Cays Media Luna and Cayo Grande

When navigating into La Jardines de la Reina you have two options. First option is easy sailing through deep water on the outside of the reef; or the second option of sailing through unsurveyed and uncharted Cays and Reefs in the inside…… Sailing on the outside sounds boring and this is what most people do. We opted to sail through the beautiful uncharted Cayos and Reefs on the inside and we were rewarded for our decision!! It was beautiful sailing with decent winds and calm waters.

Our first stop was Cayo Media Luna. This was a small protected anchorage of mangroves shaped like a crescent moon. We anchored here one night and were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow right at sunset.

The next morning we left at sunrise and had a wonderful sail to Cayo Grande. Cayo Grande is a large mangrove that is totally surrounded by a reef. There is a small channel into a large protected bay where you can anchor in 10 feet of water. There is an uncharted ship wreck just off the middle shoreline that you should watch out for, but a small portion is above the waterline so it is easy to see in low light. We took our dinghies to the North side of the mangroves where there is a wide open beach with decent snorkeling. There were several small stingrays hiding in the sand and nice shells were washed up on the beach. Large Conch were everywhere!!! Krista and I made conch salad and grilled conch for dinner and everyone ate on Sail Pending.

These two islands are outside of the marine park but are absolutely stunning anchorages. We sailed for 2 days and have not seen another boat and had both anchorages completely to ourselves. These are some of the most beautiful anchorages we have visited in the past 19 months of sailing and we are shocked that there are no other boats around. If this is a taste of what’s to come, we can not wait to get into La Jardines de la Reina!!!

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