The sailing to and from Highbourne Cay in the northern Exumas was actually pretty comfortable in spite of the stronger winds and seas. We left Nassau Monday on a broad reach in 15-20 knot winds and 2-3 foot seas. The return trip was more difficult since the wind and waves were on our bow. It was a little difficult finding the coral heads on the Yellow Bank so that we could dodge them. But we did, and here we are.
On the way to Highbourne, Evan caught a spanish mackerel after what seemed like hours of trolling. It provided two tasty fillets for dinner that night. The little mackerel didn't compare to the 'little fishies' that sat quietly off the Highbourne Cay dock waiting for someone to venture too closely (see the picture). They regularly hang there waiting for the fishermen to clean their fish and send them the scraps. They are impressive and intimidating. Dinghy-ing over the top of them in 6 feet of water is discomforting-one bite of the inflatable's tubes and down we go!
This time we ended up hiking to the northern point of Highbourne. There isn't much there, but they are building some homes on the island (expensive, I'm sure). The Eastern shore exposed to the full force of the ocean, is very rocky where we were. But around to the sound side there were small sand beaches ideal for beach combing.
We had some stronger winds out of the NNE Tuesday night and it made for a bouncy evening at anchor in the western anchorage. But the wind shifted direction slightly and things calmed down a bit for sleeping.
Since the weather forecast from Chris Parker Wednesday morning was for deteriorating weather over the next few days, we made plans to head back to Nassau for a while. Besides, Evan and I are are entered in a 5k race in Nassau on Saturday. So we needed to be back for that too. So here we are, sitting in the local Starbucks right across the street from the marina, sucking down their coffee and sucking up their "free" internet.