We departed Georgetown Saturday morning under clear skies and settled weather, which is predicted to stay settled well into the coming week. Temps in the 80’s and light winds prevailing out of the ENE. The weather this year has been nothing short of spectacular, a far cry from what we experienced during our time here in 2009 when we had fewer great weather days than we’ve had crappy weather days this year! It’s a roll of the dice! We enjoyed a delightful cruise from Georgetown north to Galliot Cut, where we crossed from the ocean side and back onto the bank. On our way north, we passed a number of privately owned cays, notable is Musha Cay, owned by David Copperfield, and a frequent destination of the rich and famous. The huge house is surrounded by palms, the island resort is purported to be available for $150,000 per day, not sure if that’s all-inclusive! We’re told that a barge has been spotted ferrying Oprah to the island. 🙄 There’s an airstrip on the adjacent Rudder Cut Cay, many of the small private cays in this area of the Exuma chain have private air strips since many are surrounded by expanses of shallow water with access by boat through constantly changing channels. Our transit through the cut at Galliot was uneventful other than an opposing current. The cuts are notorious for producing a “rage” when an outgoing tide meets an opposing wind, creating wild water and exciting conditions. An outgoing tide presents a current of about 2-3 kts. so our progress was slowed considerably while in the current, even with bumping the throttleup to around 2,000 rpm, our SOG (speed over the ground, net) was 3.9 kts! Fishing was a bust on this outside run, not even a strike!
Oh, and while you’re reading this, and you come across “Cay” as you frequently will, train the voice inside your head to say “KEY” instead of “KAY” as it’s reading along. Man, that’s hard for this dutchman to get through his thick head! Nothing says “this is my first time to the Bahamas” – like “KAY”!
