Norman's Cay

Norman's Cay
12/29/11
24 35.10 N 76 48.91 W

DC3 plane wreck

Once the winds eased and the seas calmed down we headed further down the Exumas to Norman's Cay - only a few hours away.  Initially the sailing was great but a front came through (not mentioned in the weather forecast) and torrential rain and wind stayed with us until our arrival.  Visibility was down to 100 yards around our boat, Don and I both kept a constant vigil looking out at a grey rain streaked plastic window trying to spot any other vessels before we collided.  The storm showed as a large black blob on our radar and blocked out any vessels close by - a few large motor yachts cut across our bows at 20knots, I wonder if they even knew we were there - we had slowed down to a crawl.  A tense hour or so until the rain cleared enough for us to see where we were heading.  We anchored outside the protected anchorage of Norman's Cay, the visibility being too poor to "eyeball" our way in.  Finally we are not pitching nor rolling - so nice to be still.  We are hearing reports on the radio of other boats that dragged anchor or spent a worrisome night, another that ended up on a sand spit (no damage), I am glad we had decided to stay where we were.

Sunrise

We have found the nice part of the Bahamas - beautiful sandy beaches and very clear waters - it is certainly a millionaires playground - so many huge  motor yachts whose tenders are bigger than our boat.  All food is double to triple the cost of similar in USA and what look like shacks that carry the title of "Cafe” or “Restaurant" charge dearly for their fare - often in a foam take-a-way container with plastic knives and forks !

The local radio station always manages to put a smile on our faces - the very short news is followed by community service announcements which on a daily basis means funeral notices.  These are not your normal funeral notices - they state the name of the deceased then go onto introduce them then continue with their surviving families names - these include wife/husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - next comes the aunts & uncles, cousins and their progeny - all names are in full - including middle name - the last one we counted listed 35 children, cousins etc - it takes up a lot of air time each morning.  The other amusing section is the Church advertising part - each Pastor (or whatever) has their turn to convince you to attend their particular Church - apparently whether the carpark is secure is a big point, people to meet and greet and ensure safety or assisting the frail, what the sermon will be about and the way it affects you in your life - the promises they make are quite extraordinary - all this comes with volume, enthusiasm and a good gift of the gab.  The Ministers were quiet entertaining and certainly convinced me to visit their place of worship.

Don's friends Richard and Tuula live in Perth in Western Australia.  The family arrive in Georgetown on 7th January - they came here just to visit us which makes us feel so special.  Georgetown is at the southern end of the Exumas and we are moving each day to arrive in time.  Unfortunately the resort they chose does not have an anchorage nearby, they do have a marina but it will be far too expensive for us - the marinas here tend to run at $2-3 per foot and then they have the cheek to charge for power @ $40 - 100 per day ( to put that into perspective, White Rose used $13 in 6 weeks of metered power whilst at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth) and the marinas here also charge for water @ 50c per gallon which is understandable because they have no natural lakes or water collection areas so most of their water is produced by reverse osmosis which is expensive to make.

We planned our trip to Georgetown including the places we wanted to visit along the way - the timing worked out perfectly and the weather was kind.

We had a lovely few days at Normans Cay - Don snorkelled over a plane wreck that was in a few metres of water, we took a very long dinghy ride to visit new friends anchored close by and just swam and relaxed on the beach - this is what we had been waiting for !!