Stay Over Days on Staniel Cay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Tuesday, January 21

Yesterday afternoon about an hour after our arrival we drove the dinghy past nearby Pig Beach and fed one female pig—she was the only one that didn’t gorge herself throughout the day’s feedings by tourists. (Dozens of tourists come down from Nassau, most of them cruise ship passengers, by speedboat to feed pigs on a beach and at great expense, I might add.)  She wasn’t a particularly pretty pig—her eyes looked kind of glazed over and she had big time teeth problems.  Something like mud was caked on her ears but she loved carrots! Maggie, afraid of being accidentally bitten, threw the large pieces of carrot into her open mouth and she would chew them thoroughly with her mouth open to make a loud crunching noise.  She was certainly not shy nor self conscious.

The female pig that ate all
our carrots. (Take note
of her crooked teeth.)

After the female pig consumed all the carrots we brought, we drove the dinghy to Staniel Cay, about a 20-minute dinghy ride from Pig Beach. We took along a garbage bag full of trash we had been collecting for the past week. 

This was the first scene we
encountered on Staniel Cay.

We were able to dispose of our trash (just by following the signs) at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (a very casual place) where we stopped for a drink and some conch fritters (the best we’ve had so far).  We picked up a bag of ice cubes (for probably $10--we'll find out for sure later) before driving the dinghy back to the boat. (This is the first time I wished for a larger, faster dinghy engine than our 6 HP Yamaha.  Maybe a different propeller would be enough of an improvement?)

Burgees hanging from the ceiling
of Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

During the night, two rain showers blew through the anchorage, the first about 10 PM and the second at about 5 AM. 

The day started with a light breeze from the North and an overcast sky. The weather prediction was for high northerly winds tomorrow and continuing (but decreasing in velocity)  into Thursday.  Friday and Saturday will have light and variable wind according to the forecast.  The temperature, of course, will vary between a low of 71 at night and a high of 78 degrees in the afternoon.  (The water temperature was a very comfortable 77 degrees F.)  The sun came out around 10 AM.

The overcast sky looking at the northern
part of our Big Majors anchorage. (This
cloud cover produced a light rain
shower shortly after this image
was captured at 9 AM.)

At mid-morning, we drove the dinghy into Pig Beach for some more pig feeding.  Before we could get to the beach, a tour boat came in and the pigs started swimming out to the tour boat.

These pigs on the beach heard
the tour boat coming.

By the time the first tour boat arrived, the pigs
were already swimming in the water. 
We saw five tour boats on 
Pig Beach today.)

This cute little guy was an
excellent swimmer!

This little pig loved carrots--actually,
they all did.  We were amused.

In the afternoon, we went in town in search of Bahamian bread.  The following images were captured along the way:

We beached our dinghy and put the
anchor in the sand well up
on the beach.

I really like how the small fishing boat is
framed by the casuarina tree.

An old phone booth is still standing by the side
of one of the narrow concrete streets.

We did get a loaf of Bahamian bread after visiting two small grocery stores. a pink store and a blue store.  We found the government dock where the mail boat delivers goods, coming from Nassau and we found the third grocery store on the island (which has its own dinghy dock).  While there were a few small cars and trucks on the island, most of the means of transportation that we saw in use was by golf cart.

Wednesday, January 22

We had quite a blow last night—worse than at Highbourne Cay 4 days ago (because of the west northwest wind direction). The maximum predicted wind velocity was 27 knots. It was impossible sleeping with so much boat motion. The island to the northwest (Fowl Cay) that we were counting on for protection from the wind was very low in elevation and far enough away from us that there was enough fetch to build significant wave height. The wind strengthened again about 3 AM to 25+ knots. (To make matters worse, I was plagued with the knowledge that our anchor was not dug in as deeply as it was in Highbourne Cay when we first anchored here...and that the outboard engine was still on our dinghy.)

I got up at 5:30 AM to wait for first light. There was nothing I could do in the darkness except trust our ground tackle to hold us in place. It is clear that I have to pay more careful attention to the wind forecast (even though it was incorrect in this case) and our anchoring options here in the Exumas.

When first light arrived (6:20 AM) the wind direction was clearly more west than north (later determined to be west northwest)—so, we virtually had no protection from the wind! The dinghy engine was still mounted on the dinghy and our boat’s position had not changed during the night. There were huge swells and white caps on the previously calm Bay of Pigs.  We dodged a bullet!

The sea state that we
endured all night long!

I got seasick but had nothing in my stomach to throw up. It was a miserable feeling but I have always been able to quickly work through my infrequent bouts (mostly on fishing trips) of seasickness.  The following images were taken after the sun was higher in the sky:

Looking north in the anchorage during
the highest wind strength.

The waves splashing against the
limestone rocks behind us.

The wind kept up at its frantic pace throughout the day. We spent the entire day in the cockpit with most of the enclosure in place since it was the only spot where could avoid getting seasick.  We even made a light lunch in the cockpit.  It had to have been one of the worst 24 hours in my life!

I am very thankful for our Rocna Vulcan 20-kg (45-pound) anchor--it held perfectly for the entire length of the blow!!!  While some other boats had two anchors employed, our single anchor with 90 feet of 5/16" HT chain and an anchor bridle held perfectly.

Needless to say we were boat-bound for the day.  More next blogpost...

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Addendum about Wind Storm

The west side of Big Majors Spot is known for its good holding and is well protected from the prevailing easterly winds. However, the big blow we experienced came from the west where we had very little protection. This was the second big wind storm we faced in the Exumas, the first being off the west side of Highbourne Cay but the wind was from the east.

This big blow occurred during the late-evening of January 21, into the night, and through the daylight hours into the late-ending of January 22–twenty four hours of pure hell. During the night the wind howled through the rigging. The wind-caused waves caused the boat to rock at least 20 to 25 degrees each side of vertical as well as a fore-to-aft rocking motion. There was no way we could sleep through all the motion.

At times, the boat’s hull seemed to actually twist. The bulkheads creaked under the strain of the twisting motion. I wondered how long this 37-year old boat could take the abuse it was experiencing. In addition, a sharp limestone ledge was downwind of us. Our single anchor was the only thing keeping us away from the rock ledge. 

When daylight arrived, the wind storm continued but I was glad to see that the dinghy engine was still attached to the dinghy. Little did I know at that time that the stainless steel swim ladder for the dinghy was over the side and slamming into everything in its short radius. Fortunately, no permanent damage resulted from the swim ladder’s night of horror but the rope holding the ladder to the transom of the dinghy was nearly chafed through.