Remote water playground. If we had known, we would have come here sooner. If we could have, we would have stayed here longer.
Stretching south of Georgetown and Great Exuma lies a long arc of small islands. Some say Jumentos Cays, some say Ragged Islands, while what little official information exists suggests that the names refer to the northern half and the southern half, respectively. We anchored in the Jumentos three times across March and April, totaling over two weeks.
Raise the Spinnaker!
Rather than time the tides and crawl the shallow Hog Cay Cut out of Georgetown, we decided to start our journey into the southern wilderness from Long Island’s Thompson Bay anchorage (aka Salt Pond). That set us up for a perfect downwind sail and the opportunity to use our spinnaker for the first time. I had heard spinnakers have an odd emotional appeal, but seeing it for the first time filled me with a rare unbridled joy. I was like a little kid who woke up to find Santa had left him his first bicycle.
The boat was also overjoyed – we hit 10 knots for awhile!
Water Cay
Most “islands” in the Jumentos lack usable anchorages, with many being little more than huge rocks. Our first destination was Water Cay. After surveying its 3 mile length, we chose the northern Fishing Boat Anchorage, so named because many fishing boats use this as their base when out here. Bull sharks know this and hover about the area looking for scraps. Beautiful, peaceful, but not a place to swim around the boat.
One day Brenda got the bright idea to offer up a fish carcass tied to a line. Bull sharks are powerful! It took the fish, the line, and the spool. Fortunately Brenda held onto the GoPro.
A big highlight of our time was making friends with Dark and Stormy, who was often the only other boat here. West of Water Cay, scattered all around, are coral heads of various sizes. Each is a miniature hunting ground filled with surprises. I was a novice spear fisher, but we went out almost every day and I learned so much. I also learned that my spear was “a toy”. I used one of his for a day and it was like the difference between a BB gun and a cannon. If you’ve only ever seen a BB gun you would think they are great. Now I’m ruined.
Over our time there, I brought back hog fish, snapper, trigger fish, conch and lobster.
Getting the conch out of its shell was a massive challenge. The guy at the conch shack in Georgetown made it look so easy. I ended up obliterating my first one. What a mess! After I got the hang of it though, I made a batch of conch fritters – Mexican style. We had a lot of masa on board, so a corn-based southwest batter seemed like the way to go. I just hope I can reproduce it next time.
The Great Treasure Hunt
A “blue hole” is a sinkhole, usually round and with steep slopes. It’s eerie driving the dinghy over these, where the bottom just disappears. There are three blue holes west of Water Cay, ranging in depth from 60 ft to 150 ft. We dove two of them and spear fished the third.
The diving was great, with lots of life along the blue hole’s wall. As we learned years ago in Little Cayman, grouper are drawn to Brenda. It happened again here, with the two of them staring at each other for the longest time. Brenda the grouper whisperer.
The largest blue hole was two miles out from our anchorage. We first went there to free dive, spear fish, and generally check out what there was to see. On the ledge above the hole, we encountered what looked like a very old large crate. It was 40-50 ft down, so without tanks we could only get near it for a quick look before surfacing. I tried lifting it and it was very heavy. We were intrigued, but not much we could do.
Weeks later, as we were returning from the Ragged Islands enroute to Florida, Brenda kept bringing it up. She was convinced it was a treasure chest. We needed to return to Water Cay. After dropping anchor, we loaded up the dinghy with tanks, wire brush, hammer and any other tool that seemed relevant. We were on a mission. Sadly, after a bit of cleaning, we realized our treasure was actually a very large battery.
Flamingo Cay
A common theme during our trip to the Bahamas was my desire to see what was next over the horizon rather than sit and enjoy where we were. So despite loving Water Cay, we raised anchor and moved south to the only other viable island in the Jumentos – Flamingo Cay.
Flamingo Cay was a very different experience. A prettier destination, with places to hike and explore, but a bit rolly and without the hunting grounds or blue holes. The anchorage was, however, free of sharks and Brenda spent entire afternoons roaming the sea floor looking for sea stars.
She also found small white stingrays that we’d never seen before. We believe they are Yellow Stingrays (Urobatis Jamaicensis).
