Conception Island: West Bay

Monday, May 21, 2007

023-51.000 N
075-7.080 W

Ahoy from West Bay, Conception Island, Bahamas!

On the 18th we decided to risk the weather and head to Conception Island. We'd been having strong, prolonged thunderstorms on a daily basis and on Friday the weather appeared to provide a weather window for us to move. We'd been stuck in Sumner Point marina at Rum Cay for 3 days and were tired of paying $60-80 a day to stay at a marina with no amenities. The forecast was for very light winds out of the SW, so as the winds dropped and the tide rose, we decided to head to Conception Island.

We had a wonderful sail most of the way there, but the wind kept clocking around until it was on the nose. Unfortunately the winds didn't drop enough and the waves that the wind generated were way too big for us to use the anchorage at West Bay on the NW side. Instead we pulled in to the Wedge Point anchorage on the SE side. The problem was that there was a good sized swell from the E which rolled the boats all night long. We're not talking a slight roll, we're talking side to side, all night long! Needless to say no one got much sleep that night and the next day we were up at dawn and moved around to West Bay. The winds and seas had died and switched to the NE, making West Bay tenable.

The anchorage at West Bay is exposed from the SW to the NW, but with NE winds it was wonderful. We anchored in 12' of water over white sand with great holding. The bay is lined with white sand beaches and the views are stunning. The island is uninhabited by humans, but the skies are filled with birds. The cliffs are full of Long Tail Tropic Birds who are nesting. They're beautiful to watch and perform aerial acrobatics. We have four Trunk Fish who have taken residence in the shade of BlueJacket and like to snack on vegetable scraps that we throw overboard. They're really cute to watch and if you put your fingers in the water, they'll come up and try to sample them. I haven't left them in long enough to find out how sharp their teeth are!

The weather continues to be less than ideal, and that's putting things mildly. A weather system which includes low pressure troughs and cold fronts has been anchored over the area for at least 3 weeks and shows no signs of changing. This has generated daily squalls which have dumped a ton of rain and high winds at times. We've had over 2" of rain on multiple occasions. Luckily we haven't had the 40-50 kt winds that others have had.

BJ and I (and sometimes Sue) have been diving two times a day at the dive balls which line the west side. The diving has been wonderful with beautiful coral and sponges. Most of the fish are small to medium, but just today I saw the largest Nassau grouper that I've ever seen. He was definitely an alpha male and even let us approach him fairly closely. I think that the reason that we don't see larger fish is the constant patrolling of the reef's edge by fishing boats. There are quite a lots of reef sharks in the area which seem to either be curious about us or they simply ignore us. I certainly have never felt threatened.

The winds are supposed to be increased to 20-30 kts out of the NE in the next day or two, so we need to get out of here and start heading N. Tomorrow we'll head to Cat Island and continue our trek home.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 962