The Jumentos

The Jumentos are a long chain of small uninhabited islands south of the Exumas not often visited by cruisers mostly because of the lack of food and water and any services.  To get there, you have to navigate the difficult and shallow Hog Cay Cut which we had to do near high tide.  The wind and waves were completely different on the south side of the cut.  We caught 3 large barracuda on the way south. And then for about an hour, there is no sight of land but we first came to Water Cay just before sunset and as we were about to anchor, a rain squall hit.  I was a bit nervous as there was a rocky shore on one side and a large coral head on the other.  The wind came and we made a complete circle in about an hours time.  When we later went check our anchor chain, it turns out we had wrapped around a large rock, this is why we held so well in the squall.  This cove is popular with the Bahamian fisherman who clean their catch and toss the fish guts overboard so sharks like to come visit swimming right under the boat…hence, we did not do any swimming here.

The next day we explored Little Water Cay just to the north.  It was amazing to see how the large waves from the last hurricane had scoured the shore of all vegetation and tore huge rocks out and push them well up on shore. We also found a beach full of conch shell fossils.  There was a wreck of an old fishing boat there also.

We moved south about 2 hours to Flamingo Cay where we were surprised to see 2 cruisers and a fishing boat.  The fishing  boat was out of Spanish Wells, a couple hundred  miles away and they were a lobstering boat.  They told us they were primarily rebuilding the lobster shelters and that on a good trip, they could collect 10,000 pounds of lobster.  2 days later, their refrigeration system failed and they had to make a fast return to Spanish Wells before the catch spoiled.

Both of the palm trees at Two Palms Beach had been destroyed in the hurricane so I planted one of the sprouted coconut palms on board on the beach and left a sign asking future boats to give it a little fresh water in the hopes of getting it to grow.  Flamingo also had the largest sea cave we had yet to find.  The pictures do not do it justice, especially with the numerous openings in the cave roof.  When I climbed out of one opening, I saw a large fresh water pond just a short distance inland from the beach.

We had hoped to stop and snorkle one of the 3 ocean holes off Water Cay on the way back ( 12 feet deep around the edge and  unknown depth in the center) but the wind and waves had picked up and with a significant change in the weather coming, we decided  to leave those for a future trip.  We caught another large barracuda and then something large cut thru our line and took the big lure.  Back thru the cut, the wind was barely a whisper and we motored back to Georgetown, anchoring just about sunset.