Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas

 We were up for an early start  - going out the cut at Johnson Cay.  I plotted a course that would keep us on the drop off to deep water just to the east of Raccoon Cay.  I understand from another cruising boat that they had good luck fishing there.   The winds and waves were a bit harsh, coming at us from starboard and aft.  This makes for a rather yucky ride.   We had put 2 reefs in the mainsail to shorten the sail and make it a little more controllable in the 20+ knot gusts.  

We were rewarded with this fabulous mahi-mahi.  

 

Thought about fishing some more, but the winds/waves were making me a bit queasy.  Decided that we could fish another day in a bit better conditions, we turned in at Channel Cut (I incorrectly said Raccoon Cut on my SSB email).   There is a stone beacon on Channel Cay - I have not been able to find anything about it, must be just like a stationary lighthouse.

We decided to continue on north of Flamingo Cay since we were early and the winds were favorable.  We stopped at Water Cay  and saw what appeared to be a local guy with a power boat camping out on the  beach near the anchorage.  I could see him come out of his tent as we approached.  We decided to move further south on the island and give him his privacy.  There are no other boats within miles of us. 

Nothing much at Water Cay.  It's a rather low lying island so you wouldn't want to be here if there was much wind.

 

 Once we were settled at anchor, Duane took the fish out of the fridge and did a great job filleting it.  I put the individual fillets in packs of two and vacuum sealed them.  We weighed the bag of fillets - right at 10 pounds of boneless fillets!

I saw a shadow approaching the boat in the water - a large turtle!

And strangely, a large shark was in the water below the boat at the same time.

 We were treated to a nice sunset although no green flash.

 

Pulled anchor right at sunrise.

 

We had a great sail - about 8 hours to Thompson Bay, Long Island.

That's about it for now!  We'll get diesel fuel for the first time since early December tomorrow and make plans for the coming days.