Day #22: With the winds down to just under 20kts, and the sun making its first appearance in four days, we lower the dink and go into Staniel Cay for breakfast. The airlines are running again so John is homeward bound. The past days' inundation has left its mark. Among other things we see some folks trying to raise a cabin cruiser off the sea bottom. With Nellie's crew compliment one short we weigh anchor and head north. Our plan is to visit all the little spots we missed coming south--and there are a lot of little spots we missed. First stop, Little Pipe Cay, 8nm away. It's very scenic; which in the Exumas is damning it with faint praise ;-). We drop the hook, explore the area with the dink, and then decide to move on.
Next stop, the abandoned military facility on SW Pipe Cay. It boasts a 100' concrete pier which is free and on a first come, first served basis. Entering the well marked little harbor we see only one boat at the pier. After getting Nellie settled we explore several of the base's deserted buildings. We couldn't help commiserating, even if several decades too late, with those assigned here. How lonely and isolating it must have been. Back on Nellie we get a closer look at our pier mate, a big plastic boat many years past its prime. The events in Vincent Bulgosie's (sp?) nonficton book 'And the Sea Will Tell', come to mind--nice cruising couple is murdered and dismembered by down-and-out cruising couple on a remote, deserted island. We cast off our lines and move on.
We drop the hook in two more anchorages on Pipe Cay before finding one that's just right. Happy to be swinging on the hook in a calm, star filled harbor on the NW side of Pipe Cay. A 14nm circumnavigation today and 459nm so far. DBH
