YACHT "WANDERING STAR": Exploring The Central Exumas In A Whirl Of Windy Weather.

Going out of the cut at Adderly Cut by Lee Stocking Island

The last week has flown by in a whirl of windy weather and stunning colours. Because if the Bahamas are anything they are colourful, and no more so than when the sun is shining down in all its glory revealing the multitude of colours of the sea.

How can you not love those blues

We’ve spent a day at the quaint Little Farmers Cay with its tiny population of less than 100. Anchoring on the west side of the island we went ashore, leaving the dinghy on the beach and walked around. We saw the rays and turtles that swam around the fish station in the harbour on the east side of the island and had a cold beer at the yacht club. The islanders are warm and welcoming and after a hour or two of slow ambling and the cold beer we had circumnavigated the island.

View from the yacht club at Little Farmers Cay

Moving on the next day we stopped at Black Point on Great Guana Cay to do some laundry. Now this is not just any old laundry. This is the best place in the Exumas to do Laundry – nice clean machines, free wifi, cakes, showers; small shop, conch fritters and haircuts make this a very individual place indeed! We strolled up to the ‘garden of Eden’, a misnomer perhaps –a back yard filled with driftwood art. And we ate lunch ashore – it seems no matter where you eat the menu is always the same: burgers, cracked conch or chicken sandwiches - Georgetown, Black Point, Stanial Cay or Nassau! We enjoy it all the same.

Hanging out at the Launderette at Black Point

From Black point we moved up to Big Majors Spot and ticked off in one day the sites for mum and dad - ‘pigs on the beach’, the ‘sharks by the fish station’, ‘lunch at the yacht club’ and ‘Thunderball grotto’.

Because the next day a strong weather front was due and we were staying put! It seems the weather gods have got it in for us as front after front has been passing through. Sometimes they are fairly benign but sometimes they bring strong clocking winds, forcing us to try and seek shelter in islands where there are few places to hide.

A little squall passing through Big Majors Spot

We have had a couple more nice days at Great Guana Cay, walking on the beaches in the afternoon sun at White Point and following the trail left by others at Hettys Bay across to Exuma Sound. I think my parents wonder where I get this crazy love of beaches from as I drag everyone ashore and won’t leave until I have left no grain of sand un-trodden!

The magnificent beach at White Point

With yet another stronger front due Mum and Dad kindly offered to put us in a marina for a couple of nights to take the stress out of finding somewhere safe and comfortable to be. Cave Cay Marina is a small no frills establishment. No restaurant or bar and slightly grubby toilets and washrooms. But the laundry is free which is just as well considering the high prices they charge. The lagoon is a perfect hurricane hole but because the island is privately owned you can only use it if you are in the marina. We had to wait for high tide to get over the sand bar at the entrance and entered the stunning protected waters. We enjoyed our two night stay there walking on the beaches, taking advantage of the laundry and meeting some of the other guest seeking shelter from the forecast-ed winds. The wind picked up in the early hours of the morning and howled all day long. We were very grateful to be safely tucked up in this pricey but endearing hidey-hole.

On the dock at Cave Cay Marina

We are making our way slowly back to Georgetown. As fate would have it the winds have died all together and it looks like we'll have to motor the last leg. For now we have pulled back into Lee Stocking Island for a day or two more in this blissful spot. Sim has the watermaker in pieces. Its not looking good. The membranes have gone. Its a shame they are so costly as a watermaker is very convenient. But we managed for nearly ten years without and what water we did buy probably didn't cost as much as the membranes!