We spent New Year's Eve at Hawksbill Cay. Traditionally at home we have a nice dinner (shrimp cocktail, good steak. ...), but nothing so rich this year since we are almost three weeks out from a good provisioning - fresh foods are dwindling rapidly. It was, however, our traditional 'wild and crazy' night with us asleep in bed by 10:30 or so.
We did have some excitement a few days before when a small sail boat anchored nearby sometime in the night. It was a about a 27' foot shoal draft boat manned by two young men. We were being rocked by the first part of a moderate front before the wind shifted north and we got better protection. The small sail boat, however, rolled back and forth VERY vigorously and the young men spent most of the day on the beach. We thought, what an adventure!
We had noticed that the boat had no visible registration numbers - just a 'FL' not followed by usual set of numbers - but did not think much of it. As the wind shifted north we boarded our dinghy to head to the beach to hike a trail and maybe talk to the young adventurers. As we passed the boat we saw the name was 'Outa Reach' - interesting. When we landed our dinghy, the men quickly gathered their things, got in their small dinghy and rowed off without so much as a word, wave or even glance. At first I thought how unfriendly.
But then as we both thought about it, we became uncomfortable with the situation. We were the only two boats in the mooring field. Their boat was apparently unregistered, 'Outa Reach' of what?, and they had practically ran away from any contact. Well we aborted our planned hike and stayed on the beach for a while, watching them and our boat. We planned a few extra precautions for the night, like locking our companionway hatch. Luckily, shortly therafter they weighed anchor and sailed away. We still took our precautions.
It may have been overactive imagination, but I can honestky say that in almost 25 years of cruising, it was the first time I was concerned about our safety from other people.
The next day we did the hike we planned the day before and it was uneventful except for finding the object shown in the following picture. My 'story' is that it is a 'refueling station' for the alien spacecraft that frequent the Bahamas (in the Bermuda triangle). They are located at unique intersections of the earth's geo-magnetic field and can be used to recharge their 'fuel'. Talk about a wild imagination! :-)
We left Hawksbill on New Year's Day and traveled the short distance to Warderick Wells. The wind was a bit stronger than forecast, 18 knots gusting to 23, and almost dead on the nose. Across the shallow Bahama Bank it raised sharp 2-3 foot waves that gave us quite a bumpy, but thankfully, short trip.
We arrived at Warderick Wells without any problems and picked up our assigned mooring.
Tom
Moored at Warderick Wells
Exuma, Bahamas
Map Cruise 2012-13
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