Georgetown to Musha Cay under sunny skies and light ENE winds 7-10 knots

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
I was up before dawn once again and with coffee in hand and charts, tried to figure out which cut we’d be going into today. Azaya is ready to start heading north (their engine problems and dinghy problems can’t be resolved in Georgetown), and we need to use internet to pay bills. We thought about heading into Farmer’s Cay but the last time we were there, the internet was so slow it kept disconnecting from email and it was difficult to pay bills. So we decided on Black Point as opposed to Emerald Bay (that place can be addicting). We can do laundry, access internet and have some wonderful conch at Lorraine’s Café.

The cuts that we have to enter from the Exuma Sound back onto the Banks are all deep but narrow with swift currents. If the winds oppose the currents a “rage” situation can exist which can be quite hazardous. Because the winds are light today, we figured there wouldn’t be much of a “rage” situation even though we’ll be going in at low tide (against the current) in a worse case scenario. We’re hoping to go in at slack tide but we’ll see. We’ve been through Little Farmers before (love that place) and thought we’d try another spot. We’d like to put in around Galliot or Musha Cay so we’re looking at Cave Cay Cut or Galliot Cut but not ruling out Farmers Cut.

I tried hailing Sea Sharp this morning on channel 16 and 68 several times but got no response. They’re going to Emerald Bay and I said I’d call them this morning to remind them of slips D11 and D13. The currents that run through there can really do a number on the dock lines. It still amazes me how much we hobby horsed in those slips and everyone else was stationary. I hope they remember the numbers.

I chatted briefly with MadCap and we tried to hail them with our DSC but couldn’t make contact with them using the MMSI numbers so we had to keep hailing each other to chat. Considering we can’t contact Azaya or MadCap using the DSC, but we could contact Blue Pearl, we’re thinking that for some reason we can no longer transmit on our radio – only receive. One more thing to work on but, now we don’t know if our distress button will work or not.

I hope we can catch up with Beth and Jim (MadCap) again sometime on this trip, I love spending time with them. I hope when Jim gets back that they keep heading south and make it to Cuba. I want to hear all about it. It’s the forbidden land for us (as U.S. citizens) but I’m hoping that someday we’ll be able to visit there. Politics in Paradise… the saga continues from the 60s even though THAT situation no longer exists. The ban on Cuba continues to hurt the people that live there and why? It’s ridiculous at this point. Politics, political borders and powerful money interests in Florida … Sigh…

We lifted our anchor at 8am under sunny skies and 83 degrees. The winds were less than 10 knots so it was a motor sailing day. Sid on Quest heard us talking on the radio and hailed us off of Barratera. Colleen goes back to the mainland this Thursday and he’s picking up other guests in Nassau. Hopefully we’ll run into him and Blue Pearl again in the Abacos somewhere. Once again I forgot to thank him for the delicious salmon dinner on his boat.

We entered Cave Cay Cut and felt the current before we reached the cut. We increased our speed through it, following Azaya, and at one point I had our engine revved up to 3000rpms and we were only doing 1.5 knots. It got a little scary as we were pulled one way then the other. We were near the white cliffs one moment then near the rocky black rocks the next. I couldn’t imagine coming in here with strong winds and waves and definitely wouldn’t! Once we got in and anchored behind Musha Cay, we found out that Azaya’s engine cut off right after turning out of the cut. Oh my goodness. Talk about a scary situation. It could have been very bad had the engine cut off while in the cut. Someone was watching out for them on that one. They set their hook just fine though with no engine help in 12-14 ft of water and we anchored in 14 ft next to them.

Musha Cay is private but what a beautiful little island. It looks like they’re building a resort of some sort there and there’s wonderful looking architecture that makes the buildings resemble something found in the S. Pacific Islands with their thatched and palm leaf roofs. We can hear parrots squawking from one of the buildings which add to the tropical paradise flavor of the place.
After making sure our anchors were set (G/T time) Axel & Mary kayaked over and picked me up to do some exploring on the sandbars at low tide. We went over to Lansing Cay and walked around collecting sand dollars and shells in the shallow water. Axel found what he thought was a large conch, then Mary found it too. Initially I thought it might be a different variety of conch or perhaps a whelk. It turns out that it’s neither a conch nor a whelk, but a West Indian chank? We also found several small milky conch shells, some were quite blackened with age but there were some that were only algae coated. We explored some of the marine life – a large nudibranch, a couple of large brown sea stars and a few anemones. Most of the sand dollars we found were dead and bleached a beautiful white. But on the west side of the Cay there were many that were still alive and burying themselves in the sand. Kind of fun watching them. We hung out on the sandbar until sunset and watched the green flash as the sun winked out below the water. It was so quiet and pretty. Kayaking back to the boats was surreal in the calm waters. While it was getting dark out, you could look down in the water and still see the bottom sand ripples in 12 feet of water. At night it’s so clear as night approaches and the light levels drop the bottom is still illuminated but you cant see anything between the surface and the bottom so it appears your hanging in midair in the boat.

As we got back to the boats, music started blaring, quite loudly from two areas on Musha Cay. We thought maybe the resort was now open on the island but there are no people in sight. The music is quite loud, with competing factions – one place is playing oldies and the other, right across from our boat is playing a weird mixture of rap, Cher and Beonyce. Quite strange, but it has me bouncing around the boat dancing to the beat, while making burgers and slaw for dinner. I hope it doesn’t keep up until 2 in the morning!