Junkanoo

In the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean, Junkanoo is a festive time spanning Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years, and then some. It is a time for parties, parades, costumes, and all variety of celebration to make the season memorable. In some cases, the quantities of rum associated with the events makes it hard for anything to be memorable.

New Years signaled a change of pace. Great holiday memories behind us, the time arrived to make final preparations for a hoped-for four months in the Bahamas and perhaps the Turks and Caicos - maybe even a bit more.

Weather was blustery at the end of December and into January. But it became clear that near the end of the first week things would settle down and invite all able cruisers who were ready to turn eastward and cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. We got to it, and were amazed at all the organizing, provisioning, and preparation that had to be accomplished, and at the end of the day, was! Food, staples, fuel, spare parts, more charts, beer, wine, and toilet paper. And that was only the first day. We were surprised at how much Celebrate could store as we organized every nook and cranny to hold our stores.

Finally, by Friday, January 7, all things had come together - the crew, the boat, the preparation, and the weather. In the pre-dawn light we slipped our lines at the Las Olas City Docks in Fort Lauderdale, wended our way for the last time in a long time past the megayachts and million dollar properties, past the cruise ships the size of the largest hotels, and straight out the wide channel to the sea. We pointed our nose to Bimini, about 50 miles to the ESE, locked in the autopilot and enjoyed a warm and calm crossing. The waters were bottomless - several thousand feet. The Gulf Stream current took almost two knots off our speed as we cut against it. Cobalt blue and snow white are the words that describe the color of the sea and the wake. Flying fish scattered ahead of us as we disturbed their daily life of panic evading mahi and other predators. It was cool.

Arriving near Bimini, we hoisted our "Q" (Quarantine) flag and picked up the range that guided us through the reefs and shoals right up to the beach through the famous 'Windex Waters." Turning north we 'eyeballed' our way through water only a couple of feet deeper than our keel and arrived at the docks in Alicetown where Chuck went ashore and cleared customs. Down came the "Q" flag, and up went our Bahamas courtesy flag as evidence that we had been officially welcomed into the country - for a mere $300, which included a 180-day cruising permit and a fishing permit. Look out, lobsters, groupers, and mahi-mahi!

It only took a couple hours to stroll around Alicetown, but we began to feel the nature of the Bahamas. Everyone we passed exchanged a "Hi" and maybe even a shake. Streets are hard to describe as more than one lane, yet cars travel both ways - and were reminded, on the left hand side of the road. Along the oceanfront, folks of the most modest - even impoverished - circumstances enjoyed views of the sun, sea, and beach that would go for a fortune stateside. Location, location, location.

The next morning it was off to Chub Cay, 9 hours across the Great Bahama Banks. The sea is over a thousand feet deep a mile west of Bimini, and over fifteen feet deep a mile east. These waters are 75 miles across and lead to the New Providence Sound where the bottom of the lake again disappears into the bottomless abyss. It was smooth sailing and we anchored off the beach in a fairly well protected cove with about a dozen or so other cruisers. On Sunday we explored Chub and took an easy break.

Monday the 10th we set out to gunkhole around the Berry Islands, but after about an hour it became clear that the stiffening winds from the east would really chop up the sound and that it would not be a lot of fun to run cuts into the cays we were hoping to explore against an ebbing tide. So, it was easy to decide to change course for Nassau which we reached about three hours later. We spotted the light that guides to the harbor where we turned and instantly noted that we were not the biggest fish in the pond.

Nassau is the largest city in the Bahamas, and is its capital. The downtown is geared to tourists which arrive by the thousands daily on huge cruise ships. We walked from the marina and took in the sights. Once is more than enough. At the marina we were delighted to find a wi-fi connection that enabled us to resume our email and websurfing junkie behavior. But it also let us wind up some final details, contact updates, etc. Nearby the marina was a fantastic supermarket stocked as well as any in the US, and with surprisingly comparable prices. One morning we heard a roar and looked out from the dock to find the regularly scheduled Chalk's Airline seaplane starting its takeoff run. It uses the harbor for its landings, too. On Thursday we left the marina and moved to an anchorage in the middle of Nassau Harbor with a ton of other cruisers. We joined many of them at an impromtu lunch ashore. Over on Paradise Island is the Atlantis Resort complete with a megayacht marina in the middle. We dinked in and Andrea did some coaching. There were no less than 25 yachts of 100 - 200' tied up in there. The wealth just dripped all over like a financial oil slick. There is a point where the opulence tips over to disgusting and this setting, to our way of thinking, was way past that point.

It was time to go and the weather looked good, so on Saturday, 1/15 we topped off our fuel (boy, do we miss the US prices) and headed down into the Exumas, anchoring just off the shore of Highborne Cay about 40 miles SE of Nassau. The next day we moved into the marina, though, because a front was forecast to hit that night, and it did. Fronts come regularly and are full of wind and rain. The rain doesn't last long but it's enough to keep the salt washed off the boat. The marina is clean and modern. Even though the island only has 30 residents, they claimed to have a transportation system and eventually we found the bus stop noted on our map. We also found their sense of humor.

Two days later the winds died and we took off for Warderick Wells. It is the headquarters of the Exumas Land and Sea Park, a protected region about 22 miles long and comprising 15 cays. No fishing is permitted. We heard the lobsters know exactly where the boundaries are and hang just inside them. The birds literally will fly to you and eat out of your hand. We anchored off the beach and our dinghy became our regular water taxi. The snorkeling was great, and so were the sunsets. We hiked and we volunteered our time on some worthy projects. Nearly all the things that are done are done by volunteers.

We moved into the mooring field after the third day of anchoring because of a forecasted front due to arrive on Sunday, 1/22. It did, and we were glad to be tucked in to a protected spot. There are about 20 moorings on a first come, first served assignment basis and it works great. The highest spot on the cay is the site of a spontaneous pile of memorabilia from cruisers who have visited before. From a distance it looks like a junkyard but up close the creativity is amazing. We left our own mark of attendance

All work and no play make . . . . whatever. Anyway, there is a lot of socializing amongst the cruisers. It is so easy to meet new friends because there's the common cruising denominator. Often get-togethers are spontaneous on one boat or another. On Saturdays, the tradition has it that all are welcome on the porch of the park office to meet, greet, and watch the sun go down. We enjoyed one and all.

There's a lot of hiking done, and the terrain is tough. Not hilly, but completely over loose sand and/or ancient coral and sandstone. We even found the ruins of an old loyalist settlement that came and went in the 1780's.

We were amazed that we stayed a whole week and still had time for more. We'll be back. But on Tuesday, 1/25, the weather was too good to pass up and we nosed our way down the Exumas another 20 miles to Sampson Cay. It is a beautifully developed marina and is up to U$ standards. It is here that we found a bulletproof wi-fi network and had a chance to do a lot of site work. Hope you find it interesting.

The area around Sampson Cay is very compact and an easy dink ride to Staniel Cay. Our anchorage was so secure adn cozy we decided to stay put instead of moving to the larger, and much more densely packed Big Majors Spot with 50 or more cruisers settled in. A dink ride there did reveal the famous wild pigs that live there and are wont to swim out to your dink in hopes of some table scraps, which cruisers regularly save and share with them.

We also thought (and were right) that Sampson would be the snuggest place to ride out the passage of another cold front on Friday night, 1/28. We spent our four days there doing some snorkeling (Greg nailed a huge lobster), getting some provisions and obligatory T-shirts at Staniel Cay, Catching some beach time, and exploring around. At the Staniel Cay YC, scraps tossed into the water by locals cleaning fresh-caught lobsters and conch were very popular with the rays and nurse sharks. We were scheduled for a fine dining evening on Fowl Cay but the frontal passage made us decide to stick to the boat and just get a cheeseburger at the Sampson Cay marina restaurant.

The weather was as nice on Saturday, 1/29, as it had been snorting the night before as the front passed. A couple hours later we had moved just a dozen miles south to Black Point and joined about 30 other cruisers for an impromptu singalong before a buffet ribs and chicken BBQ thrown by Lorraine's Cafe.

Sunday we moved on to Little Farmers' Cay and tied up at the LFCYC. We were the only boat there and the dock was still recovering from Hurricane Jeane - no electricity but it was snug. It's a very small but very well developed community. Lunch at Ocean Cabin was disrupted by a call for help from a sailboat that had gone aground on a sandbar as it picked its way through the channels. None are marked in the Bahamas - one must 'eyeball' navigate using the color of the water to define depth, grass, sand, reefs, coral heads, etc. It can be done with a bit of practice.

Chuck was drafted by the rescue squad comprised of the guy who owned Ocean Cabin. About ten minutes later the boat was unstuck and the day continued. The LFCYC was located just near the end of the island's 3000' airstrip and it afforded the perfect site to watch the sun go down, including a Green Flash the first night. We stayed two nights and closed out our January '05 Junkanoo chapter with a really good dinner with new friends Ed and Betsey.

Stay tuned . . . We have been pleasantly surprised at our ability to gain Internet access and will try to keep things fairly current. Thanks for visiting, feel free to email (text only, please) any time to celebrateanc@yahoo.com.