Monday, January 5, 2009

January 4, 2009 – Great Sale Cay Anchorage – passed Crishy Swash Cay (no lie)!

Position: N26º 58’.687 W076º 13’076

We left West End at 7:45 am which, in retrospect, was too late. We didn’t feel comfortable in taking the Indian Cay Passage due to depth constraints so we went 15 nm out of the way to Memory Rock, then onto Mangrove Cay and finally to Great Sale Cay. We didn’t arrive until 5:00 pm and we were nervous that we wouldn’t get in before dusk and you absolutely need to see here. Eyeball navigation is crucial as we didn’t see more than 15 ft. of water all day! We also didn’t see any other boats all day so we were happily surprised when we reached the anchorage and saw 3 sail and 3 power boats sitting in the Great Sale Anchorage. Great Sale is one of those places you dream about seeing. Blue water crystal clear and talcum powder white sand. We wish we would have had the luxury of staying to explore, but according to the weather, there is a bad front moving through tomorrow evening so we felt we had to press on. When we arrived at Great Sale we hailed “anybody in the anchorage” and a Morgan 384 named “Bonnie Lass” replied. We wanted an up-to-date weather report and he luckily had a Single Side Band Radio and gave us the scoop from Chris Parker’s weather service. Another retrospect is that we absolutely NEED a SSB here. Starting on Tuesday night, the weather is turning ugly and Wednesday night one absolutely needs to be at a marina or tucked in a secure anchorage as the “Rage” is coming – a strong front packing 30-45 kt winds. We call it a squall but in Bahama language, it is a “rage”. We will duck into Turtle Cay which looks like the most secure marina around.

One more thing on West End – there was a huge party over the weekend with lots of celebrities. Apparently Oprah and John Travolta attended. John Travolta’s 16 year old son apparently died as a result of a fall in the shower after he had a seizure – what a tragedy.

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