Little Farmer Cay to Rat Cay

I come out to the Exumas Sound via Farmer Cut at 8 AM.  Winds were abeam, so I pulled out the jib and sailed for about 4 hours, followed by an hour and a half of Motoring.  I came back in through Rat Cay cut and anchored off Boysie Cay, just south of Rat Cay. 

It was a beautiful anchorage with a beach, and I was the only boat around.  I was going to change.

My impeller, but the beach was so lovely,

I decided to dinghy to the beach and wash.  On the way back, the tilt mechanism broke.  A nut holding the pivot arm sheared off.  According to Norm, it happened before.  Fortunately, it was not critical, and I was able to dinghy back.  It wouldn't have been a pleasant experience to paddle back.  And nobody was around.  

I returned to Bellum and decided against changing the impeller, given my isolation; if something went wrong, I would be completely alone.  I chatted with Chris and Norm, and it was 5 PM, so I popped a beer.

The sunset was amazing.   

Supper was pork tenderloin on the grill.  

The next morning was so lovely that I decided to spend the day here instead of rushing to Georgetown, where I would stay until Norm's arrival in 17 days.  The only reason to rush was that the weekend would be windy and Georgetown would be much better protected.  

I took it easy in the morning, and in the afternoon, I changed the impeller, which apparently had 1100 hours on it.  I also tightened the shaft packing again.  

A Hunter with a Canadian flag came into my harbour but left after a couple of hours.  

Black Point to Little Farmer Cay

I left Black Point heading to Little Farmer Cay.

I was going to take the VPR route, but I lost my nerves and went out around Harvey Cay and back into Little Farmer Cay.  

Most of the other boats anchored near Kemp Bay. 

I saw the Yacht Club and anchored in the central bay south of the club.  I was pretty much alone.  

I took the dinghy into the Government Dock and walked around. 

I met Danzel, a 62-year-old Bohemian man, who gave me a pomegranate and was selling his art and pomegranates.  I guess he was a pomegranate farmer.  Nice guy.  I didn't buy anything. 

I walked through the island to the Yacht Club.  Nice restaurant and souvenir desk with Little Farmer Yacht Club T-shirts.  The docks were in reasonable shape, but there were no boats there. 

The population of the island was 60 people.  I imagine everyone was a member.  I walked back and bought some pomegranates from Danzel, who had picked them from the tree. 

I returned to the boat and had a Ramen supper. 

Staniel Cay to Black Pont settlement on Great Guana Cay North

Enough with Staniel Cay.  The club was friendly, and the town was mostly under construction. The three grocery stores, however, were pretty sad. 

Let's move on - Southbound.  But some more diesel would be comforting, as there might not be much fresh diesel until Georgetown.  There was a Cat at the fuel dock, taking her time.  I needed to charge the batteries, so I just did circuits for almost half an hour.  The club's Internet was still down.  Finally, I bought 9.5 gallons of diesel for 34 hours.  This comes out to an hour per litre, much of which was spent on battery charging.

I had to go to the Club booth to pay, which sort of explains why the Cat took so long to fuel  

I set off for either Great Guana Cay North or Little Farmer Cay.  Navionics wanted me to take the outside route.  I built a route on Aqua Map to go on the inside,  but it was shallow.  In the end, I improvised and motored around Harvey Cay - a long way around, but not much shallow waters.  It was high tide.  Winds were very light and close to the nose, and I needed to charge the frickin batteries. 

Took the green route

Anchored at Black Point Settlement and went ashore.  Not much to see.  There was a lot of new home construction, some bars, and the yacht club, which was big into racing and had Wi-Fi, mind you, very slow. 

Not tourist at all - a nice change

We walked back to the dinghy and then headed back to the boat for a lovely sunset. 

Major Cay to Staniel Cay - Single Again

About 10:30, we weighed anchor to do 5 miles to Staniel Cay.  The winds were strong from the south, and the bay had many shallow and deep areas. With the winds, I wanted a Goldilocks anchorage.  

Ronald from Subduction was anchored and trying to guide us to a good anchorage somewhat beside him.  It was a great anchorage. 

I dinghied Natalia to Staniel YC, where we had our goodbyes, and she left for the Airport.  

I walked around town and bought some fresh vegetables, butter and a dozen eggs.  $39.  Walked about 6 km. 

Had a BBQ pork chop at an outside stand.  For $18, there was food for 2-3 meals. 

I came back to the boat and chatted with Ronald, and his boat was a project boat without a motor.  He was anchored too close to the channel and was at the mercy of the current.  I was going to help him at Slack Tide. 

Ronald had successfully moved the boat and canoed by at 16:40, stating that the current had subsided, and he had successfully moved the ship by himself. 

Captain Ron is a young German captain who has a 32-foot project sailboat, single-handed without an engine.  He originally sailed a 27-foot boat from Europe to Mexico, where it got stolen at gunpoint.  He had a 32-foot project boat and sailed from Mexico, lost his mast, limped to Cuba, then to Florida, the Abacos, and now he's in the Exumas.  All without a motor.  He had a canoe for a dinghy.  He uses Open Captain for his chart plotter, but his GPS is now not working - probably due to corrosion on the USB connection.  He has paper charts.  This young man's got big ambitions.  Now Bellum looks like a super yacht. 

Compass Cay to Major Cay

This was a short run of about 5 miles.

Stupid mistake.  I was trying to take pictures of the mast head, and I crashed the drone.  Fortunately, she fell on deck.  Broken gimbal. 

Arrived at Major Cay 5-ish, rushed to see the pigs. 

Natalia was eager to prepare the anchor for deployment 15 minutes before arrival.  I said 'not yet,' and her response was a sarcastic 'whatever you say. '  

As previously mentioned, the pigs were aggressive.  I beached the dinghy to avoid what happened 3 years ago when we tried to feed the pigs from a dinghy. 

Lovely sunset from the beach

Pasta supper.  Natalia was fed up with pork.  Lots of dislikes on Bellum provisioning.  We had left Miami 17 days ago and did minimal provisioning in Nassau. 

Allen Cay to Compass Cay

We had a lovely 5-hour sail on the outside in 8 to 12 knots of wind, abeam to close reach. 

4 hours motor sailing and 1 hour sailing 

The red route is the outside path.

We navigated through some precarious foliage to reach Rachel's bath.  Natalia somehow lost on diving fin but found another one. 

We eventually got to Rachel's bath by dinghy.

Highbourne to Allen Cay

After recovery of the Rocna anchor, we made a short hop of 5 miles to Allen Cay. 

Natalia swam to see the Iguanas on the island while I flew the drone.  I swam to the island for a short visit.  The last time I was here was 15 years ago.  

Supper was pork tenderloin with Basmati rice.