Sunday, March 04, 2012 - Great Exuma to Thompson Bay

Elizabeth Harbor, Great Exuma to Thompson Bay, Long Island

We were going to leave at 9:30am but left at 8:30am. I was glad we did. We had a beautiful sailing day with winds 10-15knot out of the south southeast (about a170 degrees). It was just perfect sailing for us. After we left the south entrance, past 3 Fathom, then Middle Rocks and the N. Channel Rocks, we put our sails up for the 7 mile run to Pigeon Cay, motor off, and we sailed under partly cloudy skies doing anywhere from 5.5knots to 7.5 knots. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had all our sails up and it felt wonderful. Kolibrie loved the close reach and beam reach all the way to Thompson Bay. At one point I was heading down into the cabin for something and Wayne said “Hey there’s another Bayfield” I looked up and saw Sapphire going past us, then saw another Bayfield 40 (I think Maya). I hailed Mike & Kathy to say hello! They’re heading to Georgetown for guests and their friends were heading to Emerald Bay. I think that after Georgetown they’re heading back to Long Island so maybe we can catch up before we depart for Conception or Rum Cay. I’m not sure exactly where we’re heading after Long Island. I guess we’ll see after the blow that’s supposed to come through.

While plotting our course on the chart I noticed that we’d reached the Tropic of Cancer - almost to the exact point that I’d marked it last year (laughing). So Kolibrie has made it to the Tropic of Cancer one more time!

We got into Thompson Bay and set our anchor by 3:30pm and were looking forward to catching some showers at the Long Island Breeze. Problem was, while hailing them; someone came on and told us that they were closed on Sundays and Mondays… Talk about heart break! I’ve been longing for a nice hot shower. But after dropping our sails and motoring into the Bay, we have hot water. Soooo we decided to have cockpit showers. I haven’t had one of those in a long time and it was delightful to have hot water and get soaped up and have clean hair again.

It was just too hot to cook, so I made cheese and tomato sandwiches for dinner and we enjoyed a quiet evening in the cockpit looking at a very bright three quarter moon. It was so nice to just be able to enjoy the day. It’s seemed like such a mad rush to get down here. Just rushing from one point to another - I can’t say that I like beating into the wind/waves. This is supposed to be enjoyable – I definitely would love more days like today! I almost forgot to mention the sandbars today. We passed by quite a few that were quite extensive off White Cay between Little Exuma and Long Island. They looked miles long along the horizon and were so pristine looking. With nobody around, I was very tempted to stop and dally for a while, but the winds were so nice… For a while I watched the depth sounder to get an idea of the topography. You could visualize the sand beneath just by reading the depths. I could almost draw the sandbars and tell you which way the prevailing currents were by the depths: 17ft, 15ft, 12ft, 9ft, 8ft, 19ft… It was pretty neat!

At sunset, someone blew a conch horn, so I also had to blow mine, and then a chorus of horns went up around the anchorage. It’s time to put on the anchor light…It’s very still out tonight. The breezes we enjoyed today have disappeared. The calm before the storms I guess. I could use a breeze...