Monday, February 16, 2015

Face Rock Lagoon

Face Rock Lagoon
Our choice of anchorage is perfection.  I mean like "Blue Lagoon" type perfection.  Coincidentally I'm reading the book "Blue Lagoon" and it turns out to be a nice story...  But I digress...

N25°24.413
W077°51.319

Bruce and I are the only people around for miles and we have this beautiful place all to ourselves.  We chose this unnamed spot on the south side of Chub Cay for protection from forecast north winds.  There is a slight swell wrapping around the west end of the island but it is gentle and causes no displeasure.  We've landed here with the intention of spending three nights before continuing on across the Northwest Channel to New Providence.  Now that we're here... all we have to do is explore and let the adventure begin!

The thing about unnamed anchorages... is that they need a name.  Otherwise how will we know which spot we're talking about when we remember it in the future?  The thing about naming things... is that it's best to let them name themselves.  And that is just what happened.

Airing our dirty dishes
We slept like kings, rocked gently and thoroughly tired from all of the excitement of the past few days.  Now it's time to relax and just do whatever we feel like doing... but first, we gathered up all of our dirty dishes and hung them over the side to pre-wash.



















Pounding on the rocks 
Then we splashed the dinghy and sped off to the shore to explore the beach!  But when we tried to beach the boat, we found that the outgoing tide combined with the rocky ledge exposed by the falling water would soon destroy our "family car".  We are zealously careful about our dinghy hoping that it will last us at least through this season in the Bahamas.









Landing anchor down, now stretch primary to shore
Back to the boat we went to get our landing anchor.  Way back in my "reading about cruising" days, I came across a post explaining how to make and use a landing anchor.  I made ours out of ten feet of light chain with thirty feet of line.  Unfortunately when we dug it out of the chain locker, it had rusted to smithereens.  Cheapo chain West Marine!!!  Not cool.  So, we had to rig another line to our little secondary dinghy anchor. and off we went to try again.







Peaceful and safely anchored
This time we dropped our landing anchor in the water just between two ledges and stretched the primary anchor to shore with us.  This effectively holds the dinghy in water shallow enough for us to board but where it's safely out of the surf and pounding rocks.

Now we're getting the hang of this thing!  We set off to explore the rocky beach to the west.

We didn't get five steps in until Bruce says "Hey LOOK!  It's a FACE!"

Some prehistoric Caveman Picasso has left us a carved totem to mark and name our discovery of Face Rock Lagoon.  Our anchorage now has it's name and it's our own secret beach.

Climbing the mountain of pine needles
I want it!  If you love me you'll get it for me...

Curlytails jumping around everywhere

Tiny snails on all the rocks

Sand Terraces

Tide Pools to explore

We found a Hobo camp with a hammock

And a fire pit
I've forgotten my vow to collect no shells
There is a line of pine trees growing above the high tide mark and above a rocky ledge.  Unfortunately there is a collection of jetsam there marring the beauty of nature.  We wandered around looking for anything of value to take back to the boat with us.  We didn't bother collecting trash, which we would have liked to do... because we really have no place to dispose of it.  We did pick up a couple of things to use for bailing the dinghy and collecting shells.

Looking back 
We walked all the way to the point just exploring and enjoying the sights.  There's a cove around the point that we will need to explore in the dinghy... but save that for tomorrow.
Looking around the point into the cove






























We backtracked and found a few more things of interest on the beach... I guess this answers one of my burning questions... Are there sharks in these waters???  He was only about two feet long but still a had cold deadly stare.









Yes I made it, no there isn't a picture of it...
We decided to leave the rest of our beach for tomorrow.  Getting back into the dinghy in 2-3 ft of water was fun...  But I made it.  I guess this will become a part of life for us.

I had to stop and appreciate the fact that I was standing hip deep in the water here in the protection of our island while back in the US a blizzard was spreading icy fingers across the country.  It's difficult to even comprehend as we enjoy this balmy day.

Dos Libras flying on emerald air!

Using the LookeyBucket
Feet Joie de' Vivre!

Zoom Zoon past the rocky shoreline of Texaco Point
 We took a buzz around the eastern point of our lagoon in the dinghy, opening it up and zooming fast!  It was awesome and invigorating!  Wheeeeee!

Then back to the boat where, because I had given both of my hands a nasty case of rope burn earlier when we were winching the dinghy from the deck to the water... poor Bruce was relegated to dish washer.







We pulled in the dish bag and washed our dishes in a bucket of salt water, then a salt rinse followed by freshwater rinse and towel dry.  It was very inefficient and slow.  I guess we're still working our system out...











We had a distant visitor for the night

But once all the chores were done and dinner was made, we settled for the sunset and even though there was no green flash... it was a good one.

The next morning, we got up and did it all over again.  This time, we set off to the east on the beach where there was sand to park the car...














Yes my shirt is wrapped around my hat... what of it?
As I said before I've completely abandoned my prior vow not to collect shells... but I am particular about what I bring back to the boat.  Today's find was a conch shell that will be perfect for making our ship's horn.  Now I just need to find someone to show me how to do it...

We wandered and explored...



There is some sort of building compound, like a summer camp or a place to take tourists for a beach day here on the shore near Texaco Point.  It looks abandoned but hasn't fallen into complete disrepair so I guess it must be used infrequently.  There was a pile of coconuts piled around a pole that must be used for hacking them open with a machete...








First he tries dashing it upon the sidewalk...
This next group of images depict my husband's attempt to procure coconut for his woman on this February 14th... Valentine's Day.

After several attempts... the coconut rolls away...

Look, there are plenty of ripe coconuts there in the tree...

We'll just lob these old ones up there and knock them down!

Safe and sound coconuts remain unafraid...

A few more tries fro a better vantage point...

Finally one well aimed toss brings down his prey...

The coconut splits open upon impact.

Bruce drinks the coconut water from the cracks in the shell

He gets points for providing sustenance for his Woman...

And then we find this trusty cave man tool to pry open the shell...
Growing disinterested once success was achieved... we wander next to the low rocky cliff of Texaco Point.















I am grateful for the "scrambling shoes" that I found back in Vero Beach as I set off picking my way along the jagged and razor sharp volcanic rock ledge.













Sea grass piled around a blow hole
We realized after a bit that these huge piles of dried out sea grass were the produce of the many blow holes in the rock.














Seems benign now...
It was all calm now... but when the waves get going this shoreline must come alive with geysers of spray...

Down the blowhole!

Looking back to the beach


 Back on the beach, we explored the last stretch between the dinghy landing today and Face Rock.  There was less rock ledge and more white sandy beach here and it was so warm in the lee of the island even though the north winds were blowing over 15 knots.


Face Rock Beach now having been thoroughly explored... we took that dinghy ride around the east point and back into the cove.


It goes back up into the center of the island where there are shoaling channels and mangroves.


We saw the first sign of life in the form of birds and what we thought were rays fleeing our dinghy.

There must have been hundreds of turtles back up in the shallows... we were wildly excited to see them as we've remarked about how little sign of life we've seen here.

The channel began to shallow and we turned around to leave them in peace before we ever even saw one surface for air.














Another boat finds our secret lagoon
It was time to go back to the boat. We would be leaving here in the morning and we needed to get the dinghy out of the water and prepare some things around the deck.













I think he secretly just wanted to swim...
Bruce took a little swim to see if the bottom needed attention, but it looked OK for now.
















No green flash
And thus ends our time here at Face Rock Lagoon.  If we ever find ourselves in need of shelter from the north winds... this will be our spot.

8 comments:

  1. Hey Tammy, I enjoy all your posts! As they were our guide from CC to Pensacola via the GICW, we are looking forward to following in your footsteps to the Bahamas. It may be a few years but your posts and pics are very motivating! Thank you and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!

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    1. I'm so glad you could use my stuff. I enjoy posting it and am sometimes a bit (a lot) longwinded... but there is just so much to remember! I want to keep it all. Glad you're getting something out of it.

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  2. I don't know if it means anything, but Google Map/Earth has a Chub Cay Resort, Chub Cay Airport, and The Berry Islands Club listed on Chub Cay. There are no reviews for these places. You could be the first! With pictures.

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    1. Oh Eric I don't think with the limited wifi we have here that I could take on another project! Besides, we didn't go to any of those places. We are more into places where nobody else is... I do have my own Dos Libras Google Map to document our stops though... look on the side bar. The first year is at the bottom. Thanks so much for reading my stuff and for taking the time to comment. I get a huge kick out of it!

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  3. Face Rock Lagoon looks like a great place ... but don't tell anybody about it. LOL! Great pictures!

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    1. LOL yes, next time we come it will be on AC and somebody else will get all the glory... oh wait. No glory in posting to Active Captain...

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  4. Wonderful write up and beautiful pictures...they tell a story in them selves.

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