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Published: January 25th 2009
After New Years, we said goodbye to our kids, as they headed back home to work and the cold weather. We will miss them, but for sure won’t miss the weather. So far this winter the weather has been very very nice down here.
Steven, Dawn, Paul and Ella, all seemed to enjoy things here in “Club Georgetown” and Miss Ella, got right into the beach life.
We spent a few days, cleaning and putting our boat stuff back where it usually is. Six people and baby luggage on our boat makes it a little tight so we had moved things around to accommodate everyone. Without any more company coming for awhile we decided to head further south, to Long Island, the Jumentos Cays, and possibly even Cuba.
One little glitch was that our refrigeration was acting up. It was old, and we have known that we would have to fix or replace it soon. We had a friend leaving Florida on their boat , headed for Georgetown so we had them buy us a new refrigeration compressor, hoping ours would last until we could get back to Georgetown in early February. Well….. it didn’t make it. Anyway
more on that later.
On January 8th we left Georgetown and sailed to Thompson Bay Long Island. We have friends with a home there, so we visited with them for a couple of days, provisioned some more and headed for the Jumentos Cays on January 10th.
The Jumentos Cays and Ragged Islands are referred to as “the fishing grounds” . There is a great deal of commercial fishing done in this area, as well as fantastic coral and small reefs for spear fishing. The water is even clearer, the coral even more beautiful, and lots of nice deserted beaches for finding shells, sea beans and other cool stuff. There are very few people that live in this area, with the only settlement being Duncantown.
After leaving Long Island, our first stop in the Jumentos Cays was in Water Cay. We spent a couple days there diving, beachcombing and exploring the many small Cays. At night the commercial fishermen come in and anchor in the bays, and enjoy socializing with the cruisers. They also like trading fish or lobsters, for beer, or baked goods. So when we didn’t catch fish we would go out and trade with the
fishermen.
Our second stop in the Jumentos was Flamingo Cay. These islands are so small that you sometimes have to move anchorages (even in the night) when the wind changes.That happened to us and after spending a couple of nights in the east anchorage with fantastic sunsets, we moved to the north anchorage.
It was while we were at Flamingo Cay that our refrigeration died. We were having some other boaters over to our boat for evening cocktails and Sharon was making them a nice rum drink with even some ice cubes. As the ice cubes had hardened together Sharon took the ice pick to them. Unfortunately they were still in the refrigerator and she must have missed , and the ice pick punctured the evaporator plate of the refrigerator, and all the refrigerant sprayed out. The refrigerator wasn’t working that great before, but this was definitely the final “blow”.
So without refrigeration and a questionable weather report, we decided to scrap the second part of the trip to Cuba, and go back early to Long Island. The refrigerator was on it’s last legs so it really wasn’t that bad a loss, and we can still go
to Cuba later in the season. Sharon has aquired a nickname now though among the cruisers here in Georgetown. Her new Nickname is ICEPICK.
Back in Long Island we spent a couple more days visiting our friends Dawn and Mike, and spent some time at the new resort there, the Long Island Breezes, which is a very first class resort with good food, great accommodations , and a beautiful view (especially at Sunset). Long Island is an exceptional Bahamas Island with many things to see, and some great out of the way beaches. It is not surprising that many people looking to build houses, end up building on Long Island.
Also while we were at Long Island we visited the famous cave by the dive shop. This is the 8th largest cave in the world and a must see if you visit Long Island.
We are now back to Georgetown, and enjoying hanging out at the beach, socializing and just taking it easy. We have now got our refrigeration fixed and are waiting for the right weather to go exploring some other places, maybe Cat Island this time. We go home for a week at the end
of February so any trips we take between now and then will be short ones, plus we are anticipating a short visit from Sharon’s brother Brian.
We hope you enjoy this set of pictures. Take care, and if you have time send us an email with an update on how things are at home.
Stay Warm
Doug and Sharon
Aboard SV About Time
January 24th 2009
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Mike Bondy
non-member comment
You needed a new one anyway.
Glad to hear that weather is good for you this year. Hope you still make it out to your goal of Cuba but there is always next year. Sounds like you are having a great time for sure, must have been stressful without the reefer for a time but I am sure that you just adapted as cruisers do. Freezing cold and tons of snow up here still, a good year to be away. Cheers to the Sandercotts from the Bondys