Position: N 22 18.931 W 075 46.042
Okay. All the excitement at Raccoon Cay aside, we are really enjoying our stay in the Jumento Cays and Ragged Islands.
After spending a few days at Buena Vista Cay (N 22 25.503 W 075 50.182) snorkeling and walking the beaches, we head down to Double Breasted Cay, just south of Raccoon Cay. We take our time, checking out some smaller cays, rocks, beaches, etc. on the way. We arrive, drop the anchor, and gaze (N 22 18.931 W 075 46.042). We soak up the beauty of the water, the islands, the sky. It’s absolutely beautiful. Yeah, yeah, we know – if we use up all the superlatives here, how are we going to be able to describe the other islands in the chain? We’ll just have to reuse them. We’re smitten.
To quote our friend Carl on ‘Diva’, “We are now at perhaps the most beautiful place we have been in the Bahamas, save Conception Island. Simply gorgeous. Like pictures of South Pacific Islands, only Bahamian topography and colors.”
We spend several days walking the beaches and exploring the rocky coastline. We find a spar, stem w/ several hull planks, and a stern on the beach – we’re guessing it's the wreck of a Haitian boat. It's been there a while and is well above the high water line, so it must have gotten pushed up there by some pretty ferocious waves.
The wind goes a bit more southerly so we decide to move on. We travel a couple of miles to Johnson Cay (N 22 20.226 W 075 46.839). The anchorage is a natural harbour with great protection from the south and with the light wind, we’ve got nearly no ocean swell to contend with. Yet another superlative-laden gem! There are a couple of really nice reefs in the anchorage, so we get to snorkel right off the boat.
Now that the heat’s off, we return to Raccoon. There are five other boats already there, so we decide to head up to the northeast corner of House Bay (N 22 21.721 W 075 48.886) to avoid the “crowd”. See how spoiled we’re getting? We shared the anchorage at Black Point with 73 other boats earlier this year and now we’re calling five boats a crowd. Due to the ‘large’ number of boaters here we decided to have a happy hour and bonfire on the beach. Again hikes, beachcombing and snorkeling were on the agenda for the next couple of days.
With heavy hearts we needed to make tracks north we had only 3 days to get to George Town for the Family Island Regatta. We made the trip in 2 really long days stopping overnight at Water Cay and making George Town just after dark on the second day
