Author Archives: Eric

Moving to Between the Majors, Staniel Cay Area, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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On Tuesday, December 9, 2025, it was raining during sunrise. The view of the sun was completely obscured, but there were some pretty colors prior to the rain rolling in.

Much to our dismay, when we checked the forecast this morning, we saw that it had changed again — the wind would continue to come from the west all day today. Argh. We were frustrated with ourselves for not moving yesterday. When Eric and Keith went to bring in the flopper stopper, they saw this guy was making circles around it.

We immediately moved to the anchorage called Between the Majors on the northwest side of Big Major Cay. It was much more comfortable than the south side had been, but still rolly enough to deploy the port side flopper stopper. One of the issues with this anchorage that had made Eric reluctant to move yesterday was that it had a strong current that caused the boats to swing wildly from one direction to the other, increasing the chance of dragging. And the boats didn’t move together in unison. Some boats moved more with the wind direction and others with the current, so there was a bigger chance of collisions in this type of anchorage. We made sure that we anchored far away from the other boats and that the anchor was set well. This was our view of the anchorage looking northeast towards Fowl Cay.

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Getting Stranded in a Strong Current, Staniel Cay Area, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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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.

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Transit to Big Major Cay (Staniel Cay Area), Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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The sunrise was again blocked on Sunday, December 7, 2025, but it had a neat effect on one of the clouds.

We pulled up anchor at 0630. We stayed inside the lagoon the entire time. The wind was again light at 10-knots, creating 2 – 3 feet of wind chop. However, we were motoring directly into the wind, so we were in head seas and Kosmos was hobby horsing. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly was not comfortable, either. It was one of those transits where we listened to audiobooks instead of reading books. The temperatures were in the high 70s, but the humidity was high. Being hot and sweaty added a little more discomfort to the transit. We ran at 1600 RPM and averaged about 6-knots.

We arrived to the Big Major Cay anchorage at about 1430. This time we anchored closer to Cruiser’s Beach, which was a little farther from the town on Staniel Cay.

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Transit from Royal Island (near Eleuthera Island) to Highbourne Cay (Exuma Islands), The Bahamas

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Full moon just before dawn on Friday, December 5

Sunrise

On Friday morning, while Christi and Keith did school, Eric cleaned the watermaker sea strainer, the DC carbon filter, and the AC carbon pre-filter and filters. In the early afternoon, Eric and Keith tried to go to shore to explore the hurricane ruins, but that dock was still inaccessible. Given how shallow it was around that dock, it was probably only usable at high tide.

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Keith’s Perspective on Our Last Week in The Abacos/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre dernière semaine aux Abacos

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This week has been interesting. On Saturday, Dad and I went to shore with all the other kid boats. We docked at the Jib Room, then walked around for a while. We tried to find a beach, but there wasn’t one nearby so we just went to the shoreline of an abandoned house. After that we got drinks at the Jib Room. 

Cette semaine était intéressante. Samedi, papa et moi sommes allés à terre avec tous les autres enfants. Nous nous sommes amarrés au Jib Room, puis nous nous sommes promenés pour un temps. Nous avons essayé de trouver un le plage, mais il n’y en avait pas une à côté, donc nous sommes allés sur le littoral devant maison abandonnée. Après ça nous avons acheté des boissons au Jib Room. 

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