The past week and a half has been, in a word, idyllic. It was actually like a little mini vacation. We had no cell coverage (and therefore no internet access), spent almost every day snorkeling, hiking or hanging out on the beach and just generally enjoyed ourselves.
We have been in the upper islands of the Exuma chain. The Exumas are a chain of islands that starts about 35 miles east of Nassau. They are composed of sharp rocky sections of limestone interspersed with beautiful white sandy beaches. On the west side of the islands are the Exuma Banks, shallow waters mostly less than 30 feet and on the east side of the islands is Exuma Sound, where the water drops off quickly to 300 feet and much deeper. The prevailing winds are from the southeast, so the shallow waters of the banks are ideal for anchoring.
The water here is so clear that you can see plants on the bottom in 60 feet of water. You can determine water depth by the colour of the water, which ranges from a light sandy colour in the shallows to 'swimming pool blue' to aquamarine blue to deep blue. It is almost impossible to capture in photos - believe me, I have tried - the kind of thing you have to see to believe.
Canadians are well represented amongst cruisers here. In many places we have anchored there have been Canadian flags on over 50% of the boats. We are not sure if this is because it takes us so long to get here that everyone else is already further south, or Canadians prefer the Bahamas, or Canadians can't go far enough south in Canada to get away from winter so there are lots here, or if we are just more adventurous, but for whatever reason there seems to be a disproportionate number of Canadian boats out here.
From Allen's Cay we traveled about 15 Nm to Norman's Cay. It was a short trip, but a nice little sail. Norman's has some inhabitants, but you wouldn't know it by hanging out on the east side, where there are some amazing beaches and secluded areas. We had a couple of really good beach days, where we took a picnic lunch and swam and paddled in some 'pools' formed as the tide dropped off the sand flats. I took another spin on the stand up paddleboard that belongs to C-Spirit, we went snorkeling on some coral heads and the sunken plane wreck and even had happy hour on 'one palm tree island' with about seven other boats one night. One afternoon when Dave and I went for a bit of a walk up to the trees from one of the beaches, we saw a little mammal, which we found out later was a hutia - the only land mammal indiginous to the Bahamas - it is about the size of a big rat but looks more like a little beaver, without the flat tail.
After 3 nights at Norman's Cay we decided it was time to move on. We had managed to get a mooring in the northern anchorage at Warderick Wells, along with our buddy boat Slow Waltz, so we motored down in flat calm conditions on the Exuma Sound side - we could see the bottom really clearly even in very deep water. Warderick Wells is the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, which is an area of the Exumas that is protected, so there is no hunting or fishing allowed. This means that the fish within the boundaries get really big, because no one is hunting them and that makes for some great snorkeling. At Warderick Wells moorings are on a first come, first serve basis, so you have to call on the VHF radio the day before to get on the list for the next day. We were lucky to get in for the day we wanted, especially since there was some heavy wind forecast for the following day.
We spent four nights at Warderick Wells, splitting our time between hiking, snorkeling and hanging out on the beach. On a few of our hikes we ended up at BooBoo hill, where cruisers leave driftwood with the name of their boats on a big pile. We left Romana's name there in 2003 but couldn't find it 11 years later - no surprise! The snorkeling was very good, although there was some pretty strong current in a few spots even near slack tide. We saw tons of fish and we are having lots of fun identifying them with the plastic identification cards we bought and help from Slow Waltz's excellent reef fish identification book. We even saw a turtle! In the excitement of going in the water to snorkel near the turtle, I dropped the dinghy anchor over and jumped in the water and Dave drifted off, because the line wasn't attached to the dinghy! Luckily it was only in about 10 feet of water, so I was able to dive down and retrieve the anchor.
We snorkeled on a boat wreck right in the middle of the mooring field, which was cool, and had picnic lunches on the beach, and one day Gwen and I snorkeled along the rocks near one of the beaches. I don't get tired of watching the fish and looking at the coral, although we have been scared out of the water a few times by some barracudas. We keep running into familiar boats as we travel and one evening at Warderick Wells we were on the beach for happy hour and we mentioned we had seen a hutia on (appropriately enough) the Hutia Hill trail the day before. One of the cruisers mentioned that they come out at night and sure enough, just after the sun went down, four or five of them scurried out on the beach to join us for happy hour.
We left Warderick Wells on Saturday, heading on another short hop (about 15 Nm) down to Cambridge Cay. Cambridge is still within the Exuma park boundaries but Dave and I hadn't been there before so we were excited to see something new. We took the Banks route, while Slow Waltz went out in the Sound. Our route brought us into the anchorage over a couple of very shallow spots (5 and 6 feet at MLW) but we got in at mid tide with nothing less than 8 feet on the depth sounder with a bit of team work - I was on the helm and Dave was on the bow looking at the water. Although there were moorings available, we just anchored.
That first afternoon we dinghied up about 2 miles to a snorkeling spot called the Sea Aquarium, which was amazing. It is just off a tiny island and there were tons of fish, including a bunch of seargent majors that swam all around us. It was so good, we ended up going back there two more times before we left Cambridge. Our next snorkeling spot was the Airplane reef, where the dinghy mooring ball is actually tethered to a sunken plan. Here we saw a lot of really beautiful coral and also spotted another turtle! Along with fish we have also seen some rays, but mostly just sitting in the sand. We have only seen them swimming when we have been on the boat or in the dinghy, although one morning we had a great display as a small ray swam around our boat and between our anchor chain and the bottom, which was really neat to watch. The second time we went to the Sea Aquarium spot we saw a nurse shark and we have seen a few sharks near docks and one from the dinghy at Cambridge.
We ran into Serena and Rob on Vita (more Canadians, from Trenton, Ontario) and spent a few days with them at Cambridge. Rob has a goPro video camera that he takes snorkeling and he gave us some videos, so that should be interesting to watch. Although I have tried to take photos while we have been snorkeling, the colours are really washed out compared to the 'real thing' so it is difficult to get a shot that really shows how amazing it is.
Our last day at Cambridge was flat calm, sunny and hot - perfect conditions for snorkeling, so we had a big day. We took a trip over to Rocky Dundas, where, at low tide, you can swim into these caves with a big hole in the top so the sun shines down into them. There are a couple of them, and in one you can swim in and sit up on the rocks. Outside the caves is a reef with some beautiful coral and fish. Our next stop was on the Sound side where we took advantage of the calm conditions to snorkel a couple of reefs there. After lunch we went back to the Sea Aquarium and then did a drift snorkel (where we all hung onto a rope from the dinghy and drifted with the current) over to the Airplane Reef. Our final stop was a little reef where we had to really fight the current to get around the end of a small island, but once there we found a great little head with an abundance of fish. Afer all that activity it only made sense to go back to the boats and get a drink and then do a dinghy drift through the anchorage as we relaxed. That night we sat on the deck looking at a sky full of stars and off in the distance to the east there was continous lightning high in the sky - what a show! A great way to end a pretty perfect day.
The only down side of all this 'getting away from it all' is that we totally ran out of bread, fresh fruit and vegetables. Mealtime gets pretty challenging, and even though I was able to make bread, I am really missing the fresh produce. Re-stocking fresh food and dinghy gas has driven us down to Big Majors Spot, just north of Staniel Cay, where they have a fuel dock and stores. Unfortunately the mail boat is not due until Thursday. When we arrived we managed to get some fruit and celery and frozen bagels so we can survive until the mailboat gets here, but we are eating some strange meals - digging into the supply of cans and trying to keep some variety.
Even though we have been spending lots of time at anchor and not much time motoring, so far we have been managing power on the boat well enough that we haven't needed to start our engine to charge batteries at all. Between the new fridge, which consumes less power, and the extra solar panel, which doubles our power production, we have been able to keep the batteries topped up enough to run lights, fridge etc. and charge our myriad electronic devices as well. The fact that the days are getting a bit longer and it has been very sunny has also helped a lot.
Internet access continues to be a challenge, so I am not sure how or when this blog will get posted and whether I will be able to post photos or not but if you are reading it then that means I figured something out!
We have been in the upper islands of the Exuma chain. The Exumas are a chain of islands that starts about 35 miles east of Nassau. They are composed of sharp rocky sections of limestone interspersed with beautiful white sandy beaches. On the west side of the islands are the Exuma Banks, shallow waters mostly less than 30 feet and on the east side of the islands is Exuma Sound, where the water drops off quickly to 300 feet and much deeper. The prevailing winds are from the southeast, so the shallow waters of the banks are ideal for anchoring.
The water here is so clear that you can see plants on the bottom in 60 feet of water. You can determine water depth by the colour of the water, which ranges from a light sandy colour in the shallows to 'swimming pool blue' to aquamarine blue to deep blue. It is almost impossible to capture in photos - believe me, I have tried - the kind of thing you have to see to believe.
Canadians are well represented amongst cruisers here. In many places we have anchored there have been Canadian flags on over 50% of the boats. We are not sure if this is because it takes us so long to get here that everyone else is already further south, or Canadians prefer the Bahamas, or Canadians can't go far enough south in Canada to get away from winter so there are lots here, or if we are just more adventurous, but for whatever reason there seems to be a disproportionate number of Canadian boats out here.
From Allen's Cay we traveled about 15 Nm to Norman's Cay. It was a short trip, but a nice little sail. Norman's has some inhabitants, but you wouldn't know it by hanging out on the east side, where there are some amazing beaches and secluded areas. We had a couple of really good beach days, where we took a picnic lunch and swam and paddled in some 'pools' formed as the tide dropped off the sand flats. I took another spin on the stand up paddleboard that belongs to C-Spirit, we went snorkeling on some coral heads and the sunken plane wreck and even had happy hour on 'one palm tree island' with about seven other boats one night. One afternoon when Dave and I went for a bit of a walk up to the trees from one of the beaches, we saw a little mammal, which we found out later was a hutia - the only land mammal indiginous to the Bahamas - it is about the size of a big rat but looks more like a little beaver, without the flat tail.
After 3 nights at Norman's Cay we decided it was time to move on. We had managed to get a mooring in the northern anchorage at Warderick Wells, along with our buddy boat Slow Waltz, so we motored down in flat calm conditions on the Exuma Sound side - we could see the bottom really clearly even in very deep water. Warderick Wells is the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, which is an area of the Exumas that is protected, so there is no hunting or fishing allowed. This means that the fish within the boundaries get really big, because no one is hunting them and that makes for some great snorkeling. At Warderick Wells moorings are on a first come, first serve basis, so you have to call on the VHF radio the day before to get on the list for the next day. We were lucky to get in for the day we wanted, especially since there was some heavy wind forecast for the following day.
We spent four nights at Warderick Wells, splitting our time between hiking, snorkeling and hanging out on the beach. On a few of our hikes we ended up at BooBoo hill, where cruisers leave driftwood with the name of their boats on a big pile. We left Romana's name there in 2003 but couldn't find it 11 years later - no surprise! The snorkeling was very good, although there was some pretty strong current in a few spots even near slack tide. We saw tons of fish and we are having lots of fun identifying them with the plastic identification cards we bought and help from Slow Waltz's excellent reef fish identification book. We even saw a turtle! In the excitement of going in the water to snorkel near the turtle, I dropped the dinghy anchor over and jumped in the water and Dave drifted off, because the line wasn't attached to the dinghy! Luckily it was only in about 10 feet of water, so I was able to dive down and retrieve the anchor.
We snorkeled on a boat wreck right in the middle of the mooring field, which was cool, and had picnic lunches on the beach, and one day Gwen and I snorkeled along the rocks near one of the beaches. I don't get tired of watching the fish and looking at the coral, although we have been scared out of the water a few times by some barracudas. We keep running into familiar boats as we travel and one evening at Warderick Wells we were on the beach for happy hour and we mentioned we had seen a hutia on (appropriately enough) the Hutia Hill trail the day before. One of the cruisers mentioned that they come out at night and sure enough, just after the sun went down, four or five of them scurried out on the beach to join us for happy hour.
We left Warderick Wells on Saturday, heading on another short hop (about 15 Nm) down to Cambridge Cay. Cambridge is still within the Exuma park boundaries but Dave and I hadn't been there before so we were excited to see something new. We took the Banks route, while Slow Waltz went out in the Sound. Our route brought us into the anchorage over a couple of very shallow spots (5 and 6 feet at MLW) but we got in at mid tide with nothing less than 8 feet on the depth sounder with a bit of team work - I was on the helm and Dave was on the bow looking at the water. Although there were moorings available, we just anchored.
That first afternoon we dinghied up about 2 miles to a snorkeling spot called the Sea Aquarium, which was amazing. It is just off a tiny island and there were tons of fish, including a bunch of seargent majors that swam all around us. It was so good, we ended up going back there two more times before we left Cambridge. Our next snorkeling spot was the Airplane reef, where the dinghy mooring ball is actually tethered to a sunken plan. Here we saw a lot of really beautiful coral and also spotted another turtle! Along with fish we have also seen some rays, but mostly just sitting in the sand. We have only seen them swimming when we have been on the boat or in the dinghy, although one morning we had a great display as a small ray swam around our boat and between our anchor chain and the bottom, which was really neat to watch. The second time we went to the Sea Aquarium spot we saw a nurse shark and we have seen a few sharks near docks and one from the dinghy at Cambridge.
We ran into Serena and Rob on Vita (more Canadians, from Trenton, Ontario) and spent a few days with them at Cambridge. Rob has a goPro video camera that he takes snorkeling and he gave us some videos, so that should be interesting to watch. Although I have tried to take photos while we have been snorkeling, the colours are really washed out compared to the 'real thing' so it is difficult to get a shot that really shows how amazing it is.
Our last day at Cambridge was flat calm, sunny and hot - perfect conditions for snorkeling, so we had a big day. We took a trip over to Rocky Dundas, where, at low tide, you can swim into these caves with a big hole in the top so the sun shines down into them. There are a couple of them, and in one you can swim in and sit up on the rocks. Outside the caves is a reef with some beautiful coral and fish. Our next stop was on the Sound side where we took advantage of the calm conditions to snorkel a couple of reefs there. After lunch we went back to the Sea Aquarium and then did a drift snorkel (where we all hung onto a rope from the dinghy and drifted with the current) over to the Airplane Reef. Our final stop was a little reef where we had to really fight the current to get around the end of a small island, but once there we found a great little head with an abundance of fish. Afer all that activity it only made sense to go back to the boats and get a drink and then do a dinghy drift through the anchorage as we relaxed. That night we sat on the deck looking at a sky full of stars and off in the distance to the east there was continous lightning high in the sky - what a show! A great way to end a pretty perfect day.
The only down side of all this 'getting away from it all' is that we totally ran out of bread, fresh fruit and vegetables. Mealtime gets pretty challenging, and even though I was able to make bread, I am really missing the fresh produce. Re-stocking fresh food and dinghy gas has driven us down to Big Majors Spot, just north of Staniel Cay, where they have a fuel dock and stores. Unfortunately the mail boat is not due until Thursday. When we arrived we managed to get some fruit and celery and frozen bagels so we can survive until the mailboat gets here, but we are eating some strange meals - digging into the supply of cans and trying to keep some variety.
Even though we have been spending lots of time at anchor and not much time motoring, so far we have been managing power on the boat well enough that we haven't needed to start our engine to charge batteries at all. Between the new fridge, which consumes less power, and the extra solar panel, which doubles our power production, we have been able to keep the batteries topped up enough to run lights, fridge etc. and charge our myriad electronic devices as well. The fact that the days are getting a bit longer and it has been very sunny has also helped a lot.
Internet access continues to be a challenge, so I am not sure how or when this blog will get posted and whether I will be able to post photos or not but if you are reading it then that means I figured something out!