Sail Rock Exumas As Remote As It Gets

From Leaf Cay we sailed to Sail Rock, not a common anchorage. Most people sail to Allans/Leaf Cay via Berry Island and Bimini from Miami, FL. We considered taking the popular course, after all, one of my favorite songs from the Kingston Trio is about drinking rum on Bimini. But we’ve been traveling every day for 8 and a half months, going out of our way to further see remote islands with great snorkeling, ruins, and fun bars… was weighing less on our list of things to do. Our priorities were closer aligned with cute towns, seeing Spacex shuttle launch in June, and most of all Boston. It was settled we’d sail as far NE as possible on the Exuma chain (Sail Rock) then over to Spanish Wells to provision, then sail the Great Abaco Sound, eventually crossing over to Fort Pierce (which is just South of Cape Canaveral). But I’m getting ahead of myself… Back to Sail Rock and our remote anchorage.

Getting to Sail Rock was a slow sail we had a strong current on our bow and even needed to turn on the engine so we wouldn’t be pushed into a chain of large rocks and small islands. We passed Bush Cay and saw ruins on this little stumble of an island. Throughout the Exumas and the rest of the Bahamas, you don’t come across much green. Bush Cay, on the other hand, looked like something straight out of Ireland, particularly with our overcast evening skies. We made it in to Sail Rock close to sunset. A string of rocks kept the windward waves at bay and coral flourished near the cuts in the rocks. It was dicey to navigate close to the rocks particularly since neither our charts or active captain/garmin had much advice on how to approach. We eventually found sand to anchor in and were quite pleased to find the swells and current didn’t rock the boat at odd angles. Sail Rock was unlike anything else in the Exumas, it felt more wild. It was you, a thin line of rocks for protection, and open ocean. When the sun dipped below the horizon there was nothing but wind blowing and waves and this foreign oddity of a boat visiting for the night. I would have loved to explore the string of rocks or spit of sandy beach but we had a full day sail in front of us with good wind.

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