Continuing on from Farmer’s Cut into Exuma Sound seemed like the correct thing to do after a night of rolly-polly on the mooring off Little Farmer’s Cay. Better to move on and roll on the water, we thought, than to roll on each tide. We headed out into the Cut in five, raising to eight, foot seas and headed south to the Adderly Cut that takes a boat from the Sound and into the protection of Lee Stocking Island. As we arrived at Adderly Cut we were worried about the state of the seas, wind opposing current, but we had been contacted as we sailed in the Sound an hour earlier and were advised that the cut was “quite do-able” by a person who lives in a home overlooking Adderly Cut. We made our way in without severe problems, through the waypoints and by eyesight.
We arrived at the beautiful, sandy anchorage by Lee Stocking Island in time to settle in for the afternoon and arrange for a tour of the Perry Institute facility the following morning. The tour gathered at the dock of Perry Institute and were guided on our walk by the Outreach person. Through informal discussion and her talk, we learned the Institute provides a place for scientific research for colleges and educational programs. It is a non-profit facility with ongoing research projects whose researchers arrive by May and throughout the summer. Some of their research involves the health of the reef system and the impact and possible control of Lion Fish. It was a very interesting and informative tour for 15 cruisers, and we appreciated the new out-reach efforts of the Institute.
Dan and Kathy in one dinghy, and Jamie from Windsong, dinghied around the cays near Lee Stocking, Leaf and Norman’s Cays, looking for the snorkel spots on the map we were provided by Perry Institute, and found an area where there was supposed to be a cave dive. Jamie and Dan looked it over but decided that the six foot opening and 75 foot very deep cave was not something to try. We hiked across the Island to the Sound side of Lee Stocking for a bit of exercise and returned to our boats. There were other cruisers arriving and departing as we visited the area for a few days. We met a few for sun downers and by the fourth day we decided to move on.
The Explorer Charts show a route from Lee Stocking to a small community called Barraterre Settlement. It sounded like an interesting place to visit and so we decided to wiggle our way over there, as the water is very shallow, even in the channels. We chose to leave when the tide was rising to utilize the tidal depth for travel. We usually make sure to travel into questionable places during a low tide, so that the higher tide can float you off if you have misjudged. Here we needed the high tide to make it in. It was disconcerting to check the chart and note that the places we had decided to go through were listed at mlw (mean low water measurement) to be less than the depth needed for the hull and draft of our boat at 1.6 meters.
As we passed the small cays on the way, Children’s Bay Cay, a magnificent setting with private beaches and where development is expected for million dollar estates, and Rat Cay, a place with no facilities, where some cruisers wait to cross to George Town, we checked the anchorages to see where we might stay. The conditions were not right for the Rat Cay, so we decided to try off Pudding Point near Barraterre. Yikes! Both shallow around the point of the island, and too narrow for swinging on anchor-so we hightailed it out of there, and Sea Star anchored off the town pier. We decided not going in any shallower water would be the most prudent option, since we felt we were “pushing our luck” anyway, having made the trip that far; of course, the tide would have to fall again while we were anchored overnight. Windsong, with her 4 ½ foot draft continued on to Hog Cay anchorage.
We dinghied into the town dock, and decided to explore a bit. We had heard that Barraterre was a place that a cruiser could buy fresh vegetables, and this did turn out to be the case. We were taken right out into the gardens and could help select our pepper, tomato, cabbage and squash purchases. It was hot in the garden so we visited the Circle T Bar for a beer, and after reading the first US newspaper we had seen since Florida there- discovered Red’s for an excellent Bahamian meal. Red introduced himself and we talked about the snorkeling for a while, with him promising to take us to find “crawfish” whenever we called him from George Town, which was to be our next stop.
Back at the boat we did spend a rolly night and so woke early in the morning, deciding to get out of town while the tide was rising and we had some water to cross the previously discovered shallow areas. We headed back to the lovely and calm anchorage we had first looked at, at Children’s Bay. As soon as we anchored again, I noticed a skiff skimming across the Banks toward Barraterre.
Red had just delivered workers to Bock Cay (working on a Sunday- we were told the workers have to work seven days a week- we later read in a newspaper that the workers are owed a great deal of money and the project they are working on might go broke, as many resort and marina projects have) and was passing on his way back, so I hailed him and he stopped at our boat. We invited him to have breakfast with us, chatted, had pancakes and he was off again needing to work at his restaurant, then pick up the workers again. Many Bahamians are hard working, friendly and self-sufficient, and this town certainly had a good number of them.
By noon, Jamie on Windsong and Sea Star decided that since the winds and weather were predicted to deteriorate, higher on the nose winds with higher waves, for the next few days, we would grab the opportunity to cross the Sound into George Town and off we went.
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