West Plana Cay

(We are off to Ibiza today for ten days of sea, sun (please God) and paella, so this is my last post for a short while.)

13 January 2004

We set off together with Bob and Deb Jobe on Wandering Course as they intended to come down to the Florida Keys and then the Bahamas with us. Firstly, we all stopped at Miami for a night and anchored in the city harbour. We took a long dinghy ride into town and then Bob, Debbie and I (Mike refused to come) walked to South Beach just so we could say we had been there! Didn’t see any famous faces, needless to say.

Abandoning the idea of the Florida Keys, Forever and Wandering Course set off across the strait for the Bahamas after supper on the night of the 15th  The wind was hard against us, the conditions nasty and some way across Bob called on the radio to say he was having engine trouble so they were turning back. Worried, we bid them goodbye, and hoped they would catch us up later. Sadly, they didn't make the trip that time, and we never saw them again though we have continued to keep in touch regularly by email.  Mike, stubborn as ever, kept motoring on till eventually the wind eased a bit and we could put the sails up.


We followed pretty much the same course as before, but in reverse – Gun Cay, Chubb Cay, Nassau, Shroud Cay, Blackpoint Settlement, Adderly Cut and then back to George Town to check in (and out). The cruising permit we’d paid for in Bimini back in November was still valid, so we didn’t have to pay again. At George Town we met up with our good friends Sharon and Pete on Carefree again and had fun socially. My beloved computer was beginning to give me enormous problems by then and I presumed it had been infected by a virus. What kind of person wastes his energy causing heartache to people he doesn’t even know? Sharon spent some time working on it, and the problem eased, briefly.  I didn’t have internet access on the boat so was always reliant on internet cafes, wherever we could find them.


4 February. After a particularly horrible bumpy sail to Clarence Town on Long Island, the weather settled and we stayed a few peaceful days.


8 February. In no wind we started motoring towards West Plana Cay when a huge storm suddenly blew up. Foolishly, we were trailing our dinghy behind the boat (in such calm weather, we thought we’d been safe) and the hard plastic ring at the nose of the dinghy snapped. One of us looked back by chance and spotted it bouncing around on the waves way in the distance. We turned back and circled it, then, without thinking too clearly about it we decided Mike should jump in. So he did, but neither of us thought about him taking either a life jacket or a rope with him. Pratts! However, Mike is a strong swimmer so no problem, he got in the dinghy and then I had to throw a rope to him, all of which took some time, then I hauled him up close but the sea was so rough it took the poor chap ages to leap safely from the dinghy back onto the boat, and he finally arrived cold, battered and bruised.  It was too rough to bring the dinghy aboard, so we just tied it tightly to the back of the boat and slowed our pace down.


After a particularly hard journey we arrived the next day, tired and salty, at our own personal Paradise – West Plana Cay. We had been there before, but there had been other boats. This time, we were all alone, in solitary splendour. There are only two Plana Cays, they are small and uninhabited though there were the inevitable signs of human visitation – plastic trash. The wind had now calmed and though we placed our anchor on hard rock, the boat never budged. We stripped naked and swam to shore, wandering along the beach like Adam and Eve. It was quite magical.

Mike found a beautiful conch shell (for me) and an old plastic water container (for him).  For both of us, this remains as the most special place and time of our entire trip.

13 February. Eventually other boats arrived, so, proudly sailing off our anchor, we did an overnighter to Great Inagua. There was another boat there, Pearl, and we joined them on their boat for a dinner of fried plantains and conch fritters (unusual but delicious).

15 February. Montego Bay in Jamaica was our next destination, but a day later changed our minds (Mike’s mind, that is - I was very disappointed) and set a course direct for Panama. Eight days and 837 miles later, we arrived at the Punta Cacique marina in the north of Panama. Here is the same Caribbean map with our outbound journey marked in red.


Add 1 country – Panama. Total 19 countries visited.
Latest mileage – 1475nm. Total 10830 nautical miles.