Siyasinana: SailBlogs

Cay Sal Bank to Marathon Florida

Gary-Storm 1 hour away — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:05:19 -0600

Anguilla Cay, Cay Sal Bank to Cay Sal Island to Marathon Florida: The winds were too perfect to stay an extra day AT Anguilla Cay so we left for Cay Sal and arrived there at 1pm. Anxious to see the only inhabited island (we are 35 miles north of Cuba), we droppe3d the dink and headed to the beach. Now I don't know who put the "inhabitants" into the Wikapedia outline for Cay Sal but whoever that inhabitant was, he left. Nothing there but ruins of old dwelling, a caved in quanset hut, a rusted out 1950's tractor and big ole rusted tanks. Whoever did live there obviously had a generator, electric and was doing some type of farming. It was eerie. Evidence of people camped out under the rusted quaset hut were apparent. This island is on a direct path for floating junks and rafts from Cuba, Haiti and Hispanola so perhaps some desperate soles managed to make landfall. I am not 100% sure but I hear the rules for illegal immigration state that if a person can manage to get one foot onto the US shore (not a bridge, reef or piling), they have landed and have entitlements, perhaps $1500/month. They say that is why you often see "boat jumpers" swimming and running for shore and customs agents running out to tackle them in 2 ft. of water. No foot on, back you go. The Cay Sal Bank is all about fishing and solitude. It is very beautiful. Whatever you want to eat, go and catch it. For you cruisers going to Anguilla... the Anguilla Cays are made up of 3 small islands, we saw the 2 southern most (did I say all this in last post?). Anyway, we anchored at the only sand beach we saw at 23-29.563 and 79-31.113 in pure white sand. The 70 mile trip to Marathon was uneventful except for large seas directly astern, a nice Mahi that spit the hook right on the sugarscoop as if to say, "it's been nice, see ya"!! and the fact that we left a tad late and I was worried about arriving to Boot Key Harbor in the dark. Arrived at 5pm, all good but the harbor is absolutely packed with mooring balls (almost impossible to get when a front is approaching) and tons more boats anchored everywhere else. We got the hook in just meters from the mud bank. Checked in with customs using our new "Florida Boater Option Card" (phone check in was suffice). And this was a real treat compared to finding and getting to a customs office. We then took a culture shock walk to Publix and Home Depot, america. Cells phones worked. We are back. Next night, to get away from the crowded anchorage, we went up Sisters Creek and managed to get secure with 2 anchors and a line tied to the mangroves. After all that, we went below and found the strangest things happening. It was electrical. Lights were blinking, invertor going on and off by itself, sounds coming out of TV speakers, regardless if our battery bank was on or off. To shorten this story, it turns out that right adjacent to us in the "unofficial" US government site that pushes Spanish information non stop to cuba in an effort to perhaps alter public sentiment, policy whatever. Called "Radio Marti", I think it was put in during Reagan era. So, the locals say there is 50 volts in the water there. We pull the hook again and tried unsuccessfully 3 times to squeeze our fat 24 ft. wide boat into any possible open nook. Enough of that. We decided to do what we like best. Get out, get away. We'd rather sit in the face of 30 knots unprotected all alone with lotsa room than worry all night about us dragging or someone dragging into us. On our way out, we pass the local gas dock. The boys were there hangin out. On the way by I yell, "hey, can we stay with you tonite". Sure, for you it's free. Those are the kinds of people that are still around if your lucky enough to find them. Our Walkerbay dingy has some tube issues and we must get them fixed and we hope we can get it organized via warranty, corporate, and the local inflatable business so we are currently out there anchored happily all alone awaiting the 40 knot thunderstorms expected in 1 hour and getting reaccustomed to cell phone and internet service. The US Keys has lots and lots of remote places to explore if you leave the beaten path. That is where we hope to go next. We are not the first people to ever sail the keys but this is the first time for us so stay tuned for tidbits of our sail of "The Back Side" and skinny waters from Marathon to Key West. More later. (Continued...)

South Bight, Andros to Cay Sal Bank

Gary — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:14:00 -0600

SOUTH BIGHT, ANDROS The entrance and anchoring in the South Bight were picnics compared to the tight, shallow and very small anchorage at Kemps Harbor. So up the creek we went and rode out 2 days of 20-25 knots from the NW as the biggest front of the year slowly blew itself out. Plenty of current, used just the single primary anchor, our trusty Delta 44. Day 1-could not leave the big boat due to wind so we just hung around snacking, playing cards and puttering among the thousands of little chores available. Lisa painted the guest head floor. Day 2---We just had to get out. The choices were go to the south side of bight and see South Andros or go north side to Lisbon Creek and see Mangrove Cay, the middle cay of the 3 cays that make up Andros. The 20 knots from the NW led us to Lisbon Creek, Mangrove Cay. We walked, and walked past Victoria Point and ended up in Grant at the Mangrove Cay Inn and Restaurant. Had a great lunch. Pat, the owner, surprised us with a big chuck of banana bread as a parting gift. Things like this are huge for desperate hungry cruisers whose cupboards are beginning to look very lean. We hitched back to Lisbon Creek, snuggled in. The Bahamas may be one of the last safest hitch hiking areas. The morning was still blowing from the north but it was supposed to move NE so we headed out a day earlier than we planned, and had a spinnaker run south to the Grassy Cays. Arriving at 1pm with settled winds bright sunshine and plenty of time to fish the current running cuts from the dink. I gotta say?in places this remote, with the strong currents, winds shifts etc., being a mile or 2 from the big boat in the dink really gives you some concern. Not at all a good time for a plug to foul or fuel to clog. These places are where one should carry the handheld VHF (so you could at least yell help), the handheld GPS (so you could at least tell someone where on earth you have drifted to) and perhaps the E-Perb (in case you somehow found yourself in an upside down position). We caught fish. I caught a gray snapper and Lisa caught 2 red snapper. We moseyed back to the big boat for a nice settled sundown and a good night's sleep. It was lovely?until, of course, sundown when the wind decides to not only freshen considerably but decides to back NW 20-25. Darn?where's the NE wind we had counted on. There's nowhere to hide now. We had anchored in a nice little cove in the soft white sand snuggled right up close to the picturesque iron rock shore which had now suddenly lost its allure. The seas were building and our ass was now just a horseshoe toss from those picturesque rocks. With the minutes of light left, we pulled up anchor and headed for deeper water (giving us more room to drag if we happened to drag), reset the hook and slept little during the bucking bronco evening. With the catamaran, it's up and down only, not so bad really, but noisy. You imagine yourself dragging with each passing wave. We did however leave on, all night, our chart plotter with anchor alarm set to alert us for any drag over 50 ft. The next morning, still blowing NNW, we followed our bread crumbs out and back into the Tongue of The Ocean. We were busy over the charts and weather as we plotted our strategies and options for a run to Cay Sal Bank. Every plan has a back up plan, even if the back up plan means heading to sea in a comfortable direction and sailing all night. Averaging 8-10 knots with the spinnaker for the first half of the day and 7-8 knots with reefed main and jib the second half was propelling us west faster than expected. We wanted to arrive in Anguilla Cay in the SE corner of Cay Sal Bank around noonish for best light heading west. So, instead of the all-nighter (which Lisa likes to plan to avoid if at all possible) we sailed like mad till 9pm then dropped the hook in 17 ft. in the middle of Hurricane Flats on the Great Bahamas Bank. It was a bit of a bronco ride but I slept great cuz I didn't care if we dragged the hook for 50 miles?we were not going to hit anything. There is nothing anywhere. A fishing boat from the Spanish Wells fleet called us to say hi, make sure we were all set. It's lobster season. With a few hours sleep, we woke up and set sail at 4:30 am and timed it perfect for a noon arrival to Anguilla Cay. A message for Bob, from Autec Site No. 7?, you were right, the Bank is awesome and the fishing is great. The minute we rounded the bend we were greeted by some kind of baby bird. I think it was his first flight. While he wobbled around on our railing, George was checking him out and then he left us. As we were pulling into our anchorage we could see a dozen or so big fish feasting on a school of hatch lings. As much as I wanted to nap, Lisa wanted to fish. So off we went in the dink. In no time at all she caught a very large bar jack and another barracuda. Today we hunt lobsters. The plan now is this. A front with strong SW-NW winds is coming?perhaps by Friday PM or Saturday AM. It's so nice here right now we want to stay as long as we can yet wouldn't want to sit out 30 knots from the west at this spot?so this morning, after the 6:30 am weather on SSB 4045.0 from Chris Parker, the hero of most Caribbean and Bahamian cruisers, we hatched our plan. Stay here tonight (Monday March 8) and tomorrow. On Wed. sail 50 miles west to Cay Sal, the only island with inhabitants. Explore the island and anchor off it for a 4 AMish departure Friday and ride on what we hope will be a south wind for a 70 mile run north west to Sisters Creek Marathon, Florida. So long as we beat the west wind all will be good. More later. Cheers (View Post...)

Hiding From Another Front

Gary — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:14:00 -0600

Ahoy all. Anchor lifted at 1am Monday March 1 from Rocky Point, west side of Great Exuma. Motor sailed 75 miles and anchored Monday night at Green Cay. It is really out there. Water depth goes from 3000 ft. to 10 ft. in moments. That would be the edge of the Tongue of The Ocean. We fished the edge the whole way. Nothing but our usual barracuda. Really hoping for some Mahi. We were greeted by a group of dolphin when we arrived. As usual they swim with the boat and then justleave. We left for Kemps Bay, Andros Tuesday March 2 at 8am for a fast 20 mile run westward with 20-25 knots from the south. Put in 2 reefs while at anchor and set sail for Kemps Harbor on southern Andros. Wasn't but 10 minutes out there when winds increased and the third reef went in. Did not know what to expect at Kemps but the Andros Island itself has to offer some protection from sw-nw winds and there was no way to stay at Green Cay with the winds forecast to arrive within 12 hours. We flew to Kemps Bay at 7.5 knots. Entrance to harbor was very narrow, an old dredged out deal put in by the US probably in the 50's for an Autec missile site. Hit bottom twice. Not because there wasn't enough depth but more because the width is shrinking as the sand bars have been drifting into the dredged channel over the years. A 25 knot crosswind wasn't helping matters much. It is critical to key an eye on the chart plotter to realize just how much we were drifting due to high wind. We basically crabbed up the narrow channel for quite some distance hoping the "harbor" might offer us some protection. Harbor itself is just a 250ft. x 250ft. spot dredged out years ago. In a pinch, one could maybe anchor and then tie off to the various metal pilings and perhaps sit out a blow amidst all the sunken vessels with which one must share that small space. Much as I hated to turn around, we headed back out into high wind and seas, bumped again on the way out but had a thrilling ride north to the Southern Bight where we are now. Big entrance, choice of anchorages. Much better. Blowing 35 -38 knots right now so we're trapped onboard, safe, playing gin rummy. Hopefully tomorrow the winds will subside enough so we can get to land for some exploring. So today we just hung, played some cards, and Lisa painted the bathroom floor?looks like new. We studied weather so we can figure out when/how to leave here, round the southern tip of Andros and make a run to Marathon. The plan thus far is to stay here and perhaps make the 50 mile run south to Dolly Cay (15 mi. south of Andros mainland) on the NW or N wind anticipated Friday or Sat. Then sit there till maybe Sunday when wind may go N-NE. Still undecided whether to stop at Cay Sal Bank or run all the way to Marathon. I'd like to stop at Cay Sal cuz it may be a while before we have this chance again to visit this remote spot. Some say that around the atoll of Cay Sal (the worlds 3rd largest atoll) you only have to decide what you want for dinner then jump in the water and get it. We are experiencing the highest winds for the longest period. The weather systems going thru this week are the same fronts that caused all the snow havoc in the northeast (View Post...)