Saturday, January 5, 2013

Hutia and the Blowfish

Our sailing day from Shroud Cay to Warderick Wells Cay was met with wind on the nose, which meant we were “in the irons.”  This caused additional sailing time as we had to tack away from the rum line in order to sail to our destination, adding at least a couple of hours to our planned trip.

Dulcinea heading to Warderick Wells Cay
(Photography compliments of our friends on s/v Sanctuary)

During that time, we hailed Exuma Park Control to establish a mooring location.  The park headquarters is located in Warderick Wells Cay and there is limited anchorage.  Because of the amount of coral and sea life, Exuma Park provides decent mooring anchorage at a reasonable cost.  We picked up mooring ball number 18, which was deep in the channel and that meant for an easy nights sleeping with no rolling anchorage. After Sherry missed the mooring ball and we lost the boat hook while attempting to pick up the mooring ball, we were finally able to grab it and settle in with a double painter.  Our water quantity was getting low so we decided it was time to make use of the water maker.  We had installed a Katadyne 80E water maker prior to our initial departure.  This is a great little unit as it produces 3½ gallons of drinkable fresh water straight from seawater using a reverse osmosis system.  We topped off 5 gallons by the time we had the dinghy loaded and ready to go exploring.  


The park headquarters was established in the 1950s to help the fragile Bahamian sea life. It is a nonprofit trust organization that ensures local poaching is not taken to extremes.

We made way to the park headquarters and were greeted by a 6’ nurse shark at the dinghy dock.  This got everybody questioning our desire to go snorkeling these waters.  Jim assured us the nurse shark meant us no harm.  After checking in and returning to the boat, we grabbed our snorkeling gear and went for a swim.  During our snorkel, within 100 yards of our mooring ball, we were presented with vibrant colorful fish, large eagle rays and many sharks.  Because of the current running in and out of the channel, this was almost like a drift dive over a coral field.  Because of the protected species, we found numerous LARGE lobsters and abundant sea life.  
 

Dune What Comes Naturally 


Jim did a Great Job designing our boat sign to leave at Boo Boo Hill


Boo Boo Hill Trail


Dulcinea (in the forefront) on a mooring ball

What a view we had here


Our Contribution to Boo Boo Hill



This little guy came out to greet us


Gorgeous overlook


Spectacular!!!

Jim at Boo Boo Beach
Sherry at Boo Boo Beach
 
Murphy's Hideaway









Freshwater Lens

Jim Relaxing at Pirate's Lair


And Now it is My Turn




Watch Your Step!


Curly Tailed Lizard


Beach Man



Makes You Want to Stay Forever













What's that look for?  Just as he snapped the camera, a noseeum bit me


Retake


Ooh!!!


Ahh!!!



Snorkeling was followed by a hike to Boo Boo Hill, which we thought meant “Boo” as a boo boo to your boat; however, after reading up on it, there was a sailboat that wrecked near the point, losing all souls on board and it is rumored that on a full moon you can hear the souls cry out, thus, giving it the name, “Boo Boo Hill.”  The big attraction to Boo Boo Hill is to leave a marking of your sailboat so that if a wandering soul decides to board your vessel, they will know the name.  We picked up a piece of driftwood, made our mark and left it on Boo Boo Hill for any wandering souls wanting to hitch a ride aboard the s/v Dulcinea.  Sherry was greeted by a visitor on this hike as she looked down to find a 2 foot brown racer snake fearlessly slithering along the path next to her. He went about his way and she went hers.  It seems as if the wildlife here know they are protected.

After a wonderful day of sailing, snorkeling and hiking, we were beat tired, but were blessed with an incredible sunset that took our breaths away.

Today, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and Sherry’s wonderful warm blueberry muffins and yogurt.  A hearty breakfast was necessary for another day full of adventures.  Warderick Wells Cay was once a pirates’ hideaway.  We laid out the map, took our bearings and ventured to find the Pirates’ Lair and Capture Beach.  This meant a very long dinghy ride around the southern tip of the island.  As we rounded the tip, we were in awe of the beautiful waters that separated the cays.  With a little more discovery, we were able to locate Capture Beach and land the dinghies.  We loaded the backpacks with water and headed out to find the Pirate's Lair.  The trail was rough and rugged; however, we were able to locate it.  It was quite interesting to find the Pirate’s Lair and that it had its own freshwater source.  This was the perfect place for a hideaway.  We continued exploring and walking around the entire southern part of the island.  The day was ended with a cruiser’s happy hour on south beach, under a canopy.  We met lots of new friends and shared lots of exciting stories. 
What made the happy hour really happy was as the sun set, the Hutia came out.  Hutia are a non-native marsupial that was introduced to the islands that looks like a large gerbil.  They are fun to watch as they run around on the beach and literally will come up to you to beg for food. 

Our worst end to this was that we drank too much wine and forgot to bring the spotlight for returning to the boat after dark.  Sherry managed to gracefully land a faceplant in a bush while attempting to untie the dinghy from a tree and we were left to find our way back to the boat with no lights in shark filled waters.  

All is well that ends well and we are safely tucked away in our little Dulcinea.

Deep in the Mangroves


If you have ever seen the movie, “The African Queen,” you will know the feeling we had when we landed at Shroud Cay.  It is an island of dense vast mangroves that connect the calm crystal waters of the Exuma Bank with the Atlantic Ocean.  The anchorage was a little difficult to get to as we were dodging coral heads all the way in, but once we set anchor it was terrific holding.  We had a peaceful night’s sleep and decided to go adventuring the next morning as we were waiting for high tide so we could dinghy into the deep back areas. 

We had no idea how crystal clear some of these waterways would be going back into the mangrove areas.  It was as if we were in a swimming pool.  There were parts that were so shallow we had to walk the dinghy through them to get deeper into the mangroves.  When we reached the end of one of the waterways, we discovered a secluded beach that led to the Exuma Sound.  It was incredibly isolated and provided a picturesque view.  With sand so soft, it was as if walking in quicksand.  As we ventured through some of the waterways, we came across incredible marine life: a 4’ black tip reef shark, a sea turtle and one waterway that led us to the hatchlings of probably a million little fish.  It felt as if we were in the middle of the Amazon.

Making our way into the mangroves


An enchanted secluded beach we came upon


We were loving every minute of the sun and sea


Toes in the Sand  ~Jimmy Buffet


Entering Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park


Jim loving the power of that 4-stroke 15 hp motor

We are getting there

Thousands of hatchlings
 
Millions of Hatchlings
 
A Closer Look

Hard to see, but in the upper left corner is the tail of the black tip shark we came across










Jim rowing the dinghy in shallow water

What a great day to explore the mangroves

Deep in the mangroves

A cool view of the mangroves

There was no Hamburger in Paradise


After relaxing a few days and getting into the swing of things in Allens Cay, we had heard there were some famous hamburgers in Normans Cay, so we decided to pull anchor and make way there.  Unbeknownst to us, Normans Cay was an ex-druglord’s playground.  The weather dictated us landing on the east beach rather than in the cut near the drug lord’s ruins, which should have been better as it was closer to the Normans Cay Beach Club.  We dropped anchor, put on our nice clothes and headed to find the great hamburgers at the Beach Club.  Unfortunately, upon arrival we discovered Normans Beach Club “McDuff's” was no longer open.  This meant no hamburgers in paradise.  Seems the economy is hitting down here just as hard as it is in the states.  So, we decided to go for an adventurous walk around the island and do some discovery.  It is actually quite beautiful with lots of potential; however, it has the stigma of being a drug lord’s island.  The one thing the island has going for it is the ability to utilize an airstrip built by its former drug lord.  This allows neighboring islands to shuttle people in and out.  Although, I don’t think we will be planning any flights in or out of this airstrip anytime soon.  On our walkabout of the island, we found wreckage of airplanes both on land and in the water.  It is rumored that many tourists have checked out of the island via this airstrip only to have never been heard from again.

Coconut Sprout

Every island seems to have a lone palm tree 


Not sure what these carvings were, but we thought they were interesting


Airstrip to possibly nowhere


Looking down the runway
 

Normans Club Yacht Club (after the drug bust)