Staniel Cay, Bahamas
24.11.183N
76.27.520W
We were still where we had set our anchor the night before (always a good thing) in Highbourn Cay, so when we hoisted anchor at 7:15am and made our way back out to the route south, we were happy that the winds were calm. In fact, they were way calmer than we had anticipated. We raised our main and had no problem transiting at more than 6 kts.
It was clear that we had another perfect motorsailing day. Hardly any wind and absolutely no waves. When I asked Dale his guestimate as to when we were going to make the Land and Sea Park, he thought perhaps noon or 1pm. I put the bug in his ear, that it would be a shame to waste a great day of motorsailing by turning off the path with hours of daylight still available.
Needless to say, when we arrived at Warderick at 11am, he simply called in and canceled our reservations. We consulted the chart for the next place we could make in daylight hours and still be protected from the anticipated 20 kt winds from the North tomorrow. We decided Staniel Cay was the next best place as its protected on almost 3 sides by various islands.
So for the rest of the day we gazed at the crystal clear tourquoise water (Geri G.-you could see your toes at 20 feet!) and did little odd jobs as we didn’t have to hang on for dear life. I started wiping down the sawdust that I assumed came from the construction site across from Palm Cay Marina. Dale had been making comments about our sling seat sliding down more and more, so I thought I would see if I could pull the foam core back up and into its original position. However, when I unzipped the seat, I saw that it was disintegrating and that was the “sawdust” I had found. This was upsetting as I had only replaced it 5 years ago and I thought that what I replaced had to have been from the original purchase so mine should have lasted more than 5 years. Mind you, we are the 3rd owners of this particular boat, so I’m not certain of anything if we haven’t done it ourselves. When I replaced it, I did so with a type that allowed water to flow through it instead of the seat acting as a giant sponge. As there was nothing I could do at this point, I simply zipped it back up and started thinking about where I could find substitute material.
We arrived in Staniel Cay at 2:30pm making incredible progress the entire day. We curled around and tucked in behind Big Major Cay (famous for the Thunderball Cave from the movie). We were surprised to see half a dozen boats already anchored as when we where here last, we met Roger and Elaine on Doc-No-More and it was only the 2 of us and possibly a 3rd boat that spent the night. The rest of the day, another 6 or more boats joined us, so this must be the right place to ride out the passing front. Dale acted as “cabana boy” bringing cool drinks to watch the procession.
Later, Dale consulted his weather forecast and the charts again saying that if tomorrow is like today and decidedly calmer than predicted, it would be better for us to continue traveling south rather then getting stuck somewhere for a couple of days cooling our jets while the weather passes. I agree, as he has wiping down the bottom of the boat on his “to do list” if we have to wait for awhile and if I remember correctly, this involves getting little brine shrimp all over you; in your hair, inside your bathing suit, in places that don’t require brine shrimp and make you squirm when you find them, YUCK! I’ll help but I’ve learned the hard way to stay upstream of the cloud that comes off.
