Tuesday 28 Jan, BHS day 29: From Cambridge Cay to Compass Cay, to visit the famous marina with nurse sharks, the fish equivalent of puppy dogs!
After 3 nights in Cambridge Cay, we are quite eager to make a move. But first, after breakfast, we head back over to Pete and Tracy to get their navigational advice on what else to see in the Exumas. After two seasons here they really know this place well. So Oana writes notes and I plot markers on the iPad chart while Pete enthusiastically shows the best places where we can anchor with our draft and various wind conditions. Pete has some very nice paper charts by NV Charts, which show the area with much more clarity than our iPad chart and plotter. Pete has the same series for Cuba too. But as they are no longer going to Cuba (their insurance doesn’t cover them to cruise there) we agree on a deal, leaving us happily in possession of a full set of these charts for Cuba. I’m happy because our Navionics really didn’t inspire confidence for Cuba.
We leave them with a renewed enthusiasm to stay longer in the Exumas while we have this opportunity. So as we bid farewell, we are pretty certain we will be bumping into them again before we leave Bahamas.
As soon as we are back on Cloudy we immediately lift the anchor and motor out to the deeper water and head to Compass Cay, just 4 miles to the south. Looks like we can only get in there on a high tide, and by now it’s already well into the ebb. The shallowest we see on the way in is 2.9m. Close, but OK. Like I’ve said before, we are getting used to these skinny depths. I just need to make sure this new confidence doesn’t turn into recklessness.
Once through the marked channel the water deepens and tidal flow increases. We anchor in the cut with the tachometer showing a steady 2kts of current. Too fast to consider swimming to check the anchor, I’d be whisked off out to sea! That said, we do take two attempts to anchor. First time I tried to go too close to the edge of the channel to avoid the strongest current. But that landed us in 2.9m of water with 0.70m of tide to still drop. That won’t do! So we re-anchor more into the middle of the channel.
As we wait for an hour or so to make sure the hook is well in, we fly the drone. Again, spectacular views from up there, blue sea, islands and sweeping white sand banks all around us.
We also take some time to discuss options for the rest of the season. We have been much slower than I anticipated. First, due to being weather bound so much on the way from USA to Bahamas, and second, because we are not wanting to rush the Bahamas now that we are in love with it. And we still have Cuba, Cayman and Jamaica to do (which we don’t want to rush either) before heading to Panama. At this rate, we will likely be quite late transiting the canal and start the South Pacific season. We are thinking that maybe we should continue to take our time and perhaps have another summer break in Europe leaving the boat in the southern windwards, likely Trinidad. It would be a hard upwind sail back to the windwards, but it would also be an exhilarating one. After a few months layup period, the plan would be to start again in October and head direct to Panama via the Dutch Antilles, or ABCs (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao). Hmmm, very tempting to both of us, having another summer in Europe. Let’s see how we sleep on the idea for a night or two. Knowing us, tomorrow morning we will likely decide to head to Greenland instead, or something equally as whacky!
By 2pm we are heading ashore to the Compass Cay Marina. It would be $250 per night for our size of boat to dock there, but it’s only $10 per head to land with the dinghy. The main attraction is to see the marina which is renowned to be like an aquarium, and more noteworthy: the nurse sharks. As we get close in the dinghy we do see the odd shark hanging around on the bottom. Hmmm, is this how it will be? Another overrated attraction?
But once in the Marina we are not disappointed. Right next to the office are probably 10-15 large nurse sharks (up to 2m long) all swimming around in 1m of water. And as we get close to them on the dock, they gather around in a cluster, swimming over each other to get closer, clearly expecting food… or the odd human finger or toe! The Marina guy warns us to be careful with our fingers and toes! I had planned to jump in and swim with them, but after this warning, plus lots of shark stories last evening on Pete and Tracy’s boat, I make an executive decision not to! And it’s reinforced when several of the sharks stand on their tails, with eager mouths out the water showing their neat little rows of teeth. Small teeth granted, but they do look rather sharp! We watch them for a while, and click lots of pictures.
There are trails all over the island, so we take a walk. It’s all very environmentally done. Just small sandy tracks with no attempt to add hardtop or concrete. We take the trail signed to the beach, on the east side.
And oh-boy what a beach it is, curving in a perfect crescent shape around the bay. The water is that perfect blue, not too light but not dark either. And the pristinely clean white sand is fine like powder. We quickly declare this as the best beach we have seen in Exumas. Certainly on par with Dunmore beach in Eleuthera. Except of course zero development here, which makes it very natural. And, we have the entire beach to ourselves. If ever there was a beach paradise, this has to be it!
We walk the entire beach from one end to the other, in marvel of its beauty, then finally work our way back to the marina on a different trail. If only all Caribbean islands could be kept as pristine as this. It makes me mad at how so many have been rubbished by their none caring populations.
We say hello again to the nurse sharks. They really are like the fish equivalent of puppy-dogs! Then we head back to Cloudy, going via another beach or two. But the sun is now hiding behind a black cloud and the light is just not the same.
Back on board, the tide is starting to swing and I dive to make sure the anchor will reset OK. All looks good and we swing to the new current no problem.
That black cloud is on us till dinner time and it rains for most of the evening. Heavy proper rain.
Meanwhile, we have a very productive evening. Oana makes bread and her wonderful “biscuits salami” cake (soaked in rum!) and we finish yet another video. We have few episodes ready to upload now… when we next have WiFi, which won’t be very soon – one of the downsides of paradise!