Drinking with law enforcement and other adventures
We were so blown away by our time in the Bahamas last year, we had to sail back for a second season. Much to our surprise, we returned to an entirely different place. The reason? El Niño.
2022 – 2023 La Niña Winter in the Bahamas = Hot, gentle breezes, dry, buggy at night.
2023 – 2024 El Niño Winter in the Bahamas = Cool, windy, wet, and no bugs.
We’ve never seen a place so dramatically affected by this cyclical weather event. The wind has been good for sailing this year, and it’s nice to live virtually bug-free, but sometimes we miss the heat! It hasn’t been cold of course, more like 70’s by day on average instead of 80’s with cooler seawater temps to match. Not a disaster by any stretch but it sure has been a notable change. Even the first half of April down here has been noticeably cooler than any month from last winter.
As always, it’s warmer in the south. The 3000+ Bahamian islands, cays, and islets stretch out over nearly 400 miles of ocean south and east of Florida. This is similar to the distance from Montreal to Washington DC. In both places the temps warm dramatically when you move from the northern end to the southern end of the span.
We started the season by revisiting some of our favorite spots in The Exumas. Thanksgiving at Park Headquarters in Warderick Wells followed by Christmas with family in George Town is quickly becoming a favorite new tradition.
The fleet of visiting boats in the Exumas swelled in number in January, so we sailed off to find some peace and quiet in the more remote corners of the country. Our cruise took us on a wide turn thru the sparsely populated southeastern Bahamas making stops at Long, Conception, San Salvador, Crooked, Acklins, and the Ragged Islands.
We made a conscious effort to take advantage of all the El Niño breeze this winter. We patiently waited for good wind angles and enjoyed some great sailing. For the most part, the diesel stayed in the tank. The day in the photo above was an exception. On the rare calm days, it was a pleasure to soak up the tranquility.
Conception Island is part of the National Park system and protected from development. (Population: 0) The island sits out in the middle of the ocean upwind of most of the rest of The Bahamas. There’s not a lot of natural protection around the anchorage and no protection getting there. As a result, the boat count sharing the anchorage with us was low. This place is classic Bahamian beauty at its best. The water! The beaches! Perfect.
San Salvador is even farther out into the middle of nowhere but a few people live there and the place offers a hint of civilization. (Population: 824. And falling.) We enjoyed a meal off the boat and met many of the islanders. In the far out islands, we found ourselves spending more time visiting with the local residents and the various expats who join those communities, and less time visiting with other sailors. Not many crews get out there and a visiting boat is a noteworthy event for the local Bahamians. They consistently went out of their way to welcome and engage with us and we made loads of new friends.
We met the proprietor of this pink shop above, the local chief of police of San Sal. He met us in one of the few bars on the island where we all enjoyed an after church adult beverage. Chief was in uniform complete with handcuffs and a gun on his belt. He was most welcoming and bought the bar a round of tequila shots to celebrate our arrival. Then he did the same again. And again. Then we felt like we needed to reciprocate the generosity so the next round was on us and it went on like that for much of the afternoon. Chief likes Lionel Richie and there was a lot of that as well as I recall… When we finally parted, Chief gave us his phone number and told us to call him if we had any problems. MEMORABLE.
Eventually we said our goodbyes in San Sal and made our way to Crooked Islands. (Population: 286 and falling) We made some friends there too.
Many Bahamians aspire to live up to a pure standard of conservative Christian values. Crooked Island ratchets things up a bit with a strict ban on alcohol. Like with many prohibitions, we found that loopholes exist. While enjoying a classic Bahamian lunch of whole fish, rice & peas, and mac & cheese paired with iced tea at Edson’s #4, Mr. Edson quietly approached us to let us know that if we really needed a drink we could probably find one at Tonya’s around the corner. He then gave us detailed walking instructions. We were intrigued and promptly made our way around the corner to Tonya’s. (Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)
The establishment was Tonya’s house with a sheet of plywood propped up on a pair of saw-horses in her front yard for a bar. It wasn’t hard to find because half the town was congregated there drinking. I understand that’s the way things are most days on Crooked Island. Our bartender was an older, sun-bleached expat with a Swedish(?) accent and mysterious origins. He went by the name No-Worry-No-Hurry, or just No-Worry for short. (I didn’t bother to alter this man’s name since it looks like he has already taken care of that task.) He tended bar in exchange for a room in Tonya’s house for the winter. To get to the restroom, you had to walk thru No-Worry’s bedroom which would benefit from a little tidying and bed-making. Tonya, who works in law enforcement on the island, eventually returned from work still in uniform and joined in the festivities. A local potcake (Charming and friendly Caribbean breed of dog.) had just given birth and her puppies roamed free keeping us all entertained. We were encouraged to take a puppy home with us at no charge. So tempting! But, no. Not now.
Crooked Island is home to a unique industry. The bark from the Cascarilla tree, harvested exclusively from Crooked Island, is a proprietary ingredient in Campari, the Italian liquor. This bark is the sharp tasting ingredient that gives that drink its distinctive taste. We witnessed the harvest while on island and I’m pleased to report that it hasn’t become overly industrialized. Instead, entire families work their way off into the brush for an afternoon with machetes and return with a bundle of bark. Usually stopping off at Tonya’s along the way to and fro. Something to think on while enjoying your next Negroni.
Culturally rich AND full of natural beauty, we would have stayed in Crooked all winter except for one problem: The available anchorages are uncomfortably rolly. Conditions were bad aboard the first night and unsleepable the next. Reluctantly and sleepily, we pulled up anchor and moved on.
Acklins, the neighboring island (population: 692 and falling) offered a sea of tranquility–literally. The Bight of Acklins is protected on three sides and it feels like a lake in there. A Great Lake, we should say. The land is low, and the basin is so far across, you can’t see the other side.
The wind was calm when we arrived and that set the stage for one of the highlights of our winter: After sunset and before bed we went for our regular evening swim. It was so still we could see our shadows in the moonlight on the bottom. We floated there in complete stillness marveling over our surroundings for close to an hour.
The wind arrived the next day, 30+ knots of it, and it kept blowing for almost a week. We stayed put and waited it out. Did a lot of reading. Played cards every afternoon at 16:00. (Alex is on a roll!) We also watched the three Godfather movies. Can you believe neither of us had ever seen any of those?
When the wind did finally moderated, we were ready for a meal off the boat. We made our way to dry land and into Rolle-X, one of the only eating establishments on the island. The place has a stripper pole and a troupe (Is that the right word?) of strippers from Nassau episodically make a pilgrimage to this pole on this island. (We missed that event.) The place also hosts bible study classes and is the local pub where everyone on the island congregates when they aren’t in church.
We’re sitting there enjoying our lunch of whole fish, rice & peas and mac & cheese at a picnic bench out front when who shows up? It’s Tonya and No-Worry! They’ve come across on the ferry (more of a skiff) from Crooked to visit the liquor store on Acklins in an effort to fortify the bar back home. They stopped for a beer with us and we traded stories about the recent blow and got an update on the puppies.
Eventually the anchor was up again and we continued our voyage with a fast 19-hour broad reach to the Ragged Islands. (Population: 72. And holding steady.)
We visited The Raggeds last year and returning this year felt like a homecoming of sorts. These islands are far more popular with visiting sailors and it felt familiar to be back in their company. The popularity is easy to understand, the anchorages offer good protection and many claim these are the most beautiful islands in all of The Bahamas. Hard to argue with that.
Next stop: Cuba
We broke up our Bahamian winter with a side visit to Cuba. We had hoped to sail there in the boat, but the paperwork hurdle proved to be too high for us to jump over. It’s easy for Americans to travel to Cuba, but it is difficult for an American flagged vessel to legally return to the US after making a stop in Cuba. With much regret we ultimately decided to play it safe and sailed up the old Bahama Channel and over to Florida instead. We found a parking spot for the boat in Key Largo and flew to Havana on a plane from Miami like most normal travelers do. It was a beautiful and fascinating destination worthy of ten blog posts. But because this is a sailing blog, and because we didn’t sail to Cuba, we’ll set the details of that trip aside for another time and another place.
Before departing Key Largo, we took a trip to Fenway South in Ft. Myers to catch a Red Sox spring training game. A 1:05 start makes a day trip from Key Largo possible.
After loading the boat full of beer and paper towels, two things that are prohibitively expensive in The Bahamas, we set sail across the Gulf Stream and back into those gorgeous Bahamian blue waters once again. After the long break, this felt like the start of our third winter in The Bahamas even tho it was just a continuation of our second.
This lap took us slowly thru the Exumas, Eleuthera, and Abaco.
Next up: We spread our wings a bit with an Atlantic crossing to Europe. Stay tuned…
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