Traveling the Exumas

Feb. 2-8

Days 83-89

We enjoyed a relatively smooth ride from Nassau to our first stop, Allen's Cay.  This cay is home to a large population of endangered iguanas.  They are not supposed to be fed by tourists, but if you land on a beach it only takes seconds for them to start coming out of the bushes.  I don't believe they are just coming to say Hi.  Posing for pictures seems to be their second favorite thing to do, because they hung around as long as I was willing to keep clicking.  Thank goodness for digital photography!  

As we continue our amazing trip, it has been so much fun to get to know cruisers from many different ports of call.  One of the highlights of entering another anchorage is knowing that the odds are pretty good that we will find someone we have traveled with before and, if not, there will be someone new to meet.  

The weather has not been the best this winter in the Bahamas.  We have found that many of our days activities have been determined by where we can get the best anchorages out of the wind.  Sometimes this means we have stayed in one spot longer than we had planned, or left a beautiful anchorage sooner than we would have liked.  The cruisers we have spoken to that come to the Bahamas every winter have told us that this is not the norm.  Just our luck!

I learned something about Jess today!  He has always given me a bad time when I am startled by unexpected things. Today it was his turn.  We were checking out some ruins on Allen's Cay when he turned and was quite surprised to see this guy checking us out. 

As soon as our dink touched the beach the iguanas started coming down to see what we had to offer. This fellow stayed right with us as we wandered the island.  Guess he wanted to make sure that I got his best side!

Our beautiful tropical anchorage at Allen's Cay.

The sun sets on a Bahamian parking lot at Warderick Wells Cay. 

The blow holes at Warderick Wells are great during high tide.  The surf was pretty rough so the crashes against the rocky shoreline on the Atlantic side of the island were quite spectacular!  I got this shot just seconds before being drenched. Thank goodness for a lifeproof phone case!

Jess got some exercise by chasing after his hat after holding it over a blow hole.  The force would shoot his hat 30 feet into the air.  Of course he had to do it several times before I was able to get this shot.

During low tide at Cambridge Cay we were able to find some amazing sea creatures strolling through the flats.  This is in The Exumas Land and Sea Park so there is no fishing, lobstering, or conch harvesting allowed.  This meant we were able to find our first live conchs.

I never have my underwater camera with me when I need it.  The water is so clear that it didn't matter when Jess discovered this sea star while he was snorkeling along the shore.

The clouds made for a gorgeous sunset when we arrived in Staniel Cay.  

Our anchorage between Little Majors and Big Majors has become a hidey-hole for a few days while yet another cold front pushes through.  The water was so rough we couldn't get our dink into Staniel Cay so we spent a few hours just enjoying a walk around the beach on Big Majors. There were about 25 of us riding out the wind.  Most boats here are sailboats, so quite often Bama Dream looks a little out of place.

Such a strenuous morning!  A few palm fronds and Jess is able to relax while I wander the beach.