February 17 Great Sale Cay Anchorage

We checked the weather out with the local fisherman and even though the winds were blowing briskly they assured us we would have waves of less than 2' in the direction we were travelling because the water is somewhat protected by the reef. So off we went after Our Time fueled up-11 am and we had almost sixty miles to travel. Silver Foxes lead the way. First major challenge was travelling through Indian Cay pass where the water was reported to be about 4' in places. The Hurricanes a couple of years ago destroyed all of the marker poles so it was strictly a waypoint GPS passage through this area. You simply navigated from where the poles used to be, by using Latitude & Longitude coordinates. Saw 4.5' of water under us in several places but most was 5-6'. You can see the bottom very clearly. The water is nice and green but sometimes difficult to judge the exact depth. After this passage we avoided Barracuda shoal was marked by a still standing pole. The shoal was clearly visible and easy to avoid. Then off we set using the autopilot and a few waypoints for Great Sale Cay. Great Sale is located north of Grand Bahama in relatively shallow water (12') and protected from the Atlantic ocean to the north by a barrier reef. The Cay is pronunced Key. A large protected anchorage. We were the only 2 boats there. We arrived shortly before sunset which occurs at 6pm here. After setting my anchor, Our Time came alongside and tied to us. Tonight we had late cocktails on our boat. During the night the wind shifted to the south, a direction the Cay did not protect us from, so the wind slapped us around a bit.