Hutias Too Hungry

Home of the hutia, Warderick Wells Cay in Exuma Cays

Land & Sea Park, is part of large nature preserve.

What the heck is a hutia?

Hutias (Geocapromys ingrahami) are cute rodents, akin to an oversized guinea pig.  While they’re charming Warderick Wells cruisers, unbeknownst to most cruisers, these happy herbivores are seriously devouring the island’s foliage like hordes of hairly locusts.

One of the few mammals native to the Bahamas, these Pleistocene era thrivers wandered widely once upon a time on Great Bahama, Little Bahama, and Crooked-Acklins banks until their only home became East Plana Cay in the eastern Bahamas.  In the ‘70s and 80s, concerns over their extinction prompted their transfer to Exuma’s Little Wax and Waderick Wells cays.

Stuffed hutia display in Warderick Wells Exuma Land and

Sea Park Office.  It’s the only hutia I saw during the day.

In recent years, the result is the increasing denuding of many types of scrub trees on Waderick Wells.  Hutia scat also covers substantial portions of the trail in pesky little pellets.  The online Bahamas Cruising Guide, references Bahamas Trust sponsored Florida Museum of Natural History field research  on hutia habitation damage in the Exumas, and notes rangers expressed some concern of increased fired danger due to the large amount of dead scrub.

Why, as I hiked the heavily turded trails of Warderick Wells, was I not seeing these prolific pests?

Unexpectedly, the mystery was solved by the traditional Warderick Wells Saturday eve casual cruiser’s potluck.  As dusk decended, the hutias, apparently nocturnal creatures, invited themselves to the party.  Dana Pitchon of Corsair, successful professional photographer (click here to see Dana’s photography) and seasoned Bahamas cruiser, rewarded their visit with her home-made bread, brought specifically for that purpose.  The hutia chowed it down.

Maybe this is what the Exuma Land and Sea Park rangers hope
happens to Warderick Wells hutias;  that like Wall e's characters,
that they lose their taste for wild food (Wall e image).

Maybe now I understand why the rangers, who also came to the party, did nothing to discourage their feeding.  Perhaps they’re hoping hutias can adopt a Walle World kind of existence, eventually eschewing nature’s bounty for processed foods, sparing at least a scrub brush or two.

Location Location

We're anchored off Georgetown, BAHAMAS as of yesterday, February 27, 2014.  Lat/Long updated in a future post.  This post covers our time in Warderick Wells.

Humble Pie for Galley Wench

My last cloth potholder; worse for the wear.

Damn!  Burned my 2nd and last cloth potholder.  

This calls for a Galley Wench humble pie recipe.  Don't try this at home or on your boat!

Potholder Flam beau
Even if your BBQ is on the fritz, you can eat your potholder instead.

Ingredients
1 propane stove
1 potholder
0 counter space, inviting Galley Wench to set potholders close to active burner
   pinch of wind

Directions

1. Mix, turn away your attention from lit, propane stove for 10 seconds, and ta-da!   You're cookin' now! Remove before the potholder flames, taking care not to fan the flames, whether they've started to or not.  Use metal tongs if your potholder's progressed beyond the smoke phase.
2. Drop smoking potholder in galley sink.  Ideally the sink is otherwise empty.
3. Cover with a non-flammable something, like a pot lid to cut off airflow that otherwise fan the flames.
4. Once the embers subside enough, it's safe to further diffuse the smoke with water.
5. Move wet, burnt  potholder to cockpit, positioning the burnt parts off the fiberglass, so they will not stain the cockpit.
6. Discard, or, if not possible, trim the burnt parts until you're able to replace the potholder.
7. Buy silicon potholders in the future, better yet, along with a bigger boat with a bigger galley.

My one lonely silicon potholder;
getting more... eventually.

Side Bonus
Even without liquid smoke or a working BBQ you have now have a genuinely smoke scented galley.  Hmmm, maybe if you're having holding tank issues, it's worth doing deliberately. However, I can tell you from firsthand experience, boiling water with cinnamon and cloves is much more pleasant.

Encore?

Tilted brownies.  Less the one inch in the front, about two inches
in the back.  Next time, making sure oven's gimballed
rather than locked into place.

Titled Brownies

Forget to gimball your oven while baking.  Result?  If anchorage is rolly or boat is listing  brownies (in this case) rise 1" high on one side of the pan and 2" high on the other.  Oops!  Still tasted good.

Close with Success

Redeem yourself with from scratch beef stroganoff, using home-made Greek yogurt as a sour cream substitute.

Beef Stroganoff - Gluten Free

1 1/2 lbs lean steak, diced into small cubes
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 T + 1 t butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 t garlic, finely minced
2 4 oz cans of mushroom pieces
1 c red wine
1 T beef bullion (chicken will do in a pinch -- used Better Than Bullion low sodium)
1 T Worcestershire
1 C water
2 T cornstarch
1 C water
1 t lemon juice
1 C sour cream (used home made plain Greek yogurt instead)

Noodles (used Ronzoni GF rotoni, 12 oz. box), cooked to package directions, drained in colander then lightly buttered (from 1 t butter) for each serving.

Directions

1. Sprinkle kosher salt and ground pepper to taste over diced steak.
2. Heat skillet and melt butter.  Add seasoned steak and cook until lightly browned.  Set aside to re-add later.
3. Add onions to skillet and cook until transparent.
4. Add garlic, and mushrooms, stir, and cook 1 minute.
5. Add browned meat, red wine,  bullion, Worcestershire, water and bring to simmer.
6. Add cornstarch, 1 teaspoon at a time, stirring well after each add to avoid clumping.  Simmer until thickened.
7. Stir in lemon juice, then sour cream, until well blended.
8. Serve!  Spoon meat sauce over buttered noodles.

Location, Location
Feb 25, 2014. BAHAMAS. Prescheduled from  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). By the time you read this, we'll be anchored at  a TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay (no internet) working our way to Georgetown.  Or, maybe in Georgetown.

Snaggle Tooth Sailing - Again!

Jib unfurled, mizzen hoisted.  Left main down as at that point
of sail, the jib acted as a wind shadow.

What is snaggletooth sailing?  It’s when we unfurl our jib and hoist our mizzen sail, leaving a gap – a snaggle tooth – between them.

The good news is, last year it was because we blew out two of our primary sails (click here to read about that misadventure), our jib and our main, and were forced to rely on our backup jib and tiny mizzen sail, with a motor that was unsafe to run for extended periods.

This time it’s by choice! 

Location, Location
Feb 24, 2014. BAHAMAS. Prescheduled from  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). By the time you read this, we'll be anchored at  a TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay (no internet).

Quiescence, on the other hand, was far less sedate.
They blew past us like we were standing still.

Warm Willy & Free Range Fresh Eggs @ Black Point

Willy chats with Ruth; his wife Betty's inside, initially.

"Garden of Eden -- a must-see for cruisers" signs scattered throughout Black Point proclaim.  Ditto the guidebooks.  "The clouds.  I was inspired by the clouds,"  Willy muses, whimsically, about his work.

The Garden of Eden is a sweet spot, with informal winding paths across porous limestone dotted with with driftwood sculptures.  Most likely, Willy will wander up to you with a smile, warmly welcome you to his home and garden, and offer you something from one of his fruit trees.  He'll happily tell you what he saw in each, though he'd rather you search for your own meanings from his images.  Will spent 30 years building his garden.  Now, at 74 years young, he and his lovely wife Betty spend their time enjoying the fruits of his labors.  

Local source for definitely free range eggs!

"They called me a fool," Willy confides.  "They said no one could get anything to grow here.  But look!  Now they ask me how I did it, and I tell them, 'How can a fool tell them?'"  

He treated fellow cruiser Ruth of Wabi Sabi and me to a bit of sticky sapodilla from his rocky garden.  The garden's also full of thriving coconuts, papayas, soursops, nonos ("Stinky, but good for the health," Willy says), bananas and who knows what all else.

Not quite a dozen, but definitely
fresh, local eggs from Sandra, Black Point.

Go to Garden of Eden not because of the sculpture, or even the possibility of a bit or locally grown fruit, but for the delight in getting to know Willy and perhaps even Betty.

On the way back, stop at Sandra's Produce; you might have to look around back to let Sandra know you're there.  If your timing's right, you might even pick up some eggs, laid from the hens wandering free in her back yard.  It's the first time we found farm fresh eggs since we started cruising, other than the hideously expensive ones in St. Thomas last year we opted not to buy.  

Willy's certainly not the only local more than happy to chat.  Among the others?

Sandra's is easy to miss.  It's across
the street from Willy's Garden of Eden.

Earlier, we chatted with Frances, one of many Black Point residents busy plaiting palmetto fronds for sale in Nassau for straw work creations, typically baskets.  Ruth and Pierce had befriended Frances earlier in their wanderings.

"That bean dip was good!" said Ida of Black Point laundry / store / salon / cottage rentals.  She'd asked for the recipe when I told her I was making it.  Her store sells a pretty delish slide of carrot cake for a mere $1; lunch for me, two days in a row while I wandered the island.  She gave me a great and much-needed haircut, too.  Perhaps the busiest businesswoman on the island, she confides, "I work hard from December to May." 

Frances plaiting palmetto fronds
for Nassau straw workers.

Why does our otherwise reliable Lonely Planet The Bahamas guide book claim "Black Point has the reputation for not being the friendliest place (it's generally not used to receiving visitors)"?  That is a mystery!  There's few places I've been that are friendlier; that was true this year, and last.  

Location, Location

February 23, 2014 BAHAMAS. Prescheduled from  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). By the time you read this, we'll be anchored at  a TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay (no internet).

More sailboats anchored in Black Point this year than last.  Understandable!  Clear water, laundry, groceries, internet
and friendly folks.

Blow hole at Black Point.

Got too close to blowhole!  Wet legs.

Buckethead Round II (Dinghy Dunk)

Not headless; just a longgg stretch for my pre-shampoo soak.
My bum is not that big-- really -- it's just the angle!

When water runs a half a buck a gallon or requires power (solar, running a generator or running our motor) to make it from desalination, long leisurely showers are not a viable option.

For folks sporting fine-haired buzz cuts, like Wayne, short showers do the job just fine.

For longish, thick, wavy mops like mine, it's another story.

Last year required resorting to what I called the buckethead technique to degrease my hair (click here to see how silly that looked).  Buy hey, thanks to find a shampoo / soap at West Marine that suds in saltwater without stripping the heck out of my hair, and a little noodling about finding a better way, it's gotten easier. 

Rather than dunking my head in a bucket, which tends to give me a nasal enema, I choose from these the wet - suds up - initial rinse options

1. outside our boat off our swim ladder for all three (wet - suds up - initial rinse)
2. inside our cockpit, after the wet and suds, usually on the way back from a swim or snorkel trip; Wayne does the honors of pouring the bucket rinses
3. off our dinghy; when the current is so strong it does a great wet & rinse and if I was on the side ladder my feet would be going perpendicular.  

Rub-a-dub-dub I'm sudsing my head off our dinghy
in Warderick Wells.  The current was swift!

Final rinse is always with fresh water, usually in our shower with the instant-on hot water heater we're not totally without modern conveniences!

It's working.  My hair's clean a lot more this year than last.  We're still averaging about 2 1/2 gallons of freshwater daily for all our cooking, drinking, dishwashing and showering.  Enough to keep up with what we need without paying to refill our tanks since we left the States (thanks to water clean enough to consider desalinating for drinking), even though we run our 1 gallon / hour watermaker not all that often.    

And I'm only slightly less undignified.

Location, Location
Feb 22, 2014. BAHAMAS. Prescheduled from  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). By the time you read this, we'll be in a remote anchorage off Great Guana Cay, Exumas unless we dallied longer in Black Point.... along the way to Georgetown to reprovision,

Party Crashing at Little San Salvador

Wayne and Dana with Marc and Susan Cohen at Little San Salvador.
They came in on the cruise ship in the background.
Thanks, Marc, for the photo.

Location or date, choose one.  That's the safety conscious sailor's mantra.  Sometimes, it works out and both coincide -- though our track record thus far was less than stellar.  We had to say no twice to my best friend last year, and Wayne's folks needed to catch a flight from Grand Bahama, our original meeting point, to Nassau to meet us (and thank you Phil and Gunnel for graciously doing just that).

To get to Little San Salvador -- Nassau to Highborne Cay;
Highborne Cay to Little San Salvador -- 82 nautical mile.
Doesn't sound like much until you realize our typical speed
crossing these bodies of water is only 4-6 miles /hour.

"Our Holland Cruise is stopping at Little San Salvador, their private island, February 10th.  We'd love it if you could meet us!" emailed friends Marc and Susan Cohen.  We met last year on a beach in St. Martin, and became fast friends.  Yep.  We definitely wanted to meet them again, although....

We knew little about Little San Salvador, didn't pick up a Far Bahamas Explorer Guide Chart book for it as it wasn't in our itinerary.  Never heard other cruisers mention it.  It wasn't in our Bahamas Lonely Planet Guide.  The idea of cruisers crashing a cruise ship island appealed.  The fact that we hadn't heard much about it also intrigued us, and truth be told, we kinda like the idea of crashing a private island.

Little San Salvador cruise-ship central beach at sunset... We had it to ourselves.

The weather gods were kind, we were able to sail more than motor.  The anchorage blessedly easy, and sweet, a gradual sandy slope, fringed by an easily dinghy-able beach.  Heck, we even caught our first fish (click here to read about that) crossing the Exuma Sound from Highborne Cay to get there.

Ponies on the beach at Little San Salvador.

And of course, we enjoyed lunch and hanging out with Marc and Susan, who normally live aboard their Saga sailboat, s/v Gandalf, in chilly Connecticut.

Lunch... ahem, we were "guests" of Marc and Susan, unofficially.  Guess Holland Cruise Lines figured their remote private island didn't require those folks queued up for their generous buffet chow line to prove they were registered passengers on their cruise ship.  Good food!  Ceviche, fish, dessert.  For us, far from a supermarket to replenish perishables, it's the fresh fruit and veg we were most excited about... apples, mango, tamarind....

Lagoon overlook at Little San Salvador.  Lagoon's between
Exuma Sound and the rugged Atlantic.

As the 2,000 or so passengers slipped away for their next stop and their supporting staff shipped in from Eleuthera ferried home, other than a few other sailboats and a bobcat whirring away on a construction project we had the beach and island to ourselves.

Quiet.

It was so nice, we stayed an extra day, lazing on the beach, joining the chow line for the next day's cruise ship, and tagging along a guided hike.

Eleuthera is about 15 miles in the distance
where the sun sets.  Cat Island's
about as far.

Overall, highly recommend Little San Salvador as a stop for us other kinda cruisers; whether you're crashing the cruise ship goodies or simply want to enjoy a nice beach and an interesting island to amble about that you'll have mostly all to yourself from sunset to sunrise.

Not a bad way to appreciate the other kinds of cruisers, and vice versa.

Location, Location
Feb 21, 2014. BAHAMAS. Prescheduled from  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). By the time you read this, we'll be anchored at  a TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay (no internet).

Hog Chase!

Last year, more pigs, more were swimming.
Coincidence?  Probably not.

Imagine swimming pool aqua waters, 400 pound sows nearly sinking our tiny dinghy in their eagerness to snarf Jerry Garcia pancakes.  Well, you don't have to imagine it.... here's photographic evidence!  (Click here to see the rest of last year's spectacular images -- my Facebook banner still bears a swimming pigs images from last May).

This year, with our bigger, faster, higher riding dinghy (thank you West Marine!) we were far less worried about capsizing. 

One sow?  No competition.
Why swim when wading will do

There were also less pigs.  Maybe feeding time wanes as sunset approaches.  For good reason, as we fed the pigs, we were food for the no-see-ums!  We fled to our dinghy, slapping, waving and scratching, and enjoyed watching the feeding from afar from the next set of visitors.

As we motored out into Great Major Cay bay at sunset, we salivated over the scent bacon, wafting lazily across the still water. We're betting some cruiser was inspired by the sight and it's just a coincidence there were less pigs this year than last. 

This is a center console dinghy, 12' -14' so this pig

is bigger than you'd think! 

Location, Location
Feb 20, 2014. BAHAMAS. Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). Tomorrow, we'll be anchored at  a TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay (no internet).

Part one:  Look at the cute piglets!

Part two:  Feeding the sow and piglet.  Big sow!

Part three:  Food gone.  Run away!  Run away!

Wild Ones -- Warderick Wells Exumas

Warderick Wells mooring channel; a tight fit!  Only the teal section
(not sand or turquoise) is deep enough.

Once your pulse returns to normal after squeezing through the narrow arc of a channel, as shallow as 7 feet deep (and it feet like not much wider), you notice Warderick Wells, home of the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters, is stunningly beautiful.  Did someone knock over a giant sized tumbler of fat pastels, layering fat vibrant stripes in aqua, light blue, golden sand, chocolate brown, white and kelly green?

Eagle Ray with12'+ longggg
stinger at Warderick Wells

 "Hey!  There's a huge ray headed your way!" shouts the neighbor on the mooring ball in front of us.  It was a deep tan Southern Ray, with wingspan a good 6' across.  I fretted that it wasn't my favorite, a spotted eagle ray.  Then again, we saw one of those the next day....

On land, cute curlytail lizards posed, lazily.  The blue tails were too quick for my camera click.  

Starfish at Warderick Wells, Exumas.

While we dinghied over to the reefs, we didn't dive in.  Instead, we scouted out the small wonders seen walking on water.... ambling over the shallow sandbar a few feet from our mooring.  Colorful coral, stiff starfish, delicate sand dollars, psychedelic sponges.  Who knew how cool a bland looking stretch of slightly submerged sand could be?

Does this guy look like he's posing?  Curly tailed lizard,
Warderick Wells, Exumas.

And the hutias?  Watch for that in future post.

Location, Location
Feb 19, 2014. BAHAMAS. Current location:  Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas (N24.10.937  W.76.24.291). Next stop?  A TBD isolated harbor further South on Great Guana Cay.

Sand dollar, Warderick Wells, Exumas.

Chartreuse coral at Warderick Wells, Exumas.

One of many exotic corals on Warderick Wells sandbar.

Viva Cubana! Rockin’ Coffee & More

Cute. ‘Twas passing the “smell test” that lured us in;

the exceptionally delish Cuban coffee was a bonus.

It’s nearly impossible to live in the Pacific Northwest without becoming a coffee snob. I am no exception, despite a near 14-year coffee hiatus (broken 4 years ago by Everett WA’s chilly gloom).  Frugal though we are, we rarely hesitate to load up on Peet’s Coffee (sorry, again, Starbucks – Peets doesn’t exude Starbuck’s burnt coffee bean taste) when we provision. 

Marathon’s Juice Paradise Cuban Café, touted its Cuban coffee, something I’d not yet tried and noticed featured in several places in the Florida Keys… My culinary curiosity piqued.  Who am I to turn down a good cuppa Joe? 

Oh my YUM!  $27 worth of belly-filling Cuban food for two,

gratuity included.

Besides, I honestly had no idea what Cuban food was like.  It struck me, though, that with the Keys mere 90-mile proximity from Cuba, finding authentic Cuban fare was more likely here than most other parts in the US. 

Perusing their menu, it surprised me to find tamales.   Having enjoyed the rare pleasure of my best friend’s traditional Suarez Mexican family tamales, I found it hard to resist seeing how these alternative origin treats would stack up.   More important, Cuban Café hit the high notes of my most reliable restaurant test-drive gauge -- the place smelled fabulous. There’s a reason a former flame nicknamed me “the food spectrometer.”

We’ll return to try Juice Paradise Cuban Café’s juices,

though we’re bummed passion fruit juice, our favorite

tropical juice, is not in their lineup.  Dunno… maybe it’s like

expecting sushi in a Chinese restaurant.

Wayne is wonderfully indulgent of my foreign food escapades, particularly when they’re more lowbrow -- relatively inexpensive.  We were hungry and ordered with abandon.  We dug in, to our two gut-busting complete meals plus a pork tamale on the side, one Cuban coffee and one coke.

Wayne’s main consisted of chicken over rice, generous as it was bursting with complex flavors, including strong citrusy undertones, with a side of black beans and yucca (tastes-just-like-potato) fries.

My meal centered around the classic brick-colored shredded beef dish (usually flank) Ropa Vieja, simmered in a tomato-based sauce until it fell apart. Ropa Vieja translates literally to the words "old clothes" in Spanish. The dish gets its name from the shredded meat resemblance to "old clothes". 

Rolando pours of his precious Cuban coffee

to share in Marathon’s Boot Key Harbor

community room.

My meal was awash in plaintains -- starchy green twice-fried plantains, called tostones, and sweet, buttery-sauted, sweet plantains. Silly me, when the tostones were described as “greens” I was expecting something leafy, not a starch.

The pork tamale came encased in a classic dumpling-like puffy ground corn masa body, embracing tender pieces of pork meat, swimming in sofrito (tomato, onion, garlic etc.).  The tamales were steamed, then served wrapped in cornhusk casing.  Unlike traditional Mexican tamales, the Cuban masa was dotted with corn kernels.

The Cuban coffee?  Intense.  Rich, silky-smooth, sweet and creamy; it was dessert. Click here to learn how to make Cuban coffee.

I was under no illusion this was a low-carb, low sugar, lowfat meal.  Once in a while, it’s okay to be bad, especially when it’s so very very good.  I was glad we’d walked a little ways the Cuban Café, feeling perhaps some of it would get burned off, even if the return walk felt more like a waddle.

A few days later, Rolando, another Boot Key Marina cruiser, shared his take-out Cuban coffee shots from another nearby Marathon restaurant.  It too was phenomenal. 

Conspiratorially, he whispered, leaning forward, “You know, this is good.  The Italians are the ones who really have this down, but this is close….”

Ahhh.  I want to visit Cuba and sample their edible wonders there.  I hope it happens before our culture invades, ruining it with a McDonald’s on every corner; or a Starbucks, for that matter.

A few days ago, anchored outside Compass Cay, Exumas, we traded a 12 oz. Peets coffee bag and my home-made cornbread mix for wine from Jela’s Bill and Carmen, a lovely couple cruisers from Ottawa Canada.  They were dismayed all that was left of their coffee was the instant stuff.  I sensed a loss of mild tragic proportions on their part.

“I feel like we’re totally taking advantage,” Wayne expressed, with some concern after our trade.  “No.  We didn’t,” I responded.  “Trust me, that was a good trade all the way around.”  If I didn’t bring enough coffee before we return stateside, Wayne will understand.

Location, Location

Feb 16, 2014. BAHAMAS. Current location:  Warderick Wells Cay, Exumas (N24.23.624  W.76.37.975). By the time you read this, we'll be in Staniel or Major Cay, Exumas.