Unexcused Absences Southern Exumas – Part 2 (he said)

Southern Exumas – Part 2 (he said)

by Kent 11 Apr 2016

Aprili 7 – April 9, 2016. From White Point Bay we, along with our two pounds of remaining grouper filets, motored south through the shallow banks to anchor at Prime Cay. We were the only ones for miles around.

This area (south of Goat Cay and the Darbys and north of Lee Stocking Island) is very shallow and is networked with sand bores that shift with every storm; charts are, at best, a guideline. Our anchorage at Prime Cay gets very little traffic because you have to hop a shallow sand bar to get into the bight — we saw 5 feet at high tide, but there was over 8 feet in the anchorage itself.

Passing David Copperfield’s Musha Cay

The first afternoon we loaded the dinghy with snorkel and spearfish gear and at slack tide anchored near a pristine coral reef in the ocean cut north of Prime Cay. Once we hit the water we saw several grouper, who immediately dove into their hiding holes. Unlike the previous day’s successful grouper hunt, this one was much more difficult because the holes all had rear entrances – as soon as I approached, the grouper would just swim out the back.

The beautiful reef near Prime Cay

I changed my focus to glass-eye snapper, and quickly had two speared and in the bucket for lunch. They are much less wary of people, to their detriment. The reef itself is beautiful, and makes a terrific place to sight-see during the half hour of slack tide. After a fresh fish lunch onboard Miss Adventure we took an extended dinghy tour of the surrounding private islands, visiting the palm-tree lined Neighbor Cay and the partially developed Bock Cay.

Glass-eye Snapper

Next morning we took a dinghy ride through the mangrove swamp in the center of Prime Cay and saw a few tiny sharks and numerous juvenile sea turtles. Prime Cay is privately owned, like most islands in the Southern Exumas, but is one of the rare ones that has not seen any development of any kind — yet.

The flats near Prime Cay

Once high tide arrived at mid-morning we made our way out of the shallow anchorage and continued south to the Brigantine Cays, a string of remote islands stretching west from the northern tip of Great Exuma. After weaving through numerous sand bores and over some very shallow spots we found an anchorage in 5.5 feet of water on the northern side of New Cay, the second-farthest island on the west end of the chain.

A very new moon over New Cay

Our anchor chain on the sand

Happy hour sandbar

This Cay has everything (except for a way for deep draft boats to get in and anchor) — a long beach suitable for running, a warm, shallow bay for swimming, a sandbar that exposes at low tide (perfect for happy hour), and a large network of interior creeks through the mangroves just waiting to be explored by kayak. So for the next 24 hours, that’s exactly what we did.

REALLY still water in the Brigantine Cays

Unfortunately we had to cut our visit short because the wind was forecast to return, and the Brigantine Cays are rather exposed and don’t offer a lot of shelter from wind or waves. So by late morning we were on our way north.

Motoring back towards Staniel Cay

On the way back we stopped at Little Farmer’s Cay for eggs at the tiny grocery store, then continued to an anchorage off the Staniel Cay Yacht Club docks, so tune in next post to hear about our week of private island adventures.

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Southern Exumas 2

Engine Hours: 12
Generator Hours: 7
Miles Traveled: 65
Fish Caught: Snapper (2)
Marina and Mooring Fees: $0

Bahamas 2016 Cruise – Total Numbers

Engine Hours: 175
Generator Hours: 280
Miles Traveled: 1,019
Fish Caught: Mahi (3), Tuna (1), “Fast Grouper” (1), Grouper (1), Lionfish (2), Snapper (4)
Marina and Mooring Fees: $1,425 (includes one month of parking on Grand Bahama during the holidays)