Anchored in Paradise

Sailing is slow, there is no way around that. When you set out for a distant destination, you will gradually work your way towards being there. The climates change so slowly that you might not even realize it's happening! Sometimes you need to just step back and appreciate where you are at this very moment! 

You might already be in paradise, but you are just too involved in plotting your next course that you don't see it in front of you. 

Here we are anchored in Old Fort Bay, New Providence, Bahamas, along with two other sailboats. We have all come from different countries and crossed different waters to get here, but tonight we all remain anchored in the same perfect harbor! 

Fresh Water

Fresh water is quite the commodity when you are cruising. All the water around you is salt and unprintable! Some islands will charge you for fresh water. In the Bahamas, you can expect to pay $0.50 per gallon of potable water and $0.15 per gallon of non-potable water. 

While fresh water is expensive, there are other ways to get it. We collect rain water, and it has been raining almost every day for the past few weeks. We collect between 20-40 gallons of water each day!

This keeps all our water tanks full, and when they are completely full, we begin to do chores that are water intensive. Our first order of business when we have too much fresh water is a daily shower!  

We usually shower once a week, but with this much fresh water we can shower every day! That makes us smell much better and feel much better too.  

The next order of business is laundry. Laundry on the boat consumes a lot of fresh water. The washing phase with all the soap uses a few gallons, and the rinsing phase can take even more water to get all the soap out! Having all this rain makes us feel confident in washing our clothes as we replenish our fresh water supply. 

No, we don't have a water-maker. We never had to go through the expense of purchasing one, nor the headache of maintaining and operating one. Instead, we just taste the deck water during the rain and when it tastes fresh, we open the tanks up and let the water pour in! 

Blue Hole at Hoffman's Cay

Hoffman's Cay is a small island in the Berry Islands, Bahamas. In this small island is a magical experience, a blue hole! 

To get to the blue hole, you first land your dinghy on the beach and then follow the trail through the jungle. The vegetation here is very dense, so you will need to follow the cleared trail. 

Suddenly, you will made a turn and arrive at the splendor of the blue hole! Blue holes are nothing more than sink holes that are filled with water. They can be hundreds of feet deep, and the intensity of their color is astounding. It was very epic to encounter this after having walked through the jungle of vegetation on this island. 

As you approach the cliffs edge, the blue hole becomes even more breath taking! There must be some form of communication to the ocean because we saw a few sea turtles swimming around in the water!

The Bahamas are actually just limestone flats that have been pushed up from the ocean floor. Limestone is what caves are made out of, as it can easily be dissolved and washed away. The sides of this sink hole are lined with caves, stalagmites, stalagtites, and columns.  

This splendid vista was just a short dinghy ride away from where Maddie and I experienced our lovely sunset picnic the night before!

Paradise

Our next anchorage after Johnny jumped ship was pure and perfect paradise. Once again, it was just Maddie and I. We could walk along the beach holding hands as we listened to the waves as all of our cares and worries washed away with the outgoing tide.

Maddie and I explored the tiny island and watched the waves crash in from the Atlantic side onto the steep cliff faces where powerful waves turned into mighty spray. We then returned to the calm beach overlooking our boat Wisdom.  

We had a nice picnic dinner on the beach as we watched the sunset. Everything was perfect! 

Tourist Tree

The tourist tree gets its name from the fact that it looks like it's sunburned and peeling, like a tourist. 

The red bark naturally peels off this tree, resembling a nasty sun burn. These trees are found in the tropics, so when you are cruising and come across one of these trees, you know you have made it to a nice tropical destination!