As soon as we got the anchor to set at Great Guana we loaded up in the dinghy to head to the beach. Colin brought the cheapo Minion kite we’ve had with us since July to try and it provided great entertainment for the boys.
All loaded up and heading to a new shore!!
There was a big limestone shelf hanging over the beach at one end, almost forming a cave at low tide, so we walked down to check it out.
Hayley helped me spell INNTW with rocks under the biggest part of the shelf.Colin put his crocs to the test and did some rock climbing.Tobin found some cool creatures, including this starfish.Mike was nice enough to pull the kids on their boogie boards through the shallows during our “walk.”
The next day we went searching for a trail leading to a cave we read about on Active Captain (a site where boaters leave reviews of all things boat related). The cave was really cool with a large opening leading to a slight downhill where half of the lower section is actually a little pond. Some of the reviews say that you can swim in the pond, but after seeing it, there is no way I would want to swim in there. We saw some little shrimp creatures crawling in the water and nothing else, but it was still kind of creepy to me. We did see some bats at the top of the cave who were somewhat unhappy that we were interrupting their daytime slumber. The kids were a little unsure at first, but then they were all troopers!!
We always send Mike first on adventures like this. He was unsure of what could be inside, so he made some racket entering the cave to scare anything out that could be in there.
Inside the cave, you can see the bucket set up to catch the freshwater drip.Tobin was the bravest one of us because he went into the pond up to his knees or so. The water was very clear, but the pond wrapped around the whole back of the cave, so we weren’t quite sure if there was anything else in there besides the few shrimp we saw.We made some bat friends!! Even though the bats flew around a little, the kids weren’t freaked out. It led to a great discussion about echolocation.Whew!! Was it hot and humid in that cave!!
After the cave adventure, we headed down a different path that led to a beach on the wavy sound side of the Cay. We were thankful to be out of the humid, stagnant cave!
Part of the path we followed had us stepping on these crates and boards to cross a swampy area. Luckily, the path was pretty easy to distinguish.
There was a lot of garbage, boats, and SHOES washed up in this area. Staring down to the crashing water below. Colin is the most cautious about climbing out of all of us, and if he thinks someone is too close to the edge, he makes sure to tell them. This helps me feel comfortable when I see images like this. If he is up there, I know there are plenty more rock ledges in front of him, making him feel safe, that I just can’t see from my angle.
After the beach adventure, we had one more interesting area to explore. There is an area called Oven Rock that juts out into the banks side that we wanted to walk around. We found this cool arch in the limestone and an abandoned osprey nest on top of the rock.
An old osprey nest. What an amazing view she had high up on that rock!!
We found several amazing creatures under this rock–a brittle star, loads of hermit crabs, and something that “has tentacles for sure!” The sand on this beach looked like vermicelli that you’d see in Rice a Roni. It was definitely different “sand” than we saw anywhere else!
That night when we got back to our boat, a swell was coming through the anchorage that rocked our boat side to side pretty good. We felt it in the morning, but hoped it would go away. Then we went adventuring all day, so we didn’t worry about it. However, as soon as that sun went down, I really wished we had moved to a different spot. It was the kind of swell that is just big enough to be annoying and cause problems, maybe a foot or so on the beam. Cups and plates slid off tables, chairs tipped over, we got a few bruises walking around, and the boat creaked with all the rocking. Needless to say, we were ready to get out of there by morning!!
Tobin was super ready to be tucked in with all his buddies after such a long day adventuring! Luckily the rolling didn’t bother the kids when they were sleeping!
Thanks for reading and following along on our amazing adventures!!
We headed for Blackpoint bright and early the next day. Blackpoint is known for being welcoming and convenient for cruisers, as it has a laundromat overlooking the anchorage, garbage disposal, and several restaurants close to the dinghy dock. These all become very important qualities when you live on your boat!! We felt like we just left a town when we left Staniel, so we didn’t necessarily “need” very much, but a restaurant is always a welcome sight!
We did actually NEED clean underwear, so we handwashed and rinsed some for everyone in a bucket of freshwater and laundry soap. I bet the boaters at Blackpoint were thrilled to see us move in to their neighborhood! Just kidding!! Everyone does it!
After we got our drawers drying on the bow, we headed into town to check it out. We were greeted right away by lots of chickens and incessant crowing. If you think roosters only crow at dawn, think again!
We headed down the main drag to see what we could find. There were a few restaurants bragging about cruisers happy hour, but unfortunately only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We saw several other local businesses and a few brightly painted houses.
Not quite sure where we’re headed?!This is the first time we’ve had so many options of where to go in a very long time!!Local government building.We were pretty surprised to find this randomly placed telephone booth along the road. Most homes and businesses in these out islands have VHF radios that they use like phones.It was so still and hot on this walk!It was low tide so we walked over the sand flats at the end of the anchorage. We found some debris like shoes, random boat parts, whole entire boats, and even a new souvenir t-shirt stuck in the flats. You can see INNTW in the background, 3rd boat from the right.One of a few washed up boats along the edge of the harbor. Colin found a cooler lid that he decided to carry to the beach to see if it would work as a skim board.We used satellite images to help us find a road to the beach and this sign for a blow hole ahead assured us we were heading the right way.
Apparently I don’t have any pictures from the beach, but it was too rocky and wavy to skim board much. Plus the cooler lid didn’t quite have the ability to slip and slide like the actual skim board does. Tobin spent the entire time looking for creatures in tide pools while the rest of us walked the beach. While we collected loads of sea glass, Hayley talked my ear off about Harry Potter because she is obsessed with the series. I wonder why some beaches have a lot of sea glass and others don’t seem to have any?
On our way back to the boat we hooked up with a group of Bahamian kids headed the same way as us. They seemed interested and curious about us, but they weren’t very chatty, so we asked them questions instead. Mike asked lots of questions about the kids school because he was secretly hoping to send the kids there the next day for a little cultural immersion. It was definitely interesting coming across this group of kids, complete with a baby in a stroller and all, headed down the middle of the road.
The next day we stuck around, mostly because we wanted to check out the school and see if our kids could join them for a little while during the day. However, by the time we actually made a plan and got off the boat, the kids were home from school on a half day. The principal said the kids were studying for mid-terms so it wasn’t a good time for visitors, but she was very nice and answered some questions about the school while our kids played basketball with some of the school kids still lingering.
This is what most schools look like. Classes here are sectioned K-3 and 4-8, though I’m not quite sure how many classes there are of each (not many–1 or2?). The kids all wear uniforms. The girls wear bright green dresses and the boys wear a bright green tie with white dress shirt and dress pants.Kalik is the more popular of 2 Bahamian beers made in the country (Nassau). It is light like a lager and pretty tasty. Mike says it tastes like a Molson. This sign cracked us up because of the use of “ting” instead of “thing” which is so common here and an endearing term that we have picked up in our own speech at times.Colin built a zip line across the boat.Mike and Tobin made an attempt at fishing one evening, but got run off by noseeums pretty quickly. Here they are zipping back, under attack.
We had a nice time in Blackpoint, but it wasn’t quite the amazing place for cruisers that I was expecting. Lots of people come here for a day and end up staying a week. 2 nights was more than enough for me. Maybe if we would have hit the cruisers happy hour and gotten to chat with some other boaters I would feel differently? Even so, seeing some of the kids on the island and imagining their way of life was very interesting.
Heading out of Staniel, we thought our destination was Blackpoint, but we decided to change course along the way, like we have many times before. It was a beautiful day for cruising with calm, blue water all around us. The beaches we passed looked too good to pass by, so we decided to stop. INNTW!!
After turning in towards the beach, I realized that this is actually an iguana beach which totally changes how excited we are about it. Of course we are excited to see iguanas, but we aren’t sure it will be near as relaxing and fun to explore as we hoped. I guess we’ll see!!
On our way in to the anchorage, we noticed this sailboat around the next corner, tucked away in a little shallow bay. It looks like someone prepped her for a big storm, but her hideaway was very close to an inlet and the residual storm surge did some damage. Her owners must have decided not to salvage her afterwards. Whatever her story, Cimarron from Marathon, Florida peaked our curiosity and made us feel sad for sailing dreams that have ended. So many mysteries out here in the islands!!
After everyone got a chance to peak inside Cimarron, we were off to the iguana beach. Hayley is not thrilled about iguanas, or many creatures in general, so she was not too sure about getting out of the dinghy. Actually, the only reason she even got out and walked with us was because sitting there by herself seemed scarier.
Randomly, I thought it would be a fun day to bring these super huge punching balloons to the beach for something different for the kiddos. In the end, I convinced Hayley she could use hers to protect herself from the iguanas, and she seemed to think that might work (though she barely left my side anyway!!).
I have to admit, by the time we were leaving the island all 3 balloons had popped, leading to everyone taking their turn to cry. What seems like a good idea, isn’t always so great in the end. Ah well…
We walked around the corner and peeked over to the Atlantic Ocean side which was calm as can be with some light swells rolling in. It was quite a sight from so close to the big water. We also looked through tide pools and explored a few small caves.
Colin had quite the army following him for a little while, and he loved it!!
The beach wasn’t near as relaxing as we thought it would be, given all the iguana action. I think we’re done with iguana beaches for a while, though the scenery sure was beautiful!
Back on the boat, Tobin was given the chore to straighten the pillows and blankets on the couch. Somehow they always end up on the floor?! Tobin thought the best way to arrange them was all in the corner in a big comfy seat he calls his “fortress.” Have to give him credit for creativity!!
This ad from our cruising guide made us laugh. Their hours gives the perfect description of island time!! Business hours have definitely been a part of the Bahamas that take some getting used to, but honestly, we haven’t been to very many businesses! Mostly deserted beaches!
Thank you for following along and supporting our adventures!! INNTW!
We left Warderick with a tentative plan to meet up with our friends Kent and Heather on Heartbeat for lunch at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It just so happened that they were heading there for lunch on their way north and it was our destination for the day as we continued south. As long as we could make it by noon or so, we would get to see them and catch up on our adventures since we last saw each other in our Bird/Whale Cay Anchorage in the Berries early/mid January.
But first up on our trip south, we needed to empty our holding tanks. It is a GROSS and little known fact outside of the cruising community that the Bahamas do not have pump outs available. They are so rare that we have not yet seen a working pump out during our entire time in the Bahamas. They just don’t exist. So, as a rule, boaters travel 3 miles offshore to empty their tanks into the sea. This sounds disgusting, and it is, but at the same time, this is organic material that we are emptying into billions of gallons of moving water. From dust to dust, right? It’s where the fish go…. That’s how we have come to think of it.
Being comfortable with the idea of pumping out doesn’t make the actual emptying of the tanks any easier to handle. Most ocean boats have a special button that captains push underway that empties the tank from thru-hulls (holes) in the bottom of the boat in a matter of a minute or two. That’s it–easy peasy. Our boat, however, is a Carver that is made to be a freshwater boat. We do not have the push button to empty tanks via the thru-hulls because emptying into the Great Lakes and freshwater is illegal, so Carver does not (or did not in 1991) build that option into our boat.
This means we have to use an external pump to empty our tanks. Luckily, our amazing friend Ben let us use his homemade pump from his last trip to the Bahamas. What a great buddy to let us borrow his poop pump!! We think of him every 6 or 7 days when we pump out. We travel out to sea and attach all kinds of bright green tubes together with one end hanging down into the water and the other end hooked up to the pump (not very discreet at all!!). We run the power source up to the flybridge where we plug it in, and then flip the switch. It takes about 40 minutes, from start to finish, for us to pump out both tanks. It requires switching of the gear from one tank to the other, rinsing of the pump/tubes/deck afterwards, and then coiling it all back into the two plastic containers we keep it in. Mike wears gloves. It is not a fun process. Not to mention the fact that he has to stand out on the side of the boat for most of the time. On this day it was calm, and not such a big deal, but we have NEEDED to empty the tanks before on very wavy and windy days when standing out there is not comfortable or even very safe. And God forbid that pump go overboard! Mike dislikes the task so much that he has started paying the kids a quarter every time they poop off the boat. A restaurant/store/beach/wherever, just not in his tanks!!
Shitter’s full!!
But I digress… So, we were heading to Staniel Cay for lunch with empty holding tanks. We passed some big boys out there and wondered who in the world has money to buy or rent boats like that?! I like to look up the name of the boat and find out all the details about who owns it, how much it costs to rent for a week, amenities on board, etc. Helps me feel like I know my neighbors.
We dropped anchor about 11:55 am, just in time to zip over to the yacht club for lunch. Now, this yacht club is interesting, because it hosts a mix of all types of boaters. Some people are out for a day trip on a small tender, others bring boats like ours into the yacht club, while others park their mega yachts there for a while. Everyone is welcome, and you don’t have to be all fancy to go.
Such a cool laid-back vibe!
The yacht club has a pretty good reputation as being a fun gathering place for people who vacation on the cay and boaters alike. We hadn’t seen a restaurant for WEEKS (seriously, like haven’t even seen one), so we were super excited to give it a try. The boating memorabilia and fun colors, as well as packed bar (packed as in at least a dozen people!) and music, just added to our excitement and the island vibe.
The walls and ceilings are lined with burgees and lifesaving rings signed by boaters from all over the world. In the picture below, the yacht club and cay are highlighted through the decades. I bet this place has seen a lot of great times!Mike ordered fish because he loves fish. I ordered a salad because I hadn’t eaten a fresh vegetable in weeks. We fed the kids hot dogs and bagels on the boat, so they lived it up with some Goombay Punch.
It started to rain just as our lunch date was ending, and Heartbeat was on a schedule, so they took off. INNTW chose to sit out the rain with a rum punch or two because we were already at our destination for the day.
The rain passed quickly, and I did some shopping in their gift shop and then wandered outside. As I walked outside, I was very surprised to see Mike and the boys walking down the steps to the area where people swim with nurse sharks. At first they were just watching from the top step, but soon, they were in the water and nurse sharks were swimming just in front of them.
While swimming with nurse sharks is a popular thing to do here, they can bite. I don’t think I realized the boys were going to be so excited to jump right in the water with them, so I wasn’t mentally prepared for it, but I did not want to stifle their curiosity. Colin really wanted to touch one, but in the end, I don’t think he ever quite got there before I convinced them to give it up.
Some people say they are meek like catfish, but after Tobin caught that one in Great Harbour, I sure wouldn’t want to swim with them. Especially on purpose!A sign was posted letting people know that the nurse sharks do bite and laying some ground rules for swimming with them.
Look at all those yacht stickers that have been left behind!
We moved INNTW from the anchorage by the yacht club around the corner to Pig Beach. Many people have heard of the “swimming pigs” and are thrilled by the thought of pigs on a beach. I didn’t really think it was that exciting when I first heard about it. Then months ago, while I was researching for our trip, I started hearing stories of how they can be aggressive and bite people because they are expecting food. However, this is one of the big attractions to Staniel, and the anchorage here is a beautiful, protected harbor filled with cruisers, so it’s the perfect spot. As soon as the kids could see the pigs from our boat, they were totally psyched about getting to pig beach. We watched a few tour boats head over and feed them, and they just couldn’t wait any longer, so we decided to head over for some before dinner pig time.
While we were watching the pigs from our boat, I noticed some of them would walk right up to dinghies approaching the beach and one pig actually climbed right inside a dinghy. These piggies are hungry!! I was awfully nervous about landing on the beach, as demonstrated in this video, but it all worked out in the end. We didn’t bring any food with us, so once we showed them our bare hands they usually left us alone.
Colin chose to keep his hands high, away from them, and Tobin went with the “don’t shoot” method to show them he didn’t have any food. The kids were equal parts in love with the pigs and terrified that they would get bitten.Tobin worked up his nerve to pet them!Piggy prints in the sand.I don’t even think this guy has many teeth!!We heard there were piglets, so the boys searched and searched until they finally found them. Boy I can sure feel for that mama. The piglets were, by far, the best part of pig beach!There’s INNTW, right in the middle. Mike wanted to anchor right off the beach so we could have pig frenzy on board 24/7.Good bye, piggies! See you tomorrow!
We headed back to the boat for dinner, but we promised the kids we would visit the pigs again the next day. We were treated to this beautiful sunset before fried egg sandwiches for dinner.
Tobin wanted to take a picture of the sunset with his Kindle so he would always remember how beautiful it was. He said “beautiful” about 8 times as he narrated his video. So adorable!
Notice how that sailboat in those sunset pictures looks awfully close to us?? It is a gold looper (meaning they’ve already finished the loop) from Algonac, Michigan, right down the way from our home port of Harrison Township. It was also floating way too close to us. They weren’t that close when we anchored, but it was so calm (no wind and no current) that everyone was just kind of floating around over their anchors in an unpredictable fashion. Well, in the middle of dinner, just after it was mostly dark, I noticed their lights were actually on the other side of our boat–their boat moved from one side of us to the other! This made us very nervous because we didn’t want to be so close that we could bump into each other in the night. Not a great way to meet your neighbor. We contemplated what to do for a while and then ended up pulling up our anchor and moving a little further out to a new spot–in the dark. We broke my rule of not anchoring in the dark, but after we were set in our new spot, we felt much better not to be shaking hands with anyone.
We took this picture right before going to bed. Look at that creepo nurse shark next to our anchor chain just waiting for something or someone to eat. Just kidding. Supposedly they aren’t aggressive, but they were quite plentiful around the anchorage and seeing this guy sleeping down there was just kind of unsettling.
We woke up to the calmest water we have seen yet in the Bahamas. The water was perfectly clear and the surface was just like glass. It was so peaceful, and beautiful, and hot. It was a perfect morning to go paddleboarding, so Mike and I took off while the kids watched some morning cartoons.
An unforgettable morning at Staniel Cay.
I didn’t dare bring my camera paddleboarding because there were a lot of nurse sharks swimming around, and I thought that was enough to keep me feeling wiggly on the board, let alone worrying about my camera, too! We paddled over to Beauty, the sailboat we’d switched places with the night before and explained the situation. It was great to talk to them about home and all of their sailing adventures. They even posted about us on their blog!!
After our paddle, the tide was just about at slack which was perfect timing for us to snorkel through Thunderball Grotto. Thunderball Grotto is the name of a James Bond movie that was filmed partly at this location, and I believe there is another Bond movie that features Thunderball as well. It looks like a big rock from the outside, but after you sneak through a small space at the edge, the rock opens up into a giant cavern with fish and coral all around.
Getting ready for snorkeling! No easy task with all these kids!!
I was impressed right from the very beginning when we were getting our gear on because the tender captains who were waiting patiently outside kept announcing what wildlife they could see from their boat. Rays, turtles, and sharks were all swimming around right outside the grotto. I was so impressed that Tobin swam right over to see a shark when someone announced they could see one from their boat. I was thankful I wasn’t in the water yet, but he wasn’t scared one bit!
Tobin swimming away to see the shark. Heading in to Thunderball Grotto.
Inside the Grotto.The INNTW crew inside the Grotto. Selfie taking while treading water and holding up kids is not easy!!Our underwater view.
Be sure to check out the snorkeling video with footage from Thunderball that I added to the Norman’s Cay post!!
Nurse shark selfie right off our swim platform. We saw nurse sharks just about every hour in our anchorage. Didn’t make you want to jump right in even though the water was crystal clear and the bottom was all sand.
We headed back to the pigs in the afternoon. The kids were begging to go back. This time we were determined to see them actually swim. We also brought some food scraps with us, and let me tell you, that just complicates things. The pigs rush you for the food and then more pigs start running over. It was terrifying! Poor Tobin threw a whole handful of french fries in the water when one pig started coming after him. It was a little scarier of a visit for all of us when food was around, but the piglets sure were cute!!
On our first visit Hayley carried around a plastic beach shovel for protection. This time she didn’t even get out of the dinghy until the piglets showed up. It didn’t stop her from screaming and hollering at them if they got to close, though.Mama went right in for a swim and the piglets followed her for about 2 seconds until they all came running back to shore. Mama stayed out there for quite a while, though. I think she was ready for a break. These piglets were curious and would come up to us easily, but if we picked them up they would squeal something fierce.
After a quick swim at a neighboring beach (with no pigs and no sharks!) we headed back to relax and enjoy the sunset. The kids watched a show while Mike and I had sundowners on the bow. We couldn’t resist taking a picture of this fellow cruiser fishing from his bow. Just perfect!!
Before heading out of Staniel, we needed to pick up some groceries, so we dinghied into town.
Passing by the vacation cottages at the yacht club.Dinghy parking.Welcome to Staniel Cay!Hoofing it is how we get around the islands. There are no sidewalks anywhere and the roads are barely wide enough for a car and a pedestrian to pass anyway. The kids can’t wait to ride scooters again, but I hope they won’t be too rusted from the salt water!
There are 2 grocery stores in town. Pink and Blue. We went to both, but Pink wasn’t getting her shipment in for a few more days. We bought a $10 honeydew and $10 grapes at Blue, along with about $150 worth of other goodies. We were excited about the fresh food, but man was it expensive!!
Just before we were leaving the harbor this sea plane landed and drove straight to pig beach. After getting his guests all set up feeding the pigs, the pilot got a hammock out, set it up under a wing, and took a little siesta. The good life.
Thanks for reading and following along!! We had a whirlwind 2 nights here filled with awesome adventures!
Our champagne lunch on the swim platform, toasting new experiences and having the guts to break out of the norm, even if just for a little while!!
Heading towards O’Brien’s Cay we had another windy/choppy ride. As we were getting close we heard a loud bang and Mike realized right away that the antennae mount that holds up our VHF antennae snapped. We quickly slowed the boat to idle so we could handle the problem. I reached my hand out the isenglass window and held on to the antennae (that was still attached by the internal wires, though they wouldn’t have lasted long in that wind) while Mike ran to get some zip ties. In a matter of minutes, he had the antennae laying down on our hard top and zip tied to whatever he could find that would work. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good enough fix for now. Time to send a new one to Grandma for when she comes to visit in a couple of weeks. Thank goodness for Amazon and visitors to bring us our packages.
We pulled in next to O’Brien’s Cay and tied up to a mooring ball that is meant for mega yachts. But it was open, and it was the only mooring available. We figured we’d stay until someone asked us to leave and they never did, so we stayed on it all night.
Location as of this post.
O’Brien’s was right next to a snorkeling spot called the Aquarium that we were looking forward to. It is also right next to Johnny Depp’s private island, Little Hall’s Pond Cay. It was fun to sit on the sundeck and peer over to his island, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him on the beach. We did see someone playing with a dog on the beach, but I doubt it was him. Regardless, it was still fun to be so close and I did plenty of google searches about the island since I was back in the land of wifi!!
The kids were watching a movie and we could see the Aquarium from the boat, so we decided to head over for an adult snorkel session. The Aquarium is so full of fish that you can see them from the dingy before you even put your face in the water. There are small fish everywhere that just seem to follow you and some bigger ones, too. It was awesome and so easy at slack tide (we hear the current runs pretty fast through there at higher tides). After a short session, we decided the kids had to come back sometime to snorkel because it was so rewarding.
Later that evening we found some more sand bars to explore with low tide being at just the right time. Have I mentioned I love sandbars? This little island near our mooring is surrounded by shallow water, so at low tide it was perfect. At least until the sunset.
Give a mom a sand bar and she will wander forever.Give a kid a sand bar and he will dig canals.
The next morning the kids were occupied with legos for the longest time and it was awesome!! They can’t wait to get back to their big lego stash we left at home.
Always laundry flapping on our bow rails.
We moved over to the mooring field at Cambridge Cay, right around the corner because we figured some moorings would be available since it was early in the day. Shortly after we were set, we headed off on a hike. It turns out Cambridge has several beaches, sand bars, and hiking trails. We weren’t in for anything to intense, so we decided to do the easy walk across the island to the beach.
We found floating markers identifying the conch shell-lined path.After a short walk through the palm trees we ended up at some sand dunes on the Sound side.The waves were fierce, so while the kiddos climbed on the sand dunes we walked along the shore. Part of our walk was covered with these huge, flat rocks that almost looked like broken up sidewalk and part of it was perfectly sandy. I was amazed by how clear the water was! We could see the rocks on the bottom straight through the waves rolling in.
After a bit of time on the wavy side, we headed back across the island to play in the calmer water.
Tobin was thrilled to find coral shaped like a T!Cooling off in the shallow, clear water.
After a long walk on the beach and decorating several conch trees, we decided to head back for lunch. Colin wanted to stay on the island and dig for a while, and since we could see the boat from the beach, we thought it would be okay for him to stay for a while.
One of our conch trees seen from afar. Since we can’t take anything from the land and sea park, it was a fun way to explore and create.Tobin was very proud (and serious) that he got to drive the dinghy back to the boat since big bro stayed on the beach.
We ended up not going back to the beach, so I went to pick up Colin in the dinghy after another hour or so ALL BY MYSELF!! Now I have learned how to drive the dinghy, and I have done it with Mike’s guidance, but never all by myself or when I am the only one responsible for driving. The good news is I only hit one sand bar and needed just a bit of help from another cruiser, but other than that, it went great!!
Mike was so proud he took a picture!
Later that night we headed to cruiser happy hour at one of the little islands/sand bars. It was fun to chat with the other people in the mooring field and hear their stories. We meet the most interesting and supportive people out here!! Plus, the kids played in the sand and collected hermit crabs in between handfuls of popcorn. Win-win for everyone!
Dinghies all lined up!This was a beautiful spot for sundowners.The kids built this cool rock tower.They also collected a million hermit crabs to examine.
We can’t take credit for this beach art, but it sure is awesome.
The next morning, slack tide was shortly after we woke up, so we decided to head right over to the Aquarium so the kids could have the same great snorkeling experience we had.
Nothing like a little snorkeling before breakfast!All the kids got in and Colin actually stayed in for quite a while.
This is the day I saw a spotted eagle ray as soon as I got in. I usually do a quick glance around for sharks or other ickies as soon as I get in, just to calm my nerves, and I was surprised to see the spotted eagle ray swooping along the bottom. It was so beautiful, but I had to take a few deep breaths because it surprised me, and sure enough, when I went back down, he was heading out. They move just like the teacher ray in “Finding Nemo” and that’s what I always think of when I see them underwater!
For more footage of this snorkel adventure, be sure to see our YouTube video in the Shroud Cay post from a few days ago.
Next up for the day was some breakfast and then some treasure hunting. We found a Facebook page made just for kids who hide “buried treasure” in the Bahamas and want to post clues so other kids can look for it. They usually have goodies tucked inside some kind of container that the kids pick from and then they refill the treasure with some trinket they brought from the boat. They are very similar to Geocaches, if you have seen those before. The kids were thrilled about the idea of finding treasure. And sure enough, it was buried on the same “sand bar island” we were on a few nights before!
The kids took the treasure hunt very seriously, as you can imagine 3 siblings who live on a boat would.Finally, after a few false alarms, we found the treasure chest! The kids were thrilled to see all the goodies and pick something out. We even dressed for the part!! The island where we found the treasure was crawling with these curly tailed lizards. They were very (overly?) friendly and Colin was surprised to find them licking his feet. Of course, Hayley was not a big fan.We use an app called Navionics to help guide navigation and give other info about our surroundings. Here is a screen shot from where we found the treasure (red arrow) and the Aquarium right around the corner marked by the dive flag. Johnny Depp’s island is just off the screen to the left. This is such a cool spot!
We were so inspired by the treasure hunt that we decided to hide our own treasure on Cambridge Cay. The kids loved planning what the note should say and choosing little toys to fit inside of our yellow pepper jar, ahem, treasure chest.
Can’t take credit for this beach art, either, but it was sure awesome.
We hiked across Cambridge to the Sound side where there was a rocky shoreline. We weren’t quite sure where to hide our treasure, so we did some exploring along the way to find just the right spot.
We ended up way high on a rocky cliff when we found a little cave.I’m telling you! These kids are mountain goats!!They hid their treasure in this little cave and then partially buried it with rocks.You can barely see the lid of our treasure chest buried way back there.Our treasure is in a very sneaky hiding spot WAY up here. We will post the details of our treasure on the appropriate Facebook page and hopefully some pirates will be lucky enough to find it!
We had one more adventure lined up for the day. Just a short dinghy ride away is a famed place called Rachel’s Bubble Bath. Now I’m not sure who Rachel is, but it has been a very long time since we have had a bath, so we had to check it out. Word is that the bubble bath is best at high tide or when the waves are rolling in from the east. High tide was perfect timing for us to head there to check it out. We anchored the dinghy and then walked down a mostly dry creekbed to an area where a big basin has been washed out of the limestone. This limestone forms a perfect pool for water that rolls in from the ocean. There were just a few fish inside, but several sea urchins, so we made sure to leave our shoes on.
It seemed like a pretty wavy day, but we were surprised that the bubbles weren’t really bubbling. After swimming for a while we had several big waves that came crashing over the small opening of rock leading to the ocean. It was fun to swim in the bubbles, but I couldn’t help but wonder what sea life was getting washed into the bath with us. Luckily I never saw anything creepy. At one point Colin brushed against a sea urchin and got some spines stuck in his leg. He was not a happy camper, but he was brave and we were able to pull some out right then. A few others we had to go after later with the tweezers. If you’ve never had a run in with a sea urchin before, it is not very pleasant. The spines are just like hard, pokey shells that crumble when you try to take them out. Colin was lucky that his mostly stayed together, though some were buried in his leg pretty good, so I had to go after them a big to get them out. Always an adventure, right?!
Later he bounced right back and even jumped off the higher rock ledges into the bubble bath a few times. It is great to see him gain confidence and face his fears to complete physical challenges like this that he thinks of. He got it in his head that he was jumping, and it took a while for him to do it, but he stuck with the idea with very little coaxing from Mike or I to jump.
I went up on the rocks with him to make sure he had a good plan for jumping. Sometimes Mike and I tell the kids not to do something physical because “we don’t have good enough insurance for that,” but this was not one of those times.
The next morning, just as we were getting ready to leave, a mega yacht started it’s approach to the mooring field. I was very interested to see them maneuver into the field and catch the mooring ball, so we stuck around a bit longer to watch them come in. Of course, they made it look so easy.
Colin is apparently unimpressed or very interested in his math assignment.
I quick finished rinsing out some pee pee sheets from the night before and we were off. Boat life has pros and cons and accidents at night are a definite con, but luckily it doesn’t happen too much!!
Boating isn’t all sundowners and treasure hunts!! So glamorous!!
Thank you for following along on our adventure!! On to the next stop in paradise!!
INNTW is the bottom boat in this picture! Thanks to Dave from SummerCamp for the awesome aerial photos!!
Heading from Hawksbill to Warderick was a bit of a bumpy ride. We try to travel on the Banks side as much as possible because it is more protected, but some days it is still plenty bumpy (like on this particular trip). The Banks are pretty shallow, so the waves tend to be quite choppy when they build up. On this particular run we had to actually head straight for a cut to the Atlantic in order to get into our mooring field, which meant we were heading straight into the bumpiness. It didn’t really seem like the best idea, but after we were in that skinny blue channel you can see in the picture above, the seas were calm again.
Heading into the waves.Window washing underway. Schoolwork and relaxing, too!!
Warderick Wells is known for it’s beautiful color variations due to very shallow water (white) divided by deeper channels (blue). It is gorgeous to look at, but it is not the easiest to maneuver in. First of all, the mooring balls are pretty much placed in the middle of the channel. The boats tend to turn the same direction and favor one side of the channel or the other based on current and wind. The day we came into the field, we had to keep the boats fairly close to our port side to stay in the channel.
Then comes catching the mooring ball. Mike drives the boat up to a big floating ball and tries to hold it in place while I stand on the bow and reach down with the boat hook to pull up the line attached to the giant ball. I really have to PULL UP the line because the eyelet our lines will run through is very strong and huge–like cruise ship strength (not really). I quick unhook the boat hook and set it down (it’s not much of a “set” as I’m still holding the eyelet), grabbing one of our bow lines and looping it through as quickly as I can. I have to be careful here because if our boat is moving too much, the mooring line will pull and it could be very dangerous (as in scrape my hand or finger against the side of the boat and karate chop it off). After one bow line is looped through and cleated off, Mike moves the boat back into position again by the ball. I use the hook again, loop again, and cleat again on the other side and we are set. On this particular day we had to try twice because the first time was too close to karate chopping off my hand. Mike always reminds me that I can’t move the boat by pulling or pushing when the wind/water is against me, as it weighs 30,000 pounds. We really have to communicate about where I need him to drive the boat to for all of this to work. But, the 2nd try isn’t all bad, plus I got to keep all my fingers and hands!
The last factor to consider when manuevering in Warderick is the current. We learned (kind of the hard way) that the current really rips through that channel. It was apparently slack tide (half hour around either high or low tide, when the water is not really moving either way) when we decided to kayak and paddleboard around the mooring field. It was a calm, easy paddle that I even extended a bit because it was so beautiful. Then when we wanted to get back to the boat, the current was flowing fast like a river in from the ocean, down the deep water channels, and into the Banks. We had to paddle up stream to get to our boat and it was tough. I towed Tobin on his kayak and Mike towed Hayley on hers while Colin was left to fend for himself (he probably had the easiest paddling situation). It was not an easy paddle despite moving to the edge of the channel where the current wasn’t so strong. The dad from another kid boat we just met came out in his dinghy, downstream, ready to stop and rescue any of us that couldn’t make it up stream to our boat. We all made it, but it was a little more than we bargained for. Whew. Lesson learned!! Beware of ripping currents.
This is the end of the north mooring field at Warderick Wells. You can easily see the shallow white areas, and the deeper blue channels. It is a little nerve wrecking navigating around all that shallow water, but it sure is pretty!!
Warderick Wells is where the main offices for the Exuma Land and Sea Park are, so Mike and I headed over in the dinghy to check in while the kids watched a movie on our boat. We passed by a boat full of kids on the way to the office, so we stopped by to say hi and let them know that we have kinds onboard as well. Ironically, this boat was Walden that I had just messaged a few days prior on Facebook about being on an island near them and we were hoping meet up. Since I didn’t have service for several days in the park, I never got to tell them where we were headed. However, the meet up was now set since they were moored on a ball 2 down from us!! Kid playdate in the making!!
We paddled over to the beach and the kids played together. After some playtime on the beach, we headed over to Walden to play some more and get to know their parents a bit. We went over the usual topics of conversation: where are you from, what got you out here cruising, and what is your plan? The people you meet cruising all have such interesting stories about WHY they are out here, especially the kid boats. It seems these topics are the first to get covered when you meet someone new. We were happy to hear that Walden was on a similar path as us, heading south to Georgetown, so we could have more playdates in the future. They also had another kid boat they met weeks before, coming in to Warderick the next day. More fun with more kid boats!!
After growing his hair for about 5 months, Mike finally decided it had to go. He was sick of feeling like he always had to have a hat on, and I encouraged him to take it back short!! Hayley did the honors. That is a LOT of hair!!
It looked like a small animal floating away in the current.
Warderick has several marked hiking trails that we explored. Hiking to the top of Boo Boo Hill was top on our list of areas to explore. The legend of Boo Boo Hill says that a ship crashed onto the rocks near the cay long ago and all souls onboard perished. If you go to the top of Boo Boo Hill on a moonlit night you can still hear the voices of their spirits singing in the howling wind. Sounds pretty creepy, but it is actually a beautiful spot.
The tradition is to leave a piece of driftwood with your boat’s name at the top of the hill as an offering to King Neptune and the other sea gods for safe passage. The hill is covered with hundreds of driftwood signs.
This long board on top is our boat name and signatures.Just look at all those signs!!
There are also some benches and other memorials at the top, which was great because we could actually get our first cell signal in days waaaay up here. If you follow us on Facebook, you see posts daily, but then they just stopped until we got to the top of Boo Boo Hill and we were BACK. It felt so good to get some messages out (too our worrying mothers and dear friend Courtney!) and check weather at the top of that hill!
Enjoying the bench at the top of the hill.INNTW in the background next to Colin.
We went exploring further along the ridge near Boo Boo Hill and found this sign. Unfortunately the waves weren’t coming in strong enough to push water through the blowholes, but we still enjoyed looking for them.
Muscles up on the cliff.
From there we hiked down to the beach on the Sound side.
Look at those views!! Doesn’t this rock look like a lion or a guinea pig? We thought it was picture worthy.We found this little porcupine fish washed up on shore.Isn’t this kid amazing?! He carries a stick around most places we go, which I’m not a huge fan of, but this particular stance reminds me exactly of Peter Pan. The magic of being 5!!
That night we played with Walden again and got to meet the other kid boat, SummerCamp. What a great name for a kid boat, right?! The kids played on the beach until after dark because the adults were entertained with a spontaneous cruisers happy hour complete with a jam session/sing along on the beach!
It is so great to see what the kiddos come up with when kid boats get together.
The next morning we moved from the north mooring field at Warderick to a different mooring field around the corner. It is more protected by the landmass of the cay, so we hoped we wouldn’t have such a strong current by the boat which can rock us side to side a bit and also sounds loud in the quiet of the night, with all that water rushing by. We loved the Emerald Rock mooring field and luckily, the other kid boats followed suit, and came over to join us at Emerald.
INNTW on the left with 2 other kid boats next to her.
We met up with Walden and SummerCamp for a hike shortly after moving to the new mooring. Brent (or the dad from Walden, which is how we usually refer to other adults!!) led the hike for 6 adults and 8 kids. Whew! I bet you can just imagine all the energy those kids bring to a hike!!
Our hike evolved into a one-way hike, so the dads swam back to get our dinghies which were beached a few corners back and drove them to the end of our hike.
The kids were so cute cheering for their dads as they swam. The moms thought it was cute, anyway, but I guess the dads thought the kids were yelling “Shark! Shark!” Ooops!! Bet they swam pretty fast!!Playtime on the beach after the hike.At lunch we watched some of our snorkeling footage from Mike’s underwater camera.Boat school and reading provide the perfect sun break/quiet time after lunch!
Dinner that night was hamburgers and hot dogs. Except, we had no fresh bread because food goes fast when you don’t see grocery stores for weeks and everything gets stale and moldy quick. In Great Harbour I tried making my own bread, and it was pretty good. However, every time I attempted it afterwards, it got worse and worse. I tried making hotdog and hamburger buns for dinner, and the family ate them, but then we decided they were like rocks. Good effort, but not quite what we were going for. Sometimes it’s a rough life out here in paradise!!
They looked tasty!!Everyone ate them, but they were actually not very tasty…
The next day our kid boat friends moved south, and we headed out to follow some more trails around the cay.
The Herbon trifecta!Who knows what treasure Tobin has–I think it was a bone he found on the beach. Hopefully a chicken bone?!Again, we followed these signs and had a map, but that didn’t stop us from getting “lost.” I don’t blame the map reader, though, some of these trails are very primitive!!Which way does the “trail” go here?!Look at these tough kids!! Overlooking the windy and wavy Sound side!! Glad we were not traveling on this day!!See what I mean about primitive trails?! Not much different between the “path” we followed and the open spaces on the right…??We also found all sorts of giant wells in the limestone, this one complete with a ladder. Watch your step!!Look at that view!! We saw this spot from our hike to Boo Boo Hill and desperately wanted to make our way to that little bridge.Made it!!The boys couldn’t resist jumping in for a swim and going back and forth under the bridge. And back and forth again….and again.What a magical life!
We got a bit turned around and it was going to take a bit of back-tracking to get to our dinghy. Plus, there were some menacing clouds in the sky. So we decided to blaze our own trail over the sharp jagged limetstone, to get back much faster. Luckily, these kids are hiking pros and everyone did great. I’m telling you, though, this kind of hiking is very uneven and usually on sharp jagged edges of limestone that are sharp as knives. We don’t hike in flip flops unless we know that it is going to be an easy, sandy walk, just for this reason!
We called this “Kelly Path” since I was blazing a new trail. Warderick Wells should add this route to their map. Whew!! We made it unscathed!
There was one more spot I really wanted to explore before we left Warderick Wells, so we headed out in the evening to see if we could find the Davis Ruins.
Low tide meant we anchored the dinghy a ways out in the water, and Colin was nice enough to haul Hayley to the beach. Sometimes they are so nice to each other it creeps me out. Other times, I just wish they would get along.Boys in samie hats and girls in samie sunglasses!
Sure enough, we found ruins very similar to those on Hawksbill Cay. These buildings were made in the late 1700’s by a family of British Loyalists who arrived on Warderick to build a new life where they could live safe from persecution. As a trade off, they had to live in a place where the only fresh water was rain water that gathered in the natural limestone “wells” on the cay and where very few plants could actually grow. Hard to have a plantation when nothing will grow! I can’t imagine how hard life in this harsh climate and desolation was for them. Unfortunately, just around the south end of the cay from where they settled is a harbor called the Pirate’s Lair, where large ships would hide away and wait to attack unsuspecting ships passing by. The story goes that the Davis family was also attacked, and perhaps even killed, by these pirates.
Mike shows his dislike for Poisonwood, which was everywhere!!
The structures were easier to see on Warderick, as the foliage wasn’t quite as thick as it was on Hawksbill. Here is a long wall that surrounded the plantation.
The plantation wall.Colin gives the mysterious ruins 2 thumbs up, while Tobin gives it mixed reviews. Hayley is apparently unsure.These wells in the limestone rock were all the loyalists had to catch fresh water. We had to traverse the area very carefully, keeping an eye open for these large holes.They sure had a beautiful view, but a hard life.Mike is sure to give the Poisonwood trees a wide berth!Not a good picture, by any means, but Tobin, the creature catcher, spotted this Hutia on our hike (left side under the thick part of the branch). Hutia are the only native mammals that live in the Bahamas and they are only in a few areas. They remind us of a guinea pig/bunny/gerbil mix.We were treated to a rainbow as we explored the beach afterwards.
Thank you for following along on our adventures!! Start your own adventure!
When looking ahead to our time at Hawksbill, I spotted a long beach right in the middle of the island, which led me to believe it would be a great anchorage. A beach closeby for lots of fun, and it was in the middle of a long stretch of land, so it wouldn’t have much swell to rock the boat. There was a mooring field further south on the cay where most boats go, but we decided to anchor off the beach instead.
As we were approaching the beach, we saw this big pirate ship anchored there as well. We weren’t quite sure what to make of the ship, but we snuck past before they could fire off their cannons and anchored closer to the beach.
Passing the Liberty Clipper as we headed into our anchorage.
It turns out it is a ship called the Liberty Clipper which is based out of Boston in the summer and tours out of Nassau in the winter. It had about 30 people onboard for a week of sailing, beach fun, and umbrella drinks. The crowd was pretty lively and very interested in our adventure. It was fun to hear the kids explain our trip to them and reassuring to have them tell us what an amazing thing we’re doing for our children by having them out here.
We immediately took their lead and packed up all the toys for a day of fun on the beach. When a spot is this gorgeous, it calls for lots of pictures and lots of playing on the beach!!
Walking the beach, frisbee, paddleball, digging holes, building dams and castles, swimming, snorkeling…whew. Not much lazy time when this crew is at the beach, but it does look like the captain snuck a little rest into his day.
Tobin kayaking back to INNTW after a day of fun on the beach.
Our new friends on the Liberty Clipper set sail as the sun was getting low. Afterwards, Mike and I dreamed of owning a charter pirate ship over sundowners on the bow. It turned out to be a beautiful sunset and we got the whole crew out to enjoy the view.
The Liberty Clipper underway.These are the little moments we’ve come to love on the boat. First sunset at Hawksbill
The next morning the sun rose and the water turned into the most beautiful turquoise color. Water like this is so amazing, it is hard to take your eyes off of it (or stop taking pictures!).
Hay girl is a proud dinghy driver.
After running around on the beach for a bit, we decided to follow some hiking trails that ran across the cay to the Atlantic side.
When we got to the end of the trail, we were at a very rocky edge covered with all kinds of garbage that washed up from the ocean. The kids found different items that they used to build, create, and imagine for a while Mike and I wandered and looked over the garbage. I never thought I’d be this interested in garbage, but it is so fascinating to see what washes up.
It is stunning and sad how much garbage we see washed up on beaches, especially along the Atlantic side of the cays. The majority of what we see are shallow crates that hold bakery items (like bread trays), large cylinder shaped tubs (maybe oil jugs?), smaller oil containers, larger plastic “things” that have been broken up into bits from banging into the rocks, fishing nets and lines, and lots of shoes. Not just flip flops, either, but high heels, tennis shoes, and steel-toed boots, just to name a few. It is amazing that so many shoes end up floating in the ocean.
We hiked a bit more along the rocky edge of the Atlantic, but the limestone is very sharp and uneven, so we didn’t last much longer before we headed back to the boat for a sun break.
This place is picture perfect!
Later that afternoon we decided to go in search of another trail that led to some old ruins on the cay. It didn’t take long before we found the path to the Russell Ruins. The Russell family were Loyalists to the British king living in the United States when they were run out by revolutionaries. Britain probably offered them land in the Bahamas to start a farm and make a new life, as the Bahamas were a British colony at that point. They arrived on Hawksbill Cay in 1785. Apparently it was fairly common for people living in the US who were still loyal to Britain to be driven off their property, ostracized, or even worse.
No one really seems to know how many people came to Hawksbill, but evidence of their settlement is fairly extensive on part of the cay. The homes are small and appear to be just one room. Foundations and some walls made of a primitive mixture of sandstone, coral, and pulverized conch shells baked into makeshift concrete are still obvious. There was also a small wall that surrounded the area of houses. Some people say they have seen primitive ovens and water cisterns, but I can’t say we could see that much detail, really. The brush was pretty grown up and the buildings were hard to get to (especially avoiding POISONWOOD like we do!), but it was still amazing to see the structures and imagine the life of the family that lived here over 230 years ago.
Tobin heading up to a foundation.Walls still standing.Standing in these rooms makes me wonder what their life was like. I can’t even imagine how hard they had to work to survive.Look at this old doorknob we found! What an amazing artifact!The kids were also intrigued, thinking about people who lived in these homes long ago.Taking it all in.Here is the half wall that seemed to surround the homes.Unrelated to the ruins, Colin was excited to find this cactus growing in an old conch shell.
After the adventure of exploring the ruins, we backtracked on the trail a bit and took a different turn in the path that led to a beach on the other side of the cay.
On these hikes we quite often have to follow a rough trail, following markers like nets or other bits of garbage that have been collected on the beach and left behind to mark the correct path. Colin called this area “winter” because of the wide open space low to the ground covered by the light green leaves higher up. Here’s Hayley by another trail marker.
When we got to the beach, Mike gave the kids the challenge of finding the most interesting pieces of garbage, so while they were busy collecting, I enjoyed a nice quiet walk by myself. Along the way I even found a perfect example of the ridiculous shoes out here on beaches and couldn’t resist trying it on.
If anyone knows JV with a missing left steal-toed, foul weather boot, you can let him know I found it on the beach at Hawksbill Cay, Exumas.
The kids found all kinds of crazy things like hand cream still unopened, a toy cow, light bulbs, a hairbrush, and more. It was a great challenge that kept them occupied for a while.
After we examined their findings, I sent Hayley to go collect shoes for a picture. Did you know there are scorpions in the Bahamas?! I sure didn’t, but Hayley discovered this little known fact for us. Within minutes of shoe gathering she started screaming and yelling that she got stung and that she was going to die. After hearing her say she got stung, I had an inkling that maybe it was a scorpion, so I checked on her and then went over to the area where she got stung to look and make sure it was a scorpion and not a bee or a snake or something else. Sure enough, a 3 inch long scorpion was just laying there, stunned by all the screaming and hollering, probably. Tobin and Colin were very interested to see it, as well. The scorpion scampered off into the dried sea grass while Hay girl wailed on and on about dying and even Colin joined in, crying because he was sure she was a goner.
The kids settled down once we assured them Hayley wouldn’t die, and we headed back for the boat. We didn’t have wifi connection, so I couldn’t even look up what to do about a scorpion sting, so we treated it similar to a bee sting. I gave her some Tylenol when we got back to the boat and she put some ice on it. After that we really didn’t hear more about it, but boy, that was an unexpected bit of adventure!!
Super Tobin, swinging on a bit of line someone hung over the tree.These are the shoes Hayley collected in just a few minutes before the dreaded scorpion incident.
Thanks so much for following along on our crazy adventures!! Start your own adventure, scorpions or not!!
After heading out of the pond, we headed to the south end of the cay where there is a sunken plane to snorkel. Supposedly it was one of Lehder’s planes that was too loaded down to fly, so it crashed just off the end of the runway and still sits there today.
We had to travel through this cut to get to the airplane. Sometimes the cuts get pretty wavy and nasty when the tide opposes the wind. The whitecaps here weren’t very inviting, but we were able to power through just fine. Something new to get used to in the Bahamas.Satellite view of the plane.
The kids all got in the water, so I’ll call that a win. Tobin didn’t actually swim over to the plane because he was done snorkeling by the time I was actually ready to get in the water. So instead he sat in the dinghy and watched. I held Hayley’s hand the whole time and Mike held Colin’s. There was a fair bit of current, so we wanted to be careful, and the kids are still kind of hesitant to snorkel. It’s funny because they practically won’t swim without their goggles on, but call something “snorkeling” and give them a full face mask (or not) and they get kind of weird about it. Hayley usually prefers to wear just her goggles and hold her breath. Colin is creeped out by the idea there could be sharks or other creatures down there, so he takes a little convincing to get in saltwater. Regardless, the 4 of us all circled the plane a few times and saw plenty of fish and even a ray resting down at the bottom of the plane. I’ve heard there is a resident nurse shark that lives there, too, but I didn’t see him. It was a pretty cool structure.
Only part of this video is from the plane, so consider the rest a preview of the blog posts to come!
After the plane, we hopped a bit further south on the Banks side to the north end of Shroud Cay. Shroud is the northern most part of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park which is a 176 acre protected area with no-take rules. There are mooring balls for a fee and anchorage fees as well. There is also absolutely no data service at Shroud to speak of. Poor Mike hoped to hear a bit of the Superbowl that night, but there was no way.
Before sunset we had just enough time to sneak in a partial trip down the north creek at Shroud for a bit of dinghy exploring. There are 3 creeks that cut through Shroud, and I’ve read that this north creek is the only one deep enough for a dinghy and even then, only at high tide. The creek has a 3 mph speed limit, so basically it is a quiet, calm creek without boats ripping through it.
Look how calm and still it was in the creek! Serene!
We were instantly amazed by how calm it was in the creek and right away we spotted a small sea turtle swimming in front of us. Of course we all got excited and started talking and pointing and standing up to get a better look, which really does no good for Mike who was trying to maintain a calm speed and steer close to the elusive sea turtle, all without scaring it away. We were surprised that the sea turtle let us follow it for a short bit before it got spooked and headed off. Usually they zoom off as soon as you set eyes on them. Shortly after that guy left us, we found another sea turtle and another and another. That creek was filled with them and they were so calm and welcoming, inviting us to follow after them without even being scared and running away. Right away we realized they must actually FEEL protected here in the Exuma Park, knowing we can’t capture them, we can’t go faster than 3 mph, and we actually have to pay to drop an anchor.
Whatever it was that made the sea turtles comfortable, it was an amazing experience to be so close and get such a good look at them. Soon, though, the sun was getting low and the noseeums were coming out of hiding since it was such a calm night. We knew we would be back the next day to dinghy all the way to the end of the creek, so we turned around and headed back for the boat. But not before running aground on a sand bar. And also spotting 2 more of those huge rays. What a cool spot!!
Sunset in the creek.Huge ray!!
The next morning we headed back down the creek on a falling tide. We brought plenty of toys and food to enjoy the day at the beach at the end of the creek on the Atlantic side, and it’s a good thing, too. With the tide down, we couldn’t have made it back to our boat if we’d have wanted to.
Just living their best lives!!What a life!!
Again we saw all kinds of turtles that swam nice and slow so we could get a good look. It was amazing, once again. At the end of the creek there was a deeper cut where water ran out to the ocean with beaches on both sides of the cut. We beached our dinghy next to another one on the north side beach and got out to explore. The water leading to the Atlantic was shallow and so clear, you could see the sandy bottom clearly. Right away the kids were walking around in the shallow water, exploring and playing. I stood there and took in the beauty of the spot for a bit, and before I realized what was happening, the tide was going down to the point that the shallow water was becoming an area of extended sand bars off the beach.
It was awesome! Colin got to skim board and dig holes for hours. Tobin swam on his boogie board and played a game where you throw small coconuts into a hole for points. Hayley snorkled with me and played with her brothers. The huge area of sand bars and unique channels of deeper water that cut between them were beautiful. We stayed all day and played, amazed by the view.
I could say here forever!!
There is a very short hike up to the top of the hill right there called “Camp Driftwood.” We went up and took in the sights from a higher elevation, and you could see the creek winding it’s way from the Banks side over to the Sound side with expansive views of the deep blue water.
View of the Sound from Camp Driftwood.View of the winding turtle creek.
We didn’t really want to leave so we went ahead and walked the sand bars again and then went exploring on the south side of the cut for a slightly different view. Then we swam through the cut which is actually called the “washing machine” at higher tides because the current pushes you back and forth down the cut until you get to the sand bar blockade, and then it pulls you back again. It was so picturesque, we were happy to spend the day playing.
When it was finally time to head back to the boat, I thought the tide was high *enough* to make it through the center creek through Shroud for some different scenery. I was wrong, though, and the creek was actually not deep enough at all, so Mike ended up pulling our dinghy for quite some time and he wasn’t thrilled about it, believe me. I would have gotten out and pulled, but we saw a lemon shark zipping around in the clear knee deep water a few times and I was too chicken, so Mike *HAPPILY* did the honors.
After we got back to the original north creek, the dinghy ride back to the boat was fairly uneventful, though we did see a few more turtles on the way. We were exhausted from a long day of playing and ready for some relaxing before bed.
While the sand bar at Norman’s was amazing, the beach at Shroud just can’t be beat. It sure helped that we had perfect weather, good timing on the tides, and content children. Put Shroud at the top of the list for amazing beaches!!
Thanks so much for following along on our adventure!!
We left Allen’s Cay not quite sure where we were headed, but that is nothing new for us. There was a front coming in the next afternoon, so we knew we needed to be in a protected area or at least be able to get to one by the next day. Why anchor twice when you can anchor once?
Mike was eyeing what is essentially a hurricane hole in the middle of Norman’s Cay. I wasn’t so sure because the reviews to get inside sounded pretty dicey: sneak between the rocky cliff edges, follow the dark water to starboard, maybe there will be some sticks to guide you through deep water but maybe there won’t, take a hard left or beach yourself on a sand bar, pass 2 out of 3 caves and at that point, it should be deep enough to anchor anywhere in the pond if you’ve made it this far. I pretty much thought Mike was crazy to even try it, but he seemed determined, so who was I to talk him out of it?
Straight ahead are the “rocky cliff edges” we had to navigate between first.
We enjoyed some beautiful scenery on our way there as we scrambled to read and reread every review on entering that we could find. We studied charts and pictured our plan in our minds. Running aground in the Exumas was not the adventure we were hoping for that day.
This is the blue water we had to follow (very close to the beach!!) to stay in deep enough water so we wouldn’t run aground. Not much room for error, but easy enough to see with the sun behind us.
Sure enough, Mike did excellent navigating us in to the pond. Once inside, we were surprised to see 2 other boats. It made me feel relieved to think that we weren’t the only crazy ones to try to enter that maze. And it was beautiful!! Blue water with several areas of beach and rock surrounding the large pond. I was instantly glad Mike insisted we give it a try.
Here is our position inside the pond. Notice the anchor alarm is on and active!!
After a “we made it cocktail” we headed out to explore in the dinghy. The area just outside of the pond is called the “whale’s tail” and you can see why when you look just to the right of the blue dot on the satellite view above. It actually looks like a whale’s tail. It is surrounded by beaches just begging for company, so we headed there to check it out.
Right away we found a trail that led to the other side of the tail, so we went exploring. We found a little park area with a picnic table and a huge line hanging over the branch of a tree for a rope swing. It was surrounded by beautiful white beach and towering Casuarina trees.
Hayley loved the rope swing. Isn’t this line huge, though?! We see these quite regularly on beaches and figure they get washed off of cruise ships or oil tankers far out at sea and end up on some beach, somewhere.
After a little swinging, beach walking, and hermit crab collecting, we headed back across the whale’s tail. The sun was getting low in the sky, but it was still pretty hot, so a swim in the undies was in order for some of us and others spent time collecting hermit crabs and begging their mom to keep them. No luck on that one.
We made it back to the boat in time for a beautiful sunset. Oddly enough, we also watched our fellow boat neighbors pull anchor and head out to sea just as the sun was setting. It seemed like an odd time to be exiting through the tricky sand bars, especially considering the windy weather expected the next day, but who knows. Everyone is on their own schedule with their own agenda out here. I was thankful to be tucked in the safe, protected pond!
The next morning we decided to take advantage of the calm morning to do some tubing. It had been quite a while since it was all blown up (I think Pentwater, Michigan if you can believe it?!), and this was the perfect protected spot for some play time! Tobin even gave it a try first, for his first time EVER in the tube. Way to go, little man!
Tobin in the tube.
He didn’t ride very long before he wanted a break, and bro and sis were eager to jump in.
Showoffs!!Finally, Tobin agreed to go with the other kids, rather than just alone. He wore his goggles so he didn’t get sprayed in the face too much. It didn’t last too long with the three of them in there because he was not comfortable with their crazy tricks.
After a little more zipping around on the tube, we decided to head over to an area of shallow water that actually becomes a sand bar at low tide. I think this is the day that started my sand bar obsession. I was amazed by how huge and winding the sand bars were, with beautiful, soft sand, and lots of sand dollars and starfish and one baby lemon shark in the shallow water.
The charts mark these areas as “Dry at MLW” which stands for mean low water. Basically, if the tide is low, it is land. If the tide is high, it is barely covered by water.Those colors and that clear water!Just look at those ripples!! Some sand bars are kind of sticky and mucky, but this one had beautiful, white, soft sand.We didn’t really come prepared for sand play, but that didn’t stop Colin from building all kinds of houses and damns in the sand.Mike, Tobin, and I went walking on the sand bar to see what we could find. The others stayed by the dinghy and played in the sand.
The deeper channels of water became quite obvious at low water and they were surprisingly deep! It was like a steep drop off with a slight current. I was tempted to cross over to that other sand bar in the distance, but I wasn’t sure yet what creatures could be swimming in that channel, so I stayed put.We loved exploring the sand bars, and then found some slightly deeper water that was about ankle/shin deep to walk around in. This is where we found the baby lemon shark.The darker blue water is the channel we drove the big boat down the day before. It was still plenty deep but just amazing to see how the channels weave through the shallows. We saw several lines where dinghy motors had run aground and tried to claw their way through the sand bars. Always trust the color of the water!!
I’m pretty sure this was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, and it was possibly the best day of my life. Let’s just say it was. What a day!
After a sun break and some lunch, Colin and Tobin kayaked over to a little beach we could see from the boat. It was actually very little, but they did some exploring and I got to read my book for a short bit.
The tide was rising so our beach slowly disappeared all together. On to the next adventure!
We took the dinghy around the corner to another beach, and Mike challenged the kids to make a collection of things they found on the beach. They did a great job working together and found quite a bit of stuff. This “beach challenge” was a great way to give the kids a purpose on the beach, while allowing us to have some adult time to walk and talk. Parenting win!!
It was fun to hear the kids each explain their favorite part of the collection.Another beautiful sunset– must be time to head back to the boat.
The next morning there was some spontaneous teaching and learning about adding numbers. Tobin is getting more curious about some academic tasks, but it is pretty rare that he will actually take instruction from his siblings. Definitely picture worthy!!
I wanted to head right back to the sand bar because that’s what you do when you love something so much, right?! You go back and do it again. But Mike wasn’t so excited about walking the same sand bar, so we dinghied around and ended up compromising by going to a different sand bar instead. Win-Win!
This sand bar wasn’t quite the same: it was more mucky and not as stunning. We also had to walk quite a ways to get to the actual dry sand and not just the ankle deep stuff. SPOILED!! I know. Eventually we made it and the kids were tasked with finding things to spell INNTW in the sand while Mike and I headed out for a walk.
Enjoying the Bahamian sunshine with some All Day IPA, one of our favorites from back home!Look at this teeny tiny little crabby I spotted scampering over the sand.
After our walk, I decided to take part in the INNTW challenge. I found a bunch of black rocks and wrote INNTW in an area that is dry at MLW but underwater at higher tides. I hope that others will see my message someday and either look us up or at least wonder what in the world INNTW means.
Hayley worked very hard collecting trash from the beach, sorting it into types of trash, and organizing it to spell INNTW. She was quite proud of her creation.
The boys worked together and built a science lab complete with a toilet (that of course was used–several times!). This was not the assigned task, but I appreciated their team work and creativity nonetheless. They collected all kinds of snails and sorted them based on shell pattern, naming each group as they went.
In the afternoon we were ready for a little change of pace. Norman’s Cay is somewhat well-known for a few reasons. It was the original planned site of the failed Fyre Festival in 2017. There is a documentary about it on Netflix (and maybe on Hulu) right now that we watched. It was crazy to see exact footage of where we were, but so frustrating to hear about the exploitation of the Bahamian people. Watch it or look it up if you’re curious to learn more.
From 1978-1982, Norman’s Cay was a major location used in drug trafficking for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel out of Columbia. The story goes that Carlos Lehder, one of Escobar’s traffickers, started buying up all the property on Norman’s that he could. Whoever he couldn’t buy out on the island, he terrorized with armed guards and dogs, both who would freely roam the island. Eventually he pretty much had the place to himself. The airstrip was kept very busy, and at the peak of trafficking, planes were coming in and out bringing 300 kilograms of cocaine every day. Large shipments would arrive from Columbia and get separated onto smaller planes which supplied 80% of the cocaine in the United States. These planes could fly under the radar and went into areas in Georgia and the Carolinas where smuggling wasn’t quite as common. Lehder threw huge, wild parties on Norman’s and began to have illusions of taking over the world, idolizing Hitler. One of the most interesting parts of the story is that much of the Bahamian government was on the payroll and agreed to look the other way because the payout was so good. Eventually, Lehder went back to Columbia and was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to life in prison, but the stories of his reign over Norman’s Cay are fascinating. You can search to read more, read “Turning the Tide” about how a marine biologist allowed on the island helped the bring down Lehder, or watch “Blow” which is a very Hollywood version of this drug trafficking ring.
The more we read into the events on Norman’s Cay related to Carlos Lehder, the more interested we became. We read that his house was still intact, so we did some more research and took off to check it out. Recent hurricanes have knocked most of the house down, but the stone fireplace in the middle of the house still stands. This fireplace gave the house it’s island name, “Volcano.”
Walking up to Lehder’s house.There were several outbuildings aside from the house. A garage and a workshop were still standing and in similar disrepair. You can see a shower stall laying in the driveway off to the left.
The kids were interested to look around the house and property. We only told them that the house belonged to a bad guy who controlled the island a long time ago. After hearing the bad guy was in jail, they weren’t scared and even helped look for some of the treasure he may have left behind.
The stone and concrete parts of the house are still standing, but the rest is pretty rickety. What a beautiful view of the Exuma Sound! The stone fireplace still stands. Concrete and stone steps down to the beach.
Lehder’s net worth was estimated to be 2.7 billion when he was captured. Mike looked long and hard, knowing it is a possibility that some of that money is hidden away somewhere. No luck this time!
Searching for $$ left behind (I’m sure many before us have looked as well!).
We headed further down the road and found this beautiful sign post for houses and properties on the island. Someone put some time into making that look beautiful.
We passed by several of the houses, and it was interesting to see the variety of conditions they were in, as well as the solar panels, wind turbines, generators, vehicles, boats, etc. Living on such a remote island would be very difficult, but most of the houses were very nice. It made me think that people who choose that lifestyle or vacation home have to be pretty resourceful and flexible, just like we do on the boat. Life isn’t always easy in paradise, far away from amenities and supplies.
At the end of the road we came to a little beach with a few old tattered dinghies. Most were inflatables like ours, but the kids were intrigued by this fiberglass one. It was a neat place to explore with a view of a small resort on a neighboring key and an anchored sailboat waiting out the blow.
We spotted this massive ray swimming in the shallows just off the north end of the cay. It was the biggest ray we have ever seen.Goofing around on our walk back to the dinghy.Tobin found a huge dead beetle. “Look at the exoskeleton I found, mom!”
The next morning was gloomy and supposed to be rainy in the morning. We decided to hang close to the boat and relax a little for the crummy weather. Of course we were surprised to wake up to a missing kayak, but it was easy to spot on the other side of the pond, so after a quick dinghy ride, we were back to 3 kayaks. Whew!
The day started with some boat school.
Tobin practicing writing his numbers. Here he’s using his right hand, but he might actually be a lefty…?Hay girl typed a blog post. Thank goodness someone types blog posts!!Colin worked on writing. According to him boat school is sooooo hard because he has to write too much. I’m telling you, he is going to have a rude awakening next year!!
Several times getting on and off the boat we noticed this little creature come swimming out from under our boat. He seemed to be very interested when we dropped anything in the water, as he would swim right out and aggressively give it a little taste. He didn’t make us feel too comfortable to jump in from the boat, but we weren’t sure what he was. After seeing him again and again, Mike finally decided to try to catch him. He went after a saltine cracker on a hook and we got him!!
The kids were thrilled that we could finally get a closer look.
A quick google search proved that it is a remora. Remoras are suckerfish that we’ve seen attached to sharks and even turtles in the water. We knew what a remora was (kind of) but we sure didn’t know it had this weird thing on it’s head that looks like a tennis shoe sole!! Apparently it is the part that actually suctions them to other animals–they can attach and separate as needed. What a weirdo!!
Luckily we got our hook out and sent him on his way. I definitely don’t like remoras after seeing one up close!!
After waiting for it to rain all morning, we finally decided to get off the boat after lunch. Apparently it was just going to threaten rain all day, but not actually rain. We landed the dinghy on a beach on the west side of the pond and were amazed at all the garbage that flows in from the Sound to this area. Plastic is a real problem people. And so are your shoes. Stop throwing your shoes in the ocean!
Of course, as soon as we landed on the beach, it started to rain. At that point we were full of energy and already wet, so we went ahead and started our walk. We weren’t quite sure where we were going or what we would see, but we knew this cay had more to show us.
The road conditions were horrible. It was mostly flat, but there was very little pavement and tons of puddles.Eventually keeping our feet dry was pointless and we would just walk right through the middle of the puddle. This was not exactly what we were hoping for when we got off the boat.
We heard a story about how Lehder had planted a lookout boat on his island. Actually, there was a couple living on the boat in the pond, and they refused to leave despite Lehder asking them to leave his island. One day they took their tender to another island to reprovision (no stores on Norman’s!!) and when they came back, their boat was missing. Lehder had used a military grade helicopter to heli-lift the boat out of the water and place it on the highest hill on the island, overlooking the Banks, just next to the airport. The boat still sits there today and we just happened to find it by studying the satellite view.
It looks like a house boat in pretty rough shape.
We all climbed up in the boat and had a look around. It was a great view, though the day was pouring rain and foggy. The boat was dry rotted and gutted. Apparently Lehder’s guards used this boat regularly to keep an eye on the happenings on the island.
Tobin offering me a hand, sweet guy.Colin peeking in the window.View of the Banks from the windows.
We actually went to this side of the island later, and the white lookout boat was pretty obvious in the middle of all the green foliage. What a weird story, but cool that we found it and got to check it out.
After the excitement of finding the boat wore off, the kids were not happy walking in the rain anymore, so we headed back towards the dinghy. It was a great day for warm showers and a movie after we got back to the boat.
Before we headed out the next day, Tobin and Mike found a shrimp that had found it’s way into our dinghy. We’re not quite sure how that could have happened, but Tobin sure was excited! He did NOT eat the shrimp, but instead he threw it to the remora who was still stalking us under our boat.
Just look at that excited face!!!!
Mike is a good example of why you should avoid Poisonwood trees if you come to the Bahamas. He is very allergic to poison ivy, etc at home, and apparently he is also very allergic to Poisonwood. I think this is the remnants of hiking on Great Harbour, but soon after he learned what Poisonwood looks like, and now we all know exactly what to stay away from because we hear about it on every single hike. againandagainandagain.
This is nothing compared to what it eventually turned in to.
After 4 nights at Norman’s Cay, the weather we were hiding from had passed, and we knew there were more adventures ahead. We were sad to leave our little pond, but so thankful that we took a chance and worked our way inside. Both the island and the pond provided lots of entertainment for us. Put Norman’s Cay at the top of my list of favorite sand bars!!
Heading out, back down the deep blue channel, past the caves, stay close to the beach, sharp 90* turn, and then head straight out between the rocks.
Thanks for all the fun, Norman’s! And thank you for following our adventures!! INNTW!!
Origin: Great Harbour Cay, The Bay of the Five Pirates
Destination: Allen’s Cay Anchorage
Distance: 126 miles
Speed: 9.0
Time on the Move: 14 hours and 18 minutes
On our last evening in Great Harbour we moved our boat out of the marina and into their protected harbor called The Bay of the Five Pirates. What a cool name!! We wanted to be set up to get out of town EARLY the next morning because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. The alarm went off before 4:00 am!!
Sunrise was not very exciting, but the calm seas in the north Berries were unexpected and appreciated. And look at that moon!!We were crossing over the tongue of the ocean where depths drop to almost 10,000 feet deep, so Mike had to throw some lines in. Here fishy, fishy, fishy!
We really didn’t have any interest in stopping in Nassau. There are a lot of reports of crime near the island and we didn’t need to reprovision at all after our stock up at GHC, so we really had no reason to stop.
View from the captain’s chair. We experienced about every kind of cloud cover–overcast, blazing sun, and even a nasty squall that brought rain and wind.
That meant that we were going to pass right by New Providence Island (Nassau) at about our halfway mark for the day and just keep going all the way to the top of the Exumas. We watched the weather for days and checked every site imaginable to make sure this would be a safe crossing for us because there were 2 big open water sections. The early part was forecasted to be a bit bumpy but doable. It appeared that a significant swell would be coming in from the east just north of New Providence Island, and we wanted to avoid that if possible, so we ended up going slightly out of the way and passing the island to the west to distance ourselves from the swells. The rest of the trip was supposed to be 2 footers or less.
Tobin burned off energy with some up-downs. It has been a long time since we had to get the kids exercising underway to burn off energy!We played war on the floor because it was a bit bumpy elsewhere.Colin getting his school work done underway.
We thought we made the right decision on our slightly altered route because we went through an area of 3 foot swells still well north of the island (which is getting close to our comfort zone). We left those in our diesel exhaust but then came across some very confused seas around the northwest corner of the island. Confused seas is a boater’s term for “crazy washing machine” of waves. We had swells from two different directions and they were not happy to have us moving through, so they decided to rock us side. Mike had to tack for a bit, which means zig zag through the big waves, so we are always taking them on the bow or on the stern, avoiding that annoying side to side rocking (where I’m sure the boat is about to tip right over even though I know it won’t….probably).
It only lasted for an hour or so, but the whole crew was up top for the ride. Tobin and Colin loved it, Mike and I weren’t the biggest fans, and Hayley thought she was going to get sick (in fairness, she did throw up once right after she woke up, but I think it might have been from the motion of being underway while she was still sleeping for a few hours). As soon as we passed by New Providence Island, the water smoothed right out and we had a nice ride on the shallow banks the rest of the way to our destination.
We lost an hour of light or so due to the unexpected tacking and that meant we would be racing to get to our anchorage before sunset. (By racing I mean traveling 9 mph…?) We tried to pick it up and go faster for a bit, but Mike didn’t like how hard the engines ran before getting us up on plane, so he didn’t want to push them. We were completely loaded down with fuel, food, and water, so we were pretty heavy.
Sunset glow as we neared our anchorage.
We ended up pulling in to the anchorage at dusk, and there were about 10 boats already there, so we had to make some quick decisions about where to drop the hook. After a few circles, we found ourselves a spot and got the anchor set. Thank goodness we didn’t have a problem anchoring because by that time it was dark dark and the wind and current had picked up. An uncomfortable surge came through the anchorage all night and caused us to rock. It was definitely not a restful night’s sleep after a long day of travel. The only bonus was that I could see millions of stars (and even a shooting star) right from the couch where I moved, hoping for sleep.
I think I stared at my anchor alarm more than I actually slept.
The wind whipping through the anchorage, the waves against the rough limestone rocks, and the iguanas screaming were quite unsettling. That’s right I said IGUANAS SCREAMING. Did you know iguanas scream at night? Or maybe during the day, too, but I’ve never noticed it then. The anchorage we chose was right next to an iguana beach (part of the reason we chose this stop!), but I did not expect to hear them at all. It was a creepy thing to hear, and I googled it, but google thinks I’m crazy. Believe me…if you anchor off an iguana beach, you will hear them hollaring at night. I sure hope some other cruisers back me up on this because I can’t find any mention of it online, but I have heard it with my own ears at two different beaches.
The sunrise was a welcome sight! Took this picture right through the salon windows from my spot on the couch. No more anchoring in the dark–it is so unsettling to me not to have a mental image of our surroundings all night!Location of Allen’s Cay! We made it to the EXUMAS!! Woo hoo!
We had such a miserable night that we just wanted to get out of there. In fact, the other boats all left very early in the morning. We regrouped and tried to get our plan together for the day, but ultimately we decided we should dinghy over to the iguana beach before moving on. It was the whole reason we made Allen’s our destination in the first place.
Studying new anchorage options with my morning coffee.
Mike is such a good sport, he unloaded the dinghy and we all headed over to check out the iguanas.
I think we were all happy to get off the boat, though Tobin doesn’t look very happy. That must be his tough guy look of the day.
As soon as we got close we could see that there were iguanas all over the island!! Lots of tour boats come from Nassau to see the iguanas and they feed them grapes to get them close to their paying customers. This makes the iguanas a bit aggressive at times; they rush at you thinking they need to be the first to get to you for your food. We really didn’t have a whole lot of extra food, so we just came empty handed. The iguanas were fed by about 8 other tour boats by the time we left their beach, so they weren’t too sad we didn’t bring any goodies. Actually, I would have loved some grapes, myself!!
The Bahamian Rock Iguanas here are protected by law, so be sure you don’t tease or chase them. Try telling that to young boys who visit the island. Good luck!Hayley isn’t too sure about most creatures, so she hung back a bit at first.Colin loved the iguanas!!Tobin was definitely in his element surrounded by all these creepy crawlies!!Hayley did warm up to them a bit and walked around checking them out. She just doesn’t like when they come towards her. Or when they walk. Or when they look at her.It didn’t take long before she was ready to go.
It really was a beautiful spot, but the swell coming in the night before ruined it for us. By the time we got back to the boat, the anchorage was calm and serene, other than the tour boats zipping in and out every once in a while. We had lunch and tried to narrow down where we were headed next. As usual, there were a few options that we were going to consider while we traveled.
Thanks for following along on our adventures!! Screaming iguanas or not, start your own adventure!!
