"2002 Trip Part 9 Chub Cay - March 3rd to 6th" Chub Cay Travelogue by grandmaR

Leaving Nick's place

Sunday March 3rd we left about 8, as Nick waved goodbye. The boat on the right is the one we were rafted to. The little motorboat is the one that Nick gave a hard to time the lady that owned it about how she had it tied up.

Osprey

We saw an osprey on the way out. We went out past the Bahamas Navy base.

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Nick’s BASRA story, annotated with information from a cruiser at Chub who knew the people is as follows:

A gentleman about 70 years old and his wife who have cruised together for over 20 years were coming from the Exumas to Nassau. He was on deck, she and her sister were in the cabin. He had the jib and staysail up, the engine on and the autopilot engaged headed for a waypoint at Porgy Rocks. It was a fine day. He put his hand on the lifeline, and it broke under his weight, pitching him into the water. He was not wearing a PFD. He shouted, but no one heard him.

His wife came up from the cabin and found he was gone. She couldn’t remember how to pull in the sails, or turn off the autopilot or engine, and her sister knew nothing about sailing. She or her sister called for help on the SSB, which happened to be tuned to David’s Jones Caribbean weather service, and David Jones was still on frequency. She could not tell him where she was, only that the autopilot said they were 29 miles from the waypoint. David Jones contacted BASRA.

BASRA was able to find the boat, and put someone on it to get it back to harbor. They were also able to find the husband who had been swimming for 5 hours when they found him.

The rest of the story is that the reason the wife had her sister with her was that she had Alzheimers. She got off the boat and flew home after this incident.

Canal going out with fisherman

Nick and Caroline’s place is in canals in Coral Harbor, which is on the southwest side of New Providence Island. There is a large unfinished concrete structure (two below) can be seen for a long ways off to use as a landmark (three below)

Range as we are leaving to go out the harbor

There is a range to aid in getting in.

The wind was 15-20 knots from the SE, and the seas were about 4 feet, so we surfed north pretty quickly to Chub Cay, arriving at 2:45 pm, after 41.5 nm. (Boat at Chub in top photo)

I checked in - they didn't have a splitter and we are on the outer pier where there is only 50 amp. Mostly they save this space for the big motor yachts. After the first night, another cruiser lent us a splitter for a couple of nights. There were a lot of boats here that have been pinned in by the weather.

Going out Coral Harbor entrance

Someone posted a notice on the board that we'd meet up at the end of the \ pier in the Tiki Bar -bring your own drinks and munchies to share at 4 pm. So we did that.

I got a shower in the showers here (the ladies room has only a screen on the upper half of the door, and the weather was too cold for screens - the men have a solid door), and Bob got a shower on the boat. There are only the two toilet/showers on the transient side (one for each sex). and they aren’t very nice. There’s no place to sit except the toilet, and no place to put or hang your stuff while you are taking a shower. Plus you can see right in the door of the ladies.

Unless you are at the member’s docks or on a face dock, which we were, there are no finger piers to get off the boat.

There is an internet connection, for which they charge $3/min, and you call long distance to the states.

The dive shop wasn't operative unless you have your own equipment, and they currently have 2 flat boats with guides for the flats or bottom fishing- no ocean trolling.

We went over to the restaurant - we ate in the non-members section. I asked for rigatoni, and after about 20 minutes, they came back and said they didn't have any pasta, and could I pick something else. So I had grouper. (They had gone over and opened up the store, but there wasn’t any there either.) There was a guy at the next table with a little girl (4th grade, but wearing lipstick). He flew in with his own plane - it was her spring break, and they were from Atlanta. Bob had cracked conch. The bill was $40-$50 and we were drinking water.

About 2 in the morning, Bob threw his dinner up. Apparently he had a reaction to the conch, as I had no problem. And one of the guys here said that some people have allergic reactions to conch, like to strawberries (which Bob also can't eat). He's been fine since.

Large concrete structure - entrance Coral Harbor

March 4th We got the weather Monday morning, and a front was coming through with high winds, so we will stay here at least until Weds or Thurs. We saw winds up to 45 knots in the marina last night. However, there are no waves in here, so it's calm in that respect. My weather report to BASRA was as follows::

“0650 at Chub Cay 5/8ths cloud cover Sierra Charlie, Alpha Sierra, Charlie Charlie, unlimited visibility, wind 180 degrees 8-10 knots barometric pressure 1021 and steady. Water temperature 77 deg F, air temperature 74.7 deg F, no rain and one boat anchored.”

A large number of boats here took off for Nassau ahead of the front. Today it is overcast and cold (for here). We did hook up the cable TV last night.

Large concrete structure from the channel

My weather report 0653 at Chub Cay, 8/8ths cloud cover November Sierra, \ wind 30 degrees 12 to 21 knots, water temperature 73 degrees, air temperature 66.2 degrees, barometer up to 1026 and steady on the tap, a trace of rain and 5 or 6 boats anchored. A catamaran came in called DOS GATOS. They have one cat - they said the name referred to themselves as the ‘two cats’. The weather was so bad crossing the banks that they said the tramps became unlaced.

I got Bob a Chub Cay T-shirt in the shop (it had sting rays on the back) for his birthday. I also got a nice basket for Beth, and a few other souvenirs. The little shop doesn’t have anything except regular bread - no local bread. They said they wouldn’t bake any until all the bread was gone. We ate at the restaurant again, but no conch this time.

Tuesday night, Herb of the SSB weather was on at the end of Peter Jennings news. Since we got the cable set up, we could get that channel, and one other cruiser on the dock could also hook a TV up. We each had one other couple come and watch on our boat. The folks who came to our boat have a boat named WaterMusic, and he is Bob and she is Ann. They were quite surprised at the size of our cockpit, and also the size of the bunk in the aft cabin. We taped it, so we can play it again. I had gone up to get email that evening, and got back midway through the news. I talked to the 3 boats that came in after us, and they were all from RI.

March 6th, Wednesday

My weather report: 0653 at Chub Cay Marina, 8/8 cloud cover Sierra Tango visibility 1 mile in rain, wind 060 degrees at 15 knots with squalls, water temperature 70 degrees F, air temperature 65 degrees F., barometer 1025 and steady, raining. The Bahamas forecast for the NW and Central Bahamas was a weakening cold front is stationary across the Bahamas, NE-E wind 20-25 knots, seas 6-9 feet.

On Tuesday I mentioned that we might leave Wednesday instead of waiting for better weather on Friday. (My thinking was that the front would go through and winds would be from the SE.) Speaking of this out loud was a great mistake. I should have known that he was getting antsy. On Weds morning we were having squalls, so I thought we were safe, but about 9, he decided that the weather had improved and we could go after all. Besides which our friends on WaterMusic were leaving the marina and going to anchor off the point, and they wanted their splitter back.

Next the horrible trip where we ended up at Grand Bahamas