Thursday, January 17, 2013

The Exumas - Warderick Wells to Black Point

Black Point Settlement
Great Guana Cay, Exumas

24 06.12 N 76 24.01 W

We sailed across Exuma Sound from Eleuthera on January 3rd. Our 1st stop in the Exumas this season was at Warderick Wells within the Exuma Land and Sea Park. It's been 2 years since our last visit to this island; and once again, we hiked to the top of Boo Boo Hill to take in the beautiful view.
The island of Big Majors Spot, near Staniel Cay was our next stop. We love being back in the gin clear water of the Exumas and Big Majors is a popular location. We remained anchored here for over a week along with about 3 dozen other sailboats, trawlers and motor yachts - with many of them cruising aquaintances we have met up with before. 


Free roaming domestic pigs and wild goats are the only inhabitants of Big Majors. They have become conditioned to swim out to approaching dinghies for food handouts from cruisers.  

Craft time on Carina...

Kathy makes the sea glass earrings and pendents. Mark's polishes the sea beans for necklaces.

Colorful cottages are abundant on Staniel Cay which is home to many ex-patriots as well as native Bahamians.

It's a great place for family and friends to visit. This is the Staniel Cay International Airport. The "jumbo jets" are on the tarmac in the background. This building is the arrival and departure terminal as well as the baggage claim area. The chalkboard serves as the arrival/departure board...looks like a quiet day at the airport.

We decided to explore a new island and anchorage on our way down-island this season. Bitter Guana Cay is just south of Staniel Cay and north of Black Point. The island is a nature preserve and home to a population of native iguanas. The 60 foot high limestone cliffs reach down to the white sandy beach below making for a stunning anchorage.

On the morning of our 2nd day, we climbed to the top of the cliffs to get a better view of our beautiful and solitary anchorage.

We were welcomed by some of the "locals" when we came ashore to explore.

We found some beautiful sea fans washed up along another stretch of beach.

Our next stop and one of our favorite spots is Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay. We enjoyed a barbecue dinner with these other cruisers at Lorraine's Cafe to celebrate the completion of the mural in the background. The artist is our friend and fellow cruiser Penny from Pretty Penny.

Penny, Lorraine and Kathy

1 comment:

Pelican Rose said...

Looks like you've created our float plan for next season. Spectacular and we especially found the solidarity at Bitter Guana Key.....stunning and appealing to every sense one has. Even under the influence of rum!
Thanks for blogging!