......................MacGregor Index Page.......... 2015 Bahama Trip Index Page
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............ ...........................................--- Allan's Cay --- ...........................................................--- to --- ...................................--- Highborne Cay --- ........... |
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..........................................................(April 4th) Anchorage --- N 24º 42.561´ ==== Trip Mileage = 591 miles ..................W 76º 49.469´ ==== Day's Mileage = 3 miles |
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It was a short ways from Allan to Highborne.
I decided being alone and considering the twist route to just motor over to Highborne instead of trying to sail. Running in the shallow water and the course that looks fairly easy on the chartplotter takes some concentration to avoid running aground, which can happen just off the route in many cases. If your are sailing off-shore either to the east or west there is a lot more latitude in where you actually are in most cases. Having a partner sure would be nice as then you can divide up the duties of watching where you are and handling the sails and heading.
A lot of really big boats go in and out of Highborne, either staying there are just outside, possibly after re-fueling.
I was about ready to enter the channel into Highborne when this guy emerged and ....
... just kind of waited about 5 minures for him to pass. Once in I wondered how he managed to get in there and then get turned around.
The next few photos were taken once anchored in the small bay just to the west of the breakwater that is mid picture. I don't know if the floating dock was there or not when Mike and Sandy anchored here but it is right where you would like to anchor as you could anchor there and swing about any direction and stay off the bottom with a boat drawing less than 2'. I'm wondering if they placed it there to discourage anchoring here.
I anchored were I was OK as long as the wind didn't change direction while there. More to the NE and I'd be very close to the floating dock and more to the SE and I was going to be on the bottom during low tide. Mike had got in the water and moved the anchor by wading to where he wanted it. I considered that as I would of liked to of had it about 30 feet further south than where I dropped it but saw a rather large shark at times patrolling these waters so forgot that idea. Yep call me 'chicken'.
Looking more or less south past the floating dock you see the entrance into Highborne between the near rocks and then the next set just to the south. That big boat didn't have a lot of clearance on these rocks.
Looking in a more westerly direction you can see the area, outside in the darker water, where most boats anchor. Like the ones I showed on the previous page. Just behind the boat you see the water that has a lot of 'white' color to it. This is very shallow water. I never bumped bottom but it was probably close where I was.
Looking to the north we see the rest of this anchorage. I would of been aground just 60 feet or so north of where the boat was when I took these pictures. I was lucky and the wind didn't shift more to the SE or I would of been in this really shallow water. At first I'd considered staying here maybe 2 days and if that would of been the case I probably would of dared the shark to get me and would of moved the anchor just a bit further south.
Moving more to the east we see the Batelco tower that marks Highborne from a long ways out. Also to the right you can see the end of the breakwater.
I took the dinghy in to get gas so we are at the entrance to the marina with the breakwater to the left and a long dock to the right. The long dock is just for observation and at the end they have a fish cleaning station that normally had a large school of large sharks circling in tight formation waiting for pieces of waste from the cleaning station above.
The breakwater is pretty impressive.
The long observation dock starts where the rocks are just to the left of the right boat above. The fuel dock is where the boat is to the left (smaller one). I tided up at the end in front of where the white boat is and hoisted my gas cans up on the dock and then myself which wasn't easy considering how low the boat was below the dock due to the tide being out. The second trip in I put the dinghy between the end of the fuel dock and all those rocks and put the fuel cans on the dock and I climbed up the rocks. It is not a dinghy friendly dock.
I filled one 5 gallon to the 4 gallon level guessing that would top off the boat's inboard tank and filled the other to the 5 gallon mark and also filled the 2 gallon tank up. I then took the gas slip up to the store and paid for the gas and groceries and got the bad news that I wasn't going to get wifi here. It seems they have one wifi system (actually more than one), I could see it on my Bullet 2HP radio easily, for the people staying in slips and another for the marina and the 'cheap seat anchored visitors'. Well the one I needed, was suppose to cost $15 a day according to a guide book, was down and they wouldn't let me on the other one.
The nice young lady at the store was sympathetic but said she couldn't do anything about it.
The gas was about $4.60 a gallon and the groceries weren't cheap. I think cans of fruit were $4.00 each and other items priced about the same. So between the first trip to the store and the second to pay for gas and 4 little bags of groceries I spent about $200.
I went back to the boat and found that I needed the 4 gallons and the 2 gallons to top off the inboard tank so did that and returned to the pump and refilled the 5 gallon tank and the 2 gallon one and back to the store and paid for all of that plus a couple more items and then back to the boat.
Then after eating and resting a little took the dinghy back into the marina and ...
... up to the north end of it where there was a nice little beach.
Leaving the dinghy there I ....
.... walked back towards the store along a cute little walkway. I felt I was maybe back in the states here the way it was laid out and landscaped, probably with plants not indigenous to here but I don't know that for sure.
This place is high end. It was strange with all the boats in here I only saw one family on a smaller one and other than that and crew working one of the really big ones it seemed kind of deserted so wondered who was using up all the wifi bandwidth that they said was the case.
This is the walkway, path would sound too primitive. The guy walking towards me was one of the staff. I said smile for the picture.
That was all it took and he had to go into his routine showing me his 'moves'. I told him I'd post his picture and thus he would be 'famous' the world over, so here it is. The staff were all really friendly. I'll give them that even though spending about $200 here didn't culminate in me being able to send out one stinking email to family and friends to let them know I was OK. That last contact I'd had with anyone was about 2 weeks prior at Bimini.
You enter the store where the lady is ascending the steps. If you proceed down that .....
.... walkway to come to a turn to the left and now just behind you you have the swimming beach for I'm sure 'guests'. Way down the beach you can see the little building with the flags by it at the end of the fish cleaning dock and where the sharks are. I guess they figure that keeping the sharks fed and busy down there will make the beach safer.
The swim beach ends and if you continue on the walkway past the steps down to the beach..
... you climb some steps, picture center/right, and you are at the restaurant. I didn't eat there so have no idea what the food is like or what it costs. To my back in this picture the walkway continues but is marked 'staff only' so I retreated back down to the store and just past it to...
... where they had cut a road up to wards the high point for this point of the cay. I'm wondering if the purpose of this cut was to actually provide the rocks for the breakwater.
Walking up the hill and turning you have this view looking to the west with the store to the left.
At the top of the hill the road goes north and south and straight ahead was a path that led down to the east coast of the cay with a lot of reefs in view.
Looking north along the coast you could see where there is a beach that is marked on the map as a swim beach. Later on listening to the VHF I found out that I wasn't really suppose to be walking around like this. A boat asked about coming in and going to the restaurant. They were told that was fine but that the island is private and they should confine themselves to the marina and restaurant and not walk the island.
Before returning to the dinghy I walked over by the breakwater and had a nice talk to one of the staff there before taking a picture of the anchorage I was using. He said they, the staff, lived on the island and worked for 6 weeks and then had some leave (I forgot how much) and would/could go into Nassau on break where I'll bet they could spend 6 weeks wages in a few days.
A number of really large boats went in just to refuel, probably thousands of dollars worth and then go back out to either....
.... anchor or continue on their way.
This happened a number of times ....
.... during the day and one boat as large as the one above came in later in the dark. That was impressive. They stayed the night.
This boat also was in and then out and I'm assuming it is a Defense Force Patrol Boat. Having gotten fuel and some groceries and no wifi I decided to leave the next day in search of wifi so I could let people know I was still alive and well and well wore out. Would I return? Probably only if I needed fuel but this was my first chance for fuel since leaving Bimini since I had passed other opportunities such as Nassau and Chub Cay and the fuel cost about the same as Bimini so wasn't complaining about that and if they had there wifi up I might of stayed a couple days.
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