We were really looking forward to spending time in the Exumas, a long chain of small islands and Cays running Northwest to Southeast in the middle of the Bahamas roughly between Eleuthera and Cat Island to the East and Andros Island to the West. It rates with the Abacos as the two most popular cruising grounds and we were excited to get there to explore the Exuma Land and Sea Park as well as some other national treasures we had discovered by chance and research. The Exumas, by comparison are some 95 Nautical Miles longer than the Abacos with the advantage of navigable passages or cuts between the major islands allowing movement from the deep Exuma Sound for the blue ocean experience (and fishing) to the shallow leeward banks for calm anchorages and snorkeling. We took full advantage of both.
Our first stop was Highborne Cay with the intention of obtaining fuel and groceries to carry us through the Exumas. It's a private island with a great anchorage and we were surprised to see so many visiting sailboats and mini-mega yachts but it is indicative of how popular the Exumas has become. I was here in 2002 on the Miami University Research Vessel Walton Smith and I remember the Exumas as being very remote, which they still are, but obviously a growing destination and for good reason. It is incredibly beautiful here. Highborne Cay has a lovely marina and well stocked (for the Bahamas) Grocery. That is where we photographed the serene beach and the shark fest around the corner. The sharks gather for feeding on fish parts discarded at the marina pier during the filleting process from the daily catch so they are probably not hungry enough to nibble on swimmers. We saw our first one while snorkeling the anchor. He was undoubtedly cruising by on his way to dinner.
Our next stop was Shroud Cay because of an internal dinghy route we discovered while perusing the charts. We took our paddle boards into the coves as soon as we set anchor and went for a reconnaissance the following morning in tuk-tuk. It was a cool way to see the turtles and mangroves and a great way to explore the shallows. This was the first stop in the National Park Boundaries and the anchorage itself was crystal clear turquoise water at about 8-10 feet in white sand. We fully appreciated a cascade of night stars with no interference from the ambient light of cities, the nearest being Nassau some 45 miles in the distance.
The following stop was our absolute favorite. We picked up a mooring in Warderick Wells at the Headquarters of the Land and Sea Park to check in and make our donation. The mooring field is located in a J-shaped cut through the sandy shallows and there are only 20 available so we called in our reservation early. We had some daylight to burn when we arrived so we tied up tuk-tuk to the reef mooring and plunged right into the best snorkeling we've found so far. All my favorite colorful reef fish were there! Parrot fish, sergeant majors, angels, trunk fish, yellow snappers, those Nemo fish and many more. David saw a big grouper and we saw some barracudas swarming too, but the best sighting was two spotted eagle rays gliding gracefully through the current. They were some of the largest I have ever seen! Unfortunately, we had a technical malfunction with our Go-Pro that day or we would have had some footage for you. The next day we hiked up to Boo Boo Hill for the view and some more blow holes and tried to snorkel the reef one more time but the current was too strong and the fish seemed to be elsewhere. We did have fun watching a nurse shark swimming alongside our dingy off the back of the boat.
We had another big blow while we were in Warderick Wells on the mooring that night. We make a habit as responsible sailors to dive on our anchor once it's set for the benefit of that calming visual of a dug in anchor to comfort us when the wind picks up in the middle of the night. It's even more important on a mooring since it is not our equipment. Fortunately we were attached to a huge cement block by substantial sized chain because the wind was howling at over 25 knots that night! We knew we were in for a terrific sail the next day and it turned out to be one of our best yet with the added advantage of being able to sail the bank side of the island chain with its calmer waters. We maxed out our top speed on india at 11.2 Knots of speed over ground with an easterly wind on the beam at 15 to 18 kts! It was exhilarating! Now we are assured that india won't flip over THAT easily!
Our destination was Staniel Cay. We found a calm anchorage along with quite a few others and stayed a couple of nights. We wanted to make some water and do some laundry (did I mention our washing machine is tops? really works well and we are lucky to have it) and David was itching to install the first of our two new upgraded high performance alternators to give us some boosted charge for our Lithium Battery Bank when its too cloudy for our Solar! That done we lunched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where there are a few photos remaining from the movie set of Thunderball, the 007 Movie, and our primary reason for stopping here. Come to think of it, that’s the second James Bond Movie location we’ve inadvertently visited in as many years. The last one was Octopussy filmed in Udaipur, India. The Thunderball Caves (renamed, of course) are here and we wanted to see them! So we did, at low tide before we left. We did get some GoPro footage but it was early morning and cloudy and still a hell of a current so it's a bit fuzzy but the caves were great and worth seeing. This was quickly upstaged by our exit through the Crown of Thorns and Big Rock Cut to Exuma Sound the same morning. After tight maneuvering through rapids caused by the bottleneck of current through the narrow cut and sharp ninety degree turns around some rocky shallows, we burst into some head on ocean swells at 6-8 feet through the cut! We live for these moments! I revel in this kind of ocean tango and when I caught a glimpse of David's expressions, I could clearly see he loves it too! Not a surprise.
After that thrilling start we gathered our wits and decided to reef our main for the first time. It was the right thing to do. Ominous squalls were on the horizon and we clocked 24 kts gusts within an hour. To our non sailors, reefing reduces the square foot area of sail exposed to wind by tucking the sail into, in our case, our lazy jack system bag, or tying it down to the boom, safely stabilizing the balance of wind to sail, so you don't get blown over. And with the sea state of the deep Exuma Sound we had the added heel from the waves pushing the port forward hull. Again exciting and altogether different but what we want to achieve now is our readiness for our first offshore passage coming up very soon. Our destination that evening was Rudder Cut Cay and it was a fun downwind surf through that hole of an entrance but once we rounded the corner all was suddenly calm in the lee until.... just as we were dropping anchor we were buzzed by three low flying sea planes...bright orange passing low and directly at us...next one dark blue whizzing low and rounding our bow...then bright yellow avoiding maneuvers to our stern! Now THAT'S an arrival!
So that brings us to yesterday when we dove on the Copperfield Piano. Let's just say it wasn’t easy to locate immediately but we knew it was there and we did find it! It was a blast to see that in the water! We hope you like our video. We reluctantly pulled ourselves away from that beautiful anchorage because we had a long sail down to George Town where we need to clear customs and immigration for departure. We could have happily stayed in the Exumas longer, we like it so much here, but it is time to go and we have a brief weather window to get ourselves down to Provenciales in the Turks and Caicos if we want to sail. It will be our first long passage of approximately 2 to 3 days and we believe we are ready. We won’t have internet but we do have plenty of safety gear and a well planned route. We are hoping to check in to the New Blue Haven Marina when we get there to reward ourselves and the boat with a little luxury! You will hear from us again then!
One last note* We went to the Immigration AND Customs Offices this morning. They are in two different buildings about five minutes walk from each other. It seems that there is no necessary paperwork to do for departure and they wouldn't allow us to return our immigration forms directly to them. We are requested to MAIL in these forms from our next port. Ok. Thank you very much. Considering the state of their mail service which we experienced first hand, we would probably have better luck putting our forms in a bottle and letting the sea currents deliver them back to the Bahamas. Just sayin'.
Our first stop was Highborne Cay with the intention of obtaining fuel and groceries to carry us through the Exumas. It's a private island with a great anchorage and we were surprised to see so many visiting sailboats and mini-mega yachts but it is indicative of how popular the Exumas has become. I was here in 2002 on the Miami University Research Vessel Walton Smith and I remember the Exumas as being very remote, which they still are, but obviously a growing destination and for good reason. It is incredibly beautiful here. Highborne Cay has a lovely marina and well stocked (for the Bahamas) Grocery. That is where we photographed the serene beach and the shark fest around the corner. The sharks gather for feeding on fish parts discarded at the marina pier during the filleting process from the daily catch so they are probably not hungry enough to nibble on swimmers. We saw our first one while snorkeling the anchor. He was undoubtedly cruising by on his way to dinner.
Our next stop was Shroud Cay because of an internal dinghy route we discovered while perusing the charts. We took our paddle boards into the coves as soon as we set anchor and went for a reconnaissance the following morning in tuk-tuk. It was a cool way to see the turtles and mangroves and a great way to explore the shallows. This was the first stop in the National Park Boundaries and the anchorage itself was crystal clear turquoise water at about 8-10 feet in white sand. We fully appreciated a cascade of night stars with no interference from the ambient light of cities, the nearest being Nassau some 45 miles in the distance.
The following stop was our absolute favorite. We picked up a mooring in Warderick Wells at the Headquarters of the Land and Sea Park to check in and make our donation. The mooring field is located in a J-shaped cut through the sandy shallows and there are only 20 available so we called in our reservation early. We had some daylight to burn when we arrived so we tied up tuk-tuk to the reef mooring and plunged right into the best snorkeling we've found so far. All my favorite colorful reef fish were there! Parrot fish, sergeant majors, angels, trunk fish, yellow snappers, those Nemo fish and many more. David saw a big grouper and we saw some barracudas swarming too, but the best sighting was two spotted eagle rays gliding gracefully through the current. They were some of the largest I have ever seen! Unfortunately, we had a technical malfunction with our Go-Pro that day or we would have had some footage for you. The next day we hiked up to Boo Boo Hill for the view and some more blow holes and tried to snorkel the reef one more time but the current was too strong and the fish seemed to be elsewhere. We did have fun watching a nurse shark swimming alongside our dingy off the back of the boat.
We had another big blow while we were in Warderick Wells on the mooring that night. We make a habit as responsible sailors to dive on our anchor once it's set for the benefit of that calming visual of a dug in anchor to comfort us when the wind picks up in the middle of the night. It's even more important on a mooring since it is not our equipment. Fortunately we were attached to a huge cement block by substantial sized chain because the wind was howling at over 25 knots that night! We knew we were in for a terrific sail the next day and it turned out to be one of our best yet with the added advantage of being able to sail the bank side of the island chain with its calmer waters. We maxed out our top speed on india at 11.2 Knots of speed over ground with an easterly wind on the beam at 15 to 18 kts! It was exhilarating! Now we are assured that india won't flip over THAT easily!
Our destination was Staniel Cay. We found a calm anchorage along with quite a few others and stayed a couple of nights. We wanted to make some water and do some laundry (did I mention our washing machine is tops? really works well and we are lucky to have it) and David was itching to install the first of our two new upgraded high performance alternators to give us some boosted charge for our Lithium Battery Bank when its too cloudy for our Solar! That done we lunched at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club where there are a few photos remaining from the movie set of Thunderball, the 007 Movie, and our primary reason for stopping here. Come to think of it, that’s the second James Bond Movie location we’ve inadvertently visited in as many years. The last one was Octopussy filmed in Udaipur, India. The Thunderball Caves (renamed, of course) are here and we wanted to see them! So we did, at low tide before we left. We did get some GoPro footage but it was early morning and cloudy and still a hell of a current so it's a bit fuzzy but the caves were great and worth seeing. This was quickly upstaged by our exit through the Crown of Thorns and Big Rock Cut to Exuma Sound the same morning. After tight maneuvering through rapids caused by the bottleneck of current through the narrow cut and sharp ninety degree turns around some rocky shallows, we burst into some head on ocean swells at 6-8 feet through the cut! We live for these moments! I revel in this kind of ocean tango and when I caught a glimpse of David's expressions, I could clearly see he loves it too! Not a surprise.
After that thrilling start we gathered our wits and decided to reef our main for the first time. It was the right thing to do. Ominous squalls were on the horizon and we clocked 24 kts gusts within an hour. To our non sailors, reefing reduces the square foot area of sail exposed to wind by tucking the sail into, in our case, our lazy jack system bag, or tying it down to the boom, safely stabilizing the balance of wind to sail, so you don't get blown over. And with the sea state of the deep Exuma Sound we had the added heel from the waves pushing the port forward hull. Again exciting and altogether different but what we want to achieve now is our readiness for our first offshore passage coming up very soon. Our destination that evening was Rudder Cut Cay and it was a fun downwind surf through that hole of an entrance but once we rounded the corner all was suddenly calm in the lee until.... just as we were dropping anchor we were buzzed by three low flying sea planes...bright orange passing low and directly at us...next one dark blue whizzing low and rounding our bow...then bright yellow avoiding maneuvers to our stern! Now THAT'S an arrival!
So that brings us to yesterday when we dove on the Copperfield Piano. Let's just say it wasn’t easy to locate immediately but we knew it was there and we did find it! It was a blast to see that in the water! We hope you like our video. We reluctantly pulled ourselves away from that beautiful anchorage because we had a long sail down to George Town where we need to clear customs and immigration for departure. We could have happily stayed in the Exumas longer, we like it so much here, but it is time to go and we have a brief weather window to get ourselves down to Provenciales in the Turks and Caicos if we want to sail. It will be our first long passage of approximately 2 to 3 days and we believe we are ready. We won’t have internet but we do have plenty of safety gear and a well planned route. We are hoping to check in to the New Blue Haven Marina when we get there to reward ourselves and the boat with a little luxury! You will hear from us again then!
 |
| Highborne Cay Yacht Club |
 |
| Highborne Cay |
 |
| Warderick Wells Park Headquarters |
 |
| Warderick Wells |
 |
| More Warderick Wells, see the whale bones on the beach? |
 |
| Our snorkel location between the two points |
 |
| Our new friend |
 |
| ..is almost as long as tuk-tuk |
 |
| On our way out of Warderick Wells |
 |
| Staniel Cay Yacht Club |
One last note* We went to the Immigration AND Customs Offices this morning. They are in two different buildings about five minutes walk from each other. It seems that there is no necessary paperwork to do for departure and they wouldn't allow us to return our immigration forms directly to them. We are requested to MAIL in these forms from our next port. Ok. Thank you very much. Considering the state of their mail service which we experienced first hand, we would probably have better luck putting our forms in a bottle and letting the sea currents deliver them back to the Bahamas. Just sayin'.
Excitement, Danger, Adventure, oh my. I can't believe you guys are actually living this. The photos are breathtaking and the narrative is mind-bobbling. Please take care of each other - unless you are really angry - then threaten to push the other one into the shark infested waters. That ought to straighten all your troubles out. lol We love you guys and love that you are living the adventure. (Oh, were those really whale bones on Warderick Wells beach??? Amazing. Fair winds and safe sails, my lovely people.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to thank you for adding the explanations for us landlubbers. I had no idea of all the details you need to know - and actions and reactions you need to do at the same time. VERY IMPRESSIVE AND INTERESTING.
ReplyDelete