Looking up at Nippers from the beach at Great Guana Cay

Mar 3: One of the really good things about the Gemini catamaran is that it can be configured for very shallow draft. This allows you to anchor in water too shallow for nearly everybody else. When we came into Fishers Bay around 1pm, we found the anchorage already crowded. Sunday is pig roast day at Nippers the attending of which must be a main feature on every charterers itinerary. The roast, which is actually an all you can eat buffet featuring pork roasted Bahamian style, attracts quite a few cruisers as well. All the anchoring locations convenient to the dinghy dock were already occupied as were all the mooring buoys.

That is, all the 6 foot or deeper water was already occupied. There was plenty of 4 foot deep water even closer to the dinghy dock. Being former owners of a monohull with a 5 ½ foot draft, we have many a time had to anchor out on the edge of a bay because we got there later than everyone else. So it was with a great deal of pleasure that we eased past the gaggle of boats and up on the shallows to drop our anchor. We actually had more water than the 3.5 feet we needed. The depth sounder at low tide later in the day showed 4.5 foot depth.

Great Guana Cay is a long skinny island with not much else on it besides a magnificent beach that runs almost the entire length of the island on the Atlantic side. There are only about 100 permanent residents many of whom are incredibly rich judging by the size of their homes. Besides a few resorts, Nippers is probably the largest establishment on the island. It is a big beach bar overlooking the beach.