Three More Stay Over Days on Staniel Cay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Thursday, January 23

What a difference in comfort last night! The wind was nearly as strong as the previous night but coming from a different direction (northeast) and we were in the lee of Big Majors. There was almost no boat motion and we slept like babies, making up for almost no sleep the previous night.  Going through 24 hours of rocking and rolling and no sleep really makes you appreciate a night of complete restful sleep.

Our last remaining goal here on Staniel Cay was to snorkel through the Thunderball Grotto, made famous by a scene in an old James Bond movie.  Northeast wind would make it nearly impossible to snorkel in that area today but tomorrow the wind is expected to die down. So, that leaves today wide open for more exploration of the island. We decided to visit the third store on the island, Isles General Store, in search of diet Ginger Ale, but we may buy any type of diet soda.  (We actually found diet Sprite at the Pink Pearl Convenience Store on the day of our arrival—the other (blue) convenience store, Burke’s, had only Diet Coke. (These convenience/grocery stores are smaller than most Seven-Elevens in the U.S.)  Isles General Store, located on the southern end of the settlement (shown lower center in following map image), has its own dinghy dock but it a bit away from the mainstream foot traffic on the island.  Before we left the boat, we found out that Isles General Store provides propane refills too--so we loaded the empty propane tank we had on board into the dinghy.

A map of the settlement
on Staniel Cay (excerpt 
from Explorer charts; 
the depths are in 
meters).

Some images captured today around Staniel Cay:

The dinghy chanel where we found the 
Isles General Store (on the right side).

Big Majors is like a large limestone rock formation 
with trees in the middle and some sandy 
beaches along some of the edges.

These colorful bungalows are actually rentals.  
(All the residents have enough sense not 
to build homes along the water.)

Inside the Staniel Cay Yacht Club 
in the early afternoon.

I wonder if this business combination would 
be successful back in the U.S.?

One of about a dozen nurse sharks that hang out 
at the fish cleaning station at the yacht club.

A catamaran tied to the outermost 
dock at Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

We dropped off our propane tank to be refilled at Isles General Store (they didn’t have any diet soda by the way) on the south end of town. We were told by the store owner that it would be ready for pick up at 4:30 PM. Since we had to get ice cubes too, we proceeded by dinghy to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where we purchased ice previously. Since we had lots of time on our hands, we had a drink at the yacht club (which is really a public bar with docks overlooking the water). Maggie had a Kalik and I had a bushwhacker. All of a sudden we realized that we had a scheduling problem—the office where the ice was located closed at 5 PM, our propane tank wouldn’t be ready until 4:30 PM and they were a 15-minute dinghy ride apart. Also, we left the water maker running on the boat and it had to be turned off at 4 PM to avoid overfilling the day tank. We contemplated several alternatives (including things that could go wrong) and were completely baffled by this simple problem that we hadn’t had to face this entire trip. So, we bought some onion rings and had another drink. Then, we walked around to find the laundromat and ended up back at the (so-called) yacht club.  Finally, at 4 PM, we decided to pick up our $6 bag of ice cubes (usually $2 back in the U.S.) and then take off by dinghy to get our refilled propane tank. We were able to pick up the propane tank earlier than expected ($22 for 2.5 gallons of propane which is about 3 times the cost in the U.S.) and get back to the boat (30 minutes away) before all the ice cubes melted.  We turned off the water maker right when we got back to the boat.  In the end everything worked out fine but there is no way I could ever function again in the business world.

Friday, January 24

A couple light rain showers passed through the anchorage overnight and according to weather.com the system causing the showers moved off to the west at 8 AM.  The sun came out and it looked like paradise again.  We expected to snorkel the Thunderball Grotto today but the wind forecast is actually better for tomorrow.  (Wind causes waves which tend to flood the air intake of your snorkel--so, its always better when the sea state is flat calm.)

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It seems that our 340 watts of solar panels is able to fully charge our battery bank by 11 AM.  (Remember that the MPPT controllers allow only enough power as dictated by the state of the batteries (which, for us, is never less than 50% charged)—not the full rating of the solar panels.)  I started running the water maker at 10:30 AM because we had plenty of solar power and very little fresh water in our forward tank. 

One of the projects I recently added to my summer projects list was to add level indicators to the forward and port tanks (in fact, all fresh water tanks) as well as add a valve line from the water maker to the port tank. Currently, we have no way of telling when the forward tank is full or empty and no way to transfer water to the port tank.

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Another rain shower come through the anchorage in the morning at 8:45 after just reading the weather report that rain showers would end at 8 AM--but I can deal with inaccuracy, it forces you to deal with the "right now."

The rain showers are usually very light and only
last for five to ten minutes, then the
sun comes back out.

Rain was running off the side of the bimini
and into the open cockpit.

A mostly overcast sky and alternating rain showers and periods of sunshine defined the day. Surprisingly, there was enough sunlight throughout the day to keep our battery bank topped up. I ran the water maker (after 11 AM) for about 3 hours, making 4.5 more gallons of fresh water today.

The propane tank in use ran dry today—we’ve been using it since December 5 (in St. Augustine). Ten pounds (2-1/2 gallons) of propane lasted us 49 days, which is pretty good. Of course, that may be due to us eating out more than usual during the period. So, after lunch we took it to Isles General Store for a refill.

We plan to leave a Staniel Cay for Black Point on Great Guana Cay on Sunday, a distance of only 8 nautical miles. After a few days anchored at Black Point, we will work our way down the bank side of Great Guana Cay, anchoring each night in coves like Little Bay, White Point, Hetty’s Land, and Bay Rush Bay and ultimately to Little Farmers Cay before heading off to Georgetown on Great Exuma.

Saturday, January 25

Today started like any other day in paradise, calm wind, sunny, and 70 degrees! This was our last day in Staniel Cay—we decided to move on to Black Point, Great Guana Cay, tomorrow. We had a number of goals for the day: snorkeling the Thunderball Grotto, pick up our refilled propane tank, and purchase a few fresh provisions (including coconut rum).

We spent a lot of time in the morning, planning our next week or so around the weather, specifically the wind. According to our plan, we expect to travel to Georgetown (our southernmost destination) from Big Farmers Cay on Thursday with a light-to-moderate westerly wind. We’ve had to keep a list of places we’re skipping on the way south to Georgetown to visit on our return trip north. (We expect that we will not have to deal with strong northerly winds on our return trip north in April or May.)

The water in the anchorage
was flat calm.

The water in the anchorage was flat calm as the sun began its ascent through some cloud cover to the east. I was waiting for the sun to get a little more intense before starting the water maker for the day. At 9:30 AM I started the water maker on its 6 or 7-hour day’s run. (The battery bank was already topped up to 13.36 volts.)

The shadow of the boat on the sandy
bottom of our anchorage. (The
water is 13 feet deep
at this point!)

Our anchor chain with nylon bridle attached
lays limply in the calm water.

There are quite a few more boats in this anchorage compared to when we arrived five days ago. A few of them took off for southerly destinations this morning.

At 10:30 AM we took the dinghy into the settlement and did some provisioning at the blue store and the pink store (they have different grocery items) and picked up some local (Ricardo-brand) rum at the laundromat (yes, the laundromat!). We also rode the dinghy down to Isles General Store to pick up our refilled propane tank. Then, back to Staniel Cay Yacht Club for lunch and a bag of ice cubes before heading back to the boat.

We timed our little dinghy excursion to Thunderball Grotto (about 30 minutes away from our anchorage) to coincide with the predicted low tide at 3:17 PM--we actually arrived at 3 PM.  Maggie snorkeled into the Grotto while I manned the dinghy.  She took the GoPro and I set it up for her but let's just simply say that we didn't get any images worth publishing here.

When We got back to the boat I snorkeled over the anchor (and it was completely buried in sand) and checked the bottom of the boat--everything looked fine.

Tomorrow we head to Black Point settlement on Great Guana Cay.  Stay tuned...

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