The Ragged Islands are a remote chain of islands in the Bahamas. To sail there, you have to pick a good weather window as there is little protection from the islands if there is a big blow or if the winds shift from the East. Also, the anchorages are very rolly, so it can be a challenge to stay too long. But, we found a good weather window and a buddy boat to travel with and we were off. It was a sporty sail to Flamingo Cay, but we made it. We then sailed down to the final island, Little Ragged Cay. It's the farthest South that we wanted to go before making our way North again by island hopping. After two days in Little Ragged Cay and a short visit to the only town in the Raggeds, we headed North to Hog Cay to join a dozen or so boats already in the anchorage. Brown was so excited to visit the Hog Cay Yacht Club, a place he had been talking about for years.
NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia.
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We underestimated the time the sun was going to come up a little bit due to the time change,
but we are going to try and get out of here shortly to the raggeds. We're leaving the
Exumas and it might be the last time we're here for a long time. One thing that ensured
the sun would come up this morning is I sang this song. The sun will come up tomorrow.
Okay, I'm going to spare you. And there's our sister boat, Eliana,
who we are going to travel with out to the raggeds today. It is a crisp white,
super cool boat. We're really grateful that they have shell or draft in us too
because they're going to lead the way. We're sailing. It's been a long time since we've done
this. Feels good. All right, we got 18 knots of wind on the beam, a single reef, and we're doing
seven and a half. Good job, honey. It's been a while since we've been sailing, probably
a month and a half. It's definitely a very sporty sail, having to hold on no matter where you go.
We've always wanted to visit the ragged islands, so pulling into Flamingo Key was a dream come
true. This island chain is extremely remote, so we needed to prepare well by not only provisioning
for a month, but also making sure the weather was stable. All of the anchorages are on the
west side of the islands, so there are very few places to hide from in a north or a west wind.
We are the envy of the neighborhood. Look at that, our beautiful fish and steak.
It is a beautiful morning here at Flamingo Key, and we are getting ready to take off.
Sun's coming up. We're headed south to Little Ragged Island, about as far south as you can get.
Far south and water world. This has been our dream, and we are doing it. It's so cool.
See you in a little while. Probably in 15 minutes, you'll be caught up to us.
Yeah, baby, 8.1.
Yes, pigs can't fly. What do you think, baby? Awesome. We took off today, and we didn't reef
because the forecast said that the gusts would not be above 18. Well, the forecast is a little
bit wrong, and we were overpowered, and the angle of the wind was not great, so we thought let's
bail now. We're going to go to Jamaica Key and call it a day. Well, our friends on Valiana
encouraged us to reconsider because we're going to start getting southeast winds for the next
four or five days, and we won't be able to get south at all, so we ended up pulling out the
sails again, putting the reef in, and now we are back at it, and it's so much better. We're not
overpowered, and we're doing well. Brown's working on hopefully catching another fish
like yesterday. Yeah. It's a sporty sail today for sure with 18 knots of wind almost on our beam.
We're doing seven and a half reefed in, which is pretty good, so it's going to be an eight to ten
hour day. Look, look at this. Look, something got a hold of it. This was a huge lure, probably six
or seven inches. It is just decimated. We are this close from our anchorage in Little Ragged
Island. We are so excited to get here, not only because we've had a very super sporty sail, but
it's been two full days of very sporty sails. Yeah, right into the wind with some pretty rough
seas. And also, we are only 62 nautical miles, believe it or not, from Cuba right now. How
crazy is that? Crazy. We're a day sail away from Cuba. Anyway, we're almost there. Very close.
We are looking forward to getting to see Duncan Town. It's a gorgeous day. We've gotten a lot
done. Now it's time to play. Oh my gosh, that is hilarious.
All right, so what's the protocol when you approach an airport to cross it?
Duncan Town, the capital of Ragged Island, is the only settlement on the island. It sits on a
breezy hill overlooking a landlocked shallow harbor. The town is just over a mile long and
is home to around 70 residents. We found the best Wi-Fi in the Bahamas in Duncan Town. In 2017,
Hurricane Irma devastated the town, but thankfully, no one who stayed behind was hurt.
While the impact of the hurricane is still seen everywhere, the Bahamians are committed
to the rebuilding process. This is the famous Maxine. She is known in the cruising community.
She will do anything and everything for any cruiser. She's amazing.
Donna was telling me about the sea nuts that look like little hamburgers.
Oh yeah, I have some right here. Oh, have you seen these? No. I love them. They're just beautiful.
Look at these seeds. This is what I'm looking for.
This is what you find. Are you going to place my nails right now, little ragged?
Get a prettier one than that. Oh, you don't think this is pretty? No. Oh, she's gonna hook you up.
She's a connoisseur. All right, Maxine, I'm gonna let you hook me up with the white one.
This one is pretty. It's a bit bigger. Okay, that's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you for
everything. So nice to meet you. We'll see you again. The Duncan Town settlement was named for
Duncan Taylor, who settled here in the 19th century. He and his brother developed the
island's salt industry, remnants of which can be seen in the salt ponds still providing a smaller
scale export commodity for locals today. Little is known about the early days of the Ragged Island
chain, but the great island is believed to have been a pirate's lair at some point,
in addition to a fortress for the Spanish. On the western coast of the island, Blackbeard's Bay
and Blackbeard's Well signify that the pirate may have established his headquarters near the well
because of its unique location. All right, day two of exploration here at Little Ragged. We are
going to head towards Cocoa Beach and walk the beach today and hopefully find some hamburger
seeds. That's the goal. We're loving our sea glass finding days and we now have Val on the team.
We have picked that beach over clean. I'm very proud of us. We each have a nice-sized bag
to bring back to the boat. Well, it's pretty much dead calm as we head up to Hog Key.
Not a bad thing, but it would have been nice to sail. So instead we motor. It's all good.
So we're coming up on Hog Key right now. This is just north of Ragged Island and wow, this place
is famed. Everybody who comes to the Raggeds make sure they anchor here at least once. It is famous
for the Hog Key Yacht Club and this was set up by Maxine and boaters, cruisers have added
their personal touch to this. I can't wait to see it. It's going to be a unique group of cruisers
that makes it all the way down to this unique location and we are coming up on it right now.
We're almost there. There are a bunch of boats and I'm just so excited and you're excited too.
We can't wait to tell you more about this really cool place and maybe one day you can make it here
on your boat. Walking under the rafters, reading the names of boat and crew who at one time stood
where we were standing was epic. We even recognized a few boat names. Some are friends, some famous.
All of us part of a small group that has ventured to what seems like the end of the earth.
It was now time for us to find our beach trash and proudly raise our boat name
as part of this elite group of sailors.
