Crew Log for January 27th – 30th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Cambridge Cay to Staniel Cay
• Trip Distance of 15.1 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,858.7 NM
• Departed at 07h30, arrived at 10h30
We were still buzzing from our brush with the super yacht world and for two great days in Cambridge Cay. There was some “weather” rolling in over the next couple days however, so we planned to head to Staniel Cay and pick up a mooring ball. The winds were light, and conditions were glassy calm, which meant we’d be motoring the entire way.
As is usually the case when we are motoring in calm conditions, one of us passes the time by working in the galley down below. As most sailors know, going below in rough conditions is a recipe for seasickness and the movement makes it challenging to complete even the simplest of tasks. Judy decided to pass the time making homemade granola bars, using the recipe her friend Anne sent her.
As we passed by Sandy Cay, just west of Big Major, on route to Staniel Cay we passed by the super yacht, “Man of Steel”, owned by Canadian steel manufacturers, who purchased the yacht from Steven Spielberg. Man of Steel is over 300 feet long, with a staff complement of more than 40. We heard that the owners had set up a camp on Sandy Cay as a base for kite boarding. It was an impressive looking vessel.
Shortly after hooking up to the mooring ball, we heard someone yell out, “hey, fellow Maritimers”. Savannah and Marco were a young cruising couple from Buctouche, New Brunswick. They are on sv Cajun, a Cabot 36, many of which were built in Nova Scotia. Marco bore an amazing resemblance to our daughter’s partner and he even shared similar mannerisms. Savannah was a massage therapist, and even brought her table with her. I have been having trouble with a sore neck and numbness in my fingers so I managed to get some free advice, which I confess I haven’t been good at following.
One of the “attractions” at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club are the more than a dozen nurse sharks that seem to arrive on command. The staff pound on a fish cleaning station which sends a signal to the sharks to come into the dock, and they seem to try an squirm out of the water to retrieve a small piece of fish. I was lead to believe that nurse sharks are fairly harmless, however putting your hands close to their mouths isn’t likely very smart.
There was a young family with small children who were leaving in the morning, but before they did, the kids desperately wanted to see the sharks. They convinced the dock staff to call the sharks and encouraged their daughter to “pat the shark”, as the staff member repeatedly asked them to be careful and not put their hands near the sharks mouth. The more warnings he issued, the louder and more persistent the parents were telling their daughter the “pat the shark”. Apparently, the perfect Instagram picture is worth more than putting your child at risk.
We filled the water tanks and did a bit of provisioning and had a quiet evening on the boat. We did manage to have a video chat with the family from Peterborough which is always fun!
It poured rain and blew most of the following day so we spent making bread, pizza and even watched a movie, although it couldn’t have been very memorable, since I can’t remember what it was. A comedy I believe.
The weather cleared up on Sunday so we decided to hike to the beach with Corky and Alex and connected up along the way with Dan and Paola who were in Cambridge Cay when we were there. Dan is a former Navy commander and intelligence officer, who just retired this year and Paola taught English as a second language. They lived for years in Massachusetts and now live in Fort Pierce, Florida. They were sailing on my dream boat, a Island Packet 35, which they bought new in 2003.
It was NFL Conference Championship Weekend so the Yacht Club was a busy place. We managed to find a beautiful quiet table overlooking Staniel Cay harbor and enjoyed a lunch with our friends. Judy and I hung around for a bit afterwards to watch the first half of the NFC game, but the outcome was obvious pretty early on.
However, while we were watching the game, and minding our own business, the strangest thing happened. There is a bit of a back story that provides some interesting context to what played out.
Last year (2022) saw the return of the Golden Globe Sailing Race. Like the original race in 1968, the current race departed from Les Sables-d’Olonne, France on September 4th, 2022 and participants sail solo, non-stop around the world, via the five Great Capes and return to Les Sables-d’Olonne. None of the boats can use any modern technology or satellite-based navigation aids (GPS). The boats are all production boats between 32 and 36 feet, about the size of Elizabeth M, and must be older than 1988. Unlike Elizabeth M, they all are heavy, sea worthy, full keel boats.
One of the entrants was an American by the name of Guy DeBoer. On September 18th, 2022, Guy deBoar’s boat Spirit, a Tashiba 36, hit rocks 50 metres off the beach on the north coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, a popular tourist surfing spot. deBoar issued a distress call and notified race control on his satellite phone of the grounding. According to reports, his boat was being pushed slowly forward, grinding over the rocks. He had readied his life raft, but decided to stay with the boat until daylight since he couldn’t see the coast. He also reported that the conditions were not safe to use the life raft, given exiting onto the rocks beaten by the surf would be dangerous.
deBoar finally abandoned his yacht by foot, and was taken to a local hotel without injuries. The following day officials declared towing the boat off the rocks was too risky. The decision was made to pump all fuel from the boat to avoid a potential spill. deBoar’s team eventually retrieved the boat.
Guy deBoar was in the Staniel Cay Yacht Club on Championship Sunday. He was also moored next to us in the mooring field. The only other important part of the backstory was, what I was wearing that day.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I can usually be found wearing a SPF50 long sleeved rash guard, a buff around my neck and a rather tattered looking straw sun hat. My hair is also longer than it’s ever been, but my mother never complains about it on our video calls, so I don’t worry about it. I have a collection of rash guards, including two sv Delos shirts, just like the one Brian wears in most of his YouTube videos. For those of you who don’t know, Delos is the original YouTube sailing channel and one of the most successful. And they sell nice rash guards.
Some time before the end of the first half of the NFC Championship game between the Eagles and 49’ers, a very salty old sailor walked over and introduced himself to me. He said his name was “Guy” and he commented on the success of our YouTube Channel. I’ve been passing out a lot of boat cards lately and naturally thought he was talking about our blog, which made me laugh given it would hardly be classified as “successful”. Guy persisted however, saying he had heard that we had the most popular sailing channel on YouTube.
He wasn’t buying my modesty, or my attempts to convince him that I wasn’t Brian from sv Delos and that Judy wasn’t Karen, Brian’s wife, from Sweden. I eventually tried to turn the conversation around to him. That’s when I found out he was indeed an old salt, and had put his boat on the rocks in the Canary Islands while participating in the 2022 Golden Globe Race. One of us was famous, and it wasn’t me. I don’t know if Guy has any technology on his cruising boat, but a quick Google search of sv Delos would have told him that the famous YouTubers were actually in Mexico, not Staniel Cay.
Had the bar not been full of loud football fans, it would have been fascinating to hear about Guy deBoar’s sailing history. And I could have directed him to ElizabethMSailing.com.
Judy also met Lorena, who was in Staniel Cay for a week with her husband, who apparently was napping while Lorena watched football. They had rented a cabin for the week and were having a really good time. She was from Annapolis but has lived in several different places on the US east coast and was a former horse and dog breeder. Not only did she not mistake us for Brian and Karen off of sv Delos, she had no idea who they even were.
The next day was a pretty laidback one. Judy paddleboarded around cay next to Thunderball Grotto, while I hung out on the boat and pretended to be Brian off of sv Delos. I wasn’t fooling anyone though.
The crew off of NoMastE messaged us to say that Lorraine’s new restaurant in Black Point was having their Grand Opening the following day, so we decided to head down there and participate in the celebrations. After all, we were Judy and Alan from ElizabethMSailing.com. Were we in for a surprise.
But more about that, next time.
Additional Photos:
OMG you met Guy! He is a friend of mine from Key West! I’ve been following his posts on FB and he mentions being in the Exumas and the thought crossed my mind “I wonder if he would run into the two of you?” Naw, couldn’t happen, I thought.