Going Home

Well a disappointing start to the day as we were denied access to land and look around the research centre. There were some workers clearing up some debris outside the main buildings near the pier and we came ashore and politely asked if we could walk around and have a look. The gentlemen told us that it was private property and the owner did not allow people on the island. After reading and hearing so much about the centre is was shattering to get that news. The closest we came was walking 50 feet from the pier to talk to the foreman who gave us the bad news. Apparently, the new owner is from Germany and has bought 2 other islands as well. She intends opening up resorts on all three islands and will be using the main building at the research centre as an office complex or so we were led to believe.
We made our way back to the boat and wasted no further time there and headed off to Rudder Cut Cay. We arrived just before lunch and dropped the dinghy in and grabbed our snorkelling gear. From what we had read and first-hand accounts from friends, there was a stainless steel piano with a mermaid on the sea floor just near the Cay. The next Cay north from here is Musha Cay and is owned by David Copperfield. We hear that he had the piano and mermaid statues commissioned and placed there. We anchored 38South in a quiet cove just near the spot and took the dinghy across to the place marked on the chart. There is a considerable tidal run past the statue and the best time to visit would be either high or low slack water. We missed the top of the tide by an hour or so but it was not bad. The statues have considerable growth on them now and will soon I suspect blend into the seafloor but for now are quite easy to spot in the 5-6m of water. we made full use of Mezz' waterproof camera and I took some close up shots of the statue proving that the camera is waterproof to a reasonable depth. The water temperature has been steadily dropping and today broke the 23 degree barrier, with the cold north wind that was blowing at 20kts it was straight back to the boat for a hot shower and some lunch. This was originally our destination for the evening but we decided to continue on for while. We had seen what looked like a nice protected anchorage on the chart a few miles north of here and made a leisurely passage on motors up the inside of the bank. We passed quite close to Musha Cay (David Copperfields private Island) his helipad looked like a dump with mountains of rubble and whitegoods piled up. (we though that he could surely make it disappear if he wanted to... that's what he does after all). It continued to blow like stink in the wrong direction as we motored northward and we were both looking for jumpers which seemed odd considering where we were. The path up the inside of the bank is by no means a straight line. We were following a zig zag course of channels in between ragged Cays and sand banks the whole way so there was no relaxing until we finally dropped the hook here in Little Bay on Great Guana Cay. We had read in the chartbooks and pilotage notes that this was a quiet little anchorage that not many people used. Apparently the other 14 boats that were already here had read the same book. It was forecast to blow 25kts again tonight so we were glad to be tucked into the corner. The anchor dug in well and it is flat calm where we are but the wind is howling through the rig. A couple of massive forequarter lamb chops were produced from the fridge and duly incinerated on the BBQ before we retired for the night and I started writing up todays adventures. I will attempt to upload this however we are on the very fringe of reception. If successful then I think it will be an early night and we will see what happens tomorrow. I have added some photos to the gallery as well. it is nice to have some data