With a full tank of fuel, a full larder and a weather
forecast that sounded pretty decent over the next few days, we decided to up
the anchor and head down-island. The Jumento Cays and The Ragged Cays are remote,
unpopulated and supposedly great cruising grounds for the daring &
brave-at-heart. Our kind of place. LOL.
Due to their remoteness and the incredibly shallow Bahama
Bank, there are only a couple of ways to get to the cays and from our anchorage
in Thompson Bay, only 1 was available – a 42 mile jaunt through some skinny
water.
The color and clarity were amazing and with the wind at our back, we had quite an enjoyable ride!
Our first glimpse of the Jumentos Cays
Our anchorage at Water Cay was quite lovely. When we arrived, there were 2 other sailboats tucked up pretty tight into the corner, trying to avoid the wind & surge.
By the time evening rolled around there were a total of 9 other
boats in the anchorage, including several small fishing boats who fish all day
and then come here to anchor at night. They do this all week and then head back
to port to sell their wares.
Jim blowing the requisite conch horn at sundown..
We thought this a pretty creative way to take
your dog to shore to pottie!
Tuesday, we headed for the nearby beach to
explore. This is the king of the cairn!
There were lots of treasures to be found on the beach.
This view of Samba was taken with a mountain of
conch shells in the foreground! Wow.
This is a mother ship fishing boat towing her flotilla of
small fishing boats. We’ve seen the small boats in a variety of places in the
ocean. We think the mother ship may hail from Cuba as we are less than 100
miles from there.
Tomorrow, the forecast is for a couple of days of light and variable wind so we plan to move on down 16 miles to Flamingo Cay. See you there.
