Revised: Underway Again # 18: Calabash Bay to Conception Island

We sailed next to Calabash Bay and enjoyed the wonderful beach. We met a couple who had built a very large home just off the beach about 12 years ago and they really loved the island. They told us that when you build a property on the beach in the Bahamas, you own the property up to the highest point high tide reaches. They also pointed out where Elizabeth Taylor spent one of her honeymoons. We were going to walk up the beach and take a picture of the house but time got away from us and we totally forgot.

The sand is just so perfect that it is hard to believe.

Our boat anchored off Calabash Bay

It was fantastic to just have a beach day where we just relaxed.

Maureen and I just lay in the shade of our umbrellas while the guys went for a stroll.

Often people ask us "What do you do all day on the boat?" The simple answer is that there is always something to do.  Cleaning the salt off the boat takes a lot of time.

Or there is something that needs to be repaired or adjusted, even when you're underway. 

I am constantly amazed at the phenomenal shades of blue that are the sky and the water.

 

Sunset at Calabash Bay

Red sky at night sailor's delight, Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning!

 

Conception Island lies 14 miles northeast of Cape Santa Maria and is only 2.75 miles long and 2 miles wide at its widest point.    It sits in a surrounding shield of reefs that extend several miles around the island.  The entrance to the anchorage is through a path of many little reefs and I stood on the bow of the boat guiding Roman through them.  It felt unsettling, to say the least, to see the coral heads so close to the boat. 

Approaching Conception Island

Conception Island is an uninhabited land and sea park providing a watering place and sanctuary for migratory birds (again, no pictures due to death of camera).  It has a beautiful beach rivalling Cape Santa Maria beach and many snorkelling sites.  In fact, while I was snorkelling, I kept my camera tucked into the front of my wet suit and I think that I must of snagged the battery case latch and it came open under water.  After that it refused to work. I saw many different fish including a shark.  The feeling is that you are swimming inside a gigantic aquarium.  The colours of the coral and the different vegetation and the fish are amazing.  I have often wondered about the many variations of colour names in an artists choice of oils or watercolour paints.  Now I don't think that there are enough to do justice to the even just the fish - the brilliant hues of yellows, blues, greens, orange and those that just blend into the rocks or sand and disappear.  I saw some beautiful conch but as it is illegal to take from the park I left them there.

Drying out our gear

As we had motorsailed most of the way, I baked bread on the way and made soup in the pressure cooker for supper out of leftovers. You can get pretty creative cooking on a boat.

Moon rising at Conception Island

Sun setting at Conception Island

We had wanted to continue to Cat Island but the weather forecast was such that we want to be tucked in protected from the north and the west winds when the forecaste front with high winds came through. So we have decided to go up to Rock Sound, Eleuthra to wait out the weather.  We could not do that much distance in one day so we did the long haul ( almost 12 hours) to Little San Salvador Island. We anchored in the pitch dark wearing our headphones  to communicate.  We did not even get off the boat just fell into bed.  This is a trip where an auto pilot would be a big help.  The next day we sailed/motorsailed to Rock Sound and rejoined our friends, Bill and Maureen, from Kalunamoo who had made the trip in one jaunt of course, using their auto pilot.