The Exumas!

NOTE: Technical difficulties today. Limited pics. Sucks, too cuz I have some good ones I wanted to post!! Frustrating. Sloooow connection here at Warderick Wells, Exumas......

VERY COOL. Exumas are a string of little islands running North/South through the middle of the Bahamas. Most are uninhabited, with beautiful turquoise shallow water all around, and white sand beaches. The first was Allen's Cay. Home of the Allen's Cay Iguanas. Lots of boats in this anchorage, as it's a popular landing point for cruisers departing Nassau. Spent a night there, I slept up in the cockpit under the stars and breeze. Next day, we sailed from Allen's Cay South to Hawksbill Cay. Perfect sailing conditions: 10-15kts Easterly breeze, minimal seas, 20ft deep turquoise water all around..... just like you see in the cruising charter ads in sailing magazines. Hawksbill Cay is very cool.... only two other boats here, and it's a State Park with moorings just yards from the beach. Today we sail on South to Warderick Wells. I'd love to shower and get online... maybe do some laundry?

OUTTA HERE.

Yeah. This happened just a few blocks from our marina. Same street. We're all provisioned up, took on fuel, took on potable water, got the weather, gonna rest up, then...... outta here tomorrow morning, bright and early. Headed for the Exumas! The Exumas are a loooong chain of tiny islands (cays) which run North/South. If the wind stays 10-15 out of the East, that'll be some GREAT cruising. I have no idea what WiFi access will be like in the Exumas, so if you don't see a post for a little while, don't trip out. You know I'll post as soon as I can. I'm trying hard not to disappoint all my faithful readers..... I'm finding that there are more of you than I thought. SWEET! Maybe I'll start getting weird on you all..... hhmm.....

Sandy Point, Nassau....

Mmmmmm. Fresh bread. So.... we motor/sailed along the Southern shore of Grand Bahama Island, curved South past Gorda Cay (aka Castaway Cay) and on to Sandy Point, Abaco. We anchored off of Sandy point and dinghied in.... nothing really there at all, except for a few doggies who seemed psyched to walk the beach with us. One was really old, so we named them "Old Guy" and "Young Guy". Old Guy was struggling to keep the pace, and that was kinda sad. He also had an open festering wound on the side of his belly, and that was kinda gross. I don't think Old Guy is long to this world. We spent the night (well... until 1am) on this anchorage, then set sail for Nassau. What a sail that was!! Blowin' 20+ out of the east, us headed due South, made for a NICE beam reach. Two reefed sails, still haulin' ass at 7+ kts. Good times, but sailing in those conditions takes energy... so we we were all beat. I type this in Nassau, and we are not on the fun, glitzy side of Nassau (Paradise Island), we are on the industrial, more "ghetto" side of Nassau. It's OK... we just gotta provision up and we're outta here headed for Exumas. We hear the Exumas are splendid. What we've seen of Nassau is..... not so splendid. At least it has coffee shops which enable me to post this entry which you now read.

Two young guys and an old guy:

John taught Jordi how to make fresh bread. This excited Jordi. It was delicious:

This is Keith, our cabbie who carted us to/from Port Lucaya and our remote sheltered anchorage (Freeport):

Old Guy was not impressed with the photo session. He left:

Anchored off of Sandy Point, Abaco:

This is Gorda Cay, which Disney purchased and converted to "Castaway Cay", a private Disney-only cruise ship destination. Gotta love American Corporate Capitolism. (not):

So..... wassup?

We're STILL in Port Lucaya, Freeport. The huge Northerly that blasted through over the past few days still has the seas up 8-10ft. Breezes are 20+ out of the East. If a few days, the winds will clock to Northeast and mellow to 10-15kts. The seas should be 6-8ft, which is not optimal, but doable. So tonight, we are going to steam due East along the South shore of Grand Bahama Island, taking it all on the nose, but at sunrise we will then be able to sail due South in the mellowing Easterlies to Nassau...... Freeport has been nice, but it's a 2-3 days nice, not trapped for a week nice. Morale is still high, but Team Audax is getting antsy and ready to ramble....

Ghost Town

S/V Audax is currently anchored in a remote, abandoned, never fully developed, devastated by hurricanes, network of canals just East of Port Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama. We are currently waiting out a killer Northerly, which has us staying put for a few days as we wait for better weather to make passage to the Berry Islands. Yesterday we went ashore and went exploring.... check out these cool pics of a HUGE, gutted-by-hurricanes, left-for-dead hotel resort complex. There was also an adjacent arboretum which suffered the same fate. Kinda creepy, yet fascinating at the same time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year, everyone!! Team Audax celebrated New Year's Eve in Port Lucaya, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. It was OFF THE HOOK. First, we roped our Canadian boat neighbors Ryan and Katisha (sp?) into our shenannigans. Then we hit the casino for some blackjack action.... Johnboy and Stacey were ON FIRE!! Stacey won $265, and Johnboy netted somewhere between $600-$700!! The exact number varies depending on who you ask, and how much they had to drink at that point. Then we went out to Count Basie Square where it was POPPIN'. John and Jordi drank with..... enthusiasm. I will let them disclose the rest of that matter at their discretion. You can see in the pics that it was crazy. Freeport, Bahamas has been lovely. A bit touristy, so I'm excited to get to some more rural/locals-only type ports... the natives in the Bahmas are SUPER FRIENDLY. The two ladies we had in tow were dressed to kill, and they didn't get ONE cat call all night. Nothing but 100% warm and friendly hospitality. Stands to reason that if tourism sustains your home town economy..... they got that figured out here for sure. Even the marijuahna/cocaine street entrepreneurs were tactful and polite. One tactful "no thank you" always sufficed. And for the record, it was always "no thank you". ;o)
Shenannigans? We had 'em. Here we go.....

Our new Canadian friends Ryan & Katisha (sp):

No way.... DUNCAN?! He must have spotted Stacey:

These girls were not part of any "shenannigans", but they were in party mode for sure:

Three drunk dudes on stage:

Fireworks at midnight!:

On stage.... go Jor-di, go Jor-di, go Jor-di! Kinda reminds of when I was 26:

Go John-boy, go John-boy, go John-boy:

Go Di-vas, go Di-vas, go Di-vas:

POPPIN':

Not to worry, folks.... that's a straight-up DIET COKE in my hand ;).....

Morale was very HIGH:

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TEAM AUDAX!! WE LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!

IT'S ALL ABOUT GRATITUDE!!! XOXOXO