Another small step.
06 March 2010
• Cherokee Point. Outside Cherokee Settlement, Bahamas
by Mike
Well, I was wrong. We did get an internet connection and was able to post the last couple of days worth of blog. I hope our luck in that regard continues but you can never be absolutely sure.
We spent the night at anchor just off some lovely beaches at Lynyard Cay shivering in our sleeping bags. There has been a bit of a cold snap come through the Abacos over the last couple of days and if you'd told us before we started this trip that we'd be huddled up in our Mountain Equipment Coop sleeping bags to spend the night I would have said, "Then why are we making the trip?" Well, I know the immediate answer to that and part of it is, "At least we aren't shovelling it!"
During the night the wind blew very strongly from the NW which made the Lynyard Cay anchorage very exposed and although the anchor was in very strongly the chop essentially isolated us aboard Nelleke. Poor Peri's eyeballs were floating so I looked into the magic of the cruising guides and discovered that less than 10 miles south of us was the community of Cherokee Settlement which had an very secure anchorage from SE through to W and for the next couple of days the wind was going to be blowing from the NW and WNW so it sounded like the place for us. We did a quick check with the cruiser's net to see if the Little Harbour cut was open, it was, so we were off.
Coming through the cut was a bit nerve wracking....I probably will never get used to looking a couple of boat lengths of the beam and seeing large waves breaking over a shoal or reef...but in this case the channel was deep albeit a bit rolly. Once through we put up the headsail and we were off and made some really good time down the coast, past some large estates and resorts and then rounded Cherokee Point and in the anchorage which, with the sun streaming down and white sandy bottom, was the sort of aqua turquoise green that you normally only dream about back home. You know those power boats that you come across at docks occasionally, the ones with the underwater lights that illuminate their boat and the surrounding water for several yards in either direction? Well, that's what the water here appears to be, illuminated from below, absolutely breath taking! We dropped anchor in about 12 feet of the clearest water you can imagine and looked up after backing down on it to see that a pod of about ten or twelve dolphins had come over to inspect our job and make sure that we had done it correctly.
Then we took Peri ashore at the sandy beach for his long awaited poop-ambulation and for us to check out the shell, sea glass and sand dollar situation. No sea glass, absolutely none, but a wide variety of shells coral bits and sea fans that had been washed ashore. We were joined by Randy and Jim who stayed on after we brought Peri back to the boat and set out our second anchor, just to be sure, and took a swim. We will be doing that too for tonight's walk with the hound.
We took the dingies in to Cherokee Settlement, which turned out to be the sleepiest of all the Bahamian villages that we have been in to date. Even the dogs were just lying in their yards and barely stirred themselves to move their eyes to watch us as we walked past. We found the village grocery store and stocked up on one or two things that we were short on as it will be closed tomorrow if we decide to stay another day.
Diner tonight aboard Patty Jean.
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