Goodbye Bahamas! Conception Island, San Salvador Island and Mayaguana
As we left the Bahamas long time ago, and arrived in the Dominican Republic, and left the Dominican Republic… it is only fitting to get a few quick catch-up posts with photos and few words!
The last three islands we visited, in the Bahamas, were mostly picked due to us finding a kidboat group to sail with. Our plans were slightly different, but then sailing is all about changing plans, isn’t it?
Conception Island
We headed to Conception Island after Georgetown, Bahamas. It was supposed to have some of the best snorkeling in the islands, so everyone was excited to see that! Sadly, like other reefs around, what must have once been a beautiful scenery abundant in colors and corals, was now mostly dead coral with a few cute fish swimming around.
We spent three or four days at Conception Island and since it was a tiny speck of land in the ocean, my most vivid memory was going to bed every night in mostly damp sheets! There was no escaping the humidity. Our group of boats waited for favorable winds in order to sail north, before proceeding south again. We had to check out of the Bahamas and due to Covid, there were few islands with immigration services. So, once the winds blew the right way, we sailed off to San Salvador!
San Salvador
5th grade social studies – what is San Salvador known for? Answer coming at the end of the post. You can scroll down and just see it now, but why would you want to do that?! Just wait!
The couple of days we had in San Salvador, before the next weather window, were dedicated to checking out with immigration. In order to reach their office, we took around a two-mile walk from our anchorage to the airport, where the office was located.
I must say, Bahamas authorities have great understanding for the nature of sailing. Even though we checked out, we had close to a month to physically leave the territory. A couple of friendly ladies at the office snacked on their curry chicken lunch, while walking us through filling out forms and applying stamps. No 1-800 numbers involved!
Mayaguana
After an overnight passage from San Salvador, we reached Mayaguana Island, our last Bahamian island! From there on, plans were made to proceed to Turks and Caicos as a resting point before sailing to the Dominican Republic!
As Pascha was approaching, we found ourselves on a tropical island with palm trees! What does one do with that information – a trip ashore for palm branches, of course! And for the first time in our lives, we picked palm branches for our crosses. True, they were blessed digitally via the online services, but bigger miracles have taken place!
Turks and Caicos
We spent almost a week in Turks and Caicos, but were not allowed to get off the boat, since we did not want to pay for Covid testing and visas. Again, great understanding for the sailing community!
The kids could care less for lack of firm land beneath their feet, games and classes were organized and tons of swimming logged in as PE!
As one of the boats with the shallowest draft, we volunteered to pick up some groceries for everyone at a near-by gas dock. The dock master was used to such requests and made a run to the store with a mile-long list of supplies, requested by most of our 9 boats.
Guess what we made sure to buy, before leaving Turks and Caicos?! Eggs!
The winds blew favorably right around Holy Friday, which meant celebrating Easter in the Dominican Republic! And that was just what we did, in a country out of this world, so beautiful and wild… I cannot wait to tell you all about it in the next post!
Answer to the social studies question above: Christopher Columbus!
