We had a relaxing motor sail in light winds from Hawkesbill
to Emerald Bay which is actually on the east side of Warderick Well were we had
only recently spent time, we did not go ashore but had a lovely peaceful night
at anchor and then headed off in the morning. I love the name of one of the
large rocks in this area – London Gin Rock.
The next trip involved some tricky navigation; we were
getting more experienced at dodging the shallow patches. Initially we had to
sail east of the islands so we would avoid the shallow sand bars which often
protrude from the islands for a mile of more.
We sailed past Halls Pond Cay and then Little Halls Pond Cay, which is
the island Johnny Depp owns although we do on thing he was a t home as we
believe when he is there he flies a large pirate flag. You cant help but envy
anyone that owns a Bahamian island!
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| Little Halls Pond |
We had hoped to anchor off Little Halls Pond but unfortunately
the weather changed these plans. Firstly
we had to navigate round the south of Bell Island
which involved passing through a narrow passage between a sand match less than
1M deep and a rocky headland, we felt very pleased with ourselves as we did
this successfully with Amanda on the bow shouting directions and Mark at the
wheel. The anchorage at Bell Island
has great shelter from the south west and with another cold front with strong winds
expected was ideal for shelter. It is
also only a short dingy ride to some amazing snorkelling so before the poor
weather arrived we made the most of this.
There is a sunken drug smugglers plane close Little Halls Pond and along
with the plane there are some beautiful corals, we saw a huge ray buried in the
sand, plus the ever over friendly Sergeant Major fish.
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| Pretty coral |
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| Sunken drug smugglers plane |
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| The ever lovely parrot fish |
What is a little frustrating here is that the current runs
really strong so you must time you snorkelling at slack tide. There is also another smaller coral patch in
shallower water just a short dingy ride away which we also enjoyed.
After a peaceful night with the anchorage to ourselves
during the next day the weather was starting to deteriorate and with it the
anchorage – how dare they spoil our solitude.
Mark tried something new with a drift snorkel where Amanda sat in the
dingy and Mark held onto the dingy with one hand as he was whizzed along over
the coral which was fun. We were lucky
enough to see a turtle in the anchorage and also we were visited by one particularly
inquisitive ray whilst swimming round the boat, shame we did not have the
camera.
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| Pretty sunset at Bell Island |
That night the wind increased South west through to West but
we had great shelter so thankfully it did not bother us to much, early the
following morning the squalls started with the winds increasing and torrential
rain for hours and hours! By lunch this had subsided but no-one was really
moving, we then see a small boat sailing towards the anchorage, Mark thinks
this looks like Cilest which is sailed by our friend Robie and yes as he
casually crops anchor under sail we know it is him! Mark is soon over to invite
Robie for dinner, we had been hoping to see Robie and Patsy further south but
found out that he had some family issues and was heading back to Florida with the boat and then back to Maui. Such a shame but we did have a lovely dinner
and it was lovely to see him, Robie was also amazingly generous and gave us a
whole load of food which he had stocked for his months in the Bahamas, we
drooled as we looked at the delights which included dried blueberries, dried
figs, dried Mango, walnuts,, trial mix, this list goes on! How amazing for us
when we had been through a lot of our stocks from the US in Cuba
and it was just too expensive and difficult to buy such lovely food in Nassau. We were glad we had the opportunity to see
Robie before he left but sad it was under sad circumstances and we were not
going to get to share some rum with him and Patsy this year.
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| Having a rum with Robie |
Next day we waved goodbye to Robie who was off to make as
much progress north as the weather would allow.
The wind had now swung to northerly still blowing 20 knots and our
sheltered anchorage was become a bit bumpy as we could see the waves rolling in
the entrance although we were still protected by a small island we decided that
we should also set sail.
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| Saying goodbye to Robie and Cilest |
So we upped anchor and careful navigated through the corals
in the anchorage and then battled hard against the tide to get into the deeper
channel to return on the route which we had entered as our only other option
was to head out into the sound which was looking a little bumpy. So here we had to navigate back through the
narrow passage, this time it was even scarier as the tide almost whisked us pst
the gap to Mark had to motor hard towards the rocks with Amanda panicking on
the foredeck but we were through. We
even thought we would have a short break in the shelter of the island for
lunch.
After lunch we upped anchor and sailed downwind in 20+ knots
to Big Major Spot, after anchoring in such quiet spots over the last week or so
it was funny to suddenly see around 60 boats anchored in one place! We did
manage to tuck in enough to get shelter from the wind for the night. Next morning the appeal of staying in such a
busy anchorage was limited so we headed to Black Point. The wind had now swung easterly and although
the trip to Black Point was only a 6 mile sail it was upwind and it was more of
a struggle than we thought in 20+ knots and some short chop on the bank, in
hindsight we should have had the mainsail along with the foresail but as we
left we were being lazy and only pulled out the foresail.
Black Point on Great Guana Cay is such a lovely settlement,
the people are kind and welcoming (one day a whole load of toddlers ran up and
hugged us for no apparent reason) and it has great amenities. The laundrette is spotlessly clean with lots
of machine, has free wifi, has the best carrot cake ever at $1 and for $4 we
had an 8 minute shower – what do you do with so much water!! We even manage to
be there when the mailboat arrived so we could get a few more provisions. It was great to get off the boat to stretch
our legs, you could have a decent walk where we even saw some wildlife, an odd
bird with long legs but a bill like a duck plus a snake and we even managed a
run! Amanda was also very pleased to have decent wifi to Skype her mum on
Mothers Day, thanks Black Point.
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| The airport building at Black Point |
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| Little snake whilst we were out on a walk |
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| Castle at Little Cay on Great Guana (just round headland from Black Point) |
With the some favourable weather for sailing south, we
sailed the 13 miles to Cave Cay, with a force 4-5 north easterly we had a
lovely sail. We were a little disappointed
as there were other islands we had wanted to visit on this stretch south but
with the weather being so unsettled and this opportunity to make some miles we
had to take it.
During this sail we did see a good example of why tide planning
is important in the Bahamas
not only to ensure you have enough depth for deep boats like Magnum but when transiting
the cuts from the Bank to the Sound. As
we passed by Galliot Cut we could see the waves breaking
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| Galliot Cut |
We cautiously navigated the shallow waters around Cave Cay
around the sandbanks and coral patches we tucked in to anchor close to
shore. The island is private so we had
no intention of going ashore, it seemed idyllic which is was until it got dark
and the tide turned and we had another rolly night J
Next day we were up and heading towards Musha Cay which is
owned by David Copperfield.
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| Musha Cay |
