Destination Exumas

Destination Exumas - January 2013

Having arrived in the Bahamas a month later than usual we took the first weather opportunity to head for the Exuma island chain. We left the Sunrise Resort and Marina at 4 AM armed with our mega flashlight to light up the narrow channel that took us back out to the Northwest Providence Channel.

 The rock lined channel is very intimidating in the dark. You can never be sure if the lights on the markers are working or not.

The Northwest Providence Channel is a major shipping lane between the US and the Bahamas and other destinations to the east. We saw several large cruise ships, container ships and other cargo vessels. We were actually thanked by one of the ships for having an AIS system on board as they needed to ask us change course due to their limited space to manoever.

Empties returning to the US to get more supplies for the islands.

In 60 feet of water I could see little starfish on the bottom as we rounded the Berry Island group. We were truly back in the Bahamas. We had fishing lines out but both of the nibbles we got spit the hooks out before Tom could bring them on board.

Sea clouds.

Prior to leaving Lucaya in the wee hours of the morning another cruiser had hung a note on our life line asking if we would retrieve a jacket from the Clapboard Café where they thought it had been left behind. We would be passing by the Berry Islands where they were going to be anchored for a few days and would come out to pick it up from us.

 Rendezvous at sea. The errant jacket was passed off to its owner’s dinghy of Hoffmans Cay.

Sunset over the Berry Islands.

It was dark when we set our course for Goulding Cay, just off of the west end of New Providence Island. The city lights of Nassau were visible 30 miles away.

We had intended to round the corner at New Providence and continue in the dark along the south side of the island to arrive at Normans Cay in the morning. We had marked some coral heads on our chart plotter two years ago for the planned route but could not remember if there were any other hazards that we needed to watch for. As the winds were light we decided to wait until daylight before proceeding across the Exuma Bank. The south side of New Providence is not an ideal anchorage and we ended up with our anchor and chain mostly in a heap on the rocky bottom. We were a long ways from land and would have to drag quite a distance before it would cause us any problems. As it turned out we could have travelled all night as there were no hazards until we neared the Exuma Islands.

A conch gathering team. The diver in the water brings the conch up from the bottom and passes them to the driver. The water is only about 12 feet deep.

An inter-island work boat.

We passed Normans and dropped the anchor at Shroud Cay for the night and a refreshing swim. Shroud Cay is also part of the Land and Sea Park and a spot that we want to revisit.

A private island near Shroud Cay.

When we reached the park headquarters on Warderick Wells there was a ‘to do’ list waiting for Tom. What started out as a three night stop turned into a week.

 Beached dinghies at the full moon party.