We left Shroud Cay on a forecast of 12-17 knots of favorable wind and 3-5 foot seas. Let me tell you what I’ve learned about forecasts: they are sometimes made up. They are made up to encourage boaters to get out and sail, I guess. Often, they have little to do with reality. This was one of those times. The wind direction was less favorable than predicted, which was ok but meant that, in order to sail, we had to go a little wide of our destination. OK, we do this all the time. No big deal. The wind was also 20-25 knots as the day went on, gusting 30ish. Well, that’s a good bit of wind, but we have had 30 knot gusts before. Not ideal, but doable. Our boat can handle that, and so can we. The real issue was the sea state. 3-5 feet? Try 6-8. Gross. Uncomfortable. Hard on the boat, hard on the crew. And it caused us to make ridiculously slow progress. We had planned to get into Warderick Wells at slack tide, but instead we got to come in against the running tide to take a mooring in the narrow river of water at this park. We made it fine, but my nerves were shot by the time we did.Read more
From Rock Sound, Eleuthera, we took off towards the Exumas. This long, narrow chain of islands is known for pristine waters for snorkeling – one of my favorite things! So, although we were sad to leave the lovely people of Eleuthera, we got underway.
The trip across took about 8 hours, and we had to make it through a narrow cut to get to our anchorage once we made the Exumas. This meant we would need to time our arrival to coincide with the rising tide, so that we wouldn’t be fighting the rush of what can seem like a whole ocean flowing through a narrow creek. This time, the elements were cooperative, and though the trip was a bit more lumpy than either of us prefer, we were able to maintain speed and time it just right. Neither of us had much experience with piloting the boat in strong currents so close to reefs and rocks, so it was nerve-wracking, but ultimately just fine. We anchored on the West side of Highborne Cay, dove the anchor, swam around a bit, and had dinner and a good sleep.Read more
We ended up staying in Bimini at Bimini Sands Marina for several days, waiting for our chart chip to arrive. Side note: If you want something delivered to Bimini, just hire a courier and get it onto the seaplane from Ft. Lauderdale to Bimini. DHL is seriously unable to deliver on their dates. Or even to answer their phones. Or track a package… You’ve been warned!
While there, one of our daughters decided she and her husband would like to come see us for a week,which sounded great to us. Bimini didn’t seem like the best place to be for a whole week, so we mentioned Abaco or Eleuthera as possibilities, and she chose Eleuthera and booked their airfare. So we now had a place to be and a time to be there. We warned her that we might not be able to make it happen right on schedule, which she understood, and said they would figure out alternate plans if we were delayed.
So,as soon as the aforementioned charts were delivered, we got the heck out of there, planning to stop overnight on the banks, and/or at Chub Cay, and then on to Fleeming Cut. Once we got underway, though, we decided to take it all in one gulp and just kept going. We arrived at Fleeming Cut in afternoon light, which just allowed us to see the rocky bottom. Despite an anchorage being marked there,we had a tough time finding any kind of holding, but we finally did, and settled in for some rest. If you decide to try this route and/or anchorage, be aware that the current through here is strong and you will likely not lie to the wind. We didn’t. Weird.
In the morning, the wind was good for a sail up to Current Island, so we took off (We should have just sailed there first instead of Fleeming… Live and learn!). It looked like a good place to meet our guests. The beach just north of Current Cut turned out to be an excellent anchorage. We couldn’t have asked for a better anchor set; it was just textbook. Current Settlement is just a short way from the North Eleuthera airport, and the guidebook mentioned that we could provision there. Well, sometimes guidebooks are right, and sometimes they are so wrong…
We had a day to get the lay of the land before Cristen and Alex arrived, so we went ashore to get some fruits and veggies and find out about a taxi from the airport. As we walked into town, we asked a woman where the store was, and she sent two children with us to show us. They took us to the “store”. This was an outbuilding in someone’s yard. The young boy went to the main house and got a girl to come out and open the store. Inside, it wasn’t any more impressive. Maybe 10×11′. Swelteringly hot. With a few staples lining the walls and two small chest freezers with some meat. But no produce. We bought a slightly stale loaf of sliced bread, and went on a walk around town. There was not much to it, but it was interesting. We came across a lady on her porch, and asked about the grocery store referenced in the guidebook. Apparently, it had closed down two years before, after being there for over 50 years. I am sure the folks in this little settlement miss it greatly!
Current Settlement Fire Suppression
We spent three nights at this anchorage and really had a nice visit there. North of the anchorage, the rocks along the shore have been carved out by the waves, and made an excellent snorkeling day. Cristen and Alex tested out our new inflatable kayak and had a nice hike along a trail on shore,and we had some fun just exploring around via dinghy.
Alex Cristen
Our next destination was the infamous Glass Window,which required a transit through Current Cut. We took the dinghy over to the cut the day before we left to see what the tide running full force looked like. It was formidable, to say the least. Our trip through the cut was uneventful, even though we didn’t get our timing just right. We got a slow start, and ended up motoring against the very start of high tide, but it was fine-maybe 3-4 knots of current against us. I would not recommend trying it when the tide is running full force against you though; they say the current can be up to 10 knots!
Glass Window is a very narrow part of the island where you can see under a bridge (or over a ridge, if you hike up) to the Atlantic side. Alex is a photographer, so this sounded like a great place for him to take some awesome shots. The hike up to the top is a rough climb on volcanic rock, but we all made it just fine. What a sight to see the turquoise waters on one side, and the wild deep blue Atlantic on the other. Well worth the climb! As an anchorage,the holding was very good, and I’d recommend it in East wind.
While we were there, our friends Dave and Carolyn on Barefoot Gal mentioned that there was to be a Regatta in Governor’s Harbor, so we hauled anchor once again for the chance to see that. The town sounded like a great place to provision (for real this time), and the promise of seeing and photographing the regatta boats was calling us!
We ended up staying in Governor’s over a week, and I’ll write more about it next post. It was a great stay, and it was made even better by having Alex and Cristen with us. They are just as adventurous as we are, and were up for any crazy thing we thought about doing; just the kind of guests we love on s/v Consort!
