2/21/24

Boat Life:  Exercise is important!  Especially living on a boat in a confined space.  Swimming, snorkeling, kayaking are great but we really like hiking.  There are many trails us cruisers have created on Hog Cay and we have the scars to prove it!  The trails require serious maintenance when we all return in the winter.  Jerry and I spend hours (I got a new saw that's in the first photo - thanks Mom) cutting, trimming, pulling out roots, moving rocks.   Work parties were organized.  We're hot, sweaty, aching, dirty and scratched up when finished....

One of work parties working on one of the trails.

Another day...another trail

Cindy from Booke End shows her battery powered mini chain saw.

Karen and Duane from "Sojourn"

The beginning of Bernie's trail ready for hikers

Two short videos taken from the eastern end of Bernie's trail just before reaching the beach on the east/ocean side of Hog Cay.  The second video shows the east side, turning north, across Hog Cay to the west side where the boats are anchored.

The head of "Creepy Doll Trail"

After the trail work on Hog, we waited patiently for the mailboat to arrive at Ragged Island with a grocery order we had put in.  Here Jerry helps tie up the mailboat, we waited for an hour, they unloaded our box and off we went overnight to Georgetown before the north winds started to blow to be there for Susan's arrival!

Captain C arrives from Nassau with our grocery order onboard.

At Georgetown we anchored near town which has a dinghy dock and easy taxi drop off.  Winds were forecast to be the strongest we'd seen all season on the day Susan flew in.  Our entertainment was the rock barge unloading huge rocks to create some kind of break wall near Kidd Cove in Georgetown.  (This is the same company that dropped an excavator overboard last month...oops!)

This barge was full of rocks when it arrived.

Look at all of the boats anchored in Georgetown!

This is only one area looking across the harbor at all of the anchor lights.

With the wind howling, we were one of the two boats that left Georgetown after Susan's arrival.  The waves coming in at our exit point out of the harbor provided some excitement with one wave breaking over the boat.

An overnight stop at Long Island to see if they might have bananas at the market.  Yes!  We bought 56 bananas, some oranges and sweet potatoes along with all the produce we picked up in Georgetown.  Enough stuff to last for a couple of weeks in the Jumentos/Ragged Islands.

Anchored again at Hog Cay!

At Hog Cay we enjoyed the trails, some kayaking and getting together at sunset with other cruisers to celebrate.  The tradition is to blow conch horns at sunset.  Susan found a conch and now has her very own conch horn.

Jerry uses a grinder, hammer and screwdriver and a Dremel to cut off the tip of the conch shell in just the right spot to make it into a horn.

And now some practice.....

And then we are ready to play at sunset on the beach with Cori.

One of our 5-6 mile hikes on Hog Cay.  Thanks to Ross for sharing his excellent photos!

Karen, Jerry, Gosia, Susan, Jerry, Phyllis

What to do with all the empty bottles cruisers collect onboard?  Make sea glass!

Cori is in the center with a welding hammer breaking the bottles off the edge of the rock into the ocean.

Mike from "Mintaka" entertaining us at the Hog Cay "yacht club" back in January.

Grating coconut found on Hog Cay.

We moved back and forth a few times between Hog Cay, Johnson Cay, and Raccoon Cay (Man-O-War Bay) when the cold fronts blew through with westerly winds.  No protection at Hog from any west component wind!  Johnson Cay has protection from the south and southwest.  Man-O-War Bay (Raccoon Cay) from the west, northwest and north.

Susan and I decided to take our lunch to the beach at Johnson Cay.  We ended up sharing with a couple of curly-tailed lizards that were living in the log we sat on.

No need to bring your shoes to the beach at Johnson.  Here's a collection of mismatched shoes that have washed up on the beach on the ocean facing side of the island.  People have picked shoes up from the ocean side and carried them back to the trail head on the bay side for anyone to use.  Every ocean side beach on any island down here is full of "lost soles".

We had some opportunities to go snorkeling.  Susan and I enjoyed the sights.  Jerry enjoyed finding something to make for dinner.

Lobster and Rock Hind

Never before have so many boats been here in the Raggeds at one time!  Finding a good place to shelter from westerly winds when there's a cold front becomes more of a challenge. 

18 boats anchored here at Man-O-War!!  That's a record number we've seen here.

Every day we go to the beach and walk in the sand along the ocean.  Or make our way through the brush and trees to see if we can find any treasures.

Jerry and Karen on the beach at Raccoon Cay.  Our friends Ralph and Leslie on "Now n' Zen" are in the background sailing north.

Susan walks the south beach on Raccoon.  I'm using a scaffolding that was erected a couple of years ago by Mr. Beast.  A Youtuber who filmed a crazy video from here.  You can see the masts of the sailboats anchored in Man-O-War Bay in the background.

Susan back in the trees looking for an elusive and highly-sought after glass fishing float.

On her third trip to the Bahamas Susan finds a glass float!!  Some people spend years looking and never  find one.  

It's in amazing shape considering who knows where it came from, how it came to be 100 yards inshore of the rocks to land within the rocks and trees!  It was just sitting there - no digging needed.  These fishing floats are blown glass.  There's a book about floats and a Facebook page where I've posted the pictures of this one.  Maybe someone can tell us where it was manufactured.  I can't find any markings on this one.

I will sign off here.  We will be leaving soon when the winds allow to be able to get back to Georgetown for Susan's flight back to Maine on the 27th.  We plan on sailing back to Hog Cay after Susan flies out.  I'll be taking a better picture of this Mahogany tree seed pod I added to our Persephone sign in the Hog Cay Yacht Club....

Wishing you health and happiness!

Karen, Jerry and Susan

SV Persephone

1/21/24

 Happy 2024!  My first post for the year.  I'm going to rewind back to Dec. 19th when I flew out of Georgetown - what a spectacular view of the Bahamas by air!  It was a perfect day for flying.

Above the clouds and the beautiful blue of the Bahamas

You can follow the deep dark blue of the sound on the right side of the photo and follow through a "cut' to the shallow light colored water on the banks side.

Flying above Andros.

I spent the holidays with Mom and Dad in Newfield, NY where it was seasonally warm the entire time I was there.  No snow....until the day before my flight back to the boat.

Dad, Mom and I having a toast on Christmas Eve with my brother Brian's homemade Baileys.

My brother drove me to Pennellville and almost got back home before the snow started.  (He doesn't mind the snow!  Thanks Brian P!). This is the Oneida River and the dock in front of our friends Brian and Debbie Date's in Pennellville.  

This is where we usually spend the summer aboard Persephone.  You can see why we don't winter over onboard in Pennellville, NY.

Brian and Debbie took me to their family distillery, Lock 1 Distillery in Phoenix.  They have a tasting room and kitchen with excellent food!

A fancy drink!

A little fun in the snow before heading to the Bahamas the next morning.  Brian D. got up early and I was at the airport at 4:30 am.  Thanks Brian!

Arriving in Philadelphia from Syracuse just as the sun was coming up and the moon and stars were still visible.  I love flying and always try to get a window seat.  Syracuse-Philly-Miami-Georgetown.  A full day of travel.

As usual, Jerry had the boat ready to go when I arrived in Georgetown and off we went to the Ragged Islands.  Jerry had sailed the 100 miles down to the Ragged Islands the day I flew out and spent a couple of weeks before sailing back to pick me up.  The first video Jerry took heading to Georgetown to pick me up.

And another video on our way from Georgetown back to the Raggeds.

It was a good day for fishing!  We caught a 4' mahi!

We anchored at Johnson Cay for a couple of days enjoying the water and hiking around on the island.

Persephone anchored at Johnson Cay.

You can see the bay where we're anchored at Johnson Cay. A good place to anchor when the winds are from the south but exposed to the N and NE.

2 Hallberg Rassys anchored at Johnson Cay!  Persephone and Tenacious.  A 53' HR with a wonderful family from Seattle onboard.

This video is taken on a hike around the island.  The easterly swell coming in crashes against the rock and the cave underneath has a hole at the top.  We call it a blowhole.

20 pound mahi from the trip down, 2 hog fish, lobster....we won't starve.

Yup...and more lobster.  

We sailed from Johnson Cay down to Hog Cay.   We've been working on maintaining the many trails we and other cruisers have created over the years.  I don't have pictures because we were too hot, sweaty, and dirty as we pulled up grasses, moved rocks and cut branches.  We've been walking about 5 miles each day.

I found a new "baby head" on Johnson and brought it back for the Baby Head Trail on Hog Cay.

Walking and snorkeling are the main activities other than some boat projects.  The weather has been hot, sticky with light winds which we've taken advantage of before the winds started to howl today.

Mutton Snapper!  My favorite and a challenging fish to get with a pole spear.  And more lobster....which we gave to Sam and Cindy on Booke End.  The freezer is full.

Hog Cay has always been a favorite spot because it is remote, beautiful, there's a shelter on shore, it's away from all conveniences, and there are usually at the most 5-10 boats anchored here at this time of year.  Yesterday's boat count was about 35!  We've had that many boats here in the past but only for the big Valentine's Day party in February.  This is the best anchorage in the Raggeds for protection from wind and waves when the wind blows from the NE to the SE.  The forecast is for the wind to be in the 30's for the next couple of days....so maybe that's why so many people here?  

Today's modern cruising boat: a big catamaran.  As far as the eye can see.  Most of these catamarans have watermakers, washing machines, ac and all the luxuries.  Floating palaces that sail well downwind.

This is Susan from C-Language's coconut head that was hanging in the Hog Cay "Yacht Club".  The coconut had fallen - the head was splitting in half for some reason.   I brought it home, glued it up, added a headband and it's back up in the hut for all to enjoy.

Join us in our next installment as we welcome our best and most favorite crew member.  My sister Susan!

Karen & Jerry

SV Persephone

12/17/23

 An update:  Thanksgiving in West Palm with our friends, Ryan and Jerry,  from Zinzi!  Jerra flew in from Denver to celebrate.  And celebrate we did!  With food and games.  Jerra requested cribbage games at least once each day.  What fun!

Jerra made scrumptious tacos for dinner one night.

This is the night we put on our fanciest clothes and Ryan and Jerra took us out on the town. Here we are at  rooftop place overlooking a marina and the ICW.   Next stop: a fancy Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves.  Thank you Ryan and Jerra!  And then we walked around West Palm and found a place that sells homemade ice cream!  Just what we needed to end a perfect evening.

Ryan and Jerry working on Ryan's lower unit of his outboard motor.

Thanksgiving dinner with Ryan and Jerra

Right after Thanksgiving dinner we said goodbye, hugs all around, then hauled the anchor.  We headed for the ocean.  We usually leave West Palm and sail for 48 hours nonstop to Georgetown in the Exumas.  This year, because of the wind, we sailed across the Gulf Stream on toward Chub Cay and anchored for the night.  The next morning the wind picked up and we headed for West Bay on New Providence where we stayed for 2 days waiting for the wind to clock around.  Here's a video of sailing from the banks to West Bay.....

It's a good thing we stopped at West Bay because we had a chance to get in the water and look at Persephone's bottom.  It was covered with growth!  We spent an afternoon scraping and cleaning the bottom of the boat making it smooth and slippery for efficient sailing.  Who wants to sail around with something akin to a carpet attached to the bottom?

We left West Bay when the wind was from the right direction.  A little light but as long as it wasn't from the direction we were trying to go.  We left at 9:30 pm and sailed all night in the shallow beautiful waters under a full moon south of New Providence towards the Exumas to anchor at Pipe Creek for the night.  Here's a video taken in the morning........

Our last leg of the trip from Pipe Creek to Georgetown involved catching dinner!

This Big Eye Tuna provided enough tuna steaks for about 10 dinners!

We anchored near Monument Beach in Elizabeth Harbor.  Georgetown.  Here's looking down at Persephone from the monument erected on the highest point of Stocking Island.

We're early - there are usually a hundred boats in this same picture.

Every day we have been walking on Stocking Island for exercise.  Walking the beach on the sound side, on the Exuma Sound, has been brisk.  The winds, which have picked up a couple of days after arriving, spray salt water mist on us as we walk along in the sand.

Jerry waves from the top of the next "up and over" between the sandy parts of the beach.

The interesting limestone shoreline...

I framed Jerry

The "inside" or the harbor side of Stocking Island....

Our walk involves dinghying to the beach on the harbor side, finding a trail to hike over to the sound side and then turning north or south.  After 2 or more miles we find another trail to come back to the sound side and then a walk back to the dinghy.

The prevailing wind is from the east so the sound side is usually windy and the harbor side hot and humid.

We have enjoyed the warmth, walking, visiting with friends old and new, swimming and just relaxing with books and games onboard.  In a few days I'll be leaving Jerry aboard Persephone while I fly back to NY to spend Christmas with family and friends there.  

Wishing you a healthy, happy, peaceful holiday season.

Karen & Jerry