We made it back to White Cay this evening and Rusty immediately got in the water and continued to get Louisiana Bayou off of SYL. We will back off the beach and drop anchor behind one of the island until tomorrow. We will work our way to Nassau because our water pump on SYL that supplies the water to the kitchen and bathroom needs to be replaced. Rusty of course has it fixed temporarily but we will need to go to Nassau to get a new one.
Rusty thoughts:
We had a nice skip thru the skinny water today behind (on the west side of) the Berry Islands. There are miles and miles of sand flats measuring from 5 ft deep to zero (most places are less than 3 ft deep) the charts show a possible shallow draft route that we followed to the letter today. Even being exactly on the charted route, we still touched bottom twice. It was fun.
SYL’s keels are 3′ – 1″ below the surface of the water. Most sailboats are much deeper. It was fun today travelling where very few cruisers can even go.
We are anchored for the night in 9 ft of water, at the exit from the shallow passage in the central Berry Islands. Our plans are like the ocean waves… tomorrow well decide what we feel like doing.
I beached SYL this evening and cleaned much of the bottom. I still have 20 percent left to do, but I got a lot done in the chilly water. A clean hull makes for faster / more economical travel so it’s an important maintenance item. I suspect I gained an extra mile for every 8 travelled by removing the light marine growth from the bottom today.
There are lots of boats anchored here this evening. I can see 3 power boats and 4 other sailboats from where I sit. Sea Yawl Later…. out