A lot of time has past since our last blog entry...... how about NINE months. Skylark has been in Antigua in the northeastern Caribbean for 1-1/2 months since a completing a 12 day offshore passage (1650nm) with the Salty Dawg Rally from the Bluewater Yachting Center in Hampton, VA to Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbor, Antigua. We spent the summer cruising the New England coast as far north as Belfast ME visiting family and friends, including a glancing blow from hurricane Dorian while we were anchored on Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY. As mentioned in a previous post our sailing plans were modified back in January when Diane's daughter Kelsey announced she was pregnant during our mid-winter visit back to New England. Therefore, instead of crossing the Atlantic this past summer we decided to sail back to New England to be around for the birth of our new grandchild. Baby boy Cove was born on August 21st in Brooklyn where we spent a month helping out the new family, what a gift.
Once things settle into place in Brooklyn with the new baby we worked our way south to Hampton VA to join the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean. But let's back up a bit and catch up since our last blog entry back in April when we were heading for the Jumentos Cays and Ragged Islands, a remote 75 mile long chain of mostly uninhabited islands extending south to within 70 miles of Cuba. So let's get going with some photos...…..
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| Fellow sailors gathering for sundowners at the "Hog Cay Yacht Club", a tiki hut constructed by Ragged Islanders for cruisers. |
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| Skylark at Hog Cay, Ragged Islands |
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| Maxine, the matron of Ragged Island hand line fishing. While for months we had been trying our hardest hand spear fishing with no luck, while Maxine caught a half dozen fish with a simple hand line while we chatted with her. This was a revelation for us and soon after we were catching meals just hand line fishing from our dinghy; far easier than chasing fish with a hand spear. |
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| Many beaches throughout the Bahamas that you can anchor at and have it to yourself. |
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| Traditional Bahamian sailing sloops at the Family Island Regatta in Georgetown. |
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| Note the crew on the boards which slide from port to starboard as they tack back and forth on these over-canvassed sailboats. |
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| Lots of food, music and drinking Skyjuice (a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, coconut water and gin) at the Family Island Regatta fairground in Georgetown with our friends Mary Ann and Rik. |
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| Skylark anchored at Galloit Cut, Exumas. |
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| Skylark's bottom. Looking pretty good after a year in the water. |
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| A Christmas Tree Worm. They are found in an amazing variety of colors and instantly retract into their shells if disturbed. |
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| Purple tipped anemone. |
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| A relaxing drink in the pool at the Hopetown Inn and Marina. Unfortunately Hopetown was devastated by Hurricane Dorian three months later. The Abacos can use our help. Consider donating to one of the organizations helping with the recovery of these beautiful islands. |
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| The "Queens Baths" on Eleuthera. |
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Whoopee, a Black Grouper caught on the way to Eleuthera. Unfortunately it's size just on the cusp of ciguatera toxin risk. Look it up, a terrible infliction akin to lymes desease us New Englanders are very concerned about.
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| Unfortunately most of the beaches facing east and the Atlantic are often covered with plastic wastes. This seaweed is lestimated to contain over 20% plastics. |
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| Upside down jelly fish feeding on the sand botto. |
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| Skylark's Rocna anchor buried nicely in sand the way we like to see it! |
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| Diane in cave on Musha Cay, Exumas. |
In late May we left the Abacos and sailed directly to St Augustine, FL to meet up with Tim's Dad and his partner Mila. Another blog post covering the Summer 2019 will follow shortly.... we promise.
