Highbourne Cay to Great Harbor is about a fourteen hour trip so we decided to stop at High Cay along the way. It looked like it would be a good anchorage providing protection from the SE winds. With clear water and no other boats it seemed perfect. We dropped anchor and then took a breather. Noticing a little roll we decided it was okay for one night. And then the boat rocked thirty degrees from side to side and a full cup of tea went flying. Then it rolled again and we didn’t even need to talk. We just started getting the boat under way and bringing up the anchor. Seems the waves refracting around the point set up a nice roll that would not be going away.
As we set out I started frantically checking ActiveCaptain for another anchorage. We had ninety minutes of daylight left so it needed to be within ten miles. Eureka! Little Gaulding looked like it might work. It was a tight run through the channel and then a couple ninety degree turns to get into a small anchorage. If there were other boats already there it probably wouldn’t work. But the first line of description for the anchorage was “no swell” so we decided to chance it. Plan B would be Soldier Cay but we would be arriving after dark and that is something we try not to do especially if we’ve never been there before.
We made the entrance and other than a small dinghy sightseeing there wasn’t another boat around. Gary stuck the Laa-Dee-Dah in the very middle of the anchorage and a good thing he did. The current caused the boat to do a 180 degree rotation through the tidal changes and water depth on the edges was very shallow. But the water was crystal clear and best of all, calm. A nice dinner on the aft deck followed by a georgous moon and we were happy. So much so that we decided to stay a couple days instead of moving on.
While there we were visited by a couple large sting rays, turtles and funniest of all, three remoras. Remoras in The Bahamas get to be about three to four feet long and look very intimidating. They can be identified by the large ridged area on their foreheads that looks like the bottom of a flip flop. Kind of a “Klingon” look for you Star Trek fans. They love food garbage so we gave them some leftovers and watched the feeding frenzy.
From there we retraced our route around the north side of the islands past the cruise ship playgrounds and are now anchored off of Great Harbor. We’ll be here until Thursday when we’ll move into the marina in time for BBQ Friday and Pizza Saturday to wait out the next blow. Hopefully we’ll be leaving on Tuesday to head back to Florida.
Our Bahama adventure is drawing to a close and I have to say I’m really going to miss the beautiful water, slower pace of life and of course the people that are always so welcoming and fun.