Dotham Cut & Thunderball Grotto

The chain of Exuma Cays that we have been sailing along lie on the western edge of a large body of water of shallow water known as the Great Bahama Bank. Exuma Sound, over a thousand feet deep lies immediately along the east side of the Exumas. To reach Georgetown, we passed through Farmer’s Cut from the banks to the sound. To return, we needed a reverse passage, to enter the banks from the sound.


The cuts are narrow passages through which large volumes of water flow as the tide rises or falls creating swift currents. If the wind opposes the current, a nasty chop, or even steep breaking seas known here as a rage will setup. Of course, one plans to pass through a cut under favorable conditions. To avoid a swift current, we left Little Farmers at near slack water, a time of low or high tide when the tidal current isn’t moving one way or the other. How to return?

On a rising tide, the water floods through the cuts from the sound unto the banks. We need to reenter the banks either at slack water or on a rising tide so the current would be in our favor. We needed slack water or a rising tide in the late afternoon or early evening for our return from Georgetown as the trip could be expected to take most of the day.

We left a little after 8 AM. About 10-12 knots of wind with two to four foot swells pushed us along on a broad reach at six and half to seven knots with the motor running too. Low tide was predicted for early afternoon long before we could arrive at Dotham Cut, our chosen entrance to the banks. With a high tide predicted at 7:30 PM, we had a nice window for a rising tide arrival.

Later in the morning, the wind speed dropped and became varied in strength and direction. Still we maintained 6+ kts and zipped through Dotham Cut making over 9 kts over ground around 4:30 PM. The cut is straight and relatively wide so it was easy to transit.

Just south of the cut are white rocks that reminded the Out Island Doctor (Google him) of white horses so the rocks are now denoted on navigation charts as “White Horses.” I took pictures as we approached the cut but white horses are pretty blurry.

We anchored at Black Point for the night and moved up to Big Majors in the morning. Staniel Cay and Thunderball Grotto are right around the corner. The stars, I should say moon, aligned for us. Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay is best visited at low slack tide. If the tide running, swimmers need struggle to keep from being swept away. We have a full moon so low tide is lower than normal. At low tide one can snorkel into the grotto without diving underwater. Slack tide also occurred at 2 PM so sun in a clear sky was overhead.

Shades of sunbeams speared the water inside the grotto and danced about. Colorful tropical fish abounded and followed us about hoping for a handout. We snorkeled through and around the grotto spotting beautiful turquoise coral almost hidden in the rock. This was our best snorkeling in the Bahamas. No pictures as my underwater camera died.

The wind died to not even a whisper. See our anchor buried in sand twelve feet under the crystal clear water here at Big Major. Wild pigs live on Big Major that swim off the beach for handouts. We dinghied over to the beach to see one. Now we have seen a salt water swimming pig. All that is left to see are the Iguanas. We could have tried running our dinghy about 4 miles down to Bitter Iguana Cay to see them but decided to suffer the heat here on our boat.  Click Pictures .


PS We are running the A/C right now!

Richard