It took about six weeks and thirteen anchorages for us to travel the 50nm from Allen Cay, at the top of the Exumas, to Staniel Cay. We covered next 50 nm in about five days and four anchorages.  I’m sure we could have found plenty of beautiful beaches and snorkeling spots to slow us down, but we’re out of fruits and vegetables.

About 5nm south of Staniel Cay is Blackpoint Settlement.  I heard this town has the best laundromat, great provisioning, a fund raiser BBQ, free water and trash and some amazing/famous coconut bread.  The kids and I walked through town looking for ice cream and bread.  We found the bread, but like all the islands in the Exumas, the stores are bare until the Mail Boat arrives.  We did get the last loaf of bread.  It was beautiful with a delicious coconut swirl in the middle.  It was great the next morning as french toast.

We also came across Moon Dance.  While beach combing through plastic trash on Hawksbill Cay we came across a clean new fuel jug that still had gas vapor sealed inside.  Like Makai’s jugs, the boat name was on it.  So we took it on as a quest to make a new friend. Apparently, the jug fell off their stern right here at black point and floated more than 30 miles to Hawksbill Cay.  So, in the end we just gave it a ride home!  We had to move on, but are looking forward to meeting up again because Mr. Duval has experience in sport fishing.

I think as we go further south the winter storms that bring Northerly winds affect us less, so the prevailing winds are out of the south east.  Of course that’s the direction we’re heading down to Georgetown.  The weather report for the next few days says the winds will be very light which is best if we have to motor into it.  Next stop is an anchorage just south of Musha Cay. This 150 acre island is owned by David Copperfield.  It has accommodations for 24 people and can be rented for $25K per night with a three night minimum.

The beach in front of our anchorage is private and has a dog patrolling.  Actually, it looked more like he was napping in the sand, but we still couldn’t go ashore.  Right next to the beach is a cave that we took shore leave in.

The opening is very wide and the beach is only exposed at low tide.

At low or high tide, as the tide changes, it’s considered slack.  Which means that the tidal current isn’t sweeping water through the cuts.  The tidal current dictates our snorkeling, swimming, diving, and anchoring.  Low tide in the cave also means slack water so we can swim from the boat to shore without being taken away with the tide.

With the whole flotilla ashore comes an opportunity to be towed back.

Just south of the anchorage an underwater sculpture called The Musician by Jason De Caires Taylor.  The description of the piece describes it as a mirror finished Stainless Steel.  Most of it is crusted over with marine growth and only in a few places can you see the stainless shine through.

When I went to the link for this sculpture, the site looked familiar in my memory bank and sure enough, this is the same guy that did the sculptures we dove on in Grenada.

After fighting the current at the sculpture we moved in to a rocky cove with a bit of sand and shallow water to play in.

As usual we saw a barracuda watching us.  I would bet that 75% of our anchorages have had one of this guy’s relatives lurking under the boat.

Luckily, with all that time spent with this silvery neighbor, we’ve never had a problem with aggression.

All around the edge of the bay are pretty little pockets of color.

This was a great snorkeling morning.  Later that afternoon, I joined Jamie and Roy on a spear fishing trip.  Roy shot a trigger fish that immediately flipped over and died.  There was a nice coral garden full of fish, but then a reef shark came by and broke up the fishing party.

There are always new places to swim on Makai. The escape hatch looked inviting this morning.  So we cleaned the debris out of it and Marie went for a swim.

Topaz has taken to making the Hobie Cat her new nest.  When it is in the water and tied to the side of Makai she likes to nap on the tramp, and when it is on Makai’s bow she makes her way up there for a perch with a view.

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The next stop is Lee Stocking Island. This island was owned by John Perry who first noticed it while ferrying aircraft back from Europe after WWII. John Perry was a newspaper man owning a few dozen Florida newspapers as well as the Nassau Guardian and the Freeport News. Perry used Lee Stocking Island for two of his other passions, Marine research and renewable energy. It was his interest in Marine Research that led President Johnson to appoint Perry to a commission to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

We anchored in front of the research center, that is now abandoned, and had fun hiking around on the island.  Our first walk had us walking down the runway to a beach on the east side of the island.  The kids ran down to the water because they’ve been dry for about 15 minutes and needed to swim.  As we moved down the trail another beach lay before us to splash around on. Then another and another.  Finally the sun was getting low in the sky so we headed back to the boats.

The next day we took the dinghy around the corner to hike to the highest peak in the Exuma Islands.

Loaded down with cold water and cinnamon rolls, we managed to get 7 kids to the summit. A whopping 123 feet above the beach.

The view of the beaches had the kids racing back to the water.  Once again being dry for 15 minutes is 15 minutes too long.

The C Spirit family, Nancy and Jamie with Skye and Pheonix, Indigo and Sage.

At the beach a coconut tree taunted Roy until he climbed up to pick nuts for everyone.

How can you resist Skye’s request for a little girl sized coconut?

One more anchorage before Georgetown.  Roy trolled for tasty sea monsters but only came up with Barracuda.  He said he would rather get this toothy neighbor than nothing at all.

Rather than find a beach or spear fish it was decided to swim.

The kids swung over the boom to climb up Roy’s rope ladder and jump.

Marie got her hair dyed, and everyone had fun swimming in the warm water.

The kids took turns trying to break into the coconuts.

Roy finally persevered.  We used the water for this morning’s pancakes and still have chunks of white coconut meat in the refrigerator.

The rest of them will have to be cracked on the beach.  For some reason coconuts leave a horrible orange stain on the boat.  I used a special cleaner and managed to get it down to yellow, but will have to find more in Georgetown for another application.