......................MacGregor Index Page.......... 2015 Bahama Trip Index Page

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............ ...............................--- Lee Stocking Island --- ...............................................................--- to --- ....................................--- Rudder Cut Cay ---

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..........................................................(April 24th) Anchorage --- N 23º 52.284´ ==== Trip Mileage = 778 miles ..................W 76º 14.319´ ==== Day's Mileage = 17 miles

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Woke up on the 24^th to no wind and flat water. I wasn't planning on going far so I was in no hurry to leave and hoped maybe a little wind would come up and make some sailing possible.

l shot a couple of pictures ....

... of the flat water and the reflections due to it. Once underway I started north and passed Bock Cay cut where the current was running pretty good. I approached from the south and my speed dropped from about 4 to 3 as I hit some of the current. Then passing the cut and with the current in my favor the speed went to over 6 kts all on the same throttle setting on the outboard.

Just past the cut a twin prop plane came in low over the boat, circled Bock Cay to check out the windsock and then landed on the water. Lots of air traffic up and down these cays and islands.

With no wind to speak of I continued motoring north and this time passing close by rock outcroppings close by was not as threatening going the other way where if the outboard stopped I could of been swept into them within seconds.

Most of this run was over the same water that I took going south from Darby Island down to Lee Stocking.

l passed my anchorage at the west side of Darby and into new waters for me north of it. Around on the north side I could look at the 'castle' from the early 1900's that I had seen before on my walk on Darby.

Next up was passing Rudder cut where again the current came into play. Now the tide was going out so approaching the cut was easy and fast. The cut runs just to the left of Umbrella Rock shown above to the right. I wasn't going out past it into Exuma Sound but had to pass just inside of it before turning to port where I would continue north on the 'inside'.

Once I made the turn to the north I had the outgoing tide on the nose and had to apply a lot of throttle just to run 2 ½ kts. Most of the cuts on this day looked very doable with the low wind speeds. Looking out there were no breaking waves going across the cut. Still one has to respect the current at all of these cuts.

My destination was only about ½ mile north. It was a life size piano and mermaid that David Copperfield had commissioned and when finished he had them put into 12-15 feet of water just off Rudder Cut Cay which he owns. The pair is just in the mouth of a small bay that is rimmed by rock, not sand. I continued past the bay and dropped anchor just offshore outside the next bay only about three hundred yards further north.

The bay has a large cave on its north end and ....

.... a beautiful beach. I didn't go ashore as the charts mark the island private (David Copperfield's) but a younger couple left their large cat and did go ashore for a while.

There were a few other boats anchored nearby for the night and a couple of them took their dinghy's down to where the mermaid/piano were. I decided I'd go the next morning before heading further north to Little and Big Farmer.

Of course had to take a cloud shot as the day came to an end ;-).

The next morning it was on to my objective. The photo above shows about where the mermaid/piano are just north of Rudder Cut, which can still contribute to current here. The coordinates are N 23º 52.163´ --- W 76º 14.157´.

Instead of taking the dinghy over to the area where the Mermaid/Piano are I decided to just run over with the Macgregor and decide what to do once there. Once over there I easily found the pair in about 12 feet of water and held my video camera that is in a waterproof housing down in the water. Finally an advantage of having a small sailboat where you are close to the water. I shot a few seconds of video as I drifted past. I turned to port and went in a little ways and quickly went forward and dropped the anchor. I made sure I was far enough in that there was no chance the chain would go over the pair.

I started letting out rode and drifted back hoping to stop right over the pair. The wind wasn't quite right and I ended up about 40 feet or so to the north but could see them below not far away.

It is hard to tell from these next three photos but the piano and mermaid are life size. I left the dinghy tied to the Mac but let out about 50 feet of floating line off her stern just in case the current was bad. I climbed down the boarding latter into the water and started swimming, first checking to see how the current was. It wasn't bad and I was swimming into it so coming back shouldn't be a problem.

Once I was close I turned the video camera on and shot the best I could. I tried to swim down once closer but evidently I didn't have the camera aimed right when I did. It is hard to tell what it is shooting as it just has a small screen on the back and I'm swimming at all times dealing with the current. Anyway I got a lot of 'not the piano/mermaid' in the video. The camera takes nice video for what it cost but it is hard to tell what you are shooting.

We use these cameras on a race car for a forward view, a view out the back to see if the chute is going out OK, one on the gauges and one on the driver to see if he is screaming or not. In the car they are on fixed mounts and we can check to make sure they are aimed correctly. Trying to point and swim didn't work so well.

l swam back to the boat and looked at the video and had some good video but not a lot just a lot of sandy bottom. I then got in the dinghy and paddled it over and shot over the side with the camera down in the water while I paddled against the current. Still not a good situation.

Back in the boat I downloaded the video again into the computer. I felt between the 3 videos I had some video that I could splice together, so stopped. The photos above are screen dumps from the video. When I get back to the states and faster Internet I'll download and edited video.

All in all it was worth the effort and if you are in the area I'd recommend that you stop and check this out.

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