Eleuthera to Exumas again

By Capt. Scott Buckley

Its been awhile

I have not posted in awhile and much has changed.  We are currently in Houston looking for jobs.  The 1st mate has found one and the Captain is still looking and is hopeful.  I will try to catch this blog up.  We should get Internet tomorrow so they can be posted shortly.

Eleuthera

We were last at the southern end of Eleuthera and after touring the island we were waiting on a weather window back to the Exumas island chain to continue cruising. As predicted weather did show up but was nearly as bad as predicted.  I felt a stupid as the slip fee in Cape Eleuthera Harbor was around $80/night, but they had a pool that was super.

Back to the Exumas

We left Eleuthera for the Exuma land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells on March 30th.  We were still traveling in the company of SV Alice Mae.  The crossing was in light following winds so we ran the motor with the sails most of the way.  While enrounte we called the park to see if we could get a mooring ball in the north field at Warderick Wells.  They did not have any available so we signed up on the list for the next day.  We headed around to the bank side to find and anchorage in the southern Emerald rock mooring field.  We found and anchorage which was free.  We like free.


Leaving Cape Eleuthera Marina

  

Crossing Exuma Sound from Eleuthera to Warderick Wells Cay.

Exumas Land and Sea Park

The trip was about 27 miles but with an additional 6 miles because we had to pass up the northern mooring field and head around to the southern mooring field.  The winds were from dead astern at the end of the trip so I had to alter course slightly from the rum line. We anchored in about 7 ft of water with a sand bottom.  SV Alice Mae headed to anchor down behind Hog Cay.  The entrance looked a little narrow for us so we opted for the much easier approach into Emerald Rock.


Our route to the southern mooring filed at Emerald Rock.

There was this giant mega yacht anchored near by with some big shot on board. They would set up a big fancy dinner on the beach for the passengers each day and take it all down by night.  Mysteriously the boat did not have a name on it.


Monstrous Mega Yacht 

Changing Plans

There were a lot of discussion going on with the crew from SV Kooky Dance and what was next for us.  Things were costing much more than planned and we had a few more things to get right on the boat before we could scale back our efforts.  Whether we wanted to admit it or not we liked tying up in a marina once in a while when the weather was bad. This had a lot to do with our dinghy arrangement.  I have spent a lot of time blaming myself for not getting it right the first time but with a rowing dinghy that had to be assembled and lowered into the water at the bow we were often stuck on the boat during rough conditions.
More on this later.  Our next adventure existed in the Exuma Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wells the next day on April 1st.