April 23, 2004

Leaf Cay, Exumas   23° 47.45N - Longitude 76° 06.33W

It's no fun beating your brains out motoring to windward, so plans to reach Cat Island were finally abandoned.  The new plan is to head north along the Exuma chain until the winds were more favorable to again head eastward.  As I've said before, cruising requires flexibility, and with a need to get back sailing again, traveling 'inside' the lee of the Exumas would make progress, any progress, more possible.  For our first stop north of Georgetown, we went through Adderly Cut to Lee Stocking Island, near the Caribbean Marine Research Center.  Unfortunately we found the minimum depth to be less than that recorded on the charts and way too low for a six foot draught, so we anchored at Leaf Cay, a small island between Lee Stocking Island and Norman's Pond Cay, in twelve feet of water.   The highlight of this spot was the almost two miles of beach on the lee shore of Norman's Pond Cay, just a short dinghy ride away.  I walked and walked and walked and walked.  It was great!  Too bad the shallow depth and strong current made it an undesirable anchorage.

After having hung around Georgetown for so long, Adderly Cut reminded me that the cuts between the islands that separate Exuma Sound and the Bahama Banks can be quite treacherous.  Anytime you have a narrow opening between large bodies of water, you can expect strong currents to be running. Combine the effect of the current with heavy winds and the cuts are quite a challenge, both to your piloting skills and your nerves.  Ideally, one would wait for slack tide or the optimum conditions to enter these cuts, but not having that luxury, we studied the current, took down the sails and went ahead through the cut under power.  What a thrill ride!