A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 4/18/2021 – 4/25/2021

Watch this week’s video here!

Last Sunday we decided to leave Raccoon Cay. We motorsailed down to Hog Cay, just North of Ragged Island, and instantly fell in love with the place. It’s nothing particularly new- crystal clear waters and an uninhabited island- but it’s just the perfect location to hang out for a while! There’s a gorgeous beach with a little setup for cruisers (fire pit, hut, chairs, etc.), reefs to snorkel, warm water, and Duncan Town is just a short dinghy ride away.

On Monday we headed to shore to officially check things out, and we saw a massive stingray and a yellow polka dotted jellyfish right off the beach! 

We walked around the hut (which is full of little signs with different boat names, acting as a guest book for cruisers), chatted with a couple of people who were hanging out there, then decided to go for a swim to cool off before heading home.

Tuesday morning we met up with two other boats in our anchorage and dinghied to Duncan Town together. The dinghy ride was great- the water was flat calm and incredibly clear.

We dinghied through some mangroves and mounds of conch shells before tying off to the government dock, next to a welcome sign. Just beyond the sign, the town was in ruins. We all stood there for a minute, a bit confused… nearly every building was crumbling and it seemed like all the people who used to live there had been replaced by… goats?

None of us had realized that hurricane Irma had hit this far South back in 2017. It turns out Ragged Island experienced 185mph winds during the peak of the storm, and it looks like they have been slowly trying to rebuild ever since. We walked around the remnants of the town then dinghied back to the anchorage. Ray set up our sun shade on the bow, and we spent the afternoon reading on our bean bags and swimming off the back of the boat.

That evening we were invited to a bonfire on the beach with all the other boats in the anchorage! It was really cool chatting with everyone- there’s something comforting about being around a bunch of people who quit their jobs to travel the world… something comforting about being around a bunch of people who don’t think what you’ve chosen to do with your life is “crazy”, “risky”, or “scary”. It was a nice night.

Wednesday morning we woke up sweating! It was the hottest we’ve been this year. So, we set out for a snorkel trip. We found a promising spot and dropped our dinghy’s anchor. It was gorgeous! We snorkeled from coral head to coral head for a couple of hours, dragging our dinghy along with us.

That evening the sky was super hazy. We originally thought it was from the volcano that erupted on St. Vincent, but later found out it was actually from the Saharan dust cloud.

We spent the day Thursday relaxing on the boat. 4 new boats had moved into the anchorage, so naturally we started to plan our departure (we don’t like crowds).

The next morning we decided it was time for us to start heading North for hurricane season. So, we pulled up our anchor and reluctantly made our way back up to Flamingo Cay for the night. We were working with pretty light winds, so we pulled the jib out onto a barber hauler and used an engine most of the trip. 

It took us about 5hrs to get to Flamingo Cay, and we dropped anchor just North of where we did last week. I hopped in the water to check the anchor and of course, the one time I didn’t bring my spear, I saw a massive shark. I’m not confident it was a bull shark, but I’m certain it wasn’t a nurse shark so I panicked a little and swam back to the boat. Had the shark been smaller/had I not been the only one in the water/had I had a spear with me, I probably would have been fine, but that wasn’t the case! I actually broke my fin swimming as fast as I could back to the boat.

Saturday morning we woke up to a squall, despite the weatherman ensuring us there would be “no squall activity at all”.

We decided to leave anyway and sail back up to Long Island. We ended up having quite a fun sail! With roughly 20kn of wind the whole trip, we were flying! ⛵️ The sea state was a little rough, but things calmed down towards the end. The trip took us about 9hrs total, and we dropped anchor in Long Island around 5pm.

We’ve been out of booze and in the middle of nowhere all week, so once we set our anchor we scrounged up all the cash we could find and headed to shore in search of a cold beer. ATMs in the Bahamas are few and far between, I think the last one we found was 3 weeks ago and we’d spent what we took out on groceries and gas since then…

We walked into the bar with $12. 

We nearly chugged our $4 beers, and went to pay the bartender. He insisted on serving us two more rounds, on the promise that we’d come back Monday to pay and have a few more after having a chance to rent a car to go to the ATM.

Everything on the island is closed today, so our plan is to hang out on board and get a few logistical things done in preparation for our return to the States. Monday morning we’ll rent a car, go to the ATM, reprovision, and re-visit our new favorite bartender.

I hope you had a great week! ❤️