The route from the Abacos to the Exumas took three days, one day crossing the Northwest Providence Channel, one day transiting Eleuthera Island and the next day crossing the Exuma Sound to Black Point. On each of the two deep water crossings we caught a mahi-mahi. More grilled filets, fish cakes and fish tacos on the menu!
The days are now so short that to get in 50+ nautical miles we had to get an early start, so we weighed anchor at 6 AM daily for a unique sunrise each dawn.
The weather was calm after the passing of TS Kate to the north that sucked most of the wind away.
It was so calm that we could anchor off of Egg Island, near Royal Island and Spanish Wells north of Eleuthera. We had 2 hours of daylight left so we dinghied over to the ocean side for a quick snorkel. There were a few coral heads scattered in a rocky area hosting some favorite reef friends, juvenile and intermediate queen angelfish, saddled blennies, plus a few lobsters hiding under the rocks for that nights' dinner.
We really lucked out in all of the cuts with currents, which can be a huge factor when deep sea tides flow over shallow banks.
Going through Current Cut to transit Eleuthera we had almost 4 knots of current with us.
The water was swirling all around and we certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be going the other way.
After reaching southern Eleuthera, we anchored in the vast bight off of Kemp’s Point in 8 foot depths. Small coral heads dotted the shallows and there was again just a few hours of daylight left for a quick snorkel off the back of the boat. The coral colors are brilliant at these depths!
There is always at least one lively head that appears to house an entire ecosystem including juvenile angelfish, banded coral shrimp, a resident drum and a nest of lobsters (too small for dinner).
Pacing back and forth in his hole in this mini-universe, I was thrilled to find a highhat drum very similar in size, shape and behavior to a spotted drum, and a first sighting for me.
The next morning sailing into pink skies at dawn, we had another first. We bumped our first bommie on the port keel - damn! The light at dawn was poor, yet we were in 10 feet of water (and we draw 4 feet), so it must’ve been a much bigger head then those we’d been snorkeling on. We drifted a bit while Mark dove in to check for any damage. Nothing major except for losing a bit of bottom-paint.
Entering Dotham Cut to reach the Exuma Cays we had 3 knots of current again with us, shooting us through like a watermelon seed. We anchored at Black Point, where we had one more calm afternoon to snorkel of the north end of Great Guana Cay before a week of bad weather kicked-in.
I spotted a queen helmut snail (occupied), a rock beauty (shy) and more intermediate gray angelfish (last remnants of blue highlights on fins) while a school of blue runners surrounded me. I’d rather swim with them then the dozen of so barracuda who followed me around ~ joy.
