We left Thompson bay on January 19th for the Jumentos Cays which are a string of islands and cays that are primarily fishing grounds and not very populated at all. Our trip across was fairly boisterous with 20+ knot winds from the beam then the stern quarter which gave us boat speeds of over 9 knots for periods and we averaged over 6 knots for the day. Our intended stop was Water Cay however the winds blew straight into the anchorage and that meant a very dangerous place so we moved further south to Flamingo Cay. This had better protection from the North but unfortunately a big wrap around swell so it was pretty uncomfortable overnight. We were joined just as the sun descended by Discovery who were also headed south and misery does love company! The following morning we listened to weather and it was not going to settle into the east as we had hoped so we decided to make our way south to Ragged Island and some good protection from the north and pending NW winds. We again had a great sail however with 15-20 knot winds and again a 7+ knot average for the day to our anchorage at Southside Bay on Ragged Island.
Duncan Town is the only settlement in the Jumentos Island’s and was named after Duncan Taylor who was very successful at building the salt trade on this island. Duncan Town only has around 72 people living there and they make their living mostly from fishing and a little tourism. They have the mail boat arrive every 2 weeks but that’s a plan rather than schedule. They have only one store and a couple of restaurants but they also have a school, small police station and government buildings with reverse osmosis water making for drinking water. In the Bahamas the names of land indicate the availability of water, with “Cays” having no natural water supply and the “Islands” having natural water supply. So Ragged Island has natural water and support some farming but both it and Hog Cay have goats on them.
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| Happy Hunter |
In the anchorage were Fine Lion, Veranda, Scotch Mist II, Alibi and Blue Wing. We were invited to happy hour on Fine Lion with all the other crews and had a very nice introduction to the Ragged Island anchorage. We enjoyed a snorkel on the reef to the NW of the anchorage and Devin caught 2 lobster but unfortunately lost his longer spear tip. It had pierced the coral and the barb would not allow it to be extracted so it was unscrewed and left in the coral head. Fortunately we carry a spare but as it was shorter it is not as effective at passing completely through the prey and therefore sometimes the barb doesn't deploy to prevent the prey struggling off the spear.
Mark & Kathy of s/v Carina arrived the day before so they joined a group the next day to go visit the small community and stretch our legs a little. We finally met Maxine at her store as well as Monkey Man who are both famous around the cruising community. Well we walked with Mark & Kathy almost the entire length of Ragged Island before we all agreed it was probably too far. We did get a great view of the old slat ponds which for a while made a good living for the locals when the demand and price was higher but they are no longer commercially viable and are disused. We also saw lots of goats on the roadside and by houses as well as several dogs and a few cats which were more surprising.
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| Maxine, Liz & Devin |
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| Maxine's Store - such pride in their homes |
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| Main Street |
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| A very typical rural life - nothing wasted |
So we returned to the village and relaxed over a cold beer and lunch at Silver tail restaurant which is also a Bone Fish lodge for fishing tourists. The few school children here were in the restaurant having lunch too and they were all very polite and well dressed and said hello to us. We were still pretty drained from our long walk so it was really nice when a local stopped to give us a ride down to the beach. It turned out to be Percy a pretty well know local who owns a restaurant here with a plane wreck on the roof, well really the fuselage is part of the apex of the roof. He was very interesting to talk to and explained all about his plans to re-open and build 5 small cottages in Southside Bay. He has been building several cottages on Jamaica Cay which he owns but that is still work in progress too.
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| Goats on the road out of town - extremely low traffic here |
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| Salt Ponds |
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| EU funded road |
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| School buildings |
If you notice the really well paved road then it was even more of a surprise to us! It was funded by the European Union and was built in a single year covering the whole island and it really is first rate for the Bahamas.
When we returned to the boat Steve & Kim of Fine Lion & Bill & Christy of Veranda had all been out lobster hunting on the reef to the SW and had a very good catch with plenty to share and dropped of lobster on our boat and for the Carina crew who were having happy hour with us. What a great gift and very generous. So the next morning Mark and Devin headed out to see if any were left on the reef and Devin returned with 4 but nowhere near as successful as the previous day but still the freezer is filling nicely.
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| More lobsters |
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| Cleaning lobsters |
As the wind had picked up from the East, we decided to move Moosetracks to the anchorage at Hog Cay which has more protection from east waves and swell that wraps around, just as the other crews had too. It is a very nice anchorage and the most popular at Ragged Islands. The cruisers have built a small shelter on the beach with a BBQ pit and fire. They often congregate on the beach for the burning of trash as there is no facility for disposal here and you burn what can turn to ash but not glass or metal. So we attended our first “trash-burn” in the Bahamas and had a great evening socializing as well. The next day we went lobster hunting and while not a great day, Devin did return with one more. The next day Maxine was going to come to Hog Cay to have lunch with us so the cruisers made sides and Maxine cooked Goat Saus (stew) and Johnny Cake. Unfortunately the weather was too rough that day for Maxine so she sent the food with one of the local lads, now that was really a very nice thing to do. It was great food and we all enjoyed the lunch on the beach and say a big thank-you to Maxine and we're sorry to miss her.
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| Mark, Liz and Devin enjoying lunch on the beach |
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| Maxine's Goat Saus |
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| A very fun party on the beach |
We spent several days here with lots of walks to the Atlantic side to see the beaches and search for sea beans and sea glass. Lots of boats came and went as well, Discovery and Sam the Skull arrived after their waiting for weather at Buena Vista cay, it was great to meet Carl & Marilyn as well as John & Barbara and hear about their fun at Buena Vista. Barbara having found a message in a bottle, opened it to find it was from a Scottish sailor crossing the Atlantic a few years ago, the amazing thing is they are Scottish from the Isles of Arron and it was only about 60 miles from his address!
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| Trash-burn and a nice sunset socializing on the beach |
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| leaving our memento of a great visit |
Well you can only walk so many beaches so Devin and Carl decided it was time to hunt more lobster. We returned to the reef at Maycock Cay and saw more lobster but unfortunately lost one off the spear and only frightened another, but Devin did come back with 2. As Carl had had no luck we decided to share the lobster and Marilyn made a delicious pasta dish with them and a scrumptious chocolate rum cake to finish and we enjoyed another fabulous evening with them.
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| Typical star fish in the surf on beach walks |
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| The "Christmas tree" lights on the beach |
Well it looks like we will be here another 10 days to wait for the Easterly trade winds to abate as we are going southeast. So we look forward to the super bowl party in town and several more beach walks and hunting trips.
We hope the weather warms up for every one north of us, as it has been very cold this year.
