Hawksbill Cay – Dinghy Exploration Trip

Day 275

April 11, 2016

NM Today: 0

NM Total: 4167

This was our third day at this anchorage. The weather report sounded favorable for moving tomorrow, so when the park warden came on the VHF radio for his morning mooring assignments at the Exuma Land and Sea Park, Clark did not take today’s assignment. He will need to listen again tomorrow at 9:00 to get his new mooring assignment at that time.

The RainSnare is still set up on the fly bridge, but we are hoping against hope for rain at this point. Today’s weather reports indicated no signs of rain for today. I made updates to my blog to pass time in the morning. After that was completed Clark talked about what we might do on the boat to create some storage space. We came up with a few ideas for unutilized space and moved a few things around. Once we leave the Bahamas, we may have more space created by having used up some of our extra food supply on board for this portion of the trip.

As we talked, Clark remarked that this makes the seventh day that we have been at anchor without a stop at a marina or a dock of any sort to re-provision any of our resources.  When we next stop to get any food, drinking water, and everything-else water, the count of days will have risen to nine. We have never gone longer than three days in the past before we had to stop for provisions of this sort.

Clark says he is amazed at the water conservation we have been able to implement. Water gets reused multiple times to the extent possible. For example, when I wash my hands, I capture the water in a pan to be reused for some other dirtier job. I transfer the water to a bucket outdoors at some point, so it can be used to rinse salt off handrails, etc. 

We run the generator twice per day – once in the morning and once at night to keep the battery charged. We charge up our electronics at that time and try to avoid any unnecessary use of power in between times. Clark keeps bemoaning the fact that we do not have solar panels on the boat. He looked into installation of them in Marathon, Florida. Unfortunately the engine overheat issue came up and took priority over any enhancements to the boat. He has added this feature to the boat wish list for a future date.

In the Bahamas there is almost no such thing as a boat pump out for the holding tank. In the states they are prevalent and many times are free. The one place we saw in the Bahamas that had a pump out station charged $100 for the pump out unless you stayed at their marina which charged exorbitant, and to us, unaffordable overnight docking charges. Knowing that pump out opportunities would not be available in the Bahamas, Clark reconnected the boat’s macerator pump on the boat to discharge waste overboard. This is the first time we have ever used the macerator pump to discharge overboard, and we are pleased that it works so well.

The lack of rain over the last three days has been a disappointment. I never wanted rain as much as I have to replenish our tanks. Maybe I should have tried a rain dance! Clark said one sure way to make it rain would be to take down the RainSnare. He took it down late today in preparation for leaving tomorrow. If we get salt spray on it while underway, it will contaminate it for collecting water in the future. 

We had the anchorage to ourselves all morning. The Italians left first thing this morning. This afternoon two other boats came in so we were no longer alone. One named Zanabe came in waving a U.S. flag. The other named Fred sported a flag we believe indicates they were from Holland. Both were sailboats.

Sailboat from Holland

Taking the advice of the Italians from yesterday, we waited until 3:00 and then prepared for our dinghy exploration trip to the south end of the island and around to the east side. Our first stop, however, was back to the drop box to add another $20 to the kitty for another night’s stay.

Chart Showing Hawksbill Cay Anchorage
and surrounding area

When the Italians told us to go at low tide to see the beauty of the cay, I did not know what to expect as far as what we would see. As we came around the end of the island, it became pretty apparent to me that the land was not the pretty part; it was the water! The colors of the water were amazing with multiple shades of blue interspersed with hues of tan. In addition we found the rock formations around the cay quite fascinating.

Colors of Water from Dark Blue to Pale Blue to Tan
(depending on water depth)

We saw several rock formations that reminded us of animals in shape.

Rock Formation – Dog Wading Thru Water?

Rock Formation – Dinosaur?

Rock Formation Trio

Although it has been windy today, we have not noticed any significant rocking like we had upon the first day of our arrival. As we took the dinghy around exploring, we saw what it might be like if the island was not protecting us from the waves.

Crashing Waves caused by Swells from East

The rocks stop the waves leaving us in calmer waters!

The name of the game in the Bahamas is pick the anchorage based on the best protection for the forecast winds. We heard that Norman Cay, where we stayed prior to coming here, is particularly “rolly” from the east winds today whereas here at Hawksbill Cay we are well protected.

The appearance of the island itself also proved somewhat surprising as well as it contained some mangroves which I have not seen since we left Florida.

View of Island

Mangroves

Rough Terrain on and around Island

Another View of Island

As we headed back towards Sea Moss, we passed by one rock formation that looked like a monster (or a devil) eating the sailing vessel from the U.S.

Oh No! Is that Monster Eating Zanabe?

By the time we cleaned up the dinghy paraphernalia, dinner time had arrived. We spent some time after dinner relaxing on the fly bridge watching the sunset before returning to the salon to work on tonight’s blog and eventually retire for the night.

Sunset at Hawksbill Cay