Little San Salvadore/Half Moon Bay

Sometimes things just don't go as you had planned. Our trip to Little San Salvador Island as an example.  We left Cat Island and had a wonderful day on the Exuma sound with full sails hoisted.  As we approached our destination, Little San Salvador we noticed a cruise ship. We weren't alarmed as this flat sandy 5 mile long island was purchased in 1997 by Holland America Cruise Lines and renamed it Half Moon Bay.  We also noticed two other sailboats, Dream Seeker and Osprey at anchor.  So we pulled in closed to them and further from the cruise ship and dropped anchor.  The ships make this a day stop from 8 am to 4 p.m. and hundreds of people get off the ship to enjoy a day in paradise with activities such as horse back riding, parasailing, kayaking, feeding and touching the stingray, purchasing souvenirs from the straw market or just enjoy the beautiful beach.  We put the dingy in the water and proceeded to take Rylee for a walk on shore.  We took a short walk and figured we would wait for tomorrow where we would enjoy the beach and the island with the cruise ship gone.  That wasn't to be!  After a night of waves splashing against the sides of the boat and rocking all night, Ed checked the weather and felt that we needed to move on.  We normally have a choice of when we move but the weather conditions had changed and were only to get worse.  The island has no protection in anything but east winds. It's only anchorage is on the west side which faces miles of open water on the Exuma Sound and its East side is no place to travel to as it is littered with coral heads and reefs.  Our day of enjoying the white sandy beach and exploring the island suddenly came to an abrupt stop! But there's always next year.