Highborne Cay, Noman's Cay and now Warderick Wells

Feb. 22 We woke up to rain showers today . Not much to do today, just took a small walk down the end of the dock to see if the sharks were there. Yep! They had a small pavilion on the dock that we could stay out of the rain. A stray cat came over to visit. He was not scared at all of Sailor. He wanted to play. Somebody must be feeding him there is cat food out. Kathy cooked tonight. Shrimp and Chicken on linguine, salad and chocolate cake. Played a lot of games on the computer and caught up on the blog

Feb 23 We left here at Highborne Cay Marine about 10:30am. Watched for the sharks on the way out. Boy, are they big. They remind me of big cat fish. It was a flat calm ride to Norman’s Cay. I took a lot of pictures from the bow. The water is so clear at 20 feet you can see the bottom. This would of been the perfect time to have dolphins come around. But, where are they? Sailor and I were looking and singing our song.

See the black spot (right side) that's approx where we anchored.

As we were coming into our anchorage, big sea rays were all around us. Once we were anchored, Wayne put the dingy in and we went exploring. See pictures…

Our boats are behind in the anchorage.

Carolos (Joe) Lehder bought a villa in 1977 and in 1979 his company bought half on Norman Cay. He was known as a smuggler of cocaine from here to Florida and South Georgia. Around this time his new plane crashed on the flats while doing a routine fly-by. The plane was flying in a load of sod for the island, and the pilot decided to do a maneuver called a touch and go to simulate a takeoff with a full load of cocaine (which the pilot was scheduled to depart with as soon as the sod was unloaded). Something went wrong and the new plane crashed.

We dinghied over to the site of the plane, and I think the pictures came out cool.

 Sailor met a new friend, Sally who is 11 years old. What a sweet pea.

I cooked tonight. Homemade baked macaroni and cheese, salad, ham with pineapple. We had one beautiful day today.

Feb 24. We were up at 7:30am listening to the weather for tonight. A cold front is coming through. Think we are staying were we are for now. Wayne moved the boat over to deeper water and re-anchored for tonight’s winds. Around lunch time we dinghied over to the beach and walked towards McDuff’s Bar and Grill Resort. You follow this old worn out road, then stop to check if any airplanes are coming in for a landing, then cross the runway to McDuff’s. We stayed for a drink. I had my camera, but, had taken the sd card out to download pictures and forgot to put it back in. OOPS! We had to get back, because it looked like it was going to pour. About a hour later a thunder storm came close. It poured so hard you couldn't’t see land across the anchorage. We decided to stay home for dinner. I have leftover lasagna and salad.


Feb 25. It was a windy night with heavy rainfalls a few times. The winds were 25knots to 30 gusts. I was up till 12:30am reading and going up topside to check to see if we were dragging and watching the other boats that were anchored here. Wayne was sleeping and had the anchor alarm on also. When I finally went to bed, Wayne put on rain gear and went topside to watch till daylight. I think I had 2 hours sleep. The boat was rocking hard side to side. Rain finally stopped by 7am.

Listen to the weather at 7:30am and other boaters talking around at different anchorages. Later on Wayne took Sailor over to shore. Before he left me, he put a second anchor out. The wind has not calmed down at all. Kept his handheld VHF on when he went to shore each time he took Sailor

We cancelled dinner last night, because of the weather. No one was leaving their boat again tonight. Kathy cooked tonight and said come over and have take out. Said she had to cook it anyway from last night. So, Wayne picked it up and then took Sailor for his last walkie. Jeez, didn’t know I could get take out!!! Kathy made steak and gravy, roasted potatoes, and zucchini. It was YUMMY!!!!! Thank You!!!

Wayne is sleeping topside again till the winds die down. Winds are still 20knots. Drag alarms are on. “They say” the winds are dying down tonight. Time will tell.

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Feb26. We left Norman's Cay at 9:15am this morning. Calm motor sailing to Warderick Wells in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. 24* 24N, 076* 38W.  Right now we are on a mooring ball neat Emerald Rock area.The water is so calm you see the bottom and you feel like your in a big swimming pool. It is beautiful here. We will be staying a few days, a new cold front is coming through and we need to wait it out. Wayne is volunteering to work on the island for 4 hours tomorrow. We are trying to get a mooring ball inside on the North side, it's more protected. We are on a waiting least. When we got here we took a dinghy ride to the office. On the beach they have a sperm whale skeleton. Washed up on the beach in July 1995 and was 52 feet long. I cooked tonight. Spaghetti with shrimp, salad and coffee.

Emerald Rock between our boats

Looking out from our boat

Star fish

Looking back at Emerald Rock, see the while spot in left corner, that's us

Exuma Park Office

dinghy dock at the park

Birds eat right out of your hands.

Leaving Nassau to Highborne Cay Exumas in the Bahamas

We left Nassau at 8am this morning. On the way out I had to take a picture where we stayed on our honeymoon 37 years ago this April 28th.

We walked around it yesterday. We think we were on the second level looking out to the harbor. There is a swimming pool. The whole place is being redone. The restaurant is covered in black,gold stripe canvas. (exterminator). Anyway, maybe when it's done it'll look like the Atlantis????? How funny was that, that we were in a slip right next door.

Sheet Music leaving the Nassau Harbor with us.

We had a beautiful motor sail today. You could see at least 7 sailboats behind us. About 4 pasted us going back to Nassau. It was calm enough for me to cook potatoes and eggs for potato salad tonight. Wayne also fished and caught a barracuda. It was huge, he had to cut the line.

You don't eat them. They carry ciguatera which can cause severe illness and even death when eaten.

We arrived here at Highborne Cay approx 2pm. (24* 42.5'N  76*49.4'W) We fueled up our boats before we went to our slips. We walked around the marina and took pictures and we walked down to the beach. Here are some of our pictures.......

The sport fishing boat behind us is from Cape May, NJ

The marina's beach.

Isn't this too cute!!

Ocean side

I got my coconut...where's yours???

Sailor is wet from the ocean

Ah Guys!!!! This isn't Flipper.......

These nurse sharks are really big,  least 8ft or bigger.  I've never see anything like this.  There were also some hugh fish swimming around too.

I cooked tonight, Cheeseburgers, homemade potato salad, vanilla pudding. Afterwards I went up to take a $4.00, 4 minute shower to wash my hair. Just had just enough time to rinse my body off. I felt like a speed racer.

Happy Birthdday to you, Wayne.....

We were up pretty early, because, the boats on the water speed by and make the boats rock. They have no laws here that you have to slow down, NO WAKE. It’s really crazy. Kathy, Wayne and I, walked up to Starbucks to go on the Internet. Wayne got to talk to his mom. I got to talk to my parents and Michelle. I up dated the blog.

Afterwards, we all walked into town and across the bridge to Paradise Island to the Atlantis resort hotel. They have a aquarium inside the hotel. Its 15 ft. deep and the glass is 6 inches thick. There are 50,000 sea animals, tropical fish, sharks, and rays. You can even snorkel in the world’s largest open air marine habitat. They also have a water park with slides, river rides, 60 foot vertical drop tube through shark infested waters. You have white sand beaches or swimming pools to pick from. Oh, I forgot, they have a casino here also. Here are some pictures… It was worth the long walk over to see it. It’s a place you could come to for a vacation and never leave.

Taken as we walked at the top of bridge, looking back at harbor.

Looking over the other side of the bridge at Atlantis Resort.

The harbor is all man made.

Beautiful statue of OPPS.....Sailor!!!!

Inside of the resort

walking up to the Atlantis

there beaches at the resort

Part of the Lobby

There is so much to see here. They even have a marketplace. There aregardens, and so much more we couldn't see, because, we  weren't guess and couldn't pass certain parts. We walked back over the bridge and back to the boats. At 6pm we went to the Poop Deck for dinner to celeabrate Wayne's Birthday.

 

Getting ready to put Sailor in create and go to dinner.

Upstairs and out the back it looks over the harbor. Good food, we were stuffed.