Using Google Earth one can put in the Lat/Lan coordinates
and see exactly where we are on our adventure.
No fish, but still a 10 – 12 knot breeze from the SE propelled us along at 5 – 6 knots for the best part of the day. Friday morning as the sun came up we steered a course towards Little Stirrup Cay (that’s Key, not Kaye) 74 nm east at the top of the Barry Island chain. The Barry Islands lie south of Grand Bahama Island approximately 56 nm from Port Lucaya. A front was coming down from Florida, so the 12 – 15 knot winds had switched around to the NE. As the squall line came at us late in the afternoon, we took down the sail and were socked in with driving rain. Keeping a weather eye on the chart plotter (couldn’t see anything over the side) we continued towards our way point and turn SSE to Great Harbour Cay marina (25° 44.85N, 77° 51.6W). It’s now pitch black and raining off and on. We’re in 5 feet of water looking with our search light for the two very skinny, short poles that mark the 4 nm long channel to the harbor entrance: a hard to starboard 100 ° turn thru an 80 foot wide canyon cut thru the cay’s western flank just before you run into a bluff. While all this was going on I lost the right lens to my glasses, so I’m driving the boat with one wet eye. Linda was crawling around on the deck looking in vain for it. She finally resurrected my other pair of glasses we’d put in the ditch bag. This is no way to cruise, but… Anyway we docked at around 10:30 pm without hitting anything and fell into our well deserved sack.
Sunday dawned bright, but cool, with winds from the NNE at around 12 knots: good sailing weather. So, off we go saying bye to Gabriel the Dock Master (oops, there I go again demoting him: the Marina Master) and head out the canyon and on to our southerly, twisting course through the shifting bottom sands on the west side of the islands. The waters here are very shallow – we bump several times and drag our rudders along for a good part of the trip as the tide rises – and we have to use VPR (Visual Piloting Rules) and discern the depth by the color of the bottom. Yup, it’s not easy, but doable. We made it around mostly under sail to Little Harbour Cay in about five hours. As we motored north in between Little Harbour Cay (25° 34.242N, 77° 43.213W) on the east and Lizard Cay and Cabbage Cay on the west we stuck to the Lizard/Cabbage side as we had done the last time we were here. No, no, the s
hifting sand had done their thing and bump, buuummmppp: hard aground 6 feet east of the “channel”. Nothing would pull us off, so we waited for the next high tide which floated us off in the wee hours of the morning. Waiting consisted of taking the dingy to Flo’s Conch Bar, watching the Super Bowl, drinking Kalik Beer, and munching on cheese and crackers: rough life of a cruiser.
The weather has deteriorated into front after front with 20 – 30 knot N - NE winds and cool (high 50’s and low 60’s) temperatures. However, tied to Chester’s (Flo’s son) mooring ball at $10/night and with our CQR (looks like a farmer’s plow) anchor out 90 feet to windward on 5/8 chain, we felt quite secure.
We’re here with two other, smaller cats and a trawler. Two other sail boats, a sloop and a ketch, are anchored south of Lizard Cay, apparently afraid to navigate the shallow channel. Boy are they rolling. Miow has a new first mate aboard from the last time we saw Dave as a single handed sailor down to a can of peaches. Semi Aquatic’s captain Steve is a friend of our Canadian friends aboard Caper: Bill and Jose Andersen. We hope to catch up with Bill and Jose somewhere in the Exuma Islands in the next few weeks, weather fronts and seas permitting.
No fish, but still a 10 – 12 knot breeze from the SE propelled us along at 5 – 6 knots for the best part of the day. Friday morning as the sun came up we steered a course towards Little Stirrup Cay (that’s Key, not Kaye) 74 nm east at the top of the Barry Island chain. The Barry Islands lie south of Grand Bahama Island approximately 56 nm from Port Lucaya. A front was coming down from Florida, so the 12 – 15 knot winds had switched around to the NE. As the squall line came at us late in the afternoon, we took down the sail and were socked in with driving rain. Keeping a weather eye on the chart plotter (couldn’t see anything over the side) we continued towards our way point and turn SSE to Great Harbour Cay marina (25° 44.85N, 77° 51.6W). It’s now pitch black and raining off and on. We’re in 5 feet of water looking with our search light for the two very skinny, short poles that mark the 4 nm long channel to the harbor entrance: a hard to starboard 100 ° turn thru an 80 foot wide canyon cut thru the cay’s western flank just before you run into a bluff. While all this was going on I lost the right lens to my glasses, so I’m driving the boat with one wet eye. Linda was crawling around on the deck looking in vain for it. She finally resurrected my other pair of glasses we’d put in the ditch bag. This is no way to cruise, but… Anyway we docked at around 10:30 pm without hitting anything and fell into our well deserved sack.
Sunday dawned bright, but cool, with winds from the NNE at around 12 knots: good sailing weather. So, off we go saying bye to Gabriel the Dock Master (oops, there I go again demoting him: the Marina Master) and head out the canyon and on to our southerly, twisting course through the shifting bottom sands on the west side of the islands. The waters here are very shallow – we bump several times and drag our rudders along for a good part of the trip as the tide rises – and we have to use VPR (Visual Piloting Rules) and discern the depth by the color of the bottom. Yup, it’s not easy, but doable. We made it around mostly under sail to Little Harbour Cay in about five hours. As we motored north in between Little Harbour Cay (25° 34.242N, 77° 43.213W) on the east and Lizard Cay and Cabbage Cay on the west we stuck to the Lizard/Cabbage side as we had done the last time we were here. No, no, the s
hifting sand had done their thing and bump, buuummmppp: hard aground 6 feet east of the “channel”. Nothing would pull us off, so we waited for the next high tide which floated us off in the wee hours of the morning. Waiting consisted of taking the dingy to Flo’s Conch Bar, watching the Super Bowl, drinking Kalik Beer, and munching on cheese and crackers: rough life of a cruiser.The weather has deteriorated into front after front with 20 – 30 knot N - NE winds and cool (high 50’s and low 60’s) temperatures. However, tied to Chester’s (Flo’s son) mooring ball at $10/night and with our CQR (looks like a farmer’s plow) anchor out 90 feet to windward on 5/8 chain, we felt quite secure.
We’re here with two other, smaller cats and a trawler. Two other sail boats, a sloop and a ketch, are anchored south of Lizard Cay, apparently afraid to navigate the shallow channel. Boy are they rolling. Miow has a new first mate aboard from the last time we saw Dave as a single handed sailor down to a can of peaches. Semi Aquatic’s captain Steve is a friend of our Canadian friends aboard Caper: Bill and Jose Andersen. We hope to catch up with Bill and Jose somewhere in the Exuma Islands in the next few weeks, weather fronts and seas permitting.
We thought you dropped of the face of the earth. We were expecting you in Miami.Glad you're on your way!! Good Sailing......
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