We left Man-O-War Cay this morning. This is definitely a place we would be happy to see again. The winds are predicted to be light and variable for today and the next 4 days so we didn’t try to go very far. We were going to anchor off the north end of Man-O-War, but found out that is a private area, so although we could take Fuzzy to the beach (ALL beaches in the Bahamas are public) we wouldn’t be able to get from there back into town. So we decided to make a little progress. We came almost 11 nm to Baker’s Bay on Great Guana Cay. This isn’t a very well protected anchorage, but it’s on a beautiful beach and we can see the entrance to the Whale Cay Passage, which is the last unprotected area until we make the crossing back to the United States.

It wasn’t much of a sail. We put the jib out, but we were close hauled into a very light wind. When the boat speed dropped under 3 knots we put the engine back on. We could see rain up ahead, and sure enough, just as we arrived in the anchorage, the rain did. There was a bit of wind with the rain, just enough to make it easier to set the anchor. If there’s no wind, you have to slowly back the boat so you don’t dump the anchor chain all in a pile. With wind, you can let it push the boat as it draws out the chain. This is a large, shallow bay. It’s shallow in that it doesn’t indent into the island too far, and it’s not deep. We came in as far as we thought we could, we were in 8 feet of water when we dropped the anchor at about mid-tide.

Bud snorkeled over to check the anchor and it was set. I let out a bit more chain and put on the snubber. As soon as we had the anchor all set the rain passed by and the wind stopped. The boat started to move the other direction, so the bow was facing away from shore. It didn’t move far, there wasn’t enough wind to pull the chain around. That’s just as well because the tide was still falling. The lowest the water got was 6 and-a-half feet, not that it would be a big deal, it’s all sand here. I would worry most about crushing a starfish. There were four big ones right around the boat. I took a picture of one of them.

We took Fuzzy ashore and he’s pretty happy to have this big beach. He never goes in the water, but he loves to run in the sand. There’s supposed to be some good snorkeling on the Atlantic side, so we will probably stay here tomorrow and check it out. Our next destination is Green Turtle Cay, but they are having their annual Island Roots Heritage Festival this weekend, so we are afraid it will be crowded and want to wait until Monday to go there. It’s only another 15 miles or so, but it is on the other side of the Whale Passage, so we need to go on a calm day. Meanwhile, we will wait here on this beautiful beach; that’s not hard to take.