Crew Log for January 10th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Clifton Cove, New Providence Island to Highborne Cay
• Trip Distance of 47.6 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,721.8NM
• Departed at 07h00, arrived at 15h20
As advertised, Clifton Cove was a rolly and uncomfortable anchorage. It did however provide good holding and reasonably good protection from any direction other than westerly. Our plan all along was only to overnight here, before making the jump to Highborne Cay, at the top of the Exuma Island chain.
We left as soon after first light as we dared. We would need to negotiate the shallow waters around the anchorage that were peppered with coral heads. While we don’t worry too much about running aground in the sand, hitting a coral head is something we’d like to avoid. The recommended approach is to wait until the sun is high, which gives you a better view. We had a track in here from the day before and were pretty confident that we could navigate our way out.
It was a beautiful sailboat day. Warm, sunny with 8 – 12 knots of wind on the beam. In addition to our buddy boat Willow, about 6 – 8 other sailboats left around the same time. Sensai, who we crossed the Gulf Stream with was also headed to Highborne but from Nassau, which is at the other end of New Providence Island.
It was a relatively uneventful trip. Still “reeling” from our Barracuda encounter the day before, we weren’t too interested in putting out a fishing line. Besides, we still had another couple of meals of mahi-mahi in the fridge that we “had” to eat.
We were also very doubtful that we would catch anything anyway. In contrast to the 3,000 foot water depths on our crossing from the Berries, the water between New Providence and Highbourne didn’t get much deeper than 25 – 30 feet. We still marvelled at the color and how clear it was. There was no difficulty seeing right to the bottom.
We arrived at Highbourne Cay, late afternoon, and the anchorage was already pretty full. We did manage to find a great spot, that would provide shelter from the easterlies and hopefully avoid the swells wrapping around the island. As we were setting the anchor a shark slowly made it’s way past the boat, seemingly to check out who this new boat was. Sensai was already here so we dropped over to say hello, before heading off to the beach for a walk.
There was a strong westerly wind coming in the next few days so, of course, any conversation was dominated by talk of the weather and what people planned to do. The prominent wind direction here is easterly and so there are numerous places to anchor along the western side of the island chain. However, there are far fewer places to hide from a west wind and when they come, they are usually associated with a passing weather system and so the winds tend to be stronger. Sensai had booked a slip at Highborne to wait out the storm, so we and Bruce and Kay on Willow got together that evening and poured over the charts to find a spot.
Bruce and Kay had been in the Abacos a few years before, but none of us had any knowledge of the Exumas other than what we got from the guides and charts. The electronic charts also include comments and ratings from other people who have actually been there and had some experience with the conditions. Like anything else on social media however, some of the comments aren’t terribly helpful and the credibility of the author is a mystery.
The westerlies weren’t forecast to arrive for 2 – 3 days, but given the limited options, we didn’t want to delay finding a spot. After weighing all the alternatives, we decided to make a run down to Bell Island the following day. It looked reasonably sheltered from every direction, particularly from the west, although getting in there would be tricky given the narrow entrances and shallow waters.
Crew Log for January 11th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Highborne Cay to Bell Island
• Trip Distance of 37.9 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,759.7NM
• Departed at 09h00, arrived at 20h20
With the decision made of where we would be hiding out from the weather this coming weekend, we readied the boat to head to Bell Island, over 35 miles to the south. As much as we were hoping to slow down, our exploration of the remote islands and cays in the northern Exumas would have to wait.
There are an estimated 365 islands and cays that make up the Exuma Island chain. The entire island chain is 130 mi (209 km) long. Highborne, where we were anchored is close to the northern end, and Great Exuma, the largest island is at the southern end. Hopping down the island chain to Georgetown, on Great Exuma, is a popular cruising plan for Canadian snowbirds. We had heard that there were already over 300 boats in Georgetown, a sharp contrast to the peacefulness of the remote anchorages in the northern Exumas.
The Exumas were originally the historic home of the Lucayan Natives, who were enslaved in the 16th century. The islands remained unpopulated until the arrival of American loyalists in the late 1700’s, which made it a popular hideout for pirates to stash their spoils. In the late 18th century, Loyalists who brought their slaves to the islands, tried unsuccessfully to establish cotton plantations on the islands. Many of the ruins are still evident today.
Today, the islands are a popular sailing destination. In addition to numerous anchorages, the Exumas have many remote beaches and a number of coral reefs and caves to explore. The northern area includes the Exuma Land and Sea Park (more about that later) and a number of populated islands including Staniel Cay , site of Thunderball Grotto, where some of the James Bond film Thunderball was filmed. South of Staniel are the villages of Black Point and Farmer’s Cay, which are popular reprovisioning spots.
Sadly, many of the islands are owned privately, so visiting them is often discouraged. Little Hall’s Pond Cay, just to the north of Bell Island, once owned by Johnny Depp, was recently purchased by JK Rowling, of Harry Potter fame. Bell Island, is also privately owned and is just west of Cambridge Cay at the southern edge of the Exuma Land and Sea Park.
Given the remoteness of this area of the Bahamas, opportunities for getting water, fuel and other provisions were limited. While we had plenty of food on board, we had limited water tankage and no water maker, so we decided to fill our water tanks before leaving Highborne and also used the opportunity while on the dock to top up our fuel tanks.
As we were filling the water tanks I could hear what sounded like water trickling and soon after the bilge pump went off. Not good. I opened up the water tank compartments to discover that a water pipe had become loose and all the water was draining out of one of the tanks. Once again, it was really fortunate that this boat talks to me, and that we found the problem while still close to a water source.
As we pulled away from the marina we noticed at least a dozen large nurse sharks hanging out at the end of the fuel dock. It was quite a sight but I was too focused on negotiating the currents to think about snapping a picture. I am sure there will be others!
We made our way to Bell Island and decided to come in the northern entrance, which meant we had to come past the western side of the island and negotiate our way through a very, very narrow passage called Conch Cut. There are jagged rocks on one side and a sand bar on the other. The guide book says to “hug the rocks” in order to avoid the sand bar, which I thought I was doing. Apparently my understanding of “hug the rocks” is different than the guidebooks.
We came to an abrupt stop as the keel hit the soft sand. We tried backing off. No luck. Tried driving off. No luck. Tried putting the boom out to side and hanging off it. No luck. We even tried attaching the spinnaker halyard to the dinghy and pulling the boat over, which is always amusing. No luck. We were stuck. The tide was just about low, so we were hopeful that we could pull ourselves off, once the tide came in. In the meantime we radioed back to Willow to advise them to “hug the rocks”.
As we sat there, 2 power boats flew past us without saying a word or so much as stopping to see if we were OK. Not even a wave. In contrast, we heard a dinghy approaching from the north channel and were surprised to see Bruce from Willow. I actually shouldn’t have been surprised, since it is exactly the kind of thing Bruce does. He just wanted to make sure we were OK and in his words, “not freaking out”. We assured him we were fine and planned to wait for the tide. We’d see him in the morning if all went well.
The sand was incredibly soft and the edge of the bar was very steep. If I went in the water off the starboard side, the water was almost over my head. If I jumped in on the port side, it was just above my waist. We had put the bow anchor out and shortened the rode as much as we could. We were worried that the boat would simply bounce over the sand as the tide came in, leaving us even more high and dry when it went back out.
I then took our secondary anchor out in the dinghy and threw it off the stern and attached the rode to the winch. I slowly winched the back of the boat and at 20h20, about 4 hours after we arrived here, Elizabeth M started to float. I was never so happy to feel that constant bobbing motion. I’ve since learned that my solution is called “kedging”, which is a nautical term meaning, “…to move (a ship) by means of a line attached to a small anchor dropped at the distance and in the direction desired…”. Now I know for the next time!
When the sun goes down here, it gets very dark, very quickly. It was only 8 pm, but we didn’t want to be negotiating through the islands and cays in the dark, aided only by our instruments. The beauty of sailing on the banks, is you can literally drop the anchor anywhere and wait for daylight, which is what we did. There were a few lights on the Island and I was surprised to see a number of other anchor lights scattered randomly out on the bank.
Despite our “ordeal”, we spent a very quiet night on anchor completely protected from the prevailing east winds from Bell Island. And for some reason, swell from the tide changes that we experienced in a lot of the other anchorages wasn’t noticeable in this random spot we dropped the anchor in at 8 pm at night. We knew however, that we had to get around to the east side of the island to shelter from the approaching westerlies. This would not be a comfortable spot to be in a couple of days.
As soon as it was light, we would complete our trip to the Bell Island anchorage, which has an interesting link to Canadian politics. But more about that, next time.
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