K Words

My first stop in the Ragged Islands was at Water Cay. None of the islands in this chain are all that big, and this one is no exception. I watched sunrise from the island.

Somebody had left behind their stuffed animals.

There was actually a flowering plant on the island.

I trolled a line while sailing between the islands, and caught several fish. One of the yellowtail snapper didn't quite make it into the boat whole though. Most likely a barracuda got to him.

Aaah, I again failed to take lots of pictures while I was in Georgetown. It seems I forget about photos as soon as I get close to civilization. What's that about? But I did take these two pictures of the classic tourist site landmark, the signpost with distances. This one was at a great little beachfront bar. Cold beer. So nice.

But hey, check it out! If you look about two thirds of the way up....

And here's goodbye from Nathan and Tyann as I'm leaving Georgetown to return to Key West. It's about 9 am. No, they're not drunk. They're just crazy. Cheers, mates!

Okay, here are some shots from my visit to Black Point and Great Guana Cay. It was a pretty amazing island, I've got to say, and I got to stretch my legs quite a bit. The coast had some dramatic white cliffs. They were so photogenic.

There was also quite a lot of grass and shrub-brush. It was the first time I'd seen a field in ages. Ages.

Also, there were these amazing green pools right next to the open water of the Atlantic Ocean. I went swimming in one of them. Too cool.

All over the Exumas, there are these sinkholes in the islands. The islands are this porous rock that gets eroded away, crumbling into sinkholes that can be as much as 20 feet deep.

The same phenomenon happens along the edge of islands, making caves that you can enter.

Another fairly common phenomenon are ponds. Yeah, that sounds self evident, but there's not a lot of standing fresh water. Okay, there's no standing fresh water. These ponds are ridiculously salty.

And there you have it.

We spent almost a week waiting out a cold front at Sampson Cay. I've got pictures to prove I was there.

A Bahamian Defense Force boat pulled up to the dock one day, and all of the sailors put their coats on the pilings to dry. Unfortunately, this picture is a little too overexposed to work.

A sea plane visited a couple days while we were there. It was pretty cool to see it take off and land. This is taking off.

And the harbor was teeming with nurse sharks, especially near the fish cleaning bench. Notice the sharksucker fish on the shark in the third picture (they're similar to remoras), and also all of the lobster heads on the ground in the fourth picture.

So, here are the pics from Staniel Cay. There was a bustling little airport on the island, although the biggest plane was probably a four-seater. There were two planes that liked to fly low formations, though.

But the big draw here was Thunderball Grotto, where they filmed a scene from the Bond film - you guessed it - Thunderball. From the outside, nothing special.

But inside, the grotto was just amazingly beautiful. Oh, right. And I took this first picture upside down. I like the effect it creates.

Here are a couple pictures of Nathan and Tyann from the Grotto. I especially like Tyann's very Bond pose.

Once we were done, we fed the fishes a loaf of stale bread. They really loved it.

The Rocky Dundas were quite cool. I mean, from the outside, they were nothing special.

But you could snorkel under the cliff wall there into these caverns full of fun rock formations. That was very cool. I think the photos speak for themselves.

And here are Nathan and Tyann making fools of themselves. Immortalized on the internet (if there is such a thing as immortality in such an ever-changing medium.).

Ah, Compass Cay. We stopped here partially because it was outside of the park, and Nathan and Tyann wanted to do some fishing, partially because I could make it into the anchorage without an engine, and partially to see the Rocky Dundas, which are just inside the southern boundary of the park. I'll put Rocky Dundas pictures in a separate post.

On the sail down, we did some close-quarters maneuvering and snapped pictures of each other. Here's me.

And here's Compass Cay. Are they all starting to look the same to you? At least it's the same in a good way.

On Compass Cay, there was an abandoned cottage overlooking the ocean. It looked like a hurricane had hit it a couple years ago, and then scavengers had done their work cleaning up the mess.

There was also a 'bubble bath', as they call it. It was fun to play around in, and some families pulled up to check it out while we were there. Kids get a huge kick out of it. Okay, okay, I did to.

Hi there crabby!

The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is a sizable chunk of the Exumas. The whole area is a 'no take' zone - no fishing, conching, shelling, lobstering, whatever. There is a lot to see both above and below the water in this protected area. I'm sure I only saw a fraction of what was on offer, but it was still pretty cool. Let's start with a few animal pics.

Here we have the ever-present curly-tailed lizard. These guys are all over the place here, just like Key West and Cuba. Although I imagine it's technically a different species, I can't tell the difference.

The top photo is a fairly young Nassau Grouper. They are protected at GTMO and (I believe) in the Florida Keys, but they are fair game for fishing and spearfishing in the Bahamas. Just not during spawning season. It's currently spawning season. Below that is a mutton snapper. A big mutton snapper.

At the park office at Warderick Wells, they had a bird feeder out in front. (We can't feed the animals, but the rangers do? What kind of example is that to set?) I actually had one land on my outstretched finger for 15 seconds or so. This shot is just perfect, though. I always think of the Bob Marley song, "Three Little Birds". Yes, Bob. Every little thing is gonna be alright.

This is the skull of a sperm whale that was killed by a 6-pack ring somebody didn't snip. No wait. That's not it. But there was something about human action resulting in the whale's death. I think. Or maybe it just washed ashore, and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't get it off the shore again.

Next up, some photos of landscape and such. First, there is a blowhole in this next photo. It's not the big crashing wave, but it's just in front of the big crashing wave. This blowhole was good for a photo, but the one a little north of here was way up on a cliff, and only air came out. You'd stick your head over the hole, and it would blow the hat off your head, and the salt water spray would sting you skin until you had to turn away.

The previous 3 photos were taken at Hawksbill Cay, where there were some pleasant walking trails (please stay on the trail), and a nice little beach on the western side. The next two pictures are of Warderick Wells Cay, which had more, longer walking trails to enjoy. All of the trails ranged over various terrain, from near-shore sandy paths through scrub brush, to palmetto forests, to craggy, withered limestone hill paths of loose, sharp rocks.

So, I mentioned that I was remiss in taking pictures at Norman's Cay, right? Because I did an awful job. There was a lot of cool stuff, and I missed it. But here are the two photos I've got for you. First up is a shot of the anchorage from the beach. Pretty, no? Or do they lose their splendor by the sheer multitude of similar beaches in the Exumas?

While here, I made pizza. It turned out pretty good. I had bought two little cilantro plants and a mint plant in Nassau, and my plan was to keep them growing and providing me with fresh cilantro and mint. They're both starting to die. I've never had much of a green thumb, but in this case, I'm thinking it's the salt in the air. It could be the sun/shade issue, or the fact that I can't tell if I'm over- or under-watering them. I don't know what I'm doing with plants. But right, the pizza was good, and it had fresh cilantro on it.

Ahh, the Exumas. We're off to a good start. The Allen's Cay area was gorgeous. First, indulge my vanity while I show off my boat at anchor. Then you can see some shots of the view on Leaf Cay.

Here we have a few pics from Allen's Cay. One of the many dead birds laying around on the island (what was that all about?), and one of the waves crashing against the shore. That was pretty impressive.

I found this piece of driftwood with shells on it while walking around on Allen's Cay.

Leaf Cay is home to some of the last iguanas in the Bahamas. Hopefully they'll make a comeback, but for the moment, they're a tourist attraction. Fast boats from Nassau take tourists out here to feed them, so they're quite gregarious.

Notice how nicely I've tied things up, returning to a shot of my boat. Isn't she a pretty li'l thing?