Would you try a channel called Don't Rock Passage?

January 3, 2006

Yesterday we had an incredible day at Green Turtle with our new friends from Alberta - Rick, Sue, John, James Lahaie and Kathy and Peter Corish enjoying a boat ride following dolphins, a water slide over at Bill and Leslies on Manjack, and then participating in Green Turtles Junkanoo - their colorful version of Carnival. It was also nice to see Bill and Leslie at Junkanoo after seeing them at their homestead at Manjack. We have lots of pictures to post and will be going out of order.

Today, we found a nice weather window to make it past our last obstacle between Green Turtle and the rest of Abaco - Whale Cay and the Sand Banks. Essentially, the Sand Banks connect between Whale Cay and the mainland of Abaco - just imagine a sandbank running across our whole bay. Whale Cay Channel where the depth goes from ocean depths of hundreds and thousands of feet deep to 15 feet can be a bit treacherous with giant ocean rollers breaking on the shallow reef. 20 years ago Whale even took out a freighter. You have to negotiate this channel, go out into the ocean and then come back in Loggerhead Channel. OR.... you can try Don't Rock passage which cuts across the sand banks with a whopping 4' MLW. Fortunately, we draw three and there is a three foot tide so if we do everything right we should have 7' at high tide. Since this is about 3' higher than our average Great South Bay depth we felt it was the better choice for us and it is all soft sand which we can take on the keel if it got ugly. Well, despite the frightening name we transited the passage staying about 70' from Sand Bank Cays, aimed directly for Don't Rock, and skirted around the western side about 60', then back into deep water of 10'. The question for you GSB boaters - would you rather SEE the sandbar, or go blind like we do at home - 6' of water over clear white sand looks like a sea gull could go aground.

I haven't come to any final conclusions about that, but all in all, we were in more water than we usually are back home with no less than 7'. It is blowing stink with 20kts and higher, but the Sea of Abaco was about as rough as GSB would be - maybe a little rougher. We are tied up safe and sound at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay. We have had beautiful weather for our trip with rain on only one day - a Christmas Deluge. Occasionally we get days where the wind cranks, but generally it has been warm and sunny and light winds. Just a very occasional nighttime rain to wash the boat down - which is nice since water costs 30 cents per gallon.

We'll be staying here at Orchid Bay Marina on Great Guana Cay (right near the famous Nippers Beach Bar) for a little. http://www.orchidbay.net/main.html .Than we can make short hops - less than 10 miles - to lots of different destinations. Will post more pictures soon.

Doug and Lexie