Ragged to Thompson Bay

January 23 – January 30.

Sailing abeam of Alibi II and Veranda as we head up to Hog Cay.

We have fun getting to know the cruisers when Steve and Kim host a happy hour on Fine Lion. More boats come in. But after a week in one spot, it’s time to move on. The whole group has a nice sail up to nearby Hog Cay, where the cruisers have set up a party area on the beach.

We enjoy hiking the trails of Hog Cay. Everyone else plans to stay, but it’s time for us to start working our way back.

We sail to Raccoon Cay, where we do some diving and exploring. Then we bypass Edward on Buena Vista to go to Nurse Cay. Unfortunately, we would need machetes to get to the interior of this isle. No trails. The surge is pretty bad here too.

It’s time for the 40 mile hop northward. The wind is in the right direction. It’s not extreme. But we still travel with shortened sails (as we have the whole time we were in the Jumentos). The tide is rising, and we have a nice sail across miles of open water around challel Cay, between the reefs near Jamaica Cay, past the hard shallow bars by Man O War Cay, to the western side of Flamingo Cay.

We stay here a day, dinking around the north side to get some conch. Then we go up to Water Cay. Here the waves are surging from several different directions but me and my bridle find a happy medium and enjoy a full night’s sleep. I guess ospreys sleep at night, too, or they would have been haranguing us.

It’s a 40 mile sail back to Thompson Bay, Long Island. Experience has told us we don’t want to split up the trip. We leave at sunrise. We get enough tail wind to average 7 knots to the Comer West waypoint. Here with a combination of motor and sail we glide just over the bottom until we get to Comer East. We arrive in Thompson Bay before sunset, happy to have huge Long Island between us and the Atlantic Ocean.

This pile of rocks on the beach at Hog Cay is ringed with solar lights. It lights up at night!
Panorama of Hog Cay and anchorage. Click to enlarge this photo. Click the back button in your browser to return to the blog.
Cruiser pavilion.
People leave mariner art with their boat names hanging in the cruisers pavillion.
More mariner art.
Maxine from Ragged Island provided the materials for this pavilion and Fred from sailing vessel Scotch Mist directed the construction effort. Edward from Buena Vista Island helped with the post holes and advice on the slope of the thatched roof. Too steep and the wind will try to lift the whole structure, too shallow and the individual fronds will blow off.
Happy hour at the cruiser’s pavilion at Hog Cay.
The remains of a house and its view on Raccoon Cay.
At little bit of color on Raccoon Cay.
Salt lake at Raccoon Cay.
We saw no human footprints on the northern cays when we arrived. Even on southern Raccoon Cay the only prints we saw were from wildlife.
Cactus on Nurse Cay.
Cactus bud.
Cactus flower.
Century plant. These tall plants are visible from afar when you approach an island. They could be mistaken for tower lights or antennas. (One visitor to Buena Vista assumed they were cell towers and asked Edward the name of the local wi-fi hotspot.)
North anchorage at Flamigo Cay.
Giant palm tree at Flamingo Cay.
Look closely for the green ‘flash’ as the sun disappears below the horizon. The sun isn’t green, of course, so it’s some kind of illusion. I feel better knowing that the camera is also tricked by this effect.

2 thoughts on “Ragged to Thompson Bay

  1. Great you made it here, I’m at long isle breeze doing laundry, ukiyo is right out front. Come on by for a drink and ill tell you about the well of youth….

  2. The Green Flash was explained in a Scientific American article back in the 60s, I think. There are several more modern papers on it also. Look at this Wikipedia explanation, but the SciAm article said something about Nitrogen in the atmosphere, which Wikipedia doesn’t.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash

    So, maybe not “settled science”!

    John

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