Staniel Cay Yacht Club
Latitude:24.17269 Longitude:-76.4458
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Bahamas Day 211 – BD211 (8/4/12 – Saturday) – Last night was the worst night we have ever spent on a boat! Rocking and rolling does not begin to describe what we went through. We rocked up and down and side to side with closet doors and medicine cabinets flying open through the wee hours of the morning. Rick and I were very happy to see the sunrise just before 7 a.m. And, we were very thankful that our Rocna anchor held. As the sun was rising, we were preparing to start up and move to a dock at Staniel Cay. The seas are predicted to be higher today than yesterday, but at least we don’t see any rain clouds yet. Surprisingly, we pulled into the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, our home for the next month, about 10:00 a.m. We had thought that it would take us much longer, but the seas were not as bad as expected. The dockage rates here are $2.00/foot for boats under 100 feet in length. They charge 75 cents per kilowatt hour and 40 cents per gallon of water and $2.50 per bag of trash. Around 4:00, the electricity went off on the whole island. It tried to start again several times, but no luck. So, we finally decided to turn on the generator, so I could make supper. Of course, the generator would not stay running. So, Rick worked for quite some time to clear the filter. He finally got it going around 8:00, and, of course, the electricity was restored about 10 minutes later. We ate a light supper and went to bed early as none of us had gotten much sleep the night before.
BD212 (8/5/12 – Sunday)– I awoke about 5:30 a.m. to discover Rick down in the engine room. When I asked what was wrong, he said that our air conditioning pump appears to have burned out. He went ahead and removed the pump while the engine room was still relatively cool. Then he got on-line and made some inquiries about purchasing a new pump. We have company coming to stay on the boat for the next two weeks and we sure would like to have the air fixed by the time they arrive on Saturday. There is a nice breeze today, so we have opened up the boat to make the best of it. I, being an optomist, just figure we are saving all kinds of money by not running the three air conditioners.
After Vanessa got up, we made a picnic lunch, loaded up the dinghy and went for a ride. We passed by the Thunderball Grotto but it was high tide and we could not see the entrance. Then, we went to Big Majors Cay to the beach where the swimming pigs are found. We were excited to see three big pigs on the beach. After a short while more small boats came to the beach. Several of them brought bread to feed the pigs. Once the pigs knew there was food to eat, they swam out to the boats and had their fill. Some of the people were brave enough to get in the water with the pigs, but we had been told by several people that the pigs do bite, so we kept our distance. We decided to proceed to another beach from which we could see Fowl Cay. We beached the dinghy and Rick and Vanessa went snorkeling while a tended the boat. By the way, Rick sent a SPOT message to a few of you from this beach. No, we didn’t move the boat, we just moved the SPOT. After they finished their snorkeling, we ate our picnic lunch which included three apples. So, we loaded back into the dinghy and headed back to the pigs to give them our apple cores. When we were at that beach the second time, there was a couple who was feeding them Sprite and Gatorade. She was up on the beach holding the can and pouring the soda right into their mouths. Each one of the pigs swam out to the dinghy and we tossed them their apples. Then we headed back to the boat. It had gotten windy and the ride back was a wet one. Upon our return, we enjoyed a swim in the freshwater pool and met several nice couple who were staying in the cottages. One man told us that he was nipped by one of the spotted pigs yesterday.
BD213 (8/6/12) – We decided to splurge and eat breakfast at the restaurant this morning. It was very good, but the restaurant wasn’t air conditioned either. While we were eating, we received confirmation that a new air conditioning water pump would be flown over to the island on the 3:15 Watermaker’s Air flight. In the meantime, we planned to go to the store today to pick up bread, milk and eggs. We loaded into the dinghy and went around the end of the island and up a short creek to the Isles General Store. We got there at 1:20 and noticed a closed sign in the window. Another sign said they closed for lunch daily from noon to 1:30, so we waited. Just before 2:00 a skiff pulled up with four people on board. They had come from Compass Cay to go shopping at the store. They called and knocked and even rang a bell, but no one came to the door. We left them sitting in the shade under a pavilion at 2:20, and headed back to the boat. We told them that we thought it might be a Bahamian holiday. When we got back to the boat, Rick checked with the dock master’s office and they confirmed that it was Emancipation Day. The first Monday in August, commemorates the end of slavery in the Bahamas in 1834. The new air conditioning water pump was delivered from the airport and Rick installed it. Much to our disappointment, the air ran for a minute or so and then the circuit flipped off again, just like the old one was doing. He had noticed a couple of the boats docked near us were running their generators. So, he started our generator and then started the air conditioners and they worked! Rick tested a few more things and discovered that we were getting 140 volts where we should have been getting 120 volts. He now believes this is what caused both of the pumps to trip the circuit. We were getting a nice breeze through the boat with all the doors and windows open, so we decided to leave it that way until we went to bed. Then we turned on the generator and ran the air all night.
BD214 (8/7/12) – This morning, Rick went up to the dock master’s office and talked with David. His family owns the marina. When he told him about our voltage problem, David said that the electric company replaced the island’s generator on Saturday (when we were without power for several hours). Before the new generator was in place, the marina’s voltage was too low. So, they had a booster/amplifier put in place. Perhaps now, with the new generator, that was no longer necessary. He said that he would call the power company. Representatives from the power company came to the boat just before 11:00 a.m. They told Rick that they had brought another island on-line this morning and reduced the power booster for the marina. They thought that would resolve the voltage problem. But, when the marina was full, the voltage might be too low. We checked and it seems to have done the trick. We started the air and are very comfortable again. Now, we have a spare air conditioning water pump – just in case it is ever needed. We wanted to go to Thunderball Grotto today, but the tides are not in our favor for that excursion. So, we will go back to the store and then pick another destination for snorkeling this afternoon.
We took the dinghy back to the Isles General Store just after 1:30. We bought some milk and some tomatoes. After returning to the boat, we walked to the Pink Pearl Market where we were able to buy sliced bread and eggs (for $11). The yellow house on the corner, where they make fresh bread, is only open in the mornings. Then we went to Pirate Trap Beach to snorkel and explore. All in all, it turned out to be a great day.
BD215 (8/8/12) – Between 10 and 11 last night, we tripped breakers again. Rick checked and the voltage was back up. So, we switched to generator and ran it until 10:00 this morning. He notified the dock master’s office and we waited around the marina so that he could talk to the electric company people again. Happy birthday to our nephew Michael who turned 14 today.
BD216 (8/9/12) – We talked to JP via SKYPE today, our regular Thursday morning call. All seems to be well at home. By the time we finished our call and ate some lunch, it clouded up and spit rain off and on for a good part of the afternoon. We did have a chance to walk to the Lindsay Boutique and do some shopping. I’m sure we’ll go back again before we leave here. We also stopped at the Blue Wing Grocery store. Those of you who know that Rick has a problem with color can imagine that he is having a little bit of a problem identifying things on the island. Most everything seems to be named a color and painted the same color. The same goes for all of the cottages at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club that surround the pool. We are still waiting to catch the ride tide to go over to the Thunderball Grotto. Rick talked to the dive master here and he said that he only takes snorkelers over there on a slack tide and then they only stay for about 45 minutes. We will have spotty wifi for a while, so the updates to the blog will probably be less frequent for the next month or so. I will update when I can.
BD217 (8/10/12) – The weather is cloudy and rainy and is predicted to be so all day today. What a small world we live in. We noticed a Bradenton Yacht Club burgee hanging in the bar when we ate supper there Wednesday night. When we met Captain Mike of the boats Slipstream and True Grits, from Birmingham, Alabama, he told us that Gregg Somerville, a fellow yacht club member and salesman for Galati Marine was here just a couple of weeks ago. Gregg gave us good advice when we were boat shopping and also helped us out a couple of times with tickets to the Ft. Lauderdale boat show. The rain stopped in the afternoon and we walked over to the airport. Rick checked on prices for renting a golf cart as well as a boat. When we came back from our walk, a gentleman was feeding the nurse sharks at the end of the dock. These sharks are fed so often that they are virtually tame. We have seen many people swimming in the marina with them.
We swam in the pool for a short while. They sand blasted and cleaned it thoroughly earlier this week. Rick walked back to the blue store to pick up a few more things we needed. I think we’ll probably go again tomorrow as well, as that is where they tell us you can get your laundry done.
BD218 (8/11/12) – Vanessa’s parents arrived today. We decided to rent a golf cart for the day. JP had found a 4-mile running route on-line, so we set off to trace the track before he tries to run it. I thought that the route went past Pirate Trap Beach, so we headed there. We decided to go look at the beach; then we decided to snorkel. Everyone had a great time and we saw many fish and hermit crabs.
BD219 (8/12/12) –We went to the beach on Big Majors to see the swimming pigs. Everyone enjoyed feeding the spotted pig that swam out to our dinghy.
BD220 (8/13/12) – We wish a very Happy birthday today to our sister-in-law, Mary C. We paddle boarded at the resort’s beach and did a little kayaking. Mostly, it was a day to chill.
BD221 (8/14/12) – All of us went to Thunderball this morning along with the underwater camera. After Thunderball, we went back to the beach on Big Majors and snorkeled. JP and Kellie took the dinghy back to Pirate Trap Beach in the afternoon and explored while Vanessa enjoyed her afternoon swimming in the marina with the four teenage girls from Alabama staying on the boat behind us.
BD222 (8/15/12) – Today was a chill day. We spent some time in the pool, but conserved energy for the upcoming two days. The pool is surrounded by cottages that over look the ocean.
Unlike the last government, who simply turned a blind eye, this government is taking action now and will do so again at the budget.” Later it was revealed by a government source that there were plans to introduce new financial and civil penalties levitra price loved this to anyone involved in the aiding and abetting of tax evasion.
BD223 (8/16/12) – We headed south of Staniel Cay to Bitter Guana Cay where there are iguanas. There were several small boats beached on this island, including the tender for Sunday Money (the yacht owned by the widow of Dale Earnhart, Sr. They had a canopy set up with some chairs sitting in the shade. While we didn’t invade their privacy, we couldn’t help hearing them talking to the iguanas who really wanted to share their shade!
We also saw an awesome star fish.
BD224 (8/17/12) – Today, we went reef fishing with Captain Wayde Nixon. He has been recommended to us by several people. He specializes in Sportfishing in the Exumas including offshore fishing, reef, bottom and bonefishing. He also takes people snorkeling and sightseeing in the Exuma Park. He can be reached by phone at (242) 355-2049 (evening) or (242) 464-1892. We caught snapper, grunt and trigger fish.
We ate box lunches from the Staniel Cay Yacht Club on Osprey Island and finished our day with snorkeling at the aquarium in the Park.
The aquarium seems very aptly named. It is a very small area in the Exuma Land and Sea Park marked with a sign on the rock that starts out saying Welcome. There is a piece of wood tacked to the bottom of the official sign which must have said aquarium at one time, but we couldn’t read it today. There are two white mooring balls with a blue stripe on which to tie up your small boat or dinghy. It looks just like a salt water aquarium when you are snorkeling. In addition to thousands of fish, we also saw a pair of barracuda and a large lobster (all protected since they are in the park.)
We would like to thank Captain Wayde for giving our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter the best day of their vacation.
BD225 (8/18/12) – We said goodbye to our family just before noon and hello to our friends, Ken and Jackie, about three hours later.
It started raining shortly after noon but let up around 3:00 when the Watermaker Air flight was scheduled to land. There wasn’t enough room on the golf cart for them to take us to the air field to meet Ken and Jackie so we stayed here. While we were waiting, we heard that there had been a plane crash at the airport. Ken and Jackie said that they saw the plane at the end of the runway. There was a fire engine with it and some golf carts picking up the passengers. We met a man in the pool later in the afternoon who said that he had been on the plane. It was a Flamingo Air flight from Nassau. He said that just as they started to land, the rain came down so hard that you couldn’t see out of the windshield. The pilot tried to pull up and take off, but they clipped the vegetation at the end of the runway and ended up there. Thankfully, no one was hurt beyond cuts and bruises.
BD226 (8/19/12 – Sunday) – We walked across the island to the Staniel Cay Ocean Beach and went for a swim. Later in the afternoon, we went to Thunderball Grotto. There was a mother, father and little girl (I’d guess maybe eight years old) jumping in through the hole in the roof. The tide was low enough that the top of the large hole in the east side of the grotto was exposed and we were able to swim out without having to go underwater. The sun was shining and the base of the Grotto was filled with colorful coral and fish. It was just as pretty, if not prettier than the inside of the Grotto and the aquarium that we went to last week. Instead of swimming back through, we swam all around the north side of the rock back to our dinghy. It was beautiful.
BD227 (8/20/12) – We walked to the blue store to buy bread and a few other things, then made lunch and gathered up our leftovers for a trip to Big Majors in the dinghy. We had been told several times that there were 4 pigs living on the beach, but we have only seen 3 every time we went before. On the way over, Rick went straight across the water from the marina and then hugged the edge of Big Majors as we went around the island to the other side where the pigs live. As we approached the south side of the island, we were surprised to see 4 goats climbing on the rocks. We continued around to the beach where the pigs swim out to the boats for food. Within a few minutes, we saw 3 brown and black spotted pigs come out of the woods and head for the water. We had always seen a white pig and 2 spotted pigs before, so we had finally found the 4th pig and, boy, was she aggressive. She was the biggest of the 3 and swam right out to the dinghy. We could hardly feed her fast enough and were afraid that she was going to bite the side of our soft-side dinghy, so Rick revved the engine and tried to get away from her to the other two pigs which were now in the water. She swam after us fast! We were finally able to feed one of the other pigs and left as soon as we were out of food. Next, we headed to a small beach just down the way on the same island. This beach has been dubbed “Pirate Beach”. Aunt Tillie told us that people leave something with their boat name at this beach. She also challenged us to find what she and Jimmie left there last May. We had not stopped there before because there is a picnic table and folding chairs, a fire pit and benches, and a couple of other tables on the beach. We thought it must be someone’s private beach. Anyway, the four of us searched and it didn’t take long for us the find S/V Mimi on the table leg with the dates 2005, 2009, 2011 & 2012.
We swam and ate sandwiches at the picnic table. Then Rick, Ken & Jackie climbed the hill to see what was on the other side. Jackie said it was a beautiful view, but not an easy climb up. I was glad that I stayed at the beach to “guard” the dinghy. There were rain clouds around and the wind was picking up, so we returned to the boat and went to the pool about 1:30. We spent several hours in the newly drained and cleaned pool. We had the pool to ourselves.
BD228 (8/21/12) – Ken has a rule while on vacation; every third day he “sits on the porch”. In other words, he plays and parties hard for two days and then takes a day to rest and recuperate. In the early afternoon, we decided to take a walk to see some of the island that they had not yet seen. By the time we got off the dock, we decided to rent a golf cart to do our sightseeing. We saw just about everything on the island and spent some time swimming at Pirate Trap Beach. We decided to go back there in the morning with our snorkeling gear.
BD229 (8/22/12) – Everyone on the island is keeping a close watch on Tropical Storm Isaac. The Weather Channel says it is sure to hit Florida, but they aren’t sure yet whether we will feel the effects here. The owner of the resort has advised us to leave here no later than Friday. So, Ken and Jackie have changed their flight home from Sunday to Friday morning and we have made reservations at Compass Cay Marina from Friday night through Tuesday night. We took the golf cart back out to Pirate Trap Beach for a short while and snorkeled; then we enjoyed the pool. We fueled up the boat this afternoon so we will be ready to leave on Friday morning. We are making reservation to eat in the dining room tonight and still plan to go out with Captain Wade tomorrow looking for lobsters and fishing.
BD230 (8/23/12) – We had a pleasant day with Captain Wade lobstering even though it was rougher than we had all hoped it would be. We had lobster, corn on the cob and asparagus for supper tonight.
Ken and Jackie are going to eat breakfast in the dining room and then catch their flight out at 9:30 and we will try to be out of here shortly after 8:00 a.m.
Departed Staniel Cay Yacht Club approximately 9:00 a.m. on Friday, August 24, 2012.
Our journey has been inspired by Joy and Steve Fredrick. You can see more of their story at