Well, an awful lot has happened since my last post. In no particular order we have;
- - Been chased out of the water by a grouchy bull
shark (again)
- - Swam in crystal clear cave water in a huge cave
(after hiking for almost 2 hours trying to find the cave and cutting ourselves
to ribbons on various brambles and thorns)
- - Dove in and around 2 blue holes
- - PADI dive
certified Tyler
- - Chased out of the water by a very large (5
feet?) and grumpy barracuda
- - Had some
great sailing
- - Attended a seminar on breath-hold-diving
- Tyler and Eliza Played at Beach Church in Georgetown
- Tyler and Eliza Played at Beach Church in Georgetown
- - Ran out of Adderly Cut into 10-12’ standing
waves
- Attended a great Party on Three@Sea
- Attended a great Party on Three@Sea
- - Saw the pink Iguanas again
- - Really perfected our conch salad
- - Shot and eaten a slew of fish and a few more
lobsters
- - Said “goodbye for now” to a bunch of our new
friends as we have started to head North
- Seen two more Green Flashes
- Seen two more Green Flashes
- - Put a super shiny fresh varnish coat on the port
side and continue to find excuses to
neglect the starboard
- - Not caught any pelagic fish (I seem to have lost
my Mojo)
- - Had a few rum cocktails
- - SCUBA and snorkeled the super narrow cut between
Big Majors Spot and Fowl Cay. The water
runs at 4knts plus. Quite a ride.
- - Hiked to the highest point in the Exuma chain
- - Lost our 25 Gallon Water bladder overboard (@#$@*&^^!!!!)
- - Seen our
fresh water pump begin failing, but have band-aided it for now
- - Learned to blow a conch horn
- - Celebrated our pal’s birthday
- Have actually seen some rain
- Have actually seen some rain
- - Watched a few movies and finished a few more
books
- - Spent hours contemplating what we do in the next
few years
- - Continued our list of changes to Zusammen needed
(Fresh and Salt water foot pumps
- - Hatched a plan for going North (Writing this in
Cambridge Cay – will upload it in Warderick Wells, then
Shroud Cay, the Norman’s then cross to Eluethera’s Rock Sound, then up
Eluethera to Spanish Wells, then Cross to Southern Abacos)
- - Traded some Email with Kinsella – he is
threatening to visit in the Abacos
- - Had a blast with our pals on Chere, Osprey and
Celilo, especially @ TJ’s
- - Saw a very large sting ray that was missing the
aft portion of his body. It had happened
recently. Little fish were munching his entrails. Upon closer inspection, two and a half 24”
arcs were where the rest of him should have been. Since all of that was fresh, the hammerhead
was still likely very close. Needless to
say, we got in the dinghy pretty quickly.
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| In the Cave after the Bloody Trail of Tears |
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| Zusammen Race Crew with our Rum Trophy |
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| Osprey @ Adderly Cut - Kudos to Lex for being able to take Pictures! |
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| Tyler at Beach Church with his new guitar from Dharma |
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| Crew of Zusammen on Three@Sea |
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| Party gang on Three@Sea, sans Kathryn |
Some Detail for anyone Interested –
Bull Sharks seem to be one of those animals that just aren’t
afraid of humans. The have a reputation of
being very unpredictable and generally have a bad attitude. It’s very unnerving when an animal is not
only unafraid of you when you are snorkeling, but acts aggressively. We have been run out of the water by Bulls a
few times. This last one was just
outside the park boundaries near Rocky Dundas.
6 guys in the water, all doing their best walk-on-water tricks when Mr.
Bull Shark kept swimming straight at us as we retreated.
We finally found the large cave after bushwhacking for a
couple of hours near Oven Rock on Great Guana Cay. Everyone was scratched up and some folks legs
and arms covered in blood from the inhospitable foliage. The cave was amazing (Picture Below). The water was clear inside and we all got in
for a dip, even though I was uncomfortable with the whole “Underground Thing”. Schnauck’s generally don’t like cave
dwelling.
During Tyler’s dive Certification, I dove with the
instructor and Tyler and Nat to keep an eye on them. We explored a couple of “Blue Holes” that
actually fill and flush with water from the other side of the island. The holes are entrances to cave systems that
run for miles. Creepy and cool. Loaded with fish. One of them was a massive local ‘Cuda. Again, an animal that isn’t afraid of
me. Always makes me uncomfortable.
Sailing has been great. We haven’t burned more than 25 gallons of diesel in
Months. We barley run our engine and
never run it to power our batteries.
Solar takes care of all day-to day and we only run the engine to get the
hook up and power out of the anchorages.
It has been super windy and the crew is all comfortable with 20knt
sailing. We’re looking forward to doing
some longer runs when we get back to New England. A sail to Maine, for instance, seems like an
easy long weekend run at this point.
I went to a seminar
that the woman’s world champion free diver gave in Georgetown. Learned some cool techniques that have helped
my weak breath holding skills to improve.
She can free dive to 200’ on one breath of air, by the way….
We sailed out of Adderly cut and missed the current slightly
(there aren’t any real current tables for the Exumas – you have to figure them
out on your own). The picture is of our
pal’s boat Osprey. It is a 45’ steel cutter. Yes, STEEL. Imagine what Zusammen looked like….
I hope to keep the blog up more regularly - Internet is hard to come by and fast internet really hard to come by. Feel free to call us - phone works most everywhere. We will be in Waderick Wells for a few Days then head north to Shroud Cay and then Norman's before we cross to Rock Sound in Eluethera for the Homecoming festival ending on Easter, before we continue north to the Abacos.
I hope Mieszala's are well and Elsa is having a blast!
