Ship Channel Cay

5/26/2021

Today we transited the narrow cut at Current and crossed an area of the Great Bahamas Bank known as the Middle Ground, and are anchored tonight in a cove at Ship Channel Cay. The banks in the Bahamas are plateaus that rise from the deep ocean floor that are several thousand feet deep, and are formed of limestone with a water depth of 15-20 feet. The bank edges rise abruptly from the deep ocean, and in the space of less than a mile the depth goes from 5,000 feet to about 20 feet. I think that makes them sea mountains in their own right. The islands in the Bahamas are high points on these banks, and they really aren’t more than 50 feet above the bank. That’s pretty impressive.

The water in the Bahamas is unusually clear, and it is easy to see the bottom when one is on the bank. The first photo below shows a view of the water while we were crossing the bank. The different bottom types can be seen in this photo, with some being green from sand, others being a light blue from (I think) marl or limestone rock, and others being a darker color. The dark color can be grass, coral or at a distance even shadows from clouds. Grass and cloud shadows aren’t problematic for running aground, but coral can build heads that are only a couple feet under the water. We really don’t want to run into these as doing so could catastrophically damage both the coral and the boat. That’s a bad idea.

When crossing the Middle Bank there is an area known for many coral heads. Two photos of these are shown below, but we easily saw and dodged hundreds of them. Our path through that area was anything but straight, but we had no problems with them.

After crossing the Middle Ground we are anchored tonight at Ship Channel Cay. It was named this because there is a deep water entrance from the ocean at the north end of the island, and supply boats for the now abandoned Decca station south of here would enter the bank through that spot. In fact, as we passed that entrance we met a mail boat returned to Nassau from somewhere to the east or south.

Ship Channel Cay is the most northerly island in an area known as the Exumas. It is ringed by hard limestone, called ironstone on the charts, and no beaches. Unfortunately this means Sinbad did not get a romp ashore today. He was a little disappointed.