ok, they remembered Amy) and welcomed us back as the first cruising boat of the year to visit.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that we actually never left the Bahamas, so technically we cannot be the first boat of the new season.

For what it's worth, the people at Farmer's really enjoy having the cruising boats stop here and the cruisers are probably all that keeps this tiny island community from disappearing completely.

In between drinks, I helped a local named Casance unload his skiff from the back of a pickup and re-install his outboard once we got it floating. Unfortunately, the repair done on the transom resulted in an engine space that was too thick to receive the engine.

No worries, we found a chisel and a large rock and in about 15 minutes we were able to remove enough glass to allow the engine to fit. It's da Bahamas mon!

Back in the bar/shack, Amy and I finished our drinks and decided to call it a night. There is a "Camo" party scheduled for Saturday and we have been invited. My understanding is that we are all to wear camouflaged clothes, but I am not certain what the significance of this may be. Perhaps we are planning an invasion of one of the nearby Cays that are owned by some obnoxiously wealthy American actors. If so, I'm voting for Musha Cay as it is now reportedly owned by Nicholas Cage and I cannot stand his movies.

Trust me, invasions have begun for far stupider reasons, just ask President Bush.

Anyhow, we pushed our dinghy off the beach and motored back to the mega yacht. I tied us up like I always do and then raised the engine out of the water for the night. Next I exited the dinghy onto the port side stairs, again, just like I always do. Amy attempted to follow me, but somehow missed the first step out of the dinghy onto the swim platform. Gravity kicked in shortly there after and the next thing I knew, Amy was lying on the bottom of the ocean floor. Hmmm.

I thought about going in after her, but then remembered we were only in 4 feet of water, so instead I yelled "Stand up!". Sure enough, she was able to and disaster was averted. Once safely aboard, we dried her off and pretty much tucked her in bed for the night at the astonishingly late hour of 6:45 pm.

You didn't hear it from me, but it might have been one rum punch too many for the Amy unit. As an interesting aside, the same thing happened to the Buddy Fred last time we were here, so at least I was prepared.

Left to my own devices for the rest of the evening, I surfed the internet with Mila, ate a ham and cheese sandwich and finished reading My Sisters Keeper by Jodie Picoult. For the record, I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind crying when the ending comes..

I joined a slightly soggy Amy in bed around 10:30 and promptly took over her side of the bed as she had used mine to dry off. I hate sleeping in the wet spot.

Saturday, October 20, 2007 - Big Harbour, Little Farmers Cay, Exumas
By Tom

I got up at 5:30 this morning and played with Mila in the cockpit until the sun came up. Once it was light enough to see, I loaded up on my wind surfer and headed out to sail around the island. I went all way around Little Farmers, a distance of about 4 miles, and returned to the big boat still dry! Sweeet.

Milo and Amy were both awake by the time I returned, so we all sat down to a breakfast of French toast. The ferrets don't really like the toast, but they love the syrup. After we were done eating, I had to wash both weasels to remove all of the sticky residue.

We cleaned up the combined mass of breakfast and last nights dinner dishes and then set about doing boat projects. Amy worked on cleaning the headliner with a mild bleach solution while I worked on swapping our spare anchor rode onto the primary anchor. This was made more difficult by the fact that the primary anchor was currently in use and lying on the sea bed.

I'll spare you the blow by blow details, but an hour and a half later, I had my rodes swapped and Amy was done fighting mold for the day. We retired to the cockpit for a rum drink and a light afternoon snack with the weasels.

Afterwards, I went back out on my wind surfer, but the wind was down to 10 knots, so I mostly just drifted around at a very slow speed. Oh well.

Around 5:30, we donned our camouflage clothing, grabbed the camera and headed in to the Camo-fest. There was probably 60 or 70 Bahamians already in full party mode and we joined the fray. We ended up hanging out with Jeffery and a couple of his friends swapping stories. Jeffrey spear fishes for a living, so he and I spent a lot of time swapping stories of our fishing exploits.

The sun went down and we moved in on one of the food stalls to score some jerk chicken for dinner. It was pretty good, but mega spicy. We ended up sitting down with a really nice Bahamian couple who were back visiting family on Farmer's for the weekend. The husband is a professional lobster diver, so he gave me lots of information on how they hunt.

The party was still in full swing when we decided to call it a night at 9 pm. We motored back to the boat in the moonless dark serenaded by the all too common "thump, thump, thump, boom-pa-wump" that seems to accompany all Bahamian music.

A quick running of the weasels and then to bed by 10. Tomorrow we sail out

Sunday, October 21, 2007 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We took our time getting moving this morning as we only planned on covering the 8 or 9 miles up to Black Point. It was a good thing we weren't going too far, because we had to wait until noon for enough water to get over the bar in the anchorage.

We sailed the whole way up and dropped the hook at the head of the anchorage in 5 feet of water. The wind was blowing a good 15 knots and we averaged 7.5 knots for the trip. Once the boat was put to bed, I fired up the grill and cooked a couple of lobsters for dinner.

We tried staying up to listen to the Pittsburgh Steelers game, but it came on at 8:30 and we too tired to make it. We'll probably hang out here a day or two and then head up to Staniel Cay on Wednesday to meet the mail boat and take on fuel

Monday, October 22, 2007 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas
By Tom

Today was boat chore day. After breakfast tacos. we got to work cleaning the cabinets and the floor inside the boat. The weasels hate bleach solution we use to clean, so they hid for the duration.

Around noon, the cleaning was done. Amy went for a swim and I worked on the computer. I decided a couple of days ago to update the website design. Hopefully, if your reading this now you have seen the re-design. In any event, it was time well spent I assure you.

The wind was up all day, but the anchorage is really well protected, so we sat pretty snug despite the steady 20 knots. The wind however did keep us on the boat all day and we didn't even launch the dinghy.

For dinner, we made potato skins on the grill and then watched The Constant Gardener with Ralph Fines and Rachel Weiss. We both thought it was pretty good. Tomorrow we are going to go in to town and do some laundry and then probably sail out.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - Black Point Harbour, Great Guana Cay, Exumas
By Tom

Yesterday was the first time in the last 28 days that it hasn't rained, but the wind that blew us up here from Farmers increased overnight and by day light it was blowing a solid 25 knots. Dinner this morning was home made waffles sans blue berries because we are running low and the ferrets get first dibs.

After breakfast was cleaned up, we dropped the dinghy in the water and headed in to town with a load of laundry. There is a really nice laundry facility here that opened last year that is quite popular during the season, but since we are the only cruising boat in the harbour there were no lines.

While our laundry spun in circles, we snagged a couple of books from the book swap and sat reading for the two hours it took to get our clothes clean. On the way back to the dinghy dock, Eunice, an elderly Bahamian lady we have met before stopped us and invited us into her home to look at her hand crafts.

Eunice is somewhere between 75 and 90, depending on who you ask. I'm amazed she remembers us, but it's always nice to see her. I don't know if she is all together there or not, but regardless she is still a part of the small community here and everyone looks out for her. Amy ended up buying a straw hand fan which is pictured side right.

As an interesting aside, the are no old people homes in the Bahamas. I have found this to be true in most other countries except the U.S. and I have to say it seems a much better way. I guess the families in general seem much closer than what I'm used to in the states. Of course, if I hadn't left my country to come here and visit I would probably be closer to my family too, so there you have it.

Anyhow, back on the boat, we stowed our clothes and I set about making a loaf of home made bread. Once it was set aside to rise, Amy and I shared a glass of wine and read our books. By 4 pm the bread was ready for the oven and twenty five minutes later it was done.

After cooking, we were going to head back in to town and grab a beer at the Scorpion Bar and Grill, but half way across the harbour, our dinghy engine quit. Shitty death! I couldn't get it running again, so we had to row back to the mother ship. By the time we got back, it was dark, so engine repair will have to wait until tomorrow.

We decided instead to have some cheese and bread and watch the full moon come up over the ocean before turning in for the night around 8 pm.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas
By Tom

We upped the sails and moved 5 miles up to Big Majors just the other side of Staniel Cay. It was an uneventful sail that took an hour.

We had the anchor down by 10 am and I set to removing and cleaning the carburetor. When I put it back together it ran fine, so I guess we'll call it fixed. Afterwards, we launched the dinghy and I motored into town to get some flour as we are now out after bread making yesterday.

When I returned from the store, Amy made some rolls and I launched my wind surfer. The wind was really up and I had a good time speeding through the anchorage. I didn't mention it, but there are no other cruising boats here and just two mega yachts.

Wind surfing came to an end when I lost control and got tossed on my head cutting my leg in several places. Damn.

Back on board, we hung out and just read our books in the cockpit. Around 5, the wind started pushing to the south making it somewhat uncomfortable in our anchorage, so we picked up the hook and moved around to town where there was a little more protection.

After we got the hook down, I fired up the grill and we made cheese steaks on fresh home made rolls. While we were finishing up, Bernie and his delivery crew on Lutine came in and anchored behind us. We've known Lutine for several years and it was good to see another cruising boat. They are in a hurry to get to Georgetown and then fly home for the holidays, so they will be leaving in the morning for points south.

We chatted for a while and then returned to our boat and by 9 pm we turned in for the evening