Lee Stocking Island

Tommy and I meticulously planned the very shallow route down to Lee Stocking Island. We looked at the depths for the entire course and found that there was only one section on the charts that was questionable with our 4 ft 6 in draft, but the sands in the area are always shifting. We knew that if we went at high tide we would have enough depth, so we planned to leave at 5:00 am in order to get to the narrow, shallowest section at high tide. Unfortunately, it is still dark at that time of morning, and we needed better light to view the water and the bottom, so we made a change of course and decided to sail on the outside once again. It was bumpy but much better than the trip to Rudder Cut, and we were even able to put out the fishing lines, although we didn’t catch anything. It was worth it to not have to worry that we would run aground in the shallows.

Lee Stocking Island used to be a marine research center which closed many years ago. All of the buildings, employee housing, and even the old fish tanks and file cabinets are still there — abandoned and creepy. It is a little bit like the TV show Lost. We explored the area for a while with a couple of other kid boat families, then hiked over to the other side of the island where there is a spectacular beach with pinkish sand. The boys played in the waves with their buddies, and Jackson found a machete on the road which he and a couple of boys took to hunt down coconuts. He was disappointed to have to leave the machete on the island for whomever uses it to clear the brush for the trails.

The rest of our time in Lee Stocking was peaceful and fun. The wind was calm and the boys wanted to go fishing, so they took our boat, along with Susie and the boys from SV Grace, to the outside of the islands. I took our dinghy and went ashore with Morris for a wonderful hike and quality time on land. The fishing crew came back with most of a wahoo — having given part to a shark again! We had sushi at our boat with the SV Grace family and talked about our plans for the next adventures after Georgetown.