Northern Exumas

We are having an amazing time in the Exumas.  We have been off the grid for more than a week and it has been fabulous.  Most mornings we are up early listening to the weather on the SSB and doing schoolwork.  After lunch we play, and after we play we typically cook up something that we caught or found during the day.  And then we end the day with a sharp card game, usually poker or hearts. 

We left Nassau last Monday and headed to Norman's Cay and arrived after a much longer than expected sail across the Yellow Bank and it's scattered coral heads.  We found a beautiful, quiet empty anchorage on the West side of the island and spent two days all by ourselves, exploring, fishing (Win caught a nice Bar Jack that we cooked up for dinner), paddle-boarding and recovering from "it" -- our pneumonia friend.  Sam battled a return of his fever and we decided to stay in the area for a few days until he improved and we were certain that we were not going to head back to the Dr. in Nassau.  On Wednesday we moved around to the south side of the island for two days and anchored in a cut that heads out to Exuma Sound.  The island used to be the base of Colombian drug runner Carlos Leder during the heyday of drug trading in the area.  It's mostly abandoned now, littered with bullet riddled buildings and home to an old plane wreck in the cut that we anchored in.  We spent two days gunk holing with the inflatable, spear fishing and conching.  The remoteness and colors of the water are hard to describe.  Sam caught his first bonefish of the trip and Ben hooked and lost a few others! 

After Norman's we moved to Cambridge Cay in the Exuma Land and Sea Park.  The islands and reefs are completely protected from fishing, conching, and shelling -- it's amazing what happens when nature is left alone!  From our mooring we explored north and south of the Cay for three days.  We snorkeled into big caves at Rocky Dundas, swam over beautiful coral gardens, hiked on high limestone cliffs, walked up a dry mangrove creek, and swam in the "sea aquarium", where fish swim right up to your mask.  One highlight was Ben spotting a Barn Owl tucked in a nook in the rocky cliffs above Exuma Sound.  After we watched it for a bit, it took off and soared up and over our heads.  Not something you expect to see in the Bahamas!  Another highlight was watching the sharks that cruised by the boat during the evenings, including a huge bull shark that hung off our transom a few times. On Saturday night we went to a sunset pot-luck on a small island with lots of interesting fellow cruisers.

On Monday we left Cambridge and sailed south to Big Majors Spot, where we were promised a visit with feral swimming pigs -- yes, swimming pigs!  Before dinner we took a quick trip to the beach with some rotten apples and much to our delight we were greeted by a half-dozen very large pigs that swim our from the beach to get hand-outs from passing cruisers.  All was fun and very silly until we entered more shallow water and a large spotted pig jumped up and onto the zodiac!  He rooted around in our bag and left when he realized we were out of treats.  When he returned, I scolded him and rapped him on the nose with a loud "leave it!!!" and he left (much like a well-trained dog). 

Tuesday morning we ventured into Staniel Cay hoping for internet and some fresh milk. We scored milk, fresh bread, fruits and vegetables but no reliable network.  In the afternoon we snorkeled Thunderball Grotto, which was made famous in the James Bond film "Thunderball".  It was beautiful and at low tide we were able to snorkel in without having to dive under the lip at the entrance.  The grotto is chock full of fish, which the kids fed frozen peas to.  The fish swarmed the kids head-to-toe and a big Queen Angelfish took a bite at Nat's finger.  The sunlight streaming through the ceiling of the grotto was spectacular.  Definitely a highlight for the whole family.  Nat and Ben spearfished on the way back to the boat and Sam and Win headed out for a quick fish at sunset.

We left Big Major Spot this morning and headed for a settlement called Black Point on Great Guana Cay. It has reliable internet and a coin-operated laundry -- two things we haven't seen for a while. Much to Ben's delight they also have a lot of sea glass on the town beach. We were able get online and catch up on some business from back home and download all of our email.  Win and Sam just returned from a short fishing trip (Win, as usual, outfished Sam and picked up a bunch of fish, including a huge needlefish and a nice Strawberry Grouper) and I found some home-made conch fritter batter in town today, so we're in the process of cooking up a fantastic dinner of grouper, conch fritters and plantains.  Then onto a competitive game of hearts. 

We should have reliable cell coverage for the next few weeks, so please feel free to call us at anytime, for any reason (incoming calls are free for us).  We always love to hear from folks back home.