Yesterday we dropped our anchor off of Powell Cay. That night as we went to bed we set an alarm to wake up around 11:20 pm for the lunar eclipse. We had a hazy sky so it wasn’t the clearest it could be but we saw enough of the earth’s shadow covering the moon to sustain us until the next occurrence and went back to sleep. The next morning our plan for the day was to explore Powell Cay but an early morning check on the weather revealed a large red blob of rain on the radar coming our way. Because our anchorage left us very vulnerable to the approaching stormy weather, we sought better protection. So around 7:30am we left Powell Cay and motored southwest 2.5 miles towards for an anchorage off of Cooperstown on Great Abaco. We had some difficulty getting the anchor to hold as the bottom wasn’t very sandy but thankfully the anchor bit into the bottom just before the rain and lightning arrived around 10:00am. The storm wasn’t bad and it gave us time to study long term weather forecasts for crossing back to the states as our Bahamas cruising permit expires next week and we have to be north of Florida by June 1st for insurance reasons.
Unfortunately, the “inclement” (e.g. pop-up thunderstorms) seems to be here to stay for the foreseeable future making a 450 mile sail to Cape Hatteras, NC a risky proposition. Given the forecasts for the coming 10 days, we decided a departure in the next three days for northern Florida, while only 200 miles to the north, looks to be our best (least likely to encounter a storm) option for exiting the Bahamas. With a plan in hand for departing the Bahamas, one final task we had to tend to before leaving is the official clearing of customs which can only be done at a few select locations, one of which is Spanish Cay about 5 miles northwest of Cooperstown.
So with our exit strategy in hand, we set off to Spanish Cay just after lunch and the morning storm had cleared out for our customs clear out with the Bahamian government officials. Our clear out was a smooth process as Spanish Cay was very quiet with only two other boats in the marina. Most of the Cay is private so there was no exploring to be done while ashore.
Once our exit from the Bahamas was documented, we were supposed to leave ASAP but we had a few last remote cays we had wanted to visit. So we ended up motoring 2 hours from Spanish Cay to reach Allans-Pensacola as the winds were too light to sail.
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| Settling in for a nice night with hopes of exploring tomorrow morning |
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| Spanish Cay Marina and customs office |
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| Unfortunately you can't smell the stunning fragrance of this Frangipani |
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