Cay Sal Bahamas

Cay Sal Bank Cruising Information: 

The Cay Sal Bank is situated about 60nm SE of the Florida Keys, between Andros Island Bahamas, and Cuba. It is part of the Bahamas but there are no facilities nor Bahamian officials there at all, and it is too far away to be patrolled by the Bahamian Royal Defense Force.

 It is patrolled by USCG Cutters looking for drug and Cuban smuggling operations.

 Many fisherman from the Keys make this a day trip, though it’s at least an overnight stay for slower cruisers. This is the most remote area of the Bahamas, with more Blue Holes than any other place in the world. It consists of almost 100 small Islands spread out over an area about 40 nautical miles across, but over 140 nautical miles in circumference. 

Please take note that you FIRST have to check in with Bahamian customs and immigration, and there are NONE in the Cay Sal Bank. Closest are Bimini and Andros, so it's not practical (legally) to go directly from the Keys to the bank. 

Many fishing boats do, but it is illegal and you could lose your boat. You should write to Bahamian officials to encourage them to develop some mail-in permit system where you can pay a fee and get back a short term permit by mail, and then just go directly to the bank. In the interim your best bet might be to hook up with one of the commercial diving groups out of S. Florida that take you via live aboard boat and check in along the way. 

However, if you've been in the Bahamas cruising for a while, it might be a good spot before you leave, and you could go straight on up to the Keys.

 

 Some years ago I was at the Cay Sal Bank!  We came down from Charleston, SC and then went up to refuel in Key West...     It is a great place to dive and fish....

It was original used as a Sea Salt source  with a few keepers living on the main Island...

   

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Never , never, never, give in

***  Some years ago I met a man who was a student when Sir Winston Churchill gave this speech...

He was a great thinker, a Christian and a man of Honor...  Yet our present President had Churchill's - Bust removed from the White House after he got into office --   
 ***   just maybe he should have read up on the man - he could have learned something ....

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"Never Give In"

"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
 Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
Sir Winston Churchill
—Harrow School, 29 October 1941.

It is commonly believed that Churchill stood up, gave the three-word speech, "Never give in!," and sat down. This is incorrect, as is the suggestion, variously reported, that the speech occurred at Oxford or Cambridge.

But it was actually given upon his first visit in 1941,  to his old school, Harrow, where he would continue to return for the annual "Songs," assembly meeting making his last appearance in 1961.

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 No matter what you think of Sir Winston - he was a great human leader.....