EXUMA PARK

We left Big Majors Spot not knowing where we’d end up that night. We were looking for a quiet calm anchorage and found it at Cambridge Cay inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The anchorage here at Cambridge Cay is one of the loveliest spots we’ve encountered in the last five months. We are anchored in 12 ft and the bottom sand looks like it is only one ft deep.

After dropping the hook we dinghied over to a snorkeling spot called the Aquarium. The fish were waiting for us at the little pick-up ball. This area is reported to have some of the clearest water in the world and we believe it. We swam around multiple coral heads covered with healthy elkhorn, brain coral, sponges and sea fans. The Exuma Park is a “no take” zone allowing the native wildlife safe haven and replenishment.

STANIEL CAY - EXUMAS

Eight days in Georgetown enabled us to see town (a 30 min walk), shop for tee shirts (one store), groceries, and the beach where all the cruisers meet for volleyball and their daily potluck happy hours. I would not want to spend several months there as some do.

Finally, the 30 knot winds let up and we headed north to Little Farmer’s Cay. The water depths on the Bahamas Banks are under 10 feet and our route took us over some 7 ft spots (that is a mere 18 inches under the keel). We anchored just inside a “cut” that separates the deep Atlantic and the shallow banks. A strong current develops in these cuts as all the tidal water on the banks flows “off the shelf” so to speak. We needed two anchors and rotated all night with each tide change.

Yesterday, we traveled just 3 hours to Staniel Cay, spot of the renowned Thunderball Grotto, a spectacular skylit underwater cave featured in the James Bond movie. This was our first good snorkeling spot since the BVI and we went prepared for the fish with Alpo nuggets in a ziplock. The fish were plentiful and encircled us waiting for the handouts. They did not wait patiently as they acted like piranhas chomping the ziplock to shreds. We took underwater photos but cannot get the film developed until we are back in the States.

We traveled just 2 miles to Big Majors Spot and Pig Beach. As you approach the beach in your dinghy, pigs swim out begging for handouts. We may go back and empty the snack locker of some old stale Oreos.

Don and Dayle

GEORGETOWN, BAHAMAS

Our first stop north after Clarence Town was Conception Island. Since we had Clarence Town harbor all to ourselves we were under the mistaken impression that we’d have Conception Island to ourselves. Not so, there were 20 sailboats anchored in the harbor. This lovely little Island is protected by the Bahamas National Park and is pristine. The water is so clear it’s like looking in your bathtub with a layer of sand on the bottom. Unfortunately there was a lot of blight in the coral heads and not many tropical fish remain.

Don cleaned the bottom of our boat using his scuba gear. Later on in the afternoon we took a photo of one of two sharks swimming under the boat, where Don had been just an hour earlier!!

We are currently anchored off Sand Dollar Beach, Georgetown, Exumas. The Exumas are a chain of over 300 islands in the middle of the Bahamas chain. Georgetown sits on the Tropic of Cancer and as we head north we will officially be out of the tropics. Although the daytime sun feels just as hot, the nights are cooler and the water temperature is a noticeable 5 degrees cooler.

Georgetown is nicknamed “chicken harbor” as many cruisers lose interest in heading the additional 700 miles to the Caribbean and spend the rest of the winter here. Apparently 400 cruisers were here at its peak but now many have started their return to the states.

Don and Dayle

TURKS AND CAICOS

Dolphins greeted Phantom as we entered Boqueron Harbor on the western coast of Puerto Rico. It was fun to watch them play in our bow wave for about a mile before they swam off.

Boqueron is a common arrival and departure port for cruisers traveling to/from the Dominican Republic through the Mona Passage. The strong equatorial currents traveling in deep water hit shallow reefs causing the seas to churn. We are skipping the DR and heading the 325 miles direct to the Turks and Caicos Islands. We left Boqueron Tuesday March 30th at sunset and headed northwest up and over the Mona Passage. It was like being in a washing machine! The seas were coming from all directions at once. After we cleared the passage and were north of the DR the seas calmed down a bit. Wednesday was a comfortable sea day. Thursday at 2 am the seas got nasty again. North swells and a wind chop were accompanied by 20 kts of wind out of the north. That lasted till our 5 pm arrival here at Cockburn Harbor, South Caicos Island. It was wonderful to finally drop the hook in calm water and sleep a while. The trip from Boqueron was exactly 48 hrs traveling at approximately 6.6 kts. In the last five days we have traveled 400 miles, from Salinas PR to South Caicos.

The Turks and Caicos are a British Crown Colony and are part of an Atlantic shelf formed millions of years ago and are low lying very dry islands. The Caicos Bank is more than 60 miles across and 50 miles wide. Surrounding these islands are steep walls dropping thousands of feet to the ocean bottom. There is a sharp transition of color, from the deep purple blue to the bright aqua marine, as the depth changes from 20,000 ft to 30 ft on the Caicos Bank. The water here is much clearer and a “Bright” aqua blue. Photos just don’t do it justice.

We spent an afternoon ashore to stretch our legs and get on the internet. At one point in it’s history, salt was a major export, but storms have all but destroyed the salt flats. Now the only industry is fishing. We managed to take a photo of a flock of Pink Flamingos standing on the flats. There really isn’t much to see here, the tradewinds are too strong for snorkeling and the reef is too far away to take the dinghy. The highest point of land is only 250 ft above sea level.

Saturday we motored 60 miles northwest, to the most western of the Caicos Islands to Providenciales (Provo), around numerous reefs and coral heads and on into Sapodilla Bay for a couple of nights. Our buddy boat and us agreed to leave and head for the Bahamas before another weather front hit that would have kept us from leaving for another week. Going northwest to Long Island, Bahamas would bring us north of the bad weather. Or so we thought…..

The trip to Long Isl would take 28 hrs. We cleared out of customs and sailed out of Sapodilla Bay at 10 a.m. As soon as we rounded north of the Caicos the high seas and 20 kts of wind hit us to starboard. By night fall the seas built up even higher with spray washing over the pilot house. We pitched and rolled all night. There would be no sleeping on the settee. So we set up a mattress on the salon floor where we “tried” to sleep. The mattress slid across the floor with each pitch and roll so we had to hang on to the mattress to keep from rolling off.

We arrived in Clarencetown, Long Island at 1:30 in the afternoon. This passage was far worse than the notorious Mona Passage. We should not need to make any more over night passages from now on until we cross the Gulf Stream off Florida. Since we are at the bottom of the Bahama chain we still have many more islands to explore that are simple day trips. With the hard work behind us now we can take our time and enjoy the rest of our cruise.

This is a picture of our anchorage on Long Island.

Don & Dayle