We left Staniel Cay Tuesday morning and headed up to look for anchorage or a mooring ball in the Exuma Land and Sea Park area.

We settled on Hawksbill Cay, known for its Osprey nesting areas. After a couple of tries we grabbed the mooring ball and tied up.

We made dinner and had a couple drinks to help us relax for what we thought might be a roly poly night.

As the tide went out the waves settled down and a shoal to the west of us helped break the swell too.

We ended up sleeping pretty well.

Next morning we left at daybreak for the 3+ hour trip to Highbourne Cay. We were able to sail part of the way and made pretty good time.

Actually we made too good time because we got there before 10 am and the marina says our slip wasn’t available yet. We had reserved one but the guy in it didn’t have to leave until 11 am.

We knew the bad-ass west winds were going to start that afternoon so we were anxious to get in. But there was no room at the inn.

As the tide was going out the waves were picking up, so we agreed our only option was to throw out the hook somewhere close by and wait.

We went into the basin nearby and dropped it fairly close to a beach and a yellow sailboat.

Shortly thereafter they came up in their dinghy. Ed starts explaining we won’t be there long, we were waiting on them to free up our slip.

I guess after having the Scottish guy in Georgetown yell at us for being too close we were gun shy.

But these French Canadians were all smiles and happy go lucky.

“Oh no worry there’s plenty of room for everybody,” they said in broken English.

Shirts off, happy to be out of Canada!
We’ve met more Canadian than American cruisers, I think Canada is empty right now.

We finally got our slip and had a peaceful sleep as the winds got over 30 knots.

We were last here at Christmas, when we came over here from Nassau, excited to be in the Exumas. It’s much cooler now but still a wonderful island.

I love Highbourne Cay.