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The motor yacht left early and we got a slow start. In the mornings we saw a dozen or so young people jogging or riding bikes in a group. The harbormaster said they have a dive camp where they teach people to dive and take them out on the dive boat. Several of them swam across the harbor but one got half way and started coughing and looked to be in trouble. The instructor who was a SEAL jumped in and rescued him. We filled the water tanks and the sun shower and 2 of the collapsible jugs so we have lots of water for the next leg. We took a final shower with the hose on the pier. We filled the icebox with ice and at 5 PM we departed. The wind was a little gusty from the SE but there were not thunderclouds like yesterday. Just as we turned the corner of the harbor to go out the channel we saw another large sailboat heading in the channel and made a quick U turn to let them pass. Out in the sound the water quickly dropped from 12 to off scale. We could sail S or just E of S at 5 Kt and faster in the gusts with just the jib up. The wind increased to 15-20 Kt and the seas increased to 3-4 after we were out of the shelter of Eleuthera.
The motor cruiser family burned a hole right through one of the picnic tables with their disposable grill. They left at 0730. :) We have stocked up with ice and H2O. Peggy told me that 2 Arabs built Cape Eleuthera Resort in the early 80's. There were 400 cottages! They had an air strip and sea planes landed. They owned both sides of this peninsula. They were only here for a few years. Now its all a ruin!
I went beach combing and found a couple pieces of drift wood and some colorful shells. (For Amber and Candice :) ).
We have been watching clouds pass by for days. No rain has fallen here though. We are planning to leave here at 5 PM and sail all night to the Exumas.
This morning about 6 kids swam across the harbor - behind us. One boy had an acute asthma attack. his coach rescued him.
We have showered here on the dock with the water hose. :) We paid our bill and filled the H2O tanks and waved good by to the Harbor Master. I also left here our x-tra used books. We took off from the dock about 5 PM and headed South. We sailed all-night. It was a fair wind (3 - 4.5 kts speed) The waves were rough - 3 - 4' - not bad. The winds were so variable that we could not auto pilot - so we took turns steering. I did my fair share :). We mostly traded off every four hours - till 5:30 AM when Rich took over and I went to sleep till ten! It's hard to get a good crew. We could see Exumas on the horizon. We found the Cave Cay Cut about 1 PM. That was exciting. Water rushing in and out and all around. One spot had a knuckle 10 x 10' and you could see a sandy and coral bottom in 20 ft of water? I hung off the front of the boat watching for coral heads - though there and until we anchored. Rich dropped the anchor between coral rocks. A motor cruiser and a small sailboat are also anchored here. The sailor called to us. When we put the motor on the dingy and after we put down anchor # 2 we went over to talk to him. His name is Dave, he's a mechanic and sailing alone from Florida. The water is very clear. About 16 ft. As we were checking it out we saw a 4' barracuda swimming around the boat. he stayed. I put fish on my fishing line and he took the hook after Rich played with him a few minutes. He took the leader - broke it :). Now he will leave or be mad at us! :)
Rich says a mail boat ran over an anchored boat in this spot. Smile. We'll keep our light BRIGHT!
We passed under one line of clouds and could see rain to the W but we only
got a few drops. Later we came to another line of clouds with lightning and
tacked E to let it blow by. The sky was mostly clear and the stars were
impressive. The wind shifted slightly to the S so we could not make the direct
course which was due S. We tacked several times during the night and the wind
and seas slowly subsided so that by dawn it was only blowing 10 Kt. We tacked a
few more times and finally reached Cave Cay Cut at 2 PM. A sport fishing boat
was working the waters off the cut. The only other boats we saw was a small
fishing boat when leaving Cape Eleuthera and the lights of 2 boats in the
distance at night. Approaching the cut, all we could see were a bunch of
impressive rocks and islets which form the S side of the inlet. As we got close
the inlet opened up and we could see the tide rushing out and creating white
water on the rocks on the S side. There were several houses on the Cay to the S
and a string of 8 identical little cabins on the beach, apparently new and not
quite completed. We motored thru slowly and found deep water all the way. Around
the corner behind Cave Cay we found a sport fishing boat and a small sailboat
anchored so we found a place near them and anchored also. After putting the
motor on the dingy we set a second anchor because of the tidal current and then
dingied over to the small sailboat. The single hander had shouted hello to us as
we came in. He is on his way to Georgetown and then wants to go thru the Abacos
for the first time. He has been thru the Exumas several times. We returned to
the boat and read and napped for the rest of the afternoon. We had a blanket and
a sheet up for sun shades but at 5 the tide changed and the boat swung around so
the shades were in the wrong place. I started to unclip one from the back of the
boat. I happened to look down into the water and there was a large fish. It
turned out to be a 4 barracuda and it was slowly swimming around under the
boat. It would swim under and poke its head out one side and then the other
side. Jill tossed it a piece of sausage but it was not interested (it was not
the greatest sausage). For dinner Jill fixed the rest of the dolphin and put
some scraps on a fishhook. After 10 minutes the barracuda hit the hook but we
did not hook him. The bait was still on the hook and we played around with him
for a while and watched him looking the bait over. He finally took a good bite
of it and we had him but he was just too big for our equipment and after a few
minutes he broke the leader. After dark a small powerboat with no lights went
past us. Must be a local to run these waters at night. Even with a nap in the
afternoon we were both tired and went to sleep early.
We had a very quiet night and even thought the current caused the boat to
line up in a different direction than the wind there was plenty of breeze and
the night was cool. We slept late and caught up on the sleep we missed
yesterday. The small sailboat had left when we got up in the morning but the
powerboat was still there. We spent the morning reading and relaxing and then
listened to Rush in the afternoon and I took another nap. At 4 we gathered our
snorkel gear and headed for Cave Cay. On the entrance to the harbor we could see
signs saying DANGER but could not read the rest until we got close. They are
in the process of building a marina and want boats to stay clear of the big
equipment. There was a large dredge in the middle of the harbor and buildings
going up at the N end. We retreated to the beach on the outside just N of the
entrance and looked for shells. There were a number of nice conch shells and a
few live ones in the shallows. Jill saw some small lobsters scurrying around. In
the rocks behind the beach was a small cave that went back at least 30 and we
could see light coming in from a hole above but the entrance was blocked by
stalactites. We saw numerous lizard eggs in the depressions in the rocks and one
good sized lizard watched us as if protecting her eggs. We returned to the boat
and since we could not see the big barracuda anywhere we decided it was safe to
go swimming. We found a nice coral head about 40 from the boat with a number of
small and medium sized fish. There were lots of soft corals and some sponges in
the area and a number of smaller coral encrusted rocks but fortunately no more
barracuda. After a sun shower we had happy hour and played spite and malice.
Modesty prevents me from announcing the big winner. As the sun went down the
wind decreased and we could hear goats on the island. The sky was overcast with
high clouds which kept the sun from shining as brightly as usual and kept us
cooler than normal.
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