Morgan's Bluff to Allans Cay (Exumas, Bahamas)

We woke up to an island, Morgan’s Bluff, of new hope and exploration. We had seen 4 people walking on the beach but when we arrived by dinghy there was no one around. We explored the few buildings there and then walked up and down the beach. We came across a beached sailboat. It appeared to be a 27’ Coronado with the name Moon Shadow. We tried to remove a pad eye or a cleat from it, our souvenir that would make us smile when we used it,  but the last screw on both wouldn’t budge. We walked on the island a bit, out to the bluff and we also found Captain Morgan’s Cave. That was huge underground and it was said that he put a light on the reef so that ships would come in and wreck on the reef, then plunder the cargo. It is the same guy as Captain Morgan Rum. What a jerk…but delicious rum.

Mark was able to catch a ride to town,, Nicholls Town, and get diesel. Another boat arrived, Alibi II, we decide to have sundowners together. We were up all night chatting, sharing stories and I was copying her music playlist. We had a great time with them.

We will prepare for our departure in the morning around 2am. We are headed to Nassau and then Highbourne Cay.

 

Oops! The alarm went off and I must have pushed the wrong button. We ended up getting up at 4am. Still not bad. Did all of our prep work before pulling the anchor. We headed out and we were on our way. Next stop Nassau. The tongue of the ocean, or the pocket, is about 2500ft deep. Some have said it is a worse crossing than the gulf stream from Florida. It was okay at first but as the morning progressed

We were taking 8ft waves on the bow of the boat and being sprayed with a shower full of salt water in the cockpit. We did this for 6 hours. By the time we got to Nassau we were hitting the banks. We thought for sure the 12ft of water, raising from 2500ft, would be more docile. Not so much. It was just as bad. We had felt so beat up we thought we should stop and find anchorage and try again in the morning. It is still another 29 miles to Highbourne Cay. In the end we decided with the weather clocking to the North tomorrow, we should push ourselves and make the run today. We arrived in anchorage in Allen’s Cay at about 6pm. November here the sun goes down early so it is just getting dark at 6pm. We got the anchor down, lines stowed and it was dark enough to take a shower on the swim platform of the boat and wash off all of the crystallized salt that had been sprayed all over us all day. I felt like a salt lick for some horse or goat.

Tonight Mark and I made chicken stir fry with orange zest for dinner and a couple of sundowners to round it off.

 

What a day!