Position: N24 18.185 W076 32.418
We’re finally going to leave Cambridge Cay and the Exuma Park today, although we’re really drawn to stay, too. We have loved our time here but there are so many other beautiful spots that we don’t want to miss. The fact that we haven’t done laundry for a month is weighing high on the decision also!! Our next stop will be Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay.
The trail that we revitalized here is looking great. It’s now well marked and easy to walk. We’ve had lots of positive comments from users, some of whom have started calling it “The Rachel Trail”!
We’ve organized several happy hours on various beaches. The most memorable one, however, was a dinghy raft up. Everyone dinghied over to one of the vacant moorings and we all tied up together. About 10 or 12 dinghies rafted up and we all brought our own drinks and snacks. We spent a couple of lovely hours chatting and watching the 2 resident bull sharks swimming around right below us. The sharks like to come around the anchorage every afternoon at around 4:00 pm - they are about 6 feet long! At one point someone on a boat nearby jumped into the water and started to swim by his boat. We all shouted “Sharks!!” As soon as he hit the water the sharks took off over toward him. His daughter on deck looked over, saw the sharks coming, and yelled at him. He looked pretty motivated as he leapt back aboard his boat!
We often wondered where the sharks go during the day, as we’ve never seen them before 4:00 pm. The day after the dinghy raft up, Julie and some friends found out. They went to snorkel at a reef on the edge of the anchorage that was reputed to be quite pretty. They had been in the water for 20 minutes or so when Julie turned around and found herself face to face with one of the bull sharks! She kept her cool and knew that flailing around was worse than staying calm. She slowly lifted her head above the water and screamed “There’s a shark over here!” She then swam back over to the dinghy without splashing around. It’s funny - every other time she’s clambered back into the dinghy it’s been a bit of an ordeal – sort of a “beached walrus” effort. This time, however, she levitated right up into it in one fluid motion – it must have been that motivation thing, again. Luckily no-one was hurt. She and our friends dinghied over to the trail where Mark was working and we all had a nice walk to calm down. The park warden said these sharks don’t usually bother anyone, but, gosh, you’d sure hate to be the first one, eh?
A cold front has moved into the Exumas and it’s turned a bit chilly. We got up this morning and had to put on long sleeves! We looked at the thermometer and saw it was only 71 degrees F (about 21 C) – no wonder we felt cold! Brrr!!! We just know you all must feel really sorry for us
Slipping the mooring and moving on,
