Friday April 22nd: Norman’s Cay

Easterly winds at Norman's Cay

    The wind has been literally howling in the rigging for several days now.  We decided to change anchorages, but didn’t go farther than a couple of miles, as it was choppy even in the Exuma Banks.  We’d been to Norman’s Cay on the way down, and this time thought we’d try for Norman’s Pond, a much touted hurricane hole kind of a anchorage just North of the more popular anchorage.  However, with the wind blowing against the current in the Sound, and the tide being high either at eight-thirty in the morning or nine-at night prevented us from going to the Pond.  The entrance is on the Sound side, and is tricky even on a calm half-tide.  Dan had toyed with the idea of making the crossing to Eleuthera today, but a few minutes into the Wax Cay Cut to the Sound changed his mind.  We settled for the popular anchorage at Norman’s Cay, almost in the same spot we’d been to in January.  Back then this area was filled with boats heading South.  Today we were one of two boats when we got there, one of four by nightfall.

     We decided to take the dinghy out to see if we could find an inland passage into the Pond, where the guidebook says hammerhead sharks come to spawn in the spring, but the water was too shallow to get there from here, so we opted for another beach walk.  We are out of the Park now, so shelling and sea-beaning was allowed.  We spent a good couple of hours beach combing.  I did find some small shells to add to my collection, and Dan made several scores picking through the jetsam.  One was a large piece of foam in excellent condition, probably from someone’s cockpit cushions.  Cut up, it will make good padding. 

     In the afternoon we donned our wetsuits and went out for a snorkel.  Dan was hoping for some conch for dinner.  The current was very strong at the boat, so we went around one of the small cays to snorkel in the lea.  There were some very active reefs with many different kinds of fish, but the live conch were too immature to take.  Still, it was a good snorkel, though we were both chilled by the cool water.  We managed to get into the dinghy (a tough and very ungraceful feat for me, so usually I swim back to the boat while Dan follows with the dinghy) when we came to the current, and returned to the boat.  I lathered up and jumped back in to rinse off while Dan made hot chocolate to warm us up, and I found the current too strong for me to get back to the ladder.  I managed to swim to the braided line meant to rescue Tommie if she falls overboard, but Dan had to toss me a line and tow me back to the boarding ladder.  Good lesson for us - test the current before jumping in!! 

     All clean and settled in for the nightly ritual of watching the sun go down, we were hailed by a passing cruiser in a 1920s Chesapeake Bay buy-boat.  Yamacraw was letting us know how much they admired the Willie Dawes.  Dan immediately got on the radio and returned the compliment.  Yamacraw was a beautiful boat and probably makes a wonderful live-aboard.

Yamacraw