Exuma Bound

Sunday, February 5, 2017

After checking out of the Nassau Harbor Club Marina, we were once again on our way, bound for Allen's Cay in the Exumas. Allen's Cay is known for its population of protected iguanas, which are quite bold about coming right up to humans looking for a handout, due to frequent (illegal) feeding by visitors.

Nassau Fades Into the Distance Astern

Several boats were leaving the harbor at the same time as us, but all of them set a course farther south than us once we cleared the eastern of New Providence Island.

Traffic!

We were able to motor sail with full main and jib.
About halfway there, we crossed through a shallow section called the Yellow Banks.  This area has a number of coral heads reported at depths of only 4 1/2 feet at low tide.  Dolce Vita draws 4 1/2 feet, and we were going to be transiting the area close to low tide, so we had to keep a lookout.  We spotted numerous coral patches, and steered clear of all of them.

Joan, on watch for Coral Heads

The crystal clear waters are just amazing.  You could plainly see the shadow of our sail on the bottom, even though we were in 21 feet of water!

Crystal Clear Waters

Finally, Allen's Cay hove into view.  It's really a cluster of three small cays:  Allen's Cay on the West, Leaf Cay to the East, and SouthWest Allen's Cay (you guessed it) to the SouthWest.  Our anchorage was to be right in between the three.

Land Ho!

Once through the narrow entrance, we saw that there were already four boats at anchor, but with room for several more.  One of them turned out to be our friends Jeff and Mary of s/v Echo, who had been in the slip next to us back in Bimini.

Anchorage

We dropped the hook in 9 feet of crystal clear water, and had to pinch ourselves to believe we were really here!  We had made it to the Exumas!  Tomorrow, we will dinghy ashore and see the iguanas.

Life is good.