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Let's see, where were we . . . oh yeah.

On our way back to Staniel Cay with Andrea and Ray, we again ran across some schoolie dolphin and Ray caught a couple 10 - 15 pounders. We stopped for the night at Adderly cut, again enjoyed some good snorkelling, and in the morning snaked our way back through the banks to Staniel.

Andrea and Ray took pleasure in the delights of Pig Beach, Thunderball and the area in general. Good weather prevailed. About noon on the 27th of February, we put them on a single engine light plane bound for Nassau. Although their stay was short, we all had a really fine time.

Next day, Joan and I got together with the Heides to examine our cruising options. We could go south again, or to the Elutheras, San Salvador, Conception Is, Cuba or whatever. I suggested that we take a short side trip, cross the banks almost straight west about 40 miles, and explore the isolated Island of Green Cay. This meant crossing virtually uncharted waters. Information on Green Cay was also very sparse and conflicting. This combination of factors made it inviting. The cay is located about midway between the Exumas and Andros Island and is situated on the boundary between the Great Bahama Banks and the southern tip of the Tongue of the Ocean. There are some small rocky cays a few miles to the south, but they afford no anchorages, landing area or storm protection. Few cruisers know of these island's existence and Green Cay is only mentioned briefly in one of the cruising guides.

To have the sun at our back while crossing the banks, we set out fairly early in the morning. Another excellent weather day was before us and we were psyc'd for the trip. After 3 or 4 hours of running, large numbers of coral heads were encountered; many of which topped just below the surface. In some places the heads were so thick that altering course up to 1/2 mile was necessary to avoid the likelihood of running up a blind coral canyon. We stopped to free dive on them a couple of times checking for lobster and grouper, but found none. These were very beautiful virgin dive sights and it would have been nice to spend much more time snorkelling there. Problem was it wouldn't be possible to see and avoid the coral heads if the sun got ahead of us.