The night sky in the Bahamas

I'm still at home. Jan and I will leave on Friday for a day in Fort Lauderdale and then we'll fly back to the Abacos on Saturday morning. I thought I'd write about the sky in the Bahamas.

No doubt, the further you get away from light pollution, the brighter the stars in the sky are. Back in the late 80's when we were living in San Diego, I ran a hang glider towing clinic in the desert out near Yuma Arizona. There was a group of us spending 2 days and one night out where we could tow without worry of where the rope landed when we released it from the glider. That saturday night was the most memorable for me in relation to the visible number of stars. We all decided to just sleep out in the desert - without a tent. The number of stars that were visible were simply incredible because we were so far away from the lights of civilization AND the atmosphere had very little humidity in it. As long as I live, I'll never forget that feeling of 'smallness' in the universe.

When Rick and I crossed over from the U.S. to the Bahamas, we got onto the Little Bahamas Bank just after sunset and sailed until 2:30 am. It was a perfectly clear night and the closest I've come to that night 20 years previous in regard to number of stars that you could see. The route we took had us probably 40 miles or more from any population center and so there was very little light pollution, so our only detriment to our seeing the stars was the humidity that you just can't get away from in this part of the world. Again, combining the view of the sky with the fact that we were a 38 foot boat in a vast watery world with no civilization within a reasonable distance - I felt very small.

There's been just a few times that I've felt really small and nearly insignificant in my life. These 2 times and one time when I was at 18,000 feet over Boundary Peak on the north end of the White Mountain range - in the Owens Valley in a hang glider come to mind instantly.

After we'd been in the Abacos for a few days, we were lucky enough to get to experience the Geminid meteor shower while laying on the deck of the sailboat. I saw the most vivid and long lasting meteors I've ever seen that night.

It doesn't escape me - how fortunate I am to be able to add these experiences to the incredible ones I've already had in life. I only wish that more people would take the time and opportunity to make these things happen in their lives as well.

Visiting A Special Place

Doug and I on Sauratown

For years, Doug Hileman and I have met at Hanes Mall early in the morning on Christmas Eve to do our final Christmas shopping. This year I had finished all my shopping so I suggested we head up to Sauratown Mountain to check out the hang gliding launch for 'old time's sake'.

In the early 1980's Doug and I, along with a group of devoted area hang glider pilots opened and developed one of the most reliable soaring sites on the whole east coast. Sauratown Mountain has 300 feet of south facing granite cliffs that collect the heat from the sun all day long and releasing it as thermals and the evening 'glass off' conditions which Sauratown became famous for.

Sauratown Mountain represents one of the great times in my life where I had a core group of close friends who all few together and worked for the combined goals of flying hang gliders at our 'own' site.

I moved away in the late 80's to further my hang gliding career, but all the time keeping my ties to my home site. In the early/mid 2000's the TV station that owned the property and had been working with us for years was bought out and the new owners didn't want the liability of having people flying hang gliders from their property - so they closed the site.

Doug and I met in King on Thursday morning and drove up as far as we could go on Tower Road and parked on the shoulder of the road, in the freshly plowed snow. It was probably a 3/4 mile walk past the locked gate and through the unplowed snow to the parking area where we'd unloaded gliders countless times in the past.

Walking past the old fire tower which apparently hasn't been used in a few years, I was reminded of how many times we used to run up the first few flights of stairs to get the best feel of which way the wind was blowing when we'd get to the top of the mountain. The first flight has now been removed to keep anyone from heading up the aging structure.

The Firetower

Walking on the north side of the rock structure and up the path toward launch, we were the first persons to make prints in the 5 day old snowfall. We crested the 'peak' of the mountain at 2443 feet above sea level and then walked the slight downhill slope over the rocks to the launch area.

The view from the 'peak' of the mountain.

The set-up area, which in the past would accommodate comfortably about 5-6 gliders, and in a pinch would hold 8-10, had now grown up with 4 ft. high scrub pines. The main launch ramp however as still in place and was completely usable - had we brought some gliders along.

The main ramp - still in usable condition

Visibility out into the valley was pretty good. It wasn't so crisp that you could see a sharp horizon, but still a good view.

The view toward King

It was really nice to be back up on the mountain. It brought back a lot of memories and while it was wonderful to be there again, it was quite sad at the same time. A lot of people: Jake, Peter, Tom, Doug, Jeff, Junebug and myself worked really hard to make the site a viable place to fly. Others, Doug R, Jeff R. and more joined later to keep the site open and safe.

We hung out probably about an hour and a half and then headed back to King for some lunch.

While we were up on the mountain, I tried out my new GoProHD camera by mounting it on the end of a 6-8 ft stick. You can see a couple of minutes of footage below:

Sauratown Launch - Christmas Eve 2009 from GW Meadows on Vimeo.

Be sure to click on HD to see it in the highest resolution.

More Abaco

On Thursday, Rick and I walked down to the south end of the island to visit with a nice fellow and his wife that we met at Grabbers. Bruce and Deb have been building a house for the last 5 years. Bruce comes down to Guana for a few months a year to work on the house. They just finished it.

We had a long hike to get to the area where their house is. Bruce was working on a buddy's house next door and Deb had gone into the 'big city' of Marsh Harbor. Bruce was looking for any excuse to not work anymore so he gave us a tour of that end of the island. It was a great time. He took us back into town on his 'gator' style vehicle and we sat around and talked with Jerry (who owns one of the main businesses in town) as we watched the town folk drive by in their golf carts.

What a fun time.

When we got up on Friday, the weather forecast was for gale force winds on friday night and saturday and so since we had to be in Marsh Harbor on Saturday for our flight back to FL, we went ahead and prepared the boat for the 10 days or so that I'll be away and we took the 4:30 ferry over to Marsh Harbor and got a hotel room. We had a little concern that the weather may keep the ferry from operating on Saturday morning and didn't want to miss our flight.

I'll be home until late december/early January when Jan will come back with me for some needed time off.

Back on Guana Cay

We went ashore in Hopetown this morning to have breakfast at Capt. Jacks, then we left the anchorage and sailed back to Guana Cay. After getting back to our mooring, we got our snorkel gear and headed over to the beach in front of Nippers bar and did a little snorkeling on a fairly barren reef.

We came back to the boat and Rick fixed up a great pot of food and we headed over to Grabbers for Wednesday night potluck, where the locals and visiting boaters get together. It was a great time and we learned we were not in the best place for snorkeling. If the weather allows in the next 2 days, we'll head back out with our snorkel gear to the 'right' place.

A fun day. The weather and water were perfect.