April 17-20: Sampson Cay to Cambridge Cay

"The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?" - Walt Whitman excerpt from "Miracles" 1856

Well, we were in Sampson Island Marina for six days and it was time to go.  The plan: head to Cambridge Cay for a few days since the forecast looks like west winds. Cambridge Cay aka Little Bell's Island is back in the Land and Sea Park and has come highly recommended.

Of course, I have been worrying how to get out of the marina since we arrived 6 days ago. We were  pulled as far up the pier as we could go. It was very convenient, but I, of course, have been rehearsing our departure since we got here. On the positive side, I have had several offers of help including Bob next door on a Hatteras motor yacht who is going to take his inflatable and use it for stern and bow thrusters as required to get me out. There is a large motor yacht (Honey Bear) behind me with a 20 ft. tender tied to its side (It also has a smaller tender, but that is astern and safely out of my way). We had so hoped that they would go somewhere so we could walk our way out, but Sandra learns they are here for another week. Another large (60 ft.) sport fishing boat was tied up across the fairway with a 22 ft tender alongside until a bit ago, but it has pulled out. While that is one less vessel to avoid, I liked the wind shadow it had put up. The wind is blowing across the fairway a bit more briskly now. My instruments are reporting 15-20 knots over my starboard stern quarter. I have envisioned a future where we can't get off the dock and one where Llyrical manages to back off, but ends up merely crossing the fairway sideways.

In addition to offers of help, I've had a variety of other advice. The most recent was a fellow who offered help and then allowed that my best hope was to just put it in reverse and back as hard as I could. Sounds like a plan! So with Jamal on the dock minding the bow pulpit and Bob pushing my stern away from the dock in his dinghy, we slipped our lines and I backed at about 2800 rpm. To my surprise, we actually pulled briskly away in the right direction, the bow following begrudgingly. In amazement, I slowed the engine a bit as my stern cleared Honey Bear's tender, but the bow began to fall to leeward, so I cranked her up again and backed into the cross channel with some degree of alacrity. At this point, I knew I had it made. The wind was blowing directly up the channel, so I let Llyrical do her thing; Islowed and she gracefully backed into the wind. Her bow blew down and we were good to go. All I had to do was stop her sternway before we hit the sand bar behind us. Not a problem! Hard right rudder and some solid throttle spun the bow up and out we went through the narrow entrance. "Want to stop at the fuel dock for diesel, honey?" asked the Admiral. "Uh, we'll come back," I replied.

Cambridge Cay was only five miles away but was to be our first real test of passing through narrow shoal channels. But first, we had to fight our way through the surf along a narrow channel with a sand bore on both sides of us through a pair of small islands known as the Rocky Dundas. A sand bore is a bigger versions of a sand bar, often stretching for miles out from a relatively small island. Bores are considered alive, and they are not to be trusted. They grow, shrink, and change. But our C-map chip once again was spot on. I have heard of others with Raymarine equipment who felt that their electronic charts of the Bahamas were inaccurate. I have been very pleased with them.

After successfully exiting the Rocky Dundas channel we turned north and crossed a sound with strong waves and current and began our approach to Cambridge Cay. Sandra went to the bow to spot for rocks or coral heads and I slowly motored over a 6 ft. bar, then after following a narrow channel for a half mile threaded through another narrow 6ft. pass next to a small rocky island and entered the Cambridge Cay mooring field. We moved north as far as we could as that offered the best protection from expected west winds. The only exposure was a narrow opening to the NNE which might be exposed to swells from Exuma Sound.