Warderick Wells Cay Bahamas

With the frustration of the generator problem affecting our plans we had a think.  We couldn’t make water so we needed to include locations in our cruise where we would be able to fill jerry cans or the water tanks directly.  Diving would be constrained to similar locations because we need to wash the gear in fresh water straight after a dive.  Other factors were that we wanted some advice from Fischer Panda to confirm our analysis of what was wrong with the generator before ordering more parts but we also wanted to visit some more locations in the Bahamas.  We had a choice, hang about in Nassau whilst we sorted it all out and pay expensive Bahamas prices for the parts, or head off and enjoy the Bahamas whilst waiting for advice from Fischer Panda.

The weather forecast was also a key factor.  We had a 2-day window to get southeast and then the wind was forecast to veer to come from that direction.  So, rather than mope around in Nassau, we set off early to get as far as we could in the day.

It was not the best conditions for crossing the shallow Yellow Bank but, following Strev’s comments about saving individual tracks, we had worked out how to do so and had saved the track that we had followed coming north.  The combination of a good lookout and retracing our steps as exactly as possible kept us clear of the coral heads and when we were sufficiently south of the risk area we hoisted the sails and set off hard on the wind.

The sea colour is so bright that it reflects up and changes the colour of the bottom of the clouds to turquoise

The wind was kind and we were near enough able to make the course that we wanted.  In fact, we needed to make just one half hour tack around lunchtime to get us that little bit further east so that we could make our planned destination for the night.  However, when we arrived off Shroud Cay at 1500hrs we were sailing so well that we decided to continue on for a bit longer.  In the end we got into Warderick Wells Cay about 40 minutes before sunset.  We had already visited Warderick Wells Cay with Nici and Strevs so this was to just be a night-stop to help us get a bit further south down the Exumas quickly.

We planned an earlyish start hoping to have another long day so that we could get further down the chain than we had been to date.  However, as well as wanting to see new parts of the Exumas, we were also conscious that a low pressure system was forecast to move across the area.  Not only did we want to find some new anchorages, we also needed to find one with good all-round protection where we could sit for a couple of days whilst the wind clocked around as the weather fronts moved through.

Warderick Wells Cay, Bahamas