On to Great Sale Cay. April 2 Day 11. Miles 48.8 Total miles 367.8

Day 11

We slipped our lines from the Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort

We left with eight other boats past the marina break wall and headed north and east to take the channel that leads into Little Bahama Bank. The Bank is between the north barrier islands and Grand Bahama Island. See the chart below. The first one shows the cut we had to negotiate and the second one shows almost all of the Northern Abacos -Bahamas.

Following our waypoints, we navigated through the small islands and shoals just north of West End Grand Bahama to gain access to the Little Bahama Bank. It is another sunny day with winds 8-12 knots and seas one foot or less.

As we exit the shoal areas, we head East Northeast toward Mangrove Cay, water color becomes more aquamarine with depths of mostly 10 feet. The waters are so clear, you can see the all the way through to the bottom.

We are traveling with two navigational tools, Garmin and AquaMaps as we must rely on our electronics and compass and our eyes to navigate through the Bahamian waters. There are no real marks to guide the boater, like we have in the USA.

The power cruisers that left the marina a bit before us are long gone, as they the have the speed way beyond our 8 knot average speed. But we did have quite a few sailboats out on the waters with us, some leaving the Bahamas and other just arriving here.

After three hours, we covered the 21.5 miles to get to Mangrove Cay. Yes, it is a small uninhabited island covered with mangroves and shrubs.

We then head further east to head towards Great Sale Cay, 20.5 miles away. On this stretch, Bill turned up the pirate and island music to serve to create our island ambiance onboard. We also had more wind which caused our boat to get "wet".

About 2.5 hours later, we pulled into the natural harbor of Great Sale Cay to anchor. We have since been joined by 5 other boats. This cay is flat and is covered with low lying mangrove, small pines and shrubs with a narrow beach and exposed limestone rock along the shore.

Since there was no good way to get through the thick mangroves and shrubs, we abandoned the idea of exploring.

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

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Crustacean Travels

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