Great Guana Cay, Black Point Settlement & Staniel Cay

That line of waves is a large reef!  Beware!!

Pulling out of Georgetown about 9:00 am on the 5th,  we picked our way carefully through the reefs, one eye on reading the water, looking for dark patches that signal things that might be sticking up, tearing our hull and the other eye on the Chart Plotter and Depth Sounder.  We finally got out into open water.  

Turned gloomy underway

The weather forecasts and discussions we’re hearing via VHF are a bit alarming.  As we cruised in the bright sunshine, calm seas and light winds, we’re hearing of thunderstorms, 60 mph winds headed our way.  

Gotta get thru that cut - Dothan Cut near Black Point

The radar shows a horrific cloud full of thunderstorms NW of us, but still far away.  Bahamian weather is making no mention of any looming bad weather, but other forecasts do.  Seven hours later, we dropped the hook off Black Point Settlement, putting out nearly a 7 to 1 ratio on the anchor chain, hoping to ‘stick’ us more firmly in case of high winds.

In Dothan Cut - note the strong current

Strange, only 5 other boats here and about 5 more came in through the evening.  Plenty of room to drag is the bright side of things, I guess.  

Andy's 'done' with the lines

We busied ourselves with patching up our lines.  I’ve learned the technique of whipping the lines (Thanks, Internet!) and we’ve cut and whipped two lines that were badly chaffed when we fueled up in Road Town, Tortolla, BVIs.  They are looking good - just shorter than before.

Camera just can't truly capture the scene!

This potentially bad weather did, however, create perhaps the MOST BEAUTIFUL sunset we’ve seen.  Sitting on the aft deck, watching the clouds turn streaky orange in the brilliant blue sky, with the sun a huge magnificent orange, we watched it sink, hoping for the Green Flash.  No flash, but breathtakingly beautiful.  

Big boat anchored behind us in Staniel Cay

Watching nurse sharks at Staniel Cay

 Up at 5:00 am, rocking and rolling, waves slapping loudly on the hull, keeping me awake, I feel like a ‘sitting duck’.  We are unable to get wifi, which means no updated weather.  Is that squall line headed our way or not?  Sky is overcast, winds picked up but now have dropped a bit.  Guess we’ll sit here, hunkered down to Wait And See.  The boat is rocking so badly we’re holding on.  We can’t lower the dingy due to the severe rolling, so we are truly stuck. 

Lots of baby pigs this time!!

Finally bored to death, we pulled anchor and cruised over to the next anchorage off Staniel Cay, at Big Major.   Not much going on here either -- the pigs still swim out to greet boaters and the ‘Yacht Club’ was busy and pretty full of the tourists that arrived by air to stay in the little houses along the beach.  Same, same as before but not as much fun, as we didn’t meet anyone new or fun.

Looking for a handout of carrots

Rich folks off Fowl Cay Resort