Look honey no hands ...

Day #15: The winds have abated and clocked enough to lure us away from the safety of a mooring. It's nice to finally be on the move again. We wind our way south through some cays until shallow water forces us out onto the 'highway'. Navigating near the cays requires constant diligence, it's shallow, reef strewn, and at times impassable. A common practice is to transit the cays by standing off about a mile where the water is deeper. Since everyone does this the route feels like a highway at times. During prevailing easterlies this route is in the Exumas' lee and thus only suffers from some minor fetch. Today's NW winds have us beam-too a three foot swell but by tacking, to keep the waves on the quarters, the motion is reasonable.

Compass Cay has the same wide-eyed allure for cruisers that Disney World has for eight year olds. And Compass Cay is today's destination. We exit the highway and head for the cay's north end. Like the other cays so far it is low, windswept, and covered with dwarfed, dense vegetation. The water is colored glorious shades of blue. Protected by reefs the seas have settled and only wind driven ripples disturb it. To port we see deserted white sand beaches which breakup Compass Cays rocky shoreline. The magic begins when we round the cay's southern tip. Ahead is nothing but calm well protected water. A solitary sailboat lies at anchor in a setting worthty of a postcard. Just beyond is a hidden cove. Approaching it we can see about a dozen yachts clustered on Compass Cay Marina's trident-shaped dock. Being true cruisers we always prefer to anchor out--well, almost always ;-)

Today's picture shows the nurse sharks being fed here in the marina. The family of four, regrettably down to three now, appeared to be having a good time when this picture was taken. Safely at the dock in Compass Cay. 13nm today and 396nm thus far. DBH