Exquisite Exumas

We saw these words on a wall at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and thought that they captured the essence of the Exumas perfectly. Even though the weather has been terrible, with primarily cloudy, windy, overcast days with plenty of rain and thunderstorms, during the few moments when the sun did peek out, we saw the beauty of the Exumas. Although we have not seen the rest of the Bahamas to make a comparison, we can’t imagine them being more stunning than the Exumas. We feel blessed to have this beautiful playground basically on our doorstep, and can’t believe that we had never before made the short trip over from Florida. Maybe it’s a good thing we hadn’t been here before…we may never have left on our circumnavigation! Out of all the places we have now seen sailing around the world, the Exumas are right up there as one of the most beautiful!

We left Norman’s Cay on Friday, May 4th, having said our farewells to Moby the night before. It was a strong north east wind that blew that day, the perfect direction we needed to head back south, and with 2 reefs in the main, and about 60% jib out, we were fine to handle the often 30+ knot winds that came our way. It took us about 5 or 6 hours to sail back to Black Point, a small settlement along a nice, protected anchorage on Great Guana Cay. There was some not-so-nice weather coming, and we wanted to be secure to hunker down for a few days. And hunker we did! We spent a windy, rainy weekend at Black Point, catching up on all things that needed internet, as we now had access again! When there was a break in the rain, we took the dinghy ashore and explored the small town.

Top:  Ben and Dave walk down the one and only street in Black Point; Middle:  the clinic (it was closed), one of the boats we had seen racing at the Island Family Regatta in George Town, and Gaby and Dave take in the view of Exuma Sound from the top of Great Guana Cay

When Monday morning came around, we decided it was time to move on. The weather was still not great, but it showed no signs of improving, and we couldn’t stay in Black Point forever! Next on our agenda was Staniel Cay, just a few miles further north. As we headed in that direction, the weather seemed to improve a little, and by the time we anchored near “Thunderball Grotto”, the sun made one of its rare appearances! Thunderball Grotto is a spectacular skylit underwater cave that has featured in several movies, one of them being the James Bond movie, Thunderball. We were excited to snorkel there, as we had heard a lot about it from both SandStar and Moby. We were dreading the many tourists and tour boats, but luck shone upon us, and when we arrived, we were the only ones there! Having the Grotto all to ourselves was wonderful, and only a few people arrived during the time we were there. There are numerous way to enter, and we found one, where we dove under the rock through a tunnel, and when you came up the other side, you were in the cave! The fish were glad to see us, obviously used to being fed by the many visitors, but we didn’t bring any food for them. They still hung around in hopes of finding a scrap or two, but soon went about their business as usual.

Gaby enters the grotto through one of the entrances, making a striking image.

  Ben enters through another, narrower one, inside the grotto, you can see the skylight, and the fish swim merrily in and out

Once our snorkeling expedition was done, we moved Cool Runnings around the corner to Big Majors Spot, another big bay, and secure anchorage for the wind direction we were expecting. But the weather has a mind of its own, and during the night, the rain poured down, the thunder rolled and the wind blew…from the west. We found ourselves on a lee shore, facing into the waves that were rolling in from the Exuma Bank. It was a rough night, but our anchor was secure, which was the main thing. The following day was still grey and rainy and for a while, the wind still blew from the west. We considered moving and finding a better anchorage, but anchorages with shelter from the west are few and far between in the Exumas, and since we were only mildly uncomfortable, we stayed, and soon conditions improved. It rained all day, and only late in the afternoon, after being sequestered on the boat all day, did we finally have enough and we launched the dinghy. Although it was raining on and off, we went exploring, through a narrow cut at Fowl’s Cay resort where we watched as the current pulled us and then turned us in the many whirlpools that were created!

The current rips, pulling us in the dinghy.  Even in the grey weather, the landscape is quite beautiful, the water still crystal clear

Big Majors Spot is the place where the famous swimming pigs are located. The kids and I had been so excited to see these swimming pigs…and I’ll go on record as saying we were sorely disappointed! We’d seen plenty of videos that made it look like they were all over the Bahamas, in the most remote locations, no other boats or people around, swimming happily up to the boat. Not so. There are some big, fat pigs on the beach, that is aptly named “Pig Beach”, but they know they are going to be fed by the stream of boats bringing tourists to see them, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a pig to go knee deep in water to take a carrot from you, if you wait long enough, and dangle it long enough. But we were here, and a visit to Pig Beach was sort of mandatory.

Hi Big Piggy

So after our little exploration trip on the dinghy, we took along our “expired” vegetables, and went ashore at Pig Beach. Because of the time of day, and the weather, there was no one else there. A small, brown pig came up to greet us, to see what we had to offer. I had some sweet potato that I had hung on to for too long, that was now more suited to pig food. A much larger pig then ambled up and also enjoyed some sweet potato. And that was probably the extent of our “swimming” pig visit. We watched with fascination the next morning, when the weather was a little better, as boat upon boat arrived with their guests: our favourite name was “swimmingpigtours.com”. We even heard the one guide tell his guests: “You’ve paid a lot of money to see swimming pigs, so make them come to you. You can feed pigs on a farm, but you can only make them swim here. So stay in the boat, make them come to you”…and so on. Poor Pigs…

Pigs on Pig Beach

The weather the next day, Wednesday, May 9th, was looking a little better and Thunderball Grotto was calling our names! We all really wanted to snorkel there one more time, so we left Big Majors Spot, and went back around the corner to Thunderball Grotto. Perhaps because we are late in the season, or because someone was feeling bad about all the bad weather being sent our way, but we had the Grotto to ourselves again! We relished in the solitude of the place, and enjoyed swimming around one last time. 

Dave snorkels through the north underwater entrance to the cave; So many fish!;Iinside the grotto; Family selfie inside Thunderball Grotto!

 We then took the dinghy over to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, the happening place on Staniel Cay. A short walk beyond the boundries of the Yacht Club proved it was really the only place on Staniel Cay! We found a church, a small grocery store, and a few small guest cottages, but that was about it! Moby had vouched for the burgers at the Yacht Club, so as a treat, we decided to have a late lunch there. The food was great (any food I don’t have to cook is AWESOME!).

A view of the Yacht Club and Staniel Cay from the water; The Yacht Club dinghy dock/beach; A walk around the town revealed some lovely old trees and beautiful flowers; The Yacht Club napkin and the Church at Staniel Cay

After our late lunch, we upped anchor and slowly wound our way through the shallow waters between Big Majors and Little Majors, past North Gaulin Cay and Fowl Cay Resort, and finally past Dennis Cay and dropped anchor for the night at Sampson Cay. It was a great day.

The chart of Staniel Cay and surrounding area:  The circle at Fowl Cay Resort shows where we took the dinghy through with the very strong current; the circle at Big Majors Spot is where we anchored for 2 nights:  so with the wind coming from the west (or the left as we are looking at it), you can see there's no protection!  The pigs were on the beach in the corner just above the word "Majors".  The circle around the small islands indicated the position of Thunderball Grotto, and then Staniel Cay Yacht Club and the small settlement of Staniel Cay's position is also circled. 
On this chart you can also see the route described above (Dennis Cay is right at the top and cut off)

Having enjoyed our little sojourn through the shallow, narrow channels the day before, and with the day (Thursday, May 10th), again looking somewhat promising on the weather front, we decided to thread our way through the narrow channels from Sampson Cay up to Compass Cay. It was delightful, and although lookouts on both bows were needed most of the time, to spot for coral heads or shallow water, it was beautiful, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We picked a beautiful spot between Pipe Cay and Compass Cay and dropped our anchor in crystal clear, shallow water.

Making our way to Compass Cay.  It's so beautiful when the sun shines!!  Checking the depths en route...when you have a 4ft draft and the depth meter reads 4.1ft, you know you don't have a lot of wiggle room!

We spent the afternoon swimming and snorkeling around the boat, the kids having a blast doing I don’t know what, but enjoying themselves tremendously for hours in the water! Sun-downers were enjoyed on the deck...this is what it was all about!

Dave and Gaby check the anchor; the water is so crystal clear, it blends right into the sky; diving to the sandy bottom; Ahhh...yes please!

The following morning, after watching a nasty storm pass by, Dave flew the drone, and got some amazing footage of the area.

The storm approaches

The water is so clear, the "blemish" you see on the bottom right, is a patch of rock under the water

A few more images captured by the drone

It was now Friday, May 11th, and time to move on again. We edged our way out of channel at Compass Cay and headed to Fowl Cay ready to snorkel on the “Rocky Dundas”, two more grottos we had heard about. We approached the beautiful anchorage at Fowl Cay (different from the Fowl Cay at Staniel Cay!), and anchored a bit off the beach with 2 other boats already there. Fowl Cay is a private island, and we were not allowed to go ashore there. We lowered the dinghy and headed over to the “Rocky Dundas”, where we found dinghy moorings and secured the dinghy. We had heard that these grottos were just as spectacular as the Thunderall Grotto, but maybe we caught them on a bad day. There was a lot of surge, and it was difficut to enter them. Although spectacular in their own way, we still thought Thunderball was much nicer!

One of the Rocky Dundas rocks - you snorkel under the edge until you find the opening; Inside one of the grottos with the skylight from a hole in the top; Looking from the inside out:  this is the gap in one of the grottos you swim through to get out;  We found a huge piece of coral just outside one of the grottos

After a dingy ride around the Rocky Dundas and Fowl Cay, we once again lifted our anchor and headed to Cambridge Cay. We had seen this anchorage when we had entered the cut into the Exuma Bank from the Exuma Sound, on our mission to catch up to Moby, two and a half weeks earlier. It looked beautiful, and I wanted to go there! Once again, we carefully edged our way through the shallow water and picked up one of the Exuma Land and Sea Park mooring buoys. It was our home for the next 2 nights.

The anchorage at Cambridge Cay snapped during a short spell of sunshine!

The next day, Saturday, May 12th, although overcast and grey in the morning, it managed to stay somewhat dry. Dave decided that a trip up the mast was a good idea, since it had not been done since Cape Town, South Africa, and he wanted to check the rig. Up he went and a “quick trip up the mast” turned into a 4 hour exercise. It was a good thing he went, because he discovered that the spinnaker halyard block needed some repairs.

Dave at the top of the mast from the bottom looking up;  Dave does a selfie, 70ft up in the air;  A view of the boat from the top down;  and an aerial view of the Cambridge Cay area taken from the top of the mast

While he was up there, the skies cleared and we saw patches of blue for the first time in a while! We were anxious for him to finish his work, so we could go and explore. We saw on the chart that there was another sunken plane, a mile or so from where we were anchored, and the chart also showed some coral gardens we wanted to explore. Get down from the mast, Dave!!

The chart showing, from the bottom, our anchorage area; the position of the submerged plane and the coral gardens

The plane was a small Cessna sitting upside down on the sandy bottom.  It was quite deep here and there was extremely strong current.  

Some of the very pretty coral we snorkeled on

Sunday morning dawned partly cloudy, and we were on our way again. It was Mother’s Day…who knew?! We certainly didn’t, until we received a quick Whatsapp message from Dave’s sister, Kim! With us now being back in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, cell phone reception, and thus internet access was sketchy to non-existent, so all Happy Mother’s Day wishes had to be done via text messaging, with a hope that they went through! Our destination today was Shroud Cay, about 12 miles north. We arrived and anchored sometime after lunch, and were surprised at the number of boats that were anchored there. When we had been there previously with Moby, there were only one or two other boats besides us there. Now I counted 10 or more! The other difference from when we had last been there with Moby, was the weather. Our first visit was in pouring rain, today, it was partly sunny!! We were excited…we wanted to do the river trip again, but this time in sunshine!

Gaby's footprints are the only ones in the sand!

The Exquisite Exumas I was talking about:  Sandbanks at Shroud Cay

We launched the dinghy and noticed one other difference: when we had done the river trip with Moby, it had been high tide…now the tide was at the low end, and many sandbanks, that we had not previously seen, made themselves visible! It also proved a little more challenging getting up the river, but it was not impossible! We made our way through the mangroves, this time marveling at the beauty of the water colors, and enjoying spotting a few little turtles on the way. As soon as they saw us, they dove and swam away at an impressive speed! Soon we saw the ocean! And the colors were spectacular! We again climbed the little hill to Camp Driftwood, where in days gone by, authorities would perch and watch the drugs coming and going on at next door Norman’s Cay.

Quite a difference to the time we made this trip with Moby in the pouring rain! 
We enter the river on the Exuma Bank side, wind our way up through the mangroves, and eventually come out the other side:  we see the ocean!

The river spills out into the sea, which is much calmer this time around!

We just can't get enough of the beautiful colors!

On the top of the hill at Camp Driftwood

On return to the boat, we noticed one last difference: it was much rockier than it had been when we were there last. Even though it was about 4:30pm, we still had enough light to seek shelter elsewhere, and not wanting to endure an uncomfortable night, we picked up our anchor and headed to Norman’s Cay, about 4 miles away. Before the sun set, we were comfortably at anchor with 3 other boats, enjoying sundowners. I was treated to a Mother’s Day dinner (Dave made bangers and mash, and Gaby laid the table, adding the flowers). It was simple, but once again, because I didn’t have to cook, and it was the thought that counted, it was very delicious and very special!

On Monday morning, we left Norman’s Cay, having explored it pretty extensively already with Moby, and headed about 7 miles north to Highborne Cay. The wind was blowing and the day was overcast. We sailed with our jib only, and on approaching Highborne, we looked at the boats in the anchorage. They were rockin’ and rollin’ and we didn’t want to have any of that! We looked at the charts and noticed another anchorage on the north side of Highborne that looked like it would provide much better shelter. We had to weave our way through some pretty extensive coral reefs, but made it into the sheltered bay and shared it with two other boats. We edged our way as far as we could towards the beach, in order to get the maximum protection. During one low tide, we saw how close we were to the bottom…only inches between our keels and the sandy bottom!

The light blue color means shallow water ahead.  Ben is posted on the bow to keep a lookout.  

Once safely anchored at Highborne...our keels almost touch the bottom at low tide!!

Once again due to weather, we were sequestered at Highborne Cay. All of Monday was spent “indoors” as it rained and the wind blew. Tuesday was a repeat of Monday’s weather, and during a very short spell on Tuesday afternoon, the sun made an appearance and Gaby and I, suffering from a case of cabin fever, went for a swim off the back of the boat. This little expedition was cut short when we were joined by a big stingray, a creepy barracuda and a rather large nurse shark! Even though they would probably all be more afraid of us, we still felt better being in our own environment than in theirs!

Underwater Highborne:  the friendly stingray, tiny fish just under the surface of the water; we found so many sand dollars and some pretty shells

On Wednesday, May 16th, the rain stopped and it was partly cloudy. After lunch, we decided to take the dinghy over to Allen’s Cay, about a mile and a half away, to go and check out some Iguanas. Once again, we didn’t take food for them, but we know that people do feed them. We landed the dinghy on the beach and soon enough, they started appearing. At one point, there were 14 iguanas, big and small, that had made their way onto the beach to check us out! They are prehistoric looking creatures, but some I found quite beautiful, with green heads and shades of pink on their necks or legs.

We explored a little more and then on the way back, stopped at a coral reef and did some snorkeling. I had never really associated the Bahamas with good coral reefs, but we have found quite a few beautiful ones and have enjoyed snorkeling on them.

Top:  At Allen's Cay with the iguanas, more iguanas, the coral we snorkeled on on the way back, and Bottom: exploring the beach at Allen's Cay after our iguana visit

The rain and bad weather had given us a lot of time to think and talk. We had been discussing our next movements because we had reached the top of the Exuma Cays chain, and were at a crossroads. One road led us to the Abacos, the other lead us towards the Berry Islands.

Our original plan had been to sail over to Spanish Wells at the top of Eleuthera, then over to the Abaco group of islands, then back track a little over the Bight of Abaco (on the west side), then over to the Berry Islands, to Bimini, then to the Florida Keys and then home. We then started talking about possibly skipping the Abacos, and sailing to Nassau, then the Berry Islands and the same route home. We thought that maybe we were trying to fit too much into the time we had left. We thought that maybe we just wanted to get home. We thought that maybe we had just had enough of cruising. 

Maybe it was the depressing weather that played negatively on our minds, but in the end, we made the decision to skip the Abacos and leave them for another trip, when we would have more time to devote to them, and to enjoy them properly.   One thing we have learned while cruising is that you can't see everything.  Often we have had to make a decision to skip a destination or two.  Rather than try and "touch" every place, we'd rather spend quality time in one place, while missing another.  It has also taught us to be flexible.  We never quite know where we'll be when, and we often change our minds at the last minute. Living in such close proximity to the Bahamas certainly allows us the opportunity of going back to the Abacos at a later stage, and so the decision was made: skip the Abacos, head straight to the Berry Islands via Nassau and then back to Florida by the end of May.

The Islands of the Bahamas with our 2 route options home:  Route A via the Abacos (in brown), and Route B (in green), the route we ultimately decided on  (image from OnTheWorldMap.com)

On Thursday morning, May 17th, after nudging our way out again across the coral reefs, we hoisted our big blue and yellow spinnaker and had a great sail, 30 odd nautical miles to New Providence Island, Nassau.

Sunset at Highborne Cay.  Gaby's keen eye for photography catches the raindrops on our sail bag...rain has pretty much defined our stay in the Bahamas!

On a fun note, ever wonder what we are eating?!  ( I last went grocery shopping in the Turks and Caicos!).

I still bake break almost every day, sometimes it is Foccacia (pictured here with cheese, salami and a delicious chickpea salad made with tomato, cucumber and feta); We once traded 2 cold beers for this huge lobster tail!; We still fish:  Dave caught this Spanish Mackerel on the way to the Berry Islands, and from the ocean to the table doesn't take long: The Spanish Mackerel is grilled and served with rice and veggies!  We are not starving!!