Going Home

We were both up early so we set of in mirror smooth and dead calm weather for the 32nm trip up to Nuevitas Rocks. This was an entry point to the Bahama Bank through the reefs and a charted channel across to Hog Cay where we planned to go through to the Bahamas Sound and travel up to Georgetown.
on the way up I put a rod in, i did not want to say to Mick that he hadn't caught anything since he went home. i had a good run with a Barracuda which was fighting well and then there was a commotion in the water as i was bringing him and he stopped fighting. turns out it would be hard to swim without a tail. Something bigger had taken a bite and took off his tail. anyway we arrived around 10am at the rocks. on approach we were in over 2000 metres of water up to half a mile from the rocks and it shoaled up to 5 metres deep by the time we got there. We anchored up and jumped in for a swim and this was some of the best snorkeling we had encountered so far. The tide was ebbing (going out) and the water was pouring off the bank. we didn't realise how strong it was until we passed through between a couple of reef areas and got swept through. it was quite a swim to get back to the safety north side where we were anchored. We were followed by a fairly good sized Barracuda but he kept his distance so that was fine.
By the time the we were ready to get going the wind had swung and come in a bit, enough to sail anyway. we sailed the last 13nm to Hog Cay to arrive right on low tide. the plotter was showing a navigable depth of 0.9m at low tide. we draw 1.3 so we had to wait a while to go through the channel or "Cut" as they call it. the tide runs quite quickly through these narrow cuts and you have to be careful that you have the right conditions to pass through. the water velocity can be up to 5-8 knots and with wind against tide can turn into a dangerous "Rage" with standing waves at the exit. anyway we felt our way through as it was soft sand. we made it almost all the way at slack water low tide but touched the bottom and dropped the anchor and waited for half an hour. that was enough to give us the depth we needed and we got through before the current started to run. We continued on up to Georgetown and finally dropped the pick around 5.30pm.