The Exumas

From Nassau to…Allan’s Cays.  8am to 5:30pm.  Beating with full main and jib in 12 to 15 knots over 12 feet (sometimes 10) of water all day.  Very, very clear water.  It’s unique and fun to watch the shadow of our sails racing beside us on the sandy bottom. 

The forecast turned to westerly winds here.  Such is the month of March everywhere, a month caught in a tug of war between seasons.  Will winter prevail or summer?  Most folks plan their tour of the Exumas around easterly winds.  These low limestone, sand and coral islands run 160 miles northwest to southeast, with countless gaps between them.  A boat can charge along their west sides in strong east winds yet flat water, where the wind hasn’t fetched a sea into any size,  watching their sails’ shadows race them.  This is part of what cruisers look forward to here.  But in a westerly?  Well, there’s again fast smooth sailing in their lee, on their east side in this case, tho in it's in water thousands of feet deep. 

Allan’s Cays very nicely shelters an anchorage from wherever the winds blow.  We appreciated this fact deeply as we ate and slept well.  With Akimbo’s deep keel, there is no exit south from Exuma Bank.  We have to pick and choose our way between particular islands to get east of them and into Exuma Sound.  With the westerlies forecast, it made sense to exit from the Bank the next morning.  But the westerlies were late and we found ourselves beating south again.  From 11am to 6pm.  We turned at Conspicuous Rock (good name) and planned to anchor between Warderick Wells Cay and Hog Cay.  Thus we stumbled into the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Parks, picked up a mooring buoy for the night and improved upon even the previous night’s shelter.  So perfect…it was hard to leave. 

We pumped up Sea Cow and went exploring.  A short hike to the west side of Warderick Wells Cay and we were glad Akimbo rested calmly on the other side.  It was choppy and exposed over there.  A float plane had landed in the anchorage and beached on the island.  I talked with Ralph the pilot.  He worked for the owner of the next island south, Tyler Perry.  Asking him about the local weather, he answered that a big front was headed our way…at 28 knots!  That’s fast.  He said they often didn’t get this far but it looked like this one would.  I reconsidered our plan to sail on before dark. 

Back in the Cow, we motored around Hog Cay and over to a little island with inviting sand beaches.  The sand here is more fine than any i’ve seen.  Almost like flour.  Snorkeling an hour or so, the clarity of the 80 degree water was fantastic. Some fun helped me feel feel like i was arriving at last.  Kristin is a diver and identified fish for us, especially a few to avoid.  Unfortunately, in the parks, we couldn’t harvest the lobster we found,  but it got our hopes up that we may find more later, and meantime the fishing has been good.  Reed fly fishes.  And even tho trolling lacks all the subtleties, he can’t wait to put a line in the water here.  We’ve had blackened mackerel, poached snapper, fish tacos, and sashimi.  And we’re throwin’ barracuda back.  “Livin’ large.”