Black Point

By Capt. Scott Buckley

Location: Great Guana Cay, Bahamas

We left Roberts Cay on 30 Jan and headed to Shroud Cay.  There were no mooring balls available, (a recurring theme down here is the early bird catches the mooring balls) and anchored down south of the mooring field.  The wind piped up overnight and some of the boats found that uncomfortable.  Kooky Dance road well at anchor.

The next morning two boats of our group decided to leave (SV Alice Mare and SV Sole Serenade) and Kooky Dance and Signara stayed another day.  The weather was good and I swam and snorkeled around.  The water however was cold.



It made me sad to see our little group of traveling companions breaking up but each boat has their own plan and agenda.  SV Alice Mae needed well protected anchorages, Sole Serenade had to be back in the USA at the beginning of March so they were pressed to work their way south quickly. 

But I had a feeling we would meet up again somewhere.

Working our way South

We were a little frustrated with running from the weather and the fact the water was too cold to enjoy with any degree of comfort.  We made the decision to work our way well south to warmer water and plan to return to these island later in the year when the weather starts becoming more settled and warmer.  We planned to sail the next day for Staniel Cay.  SV Alice Mae was in that area and SV Sole Serenade was headed to Black Point Harbor.
We planned to head to Staniel Cay the next day and bypass a couple of islands.  We pulled the hook at Shroud Cay and set off.  as we passed by Hawksbill Cay the winds had increased to 25 knots and were climbing to 30 knots.  We were towing the dinghy and I was concerned if something happened to the dinghy in the growing sea it would be difficult for us to do much to save it.  I suggested turning back and going into Hawksbill Cay.  Soon the sea were so high the first mate concurred with my suggestions.  As we were going in we passed another vessel heading out.  We told them of the conditions we encountered but they thought it would be OK.  A couple hours later we watched them return to Hawksbill next to us.  Little was said like; "I TOLD YOU SO".  Another boat called us and said they were having some sail troubles and did Hawksbill look OK to put into to set out the high winds.  We told them to head on in.  That vessel was SV Sunshine with Alicia and Gary on board.  We met them that afternoon and they were a delight.

The next day we set off for Staniel Cay but after getting started changed our plans to get all the way to Black Point Harbor where SV Sole Serenade was anchored.  We had heard a lot of good things about Black Point and it was farther south so we were game. 

We arrived at Black Point about 3PM with winds from the SSW which were "on the nose" so we were motoring and not sailing.  The approach into Black Point was pretty easy and we anchored down next to SV Sole Serenade.

The evening we went into town and met some more cruisers and reconnected with Jimmy and Sue of Serenade.

 

Black Point

Black Point is a pretty amazing place when it comes to Cruiser services in the out islands. There are 3 restaurants, a big new laundry, RO water, trash collection and 2 dinghy docks with some nice benches to hang out at in the evening. 

We have enjoyed happy hour at Lorraine's and Scorpios.  We have done our laundry and taken on 12 gallons of water. 

 

Early tomorrow 5 Feb we plan to head to Farmers Cay for the festival of the 5 F's.  The weather may not be so great but if we can get a ball we will likely stay.