With winds continuing through the night 18-23 knots or more out of the NE, we had ocean swells (surge) most of the night last night rocking Juno from side to side while anchored at Water Cay close to a cut. It may sound romantic to be rocked to sleep by small waves and it usually is, but ocean swells, even diminished by they time they reached Juno, aren’t the types of waves that are conducive to sleep, especially when our v-berth is atop one of our two water tanks so we also have the added sounds of water sloshing in addition to the winds blowing through the rigging and the rocking side to side. Suffice to say, we didn’t have one of our better nights last night. But Water Cay gave us our first taste of the remoteness of the Jumentos as, aside from one local fishing boat that came nearby to clean their catch, we were the only boat around with miles and miles of water to our west and an uninhabited cay to the east. We were warned about swimming at Water Cay as the bull sharks are attracted to the fish scraps and it was just as well we moved on since the winds on Wednesday we’re good for making distance southward (18-23 plus knots ENE).
Sailing southward, we were protected from the ocean swells by the numerous cays we passed, some of which were nothing more than large rocks. But when we would pass by the cuts, the swells and waves would increase dramatically 5-7 feet and it felt like a washing machine as they were coming from multiple directions. We set our sights on stopping at Racoon Cay - about 35 miles south of Water Cay and part of the chain of islands referred to as the Ragged Islands. After about 6 hours of sailing, we encountered several passing showers and we saw only four other boats while underway, until we rounded a turn for Raccoon Cay where we saw four boats on anchor, the largest of which was Ultima Novia, the yacht on which good friends of Sarah’s eldest brother, Dave and Wan Grabb, were cruising for a week. Once we got our anchor set for the night, we radioed Ultima Novia and received a most generous invitation to join them and their party for dinner which we graciously accepted. However, as it would have taken us some effort to take our dinghy off Juno’ s decks where we tie it securely for longer passages, and put the outboard engine on, we called them back to see if it was possible for them to pick us up for dinner as their tender was already in the water. They obliged and just after the skies burst forth with a rain shower, Dave and Jon (the captain) arrived in their tender to transport us back to Ultima Novia. We arrived three minutes later, all wet from the rain, where we were offered dry towels and introduced to the party and crew.
Richard, Stacey, Karen, Bobby, and Dave and Wan made up the owner’s party of six, while Jon the yacht’s captain, Cara the hostess, and Lauren the chef tended to everyone’s needs throughout the evening. All of the guests onboard were friends as a result of having raised children in Boulder, CO, and Richard, Dave, Cara and Sarah each shared ties to Michigan. We received a tour of the yacht before dinner and enjoyed wonderful conversation and the best three course dinner we’ve eaten in months before we were returned to back to Juno for the night with the best memories to savor as we settled in for a more settled evening with only modest surge.
The captain bringing us to the 131' Ultima Novia.
The owners and their guests before dinner
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