Pipe Cay, Big Majors Spot, Thunderball Cave

May 23

After running to Compass Cay marina to post the last blog, I took the Whaler and circumnavigated Pipe Cay. I took the cut south of Little Pipe Cay and ran west along the southern bank of Little Pipe Cay. This gorgeous little island has signs all over it requesting you to honor their privacy, which is a pretty common sign around here.

Pipe Cay, as I understand it, is not private. On its SE shore, there is a channel deep enough for MERCY close in to the edge of the Cay, very visible, that I followed to the west, and out to deeper charted water. I turned north, went up to the entrance to the old DECCA station, that has huge iron pilons marking the entrance. From the DECCA station, there is deep water across the banks all the way to Middle Bight, Andros.

There is a very high sea wall, and an old, wide launching ramp. Derelict buildings and pieces of equipment are scattered through the area. It was easy to imagine bringing in a supply boat here.

I continued my journey to the north, and Mercy-dog and I stopped at one of the multiple gorgeous beaches that are all up the western side of the island. There are limestone/ironstone rocks separating these beaches.

I had to jut back offshore a bit to clear the jagged rocky islands that stick out to the west, and then immediately cut back to the east on the south side of the sand bar, which is barely do-able with the outboard. Then, up next to the rocky shore, you drop into a deep channel, that appears to have some great snorkeling along the bank, and a deep, sandy, though somewhat narrow anchorage. From there I popped out by Compass Cay, and ran back to the MERCY for lunch.

I moved the MERCY at low tide from my beloved Thomas Cay anchorage to touristville, aka Big Majors Spot, to do the more typical, must do tourist things.

Going out, I hugged the shore of Thomas Cay, after clearing the bar I was anchored behind, and then ran along the south side of Wild Tamarind Cay (Rat Cay) to the west. The shallowest water was cutting to the SW, I saw one 4.9' spot, and we were at the low of a full moon.


I anchored at Big Majors Spot with 25 other boats, all but a handful for over 50ft. Big Majors Spot is famous for its swimming pigs. Tourists take their food scraps into "pig beach" on the SE end of the anchorage, and the resident hog population swims out to the boats to greet you. I have heard that they'll try to jump into smaller boats if you are too slow tossing the food overboard.

The cruisers have set up a site, further to the north, on a beautiful sandy beach, where they gather to sit, and eat, and drink, and make new friends.

I could have easily done this by Whaler, mind you, from my previous anchorage, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. The anchorage is a great holding sandy bottom, in a pretty sheltered place. Unfortunately, there is a LOT of boat traffic. Boats zoom in from all over to see the pigs, and then scurry away at full speed through the anchorage. There are jet skies from the yachties, and rental boats from Staniel. There were swells coming in out of the south all night, and I wondered why I'd moved down here.

I also went to Thunderball Cave. This is always on my "must do" list. If you have never been there before, the best time to go is a low, slack tide. After you know where it is, any slack tide is good, if you don't mind snorkeling underwater a couple of feet to get into the interior. Thunderball Cave or grotto, is a dome shaped, water-filled room, that is open in the top of the dome, allowing light to enter. Light also enters through the water openings through the entrance holes in the rock. When the tide is moving, there can be a lot of current, but generally not enough to be a problem for someone who is comfortable snorkeling, if you use the eddies to your advantage.



The grotto was used back during the filming of the James Bond movie. The light creates an interesting atmosphere, and the shade is a welcome from the heat of the sun. There are a lot of interesting tropical fish around the entrances.

If you like Thunderball, (and you will!) you should also make a point to visit the cave/grotto at Rocky Dundas. (West of the northern tip of Compass Cay.)

For my friends planning to meet me over here, I'm trying to whet your appetites.

Exploring the area around the Thomas Cay anchorage.

Monday, May 20th

From my present anchorage, I have protection from the wind in every direction. The current is flowing through pretty briskly, as would be expected on this phase of the moon, coming full.

For the most part, I am out of the wakes of the outboards heading to and from Compass Cay, at least they are negated some by the bar that lies between me and the channel they are running.



At low tide, Mercy-dog and I took the Whaler and went exploring. We ran slightly south to the cut between Thomas Cay and Overyonder Cay, and then along the northern coast of Rat Cay (Wild Tamarind Cay) We couldn't pass up the huge exposed sand flat to the east of Little Pipe Cay, and Mercy-dog and I walked and played on that for awhile. Then we continued through the deep channel immediately north of Little Pipe Cay, between that island and the little gazebo on the neighboring rock, and found the magnificent anchorage between Pipe Cay and Little Pipe Cay. If I wasn't in such a good spot already, to be anchored down for blowing rain squalls... I may move there in a couple of days. N24 14.086' W076 30.172'



There is a huge sand bar running north from the southeastern tip of Pipe Cay, separated by a channel 4.8' at a below normal low tide. There were a couple of 50' boats on moorings in that channel. I don't know who manages the moorings. The current was kicking in there, and the anchorage was very narrow. There were two small boats pulled up to the sand flat, with their occupants enjoying a walk on the exposed beach.  



We worked our way north, between Hattie and Little Hattie Cay, stopping on an exposed sand bar. I won't pass through there again. The channel was about twice as wide as the boat, and the current was ripping. 

We returned to the MERCY and one of us napped, and one of us vacuumed. Mercy-dog did wake up long enough to give me a kiss for cleaning up.

Anchored N24 14.245' W076 25.425' 14' in sand 0nm today