Last year Conception Island was our favorite place in the Bahamas. The clarity of the water has to be seen to be believed. It is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park system so there are no buildings or cell towers on the island. The beaches are pristine. It is a small island surrounded by deep water so it is best to visit only during relatively calm conditions. If there are a lot of waves it can get very uncomfortable. We thought we had good conditions for another visit to Conception Island. Although a cold front was expected to bring a lot of wind to the northern part of the Bahamas it wasn’t expected to make it as far south as Conception Island. We left George Town two days ago to head to Conception. We soon encountered a heavy thunderstorm that lasted three hours. There were several nearby lightning strikes. When we arrived at Conception the wind and the waves didn’t seem bad at all. After Jean and Michael arrived on Desiderata we invited them over for dinner. The waves picked up the next day and were downright uncomfortable. Most hit the boat on the beam and caused the boat to rock side to side dramatically. Several things inside the boat got knocked to the floor, including my full glass of lemonade. We took a chance getting into the dinghy to scout out a more favorable anchorage. We didn’t try to take the dinghy to the beach, it was just too rough and we could have easily capsized. We went back to the boat, moved north about 1/2 mile and eventually took the dinghy out of the water. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep due to the rolling. This morning we pulled up the anchor and left, without setting foot on the island or even going to a swim. Our mistake was to not consider the sea conditions surrounding the island. Even if there isn’t a lot of wind right near the island, wind nearby can kick up the ocean swell which just wraps around the island.
We sailed through some rough seas and yet another squall back to Long Island and were so happy to anchor in a very calm Thompson Bay. It just so happened a cruiser’s happy hour was planned at the beach tonight so we joined in and met some new people & saw some old friends.
We are receiving your texts and emails but you don’t seem to be getting ours. We sent a few more today so if you don’t get any, perhaps you could call us or we can communicate through blog if that seems to work.
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