Rudder Cut Cay

We had heard stories about “the island owned by David Copperfield”. We knew it was a private island which wasn’t very welcoming to guests (unless of course they were friends of David Copperfield’s, which for the record…we are not). We had also heard that depending on the event it wasn’t unheard of for someone from the island to come out to boats anchored nearby and politely offer them a bottle of nice wine to “move on” and ensure the open view of the seas for their guests. We also had read about the underwater sculpture he had commissioned and sunk offshore of the island… so between the chance to swim with the piano playing mermaid and the possibility of a nice bottle of free wine, we figured it was well worth a stop! ;)

We had maybe our best sail yet on the way to Rudder Cut. Great steady wind and just enough time to settle in and really enjoy the process of raising, trimming and tending to the sails. Once at Rudder Cut we found a good spot to drop anchor and settled in.

The piano/mermaid sculpture was indeed pretty cool, albeit in deeper waters than I would normally free dive and in a good deal of chop and current which made photos less than easy or perfect. I’m not sure exactly why underwater sculptures are just inherently cooler than above water sculptures… but there’s just something about the contrast or the unexpected nature of the sculpture that seems to make it work.

We spent our days snorkeling every bay on the island, wrapping around to the windward side and battling the waves for some lobster, grabbed a conch of the seafloor and swam with fish and rays. The visibility was great and we had epic snorkels. In fact, we ended up staying here for 4 nights because we simply couldn’t get enough of the underwater life.

As we made our way around toward the southern end of the island the cut between islands ensured a ripping current, which changed the snorkel experience altogether. It was more work swimming against the current, meant deeper waters and more rays/sharks, but also more diversity of like and more chances for fishing. We enjoyed a large grouper on the bbq, got a few more lobster and other than a run in with some fire coral while pulling one of those lobster out from under a shelf it was an awesome experience all the way around. Public service announcement - do NOT mess with fire coral. This stuff is nasty and is essentially like a 3rd degree burn that refuses to ease up for at least several hours if not the next few days. But, the lobster might have been worth it.

That evening we headed over to enjoy sundowners on one of the only two other boats hanging around the island, and had a delightful evening talking about the lifestyle and about future plans. The next day we headed back to the cut but this time even further out to an outcropping of smaller rock islands.

The waters around the islands dropped off straight down to 50’ or more, which made for an awesome snorkel and tons of life. I tried my luck at spearing in the deep waters while Jen kept her eyes on and kept reporting back about two large bull sharks circling the deeper waters around the island. At some point, even with the dinghy right there… we decided maybe this wasn’t the best time to shoot a fish and put blood in the water and decided to just enjoy the snorkel and move on.

All in, Rudder Cut was a lovely experience and yet another island we could easily find ourselves staying at for weeks on end - but that also seems to be becoming the norm and we know there are SO many more islands to see. We decide over sundowners to move on in the morning and give other islands a chance.