1/24/2009 I checked out of the marina, cleared our passage with Nassau Harbor Control and off we went to explore the Exumas for the next week or so. We have a few light goals on this trip. We want to eat fresh fish every night for dinner and get two snorkel trips in a day. We had a light wind as we left the harbor that was about 35 degrees off of the bow of the boat. It was a tight reach and we were making about 5 knots. We left the harbor with another Seawind. It is called Imagine and it is the larger boat.
They raised their main sail after we had our sails set. I kept watching as the pulled away from us faster and faster. As the day went on, the winds began to build and clock more out of the north with allowed us to crack off the sails a little and go straight for our destination of Allans Cay. We started to build into the 6 knots, 7 knots and starting 8 knots as we approached the cay. I had predicted that we would anchor at 3:30. I was wrong, we anchored at 3:40. The guys are amazed at the beauty of the water. I will include some pictures on the blog, but I guess you need to be here to really believe it. As for our goals, we did catch one fish today. It was some form of a jack that we filleted for dinner tonight and Cliff did go for a snorkel after
we dropped the anchor.Titus and I jumped in the dinghy to go over and meet the couple on the Seawind that we left Nassau with. When we made it down to their boat, they had already taken off in the dinghy for some exploring. We headed off for a little beach where a lot of cruisers are hanging out. It turns out that this is one of the high lights of this cay. There are iguanas all over the little island and they come down the beach for hand outs. While we there, we met Jim and Liz. They are the owners of the Seawind. It turns out they were motor-sailing in the light airs and that is how they pulled away so fast.
1/25/2009 Good morning. What to do? Do we eat breakfast or go for a snorkel. Cliff cooked up some pancakes for us. Fantastic job. We cleaned up and into the flippers we
went. This cay is actually and few cays with channels between them. The bottom is real interesting as the sand stacks up like a sand dune due to the currents running through here. As we started to swim along the wall we saw some great live coral and plenty of fish. I did take pictures with a film camera and I hope to show these after they are developed. After a game of cards and some lunch, we pulled the anchor and sailed away from Allans Cay heading for Normans Cay.There is a little bit of history at Normans Cay. Probably its most famous for being a major compound for a drug lord in the 70s when the Columbians were shipping cocaine into the US. We had great winds from the northeast so we were able to set the spinnaker and make 8 knots the whole way down. As we were closing in on our destination, the water began to get very shallow. There was nothing on the charts that indicated this. We dropped the spinnaker as fast as possible and eye-balled our way through the maze. We had come within less than a foot of water under the keel.
After making it safely to the anchorage, we set off in the dinghy. There is supposed to be a sunken plane somewhere around this island. We made it into a back lagoon and started looking around. We could not find anything so we went ashore to do a little bit of hiking. We found the drug lord’s compound. It is all falling apart. We also walked down a road looking for the old runway. We found a dump. I guess they have trash in the Bahamas also. After no luck on the shore we were heading back to the boat when we stop and asked another cruiser is he knew where the plane was. He pointed to something sticking out of the water on the other side of the lagoon. There she is.
As we were motoring over to the plane, we spotted sting rays swimming below us. Cliff would put on his mask and stick his head over the front of the dinghy like if a poor man’s glass bottom boat. He thought it was the coolest thing he ever saw. We made it over to the plane and dropped the dinghy anchor. Into the water we went. There was a strong current against us as we swam towards what was left of the plane. It was an old DC-3. A lot of the main body was still there with the wings still intact with both engines and most of the prop blades. The tail section had fallen off as was lying next to the plane. There were many small fish around the plane. It has amazed me that I haven’t seen any large fish like barracuda or sharks when I have been in the water.
After we swam around the plane for awhile, we made it back into the dinghy and were heading back to the boat. We then saw the sting rays again. Titus then did the mask and snorkel trick this time. After a few more sightings they told me to try it. I put on my mask and just went right into the water. The sting ray is a beautiful graceful ocean flyer. As I watched the ray swim away, it never had to flap its wings once. It just glided along like an eagle on a thermal. Well today we got in our two snorkels, but no fish. I was afraid we would catch something with the spinnaker up. I would not have been able to slow the boat down.
01/26/2009 Today we headed off to Warderick Wells. It is the headquarters for the Exuma Land and Sea Park. This park is a Bahamas National Park. The waters sailing along are just incredible. The different shades of blue always put me in a state of awe. We needed to check in early in the morning with Exuma Park to arrange a mooring for the night. They have a real good system in setting up moorings for the cruisers. You can put in your reservation up to two days in advance. First thing in the morning they check in with any boaters that expect to leave that day and then ask for requests for the day. They then take about a fifteen minute break and then come back on the air and provide assignments for the day. They were able to accommodate us. After we had our reservation with the park, we set off and had a great sail. I have never before experienced the winds I have in the last month. It has been almost non-stop, day and night. We did not need the spinnaker and we were sti
ll hitting 8 knots with a reaching wind. When we came to the channel to head east into the park, we had to tack the boat all of the way up. It is good to have crew that is willing, can and want to work on the boat. We were able to sail the whole way to the anchorage, into the wind.After getting the boat set up on the mooring, we headed to the park office to find out what there is to do in the park. We had to dinghy about three quarters of a mile to the office. The park consists of many islands, but it appeared that most of the activity is based here. This is a picture of the north mooring field, located directly off of the park office. We were located in the south mooring field. There
are over four miles of hiking trails and several areas for snorkeling. Today we headed off to check out the Boo-Boo trail. This trail took us on a loop around the northern and central part of the cay. This trail took us through a low basin and up the hill to a couple blow holes. We were there at low tide, so there was no water in the basin and the blow holes only had air blowing through them as the
ocean side must have been too high for water based on the low tide.We then headed sout
h and came across the highest point of the cay. Located there is a place that the park allows cruisers to leave a low impact reminder that they have been there. It is mostly driftwood with etchings or carvings listing the boat and sometimes crew. Pictured here is one of them. If you check out the rest of my blog, you will notice the Slapdash insignia. From there we hiked down to the ocean side beach and across the cay back to the office and dinghy. This was a day to shake off the sea legs for a change.01/27/2009 This morning we set off to check out some snorkeling areas. The first was a rock near our mooring. It has some shear walls and a few coral heads located around it. There were conch, star fish and many different types of little fish. I still have not seen any large fish. That is probably due to the shallow water. We then headed towards the office again. The map showed a snorkel area in the channel at the office. The tide was going out with a heavy current. I stayed in the dinghy and let Cliff and Titus drift in the current and I flowed them in the dinghy. They saw a turtle and a couple of rays. We then made it back to the boat and raised the sails.
Today we are heading off to Pipe Cay. It claimed of fame in the cruisers guide is that it has the clearest water in the world. We had another great three hour sail making our way to the cay. We worked our way through the shallows and found a place to drop the anchor. We shared this whole area with one other boat. I am sure they weren’t too happy when we disturbed their perfect anchorage. We jumped in the dinghy with our snorkel gear and headed off to find some areas to do some swimming. We found an area that had some great structure and plenty of fish. I would agree with the description of the clearest water I have ever seen. It was like looking into a very clean aquarium. It is just incredible. We then moved around to different areas looking for small reefs to dive on. We found large hermit crabs taking over conch shells as their home. We also saw many fish and three squid. This is a beautiful setting and I believe I could stay here for a week.
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