Mayaguana, Bahamas

We left Great Inagua, the southernmost point in the Bahamas 2 days ago - now we're in the easternmost point in the Bahamas, Mayaguana!

Let me back up and detour 1 day ago - our wonderful sail to Hogsty reef.  The sail overnight was fabulous and easy. 


Our first glimpse of the little spit on the northwest opening of Hogsty reef.   There were several large wrecks in the distance on the other side of the atoll about 5 miles away.  Apparently, a mountain rising up in the deep, deep ocean catches captains unaware.....

Here is a overview of the atoll.  It looks like land, but it's all submerged coral.   The only two things above water the two little cays marked.  The surrounding water is 7000-8000 feet deep for 40 miles in all directions.

 You can see the deep, deep water that almost instantly rises to 30 feet (the light blue bar).

What If approaching the shallow water.  (We're inside the atoll for this shot).

We anchored near the northwest cay.  Beautiful!

The sand was fine and pinkish.

Just us Mantas!   Took the dinghies in for a walkabout.

There is a stone/concrete cairn - that I suppose is to warn captains of the hazard and was probably put there before the days of solar panels and lights.

The three Mantas.

A smaller wooden boat wreck.

Beach combing was fun!  Found a couple of these gorgeous helmet conch shells.

And a bunch of other assorted fun shells.

 And this spectacular find is courtesy of Duane - it's red!  Red glass is very rare.  It appears to be from a rather large navigation light cover.

Just never tire of the view of the 3 Mantas!!

After the little walkabout, we loaded the dinghies and set out to explore in the afternoon.

Anchoring the dinghies to go snorkeling on the reef you can see in the shadows.

Saw some neat coral and fish.  And this lovely ray.  To tell the truth, we didn't find the snorkeling remarkable.....but we did only have a few hours.  What we did see was mostly healthy and the visibility was great.

At 6PM we all lifted anchor so that we would have just a bit of daylight to get underway.  There was no wind, so this unfortunately had to be a motor - only trip.  The moonlight was relaxing even with an engine running.  A few chats between the boats was all that interrupted the night.  We did our normal 3 hour shifts and both got a bit of sleep.

Arrived just at sunup to Mayaguana.  The bay looked a bit tricky on the charts, so we went very slowly in the 5 miles to the anchorage.  

The bay is spectacularly colorful!!  We will enjoy a few hours of calm wind - they are forecast to increase to 25 this afternoon, so it won't look this flat soon!  (The shadow is our mast).

Our anchor chain viewed thru 8' of water.  (Don't worry, it will straighten out when the wind blows us).

What If at anchor.

Now & Zen at anchor.

We'll rest a while this morning....and hope that we'll be able to get off the boat for the next few days of very windy weather.