Wayward Sun Sailing

Picture is the entrance into the Pipe Cay anchorage with WS in the background all by herself. Tip of Compass Cay is on the left and the tip of Pipe Cay on the right. The anchorage looks wide, but it is not, only a strip of deep water in the middle the rest is sand bars.

Sunday we did move over to Staniel Cay AND the forecast was back to water spouts, squalls to 50 knots raining cats and dogs, you name it. Figured we would stay in Staniel (well Big Majors is where we anchor off of Pig beach) for Sunday night then move to Pipe Cay early Monday to hopefully beat the rush in there as it doesn't look like a very big anchorage. Great sail up to Staniel and anchored just about in our old spot after a slight disagreement on the spot. Capt'n didn't want to be close to the iron shore and I didn't want to be anchored directly in front of the 150' Mega Yacht equipped with giant water slide and numerous water toys behind it. That's the last thing I want to be near let alone if the wind swings and it ends up directly in front of us. So we squeezed in, not too bad beside a sailboat and trawler. Well turns out the sailboat was one of the boats we just met at the laundry and had lunch with waiting for propane in Blackpoint, Circe and Raven who are somewhat traveling together.

We dinghied into Staniel filled our jugs with diesel and gas and stopped for a cold one at the Yacht Club and ran into Circe and Raven again there and talked for a while. St. Patrick's day party and $3 green beers, well Kalik bottles with a shot of dye in them so we passed on the dye. Met Donnie an older local musician that says he played with Clapton and a couple others, not sure about all of his stories though, but he was interesting and had fun. Back to the boat for dinner and to our dismay the stove did not light on the newly filled tank. Capt'n put on our small bottle and no problem, but again we have a problem with our propane.

Monday morning we now had to dinghy into Staniel general store to see if we could get the spare tank filled and stopped to talk to Circe, the boat from Blackpoint. Raven was also there and they mentioned the valve being stuck and just banging the tank on a hard surface may unstick it. Uh really, I don't think so. Either way, it now gave the Capt'n an idea, but we still headed in to get the tank filled. Dropped it off at the general store and got some final supplies and told us to come back after lunch to pick up the filled tank. Ok, when's lunch, but didn't get an answer she just said call us. Did pick up two more little propane bottles just in case and really glad they had them. Back to the boat and Capt'n wants to run the generator for a bit, which is fine, but running it in the cockpit where he now wants to "bang" the propane tank. Well to me that didn't sound like a good idea gas, spark, propane? Checked on line and sure enough there was a post about someone doing that and it working, plus they mentioned the tanks are built to be safe if they fall off a truck so shouldn't be a problem. Ok, Capt'n "bangs" the tank a few times on a piece of wood and puts it back in the locker, hooks it up and amazingly it works. Great we'll now have two full tanks and if anything goes wrong with this one again, no problem. Well no such luck - when we tried to call about the tank, no answer so just dinghied over only to find our tank sitting there still empty around 12:30 and no one around. Finally, found a police boat guy that got one of the owners for us. He said he couldn't fill the tank since it was gravity feed, which made no sense to me since I thought Blackpoints was also, not to mention we had it filled right there in Staniel 11 years ago. He said well that was 11 years ago and things have changed. Really leave it to the Bahamas to go "backwards" after 11 years, so much for new technology. We have a lay down tank exempt from OPD and I'm just not sure he knew that, but didn't ask and just said he couldn't fill that type of tank. So now we have stayed here much longer than we wanted and no propane in this tank and the other tank is iffy. So purchased more tiny bottles so we now have 5 extra at $10 a pop, giving us 5 lbs of propane for $50 vs. our 20 lb. tank being filled for $40, not very happy about that, but we have enough to get back with if we need it. To make things worse it is a long dinghy ride and our dinghy motor just refused to plane with no additional weight in there. Skies were getting black over Staniel and you could see squalls all around, great! Made it back to the boat and hauled anchor ASAP and got the heck out of there, neither of us were very happy at this point. Pipe Cay was only 7 miles up and motor sailed up to Conch Cut a wide channel that eventually leads to Compass Cay, luckily leaving all the squalls behind us. The channel into Compass Cay is not wide and at one point there are channel (well kind of) markers and gets a bit shallow. We saw 8'8" at mid tide, not good since the tide was up 2.5, we'll have to go back out at mid tide for sure. Compass Cay marina is a Mega Yacht haven and I can't believe they bring these things in here. So we passed on the marina (at $4+ a foot) and headed for the anchorage. Got tucked in at the southern end in front of two cats and there is very little room here, but we were all anchored nicely.

Tuesday night and into early Wednesday is supposed to be the worst of the weather. Tuesday the cats left and we were here all alone for a bit to enjoy the beach by ourselves. Another sailboat came in then a huge cat and anchored where the other cats were far enough away from us. Cruising guide says it's big enough for about 4 boats, well try 6. Pretty late in the afternoon, right when we were getting ready to take a dinghy ride a Moorings charter boat comes in. Sorry, but charter boats are always scary esp. when they come up and anchor right in front of you. So, I kept my eye on him, ready to use the bitch wings on the bow if I had to, but he stayed far enough away. Not as far as we'd like, but reasonable for a charter boat. Now it's like after 5 pm and another big cat comes in and goes in front of him. Okay, enough 5 boats, then probably around 6 pm a 40' power boat comes and starts to drop anchor literally beside us, I'm like I don't think so. We are swinging with the current and not the wind and we'll be way to close not to mention he'll swing very close to the shallows. So didn't take much to convince him to not anchor there and he moved to the other side of us well enough away. So now we have 3 boats really close by, guess we forgot to take that sign off again that says "anchor on top of us, please"! The two other boats that came in early were up there sitting pretty all alone, oh well...

Luckily Tuesday was nice all day, during the night we had some rain, but relatively calm conditions, no waterspouts or squalls, but they are still forecast for today, Wednesday so we are staying put. The 3 late comers have left; yay and we are back to a quiet spot here, for now. West winds are forecast through Friday so we will either have to sit here another day (Capt'n already tired of it and he thinks I'm the one who always wants to keep moving, hum) so I suggested Warderick Wells if we can get a ball there. I have the VHF on and Exuma Park is going through the reservations and I'm asking the Capt'n, who indecision may or may not be his problem, if I can get on the list for tomorrow. Well finally got on it, but after about 5 or 6 others, so doubtful if we'll get one, but we'll see. You have to get on the list the day before and they'll let you know at 9 am the day you want it if there are any available. We're not far only about 10 or 15 miles so we'll either go there or stay here until Friday. Correction - Capt'n just told me he wants to leave tomorrow either way, so either Warderick Wells or Hawksbill, hopefully Warderick Wells as they are protected from the west, Hawksbill is not. CP is forecasting W winds late tomorrow night, Windfinder is not. Windfinder was right on the wind speed for the last front, hopefully they are again.

After that we are thinking of heading to Highborne, then West Bay, New Providence, then either Chub or Great Harbour to wait for a weather window to cross back to the states at the end of the month.