Don't Rock Passage

We did it! We have made it to the other side of Whale Cay and are now anchored in White Sound at Green Turtle Cay. Yesterday's weather was predicted to be calm, but there was a south wind that steadily increased, the further north we went.

We approached Don't Rock itself, which is off of Treasure Cay, and we always wonder why this lone rock is out there in the middle of the sandbanks.

Getting around Whale Cay, either out in the ocean, or through these shallow waters, is such a love-hate relationship, because the water has such gorgeous and varied colors of blue. However, the waves can pile up and break on the shallowest spots, which we have to watch out for. The deeper the water, the deeper the color. Looking back from the sandbanks, you can see that the fuel barge is in the deepest water, heading out to sea.
There are two extremely shallow spots we have to cross, one at the beginning, and one at the end. It is bit hard to see in this picture, but the water almost looks white in the distance, which naturally means there is very little water there at all. That is Whale Cay way in the background.
We had choppy seas from the south and 2 foot ocean swells from the east that seem to collide together and lift us up. Of course what goes up, must come down, and it is in those low troughs that we have to worry about hitting bottom. At 2 hours before high tide we only had one and a half feet of water below our keel at one point. In this picture there is a big demarcation line between the shallow and deeper water.
Then we were past the last bank and shot out into deeper water (about 10ft.), as we tow our marina entourage towards Green Turtle Cay.
That added to our long distance travelling challenge also!We have named the skiff SAFARI because we compare it to our GMC van at home. That turned our original dinghy into my PT Cruiser Convertible, which fits it (and ME) perfectly.

Now it's time to put everything back where it normally goes. We always tie down and secure everything in our floating condo, just in case there are rough seas that displace items. It would be awful to go down below in the main cabin and find books, computers, DVDs, etc. flung all over the place. Or even worse, to find the refrigerator door open and the contents all over the galley. Yikes!

At least until next season 'The Whale' is history!