Great Guana Cay Abacos Bahamas

Approaching Baker’s Bay, at the western end of Great Guana Cay

We eventually left Fowl Cay at 1710hrs on 21 April and continued along the chain 7miles or so towards an anchorage at the western end of Great Guana Cay where we hoped to find a suitable anchorage for a night or two.  It was very much a positioning move to get us ready for heading north towards the USA but it was also, we hoped, a good location from which to enjoy our last full day in the Bahamas.

There are some really rather large houses on the beach in Baker’s Bay

Enjoying the view of the mansions on the shore of Baker’s Bay we picked a suitable spot and dropped our anchor at 1840hrs, expected an uneventful evening relaxing in the cockpit but that was not to be thanks to a young man called Austin.  As we were setting our anchor, we saw a kayak head off away from the bay and thought little of it except for the fact that the sun was getting low.

But as the sun got really low it was clear that there was a problem on our nearest neighbour, a charter catamaran.  The ‘grown-ups’ were calling out for “Austin” and we put 2 and 2 together and guessed that Austin had paddled that kayak off towards some nearby islands.  With a strong current running and little in the way of illumination, natural or man-made, Austin was clearly getting himself into a risky position.

There wasn’t much time before the last of the light would fade and so we put the outboard on our dinghy and headed off in the direction that we had last seen the kayak.  Speaking to the parents would have wasted what little daylight there was left and we were pretty sure that we had a faster dinghy than the charter yacht so we aimed for Spoil Island guessing that he might be close to that.  Fortunately, our instincts proved correct and we found Austin bimbling along the beach.  He was just under a mile away from the catamaran which would have been a long paddle against the current.  Nicky persuaded him that he should join us on our dinghy and that we would tow his kayak back to the catamaran.  By this time, we had the dinghy’s navigation lights on and it was only the yachts’ anchor lights that pinpointed our destination.  We dropped Austin off at the catamaran and would have made a quiet retreat as Austin was clearly due for an earful.  However, it became apparent there was also concerns about the whereabouts of Austin’s Dad.  He had set off in the catamaran’s unlit dinghy in the hope of finding Austin and no one had seen him since.  We headed back towards Spoil Island listening as best we could for the sound of another outboard.  Throttling back we heard something and so aimed further east and were able to intercept Austin’s Dad and let him know that Austin was safe and that he should return to the catamaran.

All in all, it the events certainly livened up the early evening but did rather spoil our planned sundowners!

Top: Aiming for the western end of Great Guana Cay. Bottom: Looking back at the western end of Great Guana Cay from the bay between the cay and the offlying reefs where we hoped to snorkel

In the morning we set off again but only for a 3 mile passage to the other side of Great Guana Cay.

This beautiful area has clearly been identified by the ‘well to do’ and shoreline off the beach is dotted with some truly enormous houses.

The water off the beach was clear and very shallow and so to explore the reefs we decided that snorkelling rather than diving was the better approach.

The soft corals were in good shape and the shallow water helped the sunlight to pick out the colours but there were surprisingly few fish.

But, we mused, perhaps that was just the location we had picked?  Fortunately, the reefs in this area are extensive so we moved the dinghy several times to explore further afield.

Nicky’s diving ‘friend’ today was a barracuda

We still didn’t see much in the way of fish.  Maybe they were keeping clear of the rather large barracuda that was shadowing Nicky.

Sergeant majors and Stoplight parrotfish

We did see some Sergeant majors, Stoplight parrotfish and a crab or two so there were fish out there, just not as a many as we were used to seeing.

However, as a last full day lazing about in the Bahamas it suited us very well.  Lots of snorkelling, an interesting anchorage as a backdrop and a beautiful turquoise sea.  It kept us entertained until 4pm when we decided that we would return to Baker’s Bay for the night; our last night in the Bahamas.  In the morning we planned to set off sailing towards Charleston in the USA, a passage we expected to take us about 4 days.

Great Guana Cay, Abacos, Bahamas