Wonderful Day of Sailing
26 February 2008 | Flamingo Bay, Rum Cay
2/26/2008 23 40.84"N: 74 56.15W San Salvador to Flamingo Bay
After another swelly night in Cockburn Town, Rumtum and we decide it is time to head for Flamingo Bay. It is at the northwest end of Rum Cay. The winds are forecast for 10-15 and calming down, later in the day. The sea state is 4-6 swells with an eight second interval. As usual the forecast is off a bit?. The winds are a steady18-20 with an occasional 25 gust. The seas are out of the southeast but 6-8 with a 10 mixed in. All this made for a fantastic close reach sail with the seas just aft of the beam. We averaged, point to point, 7.5 knts, with a top speed of 10.4. From time to time RumTum would disappear in the trough except for the deck and sails.
Naturally we were fishing, and about 5 miles out a massive dolphin, (mahi mahi), hits the cedar plug. But at 9 knts it hit him pretty hard. He jumped three times then threw the plug high in the air and was gone. When I reeled the plug in he had actually hit the cedar plug hard enough to split it into two pieces. Exciting but no fish to claim as our own.
We work our way into Flamingo Bay going between many patch reefs and small heads and drop the hook in a small sandy spot. This place is absolutely gorgeous. It has a nice beach, and more coral reefs than you could explore in a month. There are four other boats that came in after us, but no crowding here. They also reported getting a couple of nice lobsters and some groupers off the reefs. So all is well in our small world