Black Point, and Big Galliot Cays
While at Exuma Park, we heard our friends from Khira and Aura hailing each other on the radio. We were able to reach them on the radio and found they were only a few miles south of us. We made a plan to all meet at Big Majors, so Monday morning we left Exuma Park and headed for Big Majors Cay. We arrived early afternoon after about a 20-mile motor sail. The anchorage at Big Majors was roomy and protected from all sides except the west. We planted the anchor, Monica dove down to set it, and we were settled in for the next few days.
The kids took the dingy to the next beach over, just about 100 yards down from where we were, to the “piggy” beach. It is named so for its inhabitants, cute, cuddly, big pigs! They fed the pigs all the compost we had been collecting and all were happy.
Big Majors is just around the bend from Staniel Cay and the famous, Thunderball Grotto, a partially submerged cave that has a reef at the bottom. It was made famous in the James Bond movie, Thunderball, with Sean Connery. We snorkeled around the grotto for several hours and the kids found holes under the water that led into the cave so they would dive under and end up inside the cave on the other side. It was quite the place to see. Thuderball Club is a restaurant just around the harbor from the grotto where the coldest beer and delicious hamburgers can be found so we all headed up there for a late lunch. Later in the week we returned to the club for Pizza night where we all enjoyed delicious pizza and of course…ice cold beer.
The weather was a bit overcast and very windy. It was not a good day for the beach or for snorkeling. It was a good day to simply relax and read a good book. Monica and Robin kept busy by knitting together in the cockpit of Robin’s boat, Khira. Once the weather improved, we enjoyed the next several days snorkeling the reefs in the area and relaxing on the beach.
We left the anchorage at Big Majors after being there more than a week. It was a nice place, but it was time to move on. We left around 10:00 a.m. and had about 7 miles to get to Black Point. We were now traveling as four boats, as a couple from Ontario, Canada, Pat and Lucy, onboard Illusions, had joined us. The four boats were; Aura, with Paul and Patty captaining and their crew, James 9, Sophie 8, and Lucy 5, Khira, with Dave and Judith captaining and their crew, Robin 12, and Ivy 6, and Illusions with Pat and Lucy captaining.
The Black Point settlement is the second largest in the Exuma Cays, second only to George Town, with a population of 300 people. The small community has several stores to buy provisions, a few restaurants, a library with internet access, and a bustling school brimming with young children. They also provide free water and trash disposal, which we all took advantage of. Black Point is an excellent example of a real out-island, “non-touristy” settlement.
On Tuesday, we went back into town to retrieve our now clean laundry. (Lorraine’s mother does the laundry for cruisers for $6.00/load. We giggled as we watched our underwear flap in the wind on the clothesline as we walked through town by her house). We all decided to head back over to the other side of the island, Little Bay, where it was slightly calmer. We all enjoyed a late afternoon walk and swim on the beach then we all called it an early evening.
Wednesday was to be a travel day for us, so all four boats left the anchorage at Black Point and headed southeast making the trek towards George Town. The wind was to be out of the E-S-E at 10 to 15knots. At Galliot Cut, the inlet that goes from the Banks to the Sound, we needed to make a decision as to whether or not we would proceed to the Sound further south. (Due to water depths, we needed to go out to the Sound to make the approach into George Town). When we got to the Cut, the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 knots from the S-E. This would have given us a very uncomfortable ride on the sound, so we decided to throw down the hook and stay at Big Galliot Cay and hope the weather was a bit calmer in the morning to make the run on the sound.
Monica and Tony headed out to the beach for the afternoon and I stayed on board to get caught up on the website and reading.