March 15
Water Cay, Jumentos Latitude 23_ 02.04N - Longitude 75_ 44.07W

The guidebooks wisely tell you to be self-sufficient when cruising the remote Jumentos. But for one settlement at the southernmost end of the chain, there are no services here. No water, no fuel, no food, no cell phone communication. What the Jumentos do offer are rugged beauty, great snorkeling, and while there is no such thing as isolation anymore, the anchorages are not crowded. Just 52 miles east of Cuba’s southeastern shore, the anchorages offer little protection from bad weather or passing fronts but decent holding and some protection from prevailing winds (easterly). Water Cay has three blue holes located within dinghy distance from the island. The blue holes offer great snorkeling in view of turtles, reef fish more barracuda and hard & soft corals. There are numerous reefs and patch reefs to explore and while they provided no lobsters, they did offer up a natural underwater setting for small reef fish and again, lots of barracuda. The island itself is narrow and “lumpy” having three distinctive weather beaten hills whose eroding white sand cliffs are visible within miles of your approach. The island is split by a “creek” which is really an area where erosion has washed away one of the “lumps, spilling giant waves from the depths of the Bahamas Sound onto the beach on the island’s lee side.