We raised anchors right at 7AM heading for the shallows of the Pimlico Cays. It’s always a little stressful because you’re in the shallows (4 to 6 feet) for a long time. It seems like hours, but it’s probably only one. The shallows went well, Mike had all the waypoints in so I followed him. It was my least stressful trip through there every because I wasn’t in the lead. Our ETA for the days trip is before 11AM so it will be a short run today. We only used our mainsails today with all the direction changes.. winds are pretty light anyway.
We are stopping at Leaf Cay for an hour or so, there is a beach Jono wants to check out… that will also allow time for “Wings” to catch up. They are sailing the deep water this morning in the Exuma Sound.
Wings did rendezvous with us at Leaf Cay – Adderly Cut. We traveled together another couple miles and stopped for the evening at Lee Stocking Island. The small beach provided great overlooks to the ocean as well as back toward the boats on the calm side. It’s a highly rated anchorage for the scenery and its geography. You should never see much of a current here so the boats sit facing the wind all the time… which is nice. If the boat isn’t facing the wind you don’t get a breeze in your hatches, and facing the wind.. the waves go right under the boat rather than rolling it side to side so “no current” is a good thing. This evening wind direction is supposed to clock all the way from SE to South, to West, then from the North by nightfall as the next weak front comes through. This time of the year fronts don’t normally make it this far south so it will be a very weak front with almost no wind… perfect for the offshore section of run to Georgetown.
Jono and Mike are back from their gris hunt, I guess I’ll go over and see how they did.
No score on the ambergris, more scratched legs than anything else walking through the brambles to access remote beaches. About 3:30 we all dog piled on to “Wings” to check out Jono’s prospective purchase. Mike and I looked at it pretty closely. It’s a well-kept for a 1968 model, it has several cruiser features that Jono would need and I think it’s a good option for him. I am a little concerned about the mast and rigging (if it’s heavy enough) but other than that it’s a usable boat with lots of extras.
Winds are shifting as expected. I took a nice warm shower after my swim earlier, we do a good job of conserving water but sometimes you just have to break down and do a full fresh water shower and rinse.
The little anchorage is filling up, Mike and I were the first two boats in, now there are 7 boats here. I am surprised by the number of catamarans I’m seeing this year. When we first started sailing it was odd to see another cat, now… half the boats you see are catamarans, even the powerboats have gone to two hull boats. 1 of the 7 boats in this anchorage is a monohull. There were supposedly nine 57’ Horizon power cats at Staniel when we were there, at 4.5MM a copy they must be a pretty nice rig. It was a Horizon rally, I didn’t see all 9, only 5 had arrived before we left.
We have good cell service today, I talked with Linda, there were several good things going on back home so that’s a refreshing change for this trip. I have about 30 minutes left on my prepaid Bahamas phone, I may load it back up in GT so I can keep Linda in the loop, and find out how it’s going back home.
I fed the iguanas on Leaf Cay today. It’s a one boat beaching opportunity. I slipped in and hung my anchor in dry sand, stepped down in knee deep water off the bow and went ashore. We saved some old bread so the iguanas had a feast. Leaf has great memories for me and Linda, it’s still the same. The picture on my boat card is at Leaf Cay.
It was black box wine on Jumanji tonight…. They are planners so we talked about where to anchor in GT tomorrow. As long as Laurie and Mike have a plan they are quite happy. The plan is to anchor in Kidd Cove so we can go into Lake Victoria and the exuma market for provisions tomorrow evening. It looks like a wonderful downwind drift tomorrow. We all agreed not to race, the goal for the day is fishing! The winner is the one that catches the biggest edible fish. Anchors aweigh at 7:30…. GT here we come.
SYL !!