To the Jumentos Cays & Ragged Islands

Early morning, February 16^th we weighed anchor at Elizabeth Harbor and set out for the Jumentos Cays and Ragged Islands. This is a chain of very small cays and islands stretching south about 80 nautical miles from a point about 20nm southeast of George Town on the eastern part of the Great Bahama Bank.

You need to be self-sufficient there. A number of cruisers enjoy these islands for their remoteness and the fact that only one of the islands is inhabited — A community of 100 or so live and work in Duncan Town on Ragged Island, almost at the southern end of the chain. Of course we didn’t make it. Not right away.

Winds were much higher than predicted as we experienced gusts to 34 knots, almost 40 miles per hour. Since the winds and waves were off our port quarter (left rear) it was a very rolly ride and wore us out. Instead, we and My Sharona bailed on our plan and headed for Thompson Bay on Long Island, one of our very favorite places to be.

Reefed jib on Son of a Sailor

We spent of couple of enjoyable days waiting for weather, including visits to Long Island Breeze Resort and a feast at Trifina’s Thompson Bay Club…pigeon peas and rice, Bahamian macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, potato salad, barbecued ribs, fried chicken wings, cracked conch and grouper fingers. Perfect, except that there were no fried plantains (Bettye’s favorite) and all this for $16.00 (Dennis still has Bettye on a boat budget)! It was windy in Long Island, too. So windy that the dock at Long Island Breeze had been removed to keep it from being damaged.

After the winds died some, we attempted our venture to the Jumentos Cays. Our trip was pretty rolly again, but the breeze was light, so motor sailing was the order of the day. Forty-four nautical miles later we anchored on the west side of Water Cay in the northern Jumentos behind 60-foot white cliffs. Local fishermen came by and traded us lobsters for beer. Thanks Wayne (My Sharona)!

The next day we had a 46nm sail down to Raccoon Cay, where we anchored with Orient Moon, My Sharona, Scandia and Kumbaya. We spent a couple of hours walking a very small portion of the Cay where we visited a small house ruin, a very large inland salt pond, and discovered the sluice ways that controlled the flow of ocean water into the pond. See the photo of the ruin, and note that the filler in the tabby walls is conch shells. Not sure “tabby” is the correct term, but the “cement” was locally made by burning shells and making a sand/limestone mixture for cement.

Sunday we made the short trip down to Hog Island, only a few miles from the southern end of the island chain and only about 70 miles to the Cuban mainland. We anchored at Lobster Point Bay and promptly were invited to a pot luck and cocktail hour on shore. In the early afternoon we played horseshoes and Kadima, or beach paddle ball. The pot luck was great and we met cruisers who stay down here for months at a time.

At Raccoon Cay

The village grocery in Duncan Town will order anything you need from Nassau, and it will come on Thursdays with the mail boat. All supplies from the mail boat have to be unloaded from the freighter and transferred ashore by small skiffs. Needless to say, supplies are pricey down here. The folks here are friendly and helpful in any way they can and getting seafood is easy, by fishing, diving or purchasing.

Next day was exploring Hog Cay. We dinghied about three-fourths of a mile north with Wayne (My Sharona) and hiked across the island to the ocean side of the island. It was gorgeous, but somewhat spoiled by being a trash beach: a place where flotsam and jetsam washes up from all over the Atlantic. Wayne was happy to build and open the island’s first shoe store. We also found the ruins of a locally built skiff made using naturally curved wood, we presumed locally found. Bettye was successful in finding a number of sea beans which are purported to float across from Africa. After drying and polishing, they’re used in making jewelry.

Kokopelli with Allan and Liz on board were down here waiting for the weather to calm down so they could make a run south to Columbia and Panama. They have become good friends and we will miss them as they travel south. As an aside, we never did make it the last couple of miles to Duncan Town. Just too rough!

We spent the early evening playing Mexican Train with My Sharona and Siya Sinana, then made it back to the boat in a pretty stiff breeze. We left the dinghy in the water, which turned out to be a mistake.

Note on Siya Sinana: Gary and Lisa are realtors from Buffalo, NY. A couple of years ago, they purchased Hull #1 of the new Admiral 40 catamaran, and took delivery in South Africa. Their first obligation was to get the boat to Annapolis for the upcoming boat show, eight weeks hence. With a hired, professional captain, they left the Cape Town area and headed north up the west coast of Africa. Three days out, the water maker failed; a damaged membrane. Also, Lisa was seasick, and would remain so for two weeks. They made the choice to continue, and traversed the Atlantic and made it to Eleuthera in the Bahamas is 42 days and 8,000 miles later, with only 90 gallons of water. At one point, they were under Spinnaker for 22 days straight. Lots of stories about that crossing!

Weather forecasts were predicting at least three more fronts coming through in the next ten days, so we decided to leave the Jumentos by fleeing back north. There is very little protection from the southwest, west and northwest. The banks are pretty deep, so strong winds equal pretty good waves; three and even four feet. We planned to head back to Long Island the next morning, Tuesday.

We woke up at 0530 (5:30 AM) to 30 knot winds out of the southwest. The boat was pitching, yawing and rolling. Dennis had to go up to the cockpit to keep from getting seasick. It would be difficult enough to get the anchor up, but getting the dinghy in its davits would be even tougher with the stern of Son of a Sailor pitching up and down three and four feet. So, we waited while a couple of squalls came through. Around 1100 we were able to secure the dinghy, up anchor and head north to Flamingo Cay. The wind moderated and we had a good sail averaging over 6 knots. We got in at dark and spent a half hour trying to get the anchor to bite into the marl bottom.

Wednesday AM was beautiful, and the entire day was perfect for sailing… cruisers’ sailing, that is. We sailed in 10-12 knot breezes the entire 56nm back to Long Island (31 mile run and 25 miles close-hauled) and anchored around 1500, then took time to have a nice dinner with other cruisers at Long Island Breeze.

Son of a Sailor

More wind on Thursday, starting in the middle of the night: steady winds in the mid-twenty knot range with driving rain. It must have rained 3 inches by early morning. We used the day to clean the boat and bake brownies, expecting Friday to be very busy.

Friday was busy: laundry, grocery shopping and hauling diesel fuel to Son of a Sailor. Dennis even helped the owner of Long Island Breeze to put the dock back in since it had been removed again. Cook at Long Island Breeze took our request and made a pot of Bahamas style lobster bisque and it was delicious. We took two servings back to the boat. We treated ourselves to long, hot showers at the resort, $5 each, but worth it. Friday evening was pizza, Texas Hold ‘em and then back to the boat.

Note on water: Most all the water on Long Island comes from rain collected in cisterns, or from the reverse osmosis plant located about 20 miles south of Salt Pond. The water lines only cover about a quarter of the length of Long Island. So most folks have to have water delivered by truck. Now if you used 4,000 gallons a month for your home, and the cost was 15 to 25 cents a gallon, well, you do the arithmetic. Long Islanders get by with a lot less water than most of us. And you rarely see a car or truck not covered with dust.

We decided to use the last nice day of this weather cycle to return to George Town. It was motor sailing with the light wind off our port quarter but another beautiful day and we got back to Elizabeth Harbor before 1300 hours. We anchored in the Red Shanks area with 20 or so other boats, waiting for yet another front to come through. And it did… once again in the middle of the night.

The catamaran "Siya Sinana"