Our time in the Jumentos combined with staying in George Town for the Sloop regatta and waiting for favorable winds meant we need to move quickly up to the Abacos with a short stop in Eleuthera. We thought we would make a couple of hops through the Exuma chain, then head over to Eleuthra at the northern end. However, since we weren't going to spend more time exploring the Exumas, a more efficient route would be to sail overnight straight to Eleuthra. To avoid adverse currents and to not arrive after dark at Eleuthera we needed to leave George Town at 7PM. The winds had been blowing 20-25 for the last several days but were forecast to ease up on Sunday so that seemed like a reasonable trip. We still had all day before a 7PM departure and wanted to explore Stocking Island a bit more. We went for an short early morning walk, then spent some time before lunch getting Juno ready to leave that evening. After lunch we struck out for one more cross island walk to see the ocean side one last time, and for Sarah to collect some more palm fronds. It was beautiful to see the swells breaking dramatically against the shore - except that we would be sailing in those conditions later that night. We knew the swells were more pronounced as the came ashore but there were still a lot of white caps offshore - so we decided to stay put tonight. Winds were forecast to be strong again tomorrow night, sigh. So, back to plan A and leave the next morning and hop up the Exuma chain.
We left at 8AM. The wind was 15 out of the east with the swells relaxing a bit. We set our sights on Black Point, 50 miles to the north. We know the cut at Black Point, Dotham Cut, and we should reach it just in time before the tides switched against the wind after which crossing the cut would be "more exciting". Around noon we heard over the VHF radio another boat that left George Town an hour before us and that was also heading to Black Point, announce they were entering Galliot Cut which is 15 miles before Black Point. This would be good for us too on a several fronts 1) It gets us onto the Exuma Banks and in the protection of the Exuma island chain sooner; 2) we would be entering in the middle of the favorable tide and not need to worry about having current against wind at Dotham if we were late; and 3) we had already avoided two squalls but a third on the horizon looked like it might get us and we would be in the more settled waters of the banks with 1'-2' waves instead of ocean size 6'-8' swells, likely bigger in the squall. So we diverted to Galliot Cut. Once back on the banks, we did get the squall but as anticipated it was quite easy to deal with. We just put away the genoa and waited below with the autopilot keeping us on track as the wind and rain blew through. We were ahead of schedule so we passed by Black Point and anchored 6 miles further up the Exuma chain at Staniel Cay.
The next morning we set off and sailed to Highbourne Cay. We arrived at 4:30P and went for a quick snorkel at a reef we visited our our trip in 2019, then found a quiet anchorage away from the the other boats that also offered settled conditions for a quiet night. The next morning we set off in light winds to cross a new area full of coral heads but we would be at Eleuthra Island.
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