The goal today is to sail south towards Georgetown and anchor at Williams Cay. We started with a 15 knot wind on a beam reach (wind at our side) and were cruising at a wonderful pace which brought us to Williams Cay in the early afternoon after 3 to 4 hours of sailing.
Above: Heading into Adderly Cut from our outside run and into the interior banks before heading south to Williams Cay.
Above: Entering Williams Cay looking for a nice spot to anchor.
We always anchor in the interior waters of the Exumas’ Islands, finding harbors nestled in the lee of the prevailing winds. We usually always love taking the dinghy out to explore the Islands we end up anchored at. Williams Cay was no exception, and we took the dinghy out to explore the island. Most islands in the Exumas have very little elevation and are relatively flat and little variation in topography. The highest elevation in all of the Exumas is on Cat Island at 206 feet, with the average Exuma island elevation being only 3 feet. Williams Cay, like Bitter Guana Cay, was a picturesque island with beautifully sculpted limestone cliffs and elevated lookouts with magnificent views of the outer coastline and the inner banks, as you can see from the following pictures.
Above: Jay places one more rock atop the keirin at the high point of Williams Cay.
Above: Sally complains I put too many pictures of her in the blog, but I can’t help but to put this one in. Taken at that fleeting period just before sunset with a great tonal latitude and a nice warm tint. No Photoshop touch up needed.
As we sat on our back deck having a great happy hour as sunset approached, we could hear the two young girls (probably in fifth or sixth grade) on the boat anchored behind us running around laughing, talking, and taking turns swinging out over the water from a boom contraption their parents had set up on their catamaran. It made me think about what a different life and perspective these girls would develop spending their winters with a home-schooled adolescence sailing around the islands of the tropics. I wouldn’t have wanted to have denied my kids the benefits of the sports and social aspects of going to school in Annapolis in their junior high and high school years, but had to believe that these girls were getting such a wonderful sense of what the world had to offer, with a perspective that most kids will never know. It was a real treat to sip margaritas to the sound of their idyllic laughter and patter.
