Saturday, December 22, 2012

Highbourne Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

Time travelled:  20.5 hours
 Nautical miles:  120
 Docked at:       Highbourne Cay Marina

Sherri's Beach Bar. Judy is always prepared -our take out bags await.

Well I left you hanging in regards to a few things from Bimini! First of all the fishing, Garth lost his favorite lure to a huge barracuda – they had lots of bites, nibbles and tugs. If you ever look at the spot and see that Algonquin appears to be very close to a land mass and going every which way but straight it is Garth and Dan out in Con, Quests tender. Kind of a big tender, but I am told it is needed for fishing.



Sherry herself, cook extraordinaire!





Luckily we had prearranged dinner from Sherris cause the only thing they came home with was the rays they had caught from the sun.  Sherri made us fried chicken, plantain, coleslaw and rice with peas. We took it all back to Quest and had a feast.  We may have to stop back into Bimini on our way home in the spring. Bimini is truly a wonderful little island.
We took Zeke for a one last walk and swim around noon but only made it as far as the trunk feast.



Doesn't matter how you spell it, Sherris Beach Bar was the best until we got to the trunk!

The trunk feast!

 So, in the back of her car she had, spare ribs, lamb chops, fried conch, baked chicken, fried chicken, mac & cheese, potato salad, corn on the cob and green beans.......the hot food was in the trunk and the cold food in the back window. We all got lunch and proceed quickly back to the dock to eat it. There was enough left over for a midnight snack.  At that point Garth and Dan thought they had better sleep to prepare for the 20 hour run to Highbourne Cay.  Judy and I took Zeke for a walk along the beach.  He sat in the pools on the coral heads as if he were in his own private pool and chased the ball for a long time. However, when we got back to the boat he was sick – I think he had taken in too much salt water. Boy guy, not only was he feeling under the weather but now he was about to embark on a twenty hour journey across to the Bahama Bank!

 Quest at the beginning of our night run

The only other time I was involved in a night run was across the Gulf of Mexico last December. It was dark, deep and scary.  This time the depth gage hovered between 10 and 20 feet. It was dark but at that depth I figured when the boat sank we would all just put on our life-jackets and go upstairs. I had other escape plans conquered up but that made the most sense at the time as I was assuming the boat would sink straight down no listing, no tipping. A tired mind and no lights.

Zeke did not sleep all night.

Garth and I took turns but actually Garth did most of the time at the helm. I spent a great deal of time on the floor with Zeke. Eventually we gave him half a gravol and that seemed to ease his stress a bit.
Of course on my watch the GPS alarm went off and the screen below says - A DANGEROUS TARGET WAS DETECTED. The target turned out to be a big tanker /barge carrying propane. When I woke the captain he sat up on the couch and said " unless it is right in front of us don't worry about it"!! Great, the snoring started again and Zeke and I were left to save the boat from impending dangerous targets!

A dangerous target was detected.
UK at Sea
 Do you recall the most famous .....no that 's not it .... do you recall Garth driving around North Palm Beach in the Aston Martin? Well, the owner Archie, who is our friend Linda's brother, also has this yacht. As we were settling in to Highbourne I looked out and saw him coming into the marina. Unfortunately, Archie is back in Canada and the boat is here. What's wrong with that picture!

Although the 20 hour run from Bimini to Highbourne was exhausting, in hindsight I am glad we did it as the weather has changed. Although Bimini was great we wanted to spend Christmas in Stuart - I mean the Exumas!

We will be staying here until Boxing Day then heading out. Will try to post some pics before we leave. We were told the internet was not working but it doesn't seem to be a problem right now at 4 am.