Highbourne Cay, Bahamas
24.42.808N
76.49.808W

This is what it's all about. After consulting the charts, we decided that Rose Island (as suggested in our guide) was really an unnecessary step. We exited Nassau from the eastern channel and motored half of our distance across the Yellow Bank without any wind. The Bank was like a pond; 10-20' deep most of the way; not a single ripple for as far as you could see, except of our own wake behind us. When you looked towards the sun you could see the horizon but when you looked away from it, the crystal clear pale green that was beneath us progressed into a white that eventually became the sky. In other words, you couldn't see where the sea ended and the sky began.

Clearly visible below us was a sandy bottom with the occasional tuft of sea grass, fern or small coral head with star fish scattered around like stars in the sky, and small fish gathered around for dinner on the coral. When we approached we could see the fish scatter and it made me wonder about the night we crossed the Bahama Bank. The Bahama Bank was 8-10' deep most of the way; we draw 5.5 feet. Can you imagine the poor fish that cuddled up to a tuft of sea grass for the night, only to be awakened by a winged keel plowing its way at 7.5 kts. through his bedroom at 3 o'clock in the morning?

Dale and I took turns standing on the bow watching what at first appeared to be inky patches in front of us transform themselves into coral heads and then quickly decide if they were shallow enough to go over, or if we needed to go around them, whereupon we'd would point frantically to one side or the other. Even at 6 kts., you approach them rather rapidly.

During the second half of the day the wind picked up, we let out our jib and picked up speed. With the ripples on the water, you couldn't see the bottom as clearly, so with our entertainment obscured and the coral heads behind us, we went back to the cockpit and savored the perfect weather.

We reached our destination of Highbourne Cay just before 4 in the afternoon and anchored below the Batelco tower on the west side as the winds are predicted to clock around and come from the east tomorrow. Right now you can see hundreds of stars and the milky way. The moon hasn't come up yet, so I was surprised to see what appeared to be a moon beam on the water. I called Dale up to see for himself. You see, Mars is so bright tonight, it's casting its reflection in the water. Absolutely amazing. This is what it's all about.