Staniel Cay/Big Majors

Our arrival at Staniel Cay Yacht Marina met us with quite a docking challenge of parallel parking between two closely positioned sailboats.  Jim pulled a really cool maneuver to get us to the dock, followed by our friends on s/v Sanctuary being ready to grab the dock lines.  Then, it was time for a few drinks with the locals.  Although hailed as a yacht club, it is not what we, in the states, would call a yacht club.  There was room for no more than 6 boats (3 of which turned out to be mega yachts) along with a fuel dock.  The bar was quaint with good eats and, after a few Kalik’s, we decided to explore the town.

Staniel Cay Marina Dinghy Dock

 Marina Restaurant & Bar

 Six Friends enjoying Happy Hour

We understood we would be able to provision in town and that laundry facilities were available.  We had also heard it was the place to get some great Bahamian bread.  Well, at least the bread part panned out.  The cinnamon and coconut breads were outstanding!  Upon exploring the local grocery store, we found we would have to wait 3 days for the mail boat, which also carries groceries to the island, to arrive.  The grocery store is actually the back portion of someone’s home and the local bakery is in the kitchen of the “little yellow house on the hill.”  This all made for some interesting moments.  Upon our arrival at the bakery, the lady’s children were all seated at the kitchen table busy doing their homework.  The laundry facilities did not pan out as the charge was $10 per load to wash and dry.  The dryer was a clothes line so getting your laundry returned depended on how many days it took them to dry on the line.  But, I do love the smell of clothes dried in the fresh air.

We slept with a large school of sharks under the boat, but as they were nurse sharks, there was no need for concern.  The underwater lighting provided a great view of our visitors.

Nurse Shark under our Boat

A closer look

Day two, we opted to forgo the high end dock fees and moved to the anchorage located at Big Majors, which provided some of the best anchoring we have experienced so far in the Bahamas and was located just off the beach where the swimming pigs live.

Sightseeing Tour coming to feed the Swimming Pigs

Pigs and Roosters...Oh My! 

Not a Swimming Pig, but he was there looking for a handout too

Pat and David, watch out for hitchhikers!!!

Three Little Pigs (okay, maybe not so little)

We checked out the swimming pigs, but had to be careful as they wanted to join us in the dinghy.  Having a soft sided dinghy, we waited further back and let other overly eager spectators have the front row opportunity.   After watching the pigs for a few minutes, we made our way to Thunderball Grotto for some snorkeling adventure.  Adventure it was!  So grand, we grabbed the GoPro and made another skin dive the next day.  Snorkeling the Grotto was fabulous and snorkeling the backside of the Grotto was even better.  An unforgettable experience!  The Grotto remains a great tourist attraction as the James Bond movies, "Thunderball" and "Never Say Never Again," were filmed there.  As few venture to the backside of the Grotto, the undisturbed and abundant coral and sea life made for an incredible dive for those adventurous enough to take the dive through the swim through.  And, we are glad we did!

It's a seal!  No, it's Sherry surfacing from a swim through

Swimming with the Fishes

If we hadn't had enough excitement, we went to a bonfire on the beach with approximately 40-50 other boaters.  The night was complete with tiki torches, rum punch, wine, a blazing fire and lots of fun hanging out with people who share our love of sailing.

Not expecting to see our friends, Max and Tracey on m/v SandiBeach, until we reached Georgetown, we were pleasantly surprised when they unexpectedly returned to Big Major one evening.  This was followed by a few more fun nights of dinners and drinks with them and our friends from s/v Sanctuary, David and Pat aboard the beautiful m/v SandiBeach.  We were then off to Black Point Settlement, as Max and Tracey had just returned from there and highly recommended it as our next “don’t miss” anchorage.

Tracey and Max Arrive

 These two are always smiling, let the fun begin!

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.