MacGregor Index Page.......... 2015 Bahama Trip Index Page
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.........................................--- Black Point ---................................ ..........................................................--- To --- .............................................--- Fowl Cay ---
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....................................................................(May 8th) Anchorage --- N 24º 16.389´ ==== Trip Mileage = 818 miles .7..............W 76º 32.383´ ==== Day's Mileage = 18 miles |
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On the way to Black Point I was able to raise Tony on the VHF radio. He had gone up to Black Point ahead of me to pick up Daren and as I was on the way to Back Point they left for Staniels, where part of a James Bond movie had been filmed in a grotto that you swim into (Thunderbolt Grotto). They ended up anchoring off Big Majors Spot just west of Staniels, a popular anchorage. The plan was I'd catch up with them and we would spend a couple days together sailing north.
Our first destination would be Fowl Cay that I'd learned about due to Mike and Sandy's trip report. There were two grottos there also that you swim into and a nice anchorage in a small crescent shaped bay.
I left Black Point and as I worked north Tony and Daren left Big Majors a bit later. They were further north but also further west of the track we would both end up taking to Fowl Cay.
Finally a day of sailing with no outboard running. The winds were very light but it doesn't take much to move a Macgregor and running wing on wing in the light air ......
.... I was able to average about 4. It was a very relaxing sail and this would be the first of many in a row as except for running the outboard to get on and off anchor I was able to sail from here to 40 miles north of Nassau in the Berrys over the coming days, a distance of 158 miles.
As we worked north some were still running south.
Later I heard one of these big boats that needed to go into a marina. They were well over 100 feet and they wanted to know if there would be room by the boat for their 28 foot tender. So their tender was two feet longer than the Macgregor I was on. I mentioned this before but if you just joined this trip here a lot of the tenders with these large boats also have AIS transponders on them.
Lots of newer cats everywhere..... but ....
..... still lots of mono-hull boats also.
This was the second or third time I saw these guys and would see them yet again when I got up to Highborne.
A supply ship moving south running over the Banks..... and ....
...... another large yacht. Most of these don't look that old.
I had a first for me today. Tony fell in a mile or so behind me along with a 35-40 foot mono-hull that was also sailing north. The Mac did good in the light air and neither ever caught me. The first time I was never passed while sailing. It will probably be some time before the conditions are right for that to happen again.
I ended up getting to Fowl a little before Tony and dropped the sails about ¼ mile before the anchorage as I had no confidence at this point sailing into restricted areas and the power cat above was anchored in the mouth of the small bay.
Tony came along and showed me how.....
.... to sail all the way into and onto anchorage. He handles his boat like I hope to handle mine as I get more experience.
He had some help here getting on anchor with Daren on-board but also does this when sailing alone.
The bay has low rock walls to the west, above and .....
..... to the east.
At the south end of the small bay was a nice sand beach. The bay reminded me of the small one on the south end of Allans.
There was an airstrip there and a plane that had some problems with it.
Besides being a nice protected spot, except to the NE, the snorkeling there was great. There was a very nice reef on the NW tip of the bay on the inside. Tony said that it was one of the nicest ones he has ever seen in the Bahamas. I liked it as there was no current. After swimming on it for a while .....
(Note: The picture above and the ones to follow were screen shots from videos that Tony shot with his Go-Pro)
..... we piled into my dingy (Daren and myself above with Tony taking the picture) and ....
... went over .....
.... to the two grotto's. The grotto's (caves) are marked on the charts. Look for the Rocky Dundas on the chart and they are on the one to the SE. There are a couple mooring balls by them that you can tie your dinghy to and they are very close together and easy to swim in to. There is also a nice reef at the mouth of them with a lot of reef fish and the reef itself is a great one.
The following are still screen shots from Tony's video....enjoy...
We spent a lot of time in the water swimming the reef and also into and out of both of the grotto's.
Tony said that ....
This was the largest elkhorn coral he has ever seen.
He was into taking pictures of the coral and the the fish as I guess he has seen a lot of fish over the years.
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Looking out at where the dinghy's were on the mooring balls.
The entrance into one of the grotto's.
I'm not sure where the tide was when we were there but don't thing the openings ever go completely close except maybe with the exception of extreme conditions.
The was the first grotto we went in but they are very close to each other.
Baby elkhorn coral and I think Fan 'something'. Sorry not good on remembering names of things.
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Notice the ET figure on the back wall?
Notice the happy swimmer. I hadn't been in the water this long in a long time.
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I believe that I read that these are the only grotto's with stalactites and stalagmites in the Exumas or maybe the whole Bahamas.
It is hard to get a sense of how large these are but they are large. When I was in my late teens and early 20's I use to do a lot of spelunking in Missouri so this reminded me some of that. The Bahamas is all limestone and these were formed during the ice ages when the sea levels were much lower due to the water being tied up as ice over a lot of the planet. The Bahamas were much larger then before being submerged again at the end of the ice age. If sea levels go up more now they will become a lot smaller than now also.
When we got to the second grotto there were some other people there for a bit.
This one continued back above the water level some distance and ...
... the floor had the appearance of a lava flow but wasn't.
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I really enjoyed this day and want to thank Tony and Daren for taking the time to point out all the different reef fish and types of coral.
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