After a couple windy days in the Georgetown area, we headed out to the north end of Long Island with an unusual southwest wind making for a great downwind sail with a double reefed mainsail. By the time we got in Long Island, we decided to continue to the northeast to Conception Island and anchored on the east side in some amazing range of blue colored water. The girls were still a bit queasy from the motion of the boat surfing down the waves. The next morning we had just finished breakfast when someone noticed the dinghy once again going on “walkabout” by itself. While we were getting the kayak ready to retrieve it, a large yacht downwind of us, had already launched their fancy sport boat with the uniformed European crew, and came to get me and took me to the wandering dingy. We enjoyed a morning exploring the normally unsafe shore.

One of the other sailboats let us know the wind had shifted and the west side was now calm enough so we moved to the side with the long curved sandy beach.  The crystal clear water was a good time to clean the bottom but a BIG barracuda was enjoying the shade of the boat.  A couple jabs of the long boat hook and a we finally scared him away but he returned and watched us all afternoon.
Now we had a light northeast wind and decided to make the trip to Rum Cay, an island we had never been to but had always wanted to visit. Most of Rum Cay is surrounded by coral reefs and the only town is Port Nelson on the south side and even that has a significant coral reef on the south side. The channel to the marina was not clear ( missing some markers) so we anchored in the vast sand flats off the government dock. Amy took off in the kayak and Tony and I took the Go Pro to film in the coral reef. Much of the coral was dead but still a lot of fish there The outer reef was only about a foot below the water surface.
Rum Cay is reported to have some large caves so the next morning we were off to do some cave exploring. We stopped in the 2 roof government / police complex and found out the nearest cave was 8 miles to the north, that the last golf cart had already been rented and that hitch hiking was virtually impossible as we did not see any vehicles moving on the green island of only 84 people. So we hiked out to see the abandoned salt ponds, took pictures of the beautiful Anglican church, found the government clinic, met the policeman who said to wait up near the bar at the school while we would look for someone to take us to the cave. A very friendly Eric came out, shook all our hands and then opened his little bar for us at 10 am. We had to try his “sky juice” ( a concoction of gin and coconut milk) and some Bahamian beers. The policeman came back, said the truck was not working so it was off to the Ocean View Restaurant for an early lunch. The choice was chicken with potatoes or chicken with rice. Both options came with some unripe tomato. Unfortunately, we somehow lost pictures this day.
Rum Cay was hit hard by the last 2 hurricanes and many homes had lost roofs, significant water damage and at the marina, most of the marina. The last storm also took all the sand to the north of the marina entrance and deposited it in the marina entrance.  There were 6 boats still floating and that is where we met Mikey who was living on his landlocked sailboat for the past 5 months. While we all chatted, a big nurse shark ( one of several also trapped) swam around his boat, explaining why his boat bottom had not been cleaned in 5 months!
The next day, the wind was blowing more strongly out of the east and it was time to start heading back. So another long beautiful day of downwind sailing, now with only 1 reef in the main. We pulled in around Cape Santa Maria at the north end of Long Island and anchored in a nice bay but with some surge from the big swells rounding from the east. The next morning, Tony and I took the dingy back north thru the swells to explore a narrow entrance to the large shallow bay between Long Island and Newton Cay.  I had originally thought it might be possible to get the big boat in there but we had all we could do to get the dingy thru. But once in, what a magical place. We followed a large stingray around before heading back. We moved Sea Castle down to Calabash Bay and the dingy to the stunning 1.5 mile beach and had an excellent lunch at the beautiful Santa Maria Beach Resort.  On the way back, we noticed a dingy floating out in the bay…..sure enough, it was ours! The charts had shown a shallow bar going out where the dingy was so we tried walking to it, then swimming but since we had all just finished a big meal, gave up and swam out to Sea Castle instead. It took a half hour to raise the anchor, navigate out around the shallow bar and finally retrieve the dingy which by that time, had jammed the anchor under a rock. This was the first time the dingy had escaped from the beach.
It was getting late so we moved slightly south and see if we could get into Joe’s Sound. We had taken Beach Castle in there in 2012 thru the very narrow rocky entrance and not sure Sea Castle would fit. You do not even see the entrance until you are right in front of it and with the winds being a little strong, we all decided not to chance it. We anchored just before sunset at Hog Cay and took the dingy up to explore. I think Sea Castle could fit in but only at high tide and light winds.  The old beach club still had most of it’s roof but the gutters feeding the cistern were gone and the cistern was full of salt water.
The next day was the last full day with Tony & Sharon and we still had to get all the way back to Georgetown but fortunately, we had PERFECT sailing condition for no reefs, relatively smooth water and a steady 14-18 knots of wind. One tack all the way back! We arrived at the eastern channel just at the last turn the big boat “Round the Island Race” and it looked like we were doing very well in the race until the announcer realized that we were not in the race! We took Tony & Sharon up to Chat’N Chill for a beer, a round of checkers, later to a great dinner at Peace And Plenty. The last day was a great breakfast, get them packed up and a full load in the dingy to shore. We were very sorry to see them head back, they were also when they found out the weather forecast for some very cold temperatures.
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