I am going to take a minute away from our chronicles to tell you
about an odd (interesting?) happening. I have reported on this before, but it
has been a while. A friend of mine notified me that I had lost another friend’s
e-mail address. He jokingly attributed it to the Russians – as we both
frequently do; we are among those, you see, who remember the “old days.” Well,
Jeff may have been joking, but it caused me to take a look at the statistics
that we keep on who is reading my blog. This is just for the month of February.
See anything interesting? So, if there are any misspellings or other errors of
fact in the blog entry for this month, it is probably because the Russians are
trying to plant false news about the Bahamas. Who knows, maybe the Russians,
the Ukrainians and the Canadians are plotting something. I’m just sayin’.
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United States
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460
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Russia
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126
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Bahamas
|
32
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Canada
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26
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Ireland
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10
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Portugal
|
4
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France
|
3
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United Kingdom
|
2
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Ukraine
|
2
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Australia
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1
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Ann and I both love the Exumas. The problem is that other
people are finding it too. When we started coming here six years ago there were
far fewer people and a lot less boats. We are sitting here on one of the
islands, for example, where a few years ago there would have been three or four
boats with us; today, I counted fifteen. It is still better than sitting at
home in Maryland watching the snow fall, or coming into Nassau on a cruise ship
with over a thousand of our best friends.
At any rate, the first island at which we usually stop in
the Exumas is Highbourne Cay. The night we arrived we had lobster tales that
Ann had bought a week or two ago at Great Harbor to celebrate both Valentine’s
Day and our arrival in the Exumas. I love, love, love lobster and the meal was
scrumptious.
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| One of the many views from the restaurant. It looks like this for 180 degrees. |
As you might expect from a name like “Highbourne” the folks
on the Cay are kind of snooty. At the Highbourne Cay Marina, for example, you
will, at any one time, find at least four or five 100+ foot yachts and their
crews. So, I know you are asking why we stop there. Well, there is this
restaurant (isn’t there always?). It is called Xuma, and it has both delicious food,
and a view to die for. The night we went, I asked for and received lightly
blackened Mahi and Ann had, what they called “Shrimp and Grits,” which was
really more like seafood and grits. We both loved our meals. Now, we have eaten
there before and it is one of those places where you marvel at the view, enjoy
your cocktails, savor your meal and then close your eyes and sign the check.
The two of us dropped about two bills (c’mon, it’s only 1/5 of a boat unit). We
can’t and don’t do it too often but, hey, we intrepid explorers have to eat
too!
I know, I know. Here I told you how few provisions there
were in the Exumas and how we were metaphorically going to live off the land;
then I told you about an extraordinary dining experience. Well, Highbourne is
actually the last outpost of civilization for quite a distance and while they
have a great restaurant, you couldn’t survive off the food they have in their
little “7-11 type” convenience store. After two days there we were off to
Norman’s Cay.
Norman’s has an interesting recent history. If you remember –
or have heard of – the drug lord Carlos Lehder of the Medellin Cartel, then you
have heard of Norman’s Cay. He owned most of the island and treated it as his
personal fiefdom. He lived there, transshipped drugs there, kept a ton or so of
cocaine as his emergency stash, paid off the police and generally treated the
island as his own. Eventually, the combined forces of the DEA, the US Coast
Guard and the Bahamian Defense Force kicked Lehder off the island and took it
back. You can still see his shot-up house, and the remains of the “Hotel” where
he kept his guests. Nowadays they are expanding and rebuilding the airport and
rebuilding a small resort to help the island recover.
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| Monique, the lunch waitress and bartender at Mc Duff's, showing off her bar. |
Afterwards, we took the dinghy around most of the perimeter
of Norman’s. We saw the south side anchorage where they are rebuilding the
marina. The anchorage, itself, we decided, was way too rolly for our tastes in
east winds – though it might be great with winds from the north or west – so we
decided to stay where we were. There is a sunken plane in the anchorage that
some folks snorkel, and there are some interesting houses on Wax Cay just to
the south. We had visited before Norman’s before, of course, but things are
changing – not very rapidly, mind you – nothing changes rapidly in the Bahamas –
but changing nonetheless.
For those of you who are interested in our boating
procedures, I should mention that we have made a change in the way we travel
between islands. In years past, we have lowered our dinghy every time we
arrived at a new place; we then raised it when we were ready to leave. When we
were young 60 year old whipper-snappers it wasn’t THAT hard. Now that we are … let’s
just say 60+ … it is getting more and more difficult. As a result, we have
decided to use a side-tow technique when we are moving between islands that are
close together. A side-tow is exactly what it sounds like. We place a fender on
the dinghy’s side, tie the bow of the dinghy to one of our forward cleats and
the stern to one of our aft cleats. Why on the side rather than off the stern
like many people do? With two 550 horsepower motors, we make quite a
disturbance in the water. Since almost all the dinghy’s weight is in its stern,
when we tow it behind the boat, I am always afraid that it will flip and we
will be out a chunk of money (to say nothing of the dink). There is very little
disturbance on the side of the boat and I feel a lot more comfortable towing it
there.
At any rate, we towed the dinghy from Norman’s to one of our
favorite Exuma islands, Shroud Cay. Shroud is part of the Exuma Land and
Sea Park. The Park, established in 1958, is one of 25 National Parks and
Protected Areas managed by the Bahamas National Trust. Unique in the world, the
Trust is the only non-profit, non-governmental agency mandated with management
of a nationwide system of parks and protected areas. In 1986, The Trust established
Exuma Park as a complete NO TAKE ZONE and marine protected area, the first in
the wider Caribbean. Ok, some of that is extracted from one of the many
pamphlets we have on the park, but you get the idea.
We arrived at Shroud and dropped our anchor at about midday on 16
Feb. In the past we have taken a mooring ball, instead of anchoring, but with
two rate increases in the past few years mooring balls are getting way too
expensive. Moreover, we got there at the wrong time of day. The entrance (and
exit) to the best sights at Shroud are very shallow. When the tide is ebbing, it
is very difficult to get in or out. We learned that lesson a few years ago when
we journeyed into the river during ebb tide. By the time we got back, the water
was barely a few inches deep and we almost got stuck there for the night; it
was only the vast muscle power of a couple of intrepid explorers that lifted
the dinghy enough to get past the shallows. We weren’t going to do that again.
This time we decided to wait until the tide was coming in.
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| The view from Camp Driftwood, high above Shroud Cay. |
Shroud is about 4 miles x 2 miles and is kind of a
mini-archipelago. Although they are actually connections between the Exuma Bank
and Exuma Sound (the shallow side and the ocean deep side), thin veins of water
seem as if they are rivers cutting deep into and through the mangroves. The
“rivers” are about ten feet deep (except for the mouth – see below) and in the
gin-clear Bahamian waters, you can see rays, turtles, fish and various kinds of
birds. On our trip this time, we saw several kinds of fish, a number of birds
that we had not seen before, a good-sized turtle swimming in the water and a
ray. When it is hot – and it wasn’t hot when we went through this time – you
kind of feel like Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in African Queen. “Mr. Allnut,”
I expected to hear, “don’t you think it is a bit hot today?” Ok, Ok, maybe not,
but the trip down the “river” is spectacular. Then when you reach the Sound
(ocean) side, you are welcomed with a beautiful beach. About 100 feet above the
beach is Camp Driftwood, where, according to various stories, DEA agents observed
Norman’s Cay and captured the tail numbers of the Medellin Cartel airplanes
taking off from and landing at Norman’s Cay.
At any rate we finished exploring Shroud on the 17th.
Now we had a dilemma. We had planned on moving down to one of two spots in the
Land and Sea Park and spending a couple of nights there. One, at Cambridge Cay
we had visited before and enjoyed. The other, Pirate’s Lair, we had only
visited once several years ago and thought it might be fun to go back. The
problem was that the wind was due to pick up significantly in the next couple
of days. We needed to determine not what we wanted to do over the next 24 or 48
hours, but where we wanted to spend the next week or so. While the Park
locations would have been great for a little while, we were not sure we wanted
to send a week there. So, we opted for Big Major Spot.
We have stayed in Big Major Spot before. You might remember it as
the home of the Bahamas’ famous swimming
pigs. For us, it is primarily a big anchorage with solid protection from the
east, and some from the south, with sand that holds your anchor in place almost
regardless of the wind speed. The reason we chose Big Major Spot is that is
costs nothing – the Parks mooring balls cost us over $50 per night (I know,
right?) – plus we have some good friends, Bill and Regina, aboard their boat Meant2B. In addition, there are maybe 50
boats here and we thought we might be able to meet other people.
We arrived at Big Major Spot and the first thing we tried to do
was go to the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (SCYC). Like McDuff’s this is kind of like
a classic ex-pats bar. The difference is that SCYC is (almost) the real thing.
I say “almost” because it used to be the real thing, but in recent years has
become busy, very busy with boaters, yachties and tourists of all stripes; I
don’t think there is an ex-pat anywhere in the neighborhood. The place really
has quite a history. In fact, the famous Grotto from the James Bond movie, Thunderball is located near the Yacht
Club AND they actually have pictures of the Thunderball film crew in the bar. I don’t know why “Bond, James
Bond,” himself isn’t pictured. He must have been putting on his tuxedo.
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| The increasingly famous swimming pigs at Big Major. |
You will notice that in the first sentence I said we TRIED to
visit the yacht club. Well, the wind made the chop so bad that the trip was
untenable, so we dropped in to see our friends Bill and Regina, who, this year
had their daughter’s best friend’s son (I think I have that right) Matt with
them. We have known Bill, Regina and Matt since we first met them in Nassau
several years ago and have kept track of them ever since. They had us over for
a drink that, with Bill’s great Greek cooking, turned into dinner. Other than
that, we made a dinghy tour of the anchorage and some of the areas nearby that
are out of the wind, learned the meaning of the term cerulean and why it is
important in the Bahamas specifically and the Caribbean more generally, and we
waited.
Well, that just about catches you up. We are now sitting about 10
miles south of Big Major at Black Point, but we will tell you about our time
here in the next entry.
Ann’s Notes: I really do not have much to add to the blog. It has
been windy and the water in the protected anchorages has been good
holding. Trying to venture out of the protected
waters means you get very wet in the dinghy. Most of you know that I am not a
fan of salt water and I am much happier when it is not on me. Fresh water pools are my preference … thank
you very much. Just to be clear, I like walking on the beach and I look forward
to rinsing the sand off my feet when I get back. Just saying.
Spot has been enjoying her free time on the bow of Traveling Soul
while we are at anchor. She follows the sun during the day, like a small
sunflower, always wanting to be in the sun, silly little feline that she is.
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| Official Guard Cat Spot, patrolling the kayak, looking for prey. |
It was so good to visit Bill and Regina and Matt once again. They were
out of country for two years, Bill took a job in Egypt. They kept their boat in
Titusville FL while they were gone. Meant2B
is up and cruising again, and receiving visitors. They have more friends and
family visit than most cruisers I know. If they would stop being so nice … just
kidding.
I have been busy with a few cross stitch projects, reading and a
few new recipes. We finished watching the full TV series of Burn Notice and are
now watching Northern Exposure, it case you were wondering what we are watching
after dinner.
That is about all for now.
Traveling Soul…OUT
Sounds absolutely wonderful!!!!!
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