Today we went on an exploration in a motor boat. We rented a small boat from Minn’s water sports early in the morning to explore the harbor and some reefs. We left our dinghy there and picked up the boat and came back across the harbor to pick up Jeff and Deb. They had made pasta salad and turkey wraps for our lunch. We brought fruit, cookies and peanuts. We headed south to explore the southern end of Stocking Island and the Moriah Harbor Cay park.
We stopped at several reefs along the way to snorkel from the boat. We tied to a dive buoy at the end of the harbor and snorkeled there. There were fish and some coral but it was a little exposed and murky. We found another buoy off Guana Cay. The rope was attached around a rock that then was caught behind a larger rock. Deb stayed in the boat for that snorkel as our monitor but we did not drag. We figured that mooring ball may travel a bit according to the tide. The reef was nice and there was a grassy area where we saw a ray and a fish traveling along together. We also saw some dolphins in the distance.
We ate our delicious lunch off a lovely private beach. We then snorkeled a nice reef at Fowl Cay. There were some neon blue fish and a green and brown spotted fish that I had not seen before. There were also some bright purple coral and garfish. Purple sea fans were swaying in the current. An amazing world.
After Fowl, we motored to a lovely beach that was part of the park. We got out there and explored a bit. They did not want people to walk across the island in order to protect wildlife but we could walk on the beach and rocks. The sand was lovely. We picked up some unusual trash, a stash of shotgun shells. Unsure what people were shooting there.
The next part of our adventure was to explore the back side of Great Exuma Island and take the back way to Georgetown. We saw the Man of War Cay sandbar which was not exposed but would be shortly. We crossed it and did not want to be stuck there for the low tide. We then made our way in around Issac Cay where we saw two turtles coming out. We traveled over some rocks that may have been a problem at low tide. We saw some wrecked boats and passed Brown’s Marine and boat yard. We do not want our boat to have to go there.
We traveled through the Moriah Harbor Cay mooring field that was lovely, quiet and clear with mostly rocky shoreline but a few beaches. We crossed under the bridge that leads from Great Exuma to Crab Cay. Apparently a developer bought Crab Cay and made some infrastructure changes there and then ran out of money. One of the things he built was a very fancy bridge, a true bridge to nowhere. The island has recently been purchased again and may be developed at some point.
We came near the main Georgetown anchorage and crossed over to drop Jeff and Deb at Nautilus. Dawson was waiting for them. We looked at the weather and the wind was not going to worsen so we decided to make a run north to look for starfish at starfish beach. People were petting a ray off the beach. They were from the sailing cat Cielo and have lived on the island for awhile but just started sailing. They recently bought a catamaran and have enjoyed it this season. They live on the boat and rent their house. They have offered their house for a raffle for people entering the boat race at the regatta. You do not have to race to be eligible for the raffle.
Beth and her husband were very knowlegable and gave us lots of information. They recommended a run to square rocks, Leaf Cay, Lee Stocking Island area. They felt like you could do this as an overnight or two and then come back to Georgetown easily, weather permitting. They also told us where to look for starfish. We saw one but did not have time for more looking because we had to get the boat back.
We crossed the harbor to return the boat and in the middle of our crossing the boat veered sharply to the right. I thought David saw something in the water but it turns out our steering cable had broken. David rigged a tiller with some rope and our emergency paddle. It was not precise steering, but enough to head us in the right direction. We would not be able to navigate the culvert, however, so we called Minn’s and they sent a boat to our rescue.
We were towed through the culvert by an even larger motor boat. We had two non- floating tow ropes attached to our bow and we were not directly behind him but off to one side a bit, making us even wider. The captain told us to trust him, he “does this every day.” We wondered if he was referring to navigating the culvert or rescuing Minn’s boats. The current was ripping. He told us we might have to push off the walls of the bridge but he ended up getting the whole operation through without a touch. Amazing.
The crossing in our dinghy was easy for us despite the chop and the wind against us. Our attitude was “we do this every day.” We brought Fat Tuesday on deck and noted she had a little gel coat defect in the area where the centerboard goes for sailing. This was in the same area but a different spot from where we had to patch before. A gel-coat repair was scheduled for tomorrow. If we can get wet at sometime tomorrow, we would like to return to starfish beach.
