Sailing to the Bahamas
Part One is about our first voyage to the Exuma Islands in 1997 aboard Delphinium, our Pearson 365 Ketch. Part Two is about our return in 2003 aboard Nalani, our Tayana 37 Cutter.
Cruising the Bahamas
The story of two different voyages to the Exuma Islands of the Bahamas. Includes visits to Cat Island and Long Island, with tips for new cruisers and stories of interest to everybody.
See a unique side of the islands from aboad a sailboat. Includes the rescue of fishermen lost at sea and the ghost homes of Cat Island.
The beauty of the Bahamas and the wonder of sailing a small boat shines through in this story. An intermission between parts offers a variety of tips and lessons for new cruisers.
See more details and Table of Contents below. Click through to Amazon.Com to see inside the book.
Available in both print and electronic Kindle formats.
White Cays and Blues Seas at Amazon.com
A few excerpts ...
The beginning of a voyage is a blurry crossing from civilization into nature. Suddenly you have no car, no jobs, and no busy routine. Roads and buildings, alarm clocks, crowds, noise, fumes, telephones, and the daily grind of modern life, fade into a quiet solitude where time slows down and priorities are upended. Life is more fundamental at sea. A new world emerges, a world of birds and fish, of dolphins and whales, of storms and sunsets, of villages and islanders. A world of white cays and blue seas ...
He was half Choctaw Indian on his father's side, and half Scotch from his mother. Both his father and grandfather died from alcohol related causes. His father died at sixty, poisoned by alcohol abuse and its substitutes (he drank sterno when desperate). His grandfather was more particular and lived longer. He drank only bourbon and never mixed it with anything. Still, he drank often enough that everyone who knew him said booze would eventually kill him. It did. He fell getting out of bed drunk and broke his collarbone which led to a fatal bout of pneumonia. He was one hundred and six ...
The black night has closed around us; it echoes with a constant din of chattering and clucking and cooing. It is wonderful and frightening; you can sense the raw urgency of nature as if tip toeing along the edge of a precipice – on one side the shallow banks and on the other the deep abyss. We, the birds, the iguanas, the fish, and the ray, teeter on the edge ...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
Prologue The First Offshore Cruise 9
The Dry Tortugas 11
Part One The Exuma Islands, Bahamas 15
St. Petersburg, Florida 17
Gulf of mexico 20
little shark river 27
boot key harbor 32
gulf stream 43
Whale cay 49
nassau 56
the Exumas 61
shroud cay 66
Little Bell Island 70
staniel cay 78
little farmer’s cay and the rescue 83
rudder cut cay 92
georgetown 97
Lee Stocking Island 104
Black Point 107
Hawksbill Cay 111
To miami 115
sarasota, florida 121
Intermission Tips and Lessons Learned 127
Preparation … preparation … preparation 129
life without refrigeration 132
eggs 134
guns 136
anchor lights 137
the vhf 139
garbage 141
water 142
Part Two Beyond the Exumas 145
Palmetto, florida 147
key west 152
northern exumas 160
little bell island 166
sampson cay 171
great guana cay 175
little farmers cay 178
exuma sound 181
Salt pond 184
stella Maris 188
conception island 192
Cat island 195
refuge 200
Welcome Home 203