PHOTO ALBUM click —>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/cJcerRXVDJRJjUSx5
George Town, Bahamas
George Town is the hub for many cruising boats in the Bahamas. We arrived late in the cruising season and so not many boats still remained in Georgetown. At the height of the season there can be up to 700 boats, …… I’d guess maybe 50 were there with a few like us arriving and then others leaving most days. Our plan was to get the laundry done, pick up some much needed diesel, gas, fresh produce and move on.
Anchoring under the monument in the bay known as Monument beach. The weather was closing in, gone were the clear sunny skies. There was 2 areas of tropical disturbance, both of which were sending cloud over our way.
Most days we made a very rough 1.2 mile crossing in the dinghy to Georgetown from our anchorage. There you enter Lake Victoria via the dinghy cut and tie up at the dinghy dock. We would usually walk around Lake Victoria just for the exercise, looking at what ever there was to see.
Next, would be a stop at the grocery for a few supplies, fill some jugs with diesel, load up and return to Aeeshah. (For first few days there wasn’t any diesel to buy as believe it or not, there was none on the island.)
Everything arrives by small freighters of which arrive daily, unload and dispense to the few stores and fuel stations. While being a hub for cruisers Georgetown is still very small compared to most towns outside the Bahamas.
The first real bit of excitement was when we heard from friends, Hattie and Phil that they were a few days behind us and we’re going to make an effort to catch up. They had set out from Florida, were about a 100 miles from us on their new catamaran Drishti. Sure enough 2 days later they arrived and anchored up nearby.
We had a lovely evening catching up with each other. The next day we went firstly, to hike up to the monument. Tying off a small dinghy dock on the beach we set off towards a pathway through the trees. Well, that was a very short lived hike, the mosquitoes bombed us out.
They were dreadful, they literally chased us off the beach as we zoomed away in dinghies. (And that was with repellant on) The alternative plan was to go Georgetown together. Both for supplies and a walk about plus for them to check out, they are headed to Grenada. Georgetown was mainly all closed, it was a Labour Day Holiday.
The following day Hattie and Phil set sail for Grenada and the day after, June 5th, we set off for an over night to
Crooked Island.
The passage to Crooked Island was a mixed bag. We started off with a good wind direction and speed, evening came and the wind died down to 5 – 10kts.
Next I could see encroaching lightening around us with the rumble of thunder. By the time we reefed the jib, blam! The wind hit us at over 30kts. The thunder increased, lightening flashed all around. We watched it morphing on the radar, however, it was mainly situated behind us and within an hour the weather was all behind us. Until, finally, we were back to virtually no wind, typically not at all what the forecast had predicted. We later saw that what had hit us was the tail end of Tropical Storm Alex. We both wondered how Hattie and Phil were out there on Brishti.
Arriving at Crooked Island in the early morning the Bird Rock lighthouse stood out in the distance.
The main island looked intriguing, very few buildings, long stretches of beach and crystal clear waters. We both looked forward to exploring, once John got some sleep.
The book told us: “Crooked Island and Acklins are enclosed in a shallow lagoon known as the Bight of Acklins. They were permanently settled by the Loyalists in the late 1780’s who set up over 40 cotton plantations.” Some of these cotton plants still grow wild along the roadside.
The overcast skies continued to linger and there was a swell starting to roll into the bay where we were anchored. When John arose we decided to go for a short exploration of the area. Our first stop was the settlement, Pitt’s Town which was a mile or so south of us. We pounded down the bay on the dinghy and to where we thought there was a dinghy dock.
Well it was the most unusual entrance cut in the rock that we entered, along with the surge, surfing the dinghy through around a bend and into a little “anchorage” well more like a place to leave a boat.
We didn’t see a soul, there were a few cars, and a dog resting under one…. Down the lane we strolled, nobody about. Passing a few homes and what used to be a gas station until we came to an area where it looked like a dock was being built. Crooked Island has among its ruins the building said to be the first Post Office in The Bahamas which is located at Pitt’s Town.
I believe we did find it. After a short stroll we headed back to the dinghy. Back out the small boat canal into the bay we headed to the lighthouse which was a few miles away.
Meanwhile we had seen big sports fishing boats out about a mike in the deep water and we had watched a trawler type of vessel called Sea Hunter towing a center console, which in turn was towing 2 smaller boats into the bay. It was quite a strange set up…..the men were then diving under the trawler doing goodness knows what, all very odd. Then another boat zoomed up stopping near the trawler and one of the men on the speed boat took photos of the trawler and its accompanying boats, really unusual behavior.
Out at the Bird Rock Lighthouse, unfortunately it was not possible with the wind direction to land the dinghy. Plus the skies were still hazy from Sahara dust, I imagine in good weather this lighthouse is quite a wonder to behold. Construction of the lighthouse started in 1866, and it became operational in 1876.
We enjoyed viewing it from the dinghy and hope to be back one day to climb it.
On the way back to the boat we could see what appeared to be a marina where there wasn’t supposed to be one, must newly built. We could see the fishing towers of sports fishing boats. Making a short detour, off we headed to check out what we could see.
Entering another man-made canal we found, sure enough a brand new marina with 9 huge sports fishing boats! Within a few minutes a fellow in a little van appeared at what looked to be a fuel dock. John asked him if he had diesel for sale, which he did.
Back at Aeeshah the seas were now rolling in, the swell was getting a bit much, Aeeshah was facing the seas, but if we turned it would be a very unpleasant sideways roll. Time to leave…. We had a quick a lunch, John hurried off to get the diesel and gas. As soon as he was back out we headed aiming for an anchorage further south that was supposed to be sheltered.
We had been out about an hour, maybe 5 miles away, when I spotted what looked to me to be a drifting dinghy. As we were motoring John swung the wheel and we headed over. It was quite a surprise to find a bale, a white plastic covered bale with a red target sign on both sides and blue line around it. Just by chance we were towing the dinghy; (we never tow the dinghy, but this day there had been too much of a roll to pull it up). John insisted he had to hook the bale and haul it into the dinghy cause, as he said he can’t not a least have a look, can he? Of course he then has to cut the edge to see what it might contain…. Sure enough dope/weed! He estimated the bale weighed about 80lbs, maybe more, the contents were exceedingly compacted so that the weed was a solid mass.
It appeared that the bundle was made up of many blocks. Anyway, I was a nervous wreck, bad juju, bad Kama messing with someones dope …. I was worried about the odd trawler we had watched with all its attending smaller power boats. I turned off the AIS, we left everything in the sea, and haul assed towards our anchorage.
The bay we entered was off the very tip of Crooked Island, behind Long cay. The entire shoreline was void of any buildings or trace of mankind, it was wild, beaches and a rough bolder strewn coastline with a few caves. Perfect for a few days exploring.
Acklins Island
By the morning we had a wind blowing right into the anchorage and a current running out so, it was rolly, not comfortable. We headed to yet another anchorage, this one on Acklins, called, Jamacia Bay.
Acklins, like Crooked Island, once had cotton plantations, now there is just shrub, its back to how it was before man arrived.
Again we were in a massive bay lined by beaches backed by wild expanses with no humans around.
We spent 2 nights there, spending the days exploring the shoreline by dinghy or by foot and snorkeling the reef. Another place we would love to return to one day.
On June 9th off we sailed to Great Inagua, another overnight passage, this one was quite mellow.
We passed Castle Island, which has an old lighthouse which would be fun to explore and then we were away to Great Inagua.
Great Inagua
We anchored just north of the little settlement of Matthew Town.
This island is 40 miles long by 28 wide, has a population of 1,000 and is famous for its, salt industry. (Which according to local history was started by Bermudians) The Morton salt company now has its production here, all of its salt comes from Great Inagua. There’s also a flock of over 50,000 flamingoes that live in the salt ponds of the large national park area. We hoped to be able to see both the salt and flamingoes.
On going ashore we found the only landing area to be in the little enclosed harbour. It was more of a ship’s dock even though the locals referred to it as a marina. After asking some fellows at the dock where customs an immigration were located we set off down a hot, shrub lined lane. We had only gone about a 100 yards when a jeep stopped and the driver asked if he could give us a lift. He said he could tell we were tourists heading to check out as nobody but tourists walked. Checking out was completed in 5 minutes and we were off walking back….this time no vehicles passed.
Finding a grocery store was our next challenge. The buildings were few and well spread out with several ruins between them. John had it in his mind to have lunch somewhere.
Well, we walked in the midday heat around to where there was supposed to be a restaurant only to find it was shut down. Back at the little grocery we bought what we could find in way of our needs, which was very little and then headed back to the port.
In the port was an unusual looking sailboat. It looked to be homemade out of tree trunks and branches, with all sorts of bits and pieces for sails etc. We asked a fellow on the dock about it and sure enough it was a Haitian trader. He crosses over to trade fruit and vegetables for supplies.
The weather was much clearer and the sea and skies wonderful blues and green the following morning. There had been a few other cruisers at anchor the previous day but they had all left for Jamacia. They had mentioned taking their dinghies along the shore to the lighthouse restaurant.
We planned to do chores then head along the shoreline to this restaurant for a nice lunch. I did have my suspicions about where we would land the dinghy as it was windy and rough, but off we set. Yes, it was rough, the shoreline very rocky with waves rolling ashore, plus it was quite a ways away.
We could see the lighthouse restaurant and we passed right under the lighthouse but could not see anywhere to land a dinghy. There was a cut through the shore which John just had to try but it was just a sluice for the salt ponds.
Back to the settlement we rode. At the Harbour we found the supply boat was in and being unloaded. Well, everybody seemed to be there or coming and/or going all 1000 of the inhabitants.
Apparently Saturday is supply boat day and a day everyone looks forward to. We were in a quandary, we wanted to go to the Lighthouse restaurant, but had no transport.
There we were discussing what to do when up rolls a man in a jeep. He asks us if he can be of assistance, so we explain and he offers to drive us down there. Off we rode with Dennis. He dropped us off, in we went and were told they were shut as it was supply day!
Ok plan B was to visit the lighthouse.
This was an intriguing property with several outhouses that were occupied. Asking a fellow cleaning fish on the porch of one building about the lighthouse.
We were told to go ahead climb it, just be mindful of the missing steps. Wow! The view was stunning! Plus with the sun out the colors of the sea was nearly unbelievable.
Dennis had left his number with us, we gave him a call and he came again to transport us back. Along the way he asked if we wanted to try somewhere else for lunch, which of course we did and so he headed to an outer area of the settlement.
There we went inside a bar. It was wonderfully air conditioned, TVs were soundlessly playing UFC fighting, no one else was there.
We sat at the bar and all enjoyed a fish and chip lunch. Dennis told us about himself and we told him about us. He’s a lobster fisherman when the season is open and a handyman when it’s closed. He also told us of a big drug bust that had just happened at Crooked Island the previous day.
How it involved 2 cops and suspected cartel. (we looked at each other, knowing that what we stumbled on was part of that). What a lovely guy, Dennis was.
Back at the supply dock everyone was still hussleing. We said our goodbyes and headed back to Aeeshah.
Passage to Port Antonio Jamacia.
We had 2 overnights ahead of us, approximately 250 miles to reach Jamacia. The start of the passage, the first few hours were the roughest we had with over 2 meter seas and winds of up to 25 knots. We took several large waves over the side as they broke on us and I just hunkered down in the cockpit doing my puzzles and reading. The wind dropped and with it the sea laid down somewhat, from then on it was a very calm, easy passage to Jamacia.
There was huge swaths of Sargasso Sea weed, fields and fields of it. Plus we had a unique visitor, a beautifully colored hawk! We arrived offshore about 05:00 on June 14th, we could both smell the perfumed scent of flowers on the early morning breeze. Our port of entry was Port Antonio on the north eastern side of the island. This port has large clearly marked entrance to East harbour.
Port Antonio
One must do all the formalities of entrance at the Errol Flynn marina. We had chosen to anchor in the marina’s anchorage, but we were told to take Aeeshah along side. So along side we went where we were visited by all the authorities. 1st we had the 3 health and veterinarian ladies, (2 were trainees). I filled out paperwork and answered questions while we all sat in the cockpit, along with Chico in his cat box. The ladies were lovely, quite curious about our lifestyle and Chico.
John took them on their inspection through Aeeshah showing them all they needed to see from the meat in the freezer to the valves in the head. Next we had customs and immigration, a man and a lady. Again, we sat in the cockpit, me filling out forms, chatting answering questions, again very nice folks. She was most interested in Chico as her Auntie has 8 cats. They too did an inspection through Aeeshah. All paperwork completed, we were given ours and our instructions for while we were in the country.
For the next several days we enjoyed Port Antonio, plus did our laundry etc
John and I were very impressed with the marina, the town, the scenery and the people. We spent time each day roaming about the streets, looking at all the sites. Obviously the town it typically Caribbean, rich in colour and very lively.
During our 1st outing we were approached by a number of folks, but one fellow stuck by John. He was called Jeff and insisted he show us the market and where to buy this and that. He practically begged John to meet him for a drink of rum at Roots 21 at 5:00pm. And said he would have a big bag of mangoes for us. (He didn’t think we had been given a fair deal for mangoes in the market).
Anyway, off John goes at 5:00pm, meets Jeff who has a load of mangoes and they walk to the bar.
However this bar ends up being way down the end of the bay. John has his few rums, gets us a take out dinner plus buys Jeff dinner and then returns in a taxi. Well, from then on every day Jeff would be outside the marina 1st thing in the morning to attach himself to us. Where ever we went Jeff went, even in the grocery store. We would try to sneak out at different times, but, oops, there’s Jeff, ….. He was harmless, just wants $1,500US sent to him from his buddy John. I have now told John, no more friends with street folks!!
Another fellow, Bobby, a rasta fisherman who was probably in his 50s but looked like being in his 90s met up with us at the marina gates. Says he can get us any fish, tuna, dolphin (Mai Mai), lobster, crab etc any type. So I, just asked about the crabs, like what type and how would you cook them? Bobby says, “just boil me up mam, just boil en up” Now I never asked for any, but the next morning while I’m doing laundry John is hailed by Bobby shouting to him from outside the marina gates. Believe it or not Bobby has a huge bag of live crabs. John paid $30 for them Bobby was well happy.
John then spent all morning boiling up these crabs, and then de-shelling them. Sure enough, just like I thought crabs only have meat in their legs, so he could have just boiled the legs, but as they were live….
Each day we would visit the Coronation bakery and/or the Tastee Patty Express to buy Jamaican pattys for lunch and spice cakes for breakfast. The beef pattys are amazing! Then each evening John visited the Portland Jerk Center where he ordered dinner. For him it was either the jerk chicken or the goat curry with peas n rice and for me, the sweet and spicy chicken…..the food was excellent.
The characters we saw around the town were extraordinary too, basically you have to see them to believe they exist. I would have loved to take some photos, but felt it would be kind of rude. Maybe once I get more familiar with Jamaican culture.
Unfortunately the weather was quite overcast and we had periods of showers so the countryside was more hidden behind cloud and rain than not. We did some exploring in the dinghy and did get some glimpses of the mountains. Jamaica looks to be a wonderful country to explore.
Ocho Rios
Off to Ocho Rios we headed on the 18th, June. The whole day was a wonderful downwind sail. The winds did gust as high as 26 knots, but with downwind it was smooth sailing. Entering the harbour was easy, but once inside it was chaotic and crowded.
The bay has a long beach with hotels behind. There were at least 3 power boats that were towing floats with up to 4 persons on each, all were racing wherever. A large barge type ship was anchored in the middle, several tourist cats were anchored off the beach while a few other were cruising with tourists aboard, while music was blaring from different establishment on shore and cats cruising the harbour.
Thank goodness this was just going to be an overnight stop. There were even weddings taking place on the beach. Well most boat operators packed up by 6:00pm except the cats which cruised around and around the harbor for several hours blaring their music. On the plus side the music wasn’t nasty, but enjoyable.
Next day it was goodbye Ocha Rias and off to Montego Bay, Mobay as it is affectionally called. The passage there was horrible, we had huge seas and strong winds admittedly from behind but still a nasty ride. The highest gust reaching just over 30 knots. I was very happy to finally reach Mobay. We anchored outside the main harbour just off the city at the other end from the airport runway. In the morning we had to go into the Yacht Club to register with customs and immigration officials.
Again they were wonderful, the nicest officials ever. Heather at the Yacht club called us a taxi and off we went to stock up, (as we expected to leave the following day).
The store we were taken to stock up was a massive shopping center, Mega Mart. Of course we were able to buy ample supplies. Our driver also took us to get pattys and more goat curry for John.
As said the plan was to leave the following day, but John didn’t like the look of the weather we would be facing further south, so we decided to stay a few more days.
The Yacht Club is a very comfortable facility. We were able to use their dinghy dock and all other amenities for just a small sum per day. We dinghied around the Mobay harbour and walked around the area near the marina.
On our last day we had a few hour tour of Montego Bay city. Willy was our driver, a very nice, knowledgeable fellow.
We drove through the produce market, which was huge with an outdoor area and indoor area too. All types of fresh produce for sale.
Next, to the craft market for a look at a few vendors’ mechandise. There were plenty of colourful items for sale.
Along Barnet Street, through all the traffic winding down one way streets to the cobblestoned Sam Sharp Square. Sam Sharp was a freedom fighter, a slave who rebelled for his freedom. He was jailed in what is called the cage and finally hung in the center of the square in the gallows. He is a National hero in Jamacia.
Off and along the Hip Hop stretch to the end of Dead End Beach, stopping on the way to look out across the bay from a popular restaurant and bar, which was also a facility that sells Herb aka marijuana.
Up a hillside to look across the bay from another facility. It was a wonderful view of the whole of Montego Bay Area.
We stopped for a tour of the St. James Parish church. This church is an eighteenth century church in Montego Bay. It was started in 1774 at a time when the town was increasing in importance as a centre for trade and the number of merchants was growing. I has been here that the visiting Queen of England has worshiped during her visits to Jamacia. All of the mahogany furnishings, plus the organ and the many marble carvings are the originals.
Lastly a drive through a few neighborhoods and stopping for bananas and mangos.
Finally taking us to buy more curry goat for John’s dinner. I chose barbecued chicken, this time with pumpkin rice which was delicious.
The next day was the beginning of our travels.
Negril
Off to Negril, June 23rd 686 miles to go. Negril is on the western end of Jamacia. It is a large, beautiful bay. We anchored here to prep Aeeshah for the upcoming passage.
The following morning, 24th June we left Jamacia and headed to Panama. At the start of this journey we had left Florida in May, on Friday 13th. That was a total of 1018 miles done between Florida and Negril, Jamacia in the previous 6 weeks. We just had 584 to go…..5 to 6 days?
