On Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022, Casstaway said goodbye to buddy-boaters EWWE2 and Ellen Ruth, who are headed north in preparation for their crossings back to Florida, and Dawn Treader, who is off to explore other cays, and continued to make our way south with Holokai.
Departing Black Point at 10:00am, it was a short motor to reach our first stop at Oven Rock by noon. After lunch, we went ashore to make another rocky hike to view scenery and explore a well-known cave on the cay.
We awoke early Monday morning, April 18 to some serious rocking and rolling. By 9:00 am seas had calmed enough that we could raise anchor and make for our next stop at Lee Stocking/Leaf Cay – home of the pink iguanas. A choppy ride with wind on our nose at 13 knots, so we forgo raising sails and motored in with Holokai close behind.
Our anchorage at Lee Stocking is beautiful and quiet – only one other boat joining us. Todd took advantage of the time to make water and Tanya did a little cabin cleaning.
On Tuesday, April 19, we arrive at Georgetown, the Exumas largest settlement, by mid afternoon. We anchor just off Monument Beach at Stocking Island. The former owners of Holokai, John and Ann Taylor, who are nearby on their trawler, Livin the Dream, invite the crews of Holokai and Casstaway over for happy hour. Dinghy ride home is a little choppy as the expected weather front has begun to move in.
On Wednesday, April 20, winds are manageable so we dinghy over to Chat n Chill, a popular restaurant and beach hangout on Stocking. Rum punch and a yummy lunch – lots of people watching.
On Thursday, we make a VERY rough dinghy crossing to take trash and fill diesel cans. Fifteen minutes of hell, so we rewarded ourselves with drinks and a yummy lunch at Island Boy. The dinghy ride home was even worse with both spray and rain drenching us the entire way. We have decided we won’t make that mistake again, so we plan to move Casstaway to the anchorage nearer town the day before departure, so that we can fill remaining diesel can and any other last-minute errands.
April 24 was sunny and gorgeous so we headed back to Chat n Chill for their Sunday pig roast buffet. While there we enjoyed spending the afternoon with friends from Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, Karen and Matt Ostrander on the SV Karma.
On Tuesday April 26 we moved Casstaway across the channel as planned, so that we would have an easier dinghy ride and enjoyed another scumptious lunch at Island Boy. Tomorrow we begin our adventure to Eluethra.