Back to Highborne Cay

This morning we pulled out of Norman's Cay headed to Highborne Cay, slowly making our return trip North.    Do you remember in my earlier post when I mentioned David and Ryan bringing down our spare prop to store in the event of an emergency?  Well thank goodness they did; we accidentally hit a lone unmarked rock with the prop pulling out of Norman's Cay.  After we recovered from our panic attack, we slowed and David dove in to see how bad the damage was.  It was a tiny nick, however it was causing mild vibration.   We continued on to Highborne to explore the island and had a wonderful night on anchor.

Beautiful shot on Highborne Cay

The main road in Highborne Cay

Look at the limestone walls that line either side of the road, can you imagine the amount of work that went into making the roads.  Between the limestone and mangroves it seems like a tremendous amount of work.  I read a story that the mangroves; a couple had arrived by dingy and decided to find a more intimate spot for some afternoon delight and got caught in the mangroves and could not get out.   Fortunately, they were close enough to the marina that someone heard their pleas for help and came to their rescue, they had to be cut out by machete.

Tomorrow we are off to Nassau to get the prop properly checked out and do some much needed boat clean-up.



Norman's Cay

Today we ventured to Norman's Cay, this little island was formerly under the control of drug lord Carlos Lehder and in fact you'll find an almost totally submerged aircraft from his drug running days.  Norman's is a quaint little island with a few private homes and one restaurant / bar called Norman's Cay Beach Club.  The island also has an airstrip for private and chartered planes.

 

Airstrip at Norman's Cay

We had the pleasure of meeting Stephan, the proprietor of Norman's Cay Beach Club.  He filled us in on the island history and served us up some scrumptious food.  We had their twist on a Bahamian staple Conch Chowder with a Thai Twist.  This served alongside one of the best burgers we've ever had.   Perhaps food just tastes better in paradise!





Stephan at Norman's Cay Beach Club





Beautiful shot in Norman's Cay Lagoon

We took Little Girl for a cruise around the island and saw the sunken airplane, some caves and other breathtaking views.   We departed Norman's and headed back to Highborne Cay.





Warderick Wells - OOOPS, Shroud Cay

We headed to Warderick Wells this morning, I was so excited because this is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands and a "must do" in the crusing guides.    Due to our draft, we had to select our mooring ball carefully as the approach is so shallow.  The Exuma Land and Sea Park gives out the mooring ball assignments and placed us in Hog Cay on mooring ball S-3.   Since we are pretty green at trying to moor Fat Bottom Girl, it had been recommended that we have one of us in the dingy and one on Fat Bottom Girl.   I took Little Girl around the south side of the island to survey the area and confirm that David would be able to come in from the north.    All APPEARED to be fine from a dingy's perspective, however when he rounded the corner and came into sight I could see what an affect the current (now in a rising tide) was having on the boat.    I knew in a quickness we were about to be in a world of shit!    We made one attempt at hooking the line and decided the best course of action was to haul ass and get to hell out of there.  Thrusters or not, there are just situations you don't want to be in.

David went north, and I went south.  I circled the island and met him on the top side, we stopped long enough for me to jump on Fat Bottom Girl and and tie off Little Girl and get out of the rough currents.   We attempted an approach to the other two mooring locations at Warderick Wells and decided it would be better to just go north and find a calm / safe anchorage elsewhere.

We traveled to Shroud Cay, our friends Scott and Sue from Staniel Cay highly recommended Shroud Cay and I'm glad they did.    

Black Point Settlement - Great Guana Cay Exuma

Today we traveled to Black Point Settlement - what a gorgeous island.  We were immediately greeted and welcomed by another Krogen, Dream Weaver upon entering the harbour.   We took the dingy in and explored the small island.   Within a matter of a quarter mile you pass the grocery stores, police station, all age school, clinic and the three restaurants.    While passing the school, the playground (AKA basketball court) which is in front of the school had several boys playing, while the girls were all across the street in what looked like a large lemonade stand doing crafts.

Our Anchorage @ Black Point Settlement

All Age School

Local Boat Project

Sylken Sea @ Anchorage in Black Point Settlement

While walking back up the island, low and behold we heard our names being called from Scorpio, one of the restaurant / bars.  It was the group of GA rednecks who had came down for the day to see the island and stopped in for a cold beverage.  We visited for a little while and got on our way; we walked across the street to Loraine's for some lunch.   I have to say, we've eaten a lot of fish sandwiches in our lives, but this was absolutely the best!

We returned to Fat Bottom Girl and noticed a new 48' Krogen North Sea in the harbour.  It was Sylken Sea, she and her crew had been out for a days fishing.  We spoke the following morning and hope to catch up again in the Abacos. 

Thunderball Cave

This morning we took the dingy to Thunderball Cave, filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball,  for a snorkel trip.  Its recommended to come at low slack tide so you can simply swim in.  It certainly is a lot smaller than what Hollywood portrayed in the movie.  It was a beautiful little cave with multiple entrances from water as well as from the land above.  



Thunderball Cave



If you notice the 8 people in the picture, this is a group of GA rednecks from Marietta.  What a small world we live in, we come to the Exumas and run into people who live only a few miles from us.   One of the ladies in the group surprised her husband for his 50th Birthday with a trip to Staniel Cay with 6 of their closest friends and arrived on a private jet.  It seemed as though everywhere we went for the next two days we ran into them.  Great people who we shared contact information with and hope to meet up again when we return home. 

When we returned to the Marina we decide to give Fat Bottom Girl another necessary wash down, and later treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the Marina along with the customary bloody Mary & beer combo.   While enjoying our lunch I was approached by a local gentlemen who sat beside us at the bar.  The conversation began discussing the weather, as we were in the midst of a light shower and he commented on the need for rain on the island.   He was a rough looking character and made the comment that most people shun him and won't give him the time of day, he attributed this to his good looks (ha ha).  We ended up talking for hours while David played pool and shot the shit with the self proclaimed "Island Concierge".   As the evening ended the gentleman thanked me for being so nice to him and taking the time to share a few beers and good conversation with him.  At that, he informed me who he was.  He goes by Captain Tony and he owns Staniel Cay as well as two other surrounding islands.  He usually never tells people that because they are so put off by his looks that they won't talk to him and if they know who he is then they are nice just because they think he has something.  He said I had a good heart and good soul and was a very nice lady (oh how sweet) and he could see kindness in my eyes.   The next morning he came to the boat with a gift, two beautiful cleaned and polished conch shells wrapped up.  One is so large that it is considered a Queen conch.   What a thoughtful gesture!

Now I don't know if Tony truly owns the islands, but everyone working at the bar concurred.   It doesn't matter to me one way or another, I was just proud to have met him.  He was a true gentleman! 

Ahhh, swimming pigs in paradise

We went to the neighboring island of Big Major, home to many wild pigs and local attraction for cruisers.   When we arrived there were several other boats waiting at the shore for the pigs to show;  the waiting boats lost patience and moved on and as soon as they did, here came the pigs.   Big one's, little one's, short one's and fat one's.  We had met a gentlemen that warned us to be careful and not hand feed them.  They had been known to charge boats, and in fact, deflated one of the inflatable types with their hooves trying to get in the boat.   There is another local named John who lost part of his middle finger in the pigs mouth.  SO, when mamma piggy tried climbing on the bow of little girl, I jumped, screamed and ran to the back of the boat.   David was cracking up "attack of the killer pigs".....  Ha Ha

Here Piggy Piggy

We later returned to find a few boat loads of people, including small children maybe 2-3 years old frolicking on the beach, hand feeding and hugging the pigs.   Now I feel silly for being scared!

David and I had packed a picnic lunch in hopes of discovering our own little private island with sun, sand and shade.  We found the most beautiful little spot with a large shade tree, we pitched our blanket and spent the afternoon snorkeling, taking pictures and just relaxing. 

We returned to the marina to discover they were having "happy hour" at the Yacht Club.  The band was set up, we sang and danced into the night.  The base guitarist is a local named Yellowman;  island rumor is that he died and when placed in a body bag he came back to life.   

   

Dingy Debacle on the way to Staniel Cay

Today headed to Staniel Cay, it was a short day of about 6 hours.  15 minutes after our departure we got swamped by a mega yacht; we checked "Little Girl" to make sure she hadn't been swamped too and she was GONE!   Panic mode immediately set in, we thought that possibly she had sunk.    Without a dingy our trip would be a mess with no way to get off the boat or go exploring.   I radioed all vessels anchored on the west side of Highborne Cay to be on the lookout; which I guess in hindsight wasn't the smartest thing to do.   We had no reply from any cruisers, but heard a little chatter from what appeared to be locals about a missing dingy.  We turned around and headed back to our anchorage and there she was just bobbing away.  I can assure you, we will never leave again without making absolutely certain she is tied off properly!  We were ecstatic to have her back and the debacle only cost us about 30 minutes of time round trip (a small price to pay).

We arrived at Staniel Cay Yacht Club to find that the marina had no power, which was not good news for us since the only reason we went to the marina was to spend a little time on shore power to help charge our inverter.  Running the generator works to recharge it, but it doesn't get fully charged.   Power or no power what a wonderful place!  

Staniel Cay is home to Thunderball Cave, the dive scene location for the James Bond movie Thunderball.  We hope to dive / snorkel this spot tomorrow.   It's so small and shallow it really can't be considered a dive.