Warderick Wells

April 20, 2009

Ahoy from Namaste, Warderick Wells, Exumas

Hello all,

How is everyone? Hope you are all well, happy and enjoying spring. We just arrived in Warderick Wells on this beautiful Bahamian afternoon. We had a great sail up here with brisk wind and a following sea. The Exuma Land and Sea Park is one of my favorite places in the Bahamas. We took a nice walk up to the highest point on the island and then through asmall palm forest before heading back across the flats. Today the little lizards were out in numbers and they were brave enough to allow me to take a picture. They usually run away faster than you can catch a glimpse of them.  Back at the boat for the evening, we realized we have a good Internet connection so I thought I would update the blog.

We enjoyed our second stay in Georgetown. We were able to take care of the blossoming rust spots on the deck. Namaste is all sanded, painted and lovely again. We also worked on a puddin for Derby our dinghy. Chris crafted a protective covering for the front of Derby modeled after the puddins on the front of tugboats. The netting we used is recycled from our walk on the beach on Long Island. It is a work in progress and we are having fun with it. We enjoyed taking some time to get boat projects done before we begin our trek north for the summer.

We left Georgetown on the 17^th of April and sailed north on Exuma Sound to Blackpoint.  As usual we put out our two fishing lines hoping to catch a mahi mahi, a yellow snapper or some grouper. We sailed right up the 100-meter line just as we were told. We used our pink and orange squid like everyone else. As we reached Dotham Cut I heard the line snap and I was sure we had finally caught the big one. I tugged on the line and felt the fight at the other end. I slowly brought the fish toward the boat only to realize we had caught yet another barracuda. Some people will eat barracuda but we prefer not to since it can carry ciguatera. We have not had much luck catching fish, except barracuda, but it does not keep us from trying. Our fishing skills have long been a family joke.

We needed to bring in our lines anyway as we were already taking in sail to prepare for the squall we could see looming over Dotham Cut, our entrance onto the banks and Blackpoint. As it turned out there were two squalls and when the second one caught up with the first one they changed direction from west to south and headed right toward us. Rather than being quiet observers of the blackening sky, strong winds and blinding rain we became participants in this dark adventure. Since we can not outrun a 30 knot wind, the only thing to was go through it. It was our first squall. We were literally blinded by the amount of rain and the winds got up above 30 knots. It all ended as fast as it began, we were save in our little ship and in the end we witnessed a colorful rainbow arch its way over the sound. All was well. We were well prepared.

Blackpoint is a small settlement on Great Guana Cay. There are 3 churches and a few commercial establishments including two restaurants and a small grocery store in the settlement. The children were on spring break so we saw lots of activity in the streets. There were also some local sailors loading theirsail boats onto the mail boat to be delivered to Georgetown for the Family Island Regatta. We enjoyed our walks about town and meeting cruisers in the anchorage. On one of our walks we saw the large blowhole you can see in the photograph of the roiling ocean.

We plan to leave Warderick Wells early in the morning for Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We will probably be in Rock Sound through the weekend as the wind and seas are going to kick up the day after our arrival. I am looking forward to seeing the ocean hole at the edge of town and the 4 blue holes in the anchorage.

From Eleuthera we will head to the Abacos for a few weeks before we cross the Gulf Stream and head for the eastern U.S. coastline. We are looking forward to both our exploration of the Abacos and our trip up north for the summer.

That’s all for now.

Peace and Love

April 5, 2009

Ahoy from Namaste!

How is everyone? Hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring.

I am posting two blogs today since I could not post the one I wrote for March 27. So take a look back one also.

Well, here we are back in Georgetown for a couple of days after spending a most wonderful 5 days on Conception Island.

We continue to be amazed at the beauty of the water world that surrounds us. I thought I had seen all the blues and greens that the Bahamas had to offer until we arrived on Conception Island. The east side of the island is surrounded by crystal clear green water. The west side, where we anchored, is surrounded by crystal clear blue water. These are colors we have never seen before! I have tried to capture them in the photos for you. The center of the island is a large mangrove that is home to green sea turtles. The outer edges of the island hold white sand beaches and rocky cliffs. We snorkeled, collected, took a tour of the mangrove with two friends to see the turtles and hiked along the cliffs.

The sea turtles are very shy and only come up to the surface of the water to take a quick gulp of air before returning to the deeper water. We sat for hours just to continue catching glimpses of these graceful swimmers. An egret dancing on a nearby beach also entertained us. It was a solo performance of leaps, pirouettes, and rhythmic wing flapping. There were a variety of birds not seen anywhere else we have been so far. There were long tailed, white, tropicbirds, oystercatchers, egrets, osprey and lots of seagulls.

While snorkeling we saw lots of the fish we have become acquainted with while traveling here in the Bahamas. We also came upon a 7-foot nurse shark. It is the one shark that I do not fear so I was able to follow it to capture a picture. Nurse sharks are bottom feeders and are much more predictable than many sharks. The only time they are known to bite people is when someone tries to pet one. Needless to say I did not get close enough to pet this guy.

We arrived back in Georgetown ready to do some work on Namaste. She is showing some wear after six months in the water. Chris is working on the small rust spots that appear every so often and I am giving her a good cleaning. We will be here for a couple of days and then we are not sure where we are going. The weather is really nice now in the central Bahamas so we are not ready to head to the Abacos just yet. We may go south to the Jementos or north up to Black Point in the Exumas. We will wait and see what the wind and weather are up to as we finish up our chores.

We will be in touch.

Peace and Love

March 27, 2009

March 27, 2009

Ahoy from Namaste, Thompson Bay, Long Island

Hi Everybody!

It is hard to believe we have been on Thompson Bay for almost 2 weeks! How fast time passes on Namaste. I wish you all a Happy Spring! I can almost smell the cherry blossoms.

We were greeted by many of the cruisers we met while in Georgetown upon our arrival on Long Island. While here we have been getting to know each other better. We have especially enjoyed some extended time with 3 couples on sailing vessels Loafer’s Glory, Fox Sea and Adamant. We first met Vicki and Bob from Fox Sea in Beaufort, North Carolina and again in Charleston, South Carolina. I believe we will meet up with them again in Eleuthera. Pat and Lynn from Adamant designed and built their own boat and traveled here from Georgian Bay. Anne Marie and Larry from Loafer’s Glory are traveling for two years. They plan to spend the summer in Luperon, Dominican Republic before traveling down to Trinidad next fall and winter. We continue to enjoy making friends on the water beginning with the greetings “Where have you been? Where are you going?”

As we get to know more of the cruisers we are discovering many self-reliant individuals. Some of the cruisers are retired. Some have retired early. But many are couples of modest income that decided to sell their homes and alter the course of their lives dramatically. We also meet many like ourselves who rent their homes are take some extended time off before returning to their careers or finding new endeavors. While this is a unique adventure from the perspective of friends and family back home, it is something more and more couples are choosing after their children leave home and they are free to make different choices.
We rented a car for a day to explore more of this 80-mile long island. We explored the beaches at the north and south ends of the island. One thing that is still hard to get used to is the amount of trash on the ocean side beaches in the Bahamas. On Stocking Island the cruisers clean up the ocean side beach and it was lovely. The park beaches are also kept clean by rangers and volunteers. Still, on many of the beaches through out the Bahamas one will find plastic containers, shoes, ropes, nets, barrels, glass bottles, toothbrushes, batteries, television tubes and more washed up on shore. At the edge of beautiful and pristine water lies the underbelly of our culture.

So we tend to ignore or make use of what we find when walking the beaches. Chris has been gathering colored netting to make a protective cover for the front of Derby, our dinghy. He is pictured on the deck beginning his weaving project. I overlook the garbage and center my attention on shells and sea beans. The sea beans are dark, round pod seeds that can be polished and made into jewelry. There is another umber and ochre pod aptly called the hamburger bean. These small and fragile seeds float to Bahamian shores all the way from distant Africa. I am not sure what plants they come from yet, but will soon find out and let you know.
We also visited Dean’s Blue Hole, one of the deepest blue holes in the world at 660 feet deep. The photo I have included does not capture the sea green and blue colors of the water. At present there are young men and women free divers from all over the world gathering and practicing for the upcoming free dive competition in April. We watched as a woman from Japan and a man from New Zealand dove down 275 feet before rising again to the surface. The scuba divers who go down with them during the competition will take an additional 4 to 5 hours to surface after authenticating depth for the contest.

There must be 100 churches spread among the 35 settlements here on Long Island. The two churches shown in the photographs are in Clarence Town. Father Jerome, the hermit cleric of Cat Island designed the large, blue and white St Peter’s Catholic Church and the St. Paul’s Anglican Church. He arrived from England in 1908 to help rebuild churches after a hurricane. He built 4 churches on Cat Island as well as a medical clinic, convent, monastery and a technical school. He chose to live as a hermit in a cave while living on Cat Island and is buried there now.
I just finished reading The Story of the Bahamas by Paul Albury, which Pat and Bim so generously left for us. I continue to gain respect for the resilience of the Bahamians. Throughout a 400-year history here they have overcome every adversity handed to them by man and nature. A life lived mainly from the sea is not an easy path. Island life can be harsh and isolated with few of the modern conveniences we have become dependent upon. Yet these people are ready with an understanding smile and yielding grace. We continue to enjoy the generous spirit of our hosts here In the Bahamas.

I mentioned how fast time flies here on Namaste. We purchased Namaste a year ago March 17th. We moved aboard just over 7 months ago. We have been traveling on her for 5 months. Over the last few months I feel like I am shedding time like layers of winter fleece. Chris and I are thankful for the gifts of a life tuned to the rhythms of nature. At first it was hard to release the secure furry feeling of a scheduled life. How will I know what to do? Or when to do it? I now have ample opportunity to nakedly practice not knowing every moment’s outcome. I am continuing to open myself to the mystery of each moment. How rewarding to let go of the confining cloak of expectation, image, and judgment. I continue to catch myself looking for the warm, sheltering blanket of a plan, a picture of the future or a conclusion where my mind can firmly seek cover. And again I alter my thought’s course toward presence, open, naked, presence. And I thought I knew what my work was before we even embarked on this journey! So many surprises!

The upcoming weather is looking good to sail to Conception, a small island just east of us. It offers little in the way of protection from strong winds so cruisers must find a good long window of opportunity to sail there. It is part of the Bahamian National Trust. It is uninhabited and surrounded by clear water and lots of coral. There are several other boats headed in the same direction. We are lucky to have been provided this opportunity to go there.
I will upload this and upcoming blogs as Internet access allows. Connections will be fewer, weaker and further between for the next couple of weeks.

Hope you all have a great spring.

Peace and Love