Before we left Ragged Island and Hog Cay we looked at weather and saw that we had a few solid good days before the next big blow out of the NE. While we could have weathered the blow in the Raggeds, we decided to spend the next few days exploring, then take advantage of a well-timed high tide and head back to Long Island before the blow. While we don't have a "schedule," we do have some other new-to-us places that we'd like to see this year and heading that way gives us more time and flexibility.
So from Hog Cay we went to Raccoon Cay, a short hop that gave us plenty of time to snorkel and hunt. I got my first hogfish and it was a beauty (not to mention, really delicious!). And we also grabbed a few conch for a fresh conch salad.
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| Another epic day of sailing to a beautiful anchorage, and I got this awesome fish! |
The next day we went just a little further to Buena Vista Cay. Trent wanted a "down" day so Frank and I went off to hunt/snorkel and came back with four lobsters (F-2, J-2) and a big snapper (F). We enjoyed some really beautiful reefs in the area and since it was St. Patrick's Day, we had lots of Guinness and some beer-battered fish and potatoes to celebrate my Irish guys!
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| Sunrise at Racoon Cay before a great day in the water. |
Our next move was to Flamingo Cay. We spent our first afternoon exploring via dinghy and foot. We dinghied into the cave at low tide and Trent "rescued" a sun shirt that was on the ocean floor. It fits me, but I'm reaching out to see if any friends claim it! We also hiked ashore, but that experience got its own write-up (see Tragedy in Paradise). The next day we found some nice reefs and came home with two lobsters (T-1, J-1) and a grouper (T). We got a weather update via satellite with our inReach (weather and chats with Katreina were about all we missed in the land of "no service") and saw that the forecast we had seen a few days earlier was still holding so we continued north that day.
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| For a while we were all alone at Flamingo Cay! We explored a cave and a wreck before heading ashore, |
It was just a short hop from there to Water Cay, our staging point for the return to civilization. The short sail up had actually been quite squally and may have prompted one crew member to declare "I hate living on a boat!" so we had a pretty chill afternoon. I gave the Skipper a haircut, we made water, and we all read and relaxed before a nice lobster dinner and movie night. We were planning to depart before sunrise, so it was an early night for all hands!
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| Our "barber shop" has some nice views! |
We definitely liked our first trip to this area and look forward to returning in future cruising seasons. I think we would shoot for a little later in the season to reduce the threat of fronts and we would DEFINITELY stay longer. As there is no cell service until you reach Hog Cay (non-boosted) and there aren't services like fuel and water, this maybe isn't the place to go if you need to work and need services, but for us it was just right!
~Jo, 1st Mate
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