Great Guana Cay

Between Green Turtle Cay where we are (we're the little boat in the screen shot below) and the Southern portion of the Abacos, there is an area of shoals and rocks.  There is a pass that small or very shallow draft boats can carefully pick their way through with the right weather conditions, but most cruisers need to go out into the Atlantic and around Whale Cay then back inside the Sea of Abacos.  We're small enough that we can take the inside route, called Don't Rock Pass.

Our buddy boat, M/V Mary Rose, had followed someone through Don't Rock Pass before and had a track on their chart plotter.  Now it was our turn to follow them.  We waited for a calm day, which folks call a "whale day", as it is calm enough to go out into the Atlantic to take the route around Whale Cay or to take the short cut through the Don't Rock passage.  It needs to be calm for either of those routes.





With some apprehension, we motored the hour or so to the pass then slowed right down (yes, even slower than we normally go) and putt-putt-putted through, warily eyeing the rocks on one side of us and waves breaking over shoals on the other.

Once through, which actually happened far faster than we anticipated, Mary Rose turned to the right, headed to Treasure Cay, and we turned to the left, headed for Guana Cay.  Bye-bye Mary Rose, until we catch up to you again, and thanks for all the great advice and leadership on our first (hopefully of many) Bahamian adventures.

Don't Rock - the end of the passage.

Weather has been a bit of a bug-a-boo for us.  While it is pleasant enough on shore, the winds and waves on the Atlantic and the Sea of Abacos have been high most days, making travel difficult.  We get one or two good boating day, then we need to hunker down somewhere for a week or two while the winds howl through.  Winter is like that here in the Bahamas (and in Florida, for that matter).  We've both been watching the weather carefully (read, a little bit obsessively) and deliberating how best to use our short time here.


Guana Cay had three main attractions for us:  One, it's close.  Two, there are two big and very popular bars there, Nippers and Grabbers, which was a minor attraction for us (we're not big bar people). Three, the snorkeling.  Just fifty feet off the beach on the Atlantic side is the third largest coral reef in the world.  There are moorings available which you can tie your dinghy to on a calm day and snorkel. Or, with the water being so clear, even hanging over the dinghy would give a good show, we figured.

First we anchored in the settlement outside of the village.  The anchorage was very crowded and we tried two different spots before the anchor grabbed.  We were semi-comfortable there, at best.  It was late afternoon and we elected to just stay with the boat to watch and ensure the anchor was well set and the boat was okay.

The next morning we wandered around town, checked out the bars, which were, of course, pretty much empty, and talked up folks around town for the best snorkeling spots.


Armed with some local knowledge and a plan we moved the boat to the North part of the island where we could easily dinghy around to the mooring balls placed for day-use only tie-ups for snorkelers and divers.  It was forecasted to be a clear day with mild winds. Perfect!  This was going to be so cool....  and then, as we dinghied around the corner,... ugh, what's that?

Where did that monster  cloud come from?  We headed out in the dinghy and watched for a bit. 
Then as the wind and rain began we bolted back to the boat and, disappointed, closed everything up.

We watched as the storm blew over and checked, then double-checked the weather.  Harumph.  Changes.  If we were going to make it back across the Don't Rock passage safely we had to skedaddle or get stuck below it for at least a couple of weeks.  So much for our adventure.  We headed back across the Don't Rock and headed back to our home base at Green Turtle Cay.  Even though, a good day was had by all.