Underwater jobs in peaceful Cambridge Cay

Saturday 25 Jan, BHS day 26: From O’Brien’s Cay to Cambridge Cay, and hookah diving to epoxy rudder and dents in the hull.

It’s another wonderful breakfast in these wonderful peaceful surroundings. And I realise Oana has been away from civilization for several straight days now. Such is the effect on her of these stunning and peaceful cays.

Finally the sun is shining brightly. We fly the drone (and keeping all my fingers intact this time!) and the scene from up high is picture perfect. Then we are off in the dinghy again. This time we go up to Little Halls Pond Cay, which is supposed to be Johnny Depp’s Bahamas property. And Johnny Depp’s being Oana childhood heart throb we have to go there! It has the usual pleasant small white beaches and it’s clearly a private island, but we can’t see the expected palatial film-star type house anywhere. So is it really JD’s pad, or does he just like a more simple existence when he comes here, we wonder?
Then we snorkel again on The Aquarium, and it’s much nicer in the brighter light today. But at the sunken aircraft the current is too strong to swim against, even with flippers. So we just take some pics over the side of the dinghy.

Back at Cloudy, after our mid-morning coffee, I try out our new, and as yet unused, GoPro bubble. Basically it’s a clear perspex half sphere, with the GoPro in a waterproof housing in the center. The idea is that you can hold it at the water-air interface and get a focused image of both below and above water. The results, pointing it at Cloudy, are pretty good, but let’s say we need more practice before we claim great pictures. We need to get some fish in the image next.

Before the low tide at 2pm we decide to move the enormous distance of 2 miles, to Cambridge Cay. This time we don’t bump the bottom on our way out! To get to Cambridge Cay we transit out of Conch Cut into the deeper water where we find the tide is rushing out like someone just opened a lock gate. Even in these no-wind conditions, there are rather large standing waves! No wonder the pilot warns of potential “rage” conditions where these cats meet the deeper water. They could be treacherous in high winds and seas.
But we soon turn right and in behind Cambridge Cay where conditions are mirror calm.
There is only one other boat in the mooring field, a small Australian trimaran. Otherwise we have this, yet another tranquil place, to ourselves. The park has a mooring field here, so although I’d prefer to anchor, we really should take the buoy and not disturb the seabed.

By now, it’s mid-afternoon and the sun is a bit intense for a dinghy ride so I decide to try out our new Hookah dive system. And at the same time I will get some epoxy on the rudder tip (that was damaged by some submerged object in South Lake, Hollywood) and also epoxy the chunks out of the bow that got damaged by us riding over that damned buoy in Warderick Wells. With the Honda compressor on the back deck I carefully read through the start up instructions, for once! Normally I have a saying: “if all else fails, read the instructions” 🙂 But in this case, for safety, I really should read the instructions first.
The little engine starts first pull (don’t you just love Honda engineering) and runs really sweetly. A bit noisy, but less so than I expected. Unreeling then new tightly wound 100ft air hose is not so easy. Whatever I do, it seems to want to recoil itself as it floats on the water. Hopefully with time this will improve.

Then it’s in the water. Breathing through the standard regulator seems perfectly normal. And not to have all the gear on (BCD, tank, gauges, octopus etc) feels really nice. But I’m a little surprised that I need 4kgs (8lbs) of weight to actually get neutral buoyancy underwater.
After sanding the antifoul paint off from around the damaged areas I mix a small portion of special epoxy, which can be applied even underwater. I’ve not used this before, and I’m surprised how easy it is to stick, then mould to the damaged areas. Apparently it will be hard enough to sand into shape tomorrow. But I think I’ll just leave it as it is till we next haul the boat out of the water. I want to make sure the sea water doesn’t penetrate into the damaged glass fiber. It looks to be sealed pretty well.

As for the Hookah system, I’m super pleased with it, once I finally managed to get the air hose uncoiled. It’s absolutely brilliant for working under the boat. I think next time we haul out I’ll prepare the underside of the keel this way. So much easier to wet’n’dry sand like this under water than lying on your back in the dirt in some boat yard!
Talking of the keel, there ain’t much antifoul paint left on the bottom of it after all our bumping along the bottom in the Bahamas! And I really wonder why I bother making so much effort to get the hull perfect on haul outs. Next time I vow to just slap the paint on, just like everyone else does!

After packing up the Hookah system and restoring everything, we take a dinghy ride around the bay while there is still good light. It’s absolutely beautiful. The usual clear water, pristine white beaches in-between limestone outcrops and densely vegetated land. We walk on a long sand bar that is out the water at low tide and we feel so at peace here. It’s not surprising how many cruisers come from North America and spend the winter here. You can easily cruise just the Exumas for months at a time, let alone the rest of Bahamas.
Just before sunset, we watch a large shark swimming from one side of the boat to the other. Such a majestic swimmer and we are mesmerized by it for quite a while.

After a very red sunset we head below and continue the video editing. Tonight we manage to finish the first video in the Bahamas. We are really catching up now, and seem to have a new motivation these days. In fact, we have a very good laugh at our own jokes, especially from the clips in Nassau.
At midnight I venture out to check things before bed. It’s absolutely pitch dark outside under the brightest starlit sky I’ve seen in a long while. And not a breath of wind. Perfect end to a wonderful day.