We left Nassau on Saturday morning and our first Examas stop was Allen’s Key at the north end of the island chain. What a beautiful spot!! There were 2 other DeFever boats waiting for us. In fact, they were in their dingies to help us find good anchoring spots. Below are Stephanie and Bob from September Song and Doug and Tammie from Gypsies in the Palace, don't know who the 3 people in the other dingy are. Anyway, it was a great help. And look at the water. You can see the bottom so clearly and we were in about 10 feet.
The thing that Allen's Cay is famous for is the iguanas. We dingied to the beach with some crackers and they all came out to see what we had. They stayed away from us, or rather we stayed away from them as we had heard that they don't have the best eyesight and can't distinguish a cracker from a finger! We also heard that they attack red toe nails, so I wore my beach shoes! We had 2 dingies. Below is our 'buddy dingy'!
We left Allen's Cay to come to the next island, Norman's Cay, yesterday. Click here to see our location at Norman's. We went on the Atlantic side to try to catch some fish. All four boats had lines in the water and we zig-zagged our way to Norman's. We tried for about 2 hours but only Colleen on Gypsies caught a fish. Next time! Here are the 3 other DeFevers in front of us looking for the fish. We gave up about noon, and ran a narrow, inlet from the ocean side back onto the Bahama Banks to the west side of Norman's, threading around the coral heads as we went. The water is so clear, it's difficult to see how deep they are ... and of course there are no navigation marks to help you ... it's called Visual Piloting Rules ... meaning read the color of the water and avoid the corals ... also remembering that "Brown, brown means run aground."
Once we got to the anchorage at Norman's we dropped the hook in absolutely crystal clear water about 10 feet deep. We have been advised that it's best to check your anchor to make sure it is appropriately buried. A special tool is needed for this inspection. It is called a "Lookie Bucket" which is basicly a bucket with rope handles and a plexiglass bottom. We had found this device aboard Rickshaw from the prior owner, so we took off in the dingy with our Lookie Bucket to inspect the anchor. You follow the anchor chain along until you think you've found where the anchor is, and then peer through the Lookie Bucket to see the state of the anchor. Our's was nicely buried, so we can rest peacefully ... for now.
The winds are going to be blowing tomorrow 20-30 knots so we will hunker down here in Norman's Cay for another day. There is a very small, funky restaurant here that has internet, so we are updating the blog. Unfortunately, we can't get the internet from our boat, but have to come into the restaurant, so we are enjoying rum drinks while we Blog ...!
When the winds abate somewhat ... probably Wednesday ... the four boats will head south again, this time about 6 miles to Shroud Key. There are interesting mangrove creeks there to explore, and we hope to do some snorkeling. So ... it's warm, the water is clear, and we have good friends to hang with ... as well as safety in numbers. Life is good. More later.
