Sampson Cay to Staniel Cay

We left Shroud Cay the after Christmas to sail down to Sampson Cay and meet up with our friends on "Sam the Skull" and to get caught up on emails, phone calls, laundry etc. We left Shroud with our friends on "Reach" and "Star" and had a pretty rough sail down as the winds ended up being just south of east. I think we even saw both keels on Reach airborne a few times!! We were glad to get the anchor down once we got to Sampson Cay. Sampson Cay is a private cay with a resort and a marina. They are very friendly and we all went in to check out their happy hour which offered drink specials and some of the best conch and grouper fingers we have had in years!! Later we went back to Reach and watched a very large motor yacht navigate it's way into the marina. There is not alot of water in the channel...probably 8-9' at high tide and the yacht on the right of the following picture draws just over 7' . It was rumored that Tom Cruise and family were on "one" of the many mega yachts in the area...we never saw the "guests" on this yacht but they did not spend the night onboard as the accommodations were not good enough and they elected to rent a couple of the guest houses at the yacht club!! Sampson Cay is a beautiful spot and we took advantage of getting caught up with phone calls home with well wishes for the holiday and laundry although the weather did not cooperate (too windy) for trash burning we did snap this picture of "Sam the Skull" framed in the pretty water looking out through the cut in the marina.

After completing the chores we decided to move down to Staniel Cay (about 5 miles south) to ring in the New Year and to watch the Staniel Cay local regatta. We passed a beautiful Schooner anchored off Sandy Cay - we last this boat in Miami.

We were able to get Echo anchored in a front row spot...right off the yacht club in about the shallowest water I have ever been in....at low tide we were in about 4.9' (high tide we had about 8.2') of the clearest water you can imagine!! The night before New Years Eve the Yacht club puts on a Pirate Party and of course we had to wander in to see what we could see, unfortunately none of the pictures I took came out so we will have to see if we can dredge some up from another camera...lets just say the captain was almost captured and taken away by a rouge pirate wench ( much to his dismay the first mate intervened!!) On New Years Eve day the Yacht club runs the local C Class racing regatta and as all of us, Echo, Reach and Sam the Skull all had front row seats we were invited to view the races on Reach....so the morning of the race the "girls" did their best to be bow fluff...and vamped it up the best they could!! For those of you who do not know the C Class is a traditional Bahamian boat that has a full keel and a boom that extends beyond the transom of the boat...so you actually need an additional boat to rig it. The race itself is start from anchor and around the coarse a couple of times. The captain was able to get the following pictures...most from the dinghy...hope you enjoy them as much as we did!!

After the races were over it was time to relax and rest up to get ready for the New Years Eve festivities...of course some of us took this opportunity to go out and paddle their Kayak..showing up the rest of us!! Since we have owned Echo it has been traditional to have New Years Eve on aboard Echo and we have actually spent the last 5 years in the cold north this would be our first southern (and warm) New Years. So we did not break from tradition and invited Mark and Michele from Reach ( who have spent the last 5 years celebrating New Years on Echo) and John and Barbara from Sam the Skull.....Then we wandered into the yacht club to check out the sites and then back to Echo for Champagne and Fireworks. New Years Day the weather once again changed and it was time to move onto a better anchorage...so we moved a 1/2 mile to Big Majors spot and when we went ashore we tried to make an offering to the owners of the beach...but apparently to the admirals delight they don't like Shihtzu!!