In Staniel Cay - Exumas
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sat 3 Apr 2010 18:51
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In position 24:11.02N, 76:27.60W
We are writing this after a fast sail (for us,
that is) down from Great Guana Cay this morning. We had in excess of 20 knots of
wind at 120 degrees off the starboard quarter and the boat was sailing at
between 7 and 8 knots for much of the 2 hour trip. These speeds are almost
unheard off for Ajaya which is heavily laden with fuel and water, not to mention
everything else we carry in our cruising lifestyle and has the sailing
characteristics of a house brick. What helped most were the relatively flat
waters of the Bahamas banks as we were sailing just a mile out from the Cays
over the shallow waters. With the average depth beneath the keels being
just 9 or 10 feet with the bottom visible all the way it was quite a surreal
experience, but we'll probably pay the price some other time for such an
exhilarating sail! But we did enjoy it whilst it lasted.
Staniel Cay is one of the major attractions in the
Exumas. Just 60 miles from Nassau a lot of the luxury yachts from there visit
this location. There is also an airport linking Staniel to the outside world as
we witnessed today as a departing private aircraft came close to taking the top
off our mast and a few others in the anchorage . Today we are anchored
west of Big Majors Spot (aren't the names wonderful out here!) which is an
island just yards from Staniel Cay itself. Also in the vicinity, lying just
between Staniel and Big Majors is Thunderball Cove where scenes from the James
Bond movie of the same name were shot. They certainly didn't waste any
opportunity in renaming it from whatever it was called before. If you snorkel
the grotto at Thunderball the friendly fish pester you for food, having a
particular passion for frozen peas of all things. Well, they're frozen when you
depart the boat but have probably thawed out by the time you get to the fish.
The guide book states that If you don't have frozen peas then fish food will do
nicely. Well, they're fresh out of luck with us! If pea-eating fish
weren't enough to cope with in the famous grotto then here at Big Majors
Spot the local roaming pigs (which coincidently just happen to be very spotty)
have aquatic tendencies and will sometimes swim out to your boat to
procure any tasty titbits you may have on board. Just hope they like Soya
Protein chunks as that's probably about as close as we are going to get to
anything they may be interested in. As for the fish, well, with the price of
peas here they will have to go without and just hope they don't have a
Barracuda mate that takes care of mean-spirited snorkellers.
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