February 2020 – MV Privateer

The other George Town -Part One

George Town on Great Exuma in the Bahamas is a popular cruiser stop on any trip through the Exumas. Whether you stay there for the season or just pass through, George Town provides weather protection, a decent grocery store, free water and maybe more company than you would prefer.

We have stopped there many times over the years and always enjoyed it. A conch burger at Chat and Chill, washed down with a few Kalicks is sort of a must do stop for us whenever we pass through. While we have enjoyed the beach time, snorkeling and hiking on Stocking Island, we have never done much land travel on either Great Exuma or its southern sister, Little Exuma.

Northbound travel brings you past the airport, Sandals resort, Emerald Bay marina and generally well developed areas. Southbound is somewhat more rural and brings some interesting local culture to light.

For our first adventure south we rented this motor scooter. We figured easy, fun and cheap. We figured wrong. It cost $50 when a car would have cost $80. While I used to ride when younger, handling a scooter is not like a big road bike, and having the extra rider behind me was a bit of a balance challenge. And while the roads are generally decent, there are many pot holes as deep as the little tires are high. Hit one at 30 mph and its all over. So that fear had my eyes glued to the road the entire trip. Regardless, we decided we would come back with better wheels and maybe even a guide.

On our next visit to George Town we were excited to hear about a guided tour south being arranged by one of the cruisers, thanks to Mark on CAVU. This tour would be guided by Cordell Thompson, a local Bahamian who traces his history on Great and Little Exuma back to the 1700’s. We had actually met him a while back when he was giving a talk on vollyball beach on bush medicine and home remedies. He turned out to be a wealth of knowledge about the island and its people.

Local Bahamian boat building is a fascinating story that goes beyond what I could cover here. But the sailing hulls they build, all out of local wood and all with 100% local materials and labor, are things of beauty. watching them race is as entertaining as it gets down here. In this picture, Cordell is holding a piece of mahogany with the correct grain pattern for what will become part of the keel of a racing slop.

We had to push through a fair amount of underbrush to get to the site of this former cotton plantation. British loyalists from the US were transplanted here, along with their slaves, after the revolution. This lasted until the 1830’s when slavery was abolished in Britain and all of her colonies. Many of the current population of the Bahamas can trace their ancestry to Loyalists (white) or slaves (black). We found it interesting that places like this plantation, with so much history, are left to crumble. Cordell said the attitude towards these sites was somewhat indifferent. And of course, there is little money available for such things when hurricane damage from two years ago is still to be repaired. (see our blog on the Ragged islands and Duncan town.

Some day we will come back and sit with Cordell to learn more. Comparing how the US recovered from slavery to how the Bahamas handled it would be interesting.

On a lighter note, here I am spooning on extra helpings of rum sauce on Mom’s famous rum cake. This is the real reason we made a second trip to Little Exuma.

Well its nearly 5 pm and I have a 24 hr cellular access that is just about to run out, so this is all for now. If you have a few extra days in George Town, we recommend a trip south.

Ragged Islands

We did a quick run up the Ragged Island and Jumento Cays chain. By this point we had been gone from the Turks and Caicos for a week and were somewhat overdue to clear Customs and Immigration back in to the Bahamas.

The chain runs for about a hundred miles, has more than a hundred islands, and has fewer than 100 people. They all live in Duncan Town at the southern tip of the chain.

Duncan Town is the little settlement that could. Exposed at it is, on one of the higher points in the Bahamas, it has been devastated by hurricanes most recently, Irma. Being a long distance from Nassau, the money to reconstruct has been slow to appear. And now the more recent devastation in Abaco is spreading rebuilding funds even more thin.

The police station has yet to be repaired, along with many other structures in town. But work has begun on a new school and a solar power plant.

We took our dinghy up the long mangrove channel to the town dock and walked up the hill to town. Signs of rebuilding were everywhere but with a long way yet to go. We had a nice lunch at Sheila’s Fisherman Lodge and met Adrian who rode out the Irma in a house that was mostly destroyed. He told us about having to leave that house as it was being torn apart by 200 mph winds and escape to the neighbor’s house still standing. Hard to imaging what it was like, as the house that was destroyed by the hurricane was built with thick walls of stone.

The Raggeds raw beauty and nearly unoccupied land and water suggest what the Exumas must have been like many years ago. Spectacular beaches, clear water and white sand anchorages make for a nearly perfect cruising ground. I say nearly perfect as there are few places to hide from a significant cold front. The few other cruisers we ran into down there all knew each other – group of hardy sailors that return every year for a little relaxation and camaraderie at the Hog Cay Yacht Club.

After a five days in the Acklins and a few more in the Raggeds we would have enjoyed some company at the “Yacht Club” but we were the only boat anchored in the bay. We sat through yet another minor weather front but this time our anchor was well set. After diving on this set I was beginning to really appreciate the Raggeds.

We hiked across to the windward side of the island and enjoyed some great views. Also enjoyed a nice sunrise before moving north.

By now we were ten days out of Turks and Caicos so decided to get back to George Town to clear in at Customs & Immigration. The shortest route is through Hog Cay Cut (a different Hog Cay) but it looked a bit tricky so we took the long way around. That did provide for some very pretty motoring across white sand banks. About ten feet deep but we could count the blades of grass below.

We hope to return some day!

The Bight of Acklins

A cruise through the Bight of Acklins definitely qualifies as remote. We were there for five days and never saw another boat of any kind. We went ashore one day and barely found anyone there either. Since the population is only about 500 that is understandable.

We left Provo, Turks & Caiscos, midday and rounded Castle Island at the southern tip of Acklins just before dawn. Our destination was Delectable Bay but the timing of the tides did not support the more direct route along the back side of the island so we ran north to the tip of Long Cay and entered the Bight there.

Our choice of Delectable Bay met two criteria. First, it would allow us to visit a couple of the small settlements on the island and second, it would provide some protection from strong northeasterly winds predicted for that night. Active Captain comments mentioned poor holding with sand over marl, but we figured we could get a decent grip somewhere.

We anchored using our usual technique to set the anchor, including backing down at 1200 rpm or so. Our first attempt held so we were encouraged, until I dove on the anchor.

Looking at this you might wonder why we didn’t pull up and re-anchor. But this photo was taken after the blow. When I initially dove on the anchor there was a fair amount of sand piled up in front, making it appear the anchor was more deeply set than it was. After 8 hours of winds gusting to 40 knots I suspect all the loose sand was washed away and this was all that was left to hold the anchor.

I have no idea how the anchor held through those winds. Luckily there were no wind shifts so it never had to re-set. I admit that I knew it was not the best set I have ever seen, but in my defense, we could drag a couple of miles before the nearest sand flats. Did I mention we were the only boat in the anchorage? In the entire Bight?

Our first land adventure was to the settlement of Pompey Bay. The sign is all we could find. I am sure there were a few houses somewhere, but after walking for 15 minutes and seeing no one, we returned to the dinghy to find a “bigger” town.

PRIVATEER is in the background, so far away that she is not easily seen. Before the road was built, the only way to move up and down the island was by boat and these jetties were important. Now there are no boats and no reason to maintain the jetties. Leaving Pompey Bay we were getting hungry and thirsty so hoping Delectable Bay had more activity.

When the population of the settlement is only about 20, there is no need for a sign to identify the local store. We would have missed it but for the lady near by that invited us in. Not much to sell, some dry goods, a few sheets of drywall and, thankfully, some cold Kalik!

Our next destination was Ragged Island and the distance required us to reposition near the west end of the Bight in order to cross over to Ragged and arrive before dark. We anchored at the tip of Long Cay in order to hop out to sea around 2am.

After our anchoring experience at Delectable Bay I was hoping for a little better set this time. While the set wasn’t perfect, a bit of a sea grass ball rolled up under the anchor, a calm night was predicted so all was well.

The weather pretty much dictated our early departure. A significant cold front was heading our way and there is no west protection in the Bight. We did miss out on some land adventures that we had planned, but as a cruising ground, its hard to get too excited about the Bight of Acklins. We hear that there is some good snorkeling further south and we didn’t get down there, but the route is a bit shallow for our 5′ draft. It is also difficult to get near shore for any wind protection as the slope of the shore is shallow quite a ways out into the bay. And did I mention the holding is difficult?

Flopper Stoppers on Privateer

We installed flopper stoppers as part of the build and commissioning process three years ago. And never used them until just last week. Not that we haven’t rolled, we have. But were heretofore either too lazy or too late to deploy them. More on the “too late” comment later.

For those of you unfamiliar with the various stabilization options for a trawler such as ours, there are two approaches to enhanced stabilization while running, paravanes or hydraulic fins. We have hydraulic fins for stabilization while underway. They work well, as long as the hydraulic systems are operational. Paravanes also work well, but do not require hydraulics, so you might see a serious ocean crossing trawler with both for redundancy.

Paravanes and flopper stoppers look somewhat similar, so might be confused with each other. But paravanes drag a “fish” though the water that dives with speed and this creates very strong loads on the system. Paravane systems are therefore pretty beefy. You see them on commercial fishing boats everywhere.

Flopper stoppers just pull drag panels up and down while the boat is at anchor and therefore are not nearly so strong. Looking at the picture above, you can see how the system functions. Poles are deployed from either side of the superstructure, guyed from the mast above and then with lines fore and aft. The drag panels, we call them doors, are then lowered from the boat deck into the water. They function by sinking easily but providing resistance when pulled up; the “doors” open and close in opposition to each other with the roll of the boat.

Here is one of the doors. You can see it is hinged down the centerline, with cables for connection to the down line. They are about 3’x3′ and weigh about 20lbs. They can be a bit awkward to raise and lower. They can easily bang against the hull if you either are not careful, or you are already rolling. And this is what I meant about being “too late” to deploy the system.

These guy lines hold the pole out perpendicular to the boat and horizontal with the water.

Pole attaches to the side of the boat at the upper boat deck

The poles tuck up against the boat deck when folded back and then pivot out when deployed. The operation can be a little tricky. The attachment point also needs to be well reinforced. We specified the system at time of build so this area was beefed up in the mold. This can be accomplished as an aftermarket operation but requires a bit of work, with maybe some advice and councel from the builder. I know some folks have mounted their poles lower on the hull in order to make it easier to reinforce.

Note that we have a mast. We had originally specified an arch but the builder determined that the arch did not have sufficient height to enable the angles necessary to support the poles. Now that we have the mast, we sorta like the look! As an aftermarket install to a boat with an arch, a center pole for support might work well.

Our poles are carbon fiber to keep them light, but aluminum works well. They look like re-purposed spinnaker poles and that is probably what they are (were).

Deployment takes about 15 minutes if you keep all the lines attached. We are looking at adding additional lines to aide in dropping the doors over the side and may have storage bags fabricated that attach to the outside of the boat deck rails to simplify deployment and retrieval.

So, how does the system work? We are quite pleased with our first experience. We were anchored in a bay with direct wind protection but were expecting a wrap around swell with an oncoming front. When the swell arrived we did roll, but the roll max angle was lower than expected, the roll rate was much slower and the roll attenuated much faster than in the past. After an initial roll, the next roll was about 50% of the first, and so on.

This was a mild swell, visible to the eye but less than a foot in height. Plenty to roll us when abeam the swell. We were able to sleep through the night just fine.

We do have a concern about what we would do if we needed to vacate an anchorage in an emergency. Lots of gear in the water. Although we haven’t tried it, we believe we could motor short distances at low speed, to re-anchor for example, with the doors just raised out of the water. For more estensive maneuvering we could pull the doors up on deck but leave the poles extended. Not a perfect solution, but it could be done quickly.

We are headed to Cambridge Cay next and will be there for a month. With a strong North wind a pretty good swell can come in so we will deploy the system for the entire month and report back on performance.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: