Back at Black Point

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Geo: 24.0978, -76.4048

We are at Black Point again because we are waiting for an engine part to be flown in from FLL on Watermakers Air and this is a MUCH better place to wait than Staniel Cay (which is where Watermakers flies to...)

Black Point Settlement is known for Laundry and 'free' RO water. They do hope that cruisers will make a donation towards their community for both water and garbage disposal. This is a great little spot with wonderful people and everything we need.

I'm adding pictures every few days while we are here - to this entry and to the others as well.

Have I mentioned that Black Point has EXCELLENT wifi?!? Major bonus. 😊

May 2nd, 2014 – Life is back to normal

Hello all,

It's been a while since my last blast email! Here's the quick run down before I go into detail of the past few weeks I've been back on board:

• I flew home from Georgetown (GGT) on March 6th – my mom's knee surgery went well and I was also happy to be home with her for her birthday in early April.

• Randy flew into GGT on the day I left and joined Tony onboard Inspiration for two weeks. Together they travelled up to Cambridge and back down to GGT, stopping at Black Point and Little Farmer's Cay.

• On March 20th Randy flew out of GGT, and Jimmy and Mirko flew in for a week. They stayed in Georgetown for several days and then moved up to Emerald Bay Marina (Next to the Sandals resort) for their last few days onboard.

• Tony then singlehanded back up to Cambridge Cay where he volunteered for the Exuma Land and Sea Park as "Host Boat".

• I returned to Inspiration on April 9th. I flew in to Staniel Cay and Tony arranged for my pick up to be the Park Warden and Bahamian Defence Force (BDF)!! A very fast boat ride back to Cambridge and I was home, sweet home!

It took me a couple of hours to get back into the swing of things on the boat. Upon arrival, the weather was fairly windy, the boat was rocking, and boy, was I feeling it! (It didn't help that my knees were like jelly from the twenty minute 35-40 mph boat ride!!)…I immediately looked at Tony and said, “let's sit OUTSIDE!” So we caught up on five weeks worth of each other's stories and adventures for the next two hours in the cockpit and by the time I went to sleep that night I was feeling right back at home aboard Inspiration.

On my first full day back, I awoke to a beautiful day with the sun shining, a decent breeze, and the turquoise Bahamian water surrounding us. We got right back into our regular daily routine…Tony up first, reading in the cockpit, then I'd get up I make the coffee and do the dishes. I'd make breakfast/brunch. If needed, we'd do a little boat work, a chore, here or there. Then we would hike across the island and climb to the top of Cambridge Cay (AKA Little Bell Island) with our 3G Kindle to get one, MAYBE two bars of 3G so that we could pick up emails, and send cryptic messages home! (The kindle is NOT user friendly…it's more like an old DOS system, for those of you who remember DOS!)

Each afternoon we would snorkel, swim, or kayak. Sometimes we'd dinghy over to another sandbar or another part of Cambridge Cay to hike to the beach. We'd watch the turtles, rays, and sometimes sharks. We'd relax in the hammock, read, swim again and then rinse off with a solar shower before dark. Tony is always in charge of dinner, unless it's a leftover night in which case I am responsible for heating up my own, since he eats most leftovers cold.

Life is pretty simple out here. 😊

So, what's this “Host Boat” gig all about? It was the perfect volunteer job for Tony!! Each day around 4pm Tony would dinghy from boat to boat to collect mooring ball fees and would provide them with a park receipt. He also gave visitors information about the park, provided maps for nearby snorkeling sites, and for the trails on Cambridge Cay. Some days were very busy with lots of turnover in the mooring field and plenty of questions from the various boats and on these days Tony enjoyed talking to everyone and his “rounds” could take up to two hours!!! On other days Tony only ended up going over to one or two boats to collect fees and was back in ten minutes. As well, we would monitor the VHF radio all day in case boats were looking to find out if any mooring balls were available, and we would sometimes do radio relays if boats south of us were trying to reach the park. (Funny thing is, now people meet us for the first time, hear our boat name, and know that we were the host boat in Cambridge!) In total, Inspiration was the Host Boat for about five weeks. Tony really had fun with the “job” and in return the park was very kind to us. They provided our mooring ball for free, brought us water, and took us for a fast run to Staniel Cay if we needed to go grocery shopping. The Park Ranger and Bahamian Defence Force visited us every day or second day. Wow…talk about feeling “Safe”!

We spent Easter Sunday in Wardrick Wells at the Park Headquarters. Originally we were going to sail up to join the Park Staff for a pot luck, but the weather didn't cooperate. The guys from the park kindly came to pick us up and brought us to the celebration – which again, at their speed was only a 20 minute ride. They got a good laugh about our cruising speed being about 5 knots, and that if we really push it we can go 7 knots.

As we hung out with the staff, we had the opportunity to meet other “locals”. I put the word locals into quotes because here in the Exumas many of those working here come down from Nassau. On many of the Cays the staff live in residence and only return home to Nassau for a week off every now and again. As well many of the Cays are private and only the staff live there full time. For example, I explained in a previous email that Cambridge Cay is right next to Bell Island, which belongs to the Aga Khan. (Every day, I'd make the comment, “There goes Chaka Khan on his helicopter again!” – c'mon, it's a bit funny, no?) Anyway, the group of locals that we met at Wardrick Wells were the staff of a private cay called Little Halls Pond (LHP). Google it! Okay, okay, I'll save you the trouble….It's Johnny Depp's island!

So the following day (Easter Monday) we worked at the Park Headquarters for the day. I helped out in the office…greeting visitors, giving directions, and answering their VHF radio. I was the voice of the Exuma Park for the day. It was a lot of fun! Tony was out on the water with the guys all day. They patrolled up into Shroud and Hawksbill Cays which was a great sightseeing opportunity for Tony as we had not stopped at those places. At lunch, they took us into their homes and shared their food. Then we continued our tasks in the afternoon. In the office we shared knowledge and exchanged ideas. Knowing that I had worked at a Yacht Club, they asked me many questions wanting to learn new practices. It's opportunities like this that really make this experience fulfilling. What a wonderful way to see first hand how some people work and live here!

At the end of the day, they delivered us back to our boat in Cambridge, and we had a nice little “care package” waiting for us on deck. The guys from LHP had dropped off a football, a bottle of wine, and two t-shirts. The background on this is that I've wanted a football for the longest time. We thought we had found one floating in the water towards our boat on Good Friday…but it turned out to be a huge packaged smoked ham!!! (Someone obviously didn't have the Easter dinner that they had planned!) Well, I told this story to the guys from LHP at the Sunday potluck and they said that footballs wash up on their beaches all the time and that they'd drop one off on our boat. Well, weren't we surprised to find the other goodies as well! I've got a t-shirt from Johnny Depp's island! *Insert my squeal here!* How cool it that?!? (Tracy, I've thought of you often recently - you must be going wild hearing this!!! LOL )

So, we finally left our little slice of heaven (Cambridge Cay) a few days ago, and moved on to Staniel Cay and now Black Point Settlement again. Tony had discovered on a routine inspection of the engine that the water pump seal has started to leak, so while we are able to have things flown in to Staniel Cay we are taking care of that now. Black Point is not far from Staniel and it's worth it to sit here and wait for a part to be shipped to us from the states. Black Point has excellent free wifi, and as I mentioned before, is known for its Laundromat and free RO (reverse osmosis) water. We've also gotten to know the guys here at a Restaurant/Bar called Scorpio's and they are very good to us. Last night they cooked up some Lamb Curry especially because Tony missed it the last time he was here with Randy. It was delicious!

It's getting late in the cruising season, and at this point most of the boats are heading north for the summer. The regular cruisers have their year planned out where they stay down here for the winter and return north for the summer (like snow birds). A few boats are doing the same route as us and are heading further south. Because we are so late in the season, we have had to change our route. We just don't have enough time to make it down to the Rio Dolce, Guatemala, as originally planned. Our new hurricane hole (safe place to wait out hurricane season) will be Luperon, in the Dominican Republic. Are we upset about this? Not at all. We have been enjoying our destinations so much that we end up staying longer than planned as we get to know the locals and the communities.

I will upload lots of picture to the photo blog over the next few days...so stay tuned there!

Also, our track cannot be seen in the Bahamas unless we are close to a tracking station. And the only tracking station we've found is in Georgetown. Hopefully these two sites will show us again at some point. (You have to check both, because I've figured out that they each have stations in different areas.

Love and Kisses!

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Comments

[J.]

lol shovelling ... I can just picture it!