We found paradise on Conception Island

We’re up early and watch the sunrise as we prepare for our cruise to Conception Island.  We secure everything that could move or get damaged if the sea swells are great than expected. We have learned to always prepare for the worst. We depart from the North Canal rocks at the south end of the harbour at 09:10. About 6 or 7 sailboats exited the harbour with us for Long, Conception and Rum Cays. This is another cut that you only do in good daylight conditions because of the reefs both east and west of the channel. We exit onto the sound and have a lovely calm cruise to Long Island. Our first waypoint leads us to the northern most tip of Long Island at Cape Santa Maria which is 1 hour and 45 minute cruise. Long Island is 76 miles in length and 4 miles wide. Long Island was the third stop for Columbus in the New World after San Salvador and Rum Cay, which we hope to visit as well.  In fact, Columbus’s flagship the Santa Maria, went aground on a reef at the northern tip earning the name Cape Santa Maria. 

Our friends Marge and Ed on Margaret Lee hail us to tell us that they spotted whales at the tip of Cape Santa Maria. We watch but see none. We overtook Margaret Lee and had the opportunity to get some great pictures of them underway, which we give them later at anchor. Our payment - some freshly Mahi Mahi that they caught while underway. We arrived at 14:55 at Conception Island. I dove to check the anchor and recover a piece of our retaining chain that broken off while we were anchoring.  I quickly discovered that we had a curious barracuda visiting our boat. He wasn’t much interested in me as he was looking for scrapes.  Once settled  we headed out to the lagoon in the dinghy with our kayak in tow. Conception Island is a National Park and is under the protection of the Bahamas National Trust. This means that nothing on the island can be disturbed, removed or damaged.   We carefully enter the entrance of the lagoon watching out for rocks just below the surface of the water. Once inside we anchor the dinghy and explore the creeks  by kayak watching the sea turtles whip past us. People are asked to use paddles and not use outboard engines as not to scare or damage the turtles. We paddle the kayak deep into the winding creeks till we reach the mangroves and enjoy the peace and serenity. The only sound is of the nesting birds. We turn back to arrive back to the dinghy just as the sun is beginning to set. With the sun low it is difficult to navigate the exit of the lagoon. We approach at low speed and pass through with inches to spare from the protruding rocks below us. Back at the boat we hail Margaret Lee that we have returned so that they do not send out a search party for us!  We watch as the sun sets and the moon rises. After dinner we are rewarded with beautiful calm winds and a full moon  At 10:00 pm we can still see the sand on bottom around the boat and it appears just like we are looking into a swimming pool.

Wednesday

We have one other trawler and 7 sailboats in the anchorage with us, which is a far cry from the 150+ boat in George Town.  No city lights and only the occasional chatter on the VHF radio, and water so blue is seems surreal. We think we have found paradise. If only Conception Island offered more protection here against winds and fronts, we would stay forever, but then again so would everyone else.

After breakfast we prepare to go out spearing lobster but we were not lucky to even see one. We did however spear a Lion Fish and a large 17” Yellowfin Grouper.  Back to the boat to clean our catch and have lunch before heading out again to another section of the reef. We make three different stops along the reef extending along the west tip of the island and manage to spear two more Lion Fish but we see no lobster.  The reef was damaged by a hurricane a few years ago however we are pleased to see the  new growth of elkhorn, staghorn, finger and pillar coral along with the multitude of reef fish. Back at the boat we clean the remainder of our catch and drop the unwanted parts overboard, which is quickly eaten up by the other fish lying in wait of a meal. It does however also attract a nurse shark, or two, or three but really four! Now we have some smaller fish, a couple of Jacks, and four sharks circling around the bottom of the boat looking for food. This is not something that we usually do in George Town because we do not want to encourage sharks to visit the harbour but here it seems that they all wait to be fed by visiting boats. 

Plans are to have a cocktails and appetizers (this is after all a ritual here)  with the other boats in the anchorage on the beach however with no table and no-see’m we decide to host the party on the Boatel. Everyone (all eight boats) in the anchorage comes except for one boat are invited. That is certainly not something we could do in George Town with 30+ boats at Sand Dollar alone. Within minutes everyone has the invitation and the party is on. Our four sharks and the stingray swarming around the boat are a big hit with our visitors. Two of the boats were from my home province of New Brunswick.  Six of the eight boats were from Canada so Conception Island was taken over by Canadians for a few days. We all watch the sunset on the bow of the Boatel and watch closely for a green flash. The sound of the conch horn welcomes the end of another wonderful day. After everyone leaves we head over to Margaret Lee for a delicious dinner with our friends. We return to our boat with the anchorage fully illuminated under a full moon.

                                                                                                         

Thursday January 20

Today we prepare to do a dive with Brian from S/V Jambi along the Conception Island Wall. This has previously been the highlight of our trip to Conception. There are suppose to be ten mooring balls along the wall so we head out in the dinghy to find them unsure if we will find any at all, but we are lucky to spot a brand new white 18 inch fender bobbing in the clear blue waters. We tie off to mooring line and are pleased that it is the same spot we dove at in a previous visit.  We do a 35 minute dive to a maximum of 90 feet with good visibility, large reef fish and healthy coral.  We were greeted by the resident barracuda who escorted us through our whole dive. We spot a couple of large 10 inch Queen Angelfish, Grey Angelfish and a pair of beautiful French Angelfish.  I have never seen French Angelfish except for this location and these were exceptionally large they grow to a maximum 18 inches and I would think these were about 14 inches. As I swim towards them they appear to ignore me.  They have a grey face and fins with spots of yellow on their sides and yellow rings around their mouth and eyes.  Ted had the camera but missed taking a picture of the pair.  He did however managed to capture the black tip reef sharks on film. I had not calculated my weight correctly so near the end of the dive I was having problems with my buoyancy and floated up to the top rather than do our safety stop at 25 feet. I cut the dive short but irregardless  we all enjoyed the dive. Next time I will need to add another few pounds of weights to my weight belt. Back to the boat to enjoy pumpkin seed-coated Yellowfin Grouper for dinner and then head over to Jumbi for drinks after dinner with Swell Horizon (Kinsport TN) and Toberua II from Toronto.

Friday January 21^st – The forecast has changed and the winds clock to SW 10 and are expected to increase before Saturday night .  Two mega yachts arrived at the West Bay anchorage as all of the sailboats lift anchor early in the morning and depart for the safety George Town harbour or the marina at Rum Cau.  We decide to leave as well and head to Long Island overnight but first we plan a trip ashore to do a beach walk and get some photos. We dinghy to the beach and set the anchor our to stop the waves from washing into the dinghy and also secure a line to shore. It’s a short walk to the other side with a protected cove and white sand cliffs. Someone had attached a climbing rope, which was likely debris that washed up on shore, to a rock at the top of the lookout. This climb has become a routine visit to the island and we are once again rewarded with a breathtaking view of the harbour.  I couldn’t resist going for a swim after our hike along the beach and the cliffs. The water is warm here because of the protected cove. The only footsteps we see on the beach are our own. Back to the dinghy we meet up with a couple from S/V Skye (Saint John, NB) who arrived yesterday. We chat with them and find that they are head south to Grenada. All the other sailboats have left but they have opted to stay at this anchorage and wait out the front here. All documentation warns against staying here if the weather gets rough, but their thoughts were that the winds be too bad. We head back to the boat and pull up anchor.  We cruise to Calabash Bay on Long Island to anchor for the night but decided to keep going back to George Town once we see the four boats at anchor rolling in the SW winds and the swells in the anchorage.  The sea state settles once we head to our waypoint for North Channel Rock and we enjoy a 2 hour and 30 minute cruise back to George Town from Long Island. Just before sunset we are back at anchor at Sand Dollar in George Town.  We  have only been gone for four days but alot of the boats are new. And so the neighbourhood changes as boats come and go.