We left George Town Harbour on Saturday and made the five and half hour passage down to Water Cay, the first of the Jumentos cays that had a harbor. Many of this island family are just jagged rocks, some with small pocket beachs and scrubby succulents covering the limestone. Water Cay is a longish island with three natural coves for anchoring. We were one of seven cruisers anchored here for our first night. 
Water Cay
We love these islands. So peaceful and ruggedly beautiful. The water is exceptionally clear and the snorkeling is outstanding. Seven years ago we explored the entire chain of islands right down to Duncan Town, a very small community at the very southern tip. (Only about fifty people live there now, after a couple of hurricanes have moved through, and while they are welcoming to cruisers, they have very little to share. If you need groceries, it’s best to contact them ahead of time and place an order so they can arrange for your supplies to come on their delivery boat.) During our visit this time we didn’t make it to Duncan Town, we spent all our time in Water and Flamingo Cays on the northern end of the chain.
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| See how clear the water is! |
On our second night at Water Cay, Dan went ashore to speak with the local fisherman who were cleaning their catch and came back to the boat with hogfish filets for supper. We’ve never eater hogfish before - it was delicious! When we were at Flamingo Cay, Dan speared a lobster. It was huge and had about three pounds of meat. Too much for us to keep well, so we made friends with the folks on nearby Sea Seeker, and gave them some of the tail for their lunch. 
Dan's lobster
We spent hours in the water gazing at some of the most beautiful coral we’ve ever seen. We were a little skittish at Water Cay due to the presence of bull sharks hoping for some fish parts from the on-going fish cleaning ashore, but Flamingo Cay offered shark-free snorkeling. We saw several new-to-us fish, including a large remora called a sharksucker that hitched a ride on our keel. It’s an odd looking fish, with ridges on its head that help it attach to sharks (or boats) and this makes it look like it’s swimming upside down when it’s not attached to anything.
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| Ocean surgeonfish |
We also spent a lot of time beach combing. Dan likes to salvage things from the flotsam and jetsam, and I look for shells and sea beans. Flamingo Cay was literally strewn with clothes and shoes and backpacks. It’s not too surprising to find the occasional shirt or flip-flops, but we’ve never seen such a collection of t-shirts and sweatshirts and personal items. We found lunch bags and books and purses. Then when we snorkeled, we discovered the remnants of a hand-built ship, and on one of the limestone spits of land, Dan found a crude mast and hand-sewn sail. We wonder if this was a shipwreck of refugees from Cuba. Kind of a sobering thought; we hope the people fared better than the boat and all their gear.
Altogether, we spent five days in the Jumentos. There is no cell phone coverage and without it we have no internet. Kind of relaxing on one hand - no need to check the news or go through emails - but on the other hand, we had no way to look at a weather forecast. We knew today was a good travel day, so we decided to come back to George Town today. The Jumentos have very little protection from heavy weather and we didn’t want to be caught by surprise. We’ll be here for a couple of days, then we’ll slowly begin our way north again.
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