VermontSailor: Rudder Cut Cay

To Rudder Cut Cay Video

(On PC full screen "lower right zoom")
(On phone/tablet full screen "pinch-zoom")

Galliot Cut

We have another short day to Rudder Cut Cay and leave around 8:00 AM. Half the boats here seem to be leave at the same time. We are going to leave the shallower back side to head through Galliot Cut, just south of Little Farmers on to the deeper and rougher oceanside. The cuts can get very rough with wind and current oppose each other and the current can really rip through the cuts.

Fortunately the wind from the south east is fairly moderate, but the current running to the east our direction is moving about 3 knots, so we peak at about 9 knots at our fastest point. There water is pretty choppy going out the cut, but not too bad.

An hour of so later we come back into the bank side at Rudder Cut. Behind Rudder Cut Cay the current is ripping and not the same direction at the wind. The holding here normal is very good, but it takes a couple repeated anchorings to get a good set. I goal this afternoon it to dinghy south to Darby Island and hike to the “Castle”. Darby Island is private and has a no trespassing sign, but has and email address on it to request permission to hiking. I have pictures of this sign from other cruiser blogs, so I had emailed the other day and asked for permission and was promptly given it.

The Castle

Darby Island dock

The Trail

The Castle

Inner

"Floating" near Rudder Cut at low tide

Darby Island

The island is for sale, 40 million or so. It has an interesting history. Was a coconut plantation started in the late 1930’s. Apparently employed a lot of people at the time.

https://tropicalislands.net/big-darby-island/

Once we get back to our boats we find it much calmer and it is slack tide. We grab or snorkeling gear and head over to David Copperfield’s Stainless steel “Piano and the Mermaid” status in an adjacent cove in 10-15 of water. The current can really rip through here making is hard sometimes to dive of the structure. My goal is to take a selfie sitting on the piano bench with the mermaid. This is the first chance I have had to use my new flippers and booties. Linda stays on the boat while Mark takes Karen and I over to snorkel. As I am trying to put on my new flippers I see they are size small. Damn it, Linda gave me the wrong flippers. I manage to get them somewhat on, rather painful, but it is a short excursion. When I dive I can not equalized my sinuses so it is rather painful down at 10 feet and I can’t stay long enough to get my selfie.

The Mermaid

When I get back to our boat I give Linda grief for giving me the wrong flippers, when we discover both pairs are small. At the store I tried on the medium size flippers along with the medium booties and was happy with the fit. My flipper bag even has a big “M” on it and Linda’s has an “S” on it. Well the dummies at the store switched out my medium’s for a small for some reason and we did not notice – ASSHOLES, thank you very much ! Fortunately, I still have my old flippers.

It is approaching low tide so we all head over the cave. At low tide there is a nice beach in the large cave and some other cruisers who we have met before have their chairs set up and music playing chilling out, cool. I had never thought to do that. Interesting, on our fist trip here 9 years ago there was just two or three boats anchored here now there is nearly twenty.