Different Takes

 03/03/11

Hey All,
Sitting at anchor on the western shore of Lee Stocking Island, Exuma, Bahamas. This island houses a research center, Perry Institute for Marine Science, and has hiking trails, great snorkeling and even a few “top ten” beaches! A cold front came through late yesterday along with some heavy rains and temps dropping to the low 70’s. Today it is clear and blowing 25-30kts out of the ENE. This is a protected anchorage for any winds from N-SE and has good holding for our Delta anchor in 7.5ft at low water. There are 3 other boats within about 200yds of us.
Cruising has been a lot easier this year as we now enter anchorages and settlements that are very familiar to us. Also on a weather note, there has been about 1/5th the number of cold fronts. This allowed us to stay in places longer without having to leave and find a hidey-hole! Some long time cruisers are claiming that it has been the best winter in 6+ yrs! 
One interesting new find was to rent a car on Long Island(no not that Long Island!!) with some other cruisers. It is 70mi long and it is the home of Deans Blue Hole, the deepest in the world. The day we were there snorkeling we met the wife of the current free-dive record holder as she was practicing. Brittany was routinely going down to 120ft! Her husband , Will Truebridge, broke the record in Dec. 2010 at 101 meters, 331+ ft! We heard that just two weeks ago he went, unofficially, another 20 meters, 65+!! This is with just a gulp of air, goggles and a soft weight that he wears around his neck!
We also got to see the Santa Maria Monument on the northern tip of the island. Apparently Columbus visited here, some say his first stop, …and also ran aground!
Stopped at the “Beach Bar” on Harvey Bay. A new place which is right out of a Jimmy Buffet song and just opened a few weeks before. This was right before the Super Bowl and we were looking for a bar to view it. The owner and locals were really friendly and we ended up taking our boat along with 3 others to anchor off the bar. Well this bay cruisers pass right by because at first glance on the chart there isn’t much water unless you are on a Hobie Cat. We looked a little harder and found a decent anchorage for our 5ft draft up in the corner. The other boats were catamarans and got in much closer. We dinghied to the Super Bowl party, met more locals and they said we were the first sailboats to anchor there in 30 yrs!! Ended up staying there for 5 days and even took a local lobster fisherman with his family out for a sail! Yeah you guessed it, their first time on a sailboat.
Well there are plenty more tales but we will save them for the summer. Looks like we will be returning to NJ in early June “boatless” as the Cookie Monster will be summering in the S. Georgia/N Fla area. The ICW is really nice but after two round-trips it takes a toll. 250 hrs on the engine one way and 3-4 weeks really adds up. Also next year we are planning on going to the San Blas Islands in Panama so this will give us a head start to get there by mid-Dec.

All for now,
Corbett & Robin
S/V Cookie Monster