Bell Island to Shroud Cay to Nassau

The Bold

We upped anchor from our pristine Bell Island anchorage at 0900 on Friday, March 27, 2020, just before high tide.  We made our way through the same shallow and narrow channels that brought us to the anchorage.  We passed the Bold and the Aga Khan’s Bell Island resort, which is where Justin Trudeau took an extravagant vacation costing $215,000.  I read he’s been heavily criticized, calling for an investigation from their parliament, for using Canadian tax payer dollars.  Once we cleared the channels and made it on to the Bank we deployed the Jib and main and started our trek north.  We rode a close reach then a beam reach on a 310 degrees heading as the wind drifted to the ENE until we turned NE into the Shroud Cay channel.  The autopilot gave us a scare shutting down but came back to life after a reset.  Hopefully, this will not be a problem we face in the future.  We also had to maneuver around an incoming Canadian sailboat, San Giulio, as he changed course across our bow about ½ mile out.  This is a rare occurrence as there are not that many passing boats in the open waters.  He gave an apologetic wave as he passed and no feelings were bent.  Enjoying such awesome sails I keep thinking how much Art would love such sailing and how he got cheated helping me deliver PV to Florida during the 2 hardest weeks.

One of many in the Mangrove Canal

We dropped anchor around 1430 on the SW corner of Shroud Cay.   Shroud Cay is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park and is known for its mangrove canals that slice through the island. We had no wifi to determine the weather so we made the decision to dink the canals today and leave Sunday for Nassau, should the winds be favorable.  The canals were a pleasant surprise.  They were of course beautiful but also full of turtles, stingrays and fish.  We idled approximately 1.5 miles into and out of the north canal, videoing everything that moved.  After an eventful evening we dinked back and had dinner.  Ruth asked me to wash the pan off the transom as we often do.  I was startled when a remora fish hit the pan under water.  I called for Ruth to bring the camera and we enjoyed videoing them under water for a while.  We couldn’t help but to watch them devour a few crackers. 

Stingray buried in the sand

Attacked by a Remora

On Saturday, March 28, we upped anchor at 0700 and set our course at 310 degrees toward Nassau.  We were on a nice broad reach the first half of the 50 NM trip, with winds near 15 knots.  Throughout the day the seas increased to about 5 feet but the winds did not.  With 24 knots remaining the winds shifted to about 150 degrees off the nose so I deployed the whisker pole onto the jib sheet on the windward, starboard side and put the preventer on the mainsail to port.  Throughout most of the journey the only land to be seen was the white sand 20 feet below.  With 16 NM remaining the Atlantis Resort appeared on the horizon.  We pulled into West Bay, at Nassau around 1630 and dropped anchor.  After dinner we started our homework to determine our next step.  Total fuel used since George Town, approximately 5 gallons. 

Sucker head