Crossing the Bahama Banks to West Bay (New Providence), Norman’s Cay, Hawksbill Cay.
We left Bimini on Monday, April 14 along with three other boats. We tried to help another boater cast off and at his direction, Ed had his stern line as he was backing out of the slip. He was unable to turn until his bow cleared the slip and by that time, Ed could not hold onto the too short line and so in the water it went. The crew on the other boat couldn’t get the loose line pulled in quickly enough and it managed to get wrapped around the boat’s prop. There were several boaters that helped get the boat back into the slip and the skipper got out his fins and snorkel and dove on his prop to cut the line. He finally had to resort to his hookah (underwater breathing apparatus) so he could stay underwater long enough to cut thru the 5 wraps of line around his prop. About an hour later, Slowdown and the other boat were both cast off the docks at Bimini. We decided to take the north route across the banks and sometime around 8 pm we dropped the anchor and rested till 11pm as we didn’t want to arrive at West Bay, New Providence until mid-morning. Our anchorage was rocking and rolling in about 2 foot swells. We started out again at 11pm and motor-sailed thru the night. We had a full moon which gave us good visibility until sometime after 1am when the lunar eclipse began. That was cool to watch. It took about 45 minutes for the moon to be fully eclipsed at which time the moon had an eerie red glow for a while before going dark. Sometime later, the moon began reappearing until it was once again full. I am glad we picked that night to motor-sail or we would surely have missed the middle of the night eclipse. We went from 13 ft of water to thousands of feet of water as we entered what is known as the “Tongue of the Ocean” around 2 AM. It was not pleasant as the seas were confused and felt like a washing machine. We arrived at West Bay, New Providence mid-morning and spent Tuesday night at anchor there. We did not want to go to Nassau so West Bay was a good choice for us. Wednesday morning, we left out across the banks again heading southeast to Normans Cay with two of the boats we left Bimini with, Glen on Footloose and Duane and Diane on Diva Di. These were people we had met in Marathon.
Norman’s Cay is a beautiful island with a resort being built on the south end of the island. There is a history of this island being associated with a well-known drug runner that is worth the time to google and read. We stayed until Sunday. We went on a dinghy excursion with the others and took pictures at our “Palm Island” which was nothing more than a small island with a palm tree and a bench. There is a wrecked plane that sticks out of the water a bit at mid to low tide. We wound our way thru some flats with enough water under us to make our way to what is known as the Pond. There is a way to get into the Pond by boat from the Exuma Sound side (East). There are two rocks that mark this entrance and each rock has what appear to be cannons pointing at each other. Then there are two homemade markers marking the entrance to the natural channel where there is deep enough water leading up to the pond. It was at this entrance where Ed say a large stingray jump out of the water about 6 feet. It was magnificent. I’m glad he was far enough away that he wasn’t jumping into our dinghy. The pond is a natural hurricane hole and very beautiful. It is said that hammerhead sharks come in here and mate. We stayed in the dinghy and didn’t see any sharks. We didn’t get to stay long as the tide was going out and we didn’t want to get stuck in the flats on our way back. There are several caves in the pond that spelunkers would enjoy. On our way thru the flats we had noticed a coral head that we wanted to get a good look at so when we were making our way back thru the flats we approached the coral head with a looky bucket (bucket with a clear Plexiglas bottom) when our coral head started moving. Turns out it was a large stingray. We took pictures as it swam away. This dinghy excursion was the highlight of our visit on Normans Cay. The resort has plans to put in a marina at the sight of the Pond which is a shame to take away all that natural beauty. We had dinner at the restaurant. Our menu options were very limited as the chef had hurt his leg the day before and was taken to Nassau. We had hamburgers ($25 each) and drinks ($12 each) and they were well worth the price we paid for someone else to cook and clean up.
We rode out some nasty winds on Saturday night with gusts up to 38 knots out of the west and northwest where we did not have any protection. This was our first good chance to test our new anchor. The winds and waves managed to chafe a good portion of our snubber line and cracked the rubber on the snubber. Good thing we have a spare. The anchor behaved well at the boat clocked around 180 degrees. Ed sleeps much better with this anchor.
Our plan was to leave Normans Cay and head to Shroud Cay on Sunday but when we approached Shroud Cay it looked too rolly with waves crashing on the rocks just behind the mooring field so we opted to keep going south to Hawksbill Cay instead. We picked up a mooring ball at Hawksbill and went to land for a tour and to pay for our mooring in a drop box. There is a path on land marked with cairns to follow which wind their way to the other side of the island where there are beautiful beaches on the eastern shore. We followed the path up to the top of the hill on the eastern shore but did not descend down to the beach. The top of this hill offered a spectacular view (see pics).
We celebrated our anniversary at Hawksbill Cay, dining on grilled burgers cooked aboard Slowdown and fine wine. The wine was a birthday present from Ed to Cheryl that had been saved for all those months. It was well worth saving for this special occasion. Our next planned stop is Warderwick Wells as soon as we hear when we have a mooring ball where you can be placed on a waiting list one day in advance.
Note: Pics to follow tmw; already used all of today's wifi allotment.