Hello everybody - this is the crew from Austria/Europe: Max, Johnny, Manuela and Richie (I am writing the log - excuse my "Austrian" English).
We entered "Stray Cat" in Staniel Cay / Exumas on February, 26th and we will leave it in Staniel Cay again on March, 7th. Today its march, 1st - the 4th day on board - and we already experienced a lot: First of all - coming over from wintertime in Austria where everything is grey, wet and cold (this year we've got little snow) - it was a very good idea to start the trip in Staniel Cay. It is really a very beautiful marina, giving us all those great first impressions of "entering paradise": We flew there from Nassau over the green waters of the northern part of the Exumas with a small piper-plane of Flamingo Air. The first person who welcomed us at the airstrip of Staniel Cay was "Susanna" (she is from Switzerland and sooooo pretty ;-)). Entering the marina we have immediately seen the huuuuuge "Stray Cat" catamaran, where aptain Mark was already waiting for us.
Finding sailstraycat.com in the internet we did not know what expected us - but Mark's eyes were bluer and warmer than the sea and he had the charisma of a "real captain". In the green, clear water beside the boat a big stingray and also 5 or 6 nurse-sharks welcomed us.
Yeah! Let's have a cool Kalik (very good Bahamian beer) at the bar and talk about our plans: If winds are ok we like to go down to Long Island, passing Cat Island, Conception Island, Rum Cay, then cross over to George Town/Great Exuma and then go back up to Staniel Cay along the numerous little islands of the southern Exumas. All right - let's do that - but we stay in Staniel Cay one night.
In the late afternoon we snorkeled over to Tunderball Cave - a cave close to the marina with so many fish we have never seen before. Actually I do not know the names of those fish - but there were all colors you can imagine. And for the fish it seemed to be very interesting having their first contact with Austrians.
Next morning - 2nd day - we left Staniel Cay crossing the Exuma Sound towards Cat Island - a wonderful trip under sails with favorable southerly winds. And it happened immediately when we entered the deep waters of the Sound: "fish on"! Max (fishing-passionate!), had a big fish on the hook! And "fish on" again: Another one on the 2nd line! Imagine the stress on board! Working hard, he and captain Mark tried to bring them in - two beautiful Mahi-Mahis - one went off close to the boat but the other one's destiny was to land on "stray cat's grill". While his filets were prepared there was still another hook in the water. Johnny remarked "hey guys - there's something strange going on with that line". "Fish on" - Max screamed enthusiastically. Another Mahi-Mahi was caught! We had a delicious dinner, anchoring close to the Hawks Nest marina. Max called an Australian (note: not Austrian) friend who was very happy to show us his house, some parts of the island and helped us to find a good store for food & beverage in the morning of the next day.
In the afternoon of day nr 3 we left Hawks Nest - next stop should be Conception Island. But the extreme humidity of the last two days turned into a sudden local thunderstorm with winds more than 45 knots from the left. The waves became about 2 - 3 meters high and therefore we decided to take the same direction like the wind and the waves going directly to Long Island. In that moment we saw something spectacular: A about 4-5 meters long Orca whale (!) used the waves as a playground and jumped out the rough sea 4 times close to our boat! I tried hard but I could not catch one of his jumps by my camera. In the evening we arrived in Long Island, anchoring offshore the Stella Maris marina. There we took some diesel in the morning of the next day and there I started to write the log entries
Day nr 4: Had great lunch at Stella Maris resort (marina, airport and hotel / resort owned and managed by Germans). Good service in the marina; they shuttled us to the resort by taxi for free (is included if you have lunch there). Left marina in the afternoon to anchor outside (no mosquitoes!).
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