Beach Combing - Hunting For Sea Glass.

Escaping to Lynyards Cay for some beach days. The windward side is a great place to collect sea glass.

The last few weeks have been a blur of cold fronts coming through the Abacos which has mainly kept us in Marsh Harbour.  

Good times in Marsh Harbour with the crews of 'Hunda' and 'Joho'

We escaped down to Lynyard Cay 20 miles away briefly so that I could wander the windward beaches for sea glass but soon we were scuttling back to the protection of Marsh Harbour for the next bit of yucky westerly weather.  

Beach gatherings at Lynyards Cay.

Eventually we got the weather window we were looking for to leave the Abacos and headed south to Eluthera where we sit as the rain pours now. But not before I got two more days happily beach combing at Lynyards Cay.  While everybody knows that Sim is a bit of a maintenance nut, for which we both are eternally grateful as there is no denying this life would be a lot harder if he wasn’t. I’m a bit of a beachcombing nut. I LOVE walking on beaches, so much so I drive others nuts! Over the years the things I beach walk for have evolved from shells and sand dollars to seabean’s and driftwood to sea glass.  I have better collections than I have seen on display in museums of New York! But to be honest, its mainly just about being on the beach. 

These days I have to be selective on what I collect as we just don’t have the space to keep stuff. My latest fad is sea glass.  I’m totally obsessed with it and have been for a couple of years now.  I know to many, it is just broken glass, akin, as my sister said, to smashing a plate on the floor and handing me the pieces. But this is where you are wrong. It can take up to 40 years of tumbling in the ocean for a piece of broken glass to become a well rounded, smooth piece of frosted glass.

Some of my favourite pieces (that didn't break!)

So what do I do with all this sea glass? For the most part it’s all about the hunt. I just love walking on beaches. I’ll happily go on my own and lose hours wandering up and down the same stretch of beach, toes sinking into sand, listening to the roar of the ocean, salty hair whipping my face, thinking of nothing except for where I am. I love it, and find it both therapeutic and relaxing.  

Beautiful sea glsss

My favourite pieces I keep in a box that I get out every now and again to admire. (Though mental note to self not to do this when I have had a drink as dropped boxes and glass don’t go – I’m sadly a few fine pieces down). With the rest I make mobiles or mosaics, though I admit I am not very talented.  I make bracelets and necklaces with sliver wire and lately I have started to silver solder pieces.  I don’t pretend to be very good at this but, like beach walking it’s something I enjoy and as Sim says it keeps me quiet for a while.

My favourite - I call them 'Mermaids Tears' simple but elegant.

One of the bigger pieces I soldered together.

It Sucks When It Blows!

Another cold front passes through Marsh Harbour

The sky is white with rain; the sides of our cockpit are rolled up for less windage as Wandering Star tugs on her anchor. The wind howls and then drops.  We are still waiting for this front to pass through with more wind to come later. You’d be forgiven for wondering if we were still in the Bahamas with its palm trees and beaches, warm seas and sunny blue skies – something we have seen very little of. 

The winds have been gusting over 40kts.

I’ve mentioned before, this time of year the area is plagued with cold fronts or low pressure systems coming of the US east coast. We know this.  Instead of the typical trade winds blowing from the east, we have constantly clocking winds from all directions but strongest from the SW-NW from which there are few places to hide. The skies have been grey and overcast and the nights cool.  For various reasons we have stayed put in Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco, one of the few places offering a modicum of protection and good holding for our boat and anchor. 

Happy days in Mangoes Marina

After a night of wicked squalls, our first strong cold front came through about a week ago which we decided to sit out in the comfort of the very pretty Mangoes Marina.  I can’t recommend this place enough. Rey the dock-master was welcoming and vigilant, checking on boats throughout the day. Their rates were not unreasonable at $0.90/ft; and their showers hot and clean. They even provided a case of wine for a potluck party that night for all the guests staying in the marina including our friends Dorothy and Duncan from ‘Hunda’. We invited our friends John and Jolanda along from ‘Joho’ as our guests too.  We had a fun evening and enjoyed meeting new people. As the winds picked up in the early hours of the morning, and we were tucked safely up in bed, we had little to worry about except how bad our heads might feel the following day. The winds howled into the 40’s but surprisingly there was very little rain. By the following night the front had passed and all was calm again.  As much as I would have loved to stay in Mangoes Marina the budget does not allow for more than the odd day here and there so we went back out to anchor.  

Sim and John from Joho at the potluck party after a few rums (see below) and red wine!

Not the stinger you might imagine

Tuesday was Dorothy’s birthday and we celebrated her big day with them on ‘Hunda’ that evening with great food and company.  Since then we haven’t had an opportunity to press on before the next front comes through.  Our weather man refers to it as a ‘weather event’; which always sounds ominous.  This front is expected to linger, ‘excruciatingly slow’ I think his words were.  We are going to tough this one out at anchor.....we can’t keep running every time bad weather comes our way. And while it sucks that it blows we are happy pottering on the boat, Sim taking the time to over haul and re-install the water-maker while I tinker on with some of my sea glass projects.

Dorothy's Birthday dinner....cooked by Dorothy... Cake by Duncan! Good times, good friends.

Despite the grey skies we've had some awesome sunsets

The potluck party at Mangoes. Duncan from Hunda at the top.
Myself, Dorothy and Jolanda below.

Sim and I went out for a walk on the one mild and sunny day, leaving the dinghy at the Jib room marina...

We found the Bahamas we've been waiting for...palm trees, beaches and sunny skies.

Crossing The Gulf Stream - West Palm Beach, Florida To Great Sale Cay, Bahamas

It rained and drizzled for most of our Gulf Stream crossing - luckily Seamstress Sim had made a clear cover to protect the helmsman from the weather.

We had been waiting to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas for a while. We bailed on the first weather window - January 1st, (for which I was grateful because there was no denying I felt a little shady from the shenanigans of the night before), as we might not have been able to get to a safe anchorage for some bad weather in the following days. 

The red line shows our trip across the Gulf Stream and over the Bahama Banks with the stops we made along the way to Marsh Harbour where we are anchored now.

We used the time waiting for the next weather window to carry on south to West Palm Beach, Florida to give us a better angle on crossing the Gulf Stream. Ideally you want a south or west wind to cross east across the Stream. Any wind that won't oppose the north setting current is good. It can be mighty ugly out there otherwise. Our weather forecaster Chris Parker predicted light clocking winds from the north to 'light and variable', then filling in from the south. Which basically translates into 'a motor across' - no problem, we were fine with that. But as we headed out of the inlet as the sun was setting, huge dark clouds were sitting on the horizon. We checked the VHF for a final weather report and a 'small craft advisory' was in effect with 25-30kt winds from the north and 12-14ft seas. Very contradictory from our earlier benign weather report...and not a forecast we should be crossing the Gulf Stream with. Sim and I always try to avoid beating ourselves or our boat up. Though we suspected this forecast was wrong, the wind was still from the north and it just didn't feel right. we considered our options and decided to re-anchor and leave at 4am the next morning. I'm glad we waited. The seas where still fairly big considering the light winds of the previous day. It was a bouncy ride. The kitty who is never happy when we are on the move, though normally stoic, was seasick. From months and months of flat calm ICW waters it was a rude awakening. Halfway across with a light 8kts of wind the engine reduced revs and died. We set both the headsail and the staysail and drifted at 3kts to the northeast while Sim went to see what the problem was. He changed the fuel filter and bled the injectors - the engine eventually roared back to life. It was a relief when we entered the banks of the Bahamas and the seas settled down. Meanwhile the weather forecast being transmitted on the VHF was still broadcasting the 'small craft advisory' all through the night and the following day. Somebody must have forgot to cancel it.

Ali - feeling better now the boat is not moving.

The weather has been unsettled since we arrived almost a week ago. I don't think we have seen the sunshine yet. There have been no bikinis or swims in the sea yet. This area, so far north in the Bahamas, is prone to clocking cold fronts and the strong winds that come with them. Our destinations at the moment are being solely sought for weather protection. Which is a shame as this is the last time we might pass through this area in a while. We did manage to spend a day at Manjack Cay walking some of the trails and cleared customs easily at Green Turtle Cay. Now we are hunkered down in Marsh Harbour, a cruiser hangout and one of the biggest towns in the Abacos but more importantly one of the more protected anchorages. We'll get ourselves sorted, fill up with fuel and water, catch up with friends we've not seen for awhile and think about moving on south.

A squall line passing over Manjack Cay with westerly winds

The Gulf Stream not looking too bad!

Ok - we have seen a little sunshine for a few hours here and there.

But even when its grey it can be blue.

Following some of the trails around Manjack Cay

Through some mangroves and yucky water

Along the trail a little longer

Until you find the glorious beach on the windward side of Manjack

The PLAN Isn't Working & Powell Cay

Put our 'bigger' headsail up for the up coming trip

The Plan is not going to plan. The weather window we had hoped would take us up to North Carolina is plagued with a huge area of no wind and while we don’t object to motoring for a while, the idea of motoring the majority of the trip is not something that appeals. As always plans are made in sand at low tide and ours have been washed away.  But that is ok; we have come up with a new one. While we could wait it out in the Bahamas for the wind to fill in long enough to take us as far as we want to go, we are ready to leave now and feel we might get more sailing options once we get Stateside to keep travelling northwards.  So we will take this wind that picks up tomorrow and lower our latitude so that it will take us into North Florida instead of North Carolina before it dies all together. Then when we do get periods of wind we can do one or two night hops up the coast on the outside (oceanside) rather than motoring the entire way up the ICW like we did last year. But as always we are at the mercy of the weather and will have to see how this plan unfolds.

Our new dinghy cover and Sims work of art! 

In the mean time Sim has been working on his dinghy cover – it’s almost complete, just a little tweaking to get it to fit snugly. It’s been a work in progress but he has slowly chipped away at it. I am hugely impressed and a little shame faced to say I have had nothing to do with it! In readiness for our up coming sail we have changed the headsail over from the smaller higher cut one that’s good for windward trips and put up the big ‘Mofo' – the polite word for the big genoa which is better for downwind passages. Since Sim and I have changed sails very rarely over the last 11 years it must mean we mean business! We have checked off items on our pre-departure list to make sure whatever trip we end up doing we have prepared for it the best we can.

Sim enjoying a swim at Powell Cay

Meanwhile Sim and I have thoroughly enjoyed our last few days at Powell Cay in the Bahamas; an uninhabited island in the northern Abacos with not much going on except long sandy beaches and a couple of trails across the overgrown island to yet more sandy beaches .Its peaceful and quiet. We have kayaked and swam and walked on the sandy shores....the last we will see the likes of for a while.  And while we love hanging out in company we have really enjoyed this time on our own. But knowing our friends were in the area we arranged to get together one last time for a blow out BBQ on the beach.  We managed to dodge the rain squalls and the water spouts to start a fire and enjoyed good food and good company one last time together. 

An old wreck in the middle of Powell Bay

One of the trails takes you to a lookout above a rocky outcrop

The water is so clear

We kayaked around the north side of the island to our own private beach

although we almost had every beach to ourselves it was so quiet.

Wandering Star in Powell Cay waiting for the wind to fill in.

The trails were a little overgrown from lack of use.

But the beaches on the other side of the island were gorgeous

Its hard work walking in the soft sand.

We followed the flotsam and jetsam marking the trails back to the otherside

Sim finds a friend

A ray lurking on the bottom while we are out in our kayaks

Happy days - me and my pink kayak

Another windless day

Dorothy, Shirley and myself at our beach BBQ

John, Duncan and Sim and two very toasted cheese sarnies!

Good friends

You can't have a BBQ without toasted marshmallows

Moving from the beach into the sea....talking heads!

Its the season for waterspouts ;-(