Sailing Ohana

The inside (west side) route from Little Farmer’s to Rudder Cut Cay is in somewhat shallow water, and Tommy and the boys wanted to fish (which you have to do in deeper water), so they voted to go on the outside even though we knew it would be bumpy. Strong-ish easterly winds with some small waves were predicted, but as it turned out, the seas were chaotic and the waves were big and frequent. We slammed through the cut, out to the ocean, then motored to the next cut to the south and tucked back into the peaceful shallows of the inside. It was unpleasant, but our quick decision to go with Plan B made it easy enough. We were always safe, just uncomfortable for an hour or so.

Rudder Cut Cay quickly became one of our very favorite islands. There were fewer boats there, and the scenery is absolutely stunning with giant caves, mangrove forests, and Spencer’s “ideal beaches”. A little fish even took up residence around Spencer’s legs and followed him everywhere for the afternoon. Spencer named him Skittles and was totally thrilled to have a little fish pet. We swam with sea turtles in the cove and enjoyed some nice snorkeling around the rocky ledges.

The smoothest way to sail to the next islands in the chain when the wind is strong from the east is to travel on the inside, but our friends with monohulls have deeper keels, so they can’t travel those shallow waters. Our friends set out on the outside that afternoon, knowing it would be rough based on our report, but the next couple of days were more of the same or even worse for them, and they needed to get to Lee Stocking Island to meet their friends. We did hear that conditions were improving, but Tommy and I wanted to check out the sea state and the other side of the island, so we hiked over. We found some picturesque beaches on the other side, and some crazy rock formations that had actual steps carved into them for climbing up and looking out on the ocean. The waves were crashing on the rocks and it was all very dramatic. The waves out further looked better than when we made our attempt, so we felt better for our friends.

As we returned to the beach near our boat, we were approached by two official-looking men who told us that this is a private island and that we needed to leave. We pointed out that there are no signs saying so, and that the other beach had at least a dozen people on it, and they acknowledged that they were also being kicked off. Nobody had ever heard of this happening here, but apparently David Copperfield who owns sixteen of the islands in that section of the Exumas, doesn’t want anyone on his islands. We were really disappointed that we couldn’t have the beach bonfire we had planned. Rudder Cut Cay’s favorite island status was revoked.

The next day we snorkeled around the sunken piano and mermaid sculpture that are nearby, and took photos with Jackson’s waterproof GoPro. I’ll try to load them here sometime. We also scoped out a spearfishing area and Jackson got stalked by a very big barracuda. He was far away enough that Jackson was safe, but we didn’t like it. We hung out on our boat that evening, and Jackson blew his conch horn as the sun set. He’s gotten pretty good at it which is impressive because it’s hard to play. I know because I’ve tried more than I care to admit.