We departed Big Majors on May 4th
for Hawksbill Cay. Once we cleared the
anchorage we raised the mainsail and the jib and were cruising north with the
engine off and the wind vane steering for us at a cool 4.5 knots, sometimes we
reached 6 knots!!!
A good day of sailing does much to lift a
land sick heart and encouraged us to keep going.
Hawksbill is part of the Exumas land and
Sea Park, so there were really nice trails to explore.
The next day we did some hiking before
setting off for Highborne Cay to meet Ransom’s parents on their boat, Aslan.
It was awesome to meet Bain and Curt in the
Bahamas! We’d been in the islands for a
month and had lots to share with them.
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| ASLAN!!! |
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| View of the backyard |
On the 6th of May we snorkeled
the reef off Highborne and then made preperations to travel to Shroud Cay.
We tied Vitte to Aslan for a tow, and after
a few adjustments we were all aboard Aslan with Vitte following close
behind. It was a bit surreal at first to
see Vitte being pulled, but we soon relaxed and shook off our worries and
enjoyed the day.
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| Towing Vitte |
In Shroud we rafted the boats together for
the night. It was so cool to step off
one boat and onto another!
Aslan has a really cool toy, an air
compressor that lets you scuba dive without any tanks. Ransom, Curt, and I went under to inspect our
hulls and test out the equipment. I
definitely want my diving license now!
The next morning we packed up the dinghy
and headed across Shroud Cay via a salt creek for the beach.
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| Unearth the air, see it sparkle in the water |
After lunch we loaded up in T/T Aslan (sans
dogs) for Normans Cay to snorkel a sunken plane. In the 70s, a drug lord, Carlos Lehder, ran a cocaine trafficking empire on Normans Cay. Jets filled with cocaine from Columbia would land on the island and the supply was then divied up between small aircraft for transport to the United States. The plane wreck we snorkeled is a remnant of this time.
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| Sunken plane |
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| You can't even imagine the beauty that lies beneath |
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| Carlos's house |
No lie, this was one of the most awesome
reefs I have ever seen. Coral was growing all over the plane: on the
nose, inside on exposed wires, and on the wings and propellers.
There were tons of fish too! Fleets
of sergeant majors, french grunts, squirrelfish, grouper, angelfish, tubeworms,
and more!!!
On the 8th of May we departed
Shroud Cay for Hawksbill and grabbed two mooring balls for the night.
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| The soles of Curt's shoes separated, but we were able to tie them back together using some twine found on the beach. |
The next day we departed Hawksbill for
Waredrick Wells. After getting situated
on the mooring balls and checking in with Darcy at the office, we geared up for
some snorkeling around Radar Rock.
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| Bain and Curt |
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| Lionfish |
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| Queen Angelfish |
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| Grey Angelfish |
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| Nassau Grouper |
It was awesome to be back in Waredrick
Wells and be activity directors for Ransom’s parents. We stayed at the park for 5 days and packed
them full of activities!
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| Waredrick Wells |
After 10 days with Aslan, it was time to
say goodbye and part ways. We departed
the mooring field, raised Vitte’s sails and peeled north and Aslan increased
her speed and peeled south.
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| Until next time, Aslan |
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