Location: Cambridge Cay, Exumas
Position: N24 18.185 W076 32.418
Rachel spends the last couple of days bouncing around on the mooring at Warderick Wells as southwesterly winds push some seas into this normally quiet anchorage.
Rachel’s crew elects to spend much of this time ashore, walking the island’s beautiful and well-maintained trails. These trails wander across the island and around its perimeter, a study in contrasts. One moment we find ourselves walking through sere and bizarrely shaped sandstone formations, watching our steps as we avoid vertical holes tens of feet deep, crevices, and sharp unstable rocks. We have to concentrate on our footing so much that we must stop walking just to look around. The next moment, we’re on a smooth, sandy path that winds its way through palms and palmettos to the beach. We get a bit hot in the sun, and then we’re on a shady path winding its way through the mangrove forest with a lovely breeze cooling us.
On the rocky seaward shore we find a few small beaches and an undocumented blowhole in the rocks that spews mist high into the air and huffs like a whale. We also find driftwood, shells (none of which we take, as it’s against park rules to remove anything), and unfortunately, loads of plastic. We’re amazed and disappointed to find shoes, bottles, pieces of siding, toys, packing crate bits, buckets, you name it - if it’s made of plastic it can probably be found here. We make a half-hearted effort to clean some of it up, piling it near where the path enters the shore, but it’s really frustrating – the one blemish on an otherwise pristine island – and there’s so much of it.
We manage to cover nearly all the trails during our stay except for a couple of short stretches on the seaward side. We see hardly anyone else – during these walks it’s almost like we have the island to ourselves.
The wind shifts overnight and things are much calmer on Valentine’s Day morning, allowing us to get the dinghy up in the davits with relative ease. We slip the mooring and, after clearing some shallows and a few rocks, shut off the engine and have a nice, leisurely sail south to Cambridge Cay. Our first non-motorsail for months!! The approach to Cambridge Cay requires us to round Bell Island through a pass between rocks to starboard and a sandbar to port – it seems barely wider than the boat and we’re relieved when we pass through and see nothing shallower than 11 feet.
We pick up a mooring and are greeted by the park warden who comes by to tell us about our responsibilities as the new volunteer mooring hosts. Two other boats show up for the night. We practice our routine with them, collecting their fees, and making sure they tie off to the moorings properly and know the park rules. We invite them over for a Valentines Day dessert after dinner (chocolate fudge cake – yum – what a treat!) and have a wonderful evening getting to know each other. Both of these boats have sailed the Bahamas for years and are a fund of stories and information for us.
Sitting in paradise,
Position: N24 18.185 W076 32.418
Rachel spends the last couple of days bouncing around on the mooring at Warderick Wells as southwesterly winds push some seas into this normally quiet anchorage.
Rachel’s crew elects to spend much of this time ashore, walking the island’s beautiful and well-maintained trails. These trails wander across the island and around its perimeter, a study in contrasts. One moment we find ourselves walking through sere and bizarrely shaped sandstone formations, watching our steps as we avoid vertical holes tens of feet deep, crevices, and sharp unstable rocks. We have to concentrate on our footing so much that we must stop walking just to look around. The next moment, we’re on a smooth, sandy path that winds its way through palms and palmettos to the beach. We get a bit hot in the sun, and then we’re on a shady path winding its way through the mangrove forest with a lovely breeze cooling us.
On the rocky seaward shore we find a few small beaches and an undocumented blowhole in the rocks that spews mist high into the air and huffs like a whale. We also find driftwood, shells (none of which we take, as it’s against park rules to remove anything), and unfortunately, loads of plastic. We’re amazed and disappointed to find shoes, bottles, pieces of siding, toys, packing crate bits, buckets, you name it - if it’s made of plastic it can probably be found here. We make a half-hearted effort to clean some of it up, piling it near where the path enters the shore, but it’s really frustrating – the one blemish on an otherwise pristine island – and there’s so much of it.
We manage to cover nearly all the trails during our stay except for a couple of short stretches on the seaward side. We see hardly anyone else – during these walks it’s almost like we have the island to ourselves.
The wind shifts overnight and things are much calmer on Valentine’s Day morning, allowing us to get the dinghy up in the davits with relative ease. We slip the mooring and, after clearing some shallows and a few rocks, shut off the engine and have a nice, leisurely sail south to Cambridge Cay. Our first non-motorsail for months!! The approach to Cambridge Cay requires us to round Bell Island through a pass between rocks to starboard and a sandbar to port – it seems barely wider than the boat and we’re relieved when we pass through and see nothing shallower than 11 feet.
We pick up a mooring and are greeted by the park warden who comes by to tell us about our responsibilities as the new volunteer mooring hosts. Two other boats show up for the night. We practice our routine with them, collecting their fees, and making sure they tie off to the moorings properly and know the park rules. We invite them over for a Valentines Day dessert after dinner (chocolate fudge cake – yum – what a treat!) and have a wonderful evening getting to know each other. Both of these boats have sailed the Bahamas for years and are a fund of stories and information for us.
Sitting in paradise,
