Weathering the Storms

Like the US, the Bahamas is having "unusual" weather this winter. The Abacos (the northern part of the Bahamas) has been hit frequently with strong fronts which have high winds and seas attached. Marsh Harbor, a popular place for sailors, is almost deserted this year. Here in the Exumas the weather has been milder. But at times boats have had to scramble to find refuge from the high winds. Last night was such a time. Boaters listen on their ham radio at 6:30 am (even Larry) to Chris Parker, who is the guru of Bahamian and Caribbean weather forecasting. Chris predicted a front which he said was one of the biggest he had seen in 10 years of looking at Bahamian weather. That got everyone's attention. We immediately (remember we are wimps) made reservations at a very protected marina (Sampson Cay Marina). The front passed over last night--we heard that at one cay the winds were 50 mph. Our Miss Symmetry hardly moved. There was no anchor watch for us. Yea!

Winds start to quiet down today for a while and tomorrow we will move on to Staniel Cay, Black Point, and Little Farmer's Cay. I wonder if it got its name bacause of the size of the cay or the size of the farmer.

This marina is one of the more beautiful ones. Millions have been spent to create a lovely atmosphere with oleander, beuganvilla (sp?), and the like. There is a small grocery store (romaine is $9 a package) and a nice restaurant.  Laundry is $4 per load for the washer and $4 for the dryer.  There are cottages one can rent for $2000 a night --that's right, 2000.  Last night, there was a happy hour for the boaters (boaters like happy hours), and we met some interesting people. Two small world stories: One sailor was from NC and had spent years on the Bay River (where we now live). Another couple was from Wisconsin and the man was a very good friend of Al Davis, a former principal at one of the high schools in Champaign (where we formerly lived). Having been a teacher in Champaign, I knew Al fairly well in his days as principal.

Two nights ago, we were anchored right next to the Russells, friends from Oriental. So we had a good chat with them. Sunday, MaryAnn and Doug plan to leave Miami and make the trek over; they hope to be in Nassau on Tuesday or Wednesday. We hope they catch up to us soon. It has been frustrating for them to wait for weather opportunities to cross over the gulf stream.

I am thrilled that I checked the basketball scores and saw that the Illini are doing very well. Hope they keep it up. I am also sorry to be missing the Olympics. Television just isn't readily available here. We have been watching some good movies which we brought along. One of the new features on the boat is a fairly big screen for viewing. Well I am going to try to insert some pics from Warderick Wells, the beautiful Park here in the Exumas.  Don't know when we will have wifi again, so goodbye for now.  Happy Valentines Day to everyone.

Some explanations:  A tradition at the Park  is to leave the name of your boat carved in driftwood at the top of a hill overlooking the park--BooBoo Hill.  So Larry quickly did his carving.

The birds are called bananaquits.  They love sugar.  There is a sugar jar at the office and one can grab a little, put it in your hand, and they will flock to you.  It is strange to feel their little tongues lapping the sugar.

Symmetry is in the line of boats in the one picture, but she is difficult to see.  There are many trails in the park and we had some nice walks which gave us beautiful views of the mooring fields.