Island Experiences

We left Black Point early afternoon on Thursday, May 22nd, for Staniel Cay where we again anchored on the west side of Big Majors. Todd swung by pig beach and then went to snorkel Thunderball Cave, taking several more underwater photos before going in to town to recapture some of the Staniel Cay photos we lost. Thunderball Cave was the site of an old James Bond movie (1969) entitled Thunderball and was apparently also used for the movie Splash.

The Big Majors anchorage is famous for its swimming pigs. Boaters take over scraps of bread and lettuce to feed them. It's quite a sight.



Thunderball Cave with its many beautiful fish.





Views of picturesque Staniel Cay. This is the cay most visitors fly in to if they are meeting up with people boating in the central Exumas.





When Todd returned, we went exploring in the dinghy and found some really neat areas to the north of Big Majors, most of which are only accessible by dinghy. That evening a shark paid us a visit so we fed him ham scraps and pizza off the bow.

Our dinner guest - a five-foot nurse shark.


Friday morning we took the VPR route west of Fowl Cay to Sampson Cay Club where we topped off with water (another 130 gallons) and got more dinghy fuel ($6 per gallon). VPR stands for Visual Piloting Rules and applies in areas on the charts where good weather, sunlight, bottom reading and piloting skills are required. Generally, VPR routes are shortcuts you can take through tight areas that may have less water depth than some boaters are comfortable with. We have found the charts to be conservative in their depth predictions, though, so VPR routes tend to have more water than you expect, especially if you go at or near high tide.

After leaving the marina, we anchored on the northwest corner of Pipe Cay, just south of Compass Cay, in a narrow channel bordered by jagged rock bluffs to the east and a shallow sandy area to the west. That afternoon we went exploring in the dinghy and found some neat conch shells and a large bay with huge, beautiful starfish. We also found a number of very nice, pristine beaches around Compass and Pipe Cays, some with enough water to anchor near, even though they are not marked as anchorages on the charts.

Beautiful areas around Pipe and Compass Cays.



The Admiral with her prize starfish, which she regretfully released.


We then stopped by Compass Cay Marina and met several of the marina guests who were enjoying happy hour swimming with the sharks, a common occurrence at Compass Cay. Saturday we went back to Compass Cay Marina for lunch. The marina doesn't actually have a restaurant, but Tucker, the owner, grills burgers and hot dogs on the dock and has shaded picnic tables set up for the guests. The burgers were great, if a bit expensive ($24 total), and the marina guests were very friendly.

Compass Cay Marina where you can swim with the sharks!





While we were there, the captain of a 100-foot yacht from Cancun was trying to find somewhere to get a birthday cake for his wife. Oddly enough, they had a chef on board the vessel but he didn't know how to bake! Tucker made some phone calls but wasn't able to come up with anything, and no one else was volunteering, so I offered to make the cake for him. Tucker had a yellow cake mix in his little store ($3.95) so I only had to make the icing from scratch. The chef even gave me the three eggs for the cake mix!

We had invited Jerry & Dotty, who we met a few weeks ago when we were anchored in the Pipe Creek area, to join us for happy hour late Saturday afternoon and enjoyed visiting with them again. Unfortunately, we had to cut our visit short so we could take the birthday cake to the marina early that evening. We even spelled out "Happy B-Day" with M&M's that Todd confiscated from a bag of trail mix we had on board!

Jerry & Dotty visit "Life's2Short."


Tucker, the owner of Compass Cay; the chef from "El Capricho;" and Admiral Betty Crocker showing off her edible work of art.


The chef and the captain were very appreciative and gave us a couple of visors and a golf shirt engraved with the boat's name, "El Capricho," along with $40 cash. We tried to decline the money but he insisted - captain's orders - and I guess you don't question the captain! We asked the chef the meaning of "El Capricho" and he told us it doesn't have a strict English translation but the gist of it is "something you really don't need or have a use for but you want it anyway; an extravagance." Fitting name for a 100-foot yacht, don't you think?

About midnight, a storm rolled through with 40-plus mile per hour winds from the northwest, the worst possible direction for where we were anchored. As I mentioned above, there was nothing but jagged rock bluffs behind us and the wind was blowing us toward them! Fortunately, the anchor held but we had a couple of very stressful and scary hours waiting for the worst of it to pass. We even put on our life jackets in case we had to abandon ship, but by 2:00 a.m. things had settled down enough that we were able to go back to bed.

Sunday morning Todd made a quick trip to the marina to get a bag of ice (an Exuma high of $8.00 per bag!) and then we moved to Cambridge and got on a mooring ball. The wind picked up again about noon and it got pretty rough, so we didn't stray from the boat. That afternoon, Doug, Paul and Monica stopped by and invited us to dinner on Paul's boat at Compass Cay Marina. We originally met Doug, briefly, Thursday afternoon when we were exploring in the dinghy north of Staniel Cay. We then met all three of them at Sampson Cay Club the next day when we were topping off with water and dinghy fuel. At any rate, they were in a nice offshore fishing boat with twin 225 horsepower outboards and offered to shuttle us back and forth to the marina.

Doug picked us up at 6:30 p.m. and took us to Paul's gorgeous 65-foot Pacific Mariner named "Off Island" for wonderful hors d'oeuvres and a marvelous dinner on the upper deck complete with dessert and an impressive array of wine, all prepared and served by Monica. Even though the marina is well protected, the wind had come up and none of us were looking forward to the ride back to "Life's2Short" after dark, so Paul graciously offered to let us spend the night and we proceeded to stay up until the wee hours of the morning enjoying our host's hospitality. Paul even brought out a fabulous bottle of Louis XIII cognac to share with his guests, definitely a unique experience!

Living LARGE on "Off Island!" Thanks all, it was a very special evening!



The next morning Monica treated us to a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs, muffins and coffee before Doug took us back to "Life's2Short." Before we left, Paul also gave us some Mahi-Mahi they had in the freezer - another unexpected treat! Doug's airplane was at Staniel Cay and he and Paul were flying back to Florida around noon. Monica's husband was then flying in Monday afternoon to captain the boat back to Florida. It is unlikely that we will see any of them again, but we certainly enjoyed meeting them and very much appreciate being invited aboard the "Off Island" resort for a memorable evening.

Paul and the Admiral enjoying Monica's wonderful breakfast.

It was pretty breezy all day Monday so we spent a quiet day on the boat at Cambridge Cay. Chuck & Gayla aboard "Sun Tanner," a 44-foot Atlantic, stopped by in the dinghy to introduce themselves and we made plans to get together later for happy hour. Chuck knew of Todd from one of the boaters' list servs he monitors and we had been in touch on the VHF off and on over the past several days. We spent a few hours visiting with them before returning to "Life's2Short" and retiring for the evening.

The wind calmed down overnight and Todd took the dinghy over to Cambridge Cay Tuesday morning to search for "treasures" on the Sound side, returning with even more plastic and steel floats! He took one over to Gayla aboard "Sun Tanner" and told them we had decided to move to an anchorage on the southwest tip of Halls Pond Cay.

That afternoon we walked around to the Sound side of Halls Pond to a beach where the Captain was just positive there would be sea glass; unfortunately, the only thing we found was a lot of seaweed. We then dinghied west to Sandy Cay and sat on the beach in the sun for a while before checking out one of several beaches on the west side of Halls Pond Cay. We settled on the one that had a conveniently located shade tree near the water and decided we would come back the next afternoon with some rum punch and enjoy the afternoon.

A beautiful shady beach on Halls Pond Cay. It doesn't get much better than this!


Wednesday evening Todd grilled some of the Mahi-Mahi Paul gave us and it was delicious! We then took a sunset dinghy ride south to Snake Cay, which is really three cays connected by two incredibly nice sandbars that are totally exposed a low tide. If we hadn't been moving to the Warderick Wells south mooring field on Thursday, we would definitely have revisited this spot!

We were alone in the south mooring field on Thursday and decided to go back to one of our favorite beaches, east of Hog Cay. Originally, we didn't think the cay had a name, but the Exuma cruise guide calls it Pirate Retreat. It was a warm, beautiful afternoon, the water was a great temperature, the beer was cold and the sand was silky soft. You can't ask for much more than that!

Back on Pirate Retreat, one of our favorite areas to spend the afternoon.


Sugar sand toes.


Friday was bucket laundry day again and then we dinghied over to one of the small beaches on the west side of Hog Cay for a few hours that afternoon. Other than a few dinghies passing through doing a little exploring and snorkeling, we had the mooring field to ourselves again. After a very nice dinner we watched the sunset through the clouds and admired the beautiful colors.



Today is Saturday, May 31st, and we have moved to the Warderick Wells north mooring field. The closest and most direct route between the south and north mooring fields is via Exuma Sound, about three miles, but the east wind has been pretty strong and we didn't want to deal with the rough water, so we took the inside route, via Exuma Bank, and arrived a few hours later.

We will update the blog this afternoon and get caught up on e-mail and then hopefully spend tomorrow exploring and checking out some new beaches in the area. Our plan is to leave here on Monday and continue north. It is unlikely that we will have Internet access again before we reach Bimini since, at this point, we don't plan on going in to a marina at Nassau. We should reach Bimini between the 10th and 15th of June and will try to post another update at that time.