Finally!

As I did with the last entry, I will write this without knowing when I can post it. There are so many cays (pronounced keys, and are islands of various sizes) on our way up the Exumas chain, many of which are uninhabited, that finding any connection is difficult.

When last we wrote we were on our way to Georgetown, which is the southern terminus for quite a few snowbirds. It's generally 5 degrees warmer than the northern Bahamian chain, the Abacos, and provides a watery winter home to between 150 and 200 boats. Apparently these sailors are quite active, organizing volleyball tournaments, yoga classes, dominoes, cook-outs, etc. It was fairly late in their season when we arrived and some of the boats were off participating in a charity boat race down to Cat Cay, benefiting the Georgetown area.

We picked up 10 more gallons of water, deposited trash, and did a (extremely costly) small provisioning - all of which are directly tied to our satisfaction level - and found that 2 nights was ample time to spend in Georgetown so we sailed about 4 hours to Cave Cay. This was a very interesting trip as most of it was outside the protection of the cays, in the Exuma Sound. Think ocean and swells. Once we went through the Cave Cut onto the Exuma Bank, there was a world of difference in sea movement as we were now in totally protected waters. We could see nothing on the horizon west of us, the string of cays basically ran ahead and behind, and we were now in water depths that would quickly force us to reevaluate our route if we were in Maine waters. The depth reader showed a consistent 11 to 13 feet which provides only 5-7 feet of clearance under our 6 foot keel. This was 4 days ago and - thank goodness for our ability to adjust - 11 feet looks pretty good now. Knowing that we would probably crunch up on sand and not granite as we would back home gives us almost a carefree attitude. But we are still very cautious as we are not adept at reading the Bahamian waters and don't want to mistake sand and weed for a coral head.

Cave Cay was a quiet respite; we were the only boat there for much of the day. The next day we sailed up to Little Farmer's Cay and found the prime anchoring area to be unsettling with a very strong tide and heavy winds. It was near another cut, as the channels between cays are called, and the almost 3 foot Bahamian tides make their presence known with our boat lying side to the wind but in line with the tide, and the rigging aloft sang out all night. Even though we had a wonderful walk ashore and visit/chat with school kids heading home once the 3:00 bell rang, we were more than happy to search for a better anchorage on the next day.

Black Point, towards the northern end of Great Iguana Cay, was host to 40 boats when we arrived late morning. It has a nicely sheltered harbor, good walking, and a wonderful restaurant, Lorraine's, where we met 2 others couples also enjoying the fried fish sandwiches and who are now moored near us here in Cambridge Cay. One of the most interesting facts about Black Point is that the residents agreed to accept the sand, etc., dug up from a mega-yacht marina project on Bell Island, underway a ½ mile from where our current anchorage. There is a picture of massive sand hill out the northern road from Black Point in the gallery, as well as a photo of the excavated site on Cambridge Cay. We suspect from the size of the hill, still growing, that the monetary inducement had to be sizeable to accept this much excavated material.

Our next stop at Staniel Cay is going to be one of our trip's highlights. The town was teeny but picturesque, but the main attraction was Thunderball Grotto where some of the underwater scenes from the James Bond movie of the same name were filmed.

The Grotto was amazing. You can only enter at low tide and the headroom was a scant foot and a half when we entered. But once inside it opens up vertically and horizontally, with an oculus letting in daylight from above. Fish were abundant and swam within inches of us. I guess we didn't get the memo about bring them food as they left us quickly for others arriving. The walls had an iridescent glow to them, and the other low-hanging openings were also thrilling to swim through. What an amazing time.

How to best that? Well, we tried the next day to go into the grotto at Dundas Rocks a mile and a half south of our anchorage here at Cambridge Cay. It is reputed to rival Thunderball Grotto, and perhaps it does. However, its opening faced the oncoming swells from out in the cut; we decided that we would practice prudence and went back to more gentler snorkeling areas.

Since we are staying two nights here at a park (Exumas Land and Sea Park) mooring we are getting some boat projects down, such as rebedding a stanchion, and cooking bread and making hummus for the get-together tonight for all boats here in this anchorage. We are making plans to moor at the Park headquarters at Warderick Wells over the next day or two, and from there up to get more water and fuel and perhaps to find some internet, we hope.