We arrived at Highbourne with plenty of time to anchor – or so we thought! The inner harbor, noted on the chart for “fair” holding, really wasn’t. We tried four times, in two different locations. As the light began to wane, we couldn’t get the hook to set. Fortunately, there was the Highbourne Cay Marina right there, with space available. We radioed in and docked just before night fell. We have nicknamed the marina the Highway-robbery marina, as it had the highest dockage fee of any marina we have stayed – ever! But for safety’s sake, we were glad to be docked. We walked a bit of the island, which is covered with scrub and whose most notable feature is the 260-foot Batelco (Bahamas Telephone Company) transmission tower. Local fishing guides cleaned fish off the dock, tossing scraps to a dozen friendly sharks, which seemed used to this treatment.
The next morning, we left the harbor for a nearby anchorage, and after several tries at anchoring, Jerry donned swim fins and mask, and dove down to push the anchor into the hard-packed sand and grass bottom. Finally, we were securely anchored, and decided to stay two nights while we were!
Nearby were several reefs noted as good for snorkeling, so we took the dinghy to one of them, and had a pleasant afternoon of exploring undersea life. We saw lots of brilliantly colored tropical fish and beautiful coral heads.
January 11, we headed a bit south, had to dive the anchor again, and spent one night at Long Cay. Marty is establishing a routine of exercise, by doing laps around the boat. The water is in the high 70s, and most pleasant for swimming. Jerry gets his exercise by diving to place the anchor!
January 12 we traveled seven miles south to Norman’s Cay and its hurricane-hole anchorage, Norman’s Pond, two miles long by ½ mile wide. This area is completely surrounded by protective land, with a narrow twisting channel accessible only at high tide. We came in under ideal conditions, saw a giant manta ray cruise by, and anchored securely in Half Moon Bay, for two nights. The island has a small airstrip, a few vacation homes, and one new one under construction. We watched the workers from the dinghy – many coffee breaks seemed to be taken! Ah, the island pace.
A dinghy ride through the entrance channel helped us plan our exit route, and we saw caves along the shore,
one of which had the discard heap of conch fishermen.
We collected two nice specimens for our growing shell collection. Stereo sounds of the sea!
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