3rd-5th May 2023
Approach was easy in the dark, which along with the possibility of some fresh fruit and veg was why we stopped here after a short passage from Bimini. There’s a lot of space in here, and holding where we happened to drop was solid immediately. Winds over the time we stayed were Westerlies but very light, so while there was no shelter from them whatsoever it was comfortable enough. Looking at the bay, there would be excellent protection from SE to N. Also worth noting for other cruisers: easy garbage disposal at the government dock, just tie up briefly and add your bag to the pile.
We walked a circuit from the dinghy dock (floating dock, not quite joined to the shoreline, so you can either wade to shore or climb through a boat moored to shore as we did) to the grocery store and back. The roads are dust tracks made from what looks like limestone quarried on the island itself. One time, a water truck was spraying the road, presumably to keep down dust. There are no pavements, and although it’s a quiet area, the cars on the roads drive pretty fast.
Our route took us past the cemetery, which is pretty but situated next to the quarry so not especially peaceful. There is a small hardware shop as well as the grocery store- the latter is well stocked, with a good range of fresh produce, frozen goods and store cupboard items. The morning after we arrived, a small container ship had arrived at the government dock- not sure if this explains the choice of fresh produce.
We also dinghied over to the blue hole which was underwhelming due to low visibility, possibly stirred up by the westerly winds, although given they were only gentle I don’t know if this is just what the water is like around here! In any case a short freedive down to check out the hole didn’t yield much of particular interest.
The nearby plane wreck was more interesting, particularly given its history (drug running plane), although again hampered by the visibility. We did see several snappers, and a hungry school of serjeant majors who ruined Arthur’s attempts to catch us a snapper for dinner.
