Get to the Point, Stick to the Point

The wind has not ceased to blow 15 to 25 knots for about a week now. It has been east to northeast the entire time. Since our trusty Tohatsu did not like the bashing into the waves on the dinghy ride from Big Majors Spot to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, we decided we needed to make a move. We had planned a lovely breakfast at the Club and then attending church services on Staniel. Fearing dinghy motor failure, we elected to move to Black Point instead, where the dinghy ride to the town dock is much shorter. What a great decision this proved to be. After exiting the Big Majors anchorage and rounding Sandy Cay, we were able to turn the motor off and sail a mere 6 nautical miles to Black Point close-hauled. The Black Point anchorage is large and fine, easily entered from the south by running parallel to the coast. Supposedly we should be protected from the ENE wind, but it seems to sweep up over the island cliffs and down into the anchorage. Being that there is no current to worry about, it’s still a comfortable, if windy, place to swing.

Black Point is the governmental headquarters for the northern Exumas, from Highborne Cay to Big Farmers. It is a nice little out-island town with colorful little houses and friendly people. The town is very cruiser-friendly on a nice safe bay for anchoring with free garbage service and community water. The water tastes weird, but it is safe to drink so who cares? It’s free! Cruiser central seems to be Lorraine’s Café, where you can get lunch or dinner, self-service beers and sodas in the large refrigerator, trade in your books, and access wifi and three or four of her PC towers in the “internet lounge”. Internet access is available for a donation of your choosing. It’s slow, but it’s always slow down here. It’s lovely, quaint, clean, and fun to meet up with other cruisers and discuss adventures. Lorraine’s mom offers home-baked bread on a daily basis, and will take in your washing. Her grandma gets in the act with pastries and sweet rolls. Like almost everyone else on the island, Lorraine’s last name is Rolle. (There is Rolletown on Great Exuma, and Rolles populate a significant part of this chain of islands.) There is also DeShamon’s restaurant and rooms, and the Scorpio Bar. It always pays to be careful around Scorpios, so we have not yet sampled their offerings. They do have incredibly reasonable prices on sandwiches, so we may have to be brave and just plunk ourselves down in there one time.

The anchorage faces a horseshoe beach which dries very far out at low tide. This morning we took a great run which lead us to the northern edge of the anchorage the rocky, coral spine of the island (Great Guana). The sun is shining brilliantly again, and the combination of fresh ocean breeze and bright sunshine was invigorating. The moon is full presently, which sets up a lovely view around 6pm at which time the fiery orange ball of the sun plunges quickly into the west while the moon reigns in her silver splendor high in the eastern sky. We had hoped to catch a green flash again, but no luck last night. It was so lovely, and we are so close to Georgetown, that I asked Wayne to pull out the conch horn and give ‘er a blow. To our delight, the call of Wayne’s horn was answered by a number of other boats at anchor with their own conch creations. We are really not far now, only 50 or so miles from Georgetown. The sunset conch concert really brought home or proximity to our destination and the idea that we are going to get there.

The wind should die down on Wednesday, so our current plan is to sail to Cave Cay on Thursday. We’ll anchor there for the night in preparation for going out the Cave Cay cut and into the sound on Friday for the last 30 miles of our trip. The wind is predicted to be very light and dead on east, so we should be able to get some kind of reach going. The “sound” is hardly a sound like you might see on the ICW, it’s a BIG piece of ocean that happens to have islands on either side. It is to be respected and feared. Knowing that, we are looking at Friday as our best opportunity because it should be very calm. Still, sailing is full of surprises. We’ll just have to see what it’s like when we get out there.

Oh, and as for the title of this post – this is what is painted on the seawall at Black Point. It’s the first thing you see when you arrive at the dinghy dock. Good advice.