Wandering Through the Exumas

Two days in Nassau fly by as we easily check in with customs and immigration, get our first sticker shock at the grocery store, and wrestle with communication problems at the Bahama Telephone Company.  Our current solution is to use an old cell phone with a Bahamian SIM card, but it is far from satisfactory as we can’t down load any files off the internet.  We have a fun dinner out with other cruising friends at the Poop Deck overlooking Nassau harbor. 

Before we know it we are skimming over the crystal clear waters of the banks on our way to Highbourne Cay in the northernmost Exumas.  We arrive in time to spend the afternoon at Highbourne Cay Resort.  This is an upscale marina catering mostly to large motor yachts with adjacent villas and a restaurant/bar overlooking the Exuma Banks.  It is pricy and exclusive, but we spring for drinks at the bar and soak in the gorgeous views.   

View of the beach from Highbourne's restaurant

On the way back to the dinghy we stop at the fish cleaning station along the docks where a sport fishing boat crew is cleaning the day’s catch.  Below, the water is teaming with large nurse sharks, snappers, rays, and a few black tipped reef sharks.  This crowd looks decidedly hungry and unfriendly, and we detour out of the way in the dinghy to give them good clearance.

Hungry critters after fish scraps

The weather forecast is benign for the foreseeable future, and we begin meandering down the chain to Shroud Cay at the north end of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, the premier park in the national park system.  Here there is no fishing or collecting and access is controlled to preserve the pristine conditions.  We gather some other cruisers and dinghy down one of the mangrove creeks that bisect the interior of Shroud Cay to the ocean side and the site of Camp Driftwood, a hill above the sugar sand beach and perch for DEA agents in the 1980’s who were keeping tabs on a large drug operation originating from nearby Normans Cay.

Tidal creeks like this are prevalent at both Shroud and Hawksbill Cays

 We stay only long enough for a quick hike, short beach walk, and picnic lunch as once the tide starts to fall there won’t be enough water in the creek to make it back to our boat. 

The view from Camp Driftwood on Shroud Cay

A day later we wander a few miles further south to Hawksbill Cay. The western shore is comprised of rocky outcroppings interrupted by untouched crescent beaches. We spend two days exploring the entire coast of the island, including cuts at both the north and south ends leading out into Exuma Sound.  

Exploring the north end of Hawksbill Cay with its amazing variety of water colors

We celebrate sunsets each night with happy hours on the beach with other cruisers. And it is here that we see our first green flash sunset of this year’s Bahamas cruise. 

Happy hour sunset with Exuberant in the distance

Hawksbill is rarely visited, and it is a special gem that perhaps we should keep to ourselves.

Next stop is Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the park and probably the most visited portion.   

The always spectacular mooring field at Warderick Wells. Exuberant is the boat to the left.

But make no mistake, we are still in undeveloped territory.  For a fee we can get internet service, but it is very unreliable, a problem for Burt who is trying to do some work on a consulting job.  There is no phone service, grocery, or trash disposal anywhere in the forty mile long park.  We spend several delightful days here, dinghying around the cay, hiking along paths, and snorkeling at slack tide among the coral reefs.   

View atop a hill at Warderick Wells - the water of the banks is to the left, Exuma Sound to the right.

A curly tailed lizard poses along a hiking trail.

Another spectacular sunset at Warderick Wells

The overall beauty of the park entices cruisers to spend weeks here despite the lack of amenities, but Burt’s need for internet forces us to head out of the park.

The sign says it all - "Welcome to Staniel Cay". The resort cottages of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club are in the distance.

We stop at Staniel Cay and the nearby anchorage of Big Major’s Spot, home of the aggressive and sometimes biting, swimming pigs.  Once you’ve “done” the pigs, they are best avoided. It is a relief to get the stinky garbage off the boat, and by sheer luck we have arrived on the same day as the Captain C, the inter-island freighter that brings food (read fresh fruit and vegetables that we crave) every week or so to the Out Islands. We enjoy dinghying around the nearby cays and snorkeling the famous Thunderball Grotto where portions of several James Bond movies were filmed.  The grotto is filled with friendly fish that overwhelm you if you offer them bread crumbs. But, it is also filled with many tourists as it is only accessible at low tide slack.  I battle my way through the crowds of people and fish and emerge from the other end of this cave to explore the rarely visited eastern side of the small cay.  It is a garden of beautiful corals of every variety and color.  Late afternoon we stop by the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for a drink on the deck overlooking the busy marina filled with more large motor yachts – one even has a hot top on the foredeck that we consider the ultimate in decadence.

The internet is proving to still be unreliable at Staniel Cay, so we continue a few miles further south to the settlement of Blackpoint.   

Hiking along the Exuma Sound coast near Blackpoint

An impressive rainbow off the stern of Exuberant while anchored at Blackpoint.  We have had an unusual amount of rain this year resulting in rainbows (good) and mosquitoes (bad).

This is a favorite stop for cruisers as this small community of around 100 has gone out of their way to make it cruiser friendly.  We are nearing Super Bowl Sunday, and around 130 boats have dropped anchor here.  The community allows us to use their facilities at Ragatta Point to have a large happy hour/pot luck the first night we arrive, and a few of the locals also drop in, an indication of the nice relationship here between visitors and residents.  On Super Bowl night, the three local restaurants/bars host dinners and viewing parties.  We choose to go to Scorpios for the game as more of the locals tend to come here, and it adds a culturally diverse dimension to watching an American icon. The enthusiasm of the Bahamians is more riveting and entertaining than the game itself. The next day the large fleet of cruisers begins to head further south to Little Farmer’s Cay and the site of the Five F’s (First Friday in February Festival at Farmer’s Cay, the small ((around 70 residents)) settlement’s annual homecoming and sailing regatta). We choose to stay in Blackpoint for a few more days to enjoy the relative quiet before following the fleet to Farmers.  We avail ourselves of the services of Ida’s Rockside Laundry which is far more than a laundromat. 

With the Rockside Laundry in the background, the Bahamian C-class sloop Smashie bobs at anchor.  We helped with her initial launch when we visited Blackpoint two years ago.

One can dine on homemade carrot cake, shop in the gift shop and hardware store, take a shoreside, hot water shower, get a haircut (which Burt desperately needs) or hairbraiding in a chair outside overlooking the anchorage, rent a vacation room, have free access to higher speed and reliable internet, and, of course, do laundry in the cleanest and most well maintained facility in the Bahamas. Ida and her husband take entrepreneurship to new heights, and we leave them donated supplies for the local school and newly started preschool. We depart Blackpoint, provisioned with several loaves of Lorraine’s Mom’s homebaked coconut and wheat bread, best in the Bahamas, to join the hoards at Farmers.