A Sister Visit!

Posted on by

April 3, 2025

A couple weeks ago my sister Julia decided to take us up on our standing offer for her to visit the boat. A week later she arrived in George Town, Exumas, Bahamas!

Julia finally arrived! It turned out she was the last person through customs as she had to show our boating permit for Rincon Feliz to enter the country. We’d not sent it to her but I came up with the permit # on my phone and they looked up the permit.

Jim and I were still figuring out the Exumas, but wanted to give Julia a nice introduction. She is not a “water person”, so we knew we’d not be doing a lot of snorkeling and swimming. But again Jim is not a big water person either and I am only a bit better than Jim. Thus snorkeling and swimming with not the main plans. We also had weather that was coming in to contend with.

Lee Stocking Cay

We decided to go to Lee Stocking Cay about a 4 hour run up the Exuma chain from George Town the next day. We could visit the pink iguanas and swimming pigs from there. The two attractions are in opposite directions, so 2 days there and then a shorter trip up to Little Farmer Cay for a settlement visit and then back to George Town for a few days.

The 3 sisters on our journey north. Special meaning to Julia and I as our family has 3 sisters, Julia, Patty and I.
A very pretty anchorage!

Leaf Cay

The weather was not with us. We had a good although rather wet visit in the dinghy to Leaf Cay to see the iguanas.

A beautiful little cove with a sandy beach to beach your anchorage. We were not expecting tour boats there. All those little rocks right by the water on the beach… those are not rocks but rather iguanas!

It turns out there are iguanas on multiple islands and cays in the Bahamas. They are northern Bahamian rock iguanas and are found only on Andros and the Exumas. There are multiple sub-populations that vary in size for various reasons (still in discussion) These guys were a foot and a half to 2 feet for the big ones. Very pretty

The iguanas are not are not afraid of you in the slightest.
They are quite pretty. I love the delicate patterning on their side and pink on their heads.
We had finished feeding the little bit of romaine which we’d brought to feed the iguanas. The guy on the right ate the entire stump in one gulp! I hope it did not give him indigestion. He had no hesitation.
So pretty! I love seeing them close up.

The dinghy ride over was not bad, but the ride back was rather wet as the wind was coning up. A quick circumnavigation of the Tug and Barge rocks was not as interesting as we’d hoped. No place to land and the water was way too choppy for snorkeling.

See the tug and the barge? The water is much rougher than it may look.

A Lazy-ish Day

We’d planned to head about 10 nm south to visit one of the many islands with swimming pigs, but there was lots of shallow water, wind expected and tides we were not sure about (would they cause difficulties passing by), so we just hung out.

Relaxing!

In the afternoon the weather was not too bad so we ventured over to the beach and explored a tiny piece off the island. The island is private and marked EVERYWHERE with private keep off signs. (This is something we are seeing on many islands in at least the Exumas). At least for this little beach, they have not plastered it with signs. Additionally, to the high waterline all the islands are available for everyone.

It is easy to beach the dinghy, although the beaches are generally pretty shallow. The bigger challenge is the tides of 3 – 4 feet. Beach and then the tide goes out and you are stuck! Our dinghy weights 700 pounds so not easy to drag it back to the water. Or you beach and the tide comes in and now your dinghy floats away. We almost always double anchor. There is an anchor way off the back of the dinghy in the water and one well up the beach.
The vegetation here is quite pretty and a little trail leads leads over this narrow part of the island to the ocean.
There are lots of little flowers blooming and clearly the succulent leaves show there are wet and dry times on these islands.
Wow! What a view! From a beautiful sandy beach, a very short walk and now we are in rugged, large limestone rock formations.
I loved these rocks! It reminded me in many ways of a New Mexico landscape, just remove water and seaweed. You could see the layers of limestone/sandstone? laid down and then eroded by the elements. New Mexico’s is just a very much older rock.
I fell in love here. This reminded me so much of work I’d done in New Mexico many years ago. We had not seen anything like this in our time in the Bahamas before.
This helps me is a small way understand the inland seas that existed in New Mexico 34 million years ago. perhaps this is what it looked like.

We’d planned to head north to Little Farmer Cay the next day, visit the settlement and then do the 6 hour run home the next day, but the weather was going to turn “bad” a day earlier than we I had originally anticipated. Thus, after 2 nights we hightailed it back to George Town. There was a good blow coming in and if we did not go now, we might not have gotten Julia back in time for her plane home.

This was pretty water and we hated to leave.

A Chicha Scare

(warning a tiny bit graphic for some perhaps…)

I had thought Wednesday would be a pretty good travel day with the winds behind us. It was not bad, a bit swimmy but fine. We had not given Chicha her special travel drugs and Jim had forgotten to feed her lightly. She is a finicky traveler and man oh man, she threw up big time! We got it cleaned up, and Chicha slept the rest of the way.

Leaving the inlet at Lee Stocking. It was not really very bad, but we have scared Chicha so many times with bad water that the slightest rough water gets her scared and she gets sick. This was a classic case of tide against wind. The wind waves stack up against the outgoing current and it gets choppy. We were not really planning for this. We are still learning how to understand the cuts in the Exumas and how to time them for entry and exit.

By the time we got back to George Town, Chicha was not popping back to her normal self once we stop moving. We were getting worried. We had fluids to give her subcutaneously. We had the needles, but no tubing (our mistake when leaving New Mexico.) The local health clinic sold us an IV tubing kit and Chicha got fluids. We’ve done fluids before when she got very sick after Nikki died so knew how to do it.

She is standing in front of the food, but not eating it. She did not eat for 2 days. Thus, those subcutaneous fluids were very important.

There is not a regular vet on the island, only one who comes once a month. Called on the radio and a boater got us in contact with the local Humane Association in George Town who got us in contact with the vet in Nassau. We chatted and and texted and he sent me a prescription that the local pharmacy in George Town could fill. We were concerned that Chicha might have aspirated some of the vomit as she had nasal discharge that was slow to clear and her breathing was a little gravely.

A wet boat ride to town, a rental car and drive to the pharmacy got her an antibiotic. She was doing a bit better already, but the risk of infection was still there.

Chicha back to her happy self. She is not happy when she has to take her antibiotics, but forgives me quickly. happily, she does not have appeared to develop an infection!

Exploring Great Exuma Island

We had the car, Chicha was resting well, so we took advantage to drive the length of Great Exuma (and cross the bridge to Little Exuma just for fun.

First we headed north. George Town is about mid-island. We found a nice restaurant at a tiny resort for lunch. Cute buildings, good food and a pretty view.
I love finding places by just looking at maps. I found Pompey. This is a statue of Pompey, a 32 year old slave who in 1829 started the rebellion that began the Bahamas antislavery movement. You can read the whole story of Pompey here. It is an interesting and heroic story. Slavery officially ended with the British emancipation of slaves in 1834.
We should have stopped. What IS this tiny building?
The colors of the water and the colors of the buildings are so beautiful! You can see the water breaking. Shallow water 0 – 6 – 10 feet inside, and on the other side, 30 to hundreds of feet.
Remember those shallow beaches? In many places they dry completely when the tide goes out. So pretty!
We’ve headed south, back to George Town and to Rolletown. There is a historical sight at the tombs of a the McKay family, a British family who lived in the area in the 1790’s. There is apparently noting heroic about the family beyond having moved from England to the Bahamas in the 1700’s. That seems heroic enough. But obviously very wealthy given the tombs of the wife and their child.
More gorgeous water. This IS the Bahamas.
When Jim and I took the dinghy to the Lazy River, we basically came down through all the shallow water from the last picture 10 miles to this bridge and turned left for a mile through more shallow water. The bridge is the division between Big Exuma and Little Exuma Islands. Of course we went across the one lane bridge so we could say we’d been on Little Exuma. We tried to get to a view of the Lazy River for Julia, but…. no trespassing signs. Rent a house or go by boat are the only ways to get there.
The bridge was interesting though. There was a tiny, non-functioning draw in the middle. The bridge is called the Exuma Ferry Bridge, but I don;t know what the draw as used for. It is pretty narrow for a draw.

A Quest for Blu

We have read in many places and folks have said we should go to the Restaurant Blu. Jim and I scouted it by boat shortly after we arrived in the Exumas.

The water seemed deep enough, the the dock is actually about 10 – 15 feet from the water. The little board to the right is just that, a little board. We could not see how to really use this dock. It turns out Blu had recently moved to this location and don’t really have a dock yet. How true!

When Julia came we decided we should go. Do we rent the car again, take a taxi, or perhaps we could dinghy the few hundred yards from the boat to Cray cay, walk across the island and have a taxi pick us us. The weather was still pretty rough in the harbour and we knew we’d get wet. Car rental vs Taxi from George Town to Blu and back would be essentially the same price. I;d chatted up a very nice Taxi driver Steve who gave me the pricing. (His Mom is also named Sylvia so we had an affinity!)

We did not want to get wet, so lets scout the Cray Cay route. The island is marked “no trespassing”, but no one lives there, so we were pretty sure we’d be OK.

See how close we are to Cray Cay. it is a 2 minute dinghy ride.
Satellite views showed there was a little cut into the rocks that might be a great place to leave the dinghy. Very protected and hidden. Much of the shore in this area is rocky and not appropriate and the small sandy beaches looked difficult as there were obstacles in the way.
Rinconsito safely tied. It really is a safe and secure spot. A bit tricky getting on and off with tide changes, but actually worked pretty well.
We got to see the little cement plant up close as we had to walk right by it and up the road to the other road.
There was a lot of money put into this project. Roads, underground electrical and water infrastructure, a club house, the bridge, etc. It apparently died in 2009.
We’ve made it to the other side. The walk is clearly doable. About 40 minutes.
Not to be confused with the ferry bridge. This is the bridge we went under from or first Exuma anchorage. This bridge is part of the dead development. Rather impressive!

It is about a mile one way on the dirt roads. We ultimately decided for the wet water route across to George Town with Taxi from there. But, the walk was fun.

What a pretty blue oasis!
And the view of the water from Blu!
And, my spiny Bahamian lobster tail. Creative and tasty food.

Visiting Stocking Island

Jim and I had yet to cross Elizabeth Harbour to visit Stocking Island across the way. Stocking Island has lots of pretty beaches, walking trails and a “famous” bar, the Chat n Chill. It is apparently a cruisers hangout and is listed in the regular guide books to to the water taxi to Chat N Chill to hang with the cruisers. Funny. Turns out the locals go there too as our wait person from the night before said she was going the next day on her day off.

The Art Trail

Art trails in the Bahamas seem popular. Cruisers (mostly?) bring boat stuff or use beach garbage and build little art pieces along a trail. We saw one in the Abacos when we were there and there is one on Stocking Island in the Exumas. We did not see these sort of trails in the Caribbean so maybe this is a Bahamas only thing. They are fun.

The trail entrance.
I think Jim and I must be the only boaters without art paint on our boat.
And the view at the end of the trail on the ocean side.

And then there is Chat N Chill

I liked Chat N Chill more that I thought I would. It is a big beach where folks just hang, but there is a bar/restaurant where you can get food and drinks if you’ve not brought your own. We ordered the rum punch and the Sunday pig roast (actually quite good). There is beach volley ball almost daily, a lecture on bush medicine going on, kids frolicking and social influencers walking around … influencing.

Where one orders food and drink
S small fraction of the 300+ boats anchored near George Town. These are folks who need the social activities very close at hand.
I know, I know, I should have left this young plumber in training out. But it is so cute! He was having fun playing in the tree.
The rays just hung around here. It was easy to pet them.
The poodle was totally uninterested in the rays. Pretty pup and very friendly

Time to Go

We packed in about all we could into the week while still relaxing. It was enough for all of us although we’d have liked to take her to the Lazy River by boat. It was great that Julia came to visit and we got to spend some time together. She relinquished petting duty back to Jim and I.

Julia relinquishing kitten loving duty to me and Jim
I do love my sister Jubie. So glad she came to visit!

Luckily the waters had calmed and the ride across was not bad

Julia with our ace taxi driver Steve. Headed to the airport.

Comments

A Sister Visit! — 4 Comments

  1. I was so very glad to come for boat time. Tension in my shoulders much decreased after my visit … just what I needed!!! Thanks so much for the “bugging” till I finally got there this year and regret that I missed a year.

  2. Those painted signs, coconuts and and sculptures were such great imaginative folk art! LOVED them!