West Plana Cays, Bahamas

We have a fairly slow departure from Abrahams Bay across 4 miles of shallow water to the west exit with dark patches of coral which must be avoided. The coral heads are just below the surface and are hard enough to hole the boat if hit at speed. We have good light though and pick our way gingerly across, the break in the weather emptying the anchorage as the other two boats head off through the east exit.

 

Dolphins play off the bow

   Dolphins come to visit

Although it is another lumpy sail with lots of passing squalls our journey is much improved by a fleeting visit from a pod of dolphins, the first we have seen for sometime. One even obligingly performs a full somersault just off our bow (I am too slow on the camera to catch it unfortunately). As quickly as they had appeared though they disappeared again.

The slow start means we decide to take the intermediate anchorage rather than press on all the way and so we complete 36 miles arriving to the uninhabited pair of islands the Plana Cays each only about 3-4 miles long and 0.5 – 1 mile wide. The water is amazingly clear, we can see the 20m contour line from the surface as a line of colour change to a lighter blue, the bottom plummeting to 200-800m straight down from here and to over 1000m deep within a mile of the shore. A long white sand beach surrounds the island and it looks amazing.

20m contour line clear from the boat

I am an intrigued by the present of the hutia, a small native Bahamian cat-sized rodent on the east island, however, not intrigued enough to attempt the swell in the tender to go and try and find one as I am not keen on rodents at the best of times and a cat-sized one sounds unpleasant. We manage to find a clear spot to anchor off the beach between coral heads and Kevin immediately gets in to check the anchor / have a look around. He surfaces within a couple of minutes to say he has seen a sunfish, a relatively rare prehistoric looking fish with a large body and small pointed fins, which get their name for their unusual habit of sun bathing on the surface.

 

Invincible at anchor off West Plana Cays

I get in next and am amazed to be able to see the full length of chain to the anchor from the stern of the boat as soon as I jump in. I snorkel for a while and see lots of smaller fish, but the sunfish has swum off. We are quite excited to be anchored in our first ever uninhabited island with only us in the anchorage. It is quite overcast still and we are pretty tired and get an early night.

Our own desert island