Nov 17/18 Bonds, Bonds Cay.
Something happened last night. At some point in the night something almost miraculous took place – the humidity broke. We awoke to find that the heavy, uncomfortable, oppressive blanket of dense humidity had been lifted and now the air felt clean and fresh. We smiled. Everyone smiled. Breathe deeply, ahhhh much better. And just like that the “happy” switch had been flipped on.
Off the dock early with a long but good sail ahead of us. Based on the winds and on the advice of the marina owner we decided not to go Chub Cay but rather travel back up and around the island before heading south to Bonds Cay where we would anchor for the night. What an incredible sail we had. And I mean actual sail, no motor, just lots of wind in our sail on a beam reach for 8 hours. Tom was almost giddy he was so happy. The huge swells quashed my giddiness to a level of jovial but nonetheless it was a beautiful day. We arrived at the cut to get us off the ocean and into the shallow protected waters behind Bond Cay where we would find our anchorage. The cut we used was between Little Harbour Cay and Frozen Cay. If the conditions are such that you can use one of the other cuts (high tide, flowing not ebbing, breakers not too high, etc) do not use this one. It took us almost as long to get from the cut to the anchorage as it did to sail to the cut. Once inside, the area is extremely shallow with ever shifting sands. Tom was looking at the instruments and Navionics and I was looking at the charts and not one agreed with the other as to the safest route to take. There were more than a few tense moments as the depth finder showed 0 below us and as I, standing on the bow, could clearly see the ripples in the sand in the water below us. It took at least a good hour to get to the marked anchorage and probably another thirty minutes before we could get the anchor to hold in the sand and grass. Lots of grass. Once we were set we were able to settle in for the night. There wouldn’t be any exploring to do on this island as there did not appear to be anything to really see so we just stayed on the boat. It felt really good to be at anchor again with the boat gently swaying and the fresh breeze flowing in through our open hatches. Finally we were starting to feel like sailors again.
