Underway Again # 13:  To Lee Stocking Island

We left Black Point early Monday morning for Lee Stocking Island but did not get there that day.  We sailed along the inside on Exuma Bank and planned to go out to the Sound through Conch Cut but then decided to go out through Cave Cut instead.  Not a good decision as we got grounded on a sand bank just before the cut.  We had to wait for the tide to come in.  We threw an anchor but it did not hold and the current pulled us closer to even shallower part.   Roman got in the dinghy with the anchor and about 50 feet of chain and dropped the anchor off the dinghy.  He then pointed the bow of the boat in the right direction with the dinghy.  Eventually the water rose and when we tried to steer of the sand banks, we could not steer.  In went the anchor, holding better this time, and down went Roman into the hold under the cockpit to check the steering mechanism.  He worked on it until we noticed the tide dropping again, slowly but surely!  He rigged up his emergency tiller which I never even knew we had and we very slowly steered our way to the Cave Cay anchorage where we dropped anchor for the tenth time today probably and Roman then tried to take a bend out of the rod that went into the hydraulic cylinder.  He could not bang it as that would flatten it so he tried several things and finally rigged up a temporary vise on the bow of the boat.  He certainly is resourceful!  Finally the cylinder was back in place and we could steer again but for how long?



 

The next day we went through Cave Cut with 12 foot waves and on the Sound all the way to Lee Stocking Island the waves were about 4 feet and the wind was right on the nose. That means motoring only - bump, bump, bump.  Not pleasant at all!  Fortunately it was not for long and in a couple of hours, we went through Rudder Cut and anchored  in front of the Perry Institute for Marine Sciences, Caribbean Research Centre.  As one of the six National Undersea Research Centres sponsored by NOAA, the instituted facilitated educational programmes and scientific research .  No one answered when we called for permission to go ashore and to book a tour of the centre. 

The anchorage at Lee Stocking Island

We went ashore and unfortunately it looked as though the funding sources had dried up because the place was deserted.  The buildings ( and there were many) were all locked up but we saw empty spawning bays, rusting equipment and felt a desolate air of desertion.  What a shame! 

 

We explored the island-many buildings, even paved roads.  We decided to hike over to the other side to look for shells and just to see the other side.

 

The paved road turned into a gravel road.



Then into a path.



Unfortunately none of our pictures worked out except the one of a sailboat on Exuma Sound probably on the way to Georgetown.  See the different blues of the water?  And the sky is yet another blue.

 



On the Exuma Sound shore we met our friends Brenda and Bob who joined us for dinner and told us they had met a caretaker who lived on the island and tried to maintain whatever he could.  However, this is job for more than one man.

 

We even found some coconuts which Roman split with an axe.  With his hammer he broke the coconut and we had it for dessert after dinner.

 

 

 

 

After going out Rudder Cut, the next morning we had a most enjoyable sail  all the way to Georgetown.