February 3, 2008.

We left Little Farmers Cay this morning and after an 8 mile day of motoring we’re now at Cave Cay.

Our original thought was to stop at Galliot Cay. When we got to Galliot we found a healthy amount of surge running through the anchorage. So even if you’re protected from wind driven chop you can have a problem with surge.

Surge is a rolling swell that finds its way into an anchorage; it’s often driven by your proximity to an inlet or “cut” as they’re known here. There’s a cut every few miles, they’re everywhere, some are navigable, some are not, but they all matter. It can be independent of the wind and can make getting a good nights sleep very difficult to get, or so I’m told.

We pressed on for another 2 miles and arrived at Cave Cay. It was a totally different story once we arrived here. The breeze was about 12 knots, the water was flat and the scenery is as beautiful as can be. We are anchored in the lee of the cay and ready to explore.

Cave Cay is being developed as a marina/hotel resort complex. There is a narrow channel that leads into the most protected natural anchorage in all the Bahamas. It’s like a quarry pit with tall stone walls and one narrow entrance into the basin. Inside the basin is a large fuel dock adjacent to a modern, clean marina with concrete floating docks complete with fresh water and electric. The surrounding hillsides are speckled with fabulous guest cottages. There’s a restaurant and small store for provisioning.

We were running low on gasoline for the dink so I motored into the marina for some fuel. It was kind of eerie as I soon realized that that the owner’s boat and my dinghy were the only vessels in the entire marina. The place could hold at least 30 large boats and there was nobody there. No boats, no cottage guests, nothing. It took 15 minutes just to find somebody to sell me some fuel as the place was practically deserted.

The north and south ends of the cay both have cuts with ferocious current running out to the ocean. For that reason we decided to snorkel the northwest coast this afternoon. Christy and I spent a couple of hours really exploring a 200 yard section of the coral studded area. We also did a little hunting and gathering. I floated along waiting for the perfect fish to find its way in front of my spear.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about which fish are edible and which aren’t. There’s a lot to choose from but waiting for a target of sufficient size was difficult. After an hour or so my incredible patience was rewarded with a nice Cuban Snapper. The book says that they are good eating so we’re pretty happy with it. While I was hunting, Christy was doing a little hunting of her own. She was able to harvest 2 adult conchs. She actually saw several but 2 were plenty so that was all she took.

I’m thinkin’ there’s a seafood extravaganza in our immediate future. Another fish tomorrow and we should be set.

There are 7 boats that are anchored behind the cay with us so we all got together for sundowners on the beach. We also dug a small pit and burned all our garbage at the same time. Kind of a happy hour/ recycling get together.

We’ll end up staying here for a few days as the winds are going to be up and from the wrong direction for us to do any traveling. Things could be worse though, as this place is awesome.