The Yellow Banks

Location: Norman Cay
Position: N24 36.108 W076 49.388

After almost a week in Nassau we finally escaped. Mark got the steering all fixed up, got the water maker cranking out gallons of delicious water and we even got to do some sightseeing and socializing. We aren’t big fans of the big city so when a weather window showed up we high tailed it out of there. Especially as Friday was probably the last good weather for us for another whole week and it seems the weekend’s loud, thumping, all night music begins on Thursday night!!

Of course the wind was dead on the nose (again!!) so we ended up motoring across the Exuma Banks. One section of the trip involved passing over the dreaded ‘Yellow Banks’. The bottom is only about 10-12 feet deep and is sprinkled with shallow coral heads, some only 3-4 feet below the surface. The charts for the Bahamas are not 100% accurate nor all that detailed for this area, so you don’t really know the exact locations of these corals and you definitely don’t want to run into one.

We were told by friends “Oh it’s no problem! One of you just stands on the bow and looks. If you see a really dark brown spot you steer away from it!” Okay, great. So off Julie trots up to the bow wearing her life jacket and harness, armed with no real idea what to look for except for this vague “brown spot” description. She stands hanging on to the rail, squinting into the water, wondering just how big a coral head will be. And just how brown is it anyway? There’s a lot of brown stuff down there!

After standing at the bow for what seems like an eternity (in reality it’s maybe 15 or 20 minutes), she sees the first big brown spot. It‘s maybe 12-15 feet across and very dark! And it’s right in front of the boat! We had already agreed on specific hand signals for communication as it is impossible to hear each other when one is at the helm and the other is on the bow. She points to port and Mark quickly steers the boat to port. Phew that was close!! At least we know what they look like now. We manage to successfully maneuver around 4 or 5 more in the next half hour before we get through and, thank goodness, the rest of the day is fairly uneventful.

We arrive at the anchorage at Normans Cay around 4pm, feeling our way in through just over 6 feet of water, have a quick swim around the boat to cool off and then head off to Normans Cay Beach Club for a couple of beers with friends from 3 other boats. We feel like we’ve finally arrived!

Historical note: this island gained notoriety 30 years ago when it was the base for a cocaine smuggling operation run by the infamous Carlos Lehder. A wrecked plane in the anchorage on the eastern side of the island, just shy of the runway bears testament to this portion of the island’s history.

We had a great evening except for Julie falling into the sea as she tried to push the dinghy off the beach and leap in all at the same time. Julie says we shouldn’t blame it on the beer (Mark notes: “Uh, okay.”), she just needs more practice at this much used maneuver.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel