NASSAU TO ALLEN’S CAY TO HIGHBOURNE CAY
14 November 2011 | Highbourne Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
Cheryl - Nice
We left Nassau, as planned, on Thursday the 10th. Had a good sail over to Allen’s Cay. Anchored between Allen’s Cay and Leaf Cay. One other boat there, a catamaran with a Canadian flag flying. Looked like a charter boat instead of a cruising boat. Anyway, anchoring is pretty tight in there so we were fairly close to the other boat off Leaf Cay beach. Within minutes all the clothes come off – I don’t mean mine or Bills. Apparently we were anchored next to a Canadian nudist group consisting of 5 males and 1 female. Two of them swim to the beach to visit the Iguana’s when two speed boats filled with tourists from Nassau show up. The man got a big cheer from the tourists as he was walking naked from the beach back into the water but the female decided to hide in the rocks and there she stayed until the two tourist boats left. Apparently they were shy in front of the tourists but not us, I saw five one eyed iguana’s (ha ha).
Of course, our one day of nice weather was short lived, wind and waves pick up and we spend 3 nights at a very uncomfortable anchorage. The current runs north and south between the two islands with the wind switching north and east, it was a very wavy/rollie anchorage.
We wanted to dinghy to the beach so we put the dinghy into the water and put the 8 hp Yamaha on the dinghy. Just before we left Marathon we had the carb rebuilt, new impellar and new spark plug, one would think we would have no problems starting it. We did have no problems starting it, problem is it won’t continue to run for more than about 10 seconds. So, Bill switches the Yamaha for the 5 hp Mercury. It is less than a year old with very little usage. It is having the same problem. No dinghy ride for us. We did swim into the beach during a lull in the wind and fed the Iguana’s. I hailed Highbourne Cay Marina on the VHF radio to see if there is anyone there who could take a look at the outboards. There is someone who works on outboards during his time off.
We left Allen’s/Leaf Cays yesterday morning and anchored on the west side of Highbourne Cay last night.
Good anchorage for easterly winds. We had a pleasant night sleeping last night. Five other boats, some type of military (maybe research vessel?), 3 other sailboats and a mega yacht were at the anchorage.
We came into Highbourne Cay Marina this morning. WOW!! Beautiful marina, probably the best we have been in. Great staff, very well maintained marina, beautiful beach, well stocked (expensive) store. Highbourne Cay is a private island but if you stay at the marina you can walk around. Not much to see here but they are building a restaurant/bar that will be very nice with spectacular views once completed.
Juan will be coming to the boat at 5:00 to look at the outboards, keeping our fingers crossed. We really don’t want to head back to Nassau for repairs if he can’t get at least one going. New pics in the gallery.