Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park
February 13, 2020
Slogger (slow blogger) checking in. While we have been having adventures, there hasn’t been that much to report. We left Rock Sound on Monday, February 3rd and had a beautiful cruise across the Exuma Sound to Little Spirit Cay. The water was flat, we could see the bottom in 30 feet! This guy accompanied us for part of the trip.
Sunset Little Spirit Cay, Feb 3
Our real destination was Little Spirit Cay where we would visit with an old friend of Eddie’s. 40 years ago, after graduating college Eddie was a scuba instructor and worked with a guy named Bob French. Bob is 86, living in Fort Lauderdale with some support and not so much memory. His son, Bob, has been the caretaker of Little Spirit Cay for the past 25 years. Bob and hislong time girlfriend Mary live in a very cool home on the Cay. It is open on 2 sides with huge Bahamian shutters. The main part of the home is an atrium, open to the sky. There are a couple of bedrooms, lovely garden and small kitchen. It was a very special place. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of Bob and Mary and felt funny taking pictures of their paradise. Here’s one shot of the garden and another of sunset as seen from their living room. We were fortunate enough to anchor in their back yard. A very special place. We spent 4 days here. We had Bob for dinner (Mary was in Florida) Monday night. Bob is a great story teller. I loved hearing about the history of the little cays and the families that own them.
The sunset view from Mary & Bob’s garden
On Wednesday we pulled out the hookah system and made friends with it. We swam around under and around the boat for a few minutes, got our weights figured out. We are ready for diving. Now, if only the wind and weather would cooperate!
We had dinner at Mary and Bob’s where it was a delicious spaghetti and meat sauce and great fresh salad! Got back to the dinghy which was again beached. Damn thing is heavy!
On Thursday the winds kicked up again. It was too rough to explore and we were on the boat, getting stir crazy! We had to figure something out so Friday morning we set up a swell bridle to turn the bow into the swell rather than into the wind. I conjured up Mr. Kelbaugh from AP Physics in High School and remembered Angle I = Angle R. Don’t ask me where that shit comes from. I told Eddie we need to put out 50’ of anchor line (essentially one boat length) and sure enough we turned and got way more comfy!
We thought we’d have Mary and Bob back for dinner Friday night but that didn’t work out as Bob was headed to Lauderdale in the morning and needed to get his act together. Time to move on. But not before spending a lovely couple of hours Friday afternoon on the beach with Dan, Lori and Jake from Busy Bee. We saw them on the AIS and haled them, they were headed in our direction and opted to come to the anchorage. It was great getting to know them. They sold their home and moved aboard their 40’ catamaran. The whole dream wasn’t even on my radar screen in my 30’s. I applaud them and their values. Jake is a lucky 11 year old to be cruising full time. And typical of other 11 year olds when I asked him what he had been doing to stay busy in the winds he kind of said, “ugh, school work.” We have met several families who cruise full time and home school their children.
Saturday we would cruise, plan was to get up and out early to cruise on the rising tide. HA! Man plans and God brings rain. We tried to reset the swell bridle as the winds had shifted but it didn’t help and we just got soaking wet. We headed to Highbourne Cay. Our thought was we’d spend a night or two, see the iguanas at Allan’s Cay and then move on. Well, you know how it goes - man plans and God laughs. It was too rough for the 2 miles dinghy ride to the iguanas.
We were stuck again, Saturday and Sunday, onboard at Highbourne Cay rolling through the day and night.
We weren’t alone on Highbourne. We had these two nurse sharks off our swim platform keeping us company. This video was taken by me laying down on the swim platform putting my arm and the go pro in the water!
Finally Sunday we got off the boat, dinghyed to shore with our beach chairs, had a short walk and chatted with other boaters. We met 2 couples with kids and 3 couples from Montreal who had chartered out of Nassau. It did wonders for our spirits to get to shore and talk with other adults!
On Monday (February 10) we left Highbourne and headed south to The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.
The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is 176 square mile national park created in 1958. It was the first land and sea park in the world and is a no take zone - no fishing or shelling. The water is stunningly clear and the area is known for snorkeling and scuba diving. Unfortunately for us, the winds were too intense for either. There is no wifi in the park and so we really got an opportunity to disconnect. It felt great!
It was a sloppy cruise but we were rewarded with a beautiful, CALM, anchorage at Shroud Cay. We dinghyed to shore to a beautiful beach and basically chilled out. We attempted to cruise through the mangroves but the tide was too low for Zoom. Instead we headed back on high tide Tuesday morning. It was gorgeous and so serene.
#livinthedream
At the end of the cruise through the mangroves you come out on a gorgeous beach. It was like Still Pond off the Chesapeake where you could wade into the current at the cut and “ride” it out until it turned you back to shore. The current was wild - it was exhilarating!
Eddie barefoot hiked up to the top of the hill for a great view. I skipped the hike, didn’t trust my knees to go barefoot up AND down!
Afterwards we checked out the other anchorage nearby which was packed. We stopped by a 40’ main ship trawler, Blue Moon, from Canada who was rolling like crazy. We suggested they come over to our side of the anchorage and get out of the swell. After lunch they cruised over. Later in the afternoon the captain dinghyed over to thank Eddie for suggesting they move. He said his Admiral was VERY happy! Happy wife, happy life!
In the morning we left Shroud Cay and headed to Hawksbill Cay. Supposed to be gorgeous but we will have to find out another time. It was super rolly, and 20 knot winds. I couldn’t grab the mooring ball and we threw an anchor out to regroup. Holy moly, we were rolling side to side, like crazy. Lifted up that anchor and got the F out of there! There was one other boat in the mooring field, named Mari Me. He haled us on the VHF to inquire if things looked better North. They were on a mooring ball, had fought to get on it yesterday and were rolling miserably and looking forward to leaving. We told him - go to Shroud! We never should have left!
Our new plan was to cruise to Warderick Wells to the mooring field / anchorage at the Emerald Rock. Seas were all mixed up. First it was like 2-3’ seas, lots of wind and we were hobby horsing. Then it was more like 4-5’ or maybe even 6’ seas, crashing over the bow. We retreated to the pilot house and told ourselves its just another hour in this direction before we can turn to port.
Just as we were going to enter the anchorage, Antares, a 130’ yacht, pulling a center console, lifted their anchor and basically turned in front of us. Behind us was a 75’ boat. I felt like we were getting bullied by the big guys. It was still windy and rough and now I am feeling gun shy of the damn mooring balls. It turns out the one we tried to get at Hawksbill had no pennant, no wonder I couldn’t grab it. I needed my BVI mate Swabbie to help me! In any case we threw our anchor out just inside of the no anchoring zone! Had some lunch and dinghyed into the Park Headquarters. There we saw that the North mooring field is totally protected and like a lake. We reserved a mooring for the following night.
Remember the boat that called for a mayday outside of Spanish Wells, Tranquility Base, that we later met in Spanish Wells? And then saw them again in Rock Sound? That was the guy that handed Eddie a $100 bill when we got to shore in Rock Sound to go grocery shopping and realized neither of us brought our wallet. He was like don’t go back to your boat, take this and I’ll dinghy over later to get it back. Lo and behold they were at park headquarters so we chatted them up, they’ve been coming over for years, got some tips of what not to miss on this stop and then we walked on the beach.
It’s been a full week of winds and adventures. I had one brief moment of thinking a small apartment, hot shower and dinner in a restaurant would be nice. It passed quickly. You can’t believe how spectacular the scenery is, how serene our hearts are and I think as nerve racking as today’s cruise was, in the end living on our girl Seaquel is magnificent.
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