Big day of sailing

Big day of sailing   ...   Friday 24^th Jan 2013

The great thing about having guests is that they push you to do things that you might not otherwise. In discussing plans for the Andersons’ visit, Mike and I were thinking that we should stay on the east side of the Whale Cay passage so that we wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck on the wrong side.  Talking the plan over with Dave and Kathy,

Kathy suggested that we should try to go through the Whale Cay passage and visit Green Turtle Cay if the weather looked suitable over the next couple of days.  Once she said it like that, we thought: “yes, lets do that.”

When we woke this morning the wind was very light.  We decided to add a stop at Fowl Cay to our plan, hoping to be able to snorkel on the ocean side of the Cay.  We set off after breakfast and sailed to windward toward Fowl Cay.  On went the wet suits and then the four of us piled into the dinghy with masks and flippers.  The swell became more obvious as we rounded the northwestern side of the island.  After tying up to the mooring ball we all slipped into the water for a brief snorkel.  Sadly, Kathy began to feel unwell so we headed back to the big boat.  Ideally we would have taken her to solid land to aid her recovery.  She made a slow recovery on the rocking boat but was incredibly brave about it.

We set off from Fowl Cay at about 1 pm and tacked our way up the side of Great Guana Cay.  As we approached the Loggerhead Channel we fired up the engine to facilitate our negotiation of the channel.  As we re-entered through the Whale Cay passage the swells were building up quite noticeably.  In the interest of time we continued to motor sail to the entrance to White Sound on Green Turtle Cay.  With high tide only about and hour and a half away, we were hoping to have enough depth to get into the harbor.  While we did see 7.3 feet on the depth sounder, all was well.   Once inside the harbor we dropped the anchor.  Then we enjoyed a beverage while watching the sunset.  We rounded out the day with a dinner of Shrimp Scampi and green beans, followed by apple pie and brownies.

photos to follow when we have adequate connectivity

Dave under water

White Sound at dusk - Green Turtle Cay