S/V Querencia - A Swirish Sailing Adventure: Friday 05 March –Emerald Bay, Great Exuma

Time to get out of Velcro Bay! The fronts finally subsided with suitable conditions to head out into Exuma Sound and north to Lee Stocking Island. We left the dock at 08:30 and headed over to the fuel dock. After refueling with gas and diesel we headed out the Cut and into the Sound. As it turned out conditions were not quite as favorable as we had hoped for. We were in for a bumpy ride and took a lot of water over the bow while coming out of the Cut into the Sound. The trip north was, of course, straight into the wind and into some 5-6 foot steep waves with some 7-8 footers thrown in for additional entertainment. Oh well, we made good head way up to Aderley Cut at Lee Stocking and timed our entry at slack tide to lessen the punishment of these notorious Cuts.

The Perry Institute of Marine Science, (PIMS) is located on Lee Stocking, a private island. We were invited on to the island for a tour of the facilities. In all honesty, the tour was quite unexciting but it was interesting to see the decompression chamber that Perry had built in the 70’s. The chamber is still in working order but there is no staff on the island trained to use the equipment, should there be an unfortunate diver with a dose of the bends. Instead, the victim is flown at low altitude to Nassau for treatment. The natural beauty of the island and its surrounding waters are breathtaking

Saturday we took the dinghy in to explore the rest of the island. We beached on Coconut Island and hiked up to Perry’s Peak, the highest point in the Exumas at about 160 feet above sea level. Stunning 360 degree views over the sound and the banks. We decided to be dare devils and climb without oxygen.

Saturday night we joined our friends from Innisfree for cocktails and a bonfire on the beach. Maria the Pyromaniac narrowly avoided burning down the island as the dried palm fronds burn like dried out Christmas trees. Gwenn forgot to pack the marshmallows.

The next day a couple of boats tried to leave but the conditions in the cut was too rough.

Innisfree being a shallow draft catamaran managed to take the inside route across the Galliot Bank. Querencia with a draft of 5’9” would never make this route so we had to stay put another day. No worries, the view was great so we spent Sunday lazing around on the boat and doing some more hikes on the island over to the Sound side.

Querencia at anchor behind Lee Stocking Island.........view from Coconut Beach