Exploring Further in the Exumas

Before continuing with our exploration of the Exumas, I want to include a photo that I just found of the Shark Creek (Berry Islands) expedition that was mentioned in the previous blog. 

Shark Creek transits from the banks to the ocean side of Great Harbor Island

This creek is passable only at high tide and is so narrow that a dinghies can only travel in a single file. In this section there were large rays on the bottom which spanned the entire width of the creek.  So…back to the blog.

We head back north from Little Farmer’s Cay to Blackpoint Settlement 

The anchorage at Blackpoint Settlement

in the hope of finding some fresh produce, but alas, the freighter has taken everything to Farmers and the tiny store’s shelves are bare.  Burt gets in a good hike along the ocean side shore 

Waves along the eastern side of the island with a blow hole, by the people in the left side, spouting in fine form.

and of course, there is always another happy hour at Scorpios 

Burt enjoying a rum punch with John (from Canada) and Garth (from South Africa). The cruising community is quite international.  Behind them and across the street is the All Age School for Blackpoint.

and the dubious climb from the dock down to the dinghies in the dark, thanks to the cheap and strong rum punches.  You would think we would begin to learn our lesson.

It’s an eight mile hop north to Big Majors Spot (home of the infamous swimming pigs) and Staniel Cay.  After a great snorkel at Thunderbolt Grotto where fish and colorful corals and sponges abound, we head into the settlement looking for produce and dinghy gas.  In typical Bahamian fashion neither are available, but we do have a delightful late lunch overlooking the docks at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (really a resort and marina).

We have a strong front predicted in 36 hours so we go further north to Cambridge Cay and its sheltered mooring field. Cambridge is part of the Land and Sea Park and provides excellent protection from winds of any direction.  Apparently, others have heard the same forecast as there are only a few mooring still available. Before the strong winds arrive we take a several mile dinghy ride to Rocky Dundas, two small barren islands that sport caves with stalagmites and stalactites. We snorkel the bigger cave and the surrounding reef, stop at two more interesting snorkel spots, and then head into the mooring field before the front arrives. And arrive it does with high winds and dark gray skies as we bob happily on our secure mooring. The winds keep up for several days, but we are entertained by explorations within this archipelago of small cays.  We walk and snorkel Honeymoon Beach, 

Honeymoon Beach where you rarely see any other people.  To the far left is a large stand of Elk horn coral for snorkeling.

hike along the cliffs above the oceanside beaches, 

An over view of Cambridge from our hike.  The ocean and Bell Rock are to the left; the mooring field is to the right.

Another view of Bell Rock. The name Bell is shared with nearby Bell Island, home of the Aga Khan. On a calmer day we snorkeled around Bell Rock.

snorkel at the aquarium, walk the nearby sand bores, and snorkel on a tiny cay that forms one side of the mooring field. We have a congenial collection of boats so there is a happy hour on a beach (until the mosquitoes chase us away) and a sunset dinghy drift where our friends see their first green flash.

Once the sea state in Exuma Sound is down to a manageable size, we leave Cambridge and head south to the next major collection of cays, otherwise known as the Pipe Creek area. Some boats take shelter in the protection of the cays, but with our draft, we anchor on the western side and explore by dinghy.  Our friends on Temerity stay in Cambridge as they are volunteering to be mooring field hosts.  On a calm day, they bring their dinghy down for some fun at Compass Cay. Here we are required to pay a small landing fee to enjoy this private island and marina.  The prime attraction is the school of tame nurse sharks.  At high tide the sharks swim up on a slightly submerged dock to be petted and fed. Our friends on Temerity, who had not seen this before, start out quite skeptical with Laura verging on hysteria, but end up in with the sharks just like everyone else.   

The marina owner chums the water with a fish head, causing the sharks to gather on the dock.

 

Burt and I give the sharks a little love.

You see, nurse sharks have very small teeth, somewhat like human baby teeth, and eat via suction rather than biting.  The marina manager says that the sharks can actually suck a lobster or a conch out of its shell. After playing with the sharks, we walk across the island to another aptly named Honeymoon Beach on the ocean side. We enjoy a picnic lunch and swim with the beach virtually to ourselves. 

The beach at Compass Cay, protected from waves by a barrier of reefs.

Chris and Laura have a few more hours before they need to return to Cambridge, so we take them on a dinghy tour of Pipe Creek, past private islands and beautiful second homes/estates. 

Boats anchored in Pipe Creek with one of the private islands in the background.

The inviting low tide sand bores make a stroll a necessity 

An irresistible sand bore where I found shells and sand dollars the day before.

before they head back to Cambridge at slack current. 

On a windless day we head 15 miles north to Warderick Wells and the headquarters of the Land and Sea Park. 

The mooring field at Warderick Wells.  The darker water is deep enough to accommodate boats; the light water is shallow sand.

The water is so glassy that we can see individual blades of grass and starfish in 20 feet of turquoise water. We snag a mooring in the north field and head off to do a little snorkeling.  While there is no wind, the currents through here are infamous, so one snorkels only at slack tide. Another front comes through while we are here with blackening skies and strong winds,

Stormy skies bring torrential but brief rain.

but again we are in a comfortable, protected spot. Hiking is a mainstay at Warderick Wells, so we take a long hike that starts along the ocean cliffs, 

Reefs litter the ocean side shore before dropping off into very deep water.

Enjoying (so far) this scenic hike.

winds its way through the interior, and ends on the banks side. 

Towards the end of the hike we must negotiate the Causeway, a bridge and length of piled rocks that traverse the water in the center of the picture.  This day we have strong west winds and the Causeway is awash at high tide making for a tricky passage.  The park headquarters is in the top right corner.

Friends that night refer to the hike as the Bataan Death March. With twenty boats in the mooring field, this is another sociable place.  We spend one particularly interesting evening on a friend’s boat. Among the guests are the assistant warden of the park and the administrative assistant, both Bahamians.  They share their knowledge of the park and its flora and fauna.  It is not always easy to socialize with the locals, so this is a special evening for us.

With more settled weather, we return to Staniel Cay. Yes, there is gas available for the dinghy, but we arrive several days after the provisioning freighter and, again, fresh produce is hard to come by. It’s time to begin thinking about moving to GeorgeTown and civilization. We make our way on the Exuma Banks to Musha Cay, the home of magician David Cooperfield. The anchorage is just off his picturesque beach where you can rent the “cottages and facilities” for $35,000 and up per night with off shore fishing and excursions to nearby islands an additional charge.  We pay nothing for the view and sunset.  

All this for a mere $35,000 per night!

We stay two nights, spending the intervening day exploring with our friends by dinghy as the water is too shallow for the mothership’s draft.  We weave between islands and sand bars and stop to snorkel at Rudder Cay where David Cooperfield has placed a piano and mermaid sculpture in about 15 feet of water. 

The next morning we head out into Exuma Sound for a wonderful six hour beam reach down to GeorgeTown and Elizabeth Harbor. GeorgeTown elicits both love and hate.  With 300 boats in the harbor, it is crowded and the vhf chatter goes constantly all day.  But, we have access to our first decent grocery store in five weeks, a laundromat, a hardware store, a great hairdresser, and a multitude of restaurants and resorts. There are actually streets with traffic although none with stop lights. We settle in for an extended stay.  Burt is helping out with the race committee for the annual regatta.  We spend afternoons at Chat and Chill, a beach bar on Stocking Island where volleyball, Mexican Train Dominoes, and basket making are the mainstays. I spend an afternoon snorkeling with my friend Gayle who is a marine biologist and return far more familiar with the corals, sponges, and worms we observe. By the way, Gayle and Bill’s boat is named after a marine worm she discovered.

The frenzy in the harbor peaks during the week of regatta.  There are competitions of all kinds: kayak racing, volleyball tournaments, beach golf, a poker run in dinghies, sand castle building – the list goes on.  This place is accurately described as “Daycare for Adults”. Burt participates in the volleyball and bocce tournaments, and Exuberant sails in the big boat Around the Island Race, an all day, 30 mile affair transiting the harbor and around the ocean side of Stocking Island. We come in third in the large mono-hull class – nothing stellar but a good showing as our competition is racing in stripped down boats, while we are competing in our heavily laden, full time live-aboard home. Our crew of seven includes two couples who had never before participated in a race – they had a blast for their first time experience.

Our gallant race crew accepting the third place flag - Miles from m/v Ariel, Chris and Laura from s/v Temerity, Jim and Chris from s/v Radio Waves, and ourselves.

We were too busy to take pictures during the race, but here is a shot of a Bahamian sloop that participated in the In Harbor Race.

The last few days of regatta are compressed into one day as a huge weather system is about to descend. For the past four days we have had torrential rain squalls and winds 25 – 30 knots with gusts to the low forties. When the first gusts hit, a number of boats drag anchor resulting in panicked cries over the vhf.   

The initial squall line brought wind gusts to 40 knots and torrential rains that obliterated the nearby boats.

We are tucked in very close to the windward shore with the boats around us well secured and widely spaced, so we get some sleep at night.  

Four days later it is still blowing stink but our anchorage several hundred yards off Lumina Point Resort provides relatively calm water and a beautiful view.

Everyone is stuck on their boats and cabin fever is the norm.  Once things settle down in a day or two we will leave GeorgeTown for further exploration, the destination dependent, of course, on the coming weather forecast. That’s just how it is. 

Our time in the Exumas has been delightful, but as with everything in the Bahamas there is a trade off. We snorkel and hike in spectacular places, meet new friends and connect with old ones, and sail through breath-taking waters.  We also struggle to get internet, to find fresh produce, and to adjust to the inefficiencies of island time.  I end this blog with a picture from Blackpoint which illustrates the contrast between the first and third world aspects of the Bahamas.  

A novel approach to stringing utility wires - and now we know why sometimes things just don't work.