Today we pulled up anchor, said goodbye to Black Point, and went North to Compass Cay. We were able to sail on a broad reach for a while, but the S/SSE wind faded after a bit as was predicted. We lowered the sails and motored the rest of the way toward our destination. From the bank side, the approach to the anchorages at Compass Cay involves a circuitous route around various sandbars aided somewhat by pilings (no color or shape on top – just a piling)and small floating balls. There was no indication as to which side of these aids to navigation you were meant to pass, so we had to wing it based on the color of the water and where the chart indicated more depth. We ended up taking one of them on the wrong side based on how shallow it quickly got, but we never touched bottom.
The anchorage is in between Compass Cay and Pipe Cay. While it looks like there is a lot of water all around, the actual area for anchoring is fairly narrow, bounded on one side by the high traffic channel leading into Compass Cay marina and on the other side by a big sandbar. Having just spent a total of ten days in two huge wide open anchorages, we feel a bit claustrophobic.
There were wakes from boat traffic to contend with most of the afternoon, but this calmed down some near dinner time. Compass Cay Marina is full of extremely large yachts as well as “regular-sized” vessels. Our anchorage has only 2 other boats anchored besides C Ghost, but was a playground for jet skis, water skiers (pulled by jet skis), inflatable couches and tubes being pulled by speedboats. Again, the water was so crystal clear that we could see our chain and anchor and conch shells on the bottom as well as grass, rocks, and sea fans.
Because the boat’s movement around the anchor during tide and current shifts was a big unknown, we stayed with C Ghost and read, talked, and took pictures. This is another one of those anchorages where the boat will lie to the current instead of the wind and will shift positions around the anchor by 180 degrees every six hours. The jury is still out if we will stay here tomorrow. While there are some trails to walk on Compass Cay, were not sure about leaving C Ghost alone here with all the activity going on during the day.
Dinner was leftover meatloaf with bacon and onion gravy, mixed leftover sautéed vegetables and cheese grits. Carrot bread later for treat.
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What a coincidence… we had meatloaf too! Though I’d say that yours was eaten surrounded by better conditions and more scenery than ours was. God I’d love to toss a line in there! Those mangrove and rocky edges are calling to me!!!