Moving to Big Farmer's Cay....Again!

We were up bright and early this morning, since we went to bed so early. Not only that, but the clocks were set back this morning, so we were up even earlier than we first realized! The winds have settled down a little; not piping along at 25 knots, but more consistently in the 15-20 knot range. We listened to the forecast, and it sounds as though sea conditions might be better in a day or two, so we are going to plot our course options later so as to be ready for heading out. Being Sunday, we also thought we’d find a better anchorage for Sat TV reception, so we can watch the football game this afternoon!

However, after using the high tide again to meander down to Cave Cay and around Galliot Cay, no other anchorage provided as much lee as the first spot, where we had protection from the winds that are still whipping along. So, we ended back up along Big Farmer’s Cay, where we tried anchoring a tad farther west, but all we succeeded in in doing was finding a steep sandy slope, which the anchor slid down until it hit a rock and jammed there briefly as we tried to set it, which pulled so hard it actually bent the windlass lock. This we know courtesy of Ron snorkeling on the anchor to see what the anchor snagged on, and found it wasn’t set at all. SO...we ended up anchoring back near our original site and while the grassy/sandy area isn’t great for the anchor digging in, we are at least holding rather well here. 

A few hours later, Kalista, a Selene 53’ with a hailing port of Telluride CO, came along and anchored near us along Big Farmer’s Cay. Bill, Michael and Bailey are aboard; they are aiming to head farther south to Culebra in the Spanish Virgin Islands, so were interested in our routing to the Turks and Caicos.  We’d spoken to them briefly a few days ago when they came by in their dinghy; they were in the marina at Samson Cay while were on anchor in Staniel. We had a great dinner aboard Kalista that evening; we brought the shrimp cocktail appetizers and the pork roast as we now have a few items defrosting in the refrigerator -- whatever we couldn’t fit into our freezer inside, after emptying the flybridge freezer yesterday. (McKenzie was unable to get it charged properly, so the better part of valor was to shut it down and not keep running it constantly.) In any event, we had lots of fun conversation with the wine flowing as we commiserated about the windy weather! Again, what is so nice about cruising, is meeting such neat folks and enjoying their companionship in a beautiful setting such as the Exumas!

Kalista on anchor at Big Farmer's Cay