Happy Birthday, Peter!

Yesterday, March 11, was Peter's birthday. I gave him a card and bought a dark chocolate bar for him at Exuma Market. That was the extent of the celebration, but we had an enjoyable day. We needed groceries and Peter needed electrical outlets from the hardware store, so we took the small outboard engine off the transom of the dinghy and then hauled the larger Yamaha 15-horsepower out of the forepeak using the large winch and installed it on the transom. The wind was up to 15 knots, and Elizabeth Harbour was choppy, so we needed more horsepower to make it to George Town without getting too wet.

The mail boat had come in and the produce section of the market was fully stocked, so I was able to purchase mandarins, green grapes, bananas, honey crisp apples, yellow squash, portabello mushrooms, white button mushrooms, yellow onions, tomatoes and cilantro. In addition, I found pesto sauce! I was able to procure everything on my list. And the liquor store had plenty of Diet Coke, so I bought another case of 24 cans. Peter found what he wanted at the Top 2 Bottom shop, so it was a successful expedition to town.

Back on Mantra, I put away all the groceries and made a buffet lunch of cheese and crackers, pita chips and hummus, cucumbers, kalamata olives and grapes.

At 1 p.m., we dinghied the short distance to Volleyball Beach (site of Chat 'n' Chill) to hear an informal talk on the Golden Globe Race, a 30,000 mile around the world single-handed sailing race. The current (2022-23) race started on September 4, 2022, and there are now just 4 of the original 16 entrants still competing; having passed Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, they are heading north across the Atlantic for the finish line in Les Sables d'Olonne, France. 

The man who talked about the race was one of the contestants, 66-year-old Guy deBoer, from Key West (originally from New Orleans). A former competitive race sailor who retired in 2006, he was not experienced at single-handing and had never crossed the Atlantic. Like most contestants, he spent about four years preparing his boat, a 36-foot Tashiba named Spirit, and himself for the grueling months at sea. The Golden Globe follows retro-style requirements for boat specifications and equipment.Competitors must sail in production boats between 32 and 36 feet overall (9.75 - 10.97 meters) designed prior to 1988 that have a full-length keel with rudder attached to their trailing edge. 

The only equipement allowed is what was available to Sir Robin Knox-Johnston when he won the first Golden Globe in 1968. Not permissable are GPS, chart plotters, electronic wind instruments, electric autopilots, electronic logs, iPhones, satellite phones, digital cameras, computers, CD players, pocket calculators, electronic clocks and watches, watermakers, carbon fiber, Kevlar, spectra and other modern equipment. Contestants use film cameras, typewriters and cassette tapes to keep records and entertain themselves, and sextants, wind up clocks, trailing logs, Dacron sails and wind vanes for navigation and steering. A sufficient amount of food must be on board for the entire trip. Skippers can seek shelter and anchor but may not enter a port nor go on land nor receive assistance or supplies from anyone.

Along the east-about circumnavigation route, skippers have four media checkpoints where skippers may drop film and have pre-arranged, approved interviews. On September 18, Guy’s Tashiba 36 ran aground on the North coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, just 10 miles from the Lanzarote Marina Rubicon film drop gate he had passed a few hours before, in fifth position. He had stayed awake for over 30 hours to reach the first checkpoint. He decided to sail close-hauled down the east, windward side of Fuerteventura, hoping to shorten the length of time passing it by 10-12 hours. Not meaning to, he fell asleep when he sat down to rest for a bit. While he dozed, the wind velocity dropped significantly and the self-steering wind vane altered course toward the rocky lee shore. He was awakened by the crash. He was forced to send out a mayday call, ending his participation in the race. His boat was badly damaged but repairs are almost finished, and he is contemplating entering the race the next time it is held, in 2026.

After listening to Guy's talk, we took the dinghy to the well-maintained path that starts at the end of the channel into the hurricane holes and crosses over the rise to a long beach along Exuma Sound. The shoreline is punctuated with stromatolite terraces. There had been a low pressure system sitting east of here in the Atlantic earlier, so many surfers had gone out that morning. The intensity of the waves had begun to subside, but there were still spectacular breakers spraying white foam in the air. Between the crests of the waves and their bases, light shone through the clear blue Bahamian water. At the south end of the beach, we climbed to the top of a rise--passing black mahogany, New Zealand azaleas, silver palms, beach cedar and other green leafed plants that manage to survive in extremely poor soil and limited water, with rain, when it occurs, percolating through the limestone. From the vantage point at the top, we could see both the waters of Exuma Sound and some of the anchored boats in Elizabeth Harbour (still about 350) as well as a cave carved out of the rocky point by the waves.

Breakers on the beach rolling in from Exuma Sound

Peter walking along the beach

Stromatolite terraces

View of the beach and the top entrance to the cave

The rest of the day was spent on Mantra, having dinner and playing the card game Quiddler.

I was up for a couple hours in the night, so I slept late, and because of the change to daylight savings time, it was already 10 a.m. when I got out of bed, which annoyed me. (I'm setting an alarm for tomorrow.) After a breakfast of French toast with lemon curd, Peter continued to work on electrical things on the boat. 

Meanwhile, I swam to the nearby fringe reefs, passing turtle grass-covered undulating white sand and the occasional sea cucumber, cushion sea stars, beaded sea stars and mystery bi-valves. (I have not yet been able to identify the species.) At the reefs, I observed the usual suspects as well as a solitary flat needlefish. The blue male sergeant majors are still guarding caches of eggs nestled in the coral while hundreds of the yellow and black striped females swim around freely, often delighting me by approaching my face as if to greet me. The grunts hang in aggregations of species, sometimes with a young adult mahogany snapper with its distinguishing black spot near the tail. The Nassau groupers hardly move, hovering over the sand along the rim of a reef. Flamingo tongue gastropods, with the elegant black-rimmed yellow splotches of their mantles displayed, attach themselves to and feed on lacy gorgonians. Colorful sponges cling to surfaces. Purple fan corals and anemones sway in the current. It is a wonderland for me.

We quickly wolfed down quickly made quesadillas for lunch before dashing to shore for another round of pinochle with Pat at 2 p.m. After two games and some chatting with other boaters, we headed north along the west side of Stocking Island to find Da Sand Bar, a funky shack with a few tiki umbrellas along the beach, serving only drinks and hot dogs. It had been announced on the net that there are steel drums on Sunday afternoons there. We were disappointed to find only one two-drum set. An amiable man deigned to play along for one song from the bar music. There was more of a mix of Bahamians and boaters, but we were disappointed with the performance and there were too many people smoking. We stayed only long enough to finish our soft drinks. 

Steel drum player

Da Sand Bar

We stopped at Monument Beach, which we had not visited before. It is not a long beach but the sandy land  recedes from the shoreline to the base of the highest hill on Stocking Island and then turns to the north. A large, stagnant-looking pond breeds bugs. Numerous people have taken brick-sized blocks of the limestone to make lettered signs--boat or people names. On the white sand, they have placed the dark algae colored sides up; on the terraces of grayish-black rock, they have used the white sides. There are hundreds of them.

Stones used for lettering in front of Monument Hill

White stones used on top of the layered calcitic limestone

I was more fascinated by the patterns in the sand left by animals. We found lizard and worm tracks as well as congregations of circular firework patterns radiating from tiny holes in the sand. I would like to know how the patterns originated but I do not even know how to begin to research this.

Starburst patterns in the sand

Trails left in the sand

Worm trails

What animal made these?

Lizard track

We would have climbed to the top of Monument Hill (about 100 feet high) to see the monument and the views but it was approaching the insect hour, so we left. The limestone monument was built in the 1800s as an aid to navigation to sailors. (Monuments still exist on other islands too.) I have heard that the obelisk-like structures (with an osprey nest on top instead of a pyramid shape) also indicated a source of fresh water, but I have not been able to verify this. 

Bluffs with the monument on top

Now we are back on the boat, I have spent a few hours writing and researching marine creatures. Peter has been busy at the nav table. (Honestly, I do not know what he does, but I know it is useful and productive.)