Best beaches ever….
We left Nassau as soon as we could and headed for the island chain of the Exumas. It was a day of motoring not sailing, sadly the way when we need to head south east in this part of the world as we get to the Tropics. We got to Shroud Cay and were just blown away by the state of these beaches. More crystal clear water than we have ever seen, creamy pale sand that felt like powder it was so soft. Most days the little beach near us disappeared at high tide and so we could go for a picnic lunch in between lessons on sand that had been cleaned by the water and no footprints were left. The kids loved turning up in the dinghy with their pirate flag to pioneer a landing on the new untouched place.
At Shroud Cay we went exploring the long, natural lazy river from one side of the island to the other. It was just a few feet of water and along the couple of mile-long river, we spotted turtles and rays in the morning. At the other end was a natural whirlpool caused as the tide changed, and pushed you through the rocks and then swirled you round and round. (called the Washing Machine!). We did the trip again later in the day to take Pete and this time we jumped into the river with our snorkel kit on every time we saw a turtle, and drift snorkeled with them gently. Magical.
Having thought that beach was pretty magnificent, we then headed to Soldier Cay for a few nights, anchoring just off the private island that Johnny Depp (the original Pirate of the Caribbean) owned. Sadly we didn’t see him but we discovered ever more beautiful sandbar, and some more bucket list snorkeling in a small area known as the Aquarium. We snorkeled it three days running and it was just like being in a natural fishbowl. There were numerous parrot fish, angelfish, a massive lobster, small sand stingrays, beautiful coral and just huge volumes of small brave reef fish that surrounded us as we snorkeled and practiced our free-diving skills. More on the fish another time……
After Soldier Cay, we headed slightly south to Staniel Cay to get a few provisions and to dump some trash. This was the home of the infamous ‘Pig Beach’, an odd concept where rumor has it a farmer dumped some pigs on an island and they went wild.. Now tourists turn up with food scraps in hoards to feed them and watch them swim. Some of them were BIG pigs, so we didn’t get too close or land the dinghy!
We had lunch at the fun Staniel Cay Yacht Club and then after a night or so headed to White Cay for a few more nights of solitude and private feeling beaches. We were sadly feeling the draw to continue heading south as the Hurricane season clock continued ticking, but not before a memorable day in Little Farmers Cay. This was a tiny island with a hundred or so residents, a restaurant and bar, store that opened seemingly when it wanted, and a local guy called JR who was a wood carver. We had a drink in the bar and met the owners, who were Eagles fans. Pete had a lovely chat with them about football tactics for next season and a photo, whilst the kids went out on their own and explored the island. They came back with a treasure from the wood carver but insisted that we came and met him too. So late afternoon we did, and found this guy to be a great storyteller about the island as he carved his initials into our purchases, he made the carvings out of local wild Tamarind wood, and at the end he showed us his glorious garden which was full of fruit trees and gifted us a pomegranate that was bursting it was so full of seeds! Meetings like that which this trip is made for :) ………
