Position N 23° 51.402’.
W 75° 74.717’.
Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas
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After
saying our goodbye’s to ‘Cocoon Two’ and ‘Moon River’ we sailed south from Big
Major toward Galliot Cut and the deep water Exuma Sound where we would cruise
down to Georgetown. The trip to Galliot was a short 18 nm run; the weather was
in full cooperation which made the journey a leisurely and pleasant event. We
arrived at Galliot Cut to find two other boats anchored there a 56’ Hatteras
and a 36’ Monk trawler. It is always nice to find someone else safely anchored
in the area as it is confirmation that the holding is good and that one’s
anchor is not likely to drag. As we approached the lee of Big Galliot Cay the
Hatteras called us on the VHF and said “move a little closer in towards the
island and you will find a clear sand bottom and ten feet of water”, I thanked
him for the advice and preceded...sure enough the dark weed bottom changed to
the light associated with an unobstructed sand covered sea bed. All boaters
prefer a sandy bottom to anchor on as it provides good holding and a clean
anchor and chain when the time comes to weigh the anchor and move on. The
people from the Monk trawler had dinghied over to the Hatteras and were
obviously enjoying sundowners, it was 17:00. We got our SGT’s and sat on the
back deck enjoying the calm conditions and the sunset. On their way back Jeff
& Sally from ‘Adirondack’ the Monk trawler stopped by in their dinghy to
introduce themselves and say hello. Cruisers, as I have said before, have to
make friends quickly before the company passes in the night! Both the Hatteras
and the Monk were not going south to Georgetown so we would part company in the
morning when we upped anchor and headed east through the Cut to Exuma Sound and
they headed south on the Banks side of the island chain.The pass through Galliot was uneventful and we entered the Sound; the North Atlantic rollers could be felt immediately, spaced well apart they gently lifted us up and at 10 – 12 second intervals, set us down again. This was the Ocean, nothing between us and Africa! The motion soon became unnoticed as we travelled the 40 nm to Conch Cut which is the western entrance to Elizabeth Harbour and the huge area of protected water that is Georgetown. As our cruise proceeded down towards Conch Cut the sea built to a point that the waves on top of the swell began to break heavily on the island shores. When we approached the Cut there were breakers and apprehension consumed us! HT became very nervous with visions of us broaching, surfing down waves and crashing into the reef! The swells were still long so as we got closer I saw that we would be able to time our entry between the waves; all went well...we were in; the seas calmed and we became excited that we had arrived in yet another new destination. Georgetown is a terminus and is known as ‘Chicken Harbour’. So many cruisers get this far making short ‘hops’ down the Bahamian Islands but due to the longer passages that have to be negotiated in order to go farther south from here many turn back. We are determined and will go south!
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| Chat 'N Chill Beach |
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| Stocking Island |
Georgetown,
the fabled home of so many boaters, we were here! The town really caters to the
cruisers and it is obvious that the economy relies on the annual migration. The
actual town was smaller than we had imagined and, in fact, did not have as many
boat related stores as we had thought there would be. From all we had read we
got the impression that Georgetown had everything, it doesn’t! We thought that
we would be spending a while here so we ordered a mail drop from our service,
big mistake! We chose DHL as the shipper and ‘Top to Bottom’ as the store to
receive it. We were told by ‘Top to Bottom’ that it would take three business
days, well, it didn’t it ended up taking 6 days...all of this is typical in the
islands, a sense of urgency is something which is none existent here! “Island
time mon, just chill...” We had fun in Georgetown but would not spend as much
time here if we were to visit again.
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| Abraham's Bay |
Our decision to continue was a bad one, the condition deteriorated rapidly the seas built continually reaching up to 15’ with winds gusting to 30 mph. None of this was forecast by the way! In addition to the weather all of a sudden our engine stopped! When this happens a boat will always settle in the trough of the waves so the rolling becomes violent and very frightening, HT was very frightened. I immediately suspected a fuel problem as most diesel engine failures can be attributed to fuel starvation or some other fuel related malady. I turned on the fuel polishing system I have on board to clean the fuel. We had taken on some diesel in Miami from a fuel truck and I suspected it may have either had water or sludge in it and was the cause of our engine shut down. It was not long before the evidence began to show up in the fuel polishing filter...water and sludge! I was able to clean enough of the fuel to restart the engine and get under way again. I then began to change the Racor filters for the polisher and the engine; the engine has twin filters so one can change one while using the other and vice versa. The engine stopped again! In total the engine had failed half a dozen times. We were now approaching the coast of the Dominican Republic and due to the problems we had had I wanted to be in a safe marina to effect proper repairs. On the north coast of DR there is only one marina Ocean World and we didn’t know anything about it. Our arrival couldn’t come soon enough...I was continually worried that the engine would fail again and now we were not in open water we were only a mile or two off the coast of the DR and the reefs that skirt the coastline. We arrived in Ocean World at midnight on the 23rd after a hair raising 40 hour ordeal, the entry was straight forward, a buoyed channel led us in and we were met by some officials and marina staff who beckoned us to the fuel dock and helped us tie up for the night. With a sigh of relief we welcomed sleep...
At 08:00
sharp the entourage arrived, Navy, immigration, customs and Agriculture. The
advantage of entering the DR in somewhere such as Ocean World is that one of
the marina staff is present to assist with the check –in procedure and to
ensure that all the correct fees are charged, they actually have a menu of the
charges. It cost us $43 for our 42’ boat and $10 for each person on board, in addition
it is customary to tip the other officials which we did, a total of about $20.
We were in and the next thing was to check in to the marina and get to a slip.
In our reading we were advised to seek a slip in the northern part where the
surge effect was less, we did. All the staff in the marina were superb, in
particular Eddie, one of the dock masters, he helped us with a trusted diesel
mechanic Arturo who not only helped me clean and change all my fuel and fuel
management filters but also fabricated a new fuel return hose for ‘Faraday’ as
well as fit a new oil pressure alarm sending unit both of which were leaking.
Puerto Plata just 3 miles east seems to have everything one needs. Arturo was
only gone for a couple of hours to get the hose and the Westerbeke sensor, I
was surprised! With the boat now serviced it was time to enjoy our stay here.
Ocean World is quite a complex with a water park casino several restaurants a discothèque
and all facilities a cruiser could want. It is actually a five star resort.
Our stay was for only two days as a weather window gave us the opportunity to
continue to cruise the north coast and possibly an opportunity to cross the
Mona Passage and get to Boquerón in Puerto Rico. We checked out, bought 100
gallons of fuel and sailed out into the Atlantic once more. It was a beautiful
day with calm seas. By the time we had reached the Cape’s that define the NE
corner of the Dominican Republic the weather had turned and we were
experiencing 8’ seas and winds in the 20’s. Yet another decision needed to be
made. With another 24 hours ahead of us to cross the Mona Passage the Admiral
and I conferred and it was decided that we would abort and divert to Samaná to
await a better weather window to make the crossing. As soon as we turned south in
fact a little west of south towards Samaná bay the seas abated and the worst
was over for this night. We rounded in toward the town of Samaná at 03:00. I
had looked on the chart to find a protected anchorage so we could drop the hook
and get some sleep. I spotted a headland that would shield us from the swell
and wind that had 12’ of water, this was our spot. At the time we anchored we
had no idea what we would awaken to. After only two hours sleep daylight came
and what surrounded our anchorage was revealed...we were anchored by a small
settlement of fishermen some were already out in their brightly painted boats
fishing in the protected area. The pictures here are worth a thousand words. We
both thought that we were somewhere in the South Pacific instead of the
Caribbean. After a quick cup of tea and in HT’s case a coffee we raised the
anchor and proceeded to the Marina Puerto Bahia...
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