Blog 034 – Exuma Islands and A Day in Paradise

Compass Cay Beach

It seemed like we had such a quick trip through the Bahamas but we had to keep heading south. We sailed through The Abacos and Eleuthera Islands and now in the Exumas. Highborne Cay was our first very quick stop. It’s a power boat haven and a day trip from Nassau. We anchored and rested and moved on the next morning. We wanted to get to the Land and Sea Park and do some snorkeling and hiking. So we picked up a mooring at Warderick Wells, the Park’s headquarters. We dingied to the office and right at the dock a shark was circling underneath us, cool. This place has spotted rays, sea turtles, sharks and crystal clear water. At high tide the harbor looks like a large expanse with boats surrounding the edges. But at low tide we saw why no one was in the middle. It became a large sandbar. We stayed for a few days hiking the island’s interior. The best hike was up to BooBoo Hill, the highest point on the island. Cruisers all place a piece of driftwood with their boats name in a big pile at the top of the hill – we did it just for fun but legend says this is supposed to appease the gods.

BooBoo Hill

This all came about after a schooner was shipwrecked off the shores. The story goes that all souls parrished and on a full moon voices mournfully singing hymns can be faintly heard in the distance. The islands are limestone, a porous type of sediment rock that is jagged and filled with holes, some big enough to get lost in. The name ‘Wells’ comes from the holes in the rock that drop twenty or thirty feet. You have to be very careful when hiking so as not to fall into them.

Our next weather window we made a day-sail to a beautiful little spot called Compass Cay. The marina here has sharks that just hang out below the walkway. We swam right up and touched them but we were warned to keep hands and feet away from their mouths. They are nurse sharks so they prefer smaller bites of food than humans and are more docile than other species but you never know.

Steve swimming with sharks

We swam with the sharks for hours and then went for a hike to the most picture perfect beach we have ever seen! It was a lagoon surrounded by white sand. Rocks protect the entrance to the deep blue bay and the waves gently ride up the sand and settle back. When we left we had it all to ourselves, not a soul in site. Makani Olu talked about another pristine location that can only be reached in our dingies when the tide is right because of the many very shallow spots. So we all got back in our dingies and headed that direction up Pipe Creek. Along the way up the creek our throttle cable broke on our Yamaha motor. No we were not up a creek without a paddle. I made a make shift repair that got us home but our exploring the creek was cut short.

The next morning we pulled up anchor. On our way to Big Majors – home of the famous swimming pigs. If you get close to shore they will swim right out to your dingy for food and right into your dingy if you’re not careful! A float plane landed in the anchorage and then weaved in and out of all the boats and right up onto the beach where the pigs where. The float plane was only at the beach a short time before the rain began. They had time to get a few pig pictures and then headed right back out. It’s not every day you sit at anchor with an airplane heading right for you. They made a sharp turn between us and a sail-training ship. We watched for a minute for them to line up into the wind, and then at full throttle they headed straight for the anchored boats. Lift-off was only a few hundred feet to spare. Not sure if thats is a good pilot or just really lucky.

Float plane too close

We also wanted to swim the Thunderball Grotto that was just one island over next to Staniel Cay so we got back in the dingy. James Bond fans will recognize this place. It’s where the 1965 movie Thunderball was filmed with Sean Connery. The inside of the limestone dome is only accessible when the tide is just right, diving under a shelf that opens to a skylight above lighting up the interior. The snorkeling was fun, lots of fish and coral, our voices echoing when we spoke. It’s a must see if you ever venture to these islands.

Thunderball Grotto

The next settlement we day-sailed to was Black Point. This was one cruiser friendly place. Groceries, laundromat complete with dingy dock and free wifi. Whoohoo. We hadn’t had wifi for nearly a month. Thats like not having sunshine and then one day it just comes out. We were blissfully unaware and then… let’s send emails, check our bank account, Face Time with our kids, catch up with the rest of the world. The island has two stores – the Pink Store and the Blue Store. They are more of what you would think of at as a small convenience store in the states. Just one small room with canned goods, fresh bread (at certain times), milk, a few vegetables. What the Pink Store does not carry the Blue Store might. Oh ya, then there’s the yellow house that no one told us about. It had a few other items for sale. As we walked the little village and filled our back packs with supplies we ran into Rich and Ruthie on Spirit. We had seen them briefly at Waderick Wells and then again at Thunderball Grotto. Time to get to know them a little better. So we hung out with Spirit and Makani Olu eating and laughing and just enjoying our time on the island. But we were still moving South to get to the 5-Fs on Little Farmers Cay so we said Adios to our new friends on Spirit and pulled up anchor once more with Makani Olu. We would see them again at Little Farmers First Friday in February Festival.

Cruising boats from all over were headed to the festival. We decided to anchor off of Oven Rock just one island over from Little Farmers and then take the dingy to land. After we anchored we watched the sunset and could see anchored boats for miles as all the anchor lights came on. It looked like a city of lights on the water. This celebration began as a time of homecoming for the island’s families. The kids grow up here, go to school here, and then when they get old enough most have to leave to find work, either on other islands or in the US. This is the weekend they all come home. So it’s a big family reunion of sorts. It’s a very small island, just one tiny grocery store, a dock, a marina, a couple restaurants and a protected bay. This weekend also included Bahamian sailboat races.

We watched the Regatta and enjoyed fresh conch salad. The bay is filled with turtles so while our conch salad was being prepared Liana took pictures of turtles and spotted rays. The music was very loud – common at the island bars. We ate homemade peas and rice and fish fried on a grill at another little place. By afternoon the party had moved to a bar at the top of the hill. We had climbed the hill earlier and sat outside on the patio to get free wifi. Spirit showed up as did the crew from Alesto. Next thing we knew we are surrounded by people. And some lady went through the crowd recruiting people for games.

Little Farmers turtles

After the day at the festival/races we decided to hike up to a cave on Great Guana Cay. Tom and I had hiked the cave when we got here and Liana and a bunch of others including Rich and Ruthie wanted to go. I volunteered to be the guide so that morning between rain squalls and during rain squalls (poor planning on my part) we hiked to the cave. During the hike it started to pour down rain, but at that point we were all committed so we kept going. The cave entrance is tucked high up on a hill. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. The trail/entrance was marked with blue/red/yellow hardhats. I wonder how many shipwrecked sailors or Pirates of the Caribbean hid out here and counted their loot; or sailors who waited out rain and wind and storms in the security of this theatre-size cave? There were deep pools of water that drip into limestone caverns, beautiful stalactites supporting the ceiling and sometimes connecting with the stalagmites coming up from the ground, and the constant dripping of fresh water springs into the pools. Very interesting place.

After the cave we went to a beach on the other side of the island to look for sea beans. These are beans that fall from trees and float halfway across the planet from Africa and wind up on the beaches here. Sea bean collecting is a cruising past time.

And then…A day in paradise! (No pictures…use your imagination) Tom and Annie had been passed a little cay that they didn’t have time to visit before, so they suggested we all go there. Man, were we glad they did. Musha Cay is an island owned by David Copperfield. Rumor has it you can rent it for $250,000 a week and bring 25 of your best friends with you. Well, that seems quite a steep price – but for us the price of dropping anchor here was priceless. Yup, free, right off the white sand beach and the swaying palm trees. As long as you have a cruising boat you too can save a little cash and still enjoy the million dollar view. This is what your mind should come up with when you dream about a sail to the Bahamas. White sand beach, lovely swaying palm trees, crystal clear smooth water and several surrounding islands. The water has beautiful deep blues and greens that you see in magazine pictures and think its too pretty to be true, but this is. Little palm fronds cabanas, brightly colored paints on the cottages of oranges and lime greens with white trim. It’s 86 degrees F in February with a light sea breeze. The wind is making the lines in the rigging bang to its own subtle rhythmic tune. The dingy tied off the stern occasionally bounces off and makes a swishing sound as the water splashes between its bow and the boat.

We went snorkeling and saw the underwater steel piano with the mermaid sitting on the piano bench. Little fish swam around.

Underwater piano and mermaid

Then Stanley and Jeffery stopped by in a skiff selling huge lobster and conch. We caved in and bought some for dinner. My plan was to go lobstering that afternoon but this was a guarantee that we were having lobster for dinner. Earlier that morning we went for a walk on the sand bar south of us with a few other friends-Bill and Trisha from Providence and Tom and Annie. We found sand dollars, gigantic red/orange starfish and Queen Ann conchs and watched large spotted rays swim around our feet as they sift through the sand. Moving quickly will make them take off but then they’ll circle back around. Then it was time to just nap in the sun and the breeze and take in God’s beautiful scenery.

Huge starfish

No, it is not like this every day. I fact hardly ever! Sorry to disappoint all who conjure up the Life of Riley when they think about us traveling the islands on Silhouette. Liana even commented that she was pretty sure this is how everyone thinks it is like every day. Hammocks in the sun swinging with the waves, jumping in for a minute to grab another lobster for dinner, and then drinks with friends while watching the sun go down, falling asleep to the stars and waking up just enough to tuck into bed before nine so we can be well rested to do it again tomorrow. Ok, it is just like that…about once a month. But most days its get up have coffee, look at the weather then go over the list of maintenance or what needs fixing. Like this morning, it was running lights on the bow. The starboard cover just fell off the other day. Thankfully our friend Trish was snorkeling nearby and she retrieved it. Oh, and the weather isn’t a five minute check the Weather Underground app on your phone. Nope, its Liana taking 30-45 minutes to download grib files on our IridiumGo and then we spend another 30-45 minutes looking at wind direction, wind speed, wave heights, precipitation expected, can we get to such-and-such island within the weather window, etc. Then, if we plan on moving we stow for sea, being thoughtful to put anything and everything that isn’t locked down away or tied up so it won’t fly across the room during an unexpected hard hit from a rogue wave. Or the days filled with constant battle against the wind and the waves. It is tiring and fulfilling at the same time. After a few days at sea we usually are dragging in tired and it takes a day or two to catch up on our energy.

We are in love with this way of life and the islands but this place is like Cinderella’s carriage that turns into a pumpkin at midnight. For us Midnight is June First. We must be in Panama by this time. We have another thousand miles to go before hurricane season begins June First and it is already mid-February. We still have the weather forecast every morning making the biggest vote in where we go or don’t go next. Its fun to plan long term but the short term is really important day by day. For every perfect day there are the next ten that are in the too’s…too windy, too rainy, too rough, too many bugs, too much sun, too little sun and all the other too’s like too low on fuel to stop here, too low on fresh food so we need to keep on going, too little wifi for too long, too many things that need parts to stop here. But then every once in a while we get to today, that perfect Bahama day where the stars align and it is pure perfection. So go ahead and dream but if you follow in our wake and someday sail off to distant shores don’t say we didn’t warn you. Now, after saying all that I just want to tell you it’s worth it! Those other days in the too’s – they are worth it too. Today my phone did not ring. In fact, in more than a month it hasn’t because we no longer have a regular cell phone. The alarms we set are to listen to a weather forecast or to push down the plunger on the coffee maker. I have not warn a suit or tie since a year ago in Panama. We need a note board beside the companionway that is a checklist of things to remember, like put on shorts because we have a boat next to us, or put on shoes when we get into the dingy so we have them on land. Sometimes our daily commute is the three hours to the next anchorage and these days if we don’t have wind we don’t even do that. So life is pretty good today.
Love Steve & Liana

Somewhere in the Bahamas