Great Inagua

 Great Inagua

Sunday 16th - Wednesday19th March, 2025

Most of Sunday, we rested and read our books.  Carl and Diane from S/V Sonas stopped by to invite us for a “sundowner”.  Sonas was the boat we could see about five miles away during the passage from the DR.  We went over and spent a pleasant late afternoon chatting and enjoying some fantastic snacks. One persistent topic of conversation was what to do about the incoming northwesterly winds.  We were leaning toward tucking in close to the north shore of Man of War Bay and riding out the weather.

Monday morning we motor-sailed down to the harbor off Mathew Town.  On the radio, we were puzzled  by some conversations about a boat blocking the harbor entrance.  Once we got close in the dinghy, it became apparent that a supply ship was unloading in the small harbor.  There was enough room for a dinghy to squeeze past the bow of the ship but no large vessel could possibly enter.  This explained the navy vessel that had overtaken us en route and was now anchored off the town. After tying up the dinghy to the very high docks, we were met by Antonia from the tourism office!  She advised us about the location of Customs and Immigration, the local grocery store and the availability of free wi-fi at various spots.  We chatted to her about the possibility of an island tour in the afternoon.  She gave us her contact details to try to set something up.  Off we went to Customs and Immigration.

The Bahamas now has an on-line system for initiating the check-in process.  Mike had tried to access that system but our phone connectivity was poor and the system is not totally intuitive.  It turns out he was trying to do completely the wrong thing! The Customs officer seemed quite helpful and soon we were finished.  The next boaters in line chatted to us about the weather.  They said that Man of War Bay was unlikely to provide enough protection from the swell “as it always wraps around”.  Immigration was fairly straightforward, the helpful chap pointed out that we might wish to “over estimate” our length of stay as an extension would cost $200 per person!  In the end, they granted us a stay of 90 days, more than we need.

We got back in touch with Antonia and managed to set up a tour for four o’clock.  We went back to Cotinga for cameras, binoculars and more water.  A wander around the town (taking pictures) filled the time until our tour should start.  Our tour guide, Casper Burrows,  picked us up in his truck.  We stopped by his house for the scope and set off.  First up was the area around the Morton Salt plant.  The area of salt pans was staggeringly large.  The sea water is pre-concentrated in a series of steps that I didn’t fully understand, but takes about two years.  Then the saturated salt solution is pumped into the crystallizing “dishes” of perhaps an acre each.  As the water evaporates, the salt is deposited on the bottom.  Once the salt pack is thick enough any excess brine is drained off and heavy equipment is used scrape up the salt.  Naturally, this isn’t the most pure of salt.  Thankfully, it’s used to treat snowy roads in the north, not for table use!

Once past the salt operation, we drove through an area of mangroves with shallow water.  Here we started to see birds.  A few flamingos appeared to whet the appetite.  We saw many roseate spoonbills, great egrets, snowy egrets, least grebes, pied billed grebes, white cheeked pintails, blue winged teal, a sora, kingfishers, black necked stilts, green herons, reddish egrets (dark and white morphs), great blue herons, pelicans, osprey, black bellied plover, snowy plover, killdeer, kestrel, burrowing owl.  I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few!  We thought we saw at least 25 species during the 3 hour trip. Not only were there many species but also so many birds all over.   Most amazing were the sheer number of flamingos.  On a few mangrove “islands”, at a great distance,  one could see this pink haze.  Through the scope, the birds could be seen.  Casper estimated that there were about five thousand birds between the few areas.  He explained that the eggs are incubated for 28 days and the first birds had been nesting that long.  He thought there might be some chicks already with other nests more recently constructed.  

The sun was setting before we got back to the dock. We decided to stay overnight outside Matthew Town. We got the engine off the dinghy, hoisted the dinghy on the davits and generally got ready for an early departure in the morning.  Our plan was to go around to the south of the island to an anchorage behind the Molasses Reef.  

In the morning the wind was very light.  We pulled up the anchor and motored around to the south and entered the anchorage from the east.  No sooner had we got settled than a squall blew in bringing rain and the start of the winds from the northwest.  The anchorage developed a lot of white caps with winds about 20 knots.  Slowly over the afternoon the winds diminished down to about 10 knots.  Today there’s residual swell and still some wind from the northeast.  We are trying to formulate our plans for the next phase of the journey.  Today though we need to repair a small hole in the mainsail.  Fingers crossed!

Gloria

20 55.308 N, 73 36.563 W

Looking north to the anchorage off Matthew Town

The supply freighter that was parked almost completely across the harbor entrance provided some cool 'rusty boats and bits' photos

We liked this community building at the local playground - painted in flag colors

The road across the salt pans

Lake Rosa is not always wet. For the previous three years large sections of it have been dry, but this October heavy rains re-filled it (and diluted / dissolved the salt production). Flamingo nesting is greatly reduced in dry periods

Looking back along the road we drove by Lake Rosa

Casper Burrows, local tour guide, National Park warden and one of the most impressive birders we have ever met.

Flamingos in Lake Rosa

Ditto

Salt piles awaiting export. Casper estimated only 3-4 shiploads remain until they produce another batch

There were 11 boats in the Molasses reef anchorage last night. Most had arrived the previous day, but three boats, including ourselves, stayed off Matthew Town and motored around in the early morning

The Molasses reef anchorage is huge but completely open to the east - through south west. It is protected from the north. It took us two attempts to find a spot where we were reasonably happy we would not drag our chain across small rocks and patches of coral. You can easily see the bottom in 25 feet of water.