Some days everything just seems to be well…perfect. Today was one of those days. It started at Allen Cays one of my favorite anchorages in the Exuma Islands of the Bahamas. A small horseshoe shaped bay that only fits one or two shallow draft boats. The water is crystal clear with a soft white sand bottom and there is a picture perfect beach complete with some curious iguanas. the shallow bay warms nicely in the sun and there is a noticeable increase in the water temperature as you swim and wade ashore. It is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the nature in a spectacular setting and without any light pollution nearby the density of stars that can be seen in the night sky is phenomenal.
The next morning Oh! was off quickly to make use of favorable winds to move south to Bitter Iguana Cay. The winds were just south of east so it was a close hauled sail, but Oh! was in her element enjoying 12-20 knot winds and making 6-7.5 knots close hauled in the flat waters with only .3 m waves. A perfect day for sailing.
Bitter Iguana Cay is another favorite with its dramatic rugged white limestone cliffs that glow in the evening sun.
There is a beautiful beach, large anchorage, some good hiking (by Bahamas standards) and some curious iguanas here as well. It is close enough to both Black Point and Staniel Cay to make the journey to either by dingy and a great place to just get away.
The sail took 8 hours from anchor up to anchor down to cover the 56 nmi. that included one tack to get further up wind. Not bad for a close hauled day to average 6.7 knots against the wind. Oh! Yes.
But the real treat of the day was the incredible sunset. The photos below are un edited other than being zoomed in and cropped so that the sun can easily be seen. There was no doubt in my mind that there was a very clear green flash. I have seen them a dozen times and this was a pretty good one. They are tough to capture on camera mainly because you are shooting straight into the sun and my cameras zoom is only 5 times, but I think I did ok. I hope you enjoy them.
As the last bit of sun sunk to the horizon, its last second produced a short flash of neon green light. I wish my camera could have captured it better, but it was definitely there! Really, Really!
Cheers, From Oh!