Dollar Harbour

   Pulled anchor at 6:30am to catch the high tide. Heading towards Georgetown.  While we were in the deep blue water Phil put a line out. Right before we started to head in for the next anchorage the drag started screaming. .. we had a dolphin on!!!!
Phil put the boat in neutral and went to work!  The dolphin jumped about 6 times...he finally got the fish to the back of the boat reached down with a long gaff and pulled the dolphin in through the back door.  It was a cow about 20 lbs! We have been told to have a spray bottle of rum and water handy...you spray it into their gills and it stops them from thrashing around. Well we did it to one side and it seemed to stop moving. Phil went back up to the helm to put us back on coarse again and left me holding the gaff with the dolphin at the other end.  You can guess what happened next....the dolphin started to thrash around and pulled the gaff out. I started trying to gaff the darn thing again and we ended up having a wrestling match on the back deck with me mostly screaming and jumping!! By the time Phil got back down to help me he had whipped me a few times on my legs. Darn fish left a few blood welts on my leg!! We turned him over and sprayed the other side and he never moved again...lesson learned spray both sides of gills! That rum and water really does do the trick ( had to convince Phil to give up some of his private pirate rum!!)
We are anchored in Dollar Harbour which is just beautiful.  We put the Dink back in to water to explore some but the engine was saying, " Change my sparkplugs please!" But we did manage to see these sharks swimming around in the shallows. 

So beautiful in the water

Right in through the back door

Happy Phil!

Swimming the shallows

French Wells Crooked Island Day 6

We spent most of the day doing boat maintenance.  We have been having problems with the alternators not charging the batteries and on the way here to Crooked Island they didn't charge at all. Phil has been troubleshooting off and on since we have been here and......it looks like we need new alternators. He got  on the phone with Port Supply and before ya know it they are ordered and being shipped to Georgetown!! We can still charge the batteries with the generator, but we don't want to travel home without both ways to charge. Not a safe thing to do. You have to make sure customs knows it's for a repair otherwise you have to pay up to 45% import duty on top of the cost of the alternators and shipping!
    Phil engraved our stone and we added it to the wall... maybe someone we know will come across it! We looked at all the other ones there to see if we recognize anyone..
   We took one last ride on the Dink before putting her back on the Pearl. We found a mangrove river that went towards some settlements.  About 5 miles up we came across a dock called Church Grove Landing. The people here use this landing with small boats because there are no marinas. The settlements are on the Atlantic side where the water is very rough.

Engraving and trying not to fall in all at the same time!

He couldn't fit the dogs on there

Showing off his catch..Cubera Snapper

We are ending our journey to unknown places (for us a least)..starting to head back to familiar territory. We often wonder how the pirates navigated these same waters so well! Phil says, "My hat's off to Blackbeard!"  It's been exciting to see what secrets and adventures lie with each anchorage! I know we still have a lot to see that we missed heading back. The adventure continues...

French Wells Albert Town Day 4

The tiny village of Albert Town on Long Cay is one of the smallest in this country....27 people to be exact!
It was more prosperous over a century ago with over 2,000 people. It was also known as Fortune Island and was a coaling station for ship's passing by.
We were 1st met by Ruth the telephone lady. We went to her home, which is right across from the old church, and met Mary the goat. Mary was very curious about Chewy! She wouldn't leave her alone...I think she thought Chewdog was another goat!! Ruth told us to walk pass her home to the home of an elderly man. The oldest man on the island. ..79 years young!!! We spent a good part of the afternoon seating on Bruce Knowles' front porch listening to his stories of when he was a police officer in Nassau. He also entertained us with his guitar and singing some of the best Bahimian music we have heard! We have collected a lot of "treasures" on this trip, but meeting him was the Best treasure yet!!
I didn't find any old bottles but I did find some pieces of old pottery. Maybe NEXT time!

True Bahimian music!! What a treat!

Mary trying to get to know Chewy!

Albert Town intersection. don't forget to look both ways!!

200 year old church....

Phil andChewdog's sermon for today.....love thy pet!

Salt ponds

They still have these here!!

Downtown Albert Town

French Wells Crooked Island Day 3

The reason the water is so clear here is because it drops off to over 1200 feet deep a quarter of a mile from shore. The water is  easily 100 foot plus visibility close to shore!
We snorkeled and beached it today...found this circular wall of stones and when we looked inside we found that people had taken pieces of stone and engraved their names. We also found an arrow made out of stone pointing to a path that lead us to an old well. It looks like it is still  a very much used well!

Our stone to engrave

Arrow pointing to an old well

Chewdog watching Phil snorkel

We are going to Dink to one of the smallest settlements in the Bahamas tomorrow, Albert Town.  They say you can find old bottles there! I'll be looking!!

French Wells Crooked Island Day 2

We had a great day exploring! Found some great reefs, beautiful beaches, conchs, fish, an old cannon, and incredible water! We were in the Dink all day today...In fact it was a starfish kind of day!!!!

Do not use a mooring here unless you check it youself!

This barracuda is about 4 ft. It followed me around the whole day!!

French Wells Crooked Island

French Wells is one of the most remote sections of an already isolated group of islands, but note we still have the Internet! Almost every island with a settlement on it has a tower! Some service is better than others.
We had a VERY rolly night!  By the way Phil won the fight and slept in the V berth. It didn't matter though because we both kept having to get up and find out was rolling around in the cabinets making noises.
The cruise over through the Crooked Island Passage was a rough one. There was a current going against the waves which made for some steep waves! We actually saw the anchor go under water a few times and the ship's bell rang a couple dozen times! I think Chewdog got a little seasick on this one!
We left at daybreak...cause we couldn't stand it anymore and arrived here at 1:00 right when a thunderstorm hit..of course! At least it washed all the salt off the boat. The thunderstorms here are like the phone calls back home always happening right when we are anchoring. (certain people know exactly what I'm talking about! lol).... I would rather have the phone calls.

Not Again!!

Yep..I love our strataglass enclosure!

Seasick pup!

We had to anchor outside of the French Wells Point to wait for the tide to come in...There is an area in the pass that is only 5 feet at low tide and we need more room that that. The current here is very strong. ..we won't be swimming around the boat here!

Phil checking out our only neighbor

We lost our TV reception when we left Georgetown so it's been back to DVD'S every night. We kinda like it that way it's the ambiance of being on the hook....we take turns picking out the movies.

Hard Bargin Long Island

Working our way towards French Wells Point on Crooked Island we 1st had to go west 15 miles, then south a little, and then east again for another 15 miles. All to get around a sand bar called White Cay Bank. It took us 6 hours and we were about 8 miles from where we started from just further out! For about 8 miles we only had 1 to 2 feet of water under our keel.... It was a little nerve racking!!! A two foot coral head would of ruined our day. Thank goodness the water is so clear here!!!
We left at around 8 and anchored at 5  right near the old Diamond Crystal Salt Factory.  There is a one to two foot swell here and hitting us on the beam( side ways) ...not very comfortable! We will be fighting over the V berth tonight ( cause you can wedge yourself in there and not worry about rolling out of bed!!)    Why did we anchor here?!! Oh yea... It will make for a shorter day tomorrow.
We are seeing some porpoise here in fact there were 3 around the boat tonight, but not like back in the states.  They also are smaller!

Chewdog thinks she sees something

 Storm rolling in as soon as we anchored!

Pratts Hill Long Island

We pulled anchor around 9:30am and went to the fuel dock to top the Pearl off with diesel. ...500 gallons later we were ready to go again. She holds 900 but we heard they had good fuel here, the price was cheaper than Georgetown, and best of all for me it was an easy dock to dock at..... I hate docking!!!!
   We have just gone south a little about 10 to 15 miles just to get some new scenery and to make the run tomorrow a little shorter.

Phil and Chewy checking the anchor!

   We found a herd of goats climbing along the coastline. .we heard them before we saw them!

Saw some local boaters dragging in the bay and Phil asked if the were looking for conch. ..they were looking for sponges.
He invited back to shore to see all the sponges he had drying in the trees.

A blue hole we found....only about 50 ft. deep but very big!

We will be heading to the southern end of Long Island tomorrow morning.
 

Long Island Salt Pond Day 5 "The Caves"

  Phil just told me Long Island is not part of the Exumas.   We are in the Far Bahamas. Thinking about going on to the Crooked Islands on Saturday after fueling the Pearl up tomorrow.  It looks like we have a good window of weather! It will take us 2 short days...or 1 long one. Not sure which way  we are doing yet. We plan on staying  a couple of days then head back to Georgetown.
 This island is loaded with caves and blue holes. Phil counted 40 to 50 blue holes on the chart and who how many caves! The Indians and Pirates used them for hiding out. The locals still use them as hurricane shelters.

We were shown a  cave by the people we rented the car from so we went back today to explore it. We had another great day here in Salt Pond. Fishing is real good.

Entrance to cave

As far as I got...bats were everywhere!

Phil making his way down

all I could see of him was his flashlight!

After his exploration...still such a boy!!!

Inside the cave looking out

I made my 1st conch salad tonight. It's like siveche but you add more things. We had 3 conchs until.......As Phil was finishing cleaning the last one he dropped it over board :(  Oh well hard come easy go!!