The perks of a harbor are now over – fresh water showers, easy access to shore, limited waves and rocking – and we are back to the sea and to anchorages around the Exumas. We intended to leave Nassau at 9 am as we want to hit the Yellow Bank, a stretch of shallower water with hundreds of coral heads, with the sun behind us so that we can see the coral heads clearly. We headed out a bit early (at 8 am). What we didn’t realize is that the exit of Nassau Harbor looks like a dumb kid’s math homework – the Xs of coral heads and the +s of submerged objects everywhere. Although most of these objects would not reach our boat – they are deeper than 5 feet – we are still avoiding all of them. This little drill of leaving Nassau Harbor made me realized that my sunglasses, although awesome Raybans, are not polarized – thus making all of the water look like sheer glare. (If you are going to sail, you must own polarized sunglasses.) Due to our early start we hit the Yellow Bank too early, again with the sun to our faces. Although we are supposed to be using our VPR, Visual Piloting Rules, we cannot. We rely on the GPS. On the charts we go to Porgee Rocks, on the outside of Nassau, down to Allen’s Cay which put us over the most navigable section of the Yellow Bank.
We decided to stay in Allen’s Cay, in the northern section of the Exumas, because it was the easiest to get to from Nassau, as well as, I am convinced it is named after Jared Allen, it is an okay hurricane hole that is protected on most sides, and, most of all, it has prehistoric iguanas!!! When we pull in there is already a catamaran and a Bristol sailboat at anchor (the sailboat has roller reefing and an anchor windlass, ugh jealousy). We drop the hook (the anchor) just on the south west shore of Leaf Cay – right across from the beach of the prehistoric iguanas.
This would be a better anchorage if there were not speed boats racing in here from Nassau with tourists to show them the highlights of the Exumas. The 40’ Lagoon Catamaran turns out to be Mattina, the Canadian couple that we met at Frazer’s Hog and their friends are in the Bristol. SW Allen Cay is just gorgeous, with a lone palm tree on it. I attempt to climb to plantation ruins on Leaf Cay, but the iguanas prove to be an insurmountable barrier. There is a big buck marina and store on Highbourne Cay which we momentarily stop at with the dinghy, but overall other than the iguanas we are out of Allen’s and going 180 degrees south to enter Norman’s Cay. Here we are protected from all sides as we are expecting bad weather around Thursday and Friday.
(Norman's Cay History Lesson: this island served as the HQ for Carlos Lehder, the main drug dealer in the movie BLOW)
Upon returning to the boat we are hit with another problem – yes, dinghy fiasco day 10 million. The engine of the dinghy is not working and we have to row back to the boat. Dad spends all night and the next morning trying to fix the engine – starter, spark plugs, gas connection, even the carbie – to no avail. We quickly (this is relative as we had wineglassed the two anchors in the night as there was quite a storm) pulled up the anchors and tucked in tight next to the pier so that we could row there and be on shore when we wanted. After a nice long swim we are planning to spend the evening at McDuff’s with about another 40 people having thanksgiving dinner. Roxie, the bartender, is not only a great bartender, but also a fabulous cook. (By the way, we only put down the starboard anchor, the one which is only chain, to avoid twisting.)
Hey, who says sailing is easy and relaxing?
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving friend!
ReplyDelete