YachtAweigh Yacht charters and rentals: In the Bahamas! – Nassau to Exumas

Monday, 5 June 2017

In the Bahamas! – Nassau to Exumas – Mar 18, 2017

Mar 16^th – It was a warm and sunny day with moderate winds. We were thinking about heading to the Exumas today however we were moving too slow and we were worried about having enough time to find a protected anchorage since we hear many of the popular spots are crowded with boats thus we’ll try to get away early tomorrow, if the weather permits. We walked into town towards the 4 cruise ships that came in for the day and visited the Straw Market as well as many other shops in the area. It was an action packed place with people everywhere and we had no devices to take pictures! We decided to walk back to the boat and then back into town so we could capture some of the interesting sights in the area … especially for those of you out there reading our blog J We definitely did a lot of walking today! After I got back I decided to change out the hose on the other engine since I felt some soft spots on the existing hose and didn’t want to have to deal with a potential issue in a stressful situation when the engine room is hot hot hot.

Mar 17^th – It was a cool sunny day with moderate winds. We decided to move today and traveled 41 miles from Nassau to an anchorage in Highbourne Cay in the Exumas. The winds were from the NE and we were heading SE thus we had large waves hitting us on our beam. And guess what … yes the boat is covered in salt again … darn! The water is beautiful here and this anchorage is much busier than I expected. A matter of fact we’ve been told that a number of the Northern Exuma anchorages are extremely busy. I expected that there would be very few boats in the Exumas. Knowing this we’ll have to ensure that we have a Plan A, B and C just in case we find no room in our first choice anchorage. A Gold Looper came over to invite the 4 Loopers (including us) that we are travelling with to their boat for cocktails which we’ve scheduled for tomorrow. We got together on “Relax Now” for a community dinner and talked about our next move.

Mar 18^th – It was a warm and sunny day. We decided to stay another day at our Highbourne Cay Anchorage. We went for a dingy ride with the other Loopers to check out the anchorages, beaches and marina nearby. Afterwards we headed for one of the beaches and it turned out to be a great beach day. Brian, Lee and I went snorkeling while the others just relaxed on the beach. I saw all kinds of brightly colored fish around some coral heads plus I found a great sand dollar on the bottom. Lee accidentally lost his boat keys while he was snorkeling and luckily they were on a floating key ring. A few of us ran around in our dingys and Brian found them floating north of the beach. And guess what … Maria went swimming! And you know what that means … the water is warm at 75 degrees F. At 5pm we joined a Gold Looper on their boat for cocktails and they provided us with all kinds of good information on the Exumas. Tomorrow we plan to head farther south since the winds will be shifting towards the NW. When it got dark one of the mega ships anchored with us put on an Exxxcellent fireworks display … Only in the Exumas!