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Saturday, March 25th - Sampson Cay, Bahamas
I
guess you could call Sampson Cay a "developed location."
It has a great marina and restaurant and a little store.
We could eat a meal off the boat for the first time in
10 days. We were also able to buy a few provisions
- lettuce, cucumbers, grapefruit, Fruit Loops; all the
basic necessities!
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We
made our way to Bell Island from Warderick Wells on
Tuesday. It was labeled as a private island on the
charts, but Judy, the park ranger at Exuma Park, said it
was a fantastic place, so we trusted her recommendation.
The trip was only 13 miles but we still needed to plan
our departure with care. Because the waters are so
shallow and riddled with reefs, and the cuts between the
cays, reefs and sand bars (or "sand bores" as they call
them here) have very strong current running through
them, traveling at high tide with good visibility is
essential. The current is slack at high and low
tide so the risk of getting pushed in the wrong
direction is minimized. But it is more important
to have good sunlight to see the bottom. A good
skipper can compensate for the current, but you can't
factor in what you cannot see. My stomach still
gets knotted up as we make our way through narrow cuts
with rocks or sand bars on either side, or over shallow
waters a few feet deeper than our rudders, but I'm
getting used to it. For this particular trip, we
were in luck as high tide was around 4pm and we would be
making our approach to Bell Island with the sun at our
backs. We left around 2pm after school and a last
fix of internet access. We were still within the
park boundaries and couldn't fish, so we decided to go
on the banks side rather than the sound side, where the
fishing is typically better.
The only gnarly part of the passage came as we got close
to Bell Island. There was a fantastic beach on the
East side of the island, well protected from wind and
waves and with a good sand bottom - the perfect spot to
anchor. We had to make our way through a narrow
slot between the shore and a sand bar at the northwest
corner of the island before entering relatively safe
waters. Joe took the helm and I took up a position
on the bow where I could see any potential danger ahead
and warn him to steer us around it. We squeezed
through without incident and said another silent prayer
of thanks.
There were two other boats at our chosen bay when we
arrived. We anchored a little farther out from the
beach than we wanted, but with plenty of room around us.
One of our neighbors fired up a very loud generator on
its bow just as we were getting ready for dinner.
We turned on some music which drowned out the noise
perfectly, and hoped they wouldn't run the thing all
night. They cooperated and turned it off within an
hour or so. They up-anchored in the morning and we
had the place all to ourselves. We moved in a
little closer to shore and we were in heaven.
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After school, we decided to risk a trip to the beach.
Our guide books don't really tell us what the policy is
on beaches on private islands, but we figured the worst
thing that could happen was that they would kick us out.
The owners had this great little platform set up on the
beach with lounge chairs and awnings, but we refrained
from using anything but the shade provided by the trees.
The kids took the kayak, Joe the dinghy, and I swam.
We had laundry going back on the boat so I would swim
back and forth between loads, hoping to get a little
exercise while I was at it. At one point, I
commented on our spectacular surroundings and, in
typical Joe style, he said, "Yeah, I suppose if you have
to do laundry ....."
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We
decided to go on a trash collecting mission on the beach
the next day to return our hosts' involuntary
hospitality. I was amazed at how much junk gets
washed up onto a beach like this. Bell Island is
set a little back from the open ocean, so the amount of
trash wasn't even as much as it would be on one of the
oceanfront cays. Plastic was the biggest culprit,
followed closely by fishing nets and other types of
ropes. We also found a good number of shoes!
We filled one large bag and one small bag and didn't
even get to the whole beach. We left a note with
the trash bags and I'm hoping we get an email from the
owners to see what their reaction was to our trespassing
and trash collection efforts. I tried to put
myself in their shoes to imagine how I would react and I
figured that it was mostly dependant on their previous
experiences. I hope that we have given them one
that they can look upon as beneficial.
I
could have stayed at Bell Island for weeks, but Joe was
anxious to move on so we made our way to the north end
of Compass Cay. There is a bubbly pool there and a
nice walk through the mangrove swamp. The wind and
sea were calm so we didn't see any action in the bubbly
pool. A cold front was on its way, though, and our
position was pretty exposed, so we had to move on
without seeing the caves at the Rocky Dundas. We
hear that the snorkeling there rivals Thunderball Cave,
which we loved. We are going to try to get back to
check it out before we leave the area.
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As
we made our way around a sand bore and south to Sampson
Cay, we watched with trepidation as a huge line of black
clouds descended upon us from the north. I wish we
had noticed that before we left our anchorage, but
it actually might have been worse being at anchor in our
exposed position so close to shore. Since it was
another short passage mostly upwind, we only had the jib
out. Once the big gusts from the storm started
hitting us, we rolled that in and slowed down the
engines so the worst of it would be past us by the time
we made landfall. The big danger in a storm like
this is lightening. One zap could fry all of our
electronics on the boat. There isn't much you can
do to prevent it, either. We heard a few cracks of
thunder and saw some flashes in the sky, but nothing too
close. We did get a good hard rain, which is great
for cleaning off the boat. The temperature dropped
by about 15 degrees. Joe saw gusts up to 43 knots
but the sustained wind didn't get over 25 knots.
All in all, it was a very mellow "first storm at sea."
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We
have been making our plans from day to day lately.
Since we have two more weeks before we are due in Marsh
Harbor, 150 miles away, there is no particular rush.
We could go east to San Salvadore Island, where Columbus
first landed on his epic voyage. We will probably
stop in Eluthera where we can restock some of our
provisions. Spanish Wells on the northern tip of
the island is supposed to be a very cool spot. We
still have lots of places to see in the Exumas,
including the sharks at Compass Cay Marina just north of
here, the sea aquarium near Bell Island which we missed,
Hawksbill Cay, supposedly the most beautiful spot in the
island chain, Allans Cay with its famous iguanas, and a
dozen more places that are not to be missed. I
have a feeling that we will leave here with the hope of
returning one day to see all the sights that we didn't
get to on this visit.
Have a great weekend, everyone. We miss you!
Love,
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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