Sailing Onward: Post #97: Treasured Islands

Tuesday, January 18 to Tuesday, January 25, 2022

The weather calmed down so off we went, bound for an anchorage at Little Harbour Cay and then spent the next night on the hook at West Bay on the island of New Providence (home to Nassau).

We had to first go around the two small islands at the northern tip of Great Harbour Cay, each owned by cruise lines. You may have seen photos of them in TV ads for Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, promoted as their “private islands.” Although the islands were once called Little and Great Stirrup Cay and bordered Slaughter Harbour (I guess the marketing folks didn’t care much for those appellations), the two developments couldn’t be more different from each other. Seen from a distance, Norwegian’s beach appeared to be a separated series of colorful lounge chairs and umbrellas for rest and relaxation. On the other hand, Royal Caribbean’s island brought to mind the 1964 World’s Fair (remember the Unisphere?)!

The “Perfect Day Coco Cay” sign could be seen a half mile off shore. (Since “cay” is pronounced “key,” I’m stymied by this phrase. What say you, Louise?)

You know by now that I felt compelled to learn more about this intriguing amusement park so I checked the Royal Caribbean web site. Looks like a lot of fun!

Our evening on Little Harbour Cay was a bit more subdued, but we felt like we were on our own private island paradise, too:

After a quiet night at anchor, we sailed to West Bay and then to Shroud Cay, one of our favorite places last year (check out Post #64). We had a terrific sail and tracked our friends on AIS. A couple from Toronto, Jackie and Steve on Refuge 1, have joined our fleet. They sail a 39’ Dehler with a 6’ draft. They are one fast boat so we look forward to racing against them.

Our favorite adventure on Shroud is taking the Lazy River ride on the dinghies through mangrove forests to a pristine sugar sand beach and a natural “shoot the chute” rushing sluice. We met two couples from Greece who were visiting the Bahamas on a charter. They whetted my appetite for chartering a catamaran and sailing the Greek isles!

Here are three videos to give you a sense of the experience:

Since we were now in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, the islands, seabeds, flora and fauna are protected and the land is undeveloped except for the park headquarters. What a treasure!

But those north winds were following us and we needed to move on to a bay with more protection. We moved all of 4.3 nautical miles to Hawksbill Cay to hopefully avoid rolling and pitching at anchor all night. We did not. After a night that felt like we were inside a washing machine, we were really glad to get back on land for a hike.

We were joined by a family from Buffalo, NY, who sold their house, car, and belongings after the first 6 months of Covid, and bought a catamaran, New World. They moved aboard with their 7- and 5-year-old children and took off for the islands!

Young Oliver led us to the site of a fresh water source that has been surrounded by a manmade wall. There was a bucket and sponge nearby and a sign that asked visitors to keep soap out of the well. Although we were all pretty hot, no one ventured to take a “shower” as the water was rather green and slimy. However, I’m guessing birds and animals depend upon it. There are very few sources of fresh water in the Exumas, one of the reasons we hardly hear or see any birds.