A magnificent place to drop the anchor

Today is the fourteenth straight day of strong non-stop Easterly winds during a month when we should be transitioning to a gentler summer pattern. The relentless noise wears you out. Whether at anchor or not, twenty knots make everything more tiring and complicated. And of course, things break and fly away at a faster pace. As a windsurfing addict I used to beg for winds like these; now if I was offered five knots for ever I’d take it without blinking! So much suffering has not been in vain, though.

Lee Stocking Island

Rat Cay wasn’t a particularly interesting place, so we sailed northwest as far as the thin water allowed on the protected side. It wasn’t too much in terms of distance, but we ended up in a beautiful, secluded anchorage that we had for ourselves most of the five days we spent there. There were four sandy beaches nearby, amazing rock formations, and trails to explore with access to the ocean side.

Leaf Cay

And then there was the small Leaf Cay three nautical miles away, an adventure within an adventure. Since it was windy, we decided to use the wind to propel our dinghy, but when we were in the exposed channel between the islands, it started to feel a little too windy to be out in such a small craft, fighting chop, gusts and current. While we know that we can climb back to the dinghy from the water, we’ve never practiced turning her right-side-up in the event of a capsize. With that thought on the back of my mind I had my hand always ready to ease the sheet, and even then there were a few close calls.

But we made it, wet but safe, to a spectacular destination, well worth the effort. With a favorable current, the way back was faster and smoother.