Location:
Hawksbill Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
Position:
N 24 28.073 W 076 46.170
Our
plan to head down to the eastern Caribbean this season was
interrupted by several sequential equipment failures. Once we
finally dealt with the last of these, we experienced a few weeks of
southeasterly winds, not the right direction. Kind of took the wind
out of our sails, so to speak. These issues conspired with others to
“assist” us in making the decision not to head further south then
the Bahamas. Instead we've chosen to head back to the US for
hurricane season (July – October).
Because
we want to maximize our stay here in these beautiful islands, we're
not really in any big hurry to get back. So we're dawdling our way
up the Exuma chain of islands, stopping at some of our favourite
spots and exploring some new ones.
Bitter Guana Cay, for example. We hadn't been here before, but we'd have friends who say that it's not to be missed – they were right! The whole island is a preserve for the increasingly rare Exuma Iguana. We enjoyed some good walks and spotted lots of these endangered lizards. The largest are reportedly 28lbs and live to be 80 years old! We saw a few of the really big ones, but no pictures as they were far too wary and fast for our trigger fingers!
On
the advice of other friends, we stopped at an anchorage off the north
end of Pipe Cay. We were all alone here, it was wonderful scenery
and a welcome break! We spent our time here taking walks on the
beaches and just sitting looking out at the beautiful Bahama water
and the stunning sunsets
Then
there's our perennial favorite, Cambridge Cay. This is, for us, like
Cumberland Island in Georgia. A place we never seem to get enough
of. If you remember we've been mooring hosts here a couple of times
beginning with our first year out. Since then we always like to stop
in and check (and maintain, to some degree) the trail we cleared 5
years ago to Honeymoon Beach (has it really been that long?).
Snorkeling and swimming in our favorite saltwater swimming pool (the
blue hole near our trail head) we also got to see a giant sea turtle
with 2 ramoras upside down on it's back...way cool!
At
Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea
Park, we visited the south anchorage for the first time. What a
beautiful spot! We came in with 15-20 knots of wind and 3-5 ft. seas
from the SE – a lumpy but fun sail nearly dead downwind. Once we
made the turn into the mooring field, it was like a lake – flat
calm and absolutely beautiful. We were the only boat there – what
a treat! On a whim we hiked all the way up the island to park HQ and
back down again. Not that far in distance (only about 1.5 miles each
way), but the 5-hour walk with all the clambering up and down over
rocks, walking in soft sand, and negotiating the winding turns of the
trail, felt like we'd walked 10 miles!! After the walk, dinner and a
nice, relaxing evening on Rachel were just what the doctor ordered.
Our
last stop was Hawksbill Cay, we'd been here before but wanted to
spend more time exploring. We would go for a long walk in the
morning, before it got too hot. We managed to do a different section
of the island each day and discovered hidden trails that we did not
know existed. Now we know we can circumnavigate the whole southern
half of the island in one walk. Back to Rachel for lunch each day, a
bit of a read then off again to snorkel and swim during the hot
afternoons.
