Shortly before dawn on Monday, December 8, 2025

The wind had changed direction and was now coming from the west, making the anchorage very rolly today. It felt like we were at sea. It was also unbelievably humid. Between the humidity and the rocking, it was uncomfortable onboard. We considered moving to the other side of Big Major Cay for more protection, but that anchorage had some issues, too. The forecast said the wind would shift tomorrow, so we figured it was easier to just deal with the motion for one day than it would be to move over to the north side and then back again tomorrow. 

After school and morning chores, Eric and Keith went to shore to take out the trash and get lunch. Christi had an online meeting tied to her land life project, so she stayed aboard. She was sad to miss out on dry land time. Instead of taking the most direct route, where they’d be pummeled by waves coming from the south, Eric took the dingy through the pass between Big Major Cay and Fowl Cay around to the northwest side of the island, where they were protected from the waves (see map). When they arrived to the yacht club’s dinghy area, it was high tide. They were surprised to see that it was flooded.

They dropped off the trash at the yacht club (they charge a disposal fee of $8.80 per bag), had lunch at the yacht club’s restaurant, then went for a short walk. The yacht club had some Christmas decorations up.

On the way back, they took the same route. The current was so strong that they couldn’t get through pass between Fowl Cay and Big Major Cay. The current had to be at least 5-knots, and Eric thinks it was probably 6-knots because Kosmopolitan was going backwards.

Here was a photo of the water bubbling in the pass, which indicated it was moving fast.

As stated in the video, they went to a nearby beach to wait for the current to slow down.

After about 15-minutes or so, a group of French people dinghied up to beach to go swimming. Keith chatted with them in French and told them about the dinghy dilemma. One of the men offered to tow them through the pass. Eric gave them a line to attach to their dinghy and Eric and Keith held on to the line. The rationale was that, since the channel was only 30-feet wide and thus had little leeway, they wanted to make sure that if something went wrong they could quickly decouple the dinghies. Eric had one hand on the motor and one hand on the rope. Keith was also holding on. It was hard to maintain the hold. Eric had our dinghy motor at full throttle and it looked like the other dinghy was also at full throttle, too. Both motors were whining, and Eric was worried that they wouldn’t be able to make it, but they did. Once through the pass, all was fine and they returned to the boat.

That night, Eric and Christi had a hard time falling asleep because it was rocky and uncomfortable.