Warderick Wells to Black Point, and what lies beyond

Last time we checked in, we were tied up to a mooring ball in Warderick Wells, exhausted from hiking the miles of trails on the island.  After blogging, we went for a swim.  The mooring field is just a winding channel of deeper water in the middle of shallow water.  At low tide, these sand bars turn into little beaches in the middle of the bay.  We swam to one of them and lazed about until the sandbar disappeared from under us as the tide came back in.  Not a bad way to cool off and unwind.

Earendil, hanging out on the ball. You can see the shallow parts that end up above water at low tide.

Glenice on the other side of the low-tide "beach".

The next morning, we headed out.  We were only planning to head down about six miles to Little Hall's Pond Cay (owned by Johnny Depp) to anchor and then dinghy over to the Sea Aquarium, an excellent snorkeling spot.  Glenice (we've been running into them since we hit the Exumas, and they got to Warderick Wells when we did) was also heading out.  We thought we'd try the outside, since the current was taking us that way.  We went right, and Glenice went left.  It looked a little choppy, but we thought it was just where the current met the bigger waters of the Exuma Sound.  It was a little rough, but we thought once we made it past the chop, maybe it would smooth out.  Nope!  After the chop, the waves just got bigger.  I think they're the biggest waves we've been in on the trip.  It was rough, and we were rolling all over the place.  Even though we only had to endure it for a mile to the south, we didn't think we could take it.  So we headed back in to the cut.  Unfortunately, the current that took us out so fast was now pushing against us.  The GPS said we were going 0.9 knots.  Not very fast.  We finally made it back in.  Once we were past the choppy bits, Trevor put up the main sail to give us some speed.  We climbed to 3 knots!  Now we're talking.

After that bit of adventure (and an hour wasted going the wrong way), we looked to see how we could cut off some time.  As we passed the east end of Warderick Wells, there was a big shallow sand bar, but the chart indicated a slightly deeper path cut through the middle of it.  We decided we would try to find it.  Using only our eyes, we managed to find the deepest path through the sandbar.  We saw nothing less than 7', and cut off a mile or two!  Yay for visual piloting!  After that small victory, we looked for more "VPR" routes (shallow routes where you have to use your eyes to judge the depth and keep from running aground).  We ran across another one to cut over toward Hall's Pond Cay.  We had no idea what the depth was, just that it went from dark green to pale, pale blue.  We turned the boat and ran across it on a tilt. Zoom!  And we were over it, with 6' under us.  Sweet!  Then on to bluer and deeper water.  The we ran down the inside coast of Hall's Pond Cay, but the current was against us again, so we only made 3 knots.  The water shallowed, and it was time for more excitement.  We cut across another bar (5' under us) and headed toward Little Hall's Pond Cay.  This was where the water got really skinny.  We managed to pick our way through the shallows and kept 4' under us at all times.  We hit deeper water as we rounded the Snake Cays and scooted down the coast of Little Hall's Pond.  The anchorage shown on the map was less than impressive, so we went back up and around the Snake Cays.  Did I mention it was low tide?  Yep, we navigated shallow water at low tide.  We are awesome!  We anchored just north of the Snake Cays in 5' of water.  Pretty protected and good holding.  Then we donned our swimsuits, gathered the snorkel gear, and headed down to the Sea Aquarium!

We heard from many people that the Sea Aquarium was a must-see in the Exumas.  We dinghied down there, getting passed by bigger dinghies many times.  There are only 2 dinghy moorings, so we tied up to a boat that was already there.  And over we went.  Gorgeous coral from little soft corals to big coral heads.  Hundreds of sergeant majors hang out just under the surface to greet snorkelers.  We saw at least half a dozen queen angelfish (my favorite fish in the sea, unbelievably beautiful), lots of snapper (they looked delicious), and a wide assortment of other reef fish.  We estimate the water ranged from 10-25'.  I dove down a few times to take pictures, and I'm pretty sure I made it to 20 feet.  I'm getting pretty good at this skin diving stuff (go me!).  Then we loaded up and headed back to the boat.

We saw a couple of people (and a couple of dogs) on the beach of Little Hall's Pond Cay.  Though we didn't get close enough to see (hate to intrude on their privacy), I'm pretty sure one of them was Johnny Depp.  Fun with celebrity-stalking!  The island is gorgeous, with a couple of houses and quite a few nifty bridges connecting hills.  If I were an eccentric millionaire (billionaire?), I'd want to own an island like that.

I made oatmeal cookies that afternoon, comparing methods of "baking".  I cooked some on the grill and some in a skillet.  All the cookies turned out pretty good.  And we had a pretty awesome sunset, too.

Sunset at Snake Cays

Sunset

The next morning dawned bright and breezy.  We had an east wind, and we sailed off the anchor and back across the shallows we'd crossed the day before.  But it was high tide, so we just scooted right over them.  We zoomed southwest until we were well pass all the sand bars, then turned south.  As much as we could.  The wind was now in the southeast, so it was more on our nose than we like.  The water got rougher as the day went on.  Our short, 2-hour day turned into a 5-hour day.  That's what happens when we get excited about a short day.  We fought the wind and waves and finally made it in to Sampson Cay.  Someone told us it's a great place to resupply, so we dinghied into the marina to check it out.  We saw the boat "Southern Belle", who had been kind enough to let us borrow their phone back on Highborne Cay.  We said hi, and they told us about a lunch deal at the restaurant.  We went over for $2 appetizers.  Wings, tacos, and sliders!  We were in heaven.  Our ice had been long gone, so we didn't have any meat that wasn't canned.  It was such a treat!  We went back to the boat and relaxed for a while.  But there was a ton of traffic there.  Dinghies, tenders, jet skis, runabouts.  And fast!  We were constantly rocked by their wakes.  Not so much fun.  We called down to Glenice, who were anchored at Big Majors Spot near Staniel Cay to see how the anchorage there was.  They said there was plenty of depth and room close to shore.  We planned to head down first thing in the morning.  As we were looking at the chart, we realized it was only 2 miles away.  Screw this high traffic, let's go down there!  So we hauled up anchor and headed down to Big Majors.  Of course, we took the shallow route down for a shortcut and a little adventure.  We got anchored near shore and headed over to Amata Marie, where the party was.  Always good times when cruisers get together.

Big Majors Spot is an interesting place.  It's an excellent anchorage, very sheltered from east winds.  But everyone knows about it.  There were a ton of boats there!  And quite a few of them were megayachts.  Megayachts themselves aren't a problem, but the swarms of jet skis, tenders, and dinghies that fly out of them are.  They zoomed through the anchorage, kicking up wakes and going entirely too close to the boats anchored.  I got all stressed out thinking about them running over our anchor line.  All it takes is one boat coming too close, cutting our anchor line, and sending us on our way to Andros.  I then remembered reading about using a kellet to drag the anchor line lower in the water.  It increases holding power and, in this case, keeps the line out of harm's way from inconsiderate boaters.  So I took my diving weight belt, loaded weights into it, and put it through a loop in the anchor line.  It did the trick!  Our line sat about a foot lower in the water, and it eased my mind considerably. 

We went in to Staniel Cay to do some grocery shopping.  The prices were absurdly high in Sampson (though we didn't know it until we checked out, because they don't put prices on their groceries, very sneaky and evil).  I got soaked going to shore against the wind and into the waves.  But we pulled the dinghy up on shore and went shopping at the stores in town.  Grocery stores here are very different from those in the States.  They're small buildings, sometimes just additions to someone's house, with a small selection of goods.  But the people are nice and helpful, and we got some more essentials.

That afternoon, at slack tide, we dinghied over to Thunderball Grotto.  Yep, from the James  Bond movie.  It was a very cool snorkel, with a cavern overhead and lots of fish below.  There are a few holes in the "roof" that let in shafts of light, dramatically lighting the water below.  I took a whole roll of pictures, and I hope a few come out.  It was pretty dark in there, so the pictures may be terrible.  We won't know until we're back in the US and get them developed.  Film.  So inconvenient.  :)

After Thunderball, we dropped our gear on the boat and went to the "pig beach".  There are pigs on the beach.  People come in from their boats and feed them, so they come right up to you in your dinghy.  A big one tried to get right into our dinghy.  Yikes!  It was an odd thing to see pigs strolling on the beach.  Not what you think of when you think of the Bahamas.

The next morning, we were very happy to leave the megayachts and their hordes of obnoxiousness behind.  The wind was picking up quite a bit, so we raised the main and zoomed downwind.  We rounded Harvey Cay and made a beeline for Black Point with the wind on our quarter.  We made it in to the anchorage and moved closer to shore than the rest of the boats.  We're shoal draft, so we're used to parking in front of everyone else.  The holding here is excellent; our anchor has never been dug in so deep.  Our friends on Glenice and Amata Marie are also down here with us, waiting out the winds.  There were Easter weekend festivities here in town all weekend, and we enjoyed some of the local food.  These people are excellent cooks.  And there's internet here! 

The wind is going to keep blowing pretty hard for the next few days, so by the time we leave, we'll probably be here a week.  But there are definitely worse places to be "stuck".  There are no megayacts here, just real cruisers.  It's a nice change.  Less traffic, less noise, and everyone is considerate.  The way things should be.

Stormy clouds moving in.  Trevor snorkeling over the anchor.

Overlooking the anchorage at Black Point

They have random "let's stand around and hang out" buildings all over town.  Such a fun community.

Trevor, enjoying some sunshine.

BASRA dock at Black Point

Janice (from Glenice) playing basketball with the local kids

Cruisers hanging out and eating. 

Our original plan (as much as we "plan" anything) was to turn around at Black Point and start making our way home.  We're running very low on cash at this point, and we won't be able to get more until we hit Eleuthera, if then.  The group we've been traveling with is heading down to Georgetown once the wind eases.  After much discussion, we've decided to head down there with them.  There are several reasons for this.  One is the need for cash.  Also, it's beautiful here.  We're afraid that when we get back to the States, we'll be so let down that we won't want to cruise anymore.  Part of the reason for leaving the Bahamas is the expensive food.  But we have money saved up for a reason.  If our travels end quickly once we leave, we hate to have money left over because we were so hasty.  We'd rather burn through our cruising kitty in paradise than mope through the muddy waters of the ICW and wish we'd stayed here just a little longer.  Once we're in Georgetown, we'll be mere miles away from the Tropic of Cancer.  Taking the boat across that line is a pretty impressive feat, and we'd love to get there while we're so close!

So we'll still be in the Bahamas for a bit.  Have I mentioned it's amazing here?  Because it is.  We'll come back to the real world eventually, but we're not in any hurry.