Left Nassau with 10-15k of NE to N winds and a slight chop. Managed the Yellow Banks easily enough. This is an area that we had to cross, lying across the route from Nassau to the Exumas, which has many large and scattered coral heads. Wisdom dictates a Nassau departure so that you cross the Banks when the sun is high overhead so that you can easily see the coral heads. If you leave too early, the sun is in your eyes and is you leave too late, the sun is too low!!
Of course, nobody tells you what to do if the sky is overcast!!!
And naturally, no one says anything about what to do if the sea surface is too rough to see what’s underneath.
Both conditions we encountered.
So, what do you do? What did we do? Pray? Nope! “I’m not sure!!!” So just go slowly enough so that you can take the avoiding action at very short notice!!!
So we followed the recommended course and initially came upon these large areas of darkness under the surface. These couldn’t be coral heads, could they? There appeared no way around them!! What to do?? “I’m not sure!” Oh well, just head forward slowly. Whew!
Ah, clear water ahead, sunshine! We can see!!! Those black areas seem to be either grass or rocks – but deep enough not to bother us 
Oooh! That very black patch must be a coral head!! And there’s another. Keep your eyes peeled!
And so it went across the Yellow Banks. But we didn’t really have to take any major evasive action. The coral heads were very noticeable from quite a distance.
Arrived at Allen’s Cay, ventured in as far as we dared and set the anchor easily first time. There were a few yachts further into the anchorage but we’re still conservative with the depth. Plus my brand new depth sounder also doesn’t work properly – I think it’s the transducer which is defective.
Had lunch and then took Amadink to the beach on Leaf Island for a look at the Iguanas. These little creatures come right down onto the beach and you can feed them – we took carrots but they didn’t seem to be too interested. I guess it was because they had already been stuffed full by the hordes of tourists on the gofast speed boat excursions from Nassau.
Our introduction to the Exumas was a bit disappointing. It was windy with some overcast skies and quite chilly. Mary actually had a jumper on when we went to the beach!! Later it even rained for a while!!!
Then it was off to another beach on SW Allen’s Cay but there were no iguanas forthcoming although we saw many hermit crabs – from tiny little ones to quite large ones (with shells the size of an average clenched fist).
Then it was back to the boat for sundowners, dinner and bed.
Zeke and Luther had a nice deep bath and Leanne a relaxing shower – thanks to an abundance of fresh water from my watermaker – gotta love that thing!!!
One thing we have found is that the anchorages are not at all “peaceful” or calm!!
There is always some current and wind and this makes for a really “rock ‘n roll” time at anchor. Certainly nothing like the NZ anchorages which are like a mill pond even if the wind is pumping through at 35 knots!!!
We found this in many of the marinas too. They are simply fingers poking out from shore into the water with little protection from the current and we have had many a rocky night in the various marinas. and the currents are very strong! Can’t swim off the boat without some means of remaining attached.
The current also changes direction 4 times a day! This makes for interesting anchoring!! evrytime the current changes direction, you have to hope that the anchor resets itself. A lot of the books recommend setting 2 anchors – one upstream and one downstream – called a Bahamian Moor. However, the newer wisdom is to have a really good system and use only a single anchor. this we did with no problems. Thanks to my NZ Manson Supreme anchor.
Today dawned bright and beautiful and the waters around us certainly looked like all the photos. But, what the photos don’t show is that the water is still choppy and while very clear, the bottom is not really clearly visible. However, looking through a “lookee” bucket (bucket with a clear glass (acrylic) bottom) the clarity of the water is amazing.
Had a generally relaxing day again today with an excursion to the beach – there were a lot more iguanas this time round and they seemed to be hungrier than yesterday. The boys were fascinated by them.
Back at Amanzi we had a swim off the back and were again amazed at the strength of the current! The only way to remain safe was to have lines tied to the boat and trailing off the back. There would be no way that one could swim against the current!!
After lunch, it was time for a siesta or read a book.
Soon the anchorage was filling up with other boats and we noticed a large yacht near us that had run aground on the bank that we were anchored on. So they had to wait for the tide to turn and rise so that they could float off. This eventually happened but not after a few anxious moments when we started swinging around with the change in current towards this boat. Fortunately we didn’t get too close and the boat eventually lifted off and was able to motor away.
Now, it’s “ni-nighs” time as the boys say!
