Thursday, April 9, 2009
9 April - Day #37. A gilded cage, no matter how nice, is still irksome. So Nellie's crew had no problem leaving the Old Bahama Bay resort at West End (and it's pool, beautiful beach, fast wifi, great food, infinite hot showers and attentive staff) behind. Hmm, we may be rethinking this choice. Anyway, after 35 days getting to the Bahamas this was our first day of actual reef navigation. Only 1nm NW of West End, Grand Bahama Island is Indian Cay Channel, a narrow, unmarked, 3nm cut through thin water and rocks. The first lesson here in the 'Islands' is that navigation is strictly by GPS waypoints. The Little Bahama Bank is huge, encompassing some 13,400 square miles. Deep water is defined as 13' and uncharted shoals and rock piles litter the whole area. The low lying cays don't help with navigation either. Thus it was, just passed Indian Cay we left the safety of deep water and went right when the GPS said so. There used to be a channel marker but everyone's gotten so comfortable with GPS' that there's no urgency to replace it. We timed our passage for 0730, the tail end of the rising tide. The crew's job is to watch for breaking water and rocks; the goal, of course, being to avoid them. For ICW cruisers the clarity of this water is alarming. The bottom appears to be so close that surely a grounding is only seconds away. It takes a while, but the head eventually wins out over the stomach. After surviving Indian Cay Channel it's a slight right and then straight to the Mangrove Cay waypoint, some 21nm distant. I need to digress for a moment to explain the pronunciation of cay—it's key, like the Florida Keys. The word 'cay' originates from the spanish word 'cayo' (little island). This confirms my suspicion that to speak spanish one only need add an 'o' to the end of each word. Another slight right at Mangrove Cay and 20nm miles later the hook is down in the the SW bight of Great Sale Cay. We're halfway across the Little Bahama Bank. 48nm today: 1140nm total. DBH
