January 10th 2016: Norman's Cay

     Our anchorage in Norman's Cay was just outside the cut, one of the many channels between the Bank and the Sound.  We are learning that in these cuts it is rare to find an anchorage free of a strong tidal current.  We are learning to anchor, however, in very shallow water.  In the afternoon, we made a trip to a coral reef and did some snorkeling.  We are just starting to get a handle on the names of the small portion of fish that we see.  And there are lots!  And a shark, ok, a little out of our comfort zone, even if it was a nurse shark and they are supposedly harmless, still it was six feet long, and, a shark.  We moved out onto the Sound side of the cut and swam around another small island, mostly shallow, sandy bottom, not too much to see except the vivid blue colors.  Once back in the dinghy, we saw a shadow in the water, zooming back and forth, it came right under the dinghy, got a good look, a spotted eagle ray, at least five feet across.  (You can tell Dan is writing this...)  They may also be harmless, but we were happy to see that one from the boat.

'Deserted' island in Norman's Cay

Monday - Friday Jan 11th - 15th: Exuma Park

     We decided to move on to the Exuma Land and Sea Park, centered around Warderick Wells Cay.  This was a three hour trip for us down the shallow Bank side of the island chain.  We first thought we would anchor on the West side of the island but the good anchorage areas were filled with Park rental moorings.  We picked one of them up but it was clear this would not be a calm anchorage and we overheard another boater say that if they were going to Warderick Wells, they would get a mooring at Hog Cay, which is on the Southeast side of Warderick Wells.  How to get there?  One way, back out around the three mile long sand bore and around the North end of the Cay, or cut across the shallows to the South end and follow the VPR (visual piloting rules) route.  Easy choice: short cut.  It was mid-day, so we had plenty of sunlight, and had fun meandering between the shallows and some stunning, small cays.  We arrived at the mooring area (five moorings) and took the first one in line as instructed by the Park guy Andrew on the radio.  As no other moorings were used that night, we had our own gorgeous, private, secluded anchorage.  We made a dinghy ride around Hog Cay, which forms the cove against Warderick Wells and watched several "roaring spouts", one U-shaped cove that had fascinating wave action which at high tide spills over the low spot on the island into a cascade of water into our cove.  One narrow spot on the island had a hole worn beneath the tideline so every few waves sent a burst of water under the island into a quiet little cove.  We spent a nice quiet night.

    Tuesday the radio was abuzz with talk about the upcoming weather event.  A new arrival into our Hog Cay harbor, the Solana, said it looked pretty good to them and they may stay put until Saturday.  Bruce and Jo on Solana have many sources of weather data and we went over for drinks and a little conference.  Some strong winds were due in, much of it Westerly, and the Exuma island chain has few protected areas from that direction.  We also decided to stay awhile to see how things developed.  Three other sailors joined the 'Hog Cay Yacht Club' that afternoon, taking up all the other moorings.
     There is a waiting list for these moorings, reservations made one day in advance, so we were lucky we snagged one when we did.  Once you are tied to a ball you can stay as long as you want.  Twenty dollars per day.  For an extra twenty dollars, we also joined the Exuma Park Support Fleet, which gives us priority if we come back this way.
     We went ashore to try to walk across to the Park headquarters, but could not find the trail.  We did find the Pirate's Lair, which where hundreds of years ago pirates made camp and took advantage of a natural water supply and were able to hide their boats from other marauders.  We also filled a huge contractor trash bag with plastic that had washed up on the beach.

This is - we think - supposed to be the trail map.

     Later we went snorkeling and found a neat coral reef several hundred feet from the boat.  Lots of fish there, including the non-native, invasive lionfish which the Bahamas encourages you to kill, and eat if you want.  As the whole Park is a no-take area, we asked if lionfish were fair game, but they said no, no-take includes lionfish.
     Wednesday it was still windy, and we took the dinghy around the Southern point of Warderick Wells about a mile of the Western side.  With the dinghy painter in my hand, we snorkeled, drifting with the current, back around the point and all the way to the Willie.  We drifted about a mile and a half for over an hour, saw lots of fish, stingrays, and a sea turtle, and two large patches of coral along the way.  We met on the beach - first meeting of the 'Hog Cay Yacht Club' - Solana, Gratitude, Sanity II, Living Well, and Willie Dawes - no minutes taken but lots of problems solved.  We met again the next day when I swam shore to pay for the mooring, and we all decided Saturday was definitely the day to leave.  We would buddy up with Bruce and Jo from Solana and continue South, the other three boats would probably stay in the Park but at a different mooring field.  We spent our last days in Hog Cay as we had the first several - snorkeling and just hanging out with new friends.

2nd meeting of the Hog Cay Yacht Club