Now that we are over halfway through March, we are making our way north, up the Exuma Islands. It’s time to get ourselves back to Grand Bahamas so we can cross back to Jacksonville. This has been an awesome season and we still have more exploring to do on the trip north.
After our cave adventure, we headed up to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay. I have talked about this place earlier because we stopped here on our way down. We did some laundry and had a lovely brunch at one of the restaurants in town. The anchorage was packed with boats when we arrived on Saturday but by the time we left Sunday afternoon, about 1/2 of the boats had departed. Like us, a lot of boats are heading north!
Today we are happily anchored back at Big Majors Spot which is the large anchorage next to Staniel Cay. We came in yesterday afternoon and found a great place to anchor that is fairly close to shore – nice and protected! We went into Staniel Cay this morning to do a bit of shopping and on our way in, we saw a dinghy rowing, with some difficulty, towards the shore. We went over to see if the couple needed help and sure enough, their dinghy motor had quit on them. We towed them into Staniel Cay Yacht Club and then did a bit of shopping with the woman, Jane, while Jane’s husband John, tried to get the motor fixed. It was our good deed for the day.
It was a really good thing that we went shopping this morning because we had a doozy of a rain storm this afternoon. We had about 3 squalls with lots of rain and a bit of strong wind (a few gusts 20 knots). The best part was that we were dry inside the boat and the decks got a much needed washing!! Our anchor held well – the manson is desperately trying to redeem itself after the Cat Island fiasco.
In the morning we are making our way a whole 7nm north to Pipe Creek (a new anchorage for us). Here we will be reconnecting with our friends Jane and Steve on Daydreams ll. This is one of their favourite anchorages so we look forward to exploring the area. We have a few days of strong winds coming up so our next move is still undecided. We are aiming for a mid April return to the USA (April 18 is the next full moon and if it’s visible, it would make a nice crossing environment!) so we have to be up near West End, Grand Bahamas Island before that time.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 