Our crossing from Red Shanks to Cat Island on March 10 was great. We had good wind from the south east and were able to sail all the way across the Exuma Sound and into our anchorage (within 1.5 miles of our final resting spot!). It was a beautiful day – the wind and sun cooperated to give us a great sail. It did get a bit wavy about half way across and those waves continued until we were behind the south tip of Cat Island. We were fortunate that wind and waves were moving in the same direction so we rocked a bit but the wind kept us moving forward at a good speed.
We are currently anchored in the south east corner of the Bight – a large bay at the south end of Cat Island. As we travelled across the sound, we could see many other boats heading this way and we are now anchored with most of them. It’s a very large area so it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Today we explored a little creek near us called Joe Sound Creek and it had a very nice beach on the east side of the creek. We had a good walk along the beach and saw lots of shells. We also found several large holes – no idea what is using these holes but if it’s a crab, I don’t want to meet one on the beach!!
As usual we are expecting another slight blow Sunday and Monday from the north/north east, so tomorrow (Saturday) we will move to New Bight. This anchorage is in the same bay just on the north end so we will have better protection from the wind. We will also be close to the town and can do a bit of shopping and maybe some laundry. Before we leave this anchorage, we are having lunch at this little resort (Rollezzz Beach Resort) that’s very close to our current spot. It should be fun.
Our plans moving forward keep changing (the nature of sailing). We originally wanted to sail to Conception Cay, Rum Cay and Crooked Island – all of these are south east of Cat Island. Unfortunately, the prevailing wind in the Bahamas is east and we’ve been seeing a lot of south east. So it looks like we may be heading back to the Exumas to explore some areas we’ve missed in previous seasons.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 