Flamingo Cay to Georgetown

There were two choices with the available winds – either go to Georgetown through the very shallow Hog Cay Cut about 11nm east of North Channel Rocks near Georgetown, or go through Duck Cay cut and go to the west of Georgetown to Farmer’s Cay through fairly shallow water.

The sensible thing to do seemed to start the more or less 35nm journey towards Comer West, and then make the decision on the way if we were going through Hog Cay Cut or veer off towards Duck Cay Cut. The timing of the tides are extremely important when gong through Hog Cay cut. The previous year we lightly bumped the bottom three times and that was real scary, so we didn’t want a repeat of that.

The winds turned out to be very favorable, and the sea state comfortable, so we made good time and at the predetermined point, decided to go through Hog Cay Cut. We approached with caution, followed the track exactly, and thankfully the tide was still rising, but almost high, so we went through without any problem.

From there the sail past Little Exuma Island was a bit slow because the winds were light and almost right on the stern, but we had plenty of time and just slowly made progress towards North Cannel Rock, where we entered into Elizabeth Harbour, the bay area between Great Exuma Island and Stocking Island.

Without paying much attention to the charts, we dropped anchor at Fowl Cay on the designated anchorage spot. The surge was quite bad, but Andre did his magic with a bridle and we had a nice, quiet evening.

The following day a huge catamaran with plenty of guests and toys anchored next to us and started enjoying the beautiful, isolated island. While still taking care of household chores and running the water-maker, I heard voices next to the boat. As I stuck my head out the companionway, I was met by a friendly Park Ranger informing me that it was a national park and that we were not allowed to anchor at the spot overnight. I profusely apologized, and assured the kind gentleman that we would be gone shortly. As he left, we checked out the latest maps and sure enough, the area was temporarily closed to anchoring overnight.

Off course we were not going to leave without checking out this pretty little island. A very short dinghy ride took us directly onto the sand of the island and we started with what we thought was going to be a very short hike across the tiny island. However, when we got to the other side, we started exploring a bit more and walking to the east and found the most beautiful rockpools, and then an amazing cave where the ocean rushed in and out of with tremendous force and noise. We ended up walking around the whole island, which was much larger than we had anticipated. The last part of the hike was over treacherous rocks, through fairly dense bush, then again very sharp and dangerous rocks and then eventually walking through the water to bring us back to our dingy.

The wind was blowing lightly from the east, so we hoisted the mainsail and slowly drifted toward our new anchorage. It was most enjoyable and over way too soon, but we dropped anchor at Sand Dollar Beach in front of Stocking Island and enjoyed a nice glass of wine to celebrate being back in civilization after about six weeks out in the wild.