We arrived at Norman Cay on Saturday April 6th. We had guests arriving into George Town on the 14th, so we had to watch the weather for a good window to run down Exuma Sound, that deep body of water to the east of the island chain. The near-term forecast had stiff winds for a few days but there was a good window for the run down on the 10th.

We only stayed at Norman’s for the one night, before heading down to one of our favorite anchorages at Little Bay on the south side of Black Point – which we also call Sandcastle Bay due to the house that looks like a sandcastle built on the shore. Unfortunately a small surge rolled in over night making for an uncomfortable sleep, so we upped anchor the next day and headed a short distance and anchored just north of the next headland, surprisingly called White Point! This was a new anchorage for us and worked reasonable well, with a nice beach for Bella walks, though again there was a slight surge coming in.

The next day, April 9th, had a strong wind forecast coming from the south west, not the best direction for most anchorages in the Exuma chain. We decided to see if there was a spot for us at the rustic Farmers Cay Yacht Club just a little further to the south. Paul had previously seen that it could be booked via Snag-a-Slip and was successful getting dockage. As we headed down the wind did pick up substantially.

As we approach the dock Roosevelt Nixon, the owner, came out to help us tie up. He wouldn’t take a forward line from Sian as we had planned given the strong wind from ahead, which would have allowed Sonas to fall back and spring against the dock. He instead wanted the stern line (persumably because of the current running from astern, which is well known for that area). However as we suspected, the strong wind overcame the current and it took a lot of bow thrusting and pulling to get the boat alongside the dock. We finally were successful but not before the thermal override on the thruster had kicked in and the stern line had become wire-taught. Additionally the line had gotten inside one of the swim platform staples and bent it. Lesson learned, we know our boat, especially the windage, and should have insisted he take the forward line. Hard to do when it is his marina! This also created a battery issue which caused some real concern later in the trip – more on that later!

As we were tidying up a dinghy went past and the folks on board waved and called out to us. It was only later that we realized that they were the crew from Ally Dee, a boat we crossed with once and have bumped into many times since. They were anchored in the lee of Little Farmers.

We ate dinner at the yacht club as the only guests. The extremely personable Roosevelt stopped by the table to apologize for the docking and to chat with us about the history of the island, including the fact that he was the person who first built the runway there.

April 10th. We only stayed at Farmers for the one night as the westerly winds had produced comfortable seas in Exuma Sound, to the east of the chain. We had a quick breakfast, stowed Sonas for sea (basically making sure that anything that could fall was already down!), and headed out through Farmers Cut.

We had enough experience running Exuma Sound to know that it can get really nasty. Today however it was a very pleasant ride all the way down to Elizabeth Harbour. We entered from the north in the early afternoon and dropped anchor by the Monument. Elizabeth Harbour had certainly rebounded from the COVID years with, again, hundreds of boats anchored. One new thing we noticed was that here were heavy pieces of equipment working on shore just north of the Monument. A quick Google search indicated that they are building a major resort on that spot. Not sure if there is going to be a marina.

We stayed at the anchorage until the 13th when we had dockage at the Exuma Yacht Club for three nights. The dockage fees had been greatly reduced as the docks were under (slow) refurbishment and there were no available power pedestals. We ran the generator as needed to keep the house batteries supplied. We crossed the street to Exuma market and got most of the fresh product we needed, only missing potatoes for some reason.

They are also building a substantial breakwater around the marina. There is heavy equipment on a barge digging up large limestone boulders from the water outside the marina and placing them to the east and south east of the marina.

Our guests, Hubert and Caroline, arrived on April14th. We grabbed dinner at the marina restaurant before heading back out of Elizabeth Harbour heading for central Exuma via Exuma Sound the next day April 15th.

The forecast was for another front coming in that would make the Sound rough. We either had to go today or wait a week in the harbour. We radioed a sail boat that was more than an hour ahead of us and asked about the conditions. We got a fair report so out we went. The seas were from the beam and we got tossed about quite a bit even with the stabilizers on. We had a few broaches but nothing too scary and we have had it worse. It did ease off some as we approached our planned entrance at Adderley Cut, to the extent we all agreed that we should continue on and go back in at Farmers Cut, which we did with the seas starting to lay down. We ran north and anchored back in Little Bay by Black Point.

However all galley service was suspended for the duration of the run, and after we anchored it took two to open the fridge – one to open the door and another to make sure things did not fall out!

Going below we found that the seas had shifted our heavy couch across the floor! Nothing broken though!

We stayed at anchorage relaxing for for three days. We inflated the paddle boards, swam, walked the beach and Hubert and Caroline walked into Black Point.

Sian did have a small mishap with the dinghy in that she accidentally popped off the kill switch and couldn’t get it back on when returning from the beach. She did have the handheld with her but Paul had not turned on the pilot house VHF. So the three of them were drifting nicely out to sea until they were rescued by another boater who towed them back to Sonas. The kill switch was restored without issue.

On April 18th we made the short run up to Staniel Cay where we picked up a mooring ball. We did the usual suspects, snorkeled the sunken plane to the west, and Thunderball Grotto. We had drinks and ate a very good meal in the marina we met some pirates on a 40th birthday trip no bounty stolen from us but great costumes!

After leaving Staniel on April 20th we went up to one of our happy places – Hawksbill Cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. As we were running west of Warderick Wells we faintly heard a call on the radio for a lost tender. Paul had a quick look around and there about a mile to the west was the loose tender! We were able to grab it, contact the owner and return it. This would not be the last time we would rescue a runaway tender this trip!

We had a very relaxing couple of days at Hawksbill. Snorkeling the small but very rich coral heads there, paddle boarding, grilling and “sunsetting!”

As always we kept our eyes on the weather as we had to be back in Elizabeth Harbour for at least one day of the Family Regatta and to deliver our guests to the airport on the 28th. We saw that the winds were getting up yet again on the 24th. So, a couple of days earlier than we would have wished, we decided to start our run south.

So on April 22nd we ran south past Little Farmers this time and turned in through Galliot, Cave and Musha Cays, and anchored inside Rudder Cay, ready to exit via Adderley Cut after Bella’s walk in the morning. We were passing through right at low tide and it got really skinny for a period. We slightly bumped our way through the lowest point to the east of Musha and anchored at seven feet by Rudder. The others took Bella ashore while Paul visited some of the other anchored boats to try and get some alignment on weather for our run outside tomorrow, as the usual sources were mixed on when the wind was arriving.

As it turned out the wind stayed down during the morning on April 23rd and we were able to run to Elizabeth Harbour in comfortable seas, getting to the ball we had booked in the mooring field in the early afternoon, just as the wind arrived.

This is where things got a wee bit hairy. We had used DockWa to book our mooring ball. However the EH Conservation Partnership then get back to you directly with the confirmation and ball number. After receiving the confirmation and ball number we went to pick it up. Sian was able to grab the ball OK but the wind started pushing us off it. Paul went to use the thrusters to keep us on it and the thrusters did not respond. Sian dropped the ball and took the helm while Paul went down below to see what was up with the thrusters. Paul didn’t get far before there were shouts from above. Running back up he found that all of the helm instrumentation had gone dark! He used the engine controls to steer us to a safe anchorage spot. Sian went forward to drop the anchor and the windlass would not work either, so we had to release the clutch and freefall the anchor. All great practice, except it wasn’t practice, it was a necessity. quite scary bearing down on an anchored catamaran with no means of steering. Disaster narrowly averted.

After we all calmed down Paul went below, took the fiberglass covers off the large 8D batteries that run the 24 volt system and found the issue. When we had overused the thrusters at Little Farmers Yacht Club a couple of weeks ago the heat generated between the battery post and the bolt had widened the post hole the nut goes through leaving the contact loose on the battery post. The contact was just about good enough since then to allow everything to start and run, but the next significant use of the thrusters had pushed the nut and bolt away from the post, resulting is full loss of power. We tightened a larger nut and bolt that fit the new post hole and everything ran fine subsequently.

We had an enjoyable four days in Elizabeth Harbour. Frankly this is not somewhere we chose to spend any amount of time, it is usually to get guests from and to the airport or do some provisioning before heading out again. However the Family Regatta was about to start, always a great watch.

We had drinks and lunch at Chat and Chill, followed some of the racing in the tender and watched from the stern of Sonas which, luckily, was anchored right by the windward mark! We were watching when Ruff Justice from Long Island was caught is a heavy gust just before the mark and capsized. We were quite surprised at how quickly she filled up and sank to the bottom. The crew were first tossed off the plank into the boat and then tossed into the water. The medical boat was very quickly on the scene along with a number of other regatta and spectator vessels.

The later news was that there was only one injury, a crewman had broken his arm, could have been a lot worse.

For some more photos of the regatta click here: 2024 Family Regatta

On April 27th we headed back over to the Exuma Yacht Club and tied up. It was Hubert and Carolyn’s last evening and we had a nice farewell dinner at Peace and Plenty being entertained by the local high school band and cheerleaders. After we saw Hubert and Carolyn off we remained at the marina for a couple of days to again replenish our fresh provisions and tidy up Sonas for our next guests, due in at Staniel Cay on May 4th. The forecast was decent for the next week so we didn’t have to concern ourselves with the run up Exuma Sound this time!

We also experience a strange issue with our electric stove top. When turning it on the red activated light would come on for a few seconds then the stove would turn off. We just couldn’t get it to stay on. We assumed that it was broken and we would have to replace when back home. So for now we needed to plan on cooking with the convection oven/microwave and the Magma grill for the rest of our trip. We did keep trying it while on generator and shore power with no joy. [We had it on our list of maintenance items after we got home but as soon as the contractor came on board it started working and has worked on generator and shore power ever since. We can only assume that there was a surge prevention switch in it somewhere that had activated and eventually reset].

On April 30th we headed back out into the Sound for the last time this trip and started our way back towards Staniel Cay where we would be picking up our daughter and her boyfriend.