The West End marina wasn't cheap. They have a monopoly in a pretty good spot. We needed to get out of there while our credit cards still worked. The weather looked good for the day but something else was rolling in soon. After taking forever to fuel up at the dock we headed north from the marina about mid-day to the cut onto the banks. This is a pretty shallow cut and I wasn't thrilled, but I didn't want to go farther north to the somewhat deeper water either. At least it was near high tide.
We turned into the cut and just followed the standard track through to the (slightly) deeper water on the banks. It took about an hour, with Heather driving and me on the bow, doing I'm not sure what. I was watching for shallow spots, but everything was shallow. The sun was high which at least was good for spotting. I think I had Heather slow down once for a section that turned out to be just sand scrubbed of sea grass, so it looked shallower that it really was.
On the other hand, I was at the bow when the dolphins came over. The water was so clear you could see every detail, including one's torn up fin. They didn't stay long so I couldn't get a picture. Then there was the patch of giant black and orange starfish. Once we got through the cut and onto the banks the water was a whopping several feet below the keel. Once again we were grateful we had lucked into the shallow draft keel. We proceeded across the banks on a beautiful day. At the center of the picture below is a sailboat that is maybe four miles away. This was the 360 degree view from the boat. It's always so crowded this time of year.
Since we got a late start we didn't get far, maybe 20 miles, to a little island called Mangrove Cay. FYI - "Cay" is pronounced "Key" here. There's not a lot to Mangrove Cay. It's uninhabited, but it's a stopover that offers a little shelter from the wind and swell. Since the dominant wind was from the east we went fairly far south on the west side of the island and anchored. A large cat was to the south of us, seemingly not behind the island at all, and way out. A couple more sailboats came in as the day was ending. In the picture below we are 3-400 yards of the beach.
We cooked dinner on the back of the boat while watching the sunset, watched a DVD of something and called it a night.
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