Revisiting the Exumas

From West BAy, in New Providence, we took the long, but coral head free route across the White Bank to Shroud Key. The Exumas are a favorite, with rocky ocean cliffs on one side, and on the other, shallow aqua waters and lush vegetation on the bank side. We grabbed one of the Exuma Park mooring balls at Shroud Cay. What a beautiful spot! Luke and Jan, with their more seaworthy dinghy motored us up the pale blue tidal creek that splits the island. On the other side, we hiked up a cliff to see where drug agents spied on drug runners on the next island in the 80s, and we walked the pretty beaches there.

On our return to the boats, we discovered trhat a sudden wind had whipped the waters of the sound into two to three foot waves!  Dismounting from the rocking dinghy to the pitching, bucking boat was tricky business, even trickier for Luke and Jan, who fought to hoist their dinghy and motoe aboard behind them. Within an hour, the waters calmed as suddenly as they had boiled.

Cambridge Cay, another favorite Park stop was equally lovely. We arrived early and took our dingies over to two dive spots. The first was the Sea Aquairum, opposite Little Halls Pond Cay, teeming with brilliant fish just out of reach. The second site was in deeper water, not far away, thst of a single engine plane which had crashed many years ago and still stands, eerily empty, at an angle, nose down into the sand.  The cockpit door is missing. The plane a dark greeny color in the green water, a little creepy to see. I half expected a dead pilot slumped over the controls. The day was concluded with another spectacular Bahamian sunset.

Staniel Cay and Big Major. This is what we like, beautiful scenery, fun adventures. Last year, we missed the hike to the gorgeous Atlantic beaches on Staniel Cay where the James Bond movie, Thunderball, was partially filmed.  A club of the same name opened, but closes last year. We hiked up to see it. We found a souvenir along the way in the form of advertizing on the door of a pickup. The view from the top, with the Thunderball cave island in the background was worth the climb to the top.