Author Archives: Eric

More Exploring Staniel Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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Just before the sun poked over the horizon on Thursday, May 1, 2025

Today was the 16 year anniversary of when Eric and Christi completed our circumnavigation (it took two years and two days). We were pleased to be celebrating this anniversary while actively cruising once again.

While we’ve cleaned the waterline a couple of times in the Bahamas, we haven’t cleaned the bottom since Panama. Eric decided his project for the day was to clean the bottom. It was the worst he’d ever seen it. Normally, it takes one tank of air to do the bottom. He went through two tanks of air before he was simply too tired to keep going, and he still had a long way to go.

After he was done, we went to town. We had lunch at the yacht club again. As we were leaving, we noticed a crowd around the corner of the dock where we’d seen all the sharks the other day. We couldn’t believe how many sharks there were.

People were petting the sharks!

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Snorkeling The Grotto, Staniel Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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On Tuesday, April 29, after we finished our morning school/chores and were getting ready to leave Kosmos, it started raining hard — we did not want to be out in that kind of rain.

When it stopped, we checked all the rain forecasts to see if more was coming. They all said more rain, but conflicted with when it would hit and how hard. The clouds in the distance looked ominous, so we played it safe and stayed onboard for the whole day. It did indeed rain hard again, but not until the evening.

On Wednesday, it rained lightly in the early morning, but cleared up by mid-morning. After school and chores, we went to The Grotto. It was windy, and the ride over was a little bumpy and wet. 

We anchored near The Grotto entrance, got our gear on, and jumped in. We took this video because we thought the sound was funny. We had no idea that it was significant.

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Welcome to Staniel Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas — And Pig Beach

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Sunday, April 27 — We got up at 0530 and untied from the dock at 0630, just as the sun was beginning to rise. It was high tide. Today was the new moon, so the tides were extra high/ low. We were grateful to have a little more water under the keel as we navigated the narrow channel out.

We were heading to an area called Staniel Cay, part of the string of tiny islands that make up the Exumas.

The sea conditions were okay. The 1 – 2 foot wind chop waves were sharp, hitting at 2 – 3 second intervals, and breaking. They were hitting us on the starboard. The motion was lurchy. Much to our frustration, the closet was squeaking like crazy like it does in head seas. In good news, there was no swell. It was a sunny day with scattered clouds.

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Chores and Errands in Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas

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Friday, April 25 — Eric did not sleep well. The boat became grounded at low tide in the middle of the night and started making unusual motions. The strange motion kept him from sleeping. Christi and Keith slept through it.

Despite being tired, Eric was feeling motivated to get stuff done. While Christi and Keith did school, Eric dug out the parts he’d need for his projects. Many were in deep spaces that were difficult to access — just getting the parts out was a project in and of itself!

As soon as Christi and Keith were done with school, we headed out. It was near high tide when we left Kosmos.

We rented a car from the marina office. They charged $11 per hour and didn’t require us to refill the fuel we used. Eric found driving on the left hand side of the road in traffic required a lot more concentration than normal. And it was a little bit scary, particularly with making right hand turns.

Our first stop was an auto parts store to get oil, which was the farthest away from all of our errands — a 10-minute drive.

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