23 41.91 'N:76 02.26'W
On Feb 17/17, we departed Georgetown with Oopsea via the Conch Cay cut. This route would allow more time in the deep water for fishing. We didn’t catch any fish that day but Oopsea caught a nice Amberjack which they shared with us for dinner that night. We had not tasted that fish before. It was delicious!
We arrived at the Hog Cay Cut at high tide and passed through with no issues. By mid afternoon the water was oil slick calm.
We arrived at the Water Cay just at sunset and anchored in the south anchorage. There was some swell but not too uncomfortable.
The next morning we headed to shore and did some exploring on the Limestone beach. We waited until 10AM then did some snorkelling and hunting for a couple of hours. Paul got a nice size hog snapper, a grouper and a jack. The hog snapper is a crazy looking fish that reminds me of a jester. We had a late lunch then hauled up the anchors and headed for Flamingo Cay.
We found New Horizons in the anchorage and invited them to join us for sundowners. Stewart and Karen have a boat they keep at Loyalist Cove in Bath, Ontario as well as New Horizons which stays in Florida during the summer months.
Tom and Cindy stayed for dinner and helped us eat the grouper while we made some plans for the next day.
Sunday Feb 19 was spent enjoying all that Flamingo Cay has to offer. In the morning we hiked the south beach hill to the light lookout for a beautiful view of the anchorage and Cays to the south. We hiked across the island to the North Beach then headed back to the boats for a quick lunch. We spent the afternoon snorkelling and hunting. We found a large sting ray sleeping on the bottom and could get very close to him for some pictures. This trip added some lobster, conch and grouper to the ship’s stores.
We found a reef near the anchorage to explore in the late afternoon. It looked like a sunken boat. There were a lot of reef fish around it and I would have liked to explore it a little further but was tired and getting chilly. Paul shot what he thought was a small flat fish but turned out to be a small stingray which managed to exact some revenge while Paul was releasing him. The ray stung him on the finger which Paul reports to be much less painful than the lionfish sting.
Monday morning we were up for Chris Parker’s 06:30 weather forecast and found lots of confusion and uncertainty with the approaching front. We decided the best thing to do was to head north again. But instead of taking the usual route through the Hog Cay Cut up to Georgetown we opted to run up the route less travelled along the backside of Great Exuma to Barraterre. Like for the Jumentos and Ragged Islands, reading the cruising guides does not offer much info about this area other than to say it is very shallow and should only be attempted by boats drawing up to 5 feet. Well we draw 5 feet so what the heck! We hauled up the anchors and pounded 40 miles north with the wind pretty much on the nose to Coakely Cay. It was a long day but arrived at a really nice anchorage that I expect not many boats visit. We spent the next morning snorkelling and hunting the rocky walls surrounding the anchorage and found many lobster. I would have to say this spot had the largest amount of lobsters we’ve seen but they were smaller than other areas. The water was not as clear as we had come to enjoy in the Jumentos but there were lots of interesting fish along the reefs. We hauled up the anchors just after noon and motor-sailed the 23 miles to Barraterre. We had timed the approach to arrive at high tide. We anchored just east of the Government docks with Oopsea and settled in for the next big weather event which would arrive the next day. We were anchored in a depth more shallow than we would have liked but nicely protected from the wind and the bottom was soft sand and mud so shouldn’t pose much of a problem. We joined Tom and Cindy for dinner at the fisherman’s inn for some turtle steak and chicken wings.