April 5, 2008

So after spending a few days hiking, interneting and swimming around Warderick Wells we bade adieu to the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We were headed north to Highborne Cay along with Hearts Desire and the Packet Inn.

The attraction of Highborne Cay for us is that there is fuel and groceries there. The Packet Inn’s are headed back to the states so after a night in Highborne they’ll be off for Nassau in the morning.

It blew 15 to 20 knots from the southeast as we headed north allowing us all a very nice day of sailing. It’s been really nice starting the engine to leave an anchorage and shutting it off and spending the day under sail. The predominant easterlies here allow for some wonderful sailing pretty much day after day.

We anchored on the west side of the cay and were very protected from the large rollers we had spent the day sailing amongst. We needed gasoline for the dink and some fresh vegetables so we hopped in the dink and made the three quarter of a mile trip into the marina. Was I in for a shock……..

I paid $5.50 a gallon for gasoline which has been about the going price here in the Bahamas. On the other hand the market here was by far the most expensive place we’ve been too. Egg Beaters, which we use for omelet’s cost $3 or $4 in the states, here they were $9.75. We spent $68 on 2 dozen eggs and practically nothing else. This place caters to the sportfishing crowd and I guess when you’re buying hundreds of gallons of fuel at a time you don’t even blink at an $8 bag of chocolate chip cookies. I blinked, hell, I even picked some of the items off the shelf so I could flip them upside down to check if the price tag was upside down. But noooo.

So after one night at Highborne Cay the Packet Inns headed off to Nassau while we and Hearts Desire turned back south for Normans Cay. We had an excellent time sailing south even though we were close hauled.

Eventually Hearts Desire and we are headed for Eleuthera, which is about 26 miles east of Highborne Cay. By heading back south a bit we can create a better angle for us to sail the entire way. The wind is pretty much going to be southeast and by staging at Normans and leaving through the Wax Cay Cut we can set a course of 56 degrees so we should be broad reaching. Yeah, I know, sailboats and plans but we have to try.

So we spent the afternoon of our arrival doing some snorkeling and making a quick stop at the only business on the island, that’s right a pub. McDuff’s was closed because of a generator failure the last time we were here so we wanted to stop in and check it out. There’s a beautiful screened in bar / dining area which is complimented by a huge canopied veranda. The veranda is decorated with overstuffed cushions on large rattan furniture. Its arranged to make small semi private groups with a few dining tables thrown in. The place really has a nice vibe.

This morning we awoke to 20 knots of wind and decided that since we’re here we should dinghy around to the bight of the cay and do some shelling and snorkel a nearby crashed plane. The beaches were spectacular even if the shelling wasn’t. There was one beach that was covered with “rollers”. Rollers are tiny conch shells that just roll ashore during a blow. The immature conchs don’t have the weight or muscle to keep them from being rolled up on the beach where they dry out and die. Christy did find a Milk Conch which had the weirdest blue “eyes”.

On the way back to the boat we stopped and snorkeled one of Carlos Lehders drug planes. This cay was the home of the infamous drug baron’s cocaine empire and the plane is rumored to have been crashed by a pilot who was too involved sampling his cargo, to be able put the plane on the runway. The plane is awash at low tide and as luck would have we arrived at low tide. We’ve snorkeled a half dozen planes here in the Bahamas but this one was impressive. I think it was a DC-3, its huge. The sand has eroded away from under the plane so even though the wing tips are only under 3 feet of water the body of the plane is intact and mostly submerged. The entire plane is pretty much still there with both engines still sporting their 3 bladed propellers. You can swim through the fuselage as it’s completely empty with the frame from the pilots seat being the only thing inside. It had been completely stripped to be able to handle the maximum amount of “cargo”. Now it’s an artificial reef for hundreds of colorful fish.