Our first few days in the Exumas

Hi all – its been way to long since I wrote – a combination of not having decent internet access, some computer issues, and just getting behind,. Here’s an update from about 3 weeks ago. Here goes…

We sailed from Bimini to Allen’s Cay – a really smooth, beautiful 30 hour sail (actually – motor, as we were going directly into the wind for 80+% of the time. The only excitement in our journey was when we passed New Providence Island (the island with Nassau on it). Shortly after dawn – as Julie was driving and I was catching a few zzz’s, a really fast police boat zoomed up to us, slowly circled us, and then zoomed off. We think that they were confirming that we had checked in and cleared customs – and since we were all legal – no issues.

We arrived in Allen’s Cay a little after noon and headed into the relatively tight harbor. Again – no real issues – but we got our first case of having to rely on Visual Piloting Rules (VPR). Basically, VPR is when we have one or two people on the bow of the boat reading the water to make sure that we are staying in the deeper water and away from shallow sand bars or coral heads. After a few zigs and zags, we were safely in the harbor and heading towards the spot in the anchorage that we were told was the best by the folks in Bimini. We dropped our anchor and I hopped into the water to check that it was well dug-in. Everything looked good – except that there was only about a foot of water under our boat. Probably OK – as it was near low tide – but something we’d keep an eye on. Willie and I zipped into shore for a bathroom stop – and are introduced to the famous Allen’s Cay Iguanas.

These ugly guys are pre-historic iguanas – mostly docile – except for the largest ones who seem to take-on the role of ‘protectors of the flock’ (or whatever you call a bunch of iguanas). Luckily, they weren’t interested in messing with Willie – and he was mostly interested in just going to the bathroom and sniffing around.

As I was heading back to the dinghy, I ran into Atom – a really nice guy on one of the boats that was anchored outside of the harbor. He mentioned that his crew were planning to have a cookout and bonfire on the beach and invited us to join them. Great news!

We head back to the boat – and now I notice that there are only about 4 inches of water between the lowest point on our boat and the sandy bottom of the anchorage. OK – even though it is dead low tide, looks like we may want to move – as the next low tide is in the middle of the night – not the best time to deal with an issue. Easy enough to do – we just move about 100 feet farther from shore. The only downside to the move is that we are now in more current – which just made swimming off the boat a bit more of a challenge. After re-setting the anchor, it was time to head to shore for the cookout.

On shore, we meet up again with Atom – and meet Joe, Christa, and Wilson. Joe is the owner of the boat – and Christa, Atom and Wilson are traveling with him. Like just about everybody we’re meeting on this journey – they have a great story. Here’s how I understand it… Joe’s plan is to sail around the world – sailing for a few months at a time and heading home for a few weeks to manage his company in Oklahoma. One of the stops was in Bimini (a week or two before we arrived there). While the boat was in Bimini – and most the crew was back in the states – a fourth crew member stayed on the boat for ~3 weeks. In this time, he met and became friends Wilson – a Bahamian who was working at the marina. Turns out, Wilson’s dream was also to travel the world. When Joe and the rest of the crew got back to the boat, they invited Wilson to join them for the rest of their trip. Before I go any further – I have to mention that Wilson is awesome! Super nice, really hard worker, and a super fisherman, and all around good guy. After Joe and his crew left Bimini, they went to Nassau – where Wilson showed them the Nassau most non-Bahamians never see. They visited Wilson’s extended family, played dominos with some of his old friends, ate and drank in local places, etc. Sounded fantastic. Anyway – back to the story…

When we got to the beach, Wilson and Atom had already collected a bunch of conch and sea snails and had a roaring fire for cooking the snails and another one for a bonfire (in a fire-ring of conch shells). Wilson then showed us how to open and clean a conch. He then cut-up the conch he cleaned into 5 pieces for our family to try – fresh, out of the shell. It was fantastic. Really sweet, really tasty, and not too chewy. I was pleasantly surprised. Next came the sea snails. As the name implies, these are snails that live in the sea – and the shells are about the size of a clenched fist. They were cooked in a dutch oven of boiling seawater for one to two hours, pulled out of the shells and cleaned up, and eaten right away. Again – really tasty. As the sun was just starting to set, another boat pulled into the harbor and joined us. A kid boat – mother, father, 8 yr old boy, 10 and 12 yr old girls. Again – really interesting people – but I’ll skip the details on this one. We spent the next few hours around the campfire talking and getting to know each other. When it was time to go back to the boat, we realized that we didn’t leave any lights on – and it was now pitch black. Luckily, we had a general idea where the boat was – and with a little looking, we were able to find it. A great first day in the Exumas!

The next day, we explored the island – and had a few interesting moments. First, we had a face-off with an alpha-iguana. As we got onto the beach, a pretty darn big iguana ambled out of the brush and headed directly towards us. He stopped about 3 or 4 yards from us, struck pretty aggressive pose, and just held his ground. Since he was between us and the path we wanted to travel, we decided it best to walk around him – which meant we had to wade through knee-deep water to the other side of the beach. Once we got around him, we walked up and down a 100 ft path in the brush and ended up on the Atlantic side of the island. As we walked down the beach, we encountered two bales of marijuana that had washed up on the beach. The night before, Atom and Wilson had mentioned them – and Wilson was very clear that the Bahamian government does not mess around with drugs and we should stay clear of them (which we did – and would have even without the warning). Our best guess is that someone was smuggling the drugs to either the US or Bahamas, got spooked by the authorities, and dumped them overboard before getting caught. Anyway – made for an interesting stroll down the beach. Later in the day, we went back to the beach and scoured the rocks for some sea snails for dinner that night (they were that good!). After less than an hour, we had 20 or so snails, and posed for some pictures:

Right after this picture was taken, Sally’s snail decided to come out of its shell and attached itself to Sally’s hand. Here’s the result:

We’re still laughing at that one…

Since the wind was kicking up a bit and it was getting late, we decided against to starting a fire on the beach and, instead, opted to cook them in our pressure cooker onboard.
We also decided to ‘fancy them up’ a bit – and cooked them with a little garlic, butter, and white wine – served over rice. Super yummy!

The next day, we met-up with the kid boat folks and went snorkeling at a reef just outside the island. Later that afternoon, I went back to the reef with Rob (the dad) and Grace (oldest daughter) to try spearshing for the first time. Unfortunately, the catch of the day that night was rice and beans. I think I may have scared one fish with my spear – other than that, I didn’t get very close to getting anything. Oh well – I’ll keep trying…

Well, that’s all for Allen’s Cay – as the next day, we made the last-minute decision to head a bit further east to Eleuthera. More to come on Eleuthera later.

Until next time,
Mark.